This episode of the Eclectic Gamers Podcast is brought to you by the Roanoke Pinball Museum in Roanoke, Virginia, and by me, he who shall not be named. The Roanoke Pinball Museum is an interactive museum dedicated to the science and history of pinball and its magic within. Their mission is to cultivate curiosity in science, art, and history through pinball while preserving and honoring its role in American culture. The museum is open every day except Monday and pandemic days, and it houses over 65 machines with models from 1932 to 2018. Roanoke Pinball Museum, go play their games, because Harry Potter will never have his own pinball machine. Welcome to the Eclectic Gamers Podcast. This is episode 113. Today is Sunday, April 19th. And this would be considered our, what, second quarantine edition? Yeah. The third quarantine edition? I think it's the second one we're recording remotely because there's stay-at-home orders in place. Correct. So, I'm Tony I'm Dennis, and we don't have much news Yeah, it's amazing It's almost like there's nothing Going on game related since nobody can work Or do anything Yeah, so this might be a short episode I just wrapped up recording the Pinball Show episode, and it's short too So It's just like, well, because there's nothing I mean, in this Last week, there's really On the pinball side, there's only been some code updates because those are still able to move forward. And we basically never report on code updates because who knows how many listeners own the games that had updates. Right. And then there was, you know, This Week in Pinball had a write-up about an interview regarding Deep Root. But again, it was mostly talking about stuff that people, I think, are already familiar with. So I didn't really see the point in touching on it. You didn't have any new breaking revelations about how they're closing shop and going away and they failed? No, no. You know, talk about Raza, talk about Dennis Nordman leaving, but not giving much in the way of specifics. So there's just not a lot to go into there. And so I guess introduction updates. We'll have some fun in the pinball segment. But before that, so what's going on? I know we had a little bit of setup stuff because of your monitors. Yes. I have for several years now been a member of the three monitor mafia. I have reverted to a two-monitor setup because I took all of that there. Well, not all of that, but I took a chunk of the money set aside for going to Texas and went and purchased two 27-inch widescreen 144 hertz fancy super special monitors. Ooh, fancy. So what I did was I completely tore down my three-monitor setup because these 227s take up pretty much the exact same amount of real estate as my three older monitors did. And while I was doing that, I decided the obvious thing to do would be to completely tear my computer desk apart and rebuild it with actual decent cable management so everything's not just laying on the floor and actually hang stuff up. and I mounted my power strips and have everything run around. I also brought my second battery backup online, so I've got two battery backups, and everything's split between the two battery backups, which means I should be able to run absolutely everything I've got going for about two and a half hours with no power before I lose everything. But yeah, no It's taking a little getting used to Because these are the curved monitors Oh, okay So I got two 27 inch curves I gotta say I like them They're pretty nice What I found interesting when I was When I've been working with them Is they are big enough that I'm Finding it's not uncommon I'll split them in Each into two so I'll be running like four separate windows while I'm doing research stuff. So instead of having – it's just easier to read that way with most websites or with stuff that's reading because it gives it more vertical, less width. So I've been using that for doing researching. Like this morning when I was finishing up the notes, I had it broken into four separate windows, and it worked pretty well. I've been thinking about doing some monitor upgrades. I had a spare old monitor that I bought years ago for a virtual pinball project, and we ended up getting some other screen instead. And so I use that as my second monitor now, which it works fine, except it's not as good. It's the same brand, but they're both Acer's, but it's not as good as my main monitor. And one of the things is it can't run the same resolution because it's slightly smaller. Yeah, that hurts. So it's a little – it's irking me a bit. Not so much like looking left to right, but rather if I need to use it for when I'm trying to manage more than just email, it's like I get a little annoyed because it's like, oh, the spreadsheet I shifted over there. All of a sudden, I can't see as many rows. And it's not identical. And I do like symmetry. So I've been thinking about – I don't have a huge desk. I could go higher than the 19-inch, though. I could probably do like a 21 each or something and a little more real estate. But I haven't decided to buy it yet because, again, I've made it work in pandemic. So I'm being lazy. Yeah. Well, when I did mine, I ordered mine for pickup from Micro Center. And then I went and just went in and picked them up and left. And even that took over an hour. because they had a big line outside, and the line was to be put on the wait list so you could wait in your car to be called in because they were only allowing like 15 people in the store at a time. Right, right, yeah, for social distancing. So it took about an hour to do the pickup, but it wasn't bad. I did take two of my three older monitors, and I have set them aside, and they are, I've created a, and I picked up a docking station for my laptop. So now I have a laptop docking station so I can just plug my laptop in next to my main system if I want the extra system. And also my work laptop works on the exact same setup so I can just plug my work laptop in, which is probably how I will use it the majority of the time anyway. but because of the monitors are small enough, I was able to put them back against the wall and it's not causing a big problem. I still have almost the entire desk free. So it's not bad. Yeah. I could do something like that for the laptops. So with these monitors that I do have, there's always a use for monitors. Yeah. The only other thing I did was when I redid the cable management is I moved the placement of my desktop and it's in a position now where if I do end up going ahead with what I've been thinking about at one point of replacing it. It'll be a much easier replacement than it would have been before. That's good. Planning ahead. Well, I don't really have any other news. I've been working COVID stuff as usual, but I'm not going to bore more people into it because it's basically the same stuff as it was, except now it's more about money and less about confusion. So, I guess let's go ahead and go into Pinwall. As I noted at the start. That was a terrible pinball sound. Sorry. It was different. I was going to make an interesting little jangly sound, and then I just didn't, and it just came off dumb. I'm dumb. That's the stir craziness coming through. Have you joined any protests yet? No. Amazing. They're highly organized, yet pretending to be spontaneous. It's fascinating. It's amazing how that happens. Yes. so in pinball what I thought we could do is something that we had a lot of fun with a long time ago, well we really only did pinball drama, the pinball machine, but I sort of thought let's just have some fun and let's just talk about some ideas some themes for pinball machines and how we kind of think that they would work, they can be original, they can be licensed, the only rule I have for it that I wanted to impose was let's not do anything that Everyone always did. I don't want to talk about Jaws. I don't want to talk about anything that we assume is going to be coming out, like Toy Story or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I'm okay with taking a license and going through it and doing it, but not something that we're expecting to have happen, per se. So, for example, I could go and say, as I was thinking about it, we could have a dune would be a pinball machine, especially now that there's a new movie coming out. It's in my brain more, but it's like, why is there not a dune? Why am I not feeding shy, hallowed balls? Yeah, that would be a valid machine choice. How about a mode where the lights are flashing, but you need to complete the shot in between the light flashes because you have to walk without rhythm. that's an interesting idea. I actually kind of like that one. See? Yeah. See, that's, that's a, that's a, yeah. So that's just a hypothetical, but anyway, so, uh, any thoughts on cool themes that could be done in pinball? Oh, so you said cool. So that takes all, that gets rid of all of my thoughts. All right. Any thoughts on themes that probably won't be done that could be that, but could make for interesting pinball machines. Well, I think it's interesting because the sheer amount of media out there that is popular enough to get shows and movies, but not popular enough to get this kind of thing gives you some options. With the horror type level of stuff that has been seen lately, uh, with the fanciness in TV and movies, uh, I was thinking a good horror theme and not like a campy horror theme, like a good, good horror, horror theme, uh, machine wouldn't be bad. And then of course that started me thinking down what horror movies that would I want to get. And then I segued off a horror movies into hilarious hilarity. hilarity and I want a Tucker and Dale versus evil pinball machine. Hmm. I think I've seen that once. It's, it's so funny because it's just such a toss up at all the old horror tropes. And there would be so many points that could be used for good modes and stuff that it would be, I think it could be a lot of fun. It would, it's one of those movies that they always talked about. there being another one, but it's not actually probably ever going to happen because it's been so many years at this point. Hmm. Yeah, but what would you do? Do you have thoughts on modes for it? Well, I think it'd be like any good horror movie. A lot of the... Anything centered around the variety of kills in the movie and specifically setting some modes where you're basically making shots to try and cause it to happen. Because for those who haven't seen the movie, the basic overall thing on the movie is that there is the standard college kids going on their retreat into the woods for spring break getaway. But at the same time, there are these two hillbillies that have just picked up a house in the woods and they're going there to set it up and turn it into their into like a holiday vacation place. and over the course of basically a giant bit of mistaken identity and hilarity and everything else, these kids start thinking that the hillbillies are murderers and killers, and then the kids start dying. And the kids start dying because of stuff the kids are doing and that the hillbillies have nothing to do with it. It's just happening around them. so setting up like at one point there's one of the kids thinks that one of their other friends has died because of these hillbillies and he's tired of it so he's going to go and end the hillbilly threat and as he goes to do it he's charging at one of the guys and he trips and falls into the wood chipper that the guy was using to chip up wood so the guy's trying to pull him out and he's like oh my god this guy's suiciding no no and then the other friends see him holding their friends legs with him in the chipper oh it's just modes that set up that stuff would be interesting especially depending upon how your shots were set up but just the whole kind of reverse flip take on what most the horror genre is yeah I could say that would definitely be quite a bit different though when you mentioned the desire to see a pinball machine that was straight horror I thought uh one that would be extremely serious and not flip the genre on its head so well that's how I that's when I was first thinking about a horror pinball machine that's what I was thinking I was thinking uh that tv show that was It was an American horror story. Okay. I've only seen clips of it. I've never watched any of it. You have not seen it. I thought something along those lines. But then again, because of who I am, I started thinking about it. I just started thinking about Tunker and Dale and taking it and kind of taking the humorous, flip it on its head side. Yeah, and I think that's probably where the struggle is. I don't know what the last pure horror, what maybe Freddy Nightmare on Elm Street from Gottlieb, maybe that, you know, tried to address horror seriously. Because I mean, America's Most Haunted is silly. Monster Bash is silly. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I guess as I think about, I suppose Alien. Alien tried to do it justice as best as it could. I would do Halloween, actually, the original Halloween movie, if I were to want to try and do something serious with horror. It's iconic. The music would work really well. It's simple. But I also don't think it would cost a lot. The thing that I think would be interesting, it might be way too unattractive for anyone, would be what if, as the player, you were essentially playing from the perspective of Michael Myers, though? So you're trying to collect the victims. Oh. Interesting. Well, because that way you can work in the whole movie because it's like, OK, so you have a mode where you have to escape from from the doctor and get, you know, get out of the insane asylum. And then you need to have the scene where he gets the mask and then have a scene where he kills the girl who locked herself in the laundry room and have the scene where, you know, the wizard mode is him trying to get Jamie Lee Curtis. And when you complete all the shots, you get shot off the balcony. And you get up and you leave You walk over to the sequel That where I guess he went So just because it so it iconic They actually only like four or five kills in that movie So you could have modes around it like collect the victim You're trying to accomplish what he was trying to do. And that way it lets you essentially experience the entire film. Because if you just do it from Jamie Lee Curtis's perspective, for example, you got a lot of the film, but maybe half. but there's still all these other elements that she wasn't directly involved with that are happening. And he's the linchpin to the story. So I just thought that would be weird if you want to do a super, you know, super straight horror, but being the, being the bad guy is the player. And like, okay, you're trying to kill these people. You're mad. You're whatever. I don't know what his motivation was. I don't know. I've not really thought what Michael Myers motivation is. He's just Michael Myers. They eventually in the later films Sort of established that The thing they went with was He's just evil He's just pure evil He's not angry It's not some sort of mental illness He's just evil That's just what they ended up going with He's just evil So evil Alright let's shift from We came up with a couple very different horror concepts What about sci-fi So I'm going to set aside my little Dune teaser or Dune's obvious they need to do Dune. Obviously. Something that, yeah, they just, no way, no way they do. I mean, I guess now because it's been long enough, and I think it's well enough dead, we could say Firefly? Yeah, I mean. Too obvious? I don't know. I don't know. It's definitely not ever going to happen. that's one of those things it's like is it ever going to be not too soon since you started last time I'm going to start I'll start this one The Last Starfighter okay again great thematic music oh it's got such campy dialogue but you know you're going along I want you kind of like on the premium and LE version of Walking Dead you can earn walker bombs which you know you You hit the button on the lockdown bar, and you can use those to help you in your multiball and stuff. But imagine being able to earn Death Blossom, which, for those who haven't seen the movie, Death Blossom is indiscriminate kill mode where your ship can do it once, and it wipes out everything. And you could use that to – it's almost like Smart Missile from the data East Jurassic Park, though. It will hit every single shot all at once, so everything lit is earned. but instead of starting with it maybe you well maybe you do start with it or maybe you do start with it in some capacity but you could actually I'm not a big fan of video modes but have a video mode where you're supposed to be playing the arcade game and depending on how you do in it you earn something like a bonus multiplier perhaps I don't know if you do anything with the on the ground stuff like as the android replicant version of the guy while he's Because no one knows that he's gone. See, I think I would skip that whole section. I never cared for that part. I only want the space stuff. Yeah. Because every time they flipped back to the other section, it was like, why? I don't care. But maybe I'm just saying all this one so that when you lose your last ball, you hear about how your ship is stuck into the moon's gravity. What do we do? We die. Yes. man that's the topper is that little eye that little eye thing it's just a little thing it's just a little thing that yeah it just rotates into place your little yeah super fancy space monocle the topper is a helmet and with a movable monocle that that's what it is i don't i don't know it was such again that was a movie that was set up for a sequel that never happened but i you know it's silly uh but i i think it's it's fun with a video screen you could have a lot of interesting clips. The plot's easy to follow. You just do something with a... You do it in a Star Wars, Star Trek vein. A lot of chasing... I don't think the rules would be anything complex. It'd be more of a chase the light sort of game style. You could do some fun stuff with it. You know what? I'm actually going to segue off of your thoughts. Since you went with kind of an 80s sci-fi... I keep turning to the 70s and 80s. I know. Running Man. Oh, that's an interesting idea. The Steven King story. Right. I mean, because he's just like the movie itself. I never read the novel, but the movie, besides A, having Schwarzenegger being the standard 80s Schwarzenegger archetype, is just so dystopian and over the top that I, it feels like it would make for a solid pinball theme, activating the various of the, the hunters to go after the running man. Oh yeah. That would work. That integrate. Well, I mean, I, I just think everything would pull together very well like that. Uh, you could have the whole, uh, and if you could get, if you pretty much, If you could get just all of the Richard Dawson sound clips from the movie. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, you'd need a couple other things put in. But frankly, if you had Dawson's sound clips from that movie, you'd be pretty much done as is. I do like the idea of activate. You go and you activate the hunter and that's like your mode. because there were several that you saw defeated in the movie. Right. And, I mean, some of them were played by some pretty big-name people, Jim Brown, Jesse Ventura. But, I mean, they were all just like crazy, over-the-top takes on gladiator-type things. Yeah, yeah. No, it was American gladiators, but as a death sport. Right. And I think you focus on the game show, the arena. You wouldn't have to integrate things like the dystopian society beyond that, like all the plot about the people and how he was innocent and he was framed and all that. It would just be about trying to win the running man. You could probably do it without even needing any of the Schwarzenegger assets because you could do it just as the show without concentrating directly on the movie. because you could just the player is a runner. There were runners before. I don't think, you know, they used to, he used to do custom call-outs for pinball machines and he's not exactly at the peak of his career at this point, so I think you could, but as long as you could get the asset, a lot of the audio like you mentioned, the audio assets from the film, there's a lot you could just do with those. So like, you know, you defeat Sub-Zero, here is Sub-Zero now plane zero the saw is a part of me and I'm going to make it a part of you buzzsaw dynamo opera mode I'm sorry I made that sound like Tarzan I can't do opera we both had our bad song moments this time around there we go Well, it's been a long month. Oh, I know. And it's not even over yet. I'm trying to think of any other genres like fantasy. But yes, Running Man was a sci-fi action. I like that one. That one would be fun. That was one that should have been done. Kind of like I often have said Die Hard should have been done in the 80s when Die Hard was popular. Running Man definitely should have been done. Oh, yeah. But alas, they did not choose to do it. I'm wondering about any TV shows because we've been going with movies so far. We have. I'm wondering about just any genre, but a TV show that deserved something and it didn't get it. Or an ongoing show. Obviously, people are all talking Tiger King, Tiger King documentary series now. Oh, gosh, no. Look, that's what they're talking about. I understand. It's become a cultural touchstone, Tony. Somehow that I'm not going to touch. I'm not going to touch that touchstone. No, no. I haven't touched either. So I shouldn't be peer pressuring you to do so. I did. I mean, I've not been watching TV. I watched other than I did watch all six seasons of Community. You've been watching Community. Would Community make a good pinball machine? I don't know that it would. I don't know that it would go with it very well. What about Scrubs, Tony? You were a Scrubs fan. I hadn't thought about that. Scrubs actually would probably be pretty good. See, I never watched Scrubs, but I remember you telling me you really liked it. I really enjoyed Scrubs, and it ended so wonderfully, and then they brought it back because, you know, they had to make money. You know, one I think could work would have been, you know, bring back some good Cactus Canyon. vibes here deadwood that would actually probably be pretty popular yeah especially as long as we have like the all the profanity we have to have the profanity rom available so you can you can hear here are the discussions with uh between oh like there was the there was the oh i can't it's been so long since i've seen i have seen all well i thought they were actually going to bring it back or do another season, which seems weird to me because several actors have passed away at this point. Powers Booth is dead. Right. The guy who played the newspaper editor is dead. But a lot of the main cast is still alive, of course. It's just – I think Western theme can work. And besides Cactus Canyon, which a lot of people appreciate all the assets of the toys and such, and such, I should say, and the concept behind that. People just, we just haven't seen a Western in pinball, besides Western art. You know, everything that was Western, quote unquote, like sharpshooter and stuff, predates where there was any immersion. So, you know, it wouldn't have to necessarily be Deadwood. There's so many other, I mean, some people might say, well, what about Westworld? Which is, you know, I haven't seen that movie. That kind of goes back and forth. Right. But there are a lot, you know, a good Western movie. I've talked about TV shows and now I'm pivoting to a good Western movie like Unforgiven. Unforgiven would be excellent. I'm almost wondering, are Westerns like that too serious to be good pinball? But we talked about serious horror, so I don't see why we couldn't have a serious Western. You could go to like The Quick and the Dead. Yeah. Oh, man. What a thought. Oh, I just had a thought. Let me look. how many Gene Hackman movies would make a good pinball machine? Oh, gosh, what an interesting question. Crimson Tide. Crimson Tide would be good. Yeah, especially if you want a lot of tight shots to really get that claustrophobia of being on a submarine, I think. I really like Crimson Tide. That's a really good movie. Oh, Enemy of the State. I've forgotten about Enemy of the State. Oh, the Will Smith vehicle. Right. Yeah, that one was weird. That was a weird movie. That was weird. Gene Hackman was the conspiracy theorist hacker guy. Yeah, and let's see. Well, hey, if you want another basketball game, you could do Hoosiers. That's all we need is another basketball game. Always an option. What was the name of the movie that really made him, the one from the 70s? Let's see. He was in the Poseidon Adventure That's a fun I shouldn't say fun That's a good action film I remember the remake with Kurt Russell better though No this was prior to the Poseidon Adventure French Connection Oh the French Connection I think that's some film that really made him I've seen it once It had an interest Maybe not Maybe I would say maybe not do that one let's see, what else with Gene Hackman? I just watched less than a week ago Mississippi Burning, a movie where William Defoe plays a good guy, along with Gene Hackman. I've seen that movie, but it was years ago. Years and years ago. Yeah, that's a, they're FBI agents working against the Ku Klux Klan in regards to some missing civil rights workers. The movie has some hokey moments in it, but overall, I think it's pretty good. But yeah, I don't think it would. I don't know that would make a good pinball machine. That's a little bit heavy in terms of subject matter. Yeah, that's probably a little bit heavy. And your sales to Mississippi might be fairly low on that model. So we got to factor in some market stuff. The birdcage? The Birdcage, that is an excellent movie With Robin Williams Yeah, it's Robin Williams and Nathan Lane Yeah, yeah And they're pretending To not be gay Because he is a conservative senator I think And it's like their daughter And Lane and Williams' son are Engaged or something It's been a long time since I've seen it, but it was pretty funny Yeah, that was a really funny movie But I don't know how well it works as a pinball machine. Yeah. I mean, if it was about literal bird cages and you're trying to put balls in the bird cage, that's more of a Tweety Bird Sylvester thing. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm trying to think what else. Yeah, because, of course, Quick and the Dead, you mentioned, that's got Gene Hackman in it. Unforgiven does as well. A couple Westerns with him. Bat-21. I don't know that one. Yeah, it's the one where Gene Hackman gets shot down over Vietnam and the whole movie's about them trying to get him pulled out. I don't think I've seen it. Yeah, it's all about a rescue thing. Was he in one where? Danny Glover's with him. Danny Glover's the other big character. Was he in a, and it feels like it would be an early 2000s movie, with Owen Wilson getting shot down? Yes, he was. That was, what was that movie called? Behind Enemy Lines. Yeah. Okay. That's the only one, the rescue people one that I remember with Gene Hackman. Yeah. And obviously I didn't remember it well, because I couldn't remember the name. Oh, there we go. We were talking about something, Flight of the Intruder. Hmm. Because then everything would be about, I mean, yeah, you're getting into the whole Vietnam War thing, but that would have lots of possibility. Sure. That's also Danny Glover and William Dafoe. Yeah. Or you could do other jet ones. Obviously, a lot of people have said Top Gun before, but what about Iron Eagle? Oh, the soundtrack would be better. See, that's just an excuse for an 80s soundtrack. But hey, isn't that what Guardians of the Galaxy is? Oh, yeah, pretty much. So, there you go. Yeah, you got to put on your tape player. You got to have your cassette ready before you go in to rescue your dad. Oh. With Luke Gossick Jr. Hey, Enemy Mine. See, I thought about Enemy Mine when you were talking about The Last Starfighter, but it just seems so serious. It's really slow. It's really slow-paced. Well, yeah, it's slow and serious, and it's just like the sci-fi take on that old, what was the name of that World War II movie? Tofune's in it. I'm sure I've heard of it, but it's not coming to mind. Is it Hell in the Pacific? Do you know how well... Yeah, Lee Marvin and Tashira Mifune, Hell in the Pacific. It wouldn be a good one either but It just I always thought about it when I ever Even the first time I seen Enemy Mine I thought about it What was that one World War II one Operation Petticoat? Operation Petticoat, always a hilarious World War II movie with Cary Grant, where they paint the submarine pink. Ah, yes, yes, yes. I've seen that. Yeah, that's just a fun movie. I don't know how well that would translate to a pinball machine, but that'd be a fun movie. Now, we did talk about, several episodes ago, we made a joke about a 1776 pinball machine. Because we made a joke about the Leesville, Virginia multiball, where you just keep getting attaballs. Yeah, here's a Lee-in. There's a Lee-in. Everywhere there's a Lee-in. And I've been running that through my head over since that episode and just occasionally coming up with just ideas for that machine, including the fact that it would not have a left out lane, but it would have two right outlanes. Because never to the left. Because never to the left, ever to the right, forever to the right. Uh, and what really got me thinking was I was thinking about that single pop up on the side on TNA and then Denise kicked out. Uh, and then on the Rick and Morty, it's got that single pop replacing the one bumper on the lower left. And that got me thinking about doing your normal three pops, but doing them widespread like that to represent the triangle trade. Oh, I see. Molasses and rum and slaves. And just one of those things that just keeps running interesting little ideas to me. And it's just, again, another excuse to have a soundtrack. Yeah, yes. There needs to be a shot where first It's a dove You have to decide the bird To be the symbol of America And you gotta go through the dove and the turkey And the eagle and then the turkey Tries to win and you gotta let the eagle win Yeah no that's a One of the few musicals I like I can't say that I like a lot of musicals Alright everyone that was Our real excuse to just talk about Movies and shows but gussied up as a discussion about pinball machines because I don't have any news. Hey, we gave them some ideas. Feel free to write them to eclecticgamerspodcast.gmail.com and actually give us something to talk about. I do feel a little guilty. A little bit. Maybe a little bit. But there's nothing else to talk about. This is like, I want to talk about movies, so that's what we did. I'm not talking about that. I had my alarm pop up on my phone yesterday reminding me about the pinball tournament yesterday, and it made me feel the sads. Oh, yes. Oh, gosh. What a mess. Well, there is some video game news, though. So let's go ahead and sift over into that. Because I know about this first topic, this PS5 stuff, because that's what I've been reading about this week. Right. Our first topic we're going into is the PS5. they have released the first look at the controllers for the PS5, and they are probably the greatest changes to a PlayStation controller ever since the very first DualShock came out. Revolutionary. And most PlayStation controller changes have been minor tweaks. You know, it's the difference between beige and off-beige. but with this one they've gone from beige to tan basically the controllers have got some smoothed out angles it's a little bit larger in the portion that you hold in your hand and things have been just slightly adjusted but because it's a sony product people are calling it the end of terrible and this collapse and it's ruined everything because you know fanboys are terrible yeah yeah i i didn't think it looked that much different so i didn't see what the big deal was but i didn't it looked fine to me yeah i mean it is what it is i i i've been i think fairly transparently i'm not a fan of the dual shock i think it's an okay controller but i don't think it's uh ergonomically that comfortable but you prefer you prefer the uh x boxes where they've got the joystick shifted. Yeah, I think that offset a lot of people prefer the offset. Well, and I think a number of other controllers have done it for a reason now as well that aren't Xbox. Yeah. That's just how people like to hold them. But anyway, that's fine. Now, I was going to say I've been more noting this whole discussion about the production, though. because all the information I'm seeing is that Sony's been saying all these production things they're talking about aren't related to coronavirus. No. And that's what's weird to me. But they have been saying it's not coronavirus related. But they are talking about having a more limited production in the first year than they did on the PS4. And that seems surprising to me. My guess is that it is due to the bill of materials. And I'm wondering if they're not dialing back due to concerns about the number of people who will actually be able to afford one as the economy continues its issues due to coronavirus. Yeah, I and again, I've read multiple articles, so I'm not citing a specific one, but I had read that some of the parts, some of the components have materials that have been difficult to source even before the covid issues. So that that may be part of the play. And then there was a source, I think. And I I'm sorry, I didn't I didn't verify this, but I think it was Forbes had an article. and they had indicated that they had heard reports or rumors or internal leak or whatever, that the bill of materials on the PS5 is coming to $450 just to build it. Yeah, that was a Forbes article because I read it as well. And so everything they were saying was they're talking $500 to $550 if they don't want to lose money. And so I'm sure with Sony, they're looking at this and they're like, the PS4 was a unit that launched at $400 and they took a lot of grief with the PS3 when it launched at $600. granted that was many many years ago but nonetheless that it sounds like they're unable to drive the price down and so they think the demand will be lower but I don't know because they're still not saying what the price is and I mean I was listening to I think it was a podcast unlocked over with IGN which covers Microsoft side of things and they've had a lot of speculation that they think Microsoft is deliberately holding back on announcing the price on the Xbox One because they're going to make sure there is no way it's more expensive than the PS5. Which would make sense that this entire thing is just a bunch of brinkmanship between the two of them to see who will announce first. Well, someone's got to get the price out eventually for pre-order purposes. So I don't know. So my guess will be if Sony feels it absolutely has to go second, Microsoft might blink first, just because I think they feel that they're in a... I believe Microsoft, based off the feedback, especially after there were more detailed tech specs coming out of the PS5, and again, another article, this wasn't with Forbes, but another article I had read was, initial criticism was the PS5 numbers, at least the first set of numbers they released, were under optimal settings, peak settings, and Microsoft had revealed their average settings. on speed performance results. So the bottom line is on most of the components, it sounds like Microsoft has won on the hardware front on this. So they're feeling pretty good about where they're going in. They've always been inferior to the Sony version at launch on all of their consoles. So this is a big shift for them. So given that, I think they may blink, that Microsoft may blink first just because they may feel like, well, we've got the better system anyway. So we might as well just get our price out there. and scoop up what sales we can. Right, but just the question then is, is their increase in numbers have an increase in hardware costs? Right, and that's where I think why Microsoft does not yet have their price out there is, this is my guess, I think they want to undercut Sony, but they don't want to undercut it by much. So they want to know Sony's amount so that they can come in and basically say, okay well you can have a slightly more powerful system for you know somewhere fifty dollars or less less so why don't you buy microsoft this time instead of you know just like how they lost so many sales to the ps4 because they were a hundred dollars more for and it wasn't you know it was a less powerful system it was the connect push that price up and so this time i think they don't want that to happen i'm sure they they i think they probably know well enough about what because the specs are so similar on these machines, they have to know what the BOM is on Sony within a few dollars. I can't imagine they can't figure it out just because their hardware is so similar in most regards. So based off of that, I think Microsoft has a good sense as to how much it's going to cost Sony to make it. And I think that they know Sony cannot do loss leader on their hardware and Sony has to at least break even on the machines. so the question is how much profit is sony going to have to try and get on the machine and is how much loss might microsoft be willing to take as a loss leader i think microsoft would be willing to do a loss lead um but i don't think they think they have to so yeah i i think they're definitely in the position to allow her or allow her to allow them to uh win with the lower cost no matter what. Yeah. They just will not, they won't take the damage that Sony would. Sony can't afford it and Microsoft can't. Yeah, but I think they would rather go in and know and be like, okay, well, Sony priced at $550, so let's price it $500 instead of, you know, doing $470. Let's, you know, so we still make some money on our hardware if we can, but they'd like to do that. And that's going to be, I mean, that's my guess for the Series X. I bet you that they'll launch it at 500. I think that sounds like a comfortable number. I think that's just kind of where I think they're going to come in at. And my guess on Sony is probably 550. That's where I think it'll shake out, but we'll see. Which puts them both right in the zone that people have been saying. Yeah, well, I mean, you see, the thing is, Sony has the nice exclusive studio setup that they've got. So they've got the game, you know, people will assume they'll have the games. Sony has more wiggle room, even though that financially as a company, Sony is in a much worse place than Microsoft. On the gaming studio side, on the game front in general, Sony is the big dog right now. They have a lot of wiggle room here. I think people are getting a little annoyed because it feels like they're not sharing very much and they're, you know, they're playing almost like defense right now, but this is like what you see in elections with people who have the lead in the polls. They are always the more cautious. So I'm not surprised at Sony's behavior on any of this. It's just, they've got the, they've got the market share right now and they can get away with this. So, but eventually people will need to know the price to be able to preorder it. So they'll have to say something eventually. And they sound like they still want to release. And I'm sure they do. They definitely want to release around when Microsoft does. They don't want to have to wait a year or something like that. That would be, I mean. Oh, no, that would be destroyed. That would be, yeah, that'd be like corporate suicide sort of stuff. So they know they have to do that. So, I mean, I'm not, I think they'll do fine. But I think they're right to reduce the production, especially because of these mid-cycle like PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X things. I don't know if there's going to be the same level of demand immediately because we did have these mid-generational upgrades. And the thing to remember with the PS4 and the Xbox One was the prior generation of the PS3 and the Xbox 360, that's like a 10-year generation. That was the ridiculous, most lengthy generation we ever saw. Yeah. And so people aren't, in more recent memory, people aren't used to having new generations come along this quickly. We were, when we were kids, this stuff changed all the time. But it was, it's been, you know, that period with the 360 and the PS3 was a very stagnant period on hardware. And that's what most of the people I think that are looking at buying stuff now, that's what they remember is just, oh, it felt like I grew up with the PS3. Yeah, you did, because that's all there was. That was the only item you had. You had no choices. Yeah. The humorous thing I found was I did see that they are releasing a special edition Xbox One for Cyberpunk 77. It's funny because it's so late in the cycle. But it does look cool. It looks amazing. I was like, I wish my Xbox looked like that. But that was my thought. I admit, this is an amazing looking Xbox. Who in the crap is going to spend that kind of money to get an Xbox at this point? Yeah, yeah. When it's going to be coming out. It's going to look great under my stairs with all my other retired consoles. Because it's like two months before the new Xbox comes out. Yeah, I thought it was weird. I suppose there'll be a lot of people that don't want to wait and immediately get Cyberpunk, but they all probably have systems already and don't need to buy a whole new console. Because they're just so late in the gen. Yeah, I thought that was weird. That's a good point. That was really weird. Because when I was reading some articles, I saw that, and I'm like, what the? Lovely. What else do we have in video games? Games Done Quick is running a special weekend event for some COVID relief, which I've been watching over this weekend. By the time anybody sees this, it's gone. It's over, so they're not going to get to watch any of it. Yeah, I knew it was on, but I didn't watch it. Yep, I've been watching it off and on all weekend. They did a similar thing for Hurricane Harvey. Yeah, I did see that one. And they've bypassed the money they raised for Harvey already with the show with it still going. And they did push back summer games done quick to late August, which I believe we've mentioned before. Yeah, we, we did. That's smart. It is. Hopefully it'll be more available to happen because you can definitely tell the difference when this is not people sitting in with a well, with a well curated and put together and a team of people just to make sure all of the streaming boxes are running good. Normally the live games done quick stuff, that is one polished stream. Yeah, definitely. So is there any game news? There has been some game news. obviously what I think will probably the big one that most people heard about is Valorant yeah the hype trains high on that one yeah the new game this is the new Apex Legends right except for they hoping it continue to go big where Apex Legends kind of died out real quick Yeah, but I don't know. Riot Games isn't organizing professional esports around it. They're just letting it be homegrown for now. Well, yeah, but it's still in beta. I understand, but that's how they said they want the whole scene to be for all the foreseeable future. And given their background in highly organizing esports, I just thought it was really weird. Yeah, it is kind of weird. And the way they're handling the beta keys is, I think... That's annoying as hell. Yeah, it's dumb, but at the same time, it is definitely driving views of the game. I think it's why the game appears as high as it is. So do you think it's artificially inflating the... I think it is. Yeah, I mean, that was always a big accusation when Overwatch League was on Twitch and how many people were just watching to get tokens. Yeah, they were just watching for bloops. Yeah, I think it could be. since the only way you have to register with Riot Games, then connect it to your Twitch stream, and then watch people playing it who have gifting turned on to maybe win a beta key to get into the beta. I mean, it seems, I mean, there are a number of streamers, like Overwatch streamers have turned to it. I hear it's like a CS, yeah, Counter-Strike, Overwatch cross. I heard someone describe it as about 90% Crown or Strike, 10% Overwatch. Yeah, that seems about right from what I've watched of it. I've heard multiple people refer to it as CSGOverwatch. Okay. Because it's basically, it seems to play a lot like Counter-Strike, but you have some hero, some independent hero abilities as opposed to everybody just being a character and the only thing you have is your gun choice. Okay That sounds accurate An accurate description then It's been interesting to watch what I've watched of it Do you have a beta key? I don't I've only watched A couple people play it And no I've not gotten a beta key Probably because I haven't signed up for a Riot account That could be the flaw In your logic Quite probably Also Interestingly enough Firaxis announced a new XCOM game. Oh, did they? I did not know about this. Yeah. Firaxis announced XCOM Chimera Squad. That's my chimera sound. It was the snake part. It's interesting because it's such a big change from the other XCOM games. It takes place five years after the end of XCOM 2. And spoiler alert, if you succeed in XCOM 2, the bad aliens are gone, but there's still a bunch of aliens who've now been freed who are trapped on Earth. So it's set in a city that's mixed humans and aliens trying to get along, and you play as a special operations squad that's made up of humans and aliens trying to keep the peace. But the thing is, all the characters are named unique characters, So there's no more where I get to name all my soldiers after my friends and co-workers and stuff and then watch them slowly just get mauled as I... Leveled up and become gods. Yes, that's what I meant, was leveled up and become gods. And to the point where if one of your agents goes down, they're bleeding out. And you need to stop the bleeding, obviously, so they don't die. but in Chimera Squad if they die you fail the mission and you have to start the mission over. Oh wow. So it wants you to save scum. It wants you to save scum. See I told you I was always playing this the right way. Yeah. I don't know. You sound skeptical about this. It's very different from what XCOM has always been. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be bad I do like some of the other changes they've made they typically XCOM has had an I go you go style where you play all your characters and then the computer plays all of its characters and then you play all of your characters in this version they've put in an initiative system where your characters and the opponent's characters all have initiative and you play through initiative order so even though it might work a lot better if I moved this character to this spot to do an attack here, if they've got an initiative of three, that ain't happening because they're too far down the list compared to the guys with initiatives of like 17. So it will be interspersed between both sides playing. I see. Yeah, that's another big change-up for them. Yeah. That's worked well in other games that I've played. Yeah, I've done the same. They also set it up so all of your characters have complementary abilities for working together and doing teamwork type stuff. So it's not going to be like where I've got my one long shot sniper who can shoot anybody from anywhere and just be guaranteed to kill them and then a whole bunch of heavies running around with the heaviest guns they can and lots of explosives. everybody's unique in that way as well and obviously you can play aliens and you can mind control other people and yeah it's going to be interesting what's really interesting is it releases on April 24th and they've already announced it is on sale for $9.99 which is 50% off the base price wow that's unusual yeah uh i i honestly because of it i broke my normal no pre-order code and i actually pre-ordered this game now to be fair i do own every x-com game yes i'm not surprised that you're going to end up with it and the fact that and in all honesty i have double dipped on a bunch of these XCOM games. Not the modern ones, but when you include the old ones. I had the old ones when they came out on floppy disk when I was a kid. And I've still got them now on Steam because I bought them all on Steam when they first became available on Steam. So we'll see. We'll see how it actually plays out when it launches on the 24th. Nice. So what have you been playing? Doom? You were playing Doom last time. And I've still been playing some Doom. I've not finished it. I actually went through a period where I did not play anything for like a week. Because I was, that last week when I was doing the working at home stuff, before I rotated back into my at work section, I was just, by the time I got done sitting here doing work, and since I'd been sitting here all day, I went and read a book or did something else. Played with the dog, played with the kids. I didn't play a lot of games that week. But since then, I've been playing some. I've been playing Shortest Trip to Earth, which is on PC. It's very much FTL. It's a roguelike where you're a ship that's trying to get from where you're lost in space back home. and it's literally FTL with better graphics and slight changes. And it's fun. It's a lot of fun. And the changes it does have makes it an interesting play. It makes it something that it doesn't just feel like you're completely using FTL. At no point am I like, I might as well just play FTL. It plays enough differently that it feels like a different game, even though it's very similar. I've also been playing, well, I did one big playthrough, Periodic Deliveries, which is a trade route creation space game. It's like a $5 game on Steam. Okay, I was like, I have not heard of this. Yeah, no, no, it's like a $5 game on Steam that I picked up on a Steam sale when it was like two bucks and you know what it was worth two bucks it really was honestly it's probably worth five bucks but i don't see where the game has any replayability but i could be wrong they have made adjustments to it uh they added extra late game content but that was before i uh had actually purchased the game so i already had it i don't know what it was like before that content. But it was fun. Nothing giant and fancy. I did get a couple games that I've not had a chance to play yet. Specifically, for my birthday, I received the One Punch Man fighting game. Oh yes, I've seen a video of that. You've shared some of the trailers while that was coming out. Yeah, I've got it. I installed it and then I got busy doing other stuff and I didn't actually have a chance to play it. So I'm hoping to get some of that in this week. I also have picked up a couple other little games on Steam that I'm going to be given a shot of. But until I actually play them, who knows how good they're going to be. Well, I have not continued my King's Quest progress. Instead, I shifted over, as I mentioned, thinking I needed a break from puzzle games to Far Cry 5. So I have been playing that. That's the one that takes place in Montana, isn't it? Yes, with the Redneck Cult. I started it and then just never went back. It's not very enjoyable. I have not figured out what's not clicking with me with it, but it's got some really hard elements to it. I don't know, but Far Cry Primal was so much better, and I feel like it's just... I mean, I'm still playing it, so I don't hate it, but as Far Cry games go, this one has been the least interesting ever. I don't know. Maybe it's the story. It feels almost stereotypical, and maybe my tolerance for jokes about rednecks is at an all-time low. I don't know. The story's stupid. The way I'm traveling around is stupid. I feel like I'm really limited in my weaponry in ways. I don't know. It's so samey in terms of how much I'm doing. And some of those things were true in other Far Cry games, so I don't know. But I'm not impressed. Let's just put it that way. I'm just not impressed. But I'm still playing it. When I've played the other Far Cry games, it's always been one of those things where it was like, oh, it's fun to just go around and do random stuff. I didn't get that feel on this game. I just – Yeah, like I hit fishing yesterday. It was just like, eh. And I liked that. I actually liked doing fishing, which normally I don't in a game. Or you go hunting in this. I don't know. In the other Far Cry games, there usually were these hubs, and you'd stealth in and try and liberate these places. And here, it just feels like every 20 feet, there are cultists, and I have to liberate or just clear them out. And then more just immediately pour back in. I don't know. It just doesn't feel like I'm clearing anything. It just feels like I'm earning new fast travel points and that's it. I don't know. I just, I'm just, it's not great. I'm surprised at how much less I like it than I did Far Cry Primal. Right. So, I don't know. And I don't find the villains at all interesting, which was something Far Cry 4, and I heard, though I never played, Far Cry 3 had going for them. No, I just, I'm woefully unimpressed. But the gameplay is fine, though, so in terms of that, mechanically, I'm still going through it. I haven't abandoned it. I haven't decided if I want to switch to something else now because I don't know if I'll go back to it if I do. Yeah, and see, that's what I did. I switched to something else, and I've never gone back to it. So it's like, yeah, I mean, yesterday I thought, man, maybe I should go back to King's Quest. I thought, no, I really don't feel like doing more puzzles right now. So let's just go and mindlessly shoot some stuff and throw some grenades and pick up the way it feels like I'm constantly switching between three different gun types and that's it. I don't know. It's just so blah. This is blah. I'm really disappointed. Now, that's one thing I've been thinking about talking about different gun types is I think I might pick up Borderlands 3. I've heard very, very good things. I've heard very good things. The first two were a lot of fun. I just yeah for I did not after the first two I did not play any more Borderlands other than Tales from the Borderlands and the reason was that they got very monotonous like grindy in a way once you got to the higher levels it was like I was trying to get stuff to do some of the like end boss fights but it just I don't know like in a lot of ways two did things better than one did but there's certain aspects to it I was sort of done with the world and didn't feel like I needed to revisit it. Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. Like, yeah, thousands and thousands of guns, but it felt like I got the ones that were good, and everything else was like, well, here's a little twist on the, like, this one does acid damage instead of fire. Well, that's the thing is there's so many amazing guns, and at the same time, nine times out of ten it felt like you were iterating your guns up by, it's like, ah, this one ends up with me doing two more DPS. Yeah. Or you're just constantly getting guns. Eventually, once you got to the end, it was like, here, you're constantly just picking up loot to sell because all the guns are worse than what you have. Right. So. But, hey, I mean, that's a, I heard they, I think the guns are supposed to be more creative and different in the new one, in 3. So that may be, there may be some alleviation to that concern. yeah i remember playing a modded version of two at one point where everything where the guns were even like dumber like yes way more even way way over the top like oh yeah i just kind of hold the trigger down and i've got seeking bullets that do blah blah damage and and but that that mod had crank the difficulties. So you pretty much needed stuff like that. That's interesting. So that was interesting. But that's about all I got. I mean, there's stuff going on, but in this brave new world, it is a difficult time to be a podcaster, honestly. Well, at least on these topics. Yeah, on these topics. If we were coronavirus podcasters, we'd be pretty busy. Right. If we were pop culture podcasters, we'd be pretty busy. We managed to turn it into a pinball segment. Yeah. So, yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry, but not sorry enough for me to cut it. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Anyway, for those that want to reach out and complain about that, feel free to email us, eclecticgamerspodcast.gmail.com or go to facebook.com slash eclecticgamerspodcast. We're available on Twitch, Twitter, and Instagram It's Eclectic underscore Gamers And we'll be back in two weeks Probably just making up more stuff to talk about We'll figure it out I don't think anything's going to change In the next two weeks I don't think so either Until then, I'm Dennis I'm Tony Goodbye