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Escaping Escape Rooms with MyNameIsTonic
18 Plays8 days ago
Tony is back in the Game Lounge with GLC Member, Recent Twitch Affiliate and Returning from season 1, Tonic (aka Gina). The two talk about some Digimon, The 007 First Light Showcase, Escape Rooms, Streaming and recap all your gaming news from the past 2 weeks and upcoming game releases.
Follow Tony: https://www.twitch.tv/tonysgamelounge
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonysGameLounge
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Follow Tonic: https://www.twitch.tv/mynameistonic
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mynameisTonic
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Join the Official Tony's Game Lounge Discord: https://discord.gg/xXyvjaCsXp
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Disclaimer, all views expressed on this podcast represent the host and his guest and not the companies or agencies they are associated with.
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to Tony's Game Lounge, a bi-weekly podcast that covers everything in the world of video games, TCG, tabletop and more. Here's your host, Tony 14.
00:00:22
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome back to another brand new episode of Tony's Game Lounge. I am your host as always, Tony14. And joining us this week is another guest that we have not had on since I want to say the second season where we had her on for a small segment in that year end episode, if you folks remember that.
Guest Introduction & Twitch Journey
00:00:44
Speaker
um But the last full episode she was on was in episode one. It's our girl and recent Twitch affiliate uh tonic hi gina hi hello everybody thank you so much for having me on today welcome back can you believe it's been like four ish years since you've been on the podcast i know right it i straight up do not remember what we did at all I don't remember everything that was talked about.
Podcast Updates & Favorite Games
00:01:15
Speaker
I remember it was the the season one D and D extravaganza episode where we had back when we played d and d all of the, all of our D and D party on.
00:01:25
Speaker
Hmm. Yep. Yep. And it was also the catalyst that brought our boy Sean Marks back into the fray. Oh, yes. Yeah. I still don't remember what we talked about, though. Yeah, or do i ah If you really while if you want to go back and listen to that season one episode, folks, go ahead. It was ah two two podcast logos ago.
00:01:45
Speaker
That's how old it was. Oh, oh my God. Yeah. too but Back when it was like, I think I had like a spiky circle around like this.
00:01:56
Speaker
yeah It was, it was, it was not a great, it was, I mean, it was, it was an all right logo, but like the second logo was better and the new logo is the best one yet. ah Well, Gina, since ah you haven't been on in a long time and we've reformatted the podcast a whole lot since then, we get to do both the loading screen and hot takes today.
00:02:15
Speaker
This is new. Okay, what is yeah what is this? So, the loading screen. You're going give us your favorite video game video game character and video game soundtrack to start.
Video Game Soundtracks & Customization
00:02:24
Speaker
Ooh, okay. Let's start with my favorite game. It's a no-brainer, hands down. It's Cyberpunk 2077. Solid choice.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think I've put... Especially now. ah Especially now. Yes, yes, for sure. Yeah. I don't think I've put as much hours into that game as... i mean into any other game as that game.
00:02:45
Speaker
ah How many hours do you think you have in it? Or do you know how many hours you have? ah I can pull up Steam one second here. I mean, 51.4 hours.
00:02:59
Speaker
That's not too bad. Yeah. I mean, i don't play many games outside of like streaming. So I feel like that's a lot for me. Very much. What about game character?
00:03:12
Speaker
Tony, I hope you don't, I hope your opinion doesn't change of me when I say this, but it's Miss Scarlet from the revamped version of Clue slash Cluedo.
00:03:24
Speaker
Tony, she is so fine. ah She's so fine. I figured, I'm like, okay, that's it an odd choice, but she probably is a looker. Hold hold on.
00:03:37
Speaker
i got I gotta see this. this decision They have different skins for her and in every single one of them, she looks so fine.
00:03:47
Speaker
Like, it's impossible. Like, she is. I don't care if she could be a murderer. Is this the 2023 version? I think so. I think so. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, I see it. I see it.
00:04:00
Speaker
Yeah. You gotta... Okay. Someday gotta show you, like, the other skins or something, but my god... she's so pretty okay and what about favorite games soundtrack the wii sports resort ost you know what that's a solid choice wii sports resort is a banger of a soundtrack and also just like one of the best wii games out there seriously and we'll never reach that level of greatness in a wii sports game ever again
00:04:33
Speaker
We won't. oh god, the one on the Switch doesn't even hold a candle to it. I mean, Switch Sports is alright. Like, you know, they they at least tried on Wii Sports Club on the Wii U.
00:04:45
Speaker
Oh, I didn't even know that one existed. yeah no one really does. it was It's a weird one. I think it was like the game was free, but you had to buy each sport individually.
00:04:56
Speaker
ew what? Yeah, it was something like that. fully I don't fully remember, but I remember you could buy the sports. It was not good.
00:05:08
Speaker
Oh, God. Good. Not good. Okay, moving on to our second opening thing, Hot Takes. Gina, what is your hottest video game take? I think games without customization aren't fun.
00:05:21
Speaker
Whoa! What? but Yeah. Just downright not fun. Hey, okay, I'm specifically thinking of those like select character shooters or MMOs like Valorant, Overwatch, Apex League, that kind of shit. It's like, why do I give a shit about these random people and their lore?
00:05:42
Speaker
I think it stifles the creativity of expression. You know what i mean? Halo, goaded, because then you can see a Spartan on the battlefield be like, hey, this motherfucker's got cat ears.
00:05:53
Speaker
I don't know how to feel about that. ah yeah you know forgot Infinite added cat ears to their Halo armor. Exactly. And like Cyberpunk is like, yeah, we're all called V, but it's just like, this is my Yeah, you get to customize the shit out of V.
Digimon & Financial Constraints
00:06:10
Speaker
Exactly. And I guess from like a gameplay perspective as well, it's like, what am I even working towards if I already have like this person and their whole loadout and stuff like that? It's like, okay, you get another skin. It's like, wow.
00:06:25
Speaker
It's like buying a Halloween costume from Spirit Halloween. like Okay, fair. what But what about what about games where like like like Grand Theft Auto, for example...
00:06:38
Speaker
i Like, sure, there's customization, but like and like but only like in clothing. Is that still fine? or i think that's still fine. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So as long as there's some form of customization.
00:06:52
Speaker
Exactly. and it's The game is good. Yeah. And it's not just like, I don't know. It's not just buying skins and shit like that. Exactly, exactly. yeah Okay, okay. Let's go. Digimon games are goaded then because you can buy various t-shirts to wear.
00:07:09
Speaker
Yes. I love t-shirts.
00:07:15
Speaker
I will say, though, the exclusion to this like rule is Marvel Rivals because these characters are already so well established that it's like, yeah, okay, whatever. Okay, so like games that like are already like already have like that defined IP.
00:07:33
Speaker
Yeah, exactly or exactly. Okay, okay. Gotcha. um Speaking of Digimon, because I do know you are a Gabumon fan. Yeah. Yeah. Are you going to get Time Stranger when that comes out in October?
00:07:49
Speaker
um It depends on the price. Not going to lie, Tony, I'm a little broke right now. Fair enough. It is an $80 game on Steam or like a $90 game on Steam. Oh my God. Yeah, probably not.
00:08:01
Speaker
I might pick it up when it's on sale, though. That's a good call. I'm looking at the price. It's $93.50 on Steam Canadian. of And if you want to get the ah deluxe edition, it's $133.50. And the ultimate is
00:08:22
Speaker
tony you know how many times we could go out for sushi with that kind of money ah depends on the group size you can have all the crab you want i'm just saying like if it was just the two of us like okay i mean yeah yeah i mean obviously you find an all-you-can-eat place for that yeah you can yeah that that that's that's nothing i'm gonna buy the like the ultimate edition though Goddamn. Okay.
00:08:50
Speaker
You know, if it's worth it to you, then get it. It is. It is. Digimon has a a hold of me now, and I can't i can't escape it.
00:09:01
Speaker
What is your favorite Digimon, Tony? but My favorite Digimon is Imperial Dramon. oh okay okay know it always has been since a i was a kid because i thought whoa vmon and wormmon fusing together to make paill drummond was cool but then that digivolves even cooler oh my god yeah so it's been imperial german since i've been a wee lad gotta the design for him peak yes and the fact that he has like three forms as well is even better
00:09:35
Speaker
Oh, true, true. Defense form, offense form, and paladin mode. And paladin mode is exclusive to the movie.
00:09:46
Speaker
Oh my god. and yeah but oh Speaking of Digimon movies, by the way, folks, ah if you were for people who have listened to every episode, ah last season we we had Benjamin Leon.
00:09:57
Speaker
um We talked about how Digimon had recently redubbed the OG Digimon movie. um like in a sense like two ways they oh they redubbed like how they did the OG Digimon movie where the the story isn't exactly follow the three mini stories and they kind of like just like wind it up to all together as like one um And then they redubbed each individual movie to actually be like the Japanese counterpart. So like our war game was actually dubbed properly. um Hurricane Touchdown was dubbed properly. And then Digimon Adventure, the first one, which I mean, to be fair, that was dubbed pretty fine to begin with of the three.
00:10:41
Speaker
of like the only thing they cut out from the original Digimon adventure movie was Ty and Kairi's uh Kairi's father coming home drunk oh that was the only thing that was really cut out from the OG movie uh for because for obvious reasons when you bring that to a theater in America
00:11:02
Speaker
If you want to see drunk uncle or dad come home, then it's a great time to watch it right now. Yes. ah But they are releasing a second um movie collection where they have re-dubbed the next set of three movies, which are the...
00:11:26
Speaker
i it's I believe the two Tamers movies and the Revenge and Return of Diaboramon from Adventure 2. Those three movies are getting put into into a collection now, and they've all been redubbed as well.
00:11:42
Speaker
I think one of them wasn't actually dubbed to begin with, but I might be wrong about that. One of the Tamers movies, but all three of them now getting ah a redub and put in a Blu-ray package, just like the new, the first three were.
00:11:57
Speaker
um So that's
James Bond Game & Industry Updates
00:11:59
Speaker
very exciting to see. yeah So Paladin form, Imperial Jermon coming back. Let's go. Let's go. Anyway, i enough about Digimon before we turn this whole thing into a Digimon fest.
00:12:12
Speaker
for Let's dive into everything else that happened, starting with our headline of the week. The PlayStation State of Play dropped 35-minute
00:12:22
Speaker
gameplay extended gameplay trailer ah for 007 First Light. This is the new James Bond game that IO Interactive is working on. IO being the company that brought you Hitman, all the all the modern Hitman games.
00:12:38
Speaker
And we got to see an extended look at the gameplay. And I'm going to say this. I'm kind of excited for this game now. Uh, I, at first I was like, oh, that's cool. I'm probably not going to play the game.
00:12:50
Speaker
and After watching this, I might play this game. This game is very much giving me a lot of like, i I like, I like what I saw.
00:13:02
Speaker
It feels very Hitman-like because obviously it's, I believe, using a similar or like an upgraded engine what Hitman is, or it is just the same engine. um There's driving sections and they looked great and they kind of reminded me of playing through Night Eye again back when I played through Night Eye.
00:13:21
Speaker
ah Or Night Fire. but The GameCube Bond games. The environments are pretty destructible.
00:13:31
Speaker
There is ah level gimmicks that they have. Like in the gameplay, you could hack into a plane and rotate the plane left and right to use the objects inside the plane to squish people. you Yeah, it was really cool. ah They revealed the voice of James Bond is Patrick Gibson.
00:13:49
Speaker
And they also revealed a couple of the other voice acting cast, none of which I recognized. Uh, mostly because again, there's, they're all British, European, uh, voice actors. Cause James Bond, British, uh,
00:14:04
Speaker
yeah Of course. of course And then we actually got some commentary on the game and more details about everything. So there's NPC dialogue that you can listen in on throughout every level of to give like hints and details on how you could progress the stage.
00:14:19
Speaker
There are multiple pathways to completing a level. um And the second level that they showed, it's like, oh, you could like infiltrate it through this way or you could fake yourself as being a photographer or something.
00:14:32
Speaker
Yada, yada, yada is really cool. ah there's You can lock people inside of rooms and jam the doors. you can Your watch is essentially your go-to where all your gadgets are.
00:14:49
Speaker
You can ping objects to lead people away. You can use a laser to sabotage objects. There's a smoke device, ah phone darts, which you can capacitate your enemies.
00:15:02
Speaker
And then they got to like what the actual combat stuff looks like. Hand-to-hand combat, pretty... but bri looks pretty good there's a lot of a little more depth to it than uh like a lot of other stuff uh where you want really want to use the environment to your advantage when you're using hand-to-hand combat and then when license to kill is triggered that's when you can pull out your guns and start shooting away and gunplay looks pretty good for the third person shooter Again, it encourages a lot of environment use and the destructibility of everything, which is really, really cool.
00:15:39
Speaker
And then there's ah you can activate Bond's instincts, which slows down time for a short period to let you aim, fire and destroy things as you please. And the game comes out March 27th, 2026.
00:15:50
Speaker
twenty twenty six That is so sick. I feel like there might be an uptick of Bond cosplays and Walter PPK sales.
00:16:03
Speaker
possibly i've still i've never seen a james bond movie same same like the only thing remember oh sorry go ahead my only like my only experience is the uh the gamecube games with uh night fire uh and what and like agent under fire Hey, that's still a lot more than me. My only run in with that series is Adele's Skyfall. So but I mean, yeah. ah Yeah, there was that too.
00:16:35
Speaker
There was that too. um But this looks great. It's a cool origin story for James Bond. And I can't I'm looking forward to it. Something to play next year, which I'm excited for.
00:16:46
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. And now it it's time for us to dive into everything else that happened within these last two weeks. and boy, is there a lot. Let's dive into the week in review.
00:16:57
Speaker
Recapping the major stories of video games and the world of tabletop, looking over recent releases and reports from the Game Lounge crew, it's the week in review. And starting off, some of the major games that came out of these past two weeks, you had Gears of War Reloaded, the remake of the first game.
00:17:13
Speaker
ah Story of Seasons Grand Bazaar, a remake of the DS or 3DS Story of Seasons game. I think it's 3DS.
00:17:23
Speaker
Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater, remake of the third Metal Gear Solid game, but it takes place first in the timeline. Kronos, the new dawn, the new horror game from Bloober Team.
00:17:34
Speaker
Hollow Knight's Silk Song, which is is finally here. And Everybody's Golf Hot Shots, a return to the Everybody's Golf franchise, a hotshot golf franchise. And has Pac-Man.
00:17:47
Speaker
Oh, I didn't know he ah he did that. Yeah, it has Pac-Man in there because it's produced ah published by Bandai Namco. Oh, I see. I think it's developed by the by a team of them, too, which is why he's there.
00:17:59
Speaker
but i could I don't actually know about that. I think it's actually we is published by Bandai Namco, which is why he's there. I believe that's the reason. I see. Oh my gosh. it Speaking of Metal Gear is Solid, I have a co-worker who's really, really, really into the Metal Gear series.
00:18:16
Speaker
And she, I think, Platinum'd 3, like just to kind of like get hyped for this game. And I think she bought the like, what's the deluxe version?
00:18:29
Speaker
But it's kind of funny because she said that the deluxe version, the only difference... mostly, i guess, is that you get a skin of Snake who who's like shirtless.
00:18:39
Speaker
So essentially, she paid extra just to see Snake shirtless. I mean, the thing about the Lux versions a lot the time, too, is at least it comes with, like, the art book and, like, the soundtrack, too.
00:18:52
Speaker
And to be fair, the Metal Gear Solid... The Snake Eater soundtrack is really good. o gotta listen to it. Shit. I mean, just listen to Snake Eater. Like, that legit. it's It's like a James... it's It is like is essentially Hideo Kojima back when he... Because, again, it's Hideo Kojima who originally made...
00:19:12
Speaker
all the Metal Gear games. This one is just done by Konami because obviously Kojima not with Konami anymore. ah But you still see all of those Kojima, all of the Kojima isms throughout the game because this is a very faithful remake of the game.
00:19:31
Speaker
Okay. And it's just like, you see the thing, you see a lot of women's feet in the game and you're like, ah, this is why Kojima, it's like, it's not just a Death Stranding thing. its It is a whole Kojima thing.
00:19:44
Speaker
What? Okay, wait, what? Yeah, Kojima likes, we're pretty sure Kojima has a thing for feet. Is it like Dan Schneider level?
00:19:55
Speaker
ah It's more like Nathan level. Oh, okay. Marinara. Gotcha. Say no more. ah he's catching strays even when he's not here. It's great.
00:20:10
Speaker
By the way, didn't Hollow Knight Silksong crash Steam or something? Yeah, so starting off, our first, ah going into the game headlines... Silk Song, it's out. it's great i' I'm about 10, maybe 11 hours in. It's great so far.
00:20:24
Speaker
ah It released. It crashed. Steam, the but Nintendo eShop, the Xbox Store, and the PlayStation Store. It crashed everything.
00:20:35
Speaker
Now, we know the extent of it. Steam and eShop crashed. It was like you could not purchase the game. You couldn't you couldn't do a lot of things. like Those two couldn't handle it. like With the PlayStation and Xbox Store, I believe that those two just um like were like, whoa, hold on. We're just going to paste it out of what the game page... No, I think it was like the game page when it wasn't loading properly. You couldn't purchase the game with that.
00:21:03
Speaker
It was like there was a lot of things crashing everything. And I mean, it's very funny that it happened. But I mean...
00:21:15
Speaker
When you make your game only 20 bucks as well, and it's a well sought after sequel. Yeah, of course it's going to do that.
00:21:27
Speaker
For sure. And like what a flex to like imagine being the game devs and it's like, hey, our game fucking crashed four platforms because it's so popular. I mean, isn't that like, I don't know. I call it a win.
00:21:41
Speaker
My ego would be inflated a little bit if that happened to one of my games. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, definitely. Team Cherry did a great job. um Is it Game of the Year, though?
00:21:52
Speaker
I don't know. i would say it's definitely going to be a top contender for Indie Game of the Year. um i don't know if this is... a At this moment in time, I just don't
Game Releases & Industry News
00:22:04
Speaker
think... I don't think it's going to be Game of the Year simply because...
00:22:10
Speaker
Difficulty. like Like Hollow Knight, this is a very difficult game. Like, a very difficult. It's a difficult game. It's about learning patterns.
00:22:21
Speaker
It's essentially, I would say, Souls-lite. Because it's not as bad as a Souls game. Souls games are ten times harder than this. um
00:22:34
Speaker
I just, when it comes to shit like this, I don't see this game be... I think this is to be dominated for a lot of things. um within the indie category possibly a nomination for game of the year I don't think it'll win game of the year though I think it might win best indie I think there's a chance it's gonna really come down to this against Expedition 33 though I think that we are actually i think this is gonna give exp Expedition 33 a run for its money to see how well it actually stood the stand stood when it came out I see
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Games that are a little too hard, it's like a double-edged sword because it's like really fun for people who are super good at games and you know are willing to put the time and effort. But there's also a huge demographic that's just like, man, that's too hard. I give up.
00:23:27
Speaker
And that's B. And that is why i am for difficulty. That is why, like... ah we and we've talked about on the podcast before, accessibility difficulty options are a good thing for video games because it makes more people well play the game, especially if it's a hard game.
00:23:50
Speaker
And I'm going to give the most recent example lies of P and it's one of the recent updates added difficulty options to the game to make the game easier and more accessible to people.
00:24:04
Speaker
And guess what? I'm one of those people. I actually started playing lies of P very briefly only because it's like, Oh, I should give it a try. i don't have a lot of time to play it right now because of other things, obviously.
00:24:16
Speaker
ah But because of that difficulty option, I actually feel confident in my abilities to play that game now. Okay, yeah. Yeah, if more games had that, I think I'd play more games too. Not gonna lie.
00:24:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think FromSoft really needs to learn that, like, really needs to have that hammered into their brain. No offense to FromSoft, but, like, there's a reason I dislike your game studio.
00:24:41
Speaker
It's because of that. and It's the one reason I dislike them. Like they need to, if they were more accessible, I would maybe understand the hype around their games. Until then, though, I just can't.
00:24:54
Speaker
I think, I also think that Night Reign was a total cash grab and totally, I've said it before, it's, I think, the worst game that they've ever put out. Oh, shit. And I have no reason why. It's the most cash grabby game they have ever made.
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah, goddamn, that's just a valid take, I would say. Yeah. Moving on to all the other headlines before I get mad about other game stuff. In Pokemon news, Hawlucha was revealed to get a new Mega Evolution. ah And people are, it's a very Rey Mysterio Mega Evolution.
00:25:34
Speaker
um As for those who are fans of the WWE, Hawlucha's mask becomes black and gold, which to my understanding is a lot like Rey Mysterio's mask.
00:25:46
Speaker
ah and also obviously gets a buffer body. Really cool looking Mega. And currently, Pokemon on their socials are teasing what the next Mega is most likely going to be, as the Pokemon UK Twitter account has become a stand for all things Malamar.
00:26:09
Speaker
so o it's most likely the next mega that gets revealed as of now it has not been revealed but it's most likely malamar will be getting a mega evolution too we will have confirmation for you on the next episode of the podcast how lucha is so cute sorry i just googled it like so hollywood is great flying fighting type uh luchador it's it's a good pokemon They should have it cameo in some sort of fighting game. I think that'd be hilarious.
00:26:41
Speaker
yeah I thought they... No, the Pokken... Wait, when did Pokken come out? Pokken? I thought it was in Pokken. What's Pokken? Yeah, Pokken Fighters. It's the Pokemon fighting game that...
00:26:54
Speaker
yeah I think Halluxia was in that. But then again, it's been a long time since I've played Pokken, so... Oh, Okay. Yeah. ah In FromSoftware news, after I was just ranting about them, FromSoft is adding a new layer of difficulty for hardcore Elder Ring Night Ring players.
00:27:16
Speaker
um The developer is extending the challenge to expeditions themselves with a new high difficulty mode called Deep of Night. This is the opposite direction I want them to go in, but whatever.
00:27:28
Speaker
y'all Y'all are masochists. That's crazy. Yeah. ah In No Man's Sky news, No Man's Sky dropped the Voyagers update, which brings large, customizable ships into the game, inviting players to decorate their ships with their friends while traveling at warp speeds.
00:27:45
Speaker
The new ships are called Corvettes, and they look really cool, and this is honestly a great time for them to come out because, for those who do not know, instead of 7 Days to Die Sember that we're doing on the Twitch channel this year, we are doing No Man's Sky Sember.
00:28:00
Speaker
uh where the game launch crew all december long and maybe going into january and possibly february as well we'll be playing no man's sky oh looks like i gotta buy it yes uh we it was is is it goes on sale pretty frequently so uh for like good prices too but otherwise i could just gift it to you if if need be thanks man yeah uh it's unexpected stardew valley news stardew valley will be receiving it's a 1.7 update as concerned ape himself announced it during the symphony of seasons live concerts
00:28:42
Speaker
yeah how long has it been since stardew had an update a year or and a half ago i think Huh? I wonder what they're going to add. And the reason it was the last update, uh, concern Dave said, that's the last update. Cause going to start doing sole focus on haunted chocolates here.
00:29:02
Speaker
And. is I guess that sole focus got divided pretty quickly. April fools. Yeah. Yeah. Astroneer has announced a new full-paid expansion called Astroneer Megatech.
00:29:17
Speaker
It's coming out this November with an accompanying free update and will bring a new scale of construction to your exploratory infrastructure. Schedule one got the cartel update released. Finally adding the brand new rival cartels to the game.
00:29:32
Speaker
New items, new property um and making the game feel a bit more lifelike instead of just having the police being the ones to stop your drug overlord ship.
00:29:44
Speaker
Mm-hmm. We love ryan And according to a recent Steam post, I think they're adding shrooms next as the next drug you can make.
00:29:56
Speaker
Nice.
00:29:59
Speaker
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has been summoned to appear before a French court following a trial in which three former executives were found guilty of workplace harassment in June.
00:30:10
Speaker
He is set to appear and testify October first It's an ongoing. This is an ongoing story. um He's not the one in trouble. It's those three executives ah that were they were doing bad things at the company um and he's just testifying against it. But, you know, when a big gaming CEO has to go to court, the news cycles pick that up pretty quickly.
00:30:34
Speaker
Yes. This is why I hate the French. I was going to say, like, it's always the French people, but then you're like, oh, he's not the guilty one. was like, oh, okay, never mind. No, three other French people are, so like...
00:30:48
Speaker
Three out of four. That's a large fraction, Tony. That's a large fraction. yeah ah In Two Point Museum news, a brand new free update, a couple free updates arrived at Two Point Museum.
00:31:03
Speaker
ah The Digiverse is the first one, which is a new expedition map, which features four points of interest which should be explored by newly recruitable digital experts. um Hidden in the numerical world are seven new exhibits to retrieve.
00:31:16
Speaker
Also, the Digiverse has expanded to its second thing by doing a collaboration with Dredge. So you can get some exclusive Dredge exhibits in the game. I think it's a lot of fish stuff.
00:31:34
Speaker
Whoa. The game that you were streaming, right? Yeah. The game recently started streaming. Yeah. So that's really cool. And also the fall ah event is going on right now, which added a couple new points of interest for some seasonal fall decorations that you can get as well.
00:31:55
Speaker
Cute. Pumpkin spice latte season. Yeah, it it is. And honestly, I'm going to say this. Two Point Museum, do not sleep on this game. This is one of the best goddamn games I have ever played.
00:32:09
Speaker
One of the best sim games out there. And I really, i I know that Two Point can expand on this. And I think Two Point Museum's next game should be Two Point Zoo.
00:32:22
Speaker
But it's just because of the name or like... Well, no. but So with how Two Point Museum plays, it is a game where essentially you hire staff and you send them out expeditions to go get the exhibits and bring them back.
00:32:39
Speaker
And then the more times you send them out, ah the higher quality the exhibit comes back until you get like a pristine exhibit, basically. Oh. With using this formula...
00:32:51
Speaker
in a zoo simulator is perfect.
00:32:58
Speaker
Two Point Zoo, Electric Boogaloo. Please, please tell me that you are working on this Two Point two- point Games. Please tell me that that is your next project because I will buy that. I will give you all my fucking money for that because you know how long I have waited for an actual, and no offense to Planet Zoo, because it's an alright game, but it has shit on Zoo Tycoon 2.
00:33:28
Speaker
Wow. High praise. High, high praise. You should send him an email. I should. I should send him a strongly worded email. ah Back in Ubisoft news, Ubisoft has announced that 2023's Assassin's Creed Mirage will not only be getting a substantial sounding surprise DLC before the end of the year, it's going to be a completely free update to the game.
00:33:52
Speaker
Ubisoft said the DLC will consist of a new story chapter and missions set in a brand new zone separate from the base game's representation of medieval Baghdad.
Upcoming Events & Gaming Projects
00:34:04
Speaker
Huh. Which is very, very cool.
00:34:08
Speaker
RGG Studio has announced it will be holding a RGG Summit next month, immediately followed by an RGG Direct. The Summit will bring the latest info directly from Ryugaga Toku Studio on September 24th at 4 a.m. Pacific, 7 a.m. Eastern.
00:34:25
Speaker
ah And the RGG Direct following it will give a closer look at some of the games, at some of the studio's latest announcements, which probably means we'll see stuff for Project Century.
00:34:38
Speaker
Which I think has a name now, but our i but I can't fully remember. I think it's still called Project Century. It's the last we heard of it.
00:34:46
Speaker
Gotcha. And possibly new Yakuza stuff too, which is also exciting. Ooh, okay. Hell yeah.
00:34:59
Speaker
ah Scott Pilgrim EX the beat-em-up inspired by the popular graphic novel series is getting two more playable characters Roxy Richter and Lucas Lee that was the second and fourth evil ex that Ramona had Lucas Lee was that the bassist no that was Todd Lucas Lee was the the actor played by ah Captain America oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah okay gotcha gotcha hmm And then Roxy is, you you know, Roxy,
00:35:35
Speaker
the only female evil ex. You punched me in the boob. ah Yeah, he did say that. On September 10th, Acclaim will be hosting the Play Acclaim showcase to reveal its lineup of upcoming titles.
00:35:50
Speaker
It will be airing at 1130 a.m. Pacific Time, 2.30 p.m. Eastern.
00:35:57
Speaker
2K Games announced that they are currently working on a college basketball game after EA's college basketball game fell through and they all decided to go work with 2K now.
00:36:09
Speaker
Damn. I wonder if they're going to add dildo throwing as a mechanic.
00:36:15
Speaker
That's WNBAG, not college basketball. Shit. Never mind. Cut that shit out.
00:36:24
Speaker
Uh, Lego is releasing a Sega Genesis controller set, which releases so September 8th, according to a leaker on Reddit, as it hasn't been officially announced when it'll actually be released.
00:36:35
Speaker
And also Lego is dropping a very, very large Pokemon set, uh, next year, sit over 6,800 pieces for roughly 900 Canadian dollars.
00:36:49
Speaker
Holy shit. Yeah. Would you pick it up? I know i I'm not big I haven't bought Lego in forever fair but fair I was a kid and I think like one of the last Lego sets I got was the Krusty Krab nice ah and movie news Call of Duty is getting a live action movie from Paramount I wonder which one they're gonna base it off of i if I had to guess it'll either be I if Call of Duty is going to make movie they have two choices you either base it off of Modern Warfare and you give us like Price, Soap and all of them or you base it off of Black Ops and you give us Mason and what the numbers mean I hope it's Modern Warfare then
00:37:41
Speaker
Fair enough. ah In Blizzard news, Blizzard co-finder Mike Morhaime announced the layoffs at his new company, Dreamhaven. ah The cuts come less than two weeks after Morhaime reportedly told Dreamhaven employees that the company's monthly expenses are outpacing revenues.
00:37:59
Speaker
was um this is what you get for making tracer just amazon news amazon's live action to bring her series got its laura croft cast and it's sophie turner oh from game of thrones fame and ex-wife of joe jonas Oh, okay.
00:38:31
Speaker
ok i see I wonder if they're going to give her like a triangular bra to make it super accurate. ah Probably not. They're probably going to base it more on the modern Tomb Raider trilogy.
00:38:43
Speaker
If I was a guest, because they all I know, because they did that with the so the modern Tomb Raider movie. I forgot they did that. ah Oh, yeah. ah In more Ubisoft news, the crew, ah the Ubisoft street racing game that made an unfortunate end in 2024, and may live on again the crew unlimited which is a fan-made effort to revive the game through a custom server emulator says that their work is just about complete and they it should be ready to launch september 15th reviving the og crew game which would be cool that would be sick
00:39:18
Speaker
And in repo news, repo is rolling out another update next month on October 30th. They uploaded a new video to the official semi work YouTube channel. And it's revealed that the focus will be on all the new monsters that they're adding.
00:39:34
Speaker
Yay. More terror fuel. Yeah. um In ongoing game news, starting with Final Fantasy 14, Fan Fest dates were announced. ah They will be at Anaheim April 24th and 25th for the North American FanFest.
00:39:51
Speaker
The European FanFest in Berlin will take place July 25th and 26th. And the Tokyo FanFest October 31st and November 1st. This has led fans and 14 content creators to predict that the 8.0 update and the new expansion will will release around March 2027. Are you going to FanFest?
00:40:12
Speaker
are you going so fanfest It's April, which is not a big, big turnaround. And according to reports as well, ah hotels have already been booked, are already like booked, and they haven't even put ticket sales, sell so prices out yet.
00:40:31
Speaker
Oh, Jesus. Yeah. I'm probably not going to go to the FanFest. As cool as it would be to go, um probably not going to go.
00:40:41
Speaker
That's fair. Save your money for, you know, the Doom Digimon game. Exactly. Exactly. ah In Fortnite news, ah the Gorillas were added to season 10 Fortnite Festival.
00:40:53
Speaker
um And Fortnite has also taken legal action against a, well, sorry, not legal action. They've taken action against the scourge of hormonal teens everywhere, AKA gooners.
00:41:05
Speaker
And they have stopped certain emotes in the game being used in close proximity. The emotes in question are all moves that when combined with certain other moves, they look like avatars engaging in a sexual act.
00:41:20
Speaker
Kids these days. yeah but They're gooding in Fortnite. Gross. Go to an actual porn site, you fucking weirdos. Yeah, or Roblox. No, I'm just kidding. Whoa!
00:41:34
Speaker
Oh my god!
00:41:38
Speaker
ah Don't do that. I was joking. This is a joke. God damn. In Hoylverse news. Yeah, Hoyl has some new news.
00:41:49
Speaker
They've announced a brand new game. ah Honkai Nexus Animus. This was announced as a new monster collecting game. And people are already clouding on it. Like, oh, Nintendo's going to take it down because it's going to be copyrighted. Like, okay.
00:42:07
Speaker
It probably will. I don't know. I feel like Nintendo went after Power World because Power World is just arguably a bad game. At least with Hoyo games, they're like somewhat decent.
00:42:20
Speaker
Yeah, the quality is okay. They might be able to change it up enough. Exactly. And you know, Power World isn't like owned by a shitty company who copy who have plagiarized shit before. So like, you know, look at look at the track record in Marvel Rivals news two new heroes are getting added into the next season Daredevil and Angela and for those of you wondering who the fuck is Angela like I was ah essentially thanks to the original Sin comic storyline she is for a sister oh cool I wonder which power she has and stuff
00:43:01
Speaker
i do not know. Imagine if it's like no powers and just she just has a regular hammer and like a tool belt. i don't think it's that, but I don't know. Someone could mod that in.
00:43:16
Speaker
Possibly. um In the world of TCG news, starting out with Pokemon, the Mega Evolution set dropped September 26th. And in TCG Pocket, the Secluded Spring set is out now.
00:43:28
Speaker
use Are you still playing Pocket, Gina? um Not as much as I used to, but I still, when I'm bored at work, I maybe open a few packs or something like that. What about you, Tony? Do you still play?
00:43:39
Speaker
I stopped. Fair. I stopped a couple ah packs ago. It was starting to become a bit tedy and that tedious. It was just like, oh, it's happening again with where it's a gacha game and I'm becoming addicted. and I need to stop.
00:43:55
Speaker
There's that and also the drop rates changed so much with what was the pack it was I forgot which one it was but it was the one before the shiny one I'm not sure it was just oh much harder to get cooler cards that was like such a ah turn off I suppose.
00:44:14
Speaker
Yeah, no, I feel that. In Yu-Gi-Oh! news, ah the 2025 Mega Pack Bundleton is out now. Doom of Dimensions drops September 26th. The Chronicles deck Fallen and the Virtuous comes October 24th.
00:44:27
Speaker
The Legendary Deez decks comes out November 7th and Phantom Revenge on December 3rd. In Magic the Gathering News, the Spider-Man cards drop September 26th, and Avatar The Last Airbender set drops November 21st.
00:44:43
Speaker
In Lorcanna releases, Fabled is out now, Whispers in the Well drops November 14th, and Winter Spell comes out sometime in quarter one of 2026. And in the Digimon card game, the Extra Booster Sinister Order drops September 19th, Hacker's Slumber drops October eighteen Billion Bullet Drops sometime later in October, and Tamer's Evolution Box Rise of Digimon in December.
00:45:10
Speaker
And in tabletop news, Hell of a Boss' is Kickstarter for its spinoff card game, Immediate Murder Professionals, a Hell of a Boss official game, launched early immediately hit its funding goal of $25,000. They are currently at ah well over Canadian.
00:45:31
Speaker
holy shit that was four times the amount that yeah they are almost at uh five hundred thousand dollars is actually how i should uh word that so uh good on them for raising that much and having a well-loved uh project uh and that is everything that happened within these past two weeks any final comments on any of those gina Not really. um I guess for the Fortnite players, maybe go out and touch some grass.
00:46:02
Speaker
I don't know. ah um Yeah, I don't know. but yeah That's about it. All right. Well, with that, time for us to now dive into all the games that are coming out within the next two weeks.
00:46:14
Speaker
Here is what should be on your radar from September 18th, September 8th to 19th. From AAA titles, indie hits, hidden gems, and hot pieces of garbage, here are the games coming out that should be on your radar.
00:46:28
Speaker
All right, and starting off, no game releases on the 8th, but on the 9th, Bubsy in the Perfect Collection comes out on the PS5 Series X Switch and PC. On the 10th, Garfield Kart 2 All You Can Drift comes to the PS5 Series X Switch and PC.
00:46:44
Speaker
Karma of the Dark World comes to the Series X, and Catanaut and Shape of Dreams comes to the PC. Nothing on the 11th. On the 12th, though, Borderlands 4 comes to the PC, PS5, and Series X.
00:46:56
Speaker
On the fifteenth Lego Voyagers comes to the PlayStation Systems Series X Switch and PC. Little Witch in the Woods comes to the Series X Xbox One PC. This was delayed because of the Silksong release.
00:47:08
Speaker
And No, I'm Not Human it comes to the PC as well. On the 16th, Henry Halfhead comes to the PS5 Switch and And Early Access for the new Skate Game comes to everything but the Switch and Switch 2.
00:47:22
Speaker
On the 17th, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor comes to the Series X in PC. Lost Skies comes to the PC and Strange Antiquities, a sequel to Strange Horticulture, comes to the Switch in PC.
00:47:34
Speaker
On the 18th, Frostpunk 2 comes to PS5 and Series X. And on the 19th, Dying Light the Beast comes to everything but the Switch systems. Jump Space comes to Early Access on the Series X and PC.
00:47:46
Speaker
Ratatan comes to Early Access on the PC. Toa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree comes to the PS5, Series X, Switch, and PC. And Trails in the Sky, first chapter, comes to the PS5, Switch, and PC.
00:47:58
Speaker
And that's everything coming out in the next two weeks.
Escape Rooms & Industry Insights
00:48:02
Speaker
Very cool. I hope the Garfield cart has a better voice actor than Chris Ratt. You're not a fan of the Chris Pratt Garfield?
00:48:11
Speaker
God, no. god God, no. i prefer Bill Murray. Real. ah Speaking of all the games, so yeah, Garfield Cart 2, that's obviously the biggest game that's coming out in the next two weeks. Yeah.
00:48:28
Speaker
wait really but no obviously not ah okay i was surprised i was like oh shit damn garfield's bigger than i thought i mean no it's garfield card is a very mean game uh and the fact that it's getting a sequel is just very very funny true true the cars one of the cars better be a lasagna pan or else you know ah i believe that lasagna is an item in the game Oh, never mind. Yeah.
00:49:00
Speaker
um No, your bigger game starting off with one of your first big games, ah Borderlands 4. That's one of the big games coming out. I'm excited for it. I just don't know if I'm going to get it right away. I see. Do you think you're going to stream it at all?
00:49:14
Speaker
I don't know. That's fair. that's Only because with what we have planned for the rest of September, it's Dredge and then we're playing Aloft. and then Digimon comes out and then I'm gonna do Digimon maybe the next year thing it might it might be it might be I don't know it all depends on who all gets it as well true uh what else was a big one oh Dying Light the Beast this is the one that everyone's a lot of people are really excited for I'm very indifferent about it I'm just not a big fan Dying Light
00:49:50
Speaker
never really got into it i played the first one and i it could not hold my attention
00:49:58
Speaker
so what do you do is it like a zombie game yeah zombie game you parkour a lot uh and you craft a bunch of weapons to kill the zombies and that's that's about it gotcha Yeah. So yeah, Dying Light, the Beast, comes the 19th. That's basically everything.
00:50:23
Speaker
LEGO Voyagers is a cool one to check out as well. um I've heard Toa, the Guardians of the Sega Tree, they've got they've put out a couple cool trailers. the trails series the new entry the trail series i think it's a remake of one of the games i think but i might be wrong uh but yeah no it's a good week for game good two weeks for games real oh no i'm not a human looks terrifying though sorry i just looked it up It's so scary.
00:50:54
Speaker
i had never seen faces look like that. If you can call them faces. oh ah Well, with that, it's time for us to now dive into our main focus. ah Here's what we're talking about this week in the game lounge.
00:51:08
Speaker
Conversations of past and future games, the state of the gaming industry, how big decisions affect gamers and anything else that's important to us. Here's what's going down this week in the game lounge. And to kick it off, our first topic of the day, we're talking about ah escape rooms.
00:51:26
Speaker
Woohoo!
00:51:29
Speaker
So, to kick it off, Gina, full disclosure, you, for your real job, work out of an escape room. Yes, I do. Currently, I'm a game master at a an escape room company in our city.
00:51:44
Speaker
Yes. And so I guess the first question I have for you, what are your overall thoughts on escape They're one of my favorite things to do. I think every year on my birthday, I do an escape room and it's just, there's something fun about being trapped in a room with your friends in like a, I don't know, mildly urgent setting. That's like, I don't know. It's a perfect breeding ground for trauma bonding. You know what I mean? I, I,
00:52:11
Speaker
i i I don't know about that one. I don't know. i ah don't know if I want to trouble bond with my friends in a locked room for an hour or so.
00:52:24
Speaker
Like, I like escape rooms. I've only ever done the small demo one was that was at GameCon. Oh, yeah, the one that we did together. Yeah, that's the only one I've ever really like properly done. The only like closest thing I've got done to an escape room is play that game Escape Academy or something. ah Yeah, Escape Academy.
00:52:46
Speaker
Escape Academy. That's the closest I've gotten to like doing an actual real escape room. I've never done... uh an actual proper one we should go do a real escape room it'd be really really fun we we really should ah so what are your what are your favorite themes of escape rooms I prefer more fantasy type rooms like knights or that kind of thing. I mean, honestly, it's less about the themes for me, but more about the puzzles on the inside.
00:53:23
Speaker
Yeah. is there Are there like a lot of tropes that as you find escape rooms use a lot of the same ones? A lot of people kind of rely on familiar IPs to draw people in. So like Harry Potter is a huge one. People do like, oh, this is their spinoff version of like, we have wizards or something.
00:53:43
Speaker
Ah, yes. Larry Plopper. Yes, yes. You and your school of magic and you need to save the headmaster for getting his butthole exploded or something like that. Not not the headmaster's butthole.
00:53:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah Yep, yep. I think interesting ones are kind of like, there's one called Mind Master Industries. That one's really cool because it's like, I don't know, your test subjects.
00:54:13
Speaker
And i don't know, it was really cool because when you walk into the room, it's all white. Like, all white stark white there's buttons everywhere there's a tv and people in lab coats telling you what to do like stuff that has a strong visual start those those ones are pretty cool okay uh do you have like favorite like puzzles that you you find like like a lot of like escape rooms like reuse puzzles like like other escape rooms as well like are there like set puzzles that you find are like used like the most commonly
00:54:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I'd say puzzles that kind of have like a flimsy connection are very common puzzles that I see. And there's stuff that's like, oh you got a look on the wall for something and then it connects to a box and something like that. These ones are very, very popular.
00:55:08
Speaker
But I think the most fun puzzles are the tactile ones, personally. Like, you get a stick and you have to move it through a maze, or there's like a ball you gotta get out, and you gotta pull cables on a table.
00:55:20
Speaker
Get it out of there. You know what i mean? Yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah. What about you, Tony? um i know you haven't done like many escape rooms, but like did you notice anything in like Escape Academy that made you go like, oh, what's...
00:55:38
Speaker
Hard to say, because ah like when I played Escape Academy, I was also slightly out of my mind, because I think we played it during that 60-hour subathon. Oh, shit. Yeah, okay.
00:55:50
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's not a good environment. I was, like, partially zooted from that, because it was, like, on day, like, four or five as well that we I did that.
00:56:01
Speaker
You are brave for doing that. So it was, like... yeah I mean, I was able to figure it out, But like, I don't remember a lot of it.
00:56:14
Speaker
Yeah. and Understandable. Like, I remember like the one guy was like evil in the end, but and he made us do something to save our like teacher or something.
00:56:29
Speaker
And that's about it. Yeah, yeah. The thing about Escape Academy is that not only were the puzzles kind of easy to figure out, the storyline was just so absurd.
00:56:43
Speaker
I like the way it started out where you're like, oh, you go to Escape Room. It's kind of ninji. You're like, whatever. And then you're like, oh, you get an acceptance letter. It's Hogwarts, whatever the fuck, right? Yeah. But it's like...
00:56:54
Speaker
The rest of it was just a little too predictable. There's this one girl who's a bitch to you for no reason. yeah suddenly have to save your professor's life and save the guy that ends up betraying you. Like, the story didn't really make sense to me.
00:57:10
Speaker
Yeah, it really didn't. But then again, it is just like a puzzle game. So it's like they were bashing on the fact that like we don't have to have our story make a whole lot of sense. but That's true, but if they did, it would add so much, you know what I mean? Wouldn't though...
00:57:27
Speaker
I feel like it would, like if you're invested in the story, it would make you a little more focused due to the puzzles. So then you can progress it. mean, I guess. Yeah, there there is that. There is there there is that.
00:57:40
Speaker
I don't know. like The only other video game escape room games I can think of, there's that one. oh God. It's like a VR one that but I cannot remember the name of.
00:57:53
Speaker
But it's like a VR escape room game. Huh. That's name is, if I type it, escape simulator.
00:58:09
Speaker
Escape simulator. yeah i Yeah, it is VR. yeah it has both standard and VR mode. That's what it is. You can play it in VR, but it's like it is like a proper like more escape room stuff that you can play with your friends.
00:58:26
Speaker
And it's got a lot of DLCs. Holy shit. Maybe I should start streaming those ones. i mean, maybe. i think I don't know if it's like set puzzles or if it's generative. but I think it's all set puzzles, realistically.
00:58:39
Speaker
Yeah. think yeah I think it'd be better. If it was generative, then stuff could break or not be clear, that kind of thing.
00:58:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah yeah do have you do run into that if it is generative puzzles. um like oh It's good for some things, other things, not so much.
00:59:00
Speaker
For sure, 100%. yeah um So what what got you into escape rooms to begin with? Oh, at first, me and my family just like tried a couple of escape rooms. But I think the more I played with my friends, the more I was like, oh, I want to keep doing this. This is so fun.
00:59:19
Speaker
For example, one of my birthdays, I went to an escape room with some friends at the time. And then... We were in a mafia themed room or something like that. We all dressed up for the occasion. it was fun. We were young, that kind of thing.
00:59:33
Speaker
And we were in the middle of doing puzzles and a trap door opened from the ceiling. A fish flew down and hit me right in the face. But like a real fish?
00:59:44
Speaker
No, like a plastic fish. Okay. I mean, it would have funnier if it was a real dead fish because they that would be pretty funny. Yeah, that'd be pretty memorable. Commitment to the bit. You're sleeping with the fishes.
00:59:56
Speaker
Exactly. i think I'm not sure if I would have continued doing escape rooms if it was a real fish, though. ah ah ah i yeah I mean, I would just for a chance to have a fish fall from the ceiling once again.
01:00:11
Speaker
Okay, I can set that up for you. yeah um But yeah, like have weird stuff happen like that. It's just people can get so creative with room design that it's like every time you go to an escape room, there's something new. Okay.
01:00:29
Speaker
How many, how many would you say, how many escape rooms do you say you have played? I have a list actually on my phone. my God. Okay. Let's see. um let's see Okay, I think there should be a couple more, but the ones that I have documented currently, I've done 21 in the city.
01:00:50
Speaker
Oh, wow. um My sister, though, like she's done like over 50 escape rooms. That's a lot. Yep. and yeahp Is there like a dream escape room that like you know about that you haven't had the chance to go to yet, but you want to go to?
01:01:08
Speaker
um I think there's one that I've gotten a small taste of. um It's a place called Castle Loma in Toronto. And all of their escape rooms are set in this giant historical castle.
01:01:22
Speaker
oh a cat That's cool. Yeah, right. The one that we played was um like also kind of like mafia speakeasy themed. And that one was mostly in the kind of cottage that was built next to the castle.
01:01:38
Speaker
um But yeah, they have tons of escape rooms there. And it'd be really cool because you also get like small history lessons about the castle. And what's different about that place is that they use live actors.
01:01:52
Speaker
Oh, that's sick. The way they give hints is so creative. Because like, I don't know, at the escape room place I work at, they press a, like, you know, the customers press a button and then we come in and be like, okay, what are we working on?
01:02:05
Speaker
And we kind of just like nudge them in the right direction vaguely. Some people use TVs, that kind of thing, whatever. But the actors that are in the room at Casa Loma, they speak to you in character while giving you the hints.
01:02:21
Speaker
That's cool. that's ah That's always cool to see that because it it just it adds to the immersion a little bit more. exactly Exactly. Instead of just having the staff worker in the did the staff t-shirt coming to be like, yo, gamers.
01:02:36
Speaker
That's exactly how it feels like. How do you do, fellow kids? It's like, hey, what are we doing? And they're like, I want to kill everyone. And it's like, oh I'm sorry.
01:02:50
Speaker
but like what are we... What are we working on
01:02:56
Speaker
on? The rage of friends when they can't figure something out and then the arguments and stuff. People are very creative when they're frustrated. um a couple weeks ago, there was this group of teenagers that came into the escape room I work at, and they were very stuck on a puzzle, and they finally asked for a hint.
01:03:16
Speaker
I came in, um and this room that we have is like a little dark, right? So they had a flashlight. ah The flashlight was on the floor, and they were kind of like dancing in a circle around it.
01:03:29
Speaker
It looked like a seance, not going to lie. that's great they were like is this helping and i'm like probably not ah probably not but keep at it kiddos exactly exactly you do you boo boo my that's that's funny that's really funny you see a lot of things in escape rooms yeah i get I mean, yeah, seeing as you work at what you probably get to see a lot more than the average person would get to see.
01:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. sometimes Sometimes it's chill. Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's like, oh, I think there's a divorce coming. But, you know, oh that's rare, though.
01:04:16
Speaker
Thankfully, that's rare. Yeah. Okay. have you seen Have you seen a divorce happen through an escape room? Not actively, but I've seen very tense couples leave leave the room. yeah Whoa.
01:04:31
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So pro tip for everyone out there who's maybe just seeing someone, don't take them to an escape room for your first date.
01:04:42
Speaker
ah Because, like, first off, no you don't know this person's problem-solving skills. You're just thrusting them into a problem. Second, why you're kind of forcing them to be in a space with you where you have to mildly be anxious, I don't... but That's not a good idea.
01:05:03
Speaker
um So as someone who does work at an escape room, what goes into, like, setting up escape rooms, uh... fixing them all of the whole process of it.
01:05:17
Speaker
Give us a behind the scenes look. Yeah. It kind of varies um from company to company, of course, but at the place I work at my manage like main manager slash the owner of the establishment, he makes all the puzzles.
01:05:34
Speaker
So we don't really have a say in what puzzles there are. we We can make suggestions, but it's no guarantee that he'll actually implement them. Yeah. But what we do have a say in occasionally is the theming of the room.
01:05:50
Speaker
We have brainstorming sessions, that kind of thing, kind of just being like, okay, we need a new room. What kind of theme should we do? Should we do cyberpunk? Should we do D&D themed room? Should we do like, you know, that kind of thing?
01:06:04
Speaker
Yeah. And then we work out like the feasibility of it, how much it would cost to decorate the room, if it would be even like fun for people to come visit, ah mechanics, whatever.
01:06:17
Speaker
And the main thing that we got to focus on is having a wow factor at the end. So there's got to be something people are working towards, right? Something fun at the end. So then the whole experience is rewarding.
01:06:32
Speaker
Okay. Can you give like an example of like maybe a past rooms while factor for us? Yeah, for sure. So um at one of our locations, the escape room goal is to defuse a bomb.
01:06:48
Speaker
and stop a evil supervillain from destroying the entire city, that kind of thing. ah And so this bomb is unsheathed ah in like a giant wire cage and there's like beeping buttons, flashing lights and that kind of thing. And then there's like a countdown. So it makes you a little like, oh, time is of the essence kind of thing. Yeah.
01:07:10
Speaker
But once you disarm that bomb, it's like the biggest sigh of relief for most people. And that's like a huge moment. And then there's a second bomb. There's a second bomb.
01:07:23
Speaker
And then a third one. I'm just kidding.
01:07:27
Speaker
yeah thought That would actually be a a very funny puzzle. It's like you have the the initial bomb and you defuse it only for there to be revealed that there's a second bomb inside the first one.
01:07:39
Speaker
That would be so funny. And then we just do like a little psych out. Yeah. little psych out. It's like, and and the psych, I think it would be a great idea. I think it'd be a very funny idea to be implemented somewhere.
01:07:51
Speaker
There there's a, there's a Tony's two cents on a, on an escape room idea, the bomb within the bomb.
01:08:01
Speaker
I'll, I'll suggest it at our next brainstorm. Excellent. Thank you. Yeah, course. No, because that's a great idea. It's funny. it's It's funny. I find comedic fact comedy is funny in times of stress.
01:08:16
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. ah so So that's what goes into, I guess, creating a room. What goes into how freak I guess, how frequently does like an escape room change like their themes or like get a new room added? Like how how frequent does it happen?
01:08:34
Speaker
um It kind of depends on ah each company. Again, it depends on like their budget as well, because if you're a establishment that goes like really, really hard on like decoration, set decoration, it could take a while to ah get that new room running.
01:08:53
Speaker
um At the location I work at specifically, we have two locations and across both locations, we have eight rooms. We try to change rooms each.
01:09:05
Speaker
Four rooms each. Yeah. And so we try to change one escape room per year across the two locations. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's just enough time for us to like decorate, make all the puzzles, the plans, that kind of thing.
01:09:22
Speaker
Gotcha. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Okay. And then what goes as let's say, new a new group of young adults come in to do the do their puzzle. They come in, they leave.
01:09:39
Speaker
ah How long does it take to like flip a room? um Because obviously they do solve everything. So like what goes into re-flipping a room for the next group to come in?
01:09:51
Speaker
I see. Okay. So smaller rooms are definitely quicker too A reset. We call them resetting. So it can be done in less than five minutes for kind of like a smaller room, even less than two minutes for some of the rooms.
01:10:09
Speaker
ah But if you have really big rooms that have like tons of puzzles, it can take maybe around seven minutes, five minutes if you're going really fast and if you have, you know, other people helping you.
01:10:22
Speaker
But yeah, ah each reset is made so that you can reset it by yourself so you don't need like another person to help you. as Gotcha.
01:10:33
Speaker
Is there like a checklist of things that you need to make sure that you reset or is it all just like you've been doing it for however long that it's all just like a mental game?
01:10:44
Speaker
Um, it's a mental thing after you get used to it. But yeah, there's kind of like, we have a employee handbook on how to reset each room and where each little block goes in the thingy-ma-bob and, you know, how you make sure something is locked and whatnot.
01:11:01
Speaker
But it's like after a while... It's like a game itself of just resetting the room. Exactly. I find that's the funnest part of my job. Not going to lie. Actually, is reset... Okay. Okay.
01:11:13
Speaker
I mean, personally, personally, I don't know. That might be different for other people, but yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay. that like It's a really cool. It's a really cool job that you do have because I think escape rooms are one of the closest things to like video game puzzle games in the real world.
01:11:39
Speaker
For sure. What are your thoughts on like I guess like other like interactive exhibits that are out there. Like I, I'm sure you see like tech talks of the like glowing floor game.
01:11:55
Speaker
are your thoughts on like all of those and like exhibits, like those are attractions, I guess is the proper word. Like those. Oh, ah I think they're really fun, but you got to keep them fresh so then your business still stays alive. You know what I mean? Yeah.
01:12:14
Speaker
And also accessibility is a thing that is also kind of like e with some of these places. I can admit even like just the sheer placement of the place that I work at is not wheelchair accessible.
01:12:28
Speaker
You know what i mean? yeah so the more accessible yet the more fun the place is the longer it'll stay alive because these places can go out of business really really fast yeah i definitely yeah definitely can how accessible would you say escape rooms are as a whole aside from like obviously locational location accessibility uh but but more like the game itself accessibility like how accessible are they I feel like they're mostly accessible.
01:13:01
Speaker
um And it also, like, there's tons of rooms that are based off of, like, your experience level as well. So it's not just like, oh, haha, this is really hard, like, suffer kind of thing, you know what mean? Gotcha. Yeah, there's some rooms. peasants, suffer. You are trapped in this room for real.
01:13:23
Speaker
Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, and so a large range of people can enjoy them. Like, kids enjoy them. ah Some elderly people enjoy them. Not not all of them.
01:13:36
Speaker
I've seen a lot of ah crabs out there, i will say.
01:13:43
Speaker
Yeah. but Okay, okay. um Going back to escape room video games... If you could design one, how would you make like the perfect escape room video game?
01:13:59
Speaker
Okay, this is this is a great question. So I'd want to have a game that has different storylines. They don't necessarily have to connect to each other, but it's kind of like, I guess you can call them DLC packs, but I wouldn't make them DLC.
01:14:15
Speaker
Obviously. Yeah, so you have like a whole build up of story, that kind of thing. um And then... Maybe a sequence of four to five rooms that have that same theme. So if we're going to do like a cyberpunk style room, then it's like, okay, your character wakes up, you have like, kind of like a visual novel start, you're you're like talking to somebody, and then you go into your mission,
01:14:42
Speaker
You know your goal. And then it's different settings within that world in each room. And then the last one has like the big wow factor thingy-mabob.
01:14:54
Speaker
And then that episode is over. Then you go to the next one. And maybe it's like, you know, temple-themed or something. Gotcha, gotcha. ah says No, just it's a solid choice.
01:15:06
Speaker
It's very solid. I think that... I think that we should have like a few more escape game, escape room games, escape game rooms. No, that's not the right sentence there.
01:15:20
Speaker
um Escape room games. I think we should have a few more because we were very limited on like what we have. Like we have escape Academy. You have escape simulator. And I think like the other third choice is the, we were here games.
01:15:35
Speaker
Yep, yep. Anything by Rusty Lake, their Cube Escape collection as well. Those ones are very artsy, though. I kind of don't understand the story. ah they They have jump scares in those ones. Uh-oh.
01:15:49
Speaker
Yeah, that one. Tune in, twitch.tv, to hear me scream like Goofy. Fair enough. ah Yeah. Fair enough. ah Yeah. I don't jump scares. Not fun.
01:16:02
Speaker
Yeah. god fine ah Is there anything else you want to add on? I was about to say jump scares on escape rooms before we head to our second topic of the day. um Not really. I feel like if you haven't done them before, you should definitely do one in real life with people that you trust.
01:16:23
Speaker
With people that you trust and that you don't. With people that you trust and won't want to fight afterwards. Exactly. Exactly. I guess last question. What's like the best ideal size that you would recommend for a group going into ah an escape room for the first time?
01:16:38
Speaker
Hey, four people, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, four people is the best size. You know what I mean there There are five Power Rangers in Mighty Morphin, Gina. I was not talking about Mighty Morphin. Shit. Okay. Some Power Rangers. There's not. There's like, but with were going through all the Power Rangers series, there's not a lot that just have four.
01:17:00
Speaker
Isn't it Oh, okay. I was thinking Dino Thunder, but I forgot that the White Ranger existed. Dino Thunder had three to start, and then they had Tommy, and then they had Trent, which makes five in the end.
01:17:12
Speaker
Forgot about Trent. Sorry. Sorry, Trent. How did you forget about Trent? Trent was the best character in that season. I'm sorry. It's been a while, okay? I'm an s SPD person. i mean, like, SPD is good, too, but even s SPD had was a thought was a five plus. We'll tell you, it was like a seven at the end.
01:17:31
Speaker
Yeah, seven. Seven or so. Because Shadow and Omega Ranger. Eight if you want to count the Orange Rangers cameo. Nine if you want to Nova Ranger and ten if you want to do Cat Ranger. Yeah.
01:17:47
Speaker
yeah Anyways, four is good. Four to six is good. We should do a Power Ranger episode. Fuck. ah power Power Rangers theme escape room. you gotta build the Megazord.
01:18:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's actually one of the ah the brainstorm ideas that someone else had. ah Same brain cell. Let's go. Let's go.
01:18:11
Speaker
All right. Well, with that, it's time for us to move on to our second topic of the day. Time travel is a weird phenomenon that only Michael J. Fox and those that play Insert Map Game Here experience.
01:18:26
Speaker
Need time to disappear? Don't worry. That new colony you established needs a lot of work.
Content Creation Journeys
01:18:32
Speaker
Oh, a minor faction that should be easy to fight. This war should be really quick. Oh shit. Is that the sun map games?
01:18:40
Speaker
One minute. It's the early evening. The next minute, the sun has risen and you have three missed calls from your boss. And our second topic is talking about, uh, the content that we make and looking back at why we make content. Now I've been doing this for five years,
01:18:58
Speaker
Gina, you've been doing it for... Like... whoa One or two Something like that, yeah.
01:19:09
Speaker
On and off, like audit off on paper three years, but it's not really... it can all be condensed into less than a year, I would say.
01:19:20
Speaker
Fair. So what was it that first got you into streaming and making content? It was actually you, Tony. let's go! Let's go! Woo!
01:19:32
Speaker
Yeah. Dude, when we graduated and COVID hit and you were just streaming with your PS3, I remember the plain black overlay. Oh, sorry. PS4. Yes. Sorry.
01:19:46
Speaker
I just like the PS3 too much. Yeah. But yeah, when you had that plain black overlay and you were playing Borderlands 3 or something like that. And i don't know, just having like seeing you play games and I just like watching we can like chat.
01:20:06
Speaker
That was really, really fun to me. I don't know.
01:20:12
Speaker
I mean, it was it was it was humble beginnings. with ah With that shitty microphone that we were forced to purchase on our first year of college, or my my third year of college.
01:20:26
Speaker
I got that two and two is what I did. So um you know going into my second batch of college, it's like, yeah, you gotta buy this one but microphone headset that we're going to use for one class only.
01:20:38
Speaker
so worth it right yeah i mean it came in handy because it's like oh i don't have a microphone a good a good microphone for the playstation oh i have this and we just rocked with that until uh for a good while yeah yeah it's only got upgrades where did you start tony why did i So I started... so Originally, as i've I think I've said it before, I'll tell the story again because it's a good story. After I graduated college and COVID, the it was the you know higher height of the pandemic. or It's just started. that Everything's happening. It's like, well...
01:21:15
Speaker
We're not getting a job in this economy. Yeah, that's so true. Let's do what every other white guy does and start a podcast.
01:21:26
Speaker
And for me, it wasn't like start. It was technically let's try to restart my podcast because as a very few people know, before I was Tony Game Lounge, I was the gaming ace.
01:21:41
Speaker
are Back when I had first graduated my first two years of college and I was maybe 20 years old. i think it was 19 and 20 when I had started Gaming Ace podcast.
01:21:52
Speaker
i was It was more of like, ah hey, I really like Achievement Hunter. I'm going to try to do what they do with their off-topic podcast and just talk about shit. But like you know kind of have a focus on video games. and like We talk about a video game per episode.
01:22:10
Speaker
It was absolute garbage. You cannot find you you cannot find any trace of this. i don't even have the original files anymore of those original recordings. It has been purged from the earth. You cannot find it anywhere. I'll pay $50 to anybody who has a recording. Just kidding.
01:22:27
Speaker
but but but You see, was so bad that i was so bad because I didn't even know how to set off of my MacBook at the time, how to change the audio input from the PC to my blue Yeti.
01:22:40
Speaker
And it was instead of it recording in the Yeti at a table in like a round table setting where the Yeti was in the middle, it was recording in the PC, which was in the middle. ah Oh, wow. it was It was bad. It was very, very bad.
01:22:55
Speaker
i kind of had fun with it, but it wasn't good. It wasn't great. It was awful. It was one of the worst. At the time, I'm like, oh, this is awesome. But then it's like,
01:23:08
Speaker
you know the i you know i kind of do it i had like maybe 10 don't even think i had no i had like maybe three five oh no i think i had 10 episodes of the podcast of that old podcast exist for a time um hey least you kept going with it right No, it wasn't consistent though.
01:23:33
Speaker
It wasn't like the first three episodes were when I was in college. The last seven, two of them were just me talking to my computer about some shit.
01:23:47
Speaker
Uh, one of them was round table with my, the Poggerator, my brother, Preston and my best friend and my old and my, and my friend, Josh, who I don't really talk to anymore.
01:24:00
Speaker
um,
01:24:02
Speaker
And then another episode or two was with my friend Josh. And then another episode or two was with Preston.
01:24:13
Speaker
I And the then i was invited as a guest for the Medicine Hat Comic Expo.
01:24:24
Speaker
Or was it? Yeah, Comic Expo. And I'm like, oh cool. let's or like Medicine Hat Convention or whatever. It was the there their comic con, essentially, which was held in the entrance hall at the Medicine Hat College.
01:24:39
Speaker
two And like I was invited. Thanks to thanks to my connection. Shout out to my boy DJ Orange man because he was working promotions at the time for them and they want to book guests. and So they want they did like a a spotlight a guest panel which was featured a a bunch of local content creators local as in like Alberta.
01:25:00
Speaker
Yeah. And so you had myself, you had Patty Jack games who I went to college with. He was a year above me back when I went to L, when attended LC.
01:25:11
Speaker
And then there were three others, two of which I don't think are even doing this stuff anymore because they would just, they were just, they were doing what I was doing, what had done streaming through their console.
01:25:25
Speaker
They weren't seeing any growth. that They probably, I don't know if they're still doing it. anymore and then the third one who actually had brand deals and was actually doing content creation properly and wow had no right to be there by any means but was there and is the one person i maybe should have actually i don't know done advice from at the time ah
01:25:51
Speaker
anyways Panel happens. we go, the panel happens. One person shows up to that panel. oh shit it was it it wasn't it was not to be fair this this whole thing it wasn't a great convention i'm gonna like i'm gonna say it like it was as kind either as it was to get invited wasn't uh this was this wasn't a great convention i mean like it was med hat tony
01:26:25
Speaker
Yeah, the the big yeah celebrity guest was a voice actor whose name is for i is slipping from my mind, but they voiced in the Canadian dub of Dragon Ball GT.
01:26:41
Speaker
They were the voice of Pan because for those who don't know, Dragon Ball, the Dragon Dragon Ball has an American dub and a Canadian dub.
01:26:52
Speaker
but what what's the difference between the two dubs Canadian voice actors the voice actors we have we didn't have Sean Chanel as Goku we had someone else
01:27:08
Speaker
damn i wonder why they chose to do that that sounds more expensive i believe it i believe it was more around the time when it's like ah like back in a time when it's like canadian content had to be like canadian like you know so they're like okay so why because i think ytv had the dragon ball airing rights for the canadian networks and they're like well we'll just dub it ourselves can con can con ah okay but like when did you start streaming oh oh sorry sorry right so anyway this ah this gets back to the anyway so the guest was that the big guest was like that voice actor and anyway after that like a couple weeks passed and I'm like you know what we're done I'm retiring the gaming case I haven't been treating this as properly as I should and I retire it
01:28:04
Speaker
I get rid of it. i I'm like, I'm done with it. wherere It's never happening again. RIP Gaming Ace. RIP the Gaming Ace. Hugh, obviously pandemic happening. And I'm like, you know what?
01:28:19
Speaker
We're bringing him back. Except I am not being called the Gaming Ace anymore because that was a stupid name. It was fine. i mean, look, like my initials are Ace. That's why I, for good because for those who haven't realized that Tony is short for the longer version of my, of the name.
01:28:38
Speaker
ah Legally, obviously. ah So that, so ah that's why my name was Ace. Cause it was my first name, my middle initial and my last name. I see.
01:28:50
Speaker
Okay. Yes. um So I'm like, you know what? No, we're going to, everyone calls me Tony. Now let's just do big, big of a name. And Tony's game lounge came to mind. They're like, perfect. And started the Tony's game lounge podcast.
01:29:04
Speaker
And the first ever guest I had on it was my brother. And then that whole, the whole first season and people who have been listening to this, you go through the journey of the podcast. And then like a couple of months later, that's when I'm like, you know what?
01:29:19
Speaker
it was because of my boys Emerald and Mac Ryan Mac that I decided to start streaming. They are kind of the reasons I decided to stream because, you know, I saw, you know, Ryan, I've told this story before, Ryan, I used to, back in my first two years of college, I watched Ryan's react videos.
01:29:40
Speaker
That's how I learned who Ryan was because he had all of these because he was reacting to the Japanese rock music that I had started listening to. And I'm like, whoa, and he's Canadian. That's so cool. Subscribe.
01:29:55
Speaker
And then Emerald I found through the pandemic. I got gifted a sub to his streams and I stuck around ever since. Nice. And it's because of deb that that I decided to start streaming. And hence the stream journey began on the PlayStation 4.
01:30:12
Speaker
what a time that was. Yep. Yep. Yep.
01:30:17
Speaker
Gotcha. So that's what got me into streaming, Gina. Okay, so that that's what got you into
Streaming Motivations & Challenges
01:30:24
Speaker
streaming. But what keeps you going, Tony? Oh, what keeps me going? My sheer will to live.
01:30:30
Speaker
ah ah the demons that I fight on a constant daily basis in my mind that tell me I'm not worth it, but I am worth it. No, that's actually, no. ah I keep doing it because I have fun playing. I just, it's a reason to play games.
01:30:48
Speaker
I get paid cut occasionally, which is nice as a ah nice bonus on top of it. And you know what? I, and you know what? Obviously there is that, that greed of like, you know, I want to be, I want to be the next Valkyrie or Kai Sanat, or I want to be a big, you know, you want it. You want to make it big.
01:31:09
Speaker
like obviously there is that end goal like i know that like in order for me to do that i would have to change a lot of things be more consistent in a lot of in a lot of other things and i'm not i am very much not consistent enough to get that big but you know what i still stream anyway because it's like you know what someone's probably turning it on and you know if i could just make someone's day with my streams then it's a win you make mine dude you make mine try to tune into yours yeah Yeah.
01:31:39
Speaker
I try to be entertaining.
01:31:45
Speaker
You know, yeah it's always it's a lot ah it's very hard for a lot of people to like be on all the time. 100%. Yeah. yeah Last stream, I think I went nonverbal.
01:31:58
Speaker
Yeah, like I find that when I get focused, I go nonverbal a little bit. and It's like, oh, I should probably say something. And then I speak again. It's like um it's like it's why I found that like I can't play certain games now because I just it's like, oh, I got to go hard focus mode and I just do not speak.
01:32:21
Speaker
Like back in the days of Yu-Gi-Oh, it was great because it's like, I don't really need to focus because I know what all my cards do. ah And I can get rat at mad at ranks and shit like that. FF14 was fine when I had people with me.
01:32:36
Speaker
But now that I'm the only one that plays FF14 now within my friend group, that's why I fucking quit being an FF14 streamer. I'm the only one who really plays it consistently now. Yeah, that, yeah.
01:32:51
Speaker
I mean, to be fair, we we had you try the free trial and I don't think yeah i think you it really appealed to you that much. Like, you're like the exception. Yeah, I mean, it was it was okay.
01:33:03
Speaker
um and I don't think I just had a reason to like stick around. I didn't like love it or anything. I mean, that's also fair. I mean, we we didn't get you that far in the story either, I think. So was like, there was really no reason for you to stick around.
01:33:17
Speaker
That is true. I remember just spending maybe like 45 minutes hitting a bunch of birds. i't I don't know. It was like at the beginning area or something like that. i mean, if you ever do want to retry the Final Fantasy XIV experience, Gina, like I will actually you like help you guide you through it. So yeah.
01:33:38
Speaker
Maybe I'll make it a sub goal or something. Do it. Yeah. Okay. Do it. That's what I did. i made mine a sub goal. And then, you know, my moderator TC back in the day was also ah very.
01:33:51
Speaker
Oh, what is it? Irresponsible with his money. And hit that sub goal. Oh, yeah. OTC. His poor wallet. His poor, poor wallet.
01:34:03
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah, that's you know that's how I got into the game. And now I'm two years into two, three years into that game now and over 2,000 hours.
01:34:15
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Okay. but Holy shit. That's a lot. Sorry. I was like, okay. That's four digits. That's like... Yeah. Four digits. Holy shit. well i believe that i am almost at the time i have almost played the game longer than that one british prime minister was in office for wow yeah very very um commonwealth measurements tony it it is um okay so question for you now now that yeah you've been doing this for like
01:34:52
Speaker
A year. In your words. ah How has your journey been? What have been your ups and downs? What challenges have you specifically faced? What have you learned since doing all of this?
01:35:07
Speaker
I think at the beginning, i was very focused on trying to be entertaining. I feel like I have some VODs out there that are kind of just like, I feel like I'm talking too much. You know what i mean?
01:35:18
Speaker
and And don't know. Nowadays, my ah the the reason why it's only been a year's worth of experience is because I'm very inconsistent in...
01:35:30
Speaker
like actually sitting down to stream you know what i mean sometimes like it used to be like oh i have other commitments like school work that kind of thing but like i don't know sometimes nowadays it's like i feel like if i have to be personable right now i'm gonna get a migraine you know what i mean ah ha That's fair.
01:35:54
Speaker
Like, obviously, my big thing for my schedule-wise of why I'm inconsistent, I work a part-time job where my schedule overall is inconsistent of when I can and can't stream.
01:36:06
Speaker
And then, obviously, if I work a lot in a week, I'm tired and I just don't have that energy, um which is why I can't, which is why my schedule is fair. which is It's why that by I'm inconsistent is because job.
01:36:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Like back when I didn't have my job, I was pretty consistent, I think, with when I streamed. I was just limited to where I was streaming from being in front of my big ass TV so I could have everything connected properly online. on PlayStation back in the day.
01:36:40
Speaker
Like when I got my first desk in my PC, like things changed for the better. But then obviously the issue arose of like, yeah, you're not connected via fucking router. You don't have your Ethernet connection. Your streams are going to be fucked.
01:36:56
Speaker
And then that was a whole ah good year before I got that fixed. Oh my God. Can I tell you secret? I am yeah still not connected via Ethernet. you know what it is like get yourself a fucking i i will give you 100 foot long ethernet cable if i still have it somewhere i i can't okay the house layout i'm in is kind of funky and it would put cables in places where my mom would you know you know banish me from the household you know it's it'll be it's it's a little it's a little hard and that's also an like a problem that i encountered during my earlier streams too and current streams because you know last time we played repo with everybody holy shit i kept disconnecting fuck that was so annoying get what mellow has that mellow doesn't have like the an even has like uh he has something that just plugs i don't know what talk to mellow get what mellow has
01:37:56
Speaker
Gay? Just kidding. Not that. youre ah you already one You already have that. who
01:38:08
Speaker
ah good that was good was good i'm giving it to you that was a good one okay there's like a it was like a it's like a not a wi-fi it's don't know what called like a it's an extender of some sort that plugs into either the router or the pc or it plugs into both and it's fixed it fixed bellows problem okay okay yeah i should send him a message you should yeah you should and you should open it with like hey how do i catch the gay
01:38:38
Speaker
I'll post it on my story, I guess. ah Yeah. yeah So there that there's there's how you can fix that. how You use OBS. How is learning OBS?
01:38:52
Speaker
Learning OBS was actually pretty fun. i think making the overlays and like that kind of stuff was relatively easy because I just bought a pack from Nerd or Die.
01:39:03
Speaker
You know what I mean? And so figuring out those were relatively easy. It's just sometimes I'm dumb and I forget to turn my microphone on. Oh, yeah. you Yeah. I mean, your you your pixel on YouTube video is evidence of that.
01:39:19
Speaker
Yep. And my last stream stream for that. It's it's like a running joke at this point. It's kind of just like my aunt usually tunes in. ah She's great, by the way. Like she also streams and she's like, hey, hey, honey, I can't hear you. And I'm like, oh, fuck. Not again.
01:39:37
Speaker
Oh, that's funny. I mean, that's it's a funny thing to have, at least. At least it's like an ongoing bit at this point. You might as well just keep rolling with it. Seriously, I'll just start mouthing things. And it's like, OK, guess what I was trying to say at this point.
01:39:49
Speaker
Yeah. So how how has ah streaming changed gaming as a hobby for you? Honestly, sometimes when I play games recreationally, I'm like, should I be streaming this?
01:40:01
Speaker
Should I make this into content? You know what i mean? There's always kind of like that voice in the back of my head that's kind of just like, this could be something. You know what mean? i'm not sure if it's the same for you.
01:40:14
Speaker
but You see, for me, it's not because well, mostly because I even though I brand myself as like a variety streamer, my variety is primarily RPGs, a couple of VNs and the odd indie.
01:40:27
Speaker
So it's like I know what my brand is and I know what I want to stream. And see, yeah, that's what I'm trying to still figure out. I don't really know what my brand is. Know what I mean?
Content Creation Fears & Media Training
01:40:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair. Are you giving much thought to what you want to make your brand at all? Like... Or has your brain just been fried from every time you try to think that it's just not worth thinking at the moment?
01:40:52
Speaker
Well, I feel like I like playing puzzle games um and streaming them. But I also am a little nervous about that, too, because it's like, wow, what if people see that I'm actually secretly very fucking stupid? You what I mean? Like...
01:41:08
Speaker
that's just That's how you clip farm though. That's true. You clip farm being stupid and it gets you the millions of views that you hope translate over to them coming over to the Twitch.
01:41:22
Speaker
that's so That's true. You're so right. Being an idiot on the internet, sure, it's a little embarrassing, but fuck, you got like as a content creator, using it to your advantage isn't the worst thing at times.
01:41:37
Speaker
Like as long as you're okay with the embarrassment level that it is, make content out of it. That's true. That's true. And I think, yeah, maybe it's like, I don't know, as a new content creator, it's like also the fear of being like what you're being perceived as, as well.
01:41:56
Speaker
You know what i mean? Like, yeah don't know. Maybe it's, it's something that, you know, you get over it in time, that kind of thing. I mean, yeah, like, I don't care how people see me. Like, fuck.
01:42:10
Speaker
yeah If you're rude to me, i've like you get banned. Like, it's just, it's not hard. Like, I'm the one in control of everything. So, uh... True.
01:42:21
Speaker
It's not... also just have a very i don't give a fuck mentality when it comes to that shit. I was bullied, like, for, like, nine years of my fucking life.
01:42:32
Speaker
I can handle a lot of things. Damn. And that's extremely admirable. admirable Yeah.
01:42:44
Speaker
I think I got thick skin and an even thicker gut. Tony, what the? Bro. Look, I like food, okay? Is that a crime?
01:42:57
Speaker
no food is good. I just wasn't expecting you to bring it up now. What the hell? it was And for those, look, I work out, guys. Don't worry. I'm i'm healthy.
01:43:08
Speaker
I am. for At least my doctors that haven't said anything that I'm not. So, like, I'm fine. Okay? Okay. We're cool. I don't think you're as as big as people. Yeah, no. like no like like Like, legit, like, it's more of like, it's more it's it's it's because of how much I used to fucking drink.
01:43:26
Speaker
That's really what it is. ah more of a be I see it more of like it's a beer gut. Like if I got it down to normal, I just have a stocky build. Like you could probably say, oh, you could probably ask me, oh, did you play on a football team because of my build?
01:43:38
Speaker
No, I'm just built different. Hear that everybody. He do be built different. Autism. Yeah. Yeah. autism yeah yeah know i just I just have that like stock built.
01:43:54
Speaker
Like that's really all it is. like Like you could like like legit like even with how I look down like yeah like I could probably pass off as like a like I could have played football in high school or something like that.
01:44:08
Speaker
Yeah. And not to mention you're like pretty decently tall too, i would say. yeah I mean, I'm the, I mean, I'm decently tall, but like I'm the third, I'm actually the second smallest in my main family.
01:44:22
Speaker
I'm taller than my mom. ah That's it. That's it. that's That's okay, man. If you ever feel short, just just call me over. Don't feel short, though! Good!
01:44:35
Speaker
Good, because you shouldn't. Like, I'm not a short guy. Like, I'm 5'10"? That's pretty tall. thats That's pretty fucking tall. It's 5'9 or 5'10". I'm one of the two.
01:44:47
Speaker
I never remember. I think I'm 5'10 with shoes. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. ah Yeah, that's tall. it's It's tall, but, but you know, by you look at me and you look at the Poggerator beside me, the dude's a fucking towering six feet.
01:45:03
Speaker
The Poggerator's six feet? Holy shit. Yeah, he's over six. He's all a whole foot long taller than me. That's um that's why Wow.
01:45:15
Speaker
Okay. and Yeah. Anyway, so I have a question for you. When we went to radio together, we learned a lot of things about like media and that kind of thing, building your brand and stuff. like How much of what we learned in our program has helped you with like building your brand as Tony's Game Lounge?
01:45:34
Speaker
Aside from the don't post anything stupid, nothing. butlin and now But here's the thing. Here's the thing. I say that though, because I have two years of media experience over you already.
01:45:48
Speaker
That's true. Cause I went to a general media program originally with the trash man and wiggles. And, uh, we, the focus on that was, yeah, well there was radio and film and all that.
01:46:03
Speaker
The main focus was promotions and social media.
01:46:09
Speaker
so I had known all of that stuff already we even had like a whole crisis management for your brand type thing um that you that we do in collaboration with the EMT students and the the EMT students the criminal justice students and I think there was something else there's a whole like crisis scenario they hire actors and everything oh shit Yeah.
01:46:39
Speaker
That is much different than our social media class. Yeah. Like ours is really just the basics because again, they're looking at like, if you're up, become a personality for radio, that's the difference that was really made. Cause obviously as a radio personality, you only really need to know the basics of like, don't say stupid shit.
01:46:59
Speaker
post often be nice handle trolls elegantly yeah that's it yeah that's all you need to know as a radio personality it's and then the rest you learn on your own h
01:47:19
Speaker
that's true that's true it is Now, should content creators be the same way? They absolutely should, because half them out there don't have a fucking brain.
01:47:30
Speaker
ah But, you know, yeah that's that's just, I think that's also the younger generation, because as the years go on, the content creators get younger and younger.
01:47:41
Speaker
They really do. And it's a little terrifying because not only are they on the internet, but like also older people and people who may have nefarious, ah you know, plans, whatever. They're not the purest of heart, you know? but Yeah, but all of those guys are on Roblox, so it's like... Okay. yeah the So if you're a teen Roblox player out there, be fucking careful, okay?
01:48:13
Speaker
Yeah, be careful. um Last question before we move on to the bonus level. What has been your favorite type of content to stream and flash make? um Oh, um...
01:48:26
Speaker
Like, what's what was been what's been your highlight so far in your streaming career? What would you say it was?
01:48:32
Speaker
Honestly, ah i like playing games that are a little absurd. Because those ones yield the best reactions. That kind of thing.
01:48:45
Speaker
Or games that you're playing with other people. So, like, whenever we play Peak, that is my peak. I think it was really fun. Or maybe when I was playing Chain Together with my best friend.
01:48:58
Speaker
um Stuff like that. Just, like, playing games with other people. Because it's just... I don't know, it builds that kind of like, oh, you're watching Achievement Hunter or whatever. Like there's a bunch of personalities. And i I don't know if I've ever really said it on the podcast. Like the big goal, like my end goal with where I want to take Tony's Game Lounge and the Game Lounge crew, I want us to be, because obviously Achievement Hunter is no more, I want us to bring back that like Achievement Hunter vibe.
01:49:28
Speaker
Like that is what I want. like obviously with obviously without the the problems that the company had uh-huh I think if our ah if you if the game launch was able to like replace Achievement Hunter and be also kind of its own thing I think that would be super super cool and like basically because basically you can you can never recreate something one-to-one you but if you're able to take the framework of it and then twist it to your own that's what I would like to do hell yeah
01:50:09
Speaker
Hell yeah. Well, with that, it's time for us to now head on into the end of this podcast and jump into the bonus level.
01:50:20
Speaker
Crazy lists, great deals, and recapping gaming history. It's all here in the bonus level. And to kick it off, we got Game Clash. This is our new segment this season as part of the bonus level where our guest, Gina, you get to, I'm going to give you eight, ah eight things within a topic and you're going to decide the grand winner of this little bracket.
01:50:43
Speaker
Are you ready? So ready. All right. So our theme this week, we know that you're a big Jackbox Party Pack fan. Hell yeah. So I've got eight Jackbox games in the bracket, and you're going to decide the winner. Are you ready?
01:50:58
Speaker
So ready. Let's do All right. ah Round one, Faking It versus Patently Stupid. Ooh. Okay. I'm going to say faking it um just because lying to your friends can be really funny. And if you're poor at lying like I am, it makes for some very funny moments.
01:51:18
Speaker
ah but All right. ah Round two, quiplash versus earwax. Quiplash, 100%. Round three, wheel of enormous proportions ah versus fibbage.
01:51:31
Speaker
Hmm.
01:51:34
Speaker
I would say Fivage. Wow. That one would agree with you there.
01:51:44
Speaker
Raj4, Trivia Murder Party versus Drawful. sh Trivia Murder Party. All right. We move on to the semifinals. Faking it versus Quiplash. Ooh. Okay. Yeah.
01:51:57
Speaker
Quiplash. Yeah. For that one. Vibbage and that viage versus Trivia Murder Party. Trivia Murder Party. All right.
01:52:07
Speaker
Final round. What wins? Quiplash or Trivia Murder Party?
01:52:14
Speaker
Trivia Murder Party. It is one of my favorite games. And the murder is just so baby girl. I don't know what to say. It's just like, hey girl. And then it's like this like really deep like, hey girl.
01:52:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, no, definitely. Are you excited that the third Trivia Murder Party is going to standalone game? Very, very excited. But I'm also kind of like, I wish it was in the pack so I don't to buy it separately.
01:52:42
Speaker
I mean, yes, but like, it'll probably be like 10 bucks. Okay. Yeah. If it's reasonably priced. Yes. If it's not, then I'm coming for your bald fucking head, dude.
01:52:55
Speaker
Mr. Jackbox Cookie Masterson motherfucker. I'm coming for you. You don't know Jack. No, you don't know Gina and what she'll do to you. Exactly. It's scary.
01:53:06
Speaker
um Moving on to this week in gaming history.
Gaming History & Anniversaries
01:53:09
Speaker
Here's some stuff that happened in the past from September 8th through 21st. Starting with the major events on the 8th in 2005, Microsoft announces prices for its Xbox Live online service for the upcoming Xbox 360 system.
01:53:23
Speaker
Gold membership will cost $50 per year, $8 month, or $20 for months. And silver memberships will be free to all 360 owners. Those paying for at least three months will also receive a free 360 headset and points to spend the Xbox Live marketplace.
01:53:39
Speaker
Oh, those prices. Oh, those prices. So nostalgic. On the 13th of 1999 in Japan, Sony announced the official name of the ex successor to the PlayStation is the PlayStation 2.
01:53:52
Speaker
The system will be released first in Japan on March 4th, priced at 39,800 yen, about guys just seventy the us dollars It will include a DualShock 2 analog controller, an 8 megabyte memory card, 24x CD-ROM, 4x DVD-ROM drive.
01:54:09
Speaker
Future plans for the system include website browsing, new game downloads to a hard drive, downloads of music and films, and interactive online versions of TV game shows. Some of those were exclusively stayed in Japan.
01:54:23
Speaker
yeah For those of you who don't know what ROM is, it means read-only memory. Yes. Fun fact of the day. Wow. On the 21st in 2020, Microsoft agrees to buy the video video game holding company ZeniMax Media, ah the parent company of Bethesda, or the owners of Bethesda and their following subsidiaries, for $7.5 billion u s dollars in what was the biggest and most expensive takeover in the history of video game industry.
01:54:57
Speaker
Microsoft would then break their record when purchasing and acquiring Activision Blizzard. Oh my God. Do you know how much that one was?
01:55:09
Speaker
ah Okay. So if this one's 7.5 billion, then I'm guessing maybe like 14 billion. ah Close. 20 billion. oh shit. Yeah. Yeah.
01:55:21
Speaker
Holy fuck. and then And then, you know, a lot of people tried to stop it, but it went through in the end. ah In the world of game birthdays, here's what's going to make you feel old this week.
01:55:32
Speaker
On the 8th, Final Fantasy VIII turns 26. On the 9th, Rayman turns 30. thirty Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen turn 21. And Destiny 1 turns 11.
01:55:42
Speaker
On the 10th, Spiral the Dragon turns 27. On the 11th, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 turns 13. On the 14th, The Original Fable turns 21, and Rock Band 2 turns 17.
01:55:56
Speaker
On the 16th, Star Wars The Force Unleashed turns 17, and on the 18th, Borderlands 2 turns 13 years sir years old Wow.
01:56:07
Speaker
Happy birthday of Rock Band 2, my beloved. Honestly, true, though. Rock Band 2 was my favorite rock band. Yo, same. Okay, wait, wait, wait. What instrument did you, like, main and also...
01:56:21
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Damn, that was fast. load it I was goaded at the drums. Let's go. And which song was your favorite to play? ah Oh, God.
01:56:32
Speaker
um It's probably a toss-up between That's What You Get by Paramore and... Oh, fuck. What was the Linkin Park song in two? oh gosh. It was... Oh, God. What was it called? It wasn't one step close. Or was it one step closer?
01:56:48
Speaker
It was one closer. One step closer was in the second one. Yeah, there wasn't anything in the first one. That's why I'm mistaking that. Yeah, it was probably that or One Step Closer. Dude. A man of taste.
01:56:59
Speaker
A man of taste. I swear. Singing That's What You Get by Paramore taught me the foundations of singing. ha ha ha! Nice.
01:57:10
Speaker
ah Moving on to the Tony's game poll. This is our seasonal poll that we have each season. Different question. Gina, what franchise deserves a new game in 2025 slash 2026 that has not been announced yet?
01:57:27
Speaker
rock Rock band.
01:57:30
Speaker
You know what? Valid. um Because there's talks allegedly that because harm, not harmonics, but ah the group that you made, like the original guitar hero are being revived and they're working on something.
01:57:48
Speaker
It's been a while since we had a super, super great rhythm game. But like, it's not purely rhythm, but it's like you play instruments.
01:57:58
Speaker
You I mean? Yeah. I mean, all we really have now is clone hero. Yeah, but then like, you know, if you mix ACDC with, wait a minute, who are you? Like, you know what I mean? and It's the range is kind of muddied, you know?
01:58:16
Speaker
Yeah, no, fair. Very fair, but that a very solid choice.
Game Deals & Recommendations
01:58:21
Speaker
ah Your deals of the week, ah your Epic free games ah this week until the 11th. Monument Valley is free on Epic Games.
01:58:29
Speaker
Would highly recommend picking that up. It's a really cool puzzle game. Very simple. Very, very good. And then from the 11th to the 18th, Monument Valley 2 will be free on Epic along with Ghostrunner 2 and the Battle of Polytopia.
01:58:48
Speaker
As for some other sales on Steam, the Focus Publisher sale is on until the 15th. And Outer Worlds is 75% off until the 15th as well. ah For PlayStation Plus, your PlayStation Plus games for September have been announced. It's Psychonauts 2, Stardew Valley, and Viewfinder.
01:59:06
Speaker
All three pretty great games. Your achievement of the week is in Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater Time Paradox, which is to create the Ocelot Time Paradox.
01:59:16
Speaker
Which, if you kill Ocelot, that's how you get the achievement because it it creates a paradox. Because Ocelot's alive in the later games. In the earlier games. He's alive in Belgier Solid 1 and 2.
01:59:30
Speaker
um So when you see him in 3 and you kill him, it creates a time paradox. Because it takes place before those games. Oh, cool. And your game of the week is going to Borderlands 4. And Gina, if there is a game old or new that you would recommend to the audience to play, what game would that be? um I would say... hold on, sorry.
01:59:53
Speaker
I had something here. i would say, thank goodness you're here, would be my choice. It is weird. It is fun. And don't play it in front of your parents.
02:00:07
Speaker
ah yeah ah yeah
02:00:12
Speaker
yeah that valid is a great game a lot of british humor uh very fun very funny very funny well uh that it does we have minutes to the end of another episode woohoo uh gina thank you for coming on thank you so much for having me this was really fun where can we find you on the internet You can follow me on Instagram, YouTube, or Twitch, primarily Twitch, because that's where I'm the most active. But it is those platforms slash my name is Tonic on all platforms.
02:00:52
Speaker
And of course, you can find me at Tony's Game Lounge everywhere. Twitter, Blue Sky, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube. and Be sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel as we upload highlights of this podcast every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
02:01:05
Speaker
And be sure to tune in to the Twitch streams. I'm off for like two weeks. So like we're streaming a little bit more. We're playing Dredge. We're gonna play a lost soon. And of course, come October, we're playing Digimon Time Stranger.
02:01:18
Speaker
Let's go check those out as well. ah Gina, thank you once again for coming back on. Thank you again for having me. And thank you, the audience, for listening in.
02:01:30
Speaker
um Be sure to like, share, and follow this podcast on whatever streaming platform you're listening to this on. We will be back in two weeks' time with another guest right back here in the Game Lounge.
02:01:43
Speaker
Bye! Bye! i e Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Tony's Game Lounge. New episodes release every two weeks. Make sure to follow, like, and share the podcast on your streaming service and follow us on Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and X.