Unofficial Controller Podcast
From Retro Glory to Horizon Forbidden Love: Gaming Through the Ages with RGT and Triple S
Ever wondered what makes a game’s narrative truly compelling? We tackle this question by comparing the storytelling techniques of "Horizon Zero Dawn" and "Assassin's Creed Valhalla." While "Horizon" earns high marks for its streamlined gameplay and gripping story, we express our disappointment with recent "Assassin's Creed" titles that seem trapped in a cycle of repetition. We also draw parallels between high-budget TV shows and open-world games, discussing whether Ubisoft’s upcoming Star Wars game might break out of the traditional Ubisoft formula and offer something genuinely innovative.
As we wrap up, join us on a trip down memory lane with a heartfelt exploration of retro gaming and the joys of collecting classic consoles. From the host's personal anecdotes about childhood gaming aspirations and the creation of a dedicated game shed to the impact of digital store closures on game preservation, we cover it all. Plus, we share our excitement for future releases like "Indiana Jones," "Fable," and "Perfect Dark," and talk about how the scarcity of new must-have games this year has pushed us to explore new genres. Whether you're a retro gaming enthusiast or a modern-day gamer, this episode promises a rich blend of insights, nostalgia, and excitement for what's to come.
Could you design a video game?
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Ever wondered what makes a game’s narrative truly compelling? We tackle this question by comparing the storytelling techniques of "Horizon Zero Dawn" and "Assassin's Creed Valhalla." While "Horizon" earns high marks for its streamlined gameplay and gripping story, we express our disappointment with recent "Assassin's Creed" titles that seem trapped in a cycle of repetition. We also draw parallels between high-budget TV shows and open-world games, discussing whether Ubisoft’s upcoming Star Wars game might break out of the traditional Ubisoft formula and offer something genuinely innovative.
As we wrap up, join us on a trip down memory lane with a heartfelt exploration of retro gaming and the joys of collecting classic consoles. From the host's personal anecdotes about childhood gaming aspirations and the creation of a dedicated game shed to the impact of digital store closures on game preservation, we cover it all. Plus, we share our excitement for future releases like "Indiana Jones," "Fable," and "Perfect Dark," and talk about how the scarcity of new must-have games this year has pushed us to explore new genres. Whether you're a retro gaming enthusiast or a modern-day gamer, this episode promises a rich blend of insights, nostalgia, and excitement for what's to come.
Could you design a video game?
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
what's up? Everyone in the ucp nation, do not adjust that dial. This is not George, but this is Triple S himself, the man Seb, as they like to call me in the UK Anyways, it's Sebastian Malden, and joining me is the retro gamer himself. This is the man that has beaten 10,000 video games. This is the man that has led Drake to all the fortune in the world. He is the uncharted one himself. He is the Uncharted one himself. This is RGT. How are you doing today, rgt?
Speaker 2:Wow, what an introduction. Yeah, I'm very well. I've never had one like that before. Take note, george, I want this every week. I'm very good. How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm doing well. I'm doing well, man. It's been the the gaming journey this year. We were talking about this when we were on. It's like none of us have felt like the ultimate high and I think all of us are kind of chasing it, and I think that that elusive golden dragon or the treasure at the end of the rainbow I'm still searching for that. I've had moments. Well, I've had a lot of games that I've enjoyed, but nothing that I was like, oh, this is a hall of fame experience. This is my creme de la creme this year and I think that's maybe it's an expectation thing, but I think that's like it feels like something's missing in the pit of my stomach while in gaming this year. Do you feel the?
Speaker 2:same way. Yeah, oh, definitely. Um, I think, like I said the other week when we were talking about this and the latest gen is a has been. I've come back around a bit lately. I'm playing a game at the moment which has really pulled me back in um, but other than that, it's it's been a struggle and I think it was always going to happen after 2023.
Speaker 2:We were very spoiled in 2023 we were and it's you know, and for that to have carried on in that vein into 2024 was always going to be a struggle, but I feel it's gone a bit from one extreme to the other. It's nice that we've we've had the xbox showcase and we've had a bit from the playstation uh one they done um, I can never remember the name of the playstation one, but um, it's, it was nice, but they're all sort of games that are coming out later in the year, next year, as for this year, it's all a bit oof. It's a bit. I know we shouldn't really say that with how many games are on the market, but for new releases it has been a bit testing so far.
Speaker 1:Especially on the Triple A side. I think the E side has been really strong because you've had like pow world bellatro, yes, yeah yeah, um, hell divers, uh I would say v rising.
Speaker 1:You've had strong entries in the on the indie side of the fence I would almost argue indies have kind of carried this year but like at least in the mainstream, the mainstream sense. It's like if you're not a final fantasy person and you didn't get like all the highs from final fantasy seven, part two, there hasn't quite been a game that feels almost a level in that triple, a space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very much so. And yeah, we are. We're very lucky with the Indies. They always seem to keep the scene moving along and there's always games cropping up here and there and sometimes it is quite hard to see those games. You know, sometimes you see them a bit later. They don't get the publicity that the AAAs get. But, like you say, from the AAA front it's been barren, you know, and it's as though we're waiting for that next big drop but it just doesn't seem to be coming at the moment. But I've jumped. Well, I threatened it when we last spoke on the show, but I've jumped into Forbidden West because I hadn't Woo, yeah, what are you thinking so far?
Speaker 2:Well, put it this way I started it 10 days ago and I've already put 38 hours in. Oh, that's with a full-time job. So that's how much I'm loving it. Yeah, um I I would go as far to say probably the best open world game I've ever played oh, I almost excuse me.
Speaker 1:I almost had to censor myself there. So the best open world game you've ever played. I love horizon for midwest.
Speaker 1:I think this is the most underrated game of this generation of like because I think so because, like every time, you know, like every time horizon have come out, it's always been overshadowed by something a little bit bigger in the mainstream. You know it's debatable, I know most people would probably say it's always been overshadowed by something that's greater and better, and I think that's more. You know, opinion based, based on, like I know you, you were a big um zelda guy, especially with breath of the wild and how it overshadowed the first horizon game, and then you also have elden ring. I don't, I don't know, are you a big eldenen Ring person?
Speaker 2:No, I'm not really a Souls player. I never have been, Obviously, from the critics and the scores that Elden Ring got. It is an amazing game, but it's a different genre. Yes, open world, but it's not the same sort of thing as what this big story-based game.
Speaker 2:I think with Forb, with forbidden west um looks stunning, looks absolutely glorious, some of the best facial animations, brilliant. Yeah, you, you go back and put starfield on. You think, oh my god, you realize how good the facial animations are on forbidden west um. And then you've got the story, which continues on but gets even deeper and even bigger and even better. The map is fantastic. You're in new areas as you're heading west. I just think it's an all-round game. They've ticked the boxes Looks great, great story, great acting, great adventure. I mean even as far as to say you know, I was. Assassin's Creed has always been a game I thought of. You know they're very high and low, it's always been quite good. Assassin's creed origins was always my favorite. That's when they first went to open world, that's when they first tried to change it up.
Speaker 2:Really good game so the rpg style yes, um, and I always thought that was always my favorite. Uh, assassin's creed. Nowidden West is like that, but times 100. It is so good in every way. And even the side missions I mean, even in Assassin's Creed Origins yes, you did have side missions. I've left my stick by the river. Can you go and get my stick? There isn't none of this in here. I mean, I've done a side quest the other day which led into three other missions that I had to do as part of this side quest. I was doing it for two and a half hours, this side mission, yet it was still linked into the story. They're so well crafted and written and yeah, um, absolutely loving it, absolutely brilliant, um, and yeah, it definitely doesn't get the love it deserves.
Speaker 1:Forbidden rest no, no, I think you're. You're on to something there. I think, like I always say um, especially on my other show, the single player experience, I always say there's levels to this and I think, like in the open world ubisoft formula, where it's just you know, like where you see everything on the map and it's almost like a mission and collect-a-thon type open world rpg, you kind of see that there are still levels to that style of game. Like ubisoft is like they do the same game over and over again and it's almost surface level missions, whereas, like I feel like horizon forbidden west and, I'd argue, ghost of tsushima always also had this same kind of level quality. It's just like everything feels well crafted. It's like they take that concept and they push it to the next level.
Speaker 1:It's the stories, like everything feels well crafted. It's like they take that concept and then they push it to the next level. It's the stories, like you were saying, they mean something. The side quests, they they interweave, they're interwoven with, like the main story a little bit, but also like they're offshoot enough to where, like they can all arguably be like the main quest on a indie game. That's how they kind of feel versus like ubisoft, it almost feels like padding. It's just a little bit more. That kind of makes the game feel a little bit more bloated and a little more complete and a little more worth that 60 here it feels like no, this was always meant to be here yeah, exactly, yeah, that that is that's spot on, because in an Assassin's Creed you'll sometimes find that there'll be a side mission.
Speaker 2:You'll go and do that side mission and, other than leveling up your character, you'll sometimes think, hmm, that was pointless. Not once in Forbidden West have I thought anything has been pointless. And I mean to be fair compared to zero dawn. They've even brought down the sort of level of craft and they've brought down the skill tree. They've brought down um, um, like your accessories you're collecting because obviously you have your storage boxes which it automatically goes back to. So they've actually reined it in a bit, they've actually reduced it a bit to make the gameplay that much better. And it just seems so well crafted, it seems so well. I can't. So far, like I say, I'm 38-ish hours in, I cannot see anything where I think, hmm, that should have been done better or they should have done it. So far, everything is just tipping an owl on the head, and when I sat back um last weekend I was going through open world games. I've played um and I just thought I don't know if there is one that's better I really don't, I was a big wow.
Speaker 2:I still am a big advocate of breath of the wild. Um, it's a very good open world game in a different way. But if you want that triple, a almost movie style game, just written like a movie, but you are that character, you are a lawyer and you feel you're a lawyer Do you know what I mean? They pull you into the story. I, I, I'd argue, anyone if there's a better, better game than there's been done like that. I mean, if I think if I went back to say Assassin's Creed now or, for instance, watch Dogs or something like that, they're going to feel very this sounds harsh but very amateurish compared to how Guerrilla Games has done this.
Speaker 1:You know, I think that kind of leads me into two questions. I want to follow up based on your comments there. The first one I think it kind of leads me into two questions. I want to follow up based on your comments there. It's the first one.
Speaker 1:I think it's very interesting that you say you did the Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild kind of like comparison here, because, like those games, because of the release date, because of the story that were attached to it, especially with Breath of the Wild, more so than Tears of the Kingdom, I kind of linked together with Horizon. You know, like everyone, you know, like for a lot of people they said, oh, you can't climb anything, so we're going to go more Zelda and Breath of the Wild, which is, you know, their prerogative. There's nothing wrong with that. Whereas, like for me, horizon hit a little harder for me because, like it felt more focused, it felt like there was a dedicated, everything had a purpose, whereas like zelda, it feels like it almost feels like a you, they gave you developer tools and they just said, hey, you play this like sandbox any way you want to and you have that kind of freedom and will loosely base like a story around that concept.
Speaker 1:Here on the horizon side, it felt like no, we have a dedicated sci-fi world that we built. We have structures in place, we have rules that follow those types of structures and then we built an open world around this really cool futuristic sci-fi, almost dystopian story. You know, like two different philosophies now, no one better than the other. I would say it's just a matter of preference, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, without a doubt. I mean I think zelda, their storyline, although breath of the wild teas of the kingdom, are technically a separate zelda story. The zelda lore is already there. They're right from zero dawn. This wasn't, this is a new ip that they've ripped and they wrote so well. You know this.
Speaker 2:I love this story of and this isn't spoilers if anyone hasn't played it but but you're in the future. You're the tribal characters and the, the. The stuff you're finding of the ancients is technology far superior to your own. So it's almost switched around history. So the stuff in the past is the better technology than what you've got in the future. And what a brilliant idea, you know, and to write that whole new ip and that whole new lore and the characters and then to get them actors to you know to act out so well. It's you. I think anyone would would find it a struggle to to pick holes in in the game. No, zero, zero Dawn.
Speaker 2:I think was brilliant, amazing game. I've played that this year. That was first time. Well, I tried playing it before. It never clicked with me. I tried twice and eventually George had to be. Just get through them first 15 hours, that will click, that'll click and it did and I just that was it. I was in the world and I always say that was always a solid eight out of 10. For me, seven and a half eight out of 10. But I think Forbidden West is a very, very solid nine and a half. Wow, which, yeah, and I think also with you've got to remember with Breath of the Wild. A lot of the hype with Breath of the Wild was people weren't expecting an open world, zelda. So that was instantly a 7 out of 10 because they'd done this massive open world on a Switch. I know it'd come from the Wii U, but it was on the Switch. That was this new open world and that was a new way to play. So everyone loved it straight away away, which is another reason I loved it.
Speaker 1:And don't get me wrong, I love breath of the world. I'd like breath of the world better than I do tears of the kingdom. I can understand. That's your first time in that kind of concept, exactly.
Speaker 2:So then when you play tears of the kingdom, you were back in doing the sort of same thing again, but just slightly enhanced. Still a brilliant game, and it's that they are brilliant at what they do on the system they're on um. But if you want that real epic, massive, like I say, movie style um new world to go into, then especially forbidden west is absolutely stunning, absolutely brilliant. I can't wait, I agree I agree, like um.
Speaker 1:I'm to ask you a question have you ever watched the Avatar the Last Airbender?
Speaker 2:No, I haven't. No, I've. Actually, it was only a few weeks ago I picked the game up for the Wii.
Speaker 1:You picked the game. I've never seen the IP for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I just saw the game and I thought that looked interesting. I thought I'd never heard of it and I'd never seen it before. So I bought the game. But yeah, I've never seen the show.
Speaker 1:No, Okay, so you know, like all right. So I was a big fan of it growing up. It was a Nickelodeon property that when I was probably like sixth or seventh grade and keep in mind, I'm in my 30s now it's like that was more. That's when it kind of like took off for the first time and it was about a kid who. A kid who's basically like a guardian of that world, he and he was supposed to be the chosen one. He was neo, right, and they're in a string of neos because, like, every generation has an avatar. Like when the avatar dies, he is reincarnated, like another avatar basically is birthed and they become the avatar. So I'm like it all there's always has to be an avatar.
Speaker 1:So this guy, um, this guy named ang, he was born into this world, he was the avatar, he was the airbender and then all of a sudden, like the fire nation, basically decided hey, we are going to take over the entire world. We're the superior benders of the world, like, we're better than earth, wind and air. We're going to take over and the wind world needed him most. Ang basically disappeared and slipped into a coma and woke up a hundred years later, right, oh yeah, so woke up 100 years later, right, yeah, so woke up 100 years later. This is what I'm getting at. He woke up 100 years later, right? And then Aang has to go and get help and teachings from a representative from each element the fire, the wind and the water, right? Okay?
Speaker 1:So you've've connected the dots here, so so, skipping ahead a little bit, I play I like I. When I first turned on breath of the wild, I was just like, oh, this feels familiar. And then, like five hours in, I'm like no, this is the same exact story. You know, it felt like the story from avatar, the last airbender, except nintendo just did the exact same story and turned it into. Instead of ang, who's like this goofy, lovable character, they used link, who was basically this mute character, and yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:I'm going to watch that. It is the exam and like. Watch the show and then tell me, like, beat for beat, if, like, the overall story isn't very much the same as breath of the wild. There are minute differences, don't get me wrong. It's just like the core storyline of like. If you're writing the um, the spark storyline of like. If you're writing the um, the spark notes, where, like, they give you like, the overall big point, plot points, they're very similar, is all I'm saying.
Speaker 1:And then for me, like, as a narrative guy, as a guy who likes literature and all that, that, that felt like such a deterrent for me when I was playing breath of the wild. So, and then I add to the fact that I loved horizon because of, like, its gameplay, its mechanics, its gameplay is a lot deeper than zelda's. Um, and keep in mind, this is my first zelda, so I never knew. I like I had never known what to expect. I heard great things about zelda, but then I played it and I'm like, oh, so the gameplay when you're actually in action boils down to you basically, you have a dodge, you have a parry with a shield, you can jump backwards and then you can whack somebody. And I'm like, oh, those are the four only things you can use, and then you can also like use a couple of items here, but that's it right. Yeah, so it felt rudimentary for me, like going from horizon I was.
Speaker 1:The opposite is why I'm telling this story. It's like everyone who loved zelda, tears of the breath of the wild and then was like, oh, I can't go backwards to horizon, I was just like I can't go backwards to zelda. You know like it felt like that. It felt like you it and I don't mean this to be demeaning. It just felt like you're playing like an adult, almost like an adult citric game. It's got all these mechanics, it's so in depth of like oh, you have like elements, all that kind of stuff, and then you go to play like almost like a fisher. Price game is what it felt like yeah, I can see that it's.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, it's. It does feel like, uh, my first rpg compared to that's that's what I'm getting that yeah, um, yeah the puzzles, yeah, the puzzles made up for that.
Speaker 2:The yeah, no, the shrines were always good. I loved the shrines. They were brilliant, fun, uh, I loved all those. But also, I think, with, with forbidden west especially, and and the same in zero dawn. Um, you still have to collect things. You still have to collect your berries, your health you still have, but never is that a chore, because you're so drawn in to the world of aloy and you are representing aloy, you're straight away thinking right, let's make sure I've got enough wood for arrows to craft my arrows, make sure I've got enough health. But it's done in, it almost seems. It makes you feel a bit of a boss because you've got all this. That feels quite technical, but it's not technical to do at all yeah, you know, and they've even streamlined that in forbidden west with your d-pad.
Speaker 2:So if you just sort of put some more health on, you haven't got to go in submenu, it's just held up. Your berries are there. That's mentally made into health. You want to craft your arrows? L1 and press X, your arrows are there. It's all done so streamed. It's quite a technical RPG in that respect under the skin, but it's never hard to do or too complicated. It's a very balanced. So well, I think. Polished and balanced, I think sort of two words for that game.
Speaker 1:So I want to. I want to ask you my second question from earlier, like based on what you told me with Horizon, with you playing Horizon, and you said something to the lines of, like, you know, going back and playing those Assassin's Creed style games Even the RPGs would feel a little bit muted at you know, now that you played horizon, do you feel like you aren't necessarily looking forward to assassin's creed? I think it's shadows at the end of the year, the, the japanese style, uh, japanese setting of assassin's creed games.
Speaker 2:After playing horizon for bend west now, um, to be honest, I was struggling to look forward to it before. Oh, okay, I loved Origins. I jumped into Odyssey and I just couldn't get on with Odyssey. A lot of people loved Odyssey. To me it was just a map full of question marks and it felt, you know, and I thought they took a break, changed it up with Origins, and I thought, right, and they progressed on that, and then, and then I didn't get out, and then I played.
Speaker 1:Did you play Valhalla?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I put about 20 hours in Valhalla and I just thought this is rinse and repeat. You know it's not and I know they've done quite a few of these games. I know they're quite popular. They sell well, people like them. But zero dawn right. Brilliant game, brilliant story. New ip introduced a load of new people to it. They could have done rinse and repeat on it. They didn't. They streamlined your controls, they streamlined the actions, they upgraded it and don't get me wrong, I've done a few screenshots on our discord.
Speaker 2:This game is gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous and I'm playing this in performance mode, so I'm playing it with a slightly less res on it and it still looks stunning. And I even I put a couple screenshots up the other day and og tom from the show said that's amazing, that looks gorgeous. And I said, yep, and that was in performance mode, that wasn't in you know um in the high fidelity and all that kind of stuff so you know, to then make the second game.
Speaker 2:They could have gone rinse and repeat with this. Yes, you've got Aloy again. Yes, you're going to have to improve the story, but they just went all out. You know, this story takes another jump forward. You go into a new area, you go there's new machines to fight, there's new enemies to fight, there's these branch and storylines, so it literally feels like horizon 2.0. They've literally taken the first game and just ran with it into the second. It doesn't feel like a rinse and repeat, which I felt the assassin's creed have felt for a while.
Speaker 2:Um so yeah, going back to your question for the new one, am I excited? No, I've. I'll be honest with you, I have no interest in it whatsoever. I've watched a trailer and I thought at first I thought this looks different, this looks quite good. And then I started seeing it and I started thinking this is the same, just with a different area and a different. You know, look over the game. I thought yeah, so no, I would for me to play that. I will wait and see how that releases. I mean, I even tried what was the shorter Assassin's Creed one. They'd done Mirage.
Speaker 1:Oh no, I'm not the stealthy Assassin's Creeded person, so I was. I was out from the get-go. I'm, I'm rpg or bust at this point I'll give them their due.
Speaker 2:That looks good. It's a good looking game, you know. They've really, you know, brought it up to the the latest gen standards. But I played about three, four hours of that and I just thought it just feels soulless. Yeah, I know there's fans of that game and you know fair play to you, but it just felt soulless. That doesn't. It's just a new way of playing assassin's creed. It's a new look of playing assassin's creed. I know they went a bit more stealthy with it, but you know it's the retro style of assassin's creed like it was assassin's creed one, two and three and it goes back to that that thing.
Speaker 1:But it didn't feel like it was innovative enough to where, like it felt like its own entry. It felt like it was like oh, we're going back to that style, but we're just going to give you that style. It's not like I think for me you specifically, if I'm interpreting your words correctly it's like we wanted to see that next step up of like, if you're going back to that stealth stealth based only Assassin's Creed, we still want to see how you take it to the next level. And I don't think they managed to hit that high again. It was more like we're going to give those nostalgia fans that nostalgia feeling.
Speaker 2:Hmm, yeah, and it's. I just I think sometimes, especially now with triple a games, if you're doing a big open world rpg, you can make it look as glorious as you want, but if it's not very well written, it will shine through. It needs to be a complete package, um, and sometimes you just find with with the assassin's creed, withage and Valhalla, the stories are a bit weak. It's not. Your time in that game is filled up with side quests and fetch quests. Now, people like that, I'm not going to say fair play to you. If you like that style of game, brilliant.
Speaker 2:But for me, I think, where that changes up with Horizon, it's got that story that you want to see what happens next. You want to see where that next mission takes you. You want to see that clouded part of the map. You know that side mission you're doing in Assassin's Creed. You just do because you want to get a couple more levels up In this. You want to do it because it will link you into the story. It will show you a new part of the map. It's very well designed and crafted that game, and I just I think that's where a lot of these big rpgs fall away these days. You need a really well written story to to pull you through.
Speaker 1:You know I agree wholeheartedly. I want to ask you two questions based on what you just said, um, the first being is that I've always had a saying that ubisoft swims in sevens. It's like I, I do. I think you swim in sevens like all they put out a game, it's gonna be a seven out of ten. The people who love it are gonna really love it because they bought, they know what they're getting. It's almost like it's almost like they put out a netflix style game to where, like you know, you just turn on netflix, you're just turning your mind off.
Speaker 1:You want to enjoy tv, but very rarely. When you watch, like a high budget next flick show, are you thinking like man, I've waited, I've waited a year for this, I've been salivating for this versus hbo who has? There's people who like, after the last season of house of the dragon ended, they're like I can't wait for that next, next season. It's the same thing with the Last of Us, with season two. Everyone's excited about that. Hulu, to their credit, and to FX's credit, they have this show called the Bear, which is a cooking show, very high drama, high serialized, very rare wooden show. People are salivating for that next season, which just came out today.
Speaker 1:By the way, I'm excited about that, um, anyways, it's like those feel like appointment television and like we have appointment games as well. There's levels to this, as I like to say. With um, assassin's creed, it feels like it's a netflix style show where, like they're putting it out, you're just going to turn show where, like they're putting it out, you're just going to turn your mind off, you're going to get it, you're just going to play that game and for the next couple of hours, that's what you're doing, you're just playing that game. It's like with Horizon, with Ghost of Tsushima, the Last of Us, god of War, just to name a few. You feel like it's appointment viewing, it's appointment gaming. It's where you're playing something and you're going to have that same level of fun, or maybe more, but you're also it's making you use that brain of yours. It's thought provoking. You're entrenched and entranced with what's going on in that narrative. It's like that. It feels like you're not playing a map, you're living in a world, and I think that's the difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're not playing a map, you're living in a world, and I think that's the difference. Yeah, yeah, definitely I think. And it's a shame as well, because I know I keep going back to origins. I really connected with the character by acting that and I wanted to go on and I wanted to see what you know, and they, they took them years out or a couple of years out to really make that game and make a new one.
Speaker 2:I thought, oh, this is a new assassin's creed, this is the way to go, this is the way to do it. And then when I played odyssey, I just I thought the character was pretty bad written. I just didn't get on with him. It was almost he was trying to be funny and corny and and I just thought, why have you done this? You could have expanded on this and written a new story, and you know that seemed a lot more serious in assassin's creed origin that you know. Deep story to it and I really enjoy it. I just don't quite know where, where they went. You know that seems that I lost their way a bit again and thought, oh, this is a new way, we'll just keep, we'll keep knocking the games out like this, you know here's my question from before and because I I never.
Speaker 1:I was just talking and never got to the question.
Speaker 1:The question I want to ask you is like, do you think the ip of assassin's creed is holding back the gameplay of what they've built?
Speaker 1:And, to elaborate a little bit, it's like I feel like them always trying to have that assassin's creed elements where it's like you're the person in the future, going back in time and all that kind of stuff it's like, and them trying to in the future, going back in time and all that kind of stuff it's like, and them trying to tie that into the grand scheme of like 13 to 14 different games that, let's be honest, a lot of people do not care about that.
Speaker 1:That assassin's creed part about assassin's creed they care about like the setting and like the actual role play isms of like the assassin's creed worlds. It's like if would shadows feel 10 more intriguing to you maybe even more, maybe more percentage, if they just came out as a new ip and they just said um, this is the age of shadows, let's just call it the age of shadows where you're just playing as a samurai it's in an ubisoft world still, but like, none of the ac stuff is tied to this. You're just playing as these this brand new character. Would that feel more enticing to you, or you like this as a screen part of it?
Speaker 2:no, no, I think you hit the nail on the head. I definitely think the assassin's creed tag because they seem to, like I said, if they went to open world they tried the the RPG style. But every so often they sort of think, oh actually it's still an Assassin's Creed, we've got to shoehorn all these Assassin's Creed tropes in. But with a new IP maybe they could let their aims off a bit. They can prove they can do it graphically. Just get a really good written story down. Just like you say, don't call it assassin's creed, you know, yeah, it could be in such a different game, but I think they soon as they call it assassin's creed. That's almost like they assume. People want that bit of stealth, some fetch quests, you know, and the leveling up. Not necessarily do people want that. There is different ways of making an open world rpg. So if they take the assassin's creed name off, maybe that'll inspire them to to try something different. But yeah, I think you're definitely right it does.
Speaker 1:It handbrakes them definitely so to, I guess as a follow-up to that question. Then, based on what you just told me, if they they're doing that with star wars this coming up fall, are you looking forward to that or do you feel like that is still going to be the ubisoft formula, just with the star wars skin? It's like you're getting your new ip that you that we just talked about. It's a different ip. It still has that ubisoft formula a lot more than likely. Do you feel like that's going to scratch that itch of like what's missing, or do you feel like it's the ubisoft formula now that's holding, that's going to scratch that itch of like what's missing, or do you feel like it's the ubisoft formula now that's holding, that's holding them back?
Speaker 2:um, when I first watched that trailer, I missed the start, so I miss, I miss the ubisoft bit. So I saw the female character, I saw her doing and I thought, oh, hello, I'm, I'm quite liking this and and and. The sad thing is, when it got to the end of the trailer I thought, okay, I'm on board with this. And then it flashed up ubisoft studios and I thought, and that sounds horrible, and I don't mean. But straight away I thought this is assassin's creed in space.
Speaker 2:Now I'm intrigued because I think that they've had a big opportunity here to make a different style of game. They haven't got to put this open world fetch quest map over the top of this. You can still do that, but have a good story with it. Now, hopefully, with Star Wars, the story will be decent. I would imagine they'd have Star Wars advisors on that, because I would imagine Disney isn't going to let quite a a weak star wars story go. But I don't know. Um, I hope, but I'm more intrigued with that than I am. The new assassin's creed but will I buy day one? No, I got a bit put off with the, the anchored back part of the story from jabba the hut which they've now behind, which was which they shoo in the trailer, which would be brilliant, doing missions for him, and then suddenly they put it behind a paywall. So they haven't actually?
Speaker 1:no, I didn't hear about that oh, didn't you know that.
Speaker 2:So basically I didn't know that correct me if I'm wrong community corrections, but as far as I know, rather than when you buy the top package for that, which is like $130, by the way, jeez, yes, yes, expensive, right, then they've made out that this was DLC. You get the DLC with it, but it isn't. This is part of the story. They haven't made an extra DLC.
Speaker 2:They've cut off part of that side of the story that you can only get oh no they've cut off part of the that side of the story that you could only get no, which got a big backlash. Whether it's fixed now, I'll hold my hands up and say sorry. If they've fixed it now, I don't know, but that was. I was going to pre-order this game when I saw that the jabba, the hut section is now put behind a paywall, which is actually part, was part of the story anyway. I thought one that's lazy development, because if you do want to craft a DLC for it, then you can't have, you can't cut off part of the story to charge extra. You even make a DLC or you don't. You know, and I thought so that that stopped me from pre-ordering that. Whether they change it on release, because there was a big backlash on that, I don't know. But I thought, oh, that's, that is a naughty naughty that is, that is very ugly, especially when you've played it in the trailer to show people as well.
Speaker 2:So people have gone. Oh yes, jabba the Hutt's in there. And then they've obviously seen the reaction and thought oh, we'll put, we'll pretend that's DLC and earn a few extra bucks from it. Yeah, not for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the young kids used to have a saying called catfishing. Are you aware of this? Yes, yeah, okay, so that feels like the catfishness to where like that really feels like a catfish.
Speaker 1:I'm like you you promised job of the hut and now job of the hut's dlc, basically and I'm like, uh, that that rubs me the wrong way, if I'm being honest. Definitely, yeah, yeah. So, uh, let's pivot a little bit, because I I've been loving this conversation, but I had something in mind for this episode and that I really wanted to ask you. I wanted to, in a way, have the trowel of rgt. I'm I'm not wow, I'm putting you on the stand. You know I'm putting you on the stand and you know, as the defense attorney, I'm asking you several different questions. I want to get your honest feedback. I want to get almost like, get to know you a little bit better because, like you and I have done several different shows, but there are questions. I've always wondered about RGT and this is my opportunity to ask said questions. So, are you ready to be put to the trial?
Speaker 2:You far away.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I like the confidence. I like the confidence. So RGT, as it says on your government documentation retro gaming. Tom, as it says in your documentation, what made you love retro gaming so much?
Speaker 2:Well, I think what it was.
Speaker 1:I mean, mean, obviously I'm a little bit older than you just a wee bit, just yeah, just just a couple years yeah, one or two years, um, but yeah, I, I grew up in the 80s, um, and done the.
Speaker 2:We used to have a thing in the uk called the 8-bit micros, which were little, uh, micro computers which you could have games on, and obviously the people who coded on them went on to be. You know household names, you know your David Darlins at Codemasters and Stamper Brothers who went on to do Rare, and everyone else started on Spectrums and that's where it all began. And randomly, I'll jump this in in if anyone hasn't seen a documentary called bedrooms to billions, watch it because it shows you how it started in the uk on the micros and went all the way through to the triple a you get today. But anyway, I digress.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, so I, I played all the way through till sort of mid-teens, I suppose. Suppose, going through the systems. I went Spectrum to Master System, to Mega Drive and I went to Amiga Computer and then I went to PS1. I went all the way through and had a bit of a gap from gaming for a while. Oh, as you do in your mid-teens and other things take priority, like going out with your friends and bits and pieces, and I had a bit of a gap there.
Speaker 1:And a certain Mrs RGT caught your eye right at that time.
Speaker 2:Ooh, yes, and I'd had a bit of a gap and actually that was just after uh sort of mega drive here, I'd say. And actually that was a current girlfriend I had at the time that wasn't mrs rgt, oh no, but I'd. I'd actually had an operation hospital and she bought me to um because I couldn't go out and go to work. So she bought me a playstation one, which is all at the time that sort of got me back into it, um, and then I went through the system ps1, ps2, me and my best friend who's a boarder on the Discord. We've played all through them PS1, ps2, ps3, and I've always had those. But when we got to about PS3, ps4 era, I think it was early PS3, I think, or no, later PS3. Anyway, I had an accident and I came off my mountain bike and I was off work for five months, broke a few bones.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:And for some reason I'd already started looking at sort of retro stuff. And then I bought a magazine called Retro Gamer Magazine, okay, and I started looking into thinking, well, hold on, because I had a PlayStation one 1, I didn't have an n64, I had a ps2. I didn't have an og xbox, I had a ps3, I didn't have an xbox 360. So I started thinking, well, wonder what games I've missed out on on those and I and at the time this is quite a few years ago those things were quite cheap. So and then I started thinking about, oh, I remember the obscure systems on atari, jaguar and amiga cd32 and started purchasing these, all these consoles. And then it turned into a bit of a hobby which I needed to actually build a separate room to put. Um, yeah, and things just progressed from there and then I just fell in love with not necessarily retro I play, obviously from our previous conversation, I play. I've got a ps5, a series x, I've got switch. You know I play the current gen, but I just love. I always see the consoles for what they are. So I don't look at a sega saturn graphics now and think that looks terrible. I look at a Sega Saturn game and think, wow, that was good for the time. I always place it on the system that's, on um, and it became a bit of a family and friends hub. You know I built this, as everyone knows, on the discord. It's called the game shed, um, but it's a sort of work converted workshop which I even record this in. I play in here and we meet up in here and we play games in the evenings and have a few beers and have fun and it's become a bit of a social hub, the game shed, and I think it's just gone from there and I just found new systems and new games and I'm always looking for stuff and yeah, it's just been a very, very good distraction and a great hobby.
Speaker 2:But yeah, why I went retro? Like I say, I just think it was because of this. When you were a kid, you know you would love to. If you were a kid and you got a PS1 for Christmas and your friend got an N64, you'd be thinking I'd love to have both those. I'd love to have both those systems and I think it's just me going back to now I'm in a position where I can do that. You know I've now got 35 systems all set up ready to play Dang yeah. So they're all ready to roll and the TVs are set up, and so you can just put them on and play what you want, when you want, and the games are there, you know, and I think it's just that. I think it's just that. I think it's that nostalgia, that childhood dream of wanting to do that and, luckily enough, I've managed to do it now.
Speaker 1:You're achieving the dream, you're living the dream.
Speaker 2:Achieving the dream yes, definitely.
Speaker 1:So I was that kid you were talking about of. Like my best friend growing up, he had a Nintendo 64. I had the PlayStation 1. You know, like the grass sometimes greener on the other side but, to be honest, a lot of the times we would end up playing my ps1 over his nintendo 64, except for, you know, a couple of exceptions. You know the, the mario karts of the world, the, as we like to, as we thought you know, very foolishly, the superior kart racer, diddy Kong Racing, was like what we like to play a lot more Because, like in Diddy Kong Racing, you could fly and you had a boat.
Speaker 1:So I'm like there was a lot going on in that, but, like we thought that was going to be the kart racer, we were like we don't want this bootleg game called Mario Kart. He only rides the karts and evidently we were on the wrong side of history there. But like, like, yeah, like I was that kid growing up that did want that console. He, he and he went from 64 all the way to xbox. And you know, I was just like man, I love that xbox that you're playing on because it was our halo machine. Like I, we would always play halo together.
Speaker 1:And yet on my journey into gaming, it was always the PlayStation 1, the PS2, the PS3 and then a couple of handhelds in between, those like the Game Boy Advance and the PlayStation Vita I'd never had. Like, well, no, it was the PSP. I never actually owned a Vita before that. So I'm like it was the PSP, so those were my two handhelds. And then everything else rotated around that PlayStation generation all the way, all the way up until that 360 generation, where I was a little more financially flexible and not like a kid.
Speaker 1:Basically it was like hey, please, mom, can you buy me these things? And then like like, yeah, those, those, basically, were my consoles, and now I'm fortunate enough to have pretty much everything under the sun, but unlike you, I think like the difference here is like I haven't had that desire yet to go back and play the the best 10 gems of my that. I guess you could say and take the road not traveled, and I think you're doing a really cool thing. And take the road not traveled and I think you're doing a really cool thing, but I'm living the road not traveled and, uh, the only thing is, is that expensive hobby?
Speaker 2:um, when I started, no, um, I mean there's games I've got in my collection which will go in the thousands now quite easily in the thousands, and I didn't pay that, I paid a few bucks for. You know, you learn. We've got other collectors in the Discord, you know Digital Monkery and Rose Space Monk. They're collectors. Rose Space Monk more on his Dreamcast. He's going for a full Dreamcast collection. But he'll tell you the same thing Games go in peaks and troughs and genres will come and go and consoles will come and go. So I will buy games. I mean, one of the weirdest ones I'd probably say is Atari Jaguar. Oh, the games for those can really go up and down. You just have to catch it the right time. I mean, I'll keep wanting to buy Alien versus Predator, which is probably arguably the best game on that system. There's not many games on that system.
Speaker 1:I was just about to say I'm like I don't think there was a whole lot.
Speaker 2:No, and don't get me wrong, the system is pretty naff, but I love, I love these older systems that are a bit niche and a bit random and didn't do very well. I like to try and find what was good on that system. But sometimes you'll get one month and you'll look and that game's 60, 70 pounds and you think, oh, that's achievable. Now I'll get that in a couple of weeks and then you'll go back and it's 120. So they peak and trough and sometimes you do only need one person on ebay to sell it for 300, because some idiots press buy and suddenly everyone else's is out.
Speaker 2:You know so you have to, but um it it can be.
Speaker 1:I mean of it's almost like you're playing the stock market.
Speaker 2:You know like yeah, when I say when I was first, when I first started collecting, when I decided what to collect, I say, when I decided what I'd collect, I didn't realize I was, I didn't know, it was a thing at the time I was buying these old consoles and playing them and then I sort of outgrew the house when did, when did the like this?
Speaker 1:the switch flip in your head to where you're like, oh, this is, this is my hobby.
Speaker 2:Now I'm a collector like I'm, a genuine collector well, I don't know if as much as I realized it was a hobby or whether I realized I had a problem, but the thing is, I mean, mrs rgt bless her. She's so, so supportive, she loves it, she comes and she was never a big gamer as a kid. She's sort of become a gamer since being with me you know, I've been together 22 years she's become a gamer through that. You know only certain games, not you know. But she loves playing and I mean I've got I don't know 3 000 games now I suppose maybe more, but she'll still buy me games for my birthday and christmas. I haven't got, that's sweet. And she she'll sneak in here when I'm not around and she'll look up games and see what I've got, what I haven't, and she'll find what she thinks I like and she'll hit my friends up or does he want this new rpg or does he want? So yeah, she's very supportive and she just she loves I have a hobby, I think.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's uh yeah, I'm lucky with that. Yeah, I did say to her once do you think I'm a bit strange? Because? And she was like no, I love it. She said it's brilliant that's so sweet you know and I don't you know. Some people say, oh, what an investment. I don't buy it for an investment, you know. Yes, I've said there's games worth thousands of pounds. I'll never sell them.
Speaker 2:Games you'll never sell them no, well, I'll tell you a funny story. When my daughter was, you know, a lot younger she was about six years old, I think and she said to me call you all your games, you've got dad. I said yeah. I said you know, one day this is all going to be yours, all this. She went wow. I said yeah. She said do you know what she said? I'm going to keep this as a shrine in your memory. I said, wow, that's sweet, yeah. And then, and uh, yeah, that soon changes though. And uh, I said that's very sweet, you done. And she said wow, what do you think all this is worth?
Speaker 2:and I won't know I gave her a ballpark figure for the time I'm talking over 10 years ago and straight away she went oh no, I'd sell that and get a ferrari oh, no I was like, oh, thanks for that, yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, people's heads do turn when they think of the value of things. But yeah, I don't, I don't do it for the value, I just do it for the. I still have as much fun now finding a nez cartridge in a shop that I want as I do buying a ps5 or an xbox game. I just it's the thrill of the hunt is finding new games, is finding stuff you never had, not, you say I've gone through games I'd never played. The last 18 months I've been playing halos. I never played halos back in the day, so I'm up to four now. I've been playing through those, absolutely loved it. You know I'm now playing all those games I missed out on um and I've really, you know, pushed myself to play all these different genres and different systems and I'm now starting to feel I'm sort of getting the best at what these consoles had to offer. And, yeah, brilliant fun, brilliant fun.
Speaker 1:And so two questions. My first one is like how do you, how do you juggle your time between playing the retro games that you never played before and also playing getting to like some of the high premier AAA or indie experiences of today? And then my second question is like what advice would you give to inspiring collectors, people who decide they want to collect retro games?
Speaker 2:Going to the first question, it is hard to juggle time, um. I mean, I've been on the podcast now a couple of years, so with the time organizing podcast events and bits and pieces and and stuff we do, that takes up a lot of my time. And also I like to try and play. We we tend to aim more at the modern stuff. We do talk retro. We tend to aim more at the modern stuff, um, so I tend to always have something go ticking along in the background, for instance, for you know, forbidden West, something like that, always ticking in the background.
Speaker 2:My retro stuff comes and goes, but what I normally try and do is I've got my brother-in-law and my best friend and quite often they'll say you're free Saturday night, fancy a game night in the shed and we'll have six, seven hours in here with some snacks, with some snacks, with a couple of beverages, and we just go through games we haven't played, or games the halo series I'm playing through. My brother-in-law, oh sweet. Yeah, he's a chef, so he works weekend, especially summertime. He's, he's, he's, you know, works in a seaside restaurant, so he's busy, busy, busy. But as soon as he gets that when I'm on a rotation day off, so when they line up for the next day I say, fancy, shed night, play some more halo. And we've been working our way through the halo series together so it. We jump in and out of the retro as time permits with friends at weekends and then I've always got that modern game ticking away in the background. You know know, which I sort of play is to go along with the podcast basically.
Speaker 1:Hold on before you go to the second question, I want to. I want to ask you a follow up based on what you just said. It's like that was me and my best friend. We played through the Halo games together and that's one of my fondest childhood memories, especially like I guess that's why in my heart of hearts I'm still a gamer today and like I love, loved playing Halo with him, whether or not we were going through the campaign together or also, like you know, maybe playing blood Was it blood Gulch? Was it blood Gulch? The sand level. Anyways, we play that against each other all the time and maybe sneak, sneak, a peek at each other's screen and such. But like, yeah, we would play those games together. But I want to ask you about the snacks. I think we were skipping something reporting you what snacks are y'all feasting on on these bro nights.
Speaker 2:Well, you'd call them chips, but we call them crisps. We'd normally have peanuts bits and pieces, like that we did. We made. Well, we've made two mistakes with snacks we had. We tried the burger king doritos, me and my brother-in-law a few months they are absolutely vile.
Speaker 2:Do not eat them. They are absolutely vile to the stage where you try because I think the game and gram of our discord had had them and was like these have made me like literally sick. Oh wow, straight away I thought, right, I need to try you're one of those people who's like.
Speaker 1:I heard the disclaimer.
Speaker 2:I need to try it we had two or three of these each and went my god, these are vile. And we had to put the bag outside of the game shed because it was actually making the game shed stink. Wow, the taste of them was revolting. And then the other week, bull Borders is a bit of a spice head. He likes his spicy stuff and they've now made they used to do these sort of flaming hot Doritos. They made these super hot ones and before he finished them off, I could not eat them. They blew my head off. But we basically have, let me say, chips. We'd have, uh, um, peanuts and stuff. But sometimes, if we get together early enough, we'll get a takeaway, we'll have a meal in here, we'll probably have a pizza or something like that, okay, and then we'll jump into some games, yeah, so it depends what time we sort of meet up, but nine times out of ten it's it's chips and nuts and bits and pieces like that that we can nibble on as we're playing and soak the beer up.
Speaker 1:What's your brew of choice?
Speaker 2:I'm into my craft ales, so I like things from hazy IPAs right through to sours to. I love all the different ales they produce nowadays. I mean we have good brewers over here, but you guys in America are smashing it with your craft aisles. You've got everything. I mean I I had um Mrs RGT got me some import ones last year and from America, and that was, I think it was um double chocolate vanilla ice cream stout. She got me and oh yeah, these things are mental what you boys doing over there, but they're brilliant. I love all the different ales and I could just drink the same beer all night. A lot all the you know sort of hazy IPAs and bits like that I enjoy, and if it does go on late then yeah, maybe a gin and tonic to finish the gaming session off with Getting a little heavier there.
Speaker 1:I like that I'm more of a liquor guy than I'm a beer guy, so I'm like I don't know a whole lot of beers, even though I used to work for a beer distribution place, like a long time ago, but I only knew the mainline beers that we distributed. So I haven't dove into ales or IPAs or anything like that. But like, yeah, it's always so fascinating because I'm like I always wonder if people's snack choices evolve as they grow up. You know, like, as I get older, do we, as as we hang out with people and maybe game or game and snack, do our choices evolve? Are we always going to be chips people? You know, like, basically almost like teenagers that you imagine hanging out in a basement and just eat chips and playing games, wiping your hands off on your pants, basically, and get back on the.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm not one extreme to the other, because if, if we have friends around at home, we'll have, we'll have olives and we'll have some lovely cured meats and we'll have some nice bread and some cheese and some.
Speaker 1:A charcuterie board yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:I'm in the shed. I'm straight back to when I'm 10 years old. I'm big. What's it? Chips, it's all on the fingers. I've got wet wipes. I don't know how to control this Filthy peanuts. Straight back to how I've always been. You know, I've always been, you know. So, yeah, that's not.
Speaker 1:I think I, uh, I think I'll go back to being a child when I walk into the game, it's like as soon as you walk through the, the, basically the mantle of the shed, you're like, okay, I'm back, I'm back. This is, this is the inner me is back, versus when you go into the house, you're, you gotta be Mr RGT at that point yeah, um, but also going to your second question, um, tips for collectors these days, or people who want them to be collector, um, you've.
Speaker 2:I always say collect for what everyone else is a collection for, okay. So, or collect where there is a big base of games for. So, for instance, at the moment they started creeping up a little bit. But ps3, xbox 360, you, you, you can get a massive collection of them for part and hardly any money. And you can get the big hitters as well. You can find some good exclusives. I mean, the ps3 and the xbox 360 are loaded with exclusives. You can even jump back again, go for original xbox, ps2, thousands of games, especially for the PS2. You can pick up a lot of heavy hitters for not a lot of price and try and work it like that.
Speaker 2:So I've always tried to be not one step ahead but one generation ahead of what people are expecting to collect for. So when I bought my Super Nintendo games, when I bought my Mega Drive games, I was paying five, ten bucks for a game which I was paying $5, $10 for a game, which people are now paying $30, $40 for a game. Some people are paying hundreds of bucks for games. So I always try and collect what's not that popular at the time. So my PS3 and Xbox 360 collection is quite big Of the last couple of years. I've really hit the original Xbox quite hard. That side of the collection is getting big because there's a lot of.
Speaker 1:Was there a lot of original xbox games?
Speaker 2:I feel like the number was smaller right, um, I think if you go for a full collection, that's about 900 oh wow, that's huge yeah, but if you went, I think that's worldwide. If you go worldwide for ps2 you're looking, oh, thousands yeah 10, 10 000, I think.
Speaker 2:Powell, if you went for powell the uk or europe, european powell, um, you're looking about 1900 ps2 games. Wow, um, yeah, so, but I mean the thing about the original xbox and the 360 is there's so many exclusives on them systems and you you won't play them anywhere. So I've predominantly aimed at the exclusives and then sort of gone out from there. Sometimes someone will say, if it's a cross-platform game, I say, oh, that version's better on the Xbox 360. So I'll pick that up and try it and see if it's better than the PS3. But predominantly I'll just try and hit all exclusives and the games that you know you can only play on that system. You know, especially games that they never forwarded on with a with a you know different um, you know didn't take the series forward, especially one-off games, and once I've yeah, once I've delved into the xbox library you realize how many there is on that system oh, that's
Speaker 2:stupid amount. And some great games as well. Brilliant games, but yeah, that's what that'd be. My main tip try and try and collect. It at the time is cheap and other people aren't necessarily collecting for. So anything from that story, I mean your ps1 games. Now, some of those are creeping up some good prices. But yeah, ps2, xbox you can still get pretty good PS3, xbox 360, apart from a few which are expensive. You've got a massive library. You can get a lovely collection up on there from right through your Bioshops and Gears of War all the way through. It's a great collection to be had there for not a lot of money, do you?
Speaker 1:oh, go ahead.
Speaker 2:I was going to say even the systems you can pick up. I think the only issue you used to have is controllers, and regional controllers are obviously running out now and they get an expensive second hand. But there's so many good third party controllers now. I mean, I've got a Retro Fighters PS3 controller which also works on a PS2 and a PS1. Oh, that's cool. So you get a lot of the controller dongle to put in your PS1 and PS2, so it's wireless. Or you get the Bluetooth dongle for your PS3. Superb controller, so you can pick these controllers up and, yeah, and it covers you for all your different systems. So, yeah, there's ways around it.
Speaker 1:So I want to ask you, like do you feel like you are worried about, like, the Xbox 360 store closing Because I think that was in the news recently and do you feel like that's going to make the price of all these Xbox 360 games go massive?
Speaker 2:Certain games yes, certain games that had limited prints. Physically they've already been going up for the last couple of years, some which I probably will never get. But then there's other games which never actually got a physical. So I think the Hydro Thunder game, I think, was only I think that was only digital right.
Speaker 2:Only digital. So I think that's a shame that if you haven't got that in your system, will you ever be able to play it, do you know? I mean, that's where I find that's quite sad. I always that's a shame that they you know certain games, you know that's where we're now starting to see, because they were the first generation of digital and we're now starting to see. When these stores close, some of these games are going to be gone. You know they might be saved in, you know, uh, video game. You know historians and stuff will keep the roms for them, but actually it's a game that you can purchase and play. Yeah, that's the thing that worries me the most. But, yes, definitely for those, those that had physicals and digitals, the ones that are now for store, there is going to be price increase, especially on a few of them, hidden gems. I think there was one I went to buy the other day. I can't think what it was. It was a black and white racing game.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like that right now with the DS, right Like the 3DS and the DS, where they went stupidly high after Nintendo closed their shop. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and some of them haven't come down. Some of them haven't come down Some of the prices of those games are up.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Nintendo gamers are used to prices staying up and never coming down.
Speaker 2:They wouldn't have got a discount anyways, I know and that makes me laugh, I mean when people say to me oh, you know, current-gen games are 70 bucks. I've still got games with price labels on on Super Nintendo at $69.99. You know, nintendo was always good at pricing their games. They've always been good at pricing them. But yeah, it is worrying when these stores close because I think there's going to be a lot of good games that people will never be able to experience. Gone, you know.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. So you're still on the stand here, so I'm going to ask you a series of questions and I'm going to give you two options. I want you to tell me which one is probably going to be your mummy, mummy, all right, okay, am I saying that? Right?
Speaker 2:you know, mummy, mummy oh yeah, I love why you say it, because it's almost like you're trying an english accent. It's pretty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mummy, mummy, mummy, I have to do all the texas drawl there. So, like that, um, it's like you. I was about to ask you to say Assassin's Creed game. You were saying earlier again, because I love the way you say Mirage, I love that. Yeah, I was like, oh, that's so cool, man. Like OK, so which one's going to be a better game? Which one's going to be a better game and which one's probably going to be more closely to your mummy, mummy, star Wars Outlaws or indiana jones of the great circle?
Speaker 2:oh no cool, that's a tough one now. I do like my star wars universe, but it has got ubisoft at the front of it, which does put me off a bit. Now for the indiana jones, apart from a few games that have been out over the years, it's a you know, it's one of them that back in the day the licensed games were never that great. No, I think there's one good point and click game. Um, I can't remember the name, but rose space monk knows, because he asked me to. Uh, he told me about playing that the other day. Um, but I was never in. I could never play fps games. I used to get motion sickness from FPS games I've seen of. Since I've gone back and played the halos or started coming around to first person games. So now I'm quite up for playing first person games and that Indiana Jones to me looks pretty good. I can understand that I I even know George went like this I'm swaying towards Indiana Jones. Wow, yes, wow.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I, you know I got my worries about both because Ubisoft swims in sevens, so Star Wars has a little worried. And then on the Indiana Jones side, I like machine games, I like, I like the Wolfenstein games quite a lot, but I knew what to expect. With Wolfenstein, it was like it's not quite Gears of War, wolfenstein.
Speaker 1:It was like it's not quite Gears of War, but it's. It feels like Gears of War meets Doom and yeah, yeah, yeah, it feels like it's right in the middle of that line with Indiana Jones, though it's sort of like and I haven't been hands-on with this so I could be completely spot wrong but like it almost. The trailers almost look VR-ish to me in a way that I can see that?
Speaker 1:yeah, because, because this first person you had, like the whip motion and everything like that. It almost looked VR ish in a way, that kind of like. I haven't personally I haven't played like a 10 out of 10 VR game yet, so and I know they exist out there but like VR still feels like it's at its like it's infant stage yet and we're still waiting for like the big boom of like all these high level vr games. So I'm a little worried about indiana jones in a way, but I trust machine guns, machine games. And then I'm worried about, in a different way, star wars outlaws, but I also like the ip of star wars. So I'm like I'm a little worried about both of those.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think.
Speaker 2:I think with what George was saying the other week, I think it's a good, good ploy. Go in Indiana Jones First person Cause. Soon as you go third person, straight away you're uncharted tomb raider. You're going to be compared to um you know my near an uncharted like a first-person uncharted. Then I think they're on to a winner.
Speaker 2:But you've got to get the balance right. I mean, this is probably out of their comfort zone a bit because it's going to be story heavy. It's Indiana Jones, so you've got to have a good story there. That's got to have a strong story with that, especially for new and old people who are fans of the movie some years ago, want to play it and bringing a new audience in. I think that story's got to be strong, um, but from what I've seen, I think it looks quite good. They seem to have got the essence of. You know what indiana jones is about, that sort of style. So yeah, I'm quite looking forward to. I am worried about star wars. I don't think they've helped themselves with this ridiculous dlc and overcharging on the, on the, on the complete game, um, it's cool that, um so like indie is going to be a game pass day, one, though, um yes, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:That is. You know. You know we're not all. You know. Not everyone is in favour of Game Pass. A lot of people think but if you've got Games Pass and that's dropped on there day one, you're going to be excited and you're going to play it, you're going to go, you're not going to. You know, you're going to shell out that money straight away.
Speaker 1:Obviously you're paying for Games Pass over the year, but you, you're not shouting out day one, so it gives you that opportunity to play um.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I am. I'm less nervous about indiana jones on am star wars. I'm just hoping you know we saw ea had trouble with star wars, the battlefront, battlefront 2, yeah when then when I went um with cal, they really then changed it up and it was brilliant I want to hear you say his last name, because I'm I've been that english accent, it's fire saying his name is it um?
Speaker 2:calchesis, calchestus, calchestus, yeah, calchestus, there we go um and I think once they then they changed it up, they tried something different and it stuck and it worked and I'm I'm hoping that's what ubisoft to do. I hope they don't do a star wars assassin's creed, I'm hoping they do something different. Good story I mean, a trader looked quite good story. I must admit I quite like the character. I thought it all looked pretty good.
Speaker 1:So the space fights looked better in the starfield, like as far as like integrating from, like getting all the way off of a planet in just right into flying. It looked seamless In Starfield. There was two loading screens just to fly your ship.
Speaker 2:Oh no, yeah, I did put a few hours into Starfield and that just wasn't for me. I think if you're a big Fallout fan and you want Fallout in space, you're all over it. But for what I wanted from a space game, that wasn't for me. But no, you're right, it looks better in that in that regard. So fingers crossed, let's hold out hope and hopefully they'll see sense over this, this ridiculous pricing scheme. They've got going and it'll end up being a good game, all right.
Speaker 1:So next question are you which one's going to be your mummy, mummy, or which one do you project is going to be your mummy mummy? I should say astrobot or mario and the ouija battleship oh, straight away, astro bot yeah, I'm the same way yeah, um, I like some mario games.
Speaker 2:Obviously we say mario, not mario over here. I love it. I absolutely love it but um, I've never been a big mario fan. I could say I'm the same the games um. I was more sonic the hedgehog. I grew up with the sega, so I was always I love sonic um, but when it comes I I I still think now the astrobot games are so underrated I think they're the premium of of like 3d platformers now yeah, when I first started playing the first game in vr, george used to give me so much stick I'm not playing that kiddies astro.
Speaker 2:But I said you're, you're, you're missing out. But he would not put it on his vr for about a year. When he eventually played it, he was all over. I said I told you, this game is so well put together, the music is fantastic, everything is is brilliant. And, oh yeah, he's now an astrobot fan, thanks to me. But, um, yeah, I, I love astrobot. I think, yeah, without doubt.
Speaker 1:Um, I can't wait for the new game so correct me if I'm wrong, but he didn't want to play the kitty fvr game. That was astrobot. But he's now in love with, I think, luigi's mansion and um. What was the other game he fell in love with? Was it Mario Odyssey? Like he was playing hardcore when he got his Switch. Yeah, like those are more adult-centric than Astro Bot at this point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I used to. That was before I was presented on the show, but I used to message in with questions and stuff and he'd say I was playing Astro Bot oh my God, what are you playing Astro Bot for? And I astrobot oh my god, what are you playing astrobot for? And I was like you wait till you play it, you're missing out.
Speaker 1:then when he did play it, he loved it and I think you know they you sometimes get certain um devs know how to use a system and yes, they know how to use that ps5 man.
Speaker 2:They know they know how to use that ps5. I mean, if you play I mean we got the Astro Bot built in on our PS5s you play that with a Pulse 3D headset on your DualSense in your hands. That's the whole experience. It sounds brilliant on the 3D audio, the triggers, and then you get like the hailstorm through the controller and I still think now this is what I say to everyone this biggest leap in this current generation has been the dual sense. For me, oh, wow, that's the thing that has shone out for me over everything, because more companies are using it now. Forbidden West, you know, you get it in there. I played a bit of the Avatar game. They're using it with your adaptive triggers, the sensations. I think it really adds to gaming with 3D audio and a controller. It's that you can really get lost in worlds now, and I've just it's the immersion, that's the word I was looking for.
Speaker 2:Immersion, that's the one. And I think I just think you know Astro bot games. They give you that. They're fantastic games.
Speaker 1:Brilliant, oh yeah, especially when you pull stuff and you feel that you feel like the the trigger, when you're pulling like a little like yarn thing back or oh, it's so fun when I got my ps5 I was playing astrobot on.
Speaker 2:A friend of mine at work said to me um, I was explaining what the dual sense done. They're like that, they're not gamers. But they said I can't believe it does that. I said yeah, I said you get a hailstorm and you can. You can hear it and feel it through the controller. No, no, I don't. So anyway, I recorded it and and just to control on my hand that was going yeah, all through the control, all over the. He's like, oh my god. I was like, yeah, I said you can, you can shake and tip things and he was like, how does it do it? I said it's just called haptic feedback, but it's quite impressive how it's. You know it does it and that obviously astrobot uses that to the maximum yeah, I think they they really kill it.
Speaker 1:Um, especially with like the sounds, the fan, the, the dual sense of like the right triggers and left triggers, because I'm like there's a portion where you're walking on um in astro, the astrobot, like built-in astrobot, where you're walking on like a metal surface and you hear that in the controller where it goes, yeah, and I'm like, oh, it's so cool yeah, and sand, and you know, same as like in forbidden west, the same is coming through the controller.
Speaker 2:You've got that speaker. I mean the dual sense is a, you know is a proper bit of kit with.
Speaker 1:When you think what you've got with it with microphone speaker, adaptive triggers, you know, haptic feedback touchpad, you know it's a brilliant bit of kit it's the only controller in the market that I'm okay playing paying full price for, if I'm being honest, because like I, I did not in no surprise here. I didn't feel that way with the switch because, like the, the sticks would drift like all the time on my, on all the droid cons I bought. The droid cons always felt like a cheap piece of technology. It's like the way they were built, not the technology in them. I think they're actually phenomenal for like the motion tracking and all that, but like it felt cheap and then, like the nintendo pro controller, I think is phenomenal, it holds a charge all day. Except I hate the a b button placement. I will die on this heel. I hate that. The a, the b buttons on the bottom and the a buttons on the side. I hate it Absolutely, despise it.
Speaker 2:I'll have a spell on my Switch and play it for a while. I'll go back to my PS5.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:I'll go back to my PS5 and that'll be no problem. But if I go from PS5 and then go play my Switch, I'll keep pressing the wrong button. Yeah, oh, that's the other way around, but you pressing the wrong button. Yeah, oh, that's the other way around, but you know you get used to after a while.
Speaker 1:But yeah, definitely I don't like the placement like that. Oh man, it messes my mind up on xbox because, like xbox and nintendo have that same buttons, it's just in different ways. Like x is where y should be on on xbox and then a and b are flipped, so all the face buttons are flipped on xbox and vice versa on the switch. And it just messes my mind up and I'm like I don't want to play anymore. I just don't. I just don't want to play.
Speaker 1:It got so bad that I like on my switch. I bought a eight bit moto to where I. Basically it's a Bluetooth adapter that allows me to play PS4, to play my PS4 controller on my switch.
Speaker 1:So I just remapped and I just remapped the x and y button on that and like it, just it legitimately was the only way I could play like fire emblem and all those other games at that point because, like it drove me bananas to have like that controller placement and then going back and forth between different consoles, it's like. And now it's, it's going to be worse because, like I have the Steam Deck and the Steam Deck is that it's a handheld and it has like the Xbox button placement system and so going back and playing that Switch would be like, oh, it would be very much like going back almost five years and trying to rework my brain to get Switch mode now, oh yeah definitely not, I don't think so my next question with you I know we're running a little long on time here and I know it's getting late over the uk um, my next question is like over the horizon, you have several different games you're looking forward to your preserved or star wars outlaws.
Speaker 1:You also have, um, you still want to play indiana jones. Are there games on the horizon that you do or that you are looking forward to? Are you looking forward to an Avowed by Xbox or Stalker 2, astro Bot? What is the other ones that are coming out for Nintendo? I think it's Mario and Luigi, metroid's next year, I think Zelda's next year. What was the other one that was this year for Nintendo?
Speaker 2:uh, I can't remember now.
Speaker 1:It was like I think was Donkey Kong. No, that was next year as well, I believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's next year as well. I can't remember now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought there was something big this year other than Mario and Luigi. But anyways, is there something off the top of your head that you remember, that you're looking forward to?
Speaker 2:Definitely the Indiana Jones. That really caught my eye off the top of your head, that you remember, that you're looking forward to um, definitely the um indiana jones, that that really caught my eye. Um, when I was watching the showcase I thought there was, I thought that was a good selection in there, uh, and I know some of them are 2025, but I thought there was a good selection for everyone. So you know, they've really improved Flight Simulator George is going to love that.
Speaker 1:I was like George and about 10 other people are really going to love Flight Simulator.
Speaker 2:Fable caught my eye.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how soon is that next year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's only in the last couple of years I actually played Fable. I've played. I've played one and two so far really enjoyed those. I've really got sort of. I thought the atmosphere and the way they get you into that world is really well done and I thought you know I've limited Fable knowledge but from the trailer it felt very Fable to me yeah, it did. Now a younger generation that's never played fable.
Speaker 1:They might not quite get that, but I think if you've played original fable games it felt a fable game, so I was very excited for that I think the younger generation were almost comparing like the tone of the upcoming fable game to shrek and I was like I like that comparison because it is very much still the fairy tale, almost like humor, kind of like comparison. There I was like I like that.
Speaker 2:But still the fairy tale almost like humor, kind of like comparison there I was like I like that, um, also even the, the perfect dark, I think that oh, that looks good, man, that looks really good yeah, and I mean I've only had very limited playtime a perfect dark, but it's maybe what I've got.
Speaker 2:Both the other two games just made me want to go back and play those right away, see them through. And, although I've said this before, I think sometimes ips can be too old, that yeah, if the audience isn't originally there. But I think if you do it correctly you can bring a new audience in. But sometimes I think those fans of perfect dark, those fans of fable from right back in the day now they've seen this. You know that's something you get really excited about. Oh, it's a new one of those. You know, I think I think of games I played way back in the day and if I made a new one now I'd be like, oh yes. So there's that excitement there and I've sort of felt that a bit with these Xbox games coming out.
Speaker 1:Nintendo's made a whole business off of that nostalgia. Oh, there's a new Luigi's Mansion. There's a new Pikmin oh, metroid, yay. There's a new pigment oh, metroid, yay, you know like another 10 million consoles sold exactly exactly, and I but yeah, so I'm like that's kind of what they've been relying on so yeah, but same again from playstation side.
Speaker 2:Uh, astrobot very excited for, and even even longer term. Um, it isn't going to be next year. I don't think either. But you've got the wolverine game coming oh yeah I'm very interested to see.
Speaker 2:I think this this is going to be a critical game for insomniac, because if you make it, if you make it to spider-man, people are going to say, oh, you've just, you know, you're just reskinned spider-man, so it's got to be. You've got to have that real good story and good setting and good graphics that they've done in a Spider-Man game, but it's got to be its own thing. Do you know what I mean? You've got to have that that Wolverine feel and separate it from the other games they've done. So I'm quite excited about that, and I think there's the new Spider-Man game as well as in development, but that's way off, but that's that's been leaked as well, isn't it?
Speaker 1:so yeah, uh, I know that canceled one. It was the multiplayer spider man, the.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so well, I, I can't imagine they're not doing spider-man 3 at this point, you know like, but no, no, but definitely I, I do want to. I do want to ask is there any games that come out this year that you feel like you missed out on that you are going to go back and play like, maybe like a final fantasy 7, part 2, like a dragon infinite wealth? Um, was it grand blue fantasy? Tekken? Um, yeah, what am I missing? Um, prince of persia, I'm like is there something there that was.
Speaker 2:That was going to be my first one. Prince of persia, I'm going to pick up uh, I've really, really liked to look at it. And that's another one that seems to have, uber soft of this, booted this game out there not thinking nothing of it. They, they've ended up making a brilliant game. There weren't that much song and praise about it at the time. They just released this game they were making in the background. It ends up being really well received game. So I'm, I'm, I'm all over that sort of metroidvania sort of style. Um, yeah, I'm gonna get that. And also, I think, going back to right, the start of the show when you were saying about is this year been. Have you found it? You know, quite hard to find games. It has pushed me into different genres. Um, I was never a final fantasy player.
Speaker 2:I've sort of started getting a bit intrigued with final fantasy of okay um, I've had a couple of goes at planning the remake, first part of the remake um okay, five, fifty seven remake how you like, yeah uh, story and setting fantastic.
Speaker 2:Oh um, for a ps4 game that looks good for a ps4 game. Um, I I struggle a bit with the combat and the different um things you use when you combat, but my brother-in-law is a Final Fantasy nut so he's sharing me. It's a blast. But I just want to play the story because I'm quite intrigued. So it's pushed me into not having a game, just pushed me into other genres and that Granblue game has really turned my eye a bit. I quite like the look of that oh Granblue Fantasy.
Speaker 1:Read Link.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that re-link, yeah, that's that's giving me. And then I've tried other sort of um, um action rpgs.
Speaker 1:I've delved into valkyrie elysium this year and okay um are you going to try um. Still a blade. Is that up your alley, or?
Speaker 2:I think so. I think so. Um, it reminds me a bit of bayonetta. Looks like a bit of a bayonetta game I get that vibe too yeah, um, but it's same again. It's probably a game that would have passed me by. I would have bought three years down the line on a cheap price to give a go, but because of how things are at the moment, I think that's probably that and prince of persia will probably purchase soon, I think, to play I think that's.
Speaker 1:I think that's indicative of, like how I feel about this year. At least. Least it's like I don't think it's a bad year. I think we're just coming down from the greatest one, the greatest years of all time, and combine that with, like none of these feel like must buys immediately, especially considering I'm not like, I'm not a final fancy person, that like historically, I my, I guess you could say I tried the backstreet boys final fantasy game. Basically that was I think that was 15 15 yeah, and I was mixed about it.
Speaker 1:And then I tried six. I played through 16 and felt very mid about it. And then, yeah, and I liked the old school jrpgs that were like one, two and three, but these are completely different games. So, yeah, like like I'm hesitant to play 7, but I already own 7 because you know I was given 7. So, like I don't know, I'm sort of trying to figure out what's next as far as big releases there and on the games that I did miss, because I do have Grand Blue and I think it's a decent game.
Speaker 1:I do think it's a wait for a sale, though, kind of game it's like. I feel like that's indicative of a lot of this what's come out this year. It's like wait. I would say like a dragon's good. But if you did, if you enjoyed the first one, play the second one, maybe at a sale, because it is a lot of what you played in the first one. Prince of purge is good, but if you get that thing for like 20 to 30, I guess you would say pounds over there. I think that's the sweet spot for this type of game. Tekken I think Tekken's great if you like fighting games, if you don't like fighting games, but you want to dive into this. Please wait for a sale, because nothing about this latest Tekken is going to change your mind about what you've already played in the past. So I think this is a wait for the sale year, almost more if you're not a Final Fantasy VII person.
Speaker 2:There's not many buy on day one releases this year. There's not many must-haves I need that day one. There's many that you think, oh, that looks good, I'll wait, you know. So it's. Yeah, it's definitely that kind of year. But, you know, when you actually look back at what is released and what's actually coming, it does tend to sway me back to actually try something that I wouldn't have normally bought, hence like Granblue and bits and pieces. So there's definitely games I'm going to jump into after Forbidden West.
Speaker 1:You loved Harvest, stella. Have you looked at any other Square Enix games that have released recently?
Speaker 2:Well, the next one I tried was Valkyrie Elysium.
Speaker 1:I tried it after Half a Stellar.
Speaker 2:That was pretty good. I quite enjoyed that.
Speaker 1:What was the Unicorn game? I was going to recommend that to you. It's like you have a computer in front of you because I'm a little far away from my computer at the moment. Look up Unicorn Square Enix game and I think this might be a little bit up your alley, but anyway unicorn overload unicorn overlord. That's it. I was just like that might be something up your alley. It feels more indie, but it's made by. But I think, square right yeah, I think they.
Speaker 2:That's another one of them where they, um, they went for that stage of knocking out these mid-tier sort of rpgs, didn't? I mean, you know 20, 20, 22, 23, they were released no entities from you know octopath traveler, rock fruit to you know harvestella traveler up through to you know harvest stellar, vocal elysium. You know loads of these. So but everything yeah, some of them have been say harvest stellar I loved are you an octopath traveler person?
Speaker 2:I haven't played it. Um, it's that I always struggle with turn-based games, okay, but the the setting and graphics look, I love that style of that sort of 2.5 d pixels in a in a modern sort of looking background. I think that's pretty good yes, good, it's good. So it's definitely something I think I'll say again because of this year, some, definitely something I might try, because you've got two. There's two of those out now, isn't there?
Speaker 1:yeah, um, both are on game pass. By the way, if you're a game pass member, um oh, brilliant yeah yeah, and so both of those are on game pass. I was also going to tell you um I I don't know if you remember the play section subscription. Um, as far as, like the tiered ones, try out dave the diver, if you haven't.
Speaker 2:Yes, I keep meaning to try that because I played through on your recommendation. I played dredge. I played that, loved dredge. Yeah, played that through. I literally done that in about 10 days, just playing in the evening. So, good, something fresh and new and artistic and brilliant, yeah, so yeah, david, I'm definitely going to try. Yeah, especially now it's on there.
Speaker 1:I can just download and play. Yeah, yeah it's, and it's more of a roguelike than dredge dredge I, but there are similarities. Both of them you're underwater, or at least on the water, and you're both. You're hunting for materials. In this case, like on dave the diver, you're hunting actual fish and such like that you can increase, like your guns and harpoons and stuff while you're in the ocean and then you take it back to your sushi shop and then you have to like you either have you managing the sushi shop, you can serve customers yourself. You can hire people like hire people. You're also like getting more exotic fishes and that you can fight against. Godzilla is the latest, latest like free expansion. So I'm like godzilla is a part of this universe. Dredge is also a part of this universe. I'm like I think you'd really like David the Diver, but let me know what you think. Everyone. Before we go, though, rgt is going to have a list of people he wants to read out, because these are special people in our community. Rgt, do you have that list ready?
Speaker 2:I'm now getting this list up.
Speaker 1:All right. So while he feels for time, everyone, you can hit us up, and you can hit us up using several different methods. If you want to reach out and I saw some people reached out to me in the Discord you can reach out to a lot of us in Discord, give us recommendations for shows, topics. You can just ask us about different games that we're playing. You can also reach us through the Instagram the UCP Instagram and our personal ones that are listed in the episode show notes, and you can also hit us up at what's the email RGT.
Speaker 2:Unofficialcontrollerpodcastcom or questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcastcom. Or we've got Instagram or Twitter. You can jump on there or, like you say, to Discord Seb. So jump on there and you can chat about anything you want on there, from games to anything, food, the lot.
Speaker 1:So there you go.
Speaker 2:That's all on there, right? Do you want me to read the list out now?
Speaker 1:Yes, go ahead please.
Speaker 2:Right, these are all our subscriber members Absolutely fantastic people. Driver members absolutely fantastic people. The app who put their hands in their pockets every month to help contribute to the show, which keeps us going, keeps us doing things, keeps us doing events, keeps us doing prizes. So thank you to all these people. If you're ever interested yourself, whatever podcast supply, you look on, look at the bottom of the notes. You'll see subscribe to show or help show or donate to show. Just click on that button and the rest will just follow through.
Speaker 2:But these are the people we have got. We have trestles of new york, we have batter binkster, we have tingle tuna, we have digital monkery, roast space monk, the gaming gran I know I've still spelled it gran on my list, but it's gram bald border boba, scotty boy, marathon gaming seal master, elliott ginch, the lovely emma sharp harvey, retro greg, also known as nowhere near berlin, mum's air. We've got george's one. He hates the most. The rgt fan club, pete brocklehurst, billy marmite, simon preick and oh, that's hanky oh thank you guys um, you're all absolute legends and ucp legends, I should say.
Speaker 2:But yes, thank you very much thank you all for contributing everyone.
Speaker 1:The link is in the description of the show if you want to join and support the show Everyone. Thank you so much for listening. I know this has been a longer episode. Instead of talking about the games we've been playing, we were deep, diving a little bit into the retro side of things and also just talking and having a great time. If you enjoyed this episode, you know, let us know. Feedback is always welcome. We always encourage it and thank you so much for listening. I've been sebastian malden, aka seb, aka triple s, aka the best single player gamer that you will ever find. That has been the uncharted one. The annihilator, mr retro himself. That is, rgt aka, as it says on his government identification, retro gamer tom. Everyone. We have been the dynamic duo of the ucp. Until next time, stay safe, stay gaming and remember what's our slogan there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller.
Speaker 2:It's what you do of it that counts.
Speaker 1:I love the way he said it. I had to throw it over there. That English accent sounds perfect with it. Everyone, see you, everyone Laters.
Speaker 2:Laters, laters, laters, outro Music.