Forza Horizon 5 Rally Adventure & AOE2:DE Free Play weekend

[MUSIC PLAYING] LARRY HYRB: Hi. It's Larry Hyrb, Xbox's Major Nelson. Welcome to the official Xbox podcast. Liking, subscribing, doing all those things. We are available on all your modern podcast devices and maybe some not modern ones either. I don't know. Anyway, thank you for joining us. We're going to talk some games this week. Let me bring in the gang. We've got Jeff over there on the left and Kelly Lombardi joining us. All right. Hi, Kelly. Good to see you.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Hi. So happy to be here with you both.

LARRY HYRB: Well, it is lovely to have you. I was thinking about this--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Not good to see me.

LARRY HYRB: Well--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Not good at all.

LARRY HYRB: Well, I didn't say that. And I don't think Kelly did either.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's great to see Kelly. I'm just kidding.

LARRY HYRB: But what I was looking at was, I don't think Kelly and Jeff have been on in a long time, if at all.

KELLY LOMBARDI: We have--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: On the show or together?

LARRY HYRB: Together. Together.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh, we have.

KELLY LOMBARDI: We've been on the show together. But it's been a hot minute.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, it's been a while.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

KELLY LOMBARDI: So yeah.

LARRY HYRB: So I went back for a few months. And I was like, oh-- but anyway, but it's good to see you guys. Welcome back.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: It's lovely to talk some games this week. We had a wild show last week with--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: We have games to talk about.

LARRY HYRB: --the game developer conference. I know, Kelly, you didn't go down. And I didn't go down. But Jeff went down. So we're going to talk about that in just a minute. I--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And you were at PAX?

LARRY HYRB: I was at PAX East in Boston.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Surprise. Here comes Larry [INAUDIBLE] literally.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS]

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Did you parachute from your JetBlue flight [INAUDIBLE]?

KELLY LOMBARDI: I heard it was a helicopter that dropped him down on a ladder. And then, he landed on the roof of the convention center.

LARRY HYRB: It was something--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Not for the first time.

LARRY HYRB: It was a--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: He'll tell you.

LARRY HYRB: It was a hot drop. It was definitely a hot drop.

[CHUCKLING]

So we'll talk about that in a little bit. But we're going to just jump right into what we're talking about in gaming. And last week with GDC, and we'll talk about that after we talk about what we're playing, is because of the show, it came out on Wednesday last week. I didn't really have any time to play anything. Jeff, we're going to-- and I know you were in GDC. And you had-- you're going to talk about some of the games you were able to play?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, there, actually.

LARRY HYRB: So we'll talk about-- but we'll start with Kelly because Kelly was back here in Seattle playing, if I remember, if I'm looking at your profile, the Diablo beta. Tell us a little bit about that.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [SIGHS]

LARRY HYRB: Because it sounds like you had a blast with that.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I'll tell you everything about it. So I conveniently took a week of vacation last week. And so I was home for the weekend. And I played the early access beta. And then, I went to Vegas on vacation and then came home and played more of the open beta. And so I-- Diablo III was just such a huge part of my life. I played it so much. And I've been waiting for IV for a very long time.

And I started, for the early access beta, there were three classes available. And then for the open beta, there were five classes available. So I started as a sorceress because that was what I played the most in DIII. And honestly, it was harder than I thought it was going to be. I played on normal adventure mode. But there wasn't a build that I could get to in 25 levels that made the Sorceress feel like OP. There were still some times that I struggled. But it was really fun.

So once I max leveled that character. I got a lot of suggestions to switch to the Necromancer. And that was really fun because you can summon a bunch of skeletons. And basically, I just had them do all of my fighting. And then, I went around and collected gold and loot. And I was like, get them, skeles. And then, we just scurry around the goblin.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [INAUDIBLE] like the management class.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [INAUDIBLE]

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah, I was just delegating.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, it was delegating. Skele.

LARRY HYRB: Good.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'll stop.

KELLY LOMBARDI: So that was fun. I leveled up. I max leveled that character relatively quickly. That to me, it was like--

LARRY HYRB: But let's be clear. In most betas and whatnot, the leveling system quite isn't fleshed out yet. They usually level you up quicker with betas like this. So we'll see what happens.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So hot take, what's your favorite class?

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah, and you could only--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I wish she would be [INAUDIBLE].

KELLY LOMBARDI: My favorite class, shockingly, was the third one I tried, which is a Rogue. And it's more crossbow range character. And I had so much fun. And--

LARRY HYRB: Well, that makes sense based on what you just said because you're able to stay out of the fray and direct your skeles in while you're pop, pop, pop, pop.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Well, that would be the Necromancer?

LARRY HYRB: [CHUCKLES]

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah, but with the Rogue, you can set traps, and create that distance, and from afar just be like, OK, you guys go into the gas trap. I'll be over here.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

KELLY LOMBARDI: And I didn't reach level 25 with that character. But I would have if I didn't have to go to bed at some point on that Sunday.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS]

KELLY LOMBARDI: So yeah, I had a lot of fun with it. One of the things that I really enjoyed was so you're playing on a server with other players. And in DIII, that wasn't the case. So I named my sorceress Worm because I thought it would be funny, not realizing that that's how I would appear--

LARRY HYRB: Publicly, yeah.

KELLY LOMBARDI: --in-game to everyone else on this server. [CHUCKLES] So I was just a little worm running around. But there was a world event where you take down-- it's like a big boss fight. And everyone on the server collectively attacks this big boss and takes them down. And it was really fun. I really enjoyed it. There were all different classes and levels. And the loot drop at the end was really, really great. I just thought that was a great addition to this version of the game.

LARRY HYRB: Fantastic.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, we saw a little bit of that with Diablo Immortal, where you were running around and you saw other people there. So seeing this on the full on Diablo IV. [SIGHS] I had missed it. My-- I was at GDC. My brother got married. Very selfish when it came to scheduling.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And so I didn't get to play it. I got home for-- it was out. It was in Canada. I drove home, got home Sunday night. And I was like, I saw it. It was staring at me on the dash.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And I was like, let me try it.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [GASPS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And it was like, no, you can't download it now. This thing is about to end. And I was like, ooh.

LARRY HYRB: It's funny, Jeff. I got back-- you mentioned I was at PAX. And we'll talk about that in a minute. I was-- I got back as well. And I was like, oh, let me play. I missed the opportunity. So it's just--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [SIGHS]

LARRY HYRB: That's the way it goes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Well, we got two months and one week. And so that's [INAUDIBLE].

LARRY HYRB: It sounds like Kelly played enough for both of us though. [LAUGHS]

KELLY LOMBARDI: I literally did. It was a lot. I was late for my friend's birthday party because I was playing. And I was like, sorry, I just-- there was a world event. I had to complete it. And he was like, did you? And I was like, I did.

LARRY HYRB: I did.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Sorry. [CHUCKLES]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I could have used that excuse, I guess. Not to jump totally in the news.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: But since we're on topic, also this week, we did announce a Diablo IV bundle for Xbox Series X. So when Diablo launches on June 6, you could also pick it up.

LARRY HYRB: Yep.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And if you do buy this bundle, which will be available from participating retailers worldwide, you can also get the Light Bearer Mount with Caparison of Faith Mount Armor included in that bundle. Look, if you were wanting to play on Xbox, you wanted to upgrade to a Series X, you knew you were going to be doing it for Diablo. This thing is available for preorder now.

LARRY HYRB: Thank you. Thank you for that. Check-- and again, if you need more information on that, just go to news.xbox.com. And they'll have some information up there about that. Kelly, if you don't have anything else that you've played, we'll just bounce over to Jeff and talk about his--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Is your eye OK? You really shouldn't rub it like that.

LARRY HYRB: No, just, it's a little itchy today.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: Just--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: A little tired. A little sleepy.

LARRY HYRB: Well, it's a little sleepy. It was a--

KELLY LOMBARDI: I have a fear of eyeballs. So if we could--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [CHUCKLES] You did not get to that level in Diablo.

KELLY LOMBARDI: --refrain from jamming fingers into eyeballs, that would be fantastic.

[CHUCKLING]

LARRY HYRB: Anyway, well, you know what, Jeff? Why don't you tell us a little bit about GDC?

KELLY LOMBARDI: [SIGHS]

LARRY HYRB: I'll tell you about PAX. We'll bounce back to you for some of the news. So why don't you roll on GDC? Tell us about that last week.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Sure. Yeah, so this was the GDC is back year. GDC did have an in-person element in--

LARRY HYRB: Game developer conference for those of you new to the industry.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh, yes. Of course. Thank you.

LARRY HYRB: Just want to land some stuff up there.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So like many in-person, or largely in-person events, it either went digital or took a break over the last couple of pandemic years and came back a little bit last year. I think it was a smaller version. And then, this was-- this felt like the GDC is back year. And there was a lot of great things. And while it's mostly for people that are developing games to meet people to learn things, it's where people, really, who are creating the games that we are talking about and we love tell other game developers, here's how I did this. Here's how I tackled this.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Here's some cool tech that's coming. And if you're into that, we do have a great developer's website, that you should absolutely check that out. And you can learn an awful lot about the tools that are available to you, and the types of publishers that we're working with, and all kinds of things. And I know our--

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, we talk--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: Well, no, I was just going to say, we-- obviously, last week's podcast was all about GDC.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yep.

LARRY HYRB: We talked about all parts of it. But there's so much more than-- we just--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: But there is more of a consumer-facing element that's there.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So I got to go to a number of events, some of which are embargoed. And we'll-- you'll hear about those types of things later because while you've got a group of media there, some publishers are like, well, why don't we show you some stuff? And one of the things we've always done, and it was great for it to be back, is to put a bunch of ID and Xbox games in front of media and creators who are around. And while I'm there, I'm going to play them too.

And what's really cool is you're not just playing the game in a demo situation. But the person who made the game is literally sitting right next to you, which is a little bit nerve wracking. I don't know if you've ever been to one of those sushi places where, if you sit at the counter, they make the piece. And they put it right in front of you. And then I'm like, are you going to watch me eat this?

LARRY HYRB: And they will.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And I make a face that pretends that I really like-- I generally do like it. But if they give me the sea urchin, I'm like, how do I distract them? Because (WHISPERING) I'm not a huge fan. And I got to give that to my wife or something. So a little bit of that. A little bit of nerve wracking. But I played four games that I was really into. I wrote about them on Xbox Wire.

I will speedrun these real quick. One of them, Botany Manor. This one really reminded me of The Witness in terms of those vibes. And a little bit, also, of Escape Academy. So two first person puzzle-type games. Super chill. You're navigating this English countryside manor. But the puzzles are actually plants. And so at the beginning of each section, you end up with a seed. And you have to figure out, how am I going to make this thing grow? And you use context clues that you find from around the area.

And you-- one of them needed heat. And I needed to figure out where it was from, and the type of heat that it likes, and how do I even-- oh, here's a thing that generates heat. Well, is this the right temperature? And then it grew. And then, it ended up doing a thing. And it unlocked an area. And I was able to move on. And very chill experience. But also, just very satisfying when you figure these things out. So something I'll be keeping an eye out for. It's called Botany Manor. Another one was called Planet of Lana. This was an awesome game that was described by the person working there, if Studio Ghibli made Inside. So you remember--

LARRY HYRB: I'm listening. I'm listening.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Inside by Playdead, an all-time classic. But Planet of Lana, a lot more colorful than that area. But you're playing a young girl named Lana, whose world is invaded by these mechanical aliens. And this little alien catlike creature is with you. And there are certain things you can do. And there are certain things the little cat-like creature can do, named Mui.

And between the two of you, you're figuring out puzzles and navigating your way around enemies because you're not going to attack them directly, but you can use the environment. Beautiful game. It is made by a group of Swedish animators. This is their first game ever. Beautifully animated. Immediately grabbed your attention. The backgrounds reminded me of Ori in certain ways, like how, just, you could just sit there, and have Ori stand still, and watch the background move.

LARRY HYRB: Nice depth of field.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I got a lot of that out of Planet of Lana. I'm a hand talker, Larry. I'm not going-- I'm well-animated too. I guess I had--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Here.

LARRY HYRB: I had a-- thank you.

[LAUGHTER]

Yeah, I need that space. All right. If there's a game out of this that was made for me, it was Lamplighters League. This is a game that was announced a couple of weeks ago. I think we talked about it on the show. This is made by Harebrained Schemes. They've been around for a long time. They made the Shadow Run trilogy, which is highly acclaimed.

LARRY HYRB: They used to-- some of the founders used to be here at Microsoft.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, the studio is in Seattle, which is really cool.

LARRY HYRB: Mitch Gitelman. I've had Mitch on the show quite a bit. So he's-- should get him back on the show.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: We absolutely should. If we were to shorthand this one, we would say it was XCOM meets Indiana Jones. But it reminded me a lot of Mutant Year Zero, which was a strategy game, strategy RPG, that was turn-based. But in between the battles, you actually controlled in real-time. So you chose when you got to go into battle. You could even take some folks out in real-time quietly. And then, you wouldn't even go into battle. And you could skip that part. And so that mix of real-time and tactics totally worked for me. It was just awesome. I finished the demo. And I was like, I kept going for some time.

LARRY HYRB: Love it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And the last one I want to talk about is Venba, is another puzzle game. If Botany Manor is a puzzle game based on plants, Venba is a puzzle and story game based on cooking. And so you're reading these recipe pages and figuring out how to make this Indian cuisine. It was food that I was not familiar with and how to cook. And I'm ready to make some [INAUDIBLE] now. I think I figured it out after making an amount of mess.

LARRY HYRB: Couldn't you just go into the kitchen and play it in IRL? Isn't that what you're doing?

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Larry, couldn't you go outside and throw a football around instead of watching the NFL?

LARRY HYRB: [CHUCKLES]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Sure.

KELLY LOMBARDI: In Cooking Sims, there's no cleanup after, which is a big upside for me.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [LAUGHS]

Thank you. Nope.

KELLY LOMBARDI: So I try not to get in the middle when my parents fight. But I am on team Jeff for this one.

LARRY HYRB: That's fair.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Sorry, Larry

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [INAUDIBLE] cuts. Because it was a lot of fine chopping.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: All right.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, anyway.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: Now I want to point out, Jeff, all-- or excuse me, I want to point out, Jeff, all the games you just mentioned, they're not available now.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Right.

LARRY HYRB: They'll be coming out in the future, in near future and far future.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, all of them, I think they said, would be out this year. We'll be talking more about them probably on the show, definitely on Xbox Wire.

LARRY HYRB: We'll get some folks on to interview.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And what? Oh, yeah. Some, yeah.

LARRY HYRB: I said we'll get some of the developers on and give them some space right here on this very screen.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: That's good. Yep. Yes. But these were-- they were all exciting for very different ways. And that's the beauty of GDC is you really-- independent development really takes the-- is in the driver's seat during that show.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And when you think about a Gamescom, or a Game Awards, or something like that, the big games tend to stand out more, even though you will have indie games there. This-- of really a lot. I also got to play Lies of P, which was just like, [KISS], chef kiss. It is coming together so well. It was so impressive and--

LARRY HYRB: Remind people what that is.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, this is a Soulsborne game where you're playing Pinocchio. And it is made by a development group.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Not the Pinocchio you remember because [INAUDIBLE].

KELLY LOMBARDI: That's not where I saw this going, by the way.

[LAUGHTER]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, you can disconnect your arm and replace it with a flamethrower. I missed that. It's been a long time since I've seen Pinocchio. So maybe. But it really does tap into certain elements.

LARRY HYRB: But if he's a wooden boy, he's going to burn himself.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Well, you got to be real careful with that.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Much like when you're making-- you're cooking in real life. So if you handle it right, it's going to be fine.

LARRY HYRB: Fair.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Anyway, the game, I was watching Arthur Gies, who works for Wirecutter.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And he was very good at this game. It was a very expansive demo. Literally, hours of this game were ready, taking on bosses. And let me tell you, this is going to be a big one.

LARRY HYRB: And is that coming out this year, did you say?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: That is coming out.

LARRY HYRB: Good.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And it's coming day one on the Game Pass.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [INAUDIBLE]

LARRY HYRB: There we go.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Ooh.

LARRY HYRB: Good to see that. We're talking a little bit. Is that all you have from GDC, Jeff? Because I know it was top level.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: That's what I got all for GDC.

LARRY HYRB: As we talked about earlier, I headed out, last minute trip to PAX East in Boston, which is the area that both Kelly and I are from. Jeff is a little bit further down the pike in Philadelphia.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Did you have a coffee milk while you were there?

KELLY LOMBARDI: [GASPS]

LARRY HYRB: I did not. Well, I did not because I was supposed--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: That's when we were on the show last, talking about this.

LARRY HYRB: That's right. I was supposed to go to my--

KELLY LOMBARDI: That's right. And party pizza.

LARRY HYRB: Party pizza. I was supposed to go down to my sister's house in Rhode Island. But I did not-- wasn't able to go down there. She was busy. So she couldn't see me. So thanks, Sue. But it was a--

KELLY LOMBARDI: [LAUGHS]

LARRY HYRB: It was a great time to hang out. We did a community event at a barcade right off the Commons in Boston. It was-- it's opposite from where the Cheers bar is on the opposite side. But it was--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh. (BOSTON ACCENT) Did you park your car near the Cheers bar?

LARRY HYRB: We did.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: (BOSTON ACCENT) We did. We parked it over there in the car-- we parked the car around the corner.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [SIGHS]

LARRY HYRB: And we're-- it was great just to go there. And it was a last minute thing, where we were-- our events team, they were experimenting. We brought some of the Oreo cookies out, the ones from Europe. It's the only place you can get them. So we gave some of those away. We gave some Game Pass buddy passes away for those Game Pass subscribers that want to get a buddy on. They could do that. So we gave that away. And we just hung out, and took pictures, and played pinball. And skee ball was there, which is always fun. But it was--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And did it in Philly.

LARRY HYRB: It was just a lot of fun. So that we're going to try to find other events. What we're going to do is we'd like to bring maybe the podcast out and do-- maybe if it's not packed because it's somewhere else. So if you have any idea where you want us to take the show and do a FanFest, drop it in the comments on YouTube for this show. We'd love to. We'll take a read that. And I'll send it over to our events team. But it was great to be there and walk the show floor. It was-- I was only able to be on the show floor on Friday. But it was filling up quite nicely. It wasn't as cold as [INAUDIBLE].

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Can you confirm?

LARRY HYRB: What was that?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I-- just reading some replies to you posting about being there. Do the UK-based or the European Oreos hit different is what I--

LARRY HYRB: My understanding is they don't have--

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES] Hit different.

LARRY HYRB: They do in that they don't have high fructose corn syrup.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: There we go.

LARRY HYRB: So that's my understanding. I have a role over there. I have not--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And you should do a live taste test and let me know.

LARRY HYRB: No, so I don't know. Nobody wants--

KELLY LOMBARDI: I feel like Jeff and I for science need to try them as well.

LARRY HYRB: [INAUDIBLE]. Well, we can make that happen. We can make that happen.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: But anyway, so it was fun to be in Boston for a few days. And then, I saw my family, and then turned around and came right back, and missed the Diablo beta. So it was well planned on my behalf.

[CHUCKLING]

KELLY LOMBARDI: Excellent. Larry, I don't know if you remember this. But speaking of events. And I think people know that events just have a special place in my heart. I don't think that there's anything better than just being around the energy of a gaming event and convention and just--

LARRY HYRB: The commune, yeah.

KELLY LOMBARDI: And to Jeff's point, finding games that you might not have discovered if you hadn't gotten hands on with them and just being able to appreciate the work that some smaller developers do. But one of my favorite memories was when we were in San Diego. And I was working on Tomb Raider at the time. And we hosted an event offsite, where we made people eat live bugs for a chance to win prizes.

LARRY HYRB: Was that your event? I remember that event.

KELLY LOMBARDI: And we invited you. [CHUCKLES] And you came. And we made you hold a snake. And I have a picture on my phone of you and Camilla Luddington, who voiced Lara Croft and is also on Gray's Anatomy. And you guys are standing next to each other holding snakes. And it popped up in my phone memories the other day. And I laughed out loud because I was like, I don't know if Larry remembers me, yes, inviting him to this event where we--

[LAUGHTER]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: No. How did you find that so quick?

LARRY HYRB: You got to know how to search.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Is that your desk-- your wallpaper on your--

LARRY HYRB: No.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Your loss.

KELLY LOMBARDI: If you search snake, I'm sure there's not that many photo, [LAUGHS], options that pop up. But it was a really great time. And I was like, I wonder if Larry's the one-- if he remembers--

LARRY HYRB: Oh, yeah.

KELLY LOMBARDI: --I was the one that invited him to this event and was like, here's a snake.

LARRY HYRB: I didn't remember--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Hold it. [LAUGHS]

LARRY HYRB: I didn't remember it was you. But I remember that amazing event.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: Because Camilla, who as you said, voices-- she's so lovely. And she--

KELLY LOMBARDI: So nice.

LARRY HYRB: And she came down.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: She was so nice. Yes.

LARRY HYRB: And she came down. And she plays games. And she-- we were talking about holding the snakes. And you have to-- Jeff, do you know you have--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: Here, let me show you a little something. I don't if you remember this. But you have to hold a snake like this. Do you know why?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: What do you mean?

LARRY HYRB: Because you want to be a tree branch. And you want to let it droop in between you.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh.

LARRY HYRB: So you don't want to have it-- you don't want to hold it because, otherwise, it'll basically squeeze back. And the snake will win. So you have to be very careful with how you're holding your--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: We can use you down in Florida. There's a few pythons hanging around.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I don't know if this is going to focus. But we had-- oh my gosh. Going the opposite way.

LARRY HYRB: Oh, look what else is on this.

KELLY LOMBARDI: A giant--

LARRY HYRB: Go ahead.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Whoa.

LARRY HYRB: Oh, hold on. Let me go over to you. I'll stand by.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Oh.

LARRY HYRB: Bring that back up. It was--

KELLY LOMBARDI: We have giant-- I don't know if it's a boa constrictor or what, but giant sneaks in a human size skull pit. That event was crazy.

[CHUCKLING]

But it was a lot of fun.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: This--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Shout out to the Square Enix team because they did a lot of that.

LARRY HYRB: This is another one I have. Check this one out. That's from the same day.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah. [LAUGHS] That's right.

LARRY HYRB: That's Terry Crews and I.

KELLY LOMBARDI: You were having quite a day. [LAUGHS]

LARRY HYRB: Terry Crews and I-- or I don't know what we're doing here. We're just having fun.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You're holding your own there.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Amazing.

LARRY HYRB: So it was a lot of fun.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Amazing.

LARRY HYRB: Anyway, thank you for bringing that up. That was a nice little walk down memory lane.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah, right? I was like-- I was looking for photos of a coworker that was celebrating something. And I was going through the gaming photo archives. And it was a trip down memory lane. And that one popped up. And I was like, that was a good trip.

LARRY HYRB: Hey, Jeff. So just to answer your question, I don't know.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: I can't speak for any other platform because I'm on iOS. But if you go to Photos and hit Search, then you can type in San Diego. And that's how I got to them so quickly. [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh, I was going to say, because I felt like you're a year of the snake. And if you type in snake, it's just going to be a bunch of portraits for you.

LARRY HYRB: Nope. Nope.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [LAUGHS]

LARRY HYRB: If I type in Boston, the pictures that come up are crazy.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes.

LARRY HYRB: But anyway, we'll move on--

KELLY LOMBARDI: That was the smoothest low-key shade I've ever heard, [LAUGHS], Jeff throw.

LARRY HYRB: Listen, I just keep driving right by it. I just keep going.

[LAUGHTER]

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: [INAUDIBLE]

KELLY LOMBARDI: Avoiding the potholes.

[LAUGHTER]

You grew up in Woodland. You know how to avoid the potholes.

LARRY HYRB: [INAUDIBLE]

KELLY LOMBARDI: You're well-versed, yeah.

LARRY HYRB: Just suck it up and deal with it. Moving right along here, Jeff, we got some news to come up here. We have some hardware news.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Before that, can we just talk about one more game?

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [GASPS]

LARRY HYRB: What do you got?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: This one.

LARRY HYRB: Oh, hold on a minute.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [BABBLING] Resident Evil IV, that came out this past week. I did get to-- when I couldn't get into Diablo, I loaded this up. Always good to start at night. I'm not that far into it. But oh, man, this remake is so good.

LARRY HYRB: I need to-- did I-- I got to download this. I haven't had a chance. It's not on Game Pass.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, you did-- I think you would really like it, Larry, knowing that you are a horror game guy. I think you're finally coming to grips with this. And there's one thing I want to talk about because I did this in Village too. And there's definitely, I don't want to say-- I feel like Village in many ways was a bit of a spiritual successor to Resident Evil IV.

Resident Evil IV famously, in the first level, you end up in this village. You are completely besieged by these, I think they're called gonatos. And then, this dude with the chainsaw comes out. And it's tough. For a first level, it's definitely up there. And pro tip, if you go to the left, there's a building with two stories and a shotgun on the top. I didn't realize that. I died several times. And playing on default level.

And I was like, I'm just going to drop this down a level. And I did that in Village too. The game was just as scary. And I ended up enjoying it. So normalize playing a game on-- I think it was-- it's called-- I don't remember what it's called. It's not called easy. But it's effectively whatever. Normalize doing it because now I'm having a much better time. I'm not worried about every single bullet. The jump scares--

LARRY HYRB: So story mode.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Jump scares are scary.

LARRY HYRB: You're playing story mode.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: But yeah.

LARRY HYRB: That's fine.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'm having a heck of a time with it.

LARRY HYRB: You find any joy you can any way you can, Jeff. I will not stand in your way and throw you shade.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Thank you. Thank you. Well, I just feel like-- at first, I was like, oh, I'm not going to talk about it. I'm playing on an easy level.

LARRY HYRB: No.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: But then I'm like, no, that's completely acceptable. And I feel like there's this get good discourse too often. And I don't think it's healthy. So I just wanted to let everyone know, I'm enjoying Resident Evil IV on [INAUDIBLE].

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: I will tell you, I am on that team as well. Life is too short. And we're all-- depending upon where you are in your life cycle, I have too much going on in my life.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'm only in pupa stage.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS] But I have-- [LAUGHS] I don't think so. But I have the same situation, where I'm like, let me play this. And I'll try a little bit of a game on a default or default minus one. But sometimes, I'll just go down. I'm like, oh, let's do story mode so I can enjoy the story and go through the gameplay. Just enjoy the production. So thank you for that PSA.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah, sometimes, time-wise, you want to experience a game, but you don't have the time to really grind on a higher level.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

KELLY LOMBARDI: And I was playing something on super easy mode the other day. And a message popped up. And it was like, you seem to know what you're doing. Do you want to up the difficulty? And I was like, sure don't.

LARRY HYRB: Nope.

KELLY LOMBARDI: But thanks for asking.

[LAUGHTER]

I was like, have a good day. I'm going to continue on just frolicking through these levels [INAUDIBLE].

LARRY HYRB: So I am on team story mode as well. There's no shame in story mode. That is the takeaway.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Cut and print.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS] Anyway--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Let's get in the news here.

LARRY HYRB: Let's get into the news.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Actually, the first thing I wanted to talk about with you, it is prop-related.

LARRY HYRB: Yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Are you ready? Do you have your prop [INAUDIBLE]?

KELLY LOMBARDI: [GASPS]

LARRY HYRB: Let's take a look

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

LARRY HYRB: Well, of course, we're making reference to the gloves.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh, there it is.

LARRY HYRB: So just to let you know, I--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Larry, put those on audio. Larry is putting on the white gloves [INAUDIBLE].

LARRY HYRB: And the white gloves, for those of you that are new to the show, usually mean something is about to happen in the hardware space. Or I've got something to show off.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Something is coming out of a box.

LARRY HYRB: Because I want to let things shine.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: That's what I do.

KELLY LOMBARDI: For Larry ASMR. He-- [CHUCKLES] This is going to be one of those things. [LAUGHS]

LARRY HYRB: Or-- but let's be very clear, Kelly. This is not. This is not me channeling a clown. I want to be very clear on that.

[LAUGHTER]

Anyway, Jeff, as you were saying.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Anyway, do you have it? Are you ready to hold it up? [INAUDIBLE]

LARRY HYRB: Which one am I holding up, by the way?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Huh?

LARRY HYRB: Which one am I holding up?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's up to you. I can roll with the punches.

LARRY HYRB: All right. Let me see what I got here. Hold on. Let's go full screen on me. And we'll go back here. Can actually see, see them back here.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yep. Oh, they're there.

LARRY HYRB: We're going to go to this one.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Ooh.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: There we go.

LARRY HYRB: Here we go. Here's--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You have a Xbox Elite Wireless--

KELLY LOMBARDI: I love an Easter egg shelf moment.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --Controller Series 2 Core. Now in red. Also available in blue. So we've expanded the core version of the Xbox Elite Series 2 lineup to give gamers more options to play like a pro. Now you know the core version. It is--

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Comes in at a lower price of $139.99. And it is just the controller. But if you want all of the different components, if you want to get the back paddles, if you want the case, if you want the different thumbsticks, all of those things, we also are selling a complete component pack. It is sold separately for $59.99 MSRP.

LARRY HYRB: I didn't get one of those. [CHUCKLES]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So you decide what you need. If you need those things, then you can get them. But if you just want the controller, you can get that too. Of course, many of those elements are compatible. If you already have an Elite Series 2 and you already have other paddles, you might just want the new color.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So available in blue, available in red, available today.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, so what are you waiting for? Go out and get your--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Dang.

LARRY HYRB: Go out and get your controller on. So I'm thrilled. You know what, Jeff? I've got a little something to share with you.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: [INAUDIBLE]

LARRY HYRB: I'm going to keep these on. Keep going through the news because we got something else a little bit later.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Sure. Let's talk about a new game that is out this week. It was a game I had heard a lot about last year, coming to Xbox now, called Sifu. Sifu is an interesting game. It's a martial arts beat them up. But it's something where, when you die, you come back, and you're older. So a very interesting take. And so as you go through the game, you get older, and older, and older. And you get wiser.

But you maybe are not as strong. So some really interesting stuff. We have a conversation about this on Xbox Wire. I've heard really good things about this. And so this is something that-- and suddenly, they added, by the way, that I think is great-- a lot of people thought the game was too hard. So they have created a less difficult student mode.

LARRY HYRB: Story mode. Here it is. [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Also, odd enough, they've added a Master mode. So you know what? Everyone gets to get the level of difficulty that they want. I'm definitely going to be checking this out. And there's also a new mode as well. Another game that really has my eyes? I don't know. I don't want to talk about eyes. Sorry about that, Kelly.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Thank you.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I knows it freaks you out. A game called Endless Dungeon. So there was a game. E was a really big fan of this game back in 2014. Dungeon [INAUDIBLE] Endless is the spiritual successor to that.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, former co-host. Yep.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And it is a Roguelike with tower defense tactics. It looks really good. Again, we've got a full story that one of our writers wrote over on Xbox Wire. But Endless Dungeon is out now. It's priced at only $29.99. Or I guess it's available-- it's coming out May 18. So I definitely have my eyes on this. And one other game, which is Dredge, which is a-- it turns cozy fishing into cosmic horror. And this one looked really cool. I want to say it was revealed, well, at some point last year. It was announced. And it has a New England storm's a' coming aesthetic. But [INAUDIBLE].

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: (BOSTON ACCENT) Yep. Can't get that from here.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: There we go. But has--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Oh my god.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Didn't think I'd get to use that terrible Boston accent twice. My uncle, who lives in-- just moved to New Hampshire, I'm sure, is [INAUDIBLE].

LARRY HYRB: Well, that's even a better accent (BOSTON ACCENT) up there in New Hampshire. [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes, exactly. I think he's in Manchest-- (BOSTON ACCENT) Manchester. Is that what you would say?

LARRY HYRB: You and I have been there, haven't we?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I think so. [INAUDIBLE]

LARRY HYRB: When we went to visit Ralph.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: That's right.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I think so.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Ralph Baer, the inventor of video games, which was--

LARRY HYRB: May he rest in peace.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: May in rest in peace. An awesome experience. Anyway, Dredge is available now at only $24.99. And it looks really cool.

LARRY HYRB: So yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Anyway, there's one other news piece. But I know we wanted to use that to segue into the interview.

LARRY HYRB: Well, there's two parts to this news piece?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes.

LARRY HYRB: Well, we've got the news. And then, we have the hardware. So why don't you to give the news? And then, we'll go to the hardware [INAUDIBLE].

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: No, the news, we're talking about Forza Horizon 5's Rally Adventure.

LARRY HYRB: [GROANS IN ANTIPCATION]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --which is available now. This definitely has my interest. We're returning to Mexico with a Rally-themed update. It's a new area. Sierra Nueva. Six new biomes. And there's some new-- I'm very excited about this car, the electric Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum. I am a big fan of electric cars. It's always nice to be able to use them in Forza. And this is one that I've actually been in this car. And I'm very excited to be able to drive it in a way I never do in real life for this truck.

LARRY HYRB: I've never been in a Lightning.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Huh?

LARRY HYRB: I've never been in a Lightning. I have-- I've got to check one out.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, there's people that you know that have one.

LARRY HYRB: Oh, not in this room.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Not me.

LARRY HYRB: But that's-- we're going to have-- do an interview with that in just a minute. And Kelly is going to get us--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: No, I won't go too deep into it.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Because we'll talk about it even better. It just looks really exciting, a different kind of racing coming to Forza to in a way that only Horizon could do it.

LARRY HYRB: Speaking of racing, Jeffrey.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: One of the things that people love about racing, it's so different. But sometimes, sometimes controllers, the sticks just are a little more difficult because you're not driving a car with a stick, usually. But we have a new--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Not in this day and age. [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: Not in this day. But we have a new piece of hardware, Jeff. Could you walk us through what this thing is? Because it's quite fascinating.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I don't have the info. You've got it. So why don't you--

LARRY HYRB: Cool. Well--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I can look it up.

LARRY HYRB: Well, it's actually in the notes there if you want to pull them up. But this is the brand new thrustmaster Eswap XR Pro Controller.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Ah. Oh, yeah.

LARRY HYRB: Now this is-- you can see it's got Forza Horizon 5 going on up here. But this is really interesting. Let me pop this open. This is modular. And what that mean--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah, you can experience incredibly immersive racing with the gamepad thanks to the brand new racing wheel module.

LARRY HYRB: Yep. There it is. Yep. So look at this. Look. Are you ready?

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: You want me to blow your mind? Check this out. Are you-- you're watching?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: All right. Has--

KELLY LOMBARDI: [INAUDIBLE]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Can your controller do this?

LARRY HYRB: What?

KELLY LOMBARDI: [GASPS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Larry, you're just ripping things off of it.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Wow.

LARRY HYRB: And now I'm going to put in--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Ooh. Ooh.

LARRY HYRB: I'm going to put in a little wheel.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Ah.

LARRY HYRB: Look at this. It's a little wheel. So I pull the wheel out.

KELLY LOMBARDI: That is so cute.

LARRY HYRB: And I take the wheel out. And I can now put--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Can the wheel go in other places?

LARRY HYRB: Jeffrey, of course it can.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: Look, the wheel is now over here.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Now this thing-- it sounds easy. But I'm sure designing it was incredibly challenging.

LARRY HYRB: Look at this.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Look at that. That is so cool.

KELLY LOMBARDI: And it's non-slip too? So when you're sweaty gaming--

LARRY HYRB: It's got a little-- it's got a little--

KELLY LOMBARDI: --you have less of a crash to crash?

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, you know what you-- it's got a little letter finger on it, like maybe your grandma has on her car. [LAUGHS] The thing around the wheel.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's also got-- I'm reading, there's-- it's got mechanical buttons, which are 64% faster than standard membrane-based buttons.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Ooh.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: While tested under laboratory conditions. You-- there's all kinds of configurations that you can do. There's, it's called hot-swap technology, where you can move the d-pad.

LARRY HYRB: Yep.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You can move the sticks around in any particular way that you would like.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, I'm trying to get [INAUDIBLE].

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, but that steering wheel, which is called the racing wheel module, is very much a very unique thing.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes.

LARRY HYRB: I just took two of the modules out. The d-pad's a little more challenging to get out because it's just slick. But you can put this--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You wouldn't want to move it anyways [INAUDIBLE].

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, you can put this wheel module anywhere you want. You can see all the modules. Let me show up-- I'll show you the wheel module versus the stick module. Obviously, the modules are the same. That's why you can swap them in and out. But [INAUDIBLE].

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And that's why it's called the Eswap XR Pro Controller Forza Horizon 5 edition.

LARRY HYRB: Thank you, Jeffrey. So this is a--

KELLY LOMBARDI: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: Does it have on there when it's going to be available? I think it's coming out soon.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I am looking for that. It is made by Thrustmaster. You can find it over on thrustmaster.com.

LARRY HYRB: Yep. We'll find that out. And we'll come back to you on the other side of the interview and let you know. It's also fully customizable. You can see it right here.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You can buy it now is what it says. So [INAUDIBLE].

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, so get on it. Get on it. Anyway, we've got-- we're going to talk about Forza Horizon.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Do--

LARRY HYRB: We've got some Age of Empires. Kelly, do you have a moment there? Can you bring us into the interview so we can get things going here?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, of course. We actually have two super fun interviews, like you mentioned, one with the Forza Horizon team to talk more in depth about the Rally Adventure update that we have. We have Chris and Kelly joining us. And then, we have a really cool interview about Age of Empires with Alex. So make sure that you stay tuned. Check them out because they're going to be awesome.

LARRY HYRB: Forza Horizon 5 fans, you're going to be excited now. The Rally Adventure mode is coming. It's now available, actually, depending upon when you're listening to this podcast. It is now available. I'm excited today to talk to some folks from the team. We are going to-- let's bring everybody in here right now. I'm going to bring up the-- let everybody know, it's Kelly Boyle is over on the left. Chris Phillips is on the right. Kelly, you're one of the producers. Chris, you work on cars. Kelly, let's get started with you first. Tell us about this downloadable content.

KELLY BOYLE: Yes, so Forza Horizon 5 is bringing a new expansion out, so the second [INAUDIBLE] expansion. It's going to have a brand new location with a brand new map. And it's supported with a rally campaign, which is super exciting.

LARRY HYRB: For those folks, people know Forza Horizon 5, rally is something that maybe I know a lot of the hardcore racing fans do. But the more casual folks may not know what rally is. They've heard this term. They've seen the cars out in the wilderness. Well, how would you describe rally in terms of what it means for car fans?

KELLY BOYLE: I guess it will be bringing a, really, Horizon rally experience together. So we've got a co-driver that will follow you in a helicopter. We've got radicals on the hood. We've got split time. We've just got everything that Horizon does so well, but with a rally experience. So yeah, we've got different types of rally racers. So we've got asphalt dirt and really hard night races as well. So yeah.

LARRY HYRB: What--

KELLY BOYLE: All the best stuff we do in a rally experience.

LARRY HYRB: And I want to talk about that. How come your team-- and, Chris, we're going to get to you in a second because you're going to talk about all the cars we're going to be driving. So sit tight. But how did the team decide to focus the second Forza Horizon 5 downloadable content around the rally experience? Tell us about that, if you would.

KELLY BOYLE: So I think the team is really excited about rally. And we obviously have a history of rally. We have Forza Horizon 1. And I think if we get to pass to Chris soon because he even experienced that and helped make the first rally expansion. So I think I'll pass over to Chris for this one.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: All right. Chris, go ahead. Tell us a little bit about why.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: Cheers, Kelly. Yeah, rallying is in playground's DNA. A lot of the staff here have previously worked on rally in games. There's a huge following for rally. As Kelly said, we did an expansion on the first Horizon. I was fortunate enough to work on that. I've worked on every Horizon. So yeah, for me, bringing rally back in that Horizon wrapper, as Kelly spoke about, is super exciting.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, that's really cool because, again, what's lovely about Horizon is we have this incredible collection of cars in beautiful environments. You're not just on a track. You're going through backyards. You're going across beaches. You're, going over mountains. There's everything that's involved in the Forza Horizon experience. Chris, I want to talk about, you're responsible for, as it says here, the cars. So tell us about what it means to be the vehicle director because that sounds a pretty plum job if I do say so myself.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: Yeah, it is a fun job. [LAUGHS] Yeah, essentially, yeah, so I both select cars for the game. I'll decide what's going in the expansions, what's going out in our series updates, work with manufacturers on new stuff they've got coming through. So a lot like the Ford F-150 Lightning that's on the key art, the hero art imagery, for Rally Adventure. Well, we work with the OEMs on what's coming, jsut trying to align it to great content we can put that on.

LARRY HYRB: That's-- you get to decide what we're going to drive in so many regards and do that--

CHRIS PHILLIPS: [CHUCKLING]

LARRY HYRB: --make that choice. So that's a big role. Kelly, back over to you. As in your role, what-- you must look across all of these teams. But how do you really look at what the team wants to deliver and what the core tenets are, especially around this experience?

KELLY BOYLE: Yeah, so in game design, we have a big focus on features and what is fun. And then, we'll work with teams like Chris that will have new cars coming to the game. How can we integrate them really well with our features? And all the different teams come together to make a whole. So we'll have audio, cinematics. And all that experience then makes the features even better and makes the gameplay even more fun. I think one to call out in the Rally expansion is the world feels really alive because of that. So we've got the helicopter following you, which was really engineering and animation-heavy. We've got the great videos. Yes, exactly this.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS]

KELLY BOYLE: We have-- one of my favorites is when you first start a race, you have a little character saying like, 3, 2, 1. And then, he'll run off the side of the road. So yeah, all the different teams have come together to really make it feel alive.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, and it really has come off. We talk-- one of the things I noticed is there's-- it expands the campaign a little bit. Forza Horizon 5, it's about the festivals. Tell us about the campaign expansion and what players can expect there.

KELLY BOYLE: Yeah, so similar to Hot Wheels, you'll have an expedition out into Horizon Badlands. So this will take you to the brand new map, the brand new location. You'll have a few really cool drives out to get to the Badlands outpost. This is the new outpost. And then, you'll be working through a campaign that's three teams. So we've got kind Horizon Raptors, which is the dirt racing which is with Alex. We've got Apex predators, which is with Alejandro, which is more asphalt-focused.

And then, we have our night races, which is the Grit Reapers team with Ramey. And together, you'll work through these teams, picking one, working through with them, then joining another. And eventually, you'll have what we internally call boss battles. But it's championship races. Sorry, champion racers. And once you've beat every champion, you'll then go to a big finale that's the Goliath to become the Badlands champion.

LARRY HYRB: So there's a lot going on here. The one thing I do want to point out is we played a little bit of the video, and people have seen this in the trailer, and that's what we've been showing, is this Rally Adventure takes place in the Sierra Nuevo region, which is different than Forza Horizon 5's Mexico. Tell us why you decided to go in a different area, if you would.

KELLY BOYLE: So we think one of the best things about expansions is experiencing a new world, a new map. You get to do all the things you love again. So the road discovery was one of my favorites. But we've got loads of new biomes in this area. So we've got an entirely smashable forest, which is super fun to drive-through. You just see all the trees smashing around you. We've got an abandoned quarry. And one of the coolest ones, I think, when you first start out, you're in a giant crater. So the outpost is in a crater, which is really cool.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

KELLY BOYLE: So yeah, just all the usual beautiful Horizon world, but with brand new routes, brand new environment, yeah.

LARRY HYRB: Chris, I want to talk about the key new vehicle upgrades that are available with Rally Adventure. Tell us a little bit about that.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: Yeah, so we're bringing in a couple of new upgrade types and then some visual parts as well. So rallying, anyone that knows rally knows rally cars make a lot of pops and bangs and spitfire out their exhausts. And that's something called anti-lag. It's a system that reduces turbo lag, so how quickly the turbo comes on boost and makes power. So we're bringing that as an upgrade. So you'll get all the fire coming out of the exhaust, amazing audio from our audio team as well. And that's going to be available to, I think, just over three-- 630 cars will have access to that upgrade, which is huge.

LARRY HYRB: Wow.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: And then another one along those lines, we've got something we've called internally, [INAUDIBLE] tires, which is for pickup trucks and SUVs. The actual in-game name is Tire Profile Upgrades. So you can make your tires bigger, which is something that's a really common upgrade on pickup trucks. It makes them look better, also makes them perform better off road. So we've added that.

And then lastly, we've added to 25 cars a load of visual parts. So all the cars now are what we call the rally bucket. So essentially, rally cars going from actual proper race cars all the way through to things like Subaru Impreza, stuff like that, road cars. They're getting new upgrades. So it's things like a bash bar on the front of them. And in fact, you just see in the video there, the fire coming out of that last car. That's the anti-lag.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: Yeah, so you get things like bash bars, lights on the hood, mud flaps, that kind of stuff. So you can really build your own rally monster as well.

LARRY HYRB: That's a-- and again, Forza Horizon has always been about customization. We can put different liveries on. So this takes it to a completely separate level because you're getting ready for your rally experiencing. I hate to ask this, Chris. But I have to. Do you have a favorite car? And, Kelly, I'm going to ask you too.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: [CHUCKLING]

LARRY HYRB: Do you have a favorite car for the Rally Adventure?

CHRIS PHILLIPS: I do. I do. It's hard to pick favorites.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: I say this all the time. I think my favorite is probably the Hooligan Scumbug, which is a VW Beetle that was built by the Hoonigan guys. I think it's a class 5 Beetle, which is a class 4 Baja. It just has the coolest livery on it. It's orange with this really retro livery. It drives incredibly well. In fact, I think the second race you do in Rally Adventure is using it on a route that it was just made for. So I'd probably say it's the Scumbug for me.

LARRY HYRB: All right. Kelly, I have to ask you. [CHUCKLES] Because I know you've been playing this. So tell us tell us what your favorite vehicle is.

KELLY BOYLE: I was really worried that Chris was going to say it. But luckily, mine's the [INAUDIBLE] Focus. And I'll also really enjoy bringing just all the Hoonigan's to the new map because that's my favorite bucket, of course. So yeah.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, people are-- as we talked about a moment ago, it's available right now to download and check it out, the Forza Horizon 5 Rally Adventure. Tell us, Kelly, for those of us that are just getting into it and they're just going to get-- where should we go to get started? Where-- I'm looking to you as our, and Chris also as well, tour guide. But, Kelly, tell us where we should-- what's one of the first couple of things we should do?

KELLY BOYLE: Yeah, so as you land in, you'll experience the first few races in a really structured manner. But then, you'll get opened up to pick a team. So I'd really focus in on a team of the driving style you love. Do you love asphalt racing? Do you want to experience the night races? And then, that will guide you into the races of that style. You can take side path, do PR sense, do collectibles, all the usual stuff you'll-- everyone loves about Horizon, yeah.

LARRY HYRB: All right. Chris, what about yourself? What Where should some folks, based on your experience, where should we lean into?

CHRIS PHILLIPS: So for me, the second I'd get in there, I'd probably do the first race, Devil's Pass. You'll also get the Ford Focus that Kelly likes. And then, I'd drive the roads. We-- this is maybe the best road network our level design teams ever created. I've spent hours at home playing it, just driving around the world.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: It is an incredible driving experience with some of the most technical roads we've ever made. And it really makes you think about how you're driving, like how are you going to rotate the car into corners and things like that. So for me, just check out the roads. They are spectacular.

LARRY HYRB: Let's-- I want to talk about something you just said, technical roads. What does that mean? Is this just mean how they're designed or--

CHRIS PHILLIPS: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: I'm fascinated by that comment.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: Yeah, so rallying tends to be on really twisty little roads and also very bumpy road. They're actual roads. They're not racetracks. And with that, anyone that's driven down a road knows there's potholes. There's road edges you've got to be careful of. And that brings a real different driving style, where you have to think about where you're placing the car. It's not always about the best racing line. It's about the line that's not dangerous. It's not the one that's going to flip the car over or rip the suspension off. And then on top of that, in Rally Adventure, a lot of design teams gone in and thought about, well, the play is breaking here. How can we make this more challenging?

LARRY HYRB: Right.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: And they put bumps in the road. And right where you want to turn in, there might be a bump or a crest. So you start to learn, OK, well, I can't turn in where I think I should turn in. I have to rethink this. Do I turn in after the bump, before the bump? Do I get the car to rotate over that bump? It's a completely different approach to driving and one that it's really intoxicating getting stuck into. And you'll keep doing routes as you start to learn more and more about it and playing into that as well, one of the features we've got.

So the driving line, so the blue line that we draw for the player, is a staple for accessibility in the game. But because we have pace notes, we've added an option where in the Horizon Rally mode, you can turn that off. So it's just you, the pace notes, and a road, trying to figure out the best way down that road using the pace notes. And it's a very lean in experience that you're just going to keep going back to.

LARRY HYRB: All right. Chris, you're going to keep dropping these terms, I'm going to keep pushing back on you.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: Tell me about pace notes. What are pace notes? I can figure it out. And I think I know what they are. But some folks may not know what those are.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: Yeah, so if you've ever watched a video of any rallying, there's always somebody calling out what's coming up ahead. Typically, it's in an incredibly technical language that not many people understand.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: So Horizon's take on it is to make that more accessible. But it will tell you how severe the corner coming up. Is it an easy left, an easy right? Or is it a hard left? Is it a hairpin? And that'll be called out for what's coming up ahead of you. As Kelly mentioned earlier as well, the co-driver in Horizon is in the helicopter. And that was actually a conscious choice. Not every car on Horizon has a passenger seat.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, that's-- [CHUCKLES]

CHRIS PHILLIPS: So we have to think about that.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: You couldn't always have a co-driver. So we decided they'd be in the helicopter. And it also makes for an incredible visual thing, as this helicopter is flying around ahead of you. And at night, the spotlight's on you and ahead of you as well.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, that's the other thing I love is the fact that there was-- we saw some of that in the video as the night driving. Kelly-- and I'm going to let you guys go in just a minute. But my last question I want to talk about is, this is the second DLC. It's Rally Adventure. It's really the highlight for Forza Horizon 5. What has working on the game at a whole meant to you?

KELLY BOYLE: It's just so good. I think I want to call out the team at this point. Everyone's put so much love into this expansion. So much thought has gone into each feature. Like Chris says with the helicopter, how can we make this the best expansion ever? How can we make it super accessible and just add the features everyone loves?

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, that's-- Forza Horizon 5 has always been one of those games. When people sit down, not only is it beautiful, it always has an extraordinary soundtrack. You're always like, oh, I want to hear that again. And you go add it to your Spotify or your music playlist. Beautiful vistas. It just checks all these great boxes. And then, I get to invite friends in and we get to race. So there's just so much fun with this game. Chris, tell us what it's been like to work on this franchise for you, as working on-- you're at the heart with the cars.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: They're such an important part of this. They're characters in their own right, aren't they?

CHRIS PHILLIPS: Yeah, it's amazing. As I mentioned earlier, I've been fortunate enough to work on all the Horizons. So yeah, it's just been amazing. It's a-- Forza is a franchise I grew up with. So being able to work on it for this long is incredible. And as Kelly says, with the team we've got as well, it's absolutely incredible. And then for Rally Adventure, for me, going back to revisit Horizon 1-- we did the Horizon 1 anniversary last year. And that got us all looking back at that game as well. So it was really nostalgic to go back, look at what we did there, and how can we improve it? How can we make it better? How can we make it something fitting for Horizon 5?

LARRY HYRB: Well, first of all, I have to congratulate you. It's always great to ship a game and then ship downloadable content like this. So congratulations to each one of you. And I know there's many, many folks behind you on the teams that help us out with that. So I want to thank you. Kelly Boyle, Senior Game Designer. And Chris Phillips, the Vehicle Director. Love that title.

CHRIS PHILLIPS: [CHUCKLES]

LARRY HYRB: Forza Horizon 5 Rally Adventure now available. Go check it out. There's no reason not to. We've got a ton of fun too to rip through these brand new environments. And I want to thank you both for joining us today. And any final words before you go? Kelly, you want to say anything before I let you go?

KELLY BOYLE: Thank you for having me. It's great to be on the show.

LARRY HYRB: Pleasure. Chris, what about you?

CHRIS PHILLIPS: Yeah, thanks for having me. And I hope yourself and everyone else enjoys Rally Adventure.

LARRY HYRB: Age of Empires has a free play weekend this weekend, depending upon when you're listening to the podcast. If you're one of those early adopters and grabs it Friday morning, it's happening now. Alex Oh is here from the World's Edge. Alex, you are one of the senior producers on World's Edge. And World's Edge is the studio here at Microsoft that produces Age of Empires, correct?

ALEX: That's correct. Yeah, so glad to be here.

LARRY HYRB: Well, first of all, welcome to the show. I haven't had you on before. So this is-- it's always great to get new folks. First of all, before we get into Age of Empires, let's talk about your journey in the games industry. It's always interesting to talk to new people and how they found their way into the games industry. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

ALEX: Oh, yeah, I actually started in the game industry as soon as I came out of college. And my first game was one of the Call of Duty games that some of you may have already played.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS]

ALEX: Yeah. [LAUGHS] So it's--

LARRY HYRB: You're dropping that right off the top. So that was one of the first games you worked on.

ALEX: Yeah, first game dropped in was Call of Duty. And definitely did a few of those titles. And then eventually, actually, I worked at Naughty Dog for a little bit as well before I came to Microsoft. Yeah, it's absolutely great over here. We definitely worked on a large number of projects at Microsoft all over the world. It's a fantastic experience working on gaming.

LARRY HYRB: But now you're working out of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. It's on the console now, which it launched about a month ago, a little bit over a month ago, I believe.

ALEX: Yep.

LARRY HYRB: Going quite well. Everyone seems to really enjoy it. But we've got a free play weekend. And again, depending upon when you're listening to the show, it's happening pretty much right now. Or it already happens. So that's why you need to download.

ALEX: It should already have happened. Yep.

[LAUGHTER]

LARRY HYRB: Tell us what-- tell us while we're talk-- well, I'm going to just play some video while you and I are talking about it. But tell us what people should do the first thing, Age of Empires. If they're new to the franchise or new to this style of gaming, what should they do to, oh, let me go check this out and see what it's all about?

ALEX: No, absolutely. In fact, one of the first things that we did when designing the Age of Empire II for Xbox is to create a new tutorial. We assume that a lot of our Game Pass players and also our brand new players on Xbox never played Age of Empire before. Or maybe you've seen it. You've heard of it. But you forgot how to play.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

ALEX: So we actually created a completely new tutorial that's geared towards someone who has never played this before. We run through a number of usability tests on this as well to make sure that you actually work for your-- the right audience. And that would be a great entry point into the game. And once you get through that tutorial, you'll feel free to explore some of the more in-depth tutorials. Or just go straight to campaign. Some of our lower difficulty campaigns are quite enjoyable, even for absolute beginner. And then, you can start building up your skill from there.

LARRY HYRB: And that's actually what I was showing here just a minute ago. What you're seeing, if you're watching this on YouTube or on Spotify video, this is-- we're seeing some gameplay right now. This is actually multiplayer because there's a multiplayer component to this as well.

ALEX: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: Alex, you mentioned with your journey into-- to working on the Age of Empires-- and here at Microsoft, you worked on Call of Duty, which everybody knows they're multiplayer. Certainly, there's single player.

ALEX: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: And then, you went to Naughty Dog. And now you're here. What are-- how is this multiplayer different? Clearly, this is not a fast twitch multiplayer. This is a completely different beast, isn't it?

ALEX: Yeah, it's a very different beast. And I will say, one of the things that we definitely tried to do with the Xbox version is we wanted to make the player focus more on the strategic aspect of the multiplayer as opposed to the micromanagement. For those who played RTX real-time strategy games before, you know how much micromanaging there is in competitive games. You can get very chaotic. There are so many things to control, so many things to do.

And one of the things I really appreciate from Age of Empires is that we generally have less emphasis on that and more emphasis on what you're doing or what units to build, where your positioning are, and just general strategy. That's what we want to focus on, and not necessarily on control. So for the console version, we actually double down on that and say, hey, what can we do within the game itself to try to make it even more accessible, more automated, more easier to manage your unit so that you can, again, put more emphasis on the strategic elements?

LARRY HYRB: And when you say all those things, that equals more fun?

ALEX: Yes.

LARRY HYRB: Because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.

ALEX: That people, people like strategy. Strategy game is very common. And it's popular everywhere. And that's the aspect we definitely want to focus on.

LARRY HYRB: We talked-- we were showing a little bit of the UI here. And one of the big stories was adapting the user interface, the UI, from PC, which is point and click and has a keyboard, to the controller. Tell me a little bit about what the team did to optimize that for the console gamer because that is no small feat.

ALEX: Yeah, it's quite a challenge. In fact, one of the first things our team did was we just took the PC game and just plopped it right into our Xbox and see how it worked. And it wasn't great.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS]

ALEX: It was playable. But as you can imagine, it does not feel a native Xbox experience.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

ALEX: So one of the things that we did tell the team is, hey, let's not look at this as a port. This is not a port. What we want to do is we want to make a real-time strategy game for Xbox and start thinking from there of, OK, here's what we want to accomplish. What is the correct way on a controller to get it done? Don't even think about the PC. Just think about the objective.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

ALEX: And let's start designing from that. So that's how we thought about all the UIs, all the controls, and everything. Just, what is the right thing to do on a controller?

LARRY HYRB: Right. And again, you set it up. You frankly set up people that haven't played real-time strategy games for success because you've got the tutorial.

ALEX: Yep.

LARRY HYRB: You've optimized things for the controller on the console. And now it's available in Game Pass. But if you're not a Game Pass subscriber-- but I think if you listen to this podcast, you probably are. But if you're not a Game Pass subscriber, you can-- it's a free play weekend. And what does that mean? There's actually some cool stuff happens. You can save some money on it too, can't you?

ALEX: Oh, yeah, absolutely. First of all, for those of you who want to continue playing the game in the future, absolutely, go get Game Pass. Or purchase a game at a $15-- 15% off on this weekend, which is a fantastic deal on already a very, very good price for the game. And you get the whole package. This weekend, just go out and play. Single player, multiplayer, there's no restriction on the contents. Everything we have to offer. All of our campaigns, which I doubt you'll be able to get through many of them in a single weekend.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS]

ALEX: But you absolutely [INAUDIBLE].

LARRY HYRB: If you can, let us know. [LAUGHS]

ALEX: If you can, let us know. But absolutely, jump on multiplayer. Play it with your friends. One thing that we're very proud of that we spent a lot of effort on is support of crossplay with PC players.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

ALEX: [INAUDIBLE]

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, tell me about that.

ALEX: Yeah, from the very beginning, that is one of the key objectives we placed on the development. We wanted Xbox player to be part of the existing Age of Empire community. We don't want to just have a separate group of people on console. They play on themselves. They don't have anything to do with the PC group. No, they're all part of the same family.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

ALEX: Which means a number of challenges. And first of all, any update that we have on the PC, new contents, new balance changes, it has to apply on the console at the same time. So everybody has to be on the same level at the same-- and also, we support keyboard and mouse game play on the console. If you're one of the Xbox players that have a keyboard and mouse, plug it in. And you will have the familiar PC interface right back and be able to play just like PC. And of course, if you choose not to play with the PC players, that you just wanted to play with your console buddies, just, you can do that.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

ALEX: Crossplay is definitely optional. You can turn it on and off.

LARRY HYRB: And again, to your point, it's not just-- there's multiplayer is there. But if you just want to play in your single-player mode, you can go through and have some fun on it.

ALEX: Yep, absolutely.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Free play weekend. Age of Empires, it's a franchise that's been around for so long at Microsoft. And Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, it's so great to have it on console. I hope you guys are working on other things because it's great to see the reception that this style of game has on the console. It's got to be great to see that as well.

ALEX: Yeah, absolutely. Our studio is busy with a lot of very cool content coming up. You all heard about-- we already announced the Age of Empires IV for console that's coming in the distant future.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

ALEX: Or maybe not so distant, but depending on your perspective. But before that, we actually have some other cool announcements we can-- we'll be making.

LARRY HYRB: So stay tuned for that. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, it's available. It's a free play weekend right now. And I want to also point out, it's free play on console and it's on PC? Both platforms are free play.

ALEX: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: So that's the beauty of this.

ALEX: Yeah, so go get it from the Windows Store.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah.

ALEX: And yeah, if you have a Game Pass or if you just want to go try it out, it's all there.

LARRY HYRB: All right. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Alex, really appreciate you coming by from World's Edge. Always great to chat with you. And we'll get you back on again in the future when you have more to talk about. How's that sound?

ALEX: Yeah, sounds great.

KELLY BOYLE: Thank you so much to our guests for joining us. I hope that you all enjoyed those interviews. And I'm going to kick it over to Jeff, who has one last thing to chat about with you guys.

LARRY HYRB: Before we let everybody go.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: All right. Larry, what's your favorite part? Technically, what's your favorite part about Sea of Thieves? Visually, what really stands out to you?

LARRY HYRB: You're setting me up here because you know the answer.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'm not setting you up.

LARRY HYRB: No.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I just think I know what you're going to say.

LARRY HYRB: Well, I am a scuba diver.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yes.

LARRY HYRB: Which takes place in the water.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Right.

LARRY HYRB: It is a well known fact that Sea of Thieves has probably some of the greatest water I've ever seen in a video game. And--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You didn't let me down here, Larry, because there's a great story over on Washington Post that ran this week by Lewis Gordon. And it talks about how Rare created their water. And also, it's alongside Horizon Forbidden West, which I have, but have not played. And the water looks great there too. So great water. And something I always notice, any game I play where there's water, you end up looking at it. And it's like, does this water look good? Or does it not look good? And Sea of Thieves has always had amazing water. It's really only gotten better over the years.

LARRY HYRB: Well, and I don't know-- I have not read the article yet, Jeff. Thank you for bringing it up.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yep.

LARRY HYRB: I'll tweet it out later.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Please.

LARRY HYRB: I believe I remember talking to the team at Rare. At one point, they had two or three different artists just for water. An artist deals on, how does it look? It's also the physics of the water or making sure that it behaves properly, and the tides, and the whole routine.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: So it's fascinating.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's just-- yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, if you've played Sea of Thieves, and you've stood on the bow of the ship as you're going up and down, and you're seeing the waves go, it's just-- that's the closest I ever want to get to that. But [INAUDIBLE].

LARRY HYRB: And if I remember correctly, there's actually a lot of things they have to do to make it realistic. But there's a lot of things they have to not do to not make sure that it doesn't make you seasick. So it's always a fine line to be the right thing.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: But it's fine. There's certain things that you look, at least I do, video gaming for so long like we all have. The question is when you get into a-- when you're playing a game-- and I'm not saying, this doesn't happen in Sea of Thieves. With Sea of Thieves, you look at the water with--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I just sent you a link to it, Larry.

LARRY HYRB: Thank you.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: If you could tweet that out or put that up later.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, I'll put it out there.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Because it's-- just looking at the GIFs in the story is spellbinding.

LARRY HYRB: But I'm just saying, there's certain things you expect out of video games. One of them, with Sea of Thieves, it's about the water because it's about pirates and being on the water. And, Jeff, I think they had a-- last week-- we haven't had a chance to talk about this. So this is actually a great segue. They released a documentary, the Sea of Thieves, about the road to that game and how it had its start. And you and I had an opportunity. I remember that was one of the first things we did when you joined the company or early on was you and I said, Jeff, let's go. I'm like, where are we going? Just come with me. And we went up to this conference room. And we played that build that you see in the documentary?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: We did. And we have a whole story about that too over on Xbox Wire.

LARRY HYRB: Yep.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And there's actually-- you can-- they recorded Phil as he was playing it for the first time. And he was playing against Kudo. And it's just a fun little clip that's built in on that blog post.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, so it was-- but to your point, the water is fantastic. And you expect things out of video games. And you want great water out of pirates, so out of Sea of Thieves.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Stay hydrated.

LARRY HYRB: I need to get back. I need to get back. Did I tell you what happened with that game? I got into the game.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [GASPS]

LARRY HYRB: And I think I mentioned this on the show last week, is I went into the game. And I was like, oh, I need to go-- because they've completely redone Sea of Thieves with their five-year anniversary. And I wanted to go check out the new outpost. And I actually spawned there. But I didn't recognize anything. I was so--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Really?

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, it was so amazing. So it's really worth getting back into. Did you play a lot of it, Kelly?

KELLY LOMBARDI: I was talking with someone-- yeah, we should play. I'm a pirate legend. I can carry.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah, that's right. Jeff is not. He is-- he's let us down.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: No. I'm a pirate jobber.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Come on. Get good.

LARRY HYRB: Yeah. [LAUGHS]

KELLY LOMBARDI: I was talking with someone last night about how fun it is to revisit a game that has new features that you're discovering for the first time.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I played so much Sea of Thieves. And it's one of my favorite games. And then, you load back in. And you're like, what is this?

LARRY HYRB: Right.

KELLY LOMBARDI: What's happening here?

LARRY HYRB: Right.

KELLY LOMBARDI: The same thing happened with Apex Legends, where I was like, what's this thing that's going to do-- it's nice being able to discover things in games that you've already put a lot of hours into.

LARRY HYRB: Right.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Because it feels like you're learning things for the first time.

LARRY HYRB: The beauty of live games. Anyway--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

LARRY HYRB: All right. Well, we got to wrap it up. We got to let everybody go. Thank you, Jeff, for joining us this week. Kelly, always great to see you. Thank you for joining us and bringing us a little bit of your Rhode Island flair in here.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah. [LAUGHS]

LARRY HYRB: And, Jeff, whatever flair you bring. [CHUCKLES]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: The Rhode Island Rumbler.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I'm always bringing the party pizza, yeah.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: We have a wrestling intro for you. Yes.

LARRY HYRB: [LAUGHS] Anyway, we'll be back next week. We've got another great show lined up, where we're going to have some good interviews. Of course, as always, if you have any questions, make sure you hit us up on Twitter. I'll bring that up right now so you can find us.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Rhode Island Rogue. I'm trying to bring it back to Diablo, maybe. Maybe.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Rhode-- oh, yeah, because the state bird is the Rhode Island Red. So Rhode Island Rogue is funny.

LARRY HYRB: And she's like, she's a bird, yeah. That's right.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: All right. Larry's going to cut my mic. So I'll just do it now.

LARRY HYRB: No. No, I--

KELLY LOMBARDI: [LAUGHS]

LARRY HYRB: I'll let you go, Jeff. All right, gang.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Anyway.

LARRY HYRB: We'll see everybody next week. Thanks for joining us. And hit us up on Twitter. We'll see you guys later. Bye bye.