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0:37

What's

0:40

up,

0:45

everybody? And

0:52

welcome to the kind of funny games

0:55

cast for Wednesday, May 1st, 2024. I'm

0:58

one of your show hosts, Snowbike Mike,

1:00

and today I'm joined by the ex-cast

1:02

crew for the final kind of funny

1:04

ex-cast. Your home for all things Xbox

1:06

here. Kind of funny. Of course, I

1:09

am joined by Alana Pierce and my

1:11

two gaming dads, Gary Whitta and Paris

1:13

Lily. I'll start with you, Alana, since

1:15

I haven't seen you in a while.

1:17

Hi, Alana Pierce. How are you? Doing

1:21

good. How are you doing? I'm wonderful. I get to

1:23

hang out with you and the gang, and you

1:25

know that's a big deal to me. And we

1:27

get to say goodbye to the ex-cast together, which

1:29

I was so lucky enough to have you and

1:31

Gary start with me. So, you know, I'm pretty

1:33

blessed here today. A little

1:35

sad to see it go, but it all makes

1:38

sense. I understand the change. I watched the video.

1:40

It all makes sense to me. But, yeah, it's

1:42

just such a beautiful green set. And I want

1:44

my green shirt. It's actually my Portilla shirt, but

1:47

I realized I accidentally wore it backwards. But

1:50

the intent was that. You're

1:52

the best, Alana. Thank you so much. And yeah, it's been

1:54

a lot of growth. A lot of fun, a lot of

1:56

discovery, and a lot of great moments that we've got to

1:58

share together. So thank you for. doing that with

2:00

me Alana and I have a lot to talk

2:03

to you about because you've done some cool stuff

2:05

but of course I'll introduce my two gaming dads

2:07

who are in the building today in sunny San

2:09

Francisco Paris Lilly you're here with us. Yes of

2:11

course I mean it's the last X-cast I had

2:14

to fly up and be a part of this

2:16

and I'm excited

2:18

to be with Gary. Oh come on. It's been way too

2:20

long. I'm surprised I didn't know you were coming in. It's

2:22

been way too long and you know again

2:25

you're all family I'm highly

2:28

appreciative of

2:30

being a part of this over the past few years

2:32

so of course I say goodbye in

2:34

style. You know we're happy to have you us right.

2:36

Gary Witter you're back on the desk it's been a

2:39

couple of weeks people have been looking for you. How

2:41

could I I mean I've been I've been on sabbatical. Yes.

2:44

But you know how could how could I miss this and it's

2:47

funny even though I'm someone will correct

2:49

me I'm sure because my memory is terrible I want

2:51

to believe this is true as much as this is

2:53

the last X-cast it's also I think an X-cast of

2:56

firsts because I think this might be the first time

2:58

that all three of us have been in studio Paris

3:00

is usually back there. No. And

3:02

have you been. Starfield. Starfield that's right.

3:05

That was all. But certainly. No but

3:07

we did an X-cast. I feel right.

3:10

That's right. Oh yeah we all had the big think puppy

3:12

jacket. It was hot. But I want I

3:14

feel confident the first time that all four X-cast

3:17

hosts past and present have been together on the

3:19

same show. Maybe that I think I

3:21

think that's correct. I think

3:23

that's false too. Oh really? I

3:25

also think that's false. Yeah. Because

3:28

again let's go down memory lane. First

3:30

of all the day Alana DMed

3:32

me and go hey would you like to be

3:34

on X-cast scared me because I go wait did

3:36

I do something wrong what happened why is Alana

3:38

DMed me. Yeah so we can bully you. But

3:42

you were out so that I came on to

3:44

replace you but then there was a second time

3:46

you were going to be out but

3:48

then you wind up being on and all four of

3:50

us were together. But I wasn't officially a part of

3:53

the show at that time. But

3:55

I am very glad Mike that we were able

3:57

to get everyone. Obviously the only thing it would

3:59

be even better than this. would be if Alana was actually

4:01

here in the studio. But four

4:04

of us together like this. You know, I might have

4:06

done it if I had known it was an option.

4:08

No one even really suggested that to me. I could

4:10

have. I just asked Alana, I was like, can you

4:12

be here at 11? And she said,

4:14

Mike, I'll be here. And I said, that's great. That's all

4:16

I asked him. The point is we are all here. Yes.

4:19

Yep. And I'm very glad for it

4:21

because it represents the future. Sorry, represents

4:23

the past and the present. It's

4:25

not the future because there is no fucking future.

4:27

But we're all here. That's what's important. OK, well,

4:30

we're going to talk a little bit about the

4:32

future. There will be a future. I can probably

4:34

just do that, Gary. There will be a little

4:36

bit. But of course, I do want to go

4:38

around the horn because we have had all of

4:40

us here on the desk do some really cool

4:42

stuff. And I'm really looking at Alana and Gary,

4:44

who we haven't got to talk to in a

4:46

little bit. So Gary, I'll start with you really

4:48

quick. Ask me about Helldivers. You're wearing the t-shirt.

4:50

I know I lost you. You went on Spread

4:52

Democracy all around the Super Earth planets. What's going

4:54

on? You all good? It's funny. I was going

4:56

to my wardrobe this morning. I was thinking, what

4:59

could I wear that would honor the

5:01

X-cast? And

5:03

I've got a couple of nice X-cast pieces of apparel,

5:05

merch. I was going to wear my X-cast

5:08

shirt. And then I thought, no, why

5:10

not wear a shirt celebrating a game that isn't even on the

5:12

Xbox? Of course. And probably

5:14

never will be, as much as I would love them to

5:16

bring it to the Xbox. I don't know. It feels like

5:18

a long shot. But

5:22

yeah, it's been Helldivers,

5:24

just nothing. But it is my, as I said

5:26

earlier, people are watching games daily, 100% game

5:29

of the year for me. I don't care how early in the year

5:31

it is. I don't care what else comes out. It's my game of

5:33

the year. It's probably in my

5:36

top 10 games I've ever played.

5:38

I absolutely love it. I've got hundreds of

5:41

hours in it. I play with a

5:43

regular group. It's one of those few games that I've actually

5:46

stopped playing shooters for a while because I'm

5:48

just not that good at them, especially competitive

5:50

ones. But because it's co-op and because I

5:52

have a slightly easier time with third person

5:54

than first, and because it's just so good,

5:56

I've played it so much that I actually

5:58

have built up a pretty good. Skill

6:00

foundation like a lot of a lot of shooter

6:02

games if I'm in your squad you're probably carrying

6:04

me in hell divers Without

6:07

trying to sound arrogant unless you're a super

6:09

sweaty try-hard like mega like elite squad You'd

6:11

be happy any squad would be happy to

6:14

have me. I'm a good player Everyone

6:16

would be happy to have you on the squad and

6:19

in fact as you know I was I was the

6:21

commander commanding officer for yesterday's For

6:23

our celebratory hell divers game that we played with

6:25

Greg and Joey and Fran you were do you

6:27

want to give me a little update? On that

6:29

you said you had some kind of field Intel you

6:31

want As their

6:33

commanding officer. I feel like I have to

6:35

give an after-action report on on those I

6:37

played with It's my first time

6:39

playing with with each of them Where

6:43

do you want me to start? I'm in the good the

6:45

bad the uglies you know what I mean? Well, so I'll just

6:47

go through and play by player Greg So

6:50

I was surprised that he's very good Okay Not

6:52

necessarily the best in terms of skill But he's the one

6:54

thing that he does do and this is where a lot

6:57

of hell diver squads fall down Greg

6:59

actually plays the objectives like he does what

7:01

you say he's not running around

7:03

over here looking for stuff doing Secondary stuff

7:05

that isn't as important or looking for samples.

7:07

He's actually on the objective He represent I

7:09

was the senior ranking officer on the scene

7:12

He called me Admiral the whole

7:14

time because I was the highest ranked player And

7:16

if I asked him to do something he would do

7:18

it without question or complaint and he would succeed in

7:21

getting it done So what more can you ask for

7:23

from a hell divers squad mate? Well, I'm gonna knows

7:25

how to play who plays the objective and gets the

7:27

job done I would give Greg solid

7:29

thumbs up. Okay. Now. Give me

7:31

someone that didn't get a thumbs up Well talking

7:34

about complaints. I've got to talk

7:36

about friend Okay, let

7:39

me start with the good solid player

7:41

knows how to play There was actually

7:44

one moment where I had a charger because we

7:46

mostly played bugs. We did bots at the end

7:48

We mostly played bugs and I had

7:50

a charger charging down on me I had no way to I

7:52

can get out of its way, but sooner or later is gonna get me and I

7:55

had a 500 K bomb. I wanted to drop on

7:58

it people who play hell dives. You often The

8:00

problem with a 500k bomb is a charger will often move out

8:02

of the way before it can impact and you'll miss it Fran

8:05

saw that I was dialing up a 400k Hit

8:08

the charge. This is exactly what you're supposed to do hit

8:10

the charger with a stun grenade Prose it

8:13

in place 500k fucking bullseye it killed it

8:15

I literally texted Fran after and said that

8:17

that stun grenade was clutch dude like I

8:19

was so happy with what he did That's

8:21

the good I've

8:24

never in my life played

8:26

a squad game with someone who

8:28

complains as much as Fran Constant

8:31

constant complaints. Oh, I've lost my gun.

8:33

Did somebody take my gun? Oh, I

8:35

need a stim. I'm out of ammo

8:38

I've got no supplies. What's going on? Why are

8:40

you doing? Just on and on and on and

8:42

on I just stopped complaining. I'm playing the division

8:44

with him seriously does that boy know how to

8:46

complain I was gonna make an IGN joke with

8:48

the other spraymals of life that to work with

8:50

but I would love to pretend he was He

8:53

may not be I'm sure Fran is very professional

8:55

to work with but as a in a game

8:58

endless aggravation Oh

9:02

my god, but at the end of the day again, he

9:04

did he did the job He just got I would have

9:06

Fran on my squad But I would just say to anyone

9:08

else he's playing with him Just be prepared to mute him

9:10

or put up with a lot of shit in your ear

9:13

But he will he will he will do

9:15

the job. I was player. I appreciate the

9:17

after-battle report I needed to hear about about

9:19

it. I'm glad that you had fun with

9:21

it. Let's check in with Alana Of course,

9:23

wait, wait, wait. Oh, what is this

9:25

Joey noel erasure? Oh, you're not gonna get okay You're gonna

9:27

give Joey noel some of I thought we'd give some Gotta

9:30

say Joey noelle surprise MVP

9:33

Oh good I went in as the highest rank is the

9:35

person who's got them by far the most hours in the

9:37

game thinking well I'm gonna be the kill leader every every

9:40

mission and I watched for about half of them You know who

9:42

the kill leader was on the other half. Joey

9:44

fucking noel I would I

9:47

would go to war with her any day of the week.

9:49

She's an excellent player Wow She'd

9:52

be like, I don't know how I got that many

9:54

kills, but I don't care. You got him either You

9:56

got him. Yeah going. Well, very impressive. He's got a

9:58

kid. That's

10:00

that's fine. And. Can I

10:02

ask our a serious eating with your own little

10:04

strikes? While. Well first of all, it's

10:06

not cheating. Any

10:10

any any more than anyone. Who

10:12

be to put your place? You know Warcraft with

10:14

mods or and uses a guide or that any

10:16

by the point. Agree I all are you still

10:18

seen as it would? The thing is London if

10:21

you try to itself but like it doesn't actually

10:23

work if you if you do map your stratagems

10:25

to the stream deck which is what people have

10:27

Indices up, up, down, left, left, left. for up

10:29

Delhi's press a button. Also you are feeding. Fears.

10:33

Me The point is it doesn't actually work. I

10:35

don't know if they like if they held I

10:37

was. Does that say that patch to L or

10:39

of it's just not as good as advertised. All

10:41

got it. Doesn't really work so I guess I've

10:43

just gotten I've stratagem Zero on my ship. I

10:45

practice every day. He muslims a good workout gear.

10:48

I'm actually pretty good a call on him down

10:50

Now are you supporting I inputs this right next

10:52

to each other, you giving a half a second

10:54

delay in between each input because if it's the

10:56

inputs are all being hit at the same time,

10:58

it's probably not. No, no no it does that

11:00

that so set up correctly I use as something

11:02

fiddly going. On with it but I'm not going

11:04

to try to fix it because in the interim

11:07

have gotten good another just manually darling them up

11:09

by now happy to doesn't What happened is democracy

11:11

says absolutely no doubt. Be I

11:13

I agree. it's anti democratic. Ah

11:15

but the and the funny thing is just

11:18

about that on I'm sure anyone explain how

11:20

Dollars was a great. When. I first

11:22

saw that gameplay mechanic like really just do up,

11:24

down, down, left, right? Like how basic is that

11:26

when you're under fire or our desire and you're

11:28

trying to dial in some is going to save

11:31

you and suddenly your fingers a digger. Panicking? it's

11:33

actually brilliant is really really like the way the

11:35

game of Dance Dance Revolution in the middle of

11:37

of war. Yeah so much as we can make

11:39

a wrong move you get saw in the has.

11:43

Yet to interject can interject very quickly. million

11:45

what's your go to? A lot of. this

11:48

is why miscarry ah yes we're on

11:50

the final episode of a kind of

11:52

money x care for him sprint the

11:54

first fifty minutes on your but a

11:56

these dreamer so let me up to

11:58

address a little it's privileges Because I

12:00

brought it up early. Do you think there's a chance that

12:02

game ever comes to Xbox? There's always a chance of course

12:04

But you got a realistic chance that I don't personally because

12:06

I kind of feel like cats and dogs have been living

12:08

together since MLB The show came to it. Yeah, that's true.

12:10

That's a Sony game I

12:13

mean they did talk about earlier today on kind

12:15

of funny games daily They talked about how it

12:17

is one of the top selling PlayStation games in

12:20

ways of earning, you know US dollars of all

12:22

time I want to add an addendum that add

12:24

more money. I'm like on that box I read

12:26

a stat that I don't know if you covered

12:28

it on games data. It's worth mentioning. Yes

12:31

seventh most successful top selling

12:35

published by PlayStation Did

12:37

you just put my drink on a coaster for me? First

12:44

sorry, so yeah seventh most best-selling

12:47

game on PlayStation But that does

12:49

factor in PC sales if you take PC out

12:52

and you only count PlayStation sales It's not even

12:54

in the top 20. So

12:56

PC is really carrying the weight here, but

12:59

good for Sony either way It's a brilliant brilliant game.

13:01

And if I were Phil Spencer, I might be making

13:03

a call saying come on What are we gonna do

13:05

to get this on Xbox? Well,

13:07

he did make a public comment. Did he

13:10

not it not about basically for lack of

13:12

a better term warning it on Xbox I

13:15

just would rather keep my expectations and check that

13:17

it's not gummings or if yeah, it's a pleasant

13:19

surprise Yeah, but I already told you I haven't

13:21

played it enough to be as much We

13:23

gotta get you on I know I gotta I gotta play come play

13:25

with us and my thing with the

13:28

MLB example I that was such a isolated

13:31

incident because I MLB

13:33

was definitely holding licensing rights over Sony's head

13:36

of like hey, there's this a subscription service

13:38

We can put our game on and put

13:40

get more people interested in baseball. Absolutely do

13:42

that or you're not Able

13:45

to make this game anymore. So yeah, it's

13:47

like a weird weird one

13:50

And of course Alana I want to check in

13:52

with you because it has been quite some time

13:54

since we had you of course when everybody remembers

13:56

you Left to go off to Sony Santa Monica

13:58

to do great things You've done some

14:01

incredible things while you've been gone. You

14:03

have an incredible YouTube channel You live

14:05

stream on Twitch which always makes me

14:07

smile, but you did creator

14:09

class boxing You also just hosted the game developer

14:11

choice Awards as well. So you've done always incredible

14:13

things So I wanted to check in with you

14:16

Alana. What cool stuff have you done? What

14:18

do you look back and smile about? You

14:22

know the show and it's the show of course miss open.

14:24

Yeah, it was so much fun Yeah,

14:26

I mean a couple years top couple years,

14:28

you know Saloons with

14:31

cancer and so there's like the ups and downs

14:33

to everything and that's really what got me through

14:35

the boxing match was knowing That my stepdad

14:37

who was in hospital at the time would be watching So

14:39

that's been like honestly a lot of my life over the past

14:42

two years this week You know you keep

14:44

going you deal with personal stuff, but

14:46

certainly a lot of wins Along

14:48

the way as well. I wasn't something really cool right now

14:50

that I can't talk about yet But maybe I'll be able

14:52

to talk about in a month Is

14:56

that the film that I'm a part

14:58

of it's been very difficult to walk

15:00

through while also doing full-time work, but

15:04

Try to try to keep my life Exciting,

15:06

I guess also I wanted to apologize if it

15:08

looks like I'm looking down my PC died yesterday

15:11

And as soon as it happened, I was like

15:13

I fight Craig Miller's hackling me In

15:16

the background, so I'm having to use a laptop

15:18

to dial up to the show Yeah

15:23

Of course Alana We're happy to have you

15:25

back and we're happy to look back on

15:27

some awesome memories From the kind of funny

15:29

X cast that brought us all together and

15:31

brought you the audience of best friends to

15:33

come in here And celebrate a little bit

15:35

of the green team with the X cast

15:37

So we'll jump right into that because of

15:39

course this is the kind of funny games

15:41

cast each and every weekday We get together

15:43

to talk about all the biggest reviews previews

15:45

topics and video games live on YouTube Twitch

15:47

and on podcast services around the globe if

15:49

you love what we do Please consider supporting

15:51

us with the kind of funny membership on

15:54

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15:56

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15:58

record them live and get your daily exclusive

16:00

show. For a chance to be part of

16:02

the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as

16:05

a YouTube Super Chat as we go and

16:07

I'll get them into the show and ask

16:09

these guys and gals all about it. Some

16:11

housekeeping for you, The Kind of Funny Games

16:13

is, of course, Kind

16:15

of Funny Games is an 11 person

16:17

small business and that's all about live

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Games afternoon stream kicks off with a

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sponsored hour of Pac-Man mega tunnel battle

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battle royale to be the last

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Mike and Andy to find out

16:40

Thursday at noon to on Twitch and

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on YouTube who will be the

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last one standing. Join Nick

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and the Pokey Crew this Friday for

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another fun filled marathon stream as they

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battle their way through the Elite Four.

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Will they call Chris Enka so many

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times he blocks their number? Come find

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out on Friday at noon only on

17:00

Twitch.tv slash Kind of Funny Games as

17:02

we continue through our Pokemon Nuzlocke. Of

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course, today you have gotten your star

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field May update on Kind of Funny

17:09

Games daily on YouTube, Twitch and podcast

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services. Up next is Nick's first Pokemon

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adventure as he continues on YouTube and

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Twitch. If you're a Kind of Funny

17:17

member, today's Greg way is Greg's farewell

17:19

to Rooster Teeth. So make sure to

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check that out. Thank you to making

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our dreams a reality. Patreon producers Delaney

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Twining, Fargo Brady and Carl Jacobs. Today

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we are brought to you by Aura

17:30

Frames, but we'll tell you all about

17:32

that in just a little bit. Let's

17:34

get to the topic of the show, which

17:36

is us. I don't know that we've already

17:38

been rebranded. Well, why don't we get off?

17:40

Of course, you can know we no longer

17:42

on the X cast. We're on the X.

17:44

It's in our hearts around the X cast.

17:46

But there it is. Okay. Thank you. Can

17:49

we at least have it for the

17:51

last hour? We get to dignity showcase

17:53

the new games cast look, which we

17:55

will talk about of how are we

17:57

going to cover Xbox news in the

18:00

future but you have seen throughout the start

18:02

of this week the new games cast updated

18:04

look brought to you by Andy Cortez he's

18:07

so talented and creative and amazing but you

18:09

will see PlayStation Xbox even Nintendo all have

18:11

their own special backdrops alongside the normal games

18:13

cast look so some new fresh rebranding going

18:16

on but we'll talk about that a little

18:18

bit guys let's talk about some great memories

18:20

in Paris we already checked in with these

18:22

two so you get to kick us off

18:25

when we look back on the kind of funny acts

18:27

cast what are some of things you will celebrate you'll

18:29

remember you'll cherish with us oh

18:32

man there's a lot actually I

18:35

feel very fortunate to be

18:37

a part of this number one like I've

18:39

alluded to before I

18:42

started off just being a listener

18:44

I was just watching listening every Saturday you

18:46

know a comment on Twitter every now and

18:48

again about a show I think it was

18:50

one Gary and

18:52

Alana were talking about I think this one all

18:54

that Bethesda stuff went down and

18:57

you were all so they're gonna make everything they're

18:59

not gonna make it exclusive they're gonna put it

19:01

on there and I was disagreeing and I remember

19:03

the online conversation about that then I came on

19:06

as a guest shortly after that came on again

19:08

a second second or third time I can't remember

19:10

and then obviously once Alana left I came on

19:12

permanently in 2021 but my memories is just every

19:15

week the three of us being able to get

19:17

together and we

19:19

just have fun is just laugh like Gary

19:22

say Gary being Gary like just

19:24

now just cracks me up every time I

19:27

love it that's why I was saying I was missing you

19:29

so much I love being on here you trolling me about

19:33

you know whatever influencer thing

19:35

I might get online and why you didn't

19:37

get it or whatever I feel the free shit

19:39

yeah Paris I'd happily a few

19:41

mocking posts from you if

19:43

I got all that appreciate I freaking love it

19:46

yeah it truly brings a smile to my face

19:48

every every time you say something I

19:51

ask you guys a question like I feel

19:53

like I'm very far away from

19:55

the journalist face these days and I'm like even

19:57

miss off the news about

20:00

the last 12 months of Xbox in general,

20:02

like about since their showcase

20:04

in June last year, like how have you felt

20:07

about the last year? Do you want

20:09

me to kick that off? We've talked about

20:11

it a bunch. Yeah. And then I definitely want to hear

20:13

what Gary has to say on this. I'm

20:16

lukewarm on it, to be honest with you. I

20:19

see some of the changes and things that have

20:22

happened in the last 12 months as being mandatory

20:24

just because of where the industry is headed.

20:28

But as far as Xbox, like

20:31

what was the catch phrase we've had for the long?

20:33

Because Xbox is the best value in gaming, blah, blah,

20:35

blah, that whole thing, right? But

20:37

you got to have the games to go with it. And

20:39

they've had a lot of missteps over

20:42

this past 12 months with

20:44

the games. Like we were just talking about this

20:46

big starfield update that's coming out. Great. But

20:49

a lot of people are probably going to say that's

20:51

what the game should have been at launch, right? We've

20:54

heard repeatedly, I think Matt Booty, the first time he ever

20:56

said it was, kind of funny, we

20:59

want to get to a place where we have a major

21:01

game coming every quarter. And they've not been

21:03

able to do that yet. Obviously, the red,

21:05

what happened with Redfall, you know, that was

21:07

about 12 months ago. So

21:09

they've not hit their stride yet with

21:11

the amount of studios that they've had.

21:14

This whole drama with Activision

21:16

and that acquisition. And we spent so

21:18

much time talking about it. Instead of

21:20

talking about fun games that we want

21:22

to play, that's the lukewarm

21:24

part of it. But I think when

21:27

I look beyond this in the past 12

21:29

months, I see them setting things up for

21:31

the future. That does excite me. But

21:33

we're not there yet. And I think the biggest

21:36

problem with Xbox has been is they're

21:38

just not there yet. They're close, but they're

21:40

never where we want them to

21:42

ultimately be. And I know when we talk about

21:44

moments and everything, again, a year

21:46

ago, Phil Spencer coming on here and

21:49

not being in the greatest mood and

21:51

being pretty upfront and honest about where things

21:53

are. And I think that kind of set

21:55

the tone of what we've seen over these

21:58

past 12 months with them. They're

22:00

close, but maybe the showcase will finally

22:02

be the time where they get over

22:04

the hump. I would,

22:06

as an aside, say that was one of my favorite

22:08

episodes of the show. I watched that whole thing. And

22:10

the way that you guys were very honest with

22:13

Phil without being overly aggressive,

22:15

it was kind of a bleak time to have that

22:17

conversation. He was really honest, but you were asking the

22:19

right questions. I felt like I don't

22:22

think anyone else could have handled that in

22:24

the way that Kind of Funny did. I feel like

22:26

you guys just absolutely nailed the handling of that conversation.

22:28

It's like really asking the important questions without

22:32

being crude unprofessional. And

22:34

it probably makes sense to me

22:36

that Phil trusted you, that

22:38

X cost, and it's kind of funny with that conversation. And

22:40

there's a flashback to me in my white Paris phase. I

22:43

was never able to pull that off. I can't quite put my

22:46

finger on Y, but I was never able

22:48

to pull off that as much as I would have

22:50

liked to. I

22:52

was pulled for a long time. No, you're absolutely

22:54

right. That actually would be one of my favorite

22:56

memories. Phil twice now

22:58

he's done this. Once on Animal Talking, he came on

23:01

my talk show after they had to bump the release

23:03

of Halo Infinite. And

23:05

it was a tough time. I thought he was going to pull that interview,

23:07

but he didn't. He came on and he talked about it live, and he was

23:09

very frank about it. And I give him credit for that. And

23:11

he did it again after Redfall. And

23:13

that was a time when the vibes were

23:15

very much off. Remember

23:18

the Elcast? We started calling it the Elcast because we were

23:20

putting up too many Ls. Yeah.

23:24

But again, Phil, to his credit, unlike

23:26

a lot of CEOs, will get

23:28

closer to what he really would like to say.

23:31

Obviously, you have to be completely frank

23:33

because you'll tank the stock price or

23:35

whatever. But he gets as close as

23:37

you possibly can, as you

23:40

reasonably can, to saying like, this is what's

23:42

really going on, and this is how I really feel.

23:44

And he was apologetic. He was contrite. He did seem

23:47

deflated. It was a rough time to be Phil

23:49

Spencer. I can't imagine there are too many rough

23:51

times to be Phil Spencer, but this was one

23:53

of them. And again, I have a

23:55

lot of respect for him coming on and being

23:57

very frank. And he did make a very astute.

23:59

observation and this goes to the bigger picture of

24:02

like where we've been over the last year. I

24:05

personally think that one of the reasons

24:07

why Xbox continues to lag behind PlayStation

24:09

is the Xbox One generation just

24:12

was such a ball and chain. It

24:14

really was. It's still dragging that anchor.

24:16

It was such a drag on the

24:18

Xbox brand. They made so

24:20

many fundamental miscalculations about the Xbox One that it

24:22

was going to be this all-in-one entertainment machine. It

24:24

was going to be reliant on Kinect. They were

24:27

going to force you to pay an extra hundred

24:29

dollars for this thing that you didn't want and

24:31

didn't actually work. It

24:35

got slammed against the PlayStation 4, which

24:37

was a great machine. Not

24:39

just that, the observation that Phil made that I thought

24:41

was very smart is that it was

24:44

the worst generation to make that kind of

24:46

mistake because it was the first generation where

24:48

people seriously started to build digital game libraries

24:50

and get invested in an ecosystem. Once you're

24:53

in the ecosystem, you're in it. It's

24:56

very hard to pull back from that. I think

24:58

what they're doing with the X and the other

25:00

phrase, at least I would say, is Series S,

25:02

the best console for most people. It

25:05

really is an amazing little box of Series S. It's one

25:07

of the best things that Xbox has. I love that thing.

25:10

It's incredible. It's one of

25:12

the best things that Xbox and Microsoft have

25:15

ever done. They're still

25:17

trying to catch up all this ground they lost

25:19

in the last generation. They're doing it in a

25:21

way which is very different, heavily invested

25:25

in Game Pass. This whole thing of like, we don't care where

25:27

the games go as long as you play them, play them in

25:30

the cloud, play them on your phone, play them on other consoles.

25:32

Some of their games are coming to PlayStation 5 now. It's

25:34

a very different strategy. I still personally

25:36

have faith in Phil

25:39

Spencer and the future of

25:41

Xbox. To answer Alana's

25:43

question, I think the last 12 months have

25:45

been very much a mixed bag. I think the

25:47

future is still up in the air. I

25:50

agree with what you're saying. I'm sorry Alana,

25:53

but just to add on what you're saying, and

25:55

that was the key point of what he said

25:57

during that interview, talking about losing the digital library

25:59

age. Which was the previous generation and

26:01

he added on to that to say which I

26:03

think is very eye-opening as we see

26:05

where the industry is He said that

26:08

it wouldn't matter if starfield was an 11 out of 10

26:11

That is not going to help them catch up in

26:13

the hardware right where they are Because

26:15

they lost that digital library Generation

26:19

everyone already has their investment in their ecosystem So

26:21

to expect no one's going to abandon the ecosystem

26:23

they have and start fresh over in a new

26:25

one Yeah, it's not gonna do a hassle like

26:27

I'm an apple guy Right everything else is like

26:29

Apple and it's all connected a competitor

26:32

could come along and release something that's better But

26:34

I might still just stick with Apple because I've

26:36

got that sunk cost of light Well shit all

26:38

my stuff already there big baked into into this

26:40

ecosystem So that I thought that was a very

26:42

astute observation fulfill at the time. It's very hard

26:46

To get back from Xbox console like physical

26:48

hardware sales as we know have not been

26:50

great certainly not in Relation

26:53

to the PlayStation 5 kovid

26:55

and and the supply chain stuff

26:57

didn't help but that affected everybody equally right PlayStation

26:59

still have done Very

27:01

well, so I don't know what the future I

27:04

am optimistic about some of the some

27:06

of the hardware stuff They've got coming out. I still thinking

27:08

this is a thing that I've come back to many times

27:10

one area where they really really lag is in

27:13

really good Character

27:15

and story based epic games Alana knows because

27:17

she worked on one of them got a

27:19

war Ragnarok the last of us

27:23

uncharted spider-man Xbox

27:26

doesn't really have much in that space such

27:28

a critical genre to be to have because

27:30

people love those games But almost all of

27:33

them yeah, you know playtale and hell blades

27:37

But PlayStation I think still owns that

27:39

very important genre and I Until

27:42

Microsoft can develop I think Bethesda is gonna be

27:44

a big big part of this going forward don't

27:46

forget an activation Right so you

27:48

could make the argument of the future is gonna look

27:50

bright just based on they've acquired so much of that

27:52

stuff And we're still literally years away from seeing that

27:54

really You know come to

27:56

the front and like we'd like to see what impact is gonna make

27:58

it's not gonna make an overnight difference But between

28:01

Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, I

28:03

think that they can make great strides in that space.

28:06

So as of right now, they are behind Sony in

28:08

a lot of important ways and they've got work to

28:10

do. So how important do

28:12

you guys think the showcase in June is? Extremely.

28:17

Extremely important. They really

28:19

need to... The big one? Because even

28:21

if you go off of last year's, which was

28:23

great, we got South at midnight, you saw Fable,

28:26

you got Clockwork Revolution. These

28:29

are exciting upcoming games. This one, I

28:32

think is going to be even more of an

28:34

expectation because Activision is a part of it now.

28:36

So now you have access to more IPs. So

28:39

clearly it looks like we're getting some kind of Call

28:41

of Duty direct that's happening after the showcase. So this will

28:43

be the big blowout for Call of Duty. Maybe it's on

28:46

gamepad. I wanted it to be Fable so bad. I wanted

28:48

an hour. 45 minutes is my hour. I have a conspiracy

28:50

theory. I have a conspiracy theory, by

28:52

the way. It obviously looks like Call of Duty. I'm

28:54

not denying that at all. But what if this is

28:56

the biggest okie doke of all time and they're tricking

28:59

everyone and then it is Fable or something like that?

29:01

Well, why not be funny? That would be so funny.

29:04

But to the point where you're saying a

29:06

lot of no, it's huge because I mean,

29:08

clearly there's been speculation about Gear 6 potentially

29:11

showing up there. We might see Fable again.

29:13

Perfect Dark should be getting its big

29:15

gameplay reveal at the showcase in my

29:18

personal opinion. Let's see what

29:20

they're going to do with these Activision IPs. Is

29:23

there going to be something they can announce

29:25

Fallout related? Because obviously that's a

29:27

hot IP right now. So you want to

29:29

keep that momentum going. So they have a

29:31

huge opportunity here. Sarah Bond

29:34

obviously alluded towards some kind of holiday

29:36

hardware announcement. Is that announced at the

29:38

showcase or are they going to wait

29:40

until later in the year? Clearly there's

29:42

rumors about handhelds, all this stuff. So they have

29:45

a lot of things that they can use the

29:47

showcase to announce and get the community

29:49

and the fan base excited about the brand.

29:51

So we'll see. This isn't the sides

29:53

of that because you mentioned Fallout. We saw

29:56

it happen with The Last of Us. Certainly remember how The

29:58

Last of Us sales ticked up after the show? show came

30:00

out. I've never seen an example of

30:02

a game getting such a lift from a TV

30:04

show that we've seen with Twitter. Obviously the show

30:06

is terrific, right? And all credit

30:09

to Todd and my friend Geneva

30:11

who runs that show and like they've done

30:13

them and everyone who was involved in it

30:15

did an amazing job. But like my social

30:17

feeder, my TikTok is now so filled

30:20

with not the show, the game. Fallout

30:22

4, Fallout 76, people are flooding back

30:24

to it. I've got to believe

30:26

that somewhere inside Bethesda, they've already had an all hands

30:28

with like whatever it is we're doing with Fallout

30:31

and the game space, we need to step that up

30:33

because there's something happening here. Fallout is

30:35

more popular than it's ever been and it's

30:37

not even anything to do with a game.

30:39

That show has lifted that brand amazingly. Did

30:41

you see Greg's interview with Todd Howard the

30:43

other day? I saw a little bit when

30:45

I was on right after that. I could

30:47

see it but I couldn't hear it. Well

30:49

he hinted at there's a couple things in

30:52

the oven right now but you

30:54

could tell he almost wanted to say it but knew he

30:56

shouldn't. So something Fallout related is

30:58

happening, how soon we'll obviously see but

31:00

clearly they did anticipate it to some

31:02

degree that the show was going to

31:04

get there. I feel like they didn't

31:07

even expect it quite as much because

31:09

like we saw and this is just

31:11

an assumption, The Lost Earths, I don't know

31:13

what they called the remake. Part

31:15

one? Yeah, it was a part one. Yeah,

31:17

they just called it part one and part two. Yeah, it came

31:19

out like right in time with the show I

31:22

feel like. Like that was, that to me always

31:24

seemed like it was being made for the audience

31:26

of the show whereas I feel like with Fallout,

31:28

like this Fallout 4 update has come a little

31:31

bit later. People have

31:33

some concerns with it. I feel like they were

31:36

caught off guard by just how popular it is.

31:38

I think it's now the second most popular Amazon

31:40

series that they've had since they like actually started

31:42

making the Amazon shows. But

31:44

it's such an interesting contrast to

31:46

Halo because I definitely

31:48

have the same thing with both The Last of Us

31:51

and with Fallout where watching the shows, fans of

31:53

both of those series, it's made me go, man, I should

31:55

play the games again and I am playing Fallout again. I mean,

31:57

I am playing Fallout 4. Oh.

32:01

The Halo TV show never made me want to play Halo again. I

32:04

had never really a big Fallout

32:06

guy, but I installed Fallout 4,

32:08

partly because the show has renewed

32:10

all this interest. But

32:13

also because I know there are problems with

32:15

the update, right? There's classic Bethesda, right? There's

32:17

a lot of problems with it, but super

32:19

ultra wide support and it does look really,

32:21

really good. Like they did time, I

32:23

feel like, yeah, that obviously was like, let's time this all up

32:25

and we'll, you know, and there'll be this

32:27

synergy and that has worked. But like, I

32:29

don't know where they are. They've got to be somewhere. I

32:32

presume with Fallout 5, I just kind of feel like that

32:34

is going to get some kind of

32:36

boost within Bethesda to get that. Like

32:39

if that were an Xbox exclusive, what a flex that would

32:41

be. Is it too early to spoil the show? And.

32:44

As World Show or know should I not do

32:46

that night there? The fall outside. yeah. Oh.

32:49

The. Ending Oh no I've not, I've not seen

32:51

all over there are gonna die. They won't say

32:53

that. Think the we'll talk some more about fall

32:55

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FDA Welcome

34:39

back everyone It's the final kind of funny X

34:41

cast and we're joined with the whole crew here

34:44

at the table and Alani That's a great question

34:46

of like what are our thoughts over the past

34:48

12 months? We kind of talked about that summer

34:50

showcase, but we haven't had you on the show

34:52

in quite some time I'd love to know what

34:54

your thoughts are, you know, you you said you

34:56

were kind of out of it You haven't been

34:58

keeping true tabs on everything But what has been

35:00

your Xbox experience over the past 12 months and

35:02

what have you thought about the brand? Well,

35:05

I did hit a hundred thousand game score.

35:07

Okay. Nice. Thank you. Thank you. I'm very

35:09

proud moment for me I was really nervous

35:12

because my stop field achievements were bugged. So

35:14

I actually stopped playing sawfield because thank you.

35:16

Thank you I didn't want to accidentally

35:19

have them all unlock And

35:22

then ruin the exact precise 100k they did the

35:24

math to get that exact number Yeah

35:29

Something that like I wouldn't call myself an

35:31

achievement Hana I just will go for achievements

35:34

when I'm enjoying a game and I want to get more out

35:36

of it kind of thing, right? So it did take a long

35:38

time to get there. I'm not playing but like easy pass and

35:40

cheat games or whatever But that was huge

35:43

for me. But in general, yeah, I you know since

35:45

I left the gaming journals in space I am NOT

35:47

as plugged in and I've heard people say that when

35:49

you start working in game development You like know less

35:51

about games than you haven't you before because you just

35:53

know a lot about like one game Apparently

35:56

that's a huge thing. But from

35:58

my perspective, I think that the Xbox screen has

36:00

definitely changed. You know, Gary,

36:02

you were talking a lot about hardware, and

36:04

I think I've been saying this for a while, but it

36:06

was more solidified with the conversation. I don't know what they

36:08

call it. You know how they like, they

36:11

had that sort of emergency sudden podcast

36:13

after all the rumors that all

36:16

the, one of the sources by Tina, I don't

36:19

know what they call the program, sorry, but that

36:21

Xbox is a brand, I think is multifaceted

36:24

now in a way that I think is

36:26

just going to take people, especially because of

36:28

all the console wars garbage, a little bit

36:30

of time to adjust to Xbox as a

36:32

brand is now a publisher who was doing

36:34

one particular thing, a streaming service

36:36

slash live service, which is doing a different

36:38

thing and a hardware company. So there are

36:41

these three divisions that are

36:43

obviously cohesive. And I totally commend how good

36:46

of a job I do think they are doing of

36:48

keeping them cohesive and of like maintaining that brand, but

36:50

they're doing three separate things, three separate goals. So

36:53

you can't really look at them as, you

36:55

know, trying to outpace Sony in terms of selling

36:57

hardware anymore, in my opinion, because that's not the

36:59

whole ethos. It's much bigger than that now. So

37:02

I think going forward, I'm really interested to see a

37:05

lot more from Xbox, the publisher, obviously,

37:07

we've seen bits and pieces of that, but

37:10

it's almost not a great start for

37:12

them when that's concerned. But

37:14

there are a lot of other things that like, you know,

37:16

how, how did that just come out? Or is it an

37:18

answer? There's a lot of people playing that that's something that

37:20

was like nice to see them publish like a we

37:22

had a smaller game like that, that they actually gave air time

37:25

to that a lot of people have really enjoyed. Obviously,

37:27

very excited about how they too, excited to see what

37:29

stuff assessor is working on excited to see stuff out

37:31

of a vow. So it's like, that's

37:33

the publishing thing really kind of just started. And I

37:36

think that I'm excited to see where that road leads.

37:38

If you're not just looking at them as a hardware brand

37:40

anymore, which yeah, in reality, I think they are, you can't

37:43

look at them that way anymore. They have these different facets

37:45

that are all different things. So it's just

37:47

a really different perspective on that brand than

37:49

the conversations that we've been used to having

37:51

fits the brand began.

37:54

I'm sorry, can I just answer Jay before I lose?

37:56

Get out of the comment. I saw. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

38:00

There's a quote here from someone, I won't say

38:02

the name. I heard Gary going right about he

38:04

freaking 15 minutes on an Xbox and do it

38:06

today thumbs down. I know it's probably like a

38:08

big coding thing, but is there any way to

38:10

like have your chatters like pass a basic literary

38:12

test or something? Literacy test before they come on

38:14

the show? Because that's just fucking embarrassing. Is that

38:17

even English? What the fuck is that? I couldn't

38:19

make it out of myself, Gary. I'm not here.

38:22

What is going on? Maybe they can

38:24

take a moment, rephrase it, write it back to you, you know

38:26

what I mean? Just take a moment to look at what you've

38:28

written before you hit send. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take a moment.

38:30

If you're going to insult me, at least spell

38:32

it correctly. Uh-huh. Gary's back, baby. Gary's back and

38:34

he's reading the chat, y'all. Alana,

38:36

that's very well said and I'm right there with

38:38

you, like Paris said, right? We're kind of looking

38:41

towards the future now and there's a lot of

38:43

unknowns, but for me this past 12 months, it

38:45

has been kind of just bland, boring. There's not

38:47

much going on. This whole console generation so far

38:49

has been very middle of the road. There's been

38:52

some positive with some games. The hardware, I really

38:54

love the box, but all in all, like this

38:56

is just kind of come and gone. There's not

38:58

much highlights that you can really point to, which

39:00

is too bad, but I have pointed

39:03

out some highlights. When I looked back on our

39:05

journey through the X-cast, I thought I'd like to

39:07

share with all of you because we had some

39:09

really cool moments together. Of course, the

39:11

first time we saw Halo Infinite, you,

39:13

me, Gary, Alana was really cool, right?

39:15

Getting to see the next generation of

39:17

Halo and all of us kind of

39:19

being wowed at the idea of this

39:21

semi-open world and going up that elevator

39:23

and going, Oh my God, what is

39:25

Chief doing? Then too quickly, a week

39:27

later, two weeks later, the internet going,

39:29

Well, it doesn't look that good. And

39:31

then we went on a whole year

39:33

break and delay. Who could forget this?

39:35

Wild. Craig, Craig, Craig. Craig

39:38

the brute, what a wild feeling that

39:40

was of like being wowed right off the bat

39:42

of like, Oh my gosh, finally the next Halo 2,

39:45

oh, we're going on a year delay. This is tough.

39:47

That was why, if not the first, was one of

39:49

the first X-casts we ever did, right? Where we were

39:51

forced, we wanted to start on a positive no, but

39:53

we were forced to react to that trailer, which was

39:56

poor. So first three weeks of our X-cast. I think

39:58

even then I liked it. I was like, but it

40:00

looks like Halo 1. I was

40:02

really excited about it because of the shift, but yeah,

40:04

that was an interesting one to also see Halo. We'd

40:09

be right in the middle of COVID

40:11

there, so they did a good course behind

40:14

closed doors. I went back to our

40:16

programming metadata here. So yeah, the first

40:18

episode was the Xbox game

40:20

showcase predictions and then episode two,

40:22

the great Halo Infinite debate. Oh

40:24

my god. Amazing. Yeah, I think

40:26

I may have been on the side of being excited about

40:28

that. Because I don't

40:30

know, I guess I didn't care about Craig the Brute

40:33

Space, but the delay was obviously totally necessary. I had

40:35

a ton of fun playing Halo Infinite multiplayer, and then

40:37

I feel like that dropped off a little, but I've

40:39

been thinking about getting back into it. I feel like

40:41

people are saying that it's kind of come back around.

40:44

Paris always says good things about it still. Yeah,

40:47

well, ironically enough, I was on IGN

40:49

because they did the showcase. And

40:52

we all said, we were like, oh, this looks good. And

40:54

then I saw the feedback where people were

40:56

pointing out Craig and all that. Yeah. We

40:59

took a time. When you're looking at

41:01

a big picture and you're excited about something, you

41:03

kind of take the internet sometimes to point out.

41:07

If you really like something and you're a Halo fan, you want

41:09

to believe, right? You'll find a way to put

41:11

a positive spin on it. You want it

41:13

to be good. I

41:15

wanted it to be good. I just had to... All

41:18

I could do was say what I saw, and

41:20

what I saw was kind of a mess. And obviously, they

41:23

delayed it and they got it to a better place. I

41:25

don't know where it is now. I don't know what the

41:27

current state of Halo Infinite is right now, but what a

41:29

roller coaster that's been up down. It's really good right now.

41:31

It's gotten good. Yeah, it's actually really good. It's very fun.

41:34

It's wild, the roller coaster we've been on as well.

41:36

Over the past three years since we started the X-Cats,

41:39

Xbox and Microsoft purchased Bethesda. They

41:41

purchased Activision Blizzard King. We got

41:43

to see those all happen in

41:45

real time. And it was wild

41:47

of making those announcements the

41:49

day of and that feeling of going, oh

41:51

my God, Microsoft just bought who? That's crazy.

41:53

And then the real time of like... It's

41:56

not the legal battle. Yeah. Yeah. How that

41:58

goes. And then two years of... ABK

42:00

just sitting here waiting for that now finally kind

42:02

of being on the finish line of this is

42:04

when I look back on the X Cast it's

42:06

wild that we got to share those moments together

42:08

and really the ABK of how long it took

42:11

in the feeling of Will this ever

42:13

happen? What is gonna happen and now what will

42:15

be the future what will we'll see? And

42:18

then of course some incredible interviews that we got

42:20

to all share together I've been really lucky to

42:22

I think that's where I've grown a lot is

42:24

with all of you and being able to You

42:27

know feel confident in those but I want

42:29

to give some big thank yous Of course

42:31

to Sarah Bond Phil Spencer and the team

42:33

from Xbox. We got to share some good

42:35

ones with them Larry herb major Nelson my

42:37

hero was really cool But also the Sea

42:39

of Thieves team Mike Chapman and Joe need

42:41

have been really great to us and we've

42:43

gotten to Shine a light on their awesome

42:45

game and some really dope content that they've

42:47

put out so they've been really cool We've

42:49

actually had a really fantastic interview about shutting

42:51

down your game and live service as a

42:54

whole with vellum studios We had the game

42:56

directors on from that team with knockout City

42:58

and we kind of talk about like I

43:00

remember that what? Patient that

43:02

was who you know make a live service game

43:05

have that out there in the world and then

43:07

have to shut it down And what that really

43:09

looked like I thought that was a really special

43:11

one You know We

43:14

had Sissy on recently about AI and voice acting. I

43:16

thought that was very powerful and special to talk about

43:18

But you know, I look back on some of our

43:21

cool interviews that we've gotten to share together and we've

43:23

had some really great ones Guys, you know, it was

43:25

a good sport. Well came on speaking of Todd I

43:27

want to circle back to that but along the lines

43:29

where you're just talking about when Adam boys came on

43:32

I mean he's talking about rumble city of it It

43:35

was very it was great to hear him

43:37

from his perspective because he was at PlayStation

43:39

during the time talk about the previous Generation

43:41

and the initial launch of the ps4 versus

43:43

the Xbox and how all that

43:45

went down back then That that was also

43:48

just a great conversation to get that perspective.

43:50

But Gary the the Todd Howard one Again,

43:53

when I think about a highlight just being

43:55

a part of this is you and I a

43:57

year ago at the showcase We're at the Xbox

43:59

mixers thing. Hey, let's go say hi to

44:01

Todd Howard. And we go over to say

44:04

hi to Todd Howard. He instantly knew

44:06

who both of us was. And then he

44:08

goes, I want to come on your show.

44:10

Wait, what that to this day that still

44:12

blows my mind that he has been an

44:15

avid listener of the show and

44:17

wanted to come on to talk about starfield.

44:19

So I'm two all of your credit. You

44:22

got like, you're honest, but you're not

44:25

again, like so much of the YouTube content

44:28

creative space is really negative. And I admire this about

44:30

the whole expos and kind of funny in general that

44:32

it's a lot easier to lean into rage bait. That's

44:34

kind of what the ecosystem wants. And I don't feel

44:37

like you guys have ever done that. There's a reason

44:39

that these people are like willing to come on the

44:41

show and talk to you guys. And it's the professionalism

44:43

and the compassion, the enthusiasm without being like runaway

44:46

fanboys, right? Like you guys, it doesn't just such

44:48

an incredible job of making people like

44:50

Todd Howard feel like they can listen without it being rabid

44:52

or terrible, even when you're negative, you're always fair and reasonable.

44:54

And I also just want to say because you touched on

44:56

this, like, you have grown so

44:59

much as a host, it's been like incredible to

45:01

watch like, you're just so such a natural man,

45:03

you like watching you get more confident, like it's

45:05

just been a delight to watch you such a

45:07

delightful person. Thanks. From what you started,

45:09

you were clearly a little maybe a little rigid, a

45:11

little nervous. You've just come such

45:13

a long way. And it's been wonderful to watch and

45:15

show everyone who's watching at home is very proud of

45:17

you. Thank you, Alana. And I love that

45:19

and then move on. But thank you, Alana for everything.

45:22

I've told you that many of times the three of

45:24

you and Baird in the room and all kind of

45:26

funny in the audience have really been something special in

45:28

my life. So thank you all. And to our credit,

45:31

I would say on behalf of all four of us,

45:33

they think when we have done those interviews, they

45:36

have been, I remember about that

45:39

Knockout City. Was it Knockout City

45:41

or Rumbleverse? I can't remember the game that was getting paid for.

45:44

We did both, but Knockout City was the one

45:46

that was running. I remember that turned into a

45:48

broader conversation about failure, right? And how much it

45:50

sucks when you put so much work into fails

45:53

and very publicly fails, but how like you've got

45:55

to take from it what you can learn, right?

45:57

Failure has a lot to teach you if you're

45:59

willing to listen. And I thought there was

46:01

a lot of really good stuff there. And

46:03

then when we had Phil and Todd on,

46:05

even though this is an Xbox podcast,

46:07

and I think there is an assumption that we're going

46:10

to try to slant positive towards

46:12

Xbox, when we have had people

46:14

on, like when Xbox

46:16

is struggling post-Redfall, I think we have

46:18

done a good job of not

46:21

coddling people, right? And you're like trying to

46:23

be puffball and go, but what's the good

46:25

side of Redfall falling on its ass? We

46:28

weren't trying to make it, we weren't trying

46:30

to spin it. We would not

46:32

try to be rude or make them uncomfortable,

46:34

but just having an honest, straightforward conversation and

46:37

not trying to talk around some of the

46:39

tougher stuff. I think we've done a

46:42

good job. Of course, inevitably in the comments, we still

46:44

got called partisans and Xboxs because some people always see

46:46

it the way they're going to see it. But one

46:48

thing I'm proud of is- Literally unavoidable. Yeah, there's always

46:50

going to be some of it, but I think for

46:52

the most part, we kind of

46:54

watch that tightrope pretty good. Yeah. Can

46:57

I give a truth bomb on that? Since this is the final show, I'm about to

46:59

say- Let's do it. I know you are not

47:01

supposed to read the comments, but

47:03

I have sometimes read the

47:05

comments and it is clear as day

47:07

to me when I see negative stuff

47:09

like that, I'm like, you didn't watch

47:11

the episode, you don't listen, you don't hear

47:14

the things that we're saying, because to your

47:16

point, Gary, sure, it's an Xbox show. We

47:18

like Xbox, we're fans of Xbox, we want

47:20

to see Xbox succeed. That's not a secret

47:23

or anything like that. But I

47:25

would say all four of us, when

47:28

we need to be critical about Xbox, we've

47:30

been critical about Xbox over the years. And

47:32

the fact that we've been able to talk

47:34

to the CEO on down and

47:36

be critical, and that's been respected, is a

47:39

credit to all of you on

47:41

this panel right now, being professionals and doing

47:43

what needs to be done. Because the

47:46

thing that I've learned in this industry over

47:48

the years is they'd rather

47:50

hear what's wrong than for you to

47:52

be cheerleaders and say what's right, because they want to

47:54

know what's wrong so they can fix it. So

47:57

if you're not being 100% honest about

47:59

what's wrong, Like, Gary, your

48:01

criticism of Starfield was

48:04

even more... I mean, you were

48:06

way harder on it than Mike and I, as an example, right?

48:08

Initially, yeah. But everything that you said would... I came to like

48:10

the game better the more I played it, but my initial impressions

48:12

were not great. But what nothing you

48:14

said was false, it was the truth. It's,

48:17

they wanna hear that. Guess what? That update that just, it's

48:19

coming out on the 15th, damn

48:22

near addresses everything that you're... Yeah, I can see myself,

48:24

it's tough to get people to go back to a

48:26

game after they've had a negative first experience with it,

48:28

but I'll give it another try. I liked it enough.

48:30

I thought, oh, if they just did this and this,

48:32

I could really see myself getting into this game. This

48:34

game is very much my shit. If they just fix

48:36

these things, if they haven't, if they are in fact

48:38

doing that, I'll absolutely give it another try. Yeah. But

48:41

even like when you can't hear, and talk to a friend of mine,

48:43

and like you, sometimes they think, oh, you don't wanna say something to,

48:45

what if it like, you know, upsets the apple cart, but like, I

48:48

think you've got more to lose by trying

48:51

to spin it in the eyes of like whatever credibility

48:53

you have with the audience. Like you've got to, you've

48:55

just got to be honest, even if sometimes that, you

48:58

know, it's hard to hear, or you don't enjoy

49:00

saying it. A couple other

49:02

fun ones that I'd like to share with all of you.

49:04

Of course, we got to chat with

49:06

Studio MDHR, and talk about Cuphead,

49:08

and the future of Cuphead, and we were

49:10

immortalized in the Cuphead art style. So a

49:12

big thank you to that team over there.

49:15

That was something that I show my friends

49:17

and family, and still smile about. Well, like

49:19

some of us were. You're

49:22

right, you're right, you're right. Dang it, how can

49:24

I forgive the lottery? I know we were doing

49:28

favorite moments earlier,

49:30

and Paris was talking about his. Since we were just talking

49:32

about some of the better interviews that we've done, I want

49:34

to just like finish out and round out my top three,

49:36

because this is the last show, and I want to make

49:38

sure I address this one more time. So

49:41

my three, my top three would be, I think, the

49:43

Phil interview that we did. I was really proud of

49:45

that, to be honest. I think the

49:47

one that we did with Todd, I think was really good

49:49

as well, I think we struck the right tone. But my

49:51

number one memory, you know what I'm going

49:53

to say. It's still my fondest

49:55

memory of the whole time that I've been

49:57

on here, is that time. that

50:00

you, me, sorry,

50:03

to me, Mike, Paris, all

50:05

three of us, that time that we

50:07

went to Las Vegas together to

50:09

check out the new folks who really

50:12

want to pay attention. Oh, Las Vegas!

50:15

We drove those cars and

50:18

we went to that amazing steakhouse and it

50:20

felt so special, it made me feel so

50:22

special, I was so honored to be a

50:24

part of that. Like, it was so amazing

50:27

that sometimes I imagine that I must have like

50:29

dreamt it and it didn't actually happen, but like,

50:32

you can't fake memories like that. No, you can't forget

50:34

it. Honestly, that's a top 10, not just X-cars, top

50:36

10 life moments. I know, but Gary, the best part

50:38

of it was when all three of us took the

50:40

picture by the pool. Oh my God. Oh man, that

50:43

was so good. I had that

50:45

framed at home. I had to

50:47

Photoshop myself into it, but it framed at home.

50:50

Yeah, that was an amazing moment.

50:53

That was a special one. Yeah. You know,

50:55

maybe we put that out into the world, all four of us can go to a place

50:57

like that. As

51:00

the guy that was picked last,

51:02

you know, the guy who struggled

51:04

with chronic insecurity and anxiety all

51:06

my life, being included on that

51:08

trip really did so much for my mental

51:10

health and made me feel so good about

51:12

myself. I just thank you once again for

51:14

making sure that I was thought of, that

51:16

my feelings were taken into consideration, and I

51:19

had a great time. It was just wonderful.

51:22

You know what the best about all that was?

51:24

The thumbnail that Andy created. Oh man. That was

51:26

so freaking good. Yeah. I

51:28

remember it well. You guys really went the extra

51:30

mile. I drove so fast and that

51:33

car is unbelievable. Gary, the central time. As

51:36

we get towards the end of the show, of course, Alana, I want to check

51:38

in with you. If you have any special

51:40

highlights you'd like to share before we get

51:42

to our final topic of today's kind of

51:44

funny. I think I already have. I think

51:46

the the highlight is watching the show exist

51:48

in a space, you know, rife

51:50

with console wars and seeing you guys, you

51:53

know, even from my part of it or

51:55

now, not only disagree

51:57

with each other, but disagree with the consensus. Just

52:00

be honest, it's a pleasure to have you.

52:02

I'm sad to see it go, but also I get.

52:04

Thank you. Yeah, it makes sense. I'm sure you guys

52:06

have a lot of the same conversations that repeat on

52:09

multiple shows, and it all totally makes sense to be

52:11

there, why it's changing. But now the highlight is all

52:14

three of you doing a great job. Thanks, Alana. And

52:16

you know, we love talking games here on the

52:18

kind of funny X-cast. It didn't matter what the

52:20

game was, what the game was, where it was

52:23

at. We were always talking about some of our

52:25

favorite games. And so I asked all of you

52:27

to come together. I said, hey,

52:29

maybe give me some of your favorite top 10s,

52:31

top five Xbox games. And now, mind you, I

52:33

didn't give them any, you know, any explanation of,

52:36

it's got to be only Xbox, it's got to

52:38

be an Xbox exclusive. I said, hey, give me

52:40

your Xbox top 10. And I just

52:42

let you go wild with it. Oh, there's the thumbnail. Yeah,

52:44

look at that. Oh, my God, man. We drove

52:47

so fast, it was wild. I want to know what's

52:49

going on in that room. But

52:51

we got to talk about this because Gary did

52:53

his homework today. Actually, he did homework. His last

52:55

show. Favorite game. You know me, I usually roll

52:57

in here. I don't know what the fuck's going

52:59

on, what we're talking about. I've done no preparation

53:01

at all. I actually did compile a top 10

53:03

for you today. Before you go, I just,

53:06

as a reminder, because I know time, we

53:08

are going to address the future. Yes, we will address

53:10

the future at the end of this. Yeah. Your

53:14

top 10s are. Really, I'm just going to, you

53:16

know, we don't need to get into a discussion about all

53:18

10. In fact, I have 11,

53:20

so I just remembered another one. So

53:23

one of them, I guess, would have to go. You know what? This

53:26

one's going to do 11. This is my top 11. This

53:28

one goes to 11. Some of your favorite games. All right.

53:31

I can see up close. My eyesight. So

53:34

again, I followed the rules here. It doesn't have to be

53:36

an Xbox exclusive, but it was a game that I played

53:38

on the Xbox. Yeah. That was a game

53:40

for me. And this is

53:43

across all generations of the Xbox from the

53:45

beginning. Red Dead Redemption. It's

53:47

one of my all time favorite games. Braid,

53:51

one of my all time favorite games. Remember

53:53

Xbox Live Arcade gave us so many goodies. Braid for

53:55

me was the top one. I'm sorry. So

53:57

the end of that new version is coming out. Very excited. That's

54:00

in my all-time top five across all platforms.

54:03

Inside. Everyone agrees with me on that one, but

54:05

that was a game that really affected... Alana, did

54:07

you like Inside? Oh my god, I

54:09

love Inside. I think that I would put that in

54:11

my top 10 games and make people disagree with you

54:13

on that one. Some people disagree, not for everyone, but

54:16

I loved it. What a mood that game sets. Do

54:18

you remember the freaky special edition collectible

54:20

statue they sent out? I have it. Don't

54:22

worry, Alana, really? Oh, that's not a good

54:24

idea. I have it downstairs. Yeah, it's made

54:26

by Real Doll. It's actual... It's

54:29

a sex cell company, so it feels like real

54:31

human skin. Oh god. Well, it's kind of a

54:33

spoiler, but I've had many people

54:35

come here and be like, what is this?

54:37

Exactly. I've never had a game

54:39

when I played Inside that made me feel

54:42

like genuine apprehension and fear. Like

54:44

the moment when I was so afraid of

54:46

getting caught in a spotlight or ravaged by

54:48

those dogs or whatever. Those

54:51

ghostly things that chase you under the water.

54:53

It was like, ah! It was so... If

54:55

anyone listening hasn't played Inside, play

54:58

it, I'm curious on Game and

55:24

the experience you've had gets reflected through that prison before you

55:27

interpret the art. So it's different for everyone. But like for

55:29

me, it was just, I was so fucking blown away by

55:31

that game. And I've left it for a while because I

55:33

want to play it again, but I want to wait until

55:35

like, I've almost forgotten how good it was

55:37

so I can try to like have that first experience

55:39

again. Nights of the

55:42

Old Republic. I still remember staying

55:44

up till three o'clock in the morning on the

55:46

original Xbox playing that game. Absolutely loved it. Oh

55:50

no, okay, I know which one I can kick off. GTA

55:53

V, that was an Xbox game for me.

55:55

Still one of my all-time favorites. GTA VI, of

55:57

course, is my most anticipated game. Some of

55:59

the... some of the best world building and

56:01

sense of, I've spent hours

56:04

playing GTA 5, doing literally

56:06

nothing, not even doing side quests, just like

56:08

playing golf, doing yoga, just like wandering around

56:10

the city and just feeling like you're living,

56:13

I've said this a million times, this is the last

56:15

X-cast, I'll just say it one more time, for me

56:17

the best games are not a game that you play,

56:19

they're a place that you go, and you inhabit

56:21

that place and you get to live in a

56:23

different world for a while. And Los Santos feels

56:25

like such a living world, it has such a

56:27

sense of place and being alive, I just love

56:29

spending time in that game. Yakuza

56:33

Like a Dragon, fucking loved

56:35

that game, I love

56:37

that game, it's so wacky and so

56:39

Japanese and so weird and no Western

56:41

developer could ever make it, and yet

56:43

at the same time, it has this

56:46

genuinely affecting and powerful and tragic story,

56:48

like there's a real heartbreaking story buried

56:51

within there. And the theme of the

56:53

game, which is

56:55

all about the power of friendship and how important it is

56:57

to have friends around you and how friends will do anything

56:59

for one another, and you're stronger as a collective, a group

57:01

of friends is greater than

57:05

the sum of its parts. And now Ichiban, who I think

57:07

is one of the greatest game protagonists of all time, I

57:10

cried it into that, the final shot of him,

57:12

I'm going to get misty-eyed just doing it now,

57:14

the final shot of him when you realise that

57:16

all he's ever wanted to do is be a

57:18

good person and he's accomplished that now and he's

57:20

so satisfied that he's done something good. Like, oh

57:22

my God, that game will live with me forever.

57:25

And I did the true final millennium

57:27

tower, which is the final tower you go back

57:29

and do on extra super duper hard. When

57:31

I finally beat that, I've never had a greater

57:33

moment of triumph in a game. I literally threw

57:36

the controller in the air, like the mortarboard

57:38

at a graduation, like you throw your hats,

57:40

caps in the air. I was just so,

57:42

oh my God, that game just took me

57:44

away. And then Crimson Skies on the original

57:46

Xbox. I don't remember much about it, but

57:48

I remember when I was playing it, I loved

57:51

it. So that's my top 10. I think

57:53

that's a respectable top 10.

57:55

I think that's a great top 10. Paris,

57:58

do you have a couple? was

58:00

just gonna wing it because I shouldn't have to

58:02

put any research into this. You should never. To

58:05

come over the top 10 for Xbox. You gotta

58:07

start with Combat Evolved, obviously. That's an

58:09

easy one. Another one for me on

58:11

the original Xbox would be that first Ghost Recon.

58:14

That was my OG Xbox Live

58:16

game. I never played that one. I love to play with

58:18

my buddies. We were talking about

58:20

it the other week, Mike. Lynx, that was

58:22

the other one. OG Xbox had to play.

58:24

Oh, God. I remember that was the first

58:26

golf game that let you take shots simultaneously

58:28

in multiplayer. Yes. I had so much time.

58:30

XSN. Yeah. It

58:32

was so good. And then, wait, that was three or four. But,

58:34

um, Co-TOR. That before, of course.

58:38

Going to 360 era. Gotta say Gears of

58:40

War. First one, clearly. Gears was

58:42

my 11th. I'm gonna lump the halos all.

58:44

Halo 1, 2, and 3 are all together.

58:47

Would you just cheat and say Master

58:49

Chief Collection? That's what I

58:51

was gonna say. Yeah, basically. Master Chief

58:53

Collection on the board. Bioshock. Bioshock.

58:56

Great call. Great game. Mass

58:58

Effect 2. Unbelievable game.

59:01

Unbelievable game. We're in the blind forest. Great

59:05

Xbox game. Cuphead. It was another

59:07

amazing Xbox game. And I could keep going

59:09

on and on. But I'm gonna

59:11

end it and I'm gonna say Psychonauts 2 here in

59:13

this current generation. I think what Double Fine did with

59:15

that game was phenomenal. Love that.

59:18

Another very respectable list. Alana,

59:22

we've talked about some of your favorite games. Give me some. You've

59:24

covered a lot of them. You got some bangs

59:26

and then Mass Effect 2, one of the goods. I

59:30

think my number one favorite Xbox game of

59:32

all time is Fable the Lost Tractors. It's

59:35

the game I've played more than any other game. Flash

59:38

Fable Anniversary. I just, I don't

59:41

know what it is about the charm

59:43

of that original Fable. I love the combat. I

59:45

feel like I'm still trying to find that combat

59:47

system in other games. The closest I think I

59:50

got was Kingdoms of Amalur. Like I just love

59:52

the first Fable so much. I should have

59:55

put the first Fable in. You're

59:57

right. Sorry to see you now. We've done

59:59

it. I know. I'm not sure if you're in my top 10

1:00:01

now, but no, you're right. That was an amazing game. Such

1:00:03

a good game. Um, yeah,

1:00:05

all of, all of the Halos, I go one through,

1:00:08

you know, ODST and

1:00:10

reach as well, um, I, you

1:00:12

know, sometimes there are those games that you feel like it's had

1:00:14

an impact on your life. My life is

1:00:16

different because of those games. Like, I feel like,

1:00:19

like Halo is a part of my being because

1:00:21

of those games. And there are like so many.

1:00:24

Call memories that I have that are tied

1:00:26

to playing. And when multiplayer or playing

1:00:28

through campaigns with friends in high school, like there's just,

1:00:30

Halo is just such a big part of my whole

1:00:33

world. Um, that it's, yeah, it's really a part of me. Here's

1:00:36

to, uh, the first and only

1:00:38

game that doesn't make me cry. Um,

1:00:40

and I think that it kind of maybe even changed a

1:00:42

little bit of how I feel about the medium and maybe

1:00:44

put me on the path of where I am today. Like

1:00:47

I wouldn't be surprised if he is

1:00:49

to make me go, Oh, this can be really

1:00:51

emotionally impactful. And I remember feeling so defensive

1:00:54

of that game because from the outside he

1:00:56

is, is a bro shooter where everyone has

1:00:58

biceps, the size of tree trunks. Right. Like

1:01:00

from the outside, it doesn't look like it

1:01:03

would have any emotional resonance, but it absolutely

1:01:05

does. And it, it, it just,

1:01:09

for everything to do with it, um,

1:01:11

poor, like only game that ever made you cry,

1:01:13

there's got to be like, it's

1:01:15

really hard to make me cry. Uh, so that one is

1:01:17

like, yeah, it is the only game to send me.

1:01:19

I don't cry at all. Okay.

1:01:21

Yeah. So it's, yeah, it's a hard bar to

1:01:23

pause, but it really, really affected me. I'll cry

1:01:26

so easily at like movies and stuff. I

1:01:28

think that's healthier. Um,

1:01:32

I'm also going to put a little bit of

1:01:34

recency bias, but I ironically think this is one

1:01:36

of the best games ever made tunic. Uh,

1:01:40

I first caught into tunic. Um, it

1:01:43

took me a while. It's like maybe the first three hours

1:01:45

and I was like, yeah, it's a Zella, it's got some

1:01:47

salty stuff, whatever. And then as

1:01:49

I played through that game and finished that

1:01:51

game, I

1:01:54

just I'm still in awe of the

1:01:56

fact that it even exists. Like just

1:01:59

if I. If you haven't played

1:02:01

Tunic, my god, is it

1:02:04

unbelievable incredible? It's an amazing game. It's really, really

1:02:06

good. It's just, you,

1:02:09

there's this thing that

1:02:11

Tunic does where there are puzzles right in front of you,

1:02:14

but it flips the switch on you in a way that sort of

1:02:16

the witness does, where you don't

1:02:18

realize there are puzzles and

1:02:21

the whole world changes and it's just like,

1:02:23

I just, I struggle to think of that.

1:02:25

Like it takes a while for it to

1:02:27

reveal itself to you as like what it

1:02:29

really is, right? And how much there is

1:02:31

going on. And then

1:02:33

there are layers to that because then there's like another

1:02:35

reveal and another reveal and then there's so

1:02:37

many moments in that game where you're like,

1:02:41

this, this, that? And it's like, it's so

1:02:43

weird to talk about, but god, just

1:02:45

such an awe inspiring experience. I think

1:02:47

that game is just so unbelievably incredible.

1:02:49

Highly recommend playing through

1:02:51

that as well. It is tough, but they also have really

1:02:53

good accessibility options. Like if you have trouble with the difficulty,

1:02:56

I think you can even turn off all damage. So some

1:02:59

of those boss parts are really hard. I would recommend sticking

1:03:01

through them literally any time.

1:03:03

If you want to ask me for strategies for

1:03:05

taking down Tunic bosses, I would love to talk

1:03:07

to you about Tunic. I just absolutely adore that

1:03:10

game. And I give a

1:03:12

shout out, a little shout out to Fusion Frenzy. It's

1:03:17

got to be represented in there somewhere. Just

1:03:21

a lot of, yeah, really early iconic memories

1:03:24

as a platform, but you know, we gotta bring it

1:03:26

back. You

1:03:28

know, a couple of other games I would put in

1:03:31

that Tunic category, maybe not as good as Tunic, but

1:03:33

games that I really enjoyed in the same way. And

1:03:35

again, some recency by a sure, but Death Store, which

1:03:37

I know you love. Oh my god. And Caught of

1:03:39

the Land also fantastic. You know what Cocoon was really

1:03:42

good too? I still haven't played it. I've got a

1:03:44

thought I haven't played it yet. Cocoon

1:03:46

does this really cool thing. I finished that in one

1:03:48

sitting. Cocoon does this really cool thing where you

1:03:51

would have stopped playing that game. It's

1:03:54

similar to Tunic where it's like, I don't think there's

1:03:56

any English in it. Like Jeff has a little bit

1:03:58

of English, but very, very little. When you

1:04:00

get to the end of Crapoon, you're doing things

1:04:02

that if you were to try to describe them

1:04:05

to yourself at the start, it would not make

1:04:07

any sense for someone. Exactly. Like

1:04:09

the puzzles reveal themselves so slowly and the

1:04:11

language is so strong that you fully understand

1:04:13

what you're doing. But if I were trying

1:04:15

to describe to somebody, well, I took

1:04:17

this all, but I put it inside that all, but

1:04:19

then I have to move this thing. So when this

1:04:21

fires, it goes through that all and then lands on

1:04:24

it, it wouldn't make any sense at all. Like you're

1:04:26

basically traversing worlds in that game, but

1:04:28

it really like catches you up

1:04:30

on how intricate it is so slowly that you're doing

1:04:32

this like very high level meta stuff and you kind

1:04:35

of don't even realize that that's what's happened. Like that's

1:04:37

also a really, really fantastic game. I feel the same.

1:04:40

Out of Wild is a huge one for that particular effect. And

1:04:43

I think Inside made me feel a little bit like that too. Sure.

1:04:46

Inside and Braid and... Why did

1:04:48

you shake your head at me, Bar? I

1:04:50

was shaking my head at Paris who was, you

1:04:52

know, just around everywhere. I mean, I... Doctor's La

1:04:54

Croix ever. Yeah, this top 10 is going to

1:04:56

keep shifting, but I keep thinking of games now

1:04:58

having those conversations. Brothers, A Tale of Two Sons.

1:05:00

There you go. Did that for

1:05:02

me. Big style. It takes two. How

1:05:04

late? One of the best design games

1:05:07

ever made. A Way Out and It Takes Two. A Way Out

1:05:09

is actually really good. That's someone to get off of. Oh, I

1:05:11

forgot. It's actually really good. Yeah. And what I

1:05:13

love about indie games is the way that we've been talking about games

1:05:15

for the last five minutes saying things like, oh, it's

1:05:17

so interesting the way it reveals to you like this and there's

1:05:19

layers and it's surprising and things that the things at

1:05:21

the end you wouldn't want to imagine at the beginning.

1:05:23

Never talk that way about AAA games because they don't

1:05:25

do that kind of stuff. They

1:05:28

don't engage in that level of experimentation or

1:05:30

creative risk taking. That's what indie games are

1:05:32

for. Exactly. And I think AAA

1:05:35

games do a lot of things amazingly well.

1:05:37

So my favorite games are AAA. But

1:05:39

if you want to have that kind of like,

1:05:41

oh, that is so not what I expected type

1:05:43

experience, that's why indie games exist. Yeah. Now, a game I

1:05:45

forgot. I think Help me Does do that, but I don't know if

1:05:47

it counts as AAA. I mean, it has

1:05:50

to now, right? Oh, I think so. Yeah, I think

1:05:52

I think two is I think the first one you

1:05:54

still wouldn't say is AAA, but I get you probably

1:05:56

one game just before I forget before you go, Mike

1:05:59

Splinter, so OK. Theory oh no

1:06:02

and Chronicles of Riddick from that oh my

1:06:04

god Well that was

1:06:06

oh yeah, dude yeah, so good

1:06:09

yeah chatted it out, but shout out to pantomit pantomits

1:06:12

numbs from our top You

1:06:16

know gaming it has always been something true for

1:06:18

me that brings me together with my friends and

1:06:20

family And that's what it will always be is

1:06:22

something that will get us all together on the

1:06:24

couch or online and sharing moments together So I

1:06:27

have a lot of multiplayer games in mind But

1:06:29

you bring up Halo every single Halo has been

1:06:31

special to me no matter if they're good bad

1:06:33

or ugly I love them all NFL

1:06:36

Street Volume two we talked

1:06:39

about it that NBA Street that still in

1:06:41

a fell in three the couch Competitive nature

1:06:43

of those games bringing your friends together screaming

1:06:45

at the television because something didn't go your

1:06:47

way I didn't think you include that because

1:06:49

I actually played that on PlayStation 2 yes

1:06:52

of course one a DJ cucumber slice What

1:06:54

a legend portal to you

1:06:56

know shout out the portal to I got to experience

1:06:58

this with one of my first girlfriends ever going

1:07:01

over to her house and playing portal to

1:07:03

together and that kind of Working

1:07:05

through puzzles yeah and getting to see like

1:07:07

you said Gary's through someone else's eyes of

1:07:09

what they see and their point of view

1:07:11

And how you two can come together through

1:07:13

communications to solve how it was for me

1:07:16

It takes two well amazing game for that

1:07:18

yeah, I'll always share I think

1:07:20

portal to is the best video game ever made

1:07:23

whenever I'm asked for a list I put portal to

1:07:25

literally number one top of the list It's hard not

1:07:27

to put portal as well, but portal to like also

1:07:29

has the story I remember I mean to a lesser

1:07:31

extent with the original portal as well But certainly portal

1:07:33

to where they took it to a next level with

1:07:36

the repulsion gel and everything I remember so many times

1:07:38

thinking like How did they come up

1:07:40

with how did they? Design

1:07:42

that puzzle it's so ingenious. It's absolutely brilliant.

1:07:45

You know it's funny Alana You just mentioned

1:07:47

that you just mentioned that because on the

1:07:49

plane up I was watching Logan and

1:07:52

Stephen Merchant is in it And I'm thinking as

1:07:54

I'm watching it how awesome he

1:07:56

was as a voice character in portal Made

1:07:58

that story is so good How's it

1:08:00

costing? What a special game that will always be for

1:08:02

me. Some other ones that I of

1:08:05

course have to highlight. Titanfall 1. What

1:08:07

a great game. What an awesome experience for

1:08:09

that to be an Xbox hit multiplayer only

1:08:11

and to see the success of where it

1:08:14

became with Titanfall 2 and that desire from

1:08:16

the fan base for to see more of

1:08:18

it. I mean that game rocked. That was

1:08:20

a fun game. That game absolutely banged to

1:08:22

be able to call in the Titan, to

1:08:24

get in the Titan, to story up the

1:08:26

side of a Titan and be able to

1:08:28

drop a grenade in to slow that person

1:08:30

down. Wall running, zip lining.

1:08:33

What a cool freaking video game that was. I know

1:08:35

Reborn's very busy these days but Titanfall 3

1:08:37

would not be unwelcome. I

1:08:41

mean that Titanfall 2 campaign is

1:08:43

maybe one of my

1:08:45

favorite FPS campaigns ever. Yeah, ever. Period.

1:08:48

So good. Amped 3 snowboarding.

1:08:51

What a great mix Amped 3 snowboarding was.

1:08:53

I have to keep changing my list for

1:08:55

me. I know it is. That's why I

1:08:58

brought it up here because Amped

1:09:00

3 found that perfect mix of the over

1:09:02

the top nature of SSX tricky, mixing it

1:09:04

with kind of like the real world snowboarding

1:09:06

and this perfect blend of you can go

1:09:08

outrageously big or you can also keep it

1:09:10

low and small like you would see in

1:09:13

the real world and I loved that blend

1:09:15

of what they did and the outrageous nature

1:09:17

of it all. It was totally mountain culture

1:09:19

and I loved every single moment of it.

1:09:21

SSX 3 is the only original Xbox game

1:09:23

that I still have installed on my Series

1:09:25

X at home because it's available. You can

1:09:27

get it from the library like five bucks.

1:09:29

They upscaled it for the current

1:09:32

generation. Still looks amazing. Soundtracks

1:09:34

still incredible. What a game. It

1:09:37

wouldn't be right to not call out

1:09:39

the Xbox Kinect and so I will

1:09:42

give a big shout out to NBA

1:09:44

Baller Beats which is the most outrageous

1:09:46

game ever. It is Dance Dance Revolution

1:09:49

meets NBA basketball and so you are

1:09:51

encouraged to dance with the basketball via

1:09:53

dribble moves and I always found the

1:09:56

Kinect to be absolutely ridiculous and I

1:09:58

loved when they blend. You know

1:10:00

my world of basketball with video games and

1:10:02

you know shout out to the connect for

1:10:04

just being weird wacky and a small Piece

1:10:06

of our lives, you know Actually

1:10:09

have a ball. Oh, yeah. Hey with basketball

1:10:11

when you bought it, too. Wow. Yeah bounce

1:10:13

the ball That's all you did shout

1:10:15

to your under downstairs neighbors just

1:10:17

come on Somehow

1:10:20

the first time I've ever heard of it and

1:10:22

then a couple final shout outs I want to

1:10:25

give is to halo wars 2 and Lord of

1:10:27

the Rings battle for Middle-Air 2 Bringing

1:10:30

RTS games to console on the

1:10:32

controller. What a special time that

1:10:34

was I loved battle for Middle-Earth

1:10:36

I loved Halo Wars I

1:10:39

am so lucky to see now we

1:10:41

get Age of Empires on the console

1:10:43

and it's celebrated and loved What a

1:10:45

really awesome time it is So those are some great Xbox

1:10:47

games that we all got to talk about since you were

1:10:50

talking about since you are talking about Multiply and I know

1:10:52

this came it took a while to get to the Xbox,

1:10:54

but it's on the Xbox so it counts. I Have

1:10:57

to say some of the most fun I've ever had playing a

1:11:00

multiplayer game and we've talked about it so many times on the

1:11:02

show We've got to give one

1:11:04

last shout out to fall guys. What a

1:11:06

game. Yeah, I know some people absolutely hate

1:11:08

it But you know, it's a

1:11:10

love-or-hate game. But my god when when that

1:11:12

game was like in When

1:11:14

it was in its element, that was the game that

1:11:17

made me realize that Mike as nice as in real

1:11:19

life Oh My

1:11:23

god Mike you just the world I love fall guys

1:11:26

to this day I will still turn on fall guys

1:11:28

play it as well as a mind get a crown

1:11:30

if I told you this but like I Haven't

1:11:32

played it in ages and ages like probably two or three seasons

1:11:34

have gone by I thought you know what? I should I

1:11:37

should pick it up and try it. Let's see what's

1:11:39

going on. I jumped in played one game Amazingly

1:11:42

won a crown. I was like, that's it

1:11:44

done never playing it again. I could

1:11:46

stands it out of the room It's like I've won a crown on

1:11:48

my boy first game back and I'm done. I haven't

1:11:51

touched it since what a special time

1:11:53

We're right. Yeah, great.

1:11:55

All the rounds Paris lets you me

1:11:57

Alana and Gary talk about the future and how

1:11:59

We'll cover Xbox news in the future here with

1:12:01

kind of funny because of course this might be

1:12:03

the end of your weekly kind of Funny x-caps,

1:12:06

but that doesn't mean kind of funny won't talk

1:12:08

about Xbox. They won't cover it They won't have

1:12:10

you Alana and Gary on so what do you

1:12:12

see in the future of us being able to

1:12:14

talk about? Xbox here with this

1:12:16

community, so I want

1:12:18

to be upfront about When

1:12:21

I first heard about this and how I

1:12:23

felt at the time so I've

1:12:26

actually known about this since

1:12:28

February potentially happening and Then

1:12:31

it got confirmed. You know a few weeks ago And I

1:12:34

was I was a little concerned and and it's

1:12:37

funny to see the comments since this has been

1:12:39

announced the change It's been pretty split some people

1:12:41

are very excited about it a lot of people

1:12:43

bum that I Was

1:12:45

used to every week at three o'clock. I

1:12:48

know I'm recording x-cast right that

1:12:50

goes away from me personally So

1:12:52

I was a little concerned about it But the

1:12:55

more that what I saw what kind of funny

1:12:57

is doing having this more live format you're doing

1:12:59

game cast five days a week and I

1:13:02

must I'm still a part of it. You're still a part of it

1:13:05

You're still a part of it obviously a lot of you ever want

1:13:07

to come in to do something you could be a part of It

1:13:09

but when there's Xbox news

1:13:11

when there's an Xbox interview preview

1:13:13

review something big We

1:13:15

had the the graphic you see behind us now,

1:13:17

and what will actually be on the local the

1:13:20

games cast logo We will still come on and

1:13:22

talk Xbox. I will still be coming on talking

1:13:24

Xbox I know of something that's

1:13:26

gonna happen pretty soon that I'm gonna be a part of that

1:13:29

People in the Xbox community is gonna be excited about

1:13:31

you know what I mean, so The

1:13:33

consistency of every Thursday at 6 a.m.

1:13:36

You're getting x-cast that might be going

1:13:38

away But when there's Xbox

1:13:40

news on the games cast We're

1:13:42

we're still gonna be the guys doing it so that that's

1:13:45

not gonna change of course I think

1:13:47

that's the special part about this is you

1:13:49

are getting more kind of funny games coverage

1:13:51

There's more really in-depth analysis and conversations around

1:13:53

topics in the gaming world and topics that

1:13:56

interest us as gamers And I think that's

1:13:58

gonna be something special of moving away

1:14:00

from your PS I love you XOXO and Xcast

1:14:02

weekly you get more you're gonna have more talk

1:14:04

and more time with the gang here and so

1:14:06

many guests right we already have Lucy James in

1:14:09

to talk about a Fallout TV spoiler cast so

1:14:11

you'll see so much more which is exciting I

1:14:13

mean think of this he just walked out but

1:14:15

think about it you're you know

1:14:17

our perspectives and how we talk and think

1:14:20

about Xbox but you're gonna get Greg to

1:14:22

come in every now and again and talk

1:14:24

about something right box or blessing or you

1:14:26

know Andy or whoever right so you're

1:14:28

still gonna have the quote unquote the core

1:14:31

Xbox people talking about Xbox but you're also

1:14:33

gonna get perspectives from people that may not

1:14:35

be as invested into the ecosystem as the

1:14:37

as the four of us are I

1:14:40

don't know what the future is from my point of view I

1:14:42

like like you Greg did reach out to me a few

1:14:45

months ago and said hey you know Xcast

1:14:47

is coming to an end PS I

1:14:49

love you is coming to an end and we're gonna mold it

1:14:51

the folder all into this one thing but

1:14:54

then was like somewhat vague about how

1:14:56

what that was gonna look like going forward

1:14:58

and then he makes the public announcement I

1:15:01

believe it was it last week or earlier this

1:15:03

week that he made Monday Monday he made the

1:15:05

public announcement and the the phrase that stuck out

1:15:07

for man and if you caught this he said

1:15:09

don't worry I'll stay me and

1:15:11

blessing or still be here to on that PlayStation

1:15:13

my comparison I'm

1:15:16

like that's funny

1:15:20

Gary I don't know where you've

1:15:22

been when I showed up today the garage

1:15:24

clicker they gave me to open the gate getting work

1:15:27

right away and I thought fuck this is happening back

1:15:30

no that it works on the second try but I'm

1:15:32

like oh shit this is they're

1:15:34

moving me out fucking fast here yeah the

1:15:36

final announcement of the show is that you've

1:15:39

been fired Gary yeah so much for your

1:15:41

time but we've

1:15:43

had enough yeah I mean you want to appear

1:15:45

to do it ourselves you

1:15:48

want to you want to you want to appeal to a

1:15:50

younger to a younger demo oh my god

1:15:52

the breaking point is coming in and talking about

1:15:54

held either to the first 15 minutes of an

1:15:56

Xbox show you know we're not the first time

1:15:59

I've done either We

1:16:01

decided it's enough. One of the

1:16:03

things I do like, for as, you know, I mean,

1:16:05

it's Games Daily, I used to remember I used to

1:16:07

have a regular spot on Games Daily. That changed when

1:16:09

you moved to the studio. Greg said, oh, don't worry,

1:16:11

we're still having fun all the time. How many times

1:16:13

have I been on since then? Fucking twice. In

1:16:17

what, a year? Well, we're gonna, I mean... So I'm

1:16:19

not optimistic. They're gonna make sure you're on it. They're

1:16:21

gonna put on it. I'll keep myself available, because you

1:16:23

know me, I've got nothing better to do. I feel

1:16:25

myself available. But if I do come on, I do

1:16:27

appreciate the chance to talk about games

1:16:29

outside. You know, because I play everything, right? I

1:16:31

mean, mostly the last couple of months, I've been

1:16:33

playing PlayStation and PC games, Games on Steam. So

1:16:36

it'll be nice to be able to talk about, you

1:16:39

know, the broader spectrum of games and not just

1:16:41

what's on the Xbox. Hip Uno

1:16:43

wrote in with a $10 Super Chat and

1:16:45

says, petition to preserve the Halo-themed X-cast intro

1:16:47

and play it whenever Mike hosts the games

1:16:49

cast. I agree. You will

1:16:51

definitely see the intro that is not going

1:16:53

anywhere. That is very special. I'm

1:16:55

sure we'll figure out a way to get it involved

1:16:58

when there's Xbox days. Baron, as the

1:17:00

producer and director, gives a look like maybe you'll

1:17:02

never hear it again, but it's so good. I

1:17:04

don't know. I think during the conversation we used

1:17:06

them this week as we sunset the shows, but

1:17:08

we just have not had that conversation. Hey look,

1:17:10

now it is games cast again. See, they keep

1:17:12

changing it. Hip Uno, there you go. Baron grounded

1:17:14

it out. The ground is now shifting under our feet

1:17:16

here. Let's end the kind

1:17:18

of funny X-cast with a nice viewer

1:17:20

message. Of course, this coming in from

1:17:23

BJ Bernardo, an X-cast watcher says, hey,

1:17:25

y'all, no question. Just a big thank

1:17:27

you. Thanks to Mike, Barrett,

1:17:29

Alana, Gary, and Paris for providing

1:17:31

great Xbox centered show. X-cast

1:17:34

was an appointment viewing slash listening for

1:17:36

me. Never wanted to miss a live

1:17:38

recording. I've been introduced to so many

1:17:41

gaming industry people and gaming podcasters just

1:17:43

through this show. Thanks, Mike, for

1:17:45

being the perfect host. Thanks for Barrett for

1:17:47

being the voice of reason and the chaos.

1:17:50

And thanks to Gary, Alana, and

1:17:52

Paris for the amazing thoughtful insights.

1:17:55

I miss the X-cast, but I'm excited

1:17:57

to see more of the kind of

1:17:59

funny crew. Talk more. Xbox. Thank you

1:18:01

to BJ Bernardo, thank you to Alana

1:18:03

Pierce, Paris Lily, Garrett Witte and of

1:18:05

course Barrett Courtney all for making my

1:18:07

dreams of talking Xbox here at Kinda

1:18:09

Funny a reality. You guys have helped

1:18:11

me grow mature and have

1:18:14

so much fun with this so thank you

1:18:16

all for that. To everyone watching and viewing

1:18:18

out there thank you for riding alongside with

1:18:20

us for over three years with the Kinda

1:18:23

Funny X-Cast. The Xbox talk does not stop

1:18:25

here at Kinda Funny. We will continue to

1:18:27

talk things all Xbox and video games on

1:18:29

the Kinda Funny X-Cast each and every weekday

1:18:32

right after Games Daily but we will see

1:18:34

you on another one. Goodbye

1:18:36

everyone.