As Dusk Falls, Disability Pride Month and more

[MUSIC PLAYING] LARRY HRYB: Hi. It's Larry Hryb, Xbox's Major Nelson. Welcome to the official Xbox podcast. You've liked. You've subscribed. You've done all the things you need to do. Now all I need to do is bring in the cohost, so-- Jeff--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: What a segue.

LARRY HRYB: Good to see you.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Great work, Larry.

LARRY HRYB: Well, you know, it's--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Good to see you, too.

LARRY HRYB: --not my first rodeo. But good to see you guys. Welcome back this week. Here we are in-- wow, it's July. Where did the--

REBECCA GORDIUS: I know. It's a short week, too.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah. Well, at least here in the US, because we had Independence Day on Monday, which you celebrated in New York, of course, Rebecca, and Jeff and I were out here in Seattle, and wherever you are, you are. So, but yeah. It is a short week, but I can't believe we're over halfway through 2022.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh, wow. When you put it that way.

[LAUGHTER]

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, it just feels like it just started. But we've been-- we had a busy week of gaming, Jeff. I know you've got-- I see the Cupheads behind you. What have you--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: That's a Mugman right there.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, let's-- well, now, there's-- oh, there's the whole family.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, well, I gotta use the guy with the bigger nose.

REBECCA GORDIUS: What's her name? [LAUGHS] OK. What's her name in the middle?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Miss Chalice.

LARRY HRYB: Miss Chalice.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Miss Chalice is her name.

LARRY HRYB: Yes.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Miss Chalice. That's right.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes.

LARRY HRYB: But what have you-- Jeff, I-- clearly, you've been playing Cuphead. What else have you been playing?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: , Well I've been playing it, just not very well. So that's--

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, well, that's--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --what it turns out is.

LARRY HRYB: Therein lies the problem with Cuphead.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'm Miss Chalice--

REBECCA GORDIUS: How are you liking the new DLC?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So, I mean, it's beautiful. There's new animations, new music. We actually have a really good feature on the music that Mike from Xbox Wire had written, along with-- MDHR is amazing. They're so talented. They're the developers up in Canada.

LARRY HRYB: To me-- they are very talented, Jeff, but they have such a knack for capturing that 1930s, 1940s era in terms of music and style and animation, the whole thing. So they are--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Just the film grain and even making things look old. So I went back through, and I was starting-- I was way out of practice. I jumped into one of the new bosses and got just embarrassed. And it reminded me of like, when I was a kid, and I guess these type of games are like that, where it was like, you would have the contra the up, up, down, down code or Russian attack or metal slug, where it was like, the arcade versions of those-- it was like you would pop a quarter in, and it was like 30 seconds later, I was like, I'm done. And then I just have to hang out by the machine so I don't have to hear it from my mom, like what, you've already, you're already dead? Like, just the amount of--

LARRY HRYB: No, no, then you--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's a hard game.

LARRY HRYB: Then you had to look over someone else's shoulder and figure out how to do it and then put the quarter--

REBECCA GORDIUS: How they do it.

LARRY HRYB: --back up and wait in line again.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I was, like, six. I just was-- I wanted more quarters and I wasn't going to get them. And this kind of reminds me of that. It was just like, whoa, how am I dead already?

LARRY HRYB: But you-- now you have all the quarters.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So I went back-- it's true. I do have all the quarters, so I have nothing to blame but my own slowing reflexes. So I went back, and I played from the beginning with the industry carrot boss and-- carrot and onion boss and everything at island one. But bringing the new character, Miss Chalice, so there's basically a cookie that you can have, a supernatural cookie, that will enable Cuphead or Mugman to, in that level, turn into her. She has an extra hit point by default, which gives you four. She has a dash, which is-- that makes-- it's a parry dash, so it makes you invincible, which is great. It's got a double jump.

I was like, with all of this, man, I'm going to be so good--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh, a double jump? Wow.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --at this game. I'm going to do it. Yes.

LARRY HRYB: Well, we talked about it last week in the interview with the team from there.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'm still not good. I'm still-- like, I've gotten worse. And so I need to spend more time with it. But, wow. I just was humbled. I have to say that. So it's a beautiful game, it looks amazing, and I hope I get to see all of it.

LARRY HRYB: So you played Cuphead, and then you quickly, because I've been noticing your presence every time I boot up my console-- there's always Jeff Rubenstein, Yakuza, and I'm like, this has to be a bug because you're always playing the game.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's not a bug. It's not a bug.

LARRY HRYB: [INAUDIBLE]

REBECCA GORDIUS: Not a bug.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I think I'm just-- I'm at the bitter end of Yakuza 5, and these games just-- they bring me in, and I'm like, all the way in. And --

LARRY HRYB: You roll up your sleeves, and we lose you for days.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's true. It's true. And it's all I want to play or think about. And so I'm looking-- by next time we talk, I should have beaten Yakuza 5, and then only have one Yakuza game that I have not played, and I'm saving it. And it's sort of like, if you know something is going to be amazing, and you're just like, well, I'm not going to watch it. Like if you were saving the last couple of episodes--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Last episode of somethings.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --of Stranger Things.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Exactly. And you're like, I'm not ready to watch it yet because then that means I'm done. And that's what I've been doing with these. So I've been parceling it out. And I may not play Yakuza 6 this year because I want to parcel out.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Save it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Once I'm done, I'm done. You can only play through them for the first time one time.

LARRY HRYB: We've all had times games, and I'm sure, Rebecca, you've had those games where you're like, you don't want it to end, and you wish you-- you get jealous because people get to experience that game or that level again, right?

REBECCA GORDIUS: Well, do you know that there's not going to be a Yakuza 7-- like, is the sixth one the last one?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: No, well, it's the last one in this story arc of Kiryu, and they were clear about that. I've played Yakuza 7, because it starts with a new hero and I've played the spin offs, and I don't know what'll be coming next from that team. Whatever it is, I will instantly play it. But I know that particular arc will be done at that point, and I'm in no rush to be done.

LARRY HRYB: Just savor it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's that good.

LARRY HRYB: Savor it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And speaking of which, just to tie a bow on it, the Yakuza-- a few of the-- the first three games, Yakuza 0, 1, and 2, Kiwami 1 and 2, had fallen out of Game Pass a few months ago, but they're back in, so they're all there. So join me in my Yakuza cult. And look at that lag. They're so good. 0 is--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Nice work.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --still among the best ones, if not the best one. So once you start there, you'll either be like, I don't get it, or you'll be all in, all the way. And I love hearing-- because I hear--

REBECCA GORDIUS: You'll be lost

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --all the time on Twitter, and they're like, you were right, man. And I'm like, I can't take the credit. All I can do is share the joy. And that's what I'm doing. So all the way through five.

LARRY HRYB: You are probably their number one influencer. I'm going to say it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I think that would be Brittney Brombacher, BlondeNerd--

LARRY HRYB: Which, we've had Brit on before. Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes. And she might be the number one influencer. But just-- I'm happy to be part of the conversation.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, absolutely. I know how that is. But what else? You've got Cuphead. You've got Yakuza. That's been keeping your plate full this week, hasn't it?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, just still playing through Overwatch beta 2 with my daughter. She's off for the summer, so we're playing a lot of stuff together. We're still making our way--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Nice.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --It Takes Two, which is just such a lovely game, another game where we're, like, in no rush to beat it, so from time to time we'll sit down. We'll play a little bit further. We're into some like space thing going on now, so I don't know where that is in the game. But enjoying that. But really a lot of Overwatch 2, and we're finally getting to the point where we get it, and we're starting to play better. Because it really was quite the shift from the way-- it plays much faster than Overwatch 1. So looking forward to continuing. I think there's another two weeks of the beta, and we'll be--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Nice.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --playing that for two more weeks.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, we've had some-- I've jumped in with you and your daughter a little bit. We've had some fun with that.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So let's do more.

LARRY HRYB: Let's do more. So, Rebecca, you--

REBECCA GORDIUS: OK.

LARRY HRYB: I was noticing-- I have to ask you a question. I was noticing because I have you on my friends list. What were you playing last week? So it was a very-- I kind of did a double take, and I was like, is that a bug?

REBECCA GORDIUS: Last week?

LARRY HRYB: What were you playing? Which is the House Flipper?

REBECCA GORDIUS: Last week-- yeah, I've been playing that this week.

LARRY HRYB: OK.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I just downloaded it a few days ago. Wait, first, who's better at Overwatch, Jeff or his daughter? Since you've played with both of them.

LARRY HRYB: It's-- so it's kind of hard to describe because for those of you that have played Overwatch, you know it's class based. So she picks a particular class, and Jeff picks his particular class. And so they're both good in that class.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Here-- the-- what I would say is someone is only improving and only getting better and coming to their own. And someone is only getting slower and older. And I don't know which is which. That's not for me to say.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Uh-huh.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: But you can--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Uh-huh.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You can read into that.

LARRY HRYB: I will say this, Rebecca, though, to your point, his daughter is very, very competitive. So.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah, I know. I've heard her in the background a couple of times when we've been playing, and I'm like, whoa. Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

REBECCA GORDIUS: No, that's cool. That's good. She's got that fiery, youth passion, whereas Jeff-- [CLEARS THROAT] I mean, I don't want to assume who's the one getting older and slower, but--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So don't.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Anyway.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So don't.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah, yeah. Ahem.

LARRY HRYB: [CLEARS THROAT]

REBECCA GORDIUS: Back to your question, Larry.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes. Yes.

REBECCA GORDIUS: House Flipper, we briefly talked about it on last week's podcast, out on Game Pass. I actually, like-- it's kind of a small thing. I hurt my hand plane volleyball.

LARRY HRYB: OK.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Nothing serious, just a small, small sprain.

LARRY HRYB: Show us.

REBECCA GORDIUS: A little-- OK. It's like, just like you can see this thumb is-- like, this area is a lot swollen.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh, yeah.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Anyway, So moving the right thumbstick is a little uncomfortable right now. Also, I just never realized how much I use my right hand for things, like even just texting, unlocking my phone. It's like, ugh. Anyway--

LARRY HRYB: It's a chore.

REBECCA GORDIUS: So, yeah. But so-- House Flipper, the moves are pretty simple. You know, you mostly use the left stick to move around and look. I guess use the right stick a little bit, too. Nothing too crazy. And then just the right trigger. The controls are really simple. You know, I know that we've talked about the lawn mowing simulator and kind of those games that are designed to maybe a little bit more for like the-- that feeling of, like, the small sense of accomplishment and kind of making things clean. And I haven't really thought that would be my cup of tea, but I'm actually really enjoying it.

LARRY HRYB: So are you a real estate maven now? Are you are you buying these houses and flipping them? Tell me about it.

REBECCA GORDIUS: No. It's weird. So right now-- so you start out, and you have this horrible little shack, and you have a desk, and you have a laptop. And the laptop looks just like my personal laptop that I have. And so at first, I walked up to it, and I'm like, wow, this is very meta. But, yeah. So you open your inbox and you have emails from people who are basically wanting to hire you as a cleaner or a renovator to do things. Starts out with really small tasks, like replace my radiator. Clean my garage, but don't move my husband's tools.

LARRY HRYB: So you're a handy person.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah, you're kind of a handy person, and that's how you're going around. It's a lot of cleaning. But actually, I like that kind of cleaning. So just to be really specific, so like, you have to clean a window at one point. And when you clean the window, you have to hold this tool and get all of the different--

LARRY HRYB: It's called a squeegee.

REBECCA GORDIUS: It's-- right, the squeegee. And you have to be really-- like, you have to get all of the spots, whereas normally you have a mop, and then you have this big area, and you hover over the area, and then it just goes away. You don't have to--

LARRY HRYB: Right.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Sorry. I'm getting way too specific now. Anyway, long story short, you go around. You clean. You clean, and you do all these different tasks for different neighbors and people with bigger houses. And then you get money, and then you use that money, and then you can fix up your own house.

And so I haven't actually fixed up my own house yet. I've just been going around cleaning everyone else's houses and saving up money. So that way, it's like-- I don't want to bother with buying the low-tier furniture and stuff. Like, I want to do it big when I'm ready, so I want to save up a lot of money and have a nice house. So I like it. It's fun.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I expect that next week at this time, you're going to be Rebecca Realty, the real estate maven of the Upper West Side or something like that.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Exactly. Exactly. That's going to be the goal. So hopefully I'll have a nice mansion to show off by next week's episode.

LARRY HRYB: We expect business with your picture on it. Why do they always have pictures on their business cards, real estate agents? I never understood that.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I guess they want you to-- I'm guessing they want you to have that personal feel and be like, oh, this is the person I'm really talking to. Because aren't there some places-- like I think in Europe-- I've gotten a couple of business cards for reporters or other PR people that have their face on them. And I'm like, this is very strange. But--

LARRY HRYB: Maybe you're right.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I don't know. Just that personal connection.

LARRY HRYB: So the goal is you're saving up your money. Now, will you just continue to invest in your house, or will you-- as the game title, will you flip your house and buy one of the neighbor's houses? Or how does that work?

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah, I'm not sure yet. So I'm still pretty early on.

LARRY HRYB: [INAUDIBLE]

REBECCA GORDIUS: I'll get back to you.

LARRY HRYB: OK.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah. I'll let you know how my real estate journey continues. But what about you, Larry? What have you been up to?

LARRY HRYB: I've been playing a little-- my Halo, getting my challenges out of the way. Need to get in with Jeff on Overwatch. Let's see. Oh, Sniper Elite.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [LAUGHS] Larry, go on. Tell the story.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Wait, why is that so funny? Oh, OK.

LARRY HRYB: Well, I don't know, because I-- let me text this to you, because I--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You can tell the story. You can tell the story, Larry.

LARRY HRYB: You sure? OK.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I think it's fine. Hitler's dead. We're cool with it. In fact, we're--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh my goodness.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --better off. Tell the story.

REBECCA GORDIUS: OK.

LARRY HRYB: So I-- so one of the-- it's-- Jeff and I played a little bit of it, and I'd love to play with you if you want, if you're interested, Becca. But it's a really tactical game. You can run and gun. We talked about on previous shows. And one of the downloadable content, the mission is, let's kill Hitler at the Eagle's nest, one of his-- the Berghof.

So you know, I've been playing it for about three or four days, and I play a half hour each. And it's nice to clear out an area and get closer to where he is, where you think he is, you know? So I'm going through it, and I'm like, you know what? I'm just getting frustrated, because I just want to run in there. So I run in, and all of the alarm bells are ringing and all the soldiers are coming in after, and I'm hiding in a closet.

And just as I'm hiding in the closet, this gold star pops up on the map, which is right around the corner. And it says, kill Hitler. So I'm like, oh, he's right there. So let me-- I load all up. I health up, you know, ch, ch, get ready. I'm going in Rambo style.

I come around the corner, and he is-- he's kneeling, but with a handgun. So he sees me, and he starts shooting at me. And I just take the automatic weapon I have and brr, brr, and the achievement pops, and it's-- the name of it is-- do you want to-- do you have it in front of you, Jeff? Can you read me--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I do, as a matter of fact, Larry, because you texted it to me.

LARRY HRYB: Could you read the name of-- the German name of the achievement?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I apologize for my poor German pronunciation. [SPEAKING GERMAN]

LARRY HRYB: So that achievement is a rare achievement. Only 0.28% of gamers have unlocked it. And it is kill Hitler with a testicle shot.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So.

REBECCA GORDIUS: [LAUGHS] Oh my God.

LARRY HRYB: So that was-- I didn't know that achievement existed, and it was --

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: If that doesn't sell you on the DLC, what would?

LARRY HRYB: So that was--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Wow.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, here it. It's--

REBECCA GORDIUS: See, this is one of those random things I love about the gaming industry. There are just so many little jokes.

LARRY HRYB: Now, the funny thing is--

REBECCA GORDIUS: I shouldn't say too little, but anyway.

LARRY HRYB: The funny thing is I got the achievement, but the soldiers had come in on me so quickly that I died. So I got the achievement and died. So--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Mission accomplished. It's fine.

LARRY HRYB: No, as far as the game is concerned--

REBECCA GORDIUS: It didn't count?

LARRY HRYB: I never kill them. So when I booted the game back up, it had me all the way out there. And so I had to go in, and I-- now I knew roughly where to look and kill him and basically--

REBECCA GORDIUS: At least you got the achievement.

LARRY HRYB: Right. And then I got all the other achievements because I finished the mission proper and got out of the area, which is-- anyway. So it was-- that was--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Wow.

LARRY HRYB: But it was one of those moments where I was like, oh, OK. That was fun. I mean--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: They predicted this might happen.

LARRY HRYB: So.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Wait, but .28? I would have thought it would be like, 0.025, even. Like, that just seems so--

LARRY HRYB: Yeah. It does seem very, very random. But, yeah. It's-- I mean, maybe it's different now. I'll have to take a look. But that's what it was when I popped it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It'll go-- it's going to-- that percentage is going to go up this week.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'll tell you that much.

LARRY HRYB: We're going to-- apparently I'm now a kill Hitler influencer. Lovely.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Wow. That's nuts, Larry.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, so-- anyway, playing that. Fall Guys. I went back into Fall Guys. If you saw-- if you follow Jeff on Twitter, and if you don't follow Jeff and Rebecca, you should, then Jeff gave the PSA to go unlock-- what was it? It was a bunny suit, wasn't it, Jeff?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, it's a perk that is available. So if you go-- all you got to do is you hit your Xbox button, and then that'll bring up the guide. And then you'll see a Game Pass square at the bottom, so you hit right trigger. It takes you to the bottom. And go over to Game Pass. And then you go into Perks, which you'll see over there, usually underneath the first couple of games. And you go into there, and there's all kinds of unlockables that you just get as being part of Xbox Game Pass.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh, that's so cute.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And there's a bunny perk, sort of a bunny suit.

LARRY HRYB: Ears.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Perk. So if you've recently new to Fall Guys and you're just running around with those spike bracelets still, and it's very obvious you're very new, this'll gussy you up a little bit, and it gives you a little-- something new for your bean.

LARRY HRYB: And you'll look good. You'll look good.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And of course, there was the whole Master Chief challenge, and you were able to unlock-- I know that there was a-- is or was a Master Chief suit and a grunt as well for you.

LARRY HRYB: I didn't unlock it. I went in, and I was kind of churning through to unlock it. And by the way, I meant to tell you, I did get a crown.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You did?

LARRY HRYB: But it was-- I was doing it with duos, with a random person. I'll have to go look them up. Thank you very much for that.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: They carried you.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, he carried me.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: They carried you.

LARRY HRYB: He was--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You know what? Still counts.

LARRY HRYB: He was on fire, so-- but I did end up getting the crown, and at least in the duos capacity. So--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Still counts. Still counts.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Very nice.

LARRY HRYB: The way that goes.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Well done.

LARRY HRYB: Anyway, so that's kind of what I've been focused on this week. Jeff, I know we've got some news there. And then we've got this interview with the game director of Plague Tale, so we should probably talk about that. But let's jump into the news. What do you got there?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Sure. So Rebecca, I think the most important part of house flipping, underrated, is making sure you go out there with a power washer and you clean off the sidewalk in front.

REBECCA GORDIUS: [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You get that driveway. Well, have I got the game for you. Because it's part of the new batch of games that was just announced for Game Pass, that are coming to Game Pass. Power Wash Simulator is one of them.

This is actually a really good set of games here. I'm very excited about what we've got coming here. So I can't call them all out because we've got a dozen games added. I already talked about the three Yakuzas that are-- sort of complete the whole set of Yakuza games. Get on that. But there's Power Wash Simulator which I've heard great things. Out on PC earlier this year, but it's coming out also on cloud and console. And that will be available on July 14, so Bastille Day. We're celebrating Bastille Day by power washing the driveway.

Actually, a number of games coming out on July 14. It's actually my niece's first birthday, so hopefully she'll be excited by the fact that My Friend Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol the Movie Adventure City Calls are also coming out. So great-- if the kids are home for the summer--

LARRY HRYB: And they are.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --you want some games for them-- you still get achievements here. In fact, I think Ray Narvaez--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --who is one of the top gamerscore people in the world-- he recently hit two million. He got number-- gamerscore two million-- that achievement was in Peppa Pig. So that's as ringing an endorsement as I can find. He made it to Potato City. And if you've watched the-- Larry, does your daughter watch Peppa Pig?

LARRY HRYB: No.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Well, it's a good show. My kid-- for a little bit. I--

REBECCA GORDIUS: No show. No TV.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I harbored the idea. I harbored the idea--

LARRY HRYB: She does very limited screen time, very limited.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --that my daughter would pick up a British accent if she watched Peppa Pig early on. And she did, for like the first time because-- we say ready, set, go, like if you're starting a race. They say ready, steady, go. And she actually said ready, steady, go. I was like, we got it. But that was it.

LARRY HRYB: I will say this, though.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: She doesn't call me-- she didn't call her mom mummy. Yes, go on.

LARRY HRYB: To Peppa Pig, when I was down in Australia, the lovely folks in Australia sent back a care package for my daughter, and one of them was a character called Bluey, which is a Australian kids show. And it was-- there were some books, and there was a Bluey character, B-L-U-E-Y. And so--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: What color is it?

LARRY HRYB: I think it was blue. And--

REBECCA GORDIUS: It's like a blue heeler dog.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah. So--

REBECCA GORDIUS: It's cute. Very cute.

LARRY HRYB: So we've watched a couple of episodes of that, so she enjoys Bluey. But it was kind of-- and there's actually-- it's actually quite good. So, anyway. Back to--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Peppa Pig.

LARRY HRYB: Oh, love it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Peppa Pig next, and then you can play the game. OK. But before that, that's July 14. So available now, those Yakuza games. Game called Last Call BBS, which is the last game that Zachtronics is going to making.

LARRY HRYB: I'm really excited about this one.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: OK, yeah.

LARRY HRYB: Really excited.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I want you to play it and--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Wait, which one?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Last--

LARRY HRYB: It's this one--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Last Call.

LARRY HRYB: Lower right. And this is-- if I'm reading it correctly-- so this is a little bit back in the day. Do you have the description in front of you, Jeff?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I-- "The barkeep has loaded up his retro computer with a full set of puzzle games for you to download and play. No need to worry about copy protection. They're all fully cracked and ready to enjoy." That would mean stuff to you if you played games in the '80s and the early '90s.

LARRY HRYB: So when I was-- in the early '80s, when you wanted to go online, Rebecca and Jeff. Some people may know this. The older members of the audience may remember. You had to have a modem. This is-- certainly, you remember the '90s with AOL and Mom picking up the phone.

But in-- prior to the internet proper being public and widely available, we had bulletin board systems, BBSes. And you had to have a modem, of course. And you were dialing directly into a computer, usually in someone's house. So you only had-- they only had, like, four or five lines, and you could dial into it. And bwee, wee, wee, and that would come up all text, and you'd navigate it, and there'd be-- you could have message boards, and you could download things.

So when I saw this, and I saw that you had to dial in and ADD-- ADDT, which is Automatic Dial Touch Tone, and then you'd have to type in the number. It was all command line based. You would dial in and have fun. And that's how you got connected to somebody.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: (WHISPERING) Rebecca, do you know what he's talking about? He's lost me.

LARRY HRYB: So there are people right now listening to this that are going, oh, I remember.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: They're nodding vigorously. OK.

LARRY HRYB: And what I will not be sharing with you--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Like, five people.

LARRY HRYB: I will not be sharing with you my bulletin board username. So I will just-- I had one that was on all the boards, and I'll just leave it at that.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: If you're not, I think there's probably a reason for it, and I'm not going to drag you into it.

LARRY HRYB: In fact--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Let us know about the game.

LARRY HRYB: Let us-- what do you think-- maybe we should put this in the Spotify question. What do you think my bulletin board username--

REBECCA GORDIUS: I like this.

LARRY HRYB: --was or should be back, in the '80s? So that's what it'll be.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh. Well, I mean, were you just like, Sergeant Nelson--

LARRY HRYB: No, no.

REBECCA GORDIUS: --back then? Or--

LARRY HRYB: It was not military--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Private?

LARRY HRYB: --related at all. It was--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah, Private Nelson.

LARRY HRYB: Come on. It was-- I was a punk teenager, so I'll let you figure that part out. So.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: OK.

LARRY HRYB: Anyway, Jeff, sorry. Continue on.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Back to Game Pass. I was a big fan of Topspin Tennis back on the OG Xbox days. I really loved that game. Poured a lot of time. So I'm very excited about Match Point Tennis Championships I haven't played a-- I don't feel like I've played a new tennis game in quite some time, so looking forward to that. And then Escape Academy, also on July 14. This is a game that got a lot of great buzz over at Key Three at the play days. A lot of people were playing this. If you've ever been to an escape room, people who designed escape rooms designed some virtual escape rooms to play through in this game. And it's-- all these games are coming to Game Pass, so a lot to play over the course of the next few weeks. So that's exciting.

REBECCA GORDIUS: You know, it's so-- sorry, so random. But I remember back when we used to have in-person conventions, I would go to PAX Prime, PAX West in Seattle, every year with my friends. And I don't know how. I got dragged to what I thought was the most obscure and random panel, and it was how to create your own escape room business. And it was a panel just about that. And I was like, why am I going to this? But--

LARRY HRYB: What did you learn?

REBECCA GORDIUS: --it had a-- I mean, I'm pretty sure I was just on my phone the whole time. But it had really good attendance. That's what I was getting to.

LARRY HRYB: It was packed.

REBECCA GORDIUS: The room was actually packed. I was like, I had no idea there was so much-- I mean, it makes sense in Seattle. There are a lot of nerds in Seattle. I can say that because I love all the nerds in Seattle. But--

LARRY HRYB: Because you were one of them.

REBECCA GORDIUS: --I just thought that was so-- yeah. Like, I went to my fair share of escape rooms. I knew what was-- ugh, this escape room was too easy--

LARRY HRYB: What was down.

REBECCA GORDIUS: --or whatever. Yeah, I think the best one I ever went to was one that was a zombie one, and there was a girl who was an actress playing a zombie in the middle of the room. And every five minutes, the chain that she was on would get longer and longer. And that one was really good.

LARRY HRYB: Oh, wow.

REBECCA GORDIUS: And she really went for it. So anyway, random thing about escape rooms. So. Yeah.

LARRY HRYB: Wow.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: OK, all right. So another game coming up, which we'll probably talk about whenever the next batch of Game Pass games is. So on July 19, As Dusk Falls will be available via Game Pass, but very--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh, yay.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --excited about this one from INTERIOR/NIGHT. It's a narrative game where you're going to be making choices that could make the difference between live or die. It's a robbery gone wrong in a small town game. Well, you've played narrative games, I'm sure before. But what makes this very interesting and different, besides the story, which I'm hearing the things about, is the multiplayer aspect. And there's a local co-op. There's online co-op.

LARRY HRYB: But--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And there's also a Twitch version. Yes, Larry?

LARRY HRYB: But Jeff, it's important to point out is that multiplayer as we kind of traditionally think about it is slightly different in this game.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's not an FPS, Larry. It's a story game. So, yes. It will be a lot different. You're basically making decisions. Gameplay is making decisions, and you'll be able to play with other people. And you may make different decisions than them, and then you can override each other. And so anyway, there's a lot of different permutations here. I think it'd be really cool, as we see people either sitting down and playing on the sofa. There's an app so that you can play with other folks that maybe aren't even comfortable with a controller in their hand. We've seen stuff like this like with Drawful and the match--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Jackbox stuff.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Jackbox things.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I was just thinking about that. Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And--

LARRY HRYB: Love that stuff.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --that brings people into the game that are not-- didn't consider them as gamers. Well, this is going to be one of those things I'm looking forward to playing in my house with this one. Probably not my daughter, a little too young for it. But definitely playing with my wife. But then also, I think would be really cool seeing folks on Twitch play this and being able to interact with their audience. We know that the chat is going to pick the most ridiculous choices, and so that will be really fun to see the reactions to that.

Anyway, it comes out July 19, but we have up on Xbox Wire now all the different permutations of how you can play multiplayer there. You'll be able to work through it and figure out, who do I want to play with? And how am I going to do it? And I think this is going to be a really fun a party game in a way to really-- even though the story is going to be pretty heavy. I think it'd be really fun.

LARRY HRYB: Maybe we should stream it.

REBECCA GORDIUS: We should. That would be fun.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'm down.

REBECCA GORDIUS: To play together.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, we'll have to do that.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

LARRY HRYB: It's coming to Game Pass.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I like that.

LARRY HRYB: I'm working on an interview for-- with the team, coming up in the next couple of weeks as well.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Very cool. Just a couple other quick tidbits here. One, Age of Empires IV season two is coming. A lot of cool stuff coming in terms of remappable hot keys, new map called The Pit, unlock campaigns, a color picker for different players. There's new map rotations. There's something called the Modern Monsters event, so that sounds kind of cool.

And then also, here's a game that we haven't heard much from in quite some time. And that is Skull and Bones. So Skull and Bones is-- was revealed by Ubisoft this week. It's a ship-to-ship action game. Takes place in the 1600s in the Indian Ocean. And it is coming November 8.

LARRY HRYB: It looks a more serious technical version of Sea of Thieves, in terms of the ship. I don't know anything about the game

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So Sea of Thieves is a pirate simulator. You are the pirate, and you're on with your friends, and you're controlling--

LARRY HRYB: It's very social.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --different elements of the ship and bailing out water. This is all about naval combat.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Like Warhammer? Yeah.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So-- well, it's all about--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Warhammer but pirate ships?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah. So you're really, really focused on the ship, and you can craft and sail up to 12 different ships. So I think only at the most superficial level with these games be similar, but I think they're quite a bit different.

LARRY HRYB: Boats on water.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I imagine--

LARRY HRYB: That's it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's a lot more like-- I think the idea from this game from Assassin's Creed 4, the Edward Kenway one, where you're sailing around the Caribbean, and you would take over the ship, and people loved that. And I think it's like, what if that was a game?

LARRY HRYB: Well, now it is. Or at least--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: There you go.

LARRY HRYB: That's where it came from. Good.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Coming November 8. That, my friends, is the news.

LARRY HRYB: All right. We've got a couple of things. We've got an interview coming up here, and I'm really happy to share that with you. We've got-- Jeff is going to be talking with-- let me see his name. Kevin "Chatoo." Choteau? Did I pronounced that right, Jeff?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Choteau. He's not a house.

LARRY HRYB: Choteau.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes.

LARRY HRYB: Not a-- he's not a hat.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh my gosh. I'm sure he would love this, love to hear this.

LARRY HRYB: But Kevin has been game director for Plague Tale Requiem. And Jeff had a chance to talk with him and learn more about that. So let's take a look.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: If you haven't played 2019's teams A Plague Tale Innocence, well, it's available with Xbox Game Pass, so you are anything but innocent if you don't make the time to play it. And I highly recommend it on its own, sure, but especially so because its sequel, A Plague Tale Requiem, is on its way, coming once again to Game Pass on October 18. And it's also available for preorder right now.

Here to talk to us a little bit more about it-- the game director, Kevin Choteau, joining us from beautiful Bordeaux in France. Thanks so much for joining us, Kevin.

KEVIN CHOTEAU: Thank you for having me.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Very, very glad to have you here. Very glad to be talking about one of the most anticipated games coming out this fall. It's been over three years since A Plague Tale Innocence came out. It really, I think, captured a lot of hearts, mine included, following the tragic tale of Amicia and Hugo to survive war, to survive evils, both human and supernatural, I guess you could say. We've gone through a plague ourselves as well. How much time has passed for them, though, as we start A Plague Tale Requiem?

KEVIN CHOTEAU: So when we start Requiem, we join Amicia and Hugo six months after the event of Plague Tale Innocence, so they are almost the same age. A bit grown up, a bit more mature, I would say, because of the events of the first one. But yeah, it's soon after the event of the first one.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And where do we find ourselves now? Because they were struggling to escape with their lives through most of the game before taking evil a little bit more head on and being able to make it through. Not so lucky for some of the other characters in the game. Most of the other characters in the game. So where do they find themselves now in A Plague Tale Requiem, and how does that change just everything?

KEVIN CHOTEAU: So the first one was based in Guyenne, so southwest France. Because of the events of the first one, this place is not very-- a place where you want to live now. It's infested with rats and death and bad memories. So they had to flee, to move out. And we will join them in Provence, or southeast France, and a bit of the Mediterranean Sea.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So I take it we're not going to be enjoying a fine glass of rosé, because it looks like Amicia and Hugo have much to do here?

KEVIN CHOTEAU: Yeah, that's really. No, it's not the beautiful picture of the Provence, even if sometime it's beautiful, and you will enjoy the landscape of the Provence. It's really Plague Tale, so everything becomes very bad, very fast.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So for most of Innocence, Amicia-- I wouldn't say she's helpless, but she wasn't someone who could take on a soldier one on one very easily. She was a teenage girl with no battle experience. Pretty good throwing things, but put in situations that she had never been in before, not a trained soldier. But there's an extended gameplay trailer, and we'll be looking at a little bit of this that you all revealed and shared with us last month. Here we go. And we can see right from the beginning, she's more formidable. She's got a crossbow on her back. And then later on in the footage, we'll see she's sneaking up. She's killing unwary guards. So how has she been changed from the events of the first game? And what does that lead to from a gameplay perspective and what she's capable of now?

KEVIN CHOTEAU: So because of, again, of the events of the first one, she is-- she's much more used to give death to people, sadly. She had to make things to survive, bad things. And now she's prepared, I would say. She's ready to fight if something happens. She don't want to fight. She don't want to start this death loop again. But if she has to, to protect Hugo, to survive, she will. And of course, it will happen. But she will struggle with that.

Yeah. You know, it's-- we will question that, put her in a stressful situation where she had to make a choice, and sometimes it will-- very often, actually, it will have an impact, an emotional, intellectual impact on her and on Hugo. So it's really a key point of Amicia, how far she will go, and she will have to go to survive. And where is the limits, you know? Where is the acceptable limit where she-- when she start to be the bad guy and not the good one anymore? It's really something that we will question in this game.

And, yeah. She starts to use tools that are not children tools anymore. She was using this thing because this thing was a gift from her father. It was mostly a toy for her. But now, she's using a crossbow. She's able to use knife. So it's not, yeah, toys anymore. It's war weapon. So she will become much more wired than what she was.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And Hugo as well? While he's still very young--

KEVIN CHOTEAU: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --his powers, his connection with the rats, seems to be developing as well. I know we saw on that footage right there, he seems to have a new ability, being able to sense the blood within the enemies, and it's helping with the stealth element. So you know, what's going on with him? And how is he growing and changing?

KEVIN CHOTEAU: So, yeah. He has a connection with the rat, as we've seen in the first one. So he can sometimes control the rats when he's in a good state. And, yeah. He will learn to use them much more than what he was able to do in the first one. So he can sense what the rats sense, or see their vision. This is what we are seeing right now. But he will be also able to control them directly and use them as a rat that can move everywhere and eat people. Very nervous, very frantic.

But there's a limit to that. If you use it too much, it will happen-- very bad thing will happen, again. It's really thematic of Plague Tale. If you use too much the rats, more rats will arrive, and more rats and more rats. And you've seen maybe in the trailer that sometime it will be far too much rats.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'm very much of the opinion of that one rat is too many rats, so you've gone well beyond that. So the rats-- they are back, and they were a huge part of the game, in terms-- not just the story, but the gameplay, but also, it was very technically impressive, I think back to 2019--

KEVIN CHOTEAU: Thank you.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --what you were able to do on the Xbox One X. Now, you have-- you're getting to work on the Series X and the Series S. So what does that unlock for your team in terms of fidelity?

KEVIN CHOTEAU: Basically, it hasn't looked like something like 100 times the number of rats we had in the first one.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [LAUGHS]

KEVIN CHOTEAU: So now we have up to 300,000 rats in the screen that can do those huge waves everywhere and destroy everything. And it's something that we were not able to do with the previous gen, so we are quite happy with that. It was a foundation idea of Requiem, pushing the rats further, showing oh, oh, they can destroy city or town or much more. So we are quite happy with the power of this console to give this new flesh to the rats. You've seen that in the trailer again. But those 300,000 rats coming like a tsunami, destroying everything. It's super insane to discover in the game, so we are super happy with that, of course.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah. I'm very, very conflicted here because technically, very impressive, but that is-- that's far more rats than one would ever want to deal with. But of course, that's going to be really interesting to see how that comes together the game. So congratulations. Thank you. But also--

KEVIN CHOTEAU: Thank you.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: 300,000 rats is a lot of rats. So something I think is very interesting as-- you know, I played A Plague Tale Innocence when it first came out. I want to say it was, like, May of 2019. And shortly thereafter, we announced Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is also developed by Asobo. Now, the two games could not be more different. Not a single rat in all of my playthroughs of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

But I'm curious, did the team share notes? And you know, what learnings can come from a hyper-realistic simulator to a medieval stealth narrative game, and together? So I'm just curious how the two-- the teams work together in that way.

KEVIN CHOTEAU: I think the first thing that come in my mind is the fact that we have a super team of engineers, obviously. They are able to do super techie things for Flight Simulator. Having the whole world in the game-- it's a huge achievement, with this super realistic rendering. And opposite direction, this super atomistic game that we are doing with A Plague Tale. But still, we have 300,000 rats on the screen that are moving.

So yeah, we are sharing a lot of technological optimization, I would say, because those two games are huge in terms of performances or requirements for the hardware. And that's it. Passion, also. [LAUGHS] We have two super-dedicated teams. Plague Tale team is almost the same team than in the first one, with new newcomers, of course. But we are super passionate about narrative game, narrative adventure game. And the team on Flight Sim is also obviously hyper passionated by planes and and, yeah, showcasing the world, doing those beautiful diorama of the world everywhere.

It's, yeah. We are blown out by the quality they are achieving on their side. It's like-- it's an exchange between teams, you know? They show things. We show things. And then we're always impressed and trying to beat them on the next thing. [LAUGHS] So we're going to do better, just to show off, too. it's a cool competition.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes, a very, very friendly rivalry, it sounds like.

KEVIN CHOTEAU: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It is very interesting to see different applications of tech and how they can make you feel very differently. Let's keep the rats and the planes as separate, apart, if I may make that request, for as long as possible. Kevin, I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your early evening to speak with us about A Plague Tale Requiem.

KEVIN CHOTEAU: Sure.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: We're going to be able to play it on October 18, and we're looking forward to seeing more between now and then. It's really not that far away, so wishing you the best of luck in the final stretch here before launch. And we'll be talking much more about A Plague Tale Requiem here on the Xbox podcast and on Xbox Wire.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Thank you to Kevin and also Jeff for that interview around Plague Tale Requiem.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Don't sound so surprised.

REBECCA GORDIUS: We never thank each other for doing these interviews. But-- [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Thank you. I appreciate that. One little tidbit, and I don't know why I thought this was funny, so it must not be. But-- so the night before the interview, I was watching all the footage they've revealed, and I was taking notes and figuring out what I was going to talk. And as I was taking my notes, I kept writing A Plague Tail, T-A-I-L. Like--

LARRY HRYB: I do, too.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Like An American Tail, you know? Because it was like with the--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh, yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --rats. And--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So I don't know. Maybe Fievel could make an appearance.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Fievel. [LAUGHS]

LARRY HRYB: (SINGING) Somewhere--

REBECCA GORDIUS: I'm--

LARRY HRYB: --out there.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Wait. I'm kind of-- OK. I hope this doesn't come off as insulting. I'm kind of surprised that you guys know the American Tail movies, because I liked those when I was a kid, and I thought that they were kid movies. Are they not kid movies?

LARRY HRYB: Well--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Like--

LARRY HRYB: OK, I'm going to flex a little bit here. So the producer and the director of animation there is Don Bluth, who is a legendary. He did Dragon's Lair, one of the original one of the original video games with the disk. So Don Bluth is storied in the animation field. I am a big animation fan. So while I've seen the movie, I appreciate it from its art perspective, you know? There weren't many films back in those days that were non-Disney, because this was prior to computer animation.

REBECCA GORDIUS: True.

LARRY HRYB: Had to be hand-drawn, so it was much more expensive to do it. So I'm a fan from-- for what it is.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I was a kid when the first one came out, believe it or not.

REBECCA GORDIUS: OK.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So you probably watched it-- like, I watched it on VHS, and you probably watched it on DVD. But--

REBECCA GORDIUS: No, I had it on--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [INAUDIBLE]

REBECCA GORDIUS: --VHS, too.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh. Well, there you go.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Classic.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I also played-- there was an American Tail video game. Did you guys ever play that?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: There was?

LARRY HRYB: There was?

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I don't know.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I remember-- like, at one point, there were some of the missions that were on the boat, I'm pretty sure. And I had to just match different mice couples together. Like, there would be a female mouse in a pink dress--

LARRY HRYB: Oh, yeah. Here it is.

REBECCA GORDIUS: --and you'd have to match her up with a male mouse.

LARRY HRYB: On PS2. Yeah. 1986.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

LARRY HRYB: So--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: 1986? What?

LARRY HRYB: 19--

REBECCA GORDIUS: OK. I didn't play that one. I think I played on my dad's--

LARRY HRYB: I'm sorry.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I played a lot of games on my dad's PC growing up.

LARRY HRYB: There actually a few. The American Tail, this-- yeah, I'm sorry. There was DOS one. There was a couple of other ones. So yeah, this is 1991, 1993. So, yeah. There were quite a few video games. I did not know that. So.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: All right.

LARRY HRYB: Anyway.

REBECCA GORDIUS: It's a good IP. I loved the Goes Out West one, too. That was good.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, but if you ever get a chance, go look up Don Bluth, who is a legend in-- he's, like, 85 years old now. He's a legend. And he did Anastasia, All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Land Before Time, The Secret of NIMH.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh.

LARRY HRYB: I mean, yeah. He's--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Land Before Time.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, right?

REBECCA GORDIUS: Oh my gosh.

LARRY HRYB: So he's--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah, he did all-- like, a lot of really good movies.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I forgot that there were so many good animated movies aside from Disney, too. That was--

LARRY HRYB: Right, exactly. So to answer your question, that's why I'm aware of it because I followed it-- followed the art form.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah, cool. Well, anyway. Sorry to go back to it, though.

LARRY HRYB: Have you seen it in a while? Have you seen it in a while, any-- recently?

REBECCA GORDIUS: No, I haven't. Are they as good as I remember?

LARRY HRYB: I don't know. I think I've got them on my server that I should-- my Plex server. Maybe I'll send you a link if you want to watch it because I ripped all my DVDs, and I have that.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You should watch them with your daughter, Larry.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, well. You know what, Jeff? That is an excellent, excellent recommendation. Thank you.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You don't want her to be, like, peer pressured in school, and it's like, wait, you haven't seen The Land Before Time? You haven't seen Fern Gully? Kids can be ruthless these days.

LARRY HRYB: You haven't played Dragonslayer?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You didn't play Dragonslayer?

REBECCA GORDIUS: The Secret of NIMH. That one was scary, if I remember. Some of them were kind of creepy.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Fern Gully also kind of scared me. I don't know.

LARRY HRYB: Anyway.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I was a big chicken. But.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Wow, we got way off--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Let's see. Oh, I had one other--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --in the weeds.

REBECCA GORDIUS: Way off course. I did have one other news item that I wanted to mention. So July-- and this is a pretty new observation in the US, I think, at least for Microsoft. But so July is actually Disability Pride Month. So unrelated to Gay Pride, but Disability Pride-- it's in July because I think July 26 is when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed.

And so that's why this month is around just embracing the disabilities that people have, talking more about them. I can't remember the statistic off the top of my head, but we all know that a strong majority of the disabilities that people have are not visible. It's not as simple as missing a limb or any-- being in a wheelchair. There are a lot of things that are mental, that are not visible disabilities.

So we actually have a blog post over on Xbox Wire that's talking about how Microsoft is supporting Disability Pride Month. I believe that there are a few different resources for people with disabilities to help them navigate the gaming space that we're creating. There's also a list of different games that you can play and experience the perspective of someone with a disability, so something like Veil Shadow of the Crown is entirely-- it's an audio-based adventure, and so you play as someone who's blind. And then there's Psychonauts, which obviously explores a lot of different mental disabilities.

So I recommend checking that out. We're hoping to get someone on the podcast. No promises yet. But just-- it's a great learning opportunity. It's always good to try to learn more about someone who's outside of your perspective and gain some empathy there. So, yeah.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah there's--

REBECCA GORDIUS: Check out Xbox Wire for more.

LARRY HRYB: There's a great resource on there as well, kind of scroll down. It's called the Family Gaming Database Accessibility Page, which kind of-- has a-- it's this-- I think it's a crowdsourced database of video games and how to basically make it better accessible and work with things like the adaptive controller and so forth. So a ton of resources over there. So thank you for reminding us about that, Rebecca. And like you said, we'll work on getting an interview in the near future.

REBECCA GORDIUS: For sure.

LARRY HRYB: All right.

REBECCA GORDIUS: All right. What else we got, Larry?

LARRY HRYB: Well, I think we-- I think now that we've gone through the history of Don Bluth's Wikipedia page, I think we're all done. So--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: He's a big fan of the show.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, well, sure. OK. Well, we'll let everybody go. If you guys have anything else, feel free to raise your hand. Otherwise, we're going to let folks go. Again, Jeff, thanks for the interview this week. We'll be back next week--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Always.

LARRY HRYB: --with some more interviews, more gaming news. Rebecca, you around next week?

REBECCA GORDIUS: Yeah, I'm here.

LARRY HRYB: OK.

REBECCA GORDIUS: I'll report back on how my house is going.

LARRY HRYB: Yeah, we expect you to be in a nice pressed jacket with a name tag on it, so-- as you can be a nice real estate agent. So we're looking forward to your progress there. So-- and Jeff.

REBECCA GORDIUS: All right.

LARRY HRYB: We'll see you later. Bye-bye, everybody.