Podcasts about Beat Saber

On this episode of the Ruff Talk VR podcast we have another packed edition of VR News to kick off the week! Coming fresh off the UploadVR Summer Showcase, we have plenty to discuss. Some highlights include Walkabout Mini Golf teasing their nect course, Table Troopers coming htis week, a new trailer from Elsewhere Electric, a release date for Sky Runner, more news on Iron Guard Salvation, a Grit and Valor teaser, as well we discuss some Meta wearables news, a new Beat Saber shock drop, and much more! Big thank you to all of our Patreon supporters! Become a supporter of the show today at  https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrDiscord: https://discord.gg/9JTdCccucSPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrIf you enjoy the podcast be sure to rate us 5 stars and subscribe! Join our official subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/RuffTalkVR/0:00 - Episode Start5:40 - Requisition VR12:45 - Walkabout Mini Golf next course teaser20:05 - Table Troopers24:50 - Banners and Bastions30:10 - Sky Runner36:05 - Ghost Town PCVR39:55 - Iron Guard Salvation Release Date45:20 - Elsewhere Electric50:20 - Ragnarock New DLC54:00 - BlackGate57:20 - Grit and Valor1:01:20 - Meta invests in EssilorLuxottica1:03:35 - Beat Saber x Billie Eilish shock drop1:05:50 - Smasher 1:09:50 - Upcoming VR Games Send us a text to the Ruff Talk VR fan mail line!Support the show

I will be hosting at Summer Games Done Quick 2025 on Thursday and Saturday! I'll be hosting a Super Metroid race, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Super Mario 3, and a Kirby Super Star Ultra TAS! I will also be at the ATL Comic Convention on July 19th to moderate a panel with the performance actors of Red Dead Redemption. I was at Southern-Fried Gaming Expo and played some games (including a dual screen Commodore 128 game!), helped run a panel about obscure games, and moderated a panel with video game voice actors. It was rumored (and proven true after recording) that Microsoft was going to lay off thousands of people in their Xbox division. Beat Saber is ending support for PlayStation platforms, and will only allow multiplayer and new DLC for the Steam and Meta Quest platforms going forward. Then we talk to Rob about SFGE and Fantasy Life i.

Diese Folge ist eine Newsfolge, in der wir mal wieder über das Metaverse diskutieren. Anlass ist HTCs kurzes YouTube-Video, in dem sie verkünden, dass Viverse jetzt jede WebXR-Engine unterstützt. Für Thomas Bedenk heißt das: Keiner ist so weit mit dem Metaverse als HTC. Kaum war die XBox-Edition der Meta Quest 3s raus, war sie auch schon wieder ausverkauft. Laut Meta war die Auflage "extremely limited". Aber warum macht Meta das so? Wir sprechen verschiedene Optionen durch. Kurz nach dem Ausverkauf der 3s erreicht uns die Ankündigung der "Performance KI-Brille" Oakley Meta HSTN (gesprochen: Haustn), wie Meta sie selbst bezeichnet. Marketingtechnisch war die Ankündigung ein Volltreffer. Und auch die Specs versprechen mit einer doppelten Laufzeit und 3k-Video eine Verbesserung gegenüber der Ray-Ban Meta. Thomas Bedenk fragt dennoch nach der Nützlichkeit solcher KI-Brillen. Wir ordnen ein Gerücht rund um die Marke Prada ein und erläutern Zahlen einer Studie zum KI-Brillen-Markt. Beat Saber zieht sich von PlayStation VR komplett zurück. Ist das ein Plattform-Ökonomie-Game, oder eher ein Management von Entwicklerressourcen? Snap Inc. und Niantics neue Partnerschaft klingt nach einem Perfect Match! Wir sind gespannt was die beiden entwickeln.

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/mzZnJuVwdT |  SUSCRÍBETE  A NUESTRO CANAL DE YOUTUBE: |  https://www.youtube.com/@sonido_boom?sub_confirmation=1 |  NUESTRO CANAL PRINCIPAL: |  https://www.youtube.com/abuguet |   Esta semana Ep. 333:  (0:00) - Intro. (1:58) - Xbox agrega Steam y otras bibliotecas a Xbox. (13:52) - ¿Windows siempre es la mejor plataforma de gaming? (29:05) - Microsoft siempre quiso que Xbox fuera una PC. (42:46) - ¿El próximo Xbox va a ser un ecosistema cerrado? (53:05) - Xbox cerrando frentes con su nueva estrategia. (1:06:04) - Xbox lanza colaboración con Meta Quest 3. (1:11:20) - Xbox se reestructura en Europa y se vienen despidos. (1:18:17) - ¿Funciona Xbox sin exclusivas? ===SPEEDRUN DE NOTICIAS=== (1:34:35) - Nuevos hitos de ventas de la industria. (1:35:09) - Los juegos de Playstation en PC han sido liberados. (1:36:01) - Más hitos de ventas. (1:37:48) - Nexus Mods ha cambiado de manos. (1:38:49) - Playstation VR y VR2 pierden soporte de Beat Saber. (1:41:12) - Final Fantasy Tactics (1:44:37) - Borderlands 4 va a costar $70 en consolas. (1:46:14) - Netflix está a punto de perder sus mejores juegos. (1:47:39) - El Spotlight de Capcom. (1:51:55) - Despidos en DontNod. (1:52:44) - Sony está siendo demandado por prácticas monopólicas. (1:56:40) - Hytale ha sido cancelado. (1:57:04) - Dreamsettler también. (1:58:19) - Las ofertas y descuentos de la semana con el Arbano Peps.

Xbox pokazało "swoje" gogle VR, John Marston strzela kapiszonami, a Sony idzie po rozum do głowy! W recenzjach słowiańska przygoda jak u Vivaldiego, Marian na nogach i w automobilu, a do tego Zuchwała Kradzież Aut podlana sosem azjatyckim. Przypominamy o ostatniej szansie wsparcia Retrosfery i mamy coś do rozdania w konkursie! W sekcji filmowej królują nieumarłe stworzenia. Podziękowania dla Defana za okladkę, Perki za montaż, Rudego za rozpiskę. Podziękowania dla Patronów za wsparcie, a najbardziej dla: Op1ekun, Jan Jagieła, Lisu, Janomin, Łukasz M., Tomasz Herduś, Paweł G., Uki, Mateusz "Kaduk" Kadukowski z kanału Kadukowo, Taktyki, Kosmaty dziadu z kanału 8biters.Discord MKwadrat Podcast- https://discord.gg/PafByaf9DU Discord akcji #PolishOurPrices: https://discord.gg/zvzvFp7qmEKanał Defana: https://www.youtube.com/@wsumiespoko/ Intro(00:00:00) Start(00:01:06) Czemu nie było nas na Spotify i iTunesW co ostatnio graliśmy(00:02:45) Simplex(00:08:30) Perka(00:13:25) RudyNewsy naleśnikowe(00:21:25) Doom z Path Tracingiem(00:23:06) Gameplay z Dawnwalkera(00:26:40) Silent Hill Remake(00:29:10) Sony (nie) umie w GaaSy(00:32:35) Sony idzie po rozum do głowy(00:35:51) Emulator PS3 na Androidzie(00:37:48) Kapiszon z RDR2(00:40:00) Firebreak nie pyknął(00:43:59) Nowe DLC do RimworldaGry naleśnikowe(00:47:48) GTA: Chinatown Wars (DS vs PSP) - Perka(01:03:02) Super Mario Kart World - Simplex(01:15:02) The End of the Sun - Rudy(01:36:03) New Super Mario Bros (DS) - PerkaNewsy VR(01:49:50) Nowości w visionOS 26(01:53:43) Beat Saber nie dla PSVR(2)(01:59:09) Developer Onward umarSprzęt VR(02:01:58) Nowe okulary Mety - Oakley(02:05:28) Quest 3S Xbox EditionKulturka(02:10:08) Ostatni z nas - Zrozumieć The Last of Us - Perka, Rudy(02:25:23) Warfare/Wojna (Prime) - Simplex(02:30:14) Survivors (Netflix) - Simplex(02:33:48) Nosferatu - Perka, Rudy(02:48:53) 28 Years Later/28 lat później (Kino) - SimplexSpołeczność/Publicystyka(02:57:53) Pyrkon 2025 się odbył(02:59:59) Zbiórka na Retrosferę(03:05:13) Podziękowania dla patronów(03:05:28) Komentarze na YTKonsumpcja:MP3: https://mkwadratpodcast.pl/podcast/MKwadrat_210.mp3YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MKwadratPodcastRSS: https://mkwadratpodcast.pl/feed/podcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7e5OdT8bnLmvCahOfo4jNGiTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/mkwadrat-podcast/id1082742315twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mkwadratpodcastInterakcja:WWW: https://mkwadratpodcast.pl/Forum: https://stareforumpoly.pl/Discord: https://discord.com/invite/PafByaf9DUFanpage: https://facebook.com/MkwadratPodcast/Grupa FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mkwadratpodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/mkwadratpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/mkwadratpodcast/Kontrybucja:Patronite: https://patronite.pl/mkwadratpodcastSuppi: https://suppi.pl/mkwadratpodcast

-Big Marketing oof in the Tube: https://www.ign.com/articles/confused-nintendo-fans-spot-giant-metroid-prime-4-beyond-advert-stating-that-the-game-is-out-now-sparking-hopes-of-an-imminent-release?taid=685570adbd022a0001005d8c&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=bluesky -Nvidia 5050 announced: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/graphics-cards/50-series/rtx-5050/ -Fast Fusion getting a big update already: https://www.eurogamer.net/switch-2-launch-game-fast-fusion-gets-update-to-improve-image-quality -Halo Infinite Legacy Mode -G Helper is super great for Asus laptops -Is Microsoft finally taking gaming on Windows seriously? https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/06/18/174256/xbox-president-were-working-to-ensure-windows-is-the-number-one-platform-for-gaming?utm_source=rss0.9mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed -Beat Saber ending support on PSVR 1 and 2 https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/beat-saber-support-is-ending-on-ps-vr-and-ps-vr2-164136655.html?src=rss -And they're doing yet more layoffs: https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/06/24/2049205/microsoft-planning-major-xbox-layoffs-next-week?utm_source=rss0.9mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Send us a textIn this episode...--> Third-party games have reportedly struggled to sell on Nintendo Switch 2 at launch, with one publisher claiming that its game has sold “below our lowest estimates”.--> Fan-favorite rhythm game Beat Saber is ending support for PlayStation consoles, and for many players, this feels very much like the final nail in the coffin for PlayStation's VR aspirations.--> The limited-edition, Xbox-branded Meta Quest 3S headset has arrived.--> A man has been arrested after police say he stole more than $10,000 worth of Nintendo Switch games from multiple public libraries in Northern California.--> Also: Top 3 New Releases, Gamers Week DebatesFind more from Patrick Brickhouse at retroblast.bsky.social!We love our sponsors! Please help us support those who support us!- Check out the Retro Game Club Podcast at linktr.ee/retrogameclub- Connect with CafeBTW at linktr.ee/cafebtw- Get creative with Pixel Pond production company at pixelpondllc.com- Visit Absolutely the Best Podcast: A Work in Progress at linktr.ee/absolutelythebest**Use this link to get a $20 credit when you upgrade to a paid podcast hosting plan on Buzzsprout! buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1884378Hosts: wrytersview, retrogamebrews, retroblastpatOpening theme: "Gamers Week Theme" by Akseli TakanenPatron theme: "Chiptune Boss" by donniegretroClosing theme: "Gamers Week Full-Length Theme" by Akseli TakanenSupport the show

Microsoft says it's working on next-gen Xbox "consoles", third-party Switch 2 game sales are reportedly “below estimates” (but Nintendo is banning people for pirating games on Switch 2), a Metroid Prime 4 ad on London Underground claimed the game is ‘out now', support for Beat Saber on PS4 and PS5 ends, and Bungie delays Marathon. Also: Prison time, good boys, Sonic's birthday, masculine film idols, and more. Games discussed: Rematch, The Alters, Mario Kart World, Fortnite, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.   Support Patreon Store   Contact Website Contact form Discord Bluesky Threads Instagram Facebook   Follow TCGS on Bluesky David on Bluesky Sean on Bluesky Mat on Bluesky James on Bluesky   Watch Twitch YouTube   Listen Spotify Apple Podcasts Pocket Casts   Credits Music by Nick Parton Art by Dave Chong

In this episode of Cross Button VR, host Reece welcomes AndresPlays (https://linktr.ee/andresplays93) a games writer and content creator, to discuss their shared passion for virtual reality. They explore Andres journey into VR, the emotional impact of immersive experiences, and the excitement of discovering new genres. The conversation also touches on favorite VR games, the importance of original IPs, and the challenges of performance in VR gaming. As they wrap up, they reflect on the future of VR and the need for more innovative titles-Meta Quest Affiliate: 10% off all Quest Games Here - https://tinyurl.com/39mxmkcvAll links, including Discord: https://linktr.ee/crossbuttonvrChapters00:00 Introduction to VR and Podcasting Journey03:02 AndresPlays: Background and Entry into VR05:58 The Magic of VR Experiences09:02 Passion for VR: What Keeps It Alive?12:04 Exploring New Genres in VR15:07 Favorite VR Games and Experiences18:00 Future of VR: Hopes and Expectations21:03 The Importance of Original IPs in VR23:58 Quality and Performance in VR Games27:00 Closing Thoughts and Recommendations29:59 Exploring Gaming Preferences and Time Management36:37 Critique of VR Game Reviews and Industry Trends51:38 Community Reactions and the Future of VR Gaming01:02:30 Exploring Immersive Learning in VR01:03:57 Upcoming PSVR2 Titles and Developer Support01:07:53 Charming Experiences: Escaping Wonderland and More01:11:01 Meta's Strategic Changes and Impact on VR01:18:09 The Future of Beat Saber and PSVR201:25:43 Recent Game Experiences: Maestro and Hitman VR

On this episode of the Ruff Talk VR podcast we are back at it kicking off the week strong talking all the latest VR news! And we have a stacked agenda today. Including Walkabout Mini Golf announcing their next DLC course, Crystal Lair (part of the Evil Lairs series!). We also saw rumors of a Xbox themed Quest 3S rumored to release this week. As well, Thrill of the Fight 2 had a major gameplay tweaking update that includes a new arena and matchmaking. We also talk some Mothergunship Forge shenanigans. Smurfs Flower Defense early access. Samsung XR headset release rumors. Meta Oakley HSTN glasses officially announced. A Mythic Realms game update. Escaping Wonderland coming to PS VR2 and SteamVR. We also saw some unfortunate news with Beat Saber announcing the end of PS VR2 support and Downpour Interactive ending new updates for Onward and joining Camouflaj. Some DLC's announced with Pinball FX VR and Grokit, and much more!Big thank you to all of our Patreon supporters! Become a supporter of the show today at  https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrDiscord: https://discord.gg/9JTdCccucSPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrIf you enjoy the podcast be sure to rate us 5 stars and subscribe! Join our official subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/RuffTalkVR/ 0:00 - Episode start1:15 - New Walkabout Mini Golf Crystal Lair course announcement13:30 - Mothergunship Forge Endless Mode24:10 - Smurfs Flower Defense early impressions32:15 - Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition rumors44:20 - Samsung XR Headset launch rumors51:00 - The Thrill of the Fight 2 new update1:00:40 - Meta Prada Glasses1:04:50 - Meta Oakley HSTN Glasses1:13:40 - Mythic Realms free spring update1:17:55 - Maze Theory major IP game in the works1:23:30 - Escaping Wonderland SteamVR and PS VR21:25:20 - Downpour Interactive joins Camouflaj1:34:30 - I Am Cat Multiplayer1:38:45 - DAZN FIFA World Club Cup1:42:00 - Beat Saber Ending PS VR2 Support1:45:40 - Neolithic Dawn launching this week on Meta Quest1:48:05 - Real VR Fishing Oceania DLC1:50:10 - Vast Haven-1 short film1:51:30 - Pinball FX VR Tomb Raider DLC1:55:20 - Grokit Purrtroplois DLC1:56:15 - Upcoming VR GamesSend us a text to the Ruff Talk VR fan mail line!Support the show

A bill before the Senate could block states from regulating AI for ten years. Google is getting sued by a solar company for AI search hallucinations. Apple will be facing another consumer lawsuit over iCloud. xAI faces lawsuit over environmental impact of their AI data centers.  Google is using YouTube content to train Gemini and Veo3. Adobe launched a new computational camera app. Xbox and AMD partner up for the next generation of gaming hardware, while a Meta collaboration might bring VR support to Xbox. Beat Saber leaves the Playstation.  And we HAVE to check out these Fairphone leaks!  Let's get our tech week started right! -- Show Notes and Links https://somegadgetguy.com/b/4MV Video Replay https://youtube.com/live/GkQpDcIvJ-Q Support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu Find out more at https://talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-c117ce for 40% off for 4 months, and support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy.

Welcome to another episode of Ferret64, the podcast about video games! This episode covers video game news and occurrences between 6-16 and 6-22-25 including: The Donkey Kong Bananza Direct, REMATCH, Peak, Elden Ring Nightreign, Batman Arkham Origins - Blackgate, more Sonic Games, Marathon Delayed Indefinitely, Third-Party games not selling well on Switch 2, Beat Saber dropping support for PSVR, Borderlands 4 Pricing revealed, Blood Message, PowerWash Simulator 2, and more! Thank you for listening on all platforms! Song in the intro and outro Night Shade - Adhesive Wombat. Timestamps - 00:00 Intro01:11 Donkey Kong Bananza Direct14:59 REMATCH (First Impressions)28:34 Peak (First Impressions)33:07 Elden Ring Nightreign (Cont.)35:21 Batman Arkham Origins - Blackgate (Review)46:22 More Sonic Games! 51:51 Bungie Delays Marathon Indefinitely 55:19 Sony Lifts Several Games Region Locks 56:44 3rd Party Switch 2 Games not Selling Well1:02:54 Beat Saber Cutting PSVR Support 1:06:19 Little Nightmares and Capcom Showcases 1:07:50 Coming Soon1:22:25 ClosingTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/yemmytheferretTwitter: https://twitter.com/YemmyTheFerretBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/yemmytheferret.bsky.socialJoin my Discord: https://discord.gg/b9NaNgp

Dylan and Ashley discuss their excitement for the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza. They also touch on the FBC: Firebreak game and the lack of support for Beat Saber on PS VR2, reflecting on the state of VR gaming. Show Dot Points The anticipation for Death Stranding 2 is high among gamers. The Nintendo Switch 2 remains a popular console, offering engaging games. Donkey Kong Bananza promises to be a significant 3D platformer. Gameplay mechanics in Donkey Kong include character transformations and co-op elements. The narrative of Donkey Kong is being redefined in the new game. Exploration and challenges are key components of the gameplay experience. Co-op gameplay allows for unique character interactions and strategies. FBC Firebreak offers a different take on the Control universe with co-op missions. The lack of updates for Beat Saber on PSVR raises concerns about the platform's future. The gaming community is eager for more diverse and engaging virtual reality (VR) experiences. Hosts: Dylan Blight: https://twitter.com/vivaladil Ashley Hobley: https://twitter.com/ashleyhobley Resources Young Pauline Joins the Adventure in Donkey Kong Bananza - Explosion Network Support for Beat Saber on PS4 and PS5 ends, shining a light on PSVR2's lack of success | Eurogamer.net Arcade Couch Credits: Music by: Dylan Blight Art by: Cherie Henriques Summary Show Notes: Created by Riverside.FM AI Integration All Episodes: https://explosionnetwork.com/arcade-couch/ Support Us: http://www.ko-fi.com/explosion

0:00 Hey Hey It's Three's Company WesDay2:47 Intro/Housekeeping5:15 Badminton Time VR13:01 Tips, Growing Old20:30 Poll: How Old Are You22:05 Beat Saber Is Ending Support for PSVR45:40 Cat Break 47:55 Back to Beat Saber55:05 Tips, More Beat Saber1:00:45 Presentiment Of Death1:08:40 Where is Cold VR for PSVR2?1:11:20 Escaping Wonderland1:20:00 Four Minute Challenge1:25:20 Thank You!1:28:25 Outro1:31:25 Flashback June 18 2021

It's the season of Fests (both Summer Game and Steam Next) and between the two, one metric tonne of video games is discussed on the show this week, including FBC Firebreak, Dying Light: The Beast, Dosa Divas, Snap & Grab, Directive 8020, Blighted, Ratatan, Ball x Pit, Dispatch, Baby Steps, and Peak. Also: the Marathon delay, official word from Microsoft about opening up the next Xbox, Beat Saber bails on PlayStation VR, and other stuff! CHAPTERS (00:00:00) NOTE: Some timecodes may be inaccurate for versions other than the ad-free Patreon version due to dynamic ad insertions. Please use caution if skipping around to avoid spoilers. Thanks for listening. (00:00:10) Intro (00:02:44) Show rundown (00:03:05) Possible to overthink buying a new car? Definitely. (00:06:49) FBC: Firebreak  |  [PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  Jun 17, 2025 (00:26:48) First Break (00:26:52) Brad's Summer Game Fest Gaming Experiences (00:27:10) Resident Evil: Requiem  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S]  |  Feb 27, 2026 (00:28:42) Dying Light: The Beast  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S]  |  Aug 22, 2025 (00:37:18) Directive 8020  |  [Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5]  |  Oct 02, 2025 (00:46:41) Dosa Divas  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  2026 (00:50:25) Snap & Grab  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows), Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5]  |  2026 (00:59:10) LEGO Party  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch]  |  2025 (01:01:40) Blighted  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  2026 (01:05:56) Toem 2  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  2026 (01:09:07) Wuchang: Fallen Feathers  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows), Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5]  |  Jul 24, 2025 (01:11:12) Ratatan (Early Access) |  [PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  Jul 25, 2025 (01:18:02) Some Steam Next Fest demos we liked (01:18:13) Ball x Pit  |  [Nintendo Switch, PC (Microsoft Windows), Xbox Series X|S]  |  2025 (01:25:53) Dispatch  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  2025 (01:30:33) Baby Steps  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5]  |  Sep 08, 2025 (01:33:41) Peak  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  Jun 16, 2025 (01:35:45) Dead as Disco  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  TBD (01:37:31) Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound  |  [Nintendo Switch, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S]  |  Jul 31, 2025 (01:38:37) Second Break (01:38:42) Vinny with some Breaking News! (01:40:20) News (01:40:37) Marathon is getting a delay (01:48:29) Xbox's reveals some news about its next hardware plans (02:01:14) Beat Saber ending PS VR2 support and updates (02:07:15) Borderlands 4 will be $70 (02:13:27) Nexus Mods has been sold (02:17:23) Emails (02:29:01) Wrapping up and thanks (02:32:17) Mysterious Benefactor Shoutouts (02:35:06) Nextlander content updates (02:37:04) See ya!

Wuthering Waves, Pokémon Scarlet and more – Geekoholics Anonymous Video Game Podcast 491 On this weeks episode we blab about the following Games and topics: Whatcha Been Playing?  Wuthering Waves 13:15 Pokémon Scarlet 25:00 News:  Cross Platform / PC / Misc. Bungie's Marathon reboot delayed indefinitely in response to "passionate" fan feedback 38:55 Konami confirms it's working on a Silent Hill 1 remake with Bloober Team 55:15 Voice actors "relieved to have the freedom to work again", says Jennifer Hale, as SAG-AFTRA strike ends 57:15 Warner Bros. Games restructures leadership team following new focus on Game of Thrones, DC, Harry Potter, and Mortal Kombat 59:45 Nintendo Nintendo is now banning Switch 2 consoles over piracy 1:11:30 $1.4 million worth of Switch 2 consoles stolen from semi-truck — 2,800 consoles were en route from Nintendo of America HQ to a GameStop store in Texas 1:14:15 Donkey Kong Bananza's musical twist revealed, plus DK Rap is included 1:19:35 PlayStation Sony confirms PS5 has more monthly players than PS4 for the first time 1:23:15 Support for Beat Saber on PS4 and PS5 ends, shining a light on PSVR2's lack of success 1:26:41 Xbox Microsoft says it's working on next-gen Xbox "consoles" you'll play "in your living room and in your hands" 1:42:00 PSA's: Epic Games Store Freebies: The Operator Help support the show: - Subscribe to our Twitch channel http://twitch.tv/geekoholics - Use our Epic Creator Code: GEEKOHOLICS when purchasing items in Fortnite or buying games on the Epic Games Store - Please review the show (bit.ly/geekoholics) on Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and to share with your friends. Reviews help us reach more listeners, and the feedback helps us to produce a better show. Join our Discord server: CLICK HERE Don't forget to follow our Social Media Feeds to keep up to date on our adventures: Youtube Twitter Instagram Facebook Thanks for listening and have a great weekend! You can reach me on Twitter @RicF

Gulvan and Joe discuss the Switch 2 3rd party game sales, the Marathon delay, Beat Saber ends support, and Borderlands 4 price. Continue reading →

On this episode of the Ruff Talk VR podcast we are back in our regular studio ready for another week of VR news! We kick off the episode talking more Ghost Town and Surviving Mars: Pioneer, and then we get into the news including The Smurfs Flower Defense getting an official release date. As well, we saw Bootstrap Island drop an official roadmap leading to their full launch. Tunnels with their full launch on Meta Quest. A release date and more info for Merlin's Chess. Song drops from both Beat Saber and Synth Riders. Meta Ray Bans improvements. And much more!Big thank you to all of our Patreon supporters! Become a supporter of the show today at  https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrDiscord: https://discord.gg/9JTdCccucSPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrTabor Radio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2216985If you enjoy the podcast be sure to rate us 5 stars and subscribe! Join our official subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/RuffTalkVR/ Send us a text to the Ruff Talk VR fan mail line!Support the show

Al and Kelly talk about Ratopia Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:24: What Have We Been Up To 00:17:46: Game News 00:25:17: News Games 00:36:08: Ratopia 01:02:56: Outro Links Tales of Seikyu Early Access Sugardew Island Sprinklers Update Outlanders “The Culinry Diaries” DLC Turnip Boy Steals The Mall Cubified Turnip Boy Plush Everdream Valley VR Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:31) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. (0:00:34) Al: My name is Al. (0:00:36) Kelly: And my name is Kelly. (0:00:38) Al: And we are here today to talk about Cottage Core Games. (0:00:42) Al: Woo! (0:00:42) Kelly: Woo! (0:00:45) Al: Uh, welcome back, Kelly. (0:00:47) Al: Always good to have you. (0:00:48) Kelly: It’s always fun to be back. (0:00:50) Kelly: I feel like we talked so recently and yet so long ago. (0:00:55) Kelly: It really wasn’t that long ago. (0:00:56) Al: Let’s have a look. (0:00:57) Al: Your last episode was “Grimoire Groves”, and that was in March. (0:01:01) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, yeah. (0:01:02) Al: For two months. (0:01:04) Al: Hmm, I have not played that game since that episode. (0:01:07) Kelly: I completed everything. (0:01:09) Al: Hmm. (0:01:10) Kelly: Everything, everything. (0:01:12) Al: Impressive. (0:01:12) Kelly: And then I put the game down and never picked it back up again. (0:01:14) Al: Hmm, fair. (0:01:16) Al: That’s how I play most games, to be fair. (0:01:16) Kelly: It was fun. (0:01:19) Kelly: Me too. (0:01:19) Kelly: But usually I don’t go full completionist mode. (0:01:23) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:01:24) Kelly: I pick things that I want to complete (0:01:26) Kelly: or give myself goals. (0:01:27) Kelly: Otherwise, I kind of lose motivation sometimes. (0:01:30) Al: Fair enough (0:01:32) Al: And then you were on the fields of then you were on the fields of mystery out before that. Have you played the update? (0:01:32) Kelly: But I was determined. (0:01:37) Kelly: No. (0:01:38) Kelly: I really enjoyed the portion that I played, (0:01:42) Kelly: but I decided that was enough and I’m just (0:01:44) Kelly: going to wait for the full game. (0:01:46) Al: I have done the same also. I was really tempted to jump in in the last update, but I’m like, (0:01:52) Kelly: Mm-hmm yep, that’s why I am I ended up picking up Sunhaven instead (0:01:52) Al: “No, let’s not do it. Let’s not do it. Don’t ruin it for yourself. Wait for the full game.” (0:02:00) Al: Yes. Well, let’s get into that then. So, just before we get into that, (0:02:02) Kelly: So I was like, you know what that’s a completed game (0:02:08) Al: we’re going to talk about Ratopia, this episode. Ratopia, this episode, because it has just come (0:02:14) Al: out in 1.0. (0:02:16) Al: Kelly has previously played it, so I thought we would talk about that. (0:02:21) Al: Before that, obviously, we’ll have our regular news. (0:02:25) Al: But first of all, Kelly, what have you been up to? (0:02:28) Kelly: “Playing Sunhaven.” (0:02:29) Al: I have questions. (0:02:30) Kelly: Woo! (0:02:31) Kelly: I also got 15 yards of dirt delivered to my driveway (0:02:34) Kelly: so I could fix my backyard. (0:02:36) Kelly: So that’s– (0:02:39) Al: Why is it measured in distance? (0:02:44) Kelly: I don’t have that answer. (0:02:46) Al: So, presumably, it’s like a set thickness, right? (0:02:47) Kelly: Do you know how I had to figure out what 15 yards of dirt was, (0:02:50) Kelly: Al? (0:02:50) Kelly: I had to go on YouTube and watch a video of a dump truck (0:02:53) Kelly: delivering 15 yards of dirt to someone’s driveway. (0:02:59) Kelly: I guess? (0:03:01) Kelly: Because they also do like– (0:03:01) Al: You’re the one that’s had it delivered! (0:03:03) Kelly: yeah, Al, this was through Facebook Market. (0:03:06) Kelly: This is just, I don’t know, the standard measurement (0:03:08) Kelly: that they use, though, because it’s cubic yards and cubic feet (0:03:11) Kelly: are used for soil. (0:03:12) Al: Oh, so it’s cubic yards, not yards. (0:03:17) Kelly: I don’t know, because they only said yards. (0:03:19) Al: Because that’s a bit– because cubic yards is a vol– (0:03:23) Al: Yeah, so it sounds like they’re just automatically (0:03:24) Kelly: It’s probably cubic yards, and I just never considered it. (0:03:25) Al: shortening it then, because cubic yards is a volume. (0:03:28) Al: That’s how you measure something like soil. (0:03:28) Kelly: Yes. (0:03:29) Kelly: Yes, that’s how I do my soil. (0:03:31) Kelly: I do soil calculations in cubic yards. (0:03:34) Kelly: I just didn’t put two and two together because it just (0:03:37) Kelly: straight up said yards. (0:03:38) Al: Yeah, that’s just laziness, I think, on behalf of people selling. (0:03:42) Kelly: Yeah. (0:03:43) Kelly: But no, I literally watched YouTube videos on dirt delivery (0:03:46) Kelly: to figure out how much dirt this would be. (0:03:48) Al: Although, I also have a question about that, because this is a thing that Americans do (0:03:55) Al: a lot, is you measure things by volume, when that can be very inaccurate for certain things. (0:03:58) Kelly: Yes. Yeah. Yes. (0:04:02) Al: It’s all very well and good measuring liquids by volume, because they stay the same. You’re (0:04:08) Kelly: Yeah. (0:04:08) Al: not going to add extra air in between grains of water. Yeah. Yeah. (0:04:10) Kelly: No, listen, I do a lot of baking. (0:04:14) Kelly: All of my baking is done by weight. (0:04:18) Kelly: I convert recipes all the time. (0:04:18) Al: Yeah. (0:04:22) Kelly: I’m pretty sure that they do it this way so that they can, like… (0:04:24) Kelly: Okay, this is free dirt, so it’s like… (0:04:26) Al: Okay, yeah. (0:04:28) Kelly: trash as it is. (0:04:30) Kelly: But it’s like, clearly they want to do it by volume and not weight (0:04:32) Kelly: so that they can give me things like a two foot long concrete rock (0:04:36) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. (0:04:36) Kelly: inside of my dirt pile. (0:04:40) Kelly: You know, like, that’s… (0:04:42) Kelly: I don’t know about the other things, (0:04:44) Kelly: because I’m assuming when people buy nice soil, (0:04:46) Kelly: they’re not getting giant rocks in their nice soil. (0:04:49) Al: Yeah, I. (0:04:50) Kelly: But I think… I think it’s… it’s a… (0:04:54) Kelly: I think that’s part of it. I don’t know. (0:04:56) Al: You weren’t buying high quality topside, well, that’s for sure. (0:04:58) Kelly: You know, it’s free dirt. (0:05:00) Al: But yeah, the baking one is funny, right? (0:05:02) Al: Because I understand the want to do it in volume, right? (0:05:05) Al: Like there’s a lot of cooking that I do (0:05:07) Al: where I do it by volume because it’s quicker, right? (0:05:08) Kelly: Yes, yeah. (0:05:09) Al: Like I quite often I quite often will make like (0:05:13) Al: I do like oat breakfast cookies quite often and I’ll just I’ll just use one (0:05:19) Al: of my measuring spoons and I’ll just like throw half a cup into a bowl, right? (0:05:24) Kelly: - Yeah. (0:05:24) Al: Because it’s quick and it’s dirty and it (0:05:26) Al: doesn’t really matter because if it’s slightly off, it’s fine. (0:05:27) Kelly: You’re getting cookies no matter what. (0:05:29) Al: Exactly, right? (0:05:30) Kelly: - Yeah, exactly. (0:05:31) Al: It does the job. (0:05:31) Al: But like when you’re if I’m if I’m baking a cake, like, you know, I’m I’m weighing (0:05:36) Al: out that flour, right, I cannot but you’ll see recipes online all the time. (0:05:36) Kelly: - Yep, yeah, oh yeah. (0:05:40) Al: And it’s like a cup of flour. (0:05:42) Al: And I’m like, first of all, first of all, there is no single standard cup. (0:05:46) Al: Did you know our cups are different than your cups? (0:05:48) Kelly: Yes. That’s what pisses me off. That’s what pisses me off when like a lot of good baking (0:05:49) Al: Fun, isn’t that super fun to learn about after I’ve spent following American (0:05:54) Al: recipes for years? (0:05:59) Kelly: recipes will include both the the grams or whatever ounces and then also yeah the ones (0:06:02) Al: Yes. You click the little button and it will change them. Yes, it’s nice. I like that. (0:06:09) Kelly: that don’t are so questionable because it’s like well did you pack the flour when you put in the (0:06:14) Al: Yeah, exactly. (0:06:15) Kelly: the cup but do you (0:06:18) Kelly: do our cups match yeah it’s very frustrating it’s very I do a lot of (0:06:20) Al: How irritated is your flower? (0:06:26) Kelly: math when I do baking so it’s very interesting I guess (0:06:28) Al: And this is why I don’t do much baking, because I like cooking where I can just throw things in (0:06:35) Al: and it’ll taste good. And if it doesn’t taste good, I add in something else and it tastes good now. (0:06:41) Al: But baking, if you muck up the measurements, you’re getting a pile of mush. (0:06:42) Kelly: That’s, yeah, I will say, I am definitely doing like a dirty sourdough at the moment for the starter because I used to be very anal and I would measure everything out. (0:06:55) Kelly: And after like, I guess four or five years of doing sourdough starters, I just like, I understand what the consistency needs to be. (0:07:04) Al: Yeah, yeah, that’s very different. (0:07:06) Al: If you’re doing the same thing all the time, you know what it needs to be, (0:07:08) Kelly: Yeah, but there’s definitely some. (0:07:10) Al: and you just get used to that. (0:07:12) Kelly: There are some things that I kind of like mess around with in baking where I think other people might not. (0:07:16) Kelly: And it’s like in the end, it still tastes great. (0:07:20) Kelly: And it’s my little science experiment, you know? (0:07:22) Al: Yeah, I know. For sure. (0:07:24) Kelly: But no, I love cooking and baking for the two different reasons. (0:07:28) Kelly: Like one is my little science chemistry set. (0:07:32) Kelly: And the other one is like throw whatever the hell you want into a pan and see what happens. (0:07:34) Al: Yeah, I like the idea of baking and I sit with a pack of flour in my cupboard and I (0:07:42) Al: watch as it goes out of date, because it’s just like, it’s a whole other mindset you (0:07:49) Al: have to be in before you can actually realistically do that. And that, yeah. I’ve had a recipe (0:07:50) Kelly: - Yes. (0:07:55) Kelly: - Yeah, it’s a different commitment. (0:07:57) Al: for like a specific kind of flatbread for months and I’ve not done it yet. And that’s (0:08:04) Al: all for baking. That’s just bread. (0:08:06) Kelly: Yeah, yeah. (0:08:07) Kelly: No, I’ve been meaning to make a brioche bread for months, (0:08:12) Kelly: and I just keep putting it off because I’m like, (0:08:14) Kelly: I don’t want to deal with it. (0:08:14) Al: There’s so much brain space. (0:08:16) Al: Anyway, Sunhaven. (0:08:17) Kelly: Yes, Sun Even has been a lot of fun. (0:08:20) Al: Pardon me, that’s what we were talking about. (0:08:23) Kelly: I like the different mechanics that they’ve added into it. (0:08:26) Kelly: I enjoy having magic. (0:08:27) Al: Yep. Interesting. (0:08:28) Kelly: I wouldn’t say it’s like the most thrilling farming game. (0:08:32) Kelly: I’ve ever played, but I think it’s overwhelming in a way that keeps my attention. (0:08:38) Kelly: Like having the different farms in different areas. (0:08:42) Al: It’s quite story based as well, isn’t it? (0:08:43) Kelly: Yes, yes, there’s a lot. (0:08:45) Al: How are you finding that? (0:08:47) Kelly: Um, it’s good. (0:08:49) Kelly: I don’t always pay attention to stories and games, so I’m not the best person. (0:08:54) Al: Yeah, same. (0:08:57) Kelly: I will say sometimes I look over to the characters, though, and have my eyes coped at one, I think. (0:09:03) Kelly: You guys don’t have that much clothes on. (0:09:04) Al: I’ve had, I backed this game on Kickstarter and I’ve had it in my Steam library now for (0:09:14) Al: a couple of years. I’ve not done anything with it. I have not, no. I think part of my (0:09:16) Kelly: Have you played it? (0:09:21) Al: problem is there’s like a time frame after a game comes out where if I don’t play a game (0:09:26) Al: in that time period I’m probably never playing it. (0:09:28) Kelly: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and that’s hard because you have games that like you want to play and also (0:09:35) Al: Let me tell you how many games have come out this year, purely farming games. We are currently (0:09:41) Al: at 20. 20 games have come out this year so far. No, actually I’m wrong. 22. No, 24. 25. (0:09:51) Al: 25 games that I am tracking on this game, on this podcast, by the 10th of May. There’s (0:09:54) Kelly: By May. (0:09:59) Al: more coming out in May. There’s another three on the list that are releasing this month. (0:10:03) Kelly: Are they flooding the market? (0:10:06) Al: It’s the Stardew Effect. We’re just at that time period. We are, what is this, eight years (0:10:08) Kelly: It is. (0:10:10) Al: after Stardew got popular? So just everybody’s finishing up their Stardew clones. (0:10:12) Kelly: Yeah. (0:10:18) Kelly: That is very true. (0:10:19) Kelly: And unfortunately, Sunhaven does fall into that. (0:10:24) Kelly: But again, I think it’s not the most unique farming game I’ve (0:10:28) Kelly: ever played, but I do like some of the things that they’ve added. (0:10:31) Kelly: I also just find it comforting. (0:10:33) Kelly: I like a good micromanagy game. (0:10:36) Al: Yeah, yeah, I’ll talk about mine in a minute. (0:10:38) Al: But, yeah, I totally agree with that. (0:10:40) Al: I wonder. (0:10:40) Kelly: And I do like that you don’t spend energy. (0:10:44) Al: Oh, yeah, so we’re going to have to we’re (0:10:46) Al: definitely going to have to talk about this game then (0:10:48) Al: because I am also playing a game which doesn’t have energy. (0:10:54) Kelly: It’s a fun mechanic to like, not worry about. (0:10:54) Al: And that is. (0:10:57) Al: Yeah. (0:10:59) Al: I am very much enjoying it. (0:11:02) Kelly: It’s really nice. (0:11:04) Kelly: Like, oh, there’s still always the time, you know, crunch or whatever. (0:11:06) Al: Yeah, yeah. (0:11:07) Kelly: But like, oh, I don’t have to eat 10,000 apples just because I (0:11:11) Kelly: want to hit a few more rocks. (0:11:13) Al: This is the thing that’s always annoyed me about farming games is you’ve got two (0:11:17) Al: limitations, you’ve got the time and the energy and removing one or the other of (0:11:24) Al: them, because Ever After Falls, which is what I’m playing and Sunhaven, (0:11:29) Al: which is what you’re playing, both remove the stamina. (0:11:32) Al: but Sugaju Valley, which we’ll talk about in the news section, (0:11:36) Al: it removed the time aspect where it’s essentially turn based. (0:11:41) Al: So you do your stuff and then you there’s two phases to the day. (0:11:45) Al: There’s the day phase and the night phase. (0:11:48) Al: And the night phase is when you open the shop. (0:11:51) Al: So it’s like you do whatever you want to do and then you go and open the shop. (0:11:54) Al: And then when you close the shop, it’s bedtime. (0:11:58) Kelly: that’s sick yeah yeah yeah sometimes bad games yeah it’s um which I think you (0:11:59) Al: So I like the… (0:12:01) Al: I mean, it’s not a good game, it’s a bad game. (0:12:03) Al: But it was interest that was that was an interest. (0:12:06) Al: Interesting thing and I like the games are now trying to play around with these things a little bit more. (0:12:13) Kelly: know that’s one of the things that we benefit from at like at the time point (0:12:17) Kelly: we’re in post stardew is like obviously that a lot of copies came out but I (0:12:24) Kelly: I think we’re really starting to see people like try to change (0:12:28) Al: Mm hmm. Yeah. So we’ll see. We’ll see how those things go. But OK, so you’re enjoying Sun Haven. (0:12:36) Kelly: Yes, I have put over 100 hours into it so far. (0:12:39) Al: Let me schedule that episode then. Sun Haven. Kelly. We’ll see when we do that. (0:12:48) Kelly: You know, you’re the reason I actually picked it up, I think, is because we were talking (0:12:50) Al: I’ve been meaning to play it for so long. Maybe I can event. Maybe I can finally play it if I’ve got (0:12:55) Al: a date to record on it. Aha! (0:12:58) Al: Right, OK. Was it in the news then? (0:12:59) Kelly: about it during the grimoire podcast. (0:13:06) Kelly: Probably I don’t know. (0:13:07) Kelly: I know it got mentioned. (0:13:08) Kelly: It was probably like a brief mentioning, but I think it was the news. (0:13:10) Al: many things, come on. Well I have obviously been playing Ratopia, I’ve only been playing the demo, (0:13:13) Kelly: So you influenced me, congrats. (0:13:22) Al: we’ll get to that later, but yeah I’ve been playing the demo of Ratopia. I’ve also been (0:13:29) Al: playing Ever After Falls and I have put in about 60 hours in that game so far, so it hooked me. (0:13:34) Kelly: What, what’s, what’s that one? (0:13:37) Al: So that’s just another stardew clone, but it um (0:13:40) Al: Obviously, as I said, it doesn’t have the stamina aspect, but it’s, let’s see, how would I describe, so it’s premise is slightly different, where you die at the beginning of the game, and then wake up and turns out that your real life was a simulation, and now you’re in another world with a farm. (0:14:06) Kelly: Oh, interesting. So really planning on people’s simpsychosis fears. (0:14:11) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And it’s very solid, I would say, probably much like what you’re talking about with Sunhaven. It’s like a solid farming game, and it has definitely caught that bug that I have for I must do this thing, and I’m building up this farm, and that is what I’m doing. (0:14:37) Al: And I’ve been enjoying that. (0:14:40) Al: And I have some things to talk about it that I’m going to talk about in a future (0:14:43) Al: episode that I found interesting, but I think if you’d like Stardew and you’ve (0:14:49) Al: been like, I must have another one and I’m done with Stardew, (0:14:52) Al: I want a different list. (0:14:54) Al: It’s a pretty solid one. (0:14:55) Kelly: The graphics look really cute. (0:14:57) Al: Yeah, that’s what initially grabbed me in. (0:14:59) Al: And the animation of it is fun as well, like your character’s arms are not (0:15:03) Al: attached to the body and they can swing really funny as you walk around. (0:15:08) Al: And there’s a few other things like you’ve (0:15:10) Al: seen these that you can catch and put them on things and you’ll get like wood or (0:15:14) Al: or without actually cutting the thing down. (0:15:17) Al: And that’s kind of like around it’s trying to encourage sustainability. (0:15:18) Kelly: Oh, that’s cool. (0:15:21) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:15:22) Al: So, yeah, there’s a few bits and pieces. (0:15:22) Kelly: Yeah, but it’s that solid game. (0:15:27) Kelly: Sometimes you don’t need anything innovative or crazy (0:15:29) Al: Yeah. Yeah. (0:15:30) Kelly: different. (0:15:30) Kelly: It’s just a nice, comforting game. (0:15:34) Al: So that’s what I’ve mostly been playing. (0:15:37) Al: I have also, so two picks earlier came out and I had backed that game. (0:15:42) Al: So this is like a life sim in a kind of stardew style, (0:15:48) Al: but it’s much more, it’s almost, I guess, GTA-esque. (0:15:54) Kelly: I was gonna say it looks like kind of reminds me of like I don’t want to say sim city but like (0:16:00) Al: I guess it would be some city if you were actually controlling an individual. (0:16:00) Kelly: something like that (0:16:04) Kelly: yeah that’s that’s which I guess is kind of like the ratopia of also (0:16:10) Al: Yeah, I think it’s different from that in so much as like you don’t have any control (0:16:15) Al: over anyone else. You’re just living your own life, but you can you can do crime and (0:16:16) Kelly: Mmm. (0:16:20) Al: stuff like that. What I will say is I’ve not properly played it because it doesn’t have (0:16:21) Kelly: Okay, that’s cool. That’s fun. (0:16:27) Al: controller support. So later, I play on my Steam Deck. (0:16:30) Kelly: Oh, you don’t do mouse and keyboard. (0:16:35) Kelly: Ah, that’s crazy. (0:16:36) Kelly: I didn’t consider that, that… (0:16:38) Kelly: Why would they put anything on the Steam Deck (0:16:40) Kelly: that doesn’t have… (0:16:40) Al: Well, anything on Steam goes on the Steam Deck by default, and most games coming out (0:16:43) Kelly: Yeah, no, I understand that, but like… (0:16:47) Al: now will have controller support. It’s a good question as to why it doesn’t have controller (0:16:52) Al: support yet, and I do not know the answer. They have said that they’re adding controller (0:16:56) Al: support soon, but yeah, I’m just like, why, why, why? (0:16:57) Kelly: okay hopefully like I get what you’re saying like obviously they push everything from steam to it (0:17:03) Kelly: but like you would think that there would be like some kind of filter like (0:17:08) Al: They have a compatibility thing and it’s and it currently has an unknown compatibility (0:17:12) Al: for Steam Deck. (0:17:13) Kelly: okay (0:17:14) Al: So. (0:17:15) Al: But whatever. (0:17:16) Al: Yeah. (0:17:17) Al: I opened it up. (0:17:18) Al: Went. (0:17:19) Kelly: yeah that’s that’s fair that’s very fair (0:17:19) Al: Yeah. (0:17:20) Al: Nope. (0:17:21) Al: We closed it. (0:17:24) Al: I’ll try again once you’ve added controller support, please and thank you. (0:17:28) Al: So, yeah, that’s. (0:17:30) Kelly: Interesting concept though. (0:17:31) Al: Yeah. (0:17:32) Al: Yeah. (0:17:33) Al: Well, I want to try it. (0:17:34) Al: That’s the thing. (0:17:35) Al: Like what it is saying it’s doing (0:17:38) Al: It has mixed reviews on Steam just now. (0:17:40) Al: So who knows how that will go, but (0:17:42) Kelly: Well, you know. You gotta try stuff. (0:17:43) Al: we’ll see. (0:17:46) Al: All right, let’s talk about some news. (0:17:48) Kelly: Yay! News! (0:17:50) Al: Tales, Tales of Saikyu. (0:17:56) Kelly: I think sake you, but like, also, I’m not a- (0:18:00) Al: This is the game where you turn into Yoko, Yoko, Yoko. (0:18:06) Kelly: Yokai? (0:18:08) Al: This game is where you turn into Yoko for getting around and dealing with your crops and stuff like that. (0:18:09) Kelly: Taseku, mess you up. (0:18:21) Al: You have a whole bunch of different abilities for turning into different Yokai that have different abilities to do these things. (0:18:30) Al: Yeah, yeah, I haven’t decided whether I want to play this or not, but it is a thing. (0:18:36) Al: and they’ve announced that their early access is coming. (0:18:38) Al: I don’t think this was a Kickstarter, so I won’t have backed it, so don’t buy it. (0:18:40) Kelly: Oh, very soon. (0:18:53) Al: I’m telling myself that, not other people. (0:18:56) Al: I can’t be trusted. (0:18:57) Al: Yeah, not much else to say about that, they’ve just announced their early access is coming. (0:19:03) Al: One thing I didn’t check is what they’re expecting in terms of how long. (0:19:08) Al: Because that’s always an interesting thing is how long they say they’re going to be in (0:19:11) Al: early access for. (0:19:13) Al: They’re expecting it to be about a year, so I suspect two and a half years. (0:19:18) Kelly: That sounds like good math. (0:19:24) Al: Next we have another update for Sugaju Island. (0:19:27) Al: So this game is bad game, don’t buy this game, don’t play this game, but they are making (0:19:32) Al: it less bad. (0:19:34) Al: Maybe someday it will be less bad enough that it will be worth buying, it probably won’t (0:19:38) Al: be. (0:19:39) Al: So in this update they’ve added sprinklers, so you can have sprinklers on the farm. (0:19:45) Al: Yay. (0:19:46) Kelly: And you can discover seashells. (0:19:46) Al: It’s such a, yeah, wow, I just, what, well, lackluster updates for lackluster game, that’s (0:19:47) Kelly: How exciting. (0:19:53) Kelly: This is like really lackluster updates. (0:19:55) Kelly: I’m sorry. (0:19:59) Al: what I would say. (0:20:02) Al: I don’t, they’ve also added key bindings support, so you can change your key bindings, which (0:20:06) Al: Good, I’m glad. (0:20:08) Al: You should have had that at lunch. I find this game so fascinating, (0:20:14) Al: because it feels so much like we need to do a farming game, so let’s do a farming game. (0:20:21) Al: And the only interesting thing about it was the turn-based time in the day. It is, (0:20:28) Kelly: Which is like a really cool concept, which is that sounds so interesting. (0:20:32) Al: but… but he’s just not good. (0:20:34) Kelly: They put all their effort into that one concept and nothing else. (0:20:38) Al: They’ve marked this as a major update on Steam. That is something. Uh, yeah. (0:20:46) Kelly: I mean, I’m going to just say this like then I think the name alone implies to me that there’s not a lot of effort going on here. (0:20:54) Al: Oh Kelly, you probably haven’t listened to last week’s episode have you? (0:20:57) Al: There were two new games in last week’s episode that were called Sunseed Island and Starsand Island. (0:21:08) Kelly: We got to start like putting a ban on certain words for farm game (0:21:14) Al: Known, known, island or valley. Yeah, this is… (0:21:18) Kelly: If you have “do” in your name. (0:21:24) Al: Good changes to the game, but that does not make a good game. (0:21:31) Al: I cannot see how either of these three tiny things in this major update would (0:21:39) Al: change this game from being bad to being good. I have no interest in opening that game again. (0:21:48) Kelly: Definitely good to know. I was very intrigued when you mentioned the turn-based, and very (0:21:52) Kelly: disappointed when you immediately followed up with that it’s a bad game. (0:21:54) Al: here lies the problem. They do have a demo. Feel free to try the demo. I mean, some people (0:22:01) Al: like it, apparently, there are some positive reviews. Apparently, it’s mostly positive. (0:22:07) Al: I don’t know how. I really don’t know. So, like, every recommended person is like, oh, (0:22:08) Kelly: Are they paying these people? (0:22:17) Al: it’s so nice. And they’re like, but it’s not. And all the not recommended is like, it is (0:22:23) Al: the most boring farming game. (0:22:24) Al: With so few features, it feels like a proof of concept and then they didn’t add the rest of the game. (0:22:36) Kelly: I don’t know how Steam reviews work. (0:22:38) Al: You just have to own it, I think. (0:22:42) Kelly: Yeah, but like, I think it tells you, right, if like, they got it for free. (0:22:44) Al: Oh, good question. Purchase type. Steam purchases and other. So other would be free ones. (0:22:53) Kelly: That’s what I would think, but like I meant more so too on like the, oh, no, nevermind. (0:22:58) Kelly: 230 people found this review helpful. (0:23:02) Al: Oh, is that the not recommended one at the top? (0:23:04) Kelly: Yeah. (0:23:06) Al: I can’t believe I put 12 hours into this game, absolutely mad. (0:23:09) Kelly: That’s a lot of hours. (0:23:10) Al: It’s a lot of hours for a bad game. (0:23:13) Al: All right, yeah, I’m going to start bashing this game. (0:23:14) Kelly: Next. (0:23:16) Al: Moving on, Outlanders have announced a new DLC, The Culinary Diaries. (0:23:23) Al: It looks like it’s a food based story addition to the game. (0:23:29) Al: This is a town building strategy game. (0:23:31) Kelly: OK, it looks like a short hike or the goose game. (0:23:36) Al: Yeah, I mean, graphics wise, yeah, it’s very much management style game, though, rather (0:23:38) Kelly: Yes, yeah, that’s what I’m basing that off of entirely. (0:23:44) Kelly: OK. (0:23:45) Al: than I have not. There’s too many games to play them all. But yeah, it looks like it’s (0:23:47) Kelly: Have you played this one? (0:23:55) Al: added a whole bunch of cooking stuff. So if you enjoy this game, there you go. You got (0:24:01) Al: a new update? A new DLC? Or is it paid? That’s a good question, I should check that. (0:24:06) Al: It is… No, it’s not free. It is $5. It is not bad. They’ve got quite a few DLCs, (0:24:06) Kelly: It’s free, maybe. (0:24:13) Kelly: Oh, that’s not bad. (0:24:17) Al: which is interesting. They’re all $5. Yeah, they also have very positive rating on Steam. (0:24:18) Kelly: I noticed that it seems like they’re, they have quite the DLC (0:24:29) Al: None of that tells as much, because it’s Sugaju Island, Suga Valley, whatever, I don’t care. (0:24:30) Kelly: - I think no. (0:24:37) Al: Had a positive, quite positive, was it? Or something like that? I don’t know. It was positive for some reason. (0:24:46) Kelly: But I mean, like, I feel like generally, obviously, (0:24:49) Kelly: that’s not true for everything. (0:24:51) Kelly: Games that tend to put out consistent DLC content, (0:24:55) Kelly: like, there’s something good going on. (0:24:57) Al: Yeah, it has twenty nine thumbs up on the Steam post and zero comments. (0:25:03) Al: So you’ve not got a whole bunch of people (0:25:05) Al: complaining about it being paid, which implies to me that some people are (0:25:10) Al: excited to buy it. (0:25:10) Kelly: Yeah. And again, for $5, it’s not a bad addition. (0:25:14) Al: Five dollars. (0:25:17) Al: All right, next, we have some new games to talk about. (0:25:21) Al: First up, we have turnip bill. (0:25:25) Al: Words, words. (0:25:25) Kelly: You’re not having a good day with the, I’m immediately adding this one to my wish list (0:25:27) Al: Fail me, Callie. (0:25:33) Al: Turnip Boy steals them all. (0:25:36) Al: Uh, have you played any Turnip Boy game? (0:25:39) Kelly: I have not, um, not out of like not wanting to, but like just life. (0:25:45) Al: So turn it by commits tax evasion is great fun. It’s it’s a really good (0:25:51) Al: small (0:25:53) Al: RPG and I really liked that game turn it by Rob’s a bank is (0:26:00) Al: similar in terms of its action (0:26:02) Al: But it is a roguelite (0:26:06) Kelly: Oh, interesting. So not for Al. (0:26:08) Al: I (0:26:09) Al: Mean I I played it. I want to see how many hours I put into it. I put in (0:26:11) Kelly: Yeah. (0:26:15) Al: I played it on the switch not steam apparently (0:26:18) Al: So I would need to I would need to look on my switch, which I’m not doing right now (0:26:23) Al: I (0:26:26) Al: Finished the game. I completed it which I haven’t done for many many roguelites (0:26:35) Kelly: says a lot. I didn’t realize how new these games were though. That’s crazy that they’ve put out (0:26:40) Kelly: three games in like four years. (0:26:43) Al: Yeah, 10 hours is apparently what I put into it to complete the game. (0:26:48) Kelly: Oh, that’s, that’s a, that’s like a solid cute little short game. (0:26:52) Al: Yeah, well, that’s the thing about them. They’re not super long, (0:26:55) Al: you know, you’re not looking at 50 hours, you’re looking at up to 10. (0:27:00) Al: With Turnip Boy commits to excavation, I 100% did it. I didn’t 100% (0:27:05) Al: rob the bank, but I did complete the story. I completed that run, completed that run. (0:27:12) Al: Which is enough. (0:27:13) Al: For a roguelite, for me, considering I only got a third of the way through a run in Hades. (0:27:27) Al: Defeated the first boss, then died in the next level and went “I’m not playing that boss again”. (0:27:36) Kelly: Where’s your dedication to pain? (0:27:40) Al: Nowhere. So yes, right. Okay, so this is a new Turnip Boy game. Don’t get excited. It is not an (0:27:46) Al: RPG. It is not like the previous Turnip Boy games. It is an endless runner for some reason. (0:27:55) Kelly: Very, you know, they found like their niche little like theme with the turnip boy, but like it’s very interesting that each game is different. (0:28:04) Al: Yeah, so what I’ve said in my notes here is, I’ll buy and play a new Turn It By game, right? (0:28:13) Al: Because I like Turn It By, but I’m a little bit disappointed that it’s a third game and (0:28:19) Al: it’s not like the first, because yeah, the second one was different, but it was the same (0:28:24) Al: as well. (0:28:25) Al: Like it was a roguelite, but it was still like a combat game in the same way that the (0:28:31) Al: other one was, right? (0:28:32) Al: The controls were the same, you controlled the player. (0:28:34) Al: The same, you still had a weapon in the same way, and there weren’t as many puzzles, right? (0:28:40) Al: The first one had more puzzles, but it was still there was the same combat and stuff like that. (0:28:46) Al: And this is very much not that. So I’m a little bit sad about that. (0:28:53) Al: I guess that’s fine, you know, they can do what they want. But yeah, I’m gonna buy it, I’m gonna (0:29:00) Al: to play it and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it but I want another turnip by turnip (0:29:04) Al: I was so good, it was funny (0:29:06) Kelly: I’ve literally only heard good things about it. Like, you know, it’s I feel like they (0:29:11) Kelly: really like turn a boy made himself into a thing. (0:29:14) Al: Turnaby commits tax evasion was a lovely RPG that you could 100% in 10 hours, and it was funny. (0:29:20) Al: It had a fun little story. It had some good combat that was actually challenging, (0:29:24) Al: especially near the end. And it was good fun. Turnaby robs a bank, had the challenging combat, (0:29:30) Al: and it had some of the funny story. And other than that, it missed the rest of it. (0:29:34) Al: And this presumably will have the same humor. But that’s it. And (0:29:38) Kelly: But that’s it. (0:29:39) Kelly: So they’re just slowly degrading. (0:29:44) Al: I feel bad saying that, because I suspect it’s not like they’re making this instead of another (0:29:50) Al: RPG, right? Like, I think they had a good idea for doing this. And they’ve done it as Turnaby. (0:29:57) Al: I’m just like, when I saw there’s a new Turnaby game, I went, “Oh, yes, great!” (0:30:01) Al: And I looked at it and went, “This is nothing like them at all.” (0:30:04) Kelly: Yeah. No, I was just being a little cynical, but I agree. (0:30:09) Kelly: I think that’s they’re just trying different avenues. (0:30:14) Kelly: It’s not like, oh, this is like a quick grab or something. (0:30:16) Al: Yeah, yeah, no, I get that. But yeah, I’m not saying it’s going to be a bad game. It’s (0:30:20) Al: just one of these things where it’s like, if you would hear, oh, you know, say you didn’t (0:30:25) Al: know about Silksong, right? And you heard Silksong’s coming out. It’s a new, a new Hollow Knight (0:30:33) Al: game. You’re like, oh, fantastic, exciting. And then it turns out it’s Solitaire. Right? (0:30:40) Kelly: Yeah, that would Yeah, yeah, that’s very true (0:30:41) Al: That’s essentially what we’ve had here. (0:30:44) Al: OK. (0:30:46) Al: Like I’m not saying it’s a bad game, I just saw new turnip game, excited. (0:30:50) Kelly: You want her to play, yeah (0:30:51) Al: It’s not that, that’s the problem. (0:30:54) Kelly: Yeah, yeah, no, that’s that’s the hard part (0:30:55) Al: And I guess this is the problem with spin-offs and stuff like that, right? (0:30:59) Al: Because this is what this is, it’s a spin-off, it’s not a sequel, it’s a spin-off. (0:31:02) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:31:03) Al: And I’m not saying they can’t do that, I’m just like, my expectations going in was different (0:31:09) Al: and I don’t know how they solve that problem, but that’s where we are. (0:31:14) Kelly: Well, maybe they’re working on that perfect Turnip Boy sequel in the back end. (0:31:20) Al: Well, they’re working on a different game just now as well, Hobknobbers, (0:31:26) Al: which I don’t think is out yet. (0:31:27) Al: Let me check. (0:31:27) Al: Yeah, it’s not. (0:31:28) Al: It’s still coming soon. (0:31:29) Al: So I suspect that the Hobknobbers is their upcoming big game and (0:31:37) Al: Turnip Boy steals them all as a let’s do a quick and easy, fun, endless (0:31:37) Kelly: - This is the, mm-hmm. (0:31:42) Al: runner that some people can buy and it will help our cash reserves. (0:31:49) Al: Well, speaking of their cash. (0:31:50) Al: It deserves, they’re also releasing a cubified turnip boy plushie. (0:31:53) Kelly: It’s so cute though and they have to reach their funded goal. (0:31:56) Al: I don’t need it. (0:32:00) Al: It’s $40! (0:32:01) Al: Oh my word, $40? (0:32:05) Al: This thing better be huge, how big is this? (0:32:07) Al: It’s 35 centimetres tall, so it is reasonably big, but that’s a lot of money. (0:32:14) Kelly: But it looks so soft. (0:32:16) Al: What is the shipping going to be to me? (0:32:20) Al: Probably too much. (0:32:20) Kelly: I don’t need this. What is the shipping? (0:32:26) Kelly: How much tariff would I have to pay to receive this? (0:32:30) Al: Oh 15 dollars shipping to me! (0:32:33) Kelly: Ugh. (0:32:34) Al: 55 dollars. (0:32:36) Kelly: Okay, that’s… that’s… (0:32:36) Al: And it is only 40 pounds, but I’m enjoying the dollar has sunk. (0:32:38) Kelly: But he’s so cute. (0:32:50) Kelly: Well, I’m so glad that someone’s benefited. (0:32:58) Kelly: Oh, I see, there is a tariff statement at the top. (0:33:06) Al: I don’t need it anyway so cube turnip cube or cube boy whatever you’d like to call him he exists (0:33:14) Kelly: He’s very cute. (0:33:15) Al: yeah uh (0:33:16) Kelly: He looks like he’s like that good soft material, too. (0:33:18) Al: yeah yeah (0:33:20) Kelly: Like squishmallows. (0:33:22) Al: but not (0:33:22) Kelly: I’m just going to keep talking until you feel bad, (0:33:24) Kelly: and then you add yourself to life. (0:33:29) Al: everdream valley have announced and released I think I think this is out now (0:33:34) Al: Ever Dream Valley. (0:33:36) Al: VR. A virtual reality version of Ever Dream Valley. (0:33:38) Kelly: Oh, oh, I don’t like that at all. I can’t look at that. (0:33:42) Kelly: I think I would puke if I ever did VR. (0:33:46) Al: I played, there was a game that I played which was like in VR, but you, but it was (0:33:54) Al: augmented reality rather than virtual reality. So you’re seeing the world around you as well (0:33:58) Al: and you like create these little islands where you put animals on them. I love that game. It’s such a (0:33:59) Kelly: OK. (0:34:05) Kelly: That seems cuter, and probably wouldn’t (0:34:07) Kelly: give me motion sickness, maybe. (0:34:10) Al: it was yeah it was a it definitely is much better um this I oh (0:34:16) Kelly: I literally can’t look at that cow clip. (0:34:18) Al: yeah I don’t I don’t know what to say about this game uh (0:34:25) Al: this kind of looks like a proof of concept this looks thrown together um (0:34:30) Kelly: It doesn’t look good. (0:34:32) Al: oh it’s not out yet it’s coming soon but you can pre-order it (0:34:34) Kelly: No yeah yeah but like that cow clip does not look good. (0:34:38) Al: No, no. (0:34:40) Al: No. (0:34:42) Kelly: Feels like I don’t, maybe I’m biased because I don’t like VR but like (0:34:47) Kelly: I thought we were kind of coming down from like the VR (0:34:51) Kelly: um spike I guess. (0:34:54) Al: do it. Yeah, I don’t know why they’ve done this. Like I have a VR headset and I love (0:34:59) Al: it for some things. I love Beat Saber. I love whatever the name of the game is. I kind (0:35:01) Kelly: Mm-hmm (0:35:07) Kelly: Beat Saber looks so sick. I think that would that’s like the the soul game that would sell me a (0:35:12) Al: It is the single thing that convinces anybody to buy VR. (0:35:17) Al: It is so good, I love it so much. (0:35:21) Al: But that, watching films in IMAX and whatever the name of the other game I play, the one (0:35:29) Al: with the Islands of Animals, those are the three things I’ve done more than once on my (0:35:33) Kelly: okay yeah no and it’s a separate game right like yeah you have to pay (0:35:35) Al: VR headset, right? (0:35:36) Al: Like there’s other things that you’ve tried once or whatever and gone “not for me”. (0:35:42) Al: It’s game, but the content. (0:35:47) Al: Yeah. (0:35:48) Al: It’s twenty dollars I think? (0:35:50) Kelly: you could pre-order it for 15 (0:35:58) Kelly: Yeah, no, I feel like a lot of the VR game just feel like novelty. (0:36:02) Al: Tune in next time to see if I’ve bought this game or not. (0:36:07) Al: All right. (0:36:08) Al: That’s the news. (0:36:09) Al: Let’s talk about Ratopia. (0:36:11) Kelly: Yay, I’m just so glad it came out. (0:36:12) Al: All right, I’m going to. (0:36:15) Kelly: Can I say that as someone who is waiting on so many different stupid games? (0:36:16) Al: Yeah. (0:36:20) Kelly: It is so nice to get a full release. (0:36:25) Al: OK, I want to try and describe this game and you can tell me what you think (0:36:30) Kelly: Okay. (0:36:30) Al: about my description. (0:36:32) Al: You are the the queen of a new rat city (0:36:39) Al: and you are building your city out. (0:36:43) Al: You it’s it’s almost it almost is like a it is a city builder, (0:36:49) Al: but it is a an RPG city builder. (0:36:52) Al: So you’re controlling a character. (0:36:55) Al: And you are building up the city. (0:36:58) Al: You’re you know, you’re saying this is where buildings go and you’re saying this (0:37:02) Al: different things go and this is these are the laws of the city and stuff like that. (0:37:08) Al: And you also accept in new members or new citizens. (0:37:14) Kelly: Mm-hmm. (0:37:15) Al: They are. They call them (0:37:18) Al: they call them migrants or refugees. (0:37:19) Kelly: I think it’s migrants. (0:37:19) Al: I can’t remember. It’s one of the two. (0:37:21) Kelly: It’s something with an M. I know that. (0:37:22) Al: I think it’s my yeah, it’ll be migrants then. (0:37:25) Al: And when you accept migrants in, you can then put them to work. (0:37:29) Al: Or you, so I guess the two, two. (0:37:32) Al: Your main ways of playing the game are you are controlling your individual character who goes around and can do things, and then you’re also directing your citizens to do things as well, so you don’t have to do them instead. (0:37:47) Al: And that can be basically anything, right? You can get them to man a specific building, to like lumber, or you can get them to dig. (0:37:55) Al: I think automatically they will like gather up everything that’s on the ground and put it in the chest. (0:38:02) Al: That’s it. It’s a city builder, but you are controlling an individual character as well as telling other characters what to do. (0:38:10) Al: Is that a fair description of the game? (0:38:12) Kelly: I think it is also it’s vertical builder uh like yeah yeah yeah (0:38:14) Al: What does that mean? What do you mean? Oh, like a 2D, yeah, okay, I see what you mean. It’s side scrolling up and downy. (0:38:22) Kelly: yes but like you’re building vertically which I think is like more terraria than like other (0:38:25) Al: Yes. I was going to, I was just going to say that Terraria is the, is the. (0:38:32) Al: Would be the example. (0:38:34) Kelly: I would say this is like a micromanagers final boss game (0:38:38) Al: Oh, my word, so micromanaging. (0:38:40) Kelly: It’s, it makes. (0:38:42) Kelly: It makes my heart sing. It’s incredible and so stressful. (0:38:45) Al: So let me tell you how I, let me tell you my thought process when starting this game. I’ve not put in, like, I’ve maybe put in less than an hour into this game, but the demo is really good at showing you the core concept of the game really quickly, and I don’t know if the main game does it in the same way, but. (0:39:02) Al: And you’re like, oh, you’re great. That’s fine. I’m going to go do some digging and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, man, I can only carry three things at once and there’s only three of the same thing. (0:39:10) Al: Oh, that’s really frustrating. Oh, goodness. Right. This is going to take forever to do anything. It’s like you dig, dig, dig, and then you throw in the chest and then you dig, dig, dig, and you throw in the chest. Right. Fine. Whatever. This is really annoying. (0:39:22) Al: Oh, OK. Right. I’m adding in new people to my city. OK, fine. Oh, they’re all picking up the things I can do so I can just go now and dig and dig and dig and dig and they will take the thing. Great. That’s a much improvement. (0:39:32) Al: And then it’s like, oh, and then it goes, oh, you need to build this thing. And you’re like, how do I do this? And it’s like you go into this menu and this menu then expands and expands and expands. (0:39:43) Al: And it’s like this web, absolute mass, massive web of different parts of different menus. And you’re just like, I have no idea what’s happening here. (0:39:54) Al: And it’s just it is, if you enjoy not creating spreadsheets, but if you enjoy looking at. (0:40:02) Al: Somebody else’s spreadsheets and figuring out what they do, you will like this game. (0:40:08) Kelly: I think that is a fair– (0:40:12) Kelly: not metaphor, what is the word I’m looking for– (0:40:15) Kelly: summation of essentially all of the aspects of this game. (0:40:18) Al: Where I enjoy making spreadsheets, I do not enjoy figuring out what other people have done, and that’s what the menu felt like. I’m like, I want this thing, but I need to figure out what category they put it in, what category of what category, and what menu of what setting, and then where in this category is it, because it’s just like this mess of things. (0:40:42) Al: And I don’t like figuring out what people think in the best of times. (0:40:48) Al: And it just feels like somebody made this game, and this is how they decided was the most logical thing for their brain, and I cannot be bothered spending my time figuring out why they decided. (0:41:02) Kelly: I think that is a very fair way to see it because I think that’s exactly how it is. (0:41:10) Kelly: But also, I feel like once it starts clicking, it starts making more sense because for me, (0:41:16) Kelly: I really enjoy trying to figure out how people are thinking because I think that’s the only (0:41:20) Kelly: way I can understand vaguely people. (0:41:26) Kelly: So it’s like a puzzle. (0:41:27) Kelly: So I think the puzzle of trying to understand the thought process is kind of fun. (0:41:32) Kelly: Also frustrating, though. (0:41:35) Kelly: Like, there’s definitely been moments where I’m like, (0:41:38) Kelly: “This stupid rat has to pee! How do I fix this?” (0:41:42) Al: Yes, I (0:41:42) Kelly: You know, like, “What do you mean they can’t do this task?” (0:41:46) Al: Think that part of it is is is I I didn’t hate right because it’s like you’re just your standard city builder thing (0:41:50) Kelly: No, no, it’s not bad (0:41:52) Al: It’s like you need to balance you need to balance all these things and you need to figure out how they balance fine (0:41:57) Al: Sure, whatever my problem. I just felt like I was navigating menus for 90% of the time (0:41:57) Kelly: Yes, it’s just I think (0:42:03) Kelly: It’s a lot of menus (0:42:04) Kelly: I did see someone say that they didn’t like that the game paused when you opened the menu to like build something and in (0:42:11) Kelly: My head I was like, what the hell are you talking about? (0:42:13) Al: All right souls player, goodness me, just masochistic person. (0:42:15) Kelly: Yeah, I was like what kind of game do you think this is that’s crazy (0:42:21) Kelly: Then like I literally I watched that and I was like what the hell kind of person (0:42:27) Al: Oh, my word. Horrifying. (0:42:28) Kelly: That’s sick that’s sicko behavior (0:42:32) Kelly: It’s like please keep those thoughts to yourself and I think better never implement that in this game (0:42:38) Al: Yeah, that that that how to make this game more stressful. (0:42:42) Kelly: Yeah, literally, like you said, the souls-like version. (0:42:47) Kelly: That’s disgusting. (0:42:48) Kelly: Don’t ever tell people that. (0:42:50) Al: It was like the kid just said, “Is it time for a test in school?” (0:42:51) Kelly: Like, I need those, I need that pause (0:42:54) Kelly: to figure out what I’m doing. (0:42:58) Al: And you’re like, “No! (0:42:59) Al: What are you doing? (0:43:00) Al: What?” (0:43:00) Kelly: You didn’t collect our homework. (0:43:01) Al: Yeah. (0:43:02) Al: Oh. (0:43:06) Kelly: But yeah, no, that blew my mind. (0:43:07) Kelly: ‘Cause I was like, people think like this? (0:43:10) Kelly: Why would you want that? (0:43:12) Al: So yeah, I think I, I mean, we’re just, we’re apparently getting straight into (0:43:15) Al: my opinions, um, I, I can, I, this is not the game for me, but I 100% can see why (0:43:16) Kelly: I think that’s very fair, and I do overall, I think this game, there is so much going (0:43:21) Al: someone would like this 100%. (0:43:29) Kelly: on and like, I like Rimworld a lot, I don’t know half of the shit I’m supposed to be doing (0:43:36) Kelly: in Rimworld because there’s just so much in that game. (0:43:41) Kelly: I don’t even buy the DLCs for that game, I just like playing the game, I figure things (0:43:45) Kelly: Peace out as the game goes on. (0:43:46) Kelly: You know, I’ve been playing it for a few years, things will happen, bad things happen, sometimes you die. (0:43:48) Al: Yeah (0:43:51) Al: Do you know I think (0:43:53) Al: What I think interesting was I think that when I while I was playing this game (0:43:57) Al: I think I was thinking you know what I would have more fun doing probably what is terraria (0:44:03) Al: Right, like I feel like that’s what I’m looking for if I’m one if I would be wanting to play this game (0:44:08) Al: It’s it’s I I I want it simpler (0:44:13) Al: I’m not it’s not necessarily even the action adventure bit right like it’s it’s more I (0:44:14) Kelly: That’s, yeah. (0:44:18) Al: Was thinking like this but (0:44:22) Al: Minecraft and then I was like wait, but that’s terraria, right? (0:44:24) Kelly: Mmm (0:44:26) Kelly: That’s so funny because I’ve I’ve actually never played I missed the boat on Terraria (0:44:30) Kelly: And I’ve also never played Minecraft because I 100% missed the boat on that one. I feel like at a certain point (0:44:37) Kelly: Like I think I would still enjoy Minecraft, but at this point in my life. I’m just like I cannot pick up Minecraft (0:44:43) Al: That’s totally fair. Minecraft was my, like I got in literally the last day of alpha (0:44:50) Kelly: Oh, wow. (0:44:51) Al: in Minecraft. So that was back on in 2010, I want to say. And that was like, I was, (0:44:56) Kelly: Mm-hmm. And I know people are still playing it. I know, you know, it’s still a relevant game. (0:45:00) Al: oh yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely. But I was like part of the way through uni at that point, (0:45:07) Al: university. So like I, I was very much in a world where I. (0:45:12) Al: Could sit up till three in the morning, obsessing over stuff. And I loved the building aspect of (0:45:18) Al: that. So I, I, if I, obviously I do not have any numbers for how much time I spent on Minecraft, (0:45:25) Al: because it wasn’t through Steam and nothing exists for that. But if I did have numbers, (0:45:30) Al: I would probably be incredibly scared to share that number with anyone, right? Like. (0:45:34) Kelly: That’s how I feel about my Sims numbers, you know? I’m so glad I don’t have those. (0:45:39) Al: Yeah. Yeah, same, same sort of thing. (0:45:42) Al: Absolutely. (0:45:45) Kelly: But no, I think what I like about this game is that there’s so much going on. Like in (0:45:50) Kelly: a sense it’s like, I enjoy bein

Nouvel épisode du Tomberry Musical Nouvel épisode du Backlog Musical, épisode spécial consacré à des musiques éléctro issues de jeux de rythme Article de The Pixel Post : https://thepixelpost.com/chroniques/le-backlog-musical-special-electro-et-jeux-de-rythme-2/ 00:00 - Introduction 02:40 - Red and Blue - Silentroom - Arcaea 07:23 - Dokudenpa - DJ Sharpnel - Dance Dance Revolution 14:03 - The 89's Momentum - MYUKKE. - Muse Dash 19:19 - Melonaid - Katomori - maimai 23:43 - ANALYS - HAYAKO - DJMax Respect 28:06 - Forbidden Pizza! - Camellia & Nanahira - Spin Rhythm XD 33:14 - ENERGY SYNERGY MATRIX - Tanchiky - Cytoid 38:28 - Vicious Heroism - Kobaryo - Beat Saber 43:10 - Lethaeus - Silentroom - osu! 47:49 - Ghost - Camellia - A Dance of Fire and Ice 56:22 - You are the Miserable - t+pazolite - Lanota Votre serviteur sur du Stepmania : https://youtu.be/DPjfr0Pv6Rg?si=38c45y1lEoKGedX2 Shift sur Beat Saber : https://youtu.be/d2dVGQQve6Y?si=qe10xrrP6efp7CCH

On this episode of the Ruff Talk VR podcast we have another loaded week of VR news! Including a huge leak regarding Valve Deckard, finally getting a release date for Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate, new sports coming to Racket Club, the announcement of GORN 2, a new Beat Saber shock drop, a new course announced from Walkabout Mini Golf, and more!Ruff Talk VR Gaming Showcase Application: https://forms.gle/aYHzAK1a1gdAxuY1ABig thank you to all of our Patreon supporters! Become a supporter of the show today at  https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrDiscord: https://discord.gg/9JTdCccucSPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrTabor Radio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2216985If you enjoy the podcast be sure to rate us 5 stars and subscribe! Join our official subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/RuffTalkVR/ Send us a text to the Ruff Talk VR fan mail line!Support the show

AndrewDungeons and Drag Queens: https://www.dropout.tv/dimension-20-dungeons-and-drag-queensSeverance: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11280740/Shrinking: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15677150/Beast Games: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31812476/Demeo: https://www.meta.com/experiences/demeo/3634830803298285/?srsltid=AfmBOophZgUKb-Ix6a5giU57zZVUqanvnjUE4THv2j_JCYStZacZpqMJTownsfolk Tussle: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/312859/townsfolk-tussleLaurenWhite Lotus: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13406094/Yellowjackets: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11041332/Traitors: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15557874/Mario Kart Japan: https://www.klook.com/en-US/activity/91713-2-hour-street-go-kart-experience-tokyo-bay/Beat Saber: https://beatsaber.com/Inside Out 2: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22022452/Wallace and Gromit, A Vengeance Most Foul: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17163970/Captain America, Brave New World: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14513804/Emilia Perez: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20221436/Pop Culture Happy Hour: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1212604211The Substance: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17526714/Twitch - Live Every Monday at 7pmhttps://www.twitch.tv/mof1podcast Watch us live on Twitch every Monday at 7pm CT: https://www.twitch.tv/mof1podcast

It only took like 17 years, but we finally hit episode 500! That's a long time and a lotta episodes. In this one, Geoff enters the fog in Silent Hill 2, Jason's playing a Metroidvania with guns. and Chris finds himself back in Beat Saber. Also, our backlogs for the year. And lots of listener feedback. Whether you're new or been here since day one, thanks for joining us for Episode 500!

On this episode of the Ruff Talk VR podcast we are talking all the latest VR news! Including the unveiling of Samsung's upcoming Android XR headset, a stacked Beat Saber Metallica pack, new VR games like Bridge Constructor Studio and Color-a-Cube as well as upcoming VR games such as Crystal Commanders. We also talk other news such as James Cameron and Meta striking a deal, and the Windows 11 streaming feature now on the Quest. Listen for all the news!Big thank you to all of our Patreon supporters! Become a supporter of the show today at  https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrDiscord: https://discord.gg/9JTdCccucSPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrTabor Radio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2216985If you enjoy the podcast be sure to rate us 5 stars and subscribe! Join our official subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/RuffTalkVR/ Send us a text to the Ruff Talk VR fan mail line!Support the show

It's not Tomb Raider, It's Tomb Explorer VR! | Metallica Comes to Beat Saber | PSVR2 GAMESCAST LIVE

On this episode hosts Laurie, Alex and Reece give their early impressions of Starship Troppers: Continuum on Quest and is there really hope for PSVR2? They also discuss PSVR2 delays for ExoCars, Synapse coming to Playstation Plus Premium and a potential Black Friday price cut for the PSVR2. Meta Quest Afilliate: 10% off all Quest Games Here - https://tinyurl.com/39mxmkcv Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 02:50 Starship Troopers: Continuum Impressions 13:48 Rumoured PSVR2 Black Friday Sale 21:05 The Light Brigade Update and Roadmap 23:38 Synapse Coming to PS Plus Premium 25:37 VRider SBK Coming To PSVR2 26:52 Beat Saber announces new Monstercat Pack 28:34 VR Racing Games and Experiences 28:39 ExoCars Delayed Again on PSVR2 30:02 PSVR PS5 Adapter Discontinuation 31:48 Reece's VR Round-Up 34:24 Songbird 40:28 Metro Awkening Game Impressions and Updates 50:38 Closing Thoughts

Al talks about Living Room, a new VR animal game Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:04:55: What Have We Been Up To? 00:23:28: Game News 00:49:21: New Games 00:52:33: Living Room 01:15:28: Outro Links Disney Dreamlight Valley “The Storybook Vale” Stardew Valley “1.6.9” Update ConcernedApe Interview Webfishing Living Room on Quest Store Living Room Trailer Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:31) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Kev: My name is Kevin, one of us is in the US, the other is not. (0:00:41) Al: and we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games! (0:00:45) Kev: Woohoo! Yes! (0:00:49) Al: I feel like we can’t start the episode without kind of referencing what has happened. We are recording on the 10th of November, five days after a certain election in America. (0:00:59) Al: I’m going to go ahead and close the poll. (0:01:01) Al: I don’t want… (0:01:01) Kev: I didn’t get my birthday wish, rather rude of them. (0:01:02) Al: Yeah, I learned that you have the same birthday as my younger son. (0:01:10) Al: Isn’t that weird? (0:01:10) Kev: yeah happy birthday Craig right that’s Craig yeah (0:01:13) Al: How’s it taking… (0:01:14) Al: How’s it taking… (0:01:15) Al: Yeah, Craig. (0:01:16) Al: How’s it taking six years for us to notice this? (0:01:17) Kev: ah I don’t know man like well I mean okay I try to keep mine on the down-low because I’m torn about it cuz you know obviously it’s nice for people to notice but I also feel like narcissists love you know coming out with the little air horn so I know I’m torn in minutes so I generally don’t bring (0:01:19) Al: Weird. (0:01:38) Al: I don’t think it’s narcissistic to have a birthday and celebrate it. (0:01:40) Kev: too much attention to it (0:01:45) Kev: you’re right no you’re absolutely right I’m I am aware I am the issue and I mean oh boy is it so I I was actually so okay I do therapy and I do it on Tuesdays which happened to be my birthday but I was sick that day so I didn’t do therapy either so you (0:01:53) Al: This feels like something to unpack in therapy, just a thought. (0:02:07) Al: Oh no, oh no, yeah, I was going to say this week’s going to have a lot to talk about. (0:02:10) Kev: know there’ll be plenty to unpack this this there this Tuesday Oh boy. (0:02:20) Al: So yeah, I don’t want this to become a politics podcast, we’re not going to spend time talking about the election and I seriously considered it, but we’ll see, we’ll see if you can convince me after this recording. (0:02:26) Kev: That’s what the green house is for! (0:02:37) Al: I thought it was important to at least, you know, reference it so that it’s not like - I always feel weird when there’s something major that happens and we don’t at least reference it because it feels like the entire podcast is just a place that doesn’t exist. So I kind of - I want the podcast to be escapism, so we’re not going to be like talking about it a lot, but I just wanted to mention and remind people that this is a safe place for you. We are inclusive of everyone that [chuckling] (0:03:07) Al: - The upcoming president is not inclusive of. (0:03:12) Al: Yeah, and if you are anti-LGBTQ (0:03:18) Al: or if you are anti any races, (0:03:23) Al: if you are a terrible person of that persuasion, (0:03:28) Al: I don’t care if you listen to the podcast, (0:03:31) Al: you can go away. (0:03:32) Al: Thank you very much. (0:03:33) Al: Only good people here. (0:03:37) Kev: - Okay, so I’ll sign off then. (0:03:39) Kev: Bye everyone. (0:03:41) Al: So that’s all I wanted to talk about. (0:03:44) Al: We’re now gonna go into the escapism and talk about other things, including this episode, (0:03:50) Al: we’re gonna talk about Living Room, (0:03:53) Al: which is an augmented reality game that I have been playing. (0:03:59) Al: And hopefully we can get a good discussion out of that (0:04:02) Kev: All right all right. (0:04:03) Al: because obviously no one else on the team has played it. (0:04:08) Kev: Yeah, well, I mean, OK, I’m jumping the gun here, but like AR games, I think are great, like are they are so much more feasible, plausible than, you know, true VR and I think there’s, there’s a lot you can do with it, so you know I’m down for that. (0:04:20) Al: I agree with that. (0:04:25) Kev: I am very much a proponent of AR, like VR will maybe get there one day, but it’s. (0:04:32) Kev: It’s going to be a minute still till, you know, we’re really, really there. There’s still a lot to figure out, but yeah, we’ll get there. (0:04:36) Al: Yeah definitely. Hopefully we’ll have some good chat about that later on. I think it’s our first AR game that we’re going to talk about so we’ll see about that. Before that obviously we have some news but first of all Kevin what have you been up to? (0:04:58) Kev: Alright, um, so I haven’t talked, it’s been a minute since I’ve been on here, um, you know, sorry Vincent, you know this, you, you heard on Triple R, but I’ve been playing Bellatro. (0:05:08) Kev: I bit the bullet, I’m in there deep. I have clear a run with every one of the base decks, I would call it, um, the, the color decks, if you will, um, there’s all sorts of other decks that unlock later, and you know, there’s difficulty, so there’s still plenty for me to do. (0:05:26) Kev: for me to do, but that just shows. (0:05:28) Kev: How much time I put in and how much I enjoy it, you know. (0:05:32) Al: I mean, to be fair, you completed a run on your first day playing, didn’t you? (0:05:38) Kev: But yeah I mean it is I I’ve said it before like. (0:05:44) Kev: You know for people who don’t know I tutor in math so I am so I’m an engineer so I’m something of a math guy so a name a game centered around numbers and probabilities and and of course strategy I love strategy games like Fire Emblem and such so you know all that is kind of in my wheelhouse so yeah I hit the ground running with that one. (0:06:04) Kev: Yeah, and there’s obviously a lot to unpack. There’s much more so than this. (0:06:08) Kev: There’s a lot to unpack. There’s much more to unpack. There’s much more so than this. (0:06:14) Kev: There’s much more to unpack. There’s much more so than this. (0:06:18) Kev: Other than that, Sonic Frontiers I have been… I am approaching the end of that game. (0:06:26) Kev: I’ve been going back and kind of… Not 100%ing, but at least… (0:06:31) Kev: So, in Sonic Frontiers you have much like, you know, Breath of the Wild or other open world games. (0:06:38) Kev: You unlock parts of the map, right? You find a quote-unquote “tower”. (0:06:42) Kev: In Sonic Frontiers it’s just like a little objective. And you unlock part of the map, make it visible and see. (0:06:48) Kev: Alright, so I’m going back and at least 100%ing the maps, right? (0:06:52) Kev: There’s a lot, so many different like challenges and stuff like that. I will not be 100%ing that game, actually. (0:07:00) Kev: But I’m going back through that and then I’ll be hitting… I’ll be finishing that up soon. (0:07:04) Kev: Um, still, I don’t know, I just, I really like that game, even just- (0:07:08) Kev: They’re running around and using the different grind rails and bumpers and stuff to just fly around, it’s very- (0:07:16) Kev: Almost zen for me, I enjoy it a lot. (0:07:18) Kev: Um, and of course, appropriately, they, uh, gosh, was it last year? I think it’s been a year already. (0:07:24) Kev: Um, they did the Sonic’s birthday update, where you can just deck out the whole island in birthday celebration stuff, so of course I switched that on this week. (0:07:33) Al: Oh yeah. Was that last, was that last (0:07:33) Kev: Um, I think so, it’s been a minute. (0:07:39) Kev: One feature that I don’t think I’ve talked about that, um, I think is a feature I want in every single game, (0:07:44) Kev: Uh, it has a jukebox system, where you can go around, you can find little soundtracks, and then you can just play them whenever you want. (0:07:54) Kev: Of course, certain things like certain battles and, uh, cutscenes or whatever will, you know, obviously won’t play whatever music you want, but- (0:08:00) Kev: I, like, if it’s a game I’m gonna be spending a lot of time in, I like to have different music available, and you know, (0:08:08) Kev: Play something that fits the mood, or just something I want at that moment. (0:08:12) Kev: Uh, Sonic the Hedgehog, of course, has a legacy of fantastic soundtracks, so there’s a lot of good stuff, but- (0:08:18) Kev: Um, just in general, like, I wish I had, uh, that feature was available in more games, looking at you, Pokemon, especially. (0:08:26) Kev: Um, you know, going through how many thousands of hours of Pokemon battles and having to listen to the same sound- song every time. (0:08:34) Kev: But yeah that’s that’s good stuff so prop 2. (0:08:38) Kev: And then aside from that, here’s my plug for Rainbow Road Radio, the Mario podcast I do their mutual friend Alex. (0:08:48) Kev: Next week we are doing an episode on Bowser’s Inside Story, the third Mario and Luigi game, which I have been playing. (0:08:56) Kev: And obviously you hear the full story on that episode, but boy that is a good game. (0:09:02) Kev: Of course as people might see from my handle Koopaprez, I am a big fan of Bowser. (0:09:08) Kev: And a game focused on him. Obviously I am biased, but I think they just did everything fantastic about Bowser. (0:09:16) Kev: Along with a lot of the usual polishes and benefits of the Mario and Luigi game. Like, you know, funny writing in the battle system and all that. (0:09:26) Kev: But yeah, so that’s like I said, tune in next week for more thoughts on that in depth. (0:09:34) Kev: But other than that, yeah I think that’s roughly what I’ve been up to. What about you Alex? (0:09:38) Al: Yeah, um, I have been also playing bilateral. (0:09:44) Al: Not as much as you. (0:09:46) Al: I’m done. (0:09:47) Al: I finished it. (0:09:48) Al: I completed a run. (0:09:49) Al: And that’s enough for me. (0:09:50) Kev: Okay, what deck did you use herself? (0:09:50) Al: A yellow, no, not yellow. (0:09:55) Kev: Okay, all right, you’ll (0:09:56) Al: The one, the one that gives you money, the one not yellow, not yellow. (0:09:59) Al: It was the one. (0:10:00) Al: I can’t remember which one it was, but it was the one that gives you money for the hands and discards you have left. (0:10:05) Kev: Okay that’s green I believe yellow give you like 10 bucks … (0:10:06) Al: Green, right. (0:10:09) Kev: green gives you like more per hand and discard stuff okay … (0:10:09) Al: It does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It gives you, I find, I find that gives you lots of money really early on. (0:10:12) Kev: yeah that’s a good one obviously. (0:10:18) Kev: Oh gosh it is. (0:10:20) Kev: Alright good stuff good on you did you go past it or did you … (0:10:23) Kev: just like shut the app after you hit the clear screen. (0:10:26) Al: I kept going until I died but that was like one blind later. (0:10:30) Kev: Yeah it gets wild how much it’s scale after like they are brutal. (0:10:35) Kev: They say endless mode but no they want to end you fast. (0:10:39) Al: yeah yeah yeah um so yeah uh i’m sure we’ll talk more about that in the future but yeah I i (0:10:48) Al: I played it and i’m done (0:10:50) Kev: Free, free at last, free at last. (0:10:53) Al: um i’ve also been continuing on snap um the new season started um I did buy the season pass again because um I feel you don’t actually need a humongous amount of time into the game to get get this season pass done. (0:11:10) Al: So I feel like it’s worth it. (0:11:10) Kev: yeah no yeah it is right it’s wild to think like you know I’ve paid I think almost every single pass that’s ten bucks a month which you know when you tally it all up is sizable for a game like one single game maybe but because it’s broken up so far in only ten bucks a month like it doesn’t feel bad and I get my enjoyments (0:11:13) Al: And it’s a good amount of stuff you get. (0:11:38) Al: Well, and the advantages that you’re paying as long as you’re playing it, right? Like, (0:11:42) Kev: That’s true, that’s very true. (0:11:42) Al: as soon as you stop playing it, you no longer give them any money. So yeah, I’m enjoying that. (0:11:50) Al: I’m in the 70s again, struggling in the 70s last season. I think when I talked last episode, (0:11:52) Kev: God it it really is yeah (0:11:56) Al: when I talked last episode, I was almost 80. I ended up finishing at 93, I think so. (0:12:00) Kev: Uh-huh (0:12:04) Al: I’ve mentioned this to you, Kevin, but I don’t think I said on the podcast. (0:12:07) Al: I finally got up to 80. It took me four and a half weeks to get to 80, and then it took me exactly 18 hours to get to 90. (0:12:17) Kev: oh yeah that sounds correct I don’t know what it is I actually have a similar um I hit a certain a similar wall when i’m in the 70s I don’t know what it is it is a like I don’t know if that’s (0:12:17) Al: Which is just so stupid! (0:12:31) Kev: where the largest concentration of players are or you know ones who play regularly because it’s pretty easy to get up there but it’s it’s just so I don’t know what it is it’s hard to (0:12:45) Kev: like two steps back (0:12:47) Kev: we’re two steps forward and two steps back in the 70s, it’s wild (0:12:50) Al: Oh yeah yeah yeah constantly like I’m I’ve been playing you know a good half an hour to an hour every day since it’s since the season started and I’m at 73 so I’m literally exactly the same place as you are when you hit 70 so so yeah I don’t know hopefully I’ll get there eventually but yeah it’s it’s really funny I part of it is my own fault right like I’m snapping when I’m not convinced I’m going to win. (0:13:20) Al: But also, I just feel like in the 70s is when everybody has Shang-Chi, (0:13:25) Al: which is the killer for my deck, right? Like if they have a Shang-Chi, it’s killed. (0:13:31) Al: And no, I’m running the Black Panther symbiote. (0:13:36) Kev: right right right okay oh yeah that’s that’s rough well time to gosh and you you do the obviously you want to do the Arnim Zola strat so you can’t run Cosmo or or armor (0:13:40) Al: It’s, yeah. (0:13:46) Al: Yeah, no, it’s what I have, what I have been doing. (0:13:51) Al: I’ve not been leaning into it as much because it doesn’t give you as much power, (0:13:55) Al: but I’ve been doing a sentinel, sentinel symbiote and the advantage of that is they can’t Shang-Chi you (0:14:06) Al: and you get, because it gives you a 13, (0:14:10) Al: 13 power and then you, Arnim’s all of that and you get four of them, so you get two things of 26. (0:14:17) Kev: Nimrod, you mean Nimrod, I mean he is a sentinel, but yes, nerd talk over here, yes, yes, yes, oh god, Nimrod, yeah yeah yeah, it’s the one that, what is it, 2 cost 3 power, it sends 2 sentinels into the opponent’s hand, or no, sends, no, add, no, yeah, it adds 1 into your hand, mastermhold, yes, yes, that’s the one, yes, backwards, um, yeah (0:14:20) Al: Nimrod, not sentinel. Why did I think sentinel? Yeah, yeah, that’s probably where I got confused. (0:14:26) Al: That’s probably where I got confused. Yeah, Nimrod. Is there a card called sentinel? (0:14:40) Al: Yeah, no, no, it sends one into your hand. Master mold sends two into the opponent’s hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay, Nimrod. Sorry. So you get 13 power, and then you quadruple that basically. So you get to two locations to get 26. It is good. It’s not as foolproof. Like if you get it off, you can still lose. Whereas if you manage to get the Black Panther symbiote one, you win almost 100. Yeah, you get almost 100%. (0:15:02) Kev: Yeah, ‘cause the numbers don’t get insane. (0:15:07) Al: Like there’s like maybe two, two cases. (0:15:10) Al: But yeah, so it’s it’s good. But yeah, I need to lean into that more, I think, because then obviously they can’t chung chi it and if they do, you just get more of it and then exactly, exactly. (0:15:11) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s. (0:15:24) Kev: - Yeah, it just benefits you, that’s great. (0:15:26) Al: But the the one thing they can do, which has killed me a couple of times, is cosmo it. And then it’s really annoying. (0:15:36) Kev: Yeah, yeah, yep always a threat that little Russian pupper (0:15:38) Al: really annoying. (0:15:40) Al: So yeah, they don’t interestingly very few people running armor so that doesn’t tend to be an issue but yeah. (0:15:50) Al: So anyway yeah, still in the 70s or back to the 70s I guess and we’ll see how that goes but yeah I’m still enjoying it enough to keep playing it every day but what I’ve added and this is weird because I normally don’t add to my daily games. (0:16:06) Al: This is not a thing that happens. (0:16:10) Al: I’ve been playing pokemon TCG pocket as well and initially I was just doing the card collecting part of it right. (0:16:19) Al: What I really like is you know going into it, opening up my packs and being done with it but for those who aren’t aware they’ve added a bunch of events that are battle focused and I have actually been kind of enjoying them. (0:16:34) Al: So there’s the solo battle event. (0:16:35) Al: This is what’s really good so they’re running three simultaneous events in the game. (0:16:40) Al: There is a wonder pick event which is just where you’re doing the wonder picks. (0:16:45) Al: Do you know what the wonder pick feature is in pocket? (0:16:46) Kev: No. (0:16:48) Al: No. (0:16:49) Al: So the idea behind this is the game shows you a number of packs that people, other people have opened. (0:16:57) Al: Some of you which are your friends, some of which are random people in the app and it shows you the five cards and you can pay a certain currency which like the packs regenerates it’s over time. (0:17:10) Al: And you so you use that and you get you get one of the cards in the pack picked at random. (0:17:17) Al: So it’s a nice way to get extra ones and you can focus on like oh that pack has two cards that I don’t have yet let me use that one and I’ve you know I might get one of them. It’s quite nice. (0:17:25) Al: So they’ve they’re running a wonder pick event where they had some promo cards that showed up in extra wonder picks. So there’s a chance the enemy house and you would get some that would be like one one of the cards and for (0:17:40) Al: items that are like shop items that allow you to unlock other things. And then sometimes you’d get one that was like four chances and one Meowth. Sometimes you get four Meowths and one chance or whatever. So you’re trying to get the promo cards and also get the other currency to then get other things as well, like accessories and stuff like that. So that was fun. But I mean, I got that done pretty quickly. I’ve got everything in that. That took a couple of days of doing very little, (0:18:07) Kev: Okay, okay (0:18:07) Al: but it was good fun to have an extra thing to do in the game. (0:18:10) Al: And then they’re running a solo battle event which is where there are solo battles in the game where you play against the AI against different decks and so it’s by default in the game I think there’s like I think it’s six different decks that you can do at different levels and do different challenges against them you can just beat them and then there’s like a challenge to to beat it without without the opponent getting a point stuff like that but they’re running a limited time one (0:18:40) Al: Lapras EX event and so you’re it’s the same sort of thing you’re you’re battling against it and trying to beat specific challenges and that was fun and I completed all that after maybe like three days or something that was yeah exactly really really fun and then they added a third event which is the PvP battle event and what I really like about this so in the last episode when I was talking to Johnny about this he was like I really hope they don’t do a ladder and we were we were talking about how I. (0:19:10) Al: think they’re probably going to do a different kind of of battle PVP challenge thing and this I feel like is probably it. (0:19:21) Al: Basically you get a trophy depending on how many wins you get. It’s not based on a win loss ratio. There’s no like climbing the ranks. It’s literally just if you get 45 wins you get this trophy. Which is really nice. I think it’s really fun. (0:19:34) Kev: Okay, okay. Yeah (0:19:37) Al: Like, 45 is obviously a lot of wins, but the… (0:19:40) Al: like three weeks long I think uh it’s the two yeah three weeks long (0:19:42) Kev: Okay, sure and these are these are short games they’re not your 20-minute standard (0:19:47) Al: yeah (0:19:49) Kev: PTCG. Okay. So yeah, that’s that’s within reason (0:19:50) Al: yeah technically technically there is like it’s each player has a timer and (0:19:58) Al: each timer is 20 minutes so theoretically it could take 40 minutes but i’ve never had a battle take longer than five so um so I feel like the timer is pretty pointless (0:20:03) Kev: Ah. (0:20:06) Kev: Okay. (0:20:07) Kev: Yeah. (0:20:10) Al: I think if they’re going to have the timer it needs to be a lot shorter than it is because it (0:20:14) Al: like honestly if you were taking that long someone would have just given up by that point it would not be fun at all so yeah no that’s that’s been really fun as well i’ve been doing i’ve been trying to do five wins a day so that I at least keep it going but I don’t feel you know completely fed up of it. (0:20:22) Kev: Hey, and that’s a strat, you know? (0:20:24) Kev: Just… just let the timer run! (0:20:27) Kev: Yeah (0:20:40) Al: And it means I can still do some snap as well. So that’s been really fun. I’m really liking it. I hope this sort of stuff continues having the different events and having a collection event and a solo battle event and a pvp battle event all running at the same time means that people who want to do everything have a lot they can do and those who are just focused on one thing still have an event right so just just running a battle event means that people who don’t want to battle only just want to collect, we’d have nothing to do. So I think this is a really fun… (0:21:02) Kev: Yeah (0:21:08) Kev: Yeah (0:21:11) Kev: Yeah, I I get yeah that seems like a good idea because obviously we have (0:21:17) Kev: It is very (0:21:20) Kev: Collection focused clearly, but (0:21:23) Kev: You know the game itself is still a big factor. So yeah, that makes sense to have different (0:21:29) Kev: Events going on for the different sides of it. That’s cool (0:21:32) Al: Yeah, it’s good fun (0:21:33) Kev: um yeah, I I (0:21:36) Kev: still have not felt the siren call of pocket like I (0:21:42) Kev: I’ve been trying to think why that is because it’s not like there’s anything I have against it per se. It seems fine (0:21:49) Kev: It’s probably because I like the base or you know the standard version and it’s not like I mean part like the time thing I’m sure pocket that’s very enjoyable But I don’t know like if I want to play it (0:22:02) Kev: the card game I’ll probably just fire up live and play the actual card game like I don’t know how else to describe it it’s just not call it to me like and you know like you’re saying right pocket well actually I mean live is the same way but I have a lot on my plate already with my dailies and whatnot I can’t afford in there I don’t want another one all right now (0:22:22) Al: I think I’m not gonna I’m not gonna try and convince you to do it but what I would say is that just opening the the game for five minutes to do your cards is super easy and super satisfying especially at the beginning like you get cards really quickly to start with and that in and of itself is fun I think and yeah so (0:22:46) Kev: Might you know, maybe I’ll do it just to see what on earth it’s the it feels like we’ll see but (0:22:54) Al: Yeah, well think about it when you unlock a new variant in in Marvel Snap, that’s really fun (0:23:00) Al: Just imagine doing that but it’s a pack of five every day (0:23:00) Kev: yeah yeah yeah I get that you know like yeah yeah that’s that’s good um we’ll see they might add something later that because you have those immersive cards that is cool I do kind of want to see those you know they’ll part maybe they’ll lean (0:23:04) Al: Or two packs of five every day (0:23:25) Al: Yeah, fun times. Well, that’s what we’ve been up to. We’re going to talk about some news. (0:23:32) Al: It’s a good thing that what we’ve been up to is so long because there’s not a lot of news. But the news that we do have is chunky. So first of all, we have Disney Dreamlight Valley have they had a new, what do they call it? Are they calling it showcase I think about upcoming stuff first of all the (0:23:55) Al: yeah I think I think they’re calling it showcase let me double check what they call it I thought it would be quick and easy to figure out what it was called yes showcase they’re calling it the dreamlight valley showcase so this has two things first of all is the uh free update uh they are continuing to do these free updates uh the new one comes out on the 4th of december and that includes sally from the nightmare before christmas which was very clearly hinted that uh a while ago once we figured out. (0:24:22) Kev: Right. (0:24:25) Al: What we were looking at. (0:24:28) Al: But also they have a new feature of floating islands which allows you to expand your valley. (0:24:33) Al: It says large areas accessible through the fast travel menu once they’ve been unlocked with Dreamlight. So this obviously people have been asking for a way to expand the valley quite for quite a while because it gets quite quite yeah. (0:24:45) Kev: Yeah, that seems inevitable with you know them keep adding more then Disney has a lot to add. So yeah (0:24:52) Al: yeah. (0:24:56) Al: » Yeah, yeah, so they decided to go with their floating islands. (0:25:00) Al: So you can unlock them and then fast travel to them. (0:25:04) Al: And it seems like a fun way to be able to add more space while not just making it feel like the village is like smooshed together. (0:25:15) Al: So these obviously will feel a little bit tacked on in so much as it’s just like, here is this biome, but now in the sky as well. (0:25:23) Al: Um, but, but I. (0:25:25) Al: I feel like it’s hard to, like, shove it into the existing map, so it feels like an acceptable kind of compromise there. (0:25:40) Al: They also announced their new expansion pass called The Storybook Vale, so as expected this is a new purchase, the previous expansion pass is done. (0:25:52) Al: This is a brand new expansion pass of two parts. (0:25:56) Al: The first part comes out on the 20th of November and introduces Merida from Brave, Flynn Rider from Tangled, and Hades from Hercules, obviously. (0:26:09) Kev: And that’s a real eclectic, you know, group. (0:26:10) Al: Yeah, so I’m just going to read some of their own wording for this description because I feel like there’s a lot to not quite, not quite to note. (0:26:28) Al: It’s a bit, I’m going to read. (0:26:32) Al: “Bewist our way to the Vale and embark on an enchanting adventure with a cast of new new characters, including the Lorekeeper, a magical boo- (0:26:40) Al: like holding this fantastical land together. However, a happily ever after is a ways off as you discover the discordance between two iconic Disney villains, Maleficent from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and Hades from Disney’s Hercules, has torn this land apart, causing a mysterious phenomenon across the Vale’s three biomes, The Bind, Ever After and Mythopia. Their conflict has yielded ink seeping out of the very ground and sent the pages of the Lorekeeper near (0:27:11) Al: as enchanted page pieces called snippets. So I think the idea is that it’s a book full of stories that has burst open and you have to go find it to put it back together. And it says you’ll gain the advantage of a new tool, the Royal Net, that will enable you to capture the various snippets that have escaped the Lorekeeper’s pages. So presumably you’re getting story as you collect the page pieces, I’m assuming. (0:27:40) Kev: okay that um huh that this is interesting um yeah and like lore keeper is a very (0:27:48) Kev: maybe not ominous sounding name but uh you know it’s it sounds significant let’s say that right um so i’m curious to see you know what they’re uh how far they’re gonna lean into that what what is the lore keeper gonna look like or who’s it going to be I don’t know um is it gonna be oh it’s a book sorry oh I’m (0:27:53) Al: Hmm. (0:28:06) Al: Well it says it’s a book. A magical book. (0:28:10) Kev: Oh, it’s just a book okay, huh? (0:28:13) Kev: uh (0:28:14) Al: But the pages seem to be, if you have a look on the link, the first link, the pages seem to be like origami creatures? (0:28:23) Kev: Oh, I see all those are actually cute. I like those. Those are nice designs. Oh, that’s cute (0:28:29) Kev: Huh, okay (0:28:30) Al: So you’ve got like a little green, green and yellow bird, and a little blue, well purple and purple fox, I guess? (0:28:33) Kev: Yeah (0:28:38) Kev: Yeah, fox dragon thing, I don’t know it’s a (0:28:39) Al: Something like that? (0:28:41) Kev: I Like looks like a dragon, you know, you don’t see the mouth like then it’s thick and I don’t know It’s looks dragon eat him. It’s you know, it’s the color and the it could it kind of looks (0:28:42) Al: Dragon? What? (0:28:53) Kev: Scales the texture of the page. That’s what it is. I see it now Um (0:28:56) Al: I see what you mean about this, yeah. And there’s a little kind of purple frog with a flower growing out the top of it. (0:29:03) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I see that. Okay. See I didn’t look at these pictures at all. But yeah when you said snippets I thought it was like actually just pages. Okay, that’s much more interesting. Okay, that’s cute. I like that that. Um, huh. (0:29:15) Al: so yeah I guess we’ll see this that’s most of the information we have they’ve announced that the part two of this expansion pass will come out in summer 2025 and that’s the one that will introduce (0:29:27) Al: Maleficent and they’ve also announced their upcoming free content roadmap in early 2025 right this is where we try and figure out what these are is that what’s the what’s the the one the princess and the frog oh no no no no I tell you what it is (0:29:42) Kev: No, that’s Aladdin. That’s Aladdin’s hat and Jasmine. (0:29:45) Al: that’s I was just about to say that’s Aladdin and what’s her name isn’t it (0:29:49) Al: um Jasmine yeah yeah I just I thought it looked like um the princess and the frogs Tiana is that her name I had that in my head but I didn’t want to say it uh I thought that looked like her tiara but no you’re right that’s the wrong color of green and different shape yeah you’re right it’s I saw the fez I saw the fez and was like wait no that’s Aladdin isn’t it (0:29:50) Kev: Tiana. (0:30:05) Kev: no that’s it says explore a new world so that that’s what the yeah yeah yeah yep yep who could that be yeah (0:30:14) Al: So Ali2025. (0:30:15) Al: Explore a new world and revel on a magical adventure. Obviously Aladdin. Spring 2025 we’ve got the Cheshire Cat in his in a ghosty form. Step into a land of wonder and meet new friends along the way. Yeah that’s the most obvious one right? And summer 2025. Solve an ancient mystery and discover who’s waiting inside Skull Rock. And we have an orange feather and wait oh is that the shadow of (0:30:42) Kev: Uh, let’s… (0:30:45) Al: Is that gargoyle? (0:30:46) Kev: Oh, it looks like a winged creature of some sort. (0:30:50) Kev: I’m very confused. Isn’t Skull Rock supposed to be like, Peter Pan? (0:30:53) Al: Yeah, but they mix these things up quite a lot. (0:30:55) Kev: Yeah… I-I don’t- I’m… (0:30:57) Al: Like the Cheshire Cat isn’t in a forest, for example, you know, like, so yeah, they like to mix these things up. (0:31:00) Kev: Sure. (0:31:03) Kev: Wha- I mean- (0:31:04) Kev: Uh… huh. (0:31:07) Kev: Oh, solvent- it’s an ancient mystery! (0:31:12) Kev: It has orange feather, I-I don’t have to- (0:31:15) Kev: Uh, I’m at a loss here, some sort of… (0:31:17) Kev: …winged creature? I have no idea, I’m at a lost home. (0:31:20) Al: go have a look on the disney dreamlight valley reddit because that’s where I found the sally (0:31:24) Kev: What are- what are the conspiracy theorists saying? (0:31:27) Kev: Heh heh! (0:31:28) Kev: You know, I- just- just as an aside, when are they gonna bring in Cherubog? (0:31:31) Kev: When are you gonna help Cherubog out? (0:31:33) Kev: Heh heh heh heh! (0:31:34) Al: You’re gonna have to tell me what that is, I don’t know. (0:31:36) Kev: Oh, you don’t know Cherubog? (0:31:38) Kev: Okay, do you know Fantasia? (0:31:39) Al: No? Uh, yes. (0:31:41) Kev: OK, Cherubov– (0:31:42) Kev: –is the big winged demon guy in that segment. (0:31:46) Kev: You know, like, I think it’s the final segment, yeah. (0:31:48) Kev: He’s the– one of the spookiest guys. (0:31:52) Kev: He’s basically just like a demon guy. (0:31:56) Al: Fair enough (0:31:58) Al: Right. I’m just scrolling through. I’m not I can’t find anything about (0:32:03) Al: I’ve obviously come to the Reddit too late to see people to see the (0:32:08) Kev: I’ll be doing detective work in the background if you want. (0:32:09) Al: The (0:32:15) Al: Give me give me one minute before I give up. Yeah, there are too many people on this subreddit (0:32:22) Kev: Ancient mystery. (0:32:24) Kev: What are– it’s not going to be dinosaur. (0:32:26) Kev: It’s not going to be 20-whatever, 2,000-whatever dinosaur. (0:32:30) Kev: It’s not Aladon. (0:32:30) Al: No, no. (0:32:33) Al: So what I’m thinking, and I have no idea about the feather, but the shadow looks like a winged gargoyle, I think. (0:32:40) Al: And so I wonder if it could be something to do with Quasimodo. (0:32:44) Kev: Guessing or ah (0:32:45) Al: But I don’t know. (0:32:46) Al: That is just a wild guess. (0:32:47) Kev: Here’s the twist it’s live-action (0:32:49) Kev: Maleficent oh (0:32:51) Kev: You know I don’t know I’m not comfortable with how well that would work out actually (0:32:57) Kev: Yeah, because she has the wings in the movies, and I don’t know if you saw the second one But she’s basically becomes a Phoenix, so there’s your orange bed. Oh, no. It’s it’s Angelina Jolie (0:33:14) Al: yeah none of them have well actually does captain hook have a feather in his cap (0:33:18) Kev: He does, yeah no it’s a huge feather, yeah no this is like a little bird feather. (0:33:20) Al: could it be that then no it’s the wrong kind of feather it’s not big enough yeah (0:33:26) Al: I thought that before I actually have my aphantasia means I can’t see in my head (0:33:27) Kev: OH! (0:33:28) Kev: There it is, Peter Pan has an orange feather in his hat, it’s Peter, yeah he does, I just (0:33:32) Al: oh does he (0:33:36) Al: so he does people are probably screaming that at us uh all right cool so what’s the the winged creature then. (0:33:44) Kev: It might just be us looking at it and just multiple shadows next to each other maybe. (0:33:44) Al: Could it be no could it could it be Tinkerbell doing a silly thing like she loved she liked to make weird shadows didn’t she at one point. (0:34:06) Kev: But it’s definitely okay. So yeah, it’s peter pan. I was right the first time cuz gold rock is from pipe (0:34:12) Al: - Yeah, okay, I just like, just because that’s. (0:34:14) Al: The trauma originally doesn’t mean it would be the case still, but anyway. (0:34:19) Al: The final thing to talk about with Disney’s Dreamland Valley is they’ve also announced new editions and early adopter bonuses. (0:34:27) Al: Because they don’t have enough versions of this game, so you still have the base, you can just buy the base game. (0:34:37) Al: That is still a thing you can do. You can buy the enchanted edition which already I think existed and that gives you (0:34:45) Al: both A Rift in Time, the first expansion, and the Storybook Vale, so presumably. (0:34:51) Al: If they do other expansions, that will also give you that. (0:34:54) Al: You can also buy individually just A Rift in Time or just the Storybook Vale. (0:35:00) Al: Obviously you have to have the base game for them. (0:35:03) Al: You can now also buy the Storybook Vale bundle, which is just the base game and the Storybook Vale, but not A Rift in Time. (0:35:07) Kev: Heh! (0:35:11) Kev: Oh my goodness! (0:35:16) Al: Or you can buy, if you already have the base game, you can buy the Storybook Vale Magical Edition, (0:35:23) Al: which gives you the new expansion and basically the pre-order bonuses. (0:35:31) Al: It calls it early adopter bonuses, but it’s basically a pre-order bonus, right? (0:35:34) Al: It’s like, because you got it early, I presume that will only be available for a limited period of time. (0:35:39) Al: You get those if you also bought the Enchanted Edition, you get the early adopter bonuses. (0:35:44) Al: They also have bonuses as well, which are an Autumn Manor house style, a dress and ensemble, (0:35:52) Al: a baby pegasus companion and a Greek Hercules inspired house for baby pegasus, I presume that is. (0:36:05) Al: And more moonstones. (0:36:10) Kev: it was great until I scrolled down to this they are oh just confusing me just overwhelmingly (0:36:18) Kev: with um it’s a it’s a bold strategy a masterful gambit i’ll tell them that make money (0:36:24) Al: It’s wild, the number of different ways you can give them money. (0:36:32) Kev: Heh heh heh. (0:36:34) Al: I have to say though, the enchanted edition is looking a better and better deal as they add more stuff because that is $80 and the base game is $40 and then each expansion is $30 so if you were to buy them all individually, if you were to buy them all, yeah yeah. (0:36:48) Kev: Geez Louise, it’s… (0:36:54) Al: If you were to buy them all individually that would be $100 so you’re getting $20 off but you also get 18,000 moonstones and a bunch of pre-order stuff and presumably if they do any more expansions you’ll get them as well because I don’t think they’re going to stop. (0:37:12) Kev: Yeah no of course not. (0:37:15) Kev: We don’t have Pixar in here yet right no yeah we do what am I doing crazy yes we have Wally. (0:37:18) Al: yeah yeah yeah yeah and brave because merida’s merida’s there now (0:37:20) Kev: We don’t have a lot of Pixar though. (0:37:24) Kev: Oh yeah yeah I’m just thinking when do we get the radiator Springs when you get the cars universe. (0:37:26) Al: um there’s there’s a bunch of stuff I think (0:37:33) Al: let’s have a look at the characters list and see who’s in there (0:37:36) Kev: You know just as an aside like every time they add. (0:37:42) Kev: the Nightmare Before Christmas like of course they do because it’s double holiday themed it’s so obvious but it Nightmare Before Christmas always feels like the red-headed stepchild of Disney because you know it’s it’s him Burton and it’s uh not a you know 2d or 3d animated or whatever I did so like they don’t they don’t really touch it aside from marketing or just selling things but you know I’ve never gotten a sequel a spin-off or whatever (0:37:54) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah agreed (0:38:12) Kev: I always find it fascinating how the kind of dance around (0:38:19) Al: Yeah, yeah it’s quite funny. So as you said you’ve got Wally and Eve, you have Remy from Ratatouille. (0:38:29) Al: Anything else we’ve got? Frozen’s just Disney isn’t it, it’s not Pixar. (0:38:36) Kev: Yeah, it’s just Disney. (0:38:37) Al: Toy Story, Buzz and Woody are in it. They are. And Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc as well. (0:38:40) Kev: Oh, are they in it? I couldn’t remember. Oh, okay. Cool. (0:38:43) Kev: Alright, Buzz and Woody in it. We’re good, ‘cause they’re, you know, books. (0:38:47) Kev: Oh, they’re in it. Gosh, I have not been paying attention, clearly. (0:38:49) Al: So it’s a pretty decent number of Pixar stuff. (0:38:50) Kev: You know… (0:38:51) Kev: Alright, yeah, no, those are heavy hitters. Yeah, that’s fine. (0:38:56) Kev: Um… (0:38:58) Kev: You know what? Here’s the real question, right? Like, this is… (0:39:01) Kev: This is a very, um… (0:39:04) Kev: substantial amount of Disney. (0:39:06) Kev: When do we get to the stinkers? (0:39:10) Kev: When are they going to put in Home on the Range and Chicken Little and Bolt? (0:39:18) Kev: When are we going to get those? (0:39:20) Al: they have a lot of characters to go through before they get there (0:39:22) Kev: I know, but I want to see them do it. (0:39:25) Al: because like as we just as we just mentioned they’ve still got like a majority of the Pixar films even right [laughing] (0:39:30) Kev: Oh, I know, but they’re cowards. (0:39:34) Kev: I wanna see them do it, I wanna see them lean (0:39:36) Kev: into it. They won’t, but… (0:39:38) Al: I don’t know, maybe sometime, but I suspect they’ll just stop the game by the time they get to that point, right? (0:39:46) Al: Alrighty, the next is Stardew Valley So, the never ending game is continuing to be never ending First of all… (0:39:55) Kev: as announced this week by ConcernedApe. (0:40:00) Al: Yeah well, we’ll get to that, that’s on my list to talk about start off with 1.6 is out on console on mobile so if you’ve been waiting for the (0:40:08) Al: switch version which let’s be honest if you were waiting it was probably for the switch version I guess maybe there are some people who play on mobile and are listening but I suspect most of you are waiting for the switch version it’s out now go get it but they’ve also with that added a 1.6.9 patch which has been added to steam and was on all the console and mobile versions as well it doesn’t it does have a bunch of fixes but it also has some features balance changes and (0:40:39) Al: quality of life improvements so first of all there is a lost unique item shop so if you manage to lose one of the items that are just like a special one-off thing you can go and buy it back from the shop in the secret (0:40:58) Al: Next we have you can finally put legendary fish in the ponds and get roe from them. (0:41:02) Kev: Finally! (0:41:04) Al: Finally, you’re limited to one fish per pond, but there you go, if you wanted to do that. (0:41:12) Al: A huge improvement, you can now put beds and sleep in those beds inside any constructed building that allows you to put furniture in. (0:41:22) Kev: Alright, alright, alright (0:41:22) Al: So, go sleep in your shed. (0:41:26) Kev: Finally dreams now that you get in a fight with your spouse you can us (0:41:28) Al: And the real feature though is the items dropped into water will float in the water for a short period of time so that you can pick them up. (0:41:44) Al: The number of times I have like cut a tree down in the wrong direction and lost half the wood because it just goes into the water. (0:41:52) Al: Whereas now it’s just going to suck back up. Love it. (0:41:54) Kev: All right, all right and dig it (0:41:58) Al: There’s a lot of other small things which I don’t think we need to go into. (0:42:04) Al: But I will link the changelog in the show notes if you want to go and have a look. (0:42:10) Al: So, yeah, I just read one which is Clint now refills your watering can when upgrading it, which is such a weirdly tiny feature to give. (0:42:12) Kev: Those are I like those those are all thoughtful (0:42:24) Al: Um, but yeah, that’s funny. (0:42:26) Kev: I said thoughtful (0:42:28) Al: Yeah, but this is the thing, it doesn’t really fit with Clint, right? (0:42:32) Al: Like, why would Clint do that? (0:42:32) Kev: Well, oh, you know what you’re right you’re right (0:42:34) Al: Don’t make me like him. (0:42:36) Kev: Okay, no, no. No, he does that but if you pursue Emily he stops doing it [Laughter] (0:42:42) Al: And as Kevin hinted at, we got another interview from Concerned Ape and this is in Nintendo Life. (0:42:56) Al: He says that he basically just can’t stop working on it. He says “I feel like I could work on it for the rest of my life. I don’t want to see it fizzle out.” So confirmation, as we expected, (0:43:07) Al: that we’re probably going to get Stardew Valley updates until he dies. (0:43:12) Kev: Okay, I’m… I don’t… I have thoughts on this because, like, this really feels like, uh, how should I put this, almost concerning, um, just like, obviously, it makes a lot of sense, just from a pragmatic standpoint, right, because he’s making money off of it, and he’s done all the work on it, um, so, you know, I get it in that sense, (0:43:43) Kev: but, like, clearly, I’m projecting here a little, like, how much of this is also just him, um, you know, not able to get away from it, sort of a prison of his own mind, if you will, um… (0:43:57) Al: I do think that’s a lot of it, so he says the exact wording is “I have so many ideas for Stardew, I feel like I could work on it for the rest of my life and just keep improving it, adding more stuff to it, more content, fleshing out the existing content”. (0:44:10) Al: That’s the main thing I want to do is flesh out the existing content. (0:44:13) Al: So like I don’t, I wouldn’t feel bad for him. (0:44:19) Al: Like in a way I think it is kind of his brain not letting him let it go but also he will probably never make some (0:44:24) Kev: - Right. (0:44:24) Kev: you Bye. (0:44:27) Al: If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to send them to me in the comments below. (0:44:38) Kev: Sure, oh, yeah, of course not. Yeah. No, it’s impossible possible. (0:44:42) Al: And he just like I don’t I think it’s I totally understand when you do something that millions of people enjoy and you’re a good person and you want to give people stuff right like he’s not (0:44:57) Al: he’s not doing this he’s not doing like obviously he’s going to still continue to sell it when he makes updates but realistically he’s not making the money he could be making on that but he knows that he’s made enough money and therefore could continue to do this for the rest of his life and not worry about the money like that must feel really freeing in a way (0:45:18) Kev: Sure there is a gosh I guess you’re right right like I guess as long as he happy it’s fine right the one that really concerns me the quote or the is how he says. (0:45:35) Kev: He doesn’t want to see it fizzle out right like cause that’s that’s that no longer feels like he wants to just keep keep keep it growing he’s just worried. (0:45:48) Kev: He’s not worried about the impermanence or what like whatever it like he wants it to stay relevant that part feels a little concerning. (0:45:57) Al: I mean, we’re reading into this now, but I don’t think he means as in I want to keep selling forever. (0:45:57) Kev: Yeah. (0:46:04) Al: I think it’s more just like it’s just something that he loves so much that he wants to keep it new and fresh all the time. (0:46:12) Kev: I guess like I again like it’s a we’re reading into it this is a lot of deep psychological stuff under the surface like when I hear someone say that I think like they’re just worried about. (0:46:29) Kev: Because I think this would be fair to call it his master work right like his masterpiece you know just you know wanting to that to matter like I can see some people caring about. (0:46:42) Kev: That yeah I don’t know it’s it’s a lot to unpack like I guess the important thing is as long as he’s genuinely happy right like if he’s not doing this out of some sort of stress like. (0:46:54) Kev: That he’s it’s not going to be relevant anymore that’s that’s the main thing but but at the very least he’ll be making money out of it. (0:47:07) Al: yeah yeah exactly um but I mean I think when he announced that 1.5 would be the last update I was like no way will this be the last update and then he announced 1.6 with the last update and I was like I don’t think so uh so you know I i you know I think will we in 10 years still be getting updates maybe not are we gonna get a 1.7 I suspect we’ll get a 1.7 um and remember The one the 1.6 update was meant to be a smaller (0:47:17) Kev: Haha, yep, very true very true (0:47:33) Kev: You know what? (0:47:38) Al: It was not a small update. (0:47:41) Kev: Oh gosh, you know what? There’s also… (0:47:45) Kev: Looking at it from the other side, like, I’m not saying fans are (0:47:49) Kev: Asking for more from from Stardew or from Concerned Ape, but they’re always willing to consume more, right? Like, (0:47:58) Kev: There’s something in this day and in the modern day and age about just the never-ending (0:48:03) Kev: Quote-unquote franchise or game or whatever right like in 10 years. We’re gonna have new Pokemon coming out. I promise you that [laughing] (0:48:12) Al: However, I think there is a huge difference. (0:48:15) Al: I suspect you’ll agree with me on this. (0:48:18) Al: I think there’s a huge difference between that and this though, because the franchise of Pokemon or the franchise of Marvel, yes, there are people in there that they love what it is and they want to create more just for the sake of making more, but the franchise exists because it makes money. (0:48:34) Al: And I still strongly don’t think that he makes updates to make money. (0:48:40) Al: makes updates because he has (0:48:42) Al: these ideas and he can’t get them out of his head and he just wants to put them in the game. (0:48:46) Kev: Yeah, okay, you know what that’s fair. Yeah, I’ll agree with that. Yeah (0:48:53) Al: and I don’t think stardew could keep going could keep being the center of conversation year after year if the updates weren’t good like if he released a bad update people would like sure they would keep playing the game and they’d try the new update but I don’t think we would have got as much talk about 1.6 as we did this year it would not have been as big a conversation (0:49:16) Kev: Yeah, you know what? You’re right about that. I can’t argue it at all. (0:49:22) Al: All right well our last piece of news is a new game that has just come out apparently was a month ago I thought it was last week but no it’s a month ago that was updated last week that’s why I thought it was new but this is a game called web fishing sorry it’s in all caps web fishing a multiplayer chat room focused fishing game relax and fish on the web. (0:49:40) Kev: That’s good, I like it. (0:49:49) Kev: What that’s okay, that’s quite a pitch (0:49:53) Kev: multi the multiplayer is what what throws me off here like (0:49:57) Kev: Just hanging out and fish (0:50:00) Al: “Web fishing is a multiplayer online casual fishing game where you relax, hang out, make friends, and catch fish.” (0:50:07) Al: “Nearly a hundred different creatures to catch.” (0:50:09) Al: “Become the ultimate fisherman. Upgrade your gear with new baits, lures.” (0:50:13) Al: So there’s obviously a good amount of customization. (0:50:15) Al: It looks very… the character models look very Animal Crossing-esque. (0:50:20) Kev: Yup, yup. I see what you mean here. (0:50:22) Al: For some reason there’s a guitar minigame. (0:50:25) Kev: Classic fishing. (0:50:27) Al: This looks interesting. (0:50:30) Al: It’s pretty cheap. It’s like four quid, I presume. Is it five dollars? (0:50:34) Kev: Yeah that’s what an interesting idea like who comes up with this that’s what I want to think of but but they are so Animal Crossing just looking at it now like it’s the shape. (0:50:57) Kev: Oh yeah it is yeah five USD yeah you’re right. (0:50:59) Al: It’s a very low poly (0:51:02) Kev: Like think I’d say Wild World maybe on the DS level of animal crossing. (0:51:09) Kev: That’s how many polygons you can see on that head. (0:51:10) Al: it kind of yeah it kind of reminds me of someone drawing in paint and posting on tumblr (0:51:18) Kev: You know what? It does have a very Tumblr vibe to it, I will say that, absolutely. (0:51:22) Al: do you not think (0:51:29) Kev: One sec. Sorry, one sec, Al. My thing’s dying, hold on. (0:51:33) Kev: Okay, there we are. Um, okay, look, as, you know, as connoisseurs of, uh, fishing games, (0:51:41) Kev: um, I do, like, is it just, it’s probably just gonna be Animal Crossing style fishing, isn’t it? (0:51:47) Kev: it would be nice if they put… (0:51:48) Kev: a little effort into the fishing game. (0:51:50) Kev: Um, but uh, we’ll see. For five bucks, it might be worth it, I guess? (0:51:56) Kev: I don’t know, like, um… (0:51:58) Kev: Is this just a game that’s just the fishing part of Animal Crossing? (0:52:02) Kev: Maybe? (0:52:04) Kev: Is that enough? (0:52:05) Al: Bought multiplayer. (0:52:06) Kev: Oh god, I already, there’s an Among Us in the trailer, oh my goodness. (0:52:12) Kev: Um, oh, uh… (0:52:15) Kev: Multiplayer chatting, I don’t know, okay. (0:52:19) Kev: This really feels like somebody said, “Man, I have so much fun fishing with my friends in Animal Crossing.” (0:52:25) Kev: I’m just gonna make a whole game about that, which is okay, okay. (0:52:28) Al: Yeah (0:52:29) Kev: You know, Sonic Frontiers has great fi- (0:52:32) Al: Moving on so that’s all the news (0:52:35) Al: We’re gonna talk about (0:52:37) Al: Living room, so I’ll pitch this game. I’ll explain to you what it is

Kole, Ben, Dennis, and Moxie talk about Diablo IV: Vessel of Hated, TCG Card Shop Simulator, RoboCop: Rogue City, and much more! The Grind: Ben: RoboCop: Rogue City. Beat Saber. Half-Life: Alyx. TCG Card Shop Simulator. Moxie: Castlevania: Dominus Collection. Cult of the Lamb. Dennis: Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred. Inscryption. Kole: Silent Hill 2 Remake. The Multiplayer: What's the most you've been spooked by a non-horror game? The End Boss: New Pokemon leak contains bawdy folk tales. Teen “completes” the NES Tetris port. Some maniacs did Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto Online. Disco Elysium team splits into feuding spiritual successor studios.

Bryan is checking out Towerborne in early access, Alex finished up Astro Bot, is checking out UFO 50, and bought a Quest 2 to play Beat Saber, and Sony had a State of Play with lots of new announcements!What We've Been Playing:(0:02:40) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PC, PS4/5, XBO/X/S) (0:04:06) Wooting 60HE+ Keyboard(0:12:28) Towerborne (PC)(0:16:10) Astro Bot (PS5)(0:18:30) UFO 50 (PC)(0:20:24) Oculus Quest 2/BeatSaber(0:25:0) Destiny 2? (PC, PS4/5, XBO/X/S)News:(0:34:09) All of Annapurna Interactive has resigned (But their existing publisher deals will be fulfilled)(0:37:26) Nintendo is suing Palworld developer Pocketpair just as Palworld is released on PS5(0:41:59) Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed to February 14th, 2025(0:44:34) Sony's September 2024 State of PlaySupport us on Patreon for as little as $1/month to get early access to our sidequests and Horror Movie Yearbook Tiny Terrors!https://www.patreon.com/midwestpodnetIf you want to follow us on social media or see all of the places you can listen to our show, check out midwestgamenerds.com/links!As always we would appreciate your feedback at midwestgamenerds@gmail.com and don't forget to rate and review us on your favorite podcatcher! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quanetin Valenbois is an XR Developer, Teacher, Content Creator and CEO at Valem Studio. He has been working professionally in VR since 2017 he soon realized there was a lack of quality content developers people could rely on. This is why he decided to create not one but two channels to inspire and educate developers to get started and master XR development… until AI came. That's the moment he decided to answer a question many devs are asking right now: Can AI take over my job? Today we will learn: Surprising ways in which AI was capable of correcting its own mistake What kind of knowledge do you need to follow AI's instructions  Why, Despite the tremendous similarity of the final product with game, it is better for you as a developer to learn as a human *** Subscribe to XR AI Spotlight weekly newsletter

We would love to hear from you! Send us a Text Message! This week's special guest - Katrin Auch, a Supernatural choreographer who turned her passion for dance and gaming into a career. From her early experiences with the Oculus Rift and Beat Saber to becoming a crucial part of the Supernatural team, Kat shares her remarkable journey. Kat shares her remarkable process behind choreographing workouts, her passion for music and the Star Wars fandom, and her collaborative efforts helping make Supernatural a unique VR experience. From choreographing fluctuating tempos to creating a droid drummer for a Star Wars-themed band, Kat's journey is filled with creativity and community. Tune in for a blend of music, personal stories, and workout tips that showcase the intersection of creativity, technology, and physicality in Supernatural.Visit the website at: https://fortheloveofthemap.buzzsprout.comFacebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1153000382332695/Want to be a Guest? https://forms.gle/9ATRyjTix9L1mzDi6The Kyberpunks on Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/artist/605UT6XKNETVzzzRupagyM?si=w2fCeHCNTnSXwsY4yqCTVA 

Kole, Ben, Dennis, and Jala talk about Tactical Breach Wizards, Scarlet Deer Inn, announcements from this week's Nintendo Direct, and much more! The Grind: Jala: Decarnation. Baldur's Gate III. Scarlet Deer Inn. Dice Games. Kole: Tactical Breach Wizards. Conscript. Dennis: Beat Saber. iRacing. Ben: Above and Below. Beat Saber. Talos Principle 2. The Multiplayer: What game needs its own big doofy peripheral? The End Boss: Concord launches, flops. Balatro is getting crossover game content. Capcom Fighting Collection 2 contains one of Jala's favorite games. Castlevania Dominus Collection collects the three amazing DS Castlevania games. Tetris Forever will tell the Tetris story in interactive form.

We would love to hear from you! Send us a Text Message! Explore the captivating world of VR mapping with Benny White, also known as "Benny Da Beast," as he recounts his incredible odyssey from Beat Saber mapping to becoming the lead choreographer for Supernatural. Benny's love for dance and pioneering workouts will mesmerize anyone seeking to grasp the enchantment behind Supernatural's immersive workout experiences. Visit the website at: https://fortheloveofthemap.buzzsprout.comFacebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1153000382332695/Want to be a Guest? https://forms.gle/9ATRyjTix9L1mzDi6

Uspěl ve skládání hudby, vytvořil neúspěšnější VR hru světa Beat Saber, kterou následně koupila Meta. Je tak asi jediný Čech, se kterým Zuckerberg osobně jednal. Teď se může věnovat, čemu chce. A to je odnaučit svět pít přeslazené nápoje, proto založil CANS.   Po delší době se nám podařil pozitivní díl, že z Česka vzniká světový byznys. Přidávám pár zajímavých citací z dílu. Co zaujalo vás?  ·      „Lidi dnes nemůžou říct, tomu nerozumím. Máme internet, všechno se dá zjistit a naučit.“  ·      „V určitý moment peníze přestanou být motivace a stane se z toho zodpovědnost. Když máš dostatek kapitálu, tak je tvoje povinnost měnit svět.“  ·      „Dovedu si představit risknout kvůli byznysu všechny úspory.“ ·      „Jsou lidi, kterým paradoxně vyhovoval socialismus. Mít nalajnovaný život. Dnes je strašně možností, rozhodnout se může být pro někoho těžké.“ Partnerem podcastu je advokátní kancelář ROWAN LEGAL. Sledujte nás:

In this episode of the "Giant Robots On Tour" podcast, hosts Sami Birnbaum and Rémy Hannequin interview Dan Clark, the Founder and CEO of MindJam, an innovative platform providing emotional and SEN (Special Educational Needs) support for young people through gaming, game design, and digital skills. Sami shares a personal story about how his mother, an educational psychologist, introduced him to MindJam, highlighting its impact and relevance. Dan explains that MindJam was born out of the need to support young people who feel out of place in traditional educational settings, particularly those with ADHD, autism, and other neurodivergent conditions. By leveraging popular games like Minecraft, MindJam builds trust and engages young people in a medium they enjoy, transforming therapeutic support into a more effective and engaging process. Dan discusses the inception and growth of MindJam, which started during the pandemic when traditional in-person support became impossible. This shift to online sessions via gaming platforms provided a new avenue to connect with young people, enabling them to open up and build trust in a familiar and enjoyable environment. Dan emphasizes that gaming offers numerous benefits, such as enhancing cognitive abilities, fostering social connections, and providing a safe space for expression. Despite the negative stigma around gaming, he points out that it can be a powerful tool for personal development and emotional support. MindJam has grown significantly, now with 110 mentors supporting over 2,000 young people globally, showcasing the scalability and effectiveness of this approach. The conversation also touches on the broader implications and challenges of integrating gaming into therapeutic and educational contexts. Dan highlights the need for societal perception shifts to recognize the positive aspects of gaming, counteracting the negative media portrayal. He underscores the importance of educating parents, educators, and social services about the benefits of gaming and how it can be used constructively. Dan shares inspiring success stories from MindJam, illustrating how gaming can lead to real-world achievements and personal growth. MindJam (https://mindjam.org.uk/) Follw MindJam on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MindJamOfficial), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindjam/), or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mindjamofficial/). Follow Dan Clark on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-clark-58533220b/). Follow thoughtbot on X (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Transcript:  SAMI: Right, we are back again. And this is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots podcast, the Giant Robots on Tour series coming to you from Europe, West Asia, and Africa, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host Sami Birnbaum. RÉMY: And I'm your other host, Rémy Hannequin. SAMI: Let's get into it, Rémy. Joining us today is Dan Clark, the Founder and CEO of MindJam, a platform that provides online one-to-one sessions, providing emotional and SEN support for young people through gaming, game design, and digital skills. Dan, full disclosure on this one: so, about a month ago, right? I get an email from my mom. Now [laughs], this email says, "You've got to check this guy out. Go and take a look at MindJam." And I'm thinking, mom, I don't get these emails from you. This is not the normal sort of thing I'd get from my mom on your average weekday. And I know in the past, like, I've told her that I'm kind of doing this podcast thing, and I'm starting to regret, like, telling her this. Like, what is she throwing my way? But I get into some research...and maybe for some context, actually, which is helpful because my mom isn't just doing research for the podcast, my mom's an educational psychologist. So, she's been doing that ever since I can remember. I remember growing up as a kid, and that was, I mean, she assessed me numerous times. And she works, I guess, similar kind of to the children or people that you're working with, people with ADHD, autism, neurodivergent children, just often who are struggling in school and trying to find where they fit. And I start doing my research. I look into it, hit the website, hit your LinkedIn. And I'll be, like, totally honest with you: We were both just blown away by what you are doing. And this is coming not only from me, and I work in the tech industry, and I've got a history of slight gaming addictions, which we might touch on, but also coming from my mom who works on the other side and works with all the local authorities. She does the kind of tribunals that they have to do to try and get people into the right schools and kids into the right schools. And, literally, we were blown away, and I nearly got lost as well on your website. I found some kind of gaming streams that you do, and I feel almost like we missed a trick here, Rémy, because we could have done this podcast on Minecraft. It's such a nice flow, right, when you're streaming. DAN: Yeah, it makes it easier when you've got that distraction there as well. You can just chat about it. Thank you so much for inviting me on. It's a pleasure being here and, yeah, I'm glad you kind of understand what we're doing here. MindJam itself is four years old now. But I was doing things before in the pandemic, similar. But once the pandemic hit, that was the key moment where everything went online for my support with young people. And, suddenly, the light bulb came on, and I was like, this is a way in. You know, there are so many young people that are struggling, lost, feel they're stupid, and don't fit in. Yet, actually, they're amazing. But, you know, a standard way of sitting in front of them going, "Tell me why you can't go to school. Why can't you do this?" you know, it doesn't work. They don't trust that person. They've got trauma. They've been, you know, battered down by education and by health services. And so, to suddenly have someone who comes in and goes, "Oh, so you love Minecraft. Oh, I love Minecraft, too. Let's join in. Let's go in a world." And then, you can build that trust to then go, "How's your week been then?" Or, you know, and start talking, and you're just on the same wavelength. And, for me, it was something as soon as I sort of realized, it was like, this is...of course, this makes perfect sense. And then, I looked and saw nobody else is doing it [laughs]. So, I started off MindJam just on my own. At first, very quickly, we got working with lots of...in the UK, we have local authorities, which is the councils around, so seeing there is a real, you know, thing that they would work with us. So, that was great, to be recognized as actually a real service, rather than just someone playing games with kids. It's like, no, this is real. This really works. And then, it quickly got bigger than me, and now we are at 110 mentors working for us, and we're supporting over 2,000 young people all over the world. SAMI: That's incredible. DAN: It's a mission of mine, you know, we'll go more into my sort of history, but I've got two neurodivergent children: both autistic, one's ADHD as well. When you see something that you think is going to work for your child, to then suddenly see it's got, like, a two-year waiting list, which most have, it's heartbreaking, and you know it's going to be too late. So, it's always been my mission with MindJam to keep that waiting list as small as I can, but also, obviously, expanding with quality mentors and all that. So, you know, we generally tend to always say about three months before we can sort of get that support for young people. But yeah, it's something very close to my heart that I'm so passionate about and, yeah, it's been a great journey so far. SAMI: You can tell. It's so interesting because, like you say, when you find something that works for your kids. Because when I was younger, I struggled with separation anxiety a lot in school. So, I would have days when I would really struggle to go to school. During my high school period, I went to the Royal Free, which is down in Hampstead, so not too far from where I grew up and not too far from my school. And my parents...I tried to engage with a therapist. But it's almost like, I don't know if I wasn't cognitively or intellectually developed enough to engage in that way, but it didn't work. Ultimately, I did kind of one or two sessions. I remember filling in some questionnaire and thinking, like, I don't get this. This doesn't make sense. And what you're talking about, if I understand correctly, is you're coming to where the child is at. You're coming to a safe space for them, a place where they feel comfortable. It's almost like a world which is predictable. Whereas the outside world is very scary, right? Especially for people who have generalized anxiety disorder, like I said, autism. It's very challenging. And so, you come to their level, and you say, "Right, let's find a place where we all feel comfortable." And then, we can start to engage. And you say, like, you know, the pandemic was a little bit of a light bulb moment. What's been the biggest barrier then? So, you've found yourself kind of going into this and saying, right, this is something which works. It works for my kids. I want to make this available, accessible. What's been your biggest barrier to getting this off the ground and getting it working? DAN: It's the negative thoughts and the way the media portrays and education portrays gaming, basically. That has been the hardest thing is most parents are on board, but they still feel a little bit ashamed of how social media is on gaming and screen time. And they're very worried that they're not doing the right thing. And we come in a way of also educating. We educate the educators. We do training plans for schools, and for social services, and all sorts because there are so many benefits to gaming that aren't recognized. And, you know, gaming is still generally quite new. It's evolved so much in the last even 10 years. It's insane the way the characters have evolved. And the emotional nature of games now is really complex and, you know, young people and older people can get so much from them. But gaming still, in general, people are still like, "Well, get off that. Do something actually worthwhile." It's like, it's so worthwhile. There's so much, you know, strategy game you've got so much from it. And a fast-paced shooting you've got cognitive abilities. The perfect example I've got is, did you hear a couple of months ago a young lad, I think he was 13, he beat Tetris. SAMI: Yes. DAN: He completed Tetris, which is incredible, you know, it's like, oh, wow. And the first thing the newsreader said to them, the media person interviewing him went, "You should get out more." That's the way she portrayed it, rather than going, "What an achievement it is. You should get outside more." I'm literally like, what? What's going on? You know, again, this kid, you know, he's in the Guinness World of Records. What an achievement. He's famous around the world for doing it. It's like, why is that not seen as such a good thing? You know, so yeah, so that was the hard thing was especially schools, you know, they're very frightened of gaming and of change. And so, trying to help them see that, actually, if you meet a young person where they're at in something they love, then you can help inspire them and help find out why they can't deal with the things, why they can't engage with school, and also inspire them for future learning careers. Even healthy gaming comes from having that understanding of how they're gaming. So, if someone's sat up all night gaming, yeah, we all know it's not great for them. But if you just say, "Gaming's evil. Get off it. You're wasting your time. I'm turning that off," they're going to want to rebel against that. Yet if you come in and go, "Oh, wow, I can see why you were sat up all night doing that. But have you noticed that you're not as good at playing when you're really tired or really hungry?" And if you look at the top e-sports players, they're athletes. They exercise; they eat well; they sleep well. So, you know, if you embrace gaming a bit more, you can get that trust and that bond to then help inspire in other ways. RÉMY: I mean, I could talk about it for a long time. It's really refreshing to hear someone talk about video games in such a positive way and talking about the benefits. And you even mentioned strong players like athletes. It's really refreshing. And I'm wondering, how did this knowledge come up to you in the first place? So, I bet you might be someone enjoying playing games yourself. But how did you see all these benefits yourself? Because, unfortunately, it's not something we talk a lot about. As you mentioned, in the press, we hear about all the negativity. Every time there is a strong event, we blame video games, all that. And we forgot all the stories where the video games enhance people, if they have trouble or not. It can be very beneficial to a lot of people. So, how did you see this value yourself? DAN: Yeah, well, yeah, I've always been a gamer, you know, ever since Spectrum 48K, I think you had. I'm showing my age now, but it was mainly when the Sega Megadrive, and from then, PlayStation onwards were my days. And me and my brother used to have great times together on that as well. You know, it was our bonding. But then I think the biggest light bulb to me...before the pandemic, I was a teacher. And I used to teach music and ICT and computers as well, and having my children as well, and both in school connecting with the young people. Because I was a gamer, I could talk about the games that they're playing with them and to see their eyes light up...and you're on a different wavelength with that young person. They suddenly got this trust in you, and they want to tell you all about what they've done on Minecraft, or what the new season of Fortnite's about. And it was having such a beneficial effect on them and same with my family as well. We, you know, both my children are autistic, and we've got, you know, we have a lot of difficulties around that of bonding together as a family, yet our closest moments have been through gaming together. So, Mario 3D World was the first one I remember with my children playing, and we could play at all levels. So, my son was about four and, you know, he was often in a bubble, killed, and floating back onto the screen again. But, you know, we had a great time. And I was suddenly, like, looking, thinking, this is amazing. You know, nobody hears about this side of it that it's bringing us together. And so, from there, I then started doing after-school gaming clubs, so not coding clubs, nothing like that. It was gaming. And the young people they loved it. It was oversubscribed. Masses of kids came to it. We had all sorts of things from Super Smash Bros, if you know that, to, you know, to PlayStation games, Go Simulator, and everything playing. And we just had a whale of a time, and they could really relax and make friends. And, again, it was all coming from the joy of gaming together, basically. And it's, you know, as much as some people might not like it, it's bigger and bigger. It's the biggest entertainment industry now. And, you know, on the other side of it, there are so many careers in it. If your young person has an interest in gaming, see what they're interested, help it, champion it because it's, yeah, you know, there's such a future there. But yeah, that's my story, basically, and where that sort of light bulb came from. And then, I've done a lot of research into the benefits of gaming and how you can use that for connecting with young people. And, you know, so many games now have characters with, you know, emotional things going off, or, you know, you can talk about feelings even in games like Minecraft where the characters don't talk. But you can be like, how must that person be feeling there? And, you know, you can really bring in real-life situations while gaming and also have a lot of fun, which I think is super important as well, which sometimes gets forgotten about. But, you know, real life is really enhanced by having loads of fun, and gaming's fun. SAMI: Yeah. It's so fascinating. As you're speaking, I'm having this internal dilemma, right? Because, in my head, everything you're saying is true and makes sense. And I believe it, and I've seen it. And then, I probably still harbor those feelings that are almost entrenched, like you're saying, in the media with, you know, the person who completed Tetris. And those sorts of feelings are still, like, a little bit entrenched to me in terms of the negative sides of gaming. Like, I guess I grew up probably similar to you, where it was like, "Well, why aren't you outside more?" and the negative aspect of it. I spoke about this in a different podcast, which I've apologized to my parents for mentioning in public. But when I was in university, it's too late now, I also kind of developed, I would call it probably, like, a small gaming addiction. I don't know where it would sit, but I was doing all-nighters Playing Call of Duty, Modern Warfare. And so, there definitely is a negative side. But I like what you say about, well, actually, you can address that in a healthy way. But then, this week, just this week, which is quite uncanny, my seven-year-old comes, and he says, "Daddy, I really want to get an Xbox, you know, my friend's got one." And he's just starting to get to that cusp of gaming. So, in my head, I say, yeah, like that makes total sense, and I imagine the benefits and the fun time me and him could have on an Xbox. But I still struggle with those feelings of...maybe they're my own worries of, well, but what if he neglects his other stuff? What if he goes into like, yeah, with ADHD, he goes into hyperfocus, and that's all he does? How [laughs] can you counsel me out of this concern? DAN: Well, no, I completely understand, and that is where all our fears come from, especially our generation and how it's put through. But I think young people more and more connect through gaming, whereas I think when we were gamers as young, a lot of stuff wasn't online. So, we weren't playing with our friends. We were playing on our own a lot of the time, whereas it's very social now. Platforms like Roblox and Minecraft are the things that are super social, working together as a team, things like that. But also screen time, I can show you that we've got a whole list of benefits of gaming, actually, that I'll share with you because there's studies that even screen time has been proven not to be detrimental the way we're told it is. And I think we must know that through how we work. Most of us work on screens these days, so. SAMI: Yeah, that's such a point of contention in the house because we currently do only on Fridays. So, they get, like, two hours of screen time. I don't know if that's strict. I don't know where I am on that. Do you have, like, with your own kids, or how do you handle that discipline? So, let's say I get the console, right? I bring it into the house to my seven-year-old. Do I limit it with screen time? How would you approach that sort of thing? DAN: Obviously, with a seven-year-old, it's a little bit different from...mine are now 17 and 14. So, we discuss it more, but yeah, definitely, you know, have boundaries. And also, if you're worried about how they're gaming, maybe have the Xbox in the living room, so instead of gaming in their bedroom, they're gaming when you're around, and it's a shared family activity. And then, it's easier to say, "Well, we're going to be having food in a minute. So, finish up on that game." And you can have all that understanding. But I think also, you know, that other side of things of coming from seeing what they're playing. I talk to parents a lot about this, and they get, you know, they see frustrations in their young people when they're trying to get them off. But they don't realize that maybe they're playing something like Fortnite or something that's a bit more online team-based, where if they pulled them off the game in the middle of the match, it could be detrimental to the team they're working with, their rankings. You know, they could even get banned from the game for a few days, you know. So, understanding and them being able to work time management together, being like, "Well, after this game is finished, this is where we're going, you know, we've got to go out. We've got to do this," you know, there is a give and take there. And I'm not saying there isn't negatives to gaming. We need, you know, everybody needs a break as well. But, again, through the understanding of what they're playing, you can have those conversations. If you're not playing them or watching them and don't understand what the game is about, and what the joy is about, there's going to be a gap between you, you know, where the young person is going to be like, "You don't understand me. You don't understand why I want to play this." My kids, you know, we went from the other [inaudible 17:37] because they've had severe problems at school, both of them, through their neurodivergency, and gaming has really helped them both to regulate. And maybe when you're saying about yourself when you had problems, and maybe there was something else going on. And then, the gaming was a way for you to cope, that safe space to go to that was actually working in a way as a little bit of therapy and keeping you grounded, you know, as well. So, you know, there's two sides to see it. But yeah, definitely, I can understand the worries of staying up all night playing it or not doing your homework and playing it, although I have different things to say about homework. But to say it's not actually beneficial is wrong because, you know, you just got to look at something like Minecraft and the amount a young person can learn, everything from biomes, and blocks, and diamonds, or ores to actual mathematics and things. And it naturally leads onto PCs and learning how to code things and who knows where that's going to lead, to creating something completely new. So, I worry for the ones that are heavily restricted on screen time. I worry that they're being held a little bit back. You know, that might sound a bit controversial for some people. But when most jobs are digital and you're not allowed to learn, I mean, the young people I see they're so gifted at such a young age in understanding digital things that they're going to be at the forefront of the new technology. So, it's almost like, yeah, I think it should be embraced with both hands. RÉMY: There's an incredible opportunity to learn new things through video games and to be happy and to share, like you said. And I bet our audience is already quite open to video games, but we never know it. I think it could be interesting if you could provide, like, a very simple, not comprehensive list of famous games and the kind of skills and benefits they provide you. You mentioned Minecraft; you mentioned creativity. But what kind of games and skills benefits you? You could say for our audience to understand more about the opportunity that is out there. DAN: Yeah, I mean, there are so many. But yeah, so, if we look at your normal shooter game like Call of Duty, and Fortnite, and things like that, that is for cognitive ability. You know, getting those dexterity in your hands and learning those [inaudible 20:11] of pressing buttons is more than you think. It's really training that brain and getting that brain working really quick. It's proven to boost your brain power, your gray matter. It's actually proven that gaming, in general, just boosts your gray matter. I mean, we all know about doing brain training games, but all games using that brain, you know, it's much more advanced than sitting watching TV. But then if you go into more things like puzzle games, so things from your Tetris all the way through to more advanced ones like Portal or strategy games like Civilization and things, there is so much you're doing. You're boosting that brainpower, and you're thinking all the time. But then you can get into...yeah, back onto the shooter games as well, they help with spatial recognition. So, it's actually helping to spot things from a distance: dangers or things to collect. You can see them, and it actually enhances eyesight. It is proven to enhance eyesight, which is great. Decision-making and leadership skills, which is a key thing people talk about for business, is all there when you're in your team of shooters. You're playing Overwatch or you're playing, you know, any game like that. You know, there's always somebody leading or, you know, saying what should be best, seeing the best strategies in there. Problem-solving comes into all sorts so, obviously, in shooters and things again, I'd- say, but also your Minecraft. You know, you've got to create a certain thing to defeat the dragon or whatever you're doing. There's always something, or if you're building something. But then, of course, your high-end puzzle games and even things like Mario. I mean, they get so complex in the problem-solving to overcome a level. Again, the brain power, and the brain power seeing these young people that they're way more advanced than we were playing games. The games are so intricate and so hard now. One you never hear about is social skills until...I think the pandemic helped that a bit. People started to see, oh, Animal Crossing, it's a great way to connect with people. And, you know, and Roblox as much as it gets a lot of bad press, for young people to connect and play, and lot of it is almost like playground role playing play, and they're playing together. You know, there's games just based in Ikea, and they're shopping, and [laughs] things like that. It's really good for them to be doing that. And health and fitness surprisingly, of course, is in gaming. So, obviously, a lot of Nintendo Switch games are sort of standing up, you know, playing switch sports and things, but then virtual reality is huge for that. And if you've ever tried Beat Saber, that's a real workout, which is really good. But there's loads of boxing ones. There's one that kids play now called Gorilla Tag, where, oh my God, that is such a workout. I have mentees that I work with, and then we'll be like, "Oh, Gorilla Tag," an hour of that, I am exhausted. Because you're just flinging your arms around like a gorilla trying to move fast. It's amazing. SAMI: I saw a post you did recently about there's, like, a Greek mythology level on Fortnite, like, an educational aspect [laughs]. It's so funny because I remember playing God of War on the PS2, and I learned so much about Greek mythology. Everything I know comes from God of War. And so, there's also that educational aspect. DAN: Yeah, exactly. You get this deep dive into something, and you really find what you're interested in. So, I've got a kid, and he loves this game called War Thunder, which is all about planes, World War planes, and he can tell me everything about every plane and what country it's made. He can spot it a mile off. You know, "Oh, that's a Russian plane from so and so. Its weak points are here. It was built by so and so." And it's like, you're a genius, and it's all come from, you know, this game's sparked this real interest. And, you know, like I said, Fortnite brings it in, God of War, of course. Assassin's Creed is amazing for things like that, history, it goes from Egypt times. And they even now have walkthroughs in the game where...this needs to be used in schools. I don't know if schools embrace it yet, but you don't have any of this story and the killings and stuff. You just are going through history and walking through the towns and things like that, which is brilliant. The latest one for Assassin's Creed was Vikings, wasn't it? And that was brilliant because that brought in the UK and how it was when the Vikings came over. There's so much stuff. I've got a young person, and he loves this game called For Honor, which is all about medieval sword fights. And he got such an interest in weapons that he's then become a blacksmith. He's enrolled onto a college course apprenticeship being a blacksmith. He wants to be making armory and swords for movies. You know, he said like, "Look, Lord of the Rings, that's all made properly, isn't it?" I mean, that's [inaudible 24:50] SAMI: Wow. DAN: Yeah, it's amazing. One other thing that the games bring, which I think is amazing, is mindfulness as well. There's a huge thing of that. Yeah, like I said, going back to maybe yourself when you were gaming at night, and you maybe needed to destress and maybe take your mind off something, you can get into a game and almost...there's a thing called the grind in the game. Minecraft has it a lot, where you've just got to get yourself a hundred diamonds, or whatever [laughs]. So, it's like, you can almost turn your brain off and just do that, you know, and it can be so super relaxing. And you can get into this thing called flow state. A lot of driving games are like that. If you hit every corner perfectly, you're kind of just in this dream-like state where you just...everything's going well. And that brings a euphoria, too. There's so many good things. But now there's loads of games that are actually based around mindfulness. Tetris is one that's been proven for that. But I don't know if you've heard a more recent one called PowerWash Simulator. Now, this game was one of my most favorite for the last couple of years. All you're doing is washing stuff with a power washer. But the way it works, it gives you a little ding when you've cleaned something properly, like a [vocalization]. And it just...you stand back and look at your job. Honestly, it's amazing. But now Oxford University are doing a full study on it because they realize how beneficial it is to relaxing and chilling out, you know, and just making yourself just feeling happy when you need to just de-stress. It's amazing. RÉMY: I can totally relate. I remember a few years ago, I played GTA 5, and GTA 5 is the kind of game famous for arbitrary violence or all this kind of stuff we hear in the media. But I remember me playing and sometimes I wanted to play just to take a bike and to go on the road and to see a sunset. And, of course, we could argue that I can see the sunset out there, but, in a game, it's just a piece of art. At work, recently, we just had a conversation about beautiful games. So, we weren't interested in all the features or how the game would work but just how beautiful it is. And sometimes we just play video games because they're beautiful. And so, they could provide so much on the intellectual level, on the skills, but also, just as piece of art, just beautiful things made by beautiful artists. DAN: Yeah, it is amazing when you see that. And yeah, I get that completely with GTA. It gets a lot of bad reputation, you know, and story-wise, it is very adult. But, you know, it's the biggest game in the world for a reason. And, you know, like you said, you climb the mountain, you look at the view, you know, it is such a lovely thing to do. There was a game, Red Dead Redemption. I had a young lady I was mentoring, and she was situationally mute, which means, you know, she couldn't talk to anybody. She used to type her responses to me. But she loved Red Dead Redemption, loved horses. And she actually created a group from all around the world, where they would all meet her on a Friday in the game, and she would take them on horse trails. And so, this is all in the game, and she would just take them around to beautiful spots, do nice little jumps with the horses, setting up camp, you know, and, I mean, that's [inaudible 28:08]. It's amazing. And yeah, she ended up making a horse game on Roblox, and that doing really well, and her actually working for Roblox themselves. So, yeah, you know, it all inspires them to work on that. And, I think, sorry, I'm going on tangents here, but also, as you say, appreciating art. There are so many different sides to gaming. A lot of people used to think gaming is just coding, and I don't want to be a coder. That's confusing. I don't want to do that. If you look at the credits that roll on a main game, and they go on for, like, about an hour. There are so many different jobs from artists, storyboard writers, level designers, musicians. There's everything there. The coders are just one part of it. So, as I said before, there are so many career opportunities there, either starting up your own business as a self-employed person or getting involved in it. One I love...a lot of the neurodivergent people I work with [inaudible 29:07] is being a games tester. Because the first thing my son ever does is, if he gets a game, he tries to break it. He tries to find where he can walk through a wall, or something like that. So, it's like that job would be ideal for you. It's like, it's amazing. And that's a job. That's a really important job as well. SAMI: Yeah. When you talk about these stories, they are inspirational. Like, I feel like almost, like, a flutter in my heart as you talk about this kid who maybe felt he has kind of no hope or very little opportunities to actually honing in on this Viking game and then being able to go and become a blacksmith, or this other person you mentioned who's now with Roblox. Yeah, I almost wish, like, they had more publicity around them. And maybe we're kind of doing some of that work now. What would you say is your biggest success story? DAN: I guess MindJam in itself I think is just, I mean, it's way bigger than me now. Obviously, it was born from this idea of giving young people the time and the respect. They are doing something that they love to do and is beneficial. That's what I found was everybody...even when I was teaching, we used to have this connection with the kids, and I used to work one-to-one with the, you know, special education needs, young ones. And a great connection talking about gaming, and their eyes would light up. They would talk about their week, and how they were feeling, and what they achieved. But then it would always be, in the back of my mind, we need to get back onto what we're supposed to be doing and, you know, I need to tick these boxes. And there's always something wanted from them. And it's the same if they go and see a health service. There's always something that they want from that young person. Yet if you just approach them and say, "You know, let's do what you want to do." It's child-led. It's low demand, and let's see where that takes us. That's where we got to discovering about the blacksmith thing. And that's why we've got young people making albums and things with MindJam. You know, it goes anywhere. I've got one young person who shows me Tai Chi, you know, that's our MindJam session. It started off from Rocket League. So, it can really go anywhere. But yeah, sorry, going back to the big success, it is every day now I get a message saying how one of my mentors has helped a young person to help the whole family. That is just the best thing in the world. You know, this is something we've created, and we work hard. We work really hard to make sure we've got the best people. You know, and we're well-trained, and informed, and everything. To hear that it's really making such a difference, and, you know, some people say we're saving lives, and, you know, I just have to pinch myself. Me and my wife we were just like, we can't believe it really how amazing it is. But we're just on a mission now to make sure it's accessible for as many people who need it. SAMI: Yeah, I've seen some of the reviews on your website, and they're heartwarming. But, like, it kind of makes sense, right? Like, for some people, this is the only place that they feel safe. They feel comfortable. You imagine all the cortisol that's going through someone when they're in that fight or flight moment, and there's lots of stress and anxiety. And they enter into a gaming world, and they can escape. And all of a sudden, that reduces. You're dealing with a different person. You're dealing with someone who feels happy, who feels content. And then, you're opening up their mind to have other conversations, you know, like you say. I really recommend it to our listeners. Go and check out the stream. You do kind of...I've seen you've done a few episodes of streaming with other mentors. And it's fascinating to see how all of you, whilst you're playing, are in a conversation about, "Oh, how was your week? And how's that been going?" And, you know, something happened over there. And it's like, you're just in a more of a relaxed state to have those conversations. DAN: Yeah, you know, it's been used before, you know, LEGO therapy is kind of like that. You know, that's what MindJam is in a way is play therapy, but there's so much more you can do with the digital platform. And we're at an amazing age as well, where most bits of software are free. I'll click on like, you know, if they want to look into 3D modeling, it's easy to get a copy of Blender. If you want to get into Unity or Unreal Engine, I mean, there's always into...and it's all, you know, what a wonderful time. When we were younger, if I wanted to get into game design, it was so complicated. You didn't know where to start where, you know, so yeah, it's really amazing. And another thing that I love as well is the mentors that work for us. Most of them are really [inaudible 33:28]. I struggled when I was in my early twenties, and I remember seeing a counselor. And it felt like they had no idea what they were...yeah, they're reading from a textbook, you know, and I remember just really patronizing me. And I was just like, you've got no clue. Whereas I think all the mentors we have all said, "I wish MindJam was around when I was a young person." And I thought, that's the key thing for me, their empathy, their understanding. We don't have to solve it straight away. It's just being there and going, "Yeah, that is hard. Yeah, you know, you'll be okay though. And there's, you know, you're not on your own here." And, you know, I think that is...so many people seem to have to try and heal people straight away. And it's like, no, people just need time to talk, and it's the same as adults as well. Yeah, it could just carry on really to all ages really, couldn't it? SAMI: Yeah. And you've also got that buy-in, right? Whereas, you know, I think of myself perhaps going to therapy at that young age. I didn't really buy into it because I was sitting there with an adult who I didn't really know what we were doing. And I was just kind of there for a conversation. And here you've got...you're doing something that they like, and they enjoy. To put my parent and adult hat back on [laughs] because it's something I want to pick your brains on, right? So, working in the tech industry and working in coding, I've read articles about games, which kind of it says that they're more and more...you see it maybe more on the games on the mobile phone. So, they're employing, like, these kind of gambling tactics, so a lot of the stuff where it's treasure chests. And what is it? On Fortnite, it's the packs. On FIFA, it's also, like, you open up the pack and you see what players you get. So, that sort of stuff I also find scary where I feel like you have from the industry...so, whilst you're using the industry in this way, is the industry itself there to promote and perpetuate the benefits that come from games? Or are they looking, I want to get people in; I want to get them hooked; I want to use these gambling techniques, A/B testing, whatever it is? DAN: From all big companies, we get both sides, obviously. So, you got your unscrupulous ones that, oh, go for it. You loot boxes. But I think more and more, especially with young people, they're more and more aware. They're far more savvy than we are in these things. And the good one is EA with, you know, FIFA. They get review bombed because as soon as someone's putting in loot boxes and things, people are just like, you're just after our money. This is a con. It's pay to win. Mobile games are the worst for it, of course. You know, they're quick cash-making things. Again, instead of, like, saying, "All gaming is evil. We should never do it," it's being aware and being aware of what these games are trying to do, which, again, when you're looking at a young child, is having shared gaming experiences. So, you can go, "Ah, can you see what they're doing here? You know, they've hooked us in. We've played this for two minutes, and we've had free play. And now they're asking us to pay five pounds for extra things. That's a bit of a con, isn't it?" And, you know, you can actually bring that awareness, and then they're not going to fall for things like that. But at the other side of it, I see firsthand...I've luckily enough to work closely with Sony. One of their great companies is called Media Molecule. I don't know if you've heard of them. They did LittleBigPlanet, and lately, they had a game called Dreams, which is actually making games on a PlayStation, which is really cool. But they're so accessible. It's all about, you know, making everybody happy, giving people the keys to creativity, and really help making everything accessible. Again, they worked with this wonderful, wonderful artist who created characters, character designs. They'd never met her. She was so socially anxious. She never could leave her house but was actually one of their top artists that they would send the work, send the brief. She'd send this amazing art back, and then they'd pay her. They didn't have to come into the office nine till five for no reason whatsoever. And there's a lovely side, and, of course, there's a business unscrupulous side. And yeah, again, bring that education of that. This is what I think should be in schools. Instead of avoiding the whole issue, is actually talk about being toxic gamers and what that means, and how to deal with toxic gamers, and how not to be a toxic gamer yourself. For those that don't know toxic gamers, it's just people that are really, really mean to everybody, which seems to be a set thing that people do, especially to a new player. It's like, learn how to encourage people in. And there's now games coming out where they ban people straight away if they're being toxic, and it's all about helping that new player feel like part of the team. But again, yeah, let's say if this was actually brought into education, so then we learn about loot boxes and, you know, pay-to-win type games, then young people would be on that same wavelength. They would get it, either that or it would make gaming so lame that no one would play gaming anymore because it's in schools [laughs]. Like, oh, it sucks now [laughs]. SAMI: Yeah, I think that that way that you embrace kind of what gaming is and you say, well, actually, we can see that it's got a benefit. We can see that it's positive. How do we get the absolute most out of this? How can we not hide, stick our heads in the sand to the issues that might be there? And how can we then say, "Let's use this?" And I think, I mean, my mom will be listening to this podcast for sure. But I think it's something which it's quite disruptive what you're doing. I really do feel that way kind of dabbling in gaming, working as a consultant in the coding industry. I actually teach neurodivergent kids as well on the side. And I'm actually mentoring another kid in coding as well. And what you're doing, as I said at the beginning, it's mind-blowing, and we could talk to you for hours. We have a little chat on this podcast, which listeners can't see. And I asked Rémy, like, "Do you have any questions before you want to wrap up?" And Rémy was just like, "I just want to keep listening. I'm loving it." And I'm exactly...I feel like we can listen to...I think me and Rémy game and we dabble here and there as well ourselves. So, it's definitely something which speaks to us so much. But I've got to thank you so much for your time, for taking the time to jump on with us, give us such an insight into the work that you're doing with MindJam. Let's talk about the BAFTA Young Game Designers Award Ceremony Open Day. Give us some info. DAN: Oh yeah. Well, this is a lovely thing. I've luckily enough to be involved with BAFTA on this for a few years. An early success of MindJam was I was nominated as Mentor of The Year and finalist for Mentor of The Year for BAFTA in 2021. And they run this thing called Young Games Designers every year, and it's brilliant because they do...it's two sides to it. One is actually making a game, but then, of course, not all young people are ready to make a game. And, you know, so the other side is a games concept where you could just send in sketches, ideas, things like that. And that's really accessible for lots of young people we work with, of course. But yeah, in July, I don't have the date; it's early July, we have the award ceremony, which is on this Saturday. But then on the Sunday at BAFTA in London, it's an open day for families to come. You have to apply and get a ticket. I'm sure you guys can put the link on here later on. But yeah, MindJam will be there, but there's loads of game places. I think TT Games will be there who make the LEGO games. And there's all sorts of...we have D&D there. We have all sorts and talks on how to get into the industry and things like that. So, it's really a great thing to come to if you're a young person who's interested in gaming. SAMI: That's really cool. So, parents, if you're listening, save up all that screen time so you can use it. A month's worth of screen time [chuckles] at the BAFTA Awards, Young Game Designers Awards Ceremony in the Open Day in London. If people want to get hold of you, Dan, where's the best place? They've heard this. They're inspired. They feel like they've got someone who would benefit from your services. Where's the best place to get in touch? DAN: If you go to our website, it's mindjam.org.uk, and you can email us at hello@mindjam.org.uk. And I think you said this podcast is international, isn't it? So, we do offer sessions all around the world. We have mentors in America, in Australia, in Japan, all over the place basically. MindJam is universal. So, wherever you are, get in touch. And if you're interested in being a mentor as well, get in touch as well, so... SAMI: Definitely, I highly recommend. And I've already got people I can think of that I'm going to be passing your details on to. Listeners, listeners, listeners, our lovely listeners, no one likes missing out on things. Remember that flight you missed? The train that passed you by? Your partner's birthday? I've been there, by the way; I missed one recently. It's a horrible feeling. I cannot deal with you missing out on these things, but I can make sure that this feeling doesn't come about when it comes to our podcast. So, move your thumb. Yes, you, move your thumb. Hit that subscribe button. I can guarantee you, you will never miss one of our podcasts. And you'll hear amazing guests, just like Dan, as we get them in, and we have great chats together on the Giant Robots on Tour podcast. You can find notes and a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, you can email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Check her out at mandymoore.tech. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Bye.   AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at: tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at: referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions.

In Episode 338 of "PS THIS IS AWESOME," Fred talks about his continued adventures in "Darkest Dungeon 2" after beating the second boss, and how he's been getting the hang of his new racing wheel. Jake shares his experiences with "Gran Turismo 7," "Beat Saber," and a few other games.This week in the news, "Alan Wake 2" hasn't yet turned a profit for Remedy, though the first DLC expansion, "Night Springs," is now available. The long-forgotten game "WILD" that was once shown at Gamescom has officially been shelved. Meanwhile, "Dragon Age: Veilguard" will limit players to controlling only one character to increase the action per minute, according to Bioware.In other news, "Twisted Metal" Season 2 is currently being filmed, though Fred admits he hasn't watched the first season yet. On the business side, Meta is closing down Ready at Dawn, while Sony is releasing an adapter for PSVR2 to enable PC connection, a feature they considered from the start."Final Fantasy VII Rebirth" will bring back the in-game card game, Queen's Blood, in its upcoming sequel. For August, PS Plus members can look forward to titles like "Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights," "Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach," and "LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga."Bungie is facing some turbulence, with reports of a canceled project, the layoff of 220 workers, and tighter integration into Sony. Rumors suggest Sony's Hermen Hulst might be taking more control, with some ex-employees calling for the current CEO to step down.New game releases this week include "Shoulders of Giants: Ultimate," "Green Hell," "Cricket: Jae's Really Peculiar Game," "The Precinct," and "Madden NFL 25," among others.By joining our Patreon community for ONLY $1.00 per month, you'll also enjoy these exclusive benefits:Early Access: Be the first to listen to our episodes as soon as they're ready. Get ahead of the game and dive into the latest news, reviews, and discussions.Personalized Shoutout: As a token of our gratitude for your support, we'll give you a special shout out during one of our podcast episodes, acknowledging your contribution and dedication to our show.Custom Die-Cut Vinyl Sticker: Receive an exclusive custom die-cut vinyl sticker featuring our podcast's unique design. Showcase your support with this limited-edition collectible.Your support goes a long way in helping us continue to create the content you love. It's a simple and direct way to show your appreciation for our podcast.To become a patron and unlock these exciting benefits, visit www.patreon.com/psthisisawesome today. Your support keeps us going and ensures that we can keep delivering top-notch PlayStation content.Please, if you enjoyed the content or even if you didn't quite enjoy this one, we encourage you to come back. We try to offer something for everybody. Please share with your friends and help us spread the show as we try to build a bigger community here! As always you can support our show at our Patreon Page. Thanks for listening.http://www.patreon.com/psthisisawesome 0:00 - INTRO32:27 - GAMES WE'RE PLAYING43:25 - ALAN WAKE 249:35 - WILD IS CANCELED52:38 - DRAGON AGE: VEILGUARD INFO57:00 - TWISTED METAL 2 IS FILMING1:00:00 - READY AT DAWN IS CLOSING1:03:00 - PSVR2 ADAPTER IS HERE FOR PC1:11:00 - QUEEN'S BLOOD CONTINUES1:14:01 - PS PLUS OFFERINGS FOR AUGUST1:16:00 - PLAYSTATION QUIZ TIME1:24:04 - BUNGIE IS UNDER FIRE1:34:30 - NEW GAMES COMING TO PSN Support PS This is Awesome! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s time to celebrate the music of the first decade of this century via our 2000s album draft! From opera to show tunes, we’ve got several musical styles covered—and those are just Andy’s picks! Why do James’s picks leave us cold? What is Erika’s favorite Beat Saber band? Why does Kelly use karaoke as therapy? How does Shelly tactically use remixes? And why did Brian insist on editing this episode? Jason Snell with Brian Hamilton, James Thomson, Shelly Brisbin, Erika Ensign, Kelly Guimont and Andy Ihnatko.

Christian makes his way through Black Mesa, while Bobby checks out Bears in Space. Emilio tries to explain Balatro and Nick works up a sweat in Beat Saber. TOPICSBeat Saber, Black Mesa, Bears in Space, Balatro, Sea of Thieves, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Zoochosis, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles, Horizon: Forbidden West For more content, check out dlgaming.net!

This week we talk about virtual reality, the Meta Quest, and the Apple Vision Pro.We also discuss augmented reality, Magic Leap, and the iPhone.Recommended Book: Extremely Online by Taylor LorenzTranscriptThe term spacial computing seems to have been coined in the mid-1980s within the field of geographic information systems, or GIS, which focuses on using digital technology to mess with geographic data in a variety of hopefully useful ways.So if you were to import a bunch of maps and GPS coordinates and the locations of buildings and parks and such into a database, and then make that database searchable, plotting its points onto a digital map in an app, making something like Google Maps, that would be a practical utility of GIS research and development.The term spacial computing refers to pulling computer-based engagement into physical spaces, allowing us to plot and use information in the real world, rather than relegating that information to flat screens like computers and smartphones.This could be useful, it was posited, back in the early days of the term, as it would theoretically allow us to map out and see, with deep accuracy and specificity, how a proposed building would look on a particular street corner when finished, and how it would feel to walk through a house we're thinking of building, when all we have available is blueprints.This seemed like it would be a killer application for all sorts of architectural, urban planning, and location intelligence purposes, and that meant it might someday be applicable to everyone from security services to construction workers to doctors and health researchers who are trying to figure out where a pandemic originated.In the 1990s, though, the embryonic field of virtual reality started to become a thing, moving from research labs owned by schools and military contractors out into the real world, increasingly flogged as the next big consumer technology, useful for all sorts of practical, but also entertainment purposes, like watching movies and playing games.During this period, VR began to serve as a stand-in for where technology was headed, and it was dropped into movies and other sorts of speculative fiction to illustrate the evolution of tech, and how the world might evolve as a consequence of that evolution, more of our lives lived within digital versions of the world, rather than in the world itself.As a result of that popularity, especially throughout pop culture, VR overtook spacial computing as the term of art typically used to discuss this type of computational application, though the latter term also encompassed use-cases that weren't generally covered by VR, like the ability to engage with one's environment while using the requisite headsets, and the consequent capacity to use this technology out in the world, rather than exclusively at home or in the office, replicating the real world in that confined space.The term augment reality, or AR, is generally used to refer to that other spacial computing use-case: projecting an overlay, basically, on the real world, generally using a VR-like headset or goggles or glasses to either display information onto lenses the user looks through, or serving the user video footage that is altered to include that data, rather than attempting to project the same over the real thing; the latter case more like virtual reality because users are viewing entirely digital feeds, but like AR in that those feeds include live video from the world around them.A slew of productized spacial computing products have made it to the consumer market over the past few decades, including Microsoft's HoloLens, which is an augmented-reality headset, Google's Glass, which projects information onto a tiny screen in the corner of the the user's eyeline, and Magic Leap's self-named 1 and 2 devices, which are similar to the HoloLens.All three of these products have had trouble making much of a dent in the market, though, and Magic Leap is in the process of retiring its first headset, though it's reportedly partnering with Meta on a new device sometime soon, Microsoft has mostly pivoted to working with companies and agencies rather than selling to consumers, though future versions of their headsets might revert back to their original intended customer base, and Google Glass was retired in 2015, replaced by enterprise editions (sold to businesses and agencies) from that point forward, though those enterprise editions were also halted in 2023.What I'd like to talk about today is the current status of this space, which is being shaken up by two big, global players and their products: Meta with their Quest line of spacial computing devices, and Apple with it's new Apple Vision Pro.—In 2014, the company that was at the time known as Facebook, but which is now called Meta bought a virtual reality company called Oculus for about $2 billion.Oculus made a popular VR device, popular for VR devices in 2014, at least, that was only ever released as a development prototype, but which garnered a huge amount of attention nonetheless, blowing away its Kickstarter goal and attracting tens of millions of dollars in investment from well-known tech-world venture capitalists.The purchase was criticized by many, as part of the appeal of Oculus was that it was independent from the big players in the space, but $2 billion is a significant amount of money, so the sale went through after regulators approved it, and Facebook, now Meta, started churning out its own headsets, initially continuing to use the Oculus branding, but it was more cohesively integrated with Meta's portfolio of offerings in 2021, redesignating this now sub-company Reality Labs, and entwining it with other Meta products like Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp—that effort culminating in 2022 with the complete retirement of the Oculus monicker, re-designating the company's products with the Quest brand, its social platforms renamed Horizon, as in Horizon Worlds.So beginning in 2022, Meta had a fully integrated Meta Quest line of virtual reality products, including the hardware and a slew of online components, like social networks, and game, app, and other digital product stores.The company has a long, for this space, anyway, history of now-discontinued products, including partnerships with the likes of Samsung and headsets that vary in price and power, some plugging into one's computer to provide processing heft, but most of the new ones serving as self-contained, all-in-one headset devices, which typically include little handheld controls, wired or wireless, as well.They've also scooped up a variety of related companies, and in 2021, they attempted to buy a company called Within, which makes popular VR games like Beat Saber and Supernatural, but the FTC blocked the purchase on competition grounds; in 2023, though, the purchase was given the go-ahead, so those, and other popular VR-focused apps are now owned by Meta, as well.Meta also partnered with glasses-maker Ray-Ban in 2021 to release a product called Ray-Ban Stories, which are glasses that have built-in cameras that can upload videos they record to social media.So Meta has been investing heavily in this space for years, and their products are relatively well-developed, most of the teething issues faced by new products worked out, at this point, and their products are priced between a few hundred dollars on the low end, about $500 in the middle, and around $1000 at the top.They also have a decent-sized catalog of in-VR offerings for users, and all of their products plug into all of their other products—for better and for worse, as many people who were irritated about the Oculus purchase were angered by the realization that they would need to have a Facebook account to keep using their hardware; so this is both pro and con, depending on who you are.Despite Meta's relative success in the world of spacial computing, though, the big story in this space, as of 2024, is that Apple has released their own augmented-reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, and it's similar but also distinct from Meta's spacial computing offerings.It has bogglingly detailed screens, which are what project stuff to the user inside the headset, in terms of pixel density, it has a sophisticated hand-tracking interface that allows users to gesture in a fairly natural way to control things within their virtual environment, no separate controllers necessary, it has video pass-through, as do the Quest models, that show the real world within the user's view, but which then superimposes virtual stuff over it, and its tracking of things in the real world is quite detailed and accurate, to the point that some users have been—ill-advisedly, if not illegally—driving their cars while wearing their Vision Pros, and it even offers some possibly just experimental, somewhat creepy quality-of-life additions, like inward facing cameras that track a users face and then display that face while they're video chatting from within the headset, and which project a 3D-video feed of their eyes to the outside of the display, so folks in the world around them can see what their eyes are doing, despite their face being largely covered by this heavy, compared to Meta's headsets, anyway, VR helmet.Apple's Vision Pro also costs $3,500, which is about 7-times the cost of Meta's entry-level, mid-tier, most popular Quest 3 headset.So what we have here is two companies presenting different visions of what the spacial computing industry will look like.Apple's pricing will likely come down, and some of the differences between these products, like Meta's lighter weight headsets and Apple's higher-quality screens, will almost certainly intersect at some point a few product iterations down the line, as they both figure out what's ideal in terms of the quality to price ratio.Other attributes may disappear, like the outward-facing eye projections, which don't seem terribly effective or useful, though some, like those eye-projections, may also evolve into something that people can't live without, and which Meta and other future competitors will then go on to copy.We're also seeing the emergence of different market positions within this space, which isn't something we've really had until this point.Meta had been occupying the perceptual high price point, as their products were the most fleshed-out and for most consumer purposes, at least, useful, and a thousand bucks at the high end is a lot of money for what's mostly an entertaining lark, for most consumers, at this point.Apple's entrance into this space, though, is a bit like when they stepped into the phone market in 2007 and announced a $500 iPhone: it changed the math, and recalibrated people's expectations of what they should expect to spend in the future.$500 seems almost ridiculously cheap for a premium device that's become fundamental to so many people for so many purposes, today, and it's possible that Apple's entrance in this space will do the same, allowing Meta to position its products as the Android of the spacial computing world, cheaper, sure, but also more useful for many people, with more pricing tiers, and serving as a sort of practical, non-luxury, and non-overpriced version of what most people want to get from this type of hardware.The reviews so far seem to support this positioning: Quest headsets are generally quite good, but that's it—they're not blowing any of the tech reviewers away, and most of what they do is passable, not magical.Apple generally aims for magical, and a lot of its initial reviews have suggested that what the Vision Pro does well, it does VERY well; at that magical level, if not beyond it.That said, a lot of the same reviews, and the reviews that have arrived since, after the device formally hit the market, have indicated that it has enough bugs and issues and missed opportunities to be incredible in some relatively few areas, but not worth $3,500 in most other regards; many of the stories on the device as of the week I'm recording this episode are about how many people, who enthusiastically forked over thousands of dollars for a first generation Vision Pro when it was released, are now returning their devices so as not to miss the 14-day return window.The Vision Pro is possibly revolutionary, then, but perhaps not in the sense that it replaces everything that came before: it'll probably change the space in significant ways, but it'll take several iterations before it becomes a must-have product, and in the meantime it'll mostly be meaningful because of how it resets price-expectations, sets a new bar for quality in some regards, and stokes a new round of competition in a space that hasn't seen much in the way of competition for years.Which is basically what happened with the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and other Apple-made devices, as well. They tend to be really impressive and magical-seeming right out of the gate, but not great, practically, until the third or fourth generation, at which point they're just astoundingly good by most metrics.There's a chance that this product will find its feet eventually, too, then, though Meta seems keen to give them a run for their money on this, as their long-held desire to own a hardware product category now seems within reach, their past attempts at making their own watch and phone having been incredible failures.Their pivot to the metaverse, which has been put on hold a little bit because of the advent of generative AI technologies and all the big tech companies trying to figure out what their next steps should be, considering how influential those technologies have turned out to be, those technologies now seem likely to make that metaverse aspiration more viable in the long-term, and these headsets, especially if they can keep making them smaller and lighter and more useable in more contexts, seem like they could be the best entry-point for a Meta-owned network of metaversal platforms, all sorts of content generated on the fly by AI, keeping folks engaged longer, but only if they can maintain their lead over competitors while they build-out those virtual worlds, and as they attempt to grab more relevant companies and refine the relevant hardware, in the meantime.It's still an open question, though, despite this flurry of hype and investment, whether anyone will really want to use these sorts of devices on a regular basis, beyond those with more money than they can spend and people who are super-enthused about any new tech gizmo.Some analysts contend that the best access-point for the metaverse, whatever it eventually evolves into, remains and will remain the screens we have on all of our gadgets, and that the idea of face-based computing is a little bit silly and too cumbersome to ever become mainstream.Others have suggested, though, that we long assumed the same about pocketable computing, and wearing such devices on our wrists—which is something many of us now do, because smartwatches—a field that was for a long time super niche and weird and rare—became incredibly popular after Apple introduced its Apple Watch and then iterated the thing until it was useful, a slew of other companies, including those that were working in this space long-before Apple stepped in, all upgrading and refining their own products, in turn, making the smartwatch world a lot richer and more useful and popular, as a consequence.If these headsets become lighter, cheaper, and possibly even evolve into goggles or glasses, rather than headsets, that could make them a lot more accessible and useable by many people who, today, struggle to understand why they should care, and what possible use they might have for this kind of device, when their smartphones and computer screens seem to work just fine, and with less neck-strain.So we could be looking at a flash in the pan movement, or we could be living through the emergence of a new, mainstream, perhaps even universal computing-related product type; but there's a good chance we won't know which for several more years.Show Noteshttps://stratechery.com/2024/the-apple-vision-pro/https://arstechnica.com/apple/2024/02/our-unbiased-take-on-mark-zuckerbergs-biased-apple-vision-pro-review/https://www.theverge.com/24054862/apple-vision-pro-review-vr-ar-headset-features-pricehttps://www.theverge.com/2024/2/16/24058318/apple-vision-pro-sharing-difficultieshttps://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-instagram-facebook-meta-posting-era-vision-pro-quest-2024-2https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/13/24072413/mark-zuckerberg-apple-vision-pro-review-quest-3https://www.theverge.com/24074795/vision-pro-returns-xbox-future-gemini-open-ai-vergecasthttps://fortune.com/2023/02/06/meta-buying-vr-startup-within-unlimited-after-ftc-battle/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_systemhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_computinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_HoloLenshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glasshttps://www.theverge.com/2023/12/21/24010787/microsoft-windows-mixed-reality-deprecated This is a public episode. 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