Saints Row IV Review

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please visit www .grand -con .com. This week

on Off the Cuff, we've got a little bit of Saints

Row IV. We've got some free to play games that

I want to talk about because Dan is not here.

Don't care. And maybe a little bit of reader

feedback? Not entirely sure. This week on Off

the Cuff, as always, I'm your host, Michael Powers.

I'm joined by Joe Reed. Hello. And by Sean Z

Brown. Hi. And as you heard in the intro, Danner

is not here. He - Yay! I guess since he does

it to you, you can do it to him. Oh, he does

it? Oh my god. I don't even know if I want to

listen to the ones that I'm not on anymore. He

gets a little excited when you're not on the

show. He gets very excited when I am on the show,

though. No. Yes. Yeah, he may he may or may not

be joining us later on. Not entirely sure, but

sure. Pull out that fishing line. So let's let's

jump right into this. Since you were absent,

why don't you? Tell us why you like Saints Row

4 Because it's like Saints Row 3 but fourier

No, um, anybody who likes Saints Row, sorry will

like this game it's I probably the best thing

I seen so far is I believe your wife said, hey,

it's like it's like Saints Row three, but with

crackdown, which it is. But she's not she's not

saying it as positively as you are. And they're

after her. I've seen a lot of comments that are

that people aren't taking to Saints Row four

as enthusiastically as as you are because of

the way that. how it just feels like a $60 DLC

add -on, which that's how it was. See, that's

how it started. That's how it started. The dominant

enter the dominatrix was going to be the DLC,

the last DLC for last game. But then all that

stuff was happening with HQ. I think they saw

it coming. So they're like, let's just push it

into the next game. So as a result, one of the

reasons real quickly here, one of the reasons

my wife doesn't really care for it is because.

It's a lot like the map and everything is the

same as it was in Saints Row 3 So she doesn't

have there's no feeling of exploration for her.

I guess But I I will give her that that the exploration

gone with the traversal is so much fun I what

I did bring up with her last night because she

she played Saints Row 3 I think like when it

came out and then she recently played through

Saints Row 3 again as did I And I asked her,

I said, would you have such a negative opinion

of Saints Row 4 if you hadn't just played Saints

Row 3? Like, if you were far enough removed from

knowing where stuff was and being in that world,

would it feel fresh to you? And she kind of thought

that maybe that would have helped if she hadn't

just replayed it, but because she just replayed

it, she's not... As receptive to it as she was

hoping she would be in fact she went back to

playing replaying Assassin's Creed games, but

yes Um Number I haven't played co -op yet. I'm

strictly playing on a single player right now

Um, I think co -op in that game can be could

has the potential to be very very fun. I haven't

tried it yet Oh wait, if I can say one other

thing Try to remain as spoiler -free as possible.

I know there's I'm not gonna say anything story

wise because I know there's a listener that It

has not had a chance to play it that okay. I

won't say anything story wise I will throw out

a couple of Easter eggs, but they have nothing

to do with the story okay, okay um It's definitely

fun once you get obviously anyone who's seen

a trailer for this game you get superpowers um

More along though. I would say more closer to

prototype to anyone who played it especially

with the the traversing like the running up the

side of the building running up the side of the

buildings uh you do like a little glide but the

glide thing that was in crackdown well no it's

not like crackdown where you have to keep going

up and down and up and down it's not like that

you can glide if you get enough it all depends

on your forward speed and how high you jump when

you trigger the glide okay um you get some pretty

interesting other powers um like blasts of different

kinds, telekinesis. It's all in the trailers.

Basically like a ground stomp. You eventually

get a power that's not spoiling much anything,

but you like jump in the air and you hold it,

hold a button and you'll stop midair and a cross

air will come down on the ground and you fly

straight to the ground like Superman style crater.

That's yeah, I've seen the higher you jump, the

higher up you are from the ground, the more damage

you do. Destructible environments to any degree.

No Saints Row is never about it. I mean except

for people and cars, but um Can you imagine Saints

Row 4 and like? If I could take down buildings

Earth Defense Force at the end of my at the end

of my play sessions There would be no city though,

right? It would just be like it'd be like a flat

map. Well, that's how Earth Defense Force was

Yeah, but it takes four. Yeah, but you can't

fly in Do all the crazy stuff you can and uh

except for you can take down a building with

one rocket in Earth Defense Force Anyways enough

about Earth Defense Force. Anyways, um About

10 minutes into the game. I instantly fell in

love with it Not because because like you said

that it's it's essential with the exception of

a few added things. It's the exact same city.

Um In the in Saints Row the third if you want

to customize a gun say you have the Whatever

pistol the only way to customize it really is

to upgrade it It changes how it looks if I upgrade

the clip capacity the clip gets bigger if I upgrade

the damage the barrel gets bigger or stuff like

that Now you can actually basically put a different

skin on the gun make it look like a different

gun Okay, and so the One pistol I looked at,

I'm like, what is this customization thing? So

I looked down, I'm like, oh, that's cool. You

can make it look like a badass magnum revolver.

And then I go down on the next selection. It

was called the Captain, and it's Captain Malcolm's

gun from Firefly. Oh, awesome. Right. And under

the thing, it says it says I aim to misbehave.

So is it like the flavor text from Borderlands?

Kinda. and then like you go down to the the same

malcom's gun but it's really shy it's like a

shiny metallic color instead of like that dull

color and it goes oh shiny or anything okay um

then you can flip over to like there was a different

pistol and you can make it look like han solo's

pistol doesn't change how the gun works at all

only changes how it looks does it shoot lasers

Kind of yeah, it's like it'll change what the

what the shots look like does the same amount

of damage acts the same amount of way if it's

fully automatic weapons still fully automatic

stuff like that you can also I Think it's called

the red shirt special and you get like an old

like Star Trek original series phaser nice. Oh

There's tons of stuff like that like um My sub

machine gun looks like the robocop pistol your

sub Okay, there's a submachine because you know

how he has a fully automatic pistol well. Yeah,

but yeah well because that's a it's a Basically

you take what would be a really weak fast -shooting

machine gun and you put the skin on a Robocop's

gun So it's still fully automatic doesn't change

anything just looks like his gun And it makes

that same noise whenever you shoot it that it

does from the movie that like really really mechanical

noise yeah Some of the stuff was just really

cool Like, uh, excuse me. Have you used the induction

gun? No, I haven't yet. I haven't yet. And it

looks really cool. I have videos of that. It

looks like fun. So there's like this the special

weapon category. There's that's where they'll

have like in the first in the last game, they

had like radio controlled drones and stuff like

that. That's where all the crazy guns that you

see in the commercial are. There's the abduction

gun There's the dubs or the wub wub wub gun.

Is that what it's called you? Yeah, you shoot

it and it makes people um dance to dubstep I

saw um there's the inflator right their heads

blow up like balloons and then pop Now the abduction

gun there for anyone that doesn't know you fire

that at the ground and anything that gets trapped

and it gets sucked into the air like an alien

Yes, yep And apparently it will pick up objects

like cars, too. Oh, yeah. There's the black hole

gun. It shoots like a black hole on anything

close to get sucked into anything that touches

the black hole instantly, instantly gets disintegrated.

Can you kill yourself with the black hole gun?

It'll pull you a little bit. But when it when

it ends, anything that didn't get sucked in gets

thrown out. And those things can definitely kill

you. Nice. Because I took myself out with a semi

tractor driller like the front end of it hit

me right in the face. Like right now my salt

rifle looks like the gun from a racer With a

Arnold Schwarzenegger that like rail gun. Yeah,

so the whole movie I have not seen Like okay,

that's a shitty movie that like half the people

that play this game won't even understand But

when you see it, it doesn't say what movie it's

from it just has it has the text says you have

been erased or something but it has a ton of

little stuff like Saw it online has nothing to

do with the story if you go through the story.

You'll never find this but there's one The gunshots

in the game are called friendly fire Yes You

there's one shop if you go into it There's a

door in the back and if you shoot the door opens

and you can walk in and get the noisy cricket

from men in black Well, that's cool. Yeah, um

when you shoot it it knocks your guy over It

throws your guy back You can shoot it It's not

modeled off of Tommy Lee Jones handling it. No

It's yes, it's modeled from Will Smith. Definitely

throws you back But um and it recharges so you

never have to run out of ammo, but it's recharging

really slowly Every shot takes 25 % of its power

But every shot whatever is even close to there.

You have to hold it on us for a second It'll

take out like a sit like anything in an intersection

is gone. Does it chirp when it's charging up?

Don't know it's just a I always hear the loud

explosion from the shit exploding so it may chirp

But like they can't call anything what it really

is so they call it the tiny pistol, but it doesn't

mean that you can't make it sound Yeah, I'm not

sure if it does though. I'll have to check that

out and of course I have the the dildo sword

is back and You can get a blue version It's called

Something the doctor and it's like who watches

the the watch people or something. It's a giant

blue penis Supposed to be dr. Manhattan Scott

I can't remember what the flavor text says, but

it's like as soon as I saw I'm like, oh it looks

like oh my god, it is his dick But um Definitely

lots of fun. That's it. It's like it's never

been a serious game. It's a good goof around

game I've played all of them. Okay, the first

one the first one is not if you take the first

one and Played it next to the third one or the

fourth one. Those games are completely different

The first one was the first one is way more serious

I mean, there's still some funny parts, but it's

way more intense and serious than the others

Yes, exactly and then when they did two They

were kind of more like, maybe we should step

away from this realism. If GTA is going to go

crazy realist, they can let you bowl and stuff.

And then for number two, they actually made fun

of GTA 4. Yeah, I think that... All their ads

were, you could go bowling with your friend,

or you could throw your friend in front of a

speeding train. And then the third one went completely

batshit insane. And now the fourth one is nuts.

There's no part of the game that takes any that's

any kind of serious and They actually make fun

of mass effect in that game too, which I thought

was really funny um Cuz spoiler alert anyone

who's seen a trailer knows it's it's all like

like a matrix e type thing Yeah, that's why your

guys superpowers it says in the trailers did

you have sex with all your crew members? As far

yep so far including the robot like orb guy Yeah,

buddy Oh, they make fun like in Joe have you

ever played Mass Effect? I played almost got

through part one. Okay, you know how you can

romance characters Yeah, you spend the entire

game mate like hitting on him and flirting with

him and stuff in this game You can walk right

up to him and it says romance and you hit it

the button and you guy will instantly have sex

with them Like the one the one girl it's like

Hey, you want to fuck? And it's like, sure. She

punches in the face and jumps on you. The one

I forgot what the orb says something along the

lines if he has. He has special programming or

something to make you feel good. And then all

of a sudden he disappeared. He goes like below

your waistline while your guys hands raise up

over his head. Yeah, yeah. There's like the one

girl she's like a super spy agent lady. And basically

you would like you have like a discussion with

her about how she gets to be on top. But it's

it's a really funny game. If you take that game,

try to be serious. You're missing the point of

that game. It's all about craziness and lunacy.

And what the hell am I doing moments? You know,

I don't I I tried playing Saints Row three. Mm

hmm. I played it a few times with Jason and I

just. No, I don't care. And that's one of the

things that kind of worries me about, like, even

Grand Theft Auto five is that I I don't know.

Maybe that's just not your game. It used to be,

though, like, I don't know. I don't know what

it is. Maybe I don't like. Times have left you

behind, Gramps. OK, I don't like that. I didn't

like the seriousness of GTA four, but I'm not.

a huge fan of like the clownishness of Saints

Row? Yeah, I like some sort of middle ground

there. I love Vice City. I just think there was

a nice little middle ground there because it

was set in a fictional Miami and there was neon

colors and the 80s music. That was Miami Vice.

Right, and I just feel like that was kind of

Kind of kind of cheeky and fun and it you know,

but it never got like, you know, there's no poo

cannon Is there oh you mean the septic Avenger?

Yeah, or like a flying toilet mod? Just happens

Well, that makes it even better I Think that

the the Saints Row series is going toward and

and maybe this is primarily why I can't get into

it's going for And sorry Sean, I know you like

it a very juvenile sense of humor. Yeah, buddy

I can't laugh at that anymore because I don't

know what I've always liked about the Grand Theft

Auto series was that it generally takes itself

seriously kind of but a lot of the humor in it

is satirical or Commentary on how we live our

lives now I mean man I was playing through Grand

Theft Auto for not too long ago, the technology

in that and the satire that they wrap around

like the internet cafes, it's starting to be

obviously dated. Like, wow, we don't do this

kind of stuff anymore. But the humor was there

for what it was twat, the internet cafe, TW at

sign. I mean, it's juvenile, but it's Clever

in that way and I think that's something that's

that's missed missing from the Saints Row series

is yeah, it's fine if it's bonkers and I like

the way prototype traversed you could traverse

the universe and putting that into a Grand Theft

Auto esque type game is neat, but I I need that

satire that to be there or something to give

me a reason to Have to consume that type of humor

Or just find a game that allows you to have those

powers that doesn't need that humor like in this

or you know God forbid someone plays prototype

Who would do that? I played the first one all

the way through. Yeah, that's cuz you couldn't

play infamous. Yeah, I Can't play infamous either.

So I should try prototype. Is that what? No No,

infamous is the superior game. Okay, when they

both before they came out they look kind of like

it was like infamous because what I thought they

were before it was Before it was released, infamous

was supposed to be on both early advertisements.

No, no, infamous was never on both. Oh, maybe

not paper ones, but on all the websites they

were saying it was going to be for both. Infamous

was always a sucker punch PS3 title because sucker

punch works with Sony. It's never. It would never.

I came damn near close to pre ordering that game

on 360 from GameStop because GameStop is retarded.

I've gone in there. I've gone in there and asked

for PlayStation exclusive games, and they asked

me if I wanted on 360 anyways But um when I found

out I couldn't play that game. I saw the stuff

for prototype I'm like oh this games okay superhero

in a big city cool um But prototype the there's

like no story. It's it's horrible And there is

but just it's stupid But um the A couple down

things that we'll say about Santhro is once with

the traversal being able to sprint up buildings

and glide and jump for a block or two and then,

you know, jump for, you know, a couple of blocks

and then glide for a dozen more blocks. It makes

cars and stuff along that obsolete. I almost

never use them. You can run faster than cars.

And if I'm sprinting on the road, any car I hit,

bounces off me like I'm super speeding through

it, so that I don't even have to steer. Now,

OK, wouldn't isn't that that's kind of the same

problem we you have with crackdown? Yeah, I don't

get what the or anything that has like superpowers

in it. Yeah. Once you get high enough leveled

up in your superpowers. It becomes obsolete to

use those things, but the problem is with unlike

crackdown, like with. So you get offensive powers.

So the guns almost become unless you really like

using the guns, which I do the guns almost become

pointless, too Well, yeah, I mean When I can

throw a fireball that will help kill 15 guys

in one hit and every time they die from being

on fire They explode and light more people on

fire. Why would I bother with a shotgun? Why

would I but you know try to actually kill them

with? weapons when I can do this amazing stuff

by myself. Well, yeah, which makes it which makes

it all the more jarring when you go into there

are certain missions where you're going into

someone else's world, not your own, like another

in -game character. You don't have superpowers

in those instances. So if you've spent all your

time getting used to the superpowers, you almost

forget how to play the game, not like, oh, I

actually have to dodge guys now. I can't just

jump or super speed away. It's like, oh god,

I actually have to pay attention and crouch and

aim and it's almost jarring for a second Like

you have to almost remember how to play the game

before you had superpowers, which is weird concerning

the last three were like that It sounds like

I might like it like the superpower aspect makes

me think that I might like Or better than three

because possibly I mean well because I like the

open world games where it's not the running and

I mean even though even though like it comes

down to Even though like most open -world games

like even infamous comes down to running and

gunning you're just shooting people with lightning

bolts versus guns Yeah, there's still something

that's I'm not shooting a gun at people That

I said different well, I think it does like some

some part of my brains as I'm firing lightning

bolts I'm not shooting bullets at some guy so

and There's basically agility orbs in the game

Yeah, so let's let's rip off. They're called

nodes. Let's rip off crackdown and Oh, yes, because

no other game has ever had collectibles. I know

well somebody someone on Twitter said they're

okay with Saints Row becoming the the airplane

equivalent of The video game world. Yeah, it's

just parodies of all the other games. Oh, yeah

I totally it totally makes fun of a bunch of

other games And you can dress like Boba Fett.

So how is that not amazing? How far are you in

in the game, do you think? Oh, main story wise,

I would say I'm damn near the end, but I think

I'm only at like 42 % total completion. There

are just over the years tons of side quests and

side missions. And now in this one, they've added

Co -op specific ones. Ones that are made to be

played with more than one person. I haven't tried

those yet. Like I said, I haven't tried co -op

yet. I'm not going to be able to help you out

with that. So I know you're not. You jerk. Even

though she has the game and it's right there.

No, she has it on the PS3 so we can. Oh, did

she? Yeah, she's she's she has been getting herself

ready for the transition. Well, that game I didn't

mind buying on Xbox anyways. Well, she she took

the opinion of Well, once you want to get used

to the controller, which is why she started playing

the Assassin's Creed games again And then the

other thing is she didn't want to turn on her

PlayStation 4 and start playing online with people

and have zero record of her being a gamer Because

she doesn't have any trophies or anything like

that So she so she was like, okay, that's how

mine's gonna be what I flip over I have this

mildly impressive gamer score on Xbox Yeah, but

you have weapon 87 though. You still have that

username. Yeah, there's not much on there Well,

but you still have a history of it and she had

nothing so she went and she wanted to replay

the Assassin's Creed games So she started playing

Assassin's Creed 2 Which is not funny because

I now own three copies of the Ezio trilogy because

she wanted to play the SEO trilogy and 3 again

to get all the trophies for him or as many trophies

as she can before she got her PS4 and I had lent

my friend John brotherhood and revelations when

he was here for Christmas Mm -hmm, and she's

like I want to play those and then we were at

Best Buy and they have like the Ezio trilogy

on one disc for $30 Wow, she bought it. Yeah,

she's yeah bought again Yeah, now that cuz they're

getting ready for the next ones. They're basically

doing their Exactly well, no, well the if they

don't have to the Ezio trilogy has been out Since

a little bit after revelations came out Yeah,

but not for $30. It was it was like the 30 or

$40. It was never 60 to us It was never so I

thought it was I thought it started out at like

$49 .99. Well, it's not a starter game. That's

a $50 game. That's close enough You're getting

three games instead of one. Yeah, so So yeah,

she went ahead and bought again. She's been been

playing through that and then Saints Row I asked

her said do you want to get it on? You know,

do you want to get on a 360 or do you want to

get it on the ps3? And she wanted You know, she

wanted to work on the trophies again. So she

got it for the ps3 test test test now She does

she issue. Does she have any friends in there

to actually play the game? Uh, no Well, I mean

she could friend up with jason because jason

has it and jason's also another person He hasn't

said one way or the other whether he enjoys it,

but he finds ali's criticisms Interesting. He

hasn't said he agrees yet, but oh, I totally

get what she's saying I totally understand that

being as I just probably within the last month

Rebeat Saints Row 3 just cuz does that make you

do you really think? Now here's the question.

Is there really enough content given that they

reused? They built off of Basically, they built

off of Saints Row 3 because it was originally

planned as DLC, right? Do you feel like there

is enough con new content to justify the $60

game? Yes, the old like this it does feel like

the same Exploration because of the city Okay,

but they but they add but there's these um For

exploration needs What have you there's these

towers think of them like agency tower from crackdown,

okay? But there's like five of them Okay So there's

others so there's the city itself is the same

but everything else about the city like Every

activity got a new spin because superpowers apply

to everything like I don't know if you ever saw

her do insurance fraud Yeah, okay now imagine

that but you'd be able to throw yourself four

blocks. Okay now hold on so You're saying that

a flashy skin the flashy skins a reshuffling

of the side quests and five new towers justifies

60 60 dollars Oh, it's definitely not a reshuffling

of the side quest though. All of this activities,

they're all new because you have all these new

toys to play with. But is the city asset the

same? They literally took the city itself. The

landscape, the map. Is the same. They added some

destruction here and stuff there. But essentially

the same city. So look at it this way, okay?

Ubisoft just did this with Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon.

Right? They put a new skin on it. With new guns,

new textures, new enemies, new missions. 15 bucks.

Do you really yeah isn't that game one like four

hours long because that's what but so you're

saying that the like I Just it to me is the same

thing like how how did I don't understand nothing

that you've told me because it's based off of

it's Essentially what I'm hearing it's a reskin

of three. I don't see how it's just like it's

With the added superpowers That follows part

break the game because they use the same map,

they didn't re -imagine anything. They don't

break the game, it's just you have to, you learn

to play the game a completely different way.

There's definitely challenging enemies and there's

stuff that's still challenging. You just, you

play a new way and forget how to play the old

way. Again, I'm an outsider here, but just like

listening to you, what you've said and what Ali

said and the whole, the fact that it's just,

essentially what it is is a skin. It feels a

little weird to play, especially when you know

how it started. Like 60 bucks for this game seems

a little steep for me No, I would compare That

you're a fan easily yeah, no I could would easily

compare this to st. Throw the third though when

it first came out Because with the exception

of with the exception of the city changing st.

Throw two and three were almost the same game

All the side quests were exactly the same, but

you guys are almost exactly the same, but you

were paying for like You were paying for slightly

slightly different. I don't know. You're paying

for them to develop an entirely new city with

an entirely new set of rules. I mean, it's not

all the rules were if if you deal the rules were

always the same from two to three. I guess I

don't know because it's just a skin and you know

that it starts as you know that it was planned

DLC. Yeah. Well, that's where the whole you being

a computer simulation started. Yeah. So I mean

it just sounds like the stuff that they I don't

know that the stuff that they added on Like the

presidential stuff that they added on to make

it its own like story versus like DLC I don't

know that in my mind that does not add $40 to

the cost of a game. Oh If it was just that I

would totally agree with you like But I'm having

infinitely more like I've played every DLC for

every sands for band that's ever come out and

I am definitely getting way more fun in time

out of this game than I would if it was just

a DLC added to 3. But you don't really see how

the city being revamped, being skinned, and the

superpowers being added on couldn't have been

DLC to the third one for $15. Oh, I think they

could have added superpowers and stuff to the...

But just say it's the third, but it wouldn't.

I don't think it would have been anywhere near

what this game is. But are you saying that because

of the story that they framed it in or are you

saying that because you don't because this is

essentially the same game like you're OK paying

45 more dollars to have it on its own separate

disc versus $15 for downloadable skin? It would

it wouldn't have been if it was this game with

whatever, it would have never been a $15 DLC.

It would have been like a $40 expansion. Even

that's better than $60. I don't know. I'm thoroughly

enjoying it. I've already gotten my 60 bucks

easy out of this game. And like I said, I'm 42

% done. All right. Total completion. Let's take

that bitch. Yeah. Fine. I'll take it. At least

you're willing to have a conversation. Of course.

When do I not? I always speak. I never shy away

from talking, sir. Hi, Joe. How are you doing?

I'm alright, man. Do you have anything you want

to contribute, Joe? No, except that I'm a Grand

Theft Auto guy and can't wait for V. When I start

playing V, I will have tons to talk about. Man,

I am so... Conflicted about Grand Theft Auto

5. Tell me three -player co -op and I'll pre

-order that game tomorrow It's not though and

I know and even if it was three -player co -op

Sean Z. No one's playing it on 360. I know I'm

saying I would pre -order I wouldn't See I wouldn't

pre -order on I have games pre -order for a PlayStation

4 I have PlayStation 4 of pre -order yet. My

my whole problem is With Grand Theft Auto 5 is

that it's so close to the end of the generation

And the visuals of it, while people have been

shown the game on the PS3 and the 360, and it's

coming to the PC, I have this feeling that between

the time that Grand Theft Auto V launches and

the time that the GTA Online comes out is officially

available, I have a feeling that they're going

to announce a next -gen version. and I don't

really want to I don't know that I want to spend

the 60 bucks for that and then have them turn

around and announce a next -gen version and even

at that point with Watch Dogs and Assassin's

Creed 4 and infamous Second Son coming in February

I don't really know that I want another open

-world game thrown in the mix I think if Grand

Theft Auto ends up being multi -platform, that

the next platform, the PS4 version of it, won't

be that different in content. There may be, you

might get an expansion with it, it might have

a slightly higher frame rate and a slightly higher

resolution. You're saying it'll be ported to

the PlayStation 4? Oh yeah, just like, just exactly

like King Kong was when the 360 came out. Oh

god, I remember that. See, here's the thing though.

that I I would expect the port because the architect

okay here's this is where this is the argument

that I make because I would expect the port to

come from the PC version not the ps3 going to

the ps4 because the architecture is too different

yes the architect well the architecture from

PC to the PlayStation 4 very similar so it'd

be an easy port it would be an easy port path

and I think I think that in in a game one of

the weird things is and it's you might obviously

I have not seen the game like hands on none of

us have seen the games hands on but one of the

things I'm kind of concerned with right now is

whether like what and I haven't heard anybody

talk about how the game performs the videos look

solid but they're not I haven't seen anyone from

a gameplay perspective I've seen the cinematics

that they keep showing and I'm wondering like

because framerate framerate and screen tearing

and really good textures became a thing for me

in the last like two years like it really that

determined what version of a game that i bought

like did i buy tomb raider on the 360 or the

ps3 like sometimes i waited for digital foundry

to do their like their I can't their head -to

-head thing where they compared the two versions

and said which one you know what which one this

one has better graphics this one has some problems

well yeah it was kind of like it was kind of

like they'd be like the 360 has like a solid

30 frames per second frame rate and the ps3 is

like all over the place and it was kind of like

I use that as a resource to so I would play play

the the lesser of two evils I wanted to get the

best experience I could possibly get for certain

things which is one of the reasons why I have

Far Cry 3 on the 360 over getting it on the PS3

because the port path for those was a lot better

and I just I can't I can't stress enough like

in certain instances high resolution textures

especially with games like you know we talked

about last week with Gone Home high resolution

textures cannot be undervalued Especially after

playing that game it added so much being able

to read like labels on like cereal boxes and

You know seeing the the labels on the spine of

all the videotapes that the family had recorded

on and What their labels were something that

stuff can't be undervalued and obviously Grand

Theft Auto isn't that same thing But it can be

and if I have the difference of playing Grand

Theft Auto at like a solid 30 frames per second

versus you know like it's kind of like playing

Assassin's Creed right? Assassin's Creed 3 when

I'm running around on the floor with everybody

else the frame rate's between like I don't know

20 and 30 frames a second and then when I'm climbing

up a building it's like 60 frames a second because

they didn't frame lock it it was very that was

jarring to me I noticed that stuff but at the

same time it's kind of like I'm the minute that

I get my ps4 my ps3 is coming unhooked that is

what's coming out of the entertainment center

it's not my 360 it's the ps3 that's coming out

and i want to if i would buy that game i'd still

want to be able to play it and i'm not gonna

hook my ps3 back up just to play it and i want

to wait and see if i'm right if they do announce

it for the ps4 and the xbox one because why not

it's just more money i don't think that the pc

port will be here before next year Well, even

then they could still announce they could still

announce it for next gen next year yeah, it'll

be next year and Or it could everything could

come sooner to who knows I Mean everything's

up in the air right now And I understand why

they don't announce it right now because they

want to be able to sell as much as they can in

September Because otherwise you'd have a whole

bunch of people that would probably hold off

for the better the quote -unquote better version

Yeah So their numbers would look horrible to

start with. Yeah. I don't think Rockstar would

be one of the people to jump on that $10 upgrade

plan that Sony and Microsoft have going on. I

think the next the next Rockstar game I'm excited

for is probably whenever they announce the next

Red Dead game, which there better be. I'm still

waiting for them to come over that that that

game that they're working on for Sony. I didn't

say what it is. I can't remember what it's like

agent or something like that. Yeah, it's agent

Just it's just called agent. It was like It was

announced for like the ps3 like four years ago.

It kind of walks around going mr. Anderson welcome

back Like it's it's kind of up there. I guess

you know people that like The I go in the shadow

of the clauses. It's kind of like the last Guardian

for people that like rockstar games Yeah, it's

like where is agent it was announced like five

years ago. Why are we not why when we seen it

yet? But Sony insists that it's still being worked

on so I Always get scared when games are being

worked on for that long They never turn out like

you hope Like right now. I almost hope that half

-life 3 does never come out Whatever it is Are

they even they're not even working on Half -Life

3 are they? Who knows? Okay, there's been a lot

of stuff flying around the internet like the

last month or so about Half -Life 3 because they

are working on Left 4 Dead 3. But somebody was

able to hack into some like software tool or

database that developers or like businesses use

to track documents and stuff across I don't know

multiple like places of business and they they

they cracked valves and there was references

to like Half -Life 3 like in there so like some

part of Valve is working is rumored to be working

on Half -Life 3 but the problem is Valve doesn't

need to release Half -Life 3 they're making money

hand over fist with Steam and they have like

Team Fortress 2 is free to play The Pull Bag

is the GCRN's place for everything you need in

the comic book world. We focus on new and current

comics while also tackling a few back issues

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and see what issues the hosts have with today's

panels. You can find The Pull Bag on iTunes and

GeekCastRadio .com. Make your great escape into

comics. Speaking of free to play games, though.

Nice segue, sir. I have been playing World of

Tanks on the PC and I tried the 360 beta and

I have been playing. Which would you say is better

right now? The PC is it now? Do you own your

own PC? Do you play with mouse keyboard? Do you

plug in 360 controller? I play with the mouse

and keyboard. Which do you think is a better

adaptation mouse keyboard controller? Well, here's

the thing it on the PC like it works. I don't

feel like the controller for the computer for

the 360 I don't feel like this controller layout

for the 360 beta is Good, I feel like it's very

clunky the buttons mappable. I didn't look I

like on the On the PC, it feels very much like

you're playing a first -person shooter, but you're

controlling a tank, right? It tanks the body.

Yeah, and you aim with the mouse, and the turret

turns wherever you are, and that's it, and then

you use the WASD keys to move, so W is forward

and S is backwards, and the A and D turn your

tank. For some reason, something about that,

and it's basically that exact same thing on the

the 360. Except where in a first -person shooter

on the 360, when you hit left or right, you strafe

left or right, you sidestep, right? Well - Not

so much a tank. No, because it's still turning

left or right, you are turning the tank left

or right, and then you push up and you go forward,

and it doesn't - the fact that there's like -

it's not just up and down on the directional

pad that there's - you can angle it, doesn't

really translate very well. To a tank. Yeah,

cuz like you kind of want to you you want to

like push it off and like in the diagonal direction

and the tank doesn't want to move Because it

wants to go forward and then slightly turn left.

Yes not start off going slightly left Yeah, or

or it doesn't want to is if I remember correctly

it didn't want to turn the tank and then move

forward I feel like it would move the whole thing

would move a lot better if it was like The tank

would already turn for you like it only recognizes

forward and back and turning the tank left or

right So, if I hit diagonal, it will try and

go forward, or whichever one you're leaning more

towards, that's the direction it tries. It'll

either try to go forward or it'll try to turn

the tank. I feel like if you just pointed the

damn thing in a direction, that the tank should

just try and drive in that direction. You know

what I'm saying? Like the warthog on Halo. Go

that way. Right. So like if you but like if you

were to hit diagonal, the tank would turn until

you lined up with that direct your treads lined

up in that direction, and then it would just

start driving in that direction at like full

speed. I feel like that would work a lot better.

The aiming is fine. But then again, you know,

you're not. It's you're spinning the turret,

so I don't know, it just feels kind of wonky

with a controller. Now, I don't know if I asked

this before. When you're so your screen, what

you see on your screen is that are you seeing?

Like a third person view of the tank? It is a

third person view, but you can do like a sniper

mode where you zoom in. But when you zoom in,

you lose all sense of what's around the tank.

Yes, pretty much. You end up being in the tank

and you get your little crosshair bars and your

little altimeter thing or whatever to show you

distance. Stuff that I never use. I just point

my crosshairs out. So basically it looks like

you're looking through a periscope. Yes, exactly.

Okay. And you can still drive in that mode if

you choose to god who would do that? Well sometimes

you do like if you're trying like they have tanks

that They don't have a there the the cannon is

not turreted so it cannot spin in 360 degrees

so you have to point the tank to where you want

to shoot right you point the tank where you are

and like what's really annoying is that the thing

up they operate on a crosshairs so if you use

an artillery tank one of the nice things is if

you switch to the sniper mode you're no longer

looking you don't get the point of view of the

tank out the barrel you get an aerial view of

the battlefield and because it's artillery it

shoots in an arc right and so you get this you

get a crosshair that you can move around like

all over the map and it turns like if it's green

it means that you can hit whatever is there but

if it's red that means there's probably something

like a building that's impeding the path of the

bullet or the tank is on lower terrain and you

can't quite get it but what will happen is you'll

settle on a spot and the ring this ring of dots

will slowly get smaller and that's like your

accuracy so like if you chose to fire before

the ring was all the way tightened the the shell

would hit anywhere inside of that ring right

and when you're trying to aim and you're tracking

a target because you kind of want to lead them

if you move too far and the tank has to reposition

itself your ring gets wide yeah the ring goes

back out and it has to start all over again but

if you can keep the tank moving like turning

before the turret hits the end of the edge of

its like the end of its movability its range

of motion then it you won't the turret won't

the target won't reset so But there it's almost

it's idea outside of the control setup. It's

like it's it's identical I think it looks a little

better on my 360 than it does on my computer

because it's Yeah, it's the newer version too,

right? Well, but the three sit but that's the

thing It's it's always being updated and my computer

has better hardware in it than my 360 does but

I think the optimization of it is such that It

just looks better on the 360. They probably figure

if they get on 360, they probably get more people.

That's what their that's what their goal is,

because I don't think it's coming to the Xbox

one. Yeah, it's a it's they're going after the

live market that's on 360. It's free to play

on both systems. There is no disc to buy. Now

the the wall. I have I have not spent any money

on World of Tanks. There is a nice little upgrade

path. There are ten levels of tanks across like

five countries. There's like American, England,

German, Russian, Chinese. And there's like a

bunch, there's a bunch of different tanks in

each one and you have to like max out, you have

to max out a tank in one, you have to max out

one tank before you can unlock the tank after

it. So if I have the smallest dinkiest tank until

I can buy the next tank I have to max this one

out Yes, this one's got to be the most badass

possibly and it's like, oh, here's this one But

the nice thing about it is usually that tank

when you're done leveling it up is as good as

the tank that you're going to buy to start Yeah,

so The only thing that I don't like about warthon

or not more thought or the only thing I don't

like about world tanks is that when you're in

the game There is no depth. There's no way to

know how well you're doing Like you it tells

you when you've destroyed a target, but it doesn't

tell you like what the experience value is for

destroying a target. Oh Is the experience the

same for everything? No, like because you can

get experience for like spotting guys, which

I don't know how to do You can get experience

for killing guys for damaging guys for you know,

because your tanks don't finishing someone off

but you're helping out a friend right and The

really cool thing about it is You can't Just

because you can see guys on the map like You

might not you can see guys on the map that you

wouldn't be able to see like you if it's someone's

in your line of sight You can see them, but if

they're not in your line of sight you can't but

if one of your buddies is like on the other side

like adjacent to you and They can see them then

you can see that tank, too Because now is it

just radio? Do you see like it? Do you see like

an outline of the tank or something? Yes, you'll

see an outline something I'll let you know that

you did not have a line of say on this tank Yes,

you'll see an outline of the tank and then on

the map You'll see like a red dot saying that

they're there but that's because he can see them

in their radio They're radioing over to you.

Okay, so it's kind of like battlefield when you

spot somebody. Yes, except the game does automatically

Yeah, and you can and what a lot of people end

up doing is like you'll get like guys that use

the artillery things And then you'll have someone

that has like a really good radio and they'll

go out and kind of sit in a bush, because when

you're in a bush, you're a little more camouflaged.

They'll go out and sit in a bush. And then there'll

be another wave of guys that go out in front

of him that kind of and they use that other guy

as like a relay. OK, so they're basically calling

back to the guy in the bush. He's calling back

to the artillery guy who is not really moving,

but is crazy accurate. Yes. Shoots long distances.

Yes, exactly. I can't see him who he's behind

this barn. Okay bang Yep, because somebody is

telling the crew where he is now now is there

a deal is do they actually delay the shots? What

do you like if so if I'm the artiller guy do

and I shoot is there like an eus it's okay That's

what I was hoping I hate I hate games are like

that. No it there is there is an art to it now

The one thing and one of the reasons I stopped

playing it is because the you have a crew and

the starting crews for everybody are like you

get you have two crew members you have like a

captain you have like a driver or like a driver

and a gunner or something like that and you can

level these guys up and they can get different

perks however if you assign that crew to a different

tank it doesn't even matter if it's like this

like the An upgraded version of your tank like

if you stayed on the same progression path for

that tank, right? They get reset Every time so

they only keep their experience as long as they

stay within the exact same tank Yes and so if

even if you like you can put like tanks in the

garage and not use them and You can and so like

if you take a crew off of a tank because you

bought a new one And you move that crew to the

new tank your you have to either you can do for

free you can assign the crew to them for free

but they'll only be at 50 % of their trained

level or you can spend some of the in -game currency

and they can be at 75 % or you can pay real money

and the crews will be at 100 % and what sucks

is if you move them back to the previous tank

that they were on you have to do that same crap

over again so when the crews move they get reset

Even if it's back to a tank they were already

on yes, and that's stupid. It is stupid Totally

agree. That's one of the reasons that Jason and

I Left stop playing world the world of war tanks,

and we moved over to a game called the war thunder

Now war thunder does two things right one. It's

all planes at the moment. It is all planes They're

adding tanks, and they are adding battleships

in the future but at the moment it's all planes

and It's very much scratches that Call of Duty

itch. When you kill a guy, you see the experience

bonus that you get when you kill him. OK, it

pops up on the screen, just like an arcade shooter

does, just like it does in Call of Duty. You

can see like a bang, 100 points plus 100. Exactly.

The screen and it like it. You can get like it'll

be like plus 100 and there'll be like a team

or like fighter fighter savior. Then you'll get

like another thousand experience or you know

stuff like whatever yeah This is PC game also.

It's a PC game, and it's also a launch PlayStation

4 title That is free to play. I might play on

a PlayStation 4, but I don't have the PC to play

these games But it is the controls on the PC

are dead simple for like a flying game like you

you might think oh my god This is crazy because

some some flying games can get really stupid

with their controls This is not like that. The

way it works is you point the mouse at your target

and your plane will fly in that direction. And

it will automatically adjust the flaps and the

rudders and all that stuff to... So like Star

Fox? Yes, it is like Star Fox. That's what I

tell Jason. I said this reminds me of playing

Star Fox with... It's Star Fox meets Battlefield.

It's how it feels. And so you point the plane

where you want to go and when you lock on to

a target they put like a little bead in front

of the target that says you're supposed to aim

here. Aim at this little red circle and he'll

fly into the bullets. Yes, exactly. So they help

you out with that and... Now what kind of planes

are these? Are these like jets or they're like

prop planes? There's 20 levels to this game versus

the 10 in World of War Tanks. Okay. The higher

level planes are like Vietnam jet fighters. Okay,

now here's my problem. Okay, if i'm facing a

guy if I just start the game tomorrow and i'm

facing a who's been playing for a couple months

And he has like a basic jet. Does he automatically

smoke my shitty little prop plane? All right.

This is what jason and I have been trying to

figure out since we started playing. Okay? when

you start playing All the countries and they

have the same countries that I mean the world

of war tanks and war thunder are the exact same

damn thing on paper and World of war tanks also

has world of war planes Which is how we found

out about war thunder. They're identical games.

They're both free to play They both have the

same selection of fighters blah blah blah just

war thunder is more arcadey now What happens

is when you start the game you get three planes

for every nationality that's and so you get 15

planes to start and They're all called reserve

planes. They're just the lowest of the low level

planes And when you start you won't play against

anybody that's not in those planes Okay, like

you will not be and it's you will so if you're

level if your reserve level playing you won't

play with anyone that's higher than level like

one maybe two So you will never play against

somebody in a jet with a reserve plane in fact

Jason and I are playing with level sevens and

eights and We have never been we have not seen

a jet yet. Like it just doesn't happen what levels

So you have to get two for Jet. They're like,

I think they're over 15. And so you think there's

some kind of filter system keeping those people?

There is definitely a filter system and you can

see it. But the problem is Jason and I don't

know what information they're taking. OK, so

you have your pilot who has you have your player

score, which has a level assigned to it. Like

right now, my pilot, my me myself is like level

eight or nine. OK. and then each nationality

has its own level to it so like my my Chinese

and Russians I think are still like level one

and three because you haven't used them too much

right and then the Brits the Americans and the

Germans are level like five and between five

and seven okay so when you start a game It automatically

it says like you're playing in level five to

six like it just doesn't it shows you like level

zero level one to two level three to four five

five to seven all the way down to like 20 and

it shows you how many people are playing in each

bracket but we don't know if that's like taking

my my score like my experience score or if it's

taking like Into account like the level of planes

that I have or the amount of planes that I have

unlocked like we don't know what it is But we've

never been outclassed Is there a way for you

to join the other person's game? Or do you have

to hook up together and then join into it? You

hook up together and then go. My problem is the

same in your plan on PS4. If it stays the same

as now, which I highly doubt, it will probably

change. Go through lots of different changes.

You've been playing more than I. You're a few

levels above me. Right. Does that mean I can't

play in your game because your guys would smoke?

Nope. Here's what happens. I my. Now this is

the nice thing about War Thunder, right? You

still have pilots. Your pilots do not reset when

they move to a new plane. Okay, so you can just

put your experienced pilots and initiate your

plane. Yes, so I can go back to like the crop

dusters that you start with and my crews will

just, I'll have better control over my plane

than you will. But you'll still be running the

same hardware. Exactly. And the nice thing about

it is... It's just nice that your crews don't

reset. And the planes have experience bonuses

attached to them. So like some planes will grant

you like a 10 % reward or some planes grant you

like 100 % reward. Or if you buy, you can buy

planes with real money and they give you like

160 % reward. Good God. Now, I have spent $9

on this game. Like this game you bastard I've

spent maybe 20 somewhere between 20 and 30 hours

playing this game Jason I usually play about

for about two or three hours every other night

or so And we have a lot of fun with it. We both

we have not spent money on planes. We've spent

money on the premium account And what is the

premium account? It's it gives you like you get

like 200 % Go like in -game Money reward for

each mission that you finish so like instead

of getting like I don't know like a thousand

you get like three thousand gold or something

like that It's like a hunt. It's like 200 % experience

bonus to as well. It's like it's like the way

the game is meant to be played It's like when

you kill stuff in the game instead of saying

like a hundred point hundred experience points

It says like fifteen hundred experience and you're

like, yeah, I got fifteen hundred instead of

like amazing like a hundred experience points

So I should join in without the premium account

and then smoke both of you I'm gonna have to

kill ten times more planes than you. Yeah, and

it's it's really weird because what the only

I've spent money you buy them by the day and

It's less it's a hundred Here's how here's how

the breakdown is. It's one dollar gets you 150

in -game tokens One day of play costs 100 tokens

Like one day of the premium account cost 100

tokens. So if you buy it's less than a dollar.

So if you spend two dollars, you get three days.

Actually, if you if you buy like three days is

something like 200 gold. Like the more you buy,

they give you a discount on it. OK. So but I

have not spent anything on the planes I've just

been using the premium account to boost my the

experience that I get through playing And Jason

and I just been having a lot of fun. It's not

a hard get like I said It's not a hard game Jason

and I are often in the the top 50 % of people

that we're playing with You're never in the top

50 % and it's it's a lot of fun shenanigans When

we started playing Jason and I were just like

we're gonna go do our own thing. I'm gonna be

a bomber Okay, you're gonna go fly over there

and drop some bombs and I'm gonna go over here

and get myself shot at and die a whole bunch

of times and then I slowly started realizing,

you know, we should probably play as a team and

So what'll happen is he and I will like because

there's domination. They've got domination and

they've got ground attack ground attack it's

just You have to clear out all the targets on

the ground in order to win. Or kill every or

take down every single enemy plane. Now, say

your plane gets taken down, you're dead for the

match. No, you get you. Like I said, you start

with three planes. OK. And so you get to pick

from you get down once you get another you get

in another plane that you have. You get you down

that one. You get another plane that you have

down that one. You're out. Now you can get up

to. Six planes in a session The first two planes

you have to buy with the fake money like not

not real -world money, but the in -game currency

The last slot that you can unlock you have to

spend real money on Which Jason and I have not

done because five planes is more than enough

time for us to finish rounds And you can have

any mix you could do like fighter fighter jets

or bombers or all bombers or all fighters And

there's upgrades for all the different planes

like they get faster they get better guns they

get better ammo Now do you pick what your assortment

of planes is before? Yes, so you get you pick

your rotation so you can have like I've got like

a spitfire mark 1 a spitfire mark 2 and I can't

remember what it's called But I have a fire mark

3. Well, I actually do have a mark like 5 or

6 now unlocked but The you cannot mix and match

nationalities. So if you're playing a match,

I have to play with my America team or my British

team or. Right. You have to have your planes

that you have will all be American, but I can

pick my British team and have all British planes.

You just can't you can't pick five different.

You can't pick one. I can't be like, I got one

American, one British one. Exactly. OK, now they

did say that the. PS4 version is gonna be cross

like they're gonna have cross play with the PC

So and my account should carry over so I should

have all my stuff when I log in on the ps4 Well,

some of you paid real money for kind of it should

but here's yeah, you would hope so But I I paid

real money for the game on the computer I'm not

and I only spent nine dollars and got like like

I said like 25 hours worth of play out of it

I would not be and Jason. I have a lot of fun

every once in a while will go and play as the

low -level planes Because one they're way more

maneuverable than The the higher level planes.

Oh, yeah, cuz you're moving slower and They the

maps the maps change depending on your difficulty

like your skill level It's like when you're starting

off there's not you're not flying in a lot of

mountains It's all flat land so you don't have

to worry about crashing into anything while you're

flying around except for the ground And they

have like weather effects and night. I've done

a couple of missions at night and it's funny

because you have a chat window and i heard a

bunch of people bitching about it because you

can't see anything um and i was like i don't

know what you guys are talking about because

i can see everything just fine turn your brightness

up on your teeth on your monitor um but yeah

i'm i'm looking forward to playing on the on

the ps4 the only issue i have is the controller

kind of like with with world of war tanks i tried

a 360 controller on war thunder on my computer

Horrible. Instantly couldn't play it. Horrible.

I don't understand. I hope that they tweak it

or they optimize it in such a way that it just

works. I don't understand why they don't just

go with the simplified control where my stick

just moves the reticle and the plane goes in

that direction. If they do that, awesome. But

if they don't, I don't know that. Or if they

don't have keyboard and mouse support on the

PS4 like they do on the PS3, I don't know if

I'll be able to play it. Yeah, that's my that's

been my experience with the free -to -play stuff

Do you have one last thing that we can talk about

because Joe we did play a game I Think I think

there's some breaking news and it's not April

1st No, what? Nintendo announces the 2ds. Yeah,

that's that's news. I was saving that Okay We

need to talk about it now. Well, I was gonna

talk about payday 2. Okay Because we played that

and you did something absolutely hilarious. Would

you guys play it on a computer? They had a time

trial on the PlayStation Plus. So we got to play

it for an hour. Okay. I've seen the trailers

and stuff, I get the gist of it. Okay, so it's

like a Left 4 Dead for anyone that doesn't know.

It's Left 4 Dead without the zombies. It's Left

4 Dead without the zombies, four player co -op,

you're robbing stuff in Washington D .C. Now,

Joe and I... Had never played this. I don't know

Joe's this was this like your first time playing

a first -person shooter on the ps3 I don't know

this rainbow six Vegas. It's third -person most

of the time. Well you most third -person games

have first -person player controls anyways That

aside we were trying to figure out the buttons

as we went because you know you get the splash

screen that says what your buttons do but some

of The last solve ten seconds. Yeah, and some

of your buttons have like do different things

depending on like the situation. Yeah contextually

Oh, if I don't, if I'm not doing anything, extras

reloads, if I'm doing this, this opens this drawer

or opens door or whatever. But Joe and I understand

that you don't put the mask on until the mission

starts, until you're ready to start the mission.

So because, yeah, as soon as you see the mask,

yeah, people are going to be like, what the fuck?

Yeah. So we're we're we're walking around the

outside of this bank. We're trying to figure

out where the drill is to go pick up the drill.

And Joe, all of a sudden I hear Joe go, oh, shoot,

I put my mask on. Does that start the whole thing

for everybody? And I was like, yes, it does.

So I just went ahead and put mine on and Joe

went and grabbed the drill and we walked into

the bank. We walked into the bank and I'm trying

to figure out how to get people to like freeze,

like hold up their hands. Okay. and there's these

two tellers in this little room and i'm trying

to like they've got exclamation points over them

about ready to piss their pants and i'm trying

to figure out what button by push did like tell

them to get on the ground and joe just comes

in from the side right trigger he just pops both

of them in the head and i was like what did what

what is going on who are you oh my god i was

like there's blood there's blood all over that

little room and he sets up he's like i gotta

unlock this door Ending in my way. Yeah, he's

like I gotta like this door. So he's over there

I'm like, oh my god, what is going on? And I'm

just like the alarms are going off now and I'm

like I'm still in shock because Joe just in cold

blood just murdered two people No, no, it's not

it's you know, if he had done it once I'd be

like, oh, okay accident, but he killed both of

them it wasn't like oh wrong button no it was

headshots oh my god no it's definitely not right

trigger let me try it again bang nope it's still

not right trigger assassination style i didn't

know what was happening and then he unlocks the

door and the door just leads into another hallway

that we could have just walked to without killing

anybody they weren't even in my way i was so

in shock that's when you turn to the restroom

and be like that's what happens if you don't

get in my way So yeah besides that how was okay?

We didn't because we only have to play for an

hour there wasn't a whole lot of time to spend

and like the nitty -gritty of all of it and really

looking at the menus or how the upgrade paths

are really learning the controls or how to Do

all of I have a question about the other great

pass is that just within that single game? Or

is it connected to your individual person? It's

your person okay, and you can Excuse me, you

can so I can deck out my guy to be a safecracker

Yes, and not only that you can I I we don't I

didn't find this out because Joe and I found

this out I found this out from listening to people

talk about it Just because you go down a particular

skill tree. You're not locked into that It's

just like borderlands where you can respect on

the fly. Like you have to do it before you go

into a mission But it let's say you you go in

and you you get in a lobby and everybody's playing

as the same character as you You might yeah,

we got no one here that can crack a safe well

But it doesn't really matter because it seemed

in the two missions that I that Joe and I did

where you crack a safe It was they give you the

drill So I don't know that there was a skill

that helped you with the drill like maybe some

like maybe it's like oh this can do a quiet or

this can do it well there's like well some of

them there's like ghost where you can walk around

a little more unassuming and you can disable

cameras and then there's Like guys that are actually

meant to stand guard like out in front of the

bank And then there are people that do different

things But it's like if you went into you got

a lobby where everyone's playing us the same

thing You can just quickly respect yourself to

be somebody that's not them. So you can actually

help out There are you can Again didn't we weren't

able to get into the nitty -gritty of this, but

you can upgrade you can custom design your own

masks I think to a certain look like it to a

certain degree you can do it and you unlock one

of the unlockable things are different like colors

of paint and patterns and stuff like that for

your mask um there you know you can upgrade all

the guns with like silencers and more ammo clips

and you get like one skill point every mission

and it's kind of like if you go straight up the

tree it's probably like one skill point to go

up the tree but then you can upgrade each skill

multiple times So like to unlock something it

costs one, but if you want to upgrade it again

It costs two and then to do it the third time

it costs three So to upgrade it in its entirety

probably costs like five points I Really liked

what I played there were definitely some performance

issues associated with it that kind of Made it

kind of janky one of the things that Joe's that

he liked was the lack of the reticle That felt

good with hip firing there was no reticle on

the screen to tell you where you were aiming

So they forced you to use the iron sights You

know just like real life, right? I Questioned

whether or not there were any sniper rifles in

the game So maybe I could play a guy that sits

up on a building like across the street or on

top of the bank To cover like an escape route

or something like that we did like I think in

the hour We got like three or four missions and

I know we got stopped in the middle of one because

my timer ran out That stuff's cold man. They

don't let you finish the round that you're in.

It's just you're done Dashboard I would like

to know and I I kind of got the sense that you

know, we did that one the one bank heist mission,

I think two different times and With new skill

points it started to change a little bit and

I hope that if you get enough skill points that

eventually And some of the missions you could

do it so skillfully that the alarms don't go

off the cops don't come and nobody dies like

You can do a perfect run so to speak. Yeah, I

think maybe not totally perfect. I think you

can do that It's just a matter of like it's just

a matter of like who you're playing with Are

you playing with someone that's gonna just walk

in and murder two innocent people? I don't know

Easy there, Mr. White. Are you playing with somebody

that's gonna accidentally put on their clown

mask in front of in front of the bank? I don't

know But there's definitely a feel of the Joker

heist mission from the beginning of the Batman

movie It's like a rip off of that in a good way.

Like hey, this would be a game that I would enjoy

playing Now I haven't paid too much attention.

Is that a $60 go buy the disc game? It is a I

believe it is $40. It's $40 on PSN, so it's probably

$40 in the store too. I don't know if there is

a physical copy of it though. Again, this is

a nice nod to PC gaming because one, it's $30

if you get it on the PC because there is no physical

copy for it on the PC. The other nice thing that

Steam does with their multiplayer games is they

will give you, like with Payday 2, you can get

four copies of the game for $80. And you can

gift the the other three out to all that's awesome

you want to work with we can all give each other

20 bucks and Well, yeah that one person 20 and

buy it that that would be the idea like there

is no option for that on console and I think

I Think the reason it is $40 on the 360 in the

ps3 is because there is a physical disk That's

the only thing I can that's the only thing that

I can figure out because you know they can't

have pricing Pricing discrepancy with what's

on store shelves versus what they offer because

they don't want to give up that space But I I

did not check today when I was at Best Buy to

see if they have a physical copy of payday 2

I I do agree with you Joe I if it was like I've

heard if it was 30 I would probably really pick

it up I'm I have a feeling that with PlayStation

Plus. It'll probably eventually be 20 bucks or

free Yeah, but by that point you'll have your

playstation 3 unhooked and exactly So that doesn't

mean I can't talk you and hooking it back up.

That doesn't mean I can't hook it back up It's

just it's not gonna be my primary. I'm not I'm

not gonna use it anymore. So, um Yeah, that was

our excursion into payday two Whoo, it was fun.

Yeah, right. It would be a lot more fun. I'm

in my hot box again. The green room is hot Getting

sticky in here I would really like to have played

it with like because it's not just it's always

four people so it's you it's you and like three

computer control guys or like so it's just like

two other just like Lefford Ed exactly if there's

not four human players there there will be four

people now does it is the how is the AI for the

awful terrible it was awful they were like always

in your way or not protecting you because I the

one thing I remember from Left 4 Dead is the

AI was either shitty or cheating. Depending on

which side you were on. To be honest with you,

it was too chaotic to really tell what the AI

was doing. All I noticed is that they were saving

Joe's ass. After he blew a couple heads off some

unsuspecting people? So the interesting thing

that we never really got to try out either is...

The longer you stay in the heist area, it escalates.

Kind of like a Grand Theft Auto type situation.

Yeah, the more stars you earn. Yeah, but I didn't

see anything that showed you what your scale...

Like I said, we didn't have a lot of time to

focus on anything. Maybe there's like audio cues

or something, or it's just the different kind

of police that are coming after you. So when

you die, I do know that it's not that we experienced

it, but just from listening to other things,

when you die, you exchange hostages to get your

players back. so if you walk into a bank and

you murder everybody that's the last chances

for you to respond and you die you don't get

to respond because you have nothing to barter

with but if you if you like throw some guys on

the ground and zip tie them if someone dies and

you then you give up that hostage to get your

partner back who gives them up though the person

who's people who are still alive again we didn't

get to see it so maybe just a button prompt shows

up it says give up a hostage to to get This player

back or does the person themself be like, you

want to get back in? You got to give up some

hostages. Yeah, because it'd be really shitty

is if everyone else had to stop what they were

doing to come release a hostage. Yeah, Joe, I

love you to pieces, man, but he died for me.

If you have hostages, they're less likely to

come in the building as well. I would like the

opportunity to move those people that you zip

tie down. I didn't. Find a button that let me

pick them up in human shield or pick me up and

drag them and Joe wants to make a firing squad

I want to make a pile of bodies in front of that

drill. I was just so weird I guess the whole

it was just a shocking way to start playing that

game because Joe has said I just remember, you

know hearing Joe talk about his experience with

you know talking about Saints Row and making

himself and feeling bad for doing certain things

and here he is walking in and just Didn't I even

hear you say something about feeling kind of

bad for killing cops. You might have. But not

those bank tellers. But it was after that. I

kind of made a joke about it. I think it's a

little late to feel bad for anything. Because

you just headshotted, murdered, painted a teller's

room with blood. These people weren't even coming

to kill you like the cops are. And I understand

that was completely by accident because like

I said, we were learning the controls and stuff.

It was just so shocking. I was like, dude, that

was not by accident. The first one probably was

come on so oh no ran up against the cops as soon

as the cops saw you did they start shooting Yes,

or the cops try see that's the one thing I never

liked about like Grand Theft Auto and stuff like

that It's just now. They don't seem to have like

you know x -ray vision or you well That's good

at least so they can't just so that so if you're

hiding in a room They won't just immediately

come to that room. Oh, no they will They'll come

walking right in past you. The AI of the police

is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Well, no,

I'm saying so, but you said that the AI doesn't

have extra vision. Do they always know where

your character is? No, at least not that I noticed.

I noticed like a cop standing behind me, kind

of like something you'd see in Bioshock more

often than I was like, you know, like they come

in and stop and stare at you and then go, oh,

I'm supposed to be shooting you. But then, yeah,

that happened a lot. So but it. It was fun. I'd

really like to have the opportunity to play it

with four people at some point in the future.

I would really like to play it not in a rush.

Yeah, that was... That was an hour time limit.

Yeah, like there was really no... You just couldn't

get into it, so... But, okay. Now, let's talk

about Joe's April Fool's joke. Which is yes,

Joe there is now a hundred and thirty dollar

Nintendo 2ds set for release alongside Pokemon

X and Y my god Okay, so what is the point of

this thing it is it is a It is it has it is not

a clamshell it is basically they're using the

leftover components from the standard 3ds the

small one And it's a it's a basically a wedge

shape Like I said, it does not fold on itself

It is a non 2d screen Plays both, you know DS

and you mean a non 3d. Yes, but it will play

all 3ds games It just won't play them in 3d now

and how many screens do you have to to okay,

so it's imagine taking the 3ds and then laying

it totally flat and Like getting rid of the hinge

and that's about what it is and it's thicker.

So it's this way so it's a big awkward square

It's a big square. Here. Here is a link, but

yeah. There was a lot of outrage over it this

morning when I woke up on Twitter. I can look

it up, or not. I didn't... Someone actually brought

up the fact that, you know, it'd probably be

a lot... This is for kids that are going to go

out and buy Pokemon. That's what this is for.

It is not for anyone that already has a 3DS that

can turn the 3D off. It is strictly for Pokemon

and it looks a little more indestructible than

the 3ds maybe Because it doesn't have a hinge

No moving part exactly. There's no there's no

moving parts on it to Break other than the trigger.

Oh my god. This thing looks ugly as hell. Oh

My god, and the other the other thing about it

too someone meant someone brought up the idea

that this is kind of manipulative right because

to a parent you know, you go out, you have, your

kid has a 3DS and you go out to the store that

you can't really sell, you can't really get your,

you might not be able to get your parents to

buy a 3DS XL because they'll look at it and be

like, that's the same thing you already have.

But this looks different than what they already

have. So it could persuade some parents to get

this for their kids. How are you supposed okay

from what I'm looking at it the buttons are kind

of like halfway up the sides of the thing But

you're supposed to grip the whole thing it doesn't

yeah, but how are you supposed to isn't the bottom

screen the touchscreen? Sometimes so I have to

let go Completely you have the one hand you have

to do that anyways. Yeah You can't reach across

through the thumbs You don't want to you don't

always want to use your thumbs with the I don't

know I haven't played a game boy in like forever

I you know I don't really play anything if I

touch the screen is usually with my Silas I don't

ever try to touch it with my fingers because

I don't want to dunk it all up. When the original

DS came out there were... thoughts that there

would be a lot of first -person shooter type

games on there and You would actually hold the

system in your two hands But your left thumb

would reach across the screen and the wrist strap

even had this little plastic tab and you'd slide

the plastic tab So it would be on the bottom

of your thumb and you would use that to kind

of simulate an analog stick and analog I thought

that was supposed to be to clean it. No, I thought

that was like a that's what that was I do whenever

I saw that little Thumb thing I just didn't oh

that's cute to wait wipe off your fingerprints.

That's actually oh, that's stupid You know how

they could have made this killer because I like

my 3ds. Don't you I'm not making it No, no, I

like my 3ds. I really really do Luigi's Mansion

looks amazing like in both 2d and 3d I found

that on my 3ds that if I leave the slider like

the 3d slider to turn it on or off if I leave

it on its lowest setting it looks amazing Like

I would look it looks the games look really good,

which is a tiny little hint of 3D. However, this

if they had included the second analog stick.

Oh, exactly. If they had done that, like that,

I because you know, like that stupid add on thing.

Yes. If they get for the three days. Right. If

they had made if they'd put a second analog stick

in here where that where the face buttons are

on the right hand side and dropped everything

down like. That would have been Killer, but then

you have but then you have developers going what

do I develop for it? Not everyone's gonna have

this thing And we're I I couldn't see the back

of it. I don't know if your link has a picture

Where are the because there's shoulder bumpers

on the 3ds aren't there they're up at the top

You can actually see them in the side picture

there. Oh god. Just L &R. There are no triggers

Well, yeah, but like they're like little bump

or anything say how the hell you supposed to

reach them if they're that high Actually, this

looks about as comfortable as the 3ds does and

the 3ds is really comfortable you wrap your whole

hand around it like you frame It's that that

looks very comfortable way more comfortable than

the Vita But that's only because this doesn't

have that's good like that's that's that's way

more comfortable than the most awkward controller

ever Well, the Vita isn't bad except where it

has the back touch on it and you never know what

it's going to do So you have to like we have

to like claw the damn thing. So you can't let

it Yeah, you can't rest it in your hands You

have to like grip it with your fingertips, which

is just annoying to me um But 130 bucks, I mean

when Pokemon comes out you can get this like

kids and how much is a 3ds right now? It's like

179 Still too much for me to buy. I want one

Kind of bad, but I can't afford that there's

nothing exciting enough on that for me to want

one I don't I get plenty enough mobile gaming

on my cell phone. Hey, I hate gaming on my cell

phone. I hate it I cannot stand it even though

half the games I play you fucking got me started

on yep But that's why I stopped playing them

because I can't I cannot stand it now I I don't

know like I But you can get this and like the

newest Pokemon for the same price you can get

if just a 3ds by itself So I understand why they

did this. Yeah, it's just it seems Like an awkward

thing to that seems very unportable. Yes. No

that I give you How are you supposed to carry

this thing around without damaging in your pocket?

Yeah Yeah, like of your cargo pants that fits

in that right next to my iPad. I'm sorry No,

that fits in jankos that does not fit in jeans

that fits in Jenkins I said carpets. I don't

know what you're talking about. You don't remember

those? No. Like the super baggy pants in the

late 90s? In the late 90s, I was like 10. Really?

I was born in 87. You're a baby. Joe, do you

remember these? They're like skater pants. Like

the super huge like they were like. They weren't

saggy, they were just really baggy. The ankle

of them opened up over the shoe. Guys could wear

them without even having to show their shoes.

Bell bottom? My students wear those now. They're

just called super big pants. They buy 48 -inch

waists. Back at the end of the 90s, like 97,

98, they were called JNCOs. J -N -C -O. Made

ever popular by hammer. There was a whole line

of them I mean I had I had a couple pair of them,

but they were there was like a whole line of

them Please are there any pictures of you actually

I didn't have the the outlandish ones They actually

the ones I had actually kind of look like the

pants that I have now It was just like you couldn't

get jeans that were that loose before But I don't

know like this would not fit in anyone's pocket

I mean, I don't even put my Vita in my pocket

because the screen is unprotected so The other

thing that Nintendo announced today was a price

drop for the Wii U. Who cares? Never good when

it happens that early. They dropped it 50 bucks.

So now all versions of it are $2 .99. Even the

one that comes out next month with Zelda is $2

.99. What Zelda? One Waker HD. Oh, don't care.

Now, this is cheap enough that after I pick up

my PlayStation 4, I can actually run... this

by my justification meter, which is my wife.

You already had one. The system didn't get better.

No, I had one when there wasn't one that I bought

one because of Nintendo's promises to release

games that I wanted to play before March. And

then all of them got delayed until now. And I

didn't feel like holding on to the Wii U when

I could be playing Evita. So okay, let's rewind

to the episode where you talked about all the

things you didn't like all the things just for

the same You're still gonna have to lean crazily

off your bed to get the lot pick up the signal

Does it I can even well now I could put the Wii

U in my bedroom I mean I have a TV stand in there

I can just leave it in there but that aside like

I they released like the virtual console so you

could play Super Metroid on that little handheld

thing And I like Pikmin I love the Pikmin series

I've heard nothing but bad things about Pikmin

3. I wanted to see Yahtzee did a thing on Pikmin

3. I haven't watched it yet. I just saw the link

to it the other day. It has been described to

me as a game length tutorial. It will constantly

remind you what the buttons do and how to do

it. I wonder if there's a way to turn that off.

I've heard that you don't play it with the game.

You do not play it with the gamepad. You play

it with the Wiimote and Chuck. Tom that's weird

because it was originally a Wii game Yeah, but

that's still awkward. Let me take a Wii U game.

Let me take the you part out of it actually It's

not I that's the thing I never found the controls

awkward with the Wii I just they never had anything

that I wanted to play Besides Wii Sports. Yeah,

exactly. We're that's the best game came in the

box Anyone else have anything they want to add

I just wanna say one thing. You had such a good

segue. I didn't wanna ruin it before from your

Grand Theft Auto to your free to play games.

I don't know about this, Joe. I'm way more excited

for GTA Online than GTA V. I'm excited for both.

I'm equally excited for both. Because my fondest

memories of GTA IV was my online experiences

with other people. I could give a shit about

the fucking campaign of that game. My favorite

times were going to the airport and drag racing.

A while online. I'm finding out that if you shot

out your wheels, you'd actually go faster. I

just ask helicopter jousting. I don't know. I

don't care. I would just play that game. There's

one of the games I would play. It was like one

of the only games I would play online without

a headset. I didn't really care who I saw playing

with just playing with 15 other random people.

Exactly. Now the interesting about GTA online

is that you have your own crib. So I'm wondering

how that game is going to work Like I'm so excited.

I'm excited for it, too I'm so excited. It just

can't I wish John's you know if they if they

went through player co -op for the campaign done,

but the fight Oh, yeah, if they told they get

told make take to my friends play in Rob Banks

in a GTA world? You can, but that's what GTA

Online is. Yeah, sounds like it. That's what

I'm saying. Is there any way for me to get GTA

Online to help buying GTA V? No. Not yet. Not

yet. All right, anything else? Has nothing to

do with the video games, but how you guys liking

the aflac? I'm okay with it. Am I cut when I

first heard I laughed so hard. I just imagined

Batman saying everything with a Boston accent

I think that's what everybody did. It's but I

Remember hearing that accent in Goodwill hunting

Well, everyone's judging him on a movies that

he made ten years ago, yes, I'm not I'm not judging

it like like I don't blame I don't like that

like oh god Daredevil was horrible stuff like

that At first I laughed after after the initial

giggle got over with. I was kind of like, you

know, when they first told me Heath Ledger is

going to play Joker, I thought that was the dumbest

thing. It was going to be stupid. And then I

saw Heath Ledger's Joker, so I'm willing to give

him a chance. He gets one trailer to convince

me one trailer for the him actually in the Batsuit.

And talking not like, you know, you know how

trailers go for these superhero movies now, like

the first two don't show anything. I think. Think

in the first trailer you'll see him. I think

they have to Tip to get any kind of enthusiasm

for this I'm gonna reserve judgment until I see

that but like I think I'm Thoroughly enjoying

the memes and the tweets as the moment So some

perhaps some for hysterical Joe did you say the

2ds was gonna be your son's first handheld I

did It's going to be three years or more, but

that'll probably be the one that I get see it

does look sturdy And it's extremely sturdy. Yeah,

except for those things being open like that

But you know what the game boy was the game boy

had screens right on top Well, yeah, but but

I'm pretty sure this screen was like below like

ten layers of plexiglass some stupid thing because

I've never I've dropped that thing a thousand

times I've never cracked your screen Three days

don't look like they're flush with the surface.

So it looks like you could like, you know, you

could toss it and throw it face down Not like

whip it or crack it or anything like that, but

you could set it down face down without damaging

the screen Um, I it almost doesn't look like

you could classify it as a handheld though. It

looks so bulky No, I would almost consider it

like a this is deceptive console it's deceptive

though because it's not using the the The XL

screens it's the standard DS screens and those

were tiny like It definitely looks like the screens

are the smallest part of that thing Well, I'm

just saying like it I'm saying the picture is

deceptive because it doesn't it's not it doesn't

look like it's any wider Than the first 3ds and

the 3ds the first 3ds was already tiny Like this

these I'm just saying it doesn't it it's not

as big as it already a year from now there's

gonna be the the 2ds compact it's gonna be a

2ds that can fold in half you know i i just turned

i the the adults on twitter are just saying you

know i figured out how to turn the 3d off on

my ds a long time ago but thanks for doing it

for me nintendo um all right okay uh that's it

for this episode of off the cuff if you want

to get in touch with us and leave us Excuse me

if you want to get in touch with us and leave

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we gets to us You can find myself Michael powers

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at booth ninja 81 I've been Sean Z Brown. You

can find me on Xbox at Weapon 87. You can find

me on Twitter at Sean Z Brown. That's pretty

much it, right? He'll be able to find me on PlayStation

here in a few months, hopefully, if everything

goes right. Joe, I was Joe Reed, the cold blooded

bank teller killer. You can find me on got a

nice ring to it. God damn. That was nice. You

can find me on Facebook at Geek Stuff Garage

Sale. So how much will it cost you to change

your names on all of your consoles to cold blooded

killer? That might be too many characters. We

can abbreviate. How about for your license plates?