Nintendo Switch Announcement, Gaming Review Policy, and More

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Unlimited Hello and welcome to Altered Geek

163 I'm your host Steve Megatron Phillips and

joining me this week is So, as we promised last

week, this week we will be talking gaming. So,

I guess we should go to the Nintendo Switch.

It's a new piece of Nintendo hardware got announced

a couple weeks ago. Supposed to be doing away

with this whole dual -screen thing. So it's the

power of a real console, portable. I don't know

how I feel about this. I'm not big on the controllers,

that's for sure. No, Nintendo has said they're

not gonna do any more announcements about this

until January, but one of the presidents... Nintendo

evidently didn't get that memo and During an

investor call this past week released at least

a little bit more info About the console including

costs They say it's likely going to be comparable

to what consumers are used to paying so my guess

is around 200 to 300 That's ridiculous. Well,

that's about what you paid for the Wii U. I mean

you got your basic Wii U for 200 your Wii U deluxe

was 350 give or take that's Canadian prices,

so now another Nintendo insider has been leaking

information where the Wii U is gonna have 4 gigs

of RAM which is double what the Wii U has right

now I think or something equivalent to that and

it's only gonna have 32 gigs of internal storage

which is Frigging terrible considering that's

what the Wii U has. I filled that thing up in

less than a month Not hard to do exactly. So

mind you they are talking about high -capacity

SD cards and cartridges so I guess upgrading

wouldn't be that big a deal, but If Nintendo's

smart and they pull a Sony which they will they'll

probably have a proprietary SD card which would

allow you to expand your memory if I had to guess.

They're also saying there's going to be no backwards

compatibility with Wii U discs or 3DS cartridges,

so I can't say I'm totally surprised there. That's

not ruling out software emulation. So, presumably

if you've downloaded stuff on your Wii U, you

should be able to download it here. I don't know.

I mean, obviously we'll know more come January

now. They're announcing this thing coming out

in March. Rumor is it'll be out on the 17th in

PAL territory, which means for us it'll either

launch on the 12th or the 19th. Because Nintendo

likes to do launches on a Sunday, which is really

weird. They do Saturday launches in Japan. So...

I don't know. Launch will end up for games. They

haven't really announced a whole lot beyond Zelda

Breath of Life or Breath of the Wild or whatever

the hell it's called. My guess is there'll be

some kind of a Mario title just after E3 or at

least for that summer. I don't know. I don't

know whether I'm thrilled about this console.

Truth be told. I hate the way the controller

looks. It looks uncomfortable. It looks awkward.

Yeah, I can definitely see that as well. That's

not really something I'm looking forward to another

Nintendo console. I'm not a huge fan of Nintendo

as far as their modern consoles. Honestly, I

would love to get my hands on an Xbox One. I

just obviously cannot afford it. I do like this

Nintendo more than the Wii U, but I have no intention

of picking this up either. I kind of signed off

on Nintendo after the Wii, which is rather unfortunate

because I do enjoy what little I've played of

the Wii U. I feel like I'm missing out on the

Mario and the Smash Brothers, but other than

that, I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

True That's why third -party development was

all but abandoned for the Wii U I mean someone

did this today In the four years of Wii U's been

alive There have been 70 million Wii U games

sold Total. You know how many copies of Grand

Theft Auto, or, sorry, it was 72 million copies

of Wii U software. You know how many copies of

Grand Theft Auto 5 have been sold in that time?

70 million. That's one title. So, the support's

just not there. Now, first party support for

the Nintendo console, yeah, it's always been

good. There's very, there aren't very many bad

first party Wii games. I mean, I think the most

recent Star Fox sucks, but that's more control

scheme choice. But that's the thing though, Nintendo,

when they jumped on the motion control train

back in 2006 with the Wii, it was fun, it was

innovative, but within two to three years, people

are like, okay, can we stop the Wii waggle? And

they kind of did for a while. And then when the

Wii U came out, There was this whole focus on

dual -screen integration, and the only two games

I ever saw do that proper was Splinter Cell Blacklist,

which was a launch title, and Zombie U, which

was another Ubisoft title, because you had to

use the thing to scan the environment and wave

this thing around. That's the only two games

I could think of. Well, maybe Mass Effect 3 had

a map. and you can map your biotic powers to

it. Other than that, though, they're just...

Nintendo wanted to give you something cool. They

wanted to give you an experience. But they never

gave me a memorable game. Now, that's not to

say that the Mario titles have been bad. Mario

Kart Wii U was friggin' great. But there hasn't

been anything outside of Smash Brothers that's

really blown up my skirt, like... Where is my

Pokemon standalone game? For the Wii. Uh, or

sorry, for the Wii U. Sure, we got the Pokken

Fighting Tournament, which is a whole new level

of ridiculous, but I guess the fact that it exists

proves that it sells. So... I don't know. I mean,

I want Nintendo to do something drastically different,

but... I don't want it to not be like Nintendo.

I mean, if I want a console, yeah, I can pick

up an Xbox or a PS4, which I still don't get

how you people... The prices come down on those

consoles so much where you should be able to

afford one by now, considering there are three

years into each other's lifespan now, which is

insane to think about. Yeah, I still cannot afford

Battlefield 1, which has just come out. If I

could help you, man, I truly would. I know. Because

I'm actually just literally waiting right now

on a code for Call of Duty. As we record this

show, I'm just waiting for my PR person to send

it to me. See, I wish that I could get one of

those from EA, but I've heard that that's impossible.

The only EA contact... Used to get a lot of actually

it was anything mass effect. They'll throw it

my way. No problem Anything else it's like pulling

teeth. Hell. I didn't even get Titanfall This

year. I actually had to go out and buy that which

is the best game. No one's playing right now

And I wonder why like they I heard that monetarily

it's bombed. Well their Analysts are predicting

it's gonna sell under the nine million units.

They're gonna predict closer to five or six It's

because EA's marketing sucked for it. They put

no money into it. They're sandwiching Titanfall

2 between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty Infinite

Warfare, which launches tonight. So you've kind

of shot yourself in the foot. And it's because

EA doesn't necessarily own the IP that they feel

like they don't have to. They're just publishing

it. I mean, that's respawn. who developed it

and it's releasing across Xbox, PlayStation 4,

and PC as opposed to last time where it was Xbox

and PC only. So I hope it's got the oomph to

survive. I'm going to the campaign now. I played

a lot of the multiplayer. I mean, I was really

good at that when I was what I used to play back

in the day. So. But the swing things back to

Nintendo, third -party support's gonna really

determine where this system goes, I think. During

the announcement video, they did show NBA 2K17

being shown off. They showed off Skyrim Special

Edition, although even Bethesda has said they

have nothing to announce at this time for it,

so I don't know. And the fact that we're getting

excited about a about a five -year -old game

getting ported to a modern console kind of says

something now that being said I'm a huge Skyrim

mark like I'm actually playing it right now literally

as we're talking um so I'm still excited for

the remaster but unless Nintendo gets some really

cool third -party exclusives or gets that one

killer app because For the Wii U, in terms of

titles you must own, every single one was a Nintendo

only. There was no third party app that you could

only get there. I mean, I guess Bayonetta, but

I guess, I wanna say Bayonetta 2 was released

on other consoles, I don't know. I didn't play

it, I've got it, but I didn't play it. And...

Like, there needs to be that mover and shaker

that is not a Mario. Now, if you introduce the

new Metroid on that console, maybe. Maybe go

back to form through Castlevania. Or maybe hear

something that I think Nintendo really needs

to take a look at. It's how they do video games

streaming. PlayStation Plus, or sorry, PlayStation

Now, rather, has a subscription service where

you can stream PlayStation 3 games to a PlayStation

4 because the system in and of itself is not

backwards compatible, which is stupid. Whereas

Xbox One is backwards compatible with a huge

library of games and it's growing every single

month. And they've promised that going forward

with like Project Scorpio. I think if Nintendo

were to offer, okay guys, we're going to offer

you an Xbox Live like service. It's going to

cost you X million dollars per year, but if you

want to pay more, and here you can stream the

entirety of the NES library, the Super Nintendo

library, N64, Gamecube, or whatever, that would

move consoles. If you gave me the ability to

say, hey, I can go back and play Chrono Trigger,

or I can go back and play Blast Core, I can go

back and play Super Mario Sunshine, on a modern

console and stream it, or have a much better

virtual console experience, that is a system

seller to me. Like, Nintendo's virtual console

has always sat on the cusp of being great, but

it always sits at just above mediocre. The console's

life cycle is coming to an end. Or production

is officially ending very very soon And it's

only like last year or the last year and a half

anyway that we just got earthbound ported You're

telling me You couldn't have gone the square

or whoever imported Super Mario RPG Chrono trigger

secret of man a breath of fire. You couldn't

have poured all these great RPGs on the Wii U

a year ago or at launch, you're telling me you

could've done that? Like, you could sell a Nintendo

console on nostalgia alone. Hell, they're doing

that this month with the NES Classic. I know,

which is a great idea. Great idea, but it's basically

a collection, it's basically the NES games you

When you got your 3DS Ambassador program, stuff

from years back in 2012, I want to say 2011,

on a little NES Mini, which is HDMI compatible,

which is cool in and of itself, but the fact

that there's no external storage, that hit one

and done. Now if they did that for the N64 or

the Super Nintendo, I'd be very curious to see

what they could pull off. or especially with

these proprietary SD cards, if you could print,

if you could 3D print or whatever a little mini

GameCube that's super powerful and is no bigger

than like, I don't know, a pill bottle, that

would sell. That would sell tremendously well

considering how much computing power we could

squeeze into like the Raspberry Pi and other

similar devices. There's no reason why we couldn't

have a super powerful portable console like that,

but I digress. I think Nintendo's got its work

cut out for it. I really do. But I want this

console to be successful. I just think Microsoft

and Sony have a much stronger stranglehold. Nintendo

is exclusively going to be that family console.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean,

you're not going to be able to compete with modern

warfare or whatever with a Mario game, but a

Mario game has a much broader appeal. You're

more likely to find it in more homes. But the

install base will always be small compared to

the other consoles because they can do more.

But with third -party support this time, maybe

Nintendo has a chance to change the game. It's

this weird gimmick thing where you can take the

switch with you, and I want to know how much

battery power does this thing have? I'm hearing

rumors of three hours. That's horrible. Sorry,

pardon my language, but man, my fucking PSP had

better battery power than that, and that thing

sucked. So, I've got questions. So to speak so

I Don't know there's just so many questions that

I want to have answered Don't know whether I'm

going to have answered at any visible point in

the future But I Don't know if you're a family

man, what do you want? cheap price and controllers

that make sense and the ability to not only buy

the games that come with Nintendos generally

but the other software that's on like the Xbox

or the PlayStation so I don't have to buy a third

console or buy it for another machine and then

have maybe the specs of one of the more powered

machines rather than the disasters that we get

stuck with that are Nintendo's outdated pieces

of machinery? There's something that was brought

up that I thought was actually interesting and

maybe Nintendo has an advantage here. If Nintendo

truly gives you the power of a portable console

that you can bring with you, maybe I don't need

to be lugging around the Xbox or the PlayStation.

And that's something a lot of people are not

talking about. If this thing is up to spec with

modern consoles, and I think it is, it's still

underpowered compared to what Project Scorpio

and PlayStation Pro are gonna be, but that's

just the way it is. So, yeah, I mean, with you

and your family, I see problems with this thing.

Just because, I can only imagine how many of

these Wii Switches or these Nintendo Switches

are going to get smashed. Just because the entire

console is literally in your hands. And kids

are clumsy. Kids make mistakes. Yeah, see my

kids like to mess with my Nintendo Wii. And and

knock it over so I actually have to leave it

unplugged and then my Xbox if I don't unplug

that when I'm done playing it My kid likes to

press the power button so it goes over and over

so I literally cannot leave my my devices plugged

in To which I could see if I had one of the Nintendo

switches my kid pressing the power button and

Shutting off the game mid -game download still

not playing it today yeah and I don't know like

I remember playing my Wii a lot during college

I just I don't know there's something there's

a very big disconnect with the Wii U and I think

a lot of its older players I mean I sort of like

to say Mario maker hell even the Amiibo crazy

seems to have finally dropped off or evened out.

You don't see people killing each other over

a Lucario anymore or killing each other over

Mars or Ike. Still regret the fact that I sold

most of my buckets because I had almost every

single one. But hey, I got a new bed out of the

deal, so I really can't complain. Nice. Yeah,

that's how much those suckers will worth. That's...

nuts. But, I don't know, with the Switch, I'm

very curious how its online services are gonna

work, how our Nintendo accounts are gonna be

integrated, are we gonna be able to download

software we already own, what are the expansions

gonna be like for it, basically, what are my

software choices, er, not software, what are

my storage choices, like right now, My Wii was

hooked up to a 2 terabyte hard drive, to which

maybe I've used maybe 100 games. Maybe. Because

I store a lot of my stuff digital. And that's

not including the SD card I got plugged into

the front, which came from my original Wii. That

has all my clocks and all that stuff. So I've

got questions about that. Extra controllers.

Pro controllers. And this is something I always

found really weird during the marketing for those.

I'm trying to tell me Splatoon's gonna be an

e -sport. No. Categorically, no. I just... No.

It's just... It hurts the brain to think, but

if you look at just how e -sports are structured

in Splatoon, you realize this is not gonna work.

But that's another thing too. How does Nintendo...

compete with the super hardcore stuff like that.

I mean, Nintendo's support of eSports events

has always been kind of iffy. Like they got pissy

about Smash Brothers a couple years ago and tried

to get it pulled from Evo, if I remember correctly.

They're trying to get stuff pulled from YouTube.

Yeah, so yeah, I mean like trying to make any

money off any Nintendo creations. I don't see

a lot of people talking about Mario Maker anymore.

And that was a huge thing, and that was a great

idea. Hell, Mario Maker should have been a teaching

tool, like, in school. Like, teach spatial awareness,

design, stuff like that. Like, my wife was talking

about how she could use Mario Maker to integrate

into lesson plans. She was even talking about

integrating stuff like Minecraft, because kids

understand that. Kids are attracted to that sort

of idea, but obviously, it never happened. I

don't know. I want to be optimistic. I do. I

don't want to be this old fogey like, say, Michael

Pachter, or I don't want to be overly optimistic

like, say, Jeff Keeley sort of thing. But I don't

know. I don't know. I don't think I'm being given

nearly enough information to be super like, oh

my god! But at the same time, maybe Nintendo's

dripping this information out to us just a little

too slow. The fact that we're less than six months

out from launch, that we're just getting information

now. We knew everything about the Xbox One. I

felt like a year in advance. At least. Easily.

And Nintendo didn't show anything off at E3 outside

of Breath of the Wild. Which is, I guess, okay.

And just, their announcement, even for the Switch,

was kinda lame too. Like, this is something that

should've been shown off at Tokyo Game Show,

or Gamescom or something. And almost every leak

has been pretty much consistently right on the

money. For this thing too. So... I'm waiting

for that wow factor. For me, even with the Wii

U, the wow factor for me was that first Mario

game and Zombie U. There were games I was looking

forward to. The new Zelda, you can paint me as

a bastard here, but I don't care. I haven't cared

for a Zelda game since A Link to the Past. I

don't like Ocarina of Time. I don't like Majora's

Mask. now Now what was that? I think it was called

a link between worlds was pretty cool and I even

really liked Wind Waker but That's a franchise

that had to blow it up my skirt in quite some

time either I Don't know I want something I want

a wow factor I want a new Metroid in today's

graphics to kind of Wash away the horrible taste

that was Metroid other him. I Want well, I just

got a new Star Fox. So that ain't gonna happen

but Give me a wow factor Nintendo. I know you

can do this and Don't let it be something I don't

need another dog people How I will hell you can

show me more of Zelda maybe get me excited about

that But from what I've seen, I'm thinking, okay,

it's a girl at some point. But I think that would

have been a rather bold choice. I think that

would have been actually kind of cool. It would

have been almost calling back to the CD -i days,

which is a bad thing. Hell, you know what would

be great for a laugh? If Nintendo could somehow

find a way to port those games over. They're

terrible! My god, they're terrible! But I'd pay

ten bucks for them. I love bombing the dongos!

I think it'd be fucking great! Um... But... As

I've said many times, I want my wow factor, and

I want my wow factor now. So, with that, we will

move on to something else right after this? Welcome

to the Wicked Radio Network. for watching. And

we're back. So I'm going to start off with the

Battlefield 1 bad PR practices before you get

into your Bethesda PR practices. I'm not sure

if you're familiar with what happened tail end

of October, but they put Well, there was a couple

of Battlefield one Memes that they they kind

of put out on their their Twitter page and Unfortunately,

they were in very poor taste because it says

even on this this article on polygon says maybe

don't put a hashtag on world war one and they

had weekend goals just world one world war one

things and then it it shows like one of the flamethrower

troopers and it says when you're too hot for

the club and he's like burning people alive in

the game And then there's another one where it

says when your squad is looking good looking

on point as you're like stabbing someone Yeah,

I can see where they're coming from but and then

like black basking in the glow of a burning airship

and you see the zeppelin crashing down and and

stuff like that, so I Could definitely see that

I can see that but at the same time I think back

to okay Where do you draw the line in terms of

taste and good taste and it just being it's a

marketing thing get over it? Well in this instance,

I kind of agree that it's poor taste because

the game is kind of based on a true event Yeah

So in that sense, I feel like it's impactful

in in I can see where people actually legitimately

could get offended by it Okay, but but If it

were not based on a real event, then I would

tell people to get their heads out of their rears.

I personally draw the line on if it's a real

event or not. Well, Japan happened. Well, yeah,

but I'm saying like if it's based on a real world

type war, like Korean War, you know, the World

War One, and they're trying to turn it into a

hashtag meme type thing. Yeah. But that's the

only time I see something wrong with it. But

like if it's, you know, just a generic shooter

game and they're like, you know, weekend goals

and then they're doing, you know. So if this

had happened to be, you know, like Battlefield

four. Yeah. I don't see the issue with it, but

I could see where, because people legitimately,

like a big chunk of the world paid for this war

in blood, so I can kind of see where people get

offended by this particular instance. Now, do

they need to go as far as being like, oh, I hate

EA because they did this or, you know, screw

Battlefield because they did this stupid meme?

No, I think it was just, you know, somebody didn't

really think it through all the way. Do they?

I think that they should be like flambasted for

it. Probably not. But, you know, it was posted

in poor taste. I don't know. I don't know if

the mindset you've got to market it somehow.

If you were to reverse those roles, If this game

came out in, say, Germany, and it was them killing

the Allies, we'd be pissed off too. There is

no winning this one. There is no good guy, truthfully.

So, I think this is a case of guys in the video

game chill out. Yes, a lot of people died, but

we've made movies and shooters about World War

II for 15, 20 years. I mean, out of the images

you've described, I'd say maybe the Zeppelin

one is probably the least offensive. Yeah. Because

at least it's iconic, it's spectacle, as opposed

to a guy walking through a trench with a flamethrower.

Yeah, and you actually see the guy, like, it's

a GIF, so it's actually the guy, like, burning

somebody. Yeah, see, that's the thing, you're

seeing it, but you're not equating humanity with

it. so to speak or if you had a guy standing

on a piece of artillery as it was firing then

you could make a thing or maybe show a guy sharpening

a bayonet that's a little better sort of thing

but because they're adding the human element

to it i can see where they are coming from but

at the same time well you want to sell a copy

of the game or not um so there is no winners

unfortunately only losers and that's done Yep

So moving on so you were mentioning Bethesda

in its review policy This is something that came

out a couple weeks ago About a week ago rather

with Skyrim special edition and even further

back with doom which came out in May of this

year Bethesda now is of the mindset where they

will no longer be sending review copies to journalists

ahead of the release date except for one day

But they will send them to youtubers and other

enthusiast press To kind of get the word out

on their games for example Skyrim special edition

was sent out to modders in the community very

early on so the mod to be ready for Xbox one

and ps4 when the game launched on October 28

which Review embargoes and review policies are

I'm no stranger to them, but the fact that now

they're not being allowed more ahead of time

kind of takes away from consumers to have an

informed decision. One of the worst PR things

I ever encountered was for Assassin's Creed Unity,

and that game we know is buggy as shit. its review

policy was you could not have a you could not

have a public review out until after the game

had launched later on that day. So pre -orders

were already fulfilled, copies were already out.

So I did find that a little bit shady. So with

Bethesda kind of doing this... Another guy on

YouTube and a guy known as JV -217 or 27 or something

like that made some very good points is this

anti -consumer. And I'm kind of starting to wonder

because necessarily they don't need us as the

media. They don't need people like me who work

with traditional broadcast television, radio,

and print. Tell them if the game is good or not

now if the game is tremendous if it does really

really really well like doom did this year They

don't need us But not putting out a game like

Skyrim Which has hundreds of hours of content,

but Bethesda games are known to be buggy. Hell

I didn't I don't even think I got Fallout 4 Until

the day before release or the day of release

Although, when I think back to 2011 when Skyrim

originally came out, I had that game two or three

weeks in advance, and yet now the tune has changed.

So, I don't know, what are your thoughts on it?

Do you think media should have advanced copies

to inform the public, or is it only encouraging

people to get that fast initial review out to

get the clicks? and it may not necessarily be

the most well informed. I think and I think this

is really kind of a weird slippery slope only

because I think people put more stock in the

YouTubers and the Twitch players than they do

the media reviewers because I think that there's

been this general consensus especially with like

just mainstream media not necessarily like journalists

like yourself. or like reviewers like either

one of us or I think there's just general consensus

that if you're a part of or promoting for an

organization other than yourself that you may

not be as legitimate as if you were playing it

because you were given a copy of it you're playing

it you're showing it off and your audience is

watching it with you and so I think that maybe

why they may be moving to that that direction

because it seems like Twitch and YouTube gamers

seem to get top tier on all the new gaming technology,

the gaming gear, the new games, any of the equipment

that's needed, stuff like that. I also think

it's a very positive thing to have the Twitch

streamer involved, but without legitimate media

giving their critique on stuff, I can see only

giving it to enthusiasts and people you know

that are gonna love it. early access, you're

not painting a proper picture of what the final

product is. And I think that hurts the consumer

because you're only getting one side of the story.

Now people like me, we are meant, we are trained

to look for a problem, we're trained to look

for mistakes. But at the end of the day, these

businesses, they're businesses, they're there

to make money. Bethesda knows this. If they can

somehow get around this, then it's not like I

can blame them because that is pretty smart.

Some people are going to catch on, some people

won't. But I think anymore that this is going

to be the trend though is that they're going

to get the streamers to do it. Like, I mean,

I stream Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 1 from

time to time. And, mind you, when I was doing

Battlefield 1, it was during the alpha, during

the beta, during the trial period before the

game actually released. And it was, you know,

one, it was because, you know, I figured people

would like to see the gameplay and like to see,

you know, my thoughts or the bugs with it. Because

I wasn't just saying oh, I just I love this game

immensely. It's it's like the best thing I've

ever played While I you know was saying a lot

of that I was also pointing out anytime I saw

a flaw And and I was also just playing the game

to play the game because I genuinely enjoyed

it because like I won't play a game beyond like

10 hours if It's something that doesn't interest

me in the slightest but Like I I can see where

they would curb this like especially if the company

has like a track record of having like some really

crappy games from time to time because then they

could give it to the people they know that are

diehards for their company and then Get away

from the bad PR at least at first so they can

sell a crap load of copies There are certain

titles that I'm enthusiastic about and I'd probably

give a pass to no matter what. Like if someone

said, hey Mike, we're gonna throw you a Mass

Effect early. Okay, done. I mean, short of it

being another vampire reign or something, I'm

probably gonna give it a raving review. But I'd

rather have someone be honest with me than someone

who's gonna save me 60 bucks. especially considering

the price of games is always going up in seasons

past, is basically packing another price of a

game on top of a game that you already own. Um...

I don't know, like... They're doing something

smart. It's sneaky, but it's smart. Um... I sadly

think this is the way the trend... the trend

is gonna go. You're gonna see more YouTubers

become more prominent than actual journalists.

I can't even name very many tech journalists

anymore. The most... I can think of Mark Saltzman

up here in Canada. You don't see him do a whole

lot of gaming stuff. I can think of Victor Lucas,

who's always done stuff with the electric playground.

Jeff Keighley with his new YouTube show. And

as much as I like Jeff... You know this corporate

money backing that show Going towards the The

separate person the the person that's not tied

to a Media conglomerate. I think people are wanting

that genuine, you know video view of of You know

people actually talking about the product You

know whether it's good or bad I mean because

you kind of know when you're watching especially

a youtuber Which way they're gonna lean if you've

been watching their stuff for a while so you

kind of know what road they're gonna be taking

and In doing that You know whether they're gonna

be biased or not for the most part like I watch

in The truth is is YouTube is pretty much where

the future of everything's at Podcasting, yes,

it is huge, but that's more so when you're in

your car. Predominantly, especially mobile, people

more so prefer YouTube. If you've got all these,

between the YouTube gaming and the Twitch, and

you can watch this stuff mobile on your phone

or on your PC or on your streaming devices of

any kind, whether it's a Blu -ray player or set

-top box. A lot of this stuff, like people are

watching YouTubers more for their reviews and

for the content and for the streaming of games

and for just stuff in general to the point that

they're almost pushing out people that did it

professionally and have been trained in it and

you're getting all these people that are kind

of just figuring it out as they go. kind of taking

up as the new guard even though they probably

shouldn't have been invested in that heavily

but they've become like the new new age like

fully accessible reviewer celebrity so people

are like you know infatuated with what they think

Yeah, because one of the YouTubers I watch all

the time, and not just because he's my friend,

is Angry Joe. You know which way he's gonna...

You know which way he's gonna slant nine times

out of ten. But you're kind of okay with it.

Because if he comes across as one of the few

people on YouTube, I believe is very, very, very

passionate about what he does. I genuinely believe

his reviews nine times out of ten. I do see him

fairly free of corporate influence as he makes

his fun of characters on his show, corporate

commanders, stuff like that, which is pretty

funny. And I know personally companies have shied

away from people like him. because they know

they're not going to toe the line of bullshit,

because there are people who will get more reviews

or copies or stuff sent their way if they're...

Being paid isn't the right thing, but if a company

pays you or offers to take you somewhere and

you do a review event, you're more likely to

get invited back if you give the game a positive

spin. So you mean like when for instance EA flew

everybody out for Battlefield 1 Exactly, they're

more like they're going to choose people that

are influencers And they're going to choose the

right people they think and get more people to

buy the game They want people they know they've

got a good relationship with you And that's not

necessarily a bad thing in some sense and you

as a journalist have to keep your sources happy

And I'm not saying you sell out, no, no, no,

no. I always think of this. There's a great line

from Simpsons. It's the one where Homer gets

the monorail for Springfield. And that salesman

guy says, there's the truth. And the truth. And

that's an important distinction to remember in

media. There's the truth. the truth. Sometimes

you toe the truth line a little more than you

should sometimes, but you're serving the greater

good down the line because you want to have access

to these stories. If you piss off enough people,

you're going to get blackballed. It's such a

hard line to walk between being ethical and being

honest. That's where I guess you can bring up

the whole gamer game thing, but we are so not

touching that No chance at hell about ethics

and game journalism It comes down to how you

want to present things and I'm glad a lot of

companies People have now moved into their reviews

saying I have been provided our review copy of

this by the company Yeah, and I think transparency

is key in today's world to let people know where

you stand and whether, you know, like, hey, I

got this for free, it's definitely a review of,

you know, I've been sponsored by this company,

but it will in no way affect my judgment on it,

you know, and... Yeah, like one YouTuber, I love

how they approach this, it's a YouTuber called

Drifter. At the beginning of his videos, he tells

you outright, this video has, before this video

has been sponsored. And then he goes into whatever

he has to talk about. Myself, I don't often give

disclaimers because I've always made it apparent

I get most of my stuff for free. It's very rarely

that I buy anything. But I've also told people,

I like to think it's in my personality, if this

game sucks, I will tell you. Or... If I don't

say anything about it, that's a pretty good indicator

of why you should probably not be paying attention

to it, so to speak. And I don't think that's

a bad line to have either. In my very early days

as a journalist, there was one game I was asked

to cover. And I said, okay, I played this game.

I played this game for a couple of hours. I then

took the game's peripheral outside and smashed

it with a hammer. I then called the peripheral

developer, said, hey, would you be offended if

I were to set the thing on fire and pee on it?

Because I kind of want to make a YouTube video,

and I think that'd be kind of funny. They weren't

pleased with that answer. But they understood.

I felt very happy about it. They're like, Okay,

we understand you didn't like it. Can you say

that in a more socially acceptable way? Like,

absolutely. I can do that for you. You can be

truthful without being an asshole. You can be

honest without being mean -spirited. And I think

that's where a lot of people get kind of lost

in the shuffle. But, let's swing it back to my

original point. with the whole YouTubers and

other media people getting stuff early. I think

as long as the right people are getting the copies

early, and they're honest, I guess that's just

the way it's gonna have to go. There are some

people on YouTube I genuinely trust, and they're

gonna get their stuff early, and that's fine.

There are some other people on YouTube I know

they virtually ride game companies' fees. And

that's the way it is. There's always going to

be people that buy in and sell out. And that's

just the way it is. That is meaning. That is

buying and selling influence. That is peddling

views. And unfortunately, it's up to you as the

consumer to figure out what's what. And it's

going to be a little bit harder these days. But

I like to believe in the collective non -stupidity

of people that are out there. Don't let me down.

that you'll make the right informed choice when

the time comes. Hopefully, I've made that crystal

clear. I mean, I don't know, how do you see my

approach to it? No, I mean, I kind of agree with

you on everything you just mentioned. I mean,

it's not... I don't see an issue with getting...

stuff for free and reviewing it and being honest

about it without having that dickish side to

it. I wouldn't consider it a review copy getting

Battlefield 1 Alpha. I just was one of the select

few that got chosen to play it. I have no idea

how I got into that role of being chosen. but

I was like one of four guys out of our like 60

person clan that got chosen for our group and

I got to play the alpha and I even in my streams

noticed glitches with it and unfortunately didn't

get to record them because it would have been

hilarious but Like I was in one tank and I shot

at another tank and the tank I actually meant

to shoot at the guy next to the tank and it bounced

off the guy hit the tank and the tank went flying

across the map and I was like well that's not

supposed to happen and uh so you know I mean

I I had aspects like that um That kept happening

throughout the game of the alpha and then they

corrected a lot of that in the beta But the beta

still had its issues as well, but they were a

lot less than the alpha and then getting into

the main game a lot of it's been fixed but there's

still some things that I noticed from the alpha

and the beta that have not yet been fixed and

They seem to be like patching as they go, but

it's still Yeah, I mean I I had no problem telling

my issues with What it was and I still enjoyed

the game overall and I enjoyed everything about

it then yes I was a little biased because of

my my like of battlefield 4 which I also mentioned

but like you know I mean it's like I think as

long as you've got full transparency I'm like

yeah, I have a little bit of a bias here But

I also enjoyed the game and yes, there are these

problems with it. You know, I think that you're

you're kind of safe So switching gears a little

bit Have you heard of the thing called gamers

vote? It's for United States mostly because it's

about getting people to go out and vote for the

presidential election Which I will touch briefly

because by next recording we will have our new

President of the United States, wherever it may

be. But basically what this thing is, and I signed

up for it at some point, don't know when, must

have been last year, but it's the Video Game

Voters Network, kind of sponsored by E3 in a

sense, and pretty much what they're doing is

they're saying that gamers basically have the

power to change our nation with the ability to

vote. And the fact that politicians are constantly

trying to take away our First Amendment rights

and abilities to have our games the way we have

them. basically the amount of people that that

game would have the power to change you know

the United States anyway so it's it's basically

a thing to get people to go out and vote and

in doing so you get you sign this pledge on Facebook

of yeah I'm going to the the polls on on the

8th and they send you a gamers vote sticker kind

of like the I voted sticker And you take a picture

of yourself and you tag yourself To their their

hashtag and their Twitter account or their Facebook

account and then they put you in a drawing to

win two tickets to e3 So I did that So Republican

Democrat or third party, I mean I guess as long

as you're a part of the democratic process That's

what really matters. And that's what they're

basically saying is that people should just vote.

Do your due diligence, figure out who you align

with closer in policy or whatever. And then just

go out and just make a difference by using your

right to vote, which is about the only right

you really have. besides taxes and dying. And

I can't wait because I'm so tired of all of the

bull crap on social media about this. And then

you get the the people that are so ignorant.

And it's on both sides of the map. Doesn't matter

whether you're Republican Democrat. There's so

many ignorant people on both sides of that that

make the other side look horrible. Yeah, I've

seen some pretty ignorant statements come from

both sides, but I've made it no secret that I

would go Democrat because I'm very liberal in

my thinking. But he has no tact or filter. I

think the Republican Party, and this is how I

see it, after this election, there's going to

be a big change. Which there should be. And I

think that that's, you know, kudos to Trump in

that instance that he's shaken up the process

because it's gotten so stagnant over the last

60 years that we're getting the same crap over

and over and over and over. Instead of having

legitimate third parties jumping into this election,

we're just having the same two just beating each

other with a shovel every year We have five parties

just the other the other ones that aren't Republican

or Democrat are not allowed to take part in the

rest of the election process or the debates at

the same time liberals, the progressive conservatives,

the New Democratic Party, and the Bloc Québécois

and the Green Party. And each of them has representation

in government in some form, like we have the

official opposition and whatnot. But to not drag

on politics too far, because we'll piss someone

off inevitably. Well, and I understand that.

I had fun watching like there's the college kids

say the darnedest things on YouTube I'm just

part of me sad that it's gonna be over on Tuesday

because I'll tell you this has been an amazing

16 months of watching your country implode but

at the same time Tuesday night when the final

vote is counted One way or another, we're witnessing

history. You're either gonna watch the first

woman president, the first mom, voted into the

highest place in the land, or... I'm sorry, I

really want to say it, but I don't want to piss

someone off. Yeah, just say you're Canadian,

you get a pass. Okay, so, or you voted suck face,

spawn clown, dick. I thought you were going to

say the annoying orange. I mean, regardless,

though, regardless what happens on Tuesday, history

is going to be made. History will look back on

this point for countries past and I don't know

how they're going to judge us. I just hope that

on Tuesday America makes the right decision for

itself. Because the rest of us are going to be

affected too. So, I wish everyone in the United

States the best of luck on Tuesday. Vote early.

Don't vote often. Don't be an asshole. But just

do the right thing. Do what you think is right.

I mean, Republican or Democrat or whatever, as

long as you do what you... Well, and the other

thing is, too, if it does end up with Trump as

president, you guys get Bryan Cranston. I don't

know if you saw that article. He said if Trump

gets elected, he's moving to Canada. Bryan Cranston.

He's Zordon now. But I think to get it on a happy

because I've enjoyed this immensely and watched

it like about two dozen times. Have you watched

the Tom Hanks episode on SNL? There's an awesome

clip on there called David Pumpkins. And it's

basically this couple goes in the They go in

this like basically Tower of Terror type thing

except it's it you know it's it's still an elevator,

but it's a hundred floors of terror and I won't

ruin the skit for anybody, but this this thing

is hilarious, and it would not work without Tom

Hanks playing this character And it's it's just

it's They've been trying to do this for years

with different skits, but I think they finally

captured it here, and it's funny enough that

after the skit aired, people were buying the

domains for this of like davidpumpkins .com or

davidspumpkins .com and I bought imdavidpumpkins

.com and have it linked to my YouTube channel

because it's funny to me And so yeah, it's it's

just it was probably one of the best like Halloween

skits in recent years That they've done And it's

just because Tom Hanks is in it and he made it

work But I don't know why I really thought you're

gonna have me if I'd seen that pineapple pen

thing. I don't know why If you don't know what

I'm talking about, don't look it up. Stop now

while you still can. I'm not looking it up. I'm

googling it right now. But I guess this clip

is supposed to be confusing. It says it works

because it leaves you confused. Because you're

sort of like, wait, what? You know, trying to

figure it out. And it's just it's spectacular.

And they try to do something similar with it

a few years ago. They did like this FBI simulator

last year and it didn't quite work or the year

before last. And they did the close encounter

clip like last year. And none of them really

have hit the mark that this particular clip has

done. So. Yeah, definitely watch this. It's funny.

You won't. Speaking of mail, we should talk about

the comment we got last week about what should

be on television. Your listener, to kind of just

kind of sum it up because I'm just going to do

it from memory, was suggesting that Dune should

be a TV series, and I completely agree. I think

wasn't Patrick Stewart in it and sting and I've

seen it it's been a long time, but I've seen

it But I do I do kind of agree that dune would

make an awesome television series because they

would actually get time to flush it out Absolutely,

I think that's a great idea to adapt. Smaller

stories early bigger story lines. I'd love to

see um agent shield Do a TV movie maybe if you

could get Jeremy Renner for a couple of weeks

and just shoot a Hawkeye TV movie with Colson

I Think that'd be awesome But they're going out

of their way to make sure Colson stays dead in

the movie universe The only thing that they've

got going for him on Agents of Shield is they

have two Ghost Riders. I just hope that it's

Nicolas Cage. And they need to get Nicolas Cage.

I'd be okay if he made a cameo as Johnny Blaze.

I'd be okay with that. Well, I'm saying if they

make Johnny Blaze... I think they'd make him

a cameo. I don't think they'd actually make a

series with him being the lead, because they

want the younger guy to be in there. You know

who would easily do a cameo? You just have to,

I guess, get the money together. I want Blade

audience to shield for at least one episode.

Just give me Blade. I think Leslie Snipes still

wants to play him. He does. So as long as the

MCU people can figure out a way to make this

happen, I'm totally game for it. I think that'd

be awesome. I think you'd be more apt to see

it on Netflix than you would on Agents of S .H

.I .E .L .D. Yeah, for sure. But then again,

we got Ghost Rider on Agents of S .H .I .E .L

.D. and I didn't see that coming either. Yeah,

so who knows that? Finally things are starting

to fire up right on point again with that show.

I still got to catch up on the last half of last

season, but... I keep enough of an ear to the

ground that I know kind of what's going on. Looking

forward to seeing Doctor Strange and seeing how

it ties into... Hopefully, I will get a chance

to see that for a few weeks by the sounds of

it, so... But the other nice thing about... Speaking

of shows that are getting better... Arrow. Has

drastically improved this season It's very much

close to its season one and two counterpart rather

than the three and four Well, you're gonna kind

of have to know a little bit about all of them

because there's gonna be a five episode Crossover

between the four shows I just wish they'd bring

Kong to feedback. But hey, he's alive in their

universes, so I'm good enough with that. Yeah,

they introduced him. He's still there, so. And

I know that this five -parter has to do with,

like, Barry Allen and Earvard Thon, so... Should

be exciting, and it should be good. Yep. So I

guess with that in mind, what have we got coming

up on the network this week? Um, nothing really.

this week next week we have uh well basically

the same thing um we have the uh top 100 first

episodes dropping on uh next thursday which is

the top 100 animated characters um it is uh i

have to apologize to Kevin that i didn't get

that done Kevin i'm so so sorry But I'm optimus

solo Kevin is facilitating I believe movie revolt

Dan is on board as well Running that top 100.

This will be the first top 100. I'm not on every

episode So this is no, this is the fourth top

100 that we've done I will be there for the the

finishing touches on this the the top 100 basically

the the finale the the final countdown So Looking

forward to seeing who gets on the list and who

doesn't just gives me incentive to listen to

it and I don't have to edit so even better for

me Yeah, I'm not sure when I'm back on the show

I seem to take massively long break so Whenever

Steve lights the birdman signal in the sky I

will be there Obviously, keep it locked to ThisWeekendGeek

.net. I got a nerve news going up this weekend.

This Altered Geek will get posted on Twig at

some point this weekend. Finally gonna get around

to doing that bot stroll. I've actually been

talking with Shane from Arctream Publishing.

He's the publisher behind the new Delta Green,

which is the... Call of Cthulhu combat variant

or more the modern version of Call of Cthulhu.

We're gonna talk about that. Hopefully sometime

this week or next. Topic show for November. We

haven't quite decided what we're gonna do. Maybe

we'll do part two of our Star Trek show because

I know in September we just kind of ran out of

time. So maybe we'll finish up part two with

TS9, Voyager and beyond. We're working right

on that one. And I think from December 12th to

February 1st, I'm going to be taking an extended

break from Twig. I'm only going to be doing a

show once every two weeks. So Dirt News will

be a news magazine program temporarily. While

I enjoy a little bit of wintertime break and

wintertime blues. So should be good though. I'm

kind of looking forward to taking some time off

this year. And other than that, TerribleWarriors

.com doing a lot of really cool stuff. We got

Dungeons and Dragons, we got Ravenloft going

on right now, Embers of the Jedi is being recorded

right now. So, good times for all. So, TerribleWarriors

.com is this week's meeting done here. Awesome,

awesome, awesome. So, I think that about does

it this week. So, till next time. Get Altered

Gate Geeky with the Altered Geeks.