605: Rounding up the news, getting ready for Gamescom and more

Larry Hryb: Happy August, my name is Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. This is I think show 603-ish, sitting here with Jeff Rubenstein.
Jeff Rubenstein: You had one job Larry.
Larry Hryb: Well it gets so-
Jeff Rubenstein: This is it.
Larry Hryb: It gets so confusing because we have so many shows. You know how it is, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: By the way this is show 60 ... No, it's 605.
Larry Hryb: Is it?
Jeff Rubenstein: The last show was 604. Look at the list, because 603, 604, 60, we're counting back down to one.
Larry Hryb: I just fixed it. I just fixed it.
Jeff Rubenstein: There we go.
Larry Hryb: We have a shared notebook here. Anyways, 605, welcome and unfortunately, as even within the first 30 seconds Laura has failed to keep us in line because she's not here.
Jeff Rubenstein: It is her job to count the shows.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Every day she comes in. She just starts from the beginning.
Larry Hryb: You and I can't even do that right.
Jeff Rubenstein: No sir.
Larry Hryb: We are a fail.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're talkers.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, good to see you Jeff, as always.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, thanks you too.
Larry Hryb: We're here. It's we're rocketing through up here in the northern hemisphere ah summer.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Summer in Seattle, it's been very warm this week.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, weather tweets are among the worst tweets. Only lunch tweets are worse than weather tweets. We'll tweet it. It's in the mid 90s here. Everyone's like, "It's in the mid 90s, we're almost at 186 degrees in Phoenix."
Larry Hryb: Yeah, now you grew up in Florida, so you're used to this type of heat, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, it's more humid there. The difference is you live in Florida, you live in Arizona, you live in Texas, you have air conditioning or maybe a swamp cooler. I'm still not sure what that is.
Larry Hryb: Apparently it's just a bunch of ice or cool water with a fan blowing over it.
Jeff Rubenstein: That would be an improvement to what many ... I would say most of us have in Seattle which is nothing.
Larry Hryb: In fact according to the New York time, two-thirds of the people in Seattle don't have air conditioning.
Jeff Rubenstein: Correct.
Larry Hryb: Really, wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so I'm one of those people. That takes you back like a 100 years. I feel like I'm in pioneering days sitting in a puddle of my own sweat and just playing games and praying that my mind will go into the character to the point where I don't feel hot anymore. Of course, it'll all be over soon.
Larry Hryb: It'll all be over soon.
Jeff Rubenstein: By that I mean the weather, not just all of it.
Larry Hryb: Let's get to what we're playing Jeff. What are you playing?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, sure. It's been a couple of weeks since we last spake.
Larry Hryb: It has been. Yeah, since we last got together.
Jeff Rubenstein: And a couple good games, interesting things have come out now.
Larry Hryb: Quite a few actually.
Jeff Rubenstein: One of them is, What Remains of Edith Finch.
Larry Hryb: Oh, that's a good one, I finished that one. I know you did too.
Jeff Rubenstein: I did, I got the 1K on that one. So I think it's interesting, you interviewed Ian Dallas, from Shine Sparrow last show, and like he was saying, the more you know about the game, you shouldn't know too much about the game going into. Suffice to say, you largely play a young woman learning about her family. Actually, located up here, not far from Seattle.
Larry Hryb: In the northwest.
Jeff Rubenstein: In the northwest on Orcas Island.
Larry Hryb: Have you been there, Orcas Island?
Jeff Rubenstein: I never have.
Larry Hryb: Oh Orcas is beautiful.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a place where I know people go camping or something, you have to take a boat to get there. And she has a very interesting family, and I'll just leave it at that. And it is definitely worth your time, I thought it was really interesting game.
Larry Hryb: It's one of those games, go back and listen to the interview last week with Ian, you can't say too much about the story, you don't want to ruin it, and the way they tell the story, I tweeted this out, this is some next gen storytelling, it's really creative.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. I feel like if you've played Gone Home, and that's sort of like a first person, you uncover a story. This takes it a step further. There's some different mechanics in there besides just walking around and reading or hearing stories. There is part of that but, it's really cool. I just really enjoyed it.
Larry Hryb: Can't say too much more about that. I finished that as well, lot of fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Now for something completely different, on the polar opposite end would be Fortnight.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: So a lot of people I've seen playing this.
Larry Hryb: A lot of people. Game preview.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I don't know if it's part of the game preview program specifically, it has achievements and all that, but the game is in an early stage. It's not 1.0 yet. But that being said, the combat's very polished. The way this game works is like, you build up a base. It's kind of like, I don't want to say Mine Craft. Like if you were to boil down Mine Craft, at least the survival mode, and Fortnight, to their base essentials, you build all day and you fight all night type of situation.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I've heard it described as Mine Craft meets Hoard Mode.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. It is a lot different than either, I've played hundreds of hours of Mine Craft and Hoard Mode for that matter, and it does, I think, distill a number of the elements of that. But if you just want to fight, you don't want to be much a builder, you actually spend a ton of time scavenging. Going through and harvesting materials out of cars or hours or hidden things. There's some interesting stuff there.
Larry Hryb: Garbage cans.
Jeff Rubenstein: The characters look very interesting, even the zombies are kind of cute. Like Pixar-ish. It kind of reminds me, the visual style, almost of The Incredibles a little bit.
Larry Hryb: Okay. I'll buy that.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a bit of that right? So yeah, I think it's a pretty interesting game, a lot of people are streaming it so it's worth taking a look on. Mixer or Twit or You Too or wherever it is you consume your content. Definitely having a lot of fun with that, I think they're going to be continuing, Epic's going to be continuing to work on the game.
I will say that there's, like when it comes to like, the crafting and actually like, resource management, there's so much there. There's so much to it, the skill tree is huge.
Larry Hryb: Oh it's massive.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a lot to learn, so I'm waiting for like, really good guides to come out. I've been watching some YouTube vids on people who break down, oh this is a great way to find this, and there's tons of loot. I do enjoy the loot box mechanic.
Larry Hryb: I know you do. Who doesn't?
Jeff Rubenstein: You hit llama pinatas with a sword or-
Larry Hryb: Sometimes you're bat bounces off.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, and then it turns into like, silver. I thought that was really-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's a cute touch.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a very cool mechanic. So definitely a game I think people are going to be playing for a long time. Much like the other game we're playing for a long time and that's Overwatch.
Larry Hryb: Right of course, which goes without saying.
Jeff Rubenstein: So we had to go back there.
Larry Hryb: To get ready.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: To get ready for?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, we're getting ready for summer games.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: But since the last time we spoke Doomfest.
Larry Hryb: Doomfest has made an appearance.
Jeff Rubenstein: Joined the fray. Unlike, I would say one of the previous characters, Anna and, oh my God, help me out here.
Larry Hryb: Sambra?
Jeff Rubenstein: Sambra, thank you. When they join, and everyone jumped in for like, two days, and then some people really like Anna and Sambra and most people don't. You go play in matches where you don't necessarily see one or the other. Every match I have played in the last week has had at least one Doomfest and usually two.
Larry Hryb: You played Doomfest, I hadn't played him-
Jeff Rubenstein: It's hard for me to get, I played him one time in a match.
Larry Hryb: I think I did too, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I think it was during survival, and I did get killed. Definitely there's a lot going on there. I feel like, he's kind of like Ryu from Street Fighter. He has a dragon pipe. You can kind of almost spam special moves. Obviously high level players play a lot differently, but I feel like he's constantly moving, he's constantly jumping through the air, he gets his ultimate it seems like six or seven thousand times per match.
Larry Hryb: He comes out of nowhere.
Jeff Rubenstein: So I'm curious how they're going to end up balancing him, but he's definitely I would say, the most popular new character added to that game in a year plus it's been out.
Larry Hryb: Right. Rock on.
Jeff Rubenstein: So playing that, and then one other thing is Pubg. The player unknown battleground. So something they had, we know it's coming to X-Box, we announced that at E-3. But this week they, I guess Brendan Greene or Bluehole, the people that work on this, they announced that they were going to be supporting the X-Box controller on the PC version of the game. So I fired it up.
Larry Hryb: Is that out yet?
Jeff Rubenstein: It's in the test server. Actually I think it hit the normal servers slightly before we-
Larry Hryb: Now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, by the time you hear this. And you know what, I got it killed. I got my first kill.
Larry Hryb: Yeah you did.
Jeff Rubenstein: And now, you're still playing in controller versus people playing in a mouse and keyboard environment, and I'm not going to be sniping 360 or scoping people from across the [inaudible 00:08:23].
Larry Hryb: And we're not going to wade into that religious debate.
Jeff Rubenstein: No. But the bottom line is I'm trash with the keyboard and mouse, so at least when it comes to navigating the space and looting things-
Larry Hryb: I think it's part of the inverted issue.
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe. Maybe it's lack of practice. So I was playing my first one, I was sort of messing around on, there's this lobby screen at the beginning. I was just trying to test out the controllers or the buttons mapping the way I want them to, and then it jumped into the game and I'm like, I'm just going to play it. I'm not going to bail out. So I'm in the plane, I dive out, I'm by myself and I'm orienting myself with the controls, finding a shotgun. And actually this is good, if I'm going to be using a controller versus a mouse and ... I'm not going to get into a sniping battle across the map will destroy me. But a shotgun was a shotgun.
So I'm sort of towards the edge of the map, I'm running, I'm just trying to get into the circle so I don't get firebombed. And then I sort of stop at the crest of a hill and I'm looking around, like is there any motion. Because I'm going to have to get the drop on somebody, I only have a shotgun.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so you hit the deck?
Jeff Rubenstein: And there's just a bit of movement about 10 feet in front of me.
Larry Hryb: 10 clicks.
Jeff Rubenstein: 10 feet. I don't know what a click is. A kilometer?
Larry Hryb: Kilometers.
Jeff Rubenstein: Prone, a sniper laying down facing the other way. And oh my God I just like, like time slowed down, my salivary glands kicked in, a little bit of drool.
Larry Hryb: You brought the weapon up.
Jeff Rubenstein: Heartbeat, and I walked up, I didn't even aim down the sight, and I got my first kill.
Larry Hryb: Did you just casually, Javier Bardem style, walk over to him and go boom?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. This is when I was like, I need a emotes. So I got that first kill and at this point there's like, 46 people left out of the 100.
Larry Hryb: Oh, so you made it pretty high.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I'm like, oh man, this is my chance to get top 10. I seem to be away from everyone else-
Larry Hryb: This is your first time playing?
Jeff Rubenstein: This is my first time playing with a controller and first time ever playing solo. And then I go about 10 feet and then-
Larry Hryb: Time slows down again.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, literally that's my computer shutting down because I brought it upstairs.
Larry Hryb: Oh no!
Jeff Rubenstein: This is a laptop. These gaming laptops, love them. You need to have them plugged in pretty much all the time.
Larry Hryb: Your battery ran out!
Jeff Rubenstein: I had brought it upstairs just to test out the controls, I didn't expect to jump into a game.
Larry Hryb: No!
Jeff Rubenstein: So as far as I'm concerned my player never died. They probably just sat out there on the edge of some village.
Larry Hryb: He just went limp.
Jeff Rubenstein: Everyone else killed themselves and I must have finished first.
Larry Hryb: He went limp Mex style.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. I have no choice but to assume that I won.
Larry Hryb: Oh wow, that's terrible.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: We'll have to play, I've been looking forward to coming to the console and I make no bones that I am not an expert with mouse and keyboard, so maybe that's-
Jeff Rubenstein: We're going to have a lot of fun with this one.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I know we will.
Jeff Rubenstein: So tell me, what have you been playing?
Larry Hryb: It's pretty much everything you've gone over, we've talked about, I checked about Fable Fortune, it's now in game preview.
Jeff Rubenstein: X-box and Windows 10.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. The Long Dark, I'm checking out the Path Of Exile Beta.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, POE.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, doing that. Of course that's always a lot of fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's kind of like a Diablo-esque.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, very much so. So yeah, one that I tried was Canadian Football 2017.
Jeff Rubenstein: So tell me, how does it compare to American Football?
Larry Hryb: It's a different game.
Jeff Rubenstein: More polite, like sorry after every tackle.
Larry Hryb: Apparently someone said on Twitter, and I haven't gotten this far, because I booted it up and then I had to run, apparently instead of Gatorade there's Tim Hortons. And every game ends in a tie.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sweet. Are there any Canadian stereotypes we didn't?
Larry Hryb: I know I feel like, some our good friends are Canadian.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know, I'm up there all the time.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so I'm playing that. Of course What Remains of Edith Finch was great, so that was a good one. I was playing a lot of stuff. I want to have a little bit of a programming note here. We are, in August and between holidays and vacations, Laura's out, Jeff's out, I'm going to be out for a week. We are probably not going to do another show until PAX, East PAX Prime, whatever, PAX West, whatever-
Jeff Rubenstein: PAX West.
Larry Hryb: Whatever it's called now. So Witches Weaver will be there on that Saturday like we normally are. So we'll record that and we'll put that out. So just in case, we probably won't have time to get into the studio again because of the vacations, but I wanted to make sure that I signed off properly and let people know what was going on Jeff.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm going to miss you.
Larry Hryb: I was down at Comic Con last week.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I do know that.
Larry Hryb: That was a lot of fun. I did Comic Con, was there-
Jeff Rubenstein: You were with Terry Crews. You sat at a table with Terry Crews. You took a great picture with him as well.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I'll tweet that out probably closer to launch. I want to save that one for the launch crowd.
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.
Larry Hryb: We had a lot of fun, Terry and I moderated the panel and that evening I did the, what now apparently is an infamous screen-
Jeff Rubenstein: Infamous was the word I was going to be going for.
Larry Hryb: From-
Jeff Rubenstein: Start with the positives. You got to spend an entire evening with Genine [inaudible 00:13:08].
Larry Hryb: Oh she was delightful. In fact she and I have been emailing back and forth talking about a few projects. But she's great, and there's a lot of people there. Met with some of the guys from Stranger Things, we saw that trailer breaker.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh that looks so good.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we saw that one coming out, it takes-
Jeff Rubenstein: I love how it starts in an arcade.
Larry Hryb: Right? And then they got the old Vincent Price.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, that's right, Thriller. I'm going to link to that trailer.
Larry Hryb: So we've got that. One of my favorite moments, and I mentioned this to you is, I was at this event in the stream and I think Genine was on, or somebody was on, and I stepped away to check out the chatroom and whatnot, and Zak Penn comes up to me.
Jeff Rubenstein: Zak Penn, director of ...
Larry Hryb: Of the E.T.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, of the E.T.
Larry Hryb: The Atari.
Jeff Rubenstein: But I think people, if they're hearing his name now-
Larry Hryb: Right, they're like, "Wait a minute, I know that name." So he comes up to me, and I'll explain to you in a minute. So Zak comes up to me, he was the gentleman who wrote and directed the ... That was one of our strangest trips Jeff and I have ever taken, we went out to Alamagordo New Mexico.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, we did.
Larry Hryb: And we unearthed those Atari cartridges. And Zak comes up to me and says hello, gives me a hug, and says, "Hey, great to see you. I want to let you know that the Atari dig we did was one of the greatest projects I ever worked on." I'm like, "You worked on a lot of stuff, really?" He tells me because of that, he met Ernie Cline, who was the author of Ready Player One. When Ernie was shopping his book around Hollywood, apparently he wanted Zak to co-write the screenplay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which is crazy.
Larry Hryb: So Zak is writing the screenplay, or co-writing the screenplay. Who is, of course, directing is-
Jeff Rubenstein: Zak Penn.
Larry Hryb: No, directing.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, Steven Spielberg.
Larry Hryb: Steven Spielberg. So the fact that we were in the desert in the landfill in Alamagordo let him to a gig with Steven Spielberg. Anything can happen folks. Anything can happen.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's so crazy.
Larry Hryb: But I had him on here, I think he was the last guest of the night.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like we missed our big breaks. I remember when Ernie Cline, and I didn't know who he was at the time, I had not yet read Ready Player One, I remember him driving by in his Delorean, which he had the gold wing doors he had up, and he was blasting the E.T. theme, or maybe it was, it might have been the Raiders of the Lost ... Some John Williams score.
Larry Hryb: Which is always-
Jeff Rubenstein: Very '80's. And we're like, what just happened?
Larry Hryb: He's got this beautiful car in the middle of a landfill.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know who that car belonged to right? That Delorean?
Larry Hryb: Who was it? I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: The writer of A Game Of Thrones.
Larry Hryb: Really? Why did he get rid of it?
Jeff Rubenstein: George R. Martin. Actually it might have been in the documentary. He went out, because George R. Martin lives elsewhere in New Mexico, in Santa Fe or something.
Larry Hryb: I thought he lived in Austin.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, he lives in New Mexico somewhere, and, I don't know how conducive it is to finishing your sixth book, maybe he should move somewhere with worse weather. So he stays indoors, finish that book please, it's a winner. And yeah, he went there and he borrowed the car from George, and then drove it down. I guess they're friends.
Larry Hryb: So that was his car?
Jeff Rubenstein: So that was George R. Martin's delorean.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so go back and watch ... Can we link off to the Atari, I'm sure it's on Netflix by now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it was called Game Over?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was so good. Do you remember that? That was the weirdest thing, I was like, "Jeff, we're going to go."
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh that was-
Larry Hryb: We had to transfer. Remember we were sitting on the tarmac in LA. The whole journey was just once in a lifetime.
Jeff Rubenstein: It looks like it's on Netflix so I'll link out to that.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so that was ... it was great to be down there at Comic Con and all sorts of fun like that. Lot of stuff coming out of that with Crackdown related. There's a lot of news going on, we've got some news here. Jeff, I know you've got some of the news headlines in front of you. Why don't we bang through those real quick. I want to just remind folks, even though we're not going to be doing a show you can always catch up on the news at my blog at MajorNelson.com. You can follow me on Twitter at MajorNelson. And of course this week on X-Box, which airs every Friday on your console, and I try to put it on Twitter and so forth.
Jeff Rubenstein: This looks like a good one.
Larry Hryb: Which one?
Jeff Rubenstein: We were just commenting on how good the lighting looked this week.
Larry Hryb: Oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: As they were editing.
Larry Hryb: Oh yeah, the show.
Jeff Rubenstein: You look radiant Larry.
Larry Hryb: Well, it's not me.
Jeff Rubenstein: You have that summer glow.
Larry Hryb: It's the post production. Anyway, let's go through the headlines real quick so we can get people on their way.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, quite the few. Something you may have seen, is that X-box is joining forces with-
Larry Hryb: With-
Jeff Rubenstein: This is where you put the bell ringing sound in.
Larry Hryb: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Jeff Rubenstein: Or more like gong. Taco Bell. To bring the X-box OneX to fans. So starting at the end of the month, August 31st, X-box and Taco Bell are going to be combining to give you the first chance to win the X-box OneX. You have to buy this $5.00 box.
Larry Hryb: You like your quesarito right? You like your churros?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm a big fan of the, what's the double taco, where it's like the regular taco and then it has the bean burrito around it. Like the soft ... The double whatever. And I'm a chalupa man. Oh you know what is really good is the doritos locos. I'm hungry now. Doritos locos taco? It's something that I feel like, once a year I'm like, this is happening, I'm getting Doritos Loco taco.
Larry Hryb: Only in America. Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's so good.
Larry Hryb: Okay once a year.
Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway, we'll link out for some details. Basically the Taco Bell $5.00 box will have a code that you can text to win the X-box OneX. We're going to be giving away quite a few of them. I guess we actually partnered for the original X-box way back in the day.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, way back in the day. Taco Bell, so check that out. You can take a look at that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, we'll link out to that. Three new controllers are revealed this week as well.
Larry Hryb: We'll have those on the show, and I've put it on the Instagram.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know which one, my favorite out of these three is the green gray, where it's kind of understated. It's a grayish controller with dark gray buttons, but underneath it there's like this neon green sort of color to it.
Larry Hryb: It's nice.
Jeff Rubenstein: It looks good. I know our good friend Graham poked in from his annual leave to weigh in and say the volcano shadow edition was his favorite. There's also a Patrol Tech. We had a different tech controller that came out recently, it was very textured.
Larry Hryb: Black and gold.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, and so we have another one in that series. So we'll link out to all the details. But I think the green gray, I feel like that's your-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I actually really like that. Just reminds me of old, it's old X-box colors.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly.
Larry Hryb: Classic. All right, what else do we got for news today?
Jeff Rubenstein: It's more like X-box 360 colors. It's almost like the X-box 360 controller. Anyway. So Mine Craft. We talked about our better together update, I believe that was also talked about in E-3, where the goal is to unify our versions of Mine Craft across console and mobile and Win10.
Larry Hryb: Here, there, everywhere.
Jeff Rubenstein: So it is in now, it's in beta. So it's something that, right now it's rolled out for Win10 and Android. It's going to be coming to X-box One soon. So it's something you're going to want to take a look at. If you're really big into it and you want to get a hold it now, I'm going to link out to the MineCraft.net entry on that and you can find out more about the better together beta.
Larry Hryb: A lot of people play that game.
Jeff Rubenstein: This was a cool thing. I would say Force Horizon Three has had some very interesting crossovers. And first it started off with the warthog, which was probably one of my most used vehicles in that game. Definitely good for the outback. And the second was was, of course, the hotwheels expansion, which was phenomenal.
Larry Hryb: They had fun with it.
Jeff Rubenstein: This one I was not expecting. This one I feel like I came out with this idea, but I'm sure I didn't.
Larry Hryb: Really, did you?
Jeff Rubenstein: Maybe it was in my mind. And that is the Final Fantasy 15 regalia which is the big car that Noctis and Crew drive throughout the world, is coming to Force Horizon Three. In fact, it's there now. And if you're somebody who had Final Fantasy 15 on their X-box One, you should check your X-box messages. There should be messages, system messages that come from X-box. You'll have a code, you hit a button, you download, and you will have the regalia. So it is available, and if you haven't played Final Fantasy 15, it's within the game as well, so it's something you can get, and it's free so no reason not to. I'm curious how it's going to handle, because this car is like, 20 feet long, it's like-
Larry Hryb: Right, it's a big one.
Jeff Rubenstein: Super Cadillac. It's like a Mybok and then some, but it is one of the characters almost, in the game. So curious if you can bring the hood down, I'll have to ... I mean the roof down, I'll have to check that out. Anyway, now I guess we can talk about the games.
Larry Hryb: By the way, don't forget there's a demo out for EA Sports NHL 18. It's got this great 3-D 3 mode we should check out.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh really, sort of like back in the day?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, exactly. So we should check that out. But let's go through, that one just came out right before we started recording, so you should, go to my blog MajorNelson.com you'll have ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I could use the fumes of ice right now. Just cooling me down right there, better than AC that I don't have. Tacoma.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is a game that we've been talking about for over a year. It is from the Fulbright company, the people that made Gone Home and this is really their follow up to that, and it takes place in a space station about 100 years from now, 50, 80 years from now, whenever we're going to be in space. Can't happen soon enough. And so that is out, I think it's another game where the more you talk about it the more you give away, so I think that [inaudible 00:22:23]. So Tacoma is available now. It's out on X-box One now and it will be coming to Windows10 at some point down the line as well.
The Long Dark. This is a game that was in game preview. It was one of the very first game preview games. And it has hit 1.0, the achievements are up and ready to go, and it is also an X-box play anywhere title. The X-box One version is available now. Windows 10 version will be released at a later date. But a pretty brutal survival game from what I'm told.
Another game that has really caught my eye that I'm planning on playing this week is Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. So it looks kind of like a tactical game taking place in Edo era Japan and you have a Samurai who's the one that can kill people aggressively. Then you have a woman who blends in as a villager. Anyway, a couple of different types of soldier types that can go through and, there's a really cool trailer. Actually I'll link out to it because it really-
Larry Hryb: Please do.
Jeff Rubenstein: Definitely it caught my attention. So somebody who enjoys X-Com and games like that, I think there's more of a real time element to it. It might be worth your attention. That's Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.
And one last new game that, actually if you're an X-box live gold member, is free for you, is Slime Rancher.
Larry Hryb: You like free right?
Jeff Rubenstein: I like free.
Larry Hryb: Who doesn't like free?
Jeff Rubenstein: I like slime.
Larry Hryb: Well, there you go.
Jeff Rubenstein: I've never been a rancher so I'm going to be able to complete the circle.
Larry Hryb: It's from your days on Nickelodeon.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's true. You know Double Dare was originally a local show where I grew up in Philly. And like-
Larry Hryb: Just like Wonderama?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know what that is.
Larry Hryb: Okay look that one up.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll have to look that one up. But I always, that was the thing we talked about in elementary school, like, "I'm going to be on Double Dare. I have a friend who's on Double Dare and knows how to get us on Double Dare." Never came through. But I was like, "Man we could win $500.00 and think what we could do with that."
Larry Hryb: You could have won big.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, could have changed the orbit of my life.
Larry Hryb: All the Capri Sun that you could have drunk.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was a lot, if I could get the straw in.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: Without poking it all the way through the other side.
Larry Hryb: Or squirting it out all over yourself. Great design there folks.
Jeff Rubenstein: Capri Sun still exists by the way.
Larry Hryb: Oh it does?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. I was at a soccer practice thing for my kid and someone brought Capri. I'm like, "Did you pull these out of a time capsule?" But apparently it's still there. And you know what, still just as difficult to open.
Larry Hryb: They haven't solved that problem?
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb: This is where we need to put the innovation. These are the problems we have to solve.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think we fixed it, it was called the drink box. And yet, Capri Sun's still kicking. They've said, "We're not going to distinguish ourselves by the flavor, just by the frustration you have on the packaging." Only watch this, Capri Sun just came on as a partner sponsor, we should ... I love Capri Sun, it's phenomenal.
Larry Hryb: Yes. News desk brought to you by Capri Sun.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. And the other X-box live game with gold for the first half of August of course, is Bayonetta. Which is a heck of a game. Platinum games and-
Larry Hryb: If you like weapons in your shoes, this is your game.
Jeff Rubenstein: You do, guns in your hands, [inaudible 00:25:26] in your shoes. I believe the names, you know the guns have names.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I do.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I believe it was like, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Which is all the ingredients you need to do to make a great Thanksgiving turkey. So every time it's Thanksgiving time I can't help but think of Bayonetta.
Larry Hryb: I remember playing that game and my wife coming into my office and she's like, "What are you playing?" I'm like, "I don't know."
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you finish that game?
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: See there is a level late in the game, spoiler alert. I mean, the whole game, it's just so ridiculous, I don't feel like anything is connected from one or the other, you just kill everything.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: But where you're on a missile, like a nuclear missile that's going, I don't know if it's going to Earth or wherever, but you're basically riding it like a rodeo. But then other missiles are coming at you and you have to like, fight. Basically the level takes place on top of like an ICBM. Yes. Bayonetta.
Larry Hryb: Bayonetta.
Jeff Rubenstein: You've got to play it.
Larry Hryb: And it's free and it's waiting for you gold members right now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. I remember playing this thing, we have reached peak Bayonetta. Hell of a game, I do love that game. Anyway, so that's your news.
Larry Hryb: Games gold course later this month, we've got Games Con. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to attend, I've got a personal appointment I have to take care of. Jeff, you're not going out this year right?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know that I'm going-
Larry Hryb: I'm working on some videos for it though, so you'll definitely see me there on some videos but, I will not be on site this year for Games Con. Hopefully I'll be back next year, but X-box will be there and Alisia Bongos is going to be co-hosting the show, he'll be holding down the fort without me.
Jeff Rubenstein: They're just not letting you back into Germany right?
Larry Hryb: Well it's you and I after that incident last year at the jellybean store in the train station.
Jeff Rubenstein: At the gummy bear store?
Larry Hryb: That's right, it was a gummy bear store.
Jeff Rubenstein: Apparently it is a hard limit, you can only have three samples. I went for sample number four, not going this year.
Larry Hryb: You were escorted out.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. They take it seriously.
Larry Hryb: Thrown out right there on the side of the dom so-
Jeff Rubenstein: Who is going to pick up gummy bears for me. Every year.
Larry Hryb: Who's my gummy bear mule.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly. One year I brought back 25 pounds worth of gummy bears and you know what? It was worth it.
Larry Hryb: My wife loves those grapefruit ones.
Jeff Rubenstein: They're so good. I'm a mango many myself.
Larry Hryb: What is it? The Bear.
Jeff Rubenstein: Bear and Company.
Larry Hryb: Bear and Company. Those are the ones that are just phenomenal so.
Jeff Rubenstein: You need to sort this out, who's going to be bringing them back of us, we've got to figure that part out.
Larry Hryb: All right, those are the news, so anyway, as I said we're not going to have a show for the rest of August, we'll be back when we come back for PAX West. We've got a special guest planned for PAX West. Can't tell you who it is but you'll find out soon, just follow me on Twitter, I'll tell you there. Do we have anything else? Otherwise I'm going to wrap the show up. This is a quickie because we wanted to take care of everybody and do a proper sign off before we head out for our holidays vacation.
Jeff Rubenstein: I suppose that's it.
Larry Hryb: It feels short.
Jeff Rubenstein: It does, talk more Larry that's what you do.
Larry Hryb: I don't want to just talk to talk.
Jeff Rubenstein: Really? Really Larry?
Larry Hryb: I don't. We'd love to see you at PAX West.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, we would.
Larry Hryb: We'll have our panel on that Saturday. I don't know if it's one, two or three. It's usually right in the middle of the afternoon. I don't know if that's good or bad, should we change?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I think it's good. You want people right after lunch, and they want to take a nap and you know what, we've got the perfect place for you.
Larry Hryb: It's cool.
Jeff Rubenstein: If we keep you awake it means we've done a good job.
Larry Hryb: It's quiet, we're not too loud, we're not too interesting.
Jeff Rubenstein: No. But it's like, instant feedback. We don't need to send a survey out later, it's like, oh they woke up.
Larry Hryb: Are you getting as fatigued by everything asking me about what I thought in surveys as I am?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, especially when you just get to the website and they immediately want to give you a survey. I'm like, "Well let me experience the site first please."
Larry Hryb: Everybody wants to know what I think and what's going on, and I'm like, I just want to-
Jeff Rubenstein: You're important Larry.
Larry Hryb: No, it's not me, I know it's everybody. There's this data paralysis, that everyone wants to get data. And I understand data is good to drive decisions, but come on. I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: What do you think about that fidgit spinner you're fiddling with?
Larry Hryb: Get off my blog.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: Okay there we go, I knew you were waiting.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was a little bit of a ... On one hand you're complaining about something from the internet and on the other had you have a fidget spinner.
Larry Hryb: This is Laura's fidgit spinner, I'm going to put it over there.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like eight year old Larry and 80 year old Larry are having a war.
Larry Hryb: Of which I'm neither. So they're struggling, it's an internal struggle.
Anyway, we'll be back with PAX, which is, what are the dates of PAX?
Jeff Rubenstein: I can look that up. I believe it's like, September first.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's always right at the beginning of September when everyone rolls in from out of town and the weather is really nice. Everyone's like, "Ooh, this is really nice in Seattle." It is, but it's usually the beginning of September right?
Jeff Rubenstein: September first through fourth. There's a lot going on in Seattle that week to so-
Larry Hryb: Is Bumper Shoot going on?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. And they've got a pretty good line up so, if you come, speaking from the city of Seattle, please come and bring your wallet because there's a lot to do that weekend. Bumper Shoot is the same weekend, which is like a big outdoor festival. It's kind of like panorama or lalapalooza or one of those things.
Larry Hryb: Come for the games, stay for the music. [crosstalk 00:30:17].
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm curious to see her live.
Larry Hryb: This segment brought to you buy the Seattle Chamber of Commerce.
Jeff Rubenstein: Gucci Maine will be performing. Spoon. Actually this is a really good line up. I'm going to link to the Bumper Shoot line up. If you want restaurant recommendations, I'm going to put together a whole thing for you. You've got to get out of downtown, you've got to go-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's always our PAX tip because everyone always gets plugged up within the block around. All you got to do is walk like, three blocks north, south, east or west and bam.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, there's a whole city here.
Larry Hryb: There's a whole city here. There's plenty of great places. There's the donuts.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh you've got to get the Top Pot Donuts.
Larry Hryb: You know, we haven't been to Red Mill since you've moved here.
Jeff Rubenstein: The burger place?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Actually there's another place we should try.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a lot of burgers. What?
Larry Hryb: First we talk about weather at the top of the show now we're talking about food at the bottom.
Jeff Rubenstein: We have become what we hate.
Larry Hryb: Yes. Get off my blog.
Jeff Rubenstein: Fidget spinners, tweeting about the weather. Why are you still listening.
Larry Hryb: What is wrong with me, what is wrong with us? All right, you can find Jeff Rubenstein on Twitter, and where do you find you Jeff?
Jeff Rubenstein: @JeffRubenstein, and it'll make it all about coffee.
Larry Hryb: And I can tell you this, if you get confused you can find me MajorNelson and Jeff is one of the six, that's right, six people that I follow. There's an explanation for every ... Should I still follow E, I don't know.
Jeff Rubenstein: You should still follow E. He would be heartbroken if you unfollowed him.
Larry Hryb: I know.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is he bothering you, or you just want to get that down to a five?
Larry Hryb: I just want to get it to a five, it has nothing to do personally.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like, one day you'll unfollow me, and it'll be devastating.
Larry Hryb: No, stop it.
Jeff Rubenstein: I will be inconsolable.
Larry Hryb: Like when I did it with Graham?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: And I put the GIF up showing me unfollowing, click.
Jeff Rubenstein: Because you accidentally followed him didn't you?
Larry Hryb: I don't remember what it was, we were doing something.
Jeff Rubenstein: You made his day, he was so excited, and you were like, oh that was a mistake.
Larry Hryb: All right, gang, I just realized I've tweeted 5,126 photos and videos.
Jeff Rubenstein: That seems like a lot.
Larry Hryb: That is, I'm sorry about that Twitter, wow, that's crazy.
Jeff Rubenstein: Taking up all that server space.
Larry Hryb: All right gang we'll talk to you, we'll see you at PAX. You can hit us up on Twitter, we'll of course be checking that when we're traveling and taking our annual leaves and doing our own thing. But thanks for hanging out with us, make sure to watch this week on X-box every Friday, as I said earlier, on your console. When I'm away, Jeff, you're going to fill in for me.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I'd be happy to do that.
Larry Hryb: If that's okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's okay with me. To those of you who have functioning vision and hearing that will have to see and hear me, I apologize in advance.
Larry Hryb: As we say in the business, we'll cover you with B-roll.
Jeff Rubenstein: Who's hosting? I don't know.
Larry Hryb: I don't know, it's a voice.
Jeff Rubenstein: Just a disembodied voice.
Larry Hryb: All right gang, we'll talk to everybody next time, and have a great August and we'll be back for PAX West. See you next time, bye bye everybody.
Jeff Rubenstein: See ya.