Podcasts about Beat Saber

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.

In today's Daily Fix: Congratulations, Helldivers! You beat back the might of the Sony corporation, who mandated—undemocratically—that you link a PSN account to your game even when playing on PC. Developer Arrowhead was on the side of the gamers in this fight, even going so far as to suggest players leave negative reviews of Helldivers 2 (which they did) to get the message across to Sony that this was a bad idea. The requirement, had it gone into effect, would have also stopped players in more than a hundred countries from playing the game, seeing as how PSN is not available worldwide. Sony may have reversed course on this decision thanks to the overwhelming response from the community, but the victory may be short-lived, as Sony is making a huge push into the PC gaming space, and may require other Sony-published games to have a PSN account tied to them. In other news, Beat Saber is losing Meta Quest 1 support, which could be a forerunner to other games losing support for the five-year-old VR tech.

This week in VR we are BACK as Samson returns to the podcast. We have a tonne to go through, Samson buys a PSVR 2 and has sunken 25hrs into GT7, Dan jumps into Astra, a very unique Mixed Reality game. Soul Covenant is mentioned... Walkabout Venice is great. Oh, and Meta basically announced a high-powered gaming headset from Asus?! And an XBOX Limited edition BLACK QUEST 3... we've been out of the news for too long!  VR COVER: https://vrcover.com Use code: PlayTestVR for 10% off EVERYTHING          Quest Referral Spreadsheet...over 150 games!: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kssKH2L8cSZCwbJ2S6aZQwvbIZsjZ0s1UcCHKotJ3ic/edit?usp=sharing            Merch! https://playtest-vr.creator-spring.com           Want to be part of the show? Send in your questions at letstalkoculus@gmail.com          Visit Patreon.com/letstalkoculus to help support the podcast and receive early access!     Twitter: @playtest_vr | @samson143vr           Main Channel: https://youtube.com/c/playtestvr          Spreading VR: https://youtu.be/9BCu3lnnCKU Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:05 What We've Been Playing (Samson's PSVR 2, Astra, Soul Covenant, Beat Saber, Walkabout Venice and C-Smash VRS)  59:52 Walkabout Season 3 1:07:40 Horizon OS & New Headsets 1:18:11 Death of App Lab 1:22:41 Youtube Update 1:23:14 Alien Incursion 1:26:39 Games Out This Week

Join us on a special weekend show which is part Beatsaber, Part Fundraiser and all lulz. In addition, we have some cringe/funny stories and articles to talk about to help ease your pain!

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.

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.

On this episode of the Ruff Talk VR podcast we have an edition of our weekly VR News episode with plenty to discuss! Including Beat Saber's new uncensored Hip Hop pack. As well Into The Radius 2 dropping a new trailer, a Toy Trains update, a new Spongebob Squarepants DLC coming to Powerwash Sim VR, upcoming VR games like Masters of Light, new VR games like VRider and VR Skater, and much more!  Listen for all the latest VR news!Discord: 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/Get 20% OFF @manscaped + Free Shipping with promo code RUFFTALKVR at MANSCAPED.com!*We are paid a commission through affiliate links to help support the podcast on the Kiwi links abovePatreon: https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvr Support the show

Easily one of the most recognizable VR creators, Naysy's bubbly personality and skills as a Beat Saber streamer have helped to push VR to new heights in the mainstream. Whether it's haptic vests, VR treadmills, full-body tracking or other interesting ways to use VR, she continues to showcase the cutting-edge of VR in a way that's fun, lighthearted and accessible. * Guest Links * YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KenseigamingVR Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/KenseiGaming TikTok: tiktok.com/@kenseigamingvr Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kenseigamingvr * Between Realities Links * Merch Store: https://teespring.com/stores/between-realities-vr-podcast Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/BetweenRealities YouTube - https://www.YouTube.com/BetweenRealities Twitter - https://twitter.com/BtweenRealities Discord - https://discord.gg/EvNnj2w Facebook - https://fb.me/BetweenRealities Alex VR - https://www.YouTube.com/Alex_VR Alex VR's Twitter – https://www.Twitter.com/Alex__VR Skeeva - https://www.YouTube.com/Skeeva007 Skeeva's Twitter - https://www.Twitter.com/Skeeva All the most current VR news with the best journalists in the industry! https://www.UploadVR.com We'd like to thank our Patrons & YouTube Members: * VIP * RobynzReality Jonathun Zug PotamWorks * All-access * Studioform VR (studioformcreative.com) ClassyGrandma Soul BC Chris Hanney Studioform VR Aspin Darkfire John Westra * Official * Duggers K Amelia Faust MickeyBerr Q2C VR Gamer Denise Dettlaff Michael McQuade Bluebell Virtual Mat Boiii Brittany Meland Jansen Fox Laszlo Gyorki Qcreator Graham Gettel * YT Members * MOBEAST GAMING Snowtoad ashleyriott Qcreator ClassyGrandma Ryan B Guido7335 SoulBC ShortStackVR ViARsys RedSlashAce Rhys Da King VR BaxornVR Olen VR VRoyBoy JayBratt Your support means so much to us! We're truly humbled that you choose to help us in our journey to make the XR industry thrive! All funds are used to fund the giveaways and to make this show better as we continuously strive to improve! Thank you so much for supporting Between Realities VR Podcast. * Affiliate Links * If you're going to buy VR stuff then why not support us by clicking though one of our links to make your purchase! Every little bit helps []-) Make your headset as comfy as it can be! Studioform VR - https://www.studioformcreative.com/?ref=25z8i95j09

This week in VR, I'm joined by Sam Clay from Wired Productions, who discusses their VR port of Arcade Paradise. Elsewhere, Quest 3 gets a big v64 update with passthrough improvements and Beatsaber gets a Hip Hop DLC pack. Arcade Paradise: https://wiredproductions.com/games/arcade-paradise-vr/ VR COVER: https://vrcover.com Use code: PlayTestVR for 10% off EVERYTHING         Quest Referral Spreadsheet...over 150 games!: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kssKH2L8cSZCwbJ2S6aZQwvbIZsjZ0s1UcCHKotJ3ic/edit?usp=sharing           Merch! https://playtest-vr.creator-spring.com          Want to be part of the show? Send in your questions at letstalkoculus@gmail.com          Visit Patreon.com/letstalkoculus to help support the podcast and receive early access!     Twitter: @playtest_vr | @samson143vr          Main Channel: https://youtube.com/c/playtestvr         Spreading VR: https://youtu.be/9BCu3lnnCKU Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:08 v64 Update10:11 Beatsaber Hip Hop DLC 11:57 Breachers Update15:53 Arcade Paradise VR with Sam Clay

Welcome to another episode of PS THIS IS AWESOME, your PlayStation podcast. This is Episode 323, where we delve into the current state of PlayStation.So, what's been keeping us glued to our screens lately in the gaming world?Fred has been on a wild ride, finishing up The Devil in Me and kicking off The Callisto Protocol.And Jake has been slaying dragons and mastering his hero skills in FFVII Rebirth, clocking a whopping 82 hours! Plus, he's been dabbling in Skul The Hero Slayer.Now onto the news:EA's got some updates on that Iron Man game we've all been waiting for. Looks like it's still in the works, but we'll have to wait a bit longer. Hold onto your lightsabers, folks! Star Wars Outlaws just dropped a new story trailer and a release date for August 30, 2024, exclusively for PS5. Rumor has it, PlayStation might be cooking up some surprises with smaller exclusives dropping by the end of the year. Astro Bot fans, keep your fingers crossed! And mark your calendars for June 10, 2024, because Ubisoft Forward is coming in hot. Plus, whispers in the wind suggest a PlayStation State of Play might be on the horizon in May.Oh, and if you're a fan of hip hop and Beat Saber, you're in luck! There's a fresh mixtape featuring some of the greatest rap artists of all time.And of course, what's a podcast without some new game releases?April 10th sees the arrival of Broken Roads, House Flipper 2, and SokoFrog.April 11th brings Let's! Revolution!, Loretta, and The Kindeman Remedy to the gaming table. Rounding out the lineup on April 12th is Outer Terror.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. Support PS This is Awesome! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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!

Thank you to the folks at Sustain (https://sustainoss.org/) for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! CHAOSScast – Episode 80 On today's episode of CHAOSScast, we focus on the experiences and initiatives of the Open Source Program Office at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Host Dawn Foster is joined by Sean Goggins along with guests, Remy DeCausemaker, Natalia Luzuriaga, Isaac Milarsky, and Aayat Ali, all from various backgrounds within the CMS, who share insights into their efforts in maintaining and promoting an open source culture within federal services. Key discussion points include the launch of the CMS's first open source program office, the development of a maturity model framework to evaluate open source projects, the creation of tools such as Repo Scaffolder and Duplifier to support open source practices, and efforts towards open source software security. This episode emphasizes the distinct aspects of opens source work in government settings compared to the private sector and highlights upcoming presentations at conferences. Download this episode now to hear more! [00:02:21] Dawn asks about the team's work at the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. We start with Remy, who explains the launch of the first open source program office at a federal agency in the U.S. and details CMS's mission to improve healthcare experience for over 150 million people and the role of the digital service within CMS. [00:05:36] Natalia discusses the maturity model framework developed to assess the open source maturity level of projects. She describes a “Repo Scaffolder” tool created in collaboration with the U.S. digital response to help projects align with the majority model, and she speaks about additional features for public repositories to aid in development. [00:10:51] Isaac takes over, explaining how they use Auger metrics and “Nadia labeling” to categorize projects and encourage the adoption of their maturity model. He details a metrics website that provides visual representations of project health and activity and introduces “Duplifier,” a deduplication tool for healthcare data, which uses an open source library called Splink. [00:15:14] Sean inquires how they actualize their user needs in metrics visualization and about the process that informs the creation of these visual metrics. Isaac addresses front-end design aspects of metric visualization and the importance of making the metrics understandable at a glance. Natalia emphasizing designing for both technical and non-technical stakeholders, ensuring metrics are clear and understandable. [00:17:44] Aayat discusses her role in strategy development and the creation of a CMS OSPO guide. She emphasizes advocacy withing CMS for open source and plans to conduct workshops and usability testing to determine which metrics are most valuable to stakeholders. [00:19:23] Remy talks about consulting with the chief information security officer and the chief information officer for internal metric priorities and engaging with an external OSPO metrics working group convened by CHAOSS for broader insights. [00:20:47] Dawn asks Remy for more details on the differences with government engagement in open source to the corporate environments. Remy describes the early journey of OSPOs at the federal level and contrasts it with his private sector experience. [00:25:18] Sean asks about what success would look like a year from now for the OSPO group's work. Remy acknowledges the limited four-year term for digital service members, emphasizing the urgency to execute and make an impact within the next year. He highlights the transformative impact of Isaac and Natalia's entrance into the program and the successful shipping of the metrics website, a deduplication tool, and other repositories. [00:27:50] Isaac envisions success as propagating maturity models and open source standards throughout the government, demonstrating value to stakeholders, and growing the OSPO. Natalia is excited to share their foundational OSPO work and contribute to open data initiatives and mentions speaking this year at the Linux Foundation Open Source Summit and PyCon about their work. Aayat defines success as achieving goals in source code stewardship, understanding the maturity and content of repositories, and supporting the team in communicating the value of open source. [00:29:53] Remy brings up Nadia Eghbal giving her credit for influential work and mentioning a team book club inspired by her writings. Value Adds (Picks) of the week: [00:32:39] Dawn's pick is Beat Saber for indoor workouts. [00:33:05] Sean's pick is the HBO max show, True Detective, Season 4. [00:33:22] Remy's pick is the BRAVO Hackathon Series he recently attended. [00:38:14] Natalia's pick is visiting her local library and getting a library card. [00:38:39] Aayat's pick is a good book she read called, “Demon Copperhead.” [00:39:36] Isaac's pick is enjoying the nice weather and getting outside. **Panelists: Dawn Foster Sean Goggins Guests: Remy DeCausemaker Natalia Luzuriaga Isaac Milarsky Aayat Ali Links: CHAOSS (https://chaoss.community/) CHAOSS Project X/Twitter (https://twitter.com/chaossproj?lang=en) CHAOSScast Podcast (https://podcast.chaoss.community/) podcast@chaoss.community (mailto:podcast@chaoss.community) Georg Link Website (https://georg.link/) Dawn Foster X/Twitter (https://twitter.com/geekygirldawn?lang=en) Sean Goggins X/Twitter (https://twitter.com/sociallycompute) Remy DeCausemaker X/Twitter (https://twitter.com/Remy_D) Remy DeCausemaker LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/decause/) Natalia Luzuriaga LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuzuriaga/) Isaac Milarsky LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaac-milarsky-24471b1b6) Aayat Ali LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/aayat-ali-a5850134/) Aayat Ali Website (https://aayatali.com/) CMS.gov (https://moj-analytical-services.github.io/splink/index.html) Digital Service at CMS (DSACMS)-GitHub (https://github.com/dsacms) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-GitHub (https://github.com/CMSgov) United States Digital Corps (https://digitalcorps.gsa.gov/) Splink (https://moj-analytical-services.github.io/splink/index.html) Repo Scaffolder-GitHub (https://moj-analytical-services.github.io/splink/index.html) Metrics Dashboard for CMS Open Source Projects (https://github.com/dsacms/metrics) Repo Metrics Website (https://dsacms.github.io/metrics/) github-ospo (https://github.com/github/github-ospo) The Linux Foundation Open Source Summit-April 16-18, 2024, Seattle, WA (https://events.linuxfoundation.org/open-source-summit-north-america/) PyCon US-May 15-23, 2024-Pittsburgh, PA (https://us.pycon.org/2024/) Nadia Asparouhova (aka Nadia Eghbal) Website (https://nadia.xyz/) Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software by Nadia Eghbal (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578675862/) Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure by Nadia Eghbal (https://www.fordfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/roads-and-bridges-the-unseen-labor-behind-our-digital-infrastructure.pdf) CHAOSScast Podcast-Episode 77: Open Source Metrics at Microsoft (https://podcast.chaoss.community/77) Beat Saber (https://beatsaber.com/) True Detective-Season 4 (HBO max) (https://www.hbo.com/true-detective/season-4) BRAVO Hackathon Series (https://bravo.il2.afwerx.dso.mil/about) Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Copperhead-Novel-Barbara-Kingsolver/dp/0063251922) Special Guests: Aayat Ali, Isaac Milarsky, Natalia Luzuriaga, and Remy DeCausemaker.

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. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

NatBratt from Full Dive Gaming: A VR Podcast joins the PlayPSVR guys for a Valentines day special!  That's right, this episode is all about the ladies.  What do women want?  Do you want a man who is good at Synth Riders or Beat Saber? Are VR relationships a thing?  Nat covers all the hard hitting questions in this episode of PlayPSVR2: The Podcast.  

We play games that were released this decade. Sometimes? It's not exactly our preferred time period, I suppose. Come along with us as we explore old games, new games, short games, long games, and just ALL the games. Hey, send us listener mail! It would brighten our lives if you did. Games We Are Playing: Yakuza: Like a Dragon, The Fortnite, Beat Saber, Metroid Prime 3, Brave Fencer Musashi, Marvelous: Another Treasure Island, Silent Hill: The Short Message Links! Sony State of Play Final Fantasy State of Play New Plastic Instruments Layoffs Layoffs! Layoffs!! Send us questions! We love questions! someotherpodcast@gmail.com

✔Main Channel~ https://www.youtube.com/@DarkViperAU ✔Twitch Channel ~ https://www.twitch.tv/DarkViperAU ✔Main Channel ~ https://www.youtube.com/@DarkViperAU ✔Rambles Podcast ~ https://www.youtube.com/@ViperRambles ✔VOD Channel ~ https://www.youtube.com/@DarkViperAULivestreams ✔Extras Channel ~ https://www.youtube.com/@DarkViperAUExtras ✔Merch ~ https://darkviperau-merch.myspreadshop.com ✔My Discord ~ https://discord.gg/darkviperau ✔DarkviperAU Subreddit ~ https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkViperAU ✔YouTube Membership ~ https://www.youtube.com/darkviperau/join ✔Patreon ~ https://www.patreon.com/DarkViperAU ✔Twitter ~ https://www.twitter.com/DarkViperAU ✔Instagram ~ https://www.instagram.com/DarkViperAU ✔TikTok ~ https://www.tiktok.com/@darkviperau ✔GTA 5 Speedrun Discord ~ https://discord.com/invite/zQt8wZg ✔Business Email ~ darkviperau@mgmtexe.com Editors (On Discord) Rogerio - Rogerio6703 Knees - KneesEdits Andros - andros.jors Music by Chillhop: https://chillhop.ffm.to/creatorcred Complete content ID Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2Kjlacd Listen on Spotify: http://bit.ly/ChillhopSpotify 0:00 - Thoughts on the Meta Quest 3 2:12 - The VR Experience isn't Good Enough 5:35 - Beat Saber is Great... with Piracy 9:00 - Pornogrophy will advance VR? 11:10 - Conclusion

Chega a primeira parte da já tradicional trilogia de podcasts sobre 2023. Escutamos e discutimos do hype épico de Final Fantasy XVI à ansiedade incontrolável de Pizza Tower, dos temas e motivos de Tears of the Kingdom à complexidade de Street Fighter 6, das referências clássicas de Sea of Stars à um reencontro em Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Vídeo: Full Combo da "Power of the Saber Blade" 00:05:52 - “Main Theme” de The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 00:16:04 - “GET ENUF” de Bomb Rush Cyberfunk 00:26:39 - “It's Pizza Time” de Pizza Tower 00:38:19 - “Contact With You” de Armored Core VI 00:51:42 - “Dead Department” de Lunacid 00:59:36 - “Encounter Elite!” de Sea of Stars 01:07:22 - “Find the Flame” de Final Fantasy XVI 01:16:00 - “Thulludhadi Valasu”, de Venba 01:33:32 - “Main Theme (Day)” de Octopath Traveler 2 01:42:01 - “The Ritual” de Stray Gods 02:00:49 - “Genbu Temple” de Street Fighter 6 02:10:13 - “Yötön Yö” de Alan Wake 2 02:24:59 - “Power of the Saber Blade” de Beat Saber 02:36:11 - “Blood Pressure” de El Paso, Elsewhere 02:45:46 - “Just Lean” de Guilty Gear Strive 02:55:45 - “Why” de Lies of P Contribua | Twitter | YouTube | Twitch | Contato

Image by Michael Rowe with DiffusionBee, December 2023 Published 1 January 2024 Andy and Michael R are back while Michael M is away - and have a fantastic show on the DNA of 2023 in games. This episode starts with a stroll down the beginnings of Dungeons and Dragons, with Michael R sharing a couple of links from the Internet Archive.  He found a veritable treasure trove of documents, rulebooks and more.  A couple of which are in the show notes below.  Michael R noted that AD&D was not only about dungeons and dragons, with the same rules and mechanics applied to other sci-fi genres.  An additional example of the AD&D system was used by the RPG game Toon.   Turning next to PC (personal computer) based games, and moving forward a bit in time, Andy and Michael R start with games that were sold and distributed via (gasp!) physical media!   No cloud based games in this selection, though many of them are now available via the web and can be experienced (sort of) with modern hardware.  Andy comments that he and Michael are of the cohort that experienced the transition from analog to digital, and that experience will never be repeated because it just can't.  Michael R shares his enthusiasm in playing Baldur's Gate 3, exclaiming that he now understands why everyone is so drawn in by it.  With 108 gig of content, it's no surprise that the graphics and gameplay are such high quality.  Of course no discussion of games would be complete without World of Warcraft.   The co-hosts also discuss several NPC (non personal computer) games such as those on the Playdate, and a large number of games on Steam.  Vote for your favorite Steam Deck games on The 2023 Steam Awards - by 2 Jan 2024 10am Pacific.  One of Andy's particular favorites is Dave the Diver. Andy and Michael close out the last episode recorded in 2023 with the hope that there will be many unique and valuable experiences in VR and AR beyond Beat Saber. Michael M was also "playing a game” on the evening of 29 Dec — enjoying time in the Smith Center while the university students are away, and looking forward to hoisting up the sousaphone once more to play for the women's basketball team on New Year's Eve closing out the #JordanYear. What games are on the top of your list to play in 2024?  Have your bots

Al and Codey talk about the games in the Wholesome Snack Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:50: What Have We Been Up To 00:09:38: Turnip Boy Robs A Bank 00:13:11: Pixelshire 00:13:57: Botany Manor 00:15:56: Roots Of Pacha 00:18:02: Tchia 00:19:29: Bear And Breakfast 00:20:23: Everdream Valley 00:22:11: Harvest Moon: The Winds Of Anthos 00:26:22: One Lonely Outpost 00:27:07: Stardew Valley 00:30:46: Disney Dreamlight Valley 00:35:44: Fae Farm 00:38:14: Wholesome Games Bundle 00:40:38: Wholesome Snack 00:41:59: Vivarium 00:45:37: Communite 00:47:13: Lightyear Frontier 00:49:05: Go-Go Town 00:52:21: Snacko 00:56:47: Usagi Shima 00:59:27: Eastward Octopia 01:00:56: Summer House 01:02:44: Bugaboo Pocket 01:07:36: Voyagers Of Nera 01:10:14: Outro Links Turnip Boy Robs a Bank Release Date Pixelshire Info Botany Manor Roots of Pacha 1.1 Update Tchia Steam Release and Updates Bear and Breakfast Everdream Valley Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos Update Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos DLC One Lonely Outpost Unrefiner Update Stardew Valley Concert New Dates Stardew Valley Big Chest Disney Dreamlight Valley Pumpkin King Update Disney Dreamlight Valley A Rift In Time DLC Fae Farm DLC Wholesome Games Humble Bundle Wholesome Snack Vivarium Communite Lightyear Frontier Go-Go Town Snacko Usagi Shima Eastward Octopia Summer House Bugaboo Pocket Voyagers of Nera Codey on Twitter Codey on Bluesky Codey on Instagram Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al, (0:00:36) Codey: And my name is Codey. (0:00:38) Al: and we are here today to talk about farming game, (0:00:42) Al: cartridge core games, games, lots of all the games. So many games. (0:00:45) Codey: Wholesome games that are snack related. Woo! (0:00:51) Al: Sure. Before we get into it, transcripts are available on the show notes and on the website. (0:00:57) Al: Go get them if you need them. (0:01:00) Al: We are going to talk just… I mean it’s basically all news, because we are recording this two hours after the wholesome snack came out. (0:01:04) Codey: Yeah. (0:01:09) Al: Which apparently is a short one, but it was half an hour long, so it wasn’t particularly short, but there we are. (0:01:14) Codey: Yeah, I wish there was a visual component because when you sit apparently it was a short one, my face was rude. (0:01:22) Codey: I was like, “Mmm, no.” (0:01:25) Al: Yeah. (0:01:27) Al: That’s what they said. I mean, like, the direct in June was… (0:01:30) Al: I know we’re long, so like, sure fine, it’s shorter, but shorter is not the same as short. (0:01:37) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (0:01:39) Al: Anyway, so we’re going to talk about all that. There’s a lot of other news as well, so I think we’ll do all the other news first, and then we’ll get into the wholesome snack stuff. (0:01:43) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:47) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:48) Al: So we’ll just, we’ll take it as it goes. But first of all, Codey, what have you been up to? (0:01:49) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:53) Codey: I have been playing, uh, Disney Dreamlight Valley. (0:01:58) Codey: Um, yeah, I have also been playing, uh, that one thing, my Tetris game. (0:02:07) Codey: Um, I’m pulling, I’m pulling it up right now. (0:02:07) Al: Oh yeah. I was like, “What one thing?” Oh yes, that thing, the scam game. (0:02:09) Codey: They had, they, yeah, my scam game. (0:02:13) Codey: They have a thing going on right now. (0:02:15) Codey: I don’t know how long it’s going on for, but, like, you earn five times points. (0:02:19) Codey: Um, and so I’m actually at 887 million, or, sorry, 887,000 points. (0:02:20) Al: Ooh. (0:02:25) Codey: I am almost to a mill, I know, I’m almost to a million points. (0:02:25) Al: Oh my word. (0:02:28) Al: Get a cruise. (0:02:29) Codey: I’m going, though, I will say, I will say the cruises that they have right now, um, (0:02:31) Al: Where’s the current cruise? (0:02:35) Codey: Our two million points not one million points. So there are some there are some shifting baselines. (0:02:38) Al: Oh, see, I see what’s happening here. (0:02:42) Al: They just keep jumping up the prices when people get close to it. (0:02:47) Codey: Let me see. Oh yeah so for 13 oh no there’s there’s a five-day cruise to the Caribbean for 1500. (0:02:47) Al: Sneaky. (0:02:55) Al: Like 1.5 million, right? (0:02:56) Codey: Uh you have so correct sorry one and a half million. (0:03:00) Al: It’s like 1,500! Oh my word! You can get a lot of cruises right now! (0:03:04) Codey: No, and so yeah, it’s a complimentary five day cruise. (0:03:07) Codey: Uh, the cool thing about this one is that you leave Miami, Florida, you go, um, to Belize in Mexico, and then you go back to Miami, Florida. (0:03:15) Codey: So some of these cruises, like, especially once to Alaska, like they take, they grab you in like Washington and then drop you off in Alaska. (0:03:21) Codey: So you’re going to still have to like find a way back, but that one does not. (0:03:24) Al: Yeah, that’s not ideal. Yeah, but you have to go to Florida. (0:03:24) Codey: That one’s pretty good. (0:03:25) Codey: Um. (0:03:34) Codey: Um yeah so um bustin butt on that game for sure. Um also pokemon go and I think those are oh and pigman bloom but those are pretty basic um standard games. I also have been uh I upgraded to game pass ultimate so I have the ability to play some other games. Oh I played one game (0:03:59) Codey: that was like uh it like (0:04:04) Codey: built bent the world like worked on perception gosh what the heck was it called I don’t know it’s like me only like four hours to beat but it was really good yeah I’m upset that I can’t remember the subliminal super liminal something like that very good though yeah that’s yep super liminal so I think That’s what it’s called. It was very good. There’s (0:04:12) Al: Yeah, nice. That’s our Atlantic game I like. (0:04:32) Codey: It’s it (0:04:34) Codey: Yeah, very good. And I because there are games on game pass that I want to play like Coral Island and Echo Snipe Market. There’s like a bunch of games that are available, but I want to stay dedicated to Disney Dreamlight Valley for reasons. (0:04:52) Al: Speaking of Carl Island, I have been playing Carl Island a lot. I’ve almost hit 100 hours on that game now. I’ve just finished year three in the game and now I’m taking a wee we break to play some other games, but yeah, yeah, it’s not (0:04:54) Codey: So yeah, what about you? What have you wanted to? (0:05:07) Codey: Yeah, didn’t you say like you’re after your your you said you’re gonna take a break after year three? (0:05:22) Al: not. I mean, that gives you an idea of how much I like this game, because I don’t, I think stardew is the only other game that I went, I went to like at least two years, (0:05:32) Al: right? Like I don’t, I don’t do that often. It’s because it’s really hard to get through though to like actually sink a decent amount of time into these games. Um, this, this one just kept me going and I like how it kept me going the second time I came to it as well. (0:05:47) Al: Right, it wasn’t just like, I spent like what, 40 hours in the first time and I’ve (0:05:52) Al: stunk in another 60 hours, right? So like, that’s pretty good. Uh, you know, like it’s impressive to, for me to spend that amount of time on a game, a game which I have not spent that long in is Coa and the Five Pirates. Uh, so I have finished that game, but it’s a very nice short game. So it took me five hours. I’ve not like a hundred percented everything. (0:06:15) Al: I think you could maybe add on like another two to three hours if you want to a hundred percent everything but I was pretty happy. (0:06:22) Al: happy with it. So that’s the 3D platformer from the Summer in Mara people. So it was good fun. We have an extra story in that world and a fun platforming game. The bosses in particular were very fun, some good challenges and different ways of doing things. So it’s not just like the same thing over and over again. It really felt like each level they they kind of had crafted nicely. (0:06:23) Codey: Mm-hmm. Okay. (0:06:51) Al: So that was good. (0:06:53) Al: I have just started a Highland song, because that came out yesterday. (0:06:58) Al: That is a platformer based in the Scottish Highlands, but it also has some rhythm-based parts to it. (0:07:09) Al: It’s a really interesting game, and it’s really hard to explain, but essentially it’s a platformer, (0:07:14) Al: but it’s like an exploration platformer, kind of. (0:07:19) Al: But it’s also like a story game. (0:07:21) Al: the I mean everything about this game is just gorgeous. Like I love how it looks, I love how it plays, I love the music, (0:07:28) Al: like everything about it is just fantastic. And like real Scott, (0:07:30) Codey: Okay, that’s high praise, high praise it being about the Scottish Highlands and coming from a Scott, so. (0:07:37) Al: and it’s got real Scottish accents in it so. (0:07:39) Codey: Mm-hmm, awesome. (0:07:43) Al: And finally I’ve been playing the Beat Saber original soundtrack 6, so that just came out (0:07:51) Al: tonight today I think (0:07:52) Al: um so i’ve been playing that so that’s got a dragon force song, a lindsay starling song, (0:08:01) Al: a camellia song, and another song by someone I hadn’t heard of but I enjoyed it nonetheless. (0:08:07) Al: So now I just want more dragon force and more lindsay starling songs like they’re both really fun to play to. The camellia one and the other one were good as well but we already have a camellia pack so like there’s plenty of that I really want really want the others. (0:08:23) Al: Um yeah lots. I so I play it on the quest 2, the meta quest 2. (0:08:24) Codey: - What do you play that on? (0:08:33) Al: At this point trying with all my might not to buy the meta quest 3, especially as they just released an update for beat saber on the quest 3 that gives it 120 frames per second on which is just wild because it’s like the one thing that i’d not hugely a fact well the two things that i’m that I’m not a huge fan of with the Quest 2. (0:08:52) Al: one, the cameras to put you in the augmented part of it are not great, right? You can kind of see the shapes and everything. You can figure out where you are, but you can’t make out anything on it. And the Quest 3 has much better cameras. And sometimes it’s a little bit like, “Oh, that wasn’t quite the right kind of refresh rate, and I felt a little bit dizzy from that.” So it doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen enough to make me want to not have that. (0:09:22) Al: So yeah, we’ll see what happens. (0:09:28) Codey: Cool. (0:09:29) Al: What happens? (0:09:30) Al: Making you sound like it’s a surprise. (0:09:31) Al: Oh no! (0:09:32) Al: What happened? (0:09:33) Al: Oops, I bought it. (0:09:34) Codey: What? What could possibly… (0:09:34) Al: How did that happen? (0:09:35) Al: Shall we talk about some news, Codey? (0:09:40) Codey: Let’s do it. (0:09:42) Al: Let’s start off with Turnitboy Robsabank. (0:09:45) Al: They have announced that their release date is the 18th of January. (0:09:49) Al: Oh… (0:09:50) Codey: I just want, so like the fact that they’re making this turn up to all these illegal things (0:09:58) Codey: I really want the next one to be turn it boy breaks up a marriage just for you Al (0:10:04) Al: Why- Laughter (0:10:06) Al: No! Laughter (0:10:06) Codey: Like have you ever wanted to evade taxes? Have you ever wanted to rob a bank? (0:10:08) Al: Right, no, no, no, no, no, no [Laughter] (0:10:12) Al: I also don’t, like, in real life, want to break up marriages, right? (0:10:16) Al: Like, that’s- Laughter (0:10:18) Al: You’re making it sound like I’m a homewrecker! (0:10:22) Codey: You want to be a video game? You want the option. (0:10:22) Al: I just- Laughter (0:10:24) Al: In- in my- Laughter (0:10:26) Al: In my farming games! Laughter (0:10:28) Codey: No, I love, I just saw this title and I was like, (0:10:32) Codey: they’re making this poor turn up to all these things. (0:10:37) Al: No one’s making him do anything. He’s choosing to do this. He is crazy. (0:10:39) Codey: Yeah, he’s a goofy goober. (0:10:43) Codey: So, I mean, so you’ve played the first one. (0:10:46) Codey: Does this seem, is this like a sequel? (0:10:48) Codey: Like, do you get to continue on from the same? (0:10:49) Al: Yeah. (0:10:51) Al: Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s the sequel. Like it’s a continuation of Turn It By Story. (0:10:59) Al: I mean, it looks good. It looks like it takes kind of what was in the first game and adds some more other ideas like the first game didn’t. (0:11:07) Al: Have guns, for example. (0:11:08) Codey: The picture of him, the logo when he’s holding a gun. (0:11:15) Codey: Oh my god. (0:11:17) Al: I mean, nobody robs a bank with not a gun, right? (0:11:20) Al: Like, that’s kind of a requirement to rob a bank. (0:11:22) Codey: I feel like people will rob banks in countries that don’t allow guns without guns. (0:11:27) Codey: There’s gotta be like… (0:11:29) Al: Yeah, they just get guns, right? Like, yeah, sure, guns are illegal. And, you know, this is not a political point, but it doesn’t mean that there are no guns, right? Like, you can still get guns. (0:11:41) Al: Like, do you think gun people, for countries that have no legal guns, still have zero guns, right? (0:11:46) Al: If you’re going to rob a bank, you can get a gun, right? It’s harder to get it. Like, I’m not saying that gun controls don’t work. They do. But it doesn’t mean that literally nobody can ever get to gun and therefore you got to rob a bank with a knife, right? Like, which would be significantly harder. (0:11:50) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:12:06) Codey: I feel like that would make– that’s like how you play this game on hard mode. (0:12:10) Al: No guns. (0:12:10) Codey: That should be what’s hard mode. There’s just no guns and you gotta rob the bank. (0:12:15) Al: There are a lot of guns in this trailer. Lots of different guns. And also a spaceship at the end. (0:12:18) Codey: There are. There are. There really are. Yeah, yeah, there’s an alien at the end. I didn’t know if like it was a character that you’ve already seen or something because, um, like they have the outline of the character. Yeah, they have the outline of the character and like you can see that it kind kind of has like maybe sunglasses on. (0:12:29) Al: The alien, no. (0:12:36) Codey: And I didn’t know if there was maybe like a link to the previous game. (0:12:38) Al: No, I don’t recognize that character. (0:12:41) Codey: Cool. (0:12:42) Codey: Cool, cool, cool. (0:12:43) Codey: How is the alien going to help? (0:12:45) Codey: Are they going to give you more advanced guns? (0:12:47) Codey: Is that how that works? (0:12:49) Al: Oh, I did see a laser gun at one point. (0:12:51) Codey: Are they, are they like also trying, they came from space to rob the exact same bank that you’re trying to rob? (0:12:58) Codey: Like are they competition? (0:12:58) Al: I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. This game’s coming to Windows, Switch and Xbox, (0:13:02) Codey: Uh. (0:13:04) Al: and it’s also coming to Game Pass. And there’s a new trailer. There you go. Done. Right. (0:13:06) Codey: Mm-hm, January 18th, next. (0:13:10) Al: January 18th. Pixel Shire is no longer coming to Early Access and is releasing next year. (0:13:16) Al: Cool. Great. No real comment on that. Good for you. It seems like an interesting thing to be like, “We’re coming to Early Access,” and then be like, “Aha! No, we’re not.” But (0:13:16) Codey: Yep. Take your time. (0:13:21) Codey: Good for her. (0:13:27) Codey: Well, it’s not that. It’s not like a “ha ha, we pulled the rug from you.” (0:13:33) Codey: We were optimistic and life happens and that’s okay. That’s okay, Pixel Shire. (0:13:36) Al: No, I think their point is they don’t, I think what they’re trying to say is they don’t (0:13:42) Codey: That is true. In the thing, they’re like, (0:13:45) Codey: we’re not going to do early access. (0:13:46) Codey: at all, we’re just going to release 1.0 in the neck. (0:13:49) Codey: I don’t understand what the benefit of that is, but sure. (0:13:52) Codey: Cool. (0:13:52) Codey: You do you it’s, it’s your stuff. (0:13:53) Al: We’ll see what happens. (0:13:58) Al: Botany Manor is releasing in Spring 2024 on Steam Switch, Xbox and Game Pass. (0:14:05) Codey: Yeah and it is they mentioned it in the Twitter like someone asked if it’s going to be steam deck verified and they said yeah not going to be on PlayStation that’s another comment from someone on the Twitter Twitter post tweet (0:14:17) Al: I mean, I feel like Steam Deck verification is just kind of a default for these things now, (0:14:21) Al: like, if you’re not supporting all the Steam Deck stuff, get out of here, go away. I don’t want you. (0:14:26) Codey: Okay, okay. (0:14:28) Al: Right. Bare minimum. Bare minimum. (0:14:28) Codey: Um, look, looks really cool, though. (0:14:31) Codey: I don’t know if we’ve talked about this game before, but I hadn’t seen it and it looks really cool. (0:14:35) Al: We’ve mentioned it somewhere, but yeah, it’s like, you’re running a botany. (0:14:40) Codey: Um, a bot–a botany. (0:14:40) Al: No, why is it a botany? Botanical gardens, I guess, would be. Is that what it is? (0:14:44) Codey: You–you encounter a botanical garden place, like– (0:14:46) Al: Please. (0:14:49) Al: Running a botany. (0:14:51) Codey: You’re basically it seems like there’s like there was a botanist’s house. Maybe the botanist passed away (0:14:56) Codey: She’s like elsewhere on a vacation or something But like you come upon her house and then you kind of like using her notes try and find plants that are (0:15:06) Codey: Lost like plants that might have died out somehow or they’re just missing like they they’re like this plant should exist And then it’s like boom you can make it Looks really cool. I wonder if they’re gonna teach you how to take care of real plants because your girl needs it I’m pretty sure this is I always want this. I’m pretty sure that this game (0:15:22) Al: You’re always wanting that, goodness me. (0:15:27) Codey: Mmm, I should yeah, it’s it’s (0:15:32) Codey: Per published published by white thorn games, which is the same game publisher that published a pico (0:15:39) Codey: And I told the a pico people that I wanted this (0:15:43) Codey: Also white thorn games is like based in like three hours for me very cool (0:15:51) Codey: So cool excited we’ll get it on game pass Yes. (0:15:57) Al: Roots of Patcher have released their 1.1 update and are on Switch and PlayStation now. (0:16:03) Al: Codey, is there anything I need to care about this update because I’ve still not played (0:16:04) Codey: The update… (0:16:08) Codey: I think that the update only adds stuff to… (0:16:12) Codey: I don’t think it’s going to add anything that’s going to make people that haven’t played it want to play it. (0:16:16) Codey: I think it’s just a benefit if you’ve already played it before. (0:16:20) Codey: So they include a new animal, which is called the Oryx. It’s kind of like a bison-ish thing. (0:16:24) Codey: You’re able to sit down now. (0:16:26) Codey: There’s a new romanceable character. (0:16:28) Codey: And oh, you do get the ability to break up with people. (0:16:32) Codey: So like if you decided you want to date. (0:16:34) Codey: someone and then you’re like yeah then you actually can like go in and be like I think it’s a like disband Union or something like that and then you can (0:16:42) Al: Yeah, they don’t have marriage because obviously that’s a modern concept. They have unions instead. (0:16:46) Codey: unions and so you can disband that and like go be with someone else and it said something like your the people will be upset but they’ll get they’ll get over it you can now harvest meat from traps and there are new cutscenes and other things so yeah they’ll just get over it they’ll be fine (0:17:00) Al: They’ll get over it who cares doesn’t doesn’t matter Bye! (0:17:04) Codey: so yeah I think it’s it’s things that kind of enhance the world and the interactability and the choices that you can make which is really cool but I don’t think like you’re saying like someone who hasn’t played it I don’t think these are things that are gonna be like ooh you can that’s gonna bring me to the game well now there’s this cool update you can get an oryx you can ride an oryx I’m assuming you can write an oryx well it’s it’s a (0:17:23) Al: I mean I do want to play it, I’ve just not done it yet. Too many games. (0:17:29) Al: Whatever that is. Is that a real animal or is this a thing they’ve made up? (0:17:34) Codey: an extinct animal but yes it was a real animal yeah it’s like a bison so I said (0:17:37) Al: Oh it’s just like a cow with horns. (0:17:42) Al: Interesting. What do I look like? Someone who knows what a bison is? (0:17:47) Codey: known because your voice is not from America so there’s a lot of bison here yeah skeleton what’s crazy (0:17:52) Al: Oh, the skeleton looks creepy. (0:17:54) Al: I wanna ride the skeleton one. (0:17:58) Al: Hey, oh yes, that’s a bison, I recognize that. (0:18:03) Al: Tch, tch, chia. (0:18:04) Codey: chia mm-hmm (0:18:06) Al: Tch, chia is out now. (0:18:09) Al: Wait, no, we already knew that. (0:18:10) Al: Why are you adding that? (0:18:11) Al: They were already, they’ve been out for ages. (0:18:15) Al: Goodness me, let me try that again. (0:18:17) Codey: listeners behind the scenes I wrote that they’re out now he just had it that they were they were releasing on Steam in March and I was like is this are they not out I Chia okay on Bye. (0:18:22) Al: Tch, chia. (0:18:28) Al: Right, tchia, tchia, which is already out on PlayStation (0:18:35) Al: and in the Epic Game Store is coming on Steam in March. (0:18:40) Al: Is that better? (0:18:42) Codey: I wonder. (0:18:43) Al: And they’re adding a bunch of updates. (0:18:48) Codey: The updates that are coming are an outfit perk system. (0:18:50) Codey: So basically the items will now give you buffs, (0:18:53) Codey: like outfit, like items that you wear. (0:18:55) Codey: There’s also new cosmetic items. (0:18:58) Codey: The comment that I wrote is look like the clown that you are. (0:19:02) Codey: Because you can look like a clown. (0:19:06) Codey: Yeah, that’s because I’m a clown. (0:19:10) Codey: That’s the joke. (0:19:11) Codey: New soul melodies. (0:19:11) Codey: So basically it’s new ways to– (0:19:12) Codey: interact with your environment. (0:19:15) Codey: They– in the trailer, they show that you use a soul melody and it like blows something up, which is really interesting. (0:19:22) Codey: Yeah, that’s– that’s that. (0:19:25) Al: It’s Windows only, by the way, it’s not Mac. Sods. (0:19:26) Codey: Thank you. (0:19:27) Codey: I was about to look. (0:19:30) Al: Bear and Breakfast are coming to PS4 and PS5. (0:19:34) Al: I was funny when they say that it’s like, is there a PS4 version that you can play on the PS5 or is it a PS4 version and a PS5 version? (0:19:42) Codey: Mm-hmm (0:19:42) Al: I suspect it’s a PS4 version that you can play on the PS5. (0:19:45) Al: Anyway, whoever. (0:19:46) Codey: Yeah (0:19:48) Al: Just coming on the 12th of December next week. (0:19:53) Codey: There’s also a new trailer that they have that they put in it and that trailer was unnecessarily dramatic and I absolutely (0:20:02) Al: It is completely in fitting with their entire social media. (0:20:08) Codey: I love it. I want more. 10 out of 10 recommend that people watch it. And play that game. (0:20:16) Al: You played it, didn’t you? Yeah, you were on the on the app. (0:20:18) Codey: It’s a good game. I did. (0:20:24) Al: Everdream Valley, which is already out on other things, is coming to Xbox on the 15th of December. (0:20:26) Codey: it’s coming thank you (0:20:36) Al: It’s funny because they say our Xbox One version and the comments are like, oh, what about the other consoles? (0:20:42) Al: like that’s what they mean is they’ve done what I would talking about with beer and breakfast right it’s an xbox one version that works on xbox series x and s so they just they’ve worded it in a confusing way (0:20:54) Codey: And the more important thing is the release date of December 15th is also the day that Twitter user MrRedEyes19 was planning on proposing to his girlfriend. And so he’s saying that it’ll be the perfect engagement gift and I need the tea. I need to know if he– how that ends up. (0:21:14) Al: It feels really risky to tweet that beforehand. (0:21:16) Codey: Doesn’t it though? What if she saw that? Like what if she– (0:21:24) Al: There isn’t a huge amount on their Twitter to, you know, suggest who they are, so. (0:21:31) Codey: I need the tea though. I need the tea. I need to know if his girlfriend, or their girlfriend, if their girlfriend says yes and if she does, if they give her that game, or I need to know. (0:21:49) Al: I got so confused there. (0:21:52) Al: With your changing of what pronouns you were using, I just got so confused to say “see”. (0:21:55) Codey: Well, cause I don’t know. They say girlfriend, but I’m not assuming they’re genders. (0:21:57) Al: No, no, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. (0:22:02) Codey: I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to do that. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. (0:22:02) Al: I agree with that, it was just because you changed halfway through, (0:22:06) Al: I was like “what is, who’s who now in this situation?” (0:22:07) Codey: It was a self-correction. Speaking of self-corrections, Harvest Moon, the Winds of Anthos, is releasing a relaxed mode coming in an update. (0:22:14) Al: Oh (0:22:19) Codey: This update has, there’s less stamina lost as you’re maneuvering the world, and the days are longer. (0:22:27) Codey: or longer so to me this like means that you are able to do more and there’s it’s like (0:22:31) Codey: less on hard mode like and I get my question with that is does this address the concerns that folks had like did you play this game and was this a complaint that you had? (0:22:33) Al: Yeah… (0:22:37) Al: I mean… (0:22:41) Al: It addresses one of the complaints, but it’s like one out of like 50. (0:22:45) Al: I mean part of my problem with this game is it just didn’t even feel fun to play. Now, (0:22:51) Al: the stamina loss when you’re moving, yeah, I didn’t enjoy that, right? It’s one of these things where it’s like, yeah sure, (0:22:57) Al: that’s more realistic, but not as fun, right? And the point is we’re taking (0:23:03) Al: things that are like real life and we’re making them fun, right? Like I’m very much a… (0:23:08) Al: I’d rather more fun than more realistic, and that’s certainly the case there. So it is a welcome change. (0:23:15) Al: I didn’t particularly feel like the days were very short, so that doesn’t really make much of a difference, (0:23:20) Al: but I mean the game’s still not gonna be fun to play, I don’t think. (0:23:24) Al: But each to their own. (0:23:26) Al: I don’t… (0:23:26) Codey: Uh, is, is the introduction of pizza in the new DLC, uh, the new crops, fish and recipes pack available is, does that increase your funds? (0:23:33) Al: So, I’m really fascinated by this, right? Because, like, some of these things are like, (0:23:40) Al: “Oh, cool, they’ve added killer tomatoes, and they’ve added Nejog, and a bunch of new fish, (0:23:47) Al: and pla- right, pizza seem- I mean, it feels like a kind of base game food, right? Like, (0:23:54) Al: it seems like an odd one to leave for a DLC. I’m not, as some commenters are suggesting, (0:24:01) Al: it should all be a free update because… (0:24:03) Al: Stardew does that, right? (0:24:06) Al: Like, I mean, let’s not make Stardew the base for what you should be doing for your free updates. (0:24:14) Al: They are definitely the extreme for that and you should not expect 10 years of free updates to a game. (0:24:20) Al: Do not expect that, right? (0:24:22) Al: Stardew is one person who can afford to do that now. (0:24:28) Al: Most people can’t do that, right? (0:24:30) Al: Like, don’t expect that. (0:24:32) Codey: I do love one of the comments says, “Imagine making a pizza recipe deals.” (0:24:33) Al: The other stuff I can see why you would think that was an interesting thing to add, but pizza? (0:24:44) Codey: You’d pay for that? You’d pay for all that stuff? You’re gonna… okay, okay. (0:24:44) Al: Why? (0:24:45) Al: No, I’m not saying I would pay for it. (0:24:49) Al: I’m not saying I would pay for it. (0:24:50) Al: I’m saying I understand why they would add it as a paid update. (0:24:54) Al: I do not understand why pizza is in a DLC. (0:24:56) Codey: Yeah, I don’t understand. I mean it seems like there’s (0:24:58) Al: Such a weird, weird thing. (0:25:01) Codey: Depending on how I mean, do we have an amount for how much that DLC costs? (0:25:05) Codey: because I wouldn’t (0:25:06) Al: I mean, whatever it is is too much (0:25:08) Codey: Yeah (0:25:13) Al: Give me a minute. Let me look let me look (0:25:15) Codey: Yeah for it to just add like a more fish more flowers recipes and tomatoes that can kill you I’m assuming (0:25:24) Codey: Just doesn’t seem like you should have to be (0:25:26) Codey: for that. Oh! That’s not that bad. (0:25:28) Al: Two dollars. (0:25:33) Al: It is like, why why? (0:25:36) Al: It’s so odd. (0:25:37) Al: It feels like they wanted to bump up the number of DLCs. (0:25:43) Al: Because you can like bundle them all together, right? (0:25:45) Al: Like or you can buy them separately, fine, whatever. (0:25:47) Al: But like I just who’s going, oh, yeah, I want to buy the the pizza DLC, (0:25:54) Al: not the the animals DLC or like I want to buy them. (0:25:58) Al: The game that added tool upgrades as a DLC, which I do think is a ridiculous thing to be in your DLC. That’s definitely a base game thing. Don’t add tool updates in your DLC. (0:26:11) Al: That is bizarre. I don’t know. I want to start. Can I can I stop talking about this game, please? (0:26:14) Codey: What game? One Lonely Outpost? (0:26:18) Al: I’m done with this game. This stupid game. One lonely outpost. This is an interesting, (0:26:26) Al: small update. I don’t know why we’re talking about. (0:26:28) Al: But there we are. They’ve added a new thing to the game and it no longer pretends to be an oven. (0:26:29) Codey: It’s funny. (0:26:32) Codey: Well, so it wasn’t… (0:26:35) Codey: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. (0:26:37) Codey: I don’t think that they’re adding it now. (0:26:40) Al: No, they did add it. The bit at the top is like, “Oh, hey, we fixed this in a patch on top of it.” (0:26:40) Codey: It’s… (0:26:45) Codey: Yeah, so they had something called, they had something called an unrefiner, (0:26:45) Al: But if you read below, they’re actually talking about it being brand new. (0:26:50) Codey: which I’m assuming just like takes a thing and makes it its base thing. (0:26:52) Al: Unrefined. (0:26:55) Codey: So, but apparently you would place it in the world and it would just become an oven. (0:26:56) Al: Yeah. (0:26:58) Al: No it doesn’t. Awesome. Stardew Valley. Codey, they added more dates for the Stardew Valley concert. And there’s one in Edinburgh, which is my city, and I have tickets. I have bought tickets. I got tickets. Oh my word. Let me tell you, this was so stressful. The The concert sold out in 90… (0:27:05) Codey: It doesn’t do that anymore, yay. (0:27:11) Codey: What? What? (0:27:14) Codey: They did. (0:27:16) Codey: And… (0:27:18) Codey: And… (0:27:20) Codey: Yay! (0:27:24) Codey: Okay. (0:27:28) Al: Nine minutes. The Edinburgh concert. Nine minutes. (0:27:28) Codey: Okay. (0:27:30) Codey: Okay. (0:27:33) Al: That was so stressful, let me tell you. (0:27:34) Codey: Yeah. (0:27:37) Al: But I got it. I got it. And I got… I mean, they weren’t the best tickets, right? (0:27:41) Al: But they weren’t what they called restricted view. They weren’t restricted view. So… (0:27:44) Codey: The worst tickets. (0:27:48) Codey: They’re not the best, but they’re not the worst. (0:27:51) Al: Exactly. So my word. And the Europe ticket… So they added a whole bunch more because it was (0:27:58) Al: one in Europe. So there was one London show and that was the only one in Europe. (0:27:58) Codey: Mm-hmm and that’s sold out. (0:28:02) Al: And they added… And it sold out within seconds. (0:28:06) Codey: I wonder how many people like imagine if if you’re someone from like Italy and you’re like oh my god it’s gonna be in London and then now you’re seeing that there’s one in Italy. Like are they gonna are they gonna riff on the London tickets and go to the Italy one? Who knows? I’m assuming these are all these are all gonna sell out these are all gonna sell out (0:28:12) Al: Yeah. Yeah. And you book your tickets together. Yeah, I know. I know. (0:28:22) Al: Oh, I suspect so. I suspect. They do ticket reselling. (0:28:28) Al: Well, most of them already are sold out, so the four of the eight are already sold out, and two haven’t gone on sale yet. (0:28:34) Al: So… [LAUGHS] (0:28:36) Al: But yeah, like, funnily enough, the only one in Scotland sold out within minutes, so… Yeah, I’m so glad I got there. (0:28:45) Codey: Oh, the website is not loading. (0:28:48) Al: Yeah, but they’re now up to eight, so they had one Europe showing, and now they’ve got eight. (0:28:52) Codey: Cool. Well, I’m excited that you get to go. (0:28:52) Al: So I’m so super excited. (0:28:55) Codey: Um… (0:28:58) Al: To run, I was like, do you want to go to a video game concert? (0:29:01) Al: And she was like, sure. (0:29:02) Al: And I was like, yeah. (0:29:08) Al: So, yeah, we’re going to have a date, a musical date. (0:29:12) Al: Because she’s a big music person. (0:29:15) Al: She’s a music teacher and she has like a billion different instruments that she (0:29:18) Al: plays, so she will appreciate the actual music part of it. (0:29:21) Al: And I will appreciate the stardew part of it and. (0:29:23) Codey: Right. That’s awesome. (0:29:25) Al: It’ll be fun. Yeah. (0:29:26) Codey: And they also have an update. (0:29:28) Al: Well, yeah, so they roll. (0:29:34) Al: As he continues to do, Concerned Ape has posted another random small tidbit from the upcoming 1.6 update, and this time, it’s a big chest, sorry, a larger container for items. (0:29:45) Codey: It’s… it’s called a big chest. (0:29:47) Al: It’s got a big chest. (0:29:49) Codey: It’s just called a big chest. (0:29:53) Al: What I find funny is that is, well I mean one of the things I find funny, clearly, is… (0:29:58) Al: It says, it’s description is, “It can store almost twice as much as a regular chest.” (0:30:04) Al: What does “almost” mean in this situation? (0:30:06) Codey: My favorite thing is the top comment says “Finally I won’t need 2 million chests” and concern Dave said “Nope only 1 million.” (0:30:12) Al: Yeah. So yeah, like, is it going to be like two times the normal chest minus one? Or like, (0:30:28) Al: I really like, what does it mean by almost? I need to know. I need to know, but we’ll find out. (0:30:30) Codey: Yeah, is it like one less? (0:30:34) Al: Well, you need to find out. I suspect. (0:30:36) Codey: I’m sure you will find out. I’m sure it will be double actually, but whatever (0:30:42) Al: So I suspect that’s funny wording. Anyway, Disney Dreamlight Valley. (0:30:50) Al: I wrote all of this before the stuff came out, but it actually came out today, didn’t it? (0:30:53) Al: So I don’t know if there’s been any changes, but the, so I guess the, the 1.0 is out for Disney Dreamlight Valley came out today, including the Jack Skellington. So the Pumpkin King returns update is out now, so is no longer in early access and is therefore more expensive. (0:31:12) Al: And the first DLC is also out, which is, like, okay, I’ve talked about this quite a bit. I don’t have an issue with them releasing DLC for this game, but they really didn’t think about the Optics well enough, right? So one, they announced the paid DLC on the same day they announced that the game was not going to be free. And two, they released the first paid DLC on the same day as the 1.0 release which just… (0:31:30) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:31:42) Codey: Yep (0:31:42) Al: Feels… (0:31:43) Al: Mmm… (0:31:46) Al: I don’t know. (0:31:46) Codey: Yep (0:31:48) Al: Have you played it today? (0:31:49) Codey: Nope Well, one thing that I’m curious about so like looking at the platforms it doesn’t say that it’s still available Oh, just kidding. It was initially planned (0:31:59) Codey: Nope, I still don’t know. I don’t know if the game pass version is still available Like I don’t know if it’s still on game pass or if once it came out (0:32:07) Codey: They just popped it off game pass now. It’s that is unclear to me (0:32:12) Codey: Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. It’s in another room. Also, launching that game takes so long. (0:32:12) Al: It does look like it’s still on Game Pass. (0:32:14) Al: Pass. Pass. (0:32:16) Al: I mean, you could just try and launch the game. (0:32:26) Al: It’s still on the Game Pass website. (0:32:26) Codey: Okay, cool. I don’t know, that game takes so long to load. And I am horrified to see how much longer it is going to take to load today. (0:32:28) Al: So, I’m guessing it’s still there. (0:32:38) Codey: Like, I literally, I literally… (0:32:38) Al: Just don’t just don’t get the DLC. Oh is the DLC on game pass? (0:32:42) Codey: Start the game… I’m not gonna pay for that. (0:32:44) Codey: It literally… Oh, I guess I wouldn’t… (0:32:46) Codey: It literally… I start the game… (0:32:49) Al: Do you want to start over there? (0:32:53) Codey: ADHD. (0:32:54) Codey: Um, I start the game from, like, my Xbox home screen. (0:32:59) Codey: And then I walk, I go, like, play with my dog for, like, five minutes. (0:33:02) Codey: And then I come back, and then I can click the button to, like, load my game save. (0:33:07) Codey: And then I go play with my other dog for five minutes. (0:33:10) Codey: and then I come back and finally can play. (0:33:12) Codey: She do be slow and I have a wired connection so yike. (0:33:16) Codey: Um, but yeah, so the DLC has a scramble coin, which is an in game board game that you can. I don’t really know how you play it, but looks really cool. (0:33:26) Codey: And you can collect figurines or yeah, so you collect like figurines of the care of your favorite characters and I’m assuming that they have different abilities. (0:33:28) Al: Yes, it’s a collectible (0:33:31) Al: It looks really cool (0:33:40) Al: Yeah, so I don’t care about the game, right? The game, I could take it or leave it, but like, (0:33:42) Codey: Okay. (0:33:44) Al: another collecting thing? I am in. Did I get to collect the villagers in my village and as figurines? Perfect. Just what I need. Give me more collections, please. No, I’m not being sarcastic. (0:33:52) Codey: Are you, are you being sarcastic? (0:33:59) Al: This is literally what I do in games. I am a collector. I collect things. I like collections. (0:34:02) Codey: My gosh, cuz also like I, not to get too, too into it, but this game, (0:34:12) Codey: I like much, I much like this game. (0:34:14) Codey: And my response to all of this news about the DLC, (0:34:18) Codey: the minifigures as a pumpkin king update, (0:34:22) Codey: like my comment was literally this game is too big, please Disney stop. (0:34:28) Codey: Because like I already, man they’re, (0:34:30) Al: They’re not stopping yet. (0:34:31) Al: They’ve got four upcoming updates next year and two more parts of the DLC. (0:34:34) Codey: They are not stopping, like because I started playing it in early access from Game Pass and it already was like. (0:34:42) Codey: I need to redact my thoughts because I might be giving them elsewhere. (0:34:54) Codey: So I need but. (0:34:54) Al: If you want to hear more about that, maybe tune in in a future episode, maybe. (0:34:56) Codey: Maybe do that. (0:34:58) Codey: Maybe do that. (0:35:01) Al: Look, I just I will say I will say one last thing. (0:35:06) Al: Feel free not to respond to this. (0:35:08) Al: But I think it’s very clear that they want this to be the game that people play, right? (0:35:12) Al: They want it to be, you know, a word of Warcraft or something like that. (0:35:12) Codey: Mm-hmm yep yep (0:35:18) Al: They want it to be the game that you play for years. (0:35:23) Al: And we’ll see you in a few years. (0:35:24) Al: Whether they’re successful or not, I mean, we know they’re going to be successful with certain people, obviously. There are certain people who will buy and play literally every Disney thing imaginable, but. Also, Jack Skellington’s in the game now, so. (0:35:36) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:35:39) Codey: Correct. (0:35:43) Codey: Yeah. (0:35:45) Al: Speaking of DLC, Fae Farm have released DLC. Oh no, not have released, are releasing. (0:35:48) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:35:54) Al: It’s coming next week, on the 14th of December. And this is called Coasts of Crocea, which is a great name. And, so I’m confused because it’s like, oh, here’s a frog. And I’m like, (0:36:11) Al: the frogs were already in the game. But then there’s a big frog. The big frog was (0:36:12) Codey: yeah. And it seems like the so this is the big frog opens like a portal in his mouth and then you go you jump into the mouth portal which gives me real (0:36:27) Codey: oh I can’t remember his name from Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. (0:36:34) Al: Oh, I did not like that game, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. (0:36:34) Codey: Fish guy. I’d probably need to be way more specific than that. It’s the (0:36:42) Codey: job. I want to say like Jabba or something. Jabu Jabu. Oh I was close man. It’s been a hot minute since I played that game. He I mean he’s like a fish that swallowed the princess and you have to go into him and there’s like a whole freaking like world inside of him that you have to explore like you’re exploring his bowels and stuff. And I wonder if that’s like what this is like this this frog has a mouth portal and the portal takes you to what is called the Crosts of croquia, which I’d still hate that name. (0:37:12) Al: Can I just point out how amazing the phrase “mouth portal” is? (0:37:20) Codey: Am I wrong? Are you going to look at me and you’re going to tell me that I’m wrong? (0:37:23) Codey: It’s a mouth portal! (0:37:24) Al: No! No I’m not! I just… I just… I just love hate the name. That’s all I’m saying. (0:37:30) Codey: Yeah. So yeah, it looks like there’s just a bunch of new stuff for that. (0:37:38) Al: Yeah, this feels a lot bigger than I was expecting the DLCs to be, right? Because it was like “here’s the Deluxe Edition and it’s gonna have three DLCs” and I was totally expecting it was stuff like that. (0:37:49) Al: The Harvest Moon Winds of Anthos like “oh here’s some new crops” no no it’s “here’s a whole new world to explore with a new story” so I mean that’s cool. I really want to like this game, I really do. (0:37:54) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. (0:37:59) Codey: Yeah? (0:38:04) Codey: Yeah. Yikes. (0:38:05) Al: I really do. (0:38:07) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:38:09) Al: Anyway, if you’re enjoying it, there you go, go get your DLC in a week. (0:38:16) Al: And the final thing before the wholesome snack is the wholesome games bundle, because they did announce this before the snack, which is they’ve put together a wholesome and a humble bundle, (0:38:20) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:38:28) Al: a humble bundle of wholesome games, which include four games that we have talked about on the podcast, (0:38:34) Al: wildflowers, bed and breakfast, smishy come home. (0:38:38) Al: And there’s also Tinykin, which I believe is like Pikmin, Pikmin type game. Mailtime, (0:38:48) Al: which when I looked at it just looked exactly like smishy come home. And Passpartout to the Lost Artist, which I hate that name on so many levels. (0:39:03) Codey: Yeah. (0:39:04) Codey: Um… (0:39:08) Al: I mean, look, I’m saying if you have the money and there’s at least one game on this bundle that you don’t own, go buy the bundle. Go do it now. Because every single one of these games is more expensive than the price to get all of them. (0:39:15) Codey: Yeah (0:39:21) Codey: Yep, and each game has over an 85% or or higher positive rating on (0:39:27) Codey: Steam so that like even the quote-unquote maybe possibly worst of these games is still super highly rated Like this is a really cute little little bundle that they’ve provided Um… (0:39:40) Al: And all of the money goes to save the children who are doing very important work all over the world, especially currently in Gaza. (0:39:51) Al: So you can go buy your games and give money to stop children dying. Crazy, crazy ideas. (0:39:58) Codey: Yep, so if you’ve listened to our podcast and you’ve heard us talk about these games and you’ve been waiting to get it, what are you waiting for? (0:40:08) Al: There’s little if you don’t buy these games now, you’re not gonna buy them, right? (0:40:11) Al: Just don’t just admit that to yourself if you won’t buy this seven game bundle for was that $18 (0:40:17) Al: You’re not gonna buy any of these games. You just won’t do it (0:40:20) Codey: Yeah. (0:40:21) Al: So admit it to yourself or go buy it (0:40:25) Codey: Yep, yep, yep. (0:40:25) Al: If you don’t have the money I’m really sorry that’s very sad (0:40:32) Al: All right, whoa that was quite a quite a quite a news section and the news is over so the wholesome snack just came out a few hours ago and we have watched through it and we have curated I was gonna say we’ve curated the things that we should care about this is like half the things in the snack Oh (0:40:36) Codey: Quite a bunch. Mm-mm. (0:40:38) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:40:40) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:40:52) Codey: The things that seem important to or relevant to this podcast with the with the respect of cottagecore games in mind. (0:41:06) Codey: I will say that we will talk about the non cottagecore games that we are also excited about in a house that of the green variety may have. (0:41:17) Codey: So, we will talk more in depth about that kind of stuff then. (0:41:22) Codey: But, just the which which games seemed to strike the vibe of the pod? (0:41:28) Codey: And which which ones do you think? (0:41:30) Al: No, there were no, there were no which games. (0:41:32) Codey: Wow, I said… (0:41:33) Al: Not in this one. (0:41:37) Codey: Which W-H-I-C-H games, not W-I-T-C-H games? (0:41:43) Codey: You goob. Okay. (0:41:45) Codey: So… (0:41:45) Al: So I just before we go through these, we will have a link to the whole wholesome (0:41:46) Codey: Thank you. (0:41:50) Al: snack in the show notes, and also I will link each of the trailers for these games (0:41:56) Al: individually. (0:41:58) Al: All right. (0:42:00) Al: So first up, we have a vivarium, which is about a world inside a terrarium. (0:42:10) Codey: a vivarium. (0:42:12) Al: Is a vivarium a thing or is that not just the name of the (0:42:16) Codey: Terrariums are designed to raise plants and vivariums are designed primarily to be a habitat for an animal. (0:42:23) Al: So they said it was a terrarium in the game. (0:42:26) Codey: But the game is called vivarium. (0:42:28) Al: Yeah, it says missing terrarium. So why is a terrarium or is it a vivarium? I’m so confused. (0:42:33) Codey: Well, the game is called “vibarium.” (0:42:36) Al: Yeah, but in the trailer they said a missing terrarium. They use both words. (0:42:39) Codey: And given that inside of the thing is animals, I’m presuming, I think it’s a vibarium. (0:42:50) Al: Oh wait, so wait, so a vivarium is a type of terrarium or a terrarium is a type of vivarium. (0:42:56) Codey: Um, they are, they both do similar things or they’re a type of, of areum. (0:43:04) Al: Ah, a vivarium may be small enough to sit on a desk or table such as a terrarium or an aquarium. (0:43:05) Codey: Um… (0:43:14) Al: So terrariums are kinds of vivariums, but vivariums can be big. (0:43:19) Al: Oh, so like yeah, these big ones you get like are building size, they are vivariums. (0:43:20) Codey: Well, so the differences of vivarium will have animals in it, whereas a terrarium could be, so it houses plants. (0:43:37) Codey: It could be a vivarium, but it doesn’t have to be a vivarium. (0:43:42) Codey: So an aquarium is a type of vivarium. (0:43:44) Al: Anyway, this is both. This is both. That’s the important thing. (0:43:45) Codey: This is both. (0:43:46) Codey: It has plants and animals. (0:43:51) Al: So the semantics aside, I’m not really sure what this game is, but I feel like it’s probably a Cottagecore game, but it’s really hard to tell, because the trailer doesn’t really tell as much. (0:43:59) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, the trailer doesn’t really have much. Um, it has a lot of like, (0:44:08) Codey: I really like the design style and the way that it’s, it’s, um, the way it looks, it looks like an anime almost. Um, like one of the characters literally looks like a Hayao Miyazaki character, (0:44:21) Codey: 100%. Like he’s got this big mustache and the way that he smiles looks like, um, the Boiler Man in and spirited away. (0:44:29) Codey: So, if you like that kind of stuff, then this game basically is like, to me thus far from this trailer, looks like a little Hayao Miyazaki world inside of a vivarium that is inside of what possibly is an abandoned terrarium. (0:44:45) Codey: Yeah, not entirely sure what all the gameplay within that is going to be. (0:44:47) Al: And my question is, you being in a vivarium, is that going to affect anything? Or is that just like, because they said so, right? So like, if you’re just in a world and, and nothing’s kind of like, different about it because you happen to be this tiny little world, then that feels kind of pointless. So I guess we’ll just have, but literally we saw no real game. (0:45:17) Al: We just saw a few clips of your character walking around the world and that was it. (0:45:22) Al: So we’ll keep an eye on it, figure out whether it’s actually a cottagecore game, figure out if there’s actually any gameplay to it and whether it actually means anything. But I’m intrigued. (0:45:34) Al: Communite. So I’ve talked about this before, but just for people who aren’t aware, this This is a multiplayer city builder game, it’s like an online game. And they have announced that you can get your own server for it. So previously it was just like one combined server, but you can, they have 30 servers that they’re giving to

00:00 Sus and slander 2:19 Intro - New release plans 8:34 Tips - RE4, hard launch?, Mercs DLC?, headphone reccs?, Galaxy Kart hype 20:34 WMG Meow Wolf DLC, Towers of Powers 24:42 Ancient Dungeons, Arashi, AZS2 28:57 Tips - Racket Fury, gravity bongs, beanieless? 31:27 AZS2 pre order early unlock?, Ian's gameplay 34:12 Tips - Meow Wolf DLC, WPTV News 37:41 The other "Among" game stealth release impressions 47:02 Tips - minor titles, "this week" 49:47 RE4 59:03 GTA6 trailer leaked, Rockstar shenanigans 1:02:06 Beat Saber OST 6 1:06:12 And, there are 2 showcases this week 1:15:00 Tips - Arashi improvements?, speaking Judoon 1:20:02 Best Month for PSVR2? 1:26:36 20 Questions 1:31:37 Tips - ForeVR, manual reloading 1:35:41 The Wrap-up 1:39:02 secret post credits scene

I enjoy this game, although I admit it's not my "go to" exercise game on the Oculus Quest 2.But there may be more benefits to "exergames" than many previously thought!Please try out my daily Hughes from the Heart Podcast for FREEEEEE for 7 days!!I know you will love it. I could use the support, so please try it out and sign up today!Also, please show some love and support to my wife and daughter and their wonderful candle business, Silva House Market--hand crafted and hand poured candles made right in our home in the woods of the PNW!Promo code SPENCER10 will save you 10% off your order. Thank you, my friends!!Support the show

Learn more about the My Best Buy Membership program at https://lmg.gg/mybestbuy Store link may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group. Get hooked up with the latest and greatest audio gear at https://lmg.gg/Sweetwater Get a mooooove on, check out Moosend free for 30 days at https://lmg.gg/moo and use code LTT for 10% off any monthly plan for the first 3 months Timestamps (Courtesy of NoKi1119) Note: Timing may be off due to sponsor change: 0:00 Chapters 1:23 Intro ft. Lots of merch messages due to Black Friday 2:15 Topic #1 - dBrand & JRE's Zack sue Casetify over skins 4:25 Casetify's similar series, internal scan shortcut, lower quality, LTT reference 12:33 dBrand cares about the tech space, legal action, x-ray case, iFixit's tweet 16:53 Casetify's HQ, funny FP comment on "identical," Linus on cost of x-ray 20:25 Casetify's collabs, Luke finds a duped image, Linus wanted to sit on this 23:02 Linus discusses Zack's video with Luke 26:34 LTTStore's Black Friday deals 31:30 LTT is now 15 years old! Sarah's hoodie & shirt design, callbacks 34:22 Tom Arnold remade the logo from NCIX era, other callbacks 37:05 Merch Messages #1 1:05:28 Topic #2 - Sony files a patent around "quicksaving" 1:12:36 Topic #3 - Folding@Home's great month 1:16:55 Topic #4 - Ubisoft implements pop-in ads in old games   1:20:56 Sponsors 1:26:44 Merch Messages #2 1:26:50 Should I not buy TVs during Black Friday? 1:29:03 Handling the soulless aspects pushing an add-on purchase ft. NCIX, Best Buy 1:40:59 Do you think season-based games will outperform traditional games? 1:51:03 Topic #5 - Sam Altman returns after 95% of OpenAI threaten the board to resign 1:55:10 Topic #6 - PLEX's Discover Together feature sends summaries of friend's activity 1:59:08 Luke looks at Plex's CEO LinkedIn, Linus's perfect world scenario 2:06:25 Luke mentions opt-in & Linus's deal, Linus on Luke's movies, Hackers, actors 2:25:22 Discussing The Cable Guy, The Boondock Saints, The Starship Troopers 2:27:26 Linus couldn't watch The Room, Disaster Artist was based on a true story 2:30:12 Linus hasn't watched many bad movies ft. Ghost Dan Cam 2:30:55 Dan mentions My Neighbor Totoro, compares to Spirited Away 2:36:26 Topic #7 - Google Chrome's Manifest V3 2:39:36 Topic #8 - Nothing reversed course and removed the Blue Bubble & Sunbird 2:40:42 Topic #9 - EU enforces rules for parts, repairs, removal of software blocks 2:43:12 Dan shows off funny case stickers, unable to respond to merch messages 2:46:52 Linus tells Luke about profits from Black Friday, more sales soon 2:50:05 Merch Messages #3 2:50:35 Has LTTStore tried to work with stocking Vessi? 2:51:16 Where do you draw the legal line on what topic to cover? 2:54:38 Which would Linus spend $2M on: Nevera, LTTStore B&M, OLED Ally or new merch ideas? 2:56:13 Would you get into non-tech experiences? Changes in LMG with new CEO? Old game quirks you miss? 2:57:34 When was the last time you broke something and thought you'd never recover? 3:00:26 Luke's trip to Japan ft. Pokemon, drifting, foods, merch messages 3:05:52 What scams you can catch but others fall for? 3:07:38 If Casetify sponsored you to wrap the Taycan, would you still stick to Warzone? 3:09:36 Hairbrain tech? ft. Editor's den, Linus's case idea, Luke's inverter 3:16:22 Best deal you've ever gotten? Film adaptation of FFVI? 3:24:48 Have you listened to the Black Mages yet? LTT x dBrand series collab? 3:26:55 If you direct Creator Warehouse's budget towards making one product, what would it be? 3:27:54 Scariest software vulnerability you had to deal with? ft. Musical LMG, Steam Deck 3:35:17 Has insider knowledge ever changed the way you use a service? ft. Note's Stylus 3:38:28 What LTTStore items were the catalyst that blew the store up? 3:39:30 A game you played with a big flaw that doesn't let you say it's perfect? 3:41:46 What music does Linus listen to, and did Beat Saber change his taste? 3:49:31 Outro ft. Outro fails trying to load 400 messages

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Al talks about the farming game news for the week, and goes over the nominations for The Game Awards Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:03: What Have I Been Up To 00:07:53: News 00:15:17: The Game Awards 00:31:30: Outro Links Research Story 0.6 Update Len’s Island Harvest Moon Update Potion Permit Mobile Release Distant Bloom Release Window Nintendo Indie Showcase Farming Simulator Kids The Game Awards Nominees Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Al: Hello, farmers, and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. (0:00:35) Al: My name is Al and my name is Al and I’m here today to talk to you about Cottagecore Games. (0:00:42) Al: Woo. (0:00:45) Al: So, yeah, it’s just me this week because the planned episode had to be rescheduled just because of some issues in conflicts and stuff like that. (0:00:55) Al: So these things happen. (0:00:57) Al: Obviously, you don’t know what you’re missing, (0:00:59) Al: but we will do that. (0:01:00) Al: In the meantime, I’m going to do this solo episode on, I’m literally recording this like two hours after the game award nominations came out and there’s some interesting stuff in there. There are obviously a few cottagecore and farming games, well farming. There’s a (0:01:30) Al: lot of games in the list which we’re going to chat about and I also think it’s interesting. (0:01:37) Al: Some of the categories, I’m not sure which of these categories happened and which ones have not happened in previous years, but I just have some thoughts on them. So I think I’ll go over that. Obviously before that we have a bunch of news. Transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website if you need them, whether they’re there, whether you need them or not, but you can go there for them. We’re going to talk about (0:02:00) Al: some news. But before that, Al, what have you been up to? Well thank you Al for asking. (0:02:11) Al: I have finished up Spider-Man 2. I have 100%ed that game and got the Platinum trophy. I don’t often pay attention to trophies because obviously they don’t have them on Switch. (0:02:30) Al: I don’t tend to pay attention to them on Steam very often. I think part of the problem is a lot of the trophies for games is like a lot of them would just be like “do this, (0:02:44) Al: do this, do this” whatever. Once you’ve completed the game you’ve got a few things to do. In Spider-Man 2 there was like “get all the suits and do all the upgrades” blah blah blah and obviously all the story stuff. But then there just ended up being random ones. One of the ones in Spider-Man 2 was… M. (0:03:00) Al: I can’t remember what they’re called, but when you do the sneak on someone, when you’re in sneaky mode, stealth mode, you do a stealth move and it ties them up without alerting other people. And it’s like, do that 25 times from a web, because you can do a web line in Spider-Man 2 and you do it between two buildings. And it’s like, do 25 of them from a web line and you’re like okay I just these (0:03:30) Al: things just end up being a bit weird like why it just feels like sometimes the trophies those kinds of trophies just exist just to how just to increase the number of trophies it’s like what’s the point in having these random trophies it’s like in fall guys it’s like jump 10,000 times why why why you know I don’t so it’s like if trophies were just like once you’d 100% of the game you had all the trophies I would I would do it more often I think (0:04:00) Al: like I’ve just 100%ed Mario Wonder and obviously if they had trophies in Switch I would probably have all the trophies it just seems like such a weird idea it’s like you can 100% the game but you don’t have all the trophies because these these weird random conditions that you have to have to get to get all the trophies but anyway that’s beside the point so it was my first platinum trophy that’s what they call it when you get all of the trophies you get then a platinum trophy It’s very funny. I find it very funny because you look in the list of truth. (0:04:30) Al: And it’s like the top one is the platinum one, obviously, which is the one you get when you get all the trophies. And it says get all the trophies. (0:04:36) Al: But it’s like you can’t get all the trophies without getting the last trophy, right? (0:04:40) Al: It should say get all other trophies, but it doesn’t say that. (0:04:43) Al: It says, in fact, I’ll read the exact words to you to prove my point. (0:04:47) Al: It says, and I quote, collect all trophies, right? (0:04:51) Al: Not collect all other trophies, collect all trophies. (0:04:56) Al: And I find that funny because it’s like you can’t get all. (0:05:00) Al: It doesn’t really matter. (0:05:04) Al: Apparently nearly 20% of all Spider-Man 2 players have gotten all the trophies, so it feels less special when it’s 20%, so it feels like a lot of people. (0:05:13) Al: Anyway, that just seems like a high number of people. (0:05:16) Al: I’m surprised that so many people have got all those trophies. (0:05:20) Al: Whereas Sonic Frontiers, which I’m just about to start playing, only 5% of players have got all the trophies. (0:05:27) Al: Anyway, trophies are a weird thing, and I… (0:05:30) Al: them on switch but I actually don’t know if I want them on switch because do I want to have to feel the need to do them? I think I’m getting off topic. Trophies. Weird. I completed Spider-Man 2. That was fun. I enjoyed that game. It’s a very good game. Coincidentally, (0:05:48) Al: or not coincidentally, it got one of the nominations for Game of the Year for the game awards. (0:05:55) Al: So it’s obviously a good game. I liked it. I thought it was really good. I think they did a really good marriage. (0:06:00) Al: I’ve been playing that. I have started playing the new round of Mario Kart levels. (0:06:30) Al: I haven’t done much of that, but I do want to get them done because they’re fun. (0:06:34) Al: Apparently, I hadn’t finished doing the previous ones, so I need to finish them up as well, (0:06:38) Al: but I’m nearly there. I’ve done all by the last two, this one and the previous one, so I need to get them done. What else have I done? I’ve started playing Spirit Tea, which I believe will be out by the time this episode comes out, but I have started playing that. I played a number of different things. Yeah. (0:07:00) Al: I don’t think there was anything big other than that. I have been playing one game, (0:07:06) Al: but I don’t want to spoil that because that was meant to be this week’s episode. So I’ll keep that one as a secret until we get around to that. In addition to games, I’ve also been watching some things. So obviously low-key season two finished this week. So I very much enjoyed that finale. I went to see the Marvels on Friday as well, and I very much enjoyed that. (0:07:24) Al: I thought it was a very good film. Obviously it has some flaws. Most films do, but I thought (0:07:30) Al: overall it was a very enjoyable film. I have also been watching the X-Men 92, continuing my watch of that. And I think halfway through season three, there’s five seasons of that. (0:07:46) Al: Yeah, I think that’s about everything I’ve been up to. Well, other than, you know, just life things. (0:07:53) Al: So I’m going to go talk through some news. So first off, we have research story version 0.6. (0:08:01) Al: That is out now. So if you have been playing that game and you want to go see some more content, (0:08:05) Al: that’s there. They have added four new romanceables. So they’re now up to 10 romanceables in the game. (0:08:12) Al: They say they’ve added 800 plus dialogue lines. I do find it funny when they say plus, right? (0:08:19) Al: Especially in something like this, because it’s like you have the number that you’ve added. You can see the number because you’ve coded them. So you could just put the actual number in, (0:08:28) Al: but people like to round these things but then they’re like… (0:08:30) Al: but we want to make sure that people know it’s more than that. So we put the plus on at the end. (0:08:35) Al: So the four they’ve added are Ira, Luke, Ming and Yan Yan. (0:08:39) Al: And I think the character art in this game looks quite good. (0:08:45) Al: Presumably these are the same… the link that I’m looking at is in the show notes. (0:08:51) Al: This is their Steam update. The images that we see at the top, I presume are their portraits when you’re talking to them because I don’t actually see anything else. And I’ve still not played this this game because there’s too many. (0:09:00) Al: games. They’ve also added the ability to track your relationship progress in the friendship tab. (0:09:07) Al: You can sell your items at the general store. Presumably they just had like a shipping box on the farm like most farming games. They have improved the map. They’ve added table decor. (0:09:20) Al: They’ve added a bunch of new items and obviously a bunch of fixes and smaller changes. They’re They’re also planning one more update for this year. (0:09:30) Al: Zero point seven, which presumably will come out in December in that case. (0:09:36) Al: I think it’s impressive if they managed to get that out in the last month and a half of the year, which will include a winter festival, (0:09:43) Al: creature variants, more creatures, crops and fish, more content for the mines and hopefully steam achievements. (0:09:50) Al: That’s what they say. (0:09:51) Al: Next, we have the Lens Island Harvest Moon update. (0:09:55) Al: This is coming out on the 22nd of November. (0:10:00) Al: This will include defensive towers, which is quite interesting, (0:10:08) Al: presumably that’s to stop mobs attacking you when you’re not paying attention to them. Town advancement. Harvest moons, as described by the name, (0:10:20) Al: it says “Brave the Harvest Moon to reap the rewards of high yielding crops.” (0:10:24) Al: So that sounds like something where when the Harvest Moon is out, if you do something because they’re showing a little picture. (0:10:32) Al: outside in the moonlight watering their plants so if you go and water them while the harvest moon is out you get better crops so what it sounds like and portals a new way of fast travel to every town so that sounds like a good interesting update I still need to play that game as well potion pyramid have announced that they’re releasing on Android and iOS that is coming (0:11:02) Al: next year on the 6th of February so if you really want to play this game but you’re like I’m not playing this until it’s on my phone there you go you you’ll be able to do it in February probably not much more to say about that next we have distant bloom they have a new release window so it was meant to come out this year but they they’ve had some issues they say due to unforeseen circumstances we had to temporarily halt progress on the project. (0:11:32) Al: However, we’re delighted to share that we’ve overcome all challenges and are now in the final stretch dedicated to delivering the best possible game. (0:11:39) Al: So that’s good. That’s coming out next year. Quarter one of next year. So probably March. (0:11:46) Al: I could have been mean there and said probably April, but next we have tomorrow as I’m recording. (0:11:53) Al: So on the 14th of November, which will be yesterday when you’re hearing this. Don’t I don’t know why I gave you so many different ways of describing that. (0:12:00) Al: is the newest. (0:12:02) Al: And the final piece of news outside of the Game Awards stuff is that Farming Simulator Kids is a new game coming to f- (0:12:32) Al: phones and switch next year. (0:12:35) Al: The Farming Simulator- I’m just going to read out some of their copy from this. (0:12:42) Al: The Farming Simulator family of games is growing. Let us introduce the freshest and soon to be born member Farming Simulator Kids. Coming soon to Nintendo Switch and mobile devices in spring 2024. Pre-orders will be available in the near future. Stay tuned. (0:12:58) Al: Farming Simulator Kids is an easy-to-play game suited for all (0:13:02) Al: ages and introduces the growing generation to the colourful and fun world of farming and blooming nature. It educates and entertains them in a child-friendly and sheltered environment. (0:13:15) Al: Take a look at the highlights below. There’s a video as well, a trailer, which I’m not sure how much of this is actual gameplay. Obviously it’s showing a lot of the artwork. (0:13:29) Al: It’s a very colorful. (0:13:32) Al: It definitely looks much more like a kid’s game, and I’m going to presume that the gameplay is much simpler and more like a normal farming simulator than farming simulator. (0:13:46) Al: I find this interesting because part of what farming simulator is, is a realistic farming sim. (0:13:54) Al: They’re not trying to be like Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon, they’re trying to be the the most realistic you can get. (0:14:02) Al: With farming simulators. (0:14:04) Al: But then if you’re trying to make it more accessible for children, it’s obviously going to be less realistic. (0:14:11) Al: So I find this interesting. Is this just an educational tool to educate kids about animals? (0:14:19) Al: Is it just a game? Is it a John Deere marketing exercise? (0:14:26) Al: Because they do say they have vehicles and tools by John Deere. (0:14:29) Al: What’s… (0:14:32) Al: The purpose of this. (0:14:34) Al: That’s my question. (0:14:36) Al: Is it going to be more realistic than most farming games? (0:14:40) Al: But obviously it can’t be anywhere near as realistic as Farming Simulator normally is. (0:14:44) Al: But that’s their whole thing. (0:14:46) Al: So I’m very intrigued to see how this goes. (0:14:50) Al: I wonder if my kid would be interested in playing this or not. (0:14:56) Al: We’ll have to see. It comes out next year. (0:14:58) Al: I mean, I like the graphics, I like the look of it. (0:15:02) Al: I’m just very intrigued as to why it’s farming simulator that’s making this. (0:15:05) Al: Yeah, quite an interesting balance, the realistic farming simulator and a kids game. (0:15:12) Al: I guess we’ll see what they do. (0:15:14) Al: OK, that’s all the news. (0:15:16) Al: Next, I want to talk about the game awards. (0:15:19) Al: So first of all, we have four awards that have cottagecore games or games that we’ve talked about. (0:15:29) Al: Right, I don’t want to argue about. (0:15:32) Al: I know I’m the only person on this podcast, but I’m sure I could still argue about genres with myself. And I’m sure some of you would want to listen to that, but I’m not going to do that. (0:15:40) Al: We’re just going to say these are games that we have talked about on the podcast. So there are four awards that have those games in them. So the first one is Games for Impact, which is about games that are trying to do something positive in the world. So there are two games in this, (0:16:01) Al: in nominated for this award. (0:16:02) Al: We’ve talked about and they are Chia, which is the game based on New Caledonia and Terra Nil, which is the reverse city builder, I guess you would call it. (0:16:16) Al: There are four other games in this. (0:16:19) Al: Venba, I think that was a cooking game, I think. (0:16:25) Al: I think I remember seeing that. (0:16:27) Al: I think it was a cooking game about a specific culture. (0:16:32) Al: There’s also Goodbye Volcano High, Chance of Cenar, and A Space for the Unbound. (0:16:44) Al: None of those three I’ve heard of at all. (0:16:46) Al: So I don’t know what they’re like. (0:16:49) Al: Very interesting. (0:16:50) Al: I think Games for Impact is an interesting one because obviously there’s a debate to be had as to how much impact you can have when making a game, but I think it’s always good to try these things. (0:17:01) Al: I certainly think that– (0:17:02) Al: Terranil have done some good. (0:17:06) Al: Not least because they have definitely donated money to things from some of their profits. (0:17:11) Al: And I think you’ve heard me, and you’ve definitely heard Johnny. (0:17:16) Al: And I think Cody as well talk about how we like when games try and do something other than just your standard capitalist farming game, (0:17:24) Al: because we don’t want to get stuck in a specific idea of what society is and should be. (0:17:32) Al: So this is fun that it’s doing something different and obviously Chia is showing another different way to kind of live with society, to live with nature and about a whole different culture that most people in the world won’t be aware of obviously. (0:17:50) Al: Many will because it’s very, in some ways, in some ways it’s similar to other cultures as well in terms of how they treat nature and how they interact with the world. (0:18:02) Al: But obviously those cultures are way outnumbered by the kind of European colonialist world that has been created and ended up with, you know, just a huge amount of capitalism just trying to take as much as possible from the world to make money for the sake of it. (0:18:30) Al: and it’s nice to see some games. (0:18:32) Al: Doing different things so that’s games for impact. (0:18:36) Al: The next one is mobile games. (0:18:38) Al: There are two games in mobile games that we have covered or have talked about. (0:18:45) Al: And they are Terra No, again, and Hello Kitty Island Adventure. (0:18:51) Al: I think if you had told me (0:18:56) Al: that in 2023, one of the game awards would have a Hello Kitty game in it. (0:19:02) Al: I would be very surprised by that because it’s quite wild the idea that Hello Kitty game can be good enough to actually get nominated for a game award. (0:19:16) Al: It’s best mobile game. (0:19:18) Al: It’s not like it’s game of the year, but still like the five games are Terra No, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, Honkai Star Rail, Monster Hunter Now (0:19:29) Al: and Final Fantasy 567 ever. (0:19:32) Al: I haven’t played Monster Hunter now, I don’t know how good it actually is. (0:19:37) Al: I know that Terronella is good, I have heard a lot of stuff about people liking Honkai Star Rail. (0:19:43) Al: Final Fantasy confuses me. This is Final Fantasy 7. (0:19:49) Al: Are we not on like 16 now? Fair confusing, I don’t know, but people like Final Fantasies, right? (0:19:55) Al: So it’s wild that Hello Kitty Island Adventure is up there now. A Hello Kitty game nominated for (0:20:03) Al: Crazy. We also have Best Indie Game, or Best Independent Game is the official title, (0:20:10) Al: and the two games that we’ve covered or talked about, I keep saying covered, but we haven’t covered them in so much. We’ve covered one in detail and one not in and we’ve talked about one, (0:20:21) Al: and that’s Dredge which we’ve covered and Dave the Diver. What a year for C-based games, (0:20:29) Al: apparently. The other ones are… (0:20:32) Al: See of Stars and Cocoon. And I have heard very good things about Cocoon and See of Stars. (0:20:39) Al: I have not heard of Viewfinder. But yeah, so that’s a good company for those two to be in. And the final one that has a game that we have covered that is Best, Best Debut indie game. This one is specifically called indie, not independent. And Reg is in that one. Interestingly, (0:21:00) Al: Cocoon and Viewfinder who run the best. (0:21:02) Al: I find it interesting that a best debut indie, because presumably most of the time the idea of that is the best debut indie is not going to be as good as the best indie, the best first games from indie. (0:21:32) Al: The best indie studios are not going to be as good as the actual best indie games of the year, but in this case they’ve got three in both categories. (0:21:40) Al: So it’s going to be interesting to see presumably the same game shouldn’t win both, but like if you’re saying that say, let’s say Cocoon wins best indie game, then surely it’s also the best debut indie game. (0:21:54) Al: And that feels weird to me, but be that as it may. (0:21:58) Al: me. So those are the four awards that have nominations. (0:22:02) Al: There’s a couple of other things I wanted to talk about. So first of all, they have our best VR/AR game section now, which interesting that we’ve got to that point now. I haven’t played any of those games because the only VR game I continue to play is Beat Saber and I will continue to play that until they stop making new ones for it. And even then I’ll I’ll probably continue. (0:22:32) Al: I think it’s interesting we got to the point where they have that award now. (0:22:36) Al: They also have an Innovation in Accessibility award, which I think is a really good thing to do. (0:22:44) Al: I haven’t had the time, because I needed to record this episode tonight, (0:22:48) Al: I haven’t had the time to look at why each of these games have been nominated for this section. (0:22:52) Al: But I think it is interesting that we have a decent number of games doing new and exciting things for accessibility. (0:23:02) Al: Four is our motorsport. (0:23:04) Al: Does that new game not have a number? That’s really annoying. (0:23:08) Al: High Five Rush, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Mortal Kombat 1 and Street Fighter 6. (0:23:14) Al: So, interesting that there’s five of them are AAA games and one of them is an indie game. (0:23:22) Al: It’s good that big games are doing new things for accessibility, (0:23:26) Al: but I really want them to detail what the games have done with accessibility. (0:23:32) Al: That means that they should be in that category. (0:23:36) Al: And when they decide the winner, I want them to really justify that. (0:23:38) Al: I don’t want them to be giving an award there just for the sake of doing it. (0:23:42) Al: And you’re like, “Well, nobody’s done anything really great, but you’ve done the best, but it’s just not amazing.” (0:23:48) Al: I don’t want that. I want you to properly justify why you are giving this award to this game. (0:23:54) Al: And properly justify why any of these games are in this. (0:23:56) Al: I watched the video and I don’t notice them saying anything about it other than just listing them. (0:24:02) Al: Which they did for each category, obviously. They didn’t go into lots of detail. (0:24:06) Al: But when the actual game awards happens, I really hope that they justify it and they don’t just kind of brush over it. (0:24:14) Al: I think it’s really good that they’re bringing this award here because it is making people more aware of these things. (0:24:18) Al: I had no idea that these games had done something new in accessibility. (0:24:22) Al: And so it’s good that they’re bringing that to our attention. (0:24:26) Al: But I hope they make it more. I hope they give it more information to us and not just be like, (0:24:30) Al: just be like, “Oh yeah, this is the best in accessibility.” (0:24:32) Al: Right? No, tell us why. Tell us why. Give us a good reason for it. (0:24:37) Al: I also find it funny. I looked at the list of most anticipated game and not particularly anticipating any of these games, which is funny. We’ve got Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which is the second part of the remake of Final Fantasy VII. (0:24:56) Al: We’ve got Like a Dragon Internet Wealth, which is the next Like a Dragon game. (0:25:01) Al: There’s Star Wars. (0:25:02) Al: There’s Outlaws. (0:25:04) Al: I had not even heard of that. (0:25:07) Al: I’m not sure what type of game this is. (0:25:11) Al: I suspect I probably did see this trailer when it came out and then forgot all about it. (0:25:15) Al: It’s an open world game. (0:25:17) Al: Not really seeing any gameplay, it’s all just cutscenes. (0:25:19) Al: So I can see, I guess, why people are excited about that, I don’t know whether I would be or not. (0:25:25) Al: Or they did release some gameplay after the trailer came out. (0:25:29) Al: like you could driving on hoverbikes. (0:25:33) Al: You’ve got some shooting, some running. (0:25:38) Al: I suspect I would like this more than the Jedi Fallen Order games, because the reason I didn’t like those games is they felt very formulaic and linear, and I didn’t really feel like anything mattered in those games. (0:25:55) Al: The combat wasn’t great, which I suspect it’s hard to do good combat with a lightsaber in general. (0:26:03) Al: But it could be really good. Making it an open world game and making the combat. Shooting probably removes both of those issues. But I don’t know, I’ve never been a huge fan of shooters. I wonder if there’s more combat than just shooting. The traversal looks fine. (0:26:24) Al: It does look like there’s different types of guns and stuff like that. So it’ll be interesting to see. I certainly am not like, “Oh yes, this is my most anticipated game.” My point is that on the… (0:26:33) Al: The final one is Tekken 8. I look at this list of games. I know that a lot of people are excited about Hades 2. Sure, fine. The rest of it I’m like, I just… I’m certainly not anticipating any of these games. So it’s just funny that we’ve got a list of five of the most anticipated game and none of them are ones that I’m excited about. I mean, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. I suspect I’m in the minority in a lot of things in terms of what I like in games. And so that’s fine. I just find it funny that they’ve got five games, (0:27:02) Al: of which I’m particularly interested in. (0:27:03) Al: I’m really excited about it. And the game of the year non-aminations are interesting to me. There’s some obvious ones that I was pretty sure would be there. So we’ve got Spider-Man 2, we’ve got Tears of the Kingdom. I definitely expected both of those to be in. I had a pretty good feeling that Baldur’s Gate 3 would be in it, even though I’ve not played it myself. (0:27:25) Al: I have thought that maybe Super Mario Bros. Wonder would be in it. So those four, I was, (0:27:31) Al: I was reasonably confident about those four. (0:27:33) Al: I did not expect Resident Evil 4 and Alan Wake 2 to be there, but they are there as well. (0:27:40) Al: I feel like all of a sudden I started hearing about Alan Wake 2 over the last couple of weeks. (0:27:45) Al: Not sure why. (0:27:48) Al: Did it just come out? (0:27:50) Al: I’ve just seen a lot of references to it. (0:27:53) Al: It came out on the 27th of October, so that’s probably why. (0:27:56) Al: I missed - I didn’t see anything about it before its release, and then I just saw a lot of that afterwards. (0:28:01) Al: So I think it’s just interesting like normally. (0:28:03) Al: There’s a big game coming out. I see a lot of information about it just before the game comes out and then for the next couple of weeks after the game comes out as well. (0:28:11) Al: But this one I feel like it just suddenly happened. Also the same with Baldur’s Gate 3. (0:28:15) Al: I didn’t hear much about it until like a couple of days before releasing and suddenly it was everywhere. Resident Evil 4 I think is also a remake, which is interesting. I wonder how often we’ve had remakes in the Game of the Year nominations. There we go. (0:28:34) Al: Also funny how many categories are like just almost a subset of the Game of the Year. (0:28:40) Al: So the best game direction is Spider-Man 2, Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Wonder, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2. So it’s basically just the Game of the Year nominations but not Resident Evil 4. (0:28:54) Al: Which is funny because it’s like yeah I guess it makes sense that like I suspect Resident Evil 4 not going to win game of the year. (0:29:03) Al: I just find that interesting. It’s like basically the same award now, and the best action adventure game. (0:29:33) Al: I don’t know. I may well be thinking about this differently to them, like maybe when they say best action adventure game, they say this is the best action adventure part of it, whereas the game of the year is the best overall game. But I feel like if you’re (0:30:03) Al: the best game, if you’re the game of the year, then you’re also the best action adventure game, (0:30:08) Al: if you’re an action adventure game. It just doesn’t make any sense to me that those two things wouldn’t end up being the same thing. I also need to look into what action adventure means and what action means because they have two separate sections, best action adventure game and best action game. Best adaptation also amused me because it’s like The Last of Us, (0:30:30) Al: which was a fantastic TV series, Super Mario Bros. (0:30:34) Al: very good film. And then Gran Turismo, which was an OK film, Twisted Metal, which I’ve not heard anything since it came out, right? People seem to be excited about it in theory, (0:30:47) Al: but then nobody seems to have talked about it afterwards. And Castlevania Nocturne, which I had literally never heard of before this. Yeah, I feel like The Last of Us should win Mario might win it but maybe (0:31:04) Al: one of the other three is certainly Gran Turismo shouldn’t win it. Maybe one of the two that I’ve not seen is actually better. Who knows? Yeah, so that is the Game Award nominations. (0:31:16) Al: Well, the ones that I care about. There’s obviously more in the list. I will obviously have a link to that in the show notes if you want to go look at them. Or you can just go Google the Game Awards and look through everything. Yeah, so thank you for listening. Thank you for (0:31:34) Al: coming along to this solo podcast of mine. If you want to follow me, you can find me on mastodon.scot and on Twitter as thescotbot. I’m probably posting more on Mastodon than I am on Twitter. I still technically exist on Twitter but more because there’s a few people that still haven’t moved off Twitter and I want to follow their stuff. That’s basically it. I use it it basically just for farming game stuff now. (0:32:04) Al: You can follow the podcast on Tumblr and also on Twitter @THSPOD. You can find links to everything related to the podcast and also a feedback form at harvestseason.club. So if you want to let us know anything, you can do it there. In those links, there’s also a link to our Patreon, patreon.com/THSPOD where you can support me and the podcast and You can also get access to our Slack. (0:32:34) Al: Which has a bunch of interesting conversation and some fun people and also bonus episodes of the podcast. (0:32:41) Al: We have just released an episode about the Pokemon DLC, the first DLC. (0:32:49) Al: I did that with Micah. We released that last week. (0:32:52) Al: And there’ll be more coming up soon. (0:32:54) Al: We still have three episodes to come out this year. (0:32:58) Al: If you sign up to the Patreon, you can get all the back catalogue as well. (0:33:01) Al: which is roughly 2 episodes. (0:33:04) Al: So, you get all that. (0:33:14) Al: Thank you all for listening, thank you me for joining me, and until next time, farmers, (0:33:22) Al: have a good harvest. (0:33:24) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (0:33:38) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (0:33:43) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestsseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed in this episode.

Over the last two decades, Shachar has helped to build and scale global brands, including Meta Reality Labs, Bumble, Snapchat, and Apple. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Shachar turned to women's politics, and helped to legalize emergency contraception through Planned Parenthood with John F. Kerry. That led her to develop the brand for the century-old women's organization, NCJW, the group responsible for Head Start, Meals on Wheels and Benchmark - preserving our Pro-Choice Bench. From there she went to Columbia University in New York, where she led marketing and communication for student services while getting her Master of Science in Strategic Communications. She spent six years leading digital and marketing strategy at several media and creative companies in New York, including Digitas, Deep Focus, and StrawberryFrog. In 2011, Shachar was recruited by Apple Inc. to lead market development strategy for Apple's digital advertising platform. She left Apple in 2014 to become a Managing Director at a venture and creative capital firm, West, where she ran the company's portfolio in New York before joining Snap Inc in 2017 to lead Global Brand Marketing. During her time at Snap, she defined the role that marketing plays in driving growth and revenue for the company. At the end of 2020, she joined Bumble as Vice President of Global Marketing, overseeing brand marketing, product marketing, community marketing, brand partnerships, and their expansion into 150 markets. At the end of 2021, she joined Meta's Reality Labs. Today, as Vice President, Marketing she leads brand and integrated marketing team across VR (Meta Quest), VR content (Oculus Studios, Beat Saber), AR (Ray Ban Stories), Metaverse (Horizon Worlds, Avatars) and Work (Meta Work Portfolio, Quest for Business). In addition to her professional marketing leadership, she serves as the Chairwomen of the Board of Directors for SAY.org and as an Independent Board Director at TouchTunes. She lives in Venice, California with her husband, Jason, and is the proud mom of Morgan + Riley, her 10-year old twins. She is originally from Israel and immigrated to America in 1985.

We are back in the Power Station to look once again at the GamesMaster reboot, as Shanghai'd speedruns Super Mario 3D World, Gabbie and Emz shoot up on Challenge Two - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Ketchup and Mustard bleed all over the place on Mortal Kombat 11.Plus, Snoochy Shy drops by to take on Little Lad Larry on Splatoon 2, and Sam Tuff attempts and 'impossible' challenge on Beat Sabre.Meanwhile, Rab reviews Cruise'N' Blast on Switch, and Grado learns about Adaptive Music.Help us build future 'UCP Live!' Events here!Join the GamesMaster conversation on Discord!Theme song by Other ChrisFollow Luke on TwitterFollow Ash on TwitterFollow Under Consoletation on TwitterFollow Under Consoletation on InstagramSend your thoughts to feedback@underconsoletation.comSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/underconsolepod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MJC is joined by Josh Langford this week! We find ourselves falling into many tangents this episode, from the state of the MCU to Star Wars and then some. We have reactions to the latest Twisted Metal trailer and EA's confirmation that their Black Panther game is real. Playing and Watching sees the return of AEW Fight Forever and Starship Troopers for MJC while Josh tells us of his adventures with PSVR2 and his Steam Deck. The opening song is Deja Vu by Popskyy - https://popskyy.bandcamp.com/If you'd like to donate to us using PayPal, you can do so with this link. https://www.paypal.me/digitaldaysgamingIf you would like to order DDG merchandise click below: https://teespring.com/digital-days-gamingPatreonDiscordTwitter: @DigitalDaysPodDave Twitter: @GoodDaveHuntMichael Twitter: @The1stMJCTwitch: @DigitalDaysGamingFacebook PageFacebook GroupYouTubeTikTok

Today we discuss our PlayStation PSN Wishlists, Fred discovers the joys of Beat Saber and defeats Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrected, Jake returns to reclaim his chair at the table and we discuss nothing but PlayStation!For first time visitors: We appreciate you stopping by. For returning visitors; Welcome back! We are a dedicated Weekly PlayStation Podcast called: PS This is Awesome! A PlayStation Podcast. You can stream our Podcast on your preferred podcasting service or just tune in and watch the show on YouTube!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/psthisisawesome0:00 - INTRO10:20 - GAMES WE ARE PLAYING30:40 - LISTENER FEEDBACK52:38 - FFXVI NEWS57:12 - ABSURD VENTURES58:29 - MIHOYO MAKING THAT MONEY1:00:10 - CYBERPUNK 2077 PHANTOM LIBERTY1:04:10 - CRYSTAL DYNAMICS CLARIFIES EMBRACER NEWS1:05:53 - PRAGMATA DELAYED1:08:11 - LONGER GAME DEV CYCLES1:12:25 - PHASMAPHOBIA1:15:40 - OUR PSN WISHLISTS1:26:40 - NEW GAMES THIS WEEK1:29:00 - CLOSING (DON'T WANK TO CRAIGSLIST) Support PS This is Awesome! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week! It's a VR grab bag with the Quest 3 announcement, Samba de Amigo in VR, Apple's headset getting announced this week (happened after we recorded), plus more Tears of the Kingdom, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie, Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, Audica, and much, much more. Join us, won't you? Links of interest: Pastel Joy-con Everybody 1-2 Switch is a real thing Quest 3 announced Meta's Gaming Showcase Samba De Amigo coming to Quest 7th Guest coming to VR Yuji Naka could be sentenced to 2.5 years The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Star Wars Jedi: Survivor We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie Street Fighter 6 Guilty Gear Strive HUMANITY Beat Saber Pistol Whip Audica Greg Sewart's Extra Life Page The Player One Podcast t-shirt The Player One Podcast mug ResetEra Player One Podcast Topic Player One Podcast Discord Greg Streams on Twitch I Will: The Story of London - Generation 16 #128 Add us in Apple Podcasts Check out Greg's web series Generation 16 - click here. And take a trip over to Phil's YouTube Channel to see some awesome retro game vids. Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/p1podcast. Thanks for listening! Don't forget to visit our new web site at www.playeronepodcast.com. Running time: 1:49:13

This week! Sony held a PlayStation showcase and it was pretty good! We played more Tears of the Kingdom and needed to talk about it again. Plus Faxanadu, Catan, Walkabout Mini-Golf, HUMANITY, Super Mario Advance, and much, much more. Join us, won't you? Links of interest: PlayStation Showcase recap: everything announced at today's show Bungie unveils Marathon Foamstars, a fresh new party shooter revealed for PS5 and PS4 Alan Wake 2 launches on PS5 October 17 Meet the friends and foes of The Plucky Squire's storybook world Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater - Announcement Trailer Metal Gear Solid Master Collection also comes with Metal Gear 1 and 2 Beat Saber launches on PS VR2 today with new Queen Music Pack PlayStation reveals streaming portable device, ‘Project Q' Marvel's Spider-Man 2 gameplay revealed Spider-Man 2 release date and pre-order details are coming ‘soon' The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom HUMANITY Super Mario Advance Catan Walkabout Mini Golf Faxanadu Greg Sewart's Extra Life Page The Player One Podcast t-shirt The Player One Podcast mug ResetEra Player One Podcast Topic Player One Podcast Discord Greg Streams on Twitch I Will: The Story of London - Generation 16 #128 Add us in Apple Podcasts Check out Greg's web series Generation 16 - click here. And take a trip over to Phil's YouTube Channel to see some awesome retro game vids. Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/p1podcast. Thanks for listening! Don't forget to visit our new web site at www.playeronepodcast.com. Running time: 1:40:23

The gaming industry is larger than music and film combined. We've seen big music collabs in Fortnite, Roblox, and more, but there's room to leverage music even more. That's been a big focus for Vickie Nauman, who works at the intersection of music and gaming. She consults for major record labels, game developers, and more through her company, CrossBorderWorks. She's also worked on big virtual concerts, like David Guerra and Saweetie in Roblox, and VR games like Beat Saber.  But there are plenty of friction points between music and gaming. As Vickie said, the music industry likes to get money upfront, whereas gaming is fine getting it on the back-end. Then there's the long process of clearing music from rights holders to even use in games. It makes it tough to move quickly It's even more challenging because of how fast technology is changing. New virtual experiences are being created daily, which adds pressure on the music industry to sort this out. Vickie and I covered all this and more. Here's everything we discussed: [1:40] What attracted Vickie to gaming[2:40] The gaming moment that finally struck a chord with the music industry[4:33] Similarities and differences between gaming and music industries[10:09] Why Travis Scott's Fortnite concert clicked but others haven't[9:53] Can gaming have its Kate Bush - Stranger Things moment [15:47] Why the music industry plays catch up to technology[21:33] Clearing 143 writer's share for David Guetta's Roblox concert[28:45] Dot-com bubble era of web3[30:45] Music will evolve differently in web3 experiences[36:17] What's slowing down virtual reality adoption?[41:26] AI is coming at the music industry like a freight train Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Overcast | Amazon | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | RSS Host: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.coGuests: Vickie Nauman, @vnvnvnvnThis episode was brought to you by trac. Learn more about how artists can bring web2 and web3 together for their fans at trac.coEnjoy this podcast? Rate and review the podcast here! ratethispodcast.com/trapital Trapital is home for the business of music, media and culture. Learn more by reading Trapital's free memo.TRANSCRIPT[00:00:00] Vickie Nauman: There are not an enormous number of opportunities for music and games. It's gaming is similar to the music industry where there are a handful of huge, huge, huge gaming studios, and then there's an inordinate long tail of small to mid-size gaming companies and, you know, very, very similar to music.[00:00:19] So the few big studios, a lot of them are doing, you know, licensing and they get music in. But it's been much more common over the years to gaming studios just hire a composer and they just create a song that is right for the mood and the moment in the game, the gaming studio owns it and they're just done.[00:00:40] You know, they don't have to worry about licensing or business models to incorporate music into the games. But I think for the most part, the music industry always likes to get their money up front, and the gaming industry likes to get all the money on the back end[00:00:55] Dan Runcie Intro: Hey, welcome to the Trapital Podcast. I'm your host and the founder of Trapital, Dan Runcie. This podcast is your place to gain insights from the executives in music, media, entertainment, and more. Who are taking hip hop culture to the next level.[00:01:22] Dan Runcie: This episode is all about the future of gaming, and today we'll be breaking it down with someone who understands this space in and out. Vickie Nauman. She is the founder and CEO of CrossBorderWorks, which is her consulting and advisory firm, which works with some of the biggest major record labels, streaming services, and more on the intersections of word music meets technology, gaming, and several other emerging tech platforms.[00:01:47] We talk about what music and gaming's challenges and opportunities are in the future, how games are monetized versus music, some of the opportunities there. We also talk about the music industry itself and why the music industry often sometimes plays catch up with regards to emerging technology, how that impacts her work.[00:02:07] And what it can look like for gaming, to have that huge sync moment that Kate Bush running up that hill moment like we saw on Stranger Things. What could that look like for music in a video game? I think we've seen several successful examples over the past couple of decades, but we'll continue to see more as gaming in the Metaverse, Web three, and AI continue to intersect and influence this space.[00:02:29] Really great episode. It was great to have her share her insights here, and I hope you enjoy it. Here's our chat.[00:02:36] All right. Today we're here to talk about gaming music and so many of the intersections it has, and wanted to talk with someone who understands this space better than almost anyone that I could reach out to Vickie Nauman, who has consulted and worked with many of these companies in music and gaming.[00:02:53] Vickie, welcome to the pod.[00:02:54] Vickie Nauman: I am so happy to be here. I'm a huge admirer of your writing and your work and it's an honor.[00:02:59] Dan Runcie: Thank you. Appreciate that. So what is it for you that attracted you to this space? It's been an emerging space for some time, and it feels like the music industry is now starting to put more emphasis in, but you had been focusing even before the current wave has been there. What attracted you to it?[00:03:16] Vickie Nauman: Well, I've always looked at gaming and I'm one of these people who for years was telling the industry. Gaming is bigger than music and film combined, you know, it is a massive, massive industry and they're, you know, and almost all the monetization is built on low friction, high engagement in-app purchasing.[00:03:37] And so companies are releasing games that are free and they're making billions of dollars. There's, you know, there's lessons for the music industry. I feel like it all fell on deaf ears. People are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, companies come to us and. We wanna license them our whole catalog, and they don't want it.[00:03:53] And so there's nothing for us to do. And then, Marshmello did a set in Fortnite and got 10 million people to listen to his music, and that struck a chord in the, you know, in the industry. you know, and importantly, it didn't necessarily resonate with the digital business people who were always, you know, under an onslaught of new companies coming to try to get rights.[00:04:19] But it was in marketing and a and. and then there was like, it was a moment where I think everyone started to realize the power of gaming and the hundreds of millions and billions of people who are playing games as a new platform in a new way for artists to reach, fans and to break artists.[00:04:37] And it was interesting too because at that time I was working with Beat Saber. and they were this was in 2019 that all of this happened. And, Beat Saber was still an independent studio out of Prague, brand new game. And we were trying to get some of first songs in to that game.[00:04:55] Vickie Nauman: We had worked with Monstercat before and we had these original soundtracks in there, but we didn't have any, huge major label acts and we were trying to license Imagine Dragons. And so I heard firsthand from labels and publishers all throughout that process of like, wow, you know, we really want to do more with gaming.[00:05:16] And I credit a lot of that to Marshmello.[00:05:20] Dan Runcie: And you talked a little bit about how gaming is just so much bigger than music, and part of it is because they're not necessarily selling the content itself. They are selling what you can do on top of it from things you can buy or other things that are less friction. The frictionless, as you mentioned.[00:05:38] Had any of that come up, especially after the marshmallow event? Did any of that come up in any discussions about like, Hey, could this be an opportunity to rethink monetization a bit more broadly? Or maybe think about the bigger picture? What have some of those discussions been like?[00:05:54] Vickie Nauman: Yeah, it's been really interesting actually because they're really in aggregate. There are not an enormous number of opportunities for music and games. It's gaming is similar to the music industry where there are a handful of huge, huge, huge gaming studios, and then there's an inordinate long tail of small to mid-size gaming companies and, you know, very, very similar to music.[00:06:18] So the few big studios, a lot of them are doing, you know, licensing and they get music in. But it's been much more common over the years to gaming studios just hire a composer and they just create a song that is right for the mood and the moment in the game, the gaming studio owns it and they're just done.[00:06:39] You know, they don't have to worry about licensing or business models to incorporate music into the games. But I think for the most part, the music industry always likes to get their money up front, and the gaming industry likes to get all the money on the back end. And so you know, there are these friction points that, you know, marrying a business model into a game is kind of an art because if you've already got an existing model and it's free, or there's, you know, in-game purchases, then how do, you know, do you try to incorporate music into that? Do you just pay the rights holders and get a deal for a certain period of time, or can you create a revenue share and some way to participate in the upside and, a lot of gaming companies are even huge companies are still new to this. And so they're kind of what I would call, like dipping their toes into the pool, you know, testing the waters and trying some small things. And then trying to figure out does this work for us?[00:07:44] Do we need to, you know, do we need to create a big stack of technology to manage the rights? Most of them do not have an appetite to do. They certainly have the skills, which is part of what's so fun working with gaming companies is they have amazing engineers and really great minds about problem solving and coming up with these ways to engage users.[00:08:06] But nobody really wants to dedicate engineers to building a rights management system. And so I think everyone is, you know, all the companies that I work with, they're trying to kind of simplify things with music, try it out, find out what their users want, what their gamers want, because that's another big thing is, you know, you have to ask, you know, gaming is such a culture and such a subculture and each game has kind of a different community in it and a different vibe, and so you really wanna make sure you're getting that. Your assumptions of what kind of music is going to work are in line with your user's expectations.[00:08:45] There was one company that I worked with that was like, had a lot of underground, you know, all, their users thought of themselves as very underground and they did a music thing that their users thought was too commercial, the gamers rebelled . So, so, the best thing is to ask the people who are gaming, ,you know, and your products.[00:09:02] Ask them what they want.[00:09:04] Dan Runcie: Yeah, that customer base, especially with gaming, I think is huge cuz it makes me think a lot back to that Travis Scott Fortnite integration, which was almost three years ago at this point, but it was the perfect combination of so many things. At the beginning of quarantines with the pandemic, but also there's such alignment between the type of person that's on Fortnite with the Travis Scott fan as well, which is why I think that one worked much better than some of the other A-list artist superstar artists collaborating in a digital gaming environment.[00:09:37] Vickie Nauman: Yeah, I think that's a great, I think that's a really great point, and you know, because of the dynamic of gaming and the kinds of things that we're seeing, you know, it's not like a service that has, it's just music and it's going to put out hundreds of thousands or millions and millions of songs and just saying, You know, something for everyone, you know, let the end users find the music that resonates with them with, when you're picking and choosing a couple of artists or a couple of songs, you know, you kind of have one shot. And it reminds me of, you know, I used to work in radio before I started doing all of this, and. there was so much science to the choices that we made in radio because we knew that you know, we had one signal and we had to choose artists.[00:10:24] You know, if we said our demographic is, you know, 18th to 34, urban men and women who are professional and make a hundred thousand dollars a year and above, if that's your demographic, then you have to say, what kind of music and what kind of programming and what kind of announcers and events. Gotta get it.[00:10:45] And that's very similar to the way things are when you're doing things in the metaverse or gaming where you're like, well, we're just doing, we're picking a few things and we really wanna light them up, but we need to get them right. We need to get the user experience, we need to get the right artist to fit with the right user base.[00:11:04] And then how we present it, how we monetize it has to also be something that fits within the gaming community.[00:11:14] Dan Runcie: That makes sense. And I feel like that lines up with something else you had said in recent interviews talking about gaming syncs and the potential there and how there may not be as much because a lot of the game developers are doing in-house music now, but it can grow in the future. And I'm thinking about, especially this past year, we saw the Stranger Things moment with Kate Bush running up that hill and I assume like it's only gonna be a matter of time until we see a gaming moment that is at that level or something like that, or maybe there already has been ones that have been at that level.[00:11:45] Vickie Nauman: No, I think it is a really good point there as well that, that I think with the Kate Bush moment or Fleetwood Mac with the skateboarder and the, you know, cranberry juice that we've had these cultural moments in social that have, Absolutely lit up music for a new generation, which I love.[00:12:05] I mean like kids bought tickets to see Fleetwood Mac in concert after listening to 20 seconds of one song. And that's so exciting and I think, it will get there with gaming. and I think when you think about the limited number of opportunities and then then the limited number of artists or songs that can be integrated into every game, I think that we are really, really at the early end of the early part of that spectrum.[00:12:34] I don't think we've even begun to really let the music industry and the gaming industry come up you know, with that Kate Bush moment or the Fleetwood Mac moment. and I think that, what I love about gaming as well as you know, other kinds of audio visual is that when you hear it, you know, you hear the music differently when you're gaming and you know, like Beat Saber, I've worked with them for many years.[00:12:58] Vickie Nauman: I also work with Niantic on, they have a new NBA game and you know, with Ubisoft and some early stage gaming companies but with Beat Saber there are certain songs. that I've always loved. Like there's a, you know, a bunch of Green Day songs that are some of my favorites that I've listened to for 20 years, but now I've, played them in Beat Saber, and now whenever I hear the songs, I hear them differently because of the experience of having this immersive gaming and this gaming experience.[00:13:30] So I think there's, I think there's just so much potential that we haven't yet been able to tap into. Some of it is also because there's been so much friction around licensing, and for the most part, I think sync licensing is the best way to do things in gaming because you want something specific and then you know, the artist and their team want to know how their music is being used and you know, you, take something to rights holders and if they're like, you know, we need more money or we don't like that rev share, or that artist has a conflict. And then you're like, okay, well, you know, we'll move on to something else. And then you know, ideally you get an artist and a label and a publisher and a writer and those teams that all say, wow, this is great. I would love to have my music in this game.[00:14:21] And that's really where I think that, you know, if we can get those, all of those things right. that's the start of it.[00:14:28] Dan Runcie: Yeah, and this conversation too is making me reflect on a few things. Cause I feel like music and gaming have gone through ebbs and waves like for instance, I know that there's always been music in games like Madden or like the NBA 2K series, for instance. But I think back to like Grand Theft Auto.[00:14:43] I know one of the things there, they always had music. So they had this Vice City game that came out 20 years ago and that was all eighties. So I feel like for a lot of people of a certain generation, that was like their thing to go to. And then a couple years later, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, huge. Right?[00:14:58] And then I think even those songs reintroduce, especially some of those classic rock song rock songs there. And you also had some of those Def Jam vendetta. video games as well. So now I think what's different of course is that these are more so, okay, how do we integrate them into these digital environments, the metaverse and things like that.[00:15:15] So I'm excited to see, I still think that there is huge potential to see one of those moments happen, and who knows? I mean, I feel like the Kate Bush moment was largely, I don't wanna say unplanned, cuz obviously people expected it, but no one would've anticipated that it would've taken off that way.[00:15:32] But that's how these things.[00:15:34] Vickie Nauman: Exactly. I know, I know. I love it. like a lightning in the bottle, you know, where you're just like, wow, you know, we didn't, we really couldn't quite anticipate that things would resonate like that and, and especially reaching a gen, a new generation that probably otherwise would've never heard of Kate Bush.[00:15:50] but I also think that with. you know, with music and gaming, what's, what's also so fun for me personally, is I've been doing music licensing and write based things for like 20 years now, you know? So I feel like an old lady when I say that, but I'm always the one chasing everyone, you know, I'm chasing labels and publishers and trying to put things in front of them, you know, what do you think of this? What about that? Have you thought about it? Is this approved? Is it not approved? Can we move forward? No, we can't. gotta start over. And this is the first time in my entire professional life where I. artists, publishers, labels, and songwriters coming to me now and saying, I wanna get my music in games, you know, and I wanna get my music in the metaverse.[00:16:36] Vickie Nauman: how can we get band in the Metaverse? And I love that because, you know, for me, like self selection in the industry is huge. It's really frustrating when you have to drag people kicking and screaming into the future and into experiences. So I love it when people contact me and let me know which of their artists on their roster are really interested or even better, which, artists are gamers themselves and then they are already part of the community but then they want to take it a step further with their music.[00:17:08] Dan Runcie: That's good to hear because I often feel like the music industry is playing catch up when it comes to emerging a new technology. In so many ways, dating back 20 plus years at this point. So the fact that people are coming to you now is good. Do you feel like that is true overall? Do you feel like the industry is at the moment, like right in step with where things are going?[00:17:29] Or do you still feel like there's a bit of catch up?[00:17:32] Vickie Nauman: I think there's always a bit of catch up, just simply because, you know, technology moves at such a pace. None of us can really quite keep pace with it. And then there's always these very similar dynamics where there will be some new technology that comes around, whether it's, you know, on demand streaming or live streaming or gaming or virtual reality, and now metaverse and NFTs and fractionalizing rights and all of those things in web three, and there's a very common pattern where these technologists, they look at music and they say, oh my gosh, this would be fantastic for my platform, you know, it will help me with adoption and relevance and get in, get some artists and some music in there, and fans will come and it'll all be great. And then they start talking to the industry and they learn about how music writes work, and that you usually can't just go to an artist and get what you need. They're usually signed or they have some management and they publishing is probably administered by someone and they all have their ways of doing business. And there's a moment where everybody then, you know, they have to decide, do we have an appetite to do this? Or should we just move on to something that isn't as complicated? Because music is great when you get it right, but not all companies really wanna do things right.,You know, and so, you know, we kind of go through this every time when there's new, you know, new user experiences that are emerging.[00:19:06] And I think that the music industry is always, you know, takes all these things in. and then they start thinking, number one, is this a fad or is this something that's going to last? Is it worth us spending time and cycles to really engage with the companies on this particular kind of experience? And then how can we extract value?[00:19:30] How can we make money? How are they making money? Is our deal going to outlive the the survival time of any given platform or company? There's a lot of people, I mean, it's very frustrating sometimes to do licensing, but I have empathy with all of the, with all of the rights holders, because I'm in the same boat where companies come to me and I have to just like, oh gosh, you know, it's a great idea, but you guys have never done anything before and, you know, can you build this? Can you execute you? Can you take it from a PowerPoint or a demo into a fully functioning product? And it's hard. And so I think that, you know, the labels and publishers they have assets to protect and they're, you know, and now increasingly artist management companies are also in the mix because a lot of things require artist name, image, and likeness rights.[00:20:26] And sometimes that can come from the label, but sometimes it. So they're all in a mode where they have something to protect, they want to exploit and, you know, make money, but they have a lot to lose if they do things wrong. And so there's this inherent mismatch between how quickly things move in technology and how slow and methodical the music industry is about deciding.[00:20:52] Whether they wanna move forward. And then there's the other issue, which we're faced with right now, which is all of these emerging use cases and people being kind of afraid of agreeing to the wrong terms and setting a precedent that they're later going to regret. And so, . when technologists complain about the music industry and they're like, they're so slow, they're so backwards, they don't understand our vision.[00:21:20] It's like, well, they have a lot to lose. You don't have a lot to lose cuz you're a startup and you have a big idea. But these guys have, you know, they've been, you know, 20 years of companies just like you that have come before. And so I always try to encourage, I always try to encourage people not to just, you know, get so frustrated with music that you know that they abandon it because a lot of great Id great ideas die on the vine because of these mismatches. But to be patient and to also, you know, maybe you think you need Jay-Z. But I would challenge most early stage companies, you're probably not ready for Jay-Z.[00:22:00] You know, like let's, you know, maybe find some earlier stage artists that might be more appropriate to your size and budget and a little bit more forgiving. And then you get product market fit and then start expanding and, you know, might end up with Jay-Z, but maybe you might find you don't need, you know, you don't need that to resonate with users.[00:22:24] Dan Runcie: Right. The break thing things fast mentality of startups just doesn't always line up. And that's a good point too. You get approached by so many companies, you don't know who's gonna be there. And obviously that probably requires some level of evaluating these startups to see what makes sense. That's just one side of it.[00:22:42] The other side of it is the patience to be able to see these things through. And I know you've seen this yourself with David Guetta and making sure his music can be cleared. Can you talk a little bit about that process?[00:22:54] Vickie Nauman: Yeah, it was really crazy. I mean this was a project I did with Warner Music Group and I love what they're doing cause they're really trying to create a pipeline to get their artists into metaverse and new web three based experiences. And so, this was a year ago, David Guetta was doing a DJ set as an avatar in Roblox, and he originally had chosen 26 songs and then we narrowed it down to 20 songs.[00:23:23] but you know, what I found was that those 20 songs represented 143 shares on the publishing Plus, almost all of them had shared masters. And what many people don't realize is when you're listening to music and you see, you know, here's a song featuring, you know, Shakira or somebody else, that featuring usually means that artist is probably on a different label.[00:23:50] Vickie Nauman: And so even the sound recording can end up having multiple owners. and there was a certain point in the process where I start looking at these songs and I quickly saw like, wow, there are, you know, 10 of the songs that had, you know, all these writers who are not on a PRO, so they're non society, they don't have a publishing administrator.[00:24:18] They may own one or 2%, which if you're in streaming and on-demand audio streaming, it doesn't really matter, the services can still use the music, even if you can't find the person who has one or 2% but if you're doing sync licensing, you need to have a hundred percent of the publishing at a hundred percent of the master recordings or the sound recordings cleared in advance.[00:24:42] So I chased down. All of these people, these writers and people who had small shares, you know, they weren't registered anywhere. I found them on social media and got everything, got everything in there and approved. But for me, it was kind of an exercise in how well prepared or how poorly prepared are we for the world that's coming, which is all of these metaverse, web three-immersive platforms that are building creator tools directly into the platform, assuming that artists can just be nimble. And then you look at this, it's like David chose these songs, he wanted to mix these songs. And that's so unsustainable to think of, you know, being able to harness innovation.[00:25:38] When you have 143 different rights owners that all have to be harmonized around the same deal, and then a third of them are people who are not even, you know, technically in the ecosystem of music, but they still have shares. And that's true for hip hop and electronic music. Pop music also has an enormous number of writers, but they tend to mostly be with pros and have publishing administrators. But in hip hop and electronic music, there's just a ton of people who are contributing to big songs, but they're completely outside of our ecosystem.[00:26:16] Dan Runcie: That point reminds me of the news that had came out when Beyonce released her album, The Alien Superstar song had 24 songwriters on, and people were like, oh, well how does this happen? And I think for some people it became a bit of an eye-opening. Well, this is how a lot of this music gets created, and these are the people that either had a hand or they helped sample.[00:26:35] There's so many things. And then if someone goes and samples, they only have superstar in the song that's gonna have all those same 24 writers, plus whoever helped them with that new song.[00:26:44] Vickie Nauman: Exactly. I know, and like when you watch the Grammys and they go through the , the awards for composers, you know, and there's a paragraph, all these names that have contributed to each of these songs. and I think about it a lot though, like, you know, we've kind of, if you go back in history to the olden days, you know, fifties, sixties, seventies, you know, like in the fifties and sixties, most artists, it was very common to have a songwriting group and then an artist, someone performed someone else's songs.[00:27:20] And then when the rock music came around, we had bands that it was like a big deal. Like we write our own songs. And so in that era, like if you're licensing rock music from the seventies, eighties, or nineties, it's great because there's like one or two writers on every song and it's usually the band and they've written every single thing.[00:27:43] So you, you know, you wanna license one Green Day song, you're pretty much going to have the same mix across all of their music. And then you fast forward to the way people create now, and we have this incredible fragmentation where we have on average seven writers per song, but it's outsized in electronic music and hip hop.[00:28:05] And so we have 10, 15, 20 writers on every song with these tiny shares and that just a trend of how people collaborate and how they create and samples and you know, people in the studio and people all, you know, collaborating all over the world. But I think a lot about where the industry is going. And Metaverse and NFTs and Web three and, you know, where you know, again, all of these platforms are assuming that you as an artist can come in and bring all the rights you need to be able to do something interesting with your fans and whether or not this is going to drive a different kind of creation because, it will definitely the artists who have just a one writer or a couple of writers.[00:28:55] And who really have tight control over everything are at a much bigger advantage to be able to be nimble in the, in this next iteration of music experiences than writers, than artists who have 20 writers. And some of them they don't even know. And so, you know, I'm going to watch this because like, there's a producer, Poo Bear, you know, contributed to a lot of big songs, but he's doing an NFT project and he's just made a decision. I'm gonna write, perform, do everything on these songs that I'm doing in the NFTs. Cause I don't want to, you know, have to pull in an entire army of people to get them to approve.[00:29:36] So I feel like, you know, thinking creatively about how you can take advantage of things without having all of this, administrative burden. It might drive and change some of how we see music being created.[00:29:50] Dan Runcie: That's a really interesting point because I think broadly, everyone's been trying to figure out specifically with Web three and what's ahead, how do we best make this work? How do we make this into a real business vertical that can drive real revenue. It isn't just a fad. And I know you've spoken about this in the past, how felt like we were at this .com bubble era of Web three and where things are now more proof of concept, but not actual businesses, like more features, not necessarily companies, but where do you feel like we are now and if any of the things that have been good examples, does anything stick out to you to be like, okay, like that's generally how this could be done and how we could approach Web three.[00:30:33] Vickie Nauman: Yeah, This does really remind me of the early two thousands, because. There are so many things that, like in back then, we would do things like order a pint of ice cream to be delivered by someone and no markup. And it's like, that's ridiculous. That's not a real business. But it was a proof of concept that you put your name in, put a credit card in, you order something and they promise to deliver it and it, comes to you.[00:31:02] And so, I feel like, you know, and then out of the ashes of all the companies that burn through venture capital, you know, inflamed out or had some great idea, but there was no business model to it. And somebody else then saw it and said, if we do what they did, but we do it this way, you know, we're in the midst of that process.[00:31:25] And back then out of the ashes of everything grew, companies like Amazon you know, and there were certainly lots of casualties, but I think we're kind of in that phase right now with Web three, and I'm still really bullish about it, but I think that we've, I think that we have now because of crypto and what people saw with FTX, you know, their eyes have been open a bit.[00:31:51] and a lot of the companies that have been doing things with music and NFTs and, you know, some of them have been really lucrative and successful, others haven't, but it's all part of the process. but I think that some of the things that I see I think that music is going to evolve slightly differently in all of these web three experiences than maybe, non-musical, activities.[00:32:14] Like, especially in NFTs. I think the dynamic of, you know, of buying and collecting. Visual art is going to have its own trajectory. But I think, music in token based communities, I mean, I think there will be a point where we'll probably look back and be like, damn, remember when we talked about NFTs, non fungible tokens?[00:32:35] Sounds this ridiculous name. But I think that what we will see is these artist communities that are artist centric, that are token based, and it's like fan clubs 2.0, you know, interactive fan clubs with different ways to, you know, limit membership. Maybe you can co-create with the artist. Maybe you are getting a access to ticketing or the artist in some way.[00:33:04] that there's benefits and ways to pull a small community of people around an artist together. And then We've had a lot of these artists direct to fan initiatives for many, many years that most have failed because they required the artists to do too much. The artists are artists, you know, they wanna be artists.[00:33:23] They don't want to spend all their time, you know, on 20 different platforms. But I think these are different because I think there's something inherent about, you know, artists and fans that is the most golden connection that you can possibly have in music. And we currently have artists and fans and then, all the different platforms and labels and publishers and, algorithms and transaction engines and, you know, followers and all of these things that are keeping many, many, levels separate of separation.[00:33:58] And now I think we can bring them much closer together. So I think that's one experience that I think is going to have an enormous and outsized, positive effect for music. And I think some of these will have music in them and some of them won't. And, some of them will be more about the artist's brand and their likeness and you know, their personality, their identity.And then I think another, use case in web three is, this fractionalizing rights and allowing users to invest in music. because this requires, you know, SEC, you know, this is like full investment, you know, you have to really, really get that right. I think there will be very few companies that end up in that space.[00:34:44] I think it's [00:34:45] Vickie Nauman: just you know, the lift is too much for the average, but I think there will be a really viable marketplace. And I've talked to writers and performers who are also even signed, cuz if you're signed to a label or a publisher, you know, you're not gonna fractionize their share.[00:35:01] Dan Runcie: Right.[00:35:02] Vickie Nauman: And that's also something I always have to tell the companies that want to do this.[00:35:05] Like I'm going to now tell you some really disappointing news. but they're interested in doing some fractionalization of maybe just their writer's share or their performers share. And that's super interesting. And so, you know, how can we make that another income stream.[00:35:22] And then I think the third area that I'm really bullish about is the experiential side of, you know, we, we've seen during the pandemic, you know, and starting with starting with these things in Roblox and you know, Fortnite and you know, having these kind of pop-up experiences. Again, that's a proof of concept that if you put an artist in as an avatar and create some sort of activation, that people will come and they will buy virtual goods and they will have a great time.[00:35:56] So I think you know, that's, again, we're just barely scratching the surface of where these more experiential things will go with AR VR. Just, you know, web-based and mobile-based and, you know, avatars, you know, live streams I think fit in there as well. And I also think that the way the internet and even websites, the way that they work now, where you are, kind of view, go to a menu and you click on things and you get a flat page that tells you this is, you know, who the people are, this is what the products are, you know, like even the most basic things about how we engage online I think are going to change. And so I think there's going to be much more, you know, immersion and interactivity and real, you know, real time engagement. And to me that's just feels like that's just so perfect for. You know, small artist, activations where you don't need 20 million songs.[00:36:52] You just need a couple of artists who really want to do it. And I think that we will have just a really, really wide range of ways for people to enact more meaningfully with artists performing online.[00:37:03] Dan Runcie: Yeah, I think the collectible piece was a key point, and I also think that artists just being able to have communities around this too. I think we probably overestimated the investing piece just because I don't think that the average fan is going to be as interested in that piece, and I think that was a big selling point.[00:37:21] It's almost in the same way that like we all may have Apple devices, but how many of us are owning stock in Apple as a result of us wanting to see the thing right. But I do think that the collectible piece is huge. Obviously you see it in people wanting to have physical media, whether it's cassettes or vinyls going up.[00:37:37] So there's an aspect there that I think will continue to be tapped into, but it'll be fascinating to see how that plays outthe other emerging technology space that I know you've done some work into is VR itself. And I know that one of the companies that you worked with extensively was acquired by Meta and although you know, from my purview, they seem to be one of the more successful companies in a landscape that I think has been a bit slower to have that mainstream adoption than a lot of people thought with VR more broadly. So where do you see with that space right now?[00:38:10] Vickie Nauman: Yeah, it, you know, VR at the beginning, you know, it had so much promise of, you know, being, you know, being transported to, other worlds and having, you know, having this 3D environment around you. But I always felt like it's going to be gaming, that would be the catalyst to this because I think there's also, you know, there's also something like how much time does anyone want to sit in a headset?[00:38:39] And you know, you generally, it's kind of like, you know, remember when 3D TVs, we're huge, and everyone's like, no, we're not gonna sit around our house with these funny glasses on for hours at a time. It's just not going to happen. But I think that gaming has really been an enormous entry point in, and, you know, Beat Saber is the VR game that was acquired by Meta and continues to do extremely well with this customized gaming rhythm But I think that, you know, part of it is we need the headsets and things to shrink and we need them to be, a little bit more, you know, a little bit more comfortable. We need to be able to spend more time in them, and we need to have more experiences than we have right now.[00:39:28] And I think that there are things, you know, there are lots of companies that are starting to build even like, you know, meetings and,you know, are we going to have meetings with people in the metaverse and in virtual reality? There are companies that are doing enterprise-based training for employees that are using VR you know, and using these technologies in ways that I think is not gimmicky, but it will actually lend, it will actually lend to human emotion and feeling close.[00:40:00] but I think with everything with web three, we're going to have a blend of, these things, you know, AR is generally considered to be more accessible than VR because you know, you don't need as much equipment. But I think as, all of these things grow and we start to get more platforms and you know, more variety of use cases that we'll probably see a blurring between AR and VR and lighter weight.[00:40:28] hardware and more cost effective hardware, and that will just help to grow. That'll help to grow the market.[00:40:36] Dan Runcie: Yeah, I think for a while VR kind of had a bit of that sharper image vibe, I would say where, Yeah, you know, you go in the store, there's these cool forward technology things, but not necessarily something that I would wanna have in my house, right? And I think over time, to your point, the headsets get smaller, gets a bit more accessible.[00:40:54] We'll eventually get there. It's just a matter of the use case said, Yeah, to your point, I think gamers, if anyone, you think about the people that are gonna be wearing a headset while they are playing Call of Duty or whatever it is, they're probably the audience that's more likely to have another device over their head as they are interacting with game.[00:41:13] Vickie Nauman: Exactly. Exactly. And I think, you know, fitness is another area that, with VR originally was like, oh yes, you know, are there ways to simulate, you know, downhill skiing and hiking and cycling and, you know, being in this expansive different world than being in your house. but you know, you don't really wanna just be sweating, you know, sweating in your, headset either. And so I think the only, like, there probably needs to be some evolution, if that's a big enough market to support specific hardware of fitness, you know, then there probably are people who really want to do that. but you know, we're still kind of trying to figure out what this entire next iteration of the internet is going to be, and I can't imagine that VR won't be a part of it.[00:42:05] Dan Runcie: And I think the other emerging platform that'll likely or emerging medium, that might likely be a part of it somehow is AI and that's the one thing we haven't talked about deeply yet today, but where are you at right now with AI and let's fast forward five years from now, 2028. What role does AI have with music, and specifically with what the major record labels and their artists are doing?[00:42:28] Vickie Nauman: I know. I mean, it's just like, I feel like web three is, we kind of have some time because I feel like you know, companies are building infrastructure, there's lack of, you know, horizontal integration and interoperability. We have time to kind of keep experimenting and figuring it out. AI is coming at us like a freight train right now, and I think maybe five or six years ago when.[00:42:54] AI and music first came on, the first came on the horizon. A lot of people were freaked out by it. Then they listened to the music and said, that's pretty bad, you know, now, we're not worried anymore. But now music's getting way better. and I think that, I kind of look at it in a couple of different, you know, avenues because I feel like the first thing that I see is artists. And artists are always the first to embrace any kinds of creator tools. You know, they're not afraid of technology, they're not afraid of tools, you know, you think back to drum machines, you know, my God, the drum machine's gonna eliminate drummers, you know, we don't need drummers anymore. Well, we didn't, you know, we still need drummers.[00:43:41] But it did serve a purpose. Practicing and, you know, don't need to have you know, a drummer there to practice your songs. Don't need to always take a drummer on tour if you're doing some sort of small, intimate shows, but we still need great drumm. so I think that artists are probably going to be the first ones to embrace and use technologies that are like, think of plugins to DaaS and, you know, and that you've got a writer's block and you want to have something kind of help pull some things out of your head and break through that.[00:44:13] So I think like that is going to be a really, really robust market. And those are still very much human creations. They're just tools that are now a little bit more advanced.[00:44:25] you know, the opposite end of it is text to music, [00:44:29] and that's where I think like, we have no idea how that is going to play out and who owns it either.[00:44:37] I think that electronic music is kind of the first use case because it's easiest to replicate and come up with, you know, a new electronic mix that's AI generated as opposed to something that is, you know, got, you know, 12 instruments in it. But, I still feel like there's a line there around what are the areas where it's, music is still kind of human created and you can never get it away.[00:45:03] Vickie Nauman: And live music for sure, you know, there's nothing that replaces being in a room and you're waiting for your favorite band to come on stage. And we're all human and we're all there in this shared experience. and I also think that there are things about human creativity and music that surprise you and that, you know, kind of, you know, a human can take you down an emotional path or a musical path that you never, ever would've anticipated.[00:45:32] And that's something that, that seems inherently human. But I think there's a lot of things, like a lot of background music. A lot of music that's kind of music for sleeping, music for concentration, you know, non-descript, you know, unknown artists production. I think that area is probably ripe for disruption by AI.[00:45:57] , you know, but it just still doesn't answer some of these fundamental questions about the copyrights of, if you fed an AI engine, millions of songs and it can now reproduce music based on a text command, you know, who owns that? You shouldn't t he music that was fed into the AI participate in that.[00:46:20] Dan Runcie: right. Because right now there's nothing that's necessarily pulling them, that they're pulling these from whatever, lyrics, websites that are there, but the lyrics, websites aren't, you know, pulling from those. So a lot of issues to sort through.[00:46:32] Vickie Nauman: Yeah. what do you think about?[00:46:34] Dan Runcie: I mean, I'm excited for the potential because I do think that if the industry is able to get it right in some way, if there's a way to fairly compensate people, like let's say that whether it's open AI or one of these companies has some way that they have a licensing agreement, no different than the record labels have licensing agreements with the streaming services or the dsbs. If you have something there that attributes some level of, okay, how much was pulled from here, and even if it ends up being some fractional aspect or whatever it is, obviously it would most likely all be some fraction, some way to attribute that back, especially if that becomes the next viral TikTok hit.[00:47:14] If that then spawns the journey for the next person to release the next big song, and you think about, whether it's the next Billy Eilish or whoever is creating music in their bedroom that's gonna release the biggest album of the year, like that's likely where this is gonna come from. I do think that's some of the things that we discussed in this conversation about how.[00:47:32] because the industry is more likely to not be in this break things fast mentality, to make sure that things are right. It's more likely to play catch up on some of those things, which I think, you know, could be frustrating to see it play out, but it's completely understandable just given how these things play out.[00:47:49] So maybe we'll see some more, of this happen from independent artists or those that are doing more things where they own everything themselves, kind of to your point with whether it's Poo Bear or other people like that, experimenting. Okay, what could that look like? So I think we'll probably see some type of innovation there.[00:48:06] Or maybe there's even a solution where some company has more rights to more of the royalty free or independent artist owned music where that can then be used as something derivative from where the OpenAI or chatGPT three or some of these companies can pull from. But I think we're a little ways away from that.[00:48:27] Vickie Nauman: But there's clearly no stopping it.[00:48:29] Dan Runcie: Yeah, no, this is a train that is gonna continue to go on for sure. But Vicki, this is great. I feel like we covered a bunch of stuff, especially with gaming and so many of its intersections. And if people wanna follow along with you and the work that you're doing, where's the best place that they should follow Thank you so much.[00:48:47] Dan Runcie Outro: If you enjoyed this podcast, go ahead and share it with a friend. Copy the link, text it to a friend, post it in your group chat, post it in your Slack groups. Wherever you and your people talk, spread the word. That's how Trapital continues to grow and continues to reach the right people. And while you're at it, if you use Apple Podcast, go ahead, rate the podcast, give it a high rating, and leave a review. Tell people why you like the podcast, that helps more people discover the show. Thank you in advance. Talk to you next week.

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