Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:15 Hey everyone, I'm Brian, and
Speaker 2 00:00:17 I'm Slippy.
Speaker 1 00:00:18 And this is Snorkeling with Narwhals, and we are recording at night. Well, kind of, I mean,
Speaker 2 00:00:24 I mean, it's, it's almost, it's the sun is out here.
Speaker 1 00:00:27 Uh, I mean, yeah, I guess technically, I don't know when the sun goes down right now. Well, you're
Speaker 2 00:00:33 In Erie, so it's, you know, but
Speaker 1 00:00:36 You're in Pittsburgh. You're like directly below me. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:00:41 Well, you get that late lake effect,
Speaker 1 00:00:43 Although Lake Effect sun, you,
Speaker 2 00:00:46 You probably, well, no, I was more referring to it being overcast all the time, but it's overcast all the time in Pittsburgh too.
Speaker 1 00:00:51 Yeah, it is overcast right now. Um, well anyway, yeah, we are recording at night. I think this might be the first time we've done that. So here's hoping that we either stay on the rails or go off the rails in a fun way.
Speaker 2 00:01:07 Indeed.
Speaker 1 00:01:08 <laugh>, uh, I've got a Mountain Dew Maui burst for those who are wandering. And I
Speaker 2 00:01:15 Think normally I'm drinking coffee during these, I'm just, uh, only water right now, so. Hmm.
Speaker 1 00:01:21 I need to start drinking more water.
Speaker 2 00:01:23 Yeah, it's, it's bad. I had a, I had a bloody nose the other night and it's just like, there's no excuse for it. You just have to drink water, even though it's, you know, the most boring beverage in the world.
Speaker 1 00:01:34 Are those related? Oh yeah. Water and bloody noses.
Speaker 2 00:01:38 Yeah. If you're dehydrated, you can get them.
Speaker 1 00:01:41 So I should probably then find the clip of where I had a bloody nose at Baron <laugh> when we were doing an episode. If you
Speaker 2 00:01:48 Have that, I'd be shocked.
Speaker 1 00:01:49 Oh, I do have it. Um, so I'll, I'll have to find that and just insert it randomly in here. But no, um, yeah, I never knew that it was water based, so maybe that time when we were doing one of my radio shows, I hadn't had enough water and that's why my nose started bleeding. And I don't leave you in the studio alone.
Speaker 3 00:02:10 You're listening to Psalms and songs. Just the songs. I'm Brian, and I'm Matt. And that was Chris August with I Believe, and I think My nose is Bleeding. Are you serious? Um, but we, I can hold it from here. We will <laugh> we will get you to the music quickly so I can go work on my bloody nose. Hold it. Hold this song. 1989.
Speaker 2 00:02:29 Well, it took me, if, if it makes you feel better, it took me until like two years ago to figure this out. And I, I mean, maybe I have a history of, or something bad with my sinuses, I guess, but yeah, I get them. I used to get them all the time and then somebody was like, why don't you just drink more water? And then I did. And now I get them. I don't know, maybe quarterly, let's say.
Speaker 1 00:02:52 I do remember one time when I was little, my brother and his friend Matt were well at our house, and Matt had brought his Nintendo 64 and he had Pokemon Stadium, and I wanted to play it so bad. I was like, five mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and they said, no. And I basically tantrumed until my nose started bleeding. Then they let me, um, what did, which
Speaker 2 00:03:18 You say to a, which is a perfect segue, a crying and bleeding five-year-old <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:03:23 Right? Like, how do you, how do you say no to that? Um, but that actually leads us into today's topic. We are talking about video games. We've had this one in the hopper for quite a while, but, um, I'm really excited for it. We're gonna talk about kind of our, our personal histories of gaming, how we started and stuff like that. Uh, and then where we are now with gaming. So I will start off, um, my first experience really with video games, I don't think, I don't think it was the bleeding, the bleeding, uh, Pokemon Stadium <laugh>, I hope
Speaker 2 00:03:57 Not story.
Speaker 1 00:03:59 Um, no, we actually, me and my siblings, we all got a used, uh, Nintendo Entertainment system, like the original just from some guy in Erie. Like, you know, back when the paper still had like, the, the ads that people were selling stuff like you
Speaker 2 00:04:16 Do. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 00:04:18 Uh, and it was, it was an n e s with like a ton of games. So there was Mario and Duck Hunt, except we didn't have the gun. Um, so we had to borrow it from our neighbor, Mario three. We did not have Kirby, we had some Wolverine game. Um, wow. We had so much, and I can't remember, we had some weird game called totally rad. I don't know what it was about, but you could morph into things and that was pretty fun. But no, that was our first foray into gaming. Um, actually prior to that, when I broke my leg when I was like, little, uh, our neighbor let us borrow their Nintendo. So that was probably the first foray into gaming. But we got our injury, it's like an
Speaker 2 00:05:00 Injury theme here.
Speaker 1 00:05:02 <laugh>. Yeah, apparently
Speaker 2 00:05:03 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:05:05 Um, but no, that was the first one. And I mean, you know, it ends stereotypical, but like, yeah, like I was a kid. I, I enjoyed it. Like the original, at least Mario's one in three are great. I've never played the second one, but, um, that was my first system. What about you?
Speaker 2 00:05:24 Uh, so it's an interesting question. I think, uh, like anybody, some of my earliest experiences are actually like on old dial up computers, you know, like, uh, that your parents owned. And one of them, I do distinctly remember playing some game where I was searching for diamonds on a loading screen that like my dad was downloading this big software, and in those days it took like two days with the computer turned on. And so they also gave you like this game to play while you waited. And so that was, that's like my very earliest memories. And like, did you ever consider that actually
Speaker 1 00:06:02 One of the game was part of why it took so long?
Speaker 2 00:06:05 <laugh>? I know the, yeah, it's like, it, that computer could only process like two things.
Speaker 1 00:06:10 <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:06:11 I'm sure I, uh, I lengthened the amount of time, but, um, yeah, so things like that were, were pretty early experiences. But similar to you, uh, Nintendo was also my introduction, uh, into like console gaming, if you will.
Speaker 1 00:06:27 Yeah. You said you had a story about this. Yes. You
Speaker 2 00:06:30 Told me
Speaker 1 00:06:30 A little about it.
Speaker 2 00:06:32 So not, not through the newspaper, but the story is, um, that a friend of ours up the street, a neighbor, he got an N 64 from his parents for like Christmas or something. And then he decided he wanted to sell it to us, uh, either that year or the next year for like $30, which was a steal for
Speaker 1 00:06:56 N 64. Yeah. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:06:58 Uh, and he gave us all the games with it too. And I don't know what that was about it, it may have been some inner Family Feud thing, but we got the console and we loved it. We had it for one month and then his mom told him that he had to get it back <laugh>. So, you know, to his credit, he gave us the money back, uh, and we gave him the console back. So basically, you know, I, for free, he got an N 64 for a month, which was for a month, you know, a brief foray into the classic games on, on there, like Donkey Kong and stuff. Um, so that was fun. But yeah, most of, most of my experience until owning a console, uh, we got an Xbox, which I'll talk about, uh, was actually up at a different neighbor's house playing on his end 64, and then his Game Cube, and then as we, uh, and so on. And so, yeah, that was sort of most of my gameplay, uh, through childhood.
Speaker 1 00:07:56 Yeah. I will say, uh, after, and that made me think of, uh, I had a friend sell me a Game Boy game once for like 10 bucks. I did not, like, no one got in trouble for it, but I'm like, you know, why were we just wheeling and dealing <laugh> video games as children? It
Speaker 2 00:08:15 Is, it's crazy. 'cause like your parents probably drop pretty good money to give them to you unless you had saved, and then otherwise it's like you saved up your own money and that it would've been a lot of your personal money Yeah. At
Speaker 1 00:08:28 The time. Um, but yeah, no, I, I remember it was, uh, the Pokemon Trading card game Game for the Game Boy. Um, which leads to probably one of the best, if not the best gift that I ever got besides the Gift of Life, I guess. But, um,
Speaker 2 00:08:49 Well, let's not take that for granted.
Speaker 1 00:08:50 <laugh>, it was a game boy color with Pokemon Crystal for my eighth birthday in 2001. Um, pretty much the coolest thing I've ever gotten and like obviously other consoles and have like, come out and are better than that technically, but like, I'll always remember that one. Um, and that is, I would say top five game of all time. Wow. Like Pokemon Crystal. Amazing. So, I mean, 'cause there was, that was the second generation of Pokemon. There was gold and silver, and then Crystal was like, there's always a third one that comes out. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Uh, and Crystal was the third one. And I remember I saw like a bundle ad in like a Toys R Us ad I was like, that's what I want. Um, yeah. I don't think I'd ever played a Pokemon game before. I don't know, <laugh>, I guess I just decided I liked it 'cause I liked Pokemon in general. Um, but no, that game was incredible. Um, so
Speaker 2 00:09:48 We lived, I mean, what a time to be alive whenever there were ads from an actual toy store that you could go visit and like, go look at them, hold them, and like the ads, you could circle them and say like, look, mom, look Dad, this is what I want.
Speaker 1 00:10:05 Like, I say it all the time, I know every generation thinks like their stuff was the coolest, but I really do think like the nineties and the, the early two thousands, like, were awesome. Yeah. And you're right. Unless, unless you saved your own money, which if you're a kid, like I didn't have the, like, wherewithal or patience to save money for a game. Right. Um, I would, I was one of those kids who'd like, I would just see a toy in the store and I'd want that, so I'd get that. Um, and my parents smartly kept, kept that savings account away from me. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:10:42 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:10:43 Because an unfettered, uh, well I guess eight to 10 whatever year old with that, would, that would've been bad. Um, yes. So I was like, well, I guess I just have to wait for, for like Christmas and my birthday. But yeah, you're right. There was no, like, you know, it wasn't this immediate instant gratification you had to wait for it. Um, but Pokemon Crystal man, that was Did you ever play any of the Pokemon games?
Speaker 2 00:11:11 I so nothing on Game Boy. Uh, I never had one. Uh, obviously I knew tons of people of our generation had them, and I never, never actually owned one. Spent very little time playing on any, because it's, you know, it's a personal handheld device, so like, people are sort of jealous for the time with their own. Um, yeah, but I, I mean, it's so funny because I, I heard you say Crystal and I was like, wow, that it's like, it's pulling it right back for me because it, that game landed so big at the time. Uh, it was probably one of the most anticipated games.
Speaker 1 00:11:50 Yeah. So I don't know so much that Crystal was, but gold and silver were, but yeah. 'cause I mean, I've read up on this stuff, you know, Pokemon Red and blue and yellow were huge. Like they were huge <laugh> mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And they might have actually topped it with gold and silver. And you're right, the anticipation for it was like, it was insane. And a lot of times, games won't live up to that hype, but these games are so good. Like, I was just reading an article about it. Um, so you don't, you know, you do the whole Pokemon thing. You, you, there are eight gym leaders, you know, you train all your Pokemon, you beat all the gym leaders, you beat the Elite Four, you become the Champion, and then you get to go to the region from the original games, and there's eight more Gym leaders and the Elite Four and a Champion. So it's basically two games, which like, now, like, I mean that, like,
Speaker 2 00:12:49 Oh, they'd, they'd release it in
Speaker 1 00:12:50 Two year old
Speaker 2 00:12:51 Mind and charge you double for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:12:53 Yeah. I mean, there it'd be like D L C and I mean, there was a Pokemon D L C I just bought, but,
Speaker 2 00:12:59 Um, well, that's a, yeah, that's a whole different complaint in the modern context is the release of Incomplete Games. I mean, that's, that's an area where we were spoiled for sure. 'cause Oh, for sure. I mean, maybe not spoiled, I guess it was just, it should be the Norm <laugh>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That's my opinion.
Speaker 1 00:13:17 Well, I mean, yeah, like, uh, I was talking to someone at work about it today and, uh, do you know the Game? No Man Sky?
Speaker 2 00:13:26 I don't, no.
Speaker 1 00:13:27 And so it's, I don't remember. I think it originally came out for the PSS four. Um, so we're jumping up to like, current ish times now. Oh yeah. We'll
Speaker 2 00:13:35 Be, we are gonna be
Speaker 1 00:13:36 Moving. Well, we're jumping all around. Yeah. Um, but eventually they released it for the Switch. And so I, I got it. And it's awesome. It's like a space exploration game. You do like mining and like, there's like some space battles and it's just really fun. But I remember reading up on it before it originally came out, and like, the hype for it was huge. Um, and when it came out, like people were upset because a lot of stuff wasn't in it that was promised. Right. And so they've been updating this game for like, the past eight years. Um, and people, they're really happy with it now. Like, but like, it was, it's kinda like you said it was an incomplete game. Well, and
Speaker 2 00:14:18 Eight years is, is like forever. That's
Speaker 1 00:14:21 That's forever for a game.
Speaker 2 00:14:23 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:14:24 But, yeah. And you know, back in our days, like you had the game, that was it <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:14:29 Um, yeah. And I think, I think it was all contextual too. Like in it, it sort of depends on your friend group, what the anticipated games are, what you played mm-hmm. <affirmative> or among siblings. Like my siblings and I spent so many more hours on racing games, you know, like car racing than other games. And other people spent a lot of their time on things like Madden, which I never got into. Yeah. Which is funny because, you know, I'm, I'm a late bloomer football fan mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, and you know, I, I'd never got into that, didn't do any of the hockey or FIFA or any of those things. So. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:15:07 Well, also I'm gonna, I think, I'm trying to remember which I had for, it was definitely the Game Boy came after, I think this was like 1999. Um, we apparently were tired of the Nintendo, so me and my siblings got a PSS one, and this was like the smaller, like slim down version after it had been out for a while. Right. Um, and I will never forget each of us got a game to start. Um, mine was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. My sister's was Spiro two. Oh
Speaker 2 00:15:42 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:15:43 And my brother's was Medal of Honor. Oh, you
Speaker 2 00:15:45 Got 'em all.
Speaker 1 00:15:47 Dude,
Speaker 2 00:15:47 There it is.
Speaker 1 00:15:48 It was awesome. <laugh>. Those,
Speaker 2 00:15:50 Those three games are amazing.
Speaker 1 00:15:52 It was awesome. That's an all time console too. I mean, the PSS one was a game changer. Like
Speaker 2 00:16:00 Yeah, I would say, what was
Speaker 1 00:16:02 That? What was that out around it? Like the N 64? Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:16:05 It was, so it was PSS one against N 64. And this is a, that's a great topic. Uh, so PS one N 64 and basically nothing else. And
Speaker 1 00:16:16 Then there was Sega Con, there was a Sega console. There
Speaker 2 00:16:18 Was a se but that, that was earlier, I think. I don't know if it was considered a competitor or
Speaker 1 00:16:23 Not. Yeah. If it was a competitor, it wasn't a great one.
Speaker 2 00:16:26 No. But then, you know, again, PlayStation punching above its weight in the Next Generation, I would say by a good ways PSS two was probably better than, um, you know, any of the competition in terms of game library. And I think PlayStation continues to have a terrific,
Speaker 1 00:16:48 Uh, game library. Yeah. They, they nail it. Um, I do remember my brother got a PSS two and <laugh> the first game he got for it, it was Grand Theft Auto, vice City. Uh, and I was like nine years old and I would play <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:17:04 <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. And you're like, hopefully my mom doesn't come in the room while I'm playing this game.
Speaker 1 00:17:09 <laugh>. Yeah. I mean, oh my gosh. Like, you know, when they, when parents complain about the violence in those games, like they're not lying. Um,
Speaker 2 00:17:17 Yeah. Grand Theft Auto is probably, that was like the game that hit peak popularity. And then also was right around that time when people were super concerned about violent games. Yeah. And it happened to have that, it was not like objective like medal of honor. It, it's like Right. You know, it's just Right.
Speaker 1 00:17:35 Like Medal of Honor, like Yeah. It was a war game, but like, you weren't like
Speaker 2 00:17:41 Committing crimes heads off. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 00:17:44 It wasn't, wasn't,
Speaker 2 00:17:45 It wasn't graphic in that way.
Speaker 1 00:17:46 It's, it's one of those, it's that it's like cognitive dissonance where two things are true. You hold two beliefs at the same time. It's like, yes, this game is incredibly violent. Yes. This game is awesome <laugh>. Right. Both things are true. I just probably shouldn't have been playing it at nine years old, but I turned out okay. Kind of. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 2 00:18:08 Yeah, that's what I say too.
Speaker 1 00:18:10 <laugh>, you said you had an Xbox that was, that was a big deal. Um, 'cause Yeah, it, it, the, the big fight was PSS one versus N 64. Right. But then Microsoft got in on it.
Speaker 2 00:18:22 Yeah. Xbox was huge. So I, uh, my family got an Xbox our first console, uh, when I was, I believe I was in sixth grade. Um, which I did some math, and that seems a little late, but it wouldn't be that surprising if it was already, if it had been out for a year or two. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:18:40 That, that's usually how we did it too.
Speaker 2 00:18:42 Yeah. I mean, you save a little bit of money and at that time, we really had no concept for how quick they were gonna release new consoles. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, it was revolutionary in our house. I mean, we got that for Christmas, and I mean, me and my brothers spent so much time playing it that we had to be limited on time. Um, you know, and it, it was honestly a little bit late for me. Uh, like I am the worst easily of all of my brothers at pretty much any video game. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I'm worse than most people, even of like our specific age group mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, my grade, if you will. So it's, it's definitely due, I think, to being late to owning my own system, uh mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then, you know, also just not necessarily as into, uh, like binging games. Yeah. Like a lot of my,
Speaker 1 00:19:41 So did you guys play Halo? I'm guessing?
Speaker 2 00:19:44 Uh, we did, yeah. Not early on though. So there were, there were certain game limitations that my parents set. Okay. Um, yeah. But we played, I mean, we played a lot of Star Wars, uh, focused games early on. I know the game, uh, the console came with one mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, I think it was just called Clone Wars. We like drove ships around and blasted each other. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Uh, and for me that, that's actually been the theme ever since, is it's always social. Um, I don't really enjoy playing campaigns. I'm not really gonna sit down and just play a game by myself. Uh, and so that's another area where I just tend to not be as good at games, probably because I spend less time, unless I am sitting next to you or I can play online, I, I probably won't do it. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:20:35 <affirmative>. Yeah. I mean, I, I probably went through a phase there where I was, I mean, mine was mostly Pokemon. Um, like I said, crystal. And then when I got a Game Boy Advance, it was Sapphire, which I will also hold as a phenomenal game. Um, they remade it for the Three DSS a couple years ago. And I, well, I, I mean, it was longer than that, but I got it a couple years ago and I was like, I remember all of this <laugh>. But, um, so we
Speaker 2 00:21:09 Were, but just saw on, on the Pokemon subject, I actually just saw somebody wandering around our neighborhood with their phone and they had the look about them
Speaker 1 00:21:20 Were they playing Pokemon Go? And
Speaker 2 00:21:22 I was like, this game surely can't exist anymore. Like, nobody's playing that. Right. And so I asked, and this kid was playing Pokemon Go. And, and I was like, I thought that was a phase back in like 20 17, 20 16 maybe.
Speaker 1 00:21:42 Yeah. I, yeah, yeah, 2016. It was huge.
Speaker 2 00:21:45 It's an, it's an old game now. I mean, I didn't know, uh, maybe, I mean, he indicated that there are still like gyms and, you know, people playing and stuff, but Yeah. It blew my mind.
Speaker 1 00:21:56 Yeah. Um,
Speaker 2 00:21:57 But that, that game, I mean, talk about taking the world by storm.
Speaker 1 00:22:01 Well, and what was kind of cool about it was that it was a mobile game.
Speaker 2 00:22:04 Right. And, and of social It
Speaker 1 00:22:06 Was free, I think.
Speaker 2 00:22:07 Yeah. And it was free. At least, I think most of it was free.
Speaker 1 00:22:10 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you could pay for stuff, but mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, yeah. So we, you know, I, I had the Game Boys, um, and we were a PlayStation family. And, uh, we had a We, which led me to the Wonder of Mario Kart Wii, which is just an outstanding, that's another top five game. Um, whenever I would play it though, with our friend group, I was like the only one who wanted to use the wheel.
Speaker 2 00:22:40 Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:22:40 I don't know why, like, I thought the wheel made was a lot easier.
Speaker 2 00:22:43 Did did it give you an advantage? <laugh>? I
Speaker 1 00:22:45 Think it did. Maybe psychological, but I think it did. Um, yeah. So we had that, but then eventually, uh, we got an Xbox 360, I think, 'cause my brother had one. And because it was starting to become clear that some of the games we wanted, they didn't make for the we. Right. Um, which that's a common Nintendo problem anyway. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:23:05 It really is. Even category of games, I would say if, if you only live in the Nintendo world, you are probably like, you're, you're not experiencing gaming in the way that everybody else talks about it. You are gaming. It's just different. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:23:21 Yeah. And Nintendo has like, incredible first party, uh, like characters and titles, like probably better than Sony or Xbox have, um mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But yeah. It's, it's, it's way more limited. So I remember though, we wanted it specifically 'cause they were making a Lego Marvel game.
Speaker 2 00:23:42 Oh yeah. Yeah. So it was all, it was awesome. I did some of the Lego Star Wars games. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:23:46 The Lego games are really fun. They're really
Speaker 2 00:23:48 Highball, but they're more fun when you play play
Speaker 1 00:23:50 With someone.
Speaker 2 00:23:51 Yeah. Yeah. My brothers and I, you know, there's always somebody around to do them, you know? Yeah. Chase many kids and stuff.
Speaker 1 00:23:57 'cause really they are made for kids. Like Oh yeah. It's one of those like, older people, like teenagers and adults can enjoy them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But like, the puzzles are really simple <laugh>. Right, right. Like, it's clearly made, like, so children can play it, but then, you know, there's so many characters to collect. You just want to, you want to collect everything. But no, uh, we made the mistake though. I don't know why we got an Xbox. Probably 'cause my brother had one. I don't know why we didn't get a PSS three.
Speaker 2 00:24:23 Okay. I would not call that a mistake just because, you know, as I said, basically born into the Xbox family and Yeah. 360, I mean, that is when we turned it up for sure. Like Halo, call of Duty, ghost Recon, medal of Honor, you name it. I mean, I, I loved that system. I actually own one still. I bought it as an adult. 'cause I was like, this is it for me. I'm gonna get Xbox Live. I had Xbox Live until last year on 360, which is super, like, that was super niche, uh, <laugh>. But, uh, yeah, I mean, I, I think it, it may be, for me it's, it's diminishing returns. Now I'm looking at consoles and I'm kind of like, it's not that much better than what I had then.
Speaker 1 00:25:13 Um, so I did, I went further. I got an Xbox One. There you go. Um, I remember I, this was a full-time job that I worked at for a month. Uh, shout out to Logistics. Plus you're the worst employer ever. <laugh>. But <laugh>, um, you did allow me to
Speaker 2 00:25:30 Get an X I don't dunno who they're, but screw you, <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:25:36 No, it's, I mean, it's, it was a bad match. I did not fit in there at all <laugh>. Um, but I did, did get to buy an Xbox One, um, that was worth it. Like, Madden on that was great. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and I, I do love like football video games. I mean N F L two K five, and N F L Street two for the PS two. Those are probably two of the greatest games ever. Um, Madden has been basically trying to, to catch what two K did almost 20 years ago. <laugh> mm-hmm. <affirmative> since then. Um, but yeah, so, you know, I, I've had, I had that one and then it eventually died. And so I did, I I upgraded to the Xbox Series X with their stupid naming. I hate, like, it's hard to keep track of what's what. Yeah. But I will agree with you now that I think that it, it's definitely diminishing returns. 'cause it's like most of the stuff I play on that is stuff I played for the Xbox One. Um, like I have a couple games that are specifically for this console, but like the Madden that came out last year was really disappointing. Right. Um, actually what I've been playing mostly is the Batman Arkham trilogy, which was for, it was originally for, most of it was for the 360. They released one for Xbox One and then remastered the first two. And,
Speaker 2 00:27:04 And it's pretty full, right? Like, it's a pretty full game. I mean, it's
Speaker 1 00:27:07 Incredible long campaign. My brother-in-law, he said he got it like before, like when the pandemic started, and he said it was awesome and it was on sale in the Xbox store. And, uh, you need to play 'em <laugh>. Where you
Speaker 2 00:27:22 Mean you didn't have to go get like a disc and you know, a box that came in and all that stuff.
Speaker 1 00:27:28 Yeah. Right. No, the man, I, you know, I, I think I might've been a little slow to fully embracing it, but I, like I'm super or digital games next. It's like,
Speaker 2 00:27:40 You know, instant gratification.
Speaker 1 00:27:42 Well, yeah. And people, people are like, well, what if you lose it? It's like, it's in the cloud. Like, so if it, like, if, you know, maybe you lose your, your save file, but Right. You can always reinstall the game. Like you own it. It's <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:27:55 Yeah. You, you own it. And if you, I mean, if, if that happens, I mean, then everybody else is experiencing that too. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1 00:28:03 Yeah. Um, but no, I mean, so Ark Asylum is the first one. And I mean, it's awesome 'cause like, it, it, it takes place in Arkham Asylum and on the, the island that it's on. Um, but what's really cool about it, like the combat is even though all you're doing is like hitting X to punch and like y to counter the animations they do with it, make it look really cool. 'cause you're Batman <laugh>. Right, right. So you're doing flips and like, you know, just like, it's so much fun. And what's cool is that because it's just arc of asylum, the setting is kind of small. So they'll reuse buildings later on in the game. Um, but stuff will have happened since then. Like Poison Ivys plants will have, you know, overrun it. And now you have to find other ways around. I
Speaker 2 00:28:56 Like, I like that kind of thing in a game. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:28:59 It was, the story's great. Um, it had, you know, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and The Joker, which for most people that's like
Speaker 2 00:29:08 Nostalgia on, on like steroids. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:29:11 Like, that's like the animated Batman and Joker. Right. So my brother-in-law was not wrong. So then I started the second one, which is Arkham City, and I was like, all right, you know, this one's supposed to be better. And at first it's like me, you know, it's more open world. Um, it takes place in like the, in the game. It's like part of Gotham City has been sectioned off into a prison, um, since a lot of open world. And at first I was like, eh, I don't think I like it as much as asylum. And then by the, you know, once you get into it, you're like, this game is just as good if not better. Like the, the villains in it, you know, that you start to get into some of the weird Batman villains, like Mr. Freeze and, you know, well they say Racial Al Goul. I always said Raul
Speaker 2 00:29:57 Ul. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what they said in the, in games. That's what they say in the movies. Yeah. So you have to stick with it.
Speaker 1 00:30:03 Yeah. But in the cartoons, they, they don't. Um, but yeah, so it's, I'm now on the third one. Well, the third one is technically AUM Origins, which is a prequel, but that's made by a different studio. So like, the trilogy is considered Asylum City, and then Arkham Knight, uh, which is the one I'm on now. And you get to drive the Batmobile on this one, and it's pretty cool. Um, yeah, I haven't gotten super far in that, but I can like, without reservation, recommend the first two as like, definitely like nine out 10 stars. Hmm. Like, it's incredible.
Speaker 2 00:30:43 Not 10 Outta 10.
Speaker 1 00:30:45 Yeah. I mean, every game could be better. Oh, okay. Except Dry Dead Redemption too.
Speaker 2 00:30:50 That that one's a 10 outta 10 for you.
Speaker 1 00:30:52 Have you ever played it?
Speaker 2 00:30:54 I did one time. I don't know. I I, I never owned it. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:30:58 It is. So I'm one of those people where it's like, it's an open world game. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So once you know, you complete the opening missions and stuff and you're allowed to just roam around. Like, that's what I love to do, just like get on a horse.
Speaker 2 00:31:13 That's a whole phase. Now I feel like e everybody has just moved into that. I mean, almost every franchise is trying to go that direction too, in some
Speaker 1 00:31:22 Form. I mean, the last Pokemon Games did mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, but no, red Dead too. Like, I mean, and then you feel bad because it, it comes out that they like overworked their, uh, animators and developers like ridiculous overtime hours. It was bad. Like Yeah. I mean, you can tell 'cause the graphics are incredible. Like the gameplay's incredible, everything about it is perfect. It like, it really is. Um, so that is actually probably in my experience, the best game ever. I mean, it's not my favorite game ever, but like, it's probably the best.
Speaker 2 00:32:04 Was that I g n
Speaker 1 00:32:06 Uh, that's rockstar.
Speaker 2 00:32:08 Oh, okay. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:32:09 So Grand Theft Auto. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:32:11 Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:32:12 Um, but yeah, no, red Dead Two is awesome. That was a random one. Yeah, I
Speaker 2 00:32:17 Was, I was wondering if it was maybe Activision. I just saw that they, uh, actually just, I think today it's been going on for a year and a half. They're getting bought out by Microsoft.
Speaker 1 00:32:29 Um,
Speaker 2 00:32:30 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:32:30 What does Activision own is that Call of Duty. Duty.
Speaker 2 00:32:33 So they're known for Call of Duty. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's their big thing. Yeah. Um, yeah. That's a big, big deal. Everybody's up in arms about it. Yeah. I mean, you know, it basically Microsoft is of course trying to get more market share. Oh yeah. Uh, and buy up development and all that stuff, which is good for them. Um, and they were being blocked basically because it was like, uh, are you, are you gonna have a monopoly of some sort? Is this, uh, monopolistic Yeah. Tactics. And I think, you know, they ultimately won that just because it is, I think you can make that claim for any major, uh, like Sony, I think. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:33:14 Does similar things. I mean, like, is it a monopoly? Like Yeah. Probably
Speaker 2 00:33:18 <laugh>. Well, and, and I think, I think one of their concessions was like, we're gonna give, I think it's crazy. It's like Nintendo and PlayStation get to have Call of Duty for the next 10 years or something. So Yeah. That's
Speaker 1 00:33:30 Hu that if that, that's huge. Because I'm really mad because Sony has, uh, the Spider-Man games,
Speaker 2 00:33:36 Right? Yes.
Speaker 1 00:33:37 Which are basically like the Marvel equivalent of the AUM games.
Speaker 2 00:33:42 Right. And like, and there's no, there's no competition on that and Right. Like, I
Speaker 1 00:33:46 Wanna play it so bad. <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:33:50 I played, I did play the, uh, one of those early Spider-Man games and it was sort of that open world concept. You know, you're just swinging around New York.
Speaker 1 00:33:58 Remember the 2002 one when the, when the first original movie came out? Yeah. And you could, people <laugh> people would joke, like, you know, you're just swinging around on nothing. Right. Like, you've got Webs hanging from just the
Speaker 2 00:34:13 Sky.
Speaker 1 00:34:13 Yes. Um,
Speaker 2 00:34:15 Yeah. You could get it to Glitch where you could like kind of swing out over water and there's obviously no buildings there and stuff.
Speaker 1 00:34:21 <laugh>. Um, but no, that's, that's the one I wanna play. Um, so I think, do you have anything else to add or, uh, we're, we've got a couple teases of stuff coming up.
Speaker 2 00:34:32 Yeah. I guess, you know, as far as like present day stuff, you talked a little bit about what you're doing now. Um, I, not so much console anymore, 'cause I, I think I sort of dropped that. I, I have not kept up with modern day consoles, but on my, actually on, on my phone, I'm playing a Mario game, playing Mario Kart tour. Nice. I've been doing that for like over two years now. Got me through the pandemic.
Speaker 1 00:34:58 Any version of Mario Kart is,
Speaker 2 00:35:00 It's so good. It's a free game, <laugh>, and it, it's just so good. But, um, yeah, I, I'm playing mostly on my P c E now, uh, through Steam. Nice. So do you, do you do any of that?
Speaker 1 00:35:13 Um, I have a couple games. My computer is not really like, capable of handling much. Yeah. <laugh>, so I don't, I don't really play much
Speaker 2 00:35:22 Mine either. <laugh>. Yeah. I, I play, uh, well, this is the tease. I guess. I play mostly. Yeah. This
Speaker 1 00:35:30 Is, this is the tease.
Speaker 2 00:35:31 Get ready for it. I, I mostly play a game from the nineties called Age Vampires. Uh, and I
Speaker 1 00:35:38 Didn't know it was that old.
Speaker 2 00:35:39 It's, it's old. Uh, I'm not clear on when Age of Vampires two came out, which is the one that we play, uh, mostly my brothers and I. But, um, yeah, it's, it's sort of a timeless game. Uh, it doesn't require a lot of my computer, which helps and yeah,
Speaker 1 00:35:56 That's definitely good.
Speaker 2 00:35:58 I, I'm still not very good at it, but there's a very, uh, live and vibrant community that is playing this game, um, which is, that's great. You know, great. I mean, there's a few games that do that Yeah. Throughout history. But yeah, it's so fun to be, to have gotten in early, early when I was playing video games mm-hmm. <affirmative> like, you know, on the old staticky monitors and stuff. <laugh>. Yep. So, yeah. Yeah. So
Speaker 1 00:36:26 Out the cheese here. Yeah. Let let the good audience know.
Speaker 2 00:36:30 Okay. Well, I don't know if they're good, but, uh, yeah. <laugh>, no, I, I, uh, I intend to get wrangle my brothers and, uh, and get them all to, to do an episode on the Age of Empires specifically. So if you're into that, stay tuned.
Speaker 1 00:36:46 I think we mentioned it in the la or in the, uh, the N F L off season episode. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, I think we briefly touched on it. Yeah. That, that's gonna be, uh, a slippery, a slippery centric episode. I will be in the background producing. Um, but that, other than that, that's, that's you, man. That's you leading that episode. Um, and then my teas, um, it is now live. The first episode is out, uh, snorkeling in popcorn. Brian goes to the movies, my spinoff of snorkeling with Narwals, uh, where I talk about movies that I've gone to. So the first episode is up on its own feed and on the snorkeling with Narwals Feed. Um, it's about Creed three, i, I talk about it with my sister. And so the plan is each snorkeling with Narwals and snorkeling and popcorn are going to release an episode every two weeks, but it's gonna be staggered. So, you know, snorkeling with Narwals one week, then Popcorn the next, and Narwals popcorn, so on and so forth. But yeah, we've, we've got some things brewing, but yeah, that's gonna do it for today's episode. I'm Brian and
Speaker 2 00:38:02 I'm Slippy,
Speaker 1 00:38:03 And this is snorkeling with Narwhals. Um, so I was like, wow. Uh, my brother-in-law was not wrong. Excuse me. I burped
Speaker 2 00:38:26 Well, uh, lemme start that over. What do you say to that? Bless you.
Speaker 1 00:38:30 I dunno.
