646: Welcome to 20/20
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Larry Hryb: Welcome to 2020, my name's Larry Hryb, Xbox's Major Nelson sitting her with Jeff Rubenstein. Hello Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: I thought you meant like that old news shows now. Is that still on? John Stossel that guy that says like "What would you do?"
Larry Hryb: Didn't you see that super cut of Barbara Walters doing "Welcome to 20/20." She did it for so many years, and they just cut them all together.
Jeff Rubenstein: We have to link together. You've got a real Hugh Downs sort of [inaudible 00:00:55]
Larry Hryb: Anyway, 20/20 was news magazine, I still don't know if it's on. Does anybody watch news magazines anymore?
Jeff Rubenstein: Friday night, you got nothing to going on.
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: That theme song was the "I don't have plans" this Friday night.
Larry Hryb: My wife or girlfriend's washing their hair, or boyfriend, who knows.
Jeff Rubenstein: Or I don't have one, was probably more...
Larry Hryb: We're here we made it past the holidays, Jeff. We've done it.
Jeff Rubenstein: We've made it to 100,000 gamer score.
Larry Hryb: Congratulations, I think you actually made it a little more than that haven't you?
Jeff Rubenstein: I've been playing a lot in the last [crosstalk 00:01:29]
Larry Hryb: Isn't it 100,001 or something.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I made it to exactly 100,000. We can talk about that later on.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Jeff Rubenstein: Because I found a really cool tool, but yeah it's been an exciting year already. We're only 10 days into the year.
Larry Hryb: Well, it's funny we're only 10 days into the year and you know, feels like I say this every year, but you and I are so up to our ears in, everybody is actually, in Xbox series X meetings, and getting ready, because we have a launch this year.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're feeling the energy, but this is the end of our first week back in the office, and maybe it's the six coffees I've had, or who knows, but I can barely even sit still.
Larry Hryb: It's exciting.
Jeff Rubenstein: It is.
Larry Hryb: This will be my third console launch.
Jeff Rubenstein: This will be my second.
Larry Hryb: It's your first, no your first, it's funny for somebody that started on the PlayStation you didn't launch the console.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I was media during the launch of first the 360, and then the next year the Wii, and the PS3. In that part of the industry I did get to experience those launches, and a number of handhelds like the DS.
Larry Hryb: You've actually launched more Xboxes than PlayStations.
Jeff Rubenstein: I guess if you don't factor in the Vita.
Larry Hryb: Fair point.
Jeff Rubenstein: Poor sweet Vita. I still have my Vita. I did get to launch that, had a good time with that, I got to introduce Quest [crosstalk 00:02:50]
Larry Hryb: You never sent me one of those.
Jeff Rubenstein: Didn't I?
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel bad.
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:02:57]
Jeff Rubenstein: They'll send you one. Persona 4, that was the way to play it. But yeah, I started here 10 days before the launch of Xbox One.
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, I don't think I can really take credit, because most of the hard work had been done at that point.
Larry Hryb: I will say this, is you did start 10 days before, and obviously all that work was in place before but you did get the achievement.
Jeff Rubenstein: I did get the day one achievement.
Larry Hryb: The launch team achievement.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, I did. This is very inside base but the whole podcast is inside baseball, but when we were talking about starting here, any time there's a job...
Larry Hryb: When I hired you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, when you hired me, but there's a job offer there's a little bit of negotiation that happens.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Jeff Rubenstein: When you offered me a job, because HR called, and did that. Like I was always going to take the job, but I was like, I got to push back on one thing, and that was "I'm seeing some employees talking about this white Xbox One, this launch Xbox One, I want that. If they give me that, I'll take the job." and they were like "Okay, cool." I wasn't negotiating on anything else. They called me back, and they're like they can't do it.
I was like "Okay, I'll still take the job." So, of course I was going to take the job. So, I take the job, and what ends up happening is, if you recall, the day before my first day of work you, and I went to dinner, we got a burger, and you said "I took care of it."
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: You called my bluff, and then you gave it to me, and I still have it.
Larry Hryb: I still mine, it's in the box. I have my, I don't know if I've ever told this story, since we are going inside baseball, I have my original Xbox 360 launch console, that I got when I launched that console. in the box still sealed.
Jeff Rubenstein: Nice.
Larry Hryb: I have the Xbox One, still in the box, sealed, and I'm going to do that same thing with the next console, with the Xbox series X.
Jeff Rubenstein: Keep it sealed.
Larry Hryb: I am.
Jeff Rubenstein: I used mine.
Larry Hryb: My wife keeps asking me "When are you going to get rid of these?" Never.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, why would you get rid it?
Larry Hryb: I don't know if people know this story. I see it once in a while, I'm sure you see it pop up on my social media, my at replies. The unboxing that I did, remember the unboxing we did, for the original Xbox. That is in a museum, it's like in a video game, I donated it to a video game museum in Texas.
Jeff Rubenstein: The console?
Larry Hryb: Yes, the console. So, I signed it, and sent it down. It's the actual console, I remember we had it sitting under my desk for a while. They're like "Do you have anything?" I'm like, "Yeah, here's a piece of history for you."
Jeff Rubenstein: What museum is this? We should go visit this.
Larry Hryb: It's in Texas, it's like the video game museum, that's all I remember. [crosstalk 00:05:37] Every once in a while I get a picture on social media from somebody who sees it, it's in the glass case, and it's the whole routine, so that's my...
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm looking up this museum right now. Frisco, Texas.
Larry Hryb: Yes, that's it.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's near Dallas, I believe. I think it's between the Dallas FC football team place, I hear you're a big fan.
Larry Hryb: History of Xbox. And speaking of history of Xbox, I'm going to call you out. You've never replied to that email I shared with you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh.
Larry Hryb: Which we can't really talk too much about. What it was is, I have in my inbox years, and years of history of Xbox and one of them was a very original note from, talking about before the Xbox launch, the original Xbox, talking about why we're doing it, and I thought you'd enjoy that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I read about half and I was like "I'm going to put it aside, I'll read it"...
Larry Hryb: It's a good read.
Jeff Rubenstein: My Internet's running slow. Anyway Frisco, Texas.
Larry Hryb: If you're in Frisco...
Jeff Rubenstein: If you're in Dallas, Fort Worth even.
Larry Hryb: Just roll on over.
Jeff Rubenstein: Just roll on over, [inaudible 00:06:40] museum.
Larry Hryb: I really want to go to that stadium, the Dallas stadium.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh the billion dollar stadium?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Here's the problem with that, when I've identified the issue, the Cowboys play there. So, I'm out.
Larry Hryb: @jeffrubenstein on Twitter, that's how you find him, Cowboys fans.
Jeff Rubenstein: Fly Eagles, fly, I mean we're all out of the play-offs, very out of the play-offs, so maybe, it doesn't matter so much, they have a new coach.
Larry Hryb: Let's talk about video games, shall we?
Jeff Rubenstein: We're all over the place today.
Larry Hryb: This is the men in sweatshirts podcast.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, I'm a big men in blazers fan.
Larry Hryb: I know you are. What's his name, Conrad, what's his name.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, Jimmy Conrad's not part of that.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: He's a former US Men's National team player, he's also a YouTuber, and a really good guy. Big gamer, big Xbox fan. We talk games all the time.
Larry Hryb: Good.
Jeff Rubenstein: Video game museum, I'm just trying to bring it up, Frisco. We'll link out to that in the show notes as we tend to do. The National Video Game Museum, and it has really good reviews.
Larry Hryb: How have we never been there?
Jeff Rubenstein: How have we never been there?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, we should donate the photos from when we went to see Ralph Bear.
Jeff Rubenstein: You didn't take anything off his coffee table?
Larry Hryb: Of course, I didn't.
Jeff Rubenstein: That house was filled with temptations.
Larry Hryb: That house was a museum itself.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know, and he was still soldering things.
Larry Hryb: Remember that whole workshop he had downstairs.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was amazing.
Larry Hryb: That was one of the greatest trips, if you're missing that, that's Ralph Bear. Jeff, and I had a chance to go visit Ralph Bear before he passed away. He's the inventor of basically Pong...
Jeff Rubenstein: Of video games.
Larry Hryb: Of video games.
Jeff Rubenstein: When it comes down to it.
Larry Hryb: Of playing games on a CRT, as we used to call them back in the day. Cathode Ray Tube.
Jeff Rubenstein: I didn't have one of those.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so anyway let's go into the, we're kind of in video game news. What do we got?
Jeff Rubenstein: Do we want to talk news, or do we want to talk what we played? We're coming back from a break, we were gone for three weeks, two weeks, whatever it was. For me it was tackling that back log season, and it worked out real well but I want to hear about you.
Larry Hryb: You know it's funny Outer Wilds has pulled me back in.
Jeff Rubenstein: I think that's funny, six months after it came out.
Larry Hryb: I played it, it's on Game Pass, let's be clear, this is like the Game Stop, Game Spot. This is Outer Wilds, not Outer Worlds.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which you beat.
Larry Hryb: Which I enjoyed, which is our good friends at Obsidian, but this is Outer Wilds which is [inaudible 00:08:54] game that is in Game Pass where you basically, you're in this mini solar system, and you have to solve the puzzles, and solve the mysteries, and you fly around.
Jeff Rubenstein: It showed up in a lot of game of the year talk.
Larry Hryb: A lot of people really enjoyed it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Some people thought it was the best game in the last five years.
Larry Hryb: It's funny, because that's what started that. I started seeing, and I'm like, "Oh yeah, that was really fun. I got to go back in there." So, I fired it up, and now I'm like, "What do I need to do, let me go read my log and what were those secrets I discovered and the rumors." So, I'm just kind of enjoying it.
Jeff Rubenstein: That can be intimidating to go back into a game that you haven't played in a while. I remember when I got back into The Witcher, after taking a bit of a break, and it was a good hour where I was fumbling around. Then it sort of clicked, so did that happen for you?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's exactly... it's funny because I was talking to my sister, my younger sister works in a school, and she says that going on a school break like for a holiday is like, if you're a teacher, it's kind of like pressing pause on a video game. Because you go to the bathroom, when you unpause it you forget how chaotic it is.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's why I like the ones that countdown. When you're playing Forza, when you unpause it, counts you down, a second or two.
Larry Hryb: To kind of catch your breath.
Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly, or at least take your foot off the gas so you don't plow into a wall.
Larry Hryb: So, Outer Wilds is really what my jam is, of course you, and I have been doing a little bit of Apex every night.
Jeff Rubenstein: Did you see what they announced this week?
Larry Hryb: Could you please go over it, because I retweeted it, but I don't think that does it justice.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, so there's been, I'll just go ahead, we can link out to it, but they are doing like mid season, we're still in like season three, and they've actually, I'm at like 84 in the battle pass. The gig is plenty of weeks to get everything done, I've got actually quite a bit done. We had some good matches, last night.
Larry Hryb: We had great matches, last night.
Jeff Rubenstein: Finally, got the Gibraltar air raid kill to take care of that one but...
Larry Hryb: Gibby.
Jeff Rubenstein: Gibby as we call them. I'm sure other people do that, maybe. But they had programmed the game for other things in between. So, there was some really cool stuff over the holidays that we had talked about. There's was loot train that would come through, and there were a couple of other interesting modes. Now, I almost feel like this in the best possible way, that this is like, let's test. Let's see what people are really into, right now.
Larry Hryb: So, what do we got. He's calling it up, that's Jeff typing.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's me.
Larry Hryb: He can't think and type at the...
Jeff Rubenstein: It's called the Grand Soiree, it's hosted by Pathfinder. I think we can all agree that, while Mirage thinks he's the funniest, Pathfinder's actually the funniest.
Larry Hryb: I love Pathfinder.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, what they're doing it starting on January 14th, there's seven different modes. They will each go for two days. Now, you can still play just the normal drop in on World's Edge if you want, and I'm sure you will. So, it's going to start off with Gold Rush Duos. So, first of all duos, they've only done a couple at a time throughout the almost one year, coming up on the one year anniversary. [crosstalk 00:11:57]
Larry Hryb: March, I believe, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: But gold weapons only. Sometimes you find these gold weapons, you find like a gold Eva 8...
Larry Hryb: That's all that's on the board.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:12:06] we're talking gold barrel stabilizers, and gold extended magazines, and all this stuff.
Larry Hryb: But none of the special drops like the Mastiff and the [inaudible 00:12:15] on the board, are they?
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, I don't honestly know. But you might not need those things, you've got like the fully kitted out...
Larry Hryb: If you're all blinged out.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, so those games I think are going to be like real quick with the two teams, and everyone having the great weapons. You're not going to come up on somebody who's rolling around with a Mozambique.
Larry Hryb: Mozambique, yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, insist on tagging that.
Larry Hryb: Just for you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Once again, yeah. It doesn't get old. Live Die Live, so this one, every time the ring closes as long as your team, at least one person on your team is still alive, you respawn in. So, the games going to go much longer, it'll be the complete opposite I think of [crosstalk 00:12:57]
Larry Hryb: I wonder where do you spawn in? Do you drop in?
Jeff Rubenstein: I would imagine, since you spawn on living squad mates, so I'm imagining something kind of like Battlefield, where...
Larry Hryb: Boink.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah come right in on there, or maybe you drop in kind of like on the respawn thing.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway, the company's called Respawn, I'm sure they'll figure it out.
Larry Hryb: They'll figure it out.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, that'll be couple of days later. Then a third person mode, this was interesting, because there were like some people that sort of teased out that there might be a third person mode. This is obvious if you've played PUBG, you played Fortnite, you're used to the third person, that's really one of the differentiating factors in Apex is that you play it in first person.
Larry Hryb: Not in this mode.
Jeff Rubenstein: This to me, this feels like a test, let's see how people like it. I don't even know, if nothing else I get to see the awesome skins that I have. Normally, you don't see them as much, everybody else sees them.
Larry Hryb: You do have some awesome skins.
Jeff Rubenstein: Out of everything, I think this one it the most interesting. Always Be Closing, it's not just a Glenn Ross reference. Yes, the ring constantly moves, the whole time. So, it's not like, it moves, and it stops and you readjust. So, from the time you spawn in...
Larry Hryb: I wonder how fast it is.
Jeff Rubenstein: I bet it's going to move pretty fast. So, you're going to constantly be moving, you know it kind of reminds me a little bit of escape mode maybe from Gears 5.
Larry Hryb: This thing's coming up behind you.
Jeff Rubenstein: Am I going to battle or am I... you know, I just got to keep going, I'm going to run past you. So, I think the ring will claim a significant amount of the population of a given map. There's a few other ones, Armed and Dangerous, which is shotguns and snipers, right out of Halo.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:14:26]
Jeff Rubenstein: Then Kings Canyon After Dark, so like my daughter for instance really misses Kings Canyon. We got to play a dark mode of Kings Canyon during Halloween if you recall.
Larry Hryb: That's right but it was a little different.
Jeff Rubenstein: In the Fight or Freight mode. This will be a standard mode, we haven't played Runoff, running our old, that'll be fun to play.
Larry Hryb: West Runoff as we call it. I called it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, anyway, a lot of the old reflexes will get to...
Larry Hryb: I wonder if it's going to be the same, because lighting that's one of the things everyone forgets, is that actually relighting a map like that requires a lot of work, it requires a lot of dev work, and design work. So, I'm wondering if it's the same level of darkness. Is it twilight? Is it mid morning?
Jeff Rubenstein: It'll be interesting to find out. What I do know is it does change the game. Especially coming off, because I've been playing World Edge for long times, the big sniper heavy map, because there's such long sight lines. Anyway, last one is called DUMMIE’s Big Day.
Larry Hryb: Especially up in that sniper's nest.
Jeff Rubenstein: What? Oh, yes, there's a couple of them, but yes. DUMMIE’s Big Day, that one they haven't really explained too much. It's the last one, I'm going to assume it's the most crazy one. So, who the heck knows, but I think that if these are popular, if certain ones are really popular, speak up talk to the team, and hopefully we'll get to see more of these. That's my assumption.
Larry Hryb: We know you're not shy, speak up.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: We know you're not shy, internet.
Jeff Rubenstein: We'll be speaking up. Then there'll be a lot of really cool skins, and the like because that's what they do.
Larry Hryb: Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll link out to a good, it was Polygon, had a really good write up on it.
Larry Hryb: Good.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, I'll link out to that.
Larry Hryb: To our good friends at Polygon. All right, what else we got for news? We talked a little bit about what I was playing which wasn't a lot over the holiday. What are you playing?
Jeff Rubenstein: I play a ton. This was my big backlog...
Larry Hryb: You said that, then I started talking, so I apologize.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sure, I had started Resident Evil 2, I actually went, and I finished it, I'm very proud of myself-
Larry Hryb: Scary.
Jeff Rubenstein: ...because it is incredibly scary. Definitely, you might have seen this on a lot of game of the year list. It landed on mine. Reinvented the game, kept what worked, improved on everything else, they took a game that's 20 years old, and made it really cool and modern.
Larry Hryb: Made it less old.
Jeff Rubenstein: Even if Mr. X still scares the pants off of me. Afterparty, it was a game we had talked about for a long time, our good friends at Night School. So, I got to play through that. Drank my way out of hell. This is one of those admissions, and maybe I'm excused, because this game came out in 2009, I didn't work here. I never played Halo: Reach.
Larry Hryb: There's nothing wrong with that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Especially, since I've now rectified that.
Larry Hryb: You were busy I believe with some security issues at that point.
Jeff Rubenstein: I cannot confirm nor deny. Actually that story at 11. So, the Halo: The Master Chief Collection came out on PC, I was traveling, actually brought my gaming laptop down. I was visiting family in California, and I played Reach. Basically, I sat down, and like I ended up playing darn near all night, and then picked it up first thing in the morning.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:17:23] have fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: It is a great campaign, it is really really good. Looked fantastic on my PC, it did not look like a game that was 10 years old. So, I was playing that on Windows 10.
Larry Hryb: It feels like Halo, because it is Halo.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was great, it was almost like a greatest hits of Halo. You know what it kind of reminded me a little bit with the, you know, the benefit of hindsight, it kind of felt a little bit like the arcade game. Because the best part about the arcade game, if you've gone to a Dave and Busters and you've played Halo: Operation, help me out. Every couple of minutes you're getting something else to feel powerful, and awesome and then you get to go to the...
Larry Hryb: Keeps you going.
Jeff Rubenstein: Here's a sniper rifle.
Larry Hryb: It keeps tapping that vein.
Jeff Rubenstein: Here's a missile launcher with unlimited shots, and all this stuff. So, you get to do a lot. The story really resonated with me, it was really fun. I loved it. So, at that point, I finished that. I was just about to hit 100,000 gamer score. I was, let me tell you, Larry, 17 points short.
Larry Hryb: Inches. That's fourth in inches.
Jeff Rubenstein: Right, it's fourth in inches...
Larry Hryb: And millimeters.
Jeff Rubenstein: Most of the time you punch it in. I didn't want to punch it in all the way.
Larry Hryb: No you wanted to...
Jeff Rubenstein: I wanted to just cross the goal line, I wanted to break the plan and hit exactly 100,000. Where am I going to find 17 gamer score?
Larry Hryb: Where, where?
Jeff Rubenstein: As it turns out...
Larry Hryb: You went to the internet and you asked them
Jeff Rubenstein: I did. Ashen. Ashen was game that came out in December 2018 to Xbox Game Pass at the time. From New Zealand, don't see a lot of games from New Zealand. This was a great one, it was sort of a Souls like, almost all of the achievements are 17 points. 17 gamer score.
Larry Hryb: Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Weirdly. So, I loaded that game back up.
Larry Hryb: How long did it take to get one.
Jeff Rubenstein: About two minutes, I went outside to the spawn village, I killed a rabbit. Why would I ever kill a rabbit?
Larry Hryb: To get 17 gamer score.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, I never did before. But now I had incentive, and I'm sorry rabbit, but your 17 points were delicious. Hit exactly 100,000 gamer score.
Larry Hryb: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Jeff Rubenstein: We'll keep it on the animal side, Untitled Goose Game.
Larry Hryb: I did finish that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Good, what did you think?
Larry Hryb: It is what it is. It was just a lot of fun. It's in Game Pass, you should download it. I mean, I think I finished it in three or four hours.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, very clever though.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, very clever, very manageable, it's great to be an angry goose.
Jeff Rubenstein: Perfect for Xbox Game Pass, it's something where, it's there, so you should try it. That's what I tried it. People had been talking about it, and they're really good about that. So, I did, and it was great. Then the last game, actually, it's what I've been playing now, showed up on the top of a lot game of the year list, Control.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you've been pimping this out.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sure, now I know why it's there. This is a fantastic game, I mean this game is, I guess I would just sort of categorize it, it's almost like Stranger Things in a way. If you were Eleven, and Eleven was grown up.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: And had a really cool gun that can turn into things.
Larry Hryb: What do you think of the story?
Jeff Rubenstein: So, this is one of those games that has, I've already gotten the achievement for 120 collectables, most of them are things you can read or watch. I'm reading every single on of them. They take the form...
Larry Hryb: That's not your style.
Jeff Rubenstein: The lore is awesome.
Larry Hryb: Deep. It's deep.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's really interesting. I'm not exactly sure, where it's going to end up, or where it's going. I would say I'm probably two thirds to three quarters of the way through the game.
Larry Hryb: You going to finish it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Absolutely, I'm going to finish it, I might finish it tonight. But Control, you owe it to yourself to check it out. It's Remedy, we know what they can do.
Larry Hryb: Sam, and the gang at Remedy.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is probably their best game.
Larry Hryb: Good.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm not even, of course it is.
Larry Hryb: It's not in Game Pass, so you're going to have to pick that up on your own.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well worth it. It's game that has a lot to it, even though it's a quote, unquote "linear story game", there's side missions. I feel like when I beat the game, I've talked to a few people who have, I'm going to want to go back, and I'm going to 1K this, because there's a lot of other things I can do. But the story, I'm sucking up every little bit of lore in this game.
Larry Hryb: Good.
Jeff Rubenstein: And you should, it's good.
Larry Hryb: Good.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm saying this because I want you, I'm looking at you.
Larry Hryb: I'm playing it, I started it the other night, and I was like, "Jeff's been talking about it." I got back into it I was playing, and was like "Oh yeah, this is fun." But I really want to go to Outer Wilds. I wanted to sit in a space ship I wanted to land, I want to...
Jeff Rubenstein: Do it. Finish that game get it out of your system, then full undivided attention.
Larry Hryb: Because of Control. Before we get into the releases later this year.
Jeff Rubenstein: I know, do we want to even talk about that. I was just looking through. What are we excited about?
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:21:41] a few, we got our Ori coming.
Jeff Rubenstein: We have Ori. Yep, which is going to be coming on March 11th.
Larry Hryb: To Game Pass as well.
Jeff Rubenstein: Of course then a couple of weeks later, just a couple of weeks later, we're going to be looking at Bleeding Edge.
Larry Hryb: Yep, game [inaudible 00:21:55] to Game Pass.
Jeff Rubenstein: Actually before that, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. So, this is an RPG from our friends at Obsidian. The original Pillars of Eternity is available on Xbox Game Pass for both PC, and for console. I actually downloaded on PC, I've been checking it out. This is like a true RPG from character building, to what kind of choices you make, and how people interact like this is, it's deep. So, I'm getting into the, I think I'm going to be playing it for a while, but then Deadfire, which is adapted for consoles is coming out. That's coming out at the end of this month as well.
Then we're going to get, what else, have we talked about this yet, Minecraft: Dungeons. It's coming out, we said April is the date for that. Gears Tactics is coming out this spring. Then Wasteland 3 is coming out. Of course Cyberpunk 2077 is coming out this spring. So, very exciting times coming up. So, if you've got something you haven't up this is the time to do it. Because those games I just mentioned, most of them, Ori, and Wasteland, and Gears Tactics, and Minecraft: Dungeons, Bleeding Edge, they're all coming into Game Pass.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:23:01]
Jeff Rubenstein: So, if you've got Game Pass, you've already got this games, they're already on your list.
Larry Hryb: So, we're basically telling you what you're going to be playing.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm saying, plan your time accordingly because they're going to be coming thick and fast.
Larry Hryb: Budget, please.
Jeff Rubenstein: Budget your time.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, budget your time.
Jeff Rubenstein: We've got the budget taken care of, Game Pass.
Larry Hryb: Look there's only one thing you can't get more of in life, you know what that is Jeff? Time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Time.
Larry Hryb: You can't get more time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Nope, I've tried. Lot of people spending time, in Sea of Thieves, 10 million players.
Larry Hryb: Wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Rare declared this week.
Larry Hryb: I went into it over the holiday. I fired up my gaming PC, and went in, it was just like get my holiday stuff, and my marmoset-
Jeff Rubenstein: Every time you go back there's probably something new.
Larry Hryb: ... and parrot. Yeah, plus it's fun to sail around, and be a pirate.
Jeff Rubenstein: They definitely nailed that. Talking about game pass, few new games that were announced this week. Frostpunk, is one of them, both for console, and for PC, I've heard good things about that sort of a strategy city builder situation in an apocalyptic future, and then Faster Than Life on PC. I don't know, did you ever play FTL?
Larry Hryb: I don't believe so. No, I don't think.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's kind of a fun game where you're not going to beat it the first time you play it. Where it's kind of like if you put yourself in the mind of like a Star Trek captain, and it's like everything goes wrong.
Larry Hryb: Engage.
Jeff Rubenstein: A random series of things are going to happen, you might run into this type of alien or your might, you know, loose your engine, or whatever and you try to... it's a lot of fun. And again, it's something that you just try out through Game Pass for PC. Might click with you as it did with me. It might not, but it's there. Also on console, on Xbox console Tekken 7, and Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, which you have told me looks like something I'd be into.
Larry Hryb: Yeah. You want to hear something depressing.
Jeff Rubenstein: No.
Larry Hryb: I just happened, this is...
Jeff Rubenstein: Your going to tell me.
Larry Hryb: I saw this in the news earlier this week, can I read you the headline.
Jeff Rubenstein: Let me see "Florida Man dot dot dot."
Larry Hryb: Nope, nope, nope. Let me ask you this question. What were you doing at 17?
Jeff Rubenstein: I was in high school, I was a DJ.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: I was not making any sports teams, but I was playing city basketball.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Not anything as good as whatever you're about to tell someone is doing at 17.
Larry Hryb: When I was 17, I had my own hot dog wagon, we talked about that.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's always money in the hot dog stand, Larry.
Larry Hryb: This is the headline, "New York Teen Discovers New Planet While Interning with NASA." He's 17 years old.
Jeff Rubenstein: Something related to like Laura...
Larry Hryb: Wolf Cukier, 17, an intern at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenville, Maryland last July, was tasked with going through data on star brightness, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. He observed a slight darkness in the system sun, turns out, the darkness was a planet 6.9 times larger than Earth.
Jeff Rubenstein: He should get to keep it.
Larry Hryb: He should get to name it, I mean his name is Wolf.
Jeff Rubenstein: If you want your kid to be successful at 17-
Larry Hryb: Name him Wolf.
Jeff Rubenstein: ... name him Wolf. The only other Wolf I can think of is Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things, really bringing it full circle.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, I saw this in one of my feeds, and I tagged it here, I wanted to bring it up because I was like, "Yeah, good for you, Wolf."
Jeff Rubenstein: What I need to do is go home, and show this to my kid, and be like, "You have seven years to discover a planet, and it better be 6.91 times the size of Earth."
Larry Hryb: I'm just saying, hey he had to be excited to get an internship at NASA, and now he's actually found a planet.
Jeff Rubenstein: I feel like I was playing a lot of Sega Genesis at that age.
Larry Hryb: Yep.
Jeff Rubenstein: Sure was.
Larry Hryb: Sure was.
Jeff Rubenstein: Pretty good at Street Fighter.
Larry Hryb: Florida.
Jeff Rubenstein: My big accomplishment is I think I had a 20 game win streak on Mortal Kombat 2 in the arcade. That was my planet. That was 6.9 farther than my previous biggest streak.
Larry Hryb: That was your discovery. Oh well.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is why we're, we're doing okay.
Larry Hryb: I don't know what...
Jeff Rubenstein: Just imagine we're going to be working for Wolf in 10 years.
Larry Hryb: In a few years. Anyway, let's get back to gaming, I'm sorry I saw that, and I meant to bring it up, because it was something.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, it's good. We're definitely going full morning show. I feel like. I've got the coffee.
Larry Hryb: I got to say, first of all, shout out to my good friends in Australia. I hope you're doing well, I know you guys are having some challenges down there with the fires.
Jeff Rubenstein: We do, wish you well.
Larry Hryb: Not much we can do except say we're thinking about you, so.
Jeff Rubenstein: Best thing we can do here is plant trees. Sucks up the carbon.
Larry Hryb: That's right. That's right. Do you have trees planted?
Jeff Rubenstein: Actually...
Larry Hryb: You live in a city, there's no trees, you got to come out, and live where I am, where's there's lots of trees.
Jeff Rubenstein: But if I come out there they'll have to cut down trees to make room for me. So, I'm better off in the city. With my patch of yard that's literally the size of this table.
Larry Hryb: I'm going to give you a corner of the garage.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's probably bigger than what I currently have. You don't have rats do you?
Larry Hryb: No.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm not a big fan of rats. They get in, they get in. Anyways, actually one of our coworkers, I was like, he lives out...
Larry Hryb: This is not Plague's Tale.
Jeff Rubenstein: Plague's Tale, now that's a game. They have bears out there. I'm like how do you live? Every time I heard a noise outside I would think it was a bear coming for me. I don't have to worry about that.
Larry Hryb: Other things are coming for you in the city.
Jeff Rubenstein: But not bears.
Larry Hryb: But not bears.
Jeff Rubenstein: Nothing with like big giant claws.
Larry Hryb: I had a bear in my neighborhood, last summer, remember?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Remember it was a little baby bear, it went up a tree and they tranqed it, and it dropped down on this little tarp and they took it away.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh it was on a tarp.
Larry Hryb: No, they took care of it.
Jeff Rubenstein: You don't want it to land on someone's [inaudible 00:28:42]
Larry Hryb: It was right next to a school too, fortunately the school was no in session.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's why they had to get...
Larry Hryb: It was out of session.
Jeff Rubenstein: The bear tried to register.
Larry Hryb: We're talking about games.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, Kentucky Route Zero, have you ever heard these three words slapped together before.
Larry Hryb: Say it again.
Jeff Rubenstein: Kentucky Route Zero.
Larry Hryb: Is that a bourbon?
Jeff Rubenstein: Might be. Sounds like actually a pretty good one. So, this is a game that has been an episodic game, it's been out only on PC. They're finally wrapping up the episodic into it's full game, and releasing it on Xbox One. So, if you've heard those terms, and you didn't think it was a bourbon, but even if you did, this has been sort of a critical darling. It's actually been going on for quite a few years. So, they're putting it all together from start to finish, Kentucky Route Zero TV Edition, hitting Xbox One on January 28th.
Larry Hryb: All right.
Jeff Rubenstein: I just wanted to make sure you knew that. We found a little write up on what to expect, because this games been being built for years.
Larry Hryb: Are we going to link to that?
Jeff Rubenstein: Of course we're going to link to that.
Larry Hryb: I will if you send it to me.
Jeff Rubenstein: I've got all the things here, we'll put it on the thing afterwards. Paladins, Paladins Season 3 is beginning with a new champion release-
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:29:50] the characters, and community battle pass. And so, again it's a free to play game, Paladins has been going pretty strong. Hi-Rez games.
Larry Hryb: They're down in Atlanta aren't they, if I remember correctly.
Jeff Rubenstein: If only we had someway to look that up.
Larry Hryb: If only all the knowledge of the world was in my pocket.
Jeff Rubenstein: If only. If you've listen to This Week on Xbox this week, you might have heard a familiar voice.
Larry Hryb: Yes. It was you.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was me.
Larry Hryb: It was you.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was one of the two of us. One of them is the two of us. I got to learn how to pronounce Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Kakarot, Kakarot...
Larry Hryb: You can't even pronounce it, you told me you learned, you did not learn.
Jeff Rubenstein: Edit in the correct way.
Larry Hryb: I'm going to leave it as is.
Jeff Rubenstein: Mental note. It's Kakarot. Did have to look that up. Anyway, so DBZ games, these games always look really cool. They're from Bandai-Namco, that game comes out next week, and that is the biggest release next week, but there's a number of indie games. Sort of rereleases like Sherlock Homes: Crimes and Punishment Redux, Redo, how do you pronounce that?
Larry Hryb: Redux, sometimes, Redo, again.
Jeff Rubenstein: The Surge 2 has an update coming out, there's a game called Hovership Havoc and Farout, but the big game, yes, Dragonball Z: Kakarot.
Larry Hryb: Watch this week on Xbox.
Jeff Rubenstein: Watch this week on Xbox.
Larry Hryb: You can see it on your console, you can see it on YouTube.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is a big time of year, a lot of the big games have come out, the AAA major publisher games. Indie game that caught my eye this week, did you ever play Dragon Warrior back in the day? Later renamed Dragon Quest?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was baby's first RPG. This game Dragon Sinker: Descendants of Legends looks like if definitely inspired by those types of games, those 8-bit RPGs. It is an Xbox Play Anywhere game from Kemco. It looks like it will actually play like on a work PC, you don't have to have an RTX 2080.
Larry Hryb: We're not recommending you play it on your work PC but if you wanted to, it could. We don't endorse that.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm going to give it a shot, of course it plays on your Xbox One as well, but it's Xbox Play Anyway, you can pass it back and forth. So, I'll link out to that because it looks good. Also noticed a game called Coffee Talk. What does that remind you of?
Larry Hryb: Coffee Talk.
Jeff Rubenstein: With Linda Richmond.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:32:05] I'm verklempt.
Jeff Rubenstein: Perfect.
Larry Hryb: It's an old SNL bit.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't think that has anything to do with the game. But there's a game called Coffee Talk coming out. You can predownload it. Comes out [crosstalk 00:32:15]
Larry Hryb: What's it about, Jeffery, what's it about?
Jeff Rubenstein: Coffee talk is a coffee brewing, and heart to heart talking simulator. I've gone full Boston here, about listening to fantasy inspired modern people's problems, and helping them by serving up warm drink or two.
Larry Hryb: Oh, could you just.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're having a conversation, if you didn't have this job, what would you be doing. Probably something very much like this, I'd be running a coffee shop, or hot dog cart, you'd be doing it.
Larry Hryb: I've done that.
Jeff Rubenstein: You have a lot more experience, you'd run me out of the hot dog cart game in a minute. Which I think Costco's probably done in all the... it's $1.50.
Larry Hryb: With a drink. You can't top it, at Costco.
Jeff Rubenstein: But coffee, we'll do that one. So, Coffee Talk coming out next week.
Larry Hryb: Coffee Talk.
Jeff Rubenstein: I guarantee you haven't played a game like that.
Larry Hryb: You love your coffee, and you love your Coffee Talk.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's literally what we're doing, right now. I'm drinking coffee, and we're talking.
Larry Hryb: Right, or as we say kibitz, we're kibitzing.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're a big fan of that. I mean every time you can throw some Yiddish at me, my mom gives the thumbs up.
Larry Hryb: Oh really.
Jeff Rubenstein: Wherever she's at.
Larry Hryb: Because you don't throw it at me?
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't want to play into stereotypes, Larry.
Larry Hryb: I don't either but it's one of...
Jeff Rubenstein: You have thrown out two Yiddish words in the last like 30 seconds, verklempt ...
Larry Hryb: One of the many things I learned at Syracuse was Yiddish.
Jeff Rubenstein: Very good. My family would be proud.
Larry Hryb: Any who...
Jeff Rubenstein: That's why they like you.
Larry Hryb: Wow, this is, we're... help, help, please send help.
Jeff Rubenstein: Last thing to talk about, the last thing. This is where I'm actually going to ask you for advice.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know what happened this week? You might have paid attention, a lot of stuff happened this week, positive thing, CES, the Consumer Electronics Show.
Larry Hryb: Our friend Laura's there.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.
Larry Hryb: She's been texting me, and tweeting at me.
Jeff Rubenstein: You were giving her advice.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's like the biggest show you've ever seen. Certainly, the biggest show I've ever seen, and I've been to Gamescom.
Larry Hryb: I know, that I've gone to many, you've gone to many, and if you haven't been to CES, it is the biggest show by far that I've ever been to, and I've been to a lot of shows. It is just enormous.
Jeff Rubenstein: So, lot of cool looking TVs, that's what you'd kind of expect, the thing that's really ramped up in the last few years that gets me excited, is this is where you start to see innovation in gaming PCs, and laptops that'll be coming out later in the year. This is where I almost start making my Christmas list, my Hanukkah list, this week, this first week in January, and the thing I've got my eyes on...
Larry Hryb: What's on it?
Jeff Rubenstein: This Asus Republic of Gamers, ROG, ROG, The Zephyrus G14. First of all they make really good PCs, I've had an ASUS ROG in the past, treated me real good, the ventilation was phenomenal, thing was quiet as hell even when I was just running stuff at the highest possible resolution that it could crank out, but it has, and I'm going to show this to you.
Larry Hryb: I'm looking at it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Has like an LED display on the back that you can program.
Larry Hryb: Interesting.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which I think is really, it looks really...
Larry Hryb: So, it almost looks like an old school dot matrix, so you can program it on the back.
Jeff Rubenstein: You can program it, I think you can animate it, and you can customize it, and you can sort of make, you know, every computer you get, it just has whatever's on the back, you don't have a choice in that...
Larry Hryb: But people put stickers on it yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Right, but this you get to program it, and I think that just seems like a really fun... I feel like for the last few years, colored keyboards and chroma, Razer's done a good job, a lot of MSI, and a lot of these companies have that now. I feel like maybe the back of the computer, the back of the monitors the new...
Larry Hryb: The new frontier?
Jeff Rubenstein: The new frontier, and if this is the start, I'm excited.
Larry Hryb: All I know is that if I have that, and you and I were in a meeting, I would be sending you messages left, and right.
Jeff Rubenstein: How funny would that be?
Larry Hryb: Wrap it up, I'm bored, let's go.
Jeff Rubenstein: That's amazing.
Larry Hryb: Z Z Z Z
Jeff Rubenstein: I need to get this computer, now. You know it's got power, it's got a number of different RTX...
Larry Hryb: But you know what it doesn't have?
Jeff Rubenstein: What?
Larry Hryb: It doesn't have a web cam. How do you not have a web cam?
Jeff Rubenstein: How do you know?
Larry Hryb: I was looking at the specs on it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh. Whatever. Who needs a webcam when I could tell you what I'm thinking.
Larry Hryb: Exactly.
Jeff Rubenstein: You don't need to see me you just need to see what I'm thinking.
Larry Hryb: That's fun.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'll link out to that. Windows Blog, our friends over at the Windows Blog team they actually have a write up on that a number of other...
Larry Hryb: 1440 screen look at that, wow.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah 120 hertz refresh rate. So, anyway and it also looks like it's, it's got ten hours of battery life. You don't see that on a gaming PC all that often.
Larry Hryb: Yes, so our friend Laura was down there, I sent her over to the TOTO booth because I'm big a big fan of wash [inaudible 00:36:44] bidets, you know. I need to start my bidet podcast.
Jeff Rubenstein: Can I at least guest on it?
Larry Hryb: Of course you can.
Jeff Rubenstein: We don't want it to be the same one. There needs to be someone else on there but I [crosstalk 00:36:56]
Larry Hryb: We need a name for that.
Jeff Rubenstein: Flushing with Major Nelson.
Larry Hryb: Tushy Talk.
Jeff Rubenstein: Tushy Talk. That's the one, you got it.
Larry Hryb: So, anyway CES happened this week in Vegas, and you know, looks like it was a lot of fun, I'm glad I didn't have to go this year because I just...
Jeff Rubenstein: This is where our good friends in media, YouTube, and creators get to do all of that.
Larry Hryb: The way I describe it is, when you're at CES, as when you're in a lot of these shows, especially CES, the coolest thing in the world could be right across the aisle from where you are, or 20 feet, and you'd never know it. You'd get back to your room at night, and you'd be flipping through The Verge or Engadget, and "Oh, I didn't know that was there. Oh, I didn't know that..." There's just so much. The volume is just... it's incredible.
Jeff Rubenstein: Also I they usually have a fine selection of toasters.
Larry Hryb: They do.
Jeff Rubenstein: One time when I went. I noticed one booth over from where we were, like sort of behind was a whole booth of just Hello Kitty branded consumer electronics.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Lo and behold...
Larry Hryb: There it was. Did you get Kitty toaster so it puts Kitty on the side?
Jeff Rubenstein: We do have a Hello Kitty Toaster.
Larry Hryb: I know you do.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. That was a loaded question.
Larry Hryb: I just said it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Actually we gave it away in this year's white elephant.
Larry Hryb: Right, did you tell your daughter?
Jeff Rubenstein: She has no idea.
Larry Hryb: That's what I figured.
Jeff Rubenstein: She doesn't listen to this podcast.
Larry Hryb: Good.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which is for the best.
Larry Hryb: It's all for the best. Anyway, anything else because we're going to wrap it up because I know you've got...
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I think we're good. I got to get home, and teach my kid how to find a planet.
Larry Hryb: And look for the toaster.
Jeff Rubenstein: And not look for the toaster. The distractions gone on for like two months now.
Larry Hryb: All right, we'll talk to you guys later. Now later this month, this January, I'm going to billboard, as we say in the business, I'm going to billboard our next guest, I have Mr. Matt Booty coming on the show later this month. Head of Xbox game studios.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm sure he'll have interesting things to say.
Larry Hryb: I've never had him on the show.
Jeff Rubenstein: How is that possible?
Larry Hryb: I don't know, but I've never had him on the show. So, I've been working for two months to right this wrong, and we're going to...
Jeff Rubenstein: And talk him into it.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: You want to be part of this crap?
Larry Hryb: I think what he heard, he heard the live show we had Phil on.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: I said, "Hey I've had Phil on a couple times a year, and you've never been on once." Phil's always lovely to come on, so. All right, gang. If you need to follow us on Twitter you can find Jeff Rubenstein at...
Jeff Rubenstein: jeffrubenstein
Larry Hryb: Send the complaints over that way as well. As well you can find me @majornelson, the blog is majornelson.com is where you get some news and sale information, news.xbox.com for more Xbox, Xbox Wire for more information, and there you go. All right we'll see you guys online, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Will we.
Larry Hryb: We'll see you in World's End?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh we'll be playing games.
Larry Hryb: Yeah playing games of course.
Jeff Rubenstein: Gamer tag Rubes, and Major Nelson obviously.
Larry Hryb: Obviously. All right we'll talk to you guys next time. Bye-bye everybody.
Jeff Rubenstein: Thank you.