Transcript
neocharge: What's up, everybody, and welcome to Shapes of Gaming, the weekly conversational podcast all about video games that's unedited, unfiltered, and unhinged. I'm of your hosts, Matt Stenson, NeoCharge on PSN, and joining me, as always, my brother-in-arms for episode number 58, the Retro Gaming Encyclopedia, Bob Harriman, Leon Lyon-Hartley on PSN.
neocharge: What's up, dude?
Leon Lionheartly: Leroy Jenkins.
neocharge: Kind of feels like that kind of week, that kind of day, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, you that's exactly it.
neocharge: ah Also joining us, you know him, you love him. He's a favorite of the show, and he has all of his games 100% on his trophy list. Caleb Schiff, Admiral Mervs on PSN.
neocharge: What's up, dude?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I heard a rumor that they're making the frogs gay.
Leon Lionheartly: ha ha ha ha!
neocharge: I don't know what you're talking about.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: It seems you listen to...
Leon Lionheartly: The Ritual Network.
neocharge: yeah The Razor One Network. not gonna lie, guys.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i got through the first half I got through the first half, and then life took over, and I couldn't hear the second half.
neocharge: I'm kind of fucking retarded.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So if if that if there was more to the story after the set in the second half of the cast, then I apologize. But that's I got that far.
neocharge: That's amazing. Yeah, episode 57 went a little off the rails. Hey, we do warn people it's unhinged. So, yeah. But this is episode 58. You're on here for State of the Draft, and of course, because we love you, and you're pretty much part of the crew.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, hello.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yay.
neocharge: So, welcome, and happy to have you as always.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Thank you. Thank you for having me, gentlemen.
neocharge: What are we drinking, fellas? Yeah. what did you Did you bring a beer this fine evening? Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah guys Are you talking to me or talking to Bob?
neocharge: Yes. I'm looking at you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll go first.
neocharge: I don't know if you can see.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll go first. This is what I brought this based on the news today.
neocharge: Ooh. Ooh. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I didn't do a beer.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Beer ain't going to cut it.
neocharge: That checks out.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So for the listeners, it is it's called Whiskey War. And it is... Well, it's whiskey. That's not really a surprise.
neocharge: Huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's pretty good. It is. I don't know what the proof is, though. I probably should know that.
neocharge: Like 40 or
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was a gift from a friend. It's it's a lot. it's It's good, though. It's got a little bit of a, a I don't know, a darker, little bit of a biteier flavor for for the whiskey lovers in there. not It's not peaty or mossy like Scotch tends to do. and Bourbon to me is slightly lighter. It's just the the taste of it, not the actual feel. But this whiskey is just like basic whiskey. It's just straight whiskey. that's It's barrel aged. That's it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like nothing nothing more to it.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: You got popped out with the mic.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I'm going to.
neocharge: Yes, yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, you guys do a cast crack. I don't know what to call this, but are you ready?
neocharge: Uh-huh. Cast pop. Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Was that too quiet? Was it too quiet?
neocharge: Ooh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): on I don't know if that worked.
neocharge: No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): all
neocharge: It came through.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that's there you go. i did it again.
neocharge: Ah. Love that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And the poor.
neocharge: Dude.
Leon Lionheartly: Ooh, there's the poor.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Ooh.
neocharge: Mm. Beautiful.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, and, and just,
neocharge: I like a good bourbon, and I like good whiskey and scotch.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So to let the listeners know, ah there's another another fun thing, the glass that I poured it in. I think I've talked about this before on the cast. My mom got me a gift of highballs that were Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones inspired.
neocharge: Ooh.
Leon Lionheartly: o
neocharge: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So this one, i have the Targaryen with the three-headed dragon because burn it all to the ground.
neocharge: House Targaryen.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You guys will find out what that means later.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But apparently I've become the Mad King and burn them all as is all I'm going to say.
neocharge: yes
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So anyway.
neocharge: ah I would agree with that. Yes. Because, man.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll keep the Tyrion side of things. I'll just drink and things. know things.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, yeah.
neocharge: How do you want to die, Tyrion Lannister? With a belly full of wine and a mouth around my cock.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Have wiser words ever been spoken?
neocharge: Right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Asking for a friend.
neocharge: Right?
Leon Lionheartly: No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: I just drink and know things. So, dude, Game of Thrones is classic. Bob, what are you drinking? you got a purple can. You showed me. And I am interested.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, ah this is one of the very few non-West Coast IPA or Mexican lagers at my favorite store this week. Don't know why. But this is coming from Hopworks Brewery, which apparently is out of Portland, Oregon.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: This is a huckleberry spelled B-E-A-R-Y cream ale.
neocharge: oh ha
Leon Lionheartly: yeah And it's got a little, ah i assume brown bear, but he's purple, right? um Holding a fly fishing reel and ah what I can only assume is a bass, but this is basically a blackberry cremael.
Leon Lionheartly: And you, my friend, are getting one. And Caleb, if I saw you anytime soon, um I would definitely give you one. um I'll pick you at the airport tomorrow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Fair enough. Okay.
neocharge: Yep, just fly in.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sounds good.
neocharge: We'll trade some beers, bring some from Ohio.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm your Huckleberry.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: Nice. So whiskey, little bit of huck huckleberry ale. You guys have way cooler drinks than me because I am lacking. I haven't been to the liquor store in a while. Planted on going the weekend this weekend for 4th of July if there's going to be any fireworks. don't know. Colorado's on fucking fire right now. Smells like a campfire outside.
neocharge: It's crazy. But I have the Living the Dream Fly Reel Amber.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's enough.
neocharge: Just a nice queen... Amber Ale. It's deep in color and perfectly balanced with Colorado Root Shoot Malton Hops. So...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Wait, did you say a queen amber ale?
neocharge: No. ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh.
neocharge: Traditional Amber Ale.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, it's I don't know what I heard then.
neocharge: No. or that
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was going to ask you what a queen amber ale was.
neocharge: Yas Queen!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I have no idea. he Yes.
neocharge: i don't know. Now I'm interested.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And we just lost half the people listening.
neocharge: But yeah, it is... It is definitely... We've already lost them. It's fine. It is definitely that kind of weed.
Leon Lionheartly: a
neocharge: ah god
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you guys, I didn't show you this.
Leon Lionheartly: There you go.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's not that bad on the on the video video, but I got a fucking another fucking story.
neocharge: Oh, you got a boo-boo. What happened?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I will wait. I'll wait till it's story time.
neocharge: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: I was going to say, because i've got we got to do this, because I've got a parallel for you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All right.
Leon Lionheartly: You can't...
neocharge: Let's dive right in.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Whoa!
neocharge: Let's dive right in.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What happened?
neocharge: I'm pouring my drink.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bob, you first.
neocharge: Whoa. Jeez.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yours looks much worse than mine, but...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: What happened there?
Leon Lionheartly: ah So about two weeks ago, I want to say, maybe a week and a half or whatever, um my youngest, we went out to the Humane Society to find a cat because theirs had passed away about six months ago.
Leon Lionheartly: um so I was like, I think it's about time.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Hmm, bummer.
Leon Lionheartly: Let's go ahead and look. And well, needless to say, we brought him home. He's still learning to how to be around the other animals and be in the in the house and settle. But I went to go help ah with something.
Leon Lionheartly: And while I was... been i mean I've got four other cats in this house, so I know what I'm doing. But unfortunately, this guy startles real easy and all of a sudden flipped out.
Leon Lionheartly: I got bat claws all around my arms and everything.
neocharge: oh
Leon Lionheartly: And the only thing that sucked the most is he got me right down the fucking vertical of my thumb, which is you know critical for gaming. ah and
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: And also happens to be the thumb that I used to badge in, so to speak, into work.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That sucks, man.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but
neocharge: Oh, no.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Of course it is.
neocharge: Dude, that is gnarly looking. How deep is that?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: For for listeners, explain it in detail.
Leon Lionheartly: uh uh i mean maybe maybe an eighth of an inch deep not deep enough uh to warrant stitches but deep enough to where i had to have a bandage around it for like two and a half days straight just to go from it to so it wouldn't start seeping again um yeah fucking hurts um but
neocharge: Okay.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Damn. All right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It looks like it hurts.
neocharge: Dude, cats can be so vicious.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That sucks.
neocharge: Like, I've gotten attacked once, and it was just a stray.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: I shouldn't have been trying to pet it.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah you can
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know what?
neocharge: wanted
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know what I have to say to that? That is spoiler free.
neocharge: to pet!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Spoiler free, but both of you will understand. Bob was attacked. All I have to say is attacked.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah I love it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: That's good. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No. So your story is infinitely more manly than mine, by the way, mine is. So this is relevant because of the last cast. If you remember, you guys remember what I, what I bitched about in the last cast of Taco Bell, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): with Well, my, my last cast, um,
neocharge: Yeah. The Great Beam Debacle.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes. So my lovely wife asks couple days ago, no I mean, it it is chapter two, but only in, it's like a spiritual sequel, but, but you'll hear why in a second.
neocharge: It continues. Chapter 2.
neocharge: Okay. See you next time.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The wife, a couple days ago, she's like, you know, you're doing your thing on Wednesday, right? I said, yeah. She said, what do you want to do? I'm trying to plan out dinner for the week. And, you know, my mom's going to be here on Tuesday. And and so we had all this stuff that we were talking about.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We decided tonight, and I kind of joked, I said, I was in such a fucking terrible mood when the episode started last week, and I tried not to carry it over, but I listened, you know, I listened to the episodes, and I listened to it afterwards, and I was like, Jesus Christ, i was unpleasant to listen to. So I apologize to you guys. I was fucking just, and I tried not to be, but I was...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was unjoyful. Let's just say that. um I mean, the the the story was funny. Like I, I, I still stand behind that being hilarious, but throughout the state of the draft and the rest of the episode, I was just like, God, shut the fuck up. You're a dick right now. So apologies to the listeners for that. That was on me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um But thought you
neocharge: We had so many write-ins. They're like, why is this dude such a dick?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I bet you did. i I bet. What happened?
neocharge: Ugh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): what yeah do He doesn't like bean chalupas. Anyway, so I called an audible and I said, how about we just like make some dinner here tonight? Like whatever it is, even if it's just like hot dogs and corn, 4th of July week, it's, you know, whatever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): She said, that's a great idea. We're going to have all this food. ah So we made hot dogs and corn and potatoes, whatever. Well, I am not a cook. For the listeners, they would know that about me by now. But I do try to offer to help, whether it's just shucking corn or quite literally getting the hot dogs out of the bag, you know, just little things to make life easier. i sliced my fucking finger about, i don't know, a centimeter and a half, which, I mean, it's it's the top ah third of my finger, my index finger, my left hand.
neocharge: The trigger figure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): was shucking corn. I was shucking corn and the fucking, the stupid husk just, I mean, it, it was a blade and it was the last piece of corn.
neocharge: Oh.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And naturally, of course, I mean, it immediately soured me. Because I was like just like, God fucking damn it. I just didn't want bean debacle. I didn't want a fucking food story. And now, and it bled like like a crazy person.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but I was worried I needed stitches. It went deep. It went real fucking deep.
neocharge: Oh, shit. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it hurts a lot. I mean, i you know through I was right by the sink at least because it's too hot to shuck corn outside. Otherwise, I would be dead right now. ah but i So all this blood was going in the sink and I was just squeezing it tight to try to get it to stay closed. Because I caught it right away. But I have to tell you, it burns and it hurts. It's like we it's like a super paper cut.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If you've ever had a cardboard paper cut, fuck that noise. Apparently, corn husk cut is the worst possible way to cut yourself other than attacked by vicious cat.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i ah Yeah, so that was...
neocharge: Oh yeah, it's crazy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's been a day, man. It's been a fucking day. just Stuff like that.
neocharge: Have you ever ran through a cornfield?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes. I should have thought, i because I've been caught up doing that before.
neocharge: Yeah. That's shit. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I've driven through a cornfield.
neocharge: Ooh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I mean, it's not legal. ah
neocharge: On set or just because?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No.
neocharge: Nice.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, because I was a fucking asshole and when I was 16. My oldest friend, my longest term friend, he and I are very good friends. He has a tattoo of corn husks on a field because of this incident where he drove his car through cornfield.
neocharge: Oh my gosh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Shouldn't do that ever, by the way. Don't don't be like me.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um However, cool story.
neocharge: Corn is vicious, dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): cool story like His car was fucked. He was finding pieces of corn like it's for weeks, and his mom was...
neocharge: Mm-hmm. They're strong.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah His mom was...
neocharge: Dude, stocks are... Ooh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): She was just on it all the time, so she'd like leave their place, and she'd look at the Corsica. It was a Corsica. And she would just, God damn it, Kyle, what are you doing this time?
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And he's just like, I don't know.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it's very clear that we drove through a cornfield because there's just shit sticking out of it. Yeah, anyway.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sorry.
neocharge: Damn.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I guess the corn finally got back at me.
neocharge: No, no, that's cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Got the last laugh. It ruined my left index finger.
neocharge: Yeah. You're getting ah cat attacks and corn attacks.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): sucked.
neocharge: ah I don't recall being attacked by anything this week. If I...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, then you're not living, man. What are you even doing with your life?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bob and I are living.
neocharge: i was attacked by i was i was attacked by a fucking PlayStation this morning. Assaulted, actually.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, I think we all were.
neocharge: my My senses are fucking assaulted. ah But yeah, dude, corn is vicious. The Midwest is full of corn. I'm from a super small town in the Midwest.
neocharge: We actually met in Ohio, Caleb.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And dude, there's more cornfields than fucking people in the Midwest. And yeah, that shit is crazy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. So you know that I'm not full of shit when I say I drove through cornfields because we had them up in the Northwest as well.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. No.
neocharge: yeahp Yeah, everyone was always into cow tipping too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: I never got the got that. I'd never tipped a cow once. and Are you guys familiar cow tipping? It's so dumb.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. right
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just very stupid, but, uh,
neocharge: yeah and For our listeners, cows sleep standing up and like people think it's fun to just run straight at them and just barrel into them and then they just tip over like...
neocharge: It's just rude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): knock them over. I will say the only, yeah, that's the thing. I have a problem with it because I do like animals. However, objectively, the sound that the cows make is hilarious.
neocharge: Yeah, me too.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's, that's absolutely hilarious.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just mean and unnecessary.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, we used to run wrap dildos to mailboxes and we'd, we'd put them up like a flag, like they had mail outgoing or whatever.
neocharge: But yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Only thing i
neocharge: Oh, man.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We were engineers, man. We were doing some awesome shit.
Leon Lionheartly: ah All right.
neocharge: There's nothing else to do in the Midwest, so that's the shit you do.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's true.
neocharge: You cut yourself with corn, you cal tip, and you put dildos on mailboxes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Putting them on mailboxes is diabolical, but I'll tell you, Caleb, when you're going through the training in the US ah military service, you have it's just a rite of passage.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You have to open all your packages because they got to make sure there's no contraband.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, sure.
Leon Lionheartly: So when you finally get the opportunity ah to go online, you go and you find a big 12-inch purple dong and you send it to your buddy via a care package.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yep that's I have to say that is the correct course of action. So congratulations to you who have done such a thing. That's great.
neocharge: That's amazing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): this is but
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, that's a different don't ask, don't tell, right?
neocharge: Life's been a little more... Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sorry, continue.
neocharge: yeah Especially if you get like those those dragon dildos.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't believe you're allowed to ask me that, sir.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): wo
neocharge: You ever seen those? was curious one day.
Leon Lionheartly: ah You're curious every day.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Matt, there's one behind you.
neocharge: I am curious every day, but not about dragon dildos. More about life itself.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, not anymore.
neocharge: Life... Yeah, oh god.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He's an expert on dragon dildos now, so you don't have to be curious.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: That's true.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He owns like four of them, right?
neocharge: Expert.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it'
neocharge: Yeah. Big purple one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I have it on good authority.
neocharge: Yeah, I call one toothless.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'd call mine Bahamut. What are you doing?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): One's...
neocharge: Oh, yeah! One's zero. One's Neo. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): one's one's falcor a luck dragon
neocharge: Right. what do What do you think they're going call Bahamut in Revelation? Because we got Bahamut, Neo-Bahamut, and Bahamut Zero, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They're to call him...
neocharge: But then we got Bahamut, Bahamut Risen, Bahamut Rose.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We're
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): we're going to call him Bahamut Digital Only.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then I'm going to jump off a bridge.
neocharge: No, it's not. It's not hitting then. it'll it'll It's hitting after. So thankfully, we're going to get Revelation physical.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's true.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know. Rockstar. Anyway. I don't know what they're going to call it.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank
neocharge: Oh god.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Maybe...
neocharge: Bahamut complete?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bahamut Reborn? i i don't know.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's I'm not sure.
neocharge: Bahamut resolve?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bahamut Remnant?
neocharge: oh I like that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It could be Remnant or something. That'd be a cool name if it had anything to do with...
neocharge: Yeah. Who knows?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That'd be more like Geostigma shit, but whatever.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's... Never mind.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's That's not spoiler territory, but it's like, who knows territory?
neocharge: Anyway.
neocharge: yeah, no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Maybe it'll just be Bahamut.
neocharge: Anyway, this is this is a gaming podcast. We talk about cats and corn and dildos.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: ah Primarily, we talk about gaming, and we have a community, and we have a Discord. We have social media sites out there somewhere.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: i don't know. ah But we have a cool community. We talk about games. We have channels for it. We have the Fantasy Draft channel, and we've gotten some new members. So welcome, ah those of you that are new to this crazy fucking circus we call Shapes of Gaming.
neocharge: We're always evolving. And if you want to be part of the community, It's really cool. We have a lot of cool people here. And ah Bob, Caleb, where can people find us?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah shapesofgaming.com, my man, ah where you can find all of your dirty little links.
neocharge: Ah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All of them are aggregated on that on that website, including the Discord.
neocharge: Ooh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I learned last time because I wasn't sure. I joined it before it was shapesofgaming.com, so la-di-da.
neocharge: Yes.
neocharge: Yes, you are green because we are our founders that we ah if you see people in the discord and they have a they're green, their name is green.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But yeah, yeah. Yep.
neocharge: That is because they joined the discord before episode one and no one will ever be green again. That is locked. And we appreciate our first time fans, our founders, if you will.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Green founders. Yeah, that's that's great.
neocharge: Yeah, the green founders.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But yeah, that's the easy answer.
neocharge: It's triangle green, by the way.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Triangle. Oh, right. Yes, it is.
neocharge: and know
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Does that hurt a little bit right now that it's triangle green? It's just a little bit.
neocharge: yeah it literally hurt when i got the tattoo on my fucking arm please don't
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Actually, this is going to hurt even more. ah You could take it away at any time, even after we earned it You could just decide you're not this anymore.
neocharge: i can't yes i can yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And does that hit close to home? You want to be a true PlayStation controller? Maybe you should just do that one day and take away our fucking color.
neocharge: No, it's sacred. It's sacred.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It sacred, those motherfuckers. Anyway, sorry.
neocharge: Yeah, so. Yes, a Discord. And shapesofgaming.com.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's great.
neocharge: We have it there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's a great website. You should check it out.
neocharge: Yeah, exactly. the way it's not even It's not really even a website.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's
neocharge: It's a fucking redirect to a Linktree.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): just a page, right? Oh, yeah. But still.
neocharge: um Yeah. It's just, ah hey, we like simplifying things. And yeah, the the link tree, it takes you there. You have the link to YouTube. You have the link to the podcast. You can listen to us on any app. We have reviews now.
neocharge: We got two reviews. 5.0, five stars, perfect reviews. We're a perfect podcast right now.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Both of them? Really?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Thanks, Mom.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Did you guys get drunk?
neocharge: So
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Did you guys get drunk and review Shades of Gaming?
neocharge: yes
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is that what happened?
neocharge: I forget.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah, it was Bob and i i don't I. don't think if you're the owner, I don't think you can review it if you're signed in.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah Probably not.
neocharge: Yeah. so But whoever reviewed us and gave us five stars, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. And we love you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that's great. That's awesome.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): whether Was there anything written or or is it just the numbers?
neocharge: so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know.
neocharge: No, we got we just got ah two five-star reviews, no actual written reviews.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. Okay.
neocharge: If you love the cast or you have some constructive feedback, if you have some constructive feedback, reach out to us on Discord. We'll have a conversation about that because we're all about conversations. But if you want to review the cast, you can on any podcast app of your choice.
neocharge: I think these particular ones were in the Apple podcast. really looked at the Spotify one, but we have a lot of ah stats and analytics.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): a you Give me a sec.
neocharge: Oh, you're going to look.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll look. I'll look and see.
neocharge: a live look at our excellent, excellent.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because I use Spotify.
neocharge: But if you want to leave us a review, a like, uh, and subscribe, it's all free. We're not asking for any money. We're just asking for your time, the most important resource in your life. Uh, we would appreciate it. And that helps us reach more people, which then grows the community. It's kind of a win-win.
neocharge: So go do that or don't. We really don't give a fuck.
Leon Lionheartly: Do what you want.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Hey, there are six.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm not your father.
neocharge: Yeah. at Do what you want.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There are six Spotify reviews and they're all five stars here.
neocharge: Whoa!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Hold up.
neocharge: Whoa!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll show you.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I can't, I can't make it bigger, but can you see right next to my finger?
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Oh yeah!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Look at that.
neocharge: Any written ones? Any written ones?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, I don't know.
neocharge: Five stars.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cause when I tap on it, it, it just shows up. It doesn't actually say anything else, but, uh, I'm not that old.
neocharge: Wow!
Leon Lionheartly: Huh.
neocharge: Look at us.
Leon Lionheartly: That's awesome. Look at that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. That's cool.
neocharge: Look at us go.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I actually know. It says Caleb should quit. Oh, fuck.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sorry, guys.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I have to follow the reviews.
neocharge: Yep. It's been fun. I'll see you later.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Damn, that's a sick burn. all because of And then also said, I am the person that orders bean chalupas at Taco Bell. Go fuck yourself. Five stars.
neocharge: I'm offended by that story.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm offended by your existence. And you know what?
neocharge: Oh, wait. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's your right. Good for you. Be offended. I don't give shit.
neocharge: Exactly, exactly. Whoever's leaving the reviews, all of you, thank you so much.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: We really appreciate it. We like to be real on this podcast. It is truly unedited, and it is definitely unfiltered and 100% unhinged.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If you couldn't tell.
neocharge: So we kind of just shoot from the hip.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: We drink. We talk about video games, but you get us raw in your ears, okay? Unfiltered. So... Yeah. Thank you so much. And if you're part of the community, thank you. If you aren't part of the community, go to shapesofgaming.com. Check us out.
neocharge: Leave us a review. Do all the things.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Let's get into the state of draft. What do you say, Caleb?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Let's do it
neocharge: Because, yeah, we have a draft that you can also see on Discord in Fantasy Critic, the channel, and you can follow along and...
neocharge: Caleb's going to tell you all about what the draft is real quick and the current standings because it's that time a month. It's July 1st. We're recording on July 1st. This goes live July 3rd. So, Caleb, take it away.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): New state of the draft.
neocharge: Woo!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Draft. All right. So what is the draft and why do we do it? Well, some of us ask ourselves that more and more every day based on reviewers and the bullshit they've been pulling this year.
Leon Lionheartly: i
neocharge: and Do we and do we care about it?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): However,
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do we care? Well, hey, I'll stand by this. I was an asshole last time, but I do stand by the fact that things have just gotten so fucking weird. And with the news we're going to talk about later, it makes it even harder to get excited about some things.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But for now, we can get excited about stuff.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The long and short of it is games come out throughout the year. Or they get delayed or they get canceled or whatever. But much like those people who play those Yahoo real sports nerds that play fantasy football draft or or fantasy, you know, March Madness drafts or even the the US, the World Cup is going on right now for soccer.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): People gamble on shit all the time. Our form of gambling doesn't require real money, least not yet. But what we do, we draft games as they're ah slated to come out or even aren't slated to come out.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. me
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You might be able to take a gamble and say, I think this is going to come out later this year. And essentially they get scored by reviewers. Maybe if you're lucky this year, reviewers just stopped doing their jobs. So who fucking knows what gets scores anymore. But once the scores are applied, we use open critic for the fantasy fantasy critic dot games.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Open Critic scores essentially give us points for the games that we all have drafted. So each of us this year got a total of 15 games. who drafted them, drafted the first half, the beginning of the year, and then we get bid money, fake money, $100 a person to bid on games as announcements and as things update and change throughout the year to fill out the rest of your draft.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And the person who has the most points at the end and of the year wins. ah What do we win?
Leon Lionheartly: Next one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, last year, yours truly was winning and won and ended up with, I don't remember if I said it on the draft or on the, on the cast, but ah they asked me how I felt.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I said, I'm king of all the lands. Bring me your finest meats and cheeses. And that's exactly what they did.
neocharge: So we did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They brought me some fine meats and cheeses and a little crown and scepter.
neocharge: ah For MacFest.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Which was very nice very nice gesture, and I'm looking at it right over there. I don't want to wear it right now because the way today's going, I would break the fucking thing, and I'd be real mad about that.
neocharge: Excellent.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so ah But that's long and short of what the draft is. How does it work? Well, anything that's scored above 70 on OpenCritic gets positive points. Up to the first 20 points, so if a game gets between 71 and 90...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that would get 20 points. The 90 would be 20 points. 88 would be 18 points. You can do the math from there. Anything 91 and above is worth double for the one and above.
Leon Lionheartly: i did yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So 91 would be worth 22. 92 would be 24, all the way up to a perfect 100, which would be 40 points per game as a potential. Anything that is below 70 is negative points.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I'll be honest, I don't remember the cutoff because most of the time we don't bid on games that drop below 60. I mean, Not everyone's going to be a winner, but most of us don't make egregious mistakes like that.
neocharge: because we're good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like nobody bid on mine's eye when it came out. um But I do know, i think 60 might be the lowest. I think you can get minus 10. I don't know that you can get minus 11 for 59.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not sure, but I've never seen it.
neocharge: Oh, you can. I've seen Foam Stars get scored.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, you can.
neocharge: And it was at a...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I thought Foam Stars was a 60, wasn't it?
neocharge: I forget. Or it was Concord or something. Someone had like negative 12.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Holy shit. But well, are you sure that wasn't a counter pick?
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: I'm sure, yeah. I can look.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, I just, so whatever, but anything below 70 is negative.
neocharge: I can verify.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But there is a max. If you get a game that gets a three, you're not getting minus 67 points. And I did not pick that number on purpose, even though now I'm glad that I said that.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So Matt, minus how many points?
neocharge: God damn.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Anyway, so that's how the draft worked.
neocharge: I didn't even correlate it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know I didn't,
neocharge: That's how much I don't care about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I didn't see it either until I said it. But, so, we're going to talk about the games that came out over this last month and maybe some score updates and and the like.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, I'm just going to start from the bottom, make it easier. ah Mason, whose draft ah league name is This is an Xbox and Why It Sucks, which I giggle at every time when I see it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He didn't have any games released this last month.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): However...
neocharge: Me?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): However, happy news for some of us that have been... bitching about it. ah Our illustrious league manager, Matt Neocharge himself, finally input some of those scores ah for the games that were either questionable or didn't have enough reviews, even though there were reviews for it. And it was something we had agreed on in the beginning of the year, which is kind of annoying for him.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So we're probably not going to deal with this bullshit next year, but the way that it worked this year, that was how it was discussed and what we all agreed on. So Mason finally got his Ghost of Yotei Legends scored, ah which was sitting with the reviews available at an 83.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Solid.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So Mason ended up getting 13 points for that, which, you know, points are better than no points. So good. I'm glad that that's sort of over with. And...
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We'll check it again at the end of the year, but I don't think it's going to change.
neocharge: Me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's Yeah, but I bet you are. um But that was it for Mason. And then next up here, we have Bobbo, who did not have any games release ah this month in June.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We did talk about Mina the Hollower, which was at the end of May. I believe we talked about that on the last cast, but that's the most recent thing that he had.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The only real update for his is, again, scores were added manually. And one of the, one of the situations with me, Solasta two, that was supposed to come out.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): we We knew it was coming out next March, but we had the whole early access thing. I'm not going to go into that shit again, but because it's not coming out and it would not have been fair to Bob, i was not upset about it. It's just scored a zero.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So he gets a ah good counter pick. He doesn't get any points for it, but it doesn't lose any points for it.
neocharge: Womp
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I don't gain any points for it. So it still is a net benefit for him and, not complaining about it at all, a net loss for me because that's just a, like, if I'm going to get a counter pickck pick picked against me, I would have been happier for Bob had it been delayed, but it was just a stupid bad luck all around, but good on him for picking the right thing.
neocharge: womp.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that was a zero. So he didn't gain or lose anything. That's really his only draft update for this last month. And then we come up to Matt who had uh, potentially three. We'll talk about the third one in a second.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, great, great picks. I'm i'm not, not going lie to you. The star Fox one, i was a little disappointed for you in the score.
neocharge: Me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I thought it, I thought it would score a little higher, uh, just because star Fox is such a good game.
neocharge: Me too.
neocharge: Me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like the original on 64 was so good. um I don't know if people were afraid of the the fluffy character models.
neocharge: The remake's awesome. I played it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I really don't know. Again, it's one of those where reviewers just assholes. We have found out this year that a lot of reviewers are just all over the place and they're inconsistent. And that's what bothers me the most.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I can take a game that I draft getting scored poorly if it deserves it.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's when it doesn't deserve it and it bothers me more. and And that bothers me for my competitors too. We talked about it before. thought Neo was underscored. I thought a lot of things this this year were underscored. And I have not actually played the final version of Star Fox for the Switch 2.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): However, I did play the demo. The demo rocked. I thought that game was going to be more like an 85 or an 86 at lowest.
neocharge: That's what i' was thinking, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it's still good though. It's still in an 83, which is, which is good.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um And you were able to pick it up when it was a rumor. So, I mean, it cost you what, like 16 bucks, I think, which wasn't horrible.
neocharge: Sure did.
neocharge: Something like that.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I will say, I think it would have gone for more had we wait had it been announced. I think more people would have been higher because Star Fox, I mean, that i would have I would have thrown more money.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think I threw like five bucks at it because I just, the rumor mill, I don't like following the rumor stuff personally.
neocharge: Right. Never know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's just me. I will do it, but I just, so anyways, it was a little bit of a bummer that that Matt only got 13 points for that, but it's still, it's above an 80, so it's great.
neocharge: Risky.
neocharge: I like taking risks.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um the next game that matt also got to release that we've i'll just tell you this the spoiler free version the three of us have had a great time we all finished it uh was the adventures of elliott the millennium tales and that came out i believe june 18th through the 18th and 19th so just a couple weeks ago and that game i scored an 82 which got him 12 points i will tell you
neocharge: Yeah. 100%.
neocharge: but Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, not that you were not here for my opinion on these games, but I do think that's lower than it deserves. I do have, we can talk about it later. There's some issues, whatever game's still awesome though. It's an awesome fucking game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I, you know, at least it was above an 80. If it was going to drop below an 80, I, that would be criminal. That would be actual criminal, like just actually criminal.
neocharge: I'm not mad at anything that hits above an 80.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So yeah, but
neocharge: So any double-digit points, I'm cool with.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For sure. But that game was good. so it was just like, come on, man.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. think it's underscored as well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was a sleeper hit.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sleeper to the to the masses.
neocharge: It's fantastic.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, we all bought it. We were all there day one because we knew that we were going to love it.
neocharge: They won!
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. ah But anyway, so that's that's ah those are Matt's drops ah this month. So netted him 25 points total. And this one I'm going talk about because it it doesn't come out till tomorrow, technically. So we could talk about it on the next state of the draft. However, it's already gotten a score. It hasn't applied yet to his point value, but rhythm, heaven, groove, which is a pretty big hit. It seems it's sitting in an 84 right now, which is great. So the good news is,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The other Rhythm rhythm Heaven games, i they've they've scored fine. I thought this game, just based on the trailer alone, I was like, ah, it should be like an 81. So you got a few bonus points for where the games that didn't do as well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So it kind evens out. An 84 is nothing to sneeze at. That's great. ah Good for you on that one. That didn't cost you that much. So excellent.
neocharge: No, yeah, I'm happy with it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All right. Now, updating for me, yours truly, Oh, I forgot to say the other ah league names. I'm sorry. Let me just go back for a second. So Bob's League is Super Urb. And ah Matt's League is Final Nova.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So mine, which is, I just want to make donuts. ah Because I'm an adult. ah As I said earlier, Matt's
neocharge: What is that, where is that from? Is that from a specific thing?
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it is from a story It is a story that this cast episode does not have time for, but it's great.
neocharge: Oh, okay. Save it for the next one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's it was a It was a high school story.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ill If you ask me next time, I will i will be able to tell you.
neocharge: Oh, okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it yeah, it's it's a good one because it's fucking stupid, but but it's great.
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But anyway, so Matt had added the points manually for some of the things.
neocharge: Beautiful. Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And my finally, my Slay the Spire 2 episode.
neocharge: Just for you, Caitlin. Just for you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Was, as we agreed upon, this the aggregate score based on the few reviews that did come out, it actually did pretty well. It was a 91. the The scores, funnily enough, were it was a 93.5.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then two of those reviews are just scrubbed from the internet. It's not worth fighting over. Like, fuck it. The fact that it's getting scored at all because of a dumb misunderstanding. That was nobody's fault.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was nobody's fault.
neocharge: Thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, this, this is great. So 91, I got 22 points for that. Yay.
neocharge: you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, the Solasta, as I told you about zero points because of that, it's not coming out and there's no reviews, whatever. Fine. Now the other one that came out, cause we were going talk about the bids that went through, but Because this was a game that I bid on and it came through, but reviewers aren't doing their jobs. Deltarune chapter five has not gotten fucking reviews, which is crazy because Deltarune's chapters one, two, three, and four did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah I don't know if... I don't know if people just quit writing reviews. I don't know what's going on, but it's out. And the only review that I've been able to find about it with that is scored, because that's the thing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There are few reviews, but they just are unscored and they're not on OpenCritic, at least as of yesterday.
neocharge: Am
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and um They sounded like they were good reviews, but who fucking knows? Because they didn't score them. Whatever.
neocharge: I going to have to manually score another one?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i i don't Well, what happens when... There are no reviews on OpenCritic, but the only reviews we have are elsewhere. I don't really know what to do. And luckily for you, i really don't care that much. And I'm not trying to be negative again, but I'm telling you, like I'm more upset that it's just like the bare minimum that these guys have to do.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like it was bad enough when they're under-reviewing, underscoring things, or overscoring shit that's just like, what? But when they're just not reviewing, like this is literally your job and that's how fantasy critic works.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's annoying to me, but whatever, it's fine for what worth.
neocharge: We'll see how it shakes out.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What it's worth. Chapter five s fun. It's good. So like, whatever, right? That's, that's what makes me happy is when we can all play the games that come out. and and have a good time.
neocharge: That's what ah it's all about.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that That is where I feel like we win. So no score for me there for Delta in chapter five. It's still sitting at question marks. ah So whatever. um And last but not least, Burrito Supreme, your grandpa's favorite gooner, gosh, the game himself had Dave the Diver in the jungle that came out, which was a a banger that came out either the same day or the day before Elliot.
neocharge: Oh oh rightinho
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that is sitting at a 92.5. So he got 25 points for that, which was fantastic. For those of you that listened to our draft episode, I almost drafted that and then waited one turn because Bo was right after me and he picked it up and I was like, motherfucker.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then when it got scored, I was like, oh damn, I made a mistake. That's okay. Again, don't really care.
Leon Lionheartly: very
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's fine. I'm so glad that Dave the Diver 2 or Dave the Diver's Into the Jungle did well. That's awesome. it's It's so good. I have not played that yet. Have either of you ah played the expansion to Dave the Diver?
Leon Lionheartly: No, waiting for Doom.
neocharge: No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. I was curious if you thought it worth it. Yeah, well, totally. I didn't know if you guys thought it was worth the score.
neocharge: Yeah. I've been balls deep in Elliot.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and i yeah Yeah. Okay. Well, we got a lot to talk about there.
neocharge: Mmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, but that brings us to the ah pickups throughout this past.
neocharge: Mmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, it was a summer game fest. So there were a lot of, a lot of things, a lot of action. Um, Mason didn't have any money, so he didn't get anything.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I don't know whether he would have bid anyway. I mean, he's he's got a pretty set ah roster here. So he i think he bid on something, but he knew with like $4 it wasn't going to happen. um Let me just go instead of by person, because since Mason didn't do it, like I can just skip him. But let's go back to... let's do June So...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because Summer Game Fest was technically technically started, I will say, with Sony's state of play, which I believe is June 2nd.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm counting that as starting.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Summer Game Fest proper, the main showcase there was Friday night, my birthday. Great show. You guys talked about it ah you know in great detail. You talked about all that, and it was it was great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But The Xbox showcase and the Nintendo showcase hadn't happened yet. All right. So we're just dealing with state of the play, state of play, the summer game fest proper. And then a few of the announcements, if they were relevant Saturday with the smaller little guys. And there were a handful, but most of them were repeats.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So with that knowledge in hand, ah Bob and I both bid on Star Wars Galactic Racer.
neocharge: I
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Bob bid five bucks. I only bid a dollar because I was trying to fill out empty gaps. I mean, I think I do believe in the game. I think Bob got a great, I think that game is going to be awesome for what it's worth.
neocharge: to of great do great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and and And we've learned more since then that it's a little bit of a roguelike, which is awesome.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Awesome idea for a racer.
neocharge: Ooh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I can tell you, for you Star Wars nerds, this is technically a sequel to Return of the Jedi. It's the first one that is officially Like after Return of the Jedi, but before Episode VII, before The Force Awakens.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now, the Mandalorian takes place there too, but The Mandalorian's like an offshoot side story situation. Not that this isn't, but this is going to be dealing with the fallout from... i mean, i'm going to so I'm going to spoil Star Wars, guys.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm sorry. I'm going spoil the original trilogy.
neocharge: sixty six
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The fall of the Empire and the potential rise of... New Order and stuff. So it's it's a cool idea for Star Wars lore fans, but the game itself also looks like it could be pretty damn fun.
Leon Lionheartly: whoa who whoa whoa This is ah actually canon truly So,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, as far as we know, yes. I don't know that, like, Disney themselves, Lucasfilm and Disney have not come out and said, this is an official sequel, but it takes place following those events directly that we've never seen before.
Leon Lionheartly: okay
neocharge: Post blow up of second Death Star.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, gotcha, gotcha.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like we've we've seen indirect stuff, you know, like the Mandalorian would be the outside, the outer rim and and such that that how are people recovering?
Leon Lionheartly: Okay. Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, the bounty hunters didn't really get affected that much, except Boba Fett.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They were like, i you know, he died whatever. But this is like, oh, the Emperor dead. Things things happened. Let's go. so that's kind of cool.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: Hmm. Oh,
Leon Lionheartly: All right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): From a Star Wars perspective.
Leon Lionheartly: Because the game looks good. But when you say that, I'm worried now Kathleen Kennedy is just going to pull down her pants and take a big shit on this project and it's going to end up crap. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I don't...
neocharge: well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean... yeah Say what you will about The Mandalorian and Grogu. Dave Filoni knows how to tell stories. i Personally, I didn't like The Mandalorian and Grogu as much as other Star Wars films.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): However, some of the best episodes of anything Star Wars have been written and and created by that man.
neocharge: I'm watch that at some point.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Whether it's Star Wars Rebels, some some of the Clone Wars stuff, and even you know The Bad Batch is is actually very good.
neocharge: Oh, Mandalorian season one was peak.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I do trust Dave Filoni to... right the ship a little bit, even if Mandalorian and Grogu was like a very safe movie. This is not a podcast talking about that or Star Wars.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I apologize, but just get excited. I think i think Star Wars Galactic Racer is going to be pretty fun and pretty good. So good on you for that.
neocharge: It looks awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It does. He ended up dropping Dragon Quest 12 Beyond Dreams because fuck ass Chad.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): this But also it's not coming out this year.
neocharge: Fuck ass Chad.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So um the other two bids...
neocharge: No, it's not coming out next year or the year after that 2030. soon. Too soon.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's never released. and a fun fact, it's probably not coming out physically ever. Yay.
neocharge: on the
Leon Lionheartly: Ah!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): no collector's edition for Caleb.
neocharge: too soon
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The good news is i I'm about to save a shitload of money when I am just a useless person after this takes effect.
neocharge: and some
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But the next bids that Saturday were, I did another one.
neocharge: oh
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I did Star Wars a Zero Company, also a dollar. I i you know threw a buck at both of the Star Wars. For those that don't know, Star Wars Zero Company is made by the same people that did XCOM. And it is, ah a that kind of turn-based probably super difficult i eat that shit up do i think the game is going to score well not necessarily but again i needed to fill out my roster i thought it looked good enough i think i think the xcom the creators that do xcom make awesome games so there's a chance that that thing will slap real fucking hard
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think if anything holds it back, it'll be the Star Wars IP. They might not be able to do the cool shit that they want to do because Disney would be like, you can't behead people with lightsabers. And I feel like you need that in an XCOM type game with Star Wars. So whatever, I'm not going to be upset. However, it does. It looks like it's going to be fun enough. Whatever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh,
neocharge: Gotcha. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The next bid was your grandpa's favorite Gooner Gacha game. Boerito Spring got Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. He also bid a dollar.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Whatever. i mean, it's Call of Duty. It could be great. It could be terrible. I do think the Modern Warfare series is better than the than the standalone series, but I've only played i've only played the original one, into Modern Warfare 1 and 2, and then the remake of one was given to me as ah as a Christmas present.
neocharge: It's probably going to hit. It was a good pickup.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I did because was like, ah, it's free. And they're good. They're good games if you like that sort of thing. um I don't care enough about Modern Warfare or Call of Duty to continue. Again, I hope it does well for Bo.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I hope it does well for the gaming industry. That's all I care about.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So good pickup, especially for a dollar. i think you're going to be fine. ah
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Then, and this is this is where I feel like Bob ah wants to...
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): let loose. We'll get there in a moment. Next week, we had the Xbox showcase on Sunday. We had the Nintendo direct. Now you already heard these gentlemen talk about these games in great detail. So we can skip over all of that. But for those of you that have listened to me long enough on this cast, you know that I am a huge final fantasy fan, huge square X fan.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I mean, basically like a borderline simp for this shit. So I had one of the best summer game fests ever between Final Fantasy VII Revelation and Final Fantasy Resonance.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just like, yes, please.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And the, just all the things were great. It was, it was really good. And then the other games that I care about, but and so June 13th was that Saturday following, following the Xbox and the Nintendo, or excuse me, the Nintendo showcase.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): First and foremost, I just have to say these guys underestimated me. That's fine.
neocharge: and Oh, no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because that's the long-term game plan for Caleb.
neocharge: No, we knew.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um No, there were plenty of things worth bidding on. Absolutely plenty of things worth bidding on. And it was more...
neocharge: We knew you were going to get this one. I bid ah tiny amount. I just, I had to put my ringing by hat in the ring.
Leon Lionheartly: more.
neocharge: I knew you were going to.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): well, of course. but Yeah, why wouldn't you, right?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But...
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um One of the things that people who listened to this last year and know that last year, ah I had a lot of money left over at the end of the year as well. And so they had picked on me for that like, how the fuck did this guy keep like $58, whatever.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): well I don't remember the exact number, but whatever. And so I had more money than anybody else. So I was like, I could just bid like $85 and get it. And I'll be honest with you both. I thought about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just being like, fuck it. Let's go. Let me just get the one that I want the most.
neocharge: and so yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I, cause I really don't care. I want that game on my roster. Even if it fucking flops, I want it on my roster.
neocharge: Exactly. Yeah. Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, that's not that doesn't mean I would do that for everything.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I know things about Final Fantasy Resonance from the gotcha game. I just i was very excited anyway. But so Bo and Bob, had they were my my best competition as far as finances were concerned.
neocharge: You had to get it. You had to get it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um They could bid high, basically, right? Hey, I mean, you got your Star Fox, you got your Zelda. like i would I wouldn't be upset about that.
neocharge: I know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um But there was a lot of mental math that Caleb decided to do ah And I was i will Not to toot my own horn I was very proud I've actually i feel like I've won Just off the bidding I don't give a fuck If all my games get a zero I don't give a shit I was just so happy That I outbid them In the most like Appropriate way ever And I know that that stung It did it had to sting Maybe not for Bo as much But I know for Bob it did Because Bob is also a huge fan
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): of the HD 2D engine. He loves the Octopath games. He and I will talk about them ad nauseum if we could. We just, we don't because we want you guys to be able to go to sleep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But they're, there' we we love them a lot. So and I knew that Bob was going to be all up on this too, but because also it looked good. It looks so fucking good. So why wouldn't you bid?
neocharge: It does.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But anyway, so to tell you, i'm I'm telling you all this because I'm going to tell you multiple information at once, multiple things of information at once.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bo, Bob, and all bid on Delta Rune chapter five. I'm not going to tell you what the bids were yet. And I'm not going to tell you who won, even probably guess until after I tell you this next part, because was really like just the icing on the cake for anger management.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, Bob, Bo, and I all also bid on final fantasy resonance. Matt did too. Um, And I'm not discounting it, but Matt couldn't, he couldn't beat us.
neocharge: Didn't have a lot.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like he didn't, didn't did a bit a lot. So ah not that you're not part of the story, but it is way funnier because Bo and Bob both tied bid 40, 40 bucks for final fantasy resonance, which is huge.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. 40%.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Again, we have a hundred dollars for the whole year. So 40 is a big, a big bid.
neocharge: m
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's not the biggest bid because Mason is in the draft.
neocharge: forty percent
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that dude just spends like there's no tomorrow. and I really hope for his sake that Canna drops this year. I really do. I mean, it sucks for the timing because there's a million games, but he spent a lot on that game, and he deserves to get some fucking points for it.
neocharge: Me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But anyway, um i'm going to be honest with you right now.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When I was doing this mental math, I thought for sure, and I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but I don't care because it's whatever. I thought for sure Bob was going to bid 42.
Leon Lionheartly: If you're hungry, you're hungry.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because Bob's a Hitchhiker's Guide fan. And 42, I could see him being like, that's a magic number. That'll win me this. And I could see Bo out thinking him and bidding 43, which is why yours truly came in at 44.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because was just like, I don't want to lose all my money.
neocharge: Nailed it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So those two both bid 40 and I got it with 44. ah which was pretty great for me because i I mean, it was close enough where I thought about being like 56. Cause like that would be beat Bob no matter what, but it wouldn't beat Bo. You know, there was a lot of that going on in my head.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I thought i was Charlie and the gift. I really was. I was like calculating this shit. what the stand
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: That's amazing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But, but I, know, I had a fair, fair, I don't care about winning or losing.
neocharge: But you don't care.
neocharge: fuck with
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't. I mean, I don't. i i want i want I care about the fucking games, man. That's what we should all care about.
neocharge: Good, good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Unfortunately, we care too much sometimes. But but anyway, then then the the icing on the cake, it really was. Because I was like i almost fun fact, I almost bid a dollar on Deltarune the previous week.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was like, I don't want it to be announced and then say like March and then immediately have a drop taken away. you know. i don't know I didn't expect it to be dropping as soon as it did. so I was like, fuck, I'm going a bid on that. was like, I bet other people are going to bid on this too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I had a bid for $12 for the first day. And I was like, that's not enough. Everybody's probably going to go 15. I'm to do 16.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, I'm happy to report. that Very, very similarly. And I didn't think about this as much as I did for Final Fantasy Resonance, but Bob had a bid on Deltarune for $15.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bo had a bid on Deltarune for $15. And I had bid for $16 and won that one as well. And both of them hated me for it. And they're justified in hating me for it. Except now they probably are happy they didn't because there's no fucking review scores, even though the game came out last week or week and a whatever. Whatever it happens.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But that was just, that's why I say I was quite proud of the bids that week. it was nuts. And then the other things that happened, ah Matt ended up bidding on the Rhythm Heaven Groove that we talked about earlier. He paid 11 for it.
neocharge: Yes, sir.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right now, 84 points, or 84, so it'd be 14 points if that holds, which tomorrow, I believe, is the official release date. So that's great for 11 bucks. Absolutely. Yes, please. And then Bo,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ended up doing two other bids. He bid on DenshaTak again, which he'd had it originally. I believe he had it, not somebody else. And then ended up dropping it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um well I mean, we think the game looks good, right? I think it looks good. But he ended up...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Bo was playing the demo over here when he brought a Switch over and we were playing Star Fox.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah?
neocharge: It looks crazy good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: It's like Tony Hawk with trains.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's it sounds awesome. It really does.
neocharge: It's crazy, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So it's great.
neocharge: It looks real addictive.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He was able to get it back, but he had to drop Blighted.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um But he only paid a dollar to get Denshi Tak back. So no no real big loss him dropping it before. And then but he bid on Valor Mortis. He bid five bucks and he ended ended up getting that, which I believe, Bob, I think you had Valor Mortis originally, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I think that was in my actual original draft lineup.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I do think that was like your fifth or sixth draft pick, if memory serves. But, you know, I mean, you have a great you have a great draft, so I wouldn't be upset about the Valor Mortis thing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then the other thing that Bo had to had to do, which I know made his direct competitor, Bob, pretty happy about, he had to drop Persona 4 Revival and he had to drop Tomb Raider ah because they were both at the earliest next year. So those were two of his three super drops that he had to use, which I believe was his final one, right? He doesn't have any more, I believe.
Leon Lionheartly: Correct. He is out...
neocharge: eat Burn him.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So if, if any of his other games, he has to be very careful on his draft is, is basically the point of, because if any of them get delayed, i mean, he can, he it just, you can't do anything with them.
neocharge: He's out of super drops.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So whatever, but, but his is pretty settled too.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And he's got a fair amount of cash. So I think he'll be fine. Uh, the last few things, and these will go a lot quicker the following week, the week of June 20th, um, Bob ended up picking up some fucking bullshit again, because I don't, I understand this.
Leon Lionheartly: and I was pissed off about the Final Fantasy Deltarune situation.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh,
neocharge: Yeah, that was a jaded pickup.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but it's just, I mean, I'm glad you got it. Great. Good for you. But it's like, how is that? That's, it should be, a re-release.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I just don't understand it, but that's that's just that's just me.
neocharge: It's bullshit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, the it is.
neocharge: We're going talk about the rules next year.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's the same crap that happened. But he ended up bidding $7 on Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the Nintendo Switch 2 edition.
neocharge: On the cast.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do you guys remember when that game came out? Yeah, me too. Years ago. It's the same fucking game. However, Counterpoint, I'm really excited because it looks good. ah Bob's playing Xenoblade Chronicles 1's new edition, and it
Leon Lionheartly: you
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I love Xenoblade as well. Super thrilled that they're getting released. I love that these are coming out. Again, that's what makes me happy. But objectively, the fact that you could even bid on this is fucking trash.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So whatever. You you had to drop Hollow Knight, Silk Songs DLC, Sea of Sorrow, because we both know that's coming out in 2035, if it comes out at all.
neocharge: No 100% not physical.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah the next Yeah, on physical only, but it won't be for any consoles. They'll just release it on vinyl and nobody can play it. So the other bid that Bob got was ah three bucks.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He ended up, he had to drop Clockwork Revolution because that got pushed. um And he ended up picking up Dragon Quest Monsters, The Withered World. Then Bo, or yeah, Bo ended up bidding $6 on End of Abyss, ah which I think that comes out in October.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's scary.
neocharge: So this actually looks really cool. Beau was literally showing me it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It does it cool.
neocharge: It's made by some of the developers of Little Nightmares. And Beau was showing me it. And I was like, oh. And he was like, and guess what? It's a Metroidvania. And I was like, bye.
neocharge: And I literally bought it. It's co-op, and Beau and I are going to be playing it. So yeah, it's a didn't even know about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's cool. So in October, whenever it comes out, good for you.
neocharge: Yeah. So looks cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It does. It looks good. I'll be honest too. When he bid on it, I said, what the fuck is this? And I looked it up afterwards.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, Oh, this looks like it could be pretty good. So good for him on picking that up.
neocharge: Yeah, like an isometric survival horror shooter.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. And then the other thing that he ended up bidding and winning was a planet zoo too. He bid two bucks on it. He did have to drop enter the gungeon too, which was was one of his original drafts. So I bet that bothered him. But the fact we haven't heard a fucking thing about it, uh,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, there's always a chance that it comes out.
neocharge: Say bet, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): he and He and Bob have money, though, so they can you know they might be able to bid on it if they chose to. I don't know that Bob needs to bid on anything else based on his draft. If I'm being honest, i don't I don't think he does, so whatever.
neocharge: He's sitting pretty. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then the last thing, which just happened a couple days ago, Bob ended up for $3. He bid on EA Sports College Football 27, which wet fart noise.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm just kidding. I'm sure it's going great. Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Oh, wait, that's baseball.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah That's baseball. But i wasn't going to say anything.
neocharge: It's basketball, isn't it?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But he ended up dropping Dragon Quest Monsters, The Withered World.
neocharge: Football. One of the balls.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that was – I did want to ask you, what were you just not feeling it?
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. good
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Was it coming out too late? like what Or did you just think the college football would be better?
Leon Lionheartly: So, so DQ monsters is an amazing series. It's a, it's a Matt ass game, right? Like if we're, if I'm being, if I had to get say, but,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, and Matt would like it more than I think.
Leon Lionheartly: But traditionally, the mono Dragon Quest monsters are kind of like the weaker of the series and they don't score as well. But then if you look at the scores for...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Leon Lionheartly: And I was i was just digging through the database, seeing what was there. And then it dawned on me, EA Sports, college football, I'm not going to play it. But people are and they're going to review it. And the last couple have been mid-80s.
Leon Lionheartly: I think the highest one got to 85 or something.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, yeah, the they scored pretty well.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think it was 84 two years ago and then an 86 or an 87 even.
Leon Lionheartly: So I was like...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was 86, I think, last year. So I think you're going to be fine.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, pretty good.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. It was a, yeah, this is probably going to do, yeah I feel dirty because it's a a sports game, but. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Hey, sports games, they have their place. I respect sports games. And the fact that college football came back and came back swinging, that's awesome. So good for you.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was actually more surprised because I would think that that would come out in like August. and And when I was looking at it, I was like, oh, that's a little later than than i expected. But whatever. It's it says a little earlier. Excuse me. It's July. So it's yeah, it's coming up real soon here. But I thought that those usually came later in the year and Uh, it's a prime time to get them though, because it gets people hyped for college football before college football is on.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So they can play college football and then they can watch college football a few months later. Uh, not that anybody cares about that, but yeah, it'll, it'll be good. Uh, so the last little bit of information, I'm just going to go through the updated scores.
Leon Lionheartly: Howdy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, and again, these scores will not include my Delta rune chapter five, nor will they include Matt's rhythm, heaven groove, but these are the current standings right now.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Burrito Supreme is currently in fifth place, but he's only had three games released. He's got 56.8 points. So for three games, it's really, really good. ah Do not discount the fact that he's in fifth. That is temporary at best.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um He is projected to be in second place with 167.167.05 points. And currently has the highest budget remaining right now of $50.00. and he currently has the highest budget remaining right now of fifty dollars Uh, and then in fourth place currently is Mason with 64.47 points.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He has seven games that have released. And I don't think that that includes, uh, the ghost of Yote. No, no, it does. It does. Cause it wasn't including that since it was a manual update, it was just saying it wasn't released.
Leon Lionheartly: It does.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but So it does include it now. And we've talked about this before. It's kind of a bummer. He's had a, he's had a bad year with some, just some bad luck with stuff. So, like His God of War didn't score very well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But he's not projected to be in last. He's still projected to be in fourth place with 150.56 points. And he has supposedly eight games releasing. i do I know at least half of them are. I don't know. Kena's the big question mark.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I guess the blood of done Dawn Walker and the Duskbloods, we'll see how they do. But... hoping for him. And then he's got $4.
neocharge: I'm not.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, I'm hoping that the games come out and the games do well for the games, let's say. ah in current
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Dude, Kena. Very excited.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Current third place is is Matt with 73.48 points, but he's only had six games released, so that's that's pretty good. And he's projected to score third with 166.82 points, which is just barely below Burrito Supreme. So those two could
neocharge: 0.17 points projected.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But projected. Projected. So, you know, it's...
neocharge: I know, project, yeah, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I'm coming for you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, it's 0.23. 0.23 now. 166.82, 167.05.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But those fluctuate all the time by micro point based on current reviews.
neocharge: Something.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So it could be because of your... by micro point values based on current reviews so it could be because of your your game that comes out tomorrow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They might be, the projections might change because of that.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, but anyway, and then in in current second is me with 80.62 points, ah only six games released, but the Solasta 2 is not coming out this year and, you know, no reviews are coming out this year.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that, that's why that one is gone. Uh, but I'm projected to be in last with one 49.23 points. And I'll be honest. I do think that's a little lower just because of things like halo.
neocharge: Projections are hit or miss. They really are.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: They're they're usually wrong.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Projections are all over the place. But for me, it's, it really just depends on if a few of my games come out, which Brooke order, the sinking star, uh, at fate's end eternal life of Goldman.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I took huge risks, huge swings at the beginning during my draft, Because, and I'd said this then, like, I won.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just kind of want to see what what games might not might do great that other people might not bid on. And Witchbrook was one that i I kind of saw early and thought, let's take a chance.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm hopeful, but it's already, oh, it's July. the Chances of it not coming out are a lot lower, a lot slimmer now.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know that.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not mad about it. Whatever. But, ah so yeah, that's those are projections for me. And I have $26 budget left And then in first place, absolutely killing it is Bob with 115.71 points. released.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): now he does have the most games released but doesn't matter because his games have scored really, really well. ah He doesn't have a single negative, which is, which is good.
neocharge: really well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And his lowest scoring games, he's got two, a five and a six, he's got 76 and 75, but the rest of them have all been double digits and they've all done really well, double digits.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So nothing to sneeze at there. And he's projected to be in first with 182.74 points, left. So, and he still has a budget of forty four dollars left so If he decided to drop Marvel Tocan and just tell me and not tell Matt, I would get it for $1.50.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): colors ay Because I made him buy the game.
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I believed in that game from the beginning. but I'm really glad that he was able to draft it. i mean, yeah, I didn't get it. That sucks. But I'm glad somebody did. That game is going to be fucking awesome. So, really...
Leon Lionheartly: ah Especially after the last team that got announced.
neocharge: That is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh yeah, that's off that's just great.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): a Yeah, you've you've got some some heavy hitters left on here. Even though you got the bullshit with Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Those are bullshit. You know they're bullshit. But they're still good games. So you've done quite well on that. um And your other your other draws are are very, very good. So yeah, you're sitting pretty.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But other than that, um just some upcoming releases real quick. Bob ended up... getting doom, the dark ages. He had been on that and and got that the DLC comes out next week and it's, it's going to be great.
neocharge: It's going to hit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Matt is very very, excited. We're all very excited for this, but Matt, especially because it's on his draft and it's one of his favorite games ever. Assassin's Creed black flag.
neocharge: Sure is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He synced also comes out next week. That's going fucking dope. ah Like I said earlier, EA sports,
neocharge: Yeah, that was a pickup before announcement too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but it was rumored. Like, it wasn't like...
neocharge: Yeah, rumored.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): just but that's that's like, I don't know.
neocharge: Of course.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I feel like that's... Not cheating. It's not cheating, but it's just like... Come on. I don't, I just think the rumor shit has gotten out of hand, but that's just me. and I'm not saying necessarily for the draft.
neocharge: It's risky.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, in general, I just mean in general, the rumor mill is, is kind of annoying to me, but that most of the time it's bad news, but you should be, because it looks great.
neocharge: It's risky. Yeah. yeah. For sure. For sure. So excited for that game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's going to do really well.
neocharge: I'm going to have a pirate party.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um exports College football 27 comes out the same day as black flag resynced. So Bob has to buy it. Those are the draft rules. He has to buy it and play it.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um
neocharge: And platinum it. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then a week after that is when Denshitat comes out for Bo. And Bo also picked up Splatoon Raiders, which just got a direct, I believe, Monday that looks great. Single player Splatoon. I think it's going to be a winner.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then I'm super excited for the game to come out just in general. ah Gay-Lo campaign evolved ah comes out July 28th.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And if you were pre-ordered, I think you get a five days early. i think it's the 23rd or something like that. So for those of you that don't know that, that not on the original or not on the, I don't know if you guys talked about Gay-Lo on the cast, the, the name, If you're not on the internet and you're not seeing people are really upset.
neocharge: We're all planning on regular launch.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Yeah,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Was that on the second half of the cast last week? Maybe, maybe that's, I haven't heard it yet.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah
neocharge: yeah. Mm-hmm. I think so.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So yeah, that's why I called it Gay-Lo. It's, it's, I'm not picking on the gay community. If anything, I'm going to own it. I'm going if they would let me be a rainbow chief, I'd, I'd fucking do it.
neocharge: It makes it better.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll be a rainbow chief. We have a pride rainbow on our front door. Everybody who comes to our door probably thinks we're a gay bearded couple, which is hilarious, but whatever.
neocharge: Excellent.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um And then the last thing,
neocharge: We're going play it. we're gonna We're loving it, and we're going stream it on Shapes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The last thing at the end of the month is ah July 30th.
neocharge: And...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just real quick. July 30th is Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Bob's Bullshit. That's the subtitle of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Bob's Bullshit.
Leon Lionheartly: laughter
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That comes out.
neocharge: I'm bullshit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So July july has ah is a really, really packed month for releases that not only should score well, but ones we're excited for, like genuinely excited for.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it So anyway, what were you, you were going to say about us ah playing and streaming it?
neocharge: Oh, yeah. No, odd we're all excited for Halo.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Bow included. And we're going to do a four-person lasso. So, legendary all skulls on.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I do want to ask about the logistics here because do we know if the skulls are in the same place?
neocharge: Oh,
neocharge: ah we don't know. We don't know. Yeah, we don't know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, cause you, like we're going to have to get all the skulls first to be able to do it lasso run.
neocharge: We'll figure it out.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but But I'm looking forward to playing it in general.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, just on ah on a personal note, Halo is, I think it's actually my favorite shooter ever. And i I'm not big into shooters, ill I'll admit.
neocharge: Hell yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it's actually a tie between, or a toss-up between that and the original PC Wolfenstein. I love the original Wolfenstein.
Leon Lionheartly: Ooh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I fucking love it.
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Maybe it's because you kill Nazis in it. I don't know, but I love Wolfenstein.
neocharge: Yeah. It's
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But Halo to me is actually what made, like they brought really good science fiction, really, really top tier production value.
neocharge: going to be great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And Bungie is the best when it comes to shooting mechanics.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm convinced that's not a slight against Call of Duty people. It's not, it's just a different style. I just, I think Halo is one of the best shooters ever made.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So the fact that we're getting it again and it's being upgraded to today's standards and made for four player co-op because the original was just made for two player.
neocharge: Got
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I really, even if the game doesn't score well, if the game scored to fucking 50, I would be buying it and playing it and I would love every second of it because i just, I love Halo so much.
neocharge: it pre-ordered.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So it's going to cool to see another PlayStation, even though it's kind of weird.
neocharge: It looks great. I'm super excited. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Seeing Master Chief in a blue case is kind of weird.
neocharge: is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Not a green case. This is weird.
neocharge: Yeah. Last time we see it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Or black black. Yeah, it is the last time we see it, unfortunately. But but i'm I'm glad you guys are getting it. I'm glad that we're going to enjoy it together. i
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i personally can't wait for Matt to run in in front of all of us and just die right away.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Just die. 100%.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then the rest of us will...
neocharge: Yeah. hundred percent yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If and if Neo 3 is anything to go off of, Bob knows, Bo knows.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: its I remember the steps.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We all know that that's a story.
neocharge: I was like, check this shit out.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep, yep.
neocharge: was going to dodge all the arrows, and I just got brutally murdered. Fucking great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's one of the funniest little clips.
neocharge: Yeah, I'm going to throw a sticky bomb. It's going to stick to the floor and blow me up. I can't wait.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Blow yourself up.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm going to throw the sticky bomb on you and say, run.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And he's going to say, why'd you do that?
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And all three of us going to be in the back.
neocharge: Then I'm going to run towards you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And we're going to say, get the fuck out of the way. But yeah, I'm looking, i'm I'm genuinely looking forward to that.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think that's going to be a good time. So you guys should turn in if you're, if you're bored and if you're not bored, if you want to see us be buffoons in Halo, I'm actually curious if I still got it.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I think I talked about this before. I won some Halo tournaments in my day.
neocharge: So yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I want to know if it's going to feel right.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I want to know if those grenades are going to feel good.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i want to know if the pistol is going to feel right. I just, those are very important to me.
neocharge: e
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I trust the team doing it. But at the very least, I get to play with my friends. since It's going to be fun. So I'll just forward to that.
neocharge: Twitch.tv forward slash Shapes of Gaming. We're all going to be on there. It's going to be a blast. Drinking some Mountain dew eating some pizza. Not while you're gaming. It's going to be pizza either after or before.
neocharge: We don't eat pizza while we game. That's the controllers.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, we can't and touch the controllers.
neocharge: No. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Though, ah if Bob doesn't do as well as he thinks he will, we can just blame it on his cat injury because you never know.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Oh, yeah, that's true.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah Oh,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Maybe his aiming will be off or his movement will be off because it's his left thumb.
neocharge: Right. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Mine will be... a Oh, fuck. What was left trigger in the original game? I thought right right was grenades, right?
neocharge: Mmm.
neocharge: Yeah. What like special? like
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, it's yeah's it's aiming down the site, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: dam
neocharge: Oh yeah, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So if my aim fucking sucks, it'll be because my my corn accident destroyed my left index finger.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: It's because of the corn, guys!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It is the the fucking corn.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: How many assholes do I have in this squad?
neocharge: No, it dude, it's old.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Anyway, so...
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Four.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: legendary first-person shooter. My favorite's Destiny, which is a spiritual successor to Halo.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: So Bungie does, oh yeah, we had a great time on Destiny 2.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And we had a great time that.
neocharge: Rest in peace.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah I mean, the the reason that I love Destiny so much was because of Halo.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I said, I know what these guys can do with science fiction.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I can't wait for them to marry fantasy to it.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And the only reason that Destiny doesn't take the top slot, because the game the game was fantastic.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): they I mean, they what we got, the good stuff we got was great. But when I'm objectively looking at it and thinking, I can't fucking play it now.
neocharge: Right. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like the way i can play Halo now by myself if I want, with my friends if I want, it is the complete package. And... Destiny being like a service type thing, it just loses a few points there, but phenomenal experience.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um And real quick before the end of the State of the Draft, because i know I know we want to move on, but I touched on this slightly earlier and I don't want you guys to comment until I'm done.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So just give me a minute. um I commented on this at the beginning of the episode where I was listening to myself on the last State of the Draft episode where i was like, God damn it, I was a fucking jerk. um Just to touch on the draft a little bit and my personal opinions aside and stuff.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When I say things like I didn't, I, you know, I don't care. i did i didn't mean that I don't care. It's, it's fun to play with my friends. Okay.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I want to say this on here to make it like publicly known for the listeners. Cause I could see if you're a listener and you listen to that episode, you might think that it's like bad mouthing the draft and that's, that's not it at all.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just, I wanted to come out and say, it's kind of apologize to you guys too, because it is your podcast. And after listening to it and thinking to myself, Oh, that, that, wasn't handled well, right? My feelings haven't changed. Like I said before, I really do enjoy just the games. The games are the most important part of it to me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And part of when I say i get really fed up with reviewers and stuff with the draft, it's not when games ah don't score well if they deserve it or they score too well if they don't deserve it as much as when a new game is announced.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I hate immediately thinking, I wonder what's going to score. And so I tend to to sort of bark back a little bit. And a lot of games were just announced or or about to be announced in the last episode.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um So I was a little uncool about it.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I do apologize to listeners and I apologize both of you because it... you know, just not cool of me and I will own that. um But I do, I genuinely don't care if I win or lose. I'm just, I'm glad I won one. got one. That's all I really care about. And I want you, I mean, if I won again, cool. But if I lose, I'm not going to be a whiny bitch about it. I don't, I, I mean, I might be a whiny bitch about Bob Zeno blade bullshit, but that's the different thing. I i would pick on him even if I wasn't in the draft. That's just a way that I would, I would be. But so I, I wanted to put it out there and just make it an official thing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): On your episode, while you guys could hear, the what? What'd you say?
neocharge: Well, I said, whoa.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): words But yeah yeah, I mean, because it is, it it would but it was, you know, i listening to myself, it was like, yeah, okay, that was kind of shitty.
neocharge: It's official, recorded. On the record.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I don't mean to badmouth it. If you guys, if you're excited about watching the draft and you're excited about stuff we talk about on here, that's fucking awesome. I love that. um don't take any negativity that I might have about, i don't care if it scores well. is that It's just, I want games to do well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's it. I just want games to do well. I want the industry to do well. And right now, the last couple of years have been real rough. We've had some awesome fucking games. Like we're lucky as gamers that we have these games now, but we keep getting saddled with this bullshit news that is just...
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): depressing is all fuck so when i also have this uh oh that didn't get scored or oh there's this this bummer it's just like another part of the negative when i want to focus on the positive i want all these games on our i would love if everybody's game scored a fucking hundred even if mine didn't i would love that ah i'll get dead last if the games score well and we have fun playing them
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because that to me is more important than anything else. But I do know that you guys absolutely, you you love the draft. I know, Matt, this means a lot to you. So I wanted to apologize to you directly because I was just, you know, it could rub people the wrong way.
neocharge: It's all good, man. Well, thanks, buddy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So anyway, yeah.
neocharge: We really appreciate that. And we, we love you being part of the draft and we, I mean, consider you like a lifer on the draft. You're not going anywhere, you know? So
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I don't know. I might not be able to afford it next year. it's if if there's If there's money and involved.
neocharge: even with fake money, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, you guys, you don't even know.
neocharge: Damn.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I've had some house shit. that guy We won't even to get into that. But, oh, man, you don't even know.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Yeah. but No, I'm,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Fucking sucks.
neocharge: We really appreciate that. Thank you. Not needed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: i totally and Might have been a misunderstanding, but all good. And we love you. We love you on the cast. And we appreciate you doing the State Draft. And we are getting down to it.
neocharge: We are halfway through the year, and this is where things start narrowing down.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: And ah the later half of the year is pretty exciting where, i mean, things start falling into place.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh,
neocharge: So it's going to be a very exciting later half of the year.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah. Unless you're Bob and you basically already have that in the end zone. and that That's fine.
neocharge: It's true.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Good for him. He's got a hell of a year.
Leon Lionheartly: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah My exciting part is I'm playing.
neocharge: It's true.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i looked the other day. I don't remember the number now. I think this year I'm playing like somewhere around 80% of all of our drafted games. which is fucking you Think about that.
neocharge: Yeah, nice.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If there are, what would that be?
neocharge: Wow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 15 times five, just 75 games coming out. And I'm playing like 80% the, or at least I plan to. ah Some of them won't take as much time.
neocharge: That's crazy, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, you've got the shorter ones, but that's, that's awesome. We know how to draft games.
neocharge: Yeah, it
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We know how to pick games.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like that's really exciting. Even the ones that haven't scored as well.
neocharge: I love this crew.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We like them, you know, like St.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Slayer, you guys, you guys dug St. Slayer is but probably underscored quite frankly.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But that's kind of where I get a little, you know, butthurt about it.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and It's not towards you guys or the draft itself being what it is. It's just like, come on, man. Come on.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The fucking guy who keeps reviewing shit like fives and sixes and he just doesn't know shit about fuck.
neocharge: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That guy can eat it.
Leon Lionheartly: come on man
neocharge: I know. yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's That's really it. so But that's been the state of the draft, right?
neocharge: It is a struggle. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's that's the state of the draft this this week for or this month for July.
neocharge: It is a struggle with the draft, just like you said. Like, I don't really care about the number either. I hate an arbitrary number on a piece of art. Art is subjective, and we, ah you know, stress that here on the cast. And and someone can see a game differently. i don't even really like the Game Award voting because I think art is extremely subjective. It's just fun for the announcements and stuff, but that is something I struggle with the draft as well because we play this game that's based off of the arbitrary scores on a ah game that we may think is better or ay may think is worse. Who knows? But the scores on games, if you're like, oh, I think I want to play this game. You go look at the score. It's low. Ah, no.
neocharge: I hate that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That drives me crazy.
neocharge: I hate that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That does. And that's, that's kind of where I get angrier with like Elliot.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I, so I'm going to say this and I'm not going to, I'm not going to call my friend out because you know, we're friends and I'm not going to do that to him.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I was telling him cause he's like, oh what are been playing lately? And I said, the adventures of Elliot, dude, it is so much better.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cause he's, he's a guy that reads the reviews and I know like money's a little tighter for him. So I get it. He has to be more picky, choosy, understandable.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, But he's like, oh, it has. And I'm not making this up. I'm pretty sure he told me a 67 on Steam. I'm not saying that just to troll you, but I'm pretty sure that's the number he gave me.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was like, what the fuck? That is a criminal, criminal review for The Adventures of Elliot.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And you talk about art being subjective, which is a very important thing. and I've talked about this before, when I review games myself, when i I mean, personally and and to my friends, I try to take subjectivity out of it for a score, but I'll tell you right now, I liked Elliot more than the rest of the world probably did, other than you guys, because I like the content
neocharge: I think we all did, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I do think the score is, I think it's like two points lower than it deserves. I think i think it should be just objectively with things like pacing, whatever. But I still think it's it's it was underscored at first, and then that score came up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I was like, okay. But my friend wouldn't even, he was like, oh, I read on Steam that you can beat it in like 20 hours, 15 hours, whatever.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: That sucks.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i don't remember what he told me. But he's like, and it scored that low. like i'm not goingnna I'm going to wait for it to come to Game Pass. And i I mean, you can imagine how that reaction was for me. And I said, then we're never going to see games like this again.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): This game is better than that.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and And if you're asking me, you obviously value my opinion enough that maybe you should listen because I've told you I have a decent enough track record. I'm not perfect. Nobody is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I think he would love this game. He loves Zelda. He loves Square Enix. What more do you need to know?
neocharge: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The music is fucking killer.
neocharge: There you go.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, and I'm... i'm
neocharge: Oh, the music.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so good. So he didn't he ended up not getting it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And when i when I finished it, I did send him a screenshot.
neocharge: His loss.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I have my three save files with with different times. And I don't remember exactly.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think it was close to 30 hours for me, maybe like 9 to 31, something like that.
neocharge: Okay. Mine was like 36. Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I sent it to him and I said, because the first one was time to finish. The last one was time to play. And so I told him that the last one was 31 29, whatever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I said, even even if this isn't long enough for you, this is a solid fucking game. Like 25 hours or whatever it was is an absolutely amazing experience for this style of game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If you don't like Zelda and you don't like s Square Enix, stay far away from it. You're not going to like this game.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But if you do, give it a chance, right? And that's but it's the kind of stuff when when scores can dissuade people from buying.
neocharge: Yes, exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's why I get so mad just like you at reviewers when they give things like a three out of 10.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I'm thinking that don't deserve it. If they deserve it, well, you know, that's a, that's a bummer in its own right.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But God, when you, when you don't, you're just not being consistent and you're not giving the, uh, the game, it's objective viewpoint for people to then add their subjectivity to it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I, that's, that's kind of my hangup.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And i don't know, Bob, do you feel the same way about that stuff or does it just kind of roll off your back? You seem like a more chill guy with stuff than I get real mad about things like that, which is childish and I admit it, but whatever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It kind of honestly, it honestly depends on the game. ah Because Call of Duty can have the worst year ever and it's still going to sell fucking more than Elliot will probably sell in its lifetime sales, right? um You know, GTA...
Leon Lionheartly: People can call it a nine or 10 out of 10. Yeah. Objectively. I'm not thinking it's going to be that, but it's still going to sell 50 million units. um In this case for specifically for Elliot, I'm really sad about this because this is a new IP and it topped the number of like in its first weeks of sales, it topped the number one charts in Japan, um which is awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes. That made me happy. That made me happy.
Leon Lionheartly: But it depends on the game because who's the publisher?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Square Enix, and you can't fucking apparently please Square Enix unless your name is Cloud Strife.
neocharge: I
Leon Lionheartly: So I don't know what to say.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And even then, even then they're like, oh, it underperformed because not every person bought 17 copies on this planet. Like, what the fuck, Square?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And so when you have a game like that, I hear exactly what you're saying. It's a major concern that we're just never going to get stuff like that because they don't take chances and they don't have realistic expectations.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And some of it is reviewers' faults.
neocharge: and love that it exists. I love that it exists because it's a gem.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: that yeah That and at the end of the day, where yeah i say you saw some of them, they reviewed 7 out of 10.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: It really is.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm telling you right now, a 7 out of 10 is ah ah Hell is Us. Great game, just nothing to write home about.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Elliot, we could have a spoiler cast on. So I'm a little personally jaded about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I, and I'm, I'm glad to hear that.
neocharge: The scores are sometimes bullshit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm really glad that you, both of you liked it as much as you did. um I actually, again, because I do try to stay as objective as possible. I thought, man, if we ever did a ah cast or if we talked about it at all, you guys might be surprised that I would score it lower than,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): than you would, but it doesn't mean it's bad. It doesn't, it that's not it at all.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I personally loved it. I loved the majority of the time that I was playing it. And I'm glad that you guys did too. ah Picking it apart in other ways, it's like, yeah, it's not a perfect game, but there's pretty much not a perfect game
neocharge: yes
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): with the exception of maybe Super Mario Bros. 3. That's like the closest thing I can think of that would be arguably a perfect game for its time.
neocharge: As subjectively,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But um but the reason i bring this ah the bring the reason I bring this up is because, i mean, you guys you guys like your segues, but now that the state of the draft is over, we i don't know how you want to do this the news cycle stuff of the last week. um You like to do your, your positive sandwich. You like, you like to do that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know that we have much to be positive about. So I thought maybe positive in the beginning, all negatives.
neocharge: It's a negative buffet, Caleb. Sure,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then we tried to do positive at the end. That's just what I'm bringing to the table. If you guys want to try it, but I know.
neocharge: yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So if you want to talk about the positives, ah you want to talk about Elliot and what we're playing or do you, or do you not want to, you want to wait till the end for that?
neocharge: I like that, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We talked about Elliot a little bit already, but okay.
neocharge: Let's wait until the end. let's Let's end on positive because this is all negative ah news. Though something just broke that is positive, which we can end on.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Which is a...
neocharge: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh yeah?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, we could just start with that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do I know this?
Leon Lionheartly: Let's just start. with We'll start with that. How about.
neocharge: Okay, we'll start with that, then do the negative stuff, and then end with a little bit of Elliot talk positively. So, yeah, let's start with that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Wait.
Leon Lionheartly: Let's do that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Go for it.
Leon Lionheartly: All right. Well, as ah Matt alluded to, um in this week's news, news, news. See? Thank you, Caleb.
neocharge: News, news, news.
Leon Lionheartly: You got me doing it. ah hey Caleb just went got excited. He saw the news. ah We saw this last week, and then it was never actually confirmed, and it broke like an hour ago.
neocharge: This just broke, by the way.
Leon Lionheartly: Animusha, Way of the Sword,
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: The second time this year, Capcom is moving up a game. um Instead of coming out September 24th, it is now coming up so September two weeks, actually.
neocharge: Killing it.
neocharge: Fourth.
Leon Lionheartly: So September 4th now. um Three weeks. Holy crap. Keep killing a Capcom.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah I'll be buying that game ah physically, um and ah I'll be all over it the beginning of September.
neocharge: Heck yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but yeah
neocharge: ah I probably won't because unfortunately there are some games before and after it. Still, i just there's so much so much coming out. But I'll try. ah We'll see.
neocharge: We'll see how long Beast takes. And then i really want to play Metal Gear Solid 4.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh my God. This is the greatest news, guys.
neocharge: or i really do.
Leon Lionheartly: I
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's so great. I'm so happy about this.
neocharge: moves it It moves it to a much better position and not around control resonance, which is awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So, and that's ah that's a good move on Capcom's part, really is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. The only thing that sucks, it's perfect.
neocharge: And it's very, very rare that you see a game get pushed up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. and and it And like you said, it happened earlier with Pragmata. Like that's awesome. And and it it didn't, it's not like it came out and it was like, Ooh, it needed more time in the oven.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, that game is fucking great. So the fact that Onimusha, like, yes, yes, yes, yess yes.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um
neocharge: Yeah, great news. Great news.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i'm I'm going to the US Open on September eighth ah in New York. So I'll be gone the 8th through the 12th, which I mean, i'm I'm really excited about this. So whatever.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I will be able to play Onimusha right before I leave. I am very happy about that. I don't want to rush it because when I get back, Wolverine is right next door.
neocharge: Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But like, I will take it instead of being the day, a day apart from Control Resonant.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): This is, this is awesome.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Plague Tale Resonance I can beat hopefully in like a week and then I'll get onto Onimusha. Like, fuck yeah. That's, that's exciting as hell.
neocharge: Yeah, all the resonances.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: Crazy. So, yes, some great news to kick off the news. Now we get into it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And now, we're going to ruin your fucking day.
neocharge: No.
Leon Lionheartly: How about I put them to board?
neocharge: Ruined my day, I'll tell you that.
Leon Lionheartly: for i was going to say, what let's make them board first.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Put a what?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure, yeah, let's go for it.
Leon Lionheartly: got one ah Got one other thing I wanted to cover for you guys real quick. um ah Just two things to come out of this. ah Prepping for everything else that's coming at the end. Sony did have their ah quarterly Q&A with Herman Holst and...
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: and everybody. And there was a couple of, this is where key shareholders and stuff like that could ask questions and and and it's all transcribed and everything else. But two things that I thought were really interesting of quote worthy, one of them was circulated quite a bit. um And that was when um the Herman was asked about um the platform or rather hardware costs and how essentially he's going to combat their their strategy around combating around that. um
Leon Lionheartly: a long term, since apparently that's not changing anytime soon. um But ah this came out and and he said, I'm looking for the quote. I apologize ah for this. Oh, there it is.
Leon Lionheartly: Quote, as a principle, we do not intend to sell hardware at significant losses. um That kind of scares me, gentlemen. um We know the PlayStation 6
neocharge: Dude, if you want to see the dark side of gaming, just read this thing. i made a joke. I was like, the you know, that song, Hello, darkness, my old friend. I was like, i was that was just in my head the whole time I was reading it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: ah This is the dark side of gaming. It's the unfortunate necessary side. It's ah it's about all the profits and the shareholders you know pushing profits, and they don't give a fuck about the art.
neocharge: They don't give two shits about the art.
Leon Lionheartly: okay
neocharge: And it's all about profits and greed over people, and this is just prominent with it. So... This, yeah, I read most of it because I'm very interested and God, it's so dry and and just lifeless.
neocharge: And ah I hate it. i hate it so much, but it is needed because it's a business.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, it's it's unfortunate. Yeah.
neocharge: You profit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's That's the unfortunate part is that you already said it it is a necessary evil for this kind of thing. And and ah again, listeners know that I came from a film background. ah I wrestled with this for a long, long time working in the industry. And I loved it. I still love movies. I love them very much.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): being able to see the ugly side of it is both a blessing and a curse because you, you know how bad it can get and you know how great it can and be. um The same is true for gaming. It really is. And I'm, I'm cause I thought a long time ago, I thought, man, I'd love to get into game development because i could, I mean, this was when I was younger and I thought I could bring like film stuff to games and then Mass Effect came out and I was like, well, I'm useless. I can't, they already did it. So I'm not in need.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um and I don't know how to game develop anyway, so it wouldn't matter. But this kind of stuff, when working on the films and and seeing how it worked, I hated it at first, and then I realized how important it actually was on some level to have these suits that only see the profits because the whole thing would go away if it was not affordable if there was not in a way a way to do it not a way to make money it just wouldn't exist and that's kind of human which really sucks for those of us that care as deeply as we do about things like
neocharge: Sure. It's business.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, certain types of movies. Art house movies don't do as well as blockbusters do. That's fact. Games, there's Bob talked about it earlier with Call of Duty. Call of Duty will sell. It will always sell. Grand Theft Auto will always sell.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We might talk shit about them and say they're not real games or whatever, but they they are just a different audience and that's fine. They are necessary to keep our industry thriving.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But... What these guys are talking about with this this reading this transcript that is boring as all hell and all get out, it is it is more bleak than I remember it being even 15 years ago.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um I'm not against them saying we're not going to sell, but you know I don't want to sell hardware to loss, but this ties into the other piece of news that we're going to be talking about.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I won't bury the lead, but are you going to sell consoles any anymore? When you're going to lose a lot of your base based on the next piece or one of the next pieces of news we're going to talk about.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So we can get to that. But that to me seems like such a short sighted statement to make. And that's just me personally. I'm obviously not running Sony. I'm not qualified to do that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I feel like I would do better. do.
neocharge: private more Yeah, you're more qualified than fucking clowns.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I feel like I would do better because I don't know why these people need to make 80 bajillion dollars to buy their fifteenth yacht. when they could, I don't know, settle for three yachts and still, you know, they're making enough money that they're happy and then appease the players too.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, I don't know why this sustainability has, I don't, sustainability has always been the number one factor to me when I'm thinking about if I wanted to start a business, if I wanted to live my life comfortably, That's how I choose to live.
neocharge: Everyone can win.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I want to be sustainable. I don't want to just take, take, take, take take and not give anything back. that I know that's capitalism, but there's a way that you can do both. There's a way that you can make money, make have a better living than most people, but still not just fucking bankrupt everybody in five years for the short term gain.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): This is not an economics podcast, but that's the stuff that drives me the most insane about this.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And this kind of news that we got this week, especially today, especially it really, really, it's like, I felt like I was stabbed with a hot iron when I read this this morning.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The other this stuff is different than what we're what I'm talking about, but it all ties together. It's all important to, to reflect on the necessary evil being there, but boy,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): what we're getting is it seems like it's become unnecessary. You're right. I mean, is that, am I alone on this? it's
Leon Lionheartly: No, no, you're you're right. And it gets worse. ah Well, it's compounded when, and we alluded to this with the GTA, is it's compounded when you look at actual customer spending data. um And so you you send a message.
Leon Lionheartly: the The fastest way to get a company's attention is you send a message message to the stockholders. And when you do that, that's when change happens, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: like that that's the fast That's the fastest way.
neocharge: With money, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. That's the only thing that everybody, the only language everybody speaks is money.
Leon Lionheartly: and
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. And the other part of this, ah because I'm really shocked by this, and this is one that I'm surprised hasn't been reported, because I really thought PlayStation Plus ah numbers were low in terms of their other tiers, because I know Matt ah got a glitch, a bullshit glitch, and he got premium.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah. You got a happy accident.
Leon Lionheartly: But I'm at Essential, and I believe... Are you at Essential as well?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. I'm an essential too.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cause I buy all my games.
Leon Lionheartly: So...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So whatever, like that's kind of how I feel.
neocharge: I would be a essential if it wasn't for that fucking bearer.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, exactly. and well that's what And that leads me to my next point here. is ah There was a follow-up question asked and said, how should we think about the pace and scale of future PS Plus price increases given its importance as a profitability driver?
Leon Lionheartly: So it's important to note that um Herman mentioned MAU, or monthly active users, is not the only metric they're looking at for profitability. Take note, Xbox.
Leon Lionheartly: um But his answer was, Plus...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: PS Plus offers strong value to players, and we continually balance the value against customer cost. where We're using multiple levers to improve profitability, including pricing, tier mix, and content acquisition efficiency.
Leon Lionheartly: Higher tiers now account for 40% of subscribers, which reflects strong demand for the service. um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Wow.
Leon Lionheartly: 40% at higher tiers.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Wow.
Leon Lionheartly: We're almost at one-to-one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That surprises me, actually. that That really surprises me. I wouldn't have thought that, but...
neocharge: People sign up and then they just forget about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): is Yeah, but to the highest tier...
neocharge: It's crazy. People have so many ghost subscriptions.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Crazy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Wow. I mean, you do get a fair amount of free games with premium. I'm not shitting on premium. I think it's actually, for people who play a lot, like, yes, we would have Essential because we buy our games, but Matt...
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah the I think the three of us would probably benefit in the long run for premium because of the freebies that they give out. I think we would like in a, in a, you know, 10 year period, if all things stayed the same, ah will they?
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No. I mean, the shit that dropped today is going to change it in it in a very different perspective. But, but I do think, I just, I guess I just didn't realize people were willing to shell out that kind of cash for the premium subscription.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 40% is a I would have guessed 15 to 20 at most. I really would have.
Leon Lionheartly: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I would
neocharge: Same here.
Leon Lionheartly: See?
neocharge: Yeah, 20.
Leon Lionheartly: that That's where I was at too. I'm like, the for higher tiers, I would expect that to only for your premium people, which is telling when you're talking about who's going to move on to the PlayStation 6. News aside, we're talking about price ah sensitivity.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So um definitely interesting. But yeah, there's more to this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Very.
Leon Lionheartly: Trust me, I spent, may you probably did as well, Matt, spent more time than I wanted to reading this and coming through it.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But that's what we do here for you so you don't have to because it's dry.
neocharge: It's...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's pretty boring.
neocharge: It's intriguing, and it's a look behind the curtain, honestly, about the financials and ah money mechanics behind gaming.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So, yeah, it's a very dry read. It's like, question, answer, follow-up question, answer. It's just like, how can we...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I've read countless city things with stocks, like the stocks and stuff that I've dealt with before.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it it really, I mean, I fall asleep reading exciting shit. So this is an absolute slog.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just, I can't do it anymore.
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If it doesn't affect me personally, or if I'm not like giving somebody advice about something, I mean, I don't, not to say I wouldn't help somebody anyway, but that I drew the line where I was like, Bob and Matt are going to I'm not going to read this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I read the first bit and I was like, if I keep reading this, I might, I might actually just drink myself into a sleeper.
neocharge: We were gonna give you a test on it, so shoulda read it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but Okay. The answer, everything's fucked there.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Did I pass?
neocharge: Oh, yeah, what?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Did pass the test?
Leon Lionheartly: I mean, yeah, A+.
neocharge: A plus.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah a plus
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Thanks. Thanks.
neocharge: Yeah, at least it's a PDF and at least there's not fucking 15,000 ads that pop up and follow when you scroll.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Did it?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh my...
neocharge: Ugh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We really are in a hellscape of the darkest timeline.
neocharge: Dude, and shitification.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It sucks.
neocharge: And shitification.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It is.
neocharge: At least we're still getting good games that are fun to play. When that stops, then I'll be more curmudgingly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, i'll I won't do anything with my life. Because that's that's the thing that sucks. is like I'm not an important person. i know that.
neocharge: Come out here and snowboard with me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I do not... i'll I'll break all my bones if I do that. I...
neocharge: It's exciting.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but i know it's true But I mean, no, it's not fair.
neocharge: More exciting than doing nothing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I would, I would probably just play the piano like 15 hours a day and learn all the classic songs that I never did. You know, I like the the game stuff, but, but it's still, it's still fucking stings.
neocharge: We can always go back to old games, right? we We own all the old games and the old consoles, so we can always revisit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, it just, it stings.
neocharge: and Absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's the thing that sucks because it makes me think about not to sound like old man yelling at cloud,
Leon Lionheartly: And on that segue, why don't you guys just take it from there?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): go Go ahead.
neocharge: Yeah,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Go ahead, Matt.
neocharge: we should.
Leon Lionheartly: oh I'm saying you go ahead.
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you're You're right. let Just go for Matt.
neocharge: All right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All you, buddy.
neocharge: Let's take it. Let's get into the next negative piece of news. Unfortunately... ah First, I'm going to start off with ah the thing that happened with the movies on ah PlayStation.
neocharge: So the...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. A couple days ago or yesterday or whenever the hell it was.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So PlayStation has basically lost licensing for some of the movies that you may or may not have purchased on your console.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): From Studio Canal, if that means anything to you guys.
neocharge: And Studio Canal...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Studio Canal, yeah.
neocharge: Yes. So PlayStation is deleting 551 movies from customers' libraries. ah These are specifically from Studio Canal. There are some notables in here, like Terminator, and there are ah some like pretty big movies in here.
neocharge: So essentially, if you bought the movie on PlayStation...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: ah Sony told affected customers you will no longer be able to access your previously purchased content from Studio Canal and it will be removed from your video library. No refund or consolation prize or any anything of that nature. nature Just, yep, sorry.
neocharge: ah Here go all your movies.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Not yours anymore. Yeah, to be clear, this is something that you would have paid for.
neocharge: Yeah, some...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): $5, $10, $15, whatever.
neocharge: Exactly, this is something you bought digitally.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You bought it. it was The license to watch it was yours. And yes, there's the EULA that everybody signs. is But the fact remains, you had it and they just decided...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, you don't. Because Studio Canal, mean, it was, I'm not giving PlayStation a pass here.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not. But it wasn't entirely PlayStation's fault. Like Studio Canal, no more.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it doesn't fucking matter. The fact remains, it was yours. And now it's not. You can't watch Terminator anymore if you bought Terminator.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You just fucking can't do it.
neocharge: Total recall? Like, I mean, shit, if I, I would have bought some of these movies.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep. Basically, Studio Arnold Schwarzenegger. Studio Arnold Schwarzenegger.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You can't watch his movies anymore.
neocharge: Right. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: a But this is crazy. You buy the movie digitally. You think you own it digitally. You can watch it whenever you want for the rest of time. No. it's not only getting ah it's It's not only being inaccessible, it's just getting deleted from your library like you never owned it.
neocharge: And you didn't own it. And this is the ah brutal truth of purchasing digital items, which brings us into our next...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah. But,
neocharge: Oh, go ahead. and Do you want to add more?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Before we get into the next part, can we just, there's one thing that I, because you touched on a little bit where there's no apology really, other than like, sorry, we're taking it away.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There's no even partial refund, prorated over years, like whatever.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Nope.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's my biggest problem with this, if I can get on my fucking soapbox here, because I understand we, you know, those, ah those people that bought these movies agreed that you are renting the license, you're, you know, you're paying for the license to watch it whenever you want, whatever.
neocharge: Please.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But where I have a bigger problem with it is Sony didn't even do so much as a, because of this thing, here is that thing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They could have just given everybody $20 in store credit.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Would that have been enough? Absolutely not. I mean, it wouldn't have been in the grand scheme of things, but just a, just some form of goodwill, something to make people less pissed off that they're losing something that they fucking paid for.
neocharge: little reach around.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And you could even say if you wanted to, I mean, I don't know, maybe they don't have the rights to do this, but again, like you mentioned, the the bane of digital only, you have 30 days to get a flash drive, you download it, it is your file now.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Once you lose the file, fuck you, you have to buy it again somewhere else.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But just nothing.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): they just It's like they didn't even care. There's no goodwill, no paying it forward, no customer loyalty when you you expect your customers to be loyal to you. And it's like, why in the fuck would I ever take that chance again and And again, we're not even in the main topic yet.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So this this is just me gearing up for the main topic where it really, really, really burns and why I have almost emptied this bottle of whiskey this is you don't even have so much as a, here's what we're doing for you.
neocharge: Right.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just, fuck you, no more, bye.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's it. That was that was essentially the note.
neocharge: Lost all your movies.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was what they sent people. Now, I didn't buy movies off of there because I do like to buy my movies physically, but
neocharge: Right. Yeah, I was going to ask, has this affected any of us? It hasn't affected me. Bob, did you own any movies for Studio Canal on PlayStation?
Leon Lionheartly: Bold of you to assume I own my movies.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Bob is the real Assassin's Creed pirate.
Leon Lionheartly: um yeah but but ah But in all seriousness, I don't have any more movies after I lost ah a four and a half terabyte raid that hosted everything.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He's the real one.
Leon Lionheartly: a Long story short, no. The only thing that I own are Bond movies and Harry Potter.
neocharge: Love it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. but i So I'm not affected by this.
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I own one movie on the PlayStation Network and it was because of my PlayStation Portable.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It it was free when I bought the pre-order bundle and i I couldn't even tell you what movie it is, which doesn't help my argument of anger right now. But I know for a fact that it's still, I could turn on my fucking PSP
neocharge: Yeah. Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I could watch it because it's on there. I have it downloaded on the PSP. Now, once they said, Nope, like no more, i would be mad because it's just, it's, it really is the principle of the thing.
neocharge: right
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It doesn't, it could be a fucking Care Bear movie that I'd never planned on watching again. And I would be just as angry because that's the, the, the, the ah way that they handled it to me is the worst part.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, it all sucked, but the way they handled it is, is really the straw that broke the camel's back in my opinion.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): which So I was curious if you gentlemen felt the same way or if you were more upset that the digital library is going away in general. I mean, because that sucks too. that real I don't want to downplay that.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's that's a problem. um But it is sort of what we agreed to if you buy that stuff. So if you would like to go into the next more important topic, which is why this thing is so hard.
neocharge: Yeah, no one reads it. Oh, yeah. um I'm more... um Yeah, I'm more upset about this one. So to recap on that last piece of news, people that rented the license for their movie, ah thinking they owned it digitally,
neocharge: They basically thought, oh yeah, i got this ah I got this movie and I own it digitally. They were technically renting the license and when the license expired or was revoked, it's basically gone from their library, pulled.
neocharge: So with that, PlayStation today, ah now keep that in mind, keep that in your head as we go to this next fucking news segment.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Keep that mind.
neocharge: Physical disc production ending.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Physical dick production?
neocharge: Jesus Christ.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm so sorry.
neocharge: Physical disc production.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you You ruined the serious moment with physical dicks production.
neocharge: Yeah. I know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Continue.
neocharge: Yeah, it is it is a dick. ah Okay, PlayStation, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Stupid autocorrect.
neocharge: PlayStation today announced physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on all PlayStation consoles.
neocharge: In response to shifting trends and consumer preference, fuck you, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. First of all, let's go into what you actually buy when you buy a digital game. You're not buying shit.
neocharge: you're You're renting access to the licensing and they own everything. They can revoke it at any time as we saw with the movies. Is it going to happen? Probably not. Has it happened with games? Yes, it has.
neocharge: I had a game digitally and it got ah removed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: It was Lego Lord of the Rings and w b WB's licensing lapsed and I don't own that game digitally anymore. I'd fucking own it physically though.
neocharge: but I don't own it digitally. So when you buy a game, in quotes, buy, you are gaining access to that license as long as it exists. and the license on their end, the publisher, developer, the developer,
neocharge: I don't know even music, the even the the studio, that if it's a based off of a game, as long as that exists, you have access to it. You're not buying shit. So as consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production of all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January, 2028.
neocharge: twenty twenty eight Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This transition has no impact on games that already released or will be releasing prior to January 2028 in disc format.
neocharge: I'm going to start off with my opinion on this and how it negatively affects me, and I want to go to you guys. and I want to hear all about it personally.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I want you to go to Bob, Bob after you, because you you guys know that I will talk for fucking ever. Bob hasn't said enough. So I'm going to try not to, but I do.
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I want you to go and I want you to go to Bob next and then, and then I'll fill in the gaps.
neocharge: Okay. So, gotcha. hey ah With all the the layoff news and everything like this, you know, game delays, all the the terrible stuff in the industry, right? It doesn't, I mean, I hate to say this, but doesn't personally affect me, right? It sucks. People lose their jobs. I'm very empathetic about it. But this hits home.
neocharge: and this is probably the single negative, worst negative piece of news in my gaming history since I was six.
neocharge: I'm a huge physical collector. I've been collecting since I was 10. My first physical game was Final Fantasy VII on PC. I still own the discs.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Me too.
neocharge: And...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes.
neocharge: You still have the box?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's great. That's great. Yeah. It's, I mean, it's tattered and shit, but yeah, I have it.
neocharge: Dang! Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The little like flappy box.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: We had a whole episode on physical versus digital, I think. Maybe. if we Yeah. And we are you know we are all on this cast, Bob, Caleb, and I, we are all proponents of physical media, including games.
neocharge: And I'm a big proponent on ownership of tangible fucking things that you buy. ah this is going away. They want to control everything on their end, and they really don't want you owning anything.
neocharge: There are logistics behind this, like, okay, disc production is going to cease. They don't have to produce the discs. They can i control when a game releases. Leaks will ah be...
neocharge: ah They won't happen as much.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): fewer so Yeah, the virtual game cards.
neocharge: Yeah, they won't happen as much. But at the end of the day, you're not going to own your game. You're going to be renting access to it for however long they fucking say, honestly.
neocharge: And you're not going to be able to share your game. Now, PlayStation could come out and they could say, yeah, we have a digital sharing thing. And I hope they do. Nintendo kind of has this. ah they They did this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yes. So hopefully PlayStation does that ah kind of like, ah hey, we're going all digital. We got this a contingency plan for sharing games because games are meant to be shared. They literally had a fucking commercial in 2013 on the heels of Xbox announcing, oh all games are digital, that Shuhei Yoshida was handing to Adam Boyes and he said, this is how you share a game on PS4. And he handed him a disc of Killzone 4. It was the greatest ad ever.
neocharge: Now it hasn't aged well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Things that have aged poorly.
neocharge: Yeah. Even friends of the show, I let Beau borrow games all the time. you I mean, if if this stays the course and PlayStation doesn't put a contingency plan into for sharing games...
neocharge: It's locked to you. Once you buy that game, it's locked. Once it's download and you launch the game, you'll never be able to trade it in. You'll never be able to return it. You'll never to be be able to let a friend borrow it.
neocharge: It's theyally basically vaporized and you have bought the experience only for the remainder of how long that license lasts in the ether or whatever. So there's no ownership there.
neocharge: And when I buy my games, I go to Best Buy, i pick up the disc, I smell the case, you got to smell the case. And I have a tangible thing that I own and I can do whatever I want with that game.
neocharge: We have a huge collection of retro games that have exponentially rose in value over time. Am I ever going to sell them? Probably not. But it's good to have those assets as an investor, honestly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): One quick interjection. Today, all of those skyrocketed in value.
Leon Lionheartly: You know, can I...
neocharge: Yeah, they did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's one net positive, I guess, of all this bad news.
neocharge: It is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But anyway, continue.
neocharge: it is. Yeah, so...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was thinking about that earlier.
neocharge: Yeah, yeah. I think ah physical games are going to be on the rise, and after January 2028, happy fucking birthday me. 42 years old. yeah the The secret to the universe.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's why I thought Bob would bid on Final Fantasy Resonance.
neocharge: It's...
neocharge: and
Leon Lionheartly: you know
neocharge: it's ah
Leon Lionheartly: yeah why can i eat Turn out my mind. I got to tell you, Caleb, the reason I did what I did is I went 40 and 15 because it was even numbers and I'm autistic like that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Well, that's why I bid 16 on Deltarune, so I'm not surprised.
neocharge: Ah, gotcha. Oh, that's good to know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I really, I'm really not.
neocharge: Good know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But, yeah.
neocharge: um Yeah, but this, and I love my, we all love our physical gaming collection. I'm still buying physical to this day. I'm pretty sure we all buy Elliot physical. ah And, okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I will admit i did not get in physical, um but I'll wait till my turn to talk about this because i do have, like, I'm not against digital, but I am against most of this.
neocharge: Gotcha.
neocharge: Sure. I'm wrapping up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I, yeah, but continue, continue.
neocharge: Yes. I'm not against digital either. It's it's ah it's pretty convenient.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Even Doom, the the Dark Ages, when it came with just ah the disc and the the game wasn't on the disc and the disc was literally a license and it was kind of, it was real convenient.
neocharge: Digital is very convenient, right? You are sacrificing ownership for convenience and you're sacrificing...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It is.
neocharge: I mean, physical game stores, you you can't... A lot of people will buy their games and then trade them in for new games. And it's kind of like ah a cycle of of gaming. I don't trade in my shit. That's why I have a huge physical library because I see them as books on a shelf, as art.
neocharge: And how many times, Bob, ah do you come over and we just look at all the games and we reminisce and we pull one out.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: we're like, oh, you play this one? It's amazing. And this is going away. This is going away for the next generation. Like, we have our physical games, yeah. But, i mean, i think probably, i'd say Intergalactic is going to be the last physical game PlayStation releases, maybe.
neocharge: But, yeah, it's...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Unless the other news, the rumor, who knows if that game's ever going to fit.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Jesus.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sorry.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The...
neocharge: It's just it's a terrible piece of news. We knew this was coming. They're giving us you know a year and a half lead up. I still hate it. It depresses me. it just goes back to the the point that, you know, what Warren Buffett said, you will own nothing and be happy.
neocharge: Uh, it's just going to a rent. And then the whole thing about the Ram, there's like a I don't know, they're artificially increasing Ram. So people will rent PCs. of put It's just, it, that's not, uh, clear and not official, but it's just going to a non-ownership society. And I don't, don't like it at all. And I just like the fucking physical game.
neocharge: i go to Best Buy, ah get coffee, ah get my game, and I'm holding it, and I'm excited. And it increases the value of it, too. it increases the the ah way you look at the game, right? Because, I mean, as kids, when we when got Zelda Wind Waker, we'd have to go to the store.
neocharge: We were all excited. We were probably at a midnight release. We got the game. The anticipation was building. We'd get home, put the disc in, and we're like, oh yeah, we get to play it. And then like the fact that it's physical and you own it and that journey that you took to to get it it, it might enhance the experience of the game. it's like, cool.
neocharge: i think it I think these digital games will be undervalued and kids will just you know download and be like, oh, that game was that game was fine. On to the next one. So I think it kind of increases value.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. You know, one of my favorite memories as a kid, because my my parents, we lived in ah a relatively small town. We had just like a shitty Kmart.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So if there was ever a like a decent game that was coming out, it wasn't really available at Kmart.
neocharge: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): My mom. would take me to Finley most of the time, which was about 20 minutes away. And one of my favorite, it's silly, but it is one of my favorite memories. I was so excited.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was a Mega Man three, not two, i already owned two, but it was Mega Man three on the n NES. And we found a copy, bought it. You know, i mean, I'd saved up money from doing chores or whatever I did probably just bitched and whined and my mom bought it for me, but whatever, like I got the game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And all she knew, all I want to do is go home and play this game. But she said, well, let's make a day of it. And I enjoyed spending time with my mother.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you know, it was fine. But I remember in the car asking her, I said, can i open and look at the manual? But she's like, well, sure, sweetheart, like whatever you want. And I i i read that manual cover to cover probably 10 times on the ride you while we're driving around Finley and she bought lunch.
neocharge: The anticipation.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you know it was It was a nice day. But I remember the next day at school, I was just like, I can't wait to get home and play Mega Man. And my friend was asking me, he's just like, how do you know so much about these games? And I said, I read the manual.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And he's like, there's a manual? was like, bro. I mean, I didn't say bro.
neocharge: ha
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't really say bro ever. And I definitely didn't when I was seven years old or whatever. But I i remember thinking that was just such a cool thing. And that went away when we got games with just the disc and no manual, where it's like a digital manual.
neocharge: who
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that was a little sad. And these these steps that have led us to this point. And it's finally at that point now where it's just kind of broken for me. And I already broke my rule.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I interrupted.
neocharge: It's depressing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bob didn't get good.
neocharge: No, it's all good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I just, I wanted to piggyback on what you said about getting excited about opening a game and smelling it and having it be there.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I still remember, those are some of my favorite memories. And I mean, I still love Mega Man. But the last time I did that, I was probably...
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 12 because I could. it It was probably Final Fantasy 7 actually.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I probably got the disc. ah I opened it and read the manual while I was driving home from Toledo or riding home from Toledo. I mean, I know I did that, but that was that was just as exciting as playing the game for me, is reading that stuff.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Owning this game and saying this is this is like a part of my life now. this is
neocharge: And you still have it, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Even if the game fucking sucks, of course I do. i have the black label.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's It's not the misprint, but it is the black label.
neocharge: It's awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and and that's yeah i have the my Final Fantasy for PS1 and for PC but Mega Man I still have my box of Mega Man 3 I have the manual I've got the the cartridge cartridge probably doesn't probably isn't working that well because I played the shit it when I was a kid but the point remains that I have it and it's important to me and it's still here in my life it's not just in the fucking ether somewhere so anyway sorry continue what you were saying I i took off like a out of hell
neocharge: Me too. Awesome. Awesome.
neocharge: Games are meant to be played.
neocharge: Yeah. Right.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: No, to to wrap things up. No, you're good. You're good. That's a cool story. One of my stories, I go to i used to go to the video rental store and I saw all the 64 games on the shelf and I got to pick it up and look at it and Banjo-Kazooie caught my eye.
neocharge: And I would rent it for 24 hours and I could never get past the quiz show because my time was up
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. the
neocharge: So... But I would rent it constantly and I could never get past it. The the the time I did beat it, ironically, was on the 360 when I got it digital and i I had access to it infinitely. I don't even i don't have access to it anymore because they don't have a fucking Xbox.
neocharge: But yeah, it's a dark day for gaming.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: It's a dark day for physical collectors. We knew this was coming. Yeah. I feel like GTA was the spark because they had those you know billions of revenue and pre-orders for a code in a box. Nothing physical about that. It's plastic and paper.
neocharge: And yeah, I just don't like the way it's going. i don't really have any video subscription services. The only reason I have PS Plus subscription service because I got a crazy fucking broken deal on it for like 10 years. I've talked about it, but I hate subscription services. And i'm not a i i don't like the fact that we're just renting everything.
neocharge: And yeah, I think this is honestly the beginning of the end. 2026 has been really bad for gaming, even though we've got really good games.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For the industry.
neocharge: And I just, I hope, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's been bad for the industry. Yeah. yeah
neocharge: Yeah, it's been really bad for the industry and everything has gone up. And this was announced. And as long as we keep getting really good games, that's awesome. But Personally, in January 2028, I will probably step back a little bit from ah new release gaming because i don't i'm not I don't think I'm comfortable dropping like $80 on a fucking renting a license.
neocharge: So I just, I'm not not comfortable doing it. So we'll we'll see. I mean, maybe if they put some stuff in place, like, hey, you can lend this to a friend or, hey, you can, i don't know, somehow transfer this or something. i don't know. I don't think they're going to do shit. I think this is just the way it's going to go. And I'm going to vote with my wallet.
neocharge: And I probably won't buy a lot of new releases.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, the the last, the three announcements, the three announcements that we got make that, i don't want to say make it clear, but it it really feels that way where they're just going to, you know, bowl ahead and say, fuck you.
neocharge: Yeah. Just a big fuck you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If you want to do this, then you play our way or the highway.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But so and or did you have anything else to add or can, can we go to Bob and get his thoughts on this?
neocharge: Right.
neocharge: Nope. That's it. Shit sucks. I really want to hear what you had to say, Bob.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Shit's fucked, right?
neocharge: Yeah. So that's my two cents.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: It's my rant.
Leon Lionheartly: No, you're... you're I'm... yes Let me say it this way. im I feel with you, man. um And I'm right there with you. You you hit on a a key thing of renting ah license and grew up in the, you mentioned it, we grew up in the renting era. That led to to purchasing of you know some physical media off a shelf. It was an experience. um Opening the new game. everybody Here's how I could tell you if you're an OG gamer.
Leon Lionheartly: You open up the new game, what's the first thing you fucking do?
neocharge: Which, what kind?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, what console?
neocharge: What kind of game?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What game?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I need to know more.
Leon Lionheartly: brand new know a brand new game, a brand new game.
neocharge: You
Leon Lionheartly: You open it up. What's the first fucking thing you do?
neocharge: smell it.
Leon Lionheartly: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, there was that new game smell.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You smell it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then then my next thing was picking up the manual. I i was a huge fan of all the manuals. So...
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. i I could see that with you. um And You know, i will, I'll put it, I want to be a realist. yeah I've been doing, we've been doing this a long time, fellas, right?
Leon Lionheartly: ah Various, various combination of us push us damn near three years or triple digits of, yeah ah of gaming combined, right?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um they're Yeah,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 35 years for me.
neocharge: 32.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 35 or 36, depending on when it started.
neocharge: thirty two
Leon Lionheartly: here so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i was going to was an Atari with my sister, so whenever she got it, that's that's when I started, whatever year that would have been.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Yep, picked I picked up the Atari. yeah yep I'm with you, man. But the industry has always changed, but there's been one thing that's always kind of been in the back of my mind is, you alluded to it, Mega Man, Caleb.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Mega Man sold, but Mega Man didn't sell like Mario. Mega Man didn't sell ah like the Madden or the, well, before it was Madden, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: Gran Turismo, yeah, Tecmovil,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Tecmo Bowl. Tecmo Bowl, yeah. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: So Final Fantasy 8 is the third best selling PlayStation PS1 game of all time, followed by Final Fantasy 7, and then by a fucking country miles, Gran Turismo, right? But then you start going down the list and I play the obscure shit.
Leon Lionheartly: So I've always seen myself as an outlier when it comes to the overall gaming community.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And I've always worked away around that. um yeah accepting people go to you have been going to digital for the longest time that's been the customer trends we know this but at least I've been able to buy the physical media when I want there's the option boom get it have a great time about it you know ah yada yada yada so on and so forth um but Sony's pulling that away Like taking the the people like me that have been supporting you for, you know, 30 fucking years and all of a sudden pulling the rug underneath me. um And that's, that's fine.
Leon Lionheartly: But I have ah some bigger problems. If you are going to release. Only digital media. Sony as a company needs to get their shit together from the backend perspective. The need I remind people 24 days.
neocharge: good point.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: The PlayStation Network was offline for 24 fucking days.
neocharge: People shit gets hacked.
Leon Lionheartly: And the only thing they did was say, oh, here's some extra, here's some free credits and about about at ah an assembly and saying, we're sorry. um if
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know At least they gave us something then. That was something.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: true.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I'm not saying that they like knocked it out of the park, but they did something.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's what makes this last bit hurt even more because they didn't give a shit this time. and it's like, ah, what? What?
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Anyway, continue.
Leon Lionheartly: ah yeah Yeah, no, and in your... in to me Go ahead.
neocharge: Real quick, that actually reminds me real quick. How about the people's PSNs that get hacked too? They have this entire digital library. It's not who doesn't give a fuck.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You mean like Colin mean like colin Moriarty, the one of the most prevalent PlayStation gamers and and voices?
Leon Lionheartly: That's my...
neocharge: Yep. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i mean, he's he's a critic, but he's one of the best critics, whether you like him or hate him. We've talked about him before.
neocharge: Easily.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But the guy knows his shit, and he's an amazing journalist.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Again, love him or hate him. Amazing journalist. he if he could fall prey to this, what chance does a little guy have?
neocharge: Yep. All right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's very low. and Anyway, sorry. Continue.
Leon Lionheartly: No, you're right. That's my next point is the PlayStation Network is known for being like not just the network itself, but now you're talking about people's libraries, right? That are under threat constantly because, and it happens in other circles, but PlayStation is, it's so easy that it happens It's happened to prominent people, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Colony just happens to be most vocal, but it's happened to very prominent individuals where their money is just gone.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And that's of not of their choice at all. And that's Sony just giving them the big finger. More to that, um it it it shocks me is we're looking at licensing yeah for this, and Sony will pull the plug any day the week. Here's the kicker.
Leon Lionheartly: you look at the We talked about dynamic pricing. earlier, last year.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Leon Lionheartly: And dynamic pricing sounds good until all of a sudden, the only way you can buy is through PlayStation. um and
neocharge: It's a really good point.
Leon Lionheartly: And that right there is the crux of my problem.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You are creating such a tight ecosystem. You're about to... I'm surprised... My hope... and this is keeping pull politics aside, my hope is the FTC does get involved at this point um because you are creating an isolat isolated monopoly.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: um This is a a bridge too far from that perspective. um And i'll so I'll say it to you like this. ah you you You have 18 months, Sony. You gave me 18 months to start looking at um physical media. I'm giving you 18 months to figure this out because if not,
Leon Lionheartly: I'm walking away.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I will walk away and I will go do something else.
neocharge: Damn.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm not buying Wolverine. I'll tell you that much. That's how serious I am. Wolverine? Nope. Off the table. If it's a first party, until you sort this out, I'm not buying the first party. And I will take all of my stuff with me. Because as Gabe Newell wants... These things are problems. Sony has a bad...
Leon Lionheartly: has bad customer support and they're providing shit service on the backend. And now they're going to force you onto it. And Gabe Newell, ah most famously once said, the reason you have piracy is comes down to service.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And shit service. And that's why Steam dominates on the platform on the PC platform. So um I'm not going to spend $1,000 on a digital-only PlayStation 5 when I can just, you know what? Screw it. I've got until 2028. I'll save up. I'll spend $1,500. I'll get the GameCube. And I've got 350 games in my library on Steam that are going to work just fine.
Leon Lionheartly: Fuck it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm out.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's, i I normally would just say, how dare you? I mean, like, you know, in a normal circumstance, I would say, what are you doing?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I, I actually struggled with this similarly earlier today. Because, I mean, we're telling you this. This this broke news broke this morning. i i remember i found it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So my in-laws were here and we were just kind of hanging out this morning before they left. And and Lisa and I had shit we had to do. But we're just talking. And in the morning, I am a little weird and I like to be left alone.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I'm not going to be rude. I'm sitting on the couch and I'm just, I'm listening. But I'm just kind of reading news articles, whatever, headlines to see if anything sticks out. to me. And I, I found this on the PlayStation blog.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't want to, it's not a flex. I think I found it first because it was really early.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i just happened to see it. And I was like, this is, is today April 1st? Is this a fucking April fool's joke? Like, I'm not kidding you. I thought that I had either had a stroke that I was losing my mind, that time travel happened too much Elliot. I don't know, but I saw this, this headline and I was, I, I, you know I opened it and it was on the PlayStation blog directly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it kind of like just automatically ruined my day. it was just it was that Matt said it earlier. This is, if not the worst news ever in my history of gaming.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's up there. it It has to be up there. And the only reason I don't know if it's the worst news is because I'm still so mad about it that I can't think straight if anything else has ever come out that's worse.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But, but Bob, I'm right there with you where I...
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, it's kind of like if you're ever in a bad relationship with somebody, it might hurt because you love them, but you have to walk away. You have to do what's good for yourself. And maybe that's a little hokey or cheesy, but Sony really just, I mean, I felt like I was, I said it earlier.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I felt like I was stabbed with a hot poker in my stomach. I was just like, what is this? Because all the things that both of you said,
neocharge: and yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But Bob, you specifically, when you mentioned PlayStation Network was fucked for 24 days, they don't, they don't, they're not as good. One thing that Microsoft has always had better than them is their network. Microsoft's network has always been very solid. They they know, i mean, they started as networking, so they should know that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um and that's not necessarily a slight against sony they have gotten better they have gotten more secure but they're nowhere near where they need to be to have this be their new normal in 2028.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 2028 is not that fucking far away it is july 1st of 2026 we have like you said 18 months before january 2028 is reality and that can happen in a flash that is just i i don't i mean again politics aside
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The presidency will not have necessarily changed. like that there's there's That's not as much time as it feels like, right? It might feel like it's far away, but we're excited about games that are coming out next year.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So when those games come out, it'll be six months, nine months before this is a reality. And that that stings quite a bit for so many reasons. Because one of the pieces of news that we haven't even talked about yet We talked about the movies going away. We obviously talked about this big guy and I'm not even close to done with my rant about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They in the same fucking within an hour, within an hour PlayStation, because apparently ruining my day wasn't enough with this first announcement. They decided that they were going to say all your PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita shit is no longer going to be supported on the store.
Leon Lionheartly: Ha ha ha ha ha.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like it you can't down You're not going to be able to buy it anymore. They're taking away...
neocharge: These two pieces of news, like, do they understand?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and they they
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like that is one of the most diametrically opposed things that you can do to me. Honestly, even if I were a greedy corporate shill prick, I would look at this and say, guys, why would we say this at the same time? We're saying that that's, you're just asking people to hate you so much.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I, I don't, I genuinely don't, understand it. I usually try to be devil's advocate and understand some of the economics and and the the business side of things. And, you know, growth is important. You sometimes have to trim. I know a lot of people were really pissed off that the PS4 wasn't going to be compatible with PS3 games.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know that that was a problem. And I understand why, because you have this huge backlog category. Three, the original three was backwards compatible to two and one, the OG three, the 60 gig.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So when the four came out and they were like, we kind of have to, we have to cut it off somewhere.
neocharge: Thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I remember being slightly annoyed as a lifelong PlayStation, but I was also a lifelong gamer. I was an Xbox player. i was a Nintendo player. i I played all the fucking things.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I owned a Dreamcast. I bought it at launch. I thought the Dreamcast was amazing. Did it deserve to fail? It, it was ahead of its time. Didn't get the support that it needed. And that's the problem.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I still think it was a great console. Dreamcast was fantastic. PS2 was just better. That's honestly all it came down to. The PS2 had better support. So when the PlayStation 4 was coming and it wasn't backwards compatible, Sony said the architecture of the PS3 was difficult. The 7-cell was a problem.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): we We want to be forward thinking. And I actually respected that because it was a decent answer. It was okay. So for people who want to play PS one, two, and three, you've got the 360 gig fine.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We're also going to, ah you know, offer things digitally on the PS four for old school games. Great. That's a great idea. Can you support this? Can you keep it in your library? Yes. Legend of Dragoon is a PlayStation one release.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That game came out on the PS three again, digitally. I bought it then because I own own the original.
neocharge: I own it. Well, I have access to it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. I own the digital copy and I own the physical copy on PS1. So I thought, yeah, I can do it.
neocharge: Me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And when it came out on PS5, it was free. That's how it should be. Honestly, I bought it before. it should be in my library. But like Bob was talking about,
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For that happy accident, Sony has had at least 10 problems. Like they might have this one thing that worked really well and that's great. But Sony is nowhere near where they need to be to make this reality. And here's the other issue that I have, which touches more on what Matt's talking about.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): With the subscription-based stuff and the lack of ownership, I'm not anti-digital. I actually, i you know, it's it's greener in the long run. It doesn't take up space. And I do like owning my games personally and physically. That's great. But not everybody's the same.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I like the option. I like the choice. I like the fact that digital should cost less because there's no manufacturing that that you guys were talking about with the with the warehouses and printing the disks.
neocharge: yes
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And you don't have to hire the people to be the workers to do this. There's so much overhead. They can be taken away. And how much of that have we consumers benefited from ever since digital has become a thing?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): A little bit, but in my opinion, not not enough. when ah When the PSP tried it, because it was portable, the PSP had games that were selling. I'm probably going to get the numbers wrong, but let's just say it was like 50 bucks.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You could get them digitally for $46,000.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know goddamn well that it does not only save them $4 a game to to print it and ship it and do all the logistics. So they're still making a killing on this digital.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If you're going to force a digital-only storefront where options are no longer there, where where you know you might be able to go to Walmart or Best Buy or or Target or wherever and buy it digitally with a little code, but they're going to sell it at the same cost that you're selling it on your PlayStation Store,
Leon Lionheartly: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): At best, like we talked, I joked about this earlier today. You can get God of War Ragnarok at Target for like $24 or something, or you can buy it on the PlayStation storefront digitally for 60.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Fuck you.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, yeah, I mean, sales happen and things can happen. That's great. But why am I at the whim of one a thing? That is not okay for me. that's that's like the That's a bridge too far where I just refuse.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And i'm I'm almost in Bob's camp where I would just say, would have to break up with you and walk away and say, I'm better than this.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm worth more than this than the way that you're treating as a customer. And the sad part is they'd probably still be fine because for every one of me, there's 10 others that don't really give a fuck. They would just pay it for it digitally and not care and whatever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But when I buy games digitally, it either has to be really special for me to pay full price. It has to be always online. Like Diablo 4 is one. i'm I was a big Blizzard fan. I loved Diablo and StarCraft and such. WarCraft.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Diablo, I hate that it's always online.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I fucking hate the fact that Diablo 4 is always online. But... I loved it enough. I was willing enough to just accept it because I, even the bad Blizzard, Blizzard's been around and I trust Blizzard enough that it's in my library and I'm not going to lose it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I can't believe that I'm saying I trust Activision Blizzard more than I trust Sony to not just fucking take away my shit. That's like, that to me almost sounds like blasphemy to say it out loud, but I i feel that way because as much as I've defended Sony and I've been with Sony since the beginning,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They kind of do whatever they want and they get away with it. i We've talked about it plenty of times on this show before. The Xbox has constantly shot themselves in the feet the last 10 years, if not more than that.
neocharge: In the face.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Xbox 360 is the best console that they've ever done. And it was an amazing experience. The Xbox 360 was awesome.
neocharge: Easily.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They didn't shoot themselves in the foot until like the very end of that when the Xbox One was coming out.
neocharge: Agreed.
neocharge: The X bone.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But i don't that's not the Xbox 360's fault. Microsoft couldn't help themselves. But when it came to Sony, Sony lucked into these these benefits a lot. They lucked into the fact that you could share games on the PS4 when Xbox just might as well have hung themselves on a noose.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): hanged themselves on noose with the digital only thing.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We've seen where this path goes ah before at least, and it wasn't pretty. Nintendo has always done their own thing, but you know what? This is sad. I trust Nintendo more than I trust Sony. And Nintendo has fucked up about a dozen times in my lifetime, but they are still reliable enough that when I buy games digitally on their storefront, I know that Nintendo would either give me ample opportunity or do something
neocharge: yeah
neocharge: Yeah, they have.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): to say, we need your we want your business, here's what we're giving you. And what Sony did with these movies, with the digital only in January, 2028, and with the PS3 and the Vita going away, is just like, who infiltrated you and is taking you dismantling you from the inside? i don't understand it. I really, I cannot wrap my head around why? Because these games aren't going to be any cheaper once the digital only storefront exists. They're going to be just as expensive, if not more,
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then sucks, you know, it just sucks.
Leon Lionheartly: ahll took
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's it.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah i'll I'll tell you to you like this, Caleb. I think Sony's about to see that gamers are very... Not only is the gaming market shrinking, but gamers are even more fickle than before.
Leon Lionheartly: um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Because, a i mean, let's be honest. If we're going to be really blunt, and and i but I've kind of held my punches a little bit, but if I'm going to be really blunt, we got Saros this year.
Leon Lionheartly: um which I didn't buy, but I heard it was it was a good, but it wasn't Returnal good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: um We're getting Wolverine, which is going to be good a good game, but it's Wolverine. um We have Gaudifor Lafay, which is another God of War over the shoulder third person ah style game.
Leon Lionheartly: You have The Last of Us, which is amazing, and The Last of Us Part two but...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Where are the other things? Sony was always amazing when they knew to let shit go, when they went from crash, when they went to Spyro, when you went, uh, you know, you went on Legend of Dragoon is a Sony first party.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh, well, it's technically it's only owned,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know. And what the fuck are they doing with it? Nothing. It sucks.
Leon Lionheartly: They're not doing anything, but they're going to pump out this after this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It sucks.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: And then intergalactic from a concept sounds cool, but if Neil, like, Neil, you got to get show me something. We haven't seen anything.
Leon Lionheartly: So you've quite frankly, you don't have anything for the first party. I know there's a conversation about second party and third party and and third party and independence not being enough or not going to be enough because there's so many games.
Leon Lionheartly: when your first party, quite frankly, is the exact same slice, guess what? Nintendo is offering me all of the Xenoblade series. They're going to give me the Metroid. I'm going to consistently get a good Zelda game.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm going to consistently get a good new, and they're going to sprinkle stuff in. split it
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Fire Emblem? Like, yeah, there's something for everybody.
Leon Lionheartly: They will always do more and experiment, and I would rather be there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And... Yeah, which... And that's the thing that sucks because i do... I mean, I've always rooted for Sony. I've never been a shill. At least I like to think that I've never been a shill.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I will call them out on their shit. I really will.
neocharge: I know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, now, clearly, calling them out on their shit.
neocharge: Yes. We're not fanboys.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um
neocharge: We're not fanboys.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But for all the missteps that Xbox has done and and all the questionable decisions Nintendo has made, I have to give them credit. and You're going to hear this straight from me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): One of the most respectful things I can say about Xbox... despite the fact that they have have made a lot of mistakes, Most of the time, they have at least owned it. They're not afraid to backpedal.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): they They backpedaled with this digital all digital shit for the Xbox One. Now, it was a little too little too late. Sony had already steamrolled it because Sony also had a fuckload of games coming out.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And the PlayStation 4 just looked better. It did. I'm sorry. The PS4 was a better console than the Xbox One.
neocharge: Oh yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and And that's not me being a shill. That's just, I mean, look at the history and look at the facts.
neocharge: Logistics.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But they didn't do themselves any favors with this all digital. You can't like if you take your you want to go to a friend's house and play. We're going to make you have to study advanced calculus to fucking share your games like that was a huge mistake that Xbox made.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But they backpedaled and they admitted it and they said we fucked up. Phil Spencer said we're going to try to fix this. Did they ever really recover? No. i mean, there's plenty of Xbox fans, so they recovered enough. They're still around. They're still relevant enough.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But this was Sony's to lose. And I think today, I really think they did almost irreversible damage. I mean, even if they changed their mind, people are going to be like, well, how do we know you're not going to change it back? like that's That's how a normal consumer would look at this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And for Nintendo's mistakes, Nintendo's always done their own fucking thing. But you said it already, Bob. One of the things that Nintendo has consistently had over the years is their first party games.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like Metroid prime for beyond didn't do as well as we all wanted.
neocharge: The best.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, Matt really liked it. I enjoyed my time with it, but it's not, it's the weakest of the prime games, but you know what? We fucking got one.
neocharge: I would agree.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We got one. We got a Metroid prime for that's that speaks volumes. When you're talking about Sony, not releasing more than two first party games a year. I used to applaud them for that because the first party games were always just killer titles.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I love Wolverine as a character. I am so excited for this game. I don't think it's going to be as good as Spider-Man. Spider-Man was just so fucking good when it came out. I want it to be, but I'm a realist.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I saw the trailers and I'm going to have a good time with it. But after today, I'm just like, what's the fucking point, Sony? You guys were just assholes. And I don't, I almost, I'm going to say I can't forgive them because that's a little short-sighted.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it really hit me at my core because there's another thing here. We we haven't even talked about like cost value proposition. If you said, all right, we're going to go all digital and we're going to try to push people towards their version of game pass, whatever the fuck that is.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If it's affordable and I get all my premium games and the games are are not $70, $80, $100 a piece, I'm not going to be happy about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I would be more inclined to say, okay, well, if I don't own it ever, then you can't charge me for owning it If it's going to cost me $6 a month to pe play whatever I want, okay, I'm not going to like this, but that's ah that's you guys want to stay in business and you want this this constant subscription shit. I don't like it, but I'm more inclined to say, okay, if it's not going to break the bank.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But when you look at what we have with with streaming services for television, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Peacock, MGM+, plus i think I could list five others that are just fucking overpriced.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Apple TV is awesome, but that started at $5 a month. Now it's at like 15 or something. You add all that shit up and you don't, oh yeah, Disney Plus is another one.
neocharge: ah Disney Plus. $3 month. three dollars a month
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah ESPN Unlimited, ESPN Plus. yeah i mean, again, the list goes on. All of those added up together are quite legitimately insane. In my opinion, i mean, as a consumer, they're insane.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I'm not, this isn't like a humble brag, I spend my money. I have money to spend. I love this stuff. I live for this stuff. I will buy games. My pre-order list, which I've been proud of this for a couple of years, hasn't been crazy until this year.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's been nuts. I have five games that I pre-ordered in August.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I have six in September and three in October. And I normally don't do that because I want to wait and and you know play what I want. But they're all going to be fucking awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Streaming services, i don't do. I bounce around because it's just too expensive. It's not worth my time. But if you have, and it's not worth my money, if you have PlayStation going to an all-digital storefront and they're going to still try to so make you spend $80 for a game, like, fuck get fuck yourself. I'm not going to do that. i'm just I'm not going to do that all the time and never own something.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You have to make it worth my value proposition. And I am on the higher end of the average spender. So I'm just imagining from the masses... the people that can't just buy whatever game they want when they want to because their lives are harder than mine.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): what What is Sony thinking here? I mean, we're looking at these numbers. we've we've You've read a little bit about their their boardroom boring-ass shit. And yes, they're numbers-driven, but are they just so far removed from reality that they think this is going to be a win for them?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I'm asking that genuinely because I'm in it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We are all in it. We love this industry. We love we love Nintendo. We love Sony. We want Microsoft to do well. We like Steam. we i mean, hell, we some of us even like mobile games.
Leon Lionheartly: Bye, babe.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know that's kind of a bad word, but fuck, I'd rather spend money on a mobile game now than Sony's all digital. That's crazy. I i feel like I should melt like in Raiders the Lost Ark, just saying that out loud and meaning it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But that's kind of how I felt today. i just, it ruined my whole fucking day. And that was the start of my day. So you can imagine how I've been.
Leon Lionheartly: i i I can answer one question for you, though, Caleb, a about um why are they that disconnected? um Quite frankly, I think people are just they're smelling their own farts.
Leon Lionheartly: it's We have
neocharge: ah
Leon Lionheartly: we have a situation um If you read this whole document um that came out, or this is the kind of stuff that if it was actually truly put on social media like Asha and Phil yeah did on the Xbox side, Herman Hulse would be eaten alive because he's talking out both sides of his fucking mouth.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah there's There's talks about um being PlayStation brand being the living room experience.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: That's not going to be the case ah if there are no games to go with it. But then at the same, committed to ah to the integrity of the system, but then there's an entire paragraph talking about the use of ai and using AI to get rid of repetitive tasks for people.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It's unreal that this is just, this is the kind of shit that's being said, but we don't know, ah um it's not in the zeitgeist because this is the kind of thing you have to go to Sony's website for and download the PDF and then read through and not just a clickbait article that can be spun out of control because of Asha.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: That's the answer to your question there. um but i will But I will tell you, this is the other thing that...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Leon Lionheartly: You're right. Sony did a lot of brand damage right now. um They've broken a lot of trust um because i I'd be happy to move over to a digital platform. Not happy. I would move over to a digital platform. but your digital platform is not there. And 18 months is not enough time to get everybody on board for it and to make it right. So not only do you need to think about this and make it right, now, if you are going to do it, they need to be able to provide a way to move my games forward. Because if not, these games are going to sit on the shelf. And ah God help me, come January 1st, 2028, if this isn't sorted out to a level that makes me comfortable as a gamer and to provide you with my information and time, i'm going I will end up in somebody else's pocket.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, and I actually, I want to posit this to both of you guys um because i one of the things that I don't like to do, even though I do it all the time, I i genuinely don't like to do it is to hypothesize.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like when I'm reviewing a game or we're talking about games, I try to review or think about what's there, not what could have been there. Because you can, you know, not that I know better than anybody else, but sometimes when the story goes off the rails, in my opinion, you might think it's awesome.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I do think like, man, if only they did this, be cool. With this, it's a little bit different. And the the question that I'm going to posit to both of you guys is, I mean, it's me, so it's going to be long-winded. Sorry, buckle up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When you have a console, like, because this, I think i don't think this will affect the PS5 or the PS5 Pro as much as we think it will.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, it'll still affect it because it'll exist after 2028. But but we The three of us don't need a PlayStation 6. The PlayStation 5 Pro is an excellent system.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If you're going to release a PS6, there are so many things that I feel like you need to do To make me interested. And this this is me who's been interested in every console generation ever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But right now, we are just now seeing what the PS5 Pro can do. Alan Wake 2, gorgeous.
neocharge: See returns, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Pragmata, gorgeous. Resident Evil Requiem, gorgeous. You guys played Neo 3. I didn't actually play it, but it ran really well on the PS5 Pro from what you told me.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and what i had seen in some of the clips of your streams and such but we are finally getting to that point some of these like pssr 2.0 that's coming out on on stuff that well whether it's new or whether it's like old patches final fantasy 7 rebirth uh looks gorgeous now with the ps5 pro all of those things if we were going to get the ps6
Leon Lionheartly: um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And let's just pretend that they actually hit all the notes right. Like it it was giving us 4K60 with ray tracing and path tracing.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, that's not going to happen for under $3,000 because of the fucking data centers and AI bullshit. But let's just pretend for a minute. I personally think that they need to go the route of the Switch. I think they need to be a hybrid where you can take it with you. And it works, whether it's docked or not. That's just me. i Maybe you guys think I'm insane.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But you touched on a little bit earlier, Bob. They're talking about, Herman Holst is making a comment that we're not going to, I don't plan on selling these systems at a loss.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Usually, a very, very successful system will sell the hardware at a loss because you make it up make up for it in software. You already talked about it. What if nobody's buying the fucking software? You think that Sony is going to release a $1,200 PS6 because memory shortages and RAM problems and this, that, and the other, and only have a digital storefront?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do they seriously think that this is going to succeed? But the question to you, not only that, part two of the question is, if there was a successful PS6 with a digital storefront, what would you guys want to see for all the above? Like to make you say, okay I am willing to do this because for me, it's all about the cost and value proposition.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I love game.
neocharge: Hmm?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I can't imagine my life without gaming. i To me, they are what makes books important to certain people. I love the stories, i love world building.
neocharge: sir
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I love the artists. I love the voice acting. Now that we have voice acting, I love the set design, the graphic design, the the styles. Like there's just so many many things about it.
neocharge: Absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I actually wanted to ask you guys if there was ever a podcast topic you wanted to do, what gaming means to all of us. I think we should do like a five or people because that that to me is something that,
neocharge: Ooh.
Leon Lionheartly: Hmm.
neocharge: Love that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think is ah is a really good idea, but now is not the time for that. But but that's like a ah little bit of what gaming means to me. And that might not mean the same for other people, but that's they have movies, they have television shows, they have books.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just happen, I love all of them, but games and movies are where I feel the most at home.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So what would it take for you guys To continue along this path. like if if Not that anybody from Sony gives a shit about our opinion, but on the off chance that some random fucking dude, some peon that works at Sony, ever heard us talk about this right now, while it's important, what would you like to see in the PlayStation 6?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And also, if the digital storefront is the necessary future we have to go to, what would make you be okay with it?
neocharge: I go first. ah
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, go ahead.
neocharge: From a console standpoint, I think 2x performance minimum. ah I mean, 4K, maybe not upscaled, 4K native and 60 frames. 60 frames just needs to be the base, right? Run at 60.
neocharge: ah But it really all depends on the games they have.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Definitely.
neocharge: The what what is offered. And I'd love to see more new IPs. I mean, the PS4 was an incredible generation. We got so many new IPs. We got Horizon, Bloodborne, Death Stranding, all kinds of good games. And they were new IPs. And the it was the developer taking a chance and deviating from what they've done before.
neocharge: So new IPs hit close to to my heart for sure. But it's it's all about the games, what they offer, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): definitely
neocharge: I assume Spider-Man 3 is going to be PS6 game. And are they going to make it PS6 exclusive? Probably not. It's going to be a multi-generational for a while, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): think it'll be a crossover? Yeah, man.
neocharge: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. There won't be a lot of PS6 exclusive games because they know the console is probably going to come out super expensive. ah I would love to see a hybrid. Just make it OLED. If it's not OLED, I'm not fucking buying it.
neocharge: That's basically just full stop. i ah OLED is such a superior display technology that I am so fucking spoiled. ah Yeah, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right. we We are. We are very spoiled with the stuff that we can do.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, that we we have acknowledged that before, but you are right.
neocharge: Absolutely, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I do think that that should be the bare minimum, especially moving forward.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and You're jumping next. I agree.
neocharge: Better battery life too. It's going to increase that battery life. The the moment the portal has an OLED version, I'll probably buy it. It'll probably be $400 at this point. So who knows? But as for the digital storefront, they got to figure it and they got they got to give us a way to trade and and let people borrow games. Like maybe send it to the PSN digitally.
neocharge: let let Let people borrow it. But they're probably not going to do that because that's a ah nightmare on the back end, most likely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. can Can I ask you, would you be interested at all?
neocharge: So...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, i feel like the three of us are not interested in this, but I'm i'm genuinely curious.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Would you be interested or more inclined if you could sell your digital games online? whether it be to like, if let's say you bought a game brand new digitally for 60 bucks and then I wanted to buy it off of you for 38.
neocharge: No.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know. I'm just making up numbers and shit. Would that entice you at all? Would that even make a ah difference in your mindset? I doubt it. Cause I, I like to keep my games, even the bad games that I've, that I bought and played, they're part of me.
neocharge: No, not all. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I like to keep them. It's weird.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's like if I buy a bad book and I read it and I go, this book fucking sucked, but I'm not going to get rid of it because I, it's a part of me now.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like I feel the same way about games. So, What about you, Bob? with that Would you be interested in that at all? Would that make or break it?
Leon Lionheartly: Not really.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: na they they Yeah, no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I didn't think so. I wanted to ask.
Leon Lionheartly: Are you done, Matt? Anything else on that one?
neocharge: Are you done? ah yeah ah um Yeah, no.
Leon Lionheartly: No. Yeah.
neocharge: yeah ah i So to to just wrap it up and put nice little bow on it, this is the first generation. I'm usually excited for new technology, new console.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: i But the PS5 Pro, we're just now seeing return on investment, or ah ROI, right? And we're just now seeing it stretch its legs. And i honestly don't need anything. i mean, the upscaled 4K with the PSSR 2.0 is...
neocharge: Pretty fucking perfect right now. And it looks great. If it runs great at 60, awesome. 4K, upscale 4K 60, I think is the pinnacle.
neocharge: And I don't read really need anything else. The only, i mean, native 4K, maybe, but anything over 60, I'm not really interested in. So 60 frames per second, to be clear.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So i think we've kind of hit an apex of ah technological prowess in these games. And am not ready for a new console. i don't you I'm not even interested.
neocharge: i want to see more with the PS5 Pro and I want to see what more this console can do. i I hope they don't announce anything new because it's going to come out at a ridiculous price and there's not going to be a lot of exclusives for it because they know that it's going to come out at a ridiculous price. They're going to sell it.
neocharge: They're not going to sell it at a loss. So it's already going to be super expensive. A lot of people probably won't buy it as much as they want. And so for that, they're going to ah making games for PS6 and PS5.
neocharge: We saw it in the PS5 era. There were a lot of PS4 hybrid. I mean, what were our two games you at launch? Returnal or the launch window? Returnal and Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah You know, four to five or three to four?
neocharge: FortaV.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, four to five. Ratchet and Clank, definitely.
Leon Lionheartly: Thanks for having me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, the ones you had listed. But I actually know the three to four better because I know Assassin's Creed Black Flag was a big one of that.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I got it for p s four and it was it was just so much better.
neocharge: Yes, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But um before Bob goes, I do want to just clarify one thing for the listeners.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like i Because I agree with you, Matt. I have been very, very much like a... I mean, I am a day one... I'm usually a day one guy when it comes to this new hardware.
neocharge: Yep. Me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i even Even if I'm not sold on it, i do I've always liked to be the guy... in before this is before I had met the rest of you guys I knew Matt but I didn't know Bob I didn't know Alex I didn't really know Bo I was always the guy in my friend group here I liked to be the early adopter and tell people this is not worth it for you yet like it's worth it for me because I just love this stuff but it's not worth it for you or dude you have to get it it's great um this is the first generation ever and this is before today's news I felt this way months ago
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): WoW's like, what the fuck are you guys doing? This is too soon. this This is way too soon. You're not there yet. the The gains you're getting and providing for us are minimal at best.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now, maybe they could come out swinging and say four k sixty Ray Tray, Pass Tray, but there's no way that that's true unless it's multiple thousands of dollars. so But that's before the news today.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): After the news today, I'm even further on the other side.
neocharge: Same here.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and i I was thinking about it where I was like, if if there were games, like, let's just pretend that Final Fantasy VII, you all know, listeners know how much, that game means more to me than any other game in the history of the planet.
neocharge: Same here.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um
neocharge: Same here.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If Part 3 came out and it was like digital only, PS6 exclusive, I don't think I would, I don't, I would i would question whether I would do it.
neocharge: I get it.
neocharge: I'd question it, but I get it. that That would be a system seller for me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But if it was ah if it was a crossover, if it was a PS5 Pro or PS6, I would probably get it on the PS5 Pro.
neocharge: And it would be for you. would be for you.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. No, I wouldn't.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I'd say, fuck you guys, you don't you don't need you don't deserve my money.
neocharge: Same here.
neocharge: I thought you were talking PS6 exclusive.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For me... but But that was, well, that was the one option was if it was exclusive, I would be very questioning.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But if it was a cross generation, would go this generation.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I wouldn't go next. And for me, that's kind of insane.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like if if you told me that 10 years ago, I'd say you're smelling your own farts as Bob. So I'll equate put it. So anyway, Bob, so for you, what would make you ah be you know, ready to do this thing and and say, all right, let's go or or or not, you know, what where would you be?
neocharge: great question, by the way.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: i love it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah, no, it is a really great, great question. Um,
Leon Lionheartly: So I'm going to tell you to you like this from a, I'm okay with a all digital marketplace, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: here's here's the ah the the Here's the big catch. and and And I've been seeing this discourse online with people is ah because ah yeah there's comparisons to PC and Steam that that's out there, right?
Leon Lionheartly: um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: There are a couple of catches, though. PlayStation, if they lose a license, they're going to revoke and do destructive data because they have the they own the ah they don't own the hardware, but they made the made the hardware, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um And it would be suicidal... and quite rare ah frankly unrealistic to ask Sony ah to um do a, oh, let other storefronts on your on your console.
Leon Lionheartly: you know Conversations about this with the Xbox, ah the Helix and adding Steam.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: No, that's stupid because now Sony's going to lose out on those sales, right? So you've got a fundamental problem. The reason I'm okay with an all-digital library on PC is because I still have GOG.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: do I still have Epic.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Am I a fan of it? No. But they are so they are still there and they are available. I don't have that on a place on a PlayStation 6 all-digital ecosystem.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: So there's a... No, i'm i I can't do it because it is a bridge too far. You're asking me to pay out for this service when I'm not even guaranteed to be able to see it in the long run.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, at the end of the day, I'm not comfortable with it as a consumer. I'm not comfortable with it, uh, supporting it, uh, uh, from a, from an ideological standpoint. I'm not comfortable with that because you own every, you, you've designed and frankly can control everything from the top down.
Leon Lionheartly: And that kind of verticality of monopoly is not something I'm comfortable with flat just flat out. Um,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it sucks, right? I mean, it it really does just, it it leaves a bad taste in your mouth no matter how you look at it, right? Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It does. It does. And then more importantly, with the PlayStation 6, here's a hot tip, Sony. I'm going to say this, all right? Stop chasing graphical fidelity.
Leon Lionheartly: The reason your games struggle to hit 60 is not because of the the Unreal Engine. It's because you have a bottleneck in your system that's the CPU.
Leon Lionheartly: The PS5 Pro gets a minuscule
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's a CPU, 100%.
Leon Lionheartly: additional power from from the CPU and you can see it every time there's a game that that requires the CPU to load in assets at a high rate, the game fucking tanks when it's trying to do the calculations for that.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: What is it, like 30% from the base PS5 or something like that?
Leon Lionheartly: You want to No, it's like 10%.
neocharge: Something small?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, not even. It's it's really low, yeah.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: It's really really low.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Stop chasing that graphical fidelity. The games look beautiful enough. Square Enix has quite frankly kicked it in the nuts and showed you that beauty there is beauty and fidelity in doing something that's not ultra realistic.
Leon Lionheartly: The HD 2D engine slaps when it comes to showing what it's...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It does. so no can Can I give a quick interjection?
Leon Lionheartly: that
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just because it it'll add a little bit of levity to this.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): With Elliot, one of the things that I was really upset and this was during, I i mean, it's I'm going to try to stay away from spoilers, but like a story, it was a story portion of the game where they zoomed in on, on I think it was food actually.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was like food in the HD 2D engine.
neocharge: Mmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that was the only time in the game where I thought, boy, I'd really like to have seen this in not HD2D. Because the character models, the designs, when they do they do their little hand-drawn animations when they're when they're speaking, are awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They're fucking on point. It was the same thing with Final Fantasy Tactics when Ramza and Delita and everybody was speaking. I loved their... The Ivalice stuff is my favorite art style ever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That doesn't mean that other stuff is bad.
neocharge: Mmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just my that's personal preference. I actually like that art style more than FF7, fun fact. fun fact But with Elliot, I was like, I would kill to see this game in hand-drawn animation with with like a 2D, 3D thing.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But otherwise, the HD 2D engine, you said, it slaps. It's so good. And I think the reason that I wanted to see it in better than HD 2D is because of how good the HD 2D does.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it makes It makes things come to life. Characters, when they laugh, when they smile, when they when they cry or whatever, they have that...
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: Yes. yes
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like Super Nintendo feel, but for present day. And I realize that doesn't really have to do much with what you were saying. But I agree with you in that we don't need to chase this shit anymore.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You need to just offer the substance, right?
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, the substance is is what we're looking for. The style, we can do just about any style now on PlayStation 5. on On base PS, now with the Pro, we can do even better.
neocharge: right
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, Pragmata is absolutely gorgeous. Resident Evil Requiem, stunning. what Why are they chasing this stuff that is so CPU hungry and not being able to hit it
Leon Lionheartly: it's It's because Sony started this arms race. um This is the reason Nintendo went to the Switch. Sony started the arms race of of high fidelity and power um with their with their systems.
Leon Lionheartly: And that's awesome because we want to push the boundaries, right? But they've kind of we're getting to the the idea of ah diminishing returns.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So things haven't pushed beyond where they need to be.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: So Nintendo did the best thing they know what and thing they've known since the 80s, which is they pivoted and they thought outside the box. And then you had the Switch, which, by the way, i don't care how many more PS2s magically are sold.
Leon Lionheartly: As far as I'm concerned, in my heart and mind Switch is the best on the console of all time. like just ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The switch is so good. It was, it was a, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: so And in ah and in for perspective, i got two final things for you on this one for perspective for you guys, Sony.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And then when the other ones for you guys on perspective, because i I just want to, I don't think anybody's still brought this up to you. So i want to see, hear your thoughts or hear your groans, if you will, is first off, if you look at the list of the game, game of the year winners, the most critically acclaimed games, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Sony got 2024 for Astro Bot, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: that's That's Team Asobi. That game has so much flair. It's creative. It's new. It's original. Their last win beyond that, God of War 2018.
neocharge: It's so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: good. Mmm.
Leon Lionheartly: You are getting your... at ah Well, I'm sorry. Technically, The Last of Us Part 2. i forgot i did forget about that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But my point is, these games are due in there. And then you look at the other ones that are are winning, right? They're doing other things that are unique. They speak to to the ah to to the massive fan base. And I'm going to be honest with y'all.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm worried because I don't think Intergalactic, the Heretic Prophet, is going to speak to the massive fan base. It's not going to do it. And it's not going to push the sales. It's going to cost $400 million. dollars And it's not going to get a ah fraction of what Pocopia cost.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: it's the high the the the roosters are coming ah ah are coming home um and you're going to pay the piper for ah for the war that you started and yay you won the war but now you're going to pay at the end for for being the guy on top um so
neocharge: hmm
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, it's kind of weird because i mean, I I'll say I'm excited if intergalactic ever actually releases. i i I do genuinely like those stories that they do, whether they're good or bad or otherwise. I just they're interesting. They're new. They're they're special to me. um Last of Us Part two there was ah that whole go woke, go broke, and like just all the things that had happened around The Last of Us Part II.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was still successful, but that was that's just a necessary... that That happens now. That's the internet. That's that's the the masses. It's going to happen with... Intergalactic, the Heretic Prophet, could be the best game ever made.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that'll still happen because of who's making it, because of who the lead is, because of how it's going to go. and and, and so there's, you're right.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There's no way it's going to recoup the cost. If it stays in development for 10 years, like that, that's just a mistake, no matter how you slice it. Right. I mean, that, that's kind of the point you're making is, is it could be the greatest thing of all time and people are still going to shit on it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. it's And it's not, it's not going to sustain a longterm. And that's why we look at the push for live service with Sony. And I get that. Right. And that's been bungled and that's an entire, another conversation.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't want to divulge into my point is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For sure. But it isn't necessarily evil. It's just not, you don't need 10 of them. you You might need one.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Twisted metal, guys. We've talked about it a thousand times before. What are you doing? That's your live service game.
neocharge: right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, my my point is the the Game Awards have been around since 2014. So the start of the PS4 era. PS4 era was a banger, but the PS5 has quite stuttered, particularly in the first party. If you are the de facto console that most people go to, like, quite frankly, that's what it is. In the in the the the gaming sphere, you are the de facto. Like Nintendo or Xbox just keep tripping over themselves and you're earning more people every day. um You should be in there with your first party and with your partners and you should be hitting banger after banger after banger.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And Jeff Keighley comes up and says, Team Asobi won this year. Naughty Dog won this year. You know, so on and so forth. But you haven't. And this is the and this is the the the true sign. And now you do this to me um as a consumer. ah Guess what? No, I'm not going to do that. um I will give you one final thought for a gentleman um because I don't know if you've heard this yet realize this yet.
Leon Lionheartly: I want you to take a step back and realize that there is the possibility in the world we live in that the first and last mainline Final Fantasy game released on a PlayStation will be Final Fantasy VII.
neocharge: physical like wow yeah that's quite the revelation all
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's kind of... it's it's Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: For physical release.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, that's like weird weirdly special. it's That's weirdly special to me, but it it also hurts a little bit because it's like...
Leon Lionheartly: That's is weird, isn't it? Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I don't know what I expected when I was a kid that when I'm an old man and I'm playing these games, like, will I make it to Final Fantasy 20? Like, I don't know. You know, this is something that I thought of when I was like 12.
neocharge: right
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and i And that's like, I thought, if anything, Square is just going to go defunct because of their unrealistic expectations. You know, I didn't think that Sony was going to be the one to kill us all as far as the gaming sphere is concerned. But... um No, you you guys both bring about some interesting points, and I i agree you know with the vast majority of them.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The one other thing that I wanted to ask you guys about, and and we can be quick because I know this has been long.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sorry, listeners. I promise I was going to try to not be this way, but Sony fucking ruined it earlier today, so you're mad at them.
neocharge: It's a good conversation.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Would you guys be inclined... would you be more inclined if for some reason Sony said, look, we've worked on our network, we've worked on our we're going to we're going to make these games available, you know we guarantee for like 20 years. i don't I don't know. I'm not Sony, so I can't really say, but just something.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Would you be any more inclined to be on board if they gave you a ah way to take your current physical library and add it digitally to your accounts?
neocharge: Thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that in the example i'm I'm coming up with is like PS3, right? we've I've got a bajillion PS3 games. Let's say, this is a terrible example because it's been remade to a fucking oblivion, but the last of us part one, right? The very first one,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): if it wasn't available on PS4 and 5, whatever, but if you could take your physical copy, pop it into your system, add it to your account, you know you it reads your your registration, it's yours, you know you could still sell that to somebody else.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They could pop that disc in their system. Now the registration is owned by them and not you. You don't have the license anymore, or you sold it. If you could do that for your current PS4 and PS5 games on the PlayStation 6, would that have any effect on...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): your opinion towards the next generation and the digital space? I know it's kind of a weird question, but we are collectors.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We have the the physical versions of stuff.
neocharge: That'd be pretty sweet.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but i feel like I feel like that should have happened way back on the PS3, personally.
neocharge: Yeah, very much so.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah but But with that, would you be more inclined to give Sony another chance? or Not that you're not giving them another chance, but you know what i mean.
neocharge: They said I could take my entire physical library and make it digital on PS6.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Would you be...
neocharge: I just needed a PS6. That
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, you yes. that I mean, essentially. Again, I'm kind of making...
neocharge: would be a system seller for me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It would be. You'd be okay with it, even though it was all digital after that?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like you you know you'd You'd still be okay with the all-digital storefront if they made that?
neocharge: I can only, again, like I said, if they they ah implement a solution for letting friends borrow games, maybe resale, just give me the fucking option.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Let me know it's there. I'm not going to resell any of my games, but I want to let people borrow them.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Like, I think it's great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, you want to have the opportunity to do it should you need to.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What about you, Bob?
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you what Does that make or break anything for you? Is it a deal breaker or anything?
Leon Lionheartly: right it's just It's a step in the right direction.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: Hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll put it to you. Because the PS3 in older is starting to be like harder to get, but we're getting games onto the PlayStation Network, right? It is slowly coming to.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: PS4 games, and p ah like you can play all the PS4 onto PS5 with the exception of a couple of ah games, which always happens every generation. I digress. The point is, you can do that. But now I have an entire slew of PS4 games.
Leon Lionheartly: and PS5 games that potentially can't be used on a PlayStation 6 because I bought them physically and I didn't buy them digitally. um debts That's a step in the right direction.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Leon Lionheartly: ah But we hold odds on, son.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: We still got some more negotiation to do at the table.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, I, and I, I agree with you because that's, that's kind of the reason I posited the question at all is I was trying to think again, if this is the hellscape future that we have to live in and I, and I kind of want to,
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I would like to offer solutions. and so I mean, cause when I come on the show, I mean, I talked about it a little earlier with the state of the draft that like yes, I mean, I do like to tell the stories and I, I'd like to have these conversations with you guys, but.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i when i beat When I'm negative, I try to add some humor into it because I don't want it to just be like, God, that guy's unpleasant to listen to or be around. I mean, that's I've tried to live that way my whole life.
neocharge: Everyone loves you, Caleb.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But this, it was very hard for me to not just be so upset. I'm i'm beyond upset about this news.
neocharge: Oh, yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just think it fucking it's terrible. So I'm trying to think.
neocharge: yeah. It hit home. That's why.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it It really did.
neocharge: like it hit home so much.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and and and And it hit in home for anything.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like if Nintendo said the same thing, I would be like, what the fuck?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you know But the fact that it's Sony is almost just like an extra little nudge of bleeding out. you know You've already cut your arm off, but now you're just removing my tourniquet. Like what the fuck, Sony?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So with with this, I was trying to think what would make me a little more...
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): accepting of this potential future that we all knew was kind of looming, kind of coming. I mean, it's's it's the thing that that we knew was going there.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I do think it would go a long way if they let me take my entire old library, put it on their system as a faith as a show of goodwill and faith. I honestly think that's all it would be because how often realistically do we play our classic games?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Not that often. I mean, we might wait for them to be remade or remastered, but I love i love the OG Final Fantasy VII.
neocharge: Right, that's true.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's one of the only games that I could play for the rest of my life and never be mad about it. And that's not just because I'm an FF simp. It's because i I genuinely just love the game. I would go back to the original Mega Man games, but if somebody said, hey, man, you know, you want to play err guys on the PS1, I'd be like, no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): game kind of i mean, now that game fucking sucks. i I have fond memories of it, but I'm not going to play it again.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i mean, if you remade it though, yeah, I'd be interested in at least checking it out. So if they let me take these old games and put them on my system so I can keep them with me and say, if we re-release them via emulation, you've you've got it. You've already given us some money in in the past. Here you go. I think that's like the bare minimum of goodwill to make me more inclined to moving forward with them.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But i don't I don't see it as a realistic thing. I think Sony is a little too greedy for that. And I say this as a genuine Sony fan. um But I was interested in hearing both of your perspectives because you guys have been gaming pretty much as long as I have, if not longer.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i mean, I think, no offense, Matt, you've been playing very long. I think Bob and I have you beat by like a year. like ah you know it's It's real close.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I do think that you know I started when I was three years old. And I'm 41 now.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Dang.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So yeah, Bob, you said it earlier, 38 years. That's crazy. um
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But we've been playing longer than than your average gamers, and we still do. We still love the the good, bad, and ugly. What I would be interested, I'm actually kind of upset that Alex wasn't on this episode as a PC gamer because he's an adopter of the PS5.
neocharge: Mm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We all talked him into it. I hope he doesn't feel burnt by this news today. um I feel for him.
neocharge: Right. That's good point.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I really do. I thought of him earlier and I was like, fuck. But, but on that note, we've, we've talked about this quite a bit. I know the episode is long, so I'm going to kick it back to you, Matt. If you think there's anything else you want to talk about, or if you want to wrap it up, that's entirely up to you.
neocharge: Yeah, no, it's been a great podcast. We've had a good conversation. think it is time to wrap it up. Let's ah not hit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: Yeah. So this is a step in the wrong direction in our opinion. i mean, I'm not anti-digital. I just don't like the anti-consumership stuff.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And i just a big fan of physical media. So yeah, the question was awesome. And what do you guys think, our listeners, you know? Are you upset about this as much as we are?
neocharge: Tell us in the Discord. Let us know how you feel. But other than that, thanks so much for listening. Thanks, Caleb, for being on the cast. We appreciate it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Thanks for the State of the Draft.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Thanks for having me.
neocharge: We'll see you the next State of the Draft for the beginning of the next month. Yeah, we appreciate everyone. So have a great rest of your evening, morning, night, whatever time the hell it is.
Leon Lionheartly: Later.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Goodbye.
