The 3DO Experience - Episode 29: Crystal Dynamics: From Gecko's To Vampires To Raiding Tombs!

[00:00:00] Have you experienced the awesome power of the Panasonic Reel 3DO system?

[00:00:05] Obviously.

[00:00:06] Presenting 3DO.

[00:00:09] The most advanced home gaming system in the universe.

[00:00:13] It's time to put away your toys.

[00:00:18] 3DO, Panasonic Gold Star and Creative Labs.

[00:00:21] Anu-low price and 3-tyres.

[00:00:23] All in graphics of Panasonic Panasonic video 3DO.

[00:00:26] 3DO.

[00:00:37] Hello everybody and welcome back to the 3DO Experience, the 3DO retrospective podcast where we talk about the 3DO company, the console and everything in between. I am Bill and this is Thrac. How you doing Thrac?

[00:00:47] Oh, I'm all right. It's been kind of a day, but I'm hanging in there. How are you? I'm

[00:00:54] doing all right. We're like super busy at work right now. So I'm like doing like these

[00:00:59] like rush jobs, but like I'm also like multitasking on like three other things that wants so That's your life as a podcaster, isn't it?

[00:01:08] Kinda. Yeah, in a sense, but uh, other than that, it's been alright. Just good

[00:01:14] Getting through the week weather's finally warming up around here

[00:01:19] It's been warm for us for a while now, So and I, I don't like it.

[00:01:26] So New England is weird. Like, I woke up yesterday, it was like 60.

[00:01:30] And then this morning it was like 20. So I don't know.

[00:01:35] Yeah, it's weird. That's weird. I've been messing with emulation

[00:01:41] last couple days, particularly Sega Genesis simulation, because for summary, I've been watching so much of

[00:01:49] like Jeff Gertzmann ranking the NES games, I thought, wouldn't it be

[00:01:53] interesting if I totally stole that idea, but used it for the

[00:01:56] Sega Genesis instead, right? I don't think he'd care. So I've been,

[00:02:01] I've been thinking about doing that. If the viewers are interested in that, let me know.

[00:02:06] Cause I, I am set up to like Twitch stream.

[00:02:09] I've done it before, but it's been a while, um, and I was trying to find like,

[00:02:13] you know, gain the emulation, right?

[00:02:15] And I was, most people use retro arch, but I've been having so many issues with it.

[00:02:20] Like it's just a pain in the ass, particularly when it comes to this guy,

[00:02:25] Like it's just a pain in the ass, particularly when it comes to this guy, the the 8-bit doh M30, which is like a like a Saturn style like six button controller and it's a great controller.

[00:02:32] But for some reason, it doesn't sync to retroarch very well, but I learned a different

[00:02:39] multi system emulator called Bizhawk. I've been using that and it is so much better. It doesn't

[00:02:46] look as nice. It doesn't have a clean UI, but it's so much easier to use and just runs

[00:02:53] perfectly. I don't have to fiddle with all these. Using RetroArch feels like it's using

[00:02:59] the PS3, which is when you're trying to figure out some weird setting issue, you have to like go online to figure it out. To be like, where is there is anything on here? Whereas like this

[00:03:09] just like go settings like two things and I'm there, you know. So the only thing is I don't have

[00:03:15] all the game cover arts, boo-hoo, but you know, it runs really well and it supports retro

[00:03:20] achievements, which I've been kind of into right now, retro achievements there.

[00:03:27] It they're pretty fun to sort of play those old games and that's kind of style, you know, and it's easier to get those achievements for those games because usually smaller.

[00:03:38] Though I was playing Shinobi three and I was clearing round one, no problem, but it wasn't giving me the achievement.

[00:03:45] And I was clearing round one, no problem, but it wasn't giving me the achievement. And the only thing I could think is I was maybe using the unlimited Shuriken code, and

[00:03:51] maybe it doesn't like that I use that.

[00:03:53] It's possible.

[00:03:54] Yeah.

[00:03:55] For those of you who don't know, in Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi 3, if you go into

[00:04:01] the menu, turn the Shuriken counter to zero and then go into the sound effects till you hear the sound effect of him throwing the shuriken,

[00:04:08] like play it and then hover over the zero and it'll turn to an infinity symbol.

[00:04:12] And then you're good for the rest of the game.

[00:04:14] So I don't know. I even was cool with retro achievements. You can put like comments on the achievements being like, how do I get this or whatever.

[00:04:22] And so in that I put, is the unlimited preventing it?

[00:04:26] Because if it is, I'll turn it off and do it, but yeah.

[00:04:30] But if you guys want me to stream, I don't know,

[00:04:33] Bookerman or Jurassic Park or whatever on The Genesis,

[00:04:37] let me know.

[00:04:38] Because I think it would be fun to do.

[00:04:42] Yeah, I remember The Genesis, even like back in like the early emulator days.

[00:04:47] Always had like the most like competent emulators, I think.

[00:04:51] Yeah, it's from what I've gathered.

[00:04:54] It's pretty easy to emulate and Sega doesn't care.

[00:04:57] Like I still have it's out of date, but I still have a cake of fusion on my computer.

[00:05:01] I booted up every now.

[00:05:03] Oh, yeah.

[00:05:04] Yeah, cake of fusion is pretty nice. But yeah, like, I just, I don't think

[00:05:07] Sega really cares when it says the emulation. They're just like,

[00:05:11] yeah, sure. Sega only doesn't like when you mess with modern stuff

[00:05:15] because it's brand new, like, but like, that's fair. Oh, shit,

[00:05:18] they don't care. Yeah, that's fair. It's kind of topical with the

[00:05:23] whole yuzu thing right now.

[00:05:25] I think the only time that Sega ever cared was that when they killed that Streets of Rage remake.

[00:05:32] But I think that's because they were doing Streets of Rage 4 at the time.

[00:05:37] I don't remember that.

[00:05:39] There was like a Streets of Rage 2 remake I want to say that they were making and I remember it

[00:05:44] was like one of the few times Sega went and like killed something.

[00:05:49] But I remember because like Streets of Rage 4 getting out slightly after I believe or

[00:05:52] like a year later so it makes me wonder if that's why.

[00:05:56] It's possible.

[00:05:58] So who knows.

[00:05:59] But yeah the whole Nintendo yuzu thing like did Nintendo go after Yuzu because Yuzu had

[00:06:06] like a Patreon, so they were getting money from people?

[00:06:11] That's my guess.

[00:06:12] It's really hard to tell with Nintendo sometimes because they really do just tend to roll off

[00:06:18] seats for like crazy sometimes.

[00:06:20] But if you notice, they don't go after emulators all willy nilly, like like emulators specifically.

[00:06:26] They don't like they've never well, they only went after dolphin for like the because dolphin

[00:06:32] wanted to go on steam.

[00:06:34] Yeah.

[00:06:34] And then steam's like, oh, we have to check with Nintendo and Nintendo said, you know, if you do

[00:06:38] that problem, so they didn't do it.

[00:06:41] And then Nintendo, I guess, had somebody go through their code

[00:06:45] and found like the whole weeky thing.

[00:06:48] But I think that got resolved, I don't know.

[00:06:52] As far as I know, Dolphin still exists as it is,

[00:06:55] but like all the other notable Nintendo emulators

[00:06:59] kind of still exists.

[00:07:01] Like Nintendo doesn't go after them.

[00:07:02] They typically go after the ROM sites,

[00:07:04] which is the more like legally illegal part. Like an emulator isn't illegal in and of itself.

[00:07:09] Now they're not a blame group that like years ago.

[00:07:12] Yeah, and Nintendo doesn't want to open that case again.

[00:07:15] Yeah.

[00:07:16] So and then you see like people on Twitter just being really annoying about it.

[00:07:23] People who like are prone Nintendo like like deep-froding that boot,

[00:07:28] and then people on the other side who are just like,

[00:07:32] oh, I always pirate Nintendo always,

[00:07:35] because it's always the right thing to do or whatever,

[00:07:37] and they're just as annoying about it.

[00:07:39] Yeah, it's like both sides of the extreme.

[00:07:42] Yeah, it's dumb.

[00:07:44] I don't give a shit what you do, but

[00:07:47] But I can understand why a company would go after

[00:07:51] Something like this when it comes to it's more modern stuff that they are still trying to sell you

[00:07:56] But with but when Nintendo went after what was it Citra 3ds emulator that that felt petty just because they

[00:08:03] Yeah, they were doing that as

[00:08:05] well. And we're like, Oh, we'll do that as well. You know, see, what I found interesting

[00:08:11] about the whole thing was like I was thinking back to like the Connect X emulator from like

[00:08:16] decades ago. And I remember because that one was famously like sold on store shelves and

[00:08:22] like there was going to be like an Apple Steve Jobs famously like promoted it at one of the trade shows.

[00:08:28] And the only way Sony got rid of it was ironically they bought the company

[00:08:32] and just continued discontinued it.

[00:08:35] Oh, that's interesting.

[00:08:36] Like they couldn't legally they lost every lawsuit because like basically the

[00:08:40] courts were like they didn't illegally steal any of your data.

[00:08:44] They legit made it from scratch and it's perfectly legal.

[00:08:48] Um, as long, the, the reason Sony was mad is because people were finding ways to

[00:08:53] burn discs and a do stuff, which could get around actually buying the games and

[00:08:58] such.

[00:08:59] Oh yeah.

[00:09:00] Yeah.

[00:09:00] It should be fair in their situation.

[00:09:03] I would understand why they would care.

[00:09:05] Yeah. Yeah. It should be fair in their situation. I would understand why they would care. Yeah. I just find it really funny that Sony's like solution to like this like problem they

[00:09:10] couldn't get rid of what's they just bought it and discontinued it. If you can't beat

[00:09:15] them, beat them by them, right? There's a lot of theories that that's how PlayStation

[00:09:21] one emulation has been possible on all these consoles for years, as they've been just using the Connectix software.

[00:09:27] It made it would make sense.

[00:09:29] If only Sony actually used that PlayStation one emulator emulation on their own

[00:09:35] little service.

[00:09:36] Yeah, I'm surprised they, I'm surprised they didn't keep that with four and five

[00:09:40] considering it's so easy to emulate.

[00:09:42] Just one.

[00:09:43] Yeah.

[00:09:43] And when like it's in the what?

[00:09:46] P s plus premium tier, you can have like PS one games, but like aren't the pickings very scarce.

[00:09:53] Yeah.

[00:09:53] I haven't looked at the list or anything, but I imagine it's not great because people are saying, oh, the NSO offerings are better.

[00:10:02] Yeah, I haven't.

[00:10:03] I mean, I have Sony physical PS one games.

[00:10:06] It's not even some I bother with, but yeah.

[00:10:09] Um, yeah, it's not great.

[00:10:11] I know Bleeam on the other hand was more of a case of like.

[00:10:15] Bleeam's whole gimmick was that they were, um, not only were they

[00:10:19] emulating the PlayStation games, but they were making them look better.

[00:10:23] Ah, via software acceleration and, um, they were making them look better via software acceleration.

[00:10:26] And they were also releasing them on a dreamcast, which Sony was not amused by.

[00:10:34] That's fair.

[00:10:35] That's fair.

[00:10:36] But blame one all their lawsuits.

[00:10:38] The only irony, the sad irony is they may have won, but Sony just kept suing them until

[00:10:44] they went bankrupt.

[00:10:45] I guess it worked. Yeah, I found a list of them. We won't go through all of them, but

[00:10:52] it's it's not it's not great. There's one AP escape game. I'll give that a two. I'm guessing just a escape. Oh, original.

[00:11:05] Oh, the first one.

[00:11:06] Yeah, that's not a bad game.

[00:11:07] Apiscape two is on the PS two one.

[00:11:10] Yep.

[00:11:11] No three.

[00:11:12] No, not the best in the series, but nope.

[00:11:18] So oh, they have were the monsters on there.

[00:11:20] That's great.

[00:11:21] That's an awesome game.

[00:11:22] Yeah, I mean, I'm glad they're doing something, but I mean, like most things,

[00:11:29] Sony does, it's kind of been half-ast lately.

[00:11:32] Yeah.

[00:11:33] Yeah.

[00:11:34] Do you think they're getting into that like PS3 mindset again, or they don't have to try as hard?

[00:11:39] You think?

[00:11:42] It's really hard to say.

[00:11:44] I honestly have no clue what any of the big

[00:11:47] three are really doing right now. Well, Nintendo is just doing what they always do. Really.

[00:11:54] I think we're all just kind of waiting for when they decide to tell us about the next

[00:11:59] switch or, you know, the next console, which I imagine will be soon.

[00:12:07] But my guess is within

[00:12:12] either this month, like we'll probably hear about it before June, I think,

[00:12:14] especially if it got delayed the next year.

[00:12:19] I think we'll hear about it within three months, I'd say.

[00:12:23] Xboxes, you know, just doing what they do.

[00:12:24] You know, I like. I mean, they have first party games on, on, you know, coming up

[00:12:30] post the, you know, Sony.

[00:12:31] So, you know, but we'll see, but, but it's okay.

[00:12:34] Cause when PS, when PlayStation doesn't have any first party games, articles

[00:12:37] come out saying that's a good thing.

[00:12:39] That's fine.

[00:12:40] That's okay.

[00:12:42] But then if Xbox did it, everyone'd be like be like oh they're dying and they should just quit

[00:12:45] You know like they just it doesn't click man, you know yeah, I mean

[00:12:51] Gaming journalists are hacks anyway, it's for the most part. Oh, yeah. There's a couple. There's a couple. I like but you know

[00:12:58] I mean there's it no, it's like the real media. There's always there's the few that are really good and the rest are kind of

[00:13:03] it now. It's like the real media. There's always there's the few that are really good and the rest are kind of shitty but. Exactly. Yeah. As long as you're out there, as long

[00:13:09] as you're out there playing playing your classics, you're doing all right. Yeah. It's

[00:13:17] coming everybody. You know, the funniest thing I shared. So I got the physical copy of lovers don't wear ties for switch. I shared it on Reddit.

[00:13:28] My God, the comments were so brain dead. It wasn't even funny.

[00:13:32] What do they say? They were like, Oh, like, they made it an

[00:13:35] anime question mark because I had the anime cover out.

[00:13:39] What better? Which which Reddit did you post this in the

[00:13:43] three D O red? All things. I'm sure I'm sure if I go in there, do they know

[00:13:50] about our podcast? No, you should put it in there because I

[00:13:56] was weird people. I was tempted to but they seem like the

[00:13:59] kind of people that like would get mad for self-promotions. I just happened. Yeah.

[00:14:05] When we do the Plumbers Don't Wear Ties episode, just post it in there. See what happens.

[00:14:12] See what happens. Yeah.

[00:14:14] I was more shocked by the...

[00:14:16] I found the post, so.

[00:14:17] Yeah. Just some of the comments from like, guys, like it's not that serious.

[00:14:22] Yeah. It is what it is. Guys like it's not that serious

[00:14:27] It is what it is

[00:14:30] Also because I spelled um

[00:14:32] I Miss grammar and put copies with a Y instead of IES and I got like five redditors going copies

[00:14:40] The IES and I'm just like go away you frickin losers. One cares that much.

[00:14:46] It's fun.

[00:14:49] Yeah, but yeah, that's coming guys.

[00:14:52] I have things to say.

[00:14:55] So I mean, I do too.

[00:14:57] I actually already have things to say, but I'm not saying them just yet.

[00:15:01] But let's see.

[00:15:03] It has because I promised I would do it. My controller

[00:15:08] was turned off. It has 21 achievements. Oh, and I will be getting all of them. They all

[00:15:16] seem very easy to get. Like most of them are just like, Oh, unlock blah blah blah. Like

[00:15:22] unlock a behind the scenes photo and then there's like one

[00:15:25] related to the plum the depths side game which I haven't played yet and then

[00:15:30] there's one that says encourage the feline to make it signature sound and

[00:15:35] it's make the cat bark and I don't know what that means yet. We'll find out. We'll

[00:15:41] find out. I will let you all know. Yeah.

[00:15:50] Other than that, though, for this episode, we're actually going to not be talking about a game or

[00:15:57] the 3DO itself kind of it might get mentioned here or there. But we're actually going to be talking about a developer who was very prolific on the 3DO and that is Crystal Dynamics.

[00:16:03] prolific on the 3DO and that is crystal dynamics.

[00:16:10] But a good studio, I would say, at least one of the most iconic in the later in like the more recent times.

[00:16:12] They've become more notable for their adoption of the the Tomb Raider series.

[00:16:19] And really being the reason that series still exists, you know, in fact, I've heard some people say

[00:16:26] when Crystal took over, that's when the series

[00:16:27] actually became good, as far as like gameplay is concerned.

[00:16:32] Cause they started, I think with Tomb Raider Legend.

[00:16:35] Is that right?

[00:16:35] Is that the starting point?

[00:16:36] Yeah.

[00:16:37] And people say that game holds up, so.

[00:16:39] Legend I still think is like one of the better games

[00:16:44] of that style pre like.

[00:16:47] Re second reboot, I'd say.

[00:16:49] Yeah, cause I've, I've now played through the entire reboot trilogy and I

[00:16:54] thought all three of them were really, really good.

[00:16:56] Um, like, I think they all had something about them to make them stand out from

[00:17:01] the other, but I think overall it was a really solid collection

[00:17:05] of action games that had a modern,

[00:17:08] that took Tomb Raider and put a modern spin on it,

[00:17:11] but it still was Tomb Raider.

[00:17:13] People often compare him to say to Uncharted,

[00:17:15] but I feel like they're different enough.

[00:17:17] From Uncharted.

[00:17:18] Yeah, I think, I think Tomb Raider,

[00:17:20] so I've played both series.

[00:17:21] I haven't played the final Tomb Raider yet.

[00:17:23] I've only played the first two.

[00:17:25] I'll get to it eventually.

[00:17:26] But the way I've looked at it is the major difference

[00:17:30] I find between Tomb Raider and Uncharted

[00:17:32] is I think Uncharted has better storytelling.

[00:17:36] I think Tomb Raider has a better game-blade direction.

[00:17:40] Yes.

[00:17:42] Which is really interesting to me

[00:17:43] because the lead writer for the first three on charted

[00:17:47] was a former Crystal Dynamics employee. So they work on legacy.

[00:17:55] And Amy Hennig. Yeah, she was the lead writer for legacy. Yeah. Yeah. She worked on the Tomb Raider

[00:18:01] reboots. Not the Tomb Raider reboot. She had left.

[00:18:06] I think she left shortly before they started working on Tomb Raider games

[00:18:10] because she moved over to Naughty Dog and started doing a.

[00:18:12] Oh, that's right. That's right.

[00:18:14] I charted.

[00:18:14] Yeah. And now she has her own studio, I think.

[00:18:18] Yeah, because she got like shuffled around a bit because she left

[00:18:21] Naughty Dog during the production of four

[00:18:24] to work on that Star Wars game right before Disney pulled the plugins on LucasArts.

[00:18:31] Yeah.

[00:18:32] And then she kind of was all over the place for a bit there.

[00:18:36] Yeah, looking she.

[00:18:38] Yeah, she was the creative director and writer of the first three unchartids.

[00:18:42] She helped out on Golden Abyss.

[00:18:44] She's credited as a writer

[00:18:45] on Battlefield hard line of all games. And she also did the story concept for for spoken.

[00:18:54] Oh, yeah, for her. Good for her. Oh boy. Story concept like what does that mean? Can

[00:19:02] mean anything? Oh, yeah, I forgot she was a designer

[00:19:06] and artist on the classic Michael Jordan chaos and the windy city for the Super Nintendo.

[00:19:12] Hell yeah. If only if only that had a Sega Genesis version, I probably would have played it.

[00:19:17] Is it bad that I find that game to be slightly better than Shaq but not that much?

[00:19:24] Well, I actually have never played this game.

[00:19:26] Is it just like a 2D action platformer type game?

[00:19:29] Yeah, it's very it reminds me a lot of the home improvement game.

[00:19:33] So looking at screenshots.

[00:19:36] Yeah, like you could tell me it was the same dev dev and I believe it.

[00:19:41] Yeah, it's like one of those things like why did they make a game of this back in the

[00:19:45] day because they had Michael Jordan's likeness. Well, yeah, because Michael Jordan's one of

[00:19:50] the biggest names in the world. So well, in 1994, he was probably like, yeah, the most

[00:19:55] famous athlete at that time. So, true, makes sense. I mean, yeah, he's still a big name.

[00:20:02] Have you ever watched his Hall of Fame speech when he went to the NBA Hall of Fame?

[00:20:06] Yeah.

[00:20:07] He's an interesting guy, but it's surprisingly bitter.

[00:20:11] You know, you would think a guy who for a lot of people still considered the best to

[00:20:16] ever play the game.

[00:20:18] It's just he used that time to like air out a lot of grievances he had.

[00:20:22] And it just it came off kind of weird, you know, that's

[00:20:25] like, you're the biggest ever. But like, you know, you still have all these like petty

[00:20:30] things you've built up, you know, when it's like, this is your time to be like, fuck those,

[00:20:34] I did it. Here I am, you know, I don't know. I don't know. He's an interesting guy. Interesting

[00:20:41] guy. He rocked a Hitler stash. And one of his like, I forget,

[00:20:46] it was one of the many things he did commercials for. But there was a couple where he had like

[00:20:50] just this for the stash. And I was like, that's, that's an interesting choice.

[00:20:55] Yeah, he's probably one of the people, few people that could get away with it just because

[00:20:58] of how big he is. But yeah, I noticed that I was just like, that's weird, you know,

[00:21:03] it's interesting because he, he co owns an ask our team now. Oh, yeah, he does. Yeah.

[00:21:09] They 2311 with Mr. Dennis Hamlin. And apparently the story is they just kind of were like, you

[00:21:16] want to start an ask our team? And he said, fuck it. Why not? And they started an ask

[00:21:19] our team. Yeah, why not? Why? Pretty good. They've won like five races. That's good. That's good. I feel bad. I feel bad for my mom because Brad keselowski. He's

[00:21:31] he seems bad luck this year, or it's like there were two races where he was like doing

[00:21:37] really well, and then a crash happened and he was out. You know, yeah, play tracks. It happens. But yeah, so crystal dynamics, they've they've been

[00:21:50] around longer than I thought, honestly. They're they're about as old as we are. Yeah, they

[00:21:56] um, actually they're older, they're older than us. Yeah, 31 years ago, they founded in 1992. Interestingly, they were founded by Madeline.

[00:22:07] Canafa, Judy Long and Dave Morse.

[00:22:12] And interestingly enough, those three are actually former 3D

[00:22:16] open employees that spun off.

[00:22:18] So this company kind of comes from 3D.

[00:22:21] Oh, in a weird way.

[00:22:24] Is it like they're like how Activision is to Atari?

[00:22:29] Yeah, in a sense.

[00:22:31] So Dave Moore, in particular, he was the founder of Epics and he actually was the lead designer

[00:22:39] developer of the Atari Lynx.

[00:22:42] And then he later founded the studio that actually created the 3DO hardware.

[00:22:47] Interesting.

[00:22:48] Oh, go on.

[00:22:51] The Atari links, a interesting handheld.

[00:22:54] Surprisingly kind of underrated.

[00:22:56] It's a really good handheld.

[00:22:58] It just doesn't really have a lot of games for it.

[00:23:00] Well, it's massive, clunky, hard to use.

[00:23:04] Though if you go through its library,

[00:23:06] what it has, not bad. It's like it's pretty decent for what it is. It's probably the closest

[00:23:12] thing you would get to like a portable NES at the time.

[00:23:15] And I will say the links to is much more comfortable and convenient. Yeah. And a lot of games that

[00:23:23] were on the links were also, I believe,

[00:23:25] on the 7800. So there was quite a bit of crossover. Um, and I've, I've told that, uh, the version

[00:23:31] of California games on the links is probably like the best version of it. It's pretty good.

[00:23:37] And there's, oh, there's like a platformer on here that the 7800 version is garbage,

[00:23:43] like hot garbage, but the Atari links version is actually really, really good.

[00:23:47] Scrapyard dog looking at the lid.

[00:23:49] I'm gonna find that one I've been looking for.

[00:23:51] Yeah.

[00:23:52] Y'all might know the cover.

[00:23:53] It's the dude has a big nose for some reason.

[00:23:56] Yeah, the 7800 version, I hate it,

[00:23:59] but the Lynx version, pretty good.

[00:24:03] Interestingly enough too.

[00:24:05] So if I'm butchering these names I apologize but apparently a

[00:24:10] metal and Campina and a Judy Lang.

[00:24:13] They actually worked for Sega at one point and they were huge in

[00:24:17] the launch of Sonic the Hedgehog in America and they're often

[00:24:21] named like the mothers of Sonic.

[00:24:23] Like they were big into the whole localization

[00:24:25] and like his whole American debut.

[00:24:28] Oh yeah, were they the ones that fixed up them?

[00:24:32] They're making mouse them basically.

[00:24:35] Well, cause like wasn't it SEGA Japan saying like,

[00:24:37] oh he needs the band and the girlfriend and all that.

[00:24:40] And they were like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

[00:24:42] they don't need to double that.

[00:24:43] They also like were famous for like that Mickey Mouse looking design that he had in like the

[00:24:47] first three cover arts.

[00:24:48] Oh, because I believe they had sake of America artists redraw him to give him more of like

[00:24:54] an American look, which I also think was a good idea.

[00:24:57] Because yeah, it does soften him up a little bit, you know, and I think it gives him more

[00:25:02] Western appeal, you know, because the Japanese style wasn't really big over here yet, you know? And I think it gives him more Western appeal, you know, because the Japanese

[00:25:05] style wasn't really big over here yet, you know? But when you get to say sonic adventure,

[00:25:11] and they have that redesign that's much more like anime based, you know, it's used everywhere.

[00:25:17] Because by that point, it made more sense.

[00:25:19] Not totally. I just find it interesting like how these Crystal Dynamics,

[00:25:26] I didn't realize had quite the pedigree behind it when it was founded.

[00:25:30] Yeah.

[00:25:32] Initially, we're basically a first-party studio for the 3DO going initially.

[00:25:39] They had a couple big names like Mark Cerny was working for them for a little while.

[00:25:44] Good old Mark Cerny was working for them for a little while. Good old Mark Cerny.

[00:25:46] Yep.

[00:25:47] Name that's very well known in the industry these days.

[00:25:50] Oh, yeah.

[00:25:51] Another.

[00:25:52] Yeah.

[00:25:53] Yep.

[00:25:54] And the father of the PS4 and five.

[00:25:57] That's true.

[00:26:00] Terrible designs.

[00:26:01] Can I say that?

[00:26:02] I don't like how either console looks.

[00:26:03] I'm sorry, Mark.

[00:26:04] PS4 was fine to me. The five. Yeah. That's a little busy.

[00:26:08] I mean, the PS4 just looks like one of those pink erasers that you get spray painted black.

[00:26:13] And then the PS5 looks like that dude from you. Gio has like the big collar.

[00:26:19] Okay. I was kind of his jacket.

[00:26:21] Hi, but yeah, it looks like Kiva.

[00:26:22] See the four that the PS4 generation, I was used to say you had the the trapezoid

[00:26:28] eraser. You had the VCR and the Wii U looked like a fig Newton.

[00:26:34] So made by Fisher price.

[00:26:36] Yeah.

[00:26:38] Interesting time for consoles.

[00:26:40] Another big name that came from Crystal Dynamics Evan Wells.

[00:26:44] Nowadays, probably better known

[00:26:46] as the C the president of Naughty Dog.

[00:26:49] Yeah, how they're doing. How are they doing these days? I mean, their games are still

[00:26:55] selling massively. Yeah, I don't like them very much, but like, you know, the still I

[00:27:03] don't know whose idea it was to have them make a live service multiplayer game.

[00:27:09] That wasn't a good idea.

[00:27:10] Shocker wasn't it from what I heard it wasn't that good.

[00:27:14] Yeah, who would have thought a company that doesn't make those games?

[00:27:18] Yeah, doesn't make a good one.

[00:27:20] Unfortunately, I'm very unfortunate.

[00:27:23] Yeah.

[00:27:24] So we've already talked about Crystal's first game that they developed and that was

[00:27:29] Crash and Burn. Not the greatest start. Yeah, we all got to start somewhere.

[00:27:35] They've also made a few other 3DO games. They actually didn't make as many as I thought they did. They published a few. Yes.

[00:27:45] They made total eclipse, which we'll be covering at some point.

[00:27:49] It looks interesting.

[00:27:50] It's not bad.

[00:27:52] They also made off-world interceptor another interesting looking game.

[00:27:58] That looks like it's the same engine as total eclipse.

[00:28:01] So all three of these, so they actually all are the crash and burn

[00:28:05] engine. That makes a lot of sense. They also apparently helped develop the 3d version of

[00:28:11] samurai showdown. Yes. Yeah. My guess is they are probably the port team. Yeah. And then

[00:28:21] they're most well known game. Flame and Jam 95.

[00:28:26] Hell yeah.

[00:28:27] Well, they published that one.

[00:28:29] That was developed by left field productions.

[00:28:31] Yes.

[00:28:32] And then of course their final 3D game was Gex.

[00:28:36] Oh yeah.

[00:28:37] We'll get to Gex.

[00:28:39] Everybody knows Gex.

[00:28:40] They also published the horde, which I thought they made for the longest time,

[00:28:44] but apparently it was actually Toys for Bob.

[00:28:46] Toys for Bob, our favorite new indie studio.

[00:28:49] Yeah.

[00:28:50] Yeah.

[00:28:51] The stories of their death were greatly exaggerated.

[00:28:53] Well, did we talk about Toys for Bob last week?

[00:28:56] I don't think we did.

[00:28:58] No, we didn't.

[00:28:59] I think we mentioned.

[00:29:00] Because that happened last week, I think.

[00:29:02] Yeah.

[00:29:03] Like where it was like everyone, they were like, they're dead.

[00:29:04] And then all the stuff. It's like, no, we're not.

[00:29:06] And it's like, now we're free.

[00:29:08] I didn't think they were dead.

[00:29:09] I think like people were kind of, you know,

[00:29:13] talking about this whole, some people were saying like,

[00:29:15] why would Microsoft let them go?

[00:29:17] And it's like, well, I think if we all remember,

[00:29:22] Microsoft basically said Activision was just going to go

[00:29:24] kind of how they were.

[00:29:26] Yeah, they weren't going to do much to change them up, right?

[00:29:29] Outside of letting Bobby Kotico.

[00:29:31] Yeah, get here on the guy.

[00:29:32] So, and Toys for Bob were just going to be one of those many studios at Activision that were just going to get swallowed up into helping out with like Warzone or something.

[00:29:41] Right?

[00:29:42] In fact, if you go to their website, you'll see like, oh, we did crash for or we

[00:29:45] did the spiral trilogy.

[00:29:46] We also helped on call it duty war zone.

[00:29:48] Like it doesn't fit.

[00:29:50] Doesn't fit at all.

[00:29:51] So my guess is Toys for Bob probably saw the writing on the wall and we're like,

[00:29:55] well, cause they're also doing crash team rumble, but I believe all that like

[00:30:00] paid content is free now or something like that.

[00:30:03] So like crash team. Surprisingly fun game.

[00:30:06] Well, I think now if you want to play it now would be the time

[00:30:10] because everything's there and ready to go.

[00:30:13] But I think they saw that outside of an occasional crash game,

[00:30:17] they would just be helping out on Call of Duty.

[00:30:19] And that's not their strong suit at all.

[00:30:21] So maybe they went to Microsoft saying like,

[00:30:24] hey, is there something we could do? And then Microsoft saying like, Hey, is there something we could

[00:30:25] do? And then Microsoft's like, well, you have to kind of go through Activision and Activision

[00:30:30] doesn't want to let you go. And so maybe toys for Bob were like, Hey, we just, we want to

[00:30:36] do our own thing. And and credit to both of them, they let them go, which I think was

[00:30:42] good for them. But people also, but also they said is, um, they're entering into an agreement

[00:30:48] with Microsoft, like a partnership.

[00:30:51] So I don't know if that means Microsoft's going to just maybe later buy them.

[00:30:55] It's like a little separate thing, just to add them to the studios or they're

[00:30:58] just going to keep them independent.

[00:30:59] I have no idea.

[00:31:01] I'm not saying like where are the other keep them independent for a bit just

[00:31:04] to like

[00:31:05] let them see what they do. Yeah. Cause I think it would be smart to, I will, Toys for Rob

[00:31:11] have said they want to do new IP, which I think is a great idea. Um, I think it would

[00:31:16] make sense if Microsoft's going to have them around and have like a partnership, like have

[00:31:21] them keep doing crash, have them do a new Spyro game, maybe a banjo

[00:31:26] reboot. I mean, they would be the perfect studio to bring banjo Kazooie back with like

[00:31:33] they have all this opportunity for that side that they now own a bunch of IP for. And it

[00:31:40] would look really good if Microsoft's like, yeah, we're going to fund this stuff. Even if it goes say like crash for like crash five or spiral for like

[00:31:49] starts on Xbox and goes multi-plat.

[00:31:51] It's still a good thing that it's happening because Activision is going to let

[00:31:54] that happen clearly.

[00:31:56] So it would be good for the industry as a whole if they did that.

[00:32:00] And also if they made a banjo Kazooie reboot, people would lose their shit.

[00:32:05] Yeah. Like that would be huge. Like even if it's a full on remake of one,

[00:32:09] to be, you know, like to be sure this is right and then do like a sequel to nuts and bolts. I

[00:32:15] don't know the Kazooie lore anyways, like have them do a more traditional banjo Kazooie game.

[00:32:20] Like it just, it seems too perfect. So I'm just afraid it's going to get messed up because

[00:32:25] it makes too much sense. I'm going to wait, wait and see on and see what they do because

[00:32:29] twice for Bob is like one of those, they're like one of those developers that like nobody

[00:32:35] knew existed for like most of their, their existence like, and then they made Skylanders

[00:32:41] and everyone was like, where these guys are going to ruin Spyro and then they fucking revived it and made it fucking what it is now.

[00:32:47] Well, they also did kind of kill Spyro Skylanders.

[00:32:49] Yeah, and then they brought him back.

[00:32:52] Yes.

[00:32:53] Well, they did the, yeah, the trilogy of those.

[00:32:56] Yeah.

[00:32:57] But then they make games like star control one and two, which I'm told are like fantastic,

[00:33:04] like space like simulator games. They did

[00:33:10] the switch port of the crash of the crash bandicoot trilogy. Yeah, they did all the

[00:33:15] Skylander stuff. Pandemonium. Good game. Yeah, then. Oh, yeah, they did the unholy war. That's right. That was them. Yeah,

[00:33:27] they're crap kind of license games. Don't we all? So yeah, they, yeah, they do have

[00:33:32] a interesting history, but I think right now they're in a good spot. So I'm glad to see

[00:33:38] them, you know, be let go. Yeah, I'm glad they made it because I'm still buttered that we lost vicarious, but say I'm

[00:33:46] still sad. We don't like Raven. Raven software is stuck there. Is there just there? The war zone?

[00:33:52] Well, they're the war zone team now. That's what they do. Whereas like before that, they did a lot

[00:33:57] of really cool stuff. Oh, yeah. The shame that they're just stuck. And then there's the dying

[00:34:03] husk of radical entertainment that's still

[00:34:05] there apparently. Yeah, maybe we'll get a prototype three. Yeah, I doubt it.

[00:34:12] But yeah, crystal ironically, crystal made a lot of sequels to games that they didn't create.

[00:34:18] Like they made pandemonium to electric Boogler. Yeah, which was a good game, but it was also like weirdly edgy for

[00:34:27] no reason. They made the characters like extra sexy for no reason, which I'm like the 90s.

[00:34:34] I guess probably. And their most famous publishing game that they did not make despite common belief is Blood

[00:34:46] Omen Legacy of Kane.

[00:34:48] That is true.

[00:34:49] Yeah, they didn't make that one.

[00:34:51] No, that was made by silicone nights before that studio went insane.

[00:34:56] But then they started making the sole reaver.

[00:34:59] Yeah.

[00:35:00] I think people tend to like more anyways. So blood omen legacy cane is an interesting Zelda top down Zelda clone

[00:35:10] with vampires. That's it's not bad, but it's very by the numbers.

[00:35:15] I guess you can say nowadays it had some interesting story stuff.

[00:35:20] And then like a crystal dynamics basically just kind of like stole that series.

[00:35:25] And they're like, this is ours now.

[00:35:27] Um, and then they just kind of ripped off Tomb Raider, but made it.

[00:35:31] So reaver legacy of Kane, arguably, they made it better.

[00:35:34] Arguably.

[00:35:35] Yeah.

[00:35:36] Cause I still say legacy, uh, soul reaver is one of the most

[00:35:40] impressively programmed games I've ever played.

[00:35:43] Yeah.

[00:35:48] Especially the dream cast version. That's the version I played. It has no load times. It's really impressive. It's like Jack and Daxter one.

[00:35:54] Not as seamless as Jack and Daxter one because like you do notice, wow, this hallway is very long

[00:36:00] for summery. Yeah. It was sort of their bread and butter for a little bit also mixing in like,

[00:36:07] you know, Walt Disney World Magical Racing Tour or Mad Dash Racing for the Xbox.

[00:36:15] Yeah, they crystal made some weird games back in the day, which I find really interesting.

[00:36:21] Whiplash. What the hell is that? Oh, whiplash does not get enough love.

[00:36:27] The hell is this thing?

[00:36:29] So whiplash, ironically, they made it after the legacy of game series.

[00:36:33] I did, which is really weird to me.

[00:36:36] Um, so whiplash, believe it or not, I believe from what I've read, this is the

[00:36:41] Gex team and this is what they did after Gex.

[00:36:47] Huh. Why didn't they just make it Gex? I'm assuming because Gex is dated and they don't know what to do with

[00:36:53] Gex anymore. But like the last Gex game they made was in 99. At that point it was a deep

[00:37:00] cover Gekko. Yeah, I don't know. Honestly, it's never been explained. Whiplash is a

[00:37:08] 3D platformer though, and it is insanity. It looks insanity. It was actually it was criticized

[00:37:18] and had controversy because the game was apparently considered a it promoted cruelty to animals,

[00:37:25] despite being cartoons.

[00:37:27] Well, I think a lot of video games

[00:37:29] promote cruelty to animals without us realizing it.

[00:37:33] To be honest.

[00:37:34] Yeah, I mean, it's

[00:37:39] it was just part of the time.

[00:37:41] Yeah.

[00:37:42] Yeah, Whiplash is a really fun 3D platformer though.

[00:37:47] Maybe maybe I'll check it out.

[00:37:51] And oh yeah, they also did Project Snowblind, which is that game.

[00:37:53] That was the last original game.

[00:37:57] Whenever I would go to like the rental store or even these days when I go into a retro store, I always see a copy of this game.

[00:38:01] I've never played it.

[00:38:02] I know nothing about it.

[00:38:04] I just know whenever I see Project Snowblind, my first thought is, oh, that's a that's a snowboarding game. I've never played it. I know nothing about it. I just know whenever I see projects

[00:38:06] snowblind. My first thought is, Oh, that's a that's a snowboarding game. Because it was

[00:38:11] like in the era of SSX. And nope, it's just the first person shooter. And my guess is

[00:38:16] that's exactly what it is. So apparently it's on steam. For $6. No, thank you. What is the, yeah, there's a couple of 3D games on a steam.

[00:38:28] Not that many though. There's a few.

[00:38:30] So apparently projects.

[00:38:32] No blind was originally began development as a.

[00:38:35] Part of the day, sex series and then.

[00:38:38] I guess they kind of it just evolved into its own thing,

[00:38:42] but it's still kind of retained some Deus Ex elements.

[00:38:47] It looks nothing like Deus Ex to me.

[00:38:50] Yeah, that's probably why it changed into its own thing.

[00:38:54] Yeah, and then and then that's when they

[00:38:57] adopted the Tomb Raider series. Is that is that the correct?

[00:39:01] It was more like their parent it was taken away from its parent and they just kind of were like,

[00:39:07] here, watch this now.

[00:39:09] Somebody else needs to look after this.

[00:39:12] Like it's like angel.

[00:39:13] It's parents.

[00:39:14] Well, because angel darkness is bad.

[00:39:16] It's like, it's like, look what this, look what the parents did.

[00:39:22] Look what they did.

[00:39:23] They called child, they called child services on them being like, hey, could you save them?

[00:39:28] Yeah.

[00:39:29] And then they only made two games after Angel of Darkness core design, smart bomb and free

[00:39:34] running for the PSP.

[00:39:35] Yep.

[00:39:36] And they're apparently both average and yeah, though they did make one of the craziest

[00:39:43] games I've ever seen in my entire life for the PS

[00:39:46] two. Yes, because a buddy of mine back in the day on his PS two, that was the game he had

[00:39:54] for it. I forget the story of how he got I think it was just like his stepmom just like

[00:40:00] saw it and was like, Oh, he'll play this and he played a shit ton of it. And I've been

[00:40:05] meaning to play it just because it looks so ridiculous. And if you look at that cover,

[00:40:14] you've seen that cover, right? Yeah, because I always used to mix it up with

[00:40:18] the Oak Age, the, the, it's another PS2 game. That's like an RPG that's completely not

[00:40:23] related in the slightest, but it has a similar cover

[00:40:25] Yeah, this is like a weird like strategy game or something like I don't know how to describe it

[00:40:31] It is it is wacky his wacky. I may I may end up playing this in the future and talking about it. So

[00:40:39] We shall see but it looks fucking weird dude. I will say

[00:40:43] shall see, but it looks fucking weird, dude.

[00:40:47] I will say, um, Tomb Raider legend, their first Tomb Raider.

[00:40:50] That is like by far my favorite, like version of like, lore crafts like design was.

[00:40:52] Oh, Tomb Raider legend.

[00:40:53] Yeah.

[00:40:55] Well, cause she's not ultra realistic, but she's also not like Tomb Raider one,

[00:40:59] like stupid looking like levels.

[00:41:01] It looks like they found like a middle ground of like her looking a little bit more realistic while still retaining what people liked, which is boobs.

[00:41:11] I mean, they're not like she hurt. She doesn't have a model that doesn't make sense. That's what I'll say.

[00:41:17] Yeah. Yeah. And it's weird that some people would claim the like the newer Tomb Raiders like.

[00:41:26] the newer Tomb Raiders, like, I mean, yes, they toned down the lower cross sex appeal, but like, oh, that's still kind of there, but it's just not the main focal point anymore,

[00:41:31] which to me says, oh, the games are good, because they don't need the TNA to sell it.

[00:41:36] They could just be like, oh, just play this game isn't a fun game.

[00:41:39] And it is.

[00:41:40] And I'm sure the legends game, the like legend anniversary, I'm sure those games are good

[00:41:43] too.

[00:41:44] So what I've been meaning, what since I finished the new Tomb Raider trilogy, I'll probably go

[00:41:49] back and play these, because I am curious to them.

[00:41:52] And people still talk very highly of legend.

[00:41:54] Legend is a really good game.

[00:41:56] Anniversary, it's good.

[00:42:01] I just don't think Tomb Raider 1 is that good of a game personally.

[00:42:04] But anniversary is like a full-on remake of it.

[00:42:07] Yeah, it's a good game.

[00:42:09] I just feel like it's.

[00:42:11] So an interesting thing about Tomb Raider legend, actually, that I found out was they actually brought

[00:42:16] Laura Croft's original creator in as a.

[00:42:20] One of the main writers for the game at Toby Guard, which is partially why it kind of like revived the series roots in a way.

[00:42:28] Yeah. It was probably a good idea to do that.

[00:42:32] Well, because I believe Toby Guard left after the first or second game because he did not like the direction that the core was taking it.

[00:42:41] That's fair. And then I think it's underworld, which was the sequel to this one was being done at like the same time as anniversary.

[00:42:49] Yeah, underworld is interesting because it was the PS the next gen one and there's like evil or cropped in it like it's like a shadow or a craft at one point.

[00:43:00] Yeah, but wait, they all were PS three, three, sixty.

[00:43:09] Was well, I believe a legend was part of

[00:43:12] each, like an HD port.

[00:43:17] Yeah. Well, according to Wikipedia, legend was released on the Game Boy Advance,

[00:43:22] which I need to find that copy. The GameCube, PC, the DS, PS2, PS three, PSP, Xbox and Xbox 360.

[00:43:25] So the yes, of those were released at that time.

[00:43:29] The PS three version is what came out in 2011 super late, but all the others came out in 2006.

[00:43:35] Yeah, the PS three version was part of the HD collection, which had, um, it was a legend.

[00:43:42] Anniversary and underworld and one community pack.

[00:43:45] Got you. Got you.

[00:43:45] Got you.

[00:43:46] Cause yeah, I know this was like that time where like the 360 was new.

[00:43:50] Yeah.

[00:43:50] And a lot of games that were made for like PS two or OG Xbox were probably

[00:43:56] just like HD like real quick and then just kind of thrown on the 360.

[00:44:00] Yeah.

[00:44:01] Cause if you, if you play legend and anniversary and you look at the graphics,

[00:44:06] you can tell right away that this is a PS2 cam.

[00:44:08] Yeah, it's the it's like, oh, it's an HD.

[00:44:11] So it looks a little cleaner, but the the assets aren't really HD.

[00:44:17] That's actually funny because they've later re-released it in the HD collection of 360

[00:44:22] again, despite all those games having since standalone 360 releases

[00:44:26] Yeah, I have legend in here because I think I bought it for like

[00:44:31] $3 or something it was like dirt cheap

[00:44:34] So I figured it was a no-brainer because I've heard people say good things about it. Yeah, there it is right there

[00:44:39] Oh, yeah, it's got great great story. I actually got all the Tomb Raider games

[00:44:47] up until like the 2013 reboot in a steam sale for five dollars like everything from Tomb Raider 1 to 2013.

[00:44:55] Did you get the two lore craft like shooter things?

[00:44:59] I don't think those were included. I think it was just the main series games.

[00:45:03] Okay, I haven't played these like I'm not even quite sure what they are.

[00:45:07] They are. Okay, they're interesting actually.

[00:45:11] I have a lot of light and temple of Osiris.

[00:45:14] So there what's funny about those is those are part of the legend cannon.

[00:45:20] Okay.

[00:45:21] Even though the reboot happened, they're still technically like the old cannon.

[00:45:26] It's a weird. Yeah. It's weird. Yeah. I know these both came out on Switch. I think it was last year

[00:45:32] because I had heard a rumor that like some two merator games were coming to Switch and some people

[00:45:38] were like, well, they're not going to get 2013 on there. Would they? I mean, even though 2013 was on the 360.

[00:45:48] The switch could run 2013. That's probably it.

[00:45:50] Well, rise was 360 as well.

[00:45:54] That's true. Well, that's that's like port somehow wizardry.

[00:45:57] Yeah, that was poor wizardry, absolutely. But even then it's just like two mari 2013 on switch would be weird.

[00:46:02] And it's like they could have just like did say legend.

[00:46:04] I think people would have been like, that's a weird old game, but sure.

[00:46:07] Oh, people would hate that up because legend is so popular.

[00:46:10] Yeah. But I think the lore craft spin-offs were probably like a good compromise because

[00:46:16] like the first one is like, like it was released on like Android and like phones and shit.

[00:46:21] So they got a PS4 physical port for no reason.

[00:46:26] Was that one of those like,us promo like physical games? You know, I know where it's like had a plastic case,

[00:46:33] but you opened it up and there's just nothing in there with a download code. And that was like

[00:46:37] brand new. Because some companies are like, Oh, they just want the plastic case on their shelf.

[00:46:44] because some companies are like, oh, they just want the plastic case on their shelf. And it's like, no, we actually want the game in the plastic case guys.

[00:46:50] That doesn't happen that much anymore.

[00:46:51] But for a little bit, that was the thing.

[00:46:53] I remember the Vida version of Minecraft was legit an empty case.

[00:46:57] Yeah, which doesn't make any sense to me.

[00:47:00] Like just don't bot like you're going to go through all that trouble of printing cases

[00:47:04] and all that

[00:47:05] like you might as well just print a fucking Vida card at that point

[00:47:09] like you're already you're already making the effort

[00:47:13] it's weird but yeah anyway these games or are they like twin stick shooters or something

[00:47:18] yeah they're like top down action adventure kind of games they're they're just they're little mini

[00:47:23] like adventure kind of things they're they're completely harmless but not required in any means.

[00:47:28] They look cool. I probably I'd probably play them. Like I imagine with Tomb Raider I'd probably play

[00:47:34] outside of the some people called the survivor trilogy which I mean I guess sure. Either that

[00:47:41] or like the reboot trilogy outside of that. I'll probably play through like legend anniversary underworld. I might check these two out. But like the early games

[00:47:49] I might avoid. One and two are worth playing two in particular. Well, there is one through

[00:47:57] three remastered, which is probably the way to go. If that's ever like 10 bucks, I'll probably

[00:48:03] snag it. You know, and then

[00:48:05] get mad that they put a little bumper at the front that said, Oh, these games are old.

[00:48:09] So they might have some problematic shit.

[00:48:11] Sorry. Which is funny.

[00:48:14] I say that because plumbers don't wear ties has the exact same thing.

[00:48:18] They even use the word problematic.

[00:48:20] Of course it does.

[00:48:21] Oh, yeah.

[00:48:22] Yeah. You saw it.

[00:48:24] Well, it's in the definitive edition. They have

[00:48:25] like look it's basically like look this game was made the 90s so there might be some stuff

[00:48:30] in here that's kind of not cool anymore. Just letting you know which I it's fine that

[00:48:36] they said that sure. Yeah there's no problem with that but but at the same time the people

[00:48:41] playing this game know what it is. Oh, yeah. If you're playing.

[00:48:45] So you know, it's you should know in advance. Yeah, you know.

[00:48:50] It's in fact, in fact, before you even start the game, like a pre plumbers don't

[00:48:56] wear ties definitive edition review before you even start the main game.

[00:49:00] It says, oh, there's just like little video.

[00:49:02] Do you want to watch it beforehand? And you go, yeah, sure. Why not? And it's just like a six minute video of them being like, why did we do this?

[00:49:09] We're not sure. Maybe maybe you'll tell us. Well, their main argument is that if we're going to be

[00:49:15] pro game preservation, then we need to preserve the bad stuff as well as the good stuff, which I

[00:49:20] agree with. I think everything should be preserved no matter how good or bad it is.

[00:49:25] Plumbers don't wear ties.

[00:49:27] Last point on Plumbers don't wear ties before the actual episode.

[00:49:30] That is a game that needs to be remembered just to showcase.

[00:49:34] This is not how you make video game.

[00:49:37] I mean, if somebody tried to make a video game like that nowadays,

[00:49:43] either that's what they're going for or yeah, they have

[00:49:46] just no idea what they're doing and they should they should choose another career.

[00:49:49] I'm honestly surprised we haven't got an indie game that kind of parodied style.

[00:49:54] Yeah. Like an ironic one or something. It's probably for the bet. I mean, we could probably

[00:50:02] do it, but no, no, I don't,

[00:50:05] I don't think we know any women who'd be willing to do something like that.

[00:50:10] Yeah. Yeah, we can't hire a local wrestler.

[00:50:14] I mean, we probably could, but, you know, I don't know.

[00:50:17] I'm sure there's one. I'm sure there's one on five.

[00:50:22] So no, if we were going to use a lady wrestler, I think like a Chelsea green would be good

[00:50:27] for this. If you know who that is, I don't know how much you know you're wrestling

[00:50:30] lure, but I don't know the lore. I know some of the names. Okay, she would be a good fit

[00:50:35] for this. But in any case, but in any case, yeah, Chris, with dynamics, yeah, they do

[00:50:39] Tomb Raider now. And a really good job with it. Well, the Marvel game, the Avengers game. I don't think was their fault. No, I haven't played it. I have no idea. I think it was on game pass for a while. It might still be on game pass. Maybe I should try it. Let me know audience if I should try out Marvel's the Avengers. Sure. If it's on game pass, I'll give it a whirl.

[00:51:02] It's on Game Pass, I'll give it a whirl. From what people told me, the first half

[00:51:05] is like a standard kind of action adventure game

[00:51:07] what you expect, and it's pretty okay.

[00:51:10] But then somewhere around the halfway point

[00:51:12] is where they introduce all that live service crap

[00:51:14] that just tanks the game.

[00:51:16] Yep.

[00:51:17] And from what I know and from what some other people

[00:51:21] have implied, that was square,

[00:51:24] because Crystal was owned by Square for a while.

[00:51:29] And in pushing for them to do live service stuff, and they're like, well, we're already halfway through the game.

[00:51:37] So it seems forced. From what I'm told, it was very forced in there.

[00:51:42] Sounds a lot like Suicide suicide squad in a way.

[00:51:46] Well, I think suicide squad. I don't know anything about that game at all. And it looks

[00:51:50] bad. From what I've heard, it was made to be a live service game from the start. And

[00:51:56] it was just kind of put in there. But again, much like with the Naughty Dog thing, why would

[00:52:00] you have a studio known for making great single player games do this with

[00:52:05] like Rocksteady? And I'm worried for Rocksteady now. I think they're dead in the water, especially

[00:52:11] because all the people that made Rocksteady great like left. Like I feel they should get

[00:52:15] one more chance to like make a game that people know Rocksteady for like maybe not another

[00:52:21] Batman. I don't know if we could do another Arkham game. I don't

[00:52:25] know because I still haven't played night yet. So I don't know how does night kind of

[00:52:29] end everything. Yeah. Okay. So that I mean, they could do like the Superman game because

[00:52:37] they said they wanted to do one. And I mean, maybe they could pull it off. I know Superman

[00:52:42] games are notoriously not good. But I feel like Rock City could maybe

[00:52:45] make it work.

[00:52:46] I don't know.

[00:52:48] But I feel like Rock City should get another chance.

[00:52:50] You know, they shouldn't die because they were kind of forced to make this live service

[00:52:54] game for WB.

[00:52:55] And then WB is upset that it didn't do well when it's like, well, you guys kind of made

[00:52:59] them do it.

[00:53:00] And it's that's not what they do.

[00:53:02] You know, that's like if you got Netherrealm to make like a first person shooter and then

[00:53:06] got mad at them for not doing well.

[00:53:08] Like what do you expect?

[00:53:09] That's not what they do.

[00:53:10] Yeah.

[00:53:11] I think Netherrealm is mostly safe just because Ed Boone is very protective.

[00:53:15] Well, and Mortal Kombat is like a big name in the gaming and it always sells really well.

[00:53:22] And it being a fighting game, you can do like DLC and like kind of quasi live service into it and people buy into it. So moral combat is

[00:53:32] A cash cow

[00:53:34] You know, it's a steady one for Warner Brothers

[00:53:36] So they don't have to worry about it, you know, and yes Ed Boone does have a lot of clout as well

[00:53:40] You know that we need that shall and monks rem remaster. God damn it. I need it so

[00:53:46] bad. That is such an on that is such a like it is that game shouldn't be as good as it

[00:53:51] is. But oh my god, it's so good. No, it's great. It deserves to be that great, especially

[00:53:55] when they tried to make other sort of action, eventually Mortal Kombat games and they were

[00:54:00] terrible. Yeah, the previous two attempts at that were sub zero and special forces and sub zero has

[00:54:09] amazing cut seats.

[00:54:11] The game is shit.

[00:54:13] So that special forces is bad just in general.

[00:54:16] Yeah, and special forces was so bad.

[00:54:19] The co-creator John Tobias left.

[00:54:21] Yeah.

[00:54:23] But then I think it was right after that they did deadly alliance.

[00:54:26] Yeah. Everything was right. And then Tobias formed his own company and they made

[00:54:32] crap. What games did they make? They made that they made not bottle combat.

[00:54:37] Basically. Well, that doesn't say much. Hold on. Hold on. Let me let me pull up. What was the name of the

[00:54:46] hold on, hold on. Let me, let me pull up. What was the name of the studio he formed? Studio Gigante. That's right. They made that one fighter that was like exclusively on Xbox

[00:54:52] and it was literally just Mortal Kombat, but not Mortal Kombat.

[00:54:56] Yeah, Taofang fist of the Lotus. Yeah. And then, and then they did WrestleMania 21 for the Xbox, which if it wasn't so buggy,

[00:55:07] it would actually be kind of okay. But that game is abysmal, just because like the core

[00:55:14] of it is so bad.

[00:55:16] Yeah.

[00:55:17] Tau Fang wasn't a bad fighter. It was just when you played it, you really realized how

[00:55:22] much Ed Boone actually had in that series.

[00:55:26] Well, Tobias was the artist. He do all the arts. And Ed Boone was the programmer.

[00:55:32] He was the John Carmack. And Tobias was the John Romero, basically. So when you let the programmer,

[00:55:40] if you still have the guy who's chocking away at everything, getting it just right,

[00:55:44] you know, you can change the artist around, you know, and you'll, but you'll still have

[00:55:48] the same core game in there from a programming standpoint.

[00:55:51] Yeah.

[00:55:52] So Tobias didn't have that.

[00:55:53] I thought he was involved in what was that like Xbox fighter that was a bunch of like,

[00:55:59] like chibi, like ninjas and shit.

[00:56:00] I can't remember what it was called.

[00:56:02] You probably know it.

[00:56:03] I know it.

[00:56:04] I can't remember off the top of my tongue. Kung Fu chaos. Is that what it was called. You probably know it. I know it. I can't remember off the top of my

[00:56:06] Kung Fu chaos. Is that what it was called?

[00:56:08] I think so. I thought he was involved in that as well.

[00:56:13] I could be wrong on that.

[00:56:16] That was just add just add monsters.

[00:56:19] Who the hell was that? Just that that's a team right there.

[00:56:24] Ninja. It was Ninja theory.

[00:56:26] What?

[00:56:27] Oh, like I, I, I, I, I click on there just add monsters.

[00:56:32] It takes me to Ninja theory.

[00:56:34] They were called just add monsters from 2000 to 2004.

[00:56:37] And then they changed their name for a heavenly sword.

[00:56:46] So the only game they did as, um, just add monsters was kung- remember from the Xbox demo kiosks and liking it, but I've never played it beyond

[00:56:50] that. Yeah. And then, and then they changed their name to Ninja theory and then did heavenly

[00:56:54] sword and made goddess of war.

[00:56:57] Basically. And enslaved Odyssey to the west. I really want to play that game. It looks

[00:57:01] cool. DMC is in the backlog.

[00:57:05] The reboot that they did.

[00:57:07] I've heard good things.

[00:57:08] It's a fine game.

[00:57:09] The story is garbage.

[00:57:10] That's basically it.

[00:57:12] I feel like since I haven't played any of the Devil May Crys, this is like, this is

[00:57:17] how I should play the reboot, just by itself as its own thing, and then go back and play

[00:57:23] the series.

[00:57:24] So then I have, you know, two separate ideas of it.

[00:57:27] You know what I mean?

[00:57:28] The way I view DMC is like it is literally like imagine if like you took

[00:57:33] had like someone else make a definite cry and they just tried.

[00:57:37] So they basically it was like Uber try hard.

[00:57:39] Like that's how bad like the story is.

[00:57:42] Yeah, because doesn't like isn isn't there the famous scene?

[00:57:45] Is that like he has on like a white wig and then he pulls it off?

[00:57:49] He's like, Oh, I look stupid.

[00:57:51] No, no, it's even more of a slap in the face.

[00:57:54] It's literally he has a white wig on me.

[00:57:55] He looks at the camera and just goes not in a million years.

[00:57:59] That's funny though.

[00:58:00] I like that.

[00:58:01] Well, it's funnier in context because a little mini spoiler, but

[00:58:05] at the end of the game, he gets his hair ends up turning white. So, okay. Interesting.

[00:58:10] That's a little bit of a foreshadowing kind of. Yeah. At the time, because fans definitely

[00:58:17] cry fans weren't happy with that reboot from the start. Yeah. I feel like it's and from

[00:58:22] what people have told me they didn't give it a fair chance because the game play is really good

[00:58:26] Oh, yeah, the game itself is fine very stylistic the style the style

[00:58:31] That game has is very nice and the side characters that they at like the original side characters are actually pretty cool

[00:58:37] That's good

[00:58:38] I will be playing that this year at some point because I was gifted it in a secret Santa. So I feel obligated to play it now.

[00:58:47] And I, it's the definitive edition, which I think they said, just, just play that one.

[00:58:51] Yeah, it's perfectly the way to play it.

[00:58:53] Yeah.

[00:58:53] I forgot, I forgot an injury worked on Disney infinity as well.

[00:58:58] Yeah, they did.

[00:58:59] Yeah, along with a avalanche and heavy iron, like all these studios I like.

[00:59:04] Heavy iron. I love heavy iron, like all these studios I like. Heavy iron.

[00:59:05] I love heavy iron so goddamn much.

[00:59:08] It's a shame that they're in such a weird spot now.

[00:59:12] Like I don't know what the deal is with them anymore.

[00:59:14] Like they're owned by just some weird thing

[00:59:17] called Keyword Studios.

[00:59:20] So they just kind of do like Pac-Man,

[00:59:22] make a tunnel battle for Stadia or fat city or whatever

[00:59:26] that is. What the hell is a fat city? I like that.

[00:59:29] Fairly it's really good. Apparently it's really good. I don't even know what that is.

[00:59:33] I need to find out what this game is. But yeah, but you know, heavy iron famous for a

[00:59:44] battle for bikini bottom.

[00:59:46] Scooby do night of Scooby do night of a hundred Frights.

[00:59:48] That's a really cool game.

[00:59:50] The, the two incredible games from that era, which I have a soft spot for them.

[00:59:54] Pretty much every Pixar movie tie in from that time.

[00:59:57] Yeah.

[00:59:58] Yeah.

[00:59:59] Um, and then they did family got back to the multiverse, which is not a good game.

[01:00:04] And then some weird fitness game UFC personal trainer.

[01:00:09] And then and now they're and then for a while they were helping out on like

[01:00:12] Call of Duty games.

[01:00:14] Um, like they're credit, they're credit on black ops Cold War.

[01:00:18] Um, they're credit on Crash 4 apparently.

[01:00:21] Um, they did, they did the grand tour game.

[01:00:26] Good for their. Oh no. Anyways. Yeah. Oh yeah. And they were going to do a

[01:00:32] Toy Story 3, but the version Avalanche did became the version of Toy Story 3

[01:00:35] instead. Which to be fair, Avalanche's version. Probably was better. Oh yeah,

[01:00:41] that game is amazing. I love that game to death. And Avalanche is also a really

[01:00:44] good studio in their own right. They are. They got killed off and then Warner

[01:00:48] Brothers came in and said, no, not today. We're going to keep you around. Do you want to do

[01:00:53] Disney infinity? Or I think wasn't Disney infinity their idea? Yeah. And then Disney

[01:00:59] killed it off and just killed them with it and Warner Brothers. We'll take that. They're

[01:01:03] good. And you're the racing. Well, you're the racing guy. So like, are the cars games they made

[01:01:09] any good cars too? And the movie and cars three is just the cars to game, but better.

[01:01:15] So is it just like an open world racing game or what is it? It's a car racer. It's a really

[01:01:19] good one. Okay. Cause I see it all the time. And people are like, no, it's good. Like the general. So the joke of cars, the joke with the cars to game is like, wow,

[01:01:29] the game is better than the movie. Okay. Yeah. And then they did the Harvard's legacy,

[01:01:34] which, you know, we've not the I'm just going to leave it at that, I guess.

[01:01:39] If you like it, play it. Yeah. I mean, it's not their fault.

[01:01:46] OK.

[01:01:46] Well, no, I was the strong person who was like, hey,

[01:01:51] avalanche didn't do any of that shit.

[01:01:53] Leave them alone.

[01:01:54] You don't have to hurt them.

[01:01:56] Yeah.

[01:01:56] Like, like, if you're angry at J.K.

[01:02:00] Rowling for the thing she has said as I am,

[01:02:04] direct your anger at her.

[01:02:06] I'm not going to direct it at Avalanche when, especially during the PR for Hogwarts legacy,

[01:02:10] they were trying so hard to be like, we're not that we squared a God.

[01:02:15] We're not that they're definitely not because they put they actually legit put a trans character

[01:02:20] in the game.

[01:02:21] That's basically a middle finger to JK roll it.

[01:02:24] Yeah. And I think I think there are some trans people on the dev team as well.

[01:02:27] So yeah, there's legit one of the NP NPCs that you could find is a trans character.

[01:02:33] And she's basically just one giant middle finger to JK rolling. It's great.

[01:02:36] Does JK know about it?

[01:02:38] No, she doesn't give a shit. She got her cash already.

[01:02:41] Yeah. I doubt she gets residuals from that game.

[01:02:47] But I doubt it. I don't know. I mean, she she's rolling in dough. She's probably signed off on it said sure and then

[01:02:51] took it nap in her pile of money. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I played the demo of it. I'm not

[01:02:58] a Harry Potter guy. So I wasn't really interested in it. I played a bit just to see and it

[01:03:02] it's fine. Yeah. I'm not a Harry Potter person either, but I know like

[01:03:07] the people who are into that stuff like it. So that was telling me his wife is really big into it. So

[01:03:14] worked for me. So it's time. I mean, hey, if they got a good game, good for them. Yeah. And then

[01:03:21] why are they doing next? I thought they had announced that they were doing something else. I forget.

[01:03:26] But anyway, it's funny how crystal leads to so many other different studios because there was a weird mortgage board of like game studios from that era.

[01:03:36] Yeah, because I've got because with Ninja Theory, I forgot to mention they did Hellblade.

[01:03:42] And I love Hellblade one. Love it to death. And I'm very, very excited for

[01:03:46] Hellblade two. That's probably like one of my most anticipated games of the year. So I'm fascinated

[01:03:53] to what it's going to be. Like, I know some people are, I guess, worried about it as far as like,

[01:03:59] when they said it was going to be like, Oh, like a six to eight hour game. And that dev direct and people got mad and I'm like, did you guys play hellblade one?

[01:04:08] Like I think 100% of that game took me seven hours.

[01:04:13] And that's, and that's perfect for what it is.

[01:04:16] It doesn't need to be like a 15 hour adventure.

[01:04:18] It doesn't, it doesn't, it's not meant to be that.

[01:04:21] So if hellblade two is just hellblade 1 again, but a lot prettier

[01:04:26] and hopefully some refined refinements in the gameplay and maybe like an extra hour,

[01:04:32] hour and a half. Perfect. Perfect. That's all it needs to be.

[01:04:37] It's really funny. I just kind of had this thought about crystal dynamics. They literally went from making games about geckos to vampires to raid

[01:04:47] and dooms. Yeah. And it's funny.

[01:04:51] I mentioned the whole ninja theory thing with Xbox when people have been saying

[01:04:55] for a while that Xbox is going to buy crystal, which I mean, they might.

[01:05:02] It's all it depends.

[01:05:04] I've embraced or wants to let them go. Well, I feel like, I mean, they might. It's all it depends. If Embracer wants to let them go.

[01:05:06] Well, I feel like I mean, Embracer is kind of on fire right now and

[01:05:11] crystalline idos need to be saved.

[01:05:13] If there's any, I don't know the entire Embracer umbrella, but if there are two

[01:05:18] these shockingly large, oh, I'm sure I'm sure if I looked at it, I would be amazed.

[01:05:23] But if if we could save crystalline idos, I'm sure. I'm sure if I looked at it, I would be amazed. But if if we could save

[01:05:25] Crystal and Idos, I would be fine. And I don't think anybody would get mad if Microsoft's

[01:05:30] like, yeah, we just scoop those two up because they're already working on stuff for him anyways.

[01:05:35] Like crystals. As far as I know, Crystal is working on the perfect dark reboot with the

[01:05:39] and another and another team, two and two and two, which is them trying to put all, bridge all the story timelines together into one or something.

[01:05:49] Like they're trying to, what, like Spider-Man it,

[01:05:52] where it's like it's all connected.

[01:05:54] That'll be, that'll be curious to see.

[01:05:57] And I need to catch up so I can have some context

[01:05:59] for when I get there.

[01:06:02] So we'll see about that.

[01:06:04] And yeah, and I'm curious to what their perfect dark reboots,

[01:06:06] the perfect dark reboots going to be. Because I mean, they announced that one 2020 and we

[01:06:12] still haven't heard a thing about it. Yeah, they've been oddly quiet.

[01:06:16] Well, I know the initiative has had problems. Did you know that embrace our own limited run games? Yeah, I knew that. All

[01:06:28] right. I did not know that they also own dark horse comics. Don't don't dark horse.

[01:06:34] Why? They own dark horse comics. Apparently Jesus Christ. When did they buy all this shit?

[01:06:40] Like I'm reading through this. I think it was during the pandemic. I guess they own gearbox.

[01:06:46] I didn't know that.

[01:06:47] Yeah, I know they knew.

[01:06:48] I knew they owned gearbox.

[01:06:50] And honestly, I thought I heard a rumor that gearbox was trying to go independent.

[01:06:54] It wouldn't surprise me.

[01:06:56] They should.

[01:06:57] They should.

[01:06:58] Gearbox needs to be leave them alone.

[01:07:00] Let them be free.

[01:07:02] They deserve to be.

[01:07:03] I like how they basically just took the T.H. Q. name just to have

[01:07:07] the T.H. Q Nordic. Yeah.

[01:07:09] Yeah.

[01:07:11] Well, because Nordic games are the dog. Oh, oh, and say, oh, sabers,

[01:07:15] their own thing now. They went independent.

[01:07:18] Like they like they got some private investors and bought themselves out of

[01:07:22] Embracer. So sabers on their own now.

[01:07:25] And accord and according to Sabre, because now that they're independent, the Knights of the Old Republic

[01:07:30] remake is back on. Because it was gifted to them after Aspire. Because who thought,

[01:07:37] who's like, oh, Aspire should remake Co-Tor? No, they port Co-Tor. They either, no, remaking,

[01:07:43] give it to Sabre, Sabre co-tor. They either know remaking it, give it to saber saber, saber could do it.

[01:07:45] So also apparently I didn't even realize this. Apparently they brought back free radical

[01:07:50] design and then just kill it to kill them off. Yeah, which doesn't make any goddamn sense

[01:07:55] to me, which means time splitters for is never happening. We just have to accept it.

[01:08:00] Yep. Oh, they are. They own deep silver. They killed. Well, I don't think they killed

[01:08:06] Bullish and I think Bullish and killed themselves. Yeah. Bullish and killed themselves 1000%

[01:08:12] so sad because they still made one of the greatest video games ever made. Yeah. Red

[01:08:16] faction gorilla. I thought you were saying the Saints were a reboot. You want to talk the the

[01:08:27] the

[01:08:29] the

[01:08:31] the

[01:08:33] the

[01:08:35] the

[01:08:37] the

[01:08:39] the They just made another SpongeBob game because fuck you, why not? Oh, yeah. And they're doing the Epic remake.

[01:08:45] The Epic Mickey remake.

[01:08:47] Oh, yeah.

[01:08:47] Rebrushed.

[01:08:48] Yeah.

[01:08:48] Which order that honestly.

[01:08:51] Not at 60 bucks, though.

[01:08:52] Well, no, I'll wait until it drops in price inevitably.

[01:08:55] I do want to play that, though, because I played it on we way back

[01:08:59] in the day and was kind of on it.

[01:09:02] Like the game doesn't look good.

[01:09:04] And even these days trying to play it like on this nice TV,

[01:09:07] it still doesn't look all that great.

[01:09:09] That was a game that Disney hyped the fuck out of it.

[01:09:12] And then it came out.

[01:09:12] Oh yeah.

[01:09:13] It was kind of like, it's fine.

[01:09:15] I think the problem is they realized

[01:09:18] that if they're limiting themselves to the Wii,

[01:09:21] they had to limit their ambition as well.

[01:09:24] Yeah. And that's kind of what happened.

[01:09:26] I don't even know who made Epic Mickey.

[01:09:28] Junction Point Studios and Warren

[01:09:29] Spectre of all fucking people.

[01:09:31] What the fuck?

[01:09:33] Yeah.

[01:09:34] You know, the Deus Ex guy.

[01:09:36] Yeah.

[01:09:37] The Deus Ex guy made Epic Mickey.

[01:09:39] What the hell?

[01:09:40] Yeah.

[01:09:41] Junction Point made two games.

[01:09:42] Like Epic Mickey and Epic Mickey too.

[01:09:44] And then they went out of business. Well, they were going to do a half life two episode, apparently.

[01:09:50] Maybe they know how to count the three, maybe. And then they were working on a game called

[01:09:54] Sleeping Giants, which probably is not based on the 1972 jazz fusion album by Herbie Hancock

[01:10:01] and his more on Dishi band. It was probably something completely different.

[01:10:05] Though a game based on that would be awesome.

[01:10:09] I don't think I have a vinyl copy of that.

[01:10:11] No, but I do have the CD copy.

[01:10:13] If you get a chance, look at the the the album artwork for that.

[01:10:16] Really cool.

[01:10:17] Really cool painting.

[01:10:18] But yeah, yeah, the epic Mickey remake looks interesting.

[01:10:20] I need to see more of it though.

[01:10:22] Yeah.

[01:10:23] Yeah.

[01:10:24] It's a very hit or miss game.

[01:10:25] So I'm hoping that they fix the hit or miss nature of it. But I think it's one of those games

[01:10:30] we're all willing to give it another chance. Yeah. Because the first one was good. It just

[01:10:35] wasn't perfect. Yeah. But it's like, you know what? Let's it's one of those let's see what happens,

[01:10:40] you know, like I'm not against it. That's like how I feel about the alone in the dark remake where I'm kind of like, you

[01:10:48] know, I like what I'm seeing, even though there's not a lot to see.

[01:10:52] Isn't that out now?

[01:10:53] I don't think it ever came out if it did.

[01:10:55] I completely missed it.

[01:10:56] Oh, it's.

[01:10:58] Hello, the dark.

[01:11:00] I played the like the 10 minute demo.

[01:11:03] That's just like the little girl walking around,

[01:11:06] which just made you go, Hey, we're, we're copying the Resident Evil remake style,

[01:11:09] which is the smart, just the smart, the smart thing to do.

[01:11:15] Let's see. It's coming out the 20th of March. So very soon.

[01:11:20] A couple of weeks. Yes. And I, I, I am not intending to play it. I'm going to just because I have

[01:11:27] a weird soft spot for that series. But well, if it's good, let me know and maybe we'll

[01:11:34] do a special episode. Yeah. It's like a follow up. I mean, we still need to do a road redemption.

[01:11:40] Yeah. I mean, that'll come. We did basically say alone in the dark is one of those games. That's like

[01:11:46] It was important in its time. We don't need to play it anymore. Yeah, but it'd be interesting to tackle a brand new game

[01:11:55] But yeah, as you said, yeah, crystal just crew yeah creates this like weird web of like all these

[01:12:01] Developers that make all this like weird stuff, you know? But it's like devs that we know as like the weirdos, you know,

[01:12:09] where's like normies or like who the hell are you talking about?

[01:12:12] Yeah, but it's fun to dig through all this shit, you know?

[01:12:15] I'm still amazed.

[01:12:16] Like I didn't realize Crystal really did not make anything else but Tomb Raider after legend.

[01:12:22] Yeah, that's all really well.

[01:12:23] They did Marvel's Avengers. Yeah, that's all really well. They did Marvel's Avengers.

[01:12:27] Yeah, that was like the first thing.

[01:12:28] Yeah. And they're working on that perfect dark reboot.

[01:12:31] And then as I was trying to mention, I think I got lost in it.

[01:12:34] I'd also is helping out.

[01:12:38] I'm on the fable reboots.

[01:12:40] Crap.

[01:12:41] I forget the studio is making that the fours of horizons.

[01:12:44] And as far as a horizon. Play Playground. That's right. Yeah.

[01:12:49] I'm looking forward to the fable reboot. It looks really interesting. Um,

[01:12:53] hopefully when we get the June showcase, maybe we'll get a little bit more,

[01:12:57] like maybe some gameplay. I'd like to, I'd like to see it. So, but I, I,

[01:13:02] I trust fables in good hands because Playground are really good. The Horizon games

[01:13:07] are fantastic. And you know, they are British devs and I get the sense they will keep that

[01:13:13] same level of humor and silliness that the Facebook is not for.

[01:13:18] As long as they don't do a Peter Mollanoo and just like over promise everything and just

[01:13:24] make a good game.

[01:13:26] I don't think yeah, I don't think playground would do that.

[01:13:29] And plus they have idols there to probably help them out with like the,

[01:13:32] the action RPG stuff because they've never really made a game like that.

[01:13:36] Like they know how to make a big world with a lot of stuff to do because

[01:13:39] the rising games are massive.

[01:13:41] So they know how to do that.

[01:13:43] Well, I thought Montreal knows how to make action RPGs very well.

[01:13:47] Yeah. So I mean, it could end up being a banger, like a fantastic game. So, and I

[01:13:54] hope to get me to actually buy an Xbox just to play it.

[01:13:56] There you go.

[01:13:58] Because I really do like fable to.

[01:14:01] I need to play that.

[01:14:03] But yeah, so Crystal, I'm not really worried about them. Uh, I

[01:14:08] think they're fine. I don't see them closing anytime soon. Hopefully. I mean, with Embracer

[01:14:15] kind of not in a good spot. Who knows what's going to happen. But I think with Crystal,

[01:14:20] they have so many, they're doing so much stuff right now. Like, yeah, they are helping out in Perfect Dark.

[01:14:25] They are making a new Tomb Raider game.

[01:14:28] And those are, you know, IP that people know and care about.

[01:14:32] And I think the Microsoft Association helps them as well.

[01:14:36] So I wouldn't be surprised if say shit hit the fan

[01:14:40] and then Microsoft had to come in and swoop,

[01:14:43] swoop them up to be like, it's either we buy them or let them die

[01:14:46] And we're we're bringing them in and and I think everyone would be like okay. That's fine

[01:14:52] Yeah, by then I'm pretty sure like I mean people already don't give a shit about Microsoft buying stuff anymore

[01:14:58] Especially if they're gonna make more stuff multi-plat

[01:15:01] It's like yeah, I feel like who the fuck cares

[01:15:04] I think that was Who the fuck cares?

[01:15:05] I think that was the, the key that they used to get everyone off their back

[01:15:09] right there. Yeah. I don't, and I don't think everything's going to go

[01:15:12] multi-plat. Like I imagine like Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable, Sunset overdrive.

[01:15:20] Well, they don't even know that anymore, technically. Yeah.

[01:15:22] But like certain things they'll leave, they'll leave on here, because I feel like they should.

[01:15:28] I wouldn't be surprised if they considered like halo and gears, but then they probably went,

[01:15:33] well, we need like those franchises are so iconic to our brand.

[01:15:37] They need to stay here.

[01:15:39] Like, I think they're more going to move on.

[01:15:40] They need some.

[01:15:42] It's yeah, like high fire rush, pentamint, the smaller stuff.

[01:15:46] The rare sea of thieves.

[01:15:47] I'm very interested in.

[01:15:48] Yeah, that would be fun.

[01:15:50] Apparently it does have cross play.

[01:15:52] I looked it up.

[01:15:53] Thank God.

[01:15:54] So I can't wait for the day that cross play becomes standard.

[01:15:57] Yeah.

[01:15:58] I mean, hey, we might we could do some sea of thieves cross play.

[01:16:00] I think that would be fun.

[01:16:01] It'd give me a reason to actually play it because I've been looking for a reason to

[01:16:04] play it. I've heard is good. Like I've heard it's like

[01:16:08] rare. Fine. It's like it's like old rare again. Yeah. And I don't think rare replay

[01:16:13] will ever crossover. I don't see that going anywhere, especially when the main audience

[01:16:19] is like Nintendo fans. And it's better to just like drip feed them into the NSO subscription.

[01:16:27] You know, that's what they know.

[01:16:30] Yeah.

[01:16:30] So that's probably the smarter thing to do.

[01:16:32] And then if you just want the whole hit, the whole at right now, it's right here on the Xbox.

[01:16:38] So you're good to go.

[01:16:39] Yeah.

[01:16:39] Most Sony fans aren't even really clamoring for those.

[01:16:42] I don't think Sony fans necessarily care

[01:16:45] about banjo kazooie.

[01:16:46] No, the only thing Sony fans are really probably upset about is crash and spiral. That's really

[01:16:53] about it.

[01:16:54] Yeah, but I imagine the crash and spiral aren't going. I imagine they will. They'll probably

[01:16:59] I imagine what most Xbox exclusives that go multi-plat, they'll be on here for like maybe 12 to 18 months, maybe 24 max, and then move them over.

[01:17:11] That's probably what they'll do.

[01:17:13] And I think that's fair, you know, and then stuff like, you know, say Call of Duty, it's like, well, it's coming to game pass, you know.

[01:17:21] We'll see if that moves the knee.

[01:17:23] I doubt it will move the needle much. But man, who knows, not a big deal. I think as long as we still have the big three will be fine. Yes, coming into a place one of them. No, like I've always felt that if we had Sega

[01:17:48] And we had the four the industry would actually be healthier

[01:17:53] But unfortunately Sega was to that they did it to themselves. They did it to themselves. So what can you do?

[01:18:00] Yeah, yeah, I like crystal there. They're're really good dev team. And the games I've played

[01:18:05] from them. I've really enjoyed. I really liked the Tomb Raider reboot series. I thought they

[01:18:10] did a good job with those. I don't get the hate for shadow. I think shadow was really

[01:18:16] good. It's not as combat focused as rise and 2013. It's a bit more puzzle oriented,

[01:18:22] but it's kind of what I liked about it. And the game's absolutely gorgeous because it's the only one that's optimized for this,

[01:18:29] for the series acts and PS5.

[01:18:31] So the game looks phenomenal.

[01:18:32] And yeah, they're good.

[01:18:35] And I think crystal are a good dev that have earned their pedigree as well.

[01:18:39] And they have some weird stuff like in the past and then they had like, they're like

[01:18:44] sole reaver era. And now they're like deep in their Tomb Raider era and they might start doing

[01:18:48] bigger AAA stuff as well.

[01:18:50] Like if I imagine if perfect dark hits really well that that could be a catalyst for them

[01:18:54] doing more stuff of that size.

[01:18:57] Yeah.

[01:18:58] Honestly, Crystal.

[01:19:02] I think Crystal is probably the other the other big legacy that the 3dio kind of left

[01:19:07] behind. Yeah, yeah. But where's the new where's the new Gex? Where's the triple A Gex? They've

[01:19:14] teased that so many times lately and it's like I think at this point they're just trolling

[01:19:18] us. I think they could do it. I think I mean it's I don't think it'd be that hard to make

[01:19:23] I'd actually kind of, I know the popularity.

[01:19:28] This wouldn't probably be as popular, but I actually kind of like another 2D Gex.

[01:19:32] It'd be a bad idea. I don't know if, I don't know if Crystal would want to do that. I feel

[01:19:37] like if they were to make like a 3D platformer or help Toys for Bob is independent. Maybe Crystal goes to Toys for Bob and says,

[01:19:46] Hey guys, do you want to do a 3D? Gex game? I'd play that. I trust Toys for Bob.

[01:19:52] I play a new Gex. I'm just curious how they would do Gex is like humor. Like, would he,

[01:19:58] they try pop culture references again? Or would he just become a fucking meme,

[01:20:02] like meme slinger? I mean, pop culture references these days are memes.

[01:20:06] Yeah, it's pop culture.

[01:20:08] I'm just imagining him slinging memes like dead memes and shit.

[01:20:13] I feel like if you did it in the right way, it would be funny.

[01:20:17] Yeah, they were like ironic about it.

[01:20:19] Yeah, or if they did the joke of like, Oh, Gex is washed up and he's trying to stay hip with the kids.

[01:20:25] Like if that was

[01:20:27] Yeah, like it, like an old Gex who's trying to like stay hip or whatever.

[01:20:31] Like they could make a reference to like maybe some kids see Gex and they're like,

[01:20:35] Oh, you're the the insurance salesman, right?

[01:20:37] And he's like, yeah, no, no, that that wouldn't be bad.

[01:20:41] Yeah, that would be funny.

[01:20:42] As long as they don't have

[01:20:44] as long as they don't have them get down with a full motion video woman again. That's

[01:20:50] the last thing we need. I don't think that would be allowed anymore.

[01:20:56] No, that cut scene is so fucking holy. Oh my God. And I thought the Sonic O six stuff

[01:21:03] was bad, which is bad. That is worse.

[01:21:05] Yeah, they straight up. She's like her full grainy full motion video is sitting on the bed.

[01:21:11] And then Gex is CGI model just walks up. It's like, what were they smoking? Oh my God.

[01:21:18] It was a different era, man. Ironically, the end, the end 64 version just completely omits her from it. Good.

[01:21:28] The a rare time cartridge space limitations was actually for the benefit. Yeah. That is

[01:21:34] such a funny fucking thing. Yeah. And oh, and I remembered. Yeah, the GEX trilogy was

[01:21:40] announced by limited run, I think last year. But my guess is with them, it's

[01:21:45] going to be a long time to ever hear about it.

[01:21:47] Most likely. Yeah, though, to be fair, I think for this show, we'd probably just do the first

[01:21:52] gax.

[01:21:53] So probably just do the first gax we might cover two and three later. Yeah, I would like

[01:21:59] I would like to play those. So I believe they're going to play station. PlayStation PlayStation and 64, although the N64 version of enter the

[01:22:09] gecko is not very good. Yeah, I would just for those I'd probably just play

[01:22:13] the PlayStation. They're probably not on steam. I doubt it.

[01:22:17] I don't think so. A GeX 2 was hard to find anywhere for a while.

[01:22:22] Let's see. I type in Geex and I get nothing. Yeah.

[01:22:27] Thankfully, they're not really expensive games.

[01:22:30] They might be on my abandoned. Well, I probably wouldn't

[01:22:33] shouldn't get the PC versions of those if they've never been

[01:22:35] re-released. I'd probably just emulate the PlayStation one version.

[01:22:39] Yeah, it's not super hard. Yeah.

[01:22:43] You remember the advert for Gex 3 that was just Gex like

[01:22:46] spread across like her fucking boobs? And that was the ad. I've seen that before. It's

[01:22:52] like, Jesus, what it's what a different time. It screams desperation. That's what that's

[01:22:58] what it says to me that they were they were like, Oh, these games really aren't hitting.

[01:23:02] We need to do something. That was I I think, that was, I think the point where they realized I think

[01:23:07] Gex has hit his end of the end of the line at this point.

[01:23:12] Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[01:23:13] Isn't the N64 cover of Gex 3 like him doing the Steve Austin thing?

[01:23:17] Yeah, like because they completely changed everything.

[01:23:20] It's like, why the hell like, is this make any sense?

[01:23:26] Like if they had made the games good, it would have been fine. Easy peasy. Also like I always throws me off whenever

[01:23:33] I hear like the British version of Gex because he's got like that like weird like a cockney

[01:23:39] accent and two for whatever reason. He would be in North of England guy.

[01:23:45] But then in Gex 3, he speaks in like Jive talk and it's really

[01:23:50] yeah, Jesus Christ. It's it's bizarre. I mean, thankfully, we had we had

[01:23:55] a

[01:23:58] the same guy for all three games. I'm blanking on his name right now.

[01:24:02] John Gex.

[01:24:05] God, this is going to bother me.

[01:24:06] What was this?

[01:24:07] What was Gex's voice actor's name?

[01:24:11] Oh, yeah.

[01:24:11] That's the cover where he's like, yeah.

[01:24:13] Oh, you didn't get a gold.

[01:24:15] Oh, yeah.

[01:24:16] Oh, yeah.

[01:24:17] That's the cover of Gex through where he's holding the ladies boobs.

[01:24:20] Yeah.

[01:24:20] Like, like that's definitely a thing.

[01:24:22] I forget what it was where like she's wearing like jeans

[01:24:25] But no top and then she's like this and then Gex is behind her

[01:24:28] Graping on the boobs. Yeah giant gecko. Yeah, and

[01:24:34] I'm glad that one wasn't called enter the gecko

[01:24:39] Yeah

[01:24:42] But uh

[01:24:44] Yeah, so crystal dynamics definitely one of the brightest stars to come from 3DO.

[01:24:50] Love them.

[01:24:51] Honestly, like, I think they were the second most prolific next to EA.

[01:24:56] Yeah, I would say so.

[01:24:58] We might find more as we go on, but there might be some Japanese devs that were pretty

[01:25:03] prolific on the 3DO because the 3DO we haven't really gone into but it had a

[01:25:08] Surprisingly strong Japanese market

[01:25:11] Especially for for what it was

[01:25:15] Yeah, I mean that's not even counting just the porn games

[01:25:19] for real

[01:25:21] But but even still you know, that's why that's why if anyone's trying to find

[01:25:25] a 3dio, you're going to notice you'll find a lot of Japanese FC 10s.

[01:25:30] Yes.

[01:25:31] And the porn, the porn games were American.

[01:25:34] There probably was Japanese ones.

[01:25:36] I just don't know.

[01:25:37] They were there was weird hand-eye games as well.

[01:25:38] Oh, I have.

[01:25:39] Of course.

[01:25:40] They are nearly as interesting.

[01:25:41] That's sad.

[01:25:42] Depending on who you ask.

[01:25:45] Yeah.

[01:25:53] But yeah, next week, we're covering the big one. So that'll be a boy.

[01:25:59] That'll be a fun time. But yes, Phil, then guys, you can find us on all the major podcasting platforms, particularly podcast and Spotify. You can find us on

[01:26:04] YouTube with a video version

[01:26:05] of the podcast that'll probably be up shortly before the audio version. And you can find all

[01:26:10] of our links at link tree slash the barber games. And if you'd like, you can join the