welcome to the eclectic gamers podcast today is sunday february 1st this is episode 264 i'm tony i'm dennis tony we're gonna just punch right through this one we have a lot of listener emails we have a lot of lack of news we have a little bit of real news and we also wonder what you've been playing recently i've spent most of my time i'm still concentrating on 40k rogue trader i've been doing a little like like depending on what's going on sometimes i'll segue over i've been playing some tower defense games or some uh uh a couple rounds in a ran in a couple different random roguelites just for changes of pace. Right. Varieties. But the majority of my play has been playing Rogue Trader and just continuing that story. It's interesting because I decided, like I think I mentioned last time, I'm going the very super hype pro-emperor, pro-mankind, dogmatic line. But man, a lot of times I see choices that are just for the complete heretic, over-the-top insane evil and it's like I probably should have played this different. I'm going to have to do another playthrough going that routing. Because as is, it's like I know there's a chance to get like a bunch of followers, hangers on that you can get. And some of them are Xenos. No, I'm just literally executing them. I'll just Xeno execute them. No. No, I don't know. There's no sanctioned Xenos. That's what the Emperor would want. Yeah, so it's just like, no. Oh, you want my help? No. Oh, you want dialogue? Die, Xenoscum. I mean... Yeah, again, it's the role. You're consistent, which is important. I'm trying to be very consistent with the role. It's interesting because the game has set it up so there's... There are three, like, faith-ish routes you can take. There's the dogmatic route, which is the very pro-emperor worship, yada, yada, yada. There's the heresy route, which is, you know, the arch enemy and chaos and all that stuff. And then there's another routing you can take that is called iconoclast, which is being a decent person, looking out for your people. so like there was a choice I was given a choice on a mission that had and it gave me some standard options to pick and then it also gave me a dogmatic option that if I took would give me bonuses to my dogmatic which would increase my to help increase my dogmatic rank or there is a heresy option I could take or there was an iconoclast option I could take so the dogmatic option was well Well, they've proven that they've not been able to, you know, help support, make up for their transgressions and support the emperor as prisoners. So obviously we need to turn them into servitors so that they don't have – so that they can serve mankind to make up for their bad choices. There was a – the heresy rank that was like, oh, it's not their fault that they've done this. it's the prison leader's fault, so why don't we turn all of the administration of the prison into prisoners and make the prisoners the administration and see if things go better? And then there was the Iconoclast that is like, well, we need to really send some people in there and clean some stuff up and do make these changes to make it better and better for everybody to actually try and reform these people. Obviously, I turned them into servitors. Yes, that is the answer. But there's all sorts of interesting little times where they'll give you the choices like that. There's another one early on that was like there was an entity that was facing you, and there was flames that were burning, and your choices were to go dogmatic. is like you could go, oh, the Emperor protects, and you walk through the flame to get to your enemy to destroy them. You go Heretic, because the flames that were stopping you from getting to this entity, the entity had made you an offer to join them, and you could go Heretic and go, okay, let's go. Or the Iconoclast, which is, quick, get every way away, it's fire, we have to save the crew. I obviously walk through the flames because the Emperor protects. And he did protect me. Yes. All the people around me burned, but I was protected because my faith is strong. It's very strong. You have a very high dogmatic score. So I've been having a lot of fun with the game. And it's nice because it's one of those games that lets you – if you realize you've made mistakes in building your character, it's very easy to respec your character so you can fix mistakes you've made. Oh, okay. So I've had to do that with a couple of my various characters because I realized at some point it's like, oh. It's not just that, oh, this isn't optimal because I haven't been looking up guides or anything, but there's things where I realize it's like, oh, no, no. Some of the choices I've made are actively making this character bad. Like almost incredibly weak, unplayable bad. So let's rebuild this character to be a bit more efficient. That makes sense. That's nice of him. Yeah, that's nice. Good. Well, we have a new Patreon member. Derek S. joined. So welcome, Derek. We appreciate your support. Eclectic underscore gamers is at patreon.com slash. Just figure it out. you guys understand how internets work uh very little video game play for me the last couple of weeks um outside of multiplayer mainly battlefield 6 i have been focused on trying to so there are four operator classes basically recon engineer right assault uh support the four traditional ones um so there are challenges uh associated and basically you can unlock new like camo it's not you know the unlocks are basically nothing just like cosmetic but like getting through there There are eight challenges. There's the base four, and then you unlock the specialties role of the next four levels. And I've done all of them now, except Recon, because Recon is trash, because snipers are trash. They're trash in all games. Nobody likes snipers. Nobody likes playing snipers. Anyone who plays a sniper likes being a sniper because they're not human. They're a troll. Trolls aren't humans. They're trolls. That's why they're called trolls. My road traders are scammers. It's science. and so anyway i am working on it because the completionist in me is like i can do this i am a big boy and i can achieve these things oh all right so after finally killing enough enemies uh with headshots beyond 75 meters it has gotten a little bit easier but some of these are each step of the challenge has you do things usually around the equipment so it gets you to play in different ways, which is a nice idea, except some of those ways are terrible. And I don't mean just for recon. The engineer one that I was stuck on forever was destroy 15 aircraft. Okay, well, they have flares, which always work. And now, enough people have played the game long enough that they will fly so low, you can't get a lock-on with your stingers when they fly low to the ground. It's seen as too low for targeting. and then they wait for their flare to recharge and then they fly up again. It's not right. It's wrong. Morally wrong. It's morally wrong for them to use game mechanics as intended. Those game mechanics are trash and smoke grenades are way too powerful in this game. You can't see anything through them. It's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Have you ever watched the videos of the grandpa who likes to play sniper in first-person shooter games? No, I don't. Because I don't support snipers in any form. Okay. so that's all i've been working on uh pinball have things been working in pinball kind of not in the way you might have predicted holy crud yeah there's just some well we had some emails the so uh first updates slash corrections from the last episode it was um basically basically yeah basically basically immediately pointed out after i posted the last episode that our whole discussion about will they or won't they regarding the new investor bailing out american pinball apparently that had been covered like already in an interview from nap arcade that no he was staying in chicago and in fact is staying at the same facility he's leasing it for maimtron so i still like to think we explored some really really interesting concepts and i still like the idea of them uh moving into benton and taking over the spook is a beautiful um uh what are What do they call it? Thought exercise. Yes. Yes. Yeah, we like to work our thought muscles. Yes. It's a beautiful thought exercise. So anyway, so that was arguably a waste of time. However, what has since come out is that the now new owned American Pinball has entered into an agreement with everybody's favorite here. Let's have a license planetary pinball to produce seven remakes of Bally and or Williams or WMS. What's that? What do I hear? Oh, I already hear the Twilight Zone fanboys screaming that that's the first one they should make. Oh, I can already hear it. Except the rumor had been going around for years. You're right. I would agree with you. But the rumor had been going around that there were already parts ordered like by Chicago Gaming to do Twilight Zone. So, all right. In terms of like a rebuilding of American pinball, the idea of doing classic remakes makes a lot of sense to me. Yeah, it does. But here's the thing. How many people are – it feels like everybody's got to deal with Planetary now except Spooky, JJP, and Stern. So Chicago Gaming has been doing it the longest and has seen it as the biggest success. I think it was, I can't remember, it's Pedretti, right, that did the Funhouse remake. So Pedretti's got a deal as well. Obviously now defunct, but Haggis had a deal, hence the fathom and the attempt to do Centaur. And now American Pinball. Seven is a lot. Obviously it can be basically anything in the Bally Williams catalog. I think the language of the press really said stuff about classics and all that. I would assume DMD era style stuff that people love. but oh no we need ems totally yeah we need the brand new remakes of ems the problem is bally and williams were like nothing in the em era um all right yeah because i mean what'd you have well all right ted zale and bally did did some interesting layouts uh you have a zale game i did however before that era they all they did was like bingo gambling stuff like mafia stuff Maybe it wasn't all mafia stuff. I brand Bally pretty harshly for going the gambling route because it's like the most dishonorable route. But instead of the fun route of pure pinball. And then Williams, which is known for like copying everything. So, again, once you get in the solid state era, things change. But EM era, kind of skeptical. So, anyway, I don't – do you think it's a – like I get it. Like strategically, in a lot of ways, it makes sense to me. but this kind of feels like a crowded market. I think maybe, but here's the thing. They have production capacity that needs to be doing something, and if they are pausing whatever they were working on or if they were even working on anything and they have time while they're generating or making adjustments to a new game, they might as well do something that makes some money and gets the line working. Sure. i'm just kind of i guess let me let me put it this way so that makes sense to me i think it's a good argument what games do you think they might build that are gonna get a lot of sales like that are worth it so what i mean is like if you want to buy a whodunit used versus what you're gonna have to pay to get a new one i i don't know i don't know if the deal is there whereas with chicago gaming notice everything they picked monster bash attack from mars medieval madness cactus canyon all of them were such that buying a new one was competitive with the used ones price right so there was a big advantage there those already exist so i can't wrap my mind around that american pinball is going to do any of the chicago gaming ones because why would you make sense why would you even if you were allowed to why would you dare yeah why would you dare you're you're begging for a comparison you do not want to have made the only thing you could do better than chicago gaming is build faster that's the only thing you're going to win on they went on like every other thing so that starts to mean okay well let me add another layer that we didn't talk about that has come to my mind you mentioned twilight zone but that's another license that is another license indiana jones is another license adam's family is another license are they going to do that or are we talking junkyard and maybe whitewater whitewater would be a good one whitewater to me to me whitewater is the number one choice i think that's a better choice than even uh twilight zone personally because i think whitewater is the better game okay but no you're right i i don't i do not think that there is a very deep um pool there's there's not a deep pool for them to choose from of things that I think will actually work well and make them money. Yeah. I'm not saying that they can't get or couldn't afford other licenses. It's just I don't know how – like some of those could be really steep, like Indiana Jones, Twilight Zone, and Adam's Family are kind of been – because again, I remember when Pinball Arcade wanted the licenses and they required Kickstarters to generate the funds for those. Right. But I don't know how deep the licensing for Twilight Zone would be. I don't know how hard it is. I think it's really just the host. I think that is his estate. It was always the tricky one to – and again, it's been doable. Whereas I've heard the struggle with Addams Family when Pinball Arcade wanted it years ago. They did end up doing it, but I think they had to make a modification because Christopher Lloyd wouldn't play ball with having his face on the play field. Yeah. And that may still be the case. The same challenge with Back to the Future and Christopher Lloyd sort of thing that Daddy East ran into. So anyway, it's just it's curious. I overall I think is probably a pretty smart move to show production capability. So I just I'm not quite sure what they're going to build. That's going to feel different. You know, I just they can't do the Chicago gaming stuff. There's just no way it would be. It would be foolish. So it's got to be other stuff. And I don't think they're going to go way back. I don't think they're going to do Pedretti style fun house and do like non DMD. But they might. There's there's some big stuff. I mean, you know, like if they wanted to remake Space Shuttle, I just don't think they I just people are going to be like, why would I buy the new one when I could buy the used one for so much less? Staying in the DMD era makes it more competitive. Right. It does. So we'll see. All right. The other thing is Stern Pinball. So there is still we are. Here we are. You mentioned at the start. We're February one. We are in February now. No reveal. No teaser. no nothing for stern's next cornerstone as long as i have been in the hobby i cannot remember the winter cornerstone not being revealed in january i don't i don't remember it maybe i'm misremembering i want to say i want to say it hasn't happened but i i don't know that i don't know i i i can't think of it i can't think of the last time we didn't even see it like shipped much less anything else that this still has not happened yet feels very odd i think it's more telling of the economic realities i think they're probably not going to go as many games this year i think a lot of people are going to be they're going to be very much watching how everything rolls that's interesting i'm not sure yet i've wondered if this is maybe related to an issue a production issue a licensing approval issue uh some people have argued a time sync issue like there's some anniversary in february that relates to pokemon or maybe it's in march i forget and you know this rumor is pokemon here's what i can tell you and i can tell you all dear listeners so i think this has already come out uh in some other you know places about about people being officially informed so we did receive to our collective gamers podcast at gmail.com email address an invite from Stern Pinball to attend a media showing of their next game. That showing is February 11th. So, almost two weeks from now. Now, that is going to be I going to say is going to be before anything is really revealed to the public And the reason is and I went ahead and I already deleted the email that we got Tony because the email had the NDA attached They actually gave it to us. They don't know us well, do they? And I was like, well, Tony has a pretty hard and fast rule regarding NDAs. And I, yes, I've not been willing to sign NDAs. So I appreciate that they went ahead and sent the NDA on over. In fact, in the schedule of the events, that day's activities is also a listing of when the NDA will be like the signing of the NDA. So it's a it's a very big thing. So needless to say, we won't be attending. But given that they provided an NDA, I think it's safe to say that this will not be ready to be revealed as of February 11th. So that means I'm not sure we'll be able to talk about anything about it on the next show either. Right. It could very well be a one of those things where it's the kind of getting the groundwork laid. And so that all of the, I don't know, journalist and influencer connected peoples can have all their groundwork laid to release at the same time. Whenever the NDA says they can talk about it. And like on the watch side for my YouTube, I on occasion will get emails from a couple watch brands where they send me embargoed stuff. So they don't have me sign an NDA, but they give me a bunch of images and they're like, this is embargoed until whenever. But if I wanted to do something on it, I could pre-make the video and schedule it to drop and not have to worry about it. Yeah, I don't know when they're talking to the distributors. I want to think I heard maybe it's the day before this, but another thing that I know you saw was the announcement. Someone had posted that TPF was going to be the debut show for the next Cornerstone. Right. Now, again, I don't know. Other than I think Pinball at the Beach is next weekend. I'm not sure there's another big show that Stern might even be at until TPF. So I'm not going to say that we won't know anything in February, even though TPF isn't until like mid-March, because, again, if there's no other major show, they could be the debut show for people to play the game. Absolutely. And still be weeks and weeks away after the reveal. Right. So I don't think that really means anything that we're going to have to wait another month. I'm going to guess it's going to happen pretty quick after the media event, because I think there's a general just distrust that people don't leak stuff when you get to the hobbyist side of this thing. And, you know, they're reaching into the hobbyist side of their emailing people like us. So, right. Though we do appreciate the email, but we will. We I don't I doubt anyone at Stern is listening, but we do decline. We we are not accepting NDAs. Sorry. So. All right. That's all I have for news. So I do have a few emails that have come in. And this one is from Christie. Chris writes. Hi, guys. Not sure if I'll get this one in before you record. Dennis here. This actually came in just before we started recording the last episode. So, no, he did not. But he got it in for this one just fine with plenty of time. One thing many games have in common is that they are longer players. I personally want to see the return of fast, rough, and tough games. Do you think short ball time brutal games will make a comeback? Could you spend a few minutes building one out? Here's a quick example for you. Theme, Edge of Tomorrow. Premise, one quick chaotic battle scene. Goal, how long can you last before dying? Average ball time, 30 seconds. Playfield, single level, dangerous shots up the middle with a Black Knight sort of rage-style mech. No ball save. Chris. Well, thank you, Chris, for the thought exercise. Tony was shaking his head almost viciously side to side with the idea of will brutal games make a comeback? Would you like to opine verbally on that? Oh, I just, it is not the type of game that I believe most hobbyists or players are looking for at this time. And it's definitely not the kind of game that a lot of people are going to want at home, which is now a primary, if not the primary target, even over rooting games. And I'm not sold that they'd even want it en route just because people would get so flustered with short ball times, unless they somehow went ahead and brought down the cost per game back to something that you would expect from the old school EMs that were super brutal. Because I know I cannot imagine the rage off of some people who feed a dollar into a machine and have 60 some odd seconds of total play. And then it's like, ah, better luck next time. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm going to split the difference a little bit. Tony's version. Absolutely. No way that that era has passed. I could we get away with and the same with Chris's example, 30 second ball time. Could we go back to average ball time of one minute a ball? I think yes. But only as a sometimes food like Tony is right. The homeowners. That's what what's driving all of this. The way the companies are selling the games is we've got to get them to stay in the collections for a while. So we've got to make them have depth. And the way you make them have depth is you've got to have a way to progress. So if the ball times are too short, you don't go anywhere in the game. You could have depth in a short ball time game, but if no one's ever going to get there, who cares? Like, what is it, Iron Man in do or die multiball? Like, who's ever achieved that? Carl D'Python Anghelo after tons and tons and tons of practice. Like, nobody gets there. Five-year mission in Star Trek, nobody gets there. Like, it's not hard, actually, to program a lot of depth. Star Trek's got long ball times, too. They just made it too deep for what an average person can ever possibly achieve, even above average person. So in that regard, they're less popular now. I also see rating wise games that tend to play longer, tend to get more love. I'm not going to say the primary reason Keith Elwin gets love is his ball times, but his games are notoriously not brutal. They're pretty fair. I wouldn't say they're again. I don't put him up there with like Steve Ritchie Star Trek long ball times. But Godzilla, if set up normally, is not. It's a decently lengthy player. I do think Elwin's single level bond game is brutal. From what I have heard. I've not played it. From what I've heard, that one is really brutal, but he went with a very old school approach, and that was a very niche game that sold for a lot of money, and they didn't make very many. But everything else, you know, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Iron Maiden, they're not. Again, you want to do another comparison of more modern, brutal games, Walking Dead, pretty short ball time. Borg tends to do this a lot. Turtles. Turtles is a short ball time game. It probably shouldn't be, but it is. So we do see some companies put one out. That's just a lot harder player from time to time. They just aren't the primary mover because the reviews are just better on longer playing games. If I were to come up with a game and we spend a few minutes building one out where I think short ball times could make a lot of sense. Here's what one I would do. I would do Doom. Depth, not all that necessary. Your goal is simple. To rip and to tear. And so it wouldn't need to be single level. But basically the premise is you're going to be playing through stages. So different lit shots that you're trying to hit. I'm thinking of a game with a number of kickbacks. You know, like the rocket kickback on Guardians or Whiplash on Iron Man. Like that. But like three of those. Things that basically are firing. Like the scoop on total nuclear annihilation. Things that are firing, constantly firing. No hold times. You don't want long winding ramps. You can still have ramps, but they need to be whip around fast plastic ramps. Stuff that just keeps, it fits the theme really well. And then basically you clear all the shots. You move to the next harder level. Maybe the points get exponentially better for you if you get into the additional levels. But really all you're doing is ripping and tearing. Because if you've ever played the Doom games, especially the modern ones, the whole point is you have to kill a whole bunch of stuff coming at you and you have to keep moving doom is not like the other shooter games where you can sit there use cover and think it is move move move rip tear move also it has like the absolute best uh soundtrack yes i'm gonna say and you get a and they and you get a metal soundtrack that you will enjoy even if you hate metal you will be forced to enjoy it while ripping and tearing it's impossible not to rip and or tear yes rip and or tear preferably do both though ipdb is down it's very down we would not base it off of the movie with duane the rock johnson and uh carl urban because he was in that movie too i my my thoughts are are less well thought out and much much more humorous um you obviously have to uh base the game off of the movie cliffhanger and you can't do anything unless you successfully save the person at the very beginning holding their hand you know the thing that they failed in the movie do you get bonus points if you save her stuffed animal too sorry you just get that don't you remember her little stuffed animal clip to her that was her innocence falling off the cliff you know i saw that movie in theaters it was i like that movie john john lithgow who does such a good oh yeah and then i wasn't surprised at how good he was when i saw him in dexter after i'd seen oh it was he was so good Dexter. But, no, in... Fetch! Oh, no, I want to watch Cliffhanger. Oh. Oh. I literally, it was just when I was, for whatever reason, the whole thought of a brutal game, all that stuck in my head was that opening scene. It's like, ah! Oh! That's right. And then, if you don't, it's game over, and you're like, why don't you keep playing? I can't anymore. You just lose the feel. oh very sad so okay that would be fun i want that theme now all right another email came in this one's from doug m doug wrote guys since we're in the doldrums of pinball news at least it is where while i write this email i figured i'd put together an itinerary of new Robert Englunds barbecue joints paired with pinball hot spots i'll put this together for you guys just in case you two ever happen to visit the area if you don't find yourself here feel free to share my god for anyone that is planning to visit well since we don't know if we're going to be there or not i'm going to share it yeah i have no new Robert Englunds plans not currently right now but it would be fun to get up there for some chowder it would you're you play a dangerous game sir asking uh kansas city to try your barbecue but that's that's rough that's rough but hey uh there are other areas that have good stuff yeah there are since you may read this on air i will split up my tour into a couple of emails to keep it brief. Day one, Boston. Assuming anyone is headed here is going to be landing at Logan International Airport, we will start in the Boston area and work our way out. Pinball stop one would be Flat Top Johnny's in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pool hall and bar with a great lineup of modern pinball and usually at least one classic ballet. A great city vibe joint with an attitude. Stop number two, Pop's Pinball Parlor in Somerville, Massachusetts. the place to play the late 70s to 90s classics mirrored series and all oh that's good nearby barbecue red bones barbecue somerville massachusetts been around since the mid-80s great place get the corn pudding no but i don't like i don't like corn pudding i've had it i don't like it i don't know if i've I've tried corn pudding, actually. I don't think I have. It's not. It sounds good because I like corn and I like pudding. Well, it's not like that. It will be when I'm done with it. I just took vanilla pudding and I put a can of corn in it. Woo-hoo! Let's go. See, this does make me – I've got – I don't know if I ever mentioned it. Probably not. I have a full camping rig that I have built so I can take the seats out of my minivan and I can black out the windows and I can throw a camping rig and van life just to go and I've only used it, like, not fully kitted out ever. But I've got all the stuff now, but it's just designed so I can go to, like, you know, local areas. Or like when I went to the big weekend campout thing down in West Mineral at the big steam shovel. It wasn't an electric shovel. It wasn't actually steam shovel. Whatever. But that's a thought I should set everything up at some point And just pick a direction And just start hitting pinball places in that direction However Just drive out and then drive back It'll be like your version of Nick's pinball tour Yes Except for in my van In your van Down by the river Sometimes it might be But with camping gear The email continues for the second day Day two, the North Shore Head up US Route 1 from the Boston area. Stop number one, the Double Bull, Peabody, Massachusetts. An entire upstairs loft dedicated to pinball. Amazing game-themed restaurant and bar. Extensive craft beer tap list. Mostly modern sterns, but including a couple of JJPs and a classic ballet thrown in. Just one. Just one. All you need is one. Flash Gordon. Yeah, it's the MSG of pinball. Yes. Just a little bit. That's right. That makes it so savory. Makes it so good. That's right. MSG tastes yummy. Stop number one, True North Ale Company, Ipswich, Massachusetts. There's two stops number ones. There is. He meant stop number two, True North Ale Company, Ipswich, Massachusetts. Family-owned craft beer brewery with an incredible beer and a separate room for pinball. Games are meticulously maintained by a true enthusiast. And nearby barbecue is the Rusty Can in Byfield. Byfield? Probably called Byfield. I'm going to call it Byfield, Massachusetts. 15 minute drive from 2 North Ale Company This may be one of the best BBQ joints You will visit in your life I know what you are thinking But trust me This place is legit Part 2 coming soon I kind of feel called out now Doug Thank you Doug I do want to know Does Ipswich have a really strong Call of Cthulhu gaming desire A lot of people like to play Call of Cthulhu up there is that a common setting yeah okay you're like yeah what do i know i'm a i'm a simple person tony i've only played call of cthulhu once and i died i mean that that's normal i understand but i still felt sad um third email this one's from cause cause wrote in uh requesting if read online this must be read and the best possible horrifically bad Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation. I feel like the subs are literally draining from our podcast as I do these things. But would you like to do it? I mean, my voices are terrible. Well, he did ask for a horrifically bad Arnold. So he at least knows, he understands what he's ordering. He knows what's on the menu. I'm trying to get it in my head. I was elected to lead, not to read. But that's just an impersonation of him. Well, yeah, but that's the best I can do. What about get to the choppa? Get to the choppa. Do it. Do it. Hello, Tony and Dennis. Oh, backwards. Hello, Dennis and Tony. Thanks for keeping me entertained while driving at work. I have a fun topic for a hypothetical Arnold game. We've had a few amazing Arnold games. T2, Last Action Hero, T3. but what if Commando, Conan the Barbarian, Kindergarten Cop, Eraser, End of Days, Jingle All the Way, The Running Man, Total Recall, True Lies. Must give three top imaginary features for each game and what company you'd want to make each game. Of these possible games, pick one that you would buy if it was available today. Video games Also if you've not played Monster Survivors It is a very fun game I've changed to completely German at this point It's like weird I've completely lost the plot Maybe even as much fun as I can't do it I lost I'm sorry I'm terrible I've been playing on Xbox And I think the game was a few bucks Lots of fun interesting gameplay Thanks guys Thank you, Kaz. Thank you, Kaz. I ruined your stuff. I'm sorry. I will say, 100% Running Man would be fun. It would. Of these, yeah, I would say that one would have a lot of potential. True Lies probably could be argued his best movie. I would say Conan would probably be a lot of fun too Yeah Now Kaz asked a lot here He actually asked for top three imaginary features for each game And Kaz you demanding an awful lot of this show So I think the way we could do it, though, is I'm okay with that, but let's just trade off so we're not each doing three for all of these ideas. That's good. I don't know. Would you want to start? If you want me to start, I can start. I don't care. Obviously, these are going to be from the hip because I didn't put any thought into any of this. I will note I have not seen Jingle all the way So it would be very difficult for me To be able to do that one Which means I probably shouldn't start if we're alternating So Commando What three features would you want to see in the game? I lied Yeah that is required That's literally like Here's what I remember about Commando I lied where he killed the guy on the airplane and just covered him and said, he's sleeping. Yes, yes. And like the final battle at the end. The Hacienda. The Hacienda, the giant Hacienda. That's about all I remember. But my primary thing is the, I lied. That's my favorite part of that entire movie. Okay. You said you'd kill me last. I lied. I actually seen that movie quite a few times. Okay. So Conan the Barbarian. Three imaginary features. All right. I want the tree of woe incorporated in some way where he was crucified. I think the wheel that he as a kid has to push around until he's an adult. That grinding. I don't know what they were grinding. Flower. I don't know what he was doing. Probably go ahead and have that. and then you do need a giant snake toy. You do. And I actually, because this is one that popped in my head when you read it. While it's not directly Arnold related, it is related. I hope it's the right Conan movie. Yeah, it is. There needs to be a hurry up, a seek hurry up. Yes. Where there's single targets that you need to find single targets and hit that bounce around and move. I just love it. Sick. Soon they will know why they fear the dark. Oh, James Earl Jones is so good. It was so good. So good. Kindergarten Cop. I mean, I'll be honest. I've not seen Kindergarten Cop since the 90s. Here's what I remember. It's not a tumor. Yes. And that's it. Okay. I don't remember anything else about that movie. So there has to be some. So there has to be. Isn't that also the movie where the really annoying kid was having discussions about genitalia? That's all I remember about that movie. I don't even remember the plot. I don't remember why he was posing as a teacher. It was because one of the kids at the school's dad was a drug dealer, and his mom had been hiding him, basically, taking him into hiding. But the guy was obsessed with family, and so they were like, this kid is basically bait, and they're going to watch him. But they weren't letting him know that it was the cops. And his partner was going to be the teacher, but I think she got sick, so he had to go and do it. Do it. Do it. All right. So, I mean, the school could be a setting. I think there was like a – the final act may have culminated at a fairground or something. that might be a part you could do. I literally just do not. Yeah. I don't remember nothing. I don't think that one's actually a very good pinball theme. Erase is even worse because I've seen it since Kindergarten Cop, but I haven't seen it much. No. Is that the one where he has the rail guns? Yes. Or the Goss rifles or whatever they were. I guess those guns can be cannons that shoot the ball. That's like the helicopter that turns into an airplane. I didn't even remember that part. So that's all I got. That's all I can remember. All right. What about End of Days? I don't remember End of Days at all. I don't know if I've ever seen End of Days. Oh, okay. I've seen it maybe twice. Oh, is that the one where it's like the Satan ending the world apocalypse thing? Okay, that's literally all I remember about it. But I think everyone gets it confused with Constantine. It could be. I can't even remember a line from it. No. So I can't. Yeah, I'm no good there. Okay. Yeah, there was a church fight scene that was – I probably have that as the centerpiece, but that's about all I really remember because it's mostly just going around the city and it's like an investigation thing. I don't think it jives very well. Jingle all the way would – It would be terrible. It would be a terrible choice, but that's the one where – They fight over the toy, right? Yeah, him and Sinbad are fighting over the Turbo Man toy. Turbo Man. Yeah, and it ends with the parade where he is dressed up. With that, because Sinbad is in that movie, and I remember it from the trailer, I do want a part where you can activate a hidden mode. It's a video mode where Sinbad explains how you can't hurt a deuce. Just put the baby in the dash. You don't need to use car seats. You put the baby in the dash. You're in a deuce. You hit something, baby falls out of the dash. You pick the baby up, put it back in the dash. You can't hurt a deuce. I want that in there. yeah um all right runny man there's a lot there's so much there uh you could have the launcher thing that they used to get into the arena that was that that is literally what i would set the whole plunge app yes i think it makes obvious sense for that to be the plunge uh there for there to be uh multiple modes based around the different chasers hunters however they were yeah I would like something where there's – and maybe it's the mystery system where it's like the prizes that the audience is trying to win. Right. Hey, look, the hunters captured someone into the hockey net. You get the board game, the running man board game. You get a whole game. That's right. And it totally, every call out from that movie needs to be somebody imitating Dawson. Yes. Because that's how it needs to be played. It needs to be played up that, I mean, from what I hear, he wasn't even acting. He was just that much of a monster in reality. But there's so many lines. Like Jesse Ventura. Jesse Ventura was great in that movie. I don't need this. This is supposed to be a fight of honor. And glory. It is aerobics routine. Yeah. I was so over that. Total Recall. I want Quado. Yeah. I need a Quado scene. there's another iconic scene that I don't think we could put in with the modern home audience. Now, I could see having the head that opens up, like the mask. Oh, yeah. That would be great as a toy. Right, but if you had it like, so there was like a ball lock, like you would lock balls behind it, and then it would do the, open up and drop the balls on the That would be so visually cool. I didn't even think of that. I was thinking of it as like a bash toy. Well, that was my original thought, and then I thought about it. It's like when it opens up, you could literally lock balls in the back of it, and then when the ball lock opens, it could spread apart, and the balls drop into play. That would be kind of cool. I also think there should be a thing that kind of mimics the tracker in the nose coming out. Do you remember? Okay. I was like, get that stupid in. There's just a giant nose on the back of the play field And the ball shoots out of it There's a bright red ball that launches out of it Yeah, but not like a normal ball No, it would be like a red Powerball I don't know what we do with it after it's out of the nose And how we get it back in the nose Maybe this part doesn't work True Lies And before we go to True Lies It needs a Robert Picardo as Johnny Cab Thank you for using Johnny Cab I forgot about Johnny Cab I really want Michael Ironside, something about him in there, too. Maybe his arms. Okay, true lies. Harrier or no? It depends. Can we get by with the dance scene or no? I mean, we could repurpose the Sopranos stripper toy for the dance scene. The dance scene was very formative. that's like there's just so many set pieces in there you obviously can't fit them all in like there's the part where he's riding the horse through the mall yeah i just don't know how to work that with pinball no no i mean the harrier seems like the obvious the obvious thing to get in there i just feel like that just was that they sunk a bunch of money in the movie and but it's really not much of the time it's not the limo uh having someone like that like dangling i don't know if you like a crane toy sort of thing and the to rescue the you know you can lock the ball in the limo and then you have to do something to act you know use the crane to try and time it and rescue the ball except that's going to be pretty simple to learn uh so i don't know on that i think it could be interesting if you did the whole conceit of the game that you were the guy in the van so everything was going on the field but all of the yes all of the call outs and everything was coming as if you were the guy in that would be a good narration there are a couple of things that I do want. I do think it just needs to be like a little toy. There needs to be Tarm Arnold hiding behind a way too small pole. Just there on the playfield. It just needs to be there. And then I want a mode and it could maybe be an upper playfield mode. I'm loathe to suggest it, but basically you just need complete loops. And as you do it, you play out the Bill Paxton scene, Naval Lent scene. We have to have him. We have to have him. It's up there. It's just him and the Corvette. And it says every time you complete a shot, you get a Bill Paxton line. I'm not still paying for this dinner work. Even that, I mean, just. You know what? I'd go full conceit. The Bill Paxton lines don't even have to be from this movie. If you get far enough, it starts pulling other lines. It starts pulling lines from other movies. It's like Edge of Tomorrow lines. I just throw it up. twister it's twister it's the same cow what's going on oh yes yes do it do it okay me me and me and one of my daughters watched both twister movies uh second one was okay yeah she prefers the second one and and i'm like well that's too bad but the second one bad it wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. No, it actually was... Yeah, it... You know, it's one of the... It wasn't like the Robocop remake or the... Oh, gosh, I was trying to think of another one that I'd recently seen that was just like a redo of the classic idea. But it wasn't good like... Like, Blade Runner remake was really good. Right. So it wasn't like that either. It was fine. It was fine. Like, I thought they were going to make them like be the kids of the Hunters, you know of holly hunt and bill and they you know yeah they didn't they were right they they were pretty they did it in a nice way i thought so anyway yeah other than you know it had other than like like i don't think the tornadoes like killed anyone after the start it was just like everyone's like okay it's like it was super it felt very sanitized where twister was silly but there were like some tragic moments in it yeah that's i think that is very in this one it almost felt like the tornadoes were harmless like we could we can outsmart and beat a tornado with our brains yes like they're tornadoes guys they're tornadoes all right well well i actually had a lot of fun with that so yeah it was we ended up starting doing the games together but yeah it's it was fun well there were several games that are movies we hadn't seen so all right tony on to video games it looks like we do have another email uh from richard a uh who wrote the following hey fellas sorry i didn't email you last week with no news with a no news email i like to email the thursday before the show to cover anything that happens between shows next week i'm on vacation thus the early email today's then announced that bethesda pinball is coming on february 12th to pinball fx this pack was originally released on pinball fx3 and contains tables for doom fallout and skyrim this pack will also be released on pinball m with increased blood people who bought this in FX3 will be able to purchase the pack at 50% discount. Have a great show. A. Cool. B. That's nice of them to give you a discount if you've already purchased them, while at the same time being like, I already bought these, why would I buy them again? Yeah. Yeah. The quest for more money starts all soon. Right. Which is coming. Speaking of quests, Tell me about Ubisoft and their quests, Tony. Tell me. This video game segment might as well just be Ubisoft the segment, because that is the vast majority of what I've got in here. Maybe I'll call that in the show notes. Or the title, Ubisoft the segment. Ubisoft the segment. Last episode, we first started talking about Ubisoft was closing some studios, one of which had recently voted to unionize, plus several others. Well, they've been doing a bunch more, and it's all around their – they're calling it their reset. And including all this closing of studios, they've also announced that six games have been canceled. They've only confirmed one of the six games that was canceled, and that is Prince of Persia – the Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake was canceled. Oh, okay. And there are seven other games that have been delayed, which is supposedly rumored to include the Black Flag remake, which has been, you know, everybody knows is coming because they just literally re-upped all the Black Flag stuff. And suddenly there's like new Black Flag merch that's starting to appear in catalogs for companies and stuff. So, but in addition with this announcement, or with that announcement, their statement was, these measures mark a decisive turning point for Ubisoft and reflect our determination to confront challenges head on to reshape the group for the long term. The portfolio refocus will have a significant impact on the group's short-term financial trajectory, particularly in fiscal years 26 and 27, but this reset will strengthen the group and enable it to renew with sustainable growth and robust cash generation. Ubisoft is entering a new phase, one designed to reclaim creative leadership and to build value for players and stakeholders over the long term. Well, they're not kidding about the impact on their financial trajectory. Since this announcement, their stock has gone down 34% since this announcement just over a week ago to the lowest it's been since 2015. Still going down. The Syndicate des Traveilleurs de Jouer Video, however you say it. I'm not a French speaker. The French Video Game Workers Union and all other unions representing workers at Ubisoft in France voted unanimously for a general strike following the recent reset news. So they will be going on strike starting the 12th of February. This is a limited strike action, so they're only going on strike for like two days. Okay. And then they'll go back to work, and it's basically the, hey, we could be real serious if we wanted to be serious. We're just giving you a taste. but part of the union's big thing is uh last year ubisoft made new agreements with the union and now they're like oh well we sold off and changed and sent we broke off all of our stuff that actually makes money and it's now in a group that's co-owned by tencent and everything so all this has changed so uh none of those those agreements you made were the old ubisoft this is uh we don't have to abide by those agreements things we're a different company now so they are making huge changes to that. They've also rolled out a voluntary round of redundancy where they're wanting to reduce 18% of their Paris headquarters staffs, around 200 positions. They're asking for 200 of their headquarters employees to voluntarily come to the negotiation table to negotiate what their severances will be as they choose to leave the company. Wow, that's quite a few. Yeah, it is definitely. And for it to be the headquarters group, not one of the other developers, is what makes it really big. But I think the big thing is Ubisoft sold all of their games that sell and make money. They're all gone. But you know what they kept What still in production What Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still in production It's been in production since 2008. I don't know who they're going to sell this game to. Any day now. I mean, this game is going to be a nostalgia sell because nobody's played Beyond Good and Evil. i mean my god it's been it's been 18 years since the game was announced this is like duke nukem levels oh i can't wait for that game to come out there's nobody alive today who played the first one they're all gone that game was older than pong Oh, not quite that bad, but it's definitely going to be a nostalgia type thing. I just – I want to see what you thought. I think it's interesting that they're making all these changes, and I understand they're trying to slimline and get themselves into a better position, and they wouldn't sell to Tencent. That was the initial thing is because it's a majority family-owned company. They didn't want to sell to Tencent. That's why they created the subsidiaries to break off for Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six and all of those actually popular Ubisoft games into their own thing that can be co-owned by Tencent. But I don't actually know what Ubisoft's forward direction is now. yeah the from the quote the word solid statement that was made my guess would be that they're thinking about trying to spin up new ips which but they'd have to because they sold all their ips to make money yeah but that they like this whole emphasis on being creative and all that maybe they have some i again what was sold versus what was already baking maybe they had some stuff that was baking right they've gotten rid of the legacy stuff that paid for that I don't understand the strategy, but it feels like let's just have a fresh start. But we didn't want to give up our name. Ubisoft will help us as a name sell product, but we want to make all new products and just start over. It makes zero sense. Oh, no. I don't know why they didn't dissolve the whole thing and just get rid of everything. Or literally just sell. Just straight up sell. A couple of the big franchises. Sure. But they've sold almost everything of value. Right. Except for they're still subsidiaries that are still tied to Ubisoft. They still have some level of control. Yes. I don't know. They don't have full control. And there's a whole thing going on right now. The lead of the entire Assassin's Creed group, when they spun up the new subsidiary, and they moved everybody over and they set everything up. They didn't move him. He was. Retired? Offered a position as a consultant on Assassin's Creed. And when he said that he wasn't comfortable with that, He was offered a position working as a director in a different group that wasn't named or chosen. And they told him to choose. And he's like, I have to think about it. And then they announced that he had voluntarily left the company. And he found out he voluntarily left the company when he saw the news announcement that he had voluntarily left. Oh, okay. So he's currently launched a lawsuit against them because since they said he voluntarily left the company, there was no severance. There was no this. There was no nothing. And he didn't know that he'd voluntarily left the company because when they gave him an option, he counter-offered, and they said, let us think about it. And then they made the announcement that he'd voluntarily left the company. Okay. What a mess. Yeah, it is a complete mess. Unlike High Guard? High Guard, on the other hand, has been nothing but a rip-roaring success. 100,000 consecutive players day one. Why Overwatch when you can High Guard? Right, yeah. Day two was a little rougher. Oh, was it? Yeah, I mean, day two was like 11,000 consecutive players. Well, I mean. And it's been consistently hovering around the 10,000 mark since it launched a week and a half ago. What's wrong with it? I think I've read that they had a lot of crashes. They had a lot of crashes, and whatever that fix was, it wasn't terrible. They did push out the fix to that in less than a week, and that resolved 90% of the crashes. Yeah, I saw that announcement. I've seen a lot of people A lot of the comments I've gotten Is because unlike Overwatch Which is a 5v5, Apex which is a 5v5 or 6v6 Or Valorant that is like 5v5, Highguard is 3v3 And part of the complaints I've been seeing Is that that makes it very Easy to get stacks It's a lot easier to pull together Three really good players and their balancing system is basically non-existent. So steamrolling. It is bad. Okay. I hate getting steamrolled in Marvel or Overwatch or anything, so I understand. It's very frustrating. Now, they did roll out this weekend only, so it's over already by the time you listen to this, 5v5 variant, and it's gotten a lot of reviews as being slightly better balanced and being able to not be quite as big of a blowout fast. That's good. My initial concern would have been if they built the game with 3v3 in mind, there would be gross imbalance issues if you start adding extra characters. It reminds me of our Final Fantasy XI days and why can't we move the level cap up? Well, because then the sub jobs will start to bring in abilities we never wanted you to be able to have if you weren't maining the character. Oh, I wish. Oh, my sub-ninja would have been great if I could have gotten one more level. Yes. It would have been even better than it already was. But yeah, no, it is definitely... This game is so interesting to me because their marketing was like non-existent. They were super quiet. Yeah, I only heard about it at the Game Awards. Yes, and they were the final trailer of Game Awards, which sets a huge bar because that is considered like the anchor position. That's where the trailer for something huge is. And this game did not look very good then. But what was interesting is they went completely silent after that. They didn't really talk about it. They didn't release anything. There was no real discussion until they released information on the characters and the final trailer like less than a week before the game launched. And their social media presence was basically nonexistent through then. and then it launched and it's been not yeah it's been and it might be even a little strong given the drop off in players right and and that's the thing is and honestly i don't know that in this day and age of this kind of free-to-play live service type game is they seem to be dying Everyone that launches anymore seems to be just withering because people are either locked in playing the old ones that they were. The only one that has launched recently that has been a really big success, Marvel Rivals. Or they're the games that have become the, like, Ark Raiders and the extraction type games. Those are what have become the new hotness. Yeah, they've replaced the hero shooter in terms of new successes. so uh i don't know where we're going to see this game go uh it is definitely something that if it had not been the anchor trailer for the game awards i don't know that anybody would even really be talking about it that much because that's like i said that's traditionally where you put oh here's the huge thing this is the this is the cyber right that's like this is the elder Elder Scrolls is coming eventually. Yeah. But no, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if they can hold that 10,000, if that's enough for them to like, if that's enough or not. Like, I don't know. Right. I don't. Is that enough for them to maintain the service? Who knows? I don't know what the and again, it's early and they have 10,000 isn't doesn't sound like a terrible number, but it does from, oh, well, 100,000 people tried it. And this is how many after a week. We're like, let's keep playing it. Right. That's a pretty big fall off for a game that is as surface. It's a game as surface. You need people to keep playing it. It's not unusual for those games to dip and then bring in people again when the new season hits. For it to dip so early. Yes. And unlike a lot of single-player games that can be worked on in the background and have big updates that change things and bring a lot of players back. Like Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky. Like Cyberpunk, No Man's Sky, stuff like that. That's not really something that works with a live game like this. You need to have just a continuous rolling flow. The whole point is that you have a continuous rolling flow, so there's continuous income coming in from having people go in constantly, spending money, buying stuff. I just don't know what's such a big drop-off so early if they'll be able to maintain that. We've seen a lot of these live service games close. Some of them recently have closed less than six months. Some of them have gone away less than a month after release. Well, I'll just have to see how it goes. As I recall from the original trailer, I think I said it in the episode about it, is even the main character looked bored in the trailer. Well, that's tough when you're guarding on high. Man, I need some Scooby Snacks. It's very hot. Dispatch, which I mentioned playing, and I enjoyed. I played through the whole game. I enjoyed it quite a lot. It has released on Switch, too, which it has some differences from the other versions. And this is where it gets interesting because Dispatch has some full frontal nudity and sex scenes. uh those are you can talk in all normal in all the other versions you can toggle explicit scenes on or off and and and censorship on and off uh you can't it is just locked and censored on the switch oh okay i thought you're gonna say we could toggle it to be mario and peach no no that would It has to be Nintendo characters. That's our version of censorship. It's me, Dispatch. I just assume that's the name of the main character. I'm Dispatch. Let's go! Sorry. What a day. I could eat a peach for hours. Oh, that would be... Oh, a pinball machine with face-off. I have a scene where I have to take his face off. Face-off would be the greatest pinball machine. As long as it didn't try to be serious. Yes. It would be the greatest pinball machine. But no. Well, what is interesting is Nintendo has flat out said it's like they require a certain level of... of, how do I want to put it, a certain level of content that is allowable. Right. But what's interesting is Cyberpunk released, and you can still decide what your junk looks like and walk around with it hanging out in Cyberpunk. Oh, okay. In Witcher 3, there is no censorship of any of the romantic scenes in Witcher 3. Oh, okay. It's got a few. So the question a lot of people had is, well, why did Dispatch have to have this? If those games didn't, and what some poking around that other people have done online has come up with is Cyberpunk and Witcher 3 actually released different editions of the games in Japan that had mandatory censoring. Oh, okay. So they released censored versions in Japan only and uncensored versions to the rest of the world. And Dispatch only released one version. Okay. Interesting. but what put up a lot of of outrage uh with dispatch's release is that they didn't make it clear on the e-shop that it was censored there was a blurb about it at the bottom of the description it wasn't like large in your face right up where you could see it you had to go through everything and find it down at the bottom they've since corrected that because that's where a lot of their pushback came from. But the developers ad hoc put a statement that they worked with Nintendo. Their game didn't meet the content guidelines, so they had to make the change to meet the content guidelines that Nintendo required of them. And that they are continuing to work with Nintendo and looking at ways to have greater changes to the release. Okay. Because one of the big things is, because people are warning, the sex scenes went over really great. Like, they were super popular. And apparently they're looking to put more of them in Dispatch 2 if it happens. Yes, the Dispatchening. The Dispatchening. The human dispatcher. Oh, wait, no, that's just what it is. so uh yeah no i just i thought it was so interesting that the rules in japan are such that that's how cyberpunk and if that's what it was because i remember that was part of start creating your character and cyberpunk is choosing your genitalia and everything just like it's the same way with the Laren's game Baldur's Gate? Yeah, Baldur's Gate 3 one of the things you do in Baldur's Gate when you create a character a custom character, you get to decide what junk you have and how it looks though that can be turned off but it's it's it's part of the game because balder skate yeah then you have sex with a bear yes i never got that scene never none of my i've done like one and a half playthroughs of balder skate and at no point have i i don't think i've ever even taken that character like as one of the characters i used like commonly so okay but no uh that's all i really had on video games uh otherwise oh there was one other thing um the game developers conference happened and they had done a big uh poll and is specifically targeted at people at us us-based developers and in the last two years 34 percent of them have been laid off at least once in the last two years uh not in substantial number of those have been laid off multiple times because of just how the layoffs have been rolling through the video gaming industry in the last two years. And some of those that have been laid off in the last two years either left the industry completely or have not found a new job in the industry. So it's an interesting... I know we've covered a lot of what we've talked about video games-wise for the last several years, and it shows no signs of getting better. But that's what I got. Happy video games. Yeah. Well, if you want to reach out to us about the happy video games, you can always email eclecticgamerspodcast.gmail.com. We are on facebook.com slash eclecticgamerspodcast. And as I mentioned earlier at the start of the show, if you want to support the channel, we do have a Patreon, patreon.com slash eclectic underscore gamers. We have three tiers, the lowest of which is a dollar a month if you want to show your love in a financial way. We're on Twitch and Instagram as eclectic underscore gamers. We'll plan to be back in a couple of weeks. Very skeptical we'll be talking about Stern's new release, but we will be having other things to talk about. Yeah. And until then, my name is Dennis. I'm Tony. Goodbye. See ya.