Movie Review Catch Up | What is going on with Xbox?

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Geeky Bro Podcast. I am back. Yes, unfortunately you're back with me after Keith did an amazing job hosting last time. Joining me today as per usual, Ms. Keith Louisville. [00:00:10] Speaker B: Hi everybody. [00:00:11] Speaker A: Ms. Lee Price. [00:00:11] Speaker B: Hello. [00:00:12] Speaker A: And Mr. Sam Edwards. [00:00:13] Speaker B: Hello. [00:00:13] Speaker A: How the devil have we all been? It's been a while since we've got into kind of in person recording. [00:00:18] Speaker C: In a studio. [00:00:19] Speaker A: In a studio. [00:00:20] Speaker C: We've been out and about over the summer, so that's been nice. [00:00:22] Speaker A: Yes. Hope you've enjoyed those episodes. If you've not, there's a playlist down here that you can go and watch those back, including visits to botanical gardens and loads of other places around Birmingham. Coming up today we are talking all things film because it's been a while since we did a film round off and there's been some big releases over the summer and autumn that I want to catch you up on. Plus we'll be talking about Xbox shenanigans. What's been going on with Game Pass, game releases and what's the plan for the future. And we'll also be talking about our favorite one geek thing. But for now, roll cred. There's been a lot of stuff coming out into the cinema over the last couple of weeks. So we thought we'd give you a bit of a refresher and a catch up and just some thoughts about what we're doing. Fortunately, we're going to be talking about two superhero films first, but they will be moving on quickly. But the first one we want to talk about is James Gunn's first feature film in the DC universe outside of Peacemaker and Creature Commandos as a TV shows which are on now, TV sky over here in the uk. But we want to talk about the first feature film in the Guniverse is what we're going to be calling it now, which is Superman, which had about 12 names I think on the way to release. So Superman Legacy, I think Superman legacy at one point. Yeah. But yes, David Coren sweats. Nicholas Holtz. Can I remember who Lois Lane's character is? [00:02:03] Speaker C: Rachel Brosnan. [00:02:04] Speaker A: Rachel Brosnahan. [00:02:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:06] Speaker A: Nathan Fillion. The usual collection of James Gunning people. [00:02:09] Speaker C: Yeah. The guy who should have been Scott Pilgrim. Skyler, I can't remember his surname. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:15] Speaker C: Was Jimmy Olsen. A very, a very different Sean Gunn. [00:02:19] Speaker A: As well pops up at some point, of course. [00:02:21] Speaker C: Max Lord. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Yeah. But yeah, what do we think? I mean, Keith, Superman's probably one of the closest superhero comics to your heart. So do you think this is a good. [00:02:31] Speaker C: Getting as old as Superman is I thought it was magnificent in terms of James Gunn once again proving he understands what these characters mean and what they're all about. Because it was just a film that was just filled with such joy and passion and heart. And it was a bright, colorful comic book extravaganza, really. Everything about it just screamed, don't take this seriously. It's a comic book. And I loved it. I thought it was great. [00:03:01] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:03:02] Speaker A: Very much the antithesis of maybe the Snyder universe, the gray universe, the dark, the gritty, the slow motion, that nobody can have a normal conversation. They're just going to shout at each other. [00:03:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:13] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:03:14] Speaker A: But again, probably a little bit overblowed, I think. Probably too many story lines running at once. Yeah. [00:03:20] Speaker C: I think he tried to get. He tried to get too much in there. There to establish, you know, a lot of. Got a lot of plates spinning and hopefully that will settle down as we move into the kind of, like, Woman of Tomorrow. Yeah. Lanterns and all the rest of the stuff that he's got planned coming up. But it's good that he's kind of announced that we get the next film in two years time. [00:03:40] Speaker A: Yeah, it's quite good. Yeah. [00:03:42] Speaker C: Kind of looking forward to that. [00:03:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:44] Speaker C: Man of Steel. [00:03:44] Speaker A: Yeah. We had a bit of a sneak preview as well of Supergirl at the end with Millie Alcock, who is probably best known at the moment for being in the Game of Thrones. [00:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Which is excellent in that I'm really. I thought her character in. In Superman looked like a lot of fun, so I'm. Yeah. Looking forward to. [00:04:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Because I know the story of Woman Tomorrow. It was one of my picks of the year a couple of years back in terms of comics that were out and if they do a good version of that. And it kind of set that up that she's, you know, she's obviously a little traumatized with being, you know, this superpowered person. And I kind of like what they did with the kind of super family. [00:04:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:25] Speaker C: And, like, you know, spinning all of that and. [00:04:27] Speaker A: And Crypto being a bit of a naughty dog. [00:04:30] Speaker C: Crypto being MVP of this movie in terms of, like, what he was. He was a good boy. [00:04:35] Speaker A: He was a good boy mostly. [00:04:38] Speaker C: But, I mean, I just thought that was just a great way of, like, showing how Supes cared about everything. [00:04:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:45] Speaker C: You know, he had a passion for life, and I love the whole kind of, like, I'm going to stand up in the middle of this film and, like, lecture like, Lex Luthor and the audience directly about what it means to be this character. So I love that. I loved. It was great that he was so concerned. And he saved squirrels. [00:05:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:00] Speaker C: Which is what Superman should do. [00:05:02] Speaker B: And Nicholas Hulk, one of the best I've seen. [00:05:05] Speaker A: What performance change since skins back in the day. [00:05:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:05:09] Speaker C: I think. I think when I saw the clip where Supes busts into the room with the. [00:05:13] Speaker B: Where's the dog? [00:05:14] Speaker C: And Lex is just like, I don't know where the dog I thought is. This isn't. As Nicholas Hulk just become the best Lex Luthor ever. And he did. He was fantastic. And I did quite like. Although Lee missed it the whole, like, gaming way that he took the. The punching to Superman 1A 1A. Like, up left, right. It was right there as a special point. Special moment just for you, Lee. [00:05:38] Speaker B: I think. [00:05:39] Speaker A: I think you're least too busy trying to complete the N64 version of Superman. [00:05:43] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:05:44] Speaker C: The best version of Superman. [00:05:46] Speaker A: Got those rings to fly around in a very short time. The kryptonite fog segueing onto the other big superhero film coming from the Marvel stable this time. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, the dude from the Bear we can never remember the name of because it's far too long. [00:06:06] Speaker B: Even Moss Backrack, I think. Yeah. [00:06:08] Speaker D: I like how this is devolving names. And then the guy from the bear, and I'm like, oh, and some other dude. [00:06:14] Speaker A: The dude from Gladiator 2. [00:06:17] Speaker B: Stranger Things. [00:06:18] Speaker D: Yes. [00:06:18] Speaker A: And Finchy from the Office. [00:06:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:21] Speaker A: That's the Big bad. [00:06:22] Speaker D: I mean, Sid from Final Fantasy 16. [00:06:26] Speaker A: But again, I think this was Marvel returning to form a little bit. It's been a long time. I think it's just dropped on Disney plus the last few days. [00:06:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:36] Speaker A: So if you haven't watched it, you can now go and watch it on Disney plus if you have that streaming service. But it felt very much like a phase 2Y movie trying to go back to that golden era of Marvel. It was. Don't bother about too much on the origin story. Just get into the film. Get into where it needs to be. [00:06:54] Speaker C: Yeah. I kind of thought it could have done more. I think the Fantastic Four needed a little bit more of the origin story. I think we've already fell a little bit short of thunderbolts for me. I kind of. There was a lot to like in Fantastic Four. [00:07:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:07] Speaker C: But it kind of skirted over a lot of the kind of, like, the family ness of it. It was kind of there in the dialogue, but I didn't feel it so much. And the fact that everybody kind of, like, trashed on Johnny too much. [00:07:20] Speaker A: Well, Petro Pascal, I think, is actually a poor choice for. [00:07:27] Speaker C: He was not the best Reed Richards. No. [00:07:28] Speaker A: If him and Benedict Cumberbatch had swapped roles, I could see Pedro Pascal being a much better Doctor Strange and Benedict Cumberbatch being a much better Mr. Fantastic. [00:07:39] Speaker C: Yeah, that's possible, I think. I think they kind of like painted themselves into a corner a little bit with having Krasinski. [00:07:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:47] Speaker C: Already been the fan choice and then turning up in Doctor Strange. [00:07:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:51] Speaker C: So they kind of painted themselves into a corner of like, who else could be Reid? And Pedro was a bit too much of a wet blanket to be Reed Richards in this. [00:08:00] Speaker B: The casting directors clearly went well. He's got loads of time on his hands and isn't in anything else at all. [00:08:06] Speaker A: Let's get Fedora. Pascal, who is not in six films. [00:08:11] Speaker B: Three films in the space of. [00:08:12] Speaker C: Well, I mean, one of. [00:08:13] Speaker D: One of his major roles was coming to an end anyway with the last of us. That's fine. The game's been out for five years as well. [00:08:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:24] Speaker C: Vanessa Kirby was great as. [00:08:26] Speaker A: She was fantastic. [00:08:27] Speaker D: She was. [00:08:27] Speaker A: She was the core of the family, I think. [00:08:29] Speaker B: Yeah, she's always a really good actress and very kind of underrated. Good to have her in a big blockbuster starring role. Yeah. [00:08:37] Speaker A: I think Emma Moss Bacharach, considering the thing is pretty much a purely digital character for the vast majority of the film, did it really well. [00:08:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it was good. [00:08:45] Speaker C: I kind of like the fact that they kind of like teased the kind of whole catchphrasey thing. I love that bit at the end where he goes, say it, say it. I'm not saying it, Johnny. Yeah, so that was quite funny. [00:09:00] Speaker B: I really loved the kind of production design of it as well. That kind of retro futuristic. [00:09:06] Speaker C: And we didn't mention the. The music in Superman as much, but I thought the kind of standout for me on this was Michael Giacchino's score, which was just like, ah, man. This is. Just works so well. [00:09:19] Speaker B: The beginning. I think it's like the main theme that plays over it, but where they've got the kind of montage of all the stuff leading up to where we are now in the film. It was wonderful. And I really loved as well that. I think it benefited from the fact that they seem to be the only superheroes on Earth at that time in that universe. There was nothing kind of diluting it. Like, they were special, they were loved. You could tell that there was a. [00:09:45] Speaker A: Sort of established kind of heart back to that era of like the Golden Era, the space race and NASA of Those kind of Designs, like that future 50s thing. [00:09:55] Speaker D: I think. [00:09:55] Speaker C: I think. I think I loved Superman was the film of the summer for me in terms of, like, what I got the most out of. And I did go and see it twice. But I think Fantastic Four will be one that grows on me over time. I think going into it, I kind of probably wanted more than I was going to get. [00:10:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:11] Speaker C: And I think it's one. When I settle back into it and go, I'm gonna watch this and just enjoy it for what it is. [00:10:17] Speaker A: I think they've messed up the release. I think Fantastic Four would have worked much better before Thunderbolts. Yeah. [00:10:23] Speaker C: The mts in Thunderbolts didn't really pay off in this movie, which was a bit of a shame. [00:10:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Should have. Should have worked around a little bit, I think. [00:10:29] Speaker D: I have one question about Fantastic Four. [00:10:32] Speaker A: Yes. [00:10:33] Speaker D: How did Galactus sound? [00:10:36] Speaker A: Did he. Oh, he just was Finchy. [00:10:38] Speaker D: Oh, he used his natural voice. [00:10:39] Speaker A: He was very gravelly. [00:10:40] Speaker D: Excellent. [00:10:41] Speaker B: Gravelly. He didn't. Didn't have the accent. [00:10:44] Speaker D: That trash. They throw the whole film out. [00:10:46] Speaker A: It wasn't as Yorkshire as I was. [00:10:47] Speaker D: Expecting Galactus to be. [00:10:48] Speaker B: Galactus was my. My one slight complaint about Fantastic Four, really. It just looked slightly too cg. [00:10:56] Speaker A: I quite enjoyed the costume because it harped. [00:10:59] Speaker C: It was the proper costume. [00:11:00] Speaker B: Yeah, the costume was great, but it just felt like. Like you could tell he was a digital creator. [00:11:05] Speaker C: I did think it was a little bit of a shame that, like, you know, it was clearly Reid was at a disadvantage when Galactus challenged him to throw shoes over the backstage. You know, I thought that was, you know, if you're going to. If you're going to put the planet on the line, that's just. It's just not fair. [00:11:19] Speaker B: That was. [00:11:20] Speaker A: But considering the only other previous version of Galactus we had was a cloud. [00:11:24] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. [00:11:25] Speaker A: Definitely a step up from those. That era of films. [00:11:27] Speaker C: And I didn't mind the gender changed perfectly fine. I mean, she's got provenance in the comic books as well anyway. So it was good. [00:11:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was good. Moving on to something purely digital, starring some that you hate, but you love this film. It is tronars. Sorry, Aries. So 13 years. I think 15. 15 years since legacy. God knows how many years since the first Tron movie. [00:12:02] Speaker C: That was 82. [00:12:05] Speaker A: So 43 years. So Disney, or Disney's second attempt at trying to revive the franchise into something more than just. And now a weird trilogy collection of films that kind of work together. But yeah. [00:12:21] Speaker C: And the excellent TV show, which I mentioned last month. [00:12:24] Speaker A: What do we think? I, for one, enjoyed it. I think it's a popcorn movie. You know exactly what you're expecting with Tron. You've got the light cycles. You're just going to have. It's a popcorn movie. It's purely visual based. And the plot doesn't really matter to a certain extent, as long as they hit all the beats. [00:12:43] Speaker C: Yeah. Considering there wasn't really that much of a plot to it, I felt really bad that I liked it so much. I went. I went. Because I went, I'm going to support Tron. But, like, I'm really gonna. If I'm not gonna like this. And I watched it and I'm like, oh, you baskwicks, you've won me over. The way it looked and the kind of the Nine Inch Nail soundtrack worked much better in the context of the film. It still wasn't Daft Punk level. Right. But I was like, why? How I've come out of this. You had Jared Leto in it and I liked it. It's like, how have you done this? [00:13:15] Speaker A: He was one of the big driving forces behind it. I think he stumped a fair bit of his own personal cash to get this made. Because he was a producer as well. [00:13:23] Speaker C: I think helped that he just. He played a character that had no personality until very late on. So it kind of played into his. [00:13:30] Speaker D: It just makes me think of, like, the quote from YouTuber Jenny Nicholson, which is, how come major film studios keep being like, jared Leto may have allegations, but at least he looks weird, stars in box office bombs and is not a good actor. [00:13:45] Speaker C: Yeah. I was a bit aggrieved at the fact they teased Sam and Cora. [00:13:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:50] Speaker C: Both the beginning and the end of the film. And didn't really do too much with that. And then kind of teased us that, like, Ares was going on a hunt for them. And I kind of liked how they brought Jeff Bridges back with the kind of, like, original server for the grid. [00:14:06] Speaker A: Looking for brief box lightning to just have been in the background or something. The dude is Tron in the film. [00:14:13] Speaker C: Sequence, where bit comes and you just go, oh, man. [00:14:17] Speaker A: Okay. [00:14:17] Speaker C: I was enjoying this film up until this point, and now you've given me bit. And it's like. [00:14:22] Speaker A: Cycle as well, which he was in one of the yellow ones, which is the enemy light cycle. [00:14:27] Speaker C: Why do you do. How have you done this? Disney. It's not fair. Everything should have gone horribly wrong for this film. And I really enjoyed it. [00:14:36] Speaker A: I think it was more Greta Lee's film. [00:14:38] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:14:38] Speaker A: Than Jared Leto's film. Jared Leto is the titular character, Ares. But it's more about Greta Lee and her kind of fight against. [00:14:45] Speaker C: Yeah. And then Evan Peters as the kind of Dillinger. Yeah. Ancestor was quite good. And then the kind of whole post credits nod to Sark. Sark as well, which was really good. [00:14:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I thought Julian Anderson, again, not really much to play with, but I think she did a decent job because she was the. I think she plays what's his face completely gone out. Original villain guy's sister rather than Ed Dillinger's. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So David Warner. David. That was it. Yes. David Warner's sister. Rather than being directly related, I think. Or was it Cillian Murphy? It might have been Cillian. [00:15:22] Speaker C: Well, Cillian Murphy was his son. [00:15:24] Speaker A: Yeah. So he was in Legacy and I. [00:15:26] Speaker D: Think she was his. [00:15:27] Speaker C: She was his sister. [00:15:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:29] Speaker C: But I think. [00:15:29] Speaker A: Weird. [00:15:30] Speaker C: The other thing that I kind of. I thought we were getting was more Tron in the real world. Yeah. And I think at the end of the day we. We got a couple of light cycles and a Recognizer and that was like it. I was thinking. [00:15:40] Speaker A: I think that was kind of make. [00:15:41] Speaker C: It out like we were going to get a whole kind of invasion. [00:15:44] Speaker A: Well, the whole thing about Tron is the digital world's much more interesting side of it rather than the real world. So I mean, they did it quite well with the laser 3D printing bit. Quite well. Yeah. [00:15:55] Speaker C: I thought that was kind of cool. [00:15:55] Speaker A: So that was kind of nice modern update and the way they've done it. But yeah, it was. It's worth a watch if you have any. [00:16:01] Speaker C: And it was quite nice seeing Aries being de. Resed quite a few times. [00:16:04] Speaker A: Yes. [00:16:07] Speaker C: You're gonna bring it back. [00:16:08] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:16:09] Speaker C: Okay. That's fine. [00:16:10] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:16:10] Speaker A: But I hope. [00:16:12] Speaker C: I hope it finds its feet in this. In the. When it ends up on streaming services. Yeah. I think people didn't go to the cinema because. For reasons. And I can understand why I was hesitant and I didn't. [00:16:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:25] Speaker C: But I think, you know, the Leto thing is definitely a barrier, but I don't think that should stop us from getting more Tron. [00:16:33] Speaker A: I think again, it's. If you put. I know it's very hard to put that aside, but if you do manage to put that aside, it's definitely worth watching the trilogy as a kind of whole because it does kind of work together. [00:16:44] Speaker C: It was a fun movie. I really liked it. [00:16:47] Speaker B: Very pretty and sanded Drake. [00:16:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Only another 15 years to wait until the next Installment moving on to a film I haven't seen. So I'll let you three guys chat about this. But I've heard it's one of the biggest horror films for a while, which is Weapons. [00:17:02] Speaker B: I thoroughly enjoyed Weapons. [00:17:04] Speaker D: Yep, me too. [00:17:05] Speaker B: I know Keith was rescued. [00:17:07] Speaker C: I was more kind of on the fence in terms of like it was okay. And then it kind of just went, I have no idea what this story's about and I'm just gonna write a ridiculous ending to it. And it kind of. There were certain things in there when I went, oh, look, here's a. There's a whole bit with Josh Brolin that they go, is it about this? We don't know. So we'll just ignore that for the next rest of the movie. And then the whole ending was just. [00:17:35] Speaker D: Like, what is that? [00:17:36] Speaker C: What are you doing here? [00:17:38] Speaker B: One of the most magnificently cathartic endings in cinema. [00:17:43] Speaker C: I derailed the whole thing. [00:17:47] Speaker D: I watched it in a pretty packed cinema and during that ending, like the entire audience was like reacting very positively to it. [00:17:54] Speaker C: I couldn't believe it was an 18 certificate. [00:17:56] Speaker D: You could feel the energy in the room just shift with that ending. [00:18:00] Speaker A: That's the way they've done the film is. It's from multiple viewpoints, but it's the same 15 to 20 minutes. [00:18:05] Speaker C: It's the same kind of. It's the same kind of day or so. [00:18:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it's. [00:18:09] Speaker D: It's. It's just kind of a non linear storyline more than just the same time period. [00:18:13] Speaker C: But yeah, and it's like. And the fact that nobody like there's the kid in the. They blame the teacher. It's like, like the entire class goes, except this one kid. [00:18:24] Speaker B: Y. [00:18:25] Speaker C: Why is nobody suspicious of this kid? Who then starts acting really weird throughout. It's like, why are you buying 400 cans of soup, kid? That's fine. [00:18:35] Speaker B: Had one of the most hissable villains as well. I thought she was brilliant. [00:18:40] Speaker C: She was dialing in from a completely different movie. [00:18:45] Speaker D: I think that's what made it kind of interesting though, is because that sort of wildly shifting tone. Yeah, it was like it had like one foot in horror and one foot in comedy the whole time. [00:18:54] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:18:55] Speaker D: And I think it just kind of. It really worked. Just. I went to see it just because it was an intriguing premise. Just because it is a really interesting. [00:19:01] Speaker C: I mean it's not. It's not a terrible film. I just. I just think it didn't really know. [00:19:06] Speaker B: What it wanted to film. [00:19:08] Speaker D: I gave it three democracy says. [00:19:13] Speaker A: Don'T. [00:19:13] Speaker C: See it make your own. Make your own mind. Yeah. [00:19:15] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:19:15] Speaker A: Horror is having a bit of a resurgence at the moment. I think everybody's finally got bored of the terrible shock jump movies like Paranormal Activity and Annabelle and those kind of things. Just going back to having a horror film, I think that was all. [00:19:29] Speaker D: But, like, two films they've seen this year have been horror movies, which has. [00:19:33] Speaker B: Been a good year for it. And I think that was one of the things I liked about weapons, was it did play with the genre and tried some different things. [00:19:41] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:19:41] Speaker A: Because we had. What was it? Final Destination, Bloodlines. [00:19:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Which was really good as well, actually. [00:19:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:48] Speaker B: Thoroughly enjoyed that. And Bring Back. [00:19:50] Speaker A: Bring Her Back. Yeah. It was the other one. [00:19:51] Speaker D: There was also really unpleasant. There was Companion earlier in the year as well. And then there was. What else did I go say that I really like Sinners, obviously, is the big one. [00:20:00] Speaker B: Yes, that's right. Oh, and good boy. [00:20:03] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, I did. [00:20:04] Speaker B: Look at that. [00:20:05] Speaker A: And I don't think I could last that film because my heart would just lip. [00:20:10] Speaker B: I've never cared so much about the protagonist of a horror film, although I did. [00:20:15] Speaker D: I did see, like, I think the director or the producer or something did, like, put out a statement saying, don't worry, the dog will be okay. [00:20:24] Speaker B: It was his dog. He was the director's own pet dog that was starring in it. Yeah. But like other horror films, there'll be people running around screaming. You think it's fine, like, they might die, but it's a horror film. They might die. This dog sort of whimpers slightly and you like, oh, my God, look out. Don't go down that staircase. [00:20:45] Speaker A: Cool. So we're gonna segue across to a Stephen King book, which isn't a horror, but you could say it's a horrific premise, which is the long walk. [00:20:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:55] Speaker A: So this was based on a short story, I believe, that he put together in a collection. [00:20:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Novella, I think. [00:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is a competition to where you get. Is it a wish granted? [00:21:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:04] Speaker C: You win a load of money and then you get one wish that you get granted. [00:21:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Apart from becoming president. But it's a very long walk at certain speeds that you have to maintain. [00:21:15] Speaker B: Yeah. You have to just keep walking as long as possible without dropping below three miles an hour. Yeah. And not die, basically. You get three counts and you're out, basically. So if you slow down more than three times. But they. I think it's. After an hour, they reset and. Yeah, it is grim. It's a difficult watch, but it was an incredible film. Like the performances in that I forget his name. But the guy who was in the Alien film last year, David something. [00:21:59] Speaker C: We should look these things up before we get. [00:22:01] Speaker A: Yeah, one moment. [00:22:04] Speaker B: But he was particularly good, I thought, like, Oscar worthy. [00:22:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:22:07] Speaker A: You were thinking, he's going to go for best supporting, probably. [00:22:11] Speaker C: There was a lot of good performances from. From those young actors, really. It's just the worrying thing was it's like you look at it as a premise and you go, there's probably some people out there that think, yeah, this is probably a good idea. [00:22:23] Speaker D: Looking at and taking notes, you know, celebrity. [00:22:26] Speaker C: Some people have looked at Squid Game and gone, yeah, that's a good idea. We'll actually do that for real. [00:22:31] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll wait for the celebrity version with. From like Love Island, I think. [00:22:35] Speaker C: I think, again, it was another film that kind of. The ending, they kind of fumbled it a little bit. I wasn't quite so content with the way the ending worked. There was a few things that characters did I just thought were a little bit against. [00:22:48] Speaker B: I think there were different ways it could have gone, kind of thematically speaking. And, yeah, they took the most depressing option. Yeah. David Johnson, fantastic performance. [00:23:00] Speaker A: So moving across to something else which has come back, which is the slapstick comedy. So this was a unexpected revival to a certain extent, which was the Naked Gun starring Liam Neeson. It's kind of a semi sequel, semi rebooty thing. Again, I've not seen this, but I've heard very good things about it. It's the trailer, I think, put a lot of people off. Where is it? It's a better film than what the trailer is. [00:23:29] Speaker D: The initial trailer was sort of. I think, sort of had people a bit wary, but I think that. I think there was like the scene towards the end of it where they showed, like, all of Police Squad and they're all sort of mourning the old Police Squad and it's basically like all of them are basically the sons of the original Police Squad. But then you get to the, like, O.J. simpson son and he just sort of looks at the camera and just shakes his head. And I think at that point a lot of people are like, oh, no, I think they get it. [00:23:57] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. I wasn't expecting to enjoy that as much as I did, I think. [00:24:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I think Liam Neeson has some comedy chops which people forget. He pops up in Derry Girls. He's done a few things and I think people after his reinvention in the Taken franchise, people probably see him more of an actiony person, but he has got some Good comedy. [00:24:16] Speaker D: I think it was a good choice, especially because, like, I know that when he was cast, a lot of people were sharing whatever, whichever. Ricky Gervais comedy. [00:24:24] Speaker A: Oh, Extras. [00:24:25] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:24:25] Speaker A: Where it's basically him trying to do comedy. He's the most straight laced man. [00:24:29] Speaker D: But like, because of how straight laced he was, it was hilarious. [00:24:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:34] Speaker D: And I just think, well, isn't that just how Leslie Nielsen was in the Naked Gun? Because he came. He's someone who came from dramatic roles and played it very much. I'm the straight man. But it's all like goofy stuff. [00:24:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:47] Speaker C: It's what makes it so funny is that kind of like playing it straight but getting the laugh, which is. Which is not an easy thing to do. [00:24:54] Speaker A: And I think. [00:24:56] Speaker D: But I think I really did have a lot of fun with this. It was just. It wasn't just Liam Neeson. It was also like, you've got Pamela Anderson in there who we haven't really seen in a while, never really thought about, and then she just shows up in this. And she's also very funny. [00:25:12] Speaker B: She's had a little bit of a revival recently. But yeah, yeah, she was very good. The whole side quest with the Snowman I loved as well. Yeah. [00:25:19] Speaker D: That was just. They just kept going and I'm just. [00:25:21] Speaker B: Like, where is it? [00:25:22] Speaker A: What's happening? So would you recommend as just worth throwing on? [00:25:28] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, definitely. I think the moment for me when I realized, oh, these guys definitely get it is the Weird Al cameo, because that means he's in every single one still. [00:25:41] Speaker A: You can't not put him in though. That's the whole point. Moving on to the next film. Aziz Ansari's debut directoral role starring everybody's favorite, Keanu Reeves, as is Ansari himself, Kiki Palmer, Sandra oh, and Seth Rogen. [00:26:00] Speaker D: So Keith's definitely saved. [00:26:03] Speaker C: Just for the first trailer, I was like, yeah, okay. [00:26:05] Speaker A: So it's a bit of a body swapping movie. If you've not heard the premise. Keith. Keanu Reeves. Keith Reeves. I'm happy for that. Keanu Reeves plays an angel and his entire job is to stop people dying whilst texting whilst driving and just tap them on the shoulder like that. That's his entire job. He manages to mess it up completely. And Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen have a kind of body swap life swap thing. And that kind of is the premise for the film of does money fix everything? To a certain extent. [00:26:35] Speaker C: The whole idea of it, like, oh, in a couple of days you'll have learned your lesson and you'll swap Back, basically. Nope, I'm not swapping. [00:26:42] Speaker A: This is great. I love it. And the whole thing is because Keanu Reeves character is not doing his job as the angel Gabriel, is he? Is he Gabriel or Azrael? But yeah, because he's not doing his job properly, it sets off all the other events in the film because he. [00:26:58] Speaker C: Loses his wings and ends up as a dishwasher. [00:27:00] Speaker A: It's like chain smoking dishwasher. [00:27:04] Speaker C: It's just brilliant. [00:27:06] Speaker A: I loved it. It's. It's a very heartwarming, good film, I think because it shows you the best and worst of people at the same time. But it shows you that money, even though it does fix a lot of things at the same time. It's relationships and people and that's the way that things actually happen in life. [00:27:25] Speaker C: It's a very frank Casper esque, frank, Frank Capra esque type of movie for the modern times. And he was hovering a four star movie for me. And then the last two minutes where they just went, yeah, we're just gonna double down on our whole theme and just basically like, yeah. And then I went, okay, five stars. Yeah, Keanu is an angel was already. [00:27:45] Speaker A: Like, yeah, it had a very limited release over here. I think it's only out for like a week. Two weeks came out in the week. [00:27:50] Speaker B: When I was on holiday. I've completely missed it. [00:27:52] Speaker D: Yeah, I've not gotten. I didn't get around to seeing it. I saw it was on and then was just like, I should go see that. And then promptly, just as you said. [00:28:00] Speaker A: Keith, it's kind of a nod to its wonderful life, but with a more modern turn and more characters. And Seth Rogen's actually amazing in it, which is surprising because he's usually just the guy. [00:28:11] Speaker C: What is going on with Seth Rogen? Invincible. The studio platonic this. [00:28:16] Speaker A: It's like what he's having to like post create, post comedy revival. [00:28:20] Speaker D: To a certain extent, I was a slight tangent in regards to Seth Rogen. There was a thing that I did recently where I was looking at Google trends stuff, looked at the new Donkey Kong game and if you put Donkey Kong, you get Seth Rogen. Yeah, Seth Rogen is one of the results. [00:28:35] Speaker A: He's gonna. Isn't he Donkey Kong in the next Mario movie? [00:28:38] Speaker D: Anyway, he was in the last one. Yeah, I just found that very funny that he just comes up with Donkey Kong. [00:28:45] Speaker A: I mean, it is perfect casting. You can't really think of anybody else playing Donkey Kong. So a couple more films and then we'll move on to upcoming films. And then will knock this on the head. I Yorgos Lament. [00:28:59] Speaker C: Nobody knows how it pronounces Lamanthriumos. [00:29:03] Speaker A: The Emma Stone trilogy is finished, I think so. There was this. There was poor. There was poor things. [00:29:10] Speaker B: Poor things. [00:29:12] Speaker A: Actually it's the quadriology, isn't it? Because she was in the. [00:29:15] Speaker B: Oh yeah. The favorite. The favorite poor things. The one last year. I've forgotten the name. The anthology film. Yeah. Which kinds of kindness. That was it. Yeah. Which was great as well. [00:29:30] Speaker A: But this one, the most unpronounceable title. Looking at the poster. The poster just makes it like you can't read it. [00:29:38] Speaker C: It's just a weird font in that. [00:29:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw that earlier this week and it's absolutely fantastic. It's as off the wall as all of Jorge San Femos films are. [00:29:52] Speaker A: So it's Emma Stone, Jesse Plebins, who people might know as Meth Damon from Baking Bad. [00:29:59] Speaker B: He pops up. [00:30:00] Speaker A: He's the one who looks like Matt Damon, but he's not Matt Damon. [00:30:03] Speaker B: He also looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman. [00:30:05] Speaker A: He does look a little bit like Philip Seymour Hoffman. Aidan Debley, Stavros Halkas, Alicia Silverstone. [00:30:12] Speaker B: I mean it's mostly Emma Stone and Jesse Plens, I think. And they're both brilliant. They're both really horrible characters who become more horrible the more you learn about both of them. And in completely different ways, but just manipulative. It's all kind of like runs very deep. Just how unpleasant they are, but very watchable. Yeah. The plot essentially is Emma Stone is playing this high flying executive in charge of a kind of pharmaceutical chemicals company. Jesse Plemons and his cousin kidnap her on the belief that she is an alien trying to destroy humanity by wiping out all the bees with pesticides and shave all her hair off and lock her in their basement. And it sort of. Yeah, it plays out from there. And I won't say too much because a bit like weapons. The ending is completely mad. It's been a good year for mad endings actually because there was 28 years later as well. Had a very surprising ending. [00:31:26] Speaker A: Coco Power Rangers. [00:31:30] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, heartily recommend Bugonia is it goes to some quite dark, dark places, like more than I was expecting and it is quite violent in places. But yeah, really bizarre but brilliant film. [00:31:49] Speaker C: It's basically a reboot of a Korean movie from about 10, 12 years ago called Save the Green Planet which I also recommend you watch as well because I haven't seen this version. But if you retains the same dam beat ending as the Korean one. It's like. Yeah. Kind of the Korean movies kind of hidden gem. And I think they've been trying to get it made for a long time as a reboot in the Wisp. [00:32:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:12] Speaker C: Save the Green Planet. [00:32:13] Speaker A: So I think Yorgos is known for being very out there with his direction, style and his picks of titles, so it probably fits him quite well. [00:32:22] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:32:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:23] Speaker B: And him and Emma Stone together seem to be just a completely winning combination. She gives such a good performance in this and genuinely shaved all the hair off as well. Very kind of committed to the role. Yeah. [00:32:36] Speaker A: And the last film that we're going to review before we swap to some ones, it's not the all for One Song, which is what I thought when it first got announced, but it is I Swear by Kurt Jones, based on a BBC documentary. Was it? Or there was a documentary in 1989 about a chap called John Davidson who gets to own him as Tourette's is following his life journey. This one starring Robert Aramayo, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, Peter Mullen. And introducing Scott Ellis Watson. [00:33:03] Speaker B: So this was one of the kind of surprising gems, I think, of the summer for me. I really, really loved it. Robert Aramayo, who. It was bugging me, where I know him from, he was Elrond in the Rings of Power in a very, very different role. Like, his performance was incredible. Like really kind of captured. So it's about. This guy has Tourette's, but the kind of campaigning and clarity work that he does to raise awareness of Tourette's. So it starts off sort of showing him as a child when people didn't really understand what it was and the kind of abuse and victimization he had, basically from his teachers and school friends, just because they all thought he was playing it up and putting it on for a joke. Genuinely quite harrowing to watch. And, yeah, he gives this wonderful performance, some really lovely sort of joyous moments as well. I think in another universe they could have made this film where it came across as kind of exploitative and almost mocking, but it doesn't. It kind of embraces the fact that it can be kind of humorous, but. And it's okay to sort of laugh at it because it's not. He's not doing it deliberately. It's just something that happens. But at the same time, you have to respect that it's a horrible thing for him to be going through. And, yeah, it's. I can't recommend it enough. Yeah. [00:34:49] Speaker C: I think it's a shame it got such a limited release, really. Yeah. As A British film. It's going to be one of those ones most people are going to pick up when it hits tv. [00:34:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I think it's pretty much swept the board of the British Independent Films Award. So it's Best Independent Film, Best Director, Best Lead, Best Support Team, Best Breakthrough Performance, Best Screenplay and Best Casting. So I think it's one of those films that's. Yeah, definitely gonna kick start. [00:35:14] Speaker C: I think once a wider audience sees it, it's gonna be one of those ones that people will go, oh yeah, this is great. And watch a lot. [00:35:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And it does what the real person was trying to do, which is raise awareness of Tourette's as well. I genuinely feel like I understand that. Is it the thing better than Condition? Better having seen the film. [00:35:34] Speaker A: So we're gonna run through some quick films which are just about to wrap up, but we'll try and go as fast as we can. Predator Badlands coming out. Dan Trachtenberg, pretty sure it's out now, so it might be out now. Yeah. But directed and story by Dan Trachtenberg and Patrick Acen and Dan directing, basically. Young predator on his first hunt, dropped onto the most dangerous planet ever. Picks up Elfanning, who's half of a synth, and then their fun adventures together. It looks like it's really fun to watch this. He did an amazing job with Prey and the Predator. [00:36:17] Speaker C: Anthony. Anthony. [00:36:18] Speaker E: Killers. [00:36:18] Speaker A: Killers. If you've not seen that, really do recommend that. So yeah, really looks fun. Also coming up, the Running Man. Me and Viv watched for Halloween, the original Running man film with Arnie. Still one of my favorites. I think it's in top three of Arnie's best films. [00:36:36] Speaker C: Oh, easily. Yeah. [00:36:37] Speaker A: But this one is going close to the original storyline. It's. Edgar Wright has gone and rewritten it with the original story. [00:36:44] Speaker D: That's the whole reason I'm interested in it. [00:36:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:46] Speaker D: Looks good. [00:36:47] Speaker A: So Stephen King book. Edgar Wright's rewritten it. Glenn Powell, Amelia Jones, Josh Brolin. [00:36:53] Speaker C: It looks Colman Domingo. [00:36:57] Speaker B: He looks brilliant. Is a good year for adaptations of post apocalyptic Stephen King films. Yeah. [00:37:05] Speaker A: And then we've got Wicked for good, which is just a steam train. And I'm sure if you're not already, if you're going to watch it, you're watching it anyway. So this is a sequel. John M. Chew's directing. Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, massive cast. [00:37:25] Speaker B: The. [00:37:26] Speaker A: The film based on the musical, based on the film, based on the book. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Yes. [00:37:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's in the right order. [00:37:33] Speaker D: It's the sequel to the film based on the music. [00:37:36] Speaker B: Isn't Wicked itself a prequel to. Yeah, so it's a film based on a musical based on a book. Based on a film based on a book. [00:37:44] Speaker A: There we go. [00:37:45] Speaker D: There you go. [00:37:46] Speaker C: That's right. [00:37:46] Speaker A: And the last film to mention, because Sam's definitely going to watch it. And it's been that long since there's been this quite actually a quick Succession from Avatar 2, it's Avatar 3, fire and ash. So the Captain Planet series continues. We go through each element. [00:38:05] Speaker D: Is there going to be a heart movie as well? [00:38:08] Speaker A: That was the first one. Really? What was that? [00:38:11] Speaker C: That would have been Earth, wouldn't it? [00:38:12] Speaker A: The first one. Yeah. So, yeah, it did say there was going to be five movies. So. Yeah, go play at the end. Tom Cheadle will be back as Captain. [00:38:20] Speaker C: Yeah. The first film since the last one that I'll go and see in 3D. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:25] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. [00:38:26] Speaker A: But yeah, so that's pretty much the big ones coming up for the rest of the year. As I said. We'll probably put links in the descriptions where you can find these if you've not seen them and if you miss them in the cinema or you're going to watch them coming up. But yeah, film of the year so far. Pick champs. Lee, you know, Keith is Superman. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's pro. [00:38:50] Speaker D: Like, funnily enough, we haven't really talked about these two. It's currently Sonic 3. No, it's currently between like Sinners or K Pop Demon Hunters. [00:39:02] Speaker B: I would agree with potentially Sinners. Another one we haven't spoken about. But one battle after another is definitely up there as well. [00:39:09] Speaker A: Paul Thomas Anderson, Leonardo DiCaprio. [00:39:12] Speaker B: And I throw, I swear in there just because I like being surprised. And that surprised me how good it. [00:39:18] Speaker A: Was, I think for me. Oh, God, it's terrible. Tri Aries so far. Just because I have that much of a love for Tron Legacy. Wow. [00:39:25] Speaker B: Okay. [00:39:26] Speaker A: That Nine Inch Nail soundtrack is great. It's a fun. [00:39:29] Speaker D: Didn't realize you were such a big Jared Leto fan. [00:39:33] Speaker A: Ignoring Jared Leto. It's a great popcorn film that's worthy of seeing in a cinema on a big screen is the way I'd phrase it. [00:39:40] Speaker B: Fair enough. [00:39:41] Speaker A: But yeah, 12 megacity is better. There's been some big shenanigans over at Xbox over the last month or so. Firstly, there's been some massive increase in Game Pass, which a lot of people now use to like, use their Game Pass. We had the release of the Rog Xbox Ally X or just Xbox Ally. [00:40:03] Speaker D: God, I love Xbox branding. Isn't it really clear and easy to understand? [00:40:07] Speaker A: Not like you've already got. So you got the Rog Xbox Ally X and you've also got the rag Xbox Ally. So you've got two versions of the new handheld, which also used to be just the Rog Ally without the Xbox stuff on it. [00:40:20] Speaker D: Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S. Yes. Which followed on from the Xbox One X and the Xbox One S. Yes. [00:40:26] Speaker A: Which followed on from the 360, which followed on from just Xbox, the actual Xbox One. And then we've also seen Halo campaign evolved and a bit of news coming out about that where it's going to be released on PlayStation for the first time. So I think this was the last Xbox exclusive franchise because Gears of Wars already turned over. [00:40:47] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:40:47] Speaker A: So is already appearing on PlayStation. [00:40:49] Speaker D: Yeah. So earlier this year they released the Gears of War remaster, which. The name of which escapes me, but they did basically they remastered the first Gears of War that's released on basically everything. And Forza Horizon 5 also came to PS5 earlier this year as well. [00:41:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:06] Speaker D: And now they have announced the, like I said, Halo campaign involved, which is. [00:41:13] Speaker A: A psy version of. Yeah, yeah. [00:41:15] Speaker D: It's very funny seeing like the PlayStation subreddit just constantly posting things of just like, oh, I never thought I'd see the day. And it's just the store page on PS5. And it's like, you do know that, like everyone else has posted this. You can stop now. [00:41:28] Speaker A: I think since it came to Helldivers 2, there was the ODST crossover. So there's always rumors about what's happening with Halo and PlayStation because I think it's weird because Halo Infinity just missed the mark completely, I think for a. [00:41:43] Speaker D: Lot that's ending production now. [00:41:47] Speaker A: So I think that's had so many seasons and it's just never got the same reach. And the game, the single player game, wasn't too bad. It was a good turnaround from 4 and 5, which I thought were slightly disappointing, but I don't think. I think people had lost faith in the franchise by that point. So. And now this is kind of where we're going back to the start again. So we already remastered it once with the Master Chief collection, and now this is a remake, not a remaster. So they're changing a lot of stuff and porting everything to Unreal 5 engine and pretty much changing it around, I think. [00:42:21] Speaker D: And also I feel it is important to mention that it is just the campaign. [00:42:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:25] Speaker D: And not the Multiplayer. [00:42:26] Speaker A: Yep. Because you had 343, which did combat Evolved Anniversary, which then the Master Chief collection. That's actually worth a playthrough, I think because you can do the old toggle between the shiny graphics and the standard original Xbox graphics, but this one. Yeah, they're just doing it. Local co op. You can have online co op, but there's no online PvP. [00:42:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:53] Speaker D: I think it's just the campaign stuff. So presumably if there's a co op. I've never played a Halo, so I don't. Sounds better. [00:43:00] Speaker C: There wasn't a multiplayer for the original Halo anyway, was there? [00:43:04] Speaker D: Considering how many people I've seen complaining about the lack of a multiplayer, I'm gonna say that, yeah, they probably. [00:43:10] Speaker C: Because weirdly I played. [00:43:11] Speaker A: There wasn't Halo, I think. [00:43:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:43:15] Speaker D: Halo just. I've seen that much that many complaint complaints about it. There's no more player. It's kind of. It's. [00:43:21] Speaker E: It's interesting. I don't. Because everyone's going, oh, it doesn't really need a remake. But I can kind of see. Cash grabby claims aside, I can kind of see the benefit of doing a remake because if you're releasing it to a new audience, if you've got the opportunity to update it so you can almost essentially kick start it again and kick start that love and that fan base again, then fine. I think the interesting thing is going to be around the level design and just retaining what made sort of Halo Jank level design, but worked really well. And I think there was something really interesting where one of the original Bungie developers was talking on X and Blue sky, basically saying that they've seen some of the. Some of the previews for the levels and they've changed around certain things of where you can get like Warthogs and that kind of thing. And they went. But we've deliberately. We literally designed the level these ways so that you can surpass them, but you have to really get involved with Jank. And I suppose what they were saying is if you're just gonna remake it. [00:44:34] Speaker B: But. [00:44:36] Speaker E: Completely remove what made Halo Halo, then what's the point kind of thing. So I think it is interesting. You know, there is, there is potential for it, but you're not really gonna know. And I think that's one of the things where four, five especially, they kind of missed the mark because the level design did change quite considerably and it became more generic. Less what made Halo fun, I suppose. [00:45:06] Speaker A: Yeah. I think going from what Chatterer saw online and just looking at Stuff is there's lots of complaints around the Forerunner architecture, how it was all mystical in the first game and then it got changed to this kind of bl futuristic design in Halo 4 and 5. And that's what they've now put back into this new version of Campaign Evolved. There's loads of stuff like Master Chief can sprint now, as you said, they've redesigned the Warthogs. They bought a lot of the guns from the later franchise into the earlier one. So it's basically trying to blend all of the continuity of Halo together into one new reinterpretation of the original franchise. Which I suppose for new audience. If you're used to these kind of mechanics, if you jumped on a 4 or 5 or infinite and you're used to these mechanics, then that's going to have a major change in the way you play the game versus if you were a Halo original player of. Well, Master Chief can't run. The dudes are basically a walking semi truck. The whole point is, I think you. [00:45:59] Speaker C: Can'T ignore game advancement in the interim because it's a considerable amount of time. And although I kind of was like when they made an announcement and said, oh, we've improved Warthog handling. And you go, yeah, but the whole point when we played was the fact that it drove like a brick and you couldn't do anything. But again, modern day players aren't going to accept that. But what I do like is that they are doing it as a campaign. [00:46:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:21] Speaker C: And because multiplayer games, they're ten a penny. Well, so you don't need a Halo game because you're not going to. You're going to bring a certain player base to it. But everybody else is playing Fortnite or they're playing that. That area is just so oversaturated that you. It's the same as the way the Star wars one went downhill. After a while everybody abandoned it and it was like they made this. They killed Battlefront by making it a multiplayer game. [00:46:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:47] Speaker C: And it just. When there wasn't anybody to play with, it was pointless. So I kind of like the idea of forcing people to go, this is a campaign and you can play it. [00:46:57] Speaker A: So going back to the original question, Halo 2 was the first one to feature online multiplayer because that was a big thing with the Xbox at the time is you can put online now. But the first one you had four. Four vers. Well, four player, local multiplayer, competitive multiplayer. But now it's got split screen. The new version is going to have locally or you can have Four player online campaign together. So you could get a group of four friends together and play through the campaign, or you can just do it locally between two players. Which is a nice nod back because the split screens kind of died to death over the last 15, 20 years as everything's got more and more online. So this is kind of giving you that option a little bit. [00:47:37] Speaker D: It's also a graphical as well for a split screen because basically with the high rendering things of a lot of modern games, splitting that into four is actually a technical nightmare. Like worse than it used to be. Like it was already kind of there to reduce polygon counts across the board to make everything then just give us. [00:47:56] Speaker C: Xbox graphics at 140,000 frames per second. [00:48:01] Speaker B: That'd be fine, whatever it is. [00:48:03] Speaker A: But I just wanted to touch on the Rog Xbox Ally and Ally X, which are the two kind of handhelds, which are not Microsoft products and they're not subsidized by Microsoft. [00:48:14] Speaker D: The thing that's interesting about this is that for the past year or so they have been advertised. They have had an advertising campaign running which is everything is an Xbox. This is an Xbox and this is an Xbox. And then they released the Rog Ally X and it doesn't play Xbox games, it plays Xbox branded PC games. [00:48:36] Speaker A: Well, it does that and it does have some backwards compatibility if you purchase digital titles. [00:48:43] Speaker D: But I think they have to be PC. They have to have been released on PC. That's how it works. [00:48:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:49] Speaker C: I mean the price point for a start is just wildly outrageous. [00:48:53] Speaker A: £800 for the 1 TB ally X, which has got a slightly faster processor and more RAM. Or for the Xbox Ally, which is half terabyte of storage and 16 gig of RAM, that's 500 pounds, which is more expensive than a Series S. I. [00:49:11] Speaker C: Mean currently, because I've got Xbox Game Pass, I've ordered a sub 100 pound Android handheld which will do Xbox Game Pass through streaming. So I can play most of the games that I got access to on Game Pass in a sub 100 pound. I mean, obviously the screen size is a little bit smaller, but why would I be paying nearly a thousand pounds for a slightly more powerful handheld? [00:49:38] Speaker A: This is the thing that's been the consistent thing with consoles from day one, which is the manufacturer of the consoles will deeply subsidize the cost of the hardware because they make the money back on the software. [00:49:50] Speaker D: Nintendo have always made a profit on the actual system. [00:49:53] Speaker A: And Nintendo is one of the few ones because it's so low powered in comparison to the other ones. PlayStation loses money on every single PS5 and PS5 Pro. [00:50:00] Speaker D: I think Microsoft, they're making money on it, but it took like a good three or four years to get and. [00:50:06] Speaker A: Lots of different revisions because they've been through so many different models in the background. [00:50:09] Speaker D: That's also true of every one so far. [00:50:12] Speaker A: Yeah. If you look at the shell, the shell's the same as the original shell, but the internal components are completely different because they'll find ways to cut stuff out that it's not needed. And so same with the original Microsoft Xbox 360 One series and the Series X and S is Microsoft lose so much money, whereas the thing with this is because they partner with Asus, ASUS is designing the hardware and Microsoft haven't come in and said, right, we're going to underwrite the cost by a couple of hundred pounds or a couple of hundred dollars for the console. So you're getting the console at cost price? To a certain extent, yeah. [00:50:48] Speaker C: I just think the price point and the, the fact that the PC handheld market is so oversaturated as well. [00:50:54] Speaker A: Ready a Steam Deck OLED for less which you can put game pass on. [00:51:01] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. But also again, it begs the question of who is it actually sold for? Because I'd say even, even obviously I have a Steam deck, but even then I'd say would I really use it? Is it, you know, is it that useful? Not particularly, because it's quite chunky. Taking it anywhere is, is a bit of a faff. And then also it sounds like a hovercraft. So it's that kind of thing of. It's fine for what I want to do when I want to like lay on bed and play games, but I'm in a category where I was able to purchase one quite nicely. But if you've got to choose what you're going to go for, are people going to go for the ally? Probably not. [00:51:46] Speaker C: You know, I mean 80% of the time it's going to be docked. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Well, that's the thing. You can get a 2 terabyte Xbox Series X now for 589 quid. So for an extra 90 quid you've got four times the storage and you've got a desktop device which is more capable and still has a disk drive on it. [00:52:03] Speaker C: I mean, to be honest, you could probably just get a small monitor gaffer, tape it to the side of an. [00:52:08] Speaker A: Xbox Series S and take a generator. [00:52:10] Speaker C: With it and take, take, take a small kind of DJI power bank and run it that way. [00:52:16] Speaker D: PS1 revision is back. [00:52:19] Speaker C: Well they did sell pop up screens for the Series S at one point that you could just use it as like a portable device. [00:52:27] Speaker D: But I think like the whole thing with like the ROG ally though is it's just, it's another one of just these bizarre decisions that Microsoft is making. [00:52:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:36] Speaker D: And it feels like. [00:52:37] Speaker A: Well they say they're committed to hardware which a lot of Xbox fanboys are shouting about is we've had no new console for a while and the next generation should be due around now. [00:52:46] Speaker D: Well, they have been talking about like what the next is what the next one's going to be like and it's not going to get better because basically this has come from actual Microsoft people. It's going to be basically a PC and it's going to cost the same. [00:53:03] Speaker A: As a PC because they're not discounting hardware anymore because why? [00:53:07] Speaker D: So basically they're already in third place in the console market and they're going to charge twice as much as they currently do and somehow they think that that's going to bring people back. [00:53:17] Speaker A: Well, this is the whole thing now PlayStation are being a bit more. Sony's been a bit more realistic with releasing their games elsewhere. So you can get like Spider man and Final Fantasy and everything on Steam. [00:53:29] Speaker D: Well the thing about that is both Microsoft and Sony are doing it but when you look at like the ways that they're doing it, like it's pretty clear that like every time Microsoft say we're committed to hardware, I'm like, are you? Because you seem to be releasing a lot of things simultaneously on PS5 now. [00:53:48] Speaker A: Whereas Sony stuff, they are committed to Sony's hardware. [00:53:52] Speaker D: But that's what I mean, it's like, it's like, you know, Sony will release stuff on PC but it's usually like months to years later. And I think the only exception to this I've seen is everybody's Golf hot shots which released simultaneously on the Switch, which I don't think many people are thinking is a big odd hit in Sony franchise. [00:54:11] Speaker A: You know, you still got that 12 to 18 month exclusivity, haven't you? But the other thing I want to touch on before we do finish on this subject is about the price increases that are coming through. So they've gone up a lot. So Game Pass ultimate was 15 pound a month and that's gone to £23amonth for that you now get Ubisoft plus, which you didn't used to get. It did have EA play in there before. So you can now pick up all the Assassin's Creed games or Star Wars Battlefront, all those kind of games, EA games on there. You don't get full EA play because there's EA Play ultimate as well, which is also an upgrade for it. And I think there's a Ubisoft ultimate. [00:54:52] Speaker D: Isn't it? Something like. There's also, I think. Is this the tier where you no longer get day one Ultimate. [00:55:00] Speaker C: You still get Ultimate. [00:55:01] Speaker D: You still do ultimate, you still do. [00:55:03] Speaker C: Premium is the one where you don't get the. [00:55:04] Speaker A: You also get Fortnite Crew, whatever the hell that is. But Premium's gone up to 15 pound a month, which doesn't include Ubisoft, doesn't include your day ones and doesn't include your EA play. [00:55:17] Speaker D: Although I also like in the very, very, very, very small print where it says like day one Microsoft releases, it says excludes Call of Duty because they've decided that they're not going to do that anymore because the last time they did it, it ate into sales so badly that like they suddenly realized, oh, we're not making back that $70 billion anytime soon if we're not careful. [00:55:38] Speaker A: When I looked at the list, you have got Essential as well now. Sorry to quickly interrupt. Which is just Multiplayer Online. [00:55:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:44] Speaker A: Which is similar. [00:55:45] Speaker C: Which was like core wise, wasn't it? [00:55:47] Speaker A: Yeah, well you had like Switch Online which used to just be multiplayer and you had PS multiplayer to start off with PlayStation Plus. [00:55:54] Speaker D: I'm trying to remember what it's like now. I think you do still get like. [00:55:58] Speaker E: The Monthly plus is monthly games but you don't get any sort of like collections or anything at all. [00:56:03] Speaker D: Yeah, I can't remember if you get any. I think you might get some limited stuff. Very, very limited. [00:56:10] Speaker E: Yeah, you can get like the free play weekends and that kind of thing I think. [00:56:13] Speaker D: But yeah, but then like obviously the wider tiers you get like access to the sort of the current library and then the top tier is you access to the classic library as well. [00:56:23] Speaker A: I think for me one more thing essentially gets 50 games on console as well. So nothing on PC. There is also a PC pass which is separate, which can make them. [00:56:33] Speaker C: But I looked at the list of games that you could play through the Premier Premium and it took out a lot of the games I wanted to play. So the Indiana Jones is not on there, that's only on Ultima. And I'm kind of thinking, really, I'm at the stage now where I'm thinking I'm just going to buy the game. I'll just wait till the sale comes up and it's. Whatever it is and it's going to be less than Ultima. I'm not playing as many games as I used to, so the freedom to kind of play anything when I fancy it. I mean, recently, Keeper's probably the only game that I've wanted to play. [00:57:02] Speaker D: Yeah. The one that Microsoft have done absolutely no marketing for, apart from a lunch break tweet from Phil Spencer, which had a ton of responses saying, phil, please don't close the studio. Which I think says everything you need to know about where Xbox is right now. [00:57:15] Speaker C: And I don't play a lot of online multiplayer, so I think I'm just gonna. Where I used to do the trick where you bought Core and then you upgraded and you got. At one point it was one to one, then it went to two to one and now it's. I think it's even less. It's like three years will get you 18 months of. I think I'm getting to the point now where I'm just going to play the games that I want to and buy them outright. That's going to be the best way. [00:57:38] Speaker E: Sorry, just very quickly on that note, what is quite interesting though, if you're looking at trends, and you said yourself earlier, Keith, is a lot of people are starting to buy the Android retro consoles, where it's that kind of thing of. Right. But I pay this money and then I get all of these games, you know, or even like emulation, if you can be bothered to do it all yourself. [00:57:58] Speaker A: Backups of all the games you already own. [00:58:00] Speaker D: Exactly. [00:58:00] Speaker E: But it's that kind of thing of. It's going back to the sort of ownership thing. And I think we're seeing the. This happen across the board where people are just getting bored of the. You don't own anything, things are only getting more expensive. Hence why you're seeing a surge in interest. Back with like CEX and that kind of thing, people are moving back into physical media and just ownership a bit more. [00:58:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's exactly the same. When you got PC Game Pass, that's going up 35%. So that's gone up from a tenner a month, but which, to be fair is quite reasonable. [00:58:33] Speaker D: But when you look at why that. Why they're doing that though, it's because Microsoft want Xbox to be making 30% profit margin. [00:58:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:41] Speaker D: Which the rest of the games industry isn't making a 30% profit margin, it's a 12 to 15% profit margin. But somehow Microsoft Is a corporation want. [00:58:49] Speaker A: More money, they want double that. They want to replicate Google Play Store and they want to replicate Apple's App Store, which is basically. [00:58:56] Speaker D: No, they're competing with TikTok. [00:58:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:59] Speaker A: But that's how they want the constant revenue stream now. And that's what all shareholders want is, I don't want you to buy something once, as you said, it's that I want regular income every single month for the rest of eternity, which is why. [00:59:11] Speaker D: They want that 30% margin, despite the fact that it's completely unattainable. And I think the only company that's even close to that is Nintendo. [00:59:19] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:59:20] Speaker D: But even then, I think that's 25, something like that. [00:59:23] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, when you start looking at Nintendo, you think that's really good value for money, really, at the moment. And I think the whole subscription plan that we're in, everything is a subscription. [00:59:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:35] Speaker C: So, you know, you. You subscribe to Adobe, you subscribe to Spotify, you subscribe to Netflix, Disney plus, Paramount, whatever. At some point, that's just. You people are just going to go. [00:59:45] Speaker D: Well, what do I want? I think this has been Microsoft's problem for a while because they went all in on Game Pass, whereas, like, Sony, they've had their toe in the PlayStation plus thing. But it's still like, please buy the new games. [00:59:58] Speaker A: Yes. We'll give you four titles which have been out, and they're probably on the bottom end of the curve of purchase. [01:00:04] Speaker D: It's got a pretty good library, but you're not getting day one stuff. And a lot of stuff, like, even a couple of years later, you're getting stuff that just isn't on there. [01:00:12] Speaker A: Well, that's the whole thing with Battlefield 6 is EA spent so much money to bring that franchise back from pretty much the dead, because people have just stopped playing Battlefield over Call of Duty. But again, don't want it released on day one. You can't pick it up on your ultimate service. [01:00:29] Speaker C: What's going to happen at some point when GTA 6 comes out? [01:00:33] Speaker A: When. [01:00:36] Speaker D: We talked about. [01:00:37] Speaker A: So from March 2026 to November 26th. [01:00:39] Speaker C: Literally 90% of the gaming community just going to move to GTA 6 in one massive. Like, that's all everybody's going to be playing games. [01:00:45] Speaker D: That's why no one's announced any release dates after May yet, because, like, everyone was expecting that to come out in May. So it was just like, all right, we'll wait and see what happens. [01:00:54] Speaker C: It's because Rockstar is going to go, you can play GTA 6. But you've got to pay a ten pound a month subscription to do so. [01:01:00] Speaker D: It's fine, they'll just union bust their way out of cost. [01:01:03] Speaker A: But that's the other reason that GTA 5 has been with us so long is GTA Online was making them so much money, why bother doing another game? Because you're just eating into your own now. GTA Online starting to drop in popularity. Suddenly GTA 6 comes on the horizon. It's like got all these kids spending money on their parents credit cards for credit cards in the game. [01:01:25] Speaker C: I might start playing old Commodore 64 games again and selling knockoff tapes at the back of my car. [01:01:32] Speaker A: Well this is the thing. It's again, it's the value of ownership, isn't it? I'm gonna start. I think a lot of people are starting to swap back to buying physical media again because it's just a case of some albums that I really like have just evaporated from Spotify. You don't get any notification, it's just not there anymore. Some songs out you like, some playlists just pop, gone. Sorry, you can't listen to that one. It's on another streaming service now. So you gotta go and listen to Tide Law, you gotta go and buy Apple Music. [01:01:57] Speaker D: Yeah, I've heard that like sales of Blu Rays and stuff are starting to go up again because people are just getting sick of things. Like you have like everything kind of been split across 400 streaming services and they're not great. [01:02:09] Speaker A: I've noticed streaming quality is dropped appreciably in the last few years because everybody's streaming everything. It's a case of everything so algorithm driven to save cost on streaming as much as possible. [01:02:22] Speaker D: And one thing that I do find notable is when the Switch 2 launched and it had all its third party stuff, pretty much all the third party releases were the stupid game key card where it's just like all that's on the card is just a download code. Those games all sold incredibly poorly. The only third party like re release that sold well was Cyberpunk and that was explicitly. And CDPR made it very clear the whole game is on the actual card. And the fact that I was the only one that did well I think is telling. [01:02:54] Speaker A: Well that's kind of the worst possible possible world because you're still having to buy something physical and insert it in the slots and then you still have to download it anyway. So it's kind of this hybrid. Yeah, you can't just download it off the store. No one wants to Buy it? Yeah, and then download it. [01:03:08] Speaker C: But a lot of that was around the supposed manufacturing costs of actually having the high speed cards to fit the Switch 2, which is like okay. [01:03:18] Speaker A: But at the same time CDPR managed it. If you've got, if you've got, if you've got terrible Internet where you are, the whole purchase of buying something like the Switch 2 is you can just go and buy a game and plop it in and therefore you don't. It's the same as you still buying PS5 Pro or the Series X. It's still got a physical disk slot for those games you don't want to buy. Kind of broken by the fact that every single game now has a day one download for all the patches and stuff that they need to fix after they've pressed the disc. There is no offline decent gaming experience apart from maybe PC nowadays. Because even then when you've still got your cartridges for like Breath of the Wild and things like that, they'll still be oh, do you want to download the dlc? Do you want to do this? Do you want to update that? You've got to go into your Nintendo Switch online again, which is another cost on top of that. And then if you want to access the back catalog of games that you probably already have on existing consoles, you now have to buy online for that. [01:04:11] Speaker E: I love how we went from Halo remake to shitification of the games industry. [01:04:17] Speaker A: Had late stage capitalism. Yeah. But yes, game pass, price is bad, new hardware fair, but price bad, price bad. And then yeah, just a Halo campaign doesn't seem to have enlivened the audience as much as hoped. [01:04:36] Speaker C: Yeah, this Christmas kids go buy a PlayStation 2 and a Gamecube from. [01:04:40] Speaker A: Go and buy yourself the latest Tomy handheld from Argos. I think they'll still be in the catalogue. It's time for one geek thing. So every episode we talk about what's the one geek thing that we have watched, streamed, played, viewed, experienced since the last issue. So I'm going to kick off with Lee. [01:05:09] Speaker D: Okay, so we've just had Halloween and every year I mentioned on the last episode I try and play like horror stuff. And right before Halloween, like a good week before Halloween, this is the room we were talking about. PlayStation Plus. They put the Silent Hill 2 remake on PlayStation plus and I was like, there's my Halloween game. So I've been playing through the Silent Hill 2 remake. The reason I didn't pick it up sooner is because I wasn't sure if I how different it was. And I'm not really a big fan of just buying a game I already own, but it is very different. They've done quite a lot of changes to it. Like, so many of the puzzles and things have changed completely. And obviously it's completely different perspective because it's like the RE4 over the shoulder kind of thing. [01:05:58] Speaker A: Is it still foggy? [01:06:00] Speaker D: It's still foggy. They did make sure to keep that. In fact, they actually used the fog as a transition into cutscenes now as well. Because, like, a bit like in the sort of opening of the game, when you sort of walk down from the rest up and into the forest and then you reach the graveyard and you meet Angela there. As you reach the graveyard, the fog covers the whole screen. And then it's now the cut scene and James walks up to Angela and stuff and it's like, oh, okay. That was actually quite clever because it. [01:06:27] Speaker A: Was a big trick of the original game, I think, wasn't it? Because it was so big and expansive. They put loads of fog in to just save. [01:06:35] Speaker D: Yeah, it comes from the original Silent Hill because that was on the PS1 with its, like, incredibly bad draw distance. So it just like everything dropped off, like about 4ft in front of Harry at the time. So it was like, let's just say it's really foggy. Let's color the void white and say it's fog. And then they carried it over throughout the rest of the series. But yeah, Silent Hill 2 remake. Yeah, it's a really interesting update on it because it's one of those things where I think prior to release, a lot of people were concerned about it because obviously Konami had like a terrible track record for a while because they just kind of went off the deep end and just completely lost track. They were like, what if we invested in just gambling and forgot that we have all these video game franchises? The team that they got to make it was Bloober team, who have a very mixed reception from a lot of horror game fans because, like, some of their stories tend to be a bit not great, a bit exploitative at times. And obviously the problem with that is Silent Hill 2 has one of the best stories in gaming. And so they were like, are they going to screw that up? Is there going to be a problem? But it came out rave reviews. Everyone really likes it. And now I've played it, I can definitely agree with that. They've done quite a lot of really interesting stuff with it. There's, like I said, a lot of the puzzles, they've completely changed, but what they've done is they've got little segments where it's like, you find something and it's like a reference to one of the old puzzles. And it just. The screen just sort of shudders a bit and plays, like, a little tune. And it's like. It's almost like, remember this bit? And then that's all it is. Lord knows how new players who never played the original are reacting to those. They're just like, well, what does that mean? Because they don't explain it. They don't. Like, there's not even, like, a trophy pop up to say, like, oh, this is like a flashback or something. It's just. It's just there. Like, I knew what it meant, but, like, I'm just like, new players. I dread to think. [01:08:35] Speaker A: Does Sean Bean turn up in this version? [01:08:37] Speaker D: No, he's only in. He's only in the movies, unfortunately. And anyway, he basically plays Harry Mason from the first game, which is why the second movie is terrible, because Harry Mason dies in Silent Hill 3, and Sean Bean does not die in the second movie. And I'm like, what the hell are you doing? It's Sean Bean. [01:09:01] Speaker A: That thing is either invulnerable or he dies. There is no in between. [01:09:05] Speaker D: But, yeah, with this remake, though, like, there's certain bits of it as well which, like, they've really, like, heightened the tension. Like, the prison section, you can just. You just can't see anything. Stuff's crawling out the walls at you and stuff. But the combat system is, like, really. They've really amped that up a lot as well because they've. They showed, like, as before the game came out, they showed, like, a trailer with the combat and people like. But Silent Hill 2 isn't ever really about the combat, but, like, the way they've done it. Yeah, they've put in things like dodges and stuff, but it's still a very clunky system that's meant to make you feel like you're fighting these, like, horrible threats. And the way they've got, like, the mannequins that will just literally leap out of dark corners at you. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the nurses will block your attacks now and things like that. So it, like, really heightens the tension of fighting stuff. Yeah. [01:10:06] Speaker A: Because I've heard very mixed things about Bloober Team being very up and down with their games, but it seems like they've nailed this one because they get in the new Silent Hill. [01:10:15] Speaker D: They're getting the first Silent Hill now as well because of the success of this one. Like I said, a lot of people were concerned about it ahead of release because of that reason, but they stuck very rigidly to the original script. Even like there are cutscenes which literally just have the same dialogue. They just didn't change it because they clearly just went. There's no improving on this. There are a couple of new scenes and new events and things here and there, but like for the most part. And it's just, it's just really well designed and it's just a really good horror horror game and a worthy sort of successor to the original Silent Hill 2, which is one of my favorite games of all time. [01:10:51] Speaker A: So awesome. Worth a play then. [01:10:54] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:10:55] Speaker A: And it's on PS Plus PlayStation plus right now. [01:10:57] Speaker D: Yeah, I think it's part of the catalog as well. So it's still available. [01:11:01] Speaker B: Awesome. [01:11:02] Speaker A: Sam, over to you. [01:11:03] Speaker C: Sam. [01:11:04] Speaker B: My favorite ridiculous Korean game show is back on Netflix. So it's a show that in previous seasons was called Physical 100. The new season is called Physical Asia. [01:11:19] Speaker D: So we went from 100 contestants to the entire. [01:11:25] Speaker A: Million players. [01:11:27] Speaker B: So Originally it was 100 Korean athletes competing in various games basically. But they're all sort of designed to test their kind of fitness and strength. And I've always really enjoyed it. What I find kind of fascinating about it is they have people from various different disciplines, which means different builds and that sort of thing. So they'll have like massive sumo wrestlers or professional strongmen competing against really like wiry looking white eyed champions and that sort of thing. And just like their different approaches to some of the different games is really kind of interesting to watch. One of my highlights from a previous season was there was a game where they had to. There was like a big heavy ball in the middle of an arena. They had to hold the ball, keep possession of the ball and just be the one holding it after three minutes. And there was a guy like, I think was a firefighter, like really fit guy who really like looked like he'd be able to run really fast, grab the ball really quickly. And he'd been able to pick his opponent and he'd picked this massive strongman guy, thinking he's huge, he's going to be a lot slower, I can outrun him. And when the game started, this fireman guy shot for the ball, was absolutely right. He was way faster than the other guy, completely failed to pick it up, ran straight over the top of it. This other guy picked it up, walked it into the corner of the arena, put it down, turned around and was just like so it's that sort of thing. It's very over the top, but. And physical Asia. So what they've changed now is rather than it just being Koreans, it's now teams from eight different Asian countries. So they're all team games. They've interpreted Asia quite widely. So it includes Turkey and Australia. [01:13:49] Speaker D: Oh, like the Eurovision Song. [01:13:51] Speaker B: Yes, yeah, yeah. Anything kind of continent based. Australia just gets to join in, basically. Which I have mixed feelings about the Australian team because on the one hand it's quite nice having a team where I don't need the subtitles, but on the other hand, they are one of the most obnoxious group of people. [01:14:10] Speaker A: Got a load of bogans in flip flops, kind of. [01:14:14] Speaker B: There is one who's like free runner and like ponytail and exactly what you would expect from an Australian free runner to look like. But yeah, they're releasing the episodes in batches, so I've only seen the first kind of batch so far. But one of the challenges has been they've got this massive kind of shipwreck set with something like six tons worth of sandbags and crates that they have to get from one side to the other and whichever team gets the Most over in 20 minutes wins. But there's various sort of obstacles. All of the crates have to be carried over by zipline, so they have to have one person who's on the zipline responsible for the crates, but other people have to bring the crates up to them. So it's just sort of interesting to watch some of the tactics and that sort of thing and like who they assign to different roles. So, yeah, it's very enjoyable. And just the physical prowess of some of these people is insane. There was a challenge on a previous season where they just had to do squats, basically, but what they were squatting was essentially a skip. And after each round the producer would just pour rocks into this skip so it would increase by 50 kilos. And they were sort of doing them in sets. So they had to kind of do a squat every time they played a beep, but they didn't say in advance how many beeps they were going to be. So the first set was something like 100 kilos and they ended up doing, I think it was like 20 squats with 100 kilos added it on. They were obviously all expecting it to be 20 again, got to the 20th one and then the beep went again and it turned out to be like 10 more than they had to do previously. And. And yeah, and they were doing it. So, yeah, it's if you enjoy World's Strongest man or any kind of wrestling or any kind of sports really. It's. I. I think you'd enjoy this. [01:16:33] Speaker A: Cool. Definitely. And that's on Netflix. [01:16:35] Speaker B: Yes. [01:16:36] Speaker A: Awesome. Keith, how about yourself? [01:16:38] Speaker C: I'm going to pick something that I had come through the post this week that I ordered a long time ago, but it's the perfect thing for this time of year. I won't mention the holiday that's coming up, but it should be officially available now. [01:16:53] Speaker D: I was going to make a joke about Bonfire Night, but since we've passed that. [01:16:58] Speaker C: So I'm going to pick this year's 2000 AD annual, which is just, just hit shop. Well, the web shop. I think you might be able to pick it up in physical shops as well. But you the one cover, which is the Simon Bisley exclusive, is only available. [01:17:12] Speaker B: Through the web shop. [01:17:13] Speaker C: You pay a bit extra for it, but you get a Simon Bisley cover, which is everything you want from a Simon Bisley who was an artist who came in the kind of 80s and gave 2000 AD a kind of like artistic shape shove that it hadn't had for a while. He did Slain and ABC warriors and whatever it is. He doesn't do anything internally, unfortunately. [01:17:31] Speaker D: And the most I know about him is that's where Tim Bisley from space gets his surname from. [01:17:35] Speaker B: That's exactly right. [01:17:36] Speaker C: Again, this is another collection of new material and archive material. So you get new Judge Dredd strips. You get a new Satanas strip, which is a dinosaur from Flesh, but he's also been in Judge Dredd. But it's great because he just, just it's horrific and he eats lots of things and bites the heads off stuff. So that's great. [01:17:58] Speaker D: But there's also a lot going on in 2008. [01:18:01] Speaker C: It's the best because it's been on a roll for a while now. But you also get some archive material of reprinted stuff. So there's some nice stuff from John Hickleton, who's in there. And also there is the Steve Dillon Haphazard series, which has never been completed before because the second episode they lost the script. So it's never. It never got completed. So they've actually printed this with Steve's art, which he had completed. So you get the first episode of the the strip and then you get the second, but there's no dialogue or whatever. You just get the art, which is the first time this that's ever happened. So it's quite nice for that to be completed, seeing as we did lease Steve Dillon a couple of years ago, unfortunately. So it's nice for that to be completed. But again, I kind of like the tradition of annuals and I think they'd kind of gone away for a while or they were really terrible things. He bought for a pound in Asda and they were awful. 2018 back. [01:18:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:56] Speaker C: 2008 d brought it back last year. It was really good and so I was quite excited for this one. It's just a great way. So if you're kind of looking for stocking fillers, although it's not really a stocking filler because it's quite an expensive purchase. [01:19:08] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:19:09] Speaker A: But it's £30. [01:19:11] Speaker C: It's 25 for the standard edition, 35 for the webshop edition. [01:19:14] Speaker D: Yeah. Because I could see it on your phone, like the 30 and I was. [01:19:17] Speaker C: Like, it's quite, it's quite expensive. But I think you're getting quite a lot for your money really in terms of what, what you get there. [01:19:22] Speaker A: If you go back to the original annuals from the 80s and 90s, that probably was reasonably in line with inflation. [01:19:27] Speaker C: I think they were like 2 pound 50 or something. [01:19:30] Speaker D: Probably what I'm seeing just in the pictures on there. Just like you are getting a lot more. [01:19:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean it's, it's, it's, it's. [01:19:37] Speaker D: A lot more worthwhile. [01:19:38] Speaker C: Yeah, it's an expensive purchase but I think I kind of, I kind of like the 2000 AD are going, yeah, we're going to do this. And I like what they've been doing recently with their Apex editions which are very expensive. [01:19:51] Speaker D: Looking. [01:19:52] Speaker C: But you do get an awful lot for your book. [01:19:54] Speaker A: They're themed around a particular artist, aren't they? [01:19:56] Speaker C: Like Brian. [01:19:56] Speaker A: Yes. [01:19:57] Speaker C: So we've had Brian Boland, we've had the Mike McMahon, we've had the Steve Dillon one. The Jock one they did wasn't in the same format. They just had kind of the Art of Jock, which was quite nice. I think we're getting the Carlos Esquera Apex in the next. [01:20:13] Speaker D: Yeah, it's definitely a better price than the. I think it's 100 and something quid for the PlayStation parts book. Just pictures of bits of the original PlayStation. I'm like, no, Sony, I'm not spending. [01:20:26] Speaker C: That money, you know, and it's kind of a nostalgic thing. But it's, it's just that hard back. Yeah. Thing that you've got. [01:20:36] Speaker A: Are you going to save it till Christmas Day? [01:20:39] Speaker C: I've already opened it. [01:20:41] Speaker B: Sorry. [01:20:42] Speaker A: That's the whole point. You Got it on Christmas Day and. [01:20:44] Speaker C: It kept 2000 AD for sending it to me for like two months in advance. But I think if you're after the webshop edition, they kind of tend to sell out. So if you're kind of interested in it, it'd be quite good. But it's. It's just. It's cozy. It's a nice kind of like pre Christmas tree kind of something nice to have. The reproductions are really nice as well. The new material is really good. Rob Williams is doing a strip for it as well. He's done some phenomenal work in recent years for the Judge Dredd strips, which is just on a roll. So 2018 recently has been on an absolute roll in terms of really hitting me with that kind of nostalgic epic feels. Some of the dread stories they've done recently have been like. There's been a couple where you've gone, whoa, this is like. This is great. [01:21:33] Speaker A: I was gonna say if you were in. Still a Halloweeny vibe. They've just done the special edition. [01:21:40] Speaker C: Yeah. Which is really good as well. So if you're gonna get that. I think I had it. Was it my comic of the week a couple of weeks back? [01:21:46] Speaker A: I think it was. Yeah. It's like a fiver, I think. But it's got some of the. Compilation of some of the best. [01:21:51] Speaker C: Yeah. It's got a brand new Brian Bolland cover, which is great. You know, takes people right back to those first Judge Death strips. But it's really good. So if you want a kind of nostalgic fix. But I think a lot for a lot of new comics readers. I think the British stuff is really on a. On a roll at the moment. So. [01:22:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:22:09] Speaker C: But treat yourself or treat a loved one to the 2000 A.D. 2026. [01:22:14] Speaker D: Yeah. Treat the comic fan in your life, which for Keith is himself. [01:22:19] Speaker A: Treat Russell. [01:22:19] Speaker C: Treat. Treat myself. [01:22:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Awesome. [01:22:24] Speaker A: Right. I'm going. I was going to pick Joe Lys here and friends at the Glee Club, but they're sold out for the rest of the thing. So if you do get opportunity, it's usually his work in progress work. So it's things that he'll be putting onto his latest stage here or TV things. They're always worth checking out. And he usually brings up a few up and coming or favorite comedians and it's always a really good night out. We went to watch the last one. Absolutely hilarious material. It comes off. It's basically him just going for an iPad of. I don't know if this joke works. I'M just going to test it out on this audience. It's other comics also tried material. So you always get a bit of unexpected what you're going to get. It's really worth going. And Glee Club's great little place to go and watch something. Very intimate venue. Probably too intimate. It is a nice intimate venue. We had Mark Silcox doing a bit of his Edinburgh Fringe show, which was great because we couldn't see the projector, which was where most of the show was made. [01:23:20] Speaker B: He kept assuring us that the rest of the audience laughing was a good gauge of how funny it was. [01:23:27] Speaker A: It was really good. But I'm actually going to pick a game that's just dropped on PC Gamehurst, which is the Outer Worlds 2. So this is the follow up to the Obsidian Outer Worlds game, which was there kind of. Right. We're not doing Fallout anymore, but we want to make a kind of futuristic, spacey kind of RPG game. [01:23:44] Speaker D: It's less we're not doing Fallout anymore and more. They won't let us do more Fallout. [01:23:48] Speaker A: Yeah, make our own Fallout. [01:23:50] Speaker D: We'll make our own Fallout. [01:23:52] Speaker A: But this one is very different to the other one because the last one was very RPG and it's quite probably too heavy. This one's more of a Mass Effecty 2 action RPG style. It's kind of separate storyline. You're the part of the Earth Directorate and you're going into this system controlled by hyper capitalist corporates and then. Yeah, usual kind of shenanigans, aren't you? But it's more kind of you build a character and it's. So you have positive and negative effects. So the more positive effects you get, the more negative effects you have to pick up. And there's things called flaws, which again give you some positive negative effects. So based on how you build your character, there is always a downside to it. So you can. There's things like if you pick two perks in the first one, you get to pick a trait and the trait is, you're right, your health's going to be limited, or you're not going to be as resilient in certain areas, or you're not good. All the factions, you're never going to be friends with them because you're too abrasive. Or the one that I picked is dumb, which locks off five of the different skill trees. So you can have like good strength, good luckiness, but then you're thick at the same time. You get thicker and it changes the way the dialogue acts. So it's Kind of you get more or less dialogue options depending on which traits you pick. So it's a really interesting way of doing it. I think they did a trailer for the game and they had what's his old. Sonic himself was kind of promoing it on how are we going to work. It's an interesting way of doing an RPG because everybody always just spams certain things and it like this way. There is always downsides no matter which. [01:25:33] Speaker D: Way it forces you to think about your build properly. [01:25:36] Speaker A: It's really strategic in the way it is. You can't be the all rounder, which every RPG usually has. Everybody's played Skyrim and just maxed out all the skill trees at certain points. This forces you not to do that because you have to counter. Is this beneficial or is this worse for the game? So it's a really fun storyline. It's got that kind of Obsidian level of ridiculous over the top jokiness to it. If you played the first Outer Worlds, it's very similar kind of theme. I think New Vegas had a kind of bit of a comedy side to it as well and it's. It brings that through a lot more. It's, it's. It's dystopian but hilarious at the same time. And it doesn't look too bad. It's Unreal Engine 5, which every single game is nowadays. [01:26:17] Speaker D: But yeah, it's kind of impressive as well that this is the second game that Obsidian have released this year and the other one was another big RPG. [01:26:25] Speaker A: Which was Avowed, which also is our game at the moment owned by Microsoft, if you hadn't guessed at the moment. So I had a quick bit because I was playing a few games because I was off from work for a little while. So I went through Avowed bog standard rpg. It couldn't be any more. This is the most bog standard of bog standard RPGs. Again, worth the playthrough if you like the storyline. And then there was also Baldur's Gate 3, which I picked up, which I'm playing through, which is excellent, but it is very technically deep as an RPG game. If you've not played D and D, you're probably going to struggle because it's a really depth system that you need to learn inside and out to get the best out of Baldur's Gate 3. Played Pacific Drive, which I think was one of your games of the week quite a while ago. [01:27:08] Speaker D: Yeah, like I really like Pacific Drive. It was one of like. It was kind of a surprise thing from last year where I Was like, not sure. Like, initially I liked the premise and then was like, oh no, it's a survival roguelike. And I was like, oh God, this sounds terrible. And then because I got. I actually reviewed it professionally, I played it, I was like, oh no, this is actually really, really good. [01:27:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:27:28] Speaker D: Like, so the initial premise is actually built into it. And yeah, I really love that game. [01:27:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And again, it's also on Game Pass at the moment. Really, really worth the playthrough if you've not had a go. [01:27:37] Speaker C: This new DLC coming out for you. [01:27:39] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm thinking of picking that up at some point. [01:27:42] Speaker A: But yeah, as you said, basically your car is your survival tool and you have to craft things and upgrade your car to survive. [01:27:49] Speaker D: I think the main reason that I ended up really liking it is because you end up just falling in love with that car and it's just like meticulous maintenance of the car at all times and you're just like, oh no, I need to protect you. [01:28:01] Speaker A: But basically, going back to The Outer Worlds 2 takes place in the colony system of Arcadia, which you're in the Earth eye retirate, you're investigated with what's going on over there? Because Skip drives, which is there faster than light travel. It stopped working. So everybody's going, what's going on here? And then there's like three major factions and your job is to solve issues and the standard quest and side quests at the same time. It's a bit of a revenge storyline, so I'm not going to spoil it for you because it's definitely worth playing through and I think it's one of those games that's going to have infinite repeatability because you. You can try different builds, you can try different ways of doing the storylines, you can try all the different options. So I think it's not really had much marketing or love behind it compared to the first game. The first game was quite heavily marketed, so this one's kind of dropped out quite quietly. But I think it's definitely worth, if you've got it on Game Pass, especially just download and have a play. [01:28:54] Speaker D: It's the wider Microsoft marketing problem at the moment. [01:28:58] Speaker A: Yeah. How do we market all of these games? No, we'll just plug Game Pass, but yeah, really recommend it. Good fun, kind of great humor to it. So it's worth playing. Thank you for joining us for Geeky Brummy this issue. We'll be back again soon, as per always. But Keith, where can we find you online? [01:29:20] Speaker C: You can find me on bluesky Instagram YouTube Hardlock Hotel is the name, so that's where you can find me. And then Wednesdays on the Geeky Bummy website and the geekybummy socials with my picks of the week for all those things that people call comic books. [01:29:40] Speaker A: Sam, how about yourself? [01:29:41] Speaker B: You can find me on bluesky, Instagram and threads, D. Edwards, 89. And also on the Geeky Premier website on Thursdays with the film Roundup. [01:29:53] Speaker A: And Lee, how about yourself? [01:29:55] Speaker D: You can find me on Blue Sky, Obapepet Ferret. You can also Find me on YouTube Bob the Pet Ferret, where I don't have anything new coming out until the new year, which I'm currently working on stuff. But also it's still all my Astrobot stuff that you can go through. Those are quite long, so there's plenty to get through. I'm also like a freelance games writer, so you'll find me around different places and there will be a new place hopefully soon that I will be writing for. But yeah, you can also find me on the Geeky Memory website every Friday doing a games roundup. Unless my game of the week is cursed and everything gets delayed and I'm just like, you know what? Screw this whole thing this week, as has happened recently, And Matt, who you. [01:30:41] Speaker A: Might have spied earlier, replacing one of us as a doppelganger. Matt, do you want to tell us where we can find you? [01:30:48] Speaker E: Matchstickmatt on Instagram. [01:30:50] Speaker C: Come down, come down. [01:30:51] Speaker E: Matchstickmatt on Instagram. [01:30:53] Speaker A: Thanks, Matt. And you can find us all, of course, on the Geeky Brummy website, which is geekybroomy.com on the Geekybroom YouTube channel, which is probably where you're seeing this if you're watching us in glorious 1080p or above, depending on YouTube's bitrate. Whatever it is this week, just watch it in 360. [01:31:14] Speaker D: No, no, only. Only like the real hipsters. Watch it in 144. [01:31:20] Speaker A: Or if you're listening to us, then at the listening streaming service of your choice. Don't forget to like subscribe, share, do all that stuff. But we'll be back again soon. Thank you very much and we shall see you soon. Bye bye. This issue of the Geeky Brummy podcast was hosted by me, Brian Parish with Keith Bloomfield, Lee Price, Sam Edwards and Matt Lovell. It was produced by Ryan Parrish and Viv Parish and is a Geeky Brummy production.