The State of Video Games In 2024!

Craig. That's right. I know, right? That's what

I thought. God damn it, Craig. Yep. God damn

it, Craig. Sounds good. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh,

yeah. Oh, yeah. Snap into a Slap Gym. Snap into

a Slap Gym. Slap into a Slap Gym. It's almost

like we were doing that the other day. We were

just going on, I was fucking hilarious. Slap

it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym,

slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to

a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap

it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym,

slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to

a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap

it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym,

slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to

a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap

it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym,

slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to

a gym, slap it to a gym, slap it to a gym, slap

it to a gym, slap it You are tuned in to Steve

Megatron on Altered Geek Hello and welcome to

Altered Geek I'm your host Steve Megatron and

joining me on this adventure into geekdom is

TFG1 Mike. Hello And CaptainRugglesGaming. How

are you doing everybody? And for those that are

unfamiliar with CaptainRuggles, he has videos

on GeekCastRadio .com so if you haven't watched

any, check them out. Nice commentaries and fun

antics in video games. General shenaniganry.

Shenaniganry. And not to bury the lead folks,

it's been... when did we launch... when did we

launch wars? 2011, 2010. 2010. It's been a few

years since we had a different Phillips on the

GeekCast radio network, but Captain Ruggles is

Steve Megatron's brother. So there is that. So

it's a family affair tonight. That is affirmative.

Yes. And yeah, he does all kinds of crazy streaming

over there on his channel over on YouTube. What

would you say are the three main games you play?

Right now, I would have to say First and foremost,

Empyrean Galactic Survival. Fantastic space game.

It has its issues, but it's pretty good for 20

bucks. The second one I would have to say is

Far Cry 5 because, I mean, who doesn't love throwing

shovels? It's fun and it's hilarious. You throw

shovels. Yeah, you can throw shovels and is an

RPG shovel launcher. And I've taken helicopters

down with it. It's great. Who would it kill you

to raise a shovel the amount of shenanigans I

can have a shovels in that game That's like all

I use for the most part. It's great Shovel that's

like me and the M law in Battlefield 4. Yeah,

I used it as a sniper rifle. Yep, definitely

and then air missile and I have to say the the

third one would be Crusader Kings 3 so yeah medieval

strategy game you can be the Habsburg's if you

want to or now be like them or you can Do other

shenanigans and conquer the world for a minute

there i thought you were gonna say you can be

the hatfields you can be mccoy's i mean i mean

well. When you when your family empire starts

to expand it becomes like that because your family

do a lot of infighting to be the king or emperor

it's great. Oh you brothers would know i'm only

child so i don't have that luxury thankfully.

I am sorry. The reason I was a little delayed

was because I had to break up my own children's

of WrestleMania in their bedroom. Understandable.

I'm familiar. That's about right. Plus, I mean,

we also used to get pretty honry on our own even.

Is kids cuz we're like shut up. I'm trying to

watch TV. Wow I think I did that to you. Actually.

Yeah, you're trying to watch TV. I was trying

to turn the GameCube on and Yeah, I think I was

trying to watch whose line or something and you

were like You're doing something and I was like

whopper it on your leg and you're like. Oh, yeah.

Big black and blue mark. And then mom was pissed.

Oh, yeah. She was so mad. She's like, what did

you do? And I says he wouldn't shut up. I was

trying to watch TV. And she's like, guess where

you're going. You're getting your ass whooped.

Yeah, she's like, you're not watching TV anymore.

And then you still got to play the X or the GameCube.

God damn right. Super Smash Brothers Melee. That's

right. I actually have those on my PC. Kirby.

Yar. Eat me. No. Kirby and Donkey Kong always

did a little smash the ground, you know, nobody

could get close to me. I like doing that. Like

I've had my kids play it a couple of times on

our spare desktop. And. They're like, how are

you? How are you so good? Blah blah blah. You're

playing out against the computer. And I says,

dude, I put them on level nine, all three of

the characters and have them all on one team

against me. And you're pretty much. And while

I was Samus, but in Smash Brothers Brawl on the

Wii, I play as Sonic. Oh, my God. Yeah, and he

said he rips through the level. Like, I mean,

you could run past them while they're trying

to hit you. And then I can bounce in the air

and then jump down with a speed kick into their

face. No survivors. Yeah, pretty much. And so,

yeah, they were like, this is brutal. And they

played with they played against me and they watched

the computer do it. And I was like, you are done.

Kind of sound like a sports. It's in the game.

Yeah, or more or more. That's right. Headshot.

Unreal Tournament. I freaking love that. I actually

found my Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Tournament

3 discs recently. It's on Steam. Oh, really?

Yes, I have it on Steam. Are you able to play

against people online? I know we're going off

on a weird tangent here. I have not tried that.

I have not tried that yet. I'm sure there's a

mod for it. Well, they used to have it so you

could play on an Unreal server with other people.

And that's where I found the most fun because

I knew where everything was in the game. And

I was legitimately evil when I played. I had

a skin that was Megatron for crying out loud,

like G1. So I'd run around in robot mode. But

yeah, I mean. I miss those type of games where

you could do that. Absolutely. Speaking of games,

good night. We are going to be talking about

the state of video games in 2024 based off of

two stories from last year and one story from

this year. Last year in May of 2023, there was

a story that came out where on the gaming Bible

or gamingbible .com. I wasn't sure it was .com

or not. Gamers are demanding playable demos before

pre -orders after string of buggy launches. Now,

originally, I don't think we ever got to this,

but originally this was supposed to be talked

about on the Dragon's Lair with Kai Dragon Media.

We never got to talk about it, I don't think.

That's why I saved it for doing this, because,

I mean, playable demos? Like, I understand why

they want them, but why are they demanding them?

Well, I mean I missed discs I'm just Considering

all the flops that have come out like I played

battlefield for like 20 years you know the longest

and if everybody who plays it in my family and

I still play bf4 and bf1, but Battlefield 1942

I remember playing Battlefield the original 2042

or Battlefield 2 or something with you. It was

Battlefield 2. Yeah, I remember playing that

online with you long time ago as well as on like

the GameCube. Oh yeah, that was the prelude to

Bad Company. I think the only Battlefield games

I ever played was Vietnam and 2142. 2142 was

before they did the 2042. I actually liked Both

of those, they're so underrated. My God. I mean,

they came out with with 2042. And the reason

that one flopped was, among other things, they

were trying to copy Call of Duty and Fortnite

and all them other games. And then the last minute,

they decided to scrap it and start over in a

year and a half to go before launch. And they.

scrambled a bunch of stuff together to make just

a multiplayer experience when they were supposed

to make a single player along with what they

had and completely screwed the game up. It was

a complete disaster. That's actually why I don't

play first person shooters anymore is because

of that experience. I like. Swore off battlefield,

I'm not even going to buy the next one because

of it and call of duty. You know, I played the

very first one from 2003. Great game. But as

time went on after 2009, when the original creators

of Call of Duty left and went to EA because of

some conflict of interest and stuff. It just

started to go downhill repetitive every year,

the release in the game, releasing the game.

And even now, you can go on Steam. Games ten

years old still fifty sixty dollars why is ridiculous

why no reason for it you know and this is why

gamers are so frustrated. Because they keep going

down milk in the same old ips and go down the

same old path. And even with modern warfare three

that just came out that was basically a glorified

DLC sold for seventy dollars they should just

made it a DLC for like forty bucks. Add on to

model warfare 2 that they released a year prior

would have made more sense. You would have pissed

off less people. Do you remember when they remastered

Diablo 2? Yeah, a couple of years ago. I was

like, why would I buy the remaster to get better

graphics quote unquote and a couple of little

modifications when I had. I still have it on

my battle net account, the original. Diablo 2

with Lord of Destruction on it, the add -on.

Why would I pay an additional $60 to $70 for

a remaster of the same game I already own? And

don't get me wrong, I love the fact when games

do get remastered, Mass Effect is a big one.

Oh god, the anniversary edition? I got that just

because of the fact I am such a big fan of that

series. Well, and that's and that's my thing

is like, I'm a big fan of Mass Effect as well.

And but they didn't. I don't feel like they ripped

your head off. No, the price wasn't even that

bad. I think it's like 60 bucks. But you got

all three. But you got all three games and they

were all remastered and they kind of play together

anyway. Well, just like recently, Steam just

released all the Command and Conquer games, all

17 of them for 10 bucks. Which I'm gonna have

to go do because I have them on steam. You don't

have to go to EA. That was the big thing for

me is like I be my test dummy on that. Before

I even bought it. Guys, everybody's test on me.

And I remember buying it for Black Friday one

time with all 17 games and it was I think it

was like nine dollars or something on Origin

back when they had Origin before EA Access, which

is crap. I miss Origin. I do miss Origin and

it wasn't perfect, but it was definitely better

than EA Access. At least it functioned. It functioned,

I could play it, like BF4, like half the time,

I can't get it to load. It'll come up with that

punk buster thing. And I'm like, okay, I got

to go re -download a 20 -year -old piece of software

every time I want to play it. And then half the

time, it kicks me out. And I'm like, so what

is the point even trying to play it anymore?

I had that same issue. I forgot what I did to

fix it. You have to go into the config file,

like the system file. Yeah, you have to edit

it. Yeah, and so I did that after a lot of Googling,

but it was still ridiculous. I'm like, dude,

EA, you need to fix your software. There's no

reason, especially when they're charging as much

as they do. Now, I did the EA pass for 35 or

something one year, just so I could play Podracer

and things like that again, because I have the

disk for that, but it won't run because it was

made for Windows 95. 98 or something. Well, you

see they just released all the old Star Wars

with Kyle Katarn from the 90s. Did you see that?

I did not. The master. It's steam. I'm surprised.

Yeah. And I feel like steam is kind of the place

to be like I've gotten. Let me load up my my

games folder, but I have the EA app for EA Access.

I have the Epic Games launcher. I have me too.

I have the. Battle net I have battle net. I have

arc. I have steam I have You play for Ubisoft.

Yeah, I don't have them but I do like I've tried

to go back into battle net like I'll play I played

Diablo 3 a couple of times I am installed I I

as much as I enjoyed it back in the day like

I feel like it's kind of a slog to go through

anymore because they're like Oh a new expansion.

It's like, okay You played the World of Warcraft

game on us with this, you know this crap. I don't

know. I like games that, one, are visually appealing

but also have a decent story going behind it

or enough that I can keep busy no matter how

I play it. For instance, Star Trek Online, I

love the storyline. I love the plot. I love that

it ties into all the different series and all

the different films. But when the episodes are

gone, the only reason to play is when they're

doing one of the in -game events, and that's

to get whatever the ubership is of the year or

whatever. You have to play all these four to

six events all year, and then you can unlock

all of these additional features. That and the

episodes are the only reason I still play it.

I enjoy the interface. I enjoy the game. I enjoy

the fact that I can play it on pretty much any

machine because it's from 2010. And they, of

course, visually update it and add on things,

but it's free to play for one, unless you want

to pay. But I don't feel like it's trying too

hard to get the money out of you, whereas I feel

like Unreal and I feel like EA, they're like,

oh. Spend this extra like buy this $70 game and

then pay us another $30 for this add -on and

then another. It's all these for this Micro transactions

and honestly all that shit in this nutshell.

We just talked about is why? gamers want old

label demos so we can Get a little taste of what

we're getting into so we can decide Do we want

this or no, which is why I love steam because

the refund policy you can play it for like An

hour and a half, and if you don't like it, you

can return it. Get all your money back. Oh, that's

nice. That's the best part about that. With it,

you have to you have to return it within two

hours of gameplay, two hours after two hours

of gameplay. You own the game. You can't return

it. However, that makes sense, which is fine,

because if you try to do that on EA, guess what?

They're going to fight you tooth and nail. Yeah,

they're like, you own it. Yeah, you bought it.

We're not we're not giving you a refund. Yeah,

I remember back in the game that Kai recommend

to me because I like space games or X4 foundations

and I and I bought it and all the expansion packs

and I went to go play it and I'm like, there's

there was no easy way to learn how to play it

as I was bringing it up. There's no easy tutorial.

None of that. It was it was all confusing. And

I'm like, you know what? This this is just too

much for me. Closed out of it, returned it, got

my money back. And then I went and bought the

abomination called Starfield. Oh, boy. That's

a whole other podcast. That's a whole nother,

you know, talk. But if we could just have a sample

to play like what it was, Bouldersgate three

did it right now. I'm not a D &D fan, but I will

give Bouldersgate a all the praise that they

deserve. They did a fantastic job. What they

did was they allowed. everybody to play test

the first like chapter, so to speak, for like

two or three years. And they were fixing bugs

and learning from it, getting the feedback from

the community as they were developing the rest

of the game. They were taking what they were

learning from people playing that first chapter

to help to flush out the rest of the game so

that when they finally did release it, guess

what? You had a goddamn masterpiece and everybody

and their mama was buying it. Yeah, you had a

complete game That's the biggest problem with

games today. I think at least is do you remember

right do you remember and this is this is dating

us pretty badly, but When they used to know when

they used to have computer shows, huh? Yeah,

yeah computer shows and they used to sell demo

games on floppy disks. Yes, they used to sell

demo games on floppies and CDs. Do you remember

the CDs that we used to have? They were called

only the best games, you know, 99 or something.

And it had 101 only the best games. And then

they had like a second one and they literally

had 101 demos on this disc. And you could play

them like you could, you could install them.

You could play them off the disc. Like, I mean,

you had options. And if you liked it, you could

go find and buy the full version. Exactly. It

was great. And that was kind of my thing was

I loved those discs because it gave me the option

to do, you know, to pick any of these games.

Like I learned about Commander Keen. I learned

about, you know, Doom. I mean, a lot of these

things. I learned about The Sims. Yeah. I mean,

I played Sim City 2000 on it. a lot of these

old dos games and while it was um you know very

dated uh it was still fun because you you had

the opportunity to test all of these different

types of games and it didn't cost anything extra

like you paid like seven bucks for a disc and

you just got everything yeah absolutely and i

know this is like yes we are all old here but

Unfortunately, I'm the oldest of the three of

us. And in 1992, when I was 12 and Steve was

six, I remember late I was one. Yeah. And whippersnapper,

get off my lawn. So in 1992, when Super Nintendo

came out, I remember before I got it for Christmas

that year, in the malls, there used to be this

is way before demo demo discs, as far as like

PlayStation and all that. In Kingston Independence

Mall in Kingston, Massachusetts, in that mall,

there was a kiosk called the Nintendo Center.

You could walk up to it and hold the controller

and play like I think they had on their Donut

Planes 1 for Super Mario World to test it out.

You could do that for you didn't have to pay

anything or you just walk up you play for five

ten and fifteen minutes and obviously in 1992

the Super Nintendo was gangbusters and everything

else because it was the new hotness and all this

and all that and We just loved doing it every

time I went to that mall before I got my own

Super Nintendo for Christmas that year I was

always on there playing Donut Plains 1. I basically

have Donut Plains 1 memorized and then you go

to Like you guys are talking about with with

floppies and all that and everything else then

you go to Like I think it was a game pro or whatever

had the demo game pro is awesome. Yeah magazines

had the discs Yeah, you get the you get you get

your parents to get you the description of the

magazine and then you you know You get demo discs

and I remember playing middle gear solid on demo

disc and the whole point dude That's how I got

introduced to Rainbow Six 3 and Soldier of Fortune.

So I understand now in 2024, late 2023, 2024,

why gamers are demanding demos. I just don't

like the, maybe it's just the way that the title

of the article is written or whatever. Gamers

demand playable demos. We're not really, we're

going to ask. Because like you guys have already

said some of these games that have come out in

the last year and a half to two years Have been

crap and the whole point is dude. I am literally

bored with them all I couldn't even finish starfield

I was and when I'm the only thing interesting

about my my role play in that fucking game That's

sad. You're better off playing pal world. It's

a better off playing pal world. That's right

or The recent success held as a hell divers to.

Yeah I've seen much more than that to service

guarantee citizenship. It's a satire game on

a satire movie it's it's it's brilliant. I fucking

love it I'm gonna get it when it goes on sale

again. But yeah I mean. Game companies should

be giving demos or at least be offering demo

like and again game companies, I understand the

need for DLC after the fact but Don't try to

sell like you guys have already said and like

we Steve and I talk about this all the time and

on On the Dragon's Lair with Kai and everything

else one on Kai's show. We all have talked about

this already plenty of times before Don't try

to sit there and sell us a sixty to eighty dollar

game that is not already complete if i am spending

that much money on a game for my computer to

play i want a complete story whether it's single

player or multiplayer. Here's my experience with

when they did the redo of call of duty modern

warfare 2 that released in november of twenty

twenty two so in order to play the alpha and

the beta you had to pre -order the game. That

was the stipulation crap which is bullshit. Yeah,

I do remember I mean I got the alpha and the

beta for battlefield Battlefield 1 and battlefield

5 and battlefield Is it 2142 or 2042 2042 but

2042 they I think you had to buy it I think I

saw the alpha. I had I think they gave me like

10 hours worth, though. Yeah. But, you know,

Activision's got to be the worst with their Call

of Duty when it comes to this, because we I preordered

it and that was the last Activision game I preordered.

I no longer buy any of their products, but all

the issues that we reported back to Activision

in the the alpha and the beta. We're still in

the launch. Oh. And we're like, what the hell

did you guys do the last two months when you're

supposed to be fixing this shit? You know, Jesus.

So Catherine Lewis is the one that wrote this

article on Gamer Gaming Bible dot com, and she

goes on to say in this article where that. She

thinks it's fair, and I agree with this, to ask

studios to release a playable demo with at least

30 minutes of gameplay to showcase the graphics,

performance, and general mechanics if they are

expecting pre -orders. I completely agree with

that because, like we've been saying with the

discs, we used to get these free discs that would

have a preset. Again, I'll use my own experience

with Metal Gear Solid. I think the Metal Gear

Solid demo only let you get into the first part

of Shadow Moses. So, you know, Snake is outside,

he goes inside, he around with the rats and everything

else, and he goes wherever, whatever, like, like,

get like, let you get through like that first

area. And that was it. And that's maybe 30 minutes

or less. Yeah. So I think that's fair. I think

that's fair to ask studios to do that, especially

with of the problems that have plagued games

over the last, I'll say, you just mentioned 2022,

so I'll just say two and a half years. Well,

and we've had, I mean, for one, there's, I mean,

among other issues, there's been a lot of like,

oh, we think this would be cool, or we put people

in charge of studios that have done like, you

know, Farmville, and we're having them do Battlefield,

and it's like, no, two totally different, you

know, franchises here, man. You know, that's

not change all of the the specs of the characters,

you know from the the assault and the support

and the you know, all of that like to Oh, let's

have uh, you know spanky here who uh looks cool

And he's fun like fortnight and it's like we're

not playing fortnight. We're playing You know,

we're playing war like it's not I remember like

in the early 2000s and like somewhat up until

like the teens of it, we had this time period

of the demos that were on websites, like two,

not just disks, like the disks you had to pay

for, like the demos that were on the websites,

like there was a website, Happy Puppy, and two

cows used to have some stuff, like a lot of these

sites are just crap anymore, like they're not.

representative of anything good at this point.

Even if they're still around, they don't do what

they used to do anymore. But all of these sites

were kind of the go -to places to get these games.

And now that we don't have demos anymore, that

they've moved away from all of this, we're sitting

with these games that we're having huge buyer's

remorse, either because the story sucks or the

gameplay's not finished. It's not polished. They

didn't do any... It's like they didn't do any

research to see what people actually want. Instead,

they just put out a bunch of crap. They're like,

yeah, we're going to make money. It boils down

to that underpants gnomes joke that I always

use. They go, stop one, stir underpants. Stop

two, stop three, profit. It's like, well, what's

step two? We don't know what step two is. A perfect

example of that is the current state of like

modern warfare 3 the way that they're because

they're their game obviously flopped and so in

order to save it they started throwing these

micro transactions at it right like oh you can

get the boys skins and you know play as these

you know superheroes from the Amazon superhero

show and then now they're doing Warhammer 40k

skins and you know the zombie stuff and it's

just to try and save their failure. And I think

it's wrong to try and do that to people. And

it's basically it's theft, honestly. And they

know it. They don't care. Yeah, they don't care.

No i don't care is always idiots keep i'm sorry

is always idiots keep buying it they're gonna

keep doing it stop the micro transactions in

my opinion and stop these these skins. You know

i remember back in like. Battlefield for all

the skins and stuff you earned those in game

bike. Completing challenges doing stuff in the

game. You had to actually spend hours playing

the game, which is what they wanted like nowadays

It's like we don't care if you play the game

Just spend the money if if you keep your customer

happy and they're playing the game and they love

it They'll continue to play the game, which means

they'll continue to dump money in the game Well,

it's like I think it all started when that last

expansion pack for battlefield for like for battlefield

It started the last inspection pack for battlefield

for When they introduced a couple new maps, it

was after final stand and they basically gave

you the phantom bow and that forest map for free.

If you just went and picked it up, you unlocked

it and everybody who worked hard to find those

dog tags and collect those skins and then find

the code and then go to that elevator to go down

to that room to unlock it or just like. What

the hell? We did. We did. We worked for it and

you're just now giving it away. Yeah, that's

crap. It's like, you know, that type of shit

is what kind of pissed me off. I mean, the last

good battlefield was battlefield one. Battlefield

five, they gave up too early and abandoned it

just to try and save face on battlefield 2042.

Yeah, I don't do first person shooters anymore

because of all that shit. Well and I the thing

is is like I would much rather waste my time

on games that I know I'm gonna enjoy at this

point like I have no ambition to go and play

a bunch of Basically a bunch of nonsense games

that yeah, you know one and not getting political

or any of that crap but like When when they start

taking the fun out of it and like and what it's

supposed to be and they're worried about you

know, the the narratives and the And what, you

know, to try and be, I'm sidestepping here. They

shift the focus of the game from the game to,

to like side messages that nobody really wants

to care about. Or they're not historical. Like

they're, they're like, they'll throw things into

that. Like if you're playing a war game and it's

like world war one, okay. Some of this might

be somewhat real, but as far as like what they're.

You know trying to achieve with with it But I

guarantee a lot of what they've thrown in is

just to placate people and it's not and it's

not actually Anything that's of substance or

going to help the game. It's just extra filler

crap Because just to say, you know the virtual

signal. It's not It's not putting out a quality

product. They're just putting it out because

reasons like there's not I would much rather

see see them like okay if if you're trying to

shoehorn stuff in there fine make it make sense

like and then have a good story have a good,

you know playability have Have reasons to have

the game like battlefield one I felt like was

like you said the last good battlefield we got

which is why I continue to go back to a battlefield

five I Know that they fixed it later. I picked

it up for like five five or ten bucks I'm kind

of waiting to see if that hits again. I may or

may not ever pick that up. I I've only played

it a few times. I just I can't the demo stuff,

but I just 20 minutes to get into the game. 20,

30 minutes just to get into the game, because

it took forever. To get to the point. And then

they it was kind of glitchy anyway, and I just

I didn't I don't have the patience for that.

Like it's if you're going to expect me to. put

all of my time and energy and money into a game.

Make sure it works and it's polished and it's,

you know, it's one thing if you're coming out

with like expansions later and you're like, you

know, well, we got this expansion, you know,

15 bucks, like, OK, yeah, that makes sense. But

like, but if you're going to be like, oh, pay

$70 for this crap game that nobody wants to play

because. we say it's good, and it's out, and

we'll fix it later. It's like the whole, it's

the healthcare stuff. They're like, oh, sign

it now to find out what's in it later. It's like,

buy it now so we can fix it later. It's like,

why don't you fix it now, and then we get to

the point here. With Call of Duty, what finally

made me uninstall that was every... Every time

I went to go on and you know, I would go play

with dad, right? we'd go do warzone and shit

like that and Every time they would have the

massive update and they like changing seasons

or whatever Or something I would go into the

game and there would be a new cutscene Every

goddamn time and I could not for the life of

me skip it So I had to sit through like four

or five minutes of this goddamn cutscene even

though in the main menu I have it turned off

It wouldn't let me skip it. That's crazy. That's

one thing they listen to on Star Trek online.

They added where you can, unless it's something

extremely pertinent to the story, you can pretty

much skip almost 95 % of the story if you're

just like trying to grind through or you're replaying

missions to get certain things out of it. You

can hold the escape key. for like five seconds,

you know, kind of like you do the space bar to

get revived in Battlefield one. Right. So they'll

do the same thing. And then it's it's like, OK,

you know, I skipped it. Thank you. That's what

I love about Empyrean, because the game itself,

the base game is 20 bucks. Right. They had their

they've been around since 2015, but they're in

early access. They released completely in 2020.

They had their first DLC this year in February.

You know how much they sold it for? 10 bucks.

Ten dollars for the DLC. Ten dollars. That's

the way it should be. Was it good? I mean, the

concept was good. It had a shit ton of bugs.

It had its issues. But I bought it anyways, regardless,

because I want to support, you know, the small

dev team there because they're they're an indie

developer and their base game in the mods modding

community behind it is why I play the game. It

is like the all -in -one space game. For you

can make whatever whatever ships you want star

wars star trek the orville whatever you can you

can it's in there it's on the you know steam

workshop you can make whatever you want fly it

around you can make a hot dog ship an oscar myer

wiener ship there is one on there. You know so

you know just just stupid stuff but. You know

my idea of a perfect game because I like space

games if they took in period on everything about

it and they they took like mass effect and like.

Let's see. Skyrim and they just like combined

all three of those ideas together to make one

great space game with with all the good shit

from all those games oh my god you know how many

people flock to that. I mean, that's all Bethesda

had to do when they made Starfield. They had

so many space games to look at, see, hey, I could

do that better. But guess what? You can't. Because

you fucked up. You spent six, seven years on

what? Nothing. Well, Bethesda also used to have

the rights for the Star Trek games a long time

ago. Yeah. And they were somewhat decent. Like,

I mean, they were, I mean, you couldn't customize

stuff, but I mean, you could fly around a ship

and, I mean, you could upgrade it a little bit.

But I mean, you pretty much were just flying

around doing missions in the ship in space. And

that was kind of it. And it was sufficient. It

was decent. And I remember playing it on the

PlayStation 2. After you kind of played it, though,

it was kind of done. Like, there was no replayability

with it. So, I mean, in that essence, like they

didn't really have anything to work from, but

they've kind of made that their niche, like doing

these type of space games. Yeah. The demo disk

is just crazy. Absolutely crazy. Yeah. I didn't

know Steam did the demo type stuff with that,

you know, where you can kind of have the option.

So I'm definitely interested in that. But I also

like Steam because they tend to put things on

sale more. Yes Like they or they have indie games

or they have things like you can kind of search

where if they're not available They'll be like,

oh you can do X Y & Z and you know, you can add

this to your waitlist. You can do, you know,

whatever There's options Because I got the entire

Arkham video game series Before everything did

yeah before they ruined it I got it for like

I think 10 bucks around like Black Friday one

year and I was like I can play Arkham again and

I had it on the Xbox 360 and I of course have

a 360 controller so it's like I can play it like

I was before. I never did complete Arkham Knight

because it kind of turned it trash halfway through

but I still played Arkham City and beat it to

completion because that was more fun but yeah

I don't know I'm I think it's it's funny how

these websites kind of Make it look like We're

demanding demos even though we're not we're just

demanding quality product and if they're not

going to do that at least put out a demo of like

the first level to let us see Whether it's decent

enough because I mean that's that's how they

used to sell games back in the day They used

to have a demo or the first level or the first

zone of a game and then you beat it and then

it would be like If you enjoyed this you know

they would be like an ad page that would come

up and it's like call this number and or email

this link or whatever. And purchase the game

in full for x amount of dollars like any really

okay i think it's now just a. Nintendo of america

customer hotline but what you just said i remember

doing this for any used to be the nintendo power

line for the magazine. 1 -800 -255 -3700 I will

never forget that number because you would always

call that and then when Pokemon hit big in the

late 90s and into the 2000s it became kind of

like the Pokemon game hotline type of thing.

Yeah, that's the whole point of a demo is that

you are testing out you are seeing if you're

going to like the game if you want to buy the

game and that's why even though we paid for magazine

subscriptions the whole point was hey you're

gonna read the magazine anyway at some point

because like with Game Informer or Game Pro or

whatever you're gonna find or even Nintendo Power

you're gonna find something in those magazines

about games that you like that are either coming

out or already out or whatever and you get the

free disc with the magazine so you can have a

chance to try whatever is coming and like you

just said about playing through one level and

then at the end it's like if you like this like

you said here you go it's coming in 2027 or whatever

you know And that was the nice thing with like

buying like PC gamer or any of these things is

they gave you some software. They gave you, you

know, some games they gave you, you know, there

was a reason to pick it up. Absolutely. And then

on top of it, like you, you got, I mean, it was

no different than when you went to like GameStop

or some of the, or Best Buy and they had the

demo disks and you could play those systems for

Google. I mean, that's how you found out your

console commands. Through the magazines. Yep.

Absolutely. And the, one of the other articles

that I have up here that'll be in the show notes

folks is, um, I game demos are key to opening

two main marketing doors and boosting visibility

explained by Chris Zuckowski. And basically what

he goes on to say in this article is According

to Zakowski, a game demo unlocks two essential

main marketing channel streamers and festivals.

Getting access to them might increase both of

the game's visibility and wish lists. So basically,

your demo is providing content for streamers

as they can show your game for you. If you don't

have a demo, you have to wait until your full

release before you have something that streamers

can play. Again, going back to that whole thing

of like you guys were saying about the Steam

thing. Only to play it under two hours and you

can return it kind of thing. I think that i Captain

Ruggles here is the the youtube expert as far

as his channel and everything else so he can

tell me if i'm wrong here but if you download

a demo off of steam and you try it out as a new

series on your channel and just say to people

hey this is a 30 minute demo or let's say you

start a new series where i'm going to do 30 minute

demos or whatever and you do like seven different

demos It's people getting to see games that they

may or may not want to play. Yeah, well, I've

also seen some creators go to like games that

have been worst ranked on Steam because sometimes

those devs will still be working on those games

and people will forget all about them and they'll

improve them. And so some creators will like

F, you know, screw it. Fifteen bucks. I'll buy

it. So buy it. And then they'll play it and they'll

showcase it and be like, hey, look, since All

these negative reviews these are all the changes

they've made right you know i'm involved in one

right now that's kind of like a. A sequel to

command and conquer generals of this entire dev

team made this game in unity and it was so buggy

and they had a lot of issues because of all the

way that unity handles their management. their

program so every time they updated it it would

break their game so everybody got frustrated

and quit except for one guy and he started rebuilding

the game in unreal and I reached out to him like

hey you know I downloaded your game and you know

seeing you put it for free so I played it you

know I mean yeah it's broken as hell and I can't

really spawn any units and stuff but So what's

going on with this? So says, well, I'm I'm abandoning

the unity and I'm starting over from scratch,

learning and building it on Unreal Engine. And

he's made a lot of progress in such a short time

from all his experience and unity. But. You know,

when he has a playable demo, I'm going to get

to showcase it on my channel and be part of that,

because I'm I'm. I sought out this I was proactive

and I asked permission that's a big thing. Ask

permission. Oh yeah, absolutely. And if they

say yes, they give you access to like a demo

to play. You know, not only do you get first

access to it and get to showcase it, but they

get a little publicity as well with it. So it's

a win win. Absolutely. It just. And one of the

other articles that we have that'll be in the

show notes of why we're currently in a golden

era of game demos I guess we are not the golden

golden age of gaming demos just golden age of

gaming Because all all the the golden games have

already been made Yeah, I mean all the new stuff

is crap. Like I mean, there's a reason I play

a 2010 game of Star Trek online And and they

continually add stuff to it or like I play command

and conquer red alert 2 is still one of my all

-time favorite games that I go back to when I'm

just like, oh I get to play that again soon.

I have it. I have well, and this is the thing.

Well, I am like three minutes to install This

is the yeah, I know it fits. I'm like a CD the

beautiful thing about that game Is a lot of these

old games the abandoned where you can go to a

website and play a lot of this stuff But you

can also go to the Internet Archive Which correct

me if I'm you know wrong, but isn't that run

by the government? He I think so I think it is

but you can actually download old video games

Directly from them Because that's how I got Command

and Conquer Red Alert 2 because EA's version

didn't work. Yeah, through EA Play, it's broken.

Yeah, well, it used to work in Origin. Yeah,

it worked in Origin, but through EA Play, it's

broken. Just like the problem that I have with

Generals is broken. And so because of that, I

went the other option and it was and it's not

I don't feel like it's illegal because it's not.

It's not like I went and torrented it. I don't

know. Here's the thing. And if it's broken and

it's not available, whose fault's that? Like,

it's not like people won't pay like five bucks,

six bucks for it. Here's the thing. It's not

like you didn't own the game. You own the game

on EA Play, but you can't play it because it

won't finish downloading. Same problem that I

had with General. It'll it'll download. It won't

show the screen. In general, it would get to

like 98 % downloaded and installed and then it

would just crash. It would lose its connection

with EA server and it wouldn't continue. See,

I have it. I have it downloaded and I know that

it worked because it played and I've uninstalled

it, reinstalled it. I've done the little hacks

with the INI files that people have reported

doing. It will load. I will hear it. I cannot

see it. It will black screen every time. Well,

I mean, you're you're covered. You're not you're

not pirating the game because you already own

it. You just can't play the one you own because

it's broken. Yeah, because because again, they're

too worried about getting money instead of fixing

what they have. Exactly. It all goes back to

the conversation we've been having for years.

I've said I've said I say this in almost every

whether it's a show, whether it's one of our

podcasts, whatever. All of these companies I

don't care what kind of company is they just

want the new customers They do not want the loyal

You know, you guys have been playing command

and conqueror since you were teenagers or however

the hell long whatever like that's loyalty Loyalty

needs to be rewarded as a customer like end of

story late You know don't just give the new people

don't just try to rake in the new people with

whatever you're trying to do come to us and say

hey look we've been doing this for blah blah

blah we've been working on this or would you

like to try this or whatever yeah so i don't

know you know what i hate about most modern strategy

games they give you a unit cap limit and it annoys

the shit on me yeah that's what i i don't like

The tiberium series for no i like the red alert

absolutely hated i don't give a shit about cain

is wrath or whatever. I like generals and red

alert those two series are their best in my opinion

and when they abandoned command and conquer generals

to. I felt that was a big slap in the face well

that's cuz they were that's cuz westwood studios

was bought out but. Red alert to what i love

is i like to army build. I like to build the

biggest freaking army that I can. Oh, yes. And

then send them in in swarms and then surround

them. I will literally do that for every game.

Like, I don't care. Like, that's literally my

favorite part is swarming the enemy base or,

you know, building everything up to the point

that I can just nuke them multiple times. But.

I don't know like I feel like the fun in games

has been lost unless you're dealing with indie

and the hard part is is we don't We don't have

like Alternatives that are well known For some

of these triple -a games and that I feel like

is a major disservice to gaming I feel like they

focus too much in these triple -a games that

are half -billed half You know half cocked ideas

that are ultimately trash And there's all these

nice ones that are indie that are under the radar

that you just don't know about because they're

not covered. Right. Do you know what I just found

out? There is a game called Earthbreakers, which

is made by. X command and conquer developers

from Westwood studios, and it's basically a spiritual

successor to command and conquer renegade. Oh

Wow, I will send you the link It's on Steam.

Um, I'm gonna check that out. Yeah, I think it's

on Steam Yes, Petroglyph studios, yeah, yeah

Go and check it's still a strategy game and it's

a third -person shooter. It you know, it's funny

looking at the graphics The menu system on the

right looks exactly like command and conquer,

but it's green instead of blue. Oh Yeah Which

is hilarious. I'm so in favor of this That's

awesome and I Wow Westwood Studios damn you EA

what the hell man Yeah, the command and conquer

remaster collection is 20 bucks on Steam now.

I got it for 10 bucks yesterday Maybe it depends

on which versions you get although they're listed

as petroglyph games So I wonder But yeah, I'm

I'm so in favor of, like, anything that can replicate

the old stuff without taking away from it necessarily.

Like, what's that studio? They closed down. So

the command and conquer remastered Petroglyph

games was also involved with that. OK. Just like

it was a lemon sky studios is another. I wonder

if it's not the remastered collection. No, it's

the CNC ultimate collection. Okay. Cause that's

all I care about. That's all you care about.

Yes, folks. Playable demos do matter. I'm sorry,

we just keep going off on a goddamn tangent.

Hey, no, it's all right. It's what the show's

for, right? Yeah, man, just. Oh, I guess I don't

I don't blame some of the article that that you

know, we were going off from 2023 here. The gamers

are demanding. No, it's not really like. I think

the problem and that's to get them to get clicks

on their website and ever and all this and all

that and everything else. But like, Oh, we just

want to be able to, again, obviously the huge

difference between game testers and then demos,

but still game demos were still, Hey, let's give

it to the players first. Let them figure it out

and let them let us know if there's anything

that we missed. I'll be back. I gotta let my

dog out. You are part of an enduring tradition.

For over 200 years, men and women have served

with honor, courage and wisdom. Our first duty

has always been to the truth, the guiding principle

that defines us. From the stars, knowledge. To

wear this uniform is to continue a most noble

mission. To explore strange new worlds. To seek

out new life and new civilizations. To boldly

go where no one has gone before. In this dark

hour, you must shine. You must light the way

for the lost and oppressed. The final frontier

awaits. And though you sail a ship upon a sea

in storm, you wear the uniform. You carry the

tradition. Valor and sacrifice are your watchwords.

Whatever comes, whatever finds you, stand tall.

Hold fast. You are a Starfleet officer. Lieutenant

Yoshi, alert Starfleet. We have engaged the Borg.

Be on the Borg. Resistance is futile. They used

to have Unreal Tournament 3 on here. Huh? On

Steam. But it's no longer available. But it says

the current that it says the title is currently

unavailable and will be available in the future

But I've been seeing that for a long time with

all of the command and conqueror the unreal tournament

series, which Kind of sucks. Yeah. Yeah, I have

I have the Arkham City Full -on game. I don't

have Arkham origins. I have Arkham Knight, but

I don't care enough They have the Mega Man X

legacy collection Which I've which I've thought

about Just because I liked Mega Man X. Do you

remember DC Universe online? Yeah, I used to

play the crap out of that Around the same team

that Star Trek online when I went free to play

because they did you and I was like, oh, this

is cool You know blah blah blah, and then I started

playing it and I was like this is way more difficult

than is needed To play this game and I was like,

I'm good. I don't care to ever play this again

And what's funny is the the Mega Man X legacy

collection I have them all Like the first collection

Mega Man X one through four. I have them all

on my computer From like ages ago I like the

fourth one because you get the Nova Strike armor

I've thought about like they have like an ultra

Star Trek bundle from interplay which is another

studio that's kind of gone. Their games were

total trash looking, except for like Starfleet

Academy, but I have like, I would get them, but

I have no ambition to ever play those again.

Cause they're, they're so bad. Like there's no,

you don't want to pay money for bad games. That's

the thing. Now Mega Man X collection two, I would

be somewhat tempted cause they have X five, six,

seven and eight and X eight was insanely difficult,

but fun. Like I'd loved playing that game and

I had it on my thinking ahead of my game cube

either that or my ps2 It was one of the two.

I think it was the game cube. It was a lot of

fun but I can't see ever sitting there long enough

to play it like I don't have the Mental dexterity

to sit there and do that multi versus that was

another one that I got to review And see that's

what the thing I love when I get to review a

game because not only do I get to play for free,

but I also get to Kind of see I kind of get to

see like something, you know Before it's like

kind of mainstream, you know, the multiverses

was like DC's attempt to do a Smash Brothers

and It was fun. It was not as intuitive or easy

as Smash Brothers And so I feel like it failed

there. But I what I liked about it. You had Kevin

Conroy as Batman you had you know george newburn

is is superman you had you know the the scooby

-doo characters you had multitudes of other wonder

brothers characters and i i think it's hilarious

that they launched or oh they're actually not

even launched yet this release date was july

19 2022 but steam doesn't have it says multiverses

launches on may 28 2024 so i wonder if they took

all of the feedback from a couple of years ago

to actually make it good potentially i'm hoping

because that was i mean i one i would love to

play with uh Kevin Conroy's Batman character

in the game. That would be cool. It's going to

be free to play and cross play, but I'm hoping

it doesn't need to be online to play, even though

I'm pretty sure it does. Yeah. That's just crazy.

Like if you, again, you buy it going back really

quickly to kind of wrap this up. Cool. But like,

you know, that was the whole thing, whether you

buy a demo disc or whether you get a free demo

disc, you put it in your computer, you put it

in your system, whatever. You don't need online

unless it has an online multiplayer. That was

the thing back then was they were all single

player games. And if DC Universe online or Arkham,

whatever insert, whatever Batman, whatever with

Kevin Conroy you want, if it's just a disc, how

do you need online? You don't. Shouldn't. I wish

things didn't have to be online, to be honest.

I'm so over it. I don't even care anymore. I'm

so done with being online to play a game. I just

want to play it offline and enjoy the game. So

I think we should start wrapping it up, man.

I think so, too. Yeah. Struggles, is there anything

that we missed? Is there anything that you want

to say? Is there anything about the the demos

and the whatever before you start going through

all your blokes? Uh, no. He's tired, folks. We're

all tired. We're old men. Why are we up at midnight?

Stop it. It's close. We gotta be up for work

in like five hours. Yeah. Well, that's the way

we roll around here with one of the brothers

living in the mountain time zone. Yeah, it makes

it difficult to record. It does. It'll figure

it out. It always do. Pixels in the animation

is wrapped on the Super Mario Brothers Super

Show. Now, TFJ and Mike and TV's Mr. Neil head

to Hyrule. That's right, listeners from episode

16 through episode 20 of PETA, pain in the ass.

We will be covering all 26 episodes of the Legend

of Zelda cartoon. Excuse us, podcasters. You

can catch Pixels in the animation every Wednesday

on iTunes and www .geekcastradio .com. Yay! Excuse...

So... So you have nothing to plug before we get

out? What do you mean nothing to plug? Well,

channel, all that stuff. Do you have any games

you're playing or anything that you got coming

up that's, uh... I'd never heard that term before.

Interesting. Must be living under a rock. It's

a podcast term. It's a podcast term. Yeah. Visit,

uh... YouTube dot com slash at Captain Ruggles

or just YouTube search Captain Ruggles gaming

My channel should pop up. I got some interesting

things coming up. I am currently playing Empyrean

as usual, but I do have a server that we're gonna

be having at the end of the month, which is gonna

be fun I'll be doing channel memberships soon.

So that's cool this Friday. I actually played

Left 4 Dead 2 with over 20 mods because me and

another creator were trying to break the game.

And all I got to say is Terry Crews makes Left

4 Dead 2 very terrifying. It's it's it's going

to be hilarious. But of course, we're good. Yeah.

Friday at 11 a .m. It drops. It's it's it's a

hoot. I also got more. Roleplay for Far Cry 5

coming out next couple weeks as well as some

more tutorials for Empyrean So other than that

rocking it out Awesome. Awesome before we get

out of here and Steve goes through the closing

I didn't want to say folks the next episode for

ultra geek that we're gonna do is something we

planned on doing last year We're gonna go through

BTIS a legacy of voices remembered because when

Kevin Conroy passed away a couple years ago It

just made me think of all of the people that

voiced voices in Batman the animated series that

are no longer with us So we're gonna be celebrating

their legacies next time. Yep. Yep. Yep. So remember

if you like what you hear to subscribe to the

show on all the various platforms of podcasting,

such as Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Google Podcasts,

which I think became YouTube podcasts, Spotify,

and yeah, you get the picture. So search Altered

Geek, and I'm fairly certain you'll find us there.

Or if you want to make your job a lot easier,

go to geekcastradio .com and listen there. So

thank you as always for listening to Altered

Geek, and until next time, get altered, get geeky

with the Altered Geeks. What you doing with that

shovel buddy, I was in Philadelphia And brother

when they call you And now can we cut you mug

son of a