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Larry Hyrb:
Hi, it's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. Welcome to the video podcast. Here's Jeff. Hi, Jeff.
Jeff:
Hi. How are you doing? Good to see you.
Larry Hyrb:
It's good to see you. You and I haven't seen each other in a while. We haven't seen the folks... We didn't do a show last week. It was a holiday here in the United States, Independence Day, July 4th. And so we respectively took the days off.
Jeff:
I thought we were taking the day off for Canada Day because that's July 1st.
Larry Hyrb:
Well, we could do that too, but...
Jeff:
We're close enough to Canada.
Larry Hyrb:
Hey look, we're not Grand Boyd. We don't take every holiday off.
Jeff:
No, no annual leave here.
Larry Hyrb:
But anyway, we're great to be back. We've got a little quick show for you today. I got to tell you, we're going to talk about this later in the show. I'm really excited about some of the interviews I have lined up and we'll talk about that later in the show.
Jeff:
I want to hear it.
Larry Hyrb:
I don't. Okay. You know what we did get props for, Jeff, was apparently not saying all the standard YouTube nonsense at the top of the show, the like and the subscribe. I'm not talking about VPN sponsored by or any of that crap. It's just, hey, it's just us. You're here to get... It's like YouTube circa 2007 or '08.
Jeff:
Exactly. We're going way back before anyone liked or subscrobe... Subscrobe? Subscrobe. Look it up.
Larry Hyrb:
Do you know the first video that was on YouTube?
Jeff:
I knew this at one point.
Larry Hyrb:
It was a trip to the zoo.
Jeff:
I think we looked this up. I had seen this. It was very compelling. Do you ever go back and look at your earliest tweet?
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah.
Jeff:
They're usually highly unimpressive. I think I said something to the effect of, I don't know why I'm on this. Nobody cares what I had for lunch. Something like that. I'd signed up because for research or something.
Larry Hyrb:
I think I just did the standard computer hello world. I think it was a very similar thing. And here we are millions of tweets later.
Jeff:
Or you want to play a game, some more games. Yeah.
Larry Hyrb:
Would you like to play a game? Anyway, so speaking of games, we've been playing a lot of... It seems like every week we're talking about playing Apex. They had an update recently where... Did we talk about it yet? I don't know if we talked about it yet.
Jeff:
They're having a resurgence. Yeah. I think we might've talked about it. It's been going on for a few weeks, but season five has been really good to the community. It's been really good for me. We got our ninth and 30th wins this season. I'm not a good... I'm okay. But there's just something that's clicked with [crosstalk 00:02:23].
Larry Hyrb:
You're underestimating yourself.
Jeff:
Fair enough.
Larry Hyrb:
You're very strategic.
Jeff:
What I think is I think they got their matchmaking down there. Skill-based matchmaking, I think they've really got it down well. I'm playing with relatively equally skilled people. And so we find a lot of success. It's really fun. Well, maybe the matchmaking isn't. And they're matching me with people that have played for the first time. Either way, I'll take it.
Larry Hyrb:
Are you playing on your Smurf account?
Jeff:
No, I'm not good enough to have a Smurf account. My Smurf account would be potentially better than my real account.
Larry Hyrb:
That's true. Yeah. So we've been playing that. You can see it behind me actually up there on the dashboard. What do you have up in the back there?
Jeff:
So in the back there, and let me just slightly turn it so you can see it, is... Well that's Watchdogs Two.
Larry Hyrb:
Right.
Jeff:
But I put that up there because yesterday I got to play Watchdogs Legion. Now it's embargoed, but a lot of people are talking about it.
Larry Hyrb:
Did you break Embargo by saying you played it?
Jeff:
I did not. They specifically said I can talk about that I played it. And I did. I can play it for-
Larry Hyrb:
How come I didn't get to play it? Thanks. [inaudible 00:03:31].
Jeff:
Are you going to write an article for X-Box Wire that's going to run this Sunday?
Larry Hyrb:
I would interview the folks for the show.
Jeff:
Well, anyways, why don't we do that? Actually, we should definitely do that. So Ubisoft, I think it's called Ubisoft Forward, which is a show that's coming up on Sunday that they're putting on. It's going to be live streamed. They're going to be talking about a lot of stuff, including presumably Watchdogs Legion. And at that point we're going to have my experience on that blog post going up on Xbox Wire. We should have a video as well. And same thing with Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Will Tuttle, my counterpart, the editor in chief of X-Box Wire, got to play several hours of Valhalla. And it was funny. He was play by playing me and-
Larry Hyrb:
We talked about this last time because you had a chance to play Cyberpunk. How did you do it this time? Because it's always interesting to see how we're solving this [inaudible 00:04:18].
Jeff:
Yeah. No, it was really cool. They used a specific tool. I don't think we're supposed to talk about it, the nuts and bolts, but anyway-
Larry Hyrb:
But what was the experience like?
Jeff:
We were streaming so essentially they were like, click here, click here. And then you were playing essentially off of a server somewhere. While there's always some amount of latency when you're playing over the Cloud it was more than acceptable, I would say. We played normally-
Larry Hyrb:
Were they using xCloud? Can you say?
Jeff:
I don't believe they were and I don't believe I can.
Larry Hyrb:
Who knows?
Jeff:
Who knows? But what I would say is I was able to do what I need to do, lineup headshots and all that stuff. I would imagine that if it felt good over the Cloud, imagine how snappy it be when playing at home when the game comes out. So anyway, Watchdogs Legion takes place in London. I really can't say too much more about it other than I'm excited to bundle up my written impressions. As you know, big London fan, Larry, I go there all the time so I was like this is sexy.
Larry Hyrb:
Not anymore. Not anymore, mister.
Jeff:
Yeah, I miss it.
Larry Hyrb:
I do, too.
Jeff:
Games are how we travel now. Yakuza has made me realize how much I miss Japan. I was hoping that I would be able to go to Tokyo game show or something this year. The world has other things in mind for us. But being able to experience these places through video games is something really... It's what we have right now and I'll take it.
Larry Hyrb:
Can you tell us, in this game slice or this demo that you played, what part of London were you in and did it feel like the parts we'd been in?
Jeff:
Again, I'm not sure what I can talk about, but I will say-
Larry Hyrb:
Don't forget it. [crosstalk 00:05:58].
Jeff:
There were no limits on this. I was just like, this is what I want to do. I'm going to check this out. I know this part of London. Let me go check it out. The rest of it I will leave it for the article.
Larry Hyrb:
Did you go to the place where we went after-
Jeff:
I don't want anyone getting mad at me.
Larry Hyrb:
I was going to say, I'm just wondering. I'm going to have to read the article because I want to know if you went where we went after XL. We had to go on a specific shopping trip for your wife, if you remember correctly.
Jeff:
I may have been in that neighborhood. Yes.
Larry Hyrb:
Okay. Anyway, so that'll be the this Sunday?
Jeff:
That'll be the Sunday. Look for that on news.xbox.com.
Larry Hyrb:
And I will make sure I will tweet that out as well.
Jeff:
Well, thank you.
Larry Hyrb:
Of course, the broader Ubisoft event is coming up this Sunday as well.
Jeff:
Exactly, it'll be a fun watch I think.
Larry Hyrb:
So that's why you have Watchdogs up there and I don't know...
Jeff:
That's why I bought it. Yeah. So now I'm like, you know what, let me jump back. I played a ton of Watchdogs too. I'm actually looking back. I got 900 gamer score on that game. I played the heck out of it. It took place in San Francisco. And so I love doing the same thing, which is saying, hey, I used to live here. I want to go to my house or I'm going to check out Delores Park or something, which actually was near where your base was if I recall correctly. It's always fun to... Just like when we played The Division, we know New York pretty well to be able to see things in New York, it brings you there. It's more and more games are... The fidelity just allows for them to pass the appeal.
Larry Hyrb:
They are now our passport to exotic locations.
Jeff:
Our passport to the world. Exactly. Actually, speaking of which.
Larry Hyrb:
Yes.
Jeff:
Well, it's funny. One of the other games I'm playing is The Last Of Us Two. And I know a significant portion of it... I'm only a couple hours into it and it is very good, but I know that a significant chunk... Because I've seen screens take place in Seattle. One of the screens I saw they apparently were in Century Link Field, because I knew it by looking at the screen. I was like, oh wait, they have the big... There was a big truck up by the south end zone they have on the upper deck because of course that makes sense to suspend a truck 400 feet in the air. But yeah.
Larry Hyrb:
Brought to you by Toyota Tacoma.
Jeff:
I'm looking forward to seeing ruined Seattle at some point.
Larry Hyrb:
The area you live in is probably more likely to be in the game versus the area that I'm in so I'm curious to see.
Jeff:
Oh, yeah. I live pretty close to the center of town. There was stuff where I was like, oh, that's where the viaduct used to be or I5 or whatever. Anyway, yes, your passport to the world, even if it happens to be infested with virus, not virus, fungal.
Larry Hyrb:
Or in this case, it's the passport back to your neighborhood. [crosstalk 00:08:35]
Jeff:
I mean, it's going to make me a little more... well, also that. Yeah, exactly. I'll stand outside of my house and look into it in the game.
Larry Hyrb:
Ah, so good. So good.
Jeff:
What have you been playing?
Larry Hyrb:
Well, we were talking about Apex. I keep cutting back into Mafia, which I think I've got.
Jeff:
Mafia Two?
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah, Mafia Two, the redo. It's just one of those games where I just keep going back into. I never finished it so I'm much further in it than when I originally played it. But I think I mentioned this on the last game. I played a little bit of Mafia Three and we talked about that. And as a result of that, the game knows I played it so it unlocked me in the Mafia Two-
Jeff:
The badass car, right?
Larry Hyrb:
Right. This late '60s VA convertible. So I'm tooling around in 1950s whatever faux New York this is.
Jeff:
You're the bee's knees then. Oh yeah, really? Police are chasing me.
Larry Hyrb:
Voom, off I go. And the wanted me to goes down. So it was pretty straight forward. Yeah. I'm still just getting back into that. You know what? I don't know if you can see it. No, I don't have it up here. I started dabbling in Animal Crossing.
Jeff:
And?
Larry Hyrb:
It's 10 minutes a day that I have to give it. It's a game-
Jeff:
Yeah, that's what you do. Do you need anything? Can I drop off set... What kind of fruit does your island have?
Larry Hyrb:
I have peaches and I'm disappointed because my first island had oranges and as a Syracuse Orange-
Jeff:
Larry. Larry. Let me bring you some oranges. In fact, I will drop off a whole fruit platter. I'll give you some cherries. I'll give you some coconuts. Give you the whole thing. Well, here's the thing is-
Larry Hyrb:
Are you going to give me a tropical charcuterie?
Jeff:
It's going to be like one of those fruit baskets where they carve it up. I forget what those are called. There's a store that does nothing but those. Should we do an unboxing, a fruit basket unboxing?
Larry Hyrb:
No, I just got it.
Jeff:
Remember that thing we were talking about before the show? It just showed up. I just got a note.
Larry Hyrb:
Let's talk about that. I'm going to come right back, Jeff. So I'm going to go full screen with you. Why don't you deliver some news?
Jeff:
[crosstalk 00:10:38] All right, I'll deliver some news.
Larry Hyrb:
Deliver some news and I'm going to go to my front door. I'll be right back.
Jeff:
Okay. All right. We're here at the news desk. Some exciting stuff that happened today, which is... I can hear Larry opening his door. We have an announcement for Halo Three on PC. It is coming next week, July 14th, Happy Bastille Day. Here's something for you. Getting to play Halo Three on PC. It supports 4K 60. It's going to be out on Steam. If you already have picked up the Master Chief Collection for PC, whether it's on Windows 10 or on Steam, it's just going to download and you're going to have it. So very much looking forward to that. Halo Three, special place in my heart. Actually... Well, I'll wait until when Larry gets back. I think that's when I met him was in the-
Larry Hyrb:
What are we talking about? I'm sorry. I got my boxes.
Jeff:
I'm talking about Halo Three. That was fast. Halo Three coming to PC. Isn't that when we met? Oh, was it The World Cyber Games?
Larry Hyrb:
The World Cyber Games in Orlando.
Jeff:
Halo Three, right?
Larry Hyrb:
Right.
Jeff:
I can't remember if Halo Three was playable there or something like that. Because it was that summer. It was summer of '07?
Larry Hyrb:
'07, yeah.
Jeff:
Yeah.
Larry Hyrb:
13 years ago.
Jeff:
And then I remember going to the [inaudible 00:11:43]. And I remember going to the launch event at Virgin mega store in downtown Disney for Halo Three. [crosstalk 00:11:51].
Larry Hyrb:
Is that still there? Downtown Disney's now something else called-
Jeff:
Well, it's called Disney springs now.
Larry Hyrb:
Right. In Orlando.
Jeff:
I don't know if Virgin mega store is still a thing, but I used to go down there just because it's all the-
Larry Hyrb:
Where was that? Where was the mega store?
Jeff:
You know where it is, it ends up becoming I think-
Larry Hyrb:
Was it near Lanuba?
Jeff:
Yes. I think it ended up becoming Disney Quest, that space.
Larry Hyrb:
Oh, right, right, right. That big square building. I do remember this, right?
Jeff:
Yeah.
Larry Hyrb:
Okay.
Jeff:
Yeah. So that was the place to go for midnight launches and stuff just because it felt big and you could whatever, hang out [crosstalk 00:12:25].
Larry Hyrb:
And I think that place, that whole facility was open until 2:00 AM anyway. So it just lent itself, right?
Jeff:
Pleasure Island, I think was where all those clubs and stuff were.
Larry Hyrb:
That's right.
Jeff:
It sounds like something out of Cyber Punk actually.
Larry Hyrb:
Anyway. Should we do the unboxing now, or do you want to do the news? Are you in the middle of the news?
Jeff:
Nah, go ahead. Let's see what you got.
Larry Hyrb:
All right. Let me go full screen here. Jeff and I were talking about this box beforehand and you can see this rather large box here.
Jeff:
Full screen yourself.
Larry Hyrb:
All right, let's see.
Jeff:
I can still talk.
Larry Hyrb:
You can see this rather large box here. So this is what I think, and I know I'm a little bit off mic so I apologize. I'm going to open this up.
Jeff:
We hear you good. Well. I hear you well.
Larry Hyrb:
What is in here, Jeffrey? What could it... My goodness.
Jeff:
Oh my God. Well, it's a good thing you knocked that mic out of the way because you, I believe just got a replacement from our good friends at El Gato.
Larry Hyrb:
Project Wave.
Jeff:
Look at that.
Larry Hyrb:
What is this?
Jeff:
Yes.
Larry Hyrb:
Now, you've probably been hearing a little bit about this and they just sent this to me. I don't know how they know that we're doing the show at this time. And then I got a note that this just showed up. Should we open this up?
Jeff:
Yeah. Go for it. So El Gato, if you watch any streamers on Twitch or YouTube, anywhere-
Larry Hyrb:
Here's the thumbnail for this video show this week. Isn't that [crosstalk 00:13:54]?
Jeff:
And then in the corner it just says what's in the box or something like that. Or I'm quitting YouTube. That's always a favorite. Yeah. So Project Wave was just announced less than a month ago from El Gato. El Gato makes... We work with them a lot. Whenever you see live streams from E3 that we do they'll they provide the lights and microphones and a lot of stuff.
Larry Hyrb:
I actually use their lights here and a lot of their gear here. If you're a streamer or you want to be a streamer El Gato, they have to be on your list of things to get. They have the best kit to get you going.
Jeff:
Also really great capture stuff. Their HD 60 is I would say the go to capture card on the market. So big fan. All right, so let's take a look. Let's see what this thing looks like.
Larry Hyrb:
It looks like there's a place for the microphone. It's definitely a microphone and I haven't had a chance... Oh, look at this. This is going to be my favorite thing so far. It's a pin.
Jeff:
A pin? They know their audience here. Nobody likes audio tech more than you do.
Larry Hyrb:
Oh yeah, this is... I am supreme audio nerd. So this is an extraordinary mic. Oh my gosh. Would you look at this? This is a... Jeff, I got to tell you, this is a thing of beauty. I'm using this microphone right now, here. This audio tech, this could be my... Look at this. This could be my new... I mean, I feel like Conan O'Brien or somebody with this thing on my desk. This thing's unbelievable.
Jeff:
Look at the bottom. Right above the knobs, see those LEDs there?
Larry Hyrb:
Yup.
Jeff:
I wonder, is that a mini wave form? Because that's always something we struggle with is am I too loud or not? And a lot of times... I've had to do recording. If you saw that Cyber Punk thing that I did, it was really hard to tell if I was too loud or not, and to have that right there on the microphone allows you to avoid staying [crosstalk 00:00:15:46].
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. I mean, there's a whole... So I apologize I don't have this hooked up for the show. Obviously we're mid show here.
Jeff:
It just showed up just now.
Larry Hyrb:
But it just showed up. They did this packaging, Jeff, is amazing because apparently they've got a new app you can download. And then on this side was the microphone. And you can see they've got some soundproof stuff in there.
Jeff:
Yeah. Hang that on your wall. If you have enough of it you can make a whole studio.
Larry Hyrb:
This is legit. I'll work on getting this set up and let you guys know on our next show. I mean, I may just replace this microphone right here with it, because this mic, I mean, it just looks cool. So that's the wave mic. We'll put a link to that on the show. So sorry we interrupted the show, but seriously I was sitting here and I don't know how they knew it, but I got a note that there was a package at my front gate.
Jeff:
They probably sent a courier that was standing out there, just saw the on air light in your house went on.
Larry Hyrb:
He's going. He's going. Well, I did mount it on the outside, so my neighbors do know that I'm on the air.
Jeff:
Did you really?
Larry Hyrb:
No.
Jeff:
I can see that.
Larry Hyrb:
I wouldn't do that. I would not do that. Lights are going off. Let's get you back in here. There we go. Sorry about that.
Jeff:
No, hey.
Larry Hyrb:
So anyway, we'll take a look at the El Gato Wave, which I'm partial to that name as you know. So there we go.
Jeff:
I do know that. Yes.
Larry Hyrb:
What did I miss while I was gone?
Jeff:
Not a lot. You weren't gone that long. We just talked about Halo Three coming to PC next week on July 14th. Very excited about that. Another thing I'm pretty excited we finally have a date for, it's just about two months from today. Kingdoms of Amalur Rereckoning is going to be coming out on Xbox One on September 8th. You can preorder it now over on majornelson.com, going to be 39.99. I really enjoyed Kingdoms of Amalur, it's the only game that came out of that studio. An open world esque sprawling RPG with some cool lore, a ton of customization. I essentially made my character into Effectively Credos head with the dual blades and a lot of very active, but you could make a big hulking warrior, you can make a magician, you can make a wiley rogue. I forgot.
Larry Hyrb:
Oh Todd McFarlane was involved with this game.
Jeff:
There was a lot. Yeah. I want to say RA Salvador.
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. Ken Ralston was in it. I mean, this game has quite a bit of history.
Jeff:
Yeah. And a lot of people probably didn't play it. I think this will be a chance for people to play it or, like me, replay it. Only two months. Really, I can't believe it's going to be September in two months. We haven't even gotten summer here yet. Right?
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. Don't even get me going.
Jeff:
I know how mad you are.
Larry Hyrb:
For those of you in the other parts of the country-
Jeff:
How's your summer going? 65 and ignore the sun. As I'm looking out there is no sun. There's no sun at all. So yes.
Larry Hyrb:
Jeff, when I announced to you that I have moved someplace sunny you'll know why.
Jeff:
Are you going to move to Florida, Larry?
Larry Hyrb:
You know what my sister calls Florida? I don't want to tell you. It's...
Jeff:
Oh...
Larry Hyrb:
She calls it God's waiting room.
Jeff:
I'll let you... Oh, you're not the first to say that.
Larry Hyrb:
So anyway.
Jeff:
You are not the first to say that.
Larry Hyrb:
I couldn't move to Florida without you though. We can't go to Del Boca Vista.
Jeff:
Phase four. That's phase four.
Larry Hyrb:
It's probably a phase five by now, right?
Jeff:
I think it might be. It might be.
Larry Hyrb:
Oh boy. Anyway.
Jeff:
Yeah, my mom is actually selling your house and I'm like, where are you going to move? She doesn't, "No." I'm like, "Are you going to come out here. Are you going to..." She's very Philly person that moved to Florida, but just, "Oh, I can't deal with the cold anymore. I can't."
Larry Hyrb:
Same thing happened with my mom when she moved down there.
Jeff:
Yeah. We have heat in our house. Yeah. But she moved back. Didn't she move back to Massachusetts?
Larry Hyrb:
She did. And she regrets every moment of it.
Jeff:
Nevermind then. Maybe I won't push too hard.
Larry Hyrb:
She's like, "I'm here." She's near my sisters the rest of my family, but she's actually like, "Are you guys going to move to someplace sunny? Because I'd like to come stay with you." So anyway, we'll figure that part out. Who knows what's going on with us, everybody working from home. I mean, as far as you know, I mean, I feel like I could tear down this wall as a set behind me and you could see the beaches of Maui, right? It just doesn't matter where we are.
Jeff:
I mean, is that on the table?
Larry Hyrb:
I will say... I'm not going to say it's not on the table. I will say I've had the chance for the very first time in six months, no probably five months, I got a chance to go to lunch with you, Jeff. You and I masked up and we went to a social distanced lunch.
Jeff:
We sat six feet apart and yelled across the table outdoors.
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. Outdoors. It was sunny. It was nice to see you with that. And that's either first time I've done that.
Jeff:
Nice to see you as well.
Larry Hyrb:
It's the first time I've done that.
Jeff:
I haven't done it since, but yeah, I feel great.
Larry Hyrb:
Did we do all the news already? I don't know if we have or not.
Jeff:
No, there's a few more things.
Larry Hyrb:
I mean, it's been ticking along the bottom, but let's go through and hit some stuff.
Jeff:
Yeah. Talking about the... It's in the what we're playing field, but we didn't have a show last week. The Jungle Awakens DLC is out for Minecraft Dungeons. If you've been playing on Xbox Game Pass, I know a lot of people have, you've got that DLC. So when you're on the main map you just hit the right bumper and you see these other island realms and the jungle maps are there. And let me tell you, I played through this with my daughter this weekend. These are great, great levels.
Jeff:
Really big, really expansive, a lot of hidden stuff, a lot of challenge. We're playing on the mid tier adventure level. I feel like the best ones, you're not overwhelmed, but you're barely getting by by the skin of your teeth and you're wrestling each other. And that was exactly what that experience was. So very excited for that. And that is just the first DLC pack. And of course, if you're playing on Switch, you're playing on PS4, you're playing on Windows, it's out on all of those platforms. But with Game Pass you've already got it. So go for it. It's well worth your time.
Larry Hyrb:
I'm sure you have this-
Jeff:
A couple games... Go on.
Larry Hyrb:
Go through the games then I got a little bit of a news item we can throw up here.
Jeff:
I mean, it's your show if you want to go now.
Larry Hyrb:
Get to the games because... I'll wait.
Jeff:
We're here for the games.
Larry Hyrb:
I'll wait quietly.
Jeff:
Sports. We don't have a lot of sports going on right now. Premier League Football... Actually, I miss it right now, but that's okay. You come first. But racing is back on and racing games are back on. So this week, NASCAR Heat Five Gold Edition now available for Xbox One. You can preorder that actually. There's that, and then there's also F1 2020 Schumacher Edition, which is also available for Xbox One. I believe you can get those both now, and now I've got to check on NASCAR Heat. As I looked at it, it said right now, but I think it's just a preorder for that one. So anyway, two flavors of racing, F1 now, NASCAR later.
Larry Hyrb:
Two very different styles of racing.
Jeff:
Well, one you go left, and one you go both left and right. Although, I saw crazy crash on F1 this weekend where they didn't tighten the tire and the tire went flying. It didn't hit anyone fortunately, but it was crazy. That got my wife's attention. She is not interested in sports, unless she's seeing tires fly off of cars.
Larry Hyrb:
Some drama.
Jeff:
She was transfixed. Exactly, needs that drama. Did we talk about the Summer Game Fest demo event that is coming up in a couple of weeks?
Larry Hyrb:
We did not. Let's do that.
Jeff:
All right. So one of the coolest things that we get to do all year in a typical year is go down to the Game Developer Conference. And we always put on an event for the last five years or so where a bunch of indies, 30 plus indie developers come and they show their game off to media, to creators, to other developers. And these games are in varying states. They might be a year in, it might be ready to release, it might not even have a release date, but you get to play these games at an early stage and get to see just what some of the most visionary minds are thinking. And a lot of these games are just not what you'd expect.
Jeff:
This is the first time I ever played Cuphead was at one of these. The first time I played After Party. The first time I played-
Larry Hyrb:
Was Ori at this?
Jeff:
Ori was not at this.
Larry Hyrb:
Okay.
Jeff:
Well, GDC didn't happen this year.
Larry Hyrb:
Right.
Jeff:
So we didn't have that. It reenacts that experience, but brings it home, which I think is actually one of the coolest things.
Larry Hyrb:
Home, like your home, dear listener slash viewers?
Jeff:
Yes, your home. So we're going to have 60 brand new game demos. This is between July 1st and 27th.
Larry Hyrb:
Six zero.
Jeff:
And these are not normal... These are not what people call a marketing beta or something like that where the game is fully polishing into vertical slice. These are games that are very not done. These are from indies and they're going to want your feedback-
Larry Hyrb:
In progress.
Jeff:
... with 60 different games. Yes. And this is the experience that we would have, or as media or industry people at an event like this. And it's coming home to you.
Larry Hyrb:
Imagine, if you will, a science fair where there's just hundreds of little exhibits and you get to go and some of them are finished and some of them aren't and some of the games you'll download and they'll give you challenges, but they want feedback.
Jeff:
We don't even know how many it's going to be. It's going to be at least 60, could be as many as 100 of these games. It's limited time, only between July 21st and 27th during that week. And we will have more news on Xbox Wire Major Nelson about which titles there are. We'll have some sort of deep dives, but there's everything from RPGs to racers to adventure.
Larry Hyrb:
There's the page on Xbox Wire you can go check out.
Jeff:
Exactly. Just Real Humans, which is a more recognizable name. It's coming back to this generation.
Larry Hyrb:
Crypto.
Jeff:
You can demo that. I never played it.
Larry Hyrb:
Oh, I love that. I can't wait. Just silly fun.
Jeff:
There's skateboarding stuff. There's, quote unquote, walking simulators. There's just a lot of stuff here. So you experienced that. Play what looks good to you, give it a shot, and provide feedback to the developers to help them make the game better. That's fun. That's such a cool experience.
Larry Hyrb:
Why wouldn't you do this?
Jeff:
Especially over the summer, when it's a quieter period for release dates. And then of course on the 23rd we'll get to see some other stuff.
Larry Hyrb:
Well, let's talk. That's what I was holding on. We've got-
Jeff:
Let's do this.
Larry Hyrb:
.. this. So this is all we've got. This is all we can say. The Xbox Game Showcase July 23rd, 12 noon Eastern, that's 9:00 AM Pacific. I don't know why they don't put Eastern time or any other time zones on these cards. It just drives me crazy. Xbox.com. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch. There you go. That's all we can say. Frankly, that's all we know.
Jeff:
Well, we do know... No, you're right. That's all we know.
Larry Hyrb:
Don't get yourself into jail.
Jeff:
Surely we've said more than this. No, this actually we did. This is what I wanted to make sure we hit. There is a pre show with Jeff Keeley at 8:00 AM Pacific or 11:00 AM Eastern. So if you have the extra hour we would recommend you tune into that pre show as well. And that will be on [crosstalk 00:27:08].
Larry Hyrb:
You know what? I'm going to reach out to Jeff to see if I can get him on this show. Maybe next week he can stop by and pimp out what he's going to do and whatnot. He's got his own... Everybody's got web shows going on right now so we'll do the old crossover as we say.
Jeff:
Yep. So there you go. Set that time aside, that day of the week is, what, it's a Thursday, isn't it?
Larry Hyrb:
That's Thursday.
Jeff:
It's a Thursday, two weeks from... Well, from about the time you're hearing this.
Larry Hyrb:
July 23rd, 12 noon Pacific-
Jeff:
Mark your calendar.
Larry Hyrb:
... 9:00 AM. I will tweet out a couple of reminders leading up to that and you can watch it in all of its gloriousness, if that's a word. On the 25th.
Jeff:
It is now. It is now. They just made irregardless a word. Irregardless, which was not even a real word is now a word. So you know what? Just go with it. It's very cromulent, it's a cromulent word.
Larry Hyrb:
Yes, it is. It is. Anyway. I talked a little bit about the top of the show I've got some interviews lined up. I do have some interviews lined up to support the showcase, but I can't tell you who they are until after the showcase. So that's all I can say. Is that fair?
Jeff:
I think that's fair.
Larry Hyrb:
Do you have to go? You're looking over your shoulders.
Jeff:
No, the game went into... My controller disconnected because I hadn't touched it in a while.
Larry Hyrb:
You hadn't been playing.
Jeff:
Yeah. I've been focused on this. I've been focused on the news.
Larry Hyrb:
On the folks at home.
Jeff:
Last...
Larry Hyrb:
Go ahead.
Jeff:
Last couple of news bits. We have a sale going on for Couch Co-op. I mean, a lot of us are on the couch, spending a lot of time on the couch. And if you've been watching [crosstalk 00:28:38].
Larry Hyrb:
You actually have a couch in your office, don't you?
Jeff:
It's a sleeper. Yes, but it's a little messy because I took everything off the desk and threw it onto there for the show.
Larry Hyrb:
We can't even see your desk.
Jeff:
My desk is not the best. Well, I guess... Don't challenge me on this, Larry. So Borderlands The Handsome Collection, Lego Marvel Superheroes Two, Overcooked, Soul Calibur Six, a lot of these games between the seventh and the 13th are upwards of 75% off.
Larry Hyrb:
Wow.
Jeff:
That's a lot of money off. So you can check that out. A full list of games is on xbox.com.
Larry Hyrb:
Such a deal.
Jeff:
The last thing, such a deal, that I saw on Reddit on the excellent X-Box One subreddit. If you're in Brazil, there's a gum called Trident X. And well, apparently if you pick up Trident X you get seven days of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. And it's all branded right there on the pack. So if you're in Brazil and you want to chew a cavity fighting sugarless gum, this is the one you should get.
Larry Hyrb:
And get Game Pass.
Jeff:
I'm happy to endorse it.
Larry Hyrb:
Usually we get these things sent to the office, some promotional elements. Do we get any? Not that we're at the office, but did we have any sent over? So I'd love to show some of those.
Jeff:
We should. Let's talk to the Brazil team. See if they can...
Larry Hyrb:
Okay.
Jeff:
Hopefully there's no import restrictions on Trident X gum, because it looks really cool.
Larry Hyrb:
What flavor is it?
Jeff:
It appears to... I can't read Portuguese.
Larry Hyrb:
Well, we'll find out what flavor it is and we'll get back to you.
Jeff:
Subor fresh loot.
Larry Hyrb:
I don't know what that is.
Jeff:
I don't know if that... That is... So anyway.
Larry Hyrb:
We'll find out.
Jeff:
We'll send it. We'll try it. We'll do a live... And maybe it'll show up while we're taping a future episode.
Larry Hyrb:
Strange things show up. We talked about microphones. We'll talk about gum. We've been known to talk our share of toilets and toilet seats in here. The show goes anywhere you want us to go.
Jeff:
And I just got a note in. We'd love to talk about the free play days with us.
Larry Hyrb:
Yes.
Jeff:
We love our [inaudible 00:00:30:46]. It's a great time of year. Again, to try new stuff. And if you don't have to invest money to try something, that's always great. I just got in this weekend's free play days games. The Sim Four will be playable for free. And if you're an Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate member and Citadel: Forged with Fire, if it turns out you like these games, they are significantly discounted. The standard edition of Sims Four is $10 off, all the DLC and they have 15 different bundles.
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah, they have quite a few.
Jeff:
They're all 25% to 50% off. And Citadel: Forged with Fire, also 60% off. So if you're into that game, you can pick it up cheap and you can try it.
Larry Hyrb:
Lovely. I love that.
Jeff:
An educated consumer is our favorite customer.
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah, it certainly is. It certainly is. And you're going to get educated later this month with the Xbox Game Showcase. See how I did that, Jeffrey?
Jeff:
I see a true visionary, Larry. I feel like I'm watching... Is Steven Soderbergh directing this episode?
Larry Hyrb:
Stop it. Stop it. You're killing me.
Jeff:
Is it Christopher Nolan?
Larry Hyrb:
You're killing me. No, no. None of that.
Jeff:
Have you seen any good movies lately, by the way? Did you watch-
Larry Hyrb:
I know that in the US that on the Disney channel was Hamilton. So I know you've-
Jeff:
Yeah, we've watched that.
Larry Hyrb:
I haven't had a chance to watch it.
Jeff:
Well, we saw it a couple of years ago when it came to Seattle. And by that point the show was already a couple of years old. You're on the third or fourth cast at that point. And it was great. I'm not a Broadway guy by any means, but I really enjoyed it. It was great.
Larry Hyrb:
Wait a minute. That's not true. When we go to New York you've got to take in the latest shows. You're in there at the matinees. You're helping the ladies off the bus on Tuesdays.
Jeff:
Delis. I'm at the delis, Larry. You know that. [crosstalk 00:32:29] Usually that's the case.
Larry Hyrb:
I'll have that [inaudible 00:32:33] please.
Jeff:
Ah, there is actually a place called The Jeffery that I had gone to. They have a sandwich called the Jeffrey Rubinstein, which is a Reuben sandwich. It was overrated, probably like me.
Larry Hyrb:
No.
Jeff:
It was okay. It was a bit much, it was a bit much.
Larry Hyrb:
Like you. Like you.
Jeff:
Like me, like me. So I got what I paid... Now I know how all the rest of you feel. What were we talking about? Oh, Hamilton. So the original cast ,getting to see them, because it was recorded back in 2016 or something over the course of three days. But seeing Lin Manual Miranda and some of the other characters, the original... I mean, they are incredibly talented. Not to take away anything from the people that I saw in person, but it is next level. The oldest sister, her performance is just mindbogglingly good. And a few other characters as well. Lafayette was really awesome. So anyway, I mean, if you've never seen it and you've heard the buzz it's worth your time.
Larry Hyrb:
I feel like I should open up this-
Jeff:
It's either going to grab you right away or it won't.
Larry Hyrb:
You get Disney Plus in your console, the app is on your console.
Jeff:
Yeah. I have watched it on Xbox One. Yeah, for sure. Also, I haven't watched any other movies, but a lot of people were talking about Dark on Netflix. It's a German, kind of like Stranger Things, in that genre. It's not horror, but it is creepy. We're a few episodes into that and it's really pretty good.
Larry Hyrb:
No.
Jeff:
Yes. It started, I was like, why are all the names German and they're speaking English? And then I realized very quickly it's dubbed, but we switched it back into the original German and we're putting it on subtitles. Other than maybe the score is a bit too much. Every scene they're playing horror movie... I'm like tone it down a little bit. This is a calm scene. Everyone's just hanging out in the school. But it's a pretty cool show. Dark.
Larry Hyrb:
Dark. I didn't know that-
Jeff:
I'm four episodes in and they have three seasons.
Larry Hyrb:
I didn't know that was a thing.
Jeff:
There's so much content out there.
Larry Hyrb:
Well, yeah, including things like this show.
Jeff:
Yeah. You've just wasted an hour or 38 minutes or whatever.
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. 30-ish minutes. Yeah. We've got a lot of stuff coming up with the interviews. Jason Ronald is going to talk about Explainers. He'll be back. I'm going to try to get him on the show for next week.
Jeff:
That would be great.
Larry Hyrb:
He's the PM for Xbox Series X. He's been talking about [inaudible 00:35:05] I had him on the... Just remember the beard. That's all you remember. Just remember the beard.
Jeff:
Well, remember the things that he says.
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah.
Jeff:
That's the important thing.
Larry Hyrb:
But people trying to remember the name and what-
Jeff:
Oh, yeah.
Larry Hyrb:
It's one of the smartest people I have on the podcast ever since Laura left.
Jeff:
The bar is pretty darn low.
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. We are the digital equivalent of Statler and Waldorf.
Jeff:
Now, do you want to explain further? Anyone that's too [crosstalk 00:35:33].
Larry Hyrb:
Those are the two old cranky guys in The Muppet Show.
Jeff:
Yes. They're sitting up in the-
Larry Hyrb:
Hey. Hey. What are you doing?
Jeff:
That's kind of what we do. Maybe I should turn that down a little bit.
Larry Hyrb:
Maybe I should put in a Statler and Waldorf graphics so we can set up-
Jeff:
Like people in the middle box, if you have the middle box they'd go in there.
Larry Hyrb:
We'll go there. Anyway. So yeah, we've got a lot of interviews lined up for the Xbox Game Showcase, which is coming later this month. Make sure you mark your calendars for that. We've got a bunch of other interviews coming up as well. So it's a busy, busy summer. And as Jeff said, it's hard to believe that, wow, summer is almost done and it hasn't even gotten started, at least here.
Jeff:
I think we may skip the year. I mean, what else do we need? This is [crosstalk 00:36:23]
Larry Hyrb:
I posted this somewhere. I don't know if we're going to get back in the office this year, the rate things are going. The numbers are climbing up in the US and things are not looking really good. I mean, everyone that I know is doing their best in trying to help the situation. But I don't know what's going on, but we may not be in the office, Jeffrey.
Jeff:
Yeah. On paper, if you asked me a year ago, if you got to work from home more often, would you want to do it? I would've been like yes. And now I've had enough of that.
Larry Hyrb:
I missed bagel Wednesday we have at the office.
Jeff:
Yes. Oh my God. Well, you miss seeing everybody. I think that's the key thing is we do our best work together. And this is cool. This is good. It's not the same.
Larry Hyrb:
It's very different. All right, gang. We're going to wrap it up here. Thank you for giving us 30 plus minutes of your time. Jeff, thank you for taking the time. I know you're busy. I mean, we're both busy trying to find the right time to record this.
Jeff:
This is the best part of the week. This is the best part of the week. Let's play tonight. Let's try to get a win.
Larry Hyrb:
Yeah.
Jeff:
We got to get some more wins for you this season.
Larry Hyrb:
We'll let you guys go. Thank you for everything. And we'll be back next week. We got some interviews lined up and then don't forget on the 23rd at 12 noon Pacific 9:00 AM, or excuse me, 12 noon Eastern 9:00 AM Pacific, Game Showcase. We'll get more details on that as we get closer. So anything you want to say, Jeff, before we go?
Jeff:
No. Thanks for... Take care of yourself. That's what I want to say. And wear a mask please. Don't do it for... Even if you're not going to do it for yourself, do it for other people. Please wear a mask.
Larry Hyrb:
Yes. Get the respect of Tom Hanks. I'll talk to you guys next week. Bye-bye, everybody.
Jeff:
Bye.