567: DC Universe Online comes to Xbox One and more

Larry: Hi, it's Larry Hyrb. Xbox Live's Major Nelson. Here with the show number 567. In the studio we have have the whole gang. Jeffrey's here.

Jeffrey: Yeah, I'm here.

Larry: Sending texts to somebody, what are you ordering?

Jeffrey: Uh, more uh, chicken sandwiches.

Larry: More chicken sandwiches. And of course also there's the lovely and intelligent Laura Massey. Hello, Laura.

Laura: Hello, glad to be here.

Larry: Nice to see you.

Laura: Good to see you too.

Larry: We're back together. You know, the last time we got together it was uh Laura and I and virtually Jeff via the podcast at PAX last week.

Jeffrey: In some ways I felt like I was more there than you were.

Laura: (laughs)

Larry: It was the weirdest, weirdest experience. We've never done a podcast like where one of us is remote. Usually we've done it where all three of us or all four of us are all over the place.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jeffrey: I was worried that uh, that it wouldn't work. That we'd be too disjointed but I was staring at your face the entire time.

Laura: (laughs)

Larry: You were too busy playing Dark Souls is what you were doing.

Jeffrey: And succeeding.

Larry: And succeeding quite well, I might add. So, it was a great show last week.

Laura: Yeah, super fun.

Larry: I do need to check because I know that in that room we were in that the PAX account on twitch was streaming everything.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: But I don't think they hacked it up into individual show chunks yet. So, I think part of like the Q and A is up, Laura.

Laura: Okay.

Larry: But like the - I don't know.

Laura: That's so strange.

Larry: If we get it up I will go ahead and link off to that, but.

Laura: Okay.

Larry: But welcome back. We're here on the show. We've got a couple of things going on and I need, I need your feedback, awesome listeners.

Laura: Oh.

Larry: Do you know why?

Jeffrey: No.

Larry: One of the challenges technically that we struggle with on the show is Laura, your voice is, your voice is a female voice. It's a little bit different than, than Jeff's, you know?

Jeffrey: Baritone? No. That's not it.

Laura: (laughs)

Larry: His tenor. Um, so, uh, I've got a new device that I'm testing out.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: So, hopefully it's - hopefully people will be able to hear you clearer and better than ever before.

Laura: Better quality. We'll see.

Larry: I should drop -

Laura: What do you guys think?

Larry: Well, no, I was wondering, I don't have a pin. We could do the old Sprint thing. Remember back in the 90's when they dropped the pin?

Jeffrey: Yes, I do. I could hear a pin drop! It's like you're in the next room.

Larry: Like do you ever want to do that?

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Larry: Now though, I don't know if you know this. Laura, I know that you don't, you don't talk a lot on your phone. Do you?

Laura: No, I sure don't.

Larry: Right, I know Jeff doesn't. Do you?

Jeffrey: What's this now?

Larry: Do you talk a lot on your mobile phone?

Jeffrey: On my text box? My texting box?

Larry: Yeah, your texting box.

Laura: (laughs)

Larry: Well, no. Now there's a lot of devices, like the Windows phone and some of the Androids and the Iphones. They have high, high HD audio. So, now like, when I talk to my sisters or my mom when you're calling mobile to mobile, if everything lines up right, then you got this, it's really, it's like Xbox, it's like Xbox One chat. It's uncanny.

Laura: Really?

Larry: You hear things you don't want to hear, yeah.

Jeffrey: Well, it's funny, it's like back in the old day of like long, like wired phones.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeffrey: Which is - it just seems funny because I haven't had one in like this whole century.

Larry: Really?

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Larry: Okay.

Jeffrey: Um, yeah, when I left college I was like why would I ever do this? Anyway, but like, like, all the marketing stuff was like you can hear better than you know MCI or whatever the heck it was.

Larry: Right, right.

Jeffrey: And like now, it's like nobody calls anyone, so.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeffrey: That's funny. Well, I mean, you and your sister of course.

Larry: I like calling you.

Jeffrey: Well.

Larry: Well, I don't call you because I know you wouldn't, there's some people, you know, it's funny you say that, because there's some people that like I talk to or text but they have a very different tenor when you're talking to them versus texting and texting, that's just the way text is.

Laura: Right. You have to be brief because that's the medium.

Larry: Oh, I'm not brief. I'm not brief at all. You guys send text messages sometimes that go on and on (laughs).

Jeffrey: When you're talking to Larry and you've probably noticed this as well, if you are talking to him on the phone, no one hangs up faster. I almost have like a little race with myself.

Larry: Really?

Jeffrey: Where I'm having a conversation and I know the conversation is wrapping up, I'm like I'm going to hang up first.

Laura: (laughs)

Jeffrey: No, never.

Larry: (laughs)

Jeffrey: And I'm like all right, bye, and then by then I still hear just a little bit of a dial tone. So, whatever.

Larry: Sorry. Someone else made that comment too.

Laura: Are you trying to get off the phone immediately, or?

Larry: It's just I know where I'm going and I'm going okay goodbye, click (laughs).

Jeffrey: And the other thing is when we're, when we're like in an Xbox Live party. We're playing like The Division or something. You're out of the party like as soon as I say goodnight. You're like psh, you're like, you're out. Are you just like yanking the ethernet cord out?

Larry: Here's a little bit of a secret is I know what I'm - I know like okay I'm going to leave the party now. So, I'm already in one of the two or three screens to exit party.

Jeffrey: You're like the guy -

Laura: Oh.

Larry: So, I'm sitting on the exit party button. So, I'm like okay, bye. Click.

Laura: Goodnight.

Larry: (laughs)

Laura: So, you're waiting to say goodbye.

Larry: Exactly!

Laura: And so your finger is hovering over the button.

Larry: Right! And then I click A and I'm out. So, that's why it happens as opposed to other people. Okay, I'm going to go now, and you hear click, click.

Laura: Click, click.

Jeffrey: I always mute first.

Laura: (laughs)

Larry: You hear the headphones come off and anyways, so.

Jeffrey: You're like the guy who gets on the plane wearing the parachute. You know?

Larry: (laughs)

Laura: (laughs)

Larry: I've done that. I have done that. When I was - it's an Iraq story.

Jeffrey: Oh, yes.

Larry: (laughs)

Laura: Okay.

Jeffrey: That's probably for the best.

Larry: So, anyway, now that you're here talking about - we're here talking about crazy stuff. We're off in the woods. Let us get back to games. Again, PAX last week. Thank you for tuning in and answering some great questions that uh, at PAX last week. Wasn't that fun, Laura?

Laura: It was.

Jeffrey: What did you play?

Laura: I played Cuphead. Do you know that game?

Jeffrey: I don't think I do.

Laura: In develop for a while.

Larry: The Cuphead guys were great.

Laura: Yes, and then talked to a couple of guys.

Larry: Yeah.

Laura: I learned a lot about them. They're apparently brothers and they grew up watching all of the old style cartoons and fell in love with their art style.

Larry: You know, I talked to them as well. My sister, talk about my sister, my sisters and I grew up on Bugs Bunny like most people our age did. You didn't though.

Laura: Yes, I did.

Larry: You did? Like, so I can - no, not the little one.

Jeffrey: Not Tiny Toons.

Larry: Not Tiny Toons. (laughs).

Laura: No, Looney Toons.

Larry: Okay, good. Because, I mean, you go back and watch those. First of all, they're incredibly politically incorrect now.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: But they were so awesome. Like, I - so you're telling me I'm okay with dropping some Bugs Bunny references?

Laura: Yes, I would get them.

Larry: Okay, okay.

Laura: That child, that's how most kids got their classical music training.

Larry: Right!

Jeffrey: Oh, that's true.

Laura: Listening to -

Larry: That's how you learn about Opera.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: Kill the rabbit! Kill the rabbit!

Laura: (laughs).

Larry: (laughs).

Jeffrey: If they resurrect these but you should do the casting call for Elmer Fudd.

Larry: I have all of the, I have all the CD, I have them all on DVD, I think. Those are just, those are some, here's what, I've talked about this before, I talked about this to my sister. I think I talked about it on the show. The thing I love about those uh, those cartoons, those animated shorts, whatever you want to call them, go watch them. There's seven or eight minutes because they used to fill in before the main feature would run in theaters.

Laura: Right.

Larry: And they're ten people. Like the director, the writer.

Laura: Oh.

Larry: The team was ten people and that shows you the incredible power of a small team.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry: And working as a small team, so.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry: Anyway.

Jeffrey: Like the Cuphead team.

Larry: Like the cuphead team.

Laura: Yes!

Larry: Tipping it back around. Those guys are great.

Laura: Exactly.

Larry: What are they, Jared and what's the other guy's? I can't remember the two.

Laura: Something with a C. Chad? Maybe.

Larry: Could be.

Laura: I think so. Sorry. Sorry, guys. I apologize.

Larry: Yeah.

Laura: I'm bad with names.

Larry: That's okay.

Laura: Yeah.

Larry: Yeah, no, I love supporting those guys and I'm thrilled to see what they're going to do coming out, so.

Laura: Yeah, so, they were showing a few new boss battles at PAX and I played at the lovely sort of random person in line, Dylan and we tried to take on all of the -

Larry: Which boss did you play? Was it -

Laura: We played the carrot boss.

Larry: Okay.

Laura: We played, well we beat him. We played a blue ball that just could not beat. We tried three times.

Larry: That's a deadly blue ball.

Laura: And then, yeah. We felt like we were hogging the station.

Larry: Blue ball will get you all the time, right Jeff?

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Laura: Gosh.

Jeffrey: Jeez, I ...

Laura: Thanks for bringing it, bringing it down on me.

Jeffrey: (laughs)

Larry: What? I just, I just, you know, they're the Warner Brother's cartoons used to push the edge. What? (laughs)

Jeffrey: This podcast we did ill for low brow.

Laura: Yeah, exactly.

Larry: (laughs)

Jeffrey: We're using Cuphead or mug man.

Larry: Yeah, which one are you playing with? Do you remember?

Laura: No, I don't. They were both cups.

Jeffrey: Well, yes.

Larry: Ones a mug.

Laura: Ones blue and ones red.

Jeffrey: Ones red. The one with the big shiny red nose.

Laura: I didn't notice. I didn't notice there was, there were, just totally different.

Larry: Too busy killing blue ball.

Laura: That's right.

Larry: Was that the, was that the character's name?

Laura: I don't remember his name.

Larry: Okay, well then that's, he's now the -

Jeffrey: We'll wait and see.

Larry: Now known as blue ball. I'm going to email those guys and let them know just blue ball.

Laura: (laughs) Thanks, Larry. Appreciate it.

Larry: No, there's like, there's like the guy with the harp that was bouncing around. I don't know if you saw him flying around. There was a bunch of different guys.

Laura: Yeah, there was and we also tried to kill the woman who is a plane.

Larry: Oh, I didn't see that one.

Laura: Yeah. They had only bosses for PAX.

Jeffrey: Play any of the -

Laura: Played - I don't know. Again, I don't remember their names. Because they didn't really show it and it was extremely hard. We just weren't ready for it. Because you are flying as well as a plane. So, it's -

Jeffrey: Oh, that's cool.

Larry: Oh, so you guys weren't planes, your cups aren't a plane?

Laura: Yes. You turn into a plane as well and you fly.

Larry: Oh.

Laura: Yeah, try and shoot -

Larry: A propeller and your nose?

Laura: Yes.

Larry: Oh, that's way it should be.

Laura: Exactly.

Larry: That's the way it should be.

Laura: That's exactly how it is and died just after a couple of seconds. Were like no we should, we should try one of those easier bosses down there.

Larry: Yes.

Laura: But fun, again, love the art style. I think it's one of the most interesting things to come around in quite some time. It's a very, very unique art style.

Larry: I'm a huge animation fan. I think we talked about this before.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: I just, I love, I just have such a, such an appreciation for the fact that the old school animation, I mean computer animation is great too but it's, it's you're basically telling the computer "Hey, put characters here, make them walk over here and it does the 'tweening." You know the in between?

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry: Where as that the old school style stuff is, it's hand drawn. You know, every minute, every second you're seeing twenty four frames.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry: So, anyway.

Jeffrey: Yeah, you can see the parts that were the background.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeffrey: You can tell when something was going to move.

Larry: Right.

Jeffrey: When something looked slightly different.

Larry: Yeah. Oh, yes. Anyway what else, Laura?

Laura: Speaking of that, I always want to ask you if you've seen this movie that's I don't know when it's coming out but it's a Van Gogh movie and each frame in the Van Gogh movie is a painting that has been painted by someone. It's an oil painting. So, someone, they've crowd sourced it. Where they asked -

Larry: I don't know anything about this.

Laura: To paint.

Larry: In the style of Van Gogh?

Laura: The style of Van Gogh. Each frame of this movie.

Larry: Can you, can you send me a link to that? Or Jeffrey can you capture that? I'll see if we can find that.

Laura: Yeah.

Larry: That is fascinating. Is it out?

Laura: No.

Larry: Is it in progress?

Laura: It's in progress. I've seen an ad for it. To talk about the movie.

Larry: And is it a theatrical release? Or is it a crowd sourced?

Laura: I think it's just a YouTube thing.

Larry: That's cool.

Laura: But, impressive.

Larry: Yeah.

Laura: That an entire movie has each frame which there are sixty, well, whatever their frame is.

Larry: Thirty or thirty four frames per second.

Laura: Frames a second.

Larry: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's why I appreciate it.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: It's just a little, there's a little, I actually have one, I have a, I collect some animation piece. You don't know this about me.

Laura: No.

Larry: I have some, one of my, one of my prized possessions is one of the original cells from um, Snow White.

Jeffrey: Really?

Laura: Oh.

Larry: And the original one used and it was, it's a picture of Dopey. And I don't know what it's worth nowadays but it's one of the, it's from when they originally were in production.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry: It's uh, I think it's called the Quarter Of Ciar. So, so.

Jeffrey: That was from like the 30's, right?

Larry: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah.

Larry: That was one of the first.

Laura: Why'd you choose Dopey?

Larry: Uh, I think, you don't choose Dopey. Dopey chooses you.

Laura: I see.

Larry: (Laughing).

Jeffrey: (Laughing).

Larry: So, it's I guess, yeah. I guess it's one of those things. But, anyway, so, animation. Love animation. Big fans of, love the show.

Laura: Yes. Super fun.

Larry: (singing) Can you feel the love tonight? Why am I singing that? I don't know why I went into that.

Laura: Lion King?

Larry: Yeah. I don't know why I went into that. I was, there was something I was watching, I was online, I saw this, it was, someone was playing the Lion King. You know, the beginning of it, where they hold the, you know, the opening sing.

Laura: Yes, the circle of life.

Larry: And it was, it was I think it was some place in Africa and it was lion cubs watching that. (laughs)

Laura: Waiting for it to come down?

Larry: No, the lion cubs were actually watching it.

Laura: Oh, oh.

Larry: Real life lion cubs were watching it on TV.

Laura: Watching the Lion King?

Larry: Right.

Laura: Oh, that's funny.

Larry: How meta is that, right? Anyway.

Laura: That's funny.

Larry: So, what else did you play at PAX, Ms. Laura?

Laura: You have this -

Jeffrey: Did you try any VR or any of those other stuff?

Laura: We -

Larry: We tried to.

Laura: We tired to.

Larry: We tried to but the lines were fairly long and it was -

Laura: We didn't have too much time.

Larry: Because it was, it's, you know, you can't move through those lines quick enough. You know, because there's a lot of you've got to put the head, you've got to put your headset on and you've got to figure out what's going on and you're groping for walls and god only knows what else.

Laura: I walked by the Doom booth and I didn't get in line but I watched for a round or so somebody else play Doom. That's one way too.

Larry: Did you play Doom back in the day?

Laura: I did, yes. I played Doom regular and then Doom 2. I can't remember, which one invented the monster closets and played that in the dark. I was extremely scared. That was the first time I was actually really scared playing video games.

Larry: Playing video games. Right. Right.

Laura: And I wanted to see if they were demoing the single player and they weren't. It was demoing the multi-player.

Larry: Yeah, you saw. I didn't know you got a hold of that. I would have talked to Pete. Pete Hines from Bethesda, got you in there. So.

Laura: Yeah, they had a massive statue of one of the big monsters.

Larry: One of the characters, yeah.

Laura: And had a rack of guns to go take a picture with the monster. So, I did that.

Larry: Oh, I didn't see that.

Laura: That's all right.

Larry: But what we did take a picture with was?

Laura: Massive dinosaur.

Larry: The dinosaur from Ark.

Laura: You didn't post it though.

Larry: You know, I didn't. You're right.

Laura: Yeah.

Larry: I totally forgot. Did you send me the photo?

Laura: Yes, I did.

Larry: Okay, my bad. All right, I need to do that then.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: I'm going to do it on uh, you know, found on my phone Friday.

Laura: (laughs)

Larry: (laughs) It just random, random images that I'll post. I totally forgot about that. You're right.

Laura: Yes, and we had to do remember? We had to do two tries of taking the picture.

Larry: Right, because you weren't pleased with how I had my, I had my leg like back or something.

Laura: You had it forward.

Larry: Laura was like twenty feet below me and I'm up to, I come down and she's like no we got to do it again.

Laura: Do it again.

Larry: It doesn't look right.

Laura: Teach you how to ride a dinosaur.

Larry: So, we did that.

Jeffrey: You didn't have the giant beaver from the, from the DLC?

Larry: No. You know, but what they did have if you rode the dinosaur, you know what you got, Laura?

Laura: You got a plushie of poo.

Jeffrey: Oh, that's right. I heard about that.

Laura: Poo plushie!

Larry: Yeah, the poo plushie.

Jeffrey: I didn't get to see it. Did you bring it back?

Laura: Yes, I did.

Larry: Of course.

Jeffrey: Did you bring it here? Is he in your pocket?

Laura: No.

Larry: No.

Jeffrey: Okay.

Laura: (laughs)

Larry: If I had it I would insert the sound effect here but I don't have the sound effect. I'll have to call Jesse and ask him for the sound effect.

Jeffrey: Jackie the joke man Martley.

Larry: Uh, so, yeah, we rode the dinosaur.

Laura: It was super fun. Sixteen feet high was that dinosaur.

Larry: And then we also got our photo taken at the quantum break booth.

Laura: That was super fun.

Larry: And I have uploaded those videos.

Laura: Oh, you have?

Larry: Yeah, so we have them actually. I'll make sure to make a note there, Jeff.

Jeffrey: Note there, yep.

Larry: Uh, we have them, they're a hidden link. So, you'll have to go to the podcast notes to find it. It's on on my YouTube channel. I uploaded them, so.

Laura: Oh, to your YouTube?

Larry: Yes. So, we took the two. Remember we did two takes?

Laura: Yeah, it was two takes.

Larry: And we stitched them together so you can see them both. One, Laura was kicking me in the face and the other one she's kicking me in the nether region.

Laura: (laughs) Accidentally. I just let it happen.

Jeffrey: Of course. Yes.

Laura: It's just what happens, so.

Jeffrey: Long time coming.

Larry: That was after she, that's after she fought the boss in Cuphead, so.

Laura: That's right (laughs).

Jeffrey: (laughs). See what you did there, Jeffrey? The old dipsey doodle on that one.

Laura: (Laughing).

Larry: (Laughing). Oh, boy. So, yeah. PAX was a lot of fun.

Laura: It sure was.

Larry: And then of course we did the show and you played. And so, what we did for those of you that couldn't catch it, uh, we, Laura and I were in, we're at PAX, at PAX east in Boston. Laura came out, thank you. Jeff unfortunately had a couple of things he had to do and he couldn't make it but we brought you in via the magic of Skype.

Jeffrey: Worked way better than we expected.

Larry: Worked way better than we expected. So.

Jeffrey: Thank you, Skype peoples.

Larry: Yeah, so we just hooked up and you were there and you were adding your two cents and playing Dark souls in you're, you're back here in Seattle.

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Larry: You're back here in Seattle so you're playing Dark Souls and I'm finding out of course we have the guys from uh, Overwatch.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: You played a little bit of Overwatch as well.

Laura: Yes, I did.

Larry: By the way, thank you everyone one and all for all that showed up and also the folks that asked the questions.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: We had some amazing questions.

Laura: We did.

Larry: Yeah.

Laura: We had a ton of good ones.

Jeffrey: And a couple of amazing answers.

Laura: (Laughing).

Larry: (Laughing). I know, right. It just is.

Laura: Sometimes you try.

Larry: I just, we try to do what we can do, so.

Laura: Yeah.

Larry: So, uh, we had great prizes. So, anyway, all in all a lot of fun. Uh, PAX is uh, PAX is coming up and then we've got of course PAX prime is here in Seattle later in the year. So.

Laura: That's right.

Larry: So, after the summer. So, all right let's talk about what else we're playing right now. Laura, do you want to take it home? Did you have a chance? I know you've been trying to, obviously you were in Boston and busy. Have you played anything regular on your console?

Laura: I don't think so.

Larry: I don't think so, either.

Laura: No.

Larry: I don't think I would.

Laura: Have you not had a chance to either?

Larry: I've been playing a little bit of the Gears Of War 4 Beta.

Laura: Oh, right.

Larry: Which is out uh, I think it's over this weekend. I think it's over Sunday depending upon the rest of the show.

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Larry: Uh, played a little bit of that. Uh, Jeff and I have been rolling in The Division as usual. Thank you to all of the folks who have, the fine folks who were match making with to do that. Uh, we went over to Gears Of War. Or, excuse me, uh, Halo. So, yeah, our standards. Oh!

Jeffrey: Some Ori, as well right?

Larry: Ori And The Blind Forest. Playing it on my PC because it's now out on the Windows 10.

Laura: That's right.

Larry: Oh, so.

Jeffrey: The definitive edition.

Larry: The definitive edition so I got it hooked into my, you know I have this massive gaming PC and I do need to put the specs online. Jeff, put that in the notes. I'm going to up-link up to that. I have a blog post that I wrote for that, that I haven't published yet. Um, but I'm playing Ori in 4k.

Jeffrey: Whoa.

Laura: Awesome.

Larry: All the K's.

Laura: You have all of the K's.

Larry: And then there's, it's just -

Laura: That sounds amazing.

Larry: It's just, really -

Laura: It's beautiful.

Larry: The games so beautiful anyway and it's just so much fun. So, yep.

Laura: Awesome.

Larry: Jeff, what are you playing?

Jeffrey: So, I'm also playing Ori on my laptop which is not quite as beast but I'm playing it in 1080p with V sync, which is still pretty awesome. Uh, and actually, a number of games coming to Windows 10 with Xbox Live integration so you get your achievements and everything. Shadow Complex is coming next week.

Larry: Yes, yes.

Laura: Oh.

Jeffrey: So, I have been playing that on Xbox One when I get a few minutes here and there but I will probably switch over and I will report over if there's any sort of save portabl-ing. I will find that out.

Larry: I think there is. It works great on Ori.

Jeffrey: You would think but, uh, you know, I'm not sure, yeah, exactly.

Larry: Ori is just like, it's one those things where you're like, you know, you pick a play on the console and then or you pick it up on your computer. When I was out in uh, when I was out in New England for PAX, I went out a little bit early and I had a console at my place out there and I just started playing Ori and stopped and came back here and picked it up. I was playing there on the console and then played it on the PC at home and it just, seamless.

Jeffrey: Quantum Break also works great like that.

Larry: Stuff works great when it works great.

Laura: Right?

Larry: (laughs).

Laura: Oh, I have been playing Quantum Break.

Larry: Oh, you have?

Laura: I haven't talked about it yet.

Larry: Oh no, good.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: How far did you get?

Laura: Through the first chapter.

Larry: Okay, yeah. Yeah, it's a little bit slow in the first chapter because it's setting the story up and you have to learn all your stuff.

Laura: Right, you have to learn all the skills.

Larry: Yeah, yeah.

Laura: The skills are so much fun.

Larry: Yeah.

Laura: Throwing time bombs and time shields and all kinds of fun.

Larry: Time stuff.

Jeffrey: It's just cool because you can string them all together.

Laura: Yes.

Jeffrey: Um, and eventually -

Laura: Because you can throw a time bomb and then you dash and you hit him from behind as they're frozen in space.

Larry: Yeah.

Laura: So much fun.

Larry: Fun, fun fun.

Laura: Super fun.

Larry: What else, Jeffrey?

Jeffrey: Well, I probably put about thirty hours into Dark Souls this week.

Larry: You know, that's right. You're really all into the Dark Souls.

Laura: Right.

Jeffrey: Yeah, which I never -

Larry: You're doubling down on that.

Jeffrey: I didn't, I didn't expect to and I think I talked before, like, I tried them all at one point or another. You know, going back to Demon Souls. I saw that, I saw that Tokyo game show in like 2009 and I was like yeah.

Larry: I didn't see you there. We were there together. In 2009 I would have remembered.

Jeffrey: You were there?

Larry: Oh, yeah.

Jeffrey: Well, I didn't see you.

Larry: That's when you were working out somewhere else.

Jeffrey: I was, I was on the other side of the tracks.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeffrey: But, um, uh, which reminds me actually, to talk about um, DC Universe Online.

Larry: Yes.

Jeffrey: But, um, it's, it's uh, you know, I never really got into that but I've always tried it and you know, I'm susceptible to hype. I like the hype. I'll get on the hype train but then I quickly fall off on the Dark Souls games but for whatever reason this one, Andy on our team, he uh, we saw the spring showcase, he sort of walked through -

Larry: He's mentoring you.

Jeffrey: He demystified it a little bit and all you ever hear about dark - name one thing about Dark Souls that you know.

Laura: Throw the controller.

Jeffrey: Yeah, it's hard.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeffrey: And frustrating and uh, he sort of demystified a lot of that stuff for me and now I'm just really gotten into this one.

Laura: Oh.

Jeffrey: And I feel like a number of my complaints in terms of the controls and all of those things, either they're going in Dark Souls 3 or I got over them. One or the other.

Larry: Or maybe you just, you know, now you understand how to deal with it.

Jeffrey: Maybe. One or the other.

Larry: You're not broken, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey: I, (laugh) I felt like I've been a little depressed all week. I wonder if like the oppressiveness of, hey watch that, uh, of being slaughtered by tree bosses.

Laura: Yes, the constant dying, I imagine can't feel good.

Jeffrey: I actually don't die that much though. Like, unless I'm fighting the bosses and then I die all the time.

Larry: Right.

Jeffrey: But, anyway, I don't know. I find it to be like sort of like uh, it's sort of like a survival horror that's in your head. So, like there's jump scares, truly. But, it's more suspense. Because you don't know what's going to lurk around every corner. I don't look at all the walkthroughs. It's just knowing how fragile you are that if you get careless for a second, even the weakest enemy can just shred you up and so it adds this level off uh, you know, you're constantly on like tip toe throughout the entire game and then after a while you learn where everyone's at. It's all very consistent and then you can just like triumphantly run past people and there's something to that, obviously. As millions have discovered before me.

Larry: Yes, they have.

Jeffrey: Not exactly you know, discovering America here. People have been here. To Dark Souls land.

Larry: Somehow we went from Dark Souls to Columbus.

Jeffrey: Well, it was, not saying, plumbing new ground here.

Larry: Right, right.

Jeffrey: Or whatever the metaphor is.

Larry: All right, we get it already.

Jeffrey: It's good, okay. I wish I was playing it now.

Larry: We're uh, you mentioned uh, DC Universe Online, you know they announced it in January and it surprise, it became available. Available to download and play for free on Friday, Laura.

Laura: That's great.

Larry: This past Friday. So we actually have uh -

Jeffrey: Yeah, so that team is, so it used to be Sony Online Entertainment, I used to work with the scene, great people and they make games such as Everquest and uh, Planetside and DC Universe I want to say it was their first ever console game that hit PS3 quite a while ago and so that, there's a pretty well developed world and they've worked out think a lot of the kinks.

Larry: Right.

Jeffrey: And when they sort of were divested from Sony, I think it became Daybreak.

Larry: This was about a year ago.

Jeffrey: Yeah, um, they were like, the first, I remember day one, they were like we're going to bring our games to Xbox and I was like that's pretty awesome and they made good in under a year.

Larry: So, the good news is we have SJ Miller who's the DC Universe creative director, I had a chance to chat with her. So, that's our interview this week. Would you like to listen to it?

Jeffrey: I would love to.

Larry: Joining me today, uh, via Skype, is our good friend SJ Miller who's the creative director for DC Universe Online. SJ, welcome to the show.

SJ: Hey, thanks for having me on.

Larry: Really excited to talk to you. I know you and I were just chatting before we went on the air here. You're just back from PAX east. Always great to be out there, isn't it?

SJ: Yeah, always great to be out there. Not so great when you bring the plague home with you.

Larry: Oops, oops, well, you got to use your hand sanitizer and you've got to bump fists and not shake hands. I always say that.

SJ: Yeah, I know. We were handing out H1Z1, the hand sanitizer and I don't think I used it enough.

Larry: (laughs) there's the irony there. But, anyway. I'm so thrilled to have you on the show because DC Universe Online now available on Xbox one. Let's talk about it and what Xbox owners can expect from this, uh, from this great MMO.

SJ: Yeah, we are very excited. Uh, this is actually Daybreaks first game on the Xbox and I'm sure there will be many more. But, it's the first one and it's the first and only MMO based in the DC comics universe.

Larry: Yeah.

SJ: It is uh, very high paced action physics based brawler. Did I say brawler? You can use your hands, you can use your super powers but you can also use your pistols and rifles and all sorts of things. It's like all kinds of action combat in one game.

Larry: So, it's anything goes.

SJ: Basically. It's kind of like the DC comics universe. You've got your red hood. You know, he's running around shooting pistols. You got Batman who's punching guys in the face. You got, we even have heat vision in our game that players can have.

Larry: So, let's talk about the game. I mean it's, it's I want to talk about what's required. What people should do when they get in there. The games been out for a little while. So, you guys evolved it on other platforms. What, what, you know, it's the first question everyone always asks. Okay, what version is the Xbox One getting? Right?

SJ: It is getting the latest, essentially. We're not holding back any of the content. You just go to the store, you download. You get, you know, it's a free to play download. You get hours and hours of absolutely free content and we're also going to have all the premium like uh, story packs and episodes. We call them episodes. Updates, uh, for purchase, or you can just become a member and you get access to all of the episodes. That's five years worth of updates and content. I mean, updates are for everybody, of course where we put in features and stuff like that. But, everything's available to the, available to the, today. They can go get it right now.

Larry: That, that's really exciting because I mean, there's a, there's a tremendous amount. I was reading online stuff somewhere. I guess, since the game came online, that the players have created like thirty five, more than thirty five million super heroes and villains. That's crazy.

SJ: Yeah, it's a few more than in the comic books. That's true.

Larry: (laughs) what uh, you know, so for the, for the users that haven't had a chance, the Xbox owners haven't had a chance to play the game on the other platforms. What do you, what do you kind of recommend their glide path of entry is?

SJ: (laughs) uh, it's really, whatever you dreamed of when you were a little kid. I mean, my uh, my main is a gadgets Batman mentor character. Because that's another thing, you get to pick like heroes get to pick between Superman, Batman, and Wonderman as a mentor that will kind of be a part of their, part of their, they'll be a guide throughout the content.

Larry: Sure.

SJ: Villains can pick from Lex Luther, The Joker, or which is, Mark Hammel in our game.

Larry: Wow.

SJ: Uh, yeah. And uh -

Larry: Can we talk about that for a second? Because -

SJ: Sure

Larry: Is he not just the most amazing Joker voice?

SJ: Yeah, he is the Joker.

Larry: Right.

SJ: As far as I'm concerned.

Larry: Yeah, I mean I just remember you know, when he started doing the I'm like oh, really? Mark Hammel, he's not going to be able to do this and then he did it and you're like oh my god. It's like, it's like, you giggle when he's delivering his lines. Did you get to work with him?

SJ: I did, actually. I got to write the, the uh, last laugh DLC from I guess that was our fourth episode.

Larry: Wow.

SJ: And I got to uh, help direct him. Which, not like he needed any help.

Larry: Sure.

SJ: (laughs)

Larry: Yeah, I mean, that's amazing. I mean, he's just an incredible talent, to have him in the game, to be able to have Joker as your mentor. So, what does that mean as a mentor? So, one of the characters are going to pop up and kind of like guide you through the game, as you said?

SJ: Yeah, basically um, because everybody's guided by uh, two DC characters or a cool calculator depending on the hero or villain. but, they kind of you know, you want to have that experience with whatever you grew up loving. You know, so, you get to spend a lot of time with your mentor as well. In the leveling experience. Now, once you get to the high end, it's kind of like you're part of the Justice League or society of villains. So, you're just, everybody's together but in the leveling experience you kind of need somebody to help you along.

Larry: Now, I want to point out, this is an MMO but you've got PVP and PVE um options, correct?

SJ: Yeah. Absolutely. Got to have that. Got to have both.

Larry: Yeah, I mean, that's of course. I just want to make sure. I just want to make sure, not judging.

SJ: (laughs)

Larry: Um, but there's really, there's a lot going on in the PVP and the PVE section. Where do you, again, where should they, where should the Xbox owner kind of go in? I assume they're going to start in the PVE side before they dip their toe in the PVP section.

SJ: Yeah. Basically, uh, on your character which you create, you design both the look, size, you know, your costume, your powers in character create. You create your own guy.

Larry: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

SJ: And um, one thing that's really exciting about Xbox is all the names are available. You don't have to put fourteen zeroes on the end of it. Because on day one you can pretty much, everything is up for grabs.

Larry: Right.

SJ: Uh, so, you'll start off that way but very quickly you can get into PVP. Um, also, in PVP uh, we have two kinds of PVP. There's where you play as your own character. We also have legends in our game, which is we have over forty DC iconic characters that you can play is in legends mode. So, you can have like PVP where it's Batman versus Wonderwoman. It's really cool. Um, we also have certain content that you can play as those characters. So, it's kind of like two games in one. You can play your own character or you can play many of the most popular DC characters.

Larry: So, these are, so, I also want to point out, is that you're not doing any kind of cross play thing here? This is Xbox in the PVP section. It's Xbox owners versus Xbox owners, right?

SJ: Yes. Right, yes.

Larry: Because I know you've got a bunch of servers around the world. Okay.

SJ: That is absolutely correct. Xbox is its own server.

Larry: That way, thus, that's as you said earlier. That's why you can get your name.

SJ: Yes, exactly.

Larry: Where, you know, what's it been like working on this over the past I guess you said like five years or so? With all the content coming out, it's been really, it's going to be amazing for you to help evolve the game and take it where you, where you've wanted to go. Talk us through some of the addition that you added throughout the years and kind of where you want to go with it.

SJ: It's always like, it's a challenge but it's always really exciting to work on a Live game because you don't ship it and forget it. You get to go back and add additional power sets. Like, we've added like quantum powers, atomic powers, munitions. Just, we added uh, rage from the Lantern, you know uh, lore. Um, we're up to fourteen different power sets players can have and we're working on water powers right now based off of Mera of Atlantis and Polad who makes like hard water constructs. Um, but we get to, we get to add all these things that either didn't make it in or we didn't, you know, it just wasn't part of the original scope. Like we, we added in uh, a layer system. Where you can create your own essentially your own layer. Like, Batman has the bat cave and Superman has the fortress.

And, so, you can create your own and you can create one with your league. Which are guilds, in our game. You can, you have this enormous league hall where you can also decorate that. Because, we have tons of items that we dropped in game or sell them in the marketplace. Like, you can get the bat mobile for your layer. Stuff like that.

Larry: Why would you not have that?

SJ: I know, I have it. I can guarantee you that.

Larry: So, a lot going on there.

SJ: Yeah.

Larry: When you talk about the PVP and the PVE, I want to talk about, you know, this is not just a brawler. Certainly you talked about, that's a lot of it but there's also, you've got a lot of story in here.

SJ: Oh, yeah. Definitely a very narrative driven game. I mean, that's a big draw to the game, is to participate in the comic book stories. We take a lot of stories from the comics and then we kind of turn our own thing. You know, we do our own spin on it because we're our own planet. It's our own universe in the multi-verse.

Larry: Right.

SJ: But it's very heavily story driven. All the way, you know, especially to the launch mission with the Braniac story line. Um, but, then we, when you get to the higher levels we have a lot of um, side stories. Like, right now, in the next episode that comes out in May uh, players get to finally face off with Dark Side.

Larry: Right.

SJ: And, also, we get to do a small little caper kind of with Harley Quinn. So, we get to do all these different, it's almost like one shots, like comic book one shots.

Larry: Yeah.

SJ: You can go and run off and do this one thing or you can come back to the bigger story about Braniac later.

Larry: And I want to be also clear is that you talked about some content coming out in May. That will come out obviously at Xbox One as your other platforms, right?

SJ: That is totally the plan. Everything's going to be the same across all consoles.

Larry: Now, I also want to point out since uh, since I say that, you know, it's now out, is that uh, there's some exclusive items that Xbox one players will have at launch. Can you kind of go over those for us?

SJ: Yes. We are excited uh, about this launch so we want to celebrate it with three exclusive items for Xbox. Players that download and play the game uh, on all their characters have access to three style items. One is called the powered up emblem which is a really cool unique uh, emblem that they can slot into different pieces of gear, kind of like Superman or Batman. You see that sometimes. He has it on his belt. Sometimes he has it on his, you know, his chest and stuff like that. You also get the powered up cape, which has the same uh, kind of logo design worked into a really cool cape. Because everybody needs a cape.

Larry: Yeah, that's like you, that's the prize of entry. You have to have a cape in this game.

SJ: (laughs) yeah, right and you know, if you, you might decide no capes and not wear it but that's okay too.

Larry: Right.

SJ: And the third they get is called the vapor aura and auras are, are really um, exciting item in our game. On the other consoles they become kind of like people's favorite way to customize their characters because it kind of like puts a glow around you kind like Green Lantern or Firestorm.

Larry: Sweet.

SJ: And Xbox gets uh, a unique one called the vapor aura.

Larry: What color is it?

SJ: Uh, kind of like a misty white, I guess. (laughs) it looks kind of like a, it kind of looks like um, kind of like a fog rolling off of them a little bit.

Larry: It must uh, with a proper lighting it must look very angelic (laughs)

SJ: (laughs) it could, it could.

Larry: Now, I want to talk about the game, you said it's free to play. Of course you're going to have to have Xbox gold to play online but tell me about the in-game economy and how you handle that and how you balance that out.

SJ: That's a really good question.

Larry: (laughs)

SJ: Um, I'd say that we have two types of currency in the game. You know, we have kind of like a, it's called cash. You know, and it's stuff that players often use to deal with each-other. Uh, like, for example, if they get one of those cool auras they put it up on the broker for some crazy amount of money.

Larry: Right.

SJ: Um, but what we really use as far as like progression currency in our game is a marks system where you run relevant content, you earn you know, a type of token that you can buy gear with by other types of, you can fuel your base and stuff like that.

Larry: Right.

SJ: And also, they do use cash to like repair their equipment and stuff like that. So, we kind of have like multiple types of currency in the game that use different things but we kind of let players run the cash system on their own.

Larry: Yeah, I mean, again because it's free to play so you're able to play a lot of the game without you know, for free essential, right?

SJ: Yeah. It's a little tricky as a free player um, we do have a cash cap and they can go into escrow and pull stuff out but um, members are pretty much given free reign to become billionaires in a game. You want to be like Bruce Wayne? Become a billionaire.

Larry: Tell me about working with DC. In terms of, clearly you're working in a massive sandbox that has many years and many story lines and much legacy. How much wiggle room do you have to have fun with that?

SJ: We actually have a lot of freedom. I think that's an earned trust that we have. I mean, we've been working with them for over a decade at this point.

Larry: Wow.

SJ: So, we have a really strong relationship with the team over at DC um, and recently we kind of increased our collaboration across all different properties. You know, we used to be really driven by the comics uh, mostly but we kind of opened that up and we've done things in the game that connect to the television shows now and the films as well.

Larry: Wow. So, you really, you really can step back and look at the entire pallet and the entire universe and decide really where you guys want to go with the game.

SJ: Yeah, we want to be plugged in. Where we want to be relevant, we want to be what you know, the players are excited about and usually they're excited about the last episode of Flash or Supergirl or the new movie coming out and we get to be a part of that now and so do the players. They get to be plugged into the current DC universe.

Larry: What are you, you know, you look out, you have this massive constellation of stars and areas to kind of connect and have fun with, it's got to be exciting for you guys working on the game with this really renewed interest in the superhero and just from the movie standpoint and in large correct?

SJ: Yeah, I would say that like our mainstream reach is just growing every day. More and more people are becoming interested in DC.

Larry: Yeah, that's without a doubt because I've seen that all the time and I know that, you know, when you guys made the announcement that it was coming out, I think it was earlier this year you announced it, right? I think it was in January.

SJ: Yeah, that's correct.

Larry: And, uh, there was just a lot of real excitement because it's like wait a minute. Because people have seen this on other platforms, like this is finally coming to Xbox and I know the Xbox owners are really, really excited about it. So, it's cool. What, uh, I always like to ask this question with a title that's been on other platforms. It's coming to Xbox. What should they, you know, what should the Xbox owner do immediately in terms of, give us a little, give us a little point direction that you can get us started to jump start the listeners here.

SJ: Well, first of all, go to the store and download it.

Larry: Step one, download. Step two, question mark then profit.

SJ: You can also check out (laughs) you can also check out, we actually have a brand new redesigned website. Dcuniverseonline.com and it's loaded full of all sorts of guides for new players and uh, also we have a social media ticker. Essentially we have a thing called the feed that shows what's going on with the community right now.

Larry: Right.

SJ: So, and you can always go to the forums. I mean, you just, you want to get plugged in. That way, because it's an MMO so there's a lot of game systems in there that people want to, are going to want to learn about to become better at the game.

Larry: Right, right. It's, and so, I'll put a link to all those things that you mentioned in the notes here on the podcast and it's uh, it's a big day for Xbox owners. They can get into the DC universe online. I'm going to let you go. Creative director SJ Miller, I appreciate your time. I want you congratulate you on the launch of your game, on Xbox one. It's always exciting to go to another platform. I think based on what I've seen, I think you're pretty much on all the platforms now, right?

SJ: Yeah (laughs) I know, we're like, what's next? Dreamcast?

Larry: Yeah, right? (Laughs) hey, I'm sure, you realize it's going to fill up the comments now. People are like wait a minute, really?

SJ: (laughs)

Larry: So -

SJ: No.

Larry: No. So, I want to thank you for your time and again congratulate you and the entire team there at Daybreak on launching uh, on launching DC Universe Online on Xbox. Thank you so much.

SJ: Thank you.

Jeffrey: All right, so, DC Universe Online now available for Xbox One. It's a fun game to jump into and sort of create your own character.

Laura: I'm batman.

Jeffrey: Yes, you could be.

Larry: I have the Batman mask they sent me. See, if you follow me on snapchat you this. I'm batman.

Laura: I'm batman.

Jeffrey: Well, what I like about it is you can, you can sort of choose the type of hero you want to be. Like, do you want to be able to fly? Do you want to be able to have really cool tools or whatever it might be?

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jeffrey: You can be a uh, a brawler or a you know, range fighter, whatever, so.

Larry: Check it out. It's -

Jeffrey: You should do that.

Larry: Did you like that?

Laura: Yes. I would like the mask, please.

Larry: Are you reaching for the mask? It actually is more your size. My head is too fat for that.

Laura: It is kind of small. I imagine it's for -

Larry: Smaller frame?

Laura: Smaller faces.

Larry: Smaller faces, smaller heads.

Jeffrey: He must have a really small head. You don't even really know it from watching the movie.

Larry: You actually look like, you look like a little bit like Catwoman in that a little bit, Laura.

Laura: (laughs)

Larry: Doesn't she?

Laura: No.

Jeffrey: I, uh, without, no, there you are.

Laura: I'm batman.

Larry: Yeah, there you go. You are.

Laura: Yes, I am.

Larry: Yeah, see, now you've got, now you've got, all right.

Laura: I've got the mask.

Larry: Um, you want to take a picture of that?

Laura: Yes.

Larry: Okay. Jeffrey, you've got (laughs) While Laura takes a batman selfie, uh.

Laura: I'm batman. (laughs)

Larry: I guess you are. You are, I'll give you this one. You want me to take it? Oh, no. It's so funny watching people doing selfies, isn't it?

Laura: Why is it funny?

Larry: What do you got for news, Jeff?

Jeffrey: Sure. So, hey, this week we announced uh maze games with gold.

Larry: Yes.

Jeffrey: Uh, so, you'll actually be able to start downloading the first of these uh probably about the time you're listening to this.

Larry: Yeah. Or shortly thereafter.

Jeffrey: Defense Grid 2. Which is a, which is a very fun uh -

Laura: Fantastic game.

Larry: Somebody commented on Twitter how they were looking forward to it because you were talking about it on the show.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: Remember?

Laura: Yes, I absolutely love that game. Fantastic.

Jeffrey: Very fun RTS. Uh, all right, so that's for Xbox One and also Grid 2. Which, uh, is for 360 but of course backward compatible, uh, the Grid series very attractive racing game.

Larry: I'm really upset right now, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey: Why?

Larry: She looks better in the Batman mask than I do.

Jeffrey: Well, I mean.

Laura: I'm really uncomfortable.

Larry: It is uncomfortable. Well, at least you don't have rubber nipples. That was the problem with the Batman suit, remember?

Jeffrey: Well, with Batman and Robin. There's the Joel Schumacher version.

Laura: I don't know how actors could do this because it's just pressing into your face the whole time.

Jeffrey: Well, he was wanting to make all the money.

Larry: Yeah.

Laura: Yeah. They have to deal with all the pressure.

Larry: Cut! And they rip it off.

Jeffrey: When the mask goes on, that's why you have to sound so gruff. Like, more than like a -

Laura: I'm in pain.

Jeffrey: Pick up truck commercial.

Laura: This is really painful. (laughs)

Larry: That became tough.

Jeffrey: I can't, Batman, I can't understand a word. I'm assuming you're threatening me. Uh and then also so starting May 16th um, you'll be able to download Costume Quest 2. Uh, which is an RPG.

Laura: Classic game.

Jeffrey: Yeah, and uh Peggle.

Laura: Wow!

Jeffrey: Peggle.

Laura: Amazing games. Double Flying and Bobcat.

Jeffrey: I never played Costume Quest 2. I played one and I loved it.

Laura: Ah, it was so much fun.

Jeffrey: But, uh, yeah. So, two, I'll have no excuse.

Laura: The mask has come off by the way. I can't handle it. I had to take it off.

Larry: That's okay. It's okay. We still need to find out what that slot on the top floor is. There's this weird slot on the top.

Jeffrey: That's where you put your nickels.

Larry: I'll put a photo of this up on my instagram or whatever.

Jeffrey: Is it supposed to be like a Batman piggie bank?

Laura: Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Batman piggie bank.

Larry: Maybe it, maybe it clicks into the rest of your outfit. The rest of your costume. (laughs)

Laura: There's a missing head piece.

Larry: The cowl comes in and clicks in.

Laura: (laughs)

Larry: Proper use of the word cowl. Thank you.

Jeffrey: I think so.

Larry: (laughs) okay. Jeffrey, continue with the news while Laura and I interrupt and be silly over here.

Jeffrey: Speaking of free games, uh, Madden NFL '16, free this weekend. Uh, in honor of the NFL draft.

Larry: I don't know if that's everywhere. Is it just in the US?

Jeffrey: Do people play football outside of the US?

Larry: Probably a different version of football.

Jeffrey: Yeah, um, let me see. It says in Xbox One market. So, that should be -

Larry: There you go. Check it out.

Jeffrey: Where you can get it. You can get it. So, um, yeah, you can play draft champions. So, you can actually um, do a quick draft that features some folks I'm assuming from the draft and uh, you don't really watch the football, do you?

Larry: Not me, unfortunately I'm just not the, I don't fall football.

Jeffrey: We got a new quarterback! Bryson Wents.

Larry: We, the Seahawks? We, the Philadelphia -

Jeffrey: We, the actual bird that represents America.

Larry: Right.

Jeffrey: The eagles.

Larry: Or we the patriots?

Jeffrey: Oh, you're a patriot. I guess we're both -

Larry: From New England?

Jeffrey: America versus America.

Larry: By the way, you talked about the Eagles because you're talking about of course Philadelphia Eagles and the bird of America.

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Larry: So, I have an Eagle in my back yard.

Jeffrey: Like a real eagle.

Laura: What kind of eagle?

Larry: Bald.

Laura: Wait, really? You have an american bald eagle?

Larry: He or she, I don't know comes and the nest isn't there. It's somewhere in my neighborhood. Have you ever heard them like screech? It's kind of, they kind of sound like a crow or a chicken.

Laura: Oh, no.

Larry: It's weird. I heard one and I was like what is that, and I look up and it was staring down at me and I was like I think I'll go inside the house now.

Laura: Yes. They are very intimidating.

Jeffrey: Well, the bald eagle was not the first choice for America's bird. I believe Ben Franklin was an advocate for like the turkey. Yes.

Larry: Turkey.

Jeffrey: Yeah, and uh -

Laura: Really?

Larry: Yeah.

Jeffrey: In retrospect, he was dead on. (laughs) So, they are delicious.

Larry: They are delicious.

Jeffrey: But yeah, uh, Seattle is lousy with bald eagles. I was driving over the bridge yesterday and I saw a bald -

Laura: Right on the bridge?

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Laura: They sit on the -

Larry: The new one or the old one?

Jeffrey: Uh, the new one. Can't get on the old one anymore.

Larry: It's eagle friendly.

Jeffrey: (laughs) yeah. As long as they stay in the air.

Larry: You know what else? Speak of the, so, for those of you that don't know, we have the world's longest floating bridge in Seattle.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: And they just, they just, it was originally and then they redid it, they'd upgrade the bridge and then they built another one right next to it and it is uh, it's also the longest. It's a little bit longer.

Jeffrey: Little longer.

Larry: But if you go look at this, and we should link off to this, Jeff. I don't know if you know about this, Laura but there's like, the engineers had to build these little ramps for the birds.

Laura: What?

Larry: Because in the floating pontoons on the 5-20 bridge have this like, they're concrete. It's so weird when you say concrete and floating.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry: Concrete, and there's this center. Like, it's open up. So, there's, so, you look down. I don't know why it's designed. Some engineering reason. But, they were running into these cormorants it was going diving down into it because I guess the birds, or excuse me the fish are attracted to the top and the cormorants could get in, and cormorants need a lot of space to get going to take off, and they didn't have enough space.

Laura: Oh, so, it gets stuck.

Larry: Yeah. So, the engineers designed these little ramps. There's these little bird ramps for them to like get out of the water and walk up onto the top of the sister, and then take off.

Laura: Oh, my gosh.

Larry: We should put a link to - did you find an article on that?

Jeffrey: Yeah, I'm looking for the, for the best one. I actually got into it, got into, that's a strong word, with the state road 5-20 floating bridge Twitter account.

Laura: Oh. (Laughs).

Larry: Don't mix it up with Jeff on Twitter. You'll loose.

Jeffrey: But the whole point was to widen it, but then they messed up the merges and uh, it's like, now like a disaster to have to go over and they're like "Oh, but it'll be fixed in 2017." I'm like, shut that bridge down and I will repaint those lines to fix this thing.

Laura: (Laughing).

Jeffrey: And, yeah. So, don't get me started.

Laura: They didn't agree.

Jeffrey: They uh, they had their reasons, but they were wrong.

Laura: I see.

Jeffrey: Yes.

Laura: I see.

Larry: All right, what else do you have for news that we're done talking about the -

Jeffrey: Sure, coming actually next week, this was another, another free game that was announced. Uh, this time for Windows 10. Forza Motorsports 6 Apex.

Larry: Yeah!

Laura: Awesome.

Jeffrey: So, it'll be open-beta. I've been messing around with this. It looks beautiful. Um, and, so, that'll be coming May 5th. Which is next week. Uh, you definitely want to check out forzamotorsport.net to see if your uh, if your machine is beastly enough to handle it.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jeffrey: But, you can run this thing very nicely.

Larry: I'm showing Laura a picture of the little bird ramps.

Laura: Oh.

Larry: Just like I described.

Laura: Exactly.

Larry: Little yellow bird ramps. The 5-20 Twitter account that's bothering you, Jeffrey.

Laura: (Laughing).

Larry: Tweeting you out. (laughs)

Jeffrey: They're good people, they're just not, you know, they don't know how to paint lines. You don't want to merge -

Larry: Darn you, traffic engineers for not listening to the arm chair traffic engineer. (laughs)

Laura: (Laughing).

Jeffrey: Look, I drive that bridge every day! I know.

Larry: All right, enough about that.

Jeffrey: I know. Yeah, all right, and a bunch of new releases as well. So, I'm just going to rattle on through these. Uh, we already mentioned DC Universe Online, now available. Uh, Para-nautical Activity. Jump Jet Wrecks, I've heard this one was fun. Um, Brick Breaker, looks very Break Out-esque. Elite Dangerous: Arena Edition. So, this is interesting. Um, this is a PVP mode, but because the normal version of Elite Dangerous is like the entire galaxy and getting everyone in the same solar system is probably a challenge.

Larry: I love that.

Jeffrey: They have their own separate version of it. So, if you already have the existing game, um, then you can already play it via the full game menu. No extra charge if you already have Elite Dangerous. Uh, but if you just want to play the PVP version, it's 7.49, in the US.

Larry: Thank you. Seven dollars and forty nine cents.

Jeffrey: Yes. Indeed. Uh, let's see, there's an Assassin's Creed triple pack.

Larry: That's a weird price.

Laura: It is.

Larry: For forty nine.

Jeffrey: I'm sure there's a reason here for it. More reason for why they painted the lines on the bridge the way they did.

Larry: All right.

Laura: (Laughing).

Jeffrey: Uh, Walking Dead Micchone, Episode 3 is available from our friends at Telltale, and King's Quest Chapter 3, Once Upon A Climb. King's Quest Chapter 1 is free on Xbox.

Larry: You know, in this, in the update that just got, or the new version that just came out, the new chapter, it's uh, you rescue a princess in a castle. Ground breaking.

Laura: Surprise.

Larry: (laughs) no, there's actually a twist to it. I'll just say that.

Laura: Okay.

Jeffrey: Uh, and then finally Party Hard which may or may not star Andrew W. K., I don't know.

Larry: Really? Party hard.

Jeffrey: Party Hard.

Larry: Party Hard. So, those are some of the headlines. There's a few more of course here and there, but those are the headlines, what's going on. Now, listen, if you really want to know what's going on and you don't want to suffer through our endless dribble. Um, sometimes we get a little crazy. Uh, just tune into your console every Friday or follow me on Twitter @MajorNelson and you'll see this week on Xbox, which is a, this last show was over ten minutes long. It's a, we try to make it a quick wrap up of everything going on for Xbox. So, when you sit down Friday night, you can feel like you're up to speed.

Laura: That's right.

Larry: You can feel like you know what's going on.

Laura: And they can see your face. Smiling face.

Larry: I don't, I don't care about that. We've got to have you or Jeff host it. People don't want to look at me. Although, I did wear my Batman mask in the last one.

Laura: Oh, awesome.

Larry: So, yes, Jeffrey?

Jeffrey: No, I'm actually reading the description to this game, Party Hard. In Party Hard, you play as someone who is really tired of the neighbor's having loud parties. Instead of calling the police, you decide it's better to kill everyone using your knife and the environment, which is doing a good job of killing things. Uh, who hasn't been there?

Laura: Wow.

Jeffrey: Who hasn't had noisy neighbors?

Larry: Please do not act this out in real life.

Jeffrey: Well, that's why you have games. You don't actually want to do these things. You think you do, but you really don't.

Larry: See, I don't know about you, but I don't know about you either, Laura but when there's a party in my neighborhood, I tend to get invited.

Jeffrey: Well, you're, you're Major Nelson.

Larry: So, (laughs) I don't know what the problem with you guys have.

Jeffrey: This is all our neighbors. Because our houses are all connected. Um, you always invite your neighbors because then they loose the right to complain.

Larry: Right.

Jeffrey: About the noise.

Larry: Right, of course.

Jeffrey: Anyway, I'm going to have to try this game now.

Larry: Right.

Jeffrey: I've had bad neighbors. Back in Florida.

Larry: Bad neighbor - oh, well, Florida everything's weird down there.

Jeffrey: Yeah. Like, I've lived next to Florida many times. I'm like, is that a meth lab over there?

Larry: (Laughing).

Laura: (Laughing).

Larry: Oh, boy. Good ol' Florida.

Jeffrey: Good old Florida. Never going back.

Larry: All right, well, listen, we've got uh, name the game now, Laura. Ooh, about a month later.

Laura: Yes. Sorry about that, guys.

Larry: Do you have time?

Laura: I do have time.

Larry: Okay, let's uh, let's get ready. Here is name the game for our last time.

Laura: All right, so that was name the game from some time ago.

Larry: About a month ago.

Laura: Yeah, sorry about the long wait, and that was Shadow Complex Remastered.

Larry: Such a good game.

Laura: It is such a good game. Like, a fantastic, loved it when I was on Xbox 360. It's remastered now. Fantastic.

Larry: All right, who's the winner?

Laura: Oh, yeah, that's right. The winner is Shane.

Larry: Yes, Shane. Hello, Shane.

Laura: Congratulations.

Larry: Shane's getting serious.

Laura: He is. Should I talk it, should I release his gamertag?

Larry: Sure, why not?

Laura: Okay, his gamertag is Zombied.

Larry: Zombied.

Laura: Which is pretty funny.

Larry: Nifty. Now, we got a whole bunch of prizes that he won, Laura. You've got the list of one he -

Laura: Sure, I do have the list.

Larry: Go ahead, why don't you tick it through?

Laura: Shane, you will win a copy of Quantum Break for Xbox One.

Larry: Sweet.

Laura: Elite Dangerous, standard edition for Xbox One, and that's not all.

Larry: But, wait. There's more.

Laura: And, Ori And The Blind Forest, Definitive Edition.

Larry: Yeah!

Laura: For Windows 10.

Larry: Sweet.

Laura: Fantastic. That is an amazing game.

Larry: That is a lot of stuff there. So, you're probably listening right now going "Wait a minute, I like those prizes. How do I get these prizes? What do I do?" Well, it's very simple. Laura, explain to them how they win.

Laura: It is. Very very simple. All you have to do is listen to the sound effects that I'm about to play, and then send me an Email with what game those are from. Super easy.

Larry: Yeah.

Laura: So, that's it. And if you can hear our voice you can enter this game.

Larry: We're going to stop talking now, play the sound clip and uh, listen closely because you could win some cool stuff. You ready, Laura?

Laura: I'm ready, let's roll the tape. All right. So, if you think you know what game those sound effects are from, all you have to do is Email me, [email protected], and CC majorxbox.com, and if you'd like to you can include your name and your gamertag, but if you don't want to, that's totally fine. We respect your privacy. You can still win if you get one stuff announced.

Larry: Just let us know.

Laura: And if you're right, we'll pick our random winner, and announce them on the next show.

Larry: And, be cool by the way, as you just heard Laura say, she gave you the instructions. Send us an Email, don't hit us up on Twitter. You're welcome to hit us up on Twitter, but that doesn't mean you enter the contest. (laughs)

Laura: Yeah. That's right.

Larry: So, you're welcome to, and you can find Laura. Where can they find you on Twitter?

Laura: They can find me @lauralollipop

Larry: You can find me @MajorNelson and they can find Jeff?

Jeffrey: @JeffreyWinstein

Larry: So, there you go. That's what's going on there.

Laura: That's great.

Larry: Uh, all right. So, we're moving, we're cooking along here. Why do we got here? Oh, you want to talk about, you've got some new, some hot new hardware there. What do you got there?

Jeffrey: Well, you already got it. So, it's a little -

Larry: Laura has -

Laura: I have one too.

Jeffrey: All right. So, I'm bringing up the rear -

Laura: You're late to the party.

Jeffrey: With my Surface Book.

Laura: Yes.

Jeffrey: But, um, it's something that I've been demoing for folks um, throughout the country at different events.

Larry: You may see him at country fairs on the side barking. (laughs)

Laura: (Laughing).

Jeffrey: Sure, I will guess your weight and tell you all about Windows 10. Um, so, yeah, I finally got ahold, I've been running Surface pro 3 for about two years and it was, I loved it. Um, and, but now I've moved up to a Surface Book and my favorite thing about it actually is that the pen magnetically attaches to the side of it.

Laura: The side, yes.

Jeffrey: Which means I always have it, and I would always, it would always fall out of my bag.

Larry: Well, sometimes you know, I noticed you because Jeff and I work together at you know, a lot closer unfortunately Laura, you're working on other projects now. But, when I'm with Jeff and meeting, sometimes he just whips out his pen and starts sketching. He's very creative.

Laura: Oh. A doodler.

Jeffrey: Yeah, I usually, yeah, I'll decide I'll draw the bald eagles on the bridge, or -

Larry: (Laughs) well, actually, his latest thing is he's been uh, he's using the pen and the geometry to somehow traffic flow on 5-20 (laughs).

Laura: (Laughing).

Larry: And prove them wrong (laughs).

Jeffrey: I need to do those. I need to get down with some -

Laura: Get down with them, right?

Jeffrey: This is a good idea.

Larry: Well, if we just do this right here.

Jeffrey: Like a visual diagram will help your argument. I'm not - this ain't over! Just think of 5-20. This ain't over. Um, yeah, so, actually the - it's funny, like, when I'm, when I'm showing this to folks, the app which is free for Windows 10, it's actually included if you have it, is fresh paint. That's the one that everyone always jumps on.

Larry: Not to be confused with the fresh prints.

Jeffrey: No, that's something only MTV does.

Larry: (Laughing).

Jeffrey: Uh, when they're doing their prints marathons. Uh, so, uh, fresh paint is like, it's - like, you can think of MS paint from back in the day but just like a thousand times better, and like, you can really feel like -

Larry: Now with more bitmaps.

Jeffrey: But, it also has like coloring book stuff in it.

Laura: Cool.

Jeffrey: So, you can just like turn your whatever your - if you have a touch laptop it doesn't have to be a Surface. You can turn it into a coloring book.

Larry: Can I, can I ask you a question? I know, Laura -

Jeffrey: You're going to have a problem with these.

Larry: No, no -

Jeffrey: This is going to be a diatribe but adult coloring books -

Larry: No, I wanted to ask you, are you doing the adult coloring book thing, Laura?

Laura: No, I don't know what that is.

Larry: Jeffrey, I -

Jeffrey: Really?

Laura: Yeah.

Jeffrey: Really?

Larry: Jeff, why don't you explain this phenomena?

Jeffrey: So, this is uh, this is a thing.

Larry: I'm not - I don't have no diatribe against it. I'm not doing it.

Jeffrey: You're judging, but uh -

Larry: I'm not (laughs).

Jeffrey: Something that is not uncommon these days is adult coloring books, and like high end pencils and I've actually seen a couple of people on our team during conference calls uh, they'll pull out a coloring book, and they'll just sort of start filling it in, and it's not, you know - actually, there's a Harry Potter one that is an adult one, but most of them are not like, you know, you know, like Frozen or something.

Larry: I want to be clear now, this is, this is, these are, it's not adult-content.

Laura: Okay.

Larry: (Laughs) okay? Yeah. The way you said it.

Jeffrey: Grown up coloring - I can't rule that out, but that's not what I was specifically referring to.

Larry: Right, and apparently this is supposed to help you de-stress, and -

Laura: It sounds very therapeutic. It does. Just coloring.

Larry: Yeah. Were you - you were in the lines kind of -

Laura: I was very much in the lines.

Larry: I was just like yeah, whatever.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jeffrey: So, anyway, there's like, they're stress relieving patterns -

Laura: Yes.

Jeffrey: And things like that. Like - a lot of them look like Larry's shirts.

Larry: Hey!

Jeffrey: The ones with the -

Laura: Interesting.

Larry: Hey, see. There's a method to my madness.

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Larry: If you stare at my shirts you'll be mollified and you should be relaxed.

Jeffrey: So, they, yeah. It's - coloring, coloring is not just for toddlers anymore

Larry: So, you're not - so, you're not coloring, let's be clear. Jeff, obviously you -

Jeffrey: I'll - I'll - there's coloring book templates on, uh, there's actually a lot of apps for that, but on fresh paint, which is included -

Larry: Are there - there is some apps> is there a Surface Book app for coloring books?

Jeffrey: Not just one.

Larry: Oh, then we must - I must download one of those.

Jeffrey: Yeah. No, I mean, again, you have fresh paint on there already, and there's -

Larry: Yeah.

Jeffrey: A color, couple of templates for coloring books, and you can just get a feel for it. Because the - the pen, the Surface pen feels really good.

Larry: All right. I know we've got an artist out there at least one or two listening. Uh, what I need is go find a good photo of Laura and myself and Jeff at maybe PAX or something and then create a template that people can color.

Laura: (Laughs). Okay.

Larry: I'm asking for it, aren't I?

Laura: You are.

Larry: What can possibly go wrong? Asking the internet for this.

Laura: Nothing can possibly go wrong.

Jeffrey: No, no speech bubbles for Larry.

Larry: No, no, no, no. So, uh, anyway.

Laura: I learned something that I had no idea about, about the pen.

Larry: That Surface Book pen, yeah.

Laura: It's the Surface Book pen. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit, but there's a right click button.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeffrey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Laura: I did not know this. Because it's very um, sleekly designed -

Larry: Yeah, it's kind of - it's kind of part of the - part of the design process.

Laura: It is part of the design, and it looks like the magnetic context surface.

Larry: Right.

Laura: But, at the very bottom of it you can click it, and it's the right click.

Larry: Mm-hmm (affirmative), click it.

Laura: Can you hear it?

Jeffrey: Yep!

Larry: Yeah, it's the, it's the -

Jeffrey: Like a [inaudible 00:54:03].

Laura: Yeah.

Larry: Of course you know that, you know the back -

Laura: Yes. The eraser button.

Larry: The eraser button.

Laura: It's pretty awesome.

Larry: Do you use, do you use pens a lot? Because I noticed you know, in the past - I'll let you answer your question and then I'll give you my comments. Do you use pens a lot, Laura? Not just Surface, I'm saying in general.

Laura: Yes. I love taking physical notes. I have a notepad.

Larry: That's right, you do. I totally forgot.

Laura: I do. Yes.

Larry: You're one of those people. For some reason I -

Laura: I have sticky notes and notepads.

Larry: My handwriting has gotten like terrible over the years. Because everything's digital.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry: I like, I sign something like where did I leave - oh, remember I last, when we were at PAX last week, I had to - I had left your badge for you because you were coming in late one night.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: And I left it for you at the hotel. If you go look at that envelope, I wrote that, and it looks like I, looks like I was having a seizure or something. (laughs).

Laura: (Laughing).

Larry: It's like what's wrong with me?

Jeffrey: I had to fill out raffle tickets, I bought ten raffle tickets, and I was like oh, flip them over and write your name, and your phone number, and I was like just for one of them, right? And they're like no, on each one. After like number four, like my hand was dead.

Larry: Right.

Laura: (Laughing).

Jeffrey: Like I - I almost never write.

Larry: Like, I don't know - I know Laura, because I've known her for a little bit longer than Jeff, but I could definitely pick out your handwriting. Because I've seen it of course because you take notes.

Laura: Yeah.

Larry: I don't think I can pick yours out, Jeff. I don't think I've ever seen your handwriting.

Jeffrey: I don't think I can pick mine out.

Larry: (Laughing).

Laura: (Laughing).

Jeffrey: Because I don't!

Larry: Yeah.

Jeffrey: And I - the most I'll do is sticky notes.

Larry: Yeah.

Jeffrey: On you know, either real or virtual.

Larry: The one thing I do like about the Surface Book with the pen, is I do sign this, like if you get a document in, like a PDF or something, for a legal, you know, doctor's form or something. You sign it and save it and send it right back.

Laura: Ah, it's so good.

Larry: Yeah, that's cool. All right.

Jeffrey: They're adding a lot of like mark up stuff, too. It's pretty cool.

Larry: All right, what else?

Jeffrey: Oh, what, that's not enough?

Larry: That is, that is not enough.

Jeffrey: So, actually, I'm playing Ori on it, yeah, it does what I need it to do.

Larry: It does, very well.

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry: Wait until you get to the ginzo tree.

Jeffrey: Oh, yes.

Larry: You didn't see my comment on your achievement, did you? Open up the Xbox app.

Jeffrey: I didn't do that.

Larry: You got the - you got a Ori achievement the other day. Did you have any other anything to share, Laura? This week, in terms of uh, crazy gadgets or any technology interesting things you found. You have that puzzled look on your face, I imagine -

Laura: I am wracking my brain to remember if I had boughten anything in the past couple of weeks.

Jeffrey: So, this is what I always think about. So, I got the one where Rescue, rescue Gomoo, but I read it as Gumbo, it is Gumoo because I worked with the game.

Larry: So, one of the achievements in Ori is rescue Gomoo. Gomoo.

Laura: Okay.

Larry: And as an old school comedy - fan of comedy, my response to Jeff was?

Jeffrey: What about Harpo, Cheeko, and of course Groucho? Is it Cheeko?

Larry: Yeah, or Chicko.

Jeffrey: Oh, okay.

Larry: It's one of the Marx brothers.

Laura: Yes.

Larry: Go look at that, okay? He was there - they're hundreds of years old, but anyway, I just saw that and that was all I could think of. Because Gumoo was the anyway, never mind. We've taken this far too long, already. All right.

Laura: And he got it from you.

Larry: No, I just - let's see, because I was on the road last week and I - you know, I got my travel, my travel routers, and you saw my gear that I travel with. It is ridiculous.

Laura: Yes. You have a whole bag.

Larry: I've got a whole bag of stuff that I just - it's actually just - it's way, way too much stuff. I'm trying to think if I have everything. No, right now. Doing some electrical projects at my house this weekend. So, I'll have to report back on those.

Laura: Exciting.

Larry: It's funny. My wife doesn't me working on electrical projects at the house.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry: So, I have to send her out. Like, why don't you - do you need to go anywhere, honey? And then while she's out, I'll kill the house power and install my lights, and I'll hope for the best.

Laura: (Laughing).

Larry: I did have one of my nests go fail on me.

Laura: What happened?

Larry: So, we have the nest protection of the smoke detectors in the house. 11:38 two nights ago, it's like I'm lying in bed. Just drifting off to sleep, reading my feeds.

Laura: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry: And, it's like, beep, beep, beep, smoke in the master bedroom, and I'm looking around. No, no, there's not, and the whole house, they're all talking to each other. The whole house is lighting up, and it's crazy. My wife like, she goes, what is going on? Because the last time, you know what happened last time with these. Did I tell you that story?

Laura: I think so.

Larry: We had - we had, you know the story.

Jeffrey: Oh, I know the story.

Larry: We had a bunch of nests in the house before, and they were - this was the generation one, I'm now on generation two, and they failed.

Laura: Oh, no.

Larry: Like, they were beeping, and they were going off for no reason. There was no problem, and I was out one day, and my wife texts me, and she said "I'm taking care of the nest problem." I was like, I don't know what that means, and I came home and she had removed them from the ceiling, and put them at the end of the drive way in a pile.

Laura: (laughs) Were they all beeping up there?

Larry: They were like beep, beep, beep, fire, smoke. Uh, anyway, hopefully (laughs), so, I got to solve that problem (laughs).

Jeffrey: You need to download the new voice version on that.

Larry: Yeah, I don't know what it is. Can you download different voices? For your nest?

Laura: That would be amazing.

Larry: Who would you want, in your, in your voice?

Jeffrey: Wasn't there - I'm thinking of like the home of the future episode of The Simpsons where he could get Pierce Browsman.

Larry: Right, right.

Jeffrey: You know? Marge, haven't you had a tough day?

Larry: (Laughing).

Jeffrey: Just with an accent. Imagine there was an accent. I would download like Haggrad from you know, from Harry Potter. All right, then. There's a fire in the kitchen.

Larry: I would want - here, internet, here's who I would want, and unfortunately he has passed away. Ernie Anderson.

Jeffrey: Who's that?

Larry: Ernie Anderson. He was a big time announcer back in the day. He was - he was like the original big voice.

Laura: Oh.

Larry: Yeah. Tonight on ABC! That's all. I just have - I have an appreciation for the voice. All right. Uh, I'm reading a couple of books right now, but I'm not ready to talk about those yet.

Jeffrey: We have a book section now?

Larry: (laughs) I guess we do.

Jeffrey: I'm going to have to start reading.

Larry: Well, let's be clear, I'm going to - I'm reading, and I'm going to use air quotes when I'm reading. Because my sister, who's a librarian and I have an argument about this all the time. When I go out for my walks or runs, I listen to books on you know, audio books.

Laura: Right, books on tape.

Larry: So, she's - she's like, that's not reading. I'm like, yes it is. So, that's what I say. That's why I'm using air quotes when I'm reading.

Laura: I wonder if it stimulates the same part of the brain when you listen to a book versus reading it. You still have to use your imagination to picture the scene. So, there's still some brain activity going on, but I wonder if it's different. If it's more engaging or not.

Larry: That's a good question. I'll have to - we'll have to ask Sue. She would know.

Laura: Yeah.

Larry: She works - she probably would know, but, yeah, it's uh, reading some really interesting books right now. Um, yeah. When I - when I finish them, and I think they're interesting, I shall share the details of said books. All right. Shall we wrap things up? Laura, do you have anything else?

Laura: I think we should.

Larry: Do you have anything else you want to talk about?

Laura: Nothing.

Larry: I don't know if we're going to do a show next week.

Laura: Oh, really?

Larry: I think I have to go down to - I have to go somewhere next week. So, I may be on the road. If we can do it, we'll do it.

Jeffrey: Oh, yes.

Larry: If we can do it, we'll do it. Otherwise, we'll be back in a couple of weeks, and working on some other cool stuff for you guys. Frankly, we're getting ready for E3.

Laura: Yes, it's that time of year.

Larry: The entertainment - electronics entertainment expo.

Jeffrey: Yes.

Larry: This is now my thirteenth. This is my thirteenth. Are you coming to the show, Laura?

Laura: I registered. I don't know if I will make it down, though.

Larry: Okay. Well, you've got to let me know.

Jeffrey: We can probably get you in.

Larry: Yeah, and I know -

Laura: To the place?

Larry: We'll get a nice seat for you, and Jeff and I will be going down, of course. So, we'll talk about that. All right, guys. We've got to roll. We'll talk to you later, and uh, have a great uh, have a great weekend. Make sure you check out uh, DC Universe Online. It's free to download! So, what are you waiting for?

Jeffrey: You have no excuse not to.

Laura: And you can be Batman.

Larry: I'm Batman. I'll talk to you guys next week. Goodbye, everybody.

Jeffrey: Bye.