#36: Goodnight, Sweet Prince

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Without you, Sacred Symbols and all things Collins Last Stand would not exist. But enough of that. On to the show. Greetings and citations, welcome back to Sacred Symbols.

This is episode 36. My name is Colin Moriarty, I'm joined. Jesus, my mustache hair's like itching my nose. That seems like a problem.

I'm joined by Chris Ragon. I'm sorry, Chris Ragon. I don't know anything for you today. Yeah, shaved, dude.

I know. Well, I just got it shaved down right before I went to Philadelphia, so shorter than it usually is, but... It itches the nose, it just... Yeah, that's a good nightmare.

I don't like the whole thing, but I can't imagine myself without a beard. I think I'll always have a beard for us. I'm like, well, you're looking clean cut, but also the hair's a little crazy. Yeah.

It's a look. No, I just... I just have no energy to put into myself in the morning. It's just like, well, I woke up.

That's fine. That's enough. Yeah, that's the way I am as well. It's the little victories.

It's, well, it's the little things I would say. I mean, I have no energy to do almost anything. So I totally understand. Yesterday I was a bit disappointed because I ordered McDonald's from Uber Eats.

The one around the corner is now no longer on Uber Eats. So I had to get it from further up in Venice and I arrived all cold in the morning. And again, quite a state of this repair and I've really not recovered from this. That's pretty traumatizing, honestly.

It's sucked, dude. And I wanted to bring that up because Danny Rosso wrote into us. And so, hey, CNC, love this show. Keep up the great work.

Just wanted to let you know that McDonald's does in fact have the best Coca-Cola. McDonald's has strict instructions from Coca-Cola to make sure they're cold at taste the best. They transport the soda in steel containers to ensure that soda always stays cold. Even McDonald's website states, quote, The water and Coca-Cola syrup are pre-chilled before entering our fountains' fencers with a ratio of syrup set up to allow for ice to melt.

We also keep our fountain beverage system cold so your drink can always be at the peak of refreshing, end quote. So it is a fact that McDonald's does have the best tasting Coke. It's a mercy of anybody working at McDonald's. You can't tell me that everything works perfectly at every McDonald's.

Yeah, I mean, then again, they have a pretty good group of workers at some of these McDonald's. As I told you, when I was 14 years old on Long Island, I was declined employment at McDonald's. So they were shooting certainly higher than us. Well, isn't McDonald's notorious for having a consistently broken ice cream machine?

Isn't that the place? Yeah, and also dirty. There's been pictures on social media of the ice cream machine taking apart and it's disgusting on the inside. I mean, it's not a huge surprise, I guess.

Certainly not. I don't mind, though. I don't mind the dirtiness. Just make sure the food's good.

You can do whatever you want to it. Well, it's back there. Just make sure if you want to put semen on it or you want to do whatever you want to do on it, just make sure it tastes good at the end. That's all.

That's all I have. Just season it accordingly. Season it to taste. That's what it were.

By the way, just another thing, I've been on a real wingstop tear lately. And I've got to give a shout out to Wingstop. I used to eat there all the time, but then I haven't for several years. I've never had it.

It's a fine institution. I've never had it. I like wings, though. Like, I usually get the original Hot Wings, but then you can get on the side.

You can order five more wings for discount or five boneless wings. Now, I've long contended that boneless wings are not chicken wings. They're chicken tenders. They're chicken nuggets.

That's even better. They're globules of chicken breast and dark meat, I would say. Yeah, they're good. But they're not chicken wings, but I ordered a side of five boneless wings the other day because again, it was a discount.

So I kind of just like, all right, I'll take it. I'll see what's going on here. Those things are better than the wings. And now I just order the boneless wings.

Now, do I contend that they're not wings? Yes. Well, you know what, then I'll go to Nugget's stop then. Okay.

Well, that's fair enough. Fair enough. They did have this garlic Parmesan popping for their wings, though. That sounds good.

It's good. You would think so. And it's fine, but it's more like it just tastes like progressive breadcrumbs on a wing. You know what I'm talking about?

You know, progressive breadcrumbs. That's exactly what it tastes like. It just tastes like a summer chicken wing and put progressive breadcrumbs on. I mean, that's fine, I guess.

Hey, that's a taste. Chris, you're going to Paxis. This is a surprise to me. Yeah.

So we're got about it. I forgot that I got the badge. It's like age of the hour. So you're going to Boston?

Yeah. My old stomping grounds. Yeah, for three days. You've been to Boston before?

I've driven in Boston. I remember when I was driving in Boston, I was like, wow, I'm never going to come back here. This is the worst. Yeah, the city is very much like Paris, where it was built from the center outward.

And you can tell. It's like a wheel. But Boston's like a disjointed wheel. It's like a wheel that's been through a tremendous and impressive car wreck.

It's horrifying. Now I wanted to try to get a city sacred symbol's live there. And then the deadline had already passed. I'm going to see if I can get us to do it maybe at Pax Prime in Seattle, which is a quicker trip to it.

They went to the hall of Pax Prime. They just called Pax West now. So you're going to Paxis? Are you doing anything fun there?

Are you going to go visit the Holland halls of northeastern university while you're in Boston? Oh, not even a little bit. Right. No, I'm probably just going to hang out at the convention center and see if anybody is around.

I have a lot of friends on the east coast that don't really get to see any more. Go to these kinds of things. So it'll be nice to catch up. A lot of these things happen in LA or like Seattle, you know?

They're not going to fly away over here from Pax. No. And what is the friend? I mean, I don't know.

There's Facebook things, aren't they? So people can try to track you down. I assume you'll be planning or putting your plans on Twitter and I'll probably do like a meetup or two. I'll be around hanging out.

No, Chris, last week I did note, as people know, if you support us on Patreon, by the way, Sacred Simples does many of you know, is supporting on patreon.com slash column by stand. You can get early ad free access to every episode. The ability to submit questions, comments, concerns. That's the only way to get your stuff right on the air.

And those ideas. But I did want to note that last week I noted that another one of our perks, which is an exclusive podcast that goes live every month, we kind of circulate between fireside chats, Sacred Simples knock back my various shows. I did say that I was going to do a Sacred Simples exclusive for last month, but decided against it instead of doing something with my brother. So I'm just letting people know, in case they're not finding that, we will definitely do what's called the long lost letters this month, which will be for exclusive for all patrons, which will be me going through a bunch of questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, and ideas that we weren't able to use on the show.

So I'm feeling increasingly bad that I'm not able to get everything people are writing. We're getting lost in lots of comments. I put it right up every Friday, and that's where you kind of submit everything. And I can only use maybe 10% of what submit.

You can't possibly expect that you could get to every single one of them. No, of course not, but I feel bad because it's like people are writing in good stuff. Good questions. Eventually, I'm just kind of full.

Yeah, no, for sure. Usually I try to put in eight or so at the end and then I try to interspers half dozen to 10 throughout the show. So I apologize that people aren't being read more often. But keep trying.

I'm trying to keep track of mentally of names and trying to be fair and equitable. But just want to let you know that that exclusive change, you'll get that other exclusive this month in the meantime, the other exclusive is there. And please consider supporting us on Patreon as your support is essential for us to keep doing the show. Read Whittle wrote into us.

He actually wrote it on Twitter and I told him to write it on Patreon because I want to make sure not to forget this. He said in last week's episode, you had mentioned Nina Cooney, Wrath of the White Witch and Spec Ops the line is not being available on PS4, but they are actually both playable on PS4 through PSNow. I was a doubter of the service while I was in beta as it didn't perform very well, but I recently subscribed and I've been able to play Rage, Red Dead Redemption, Civilization, Revolution and others without any issues, so I really think you should give it a chance. Now, I just wanted to throw that out there as a correction from last week.

We keep making this error on the show. Kind of not this county PlayStation out, but forgetting that PlayStation out is a conduit by which PS3 games can be played on PS4. Yeah. So I want to be fair about that.

Now, I dispute that PlayStation now is great. I've heard other things and read seems like it, which is awesome. Well, the issue is it depends on your internet. It's all game streaming, isn't it?

Yes. Unless you can, can you download PS3 games now? I think you can only download PS4 games on PSNow. It's not PS2 games or something like that.

You can't, PS3 games can't be played natively. So there was something recently, we talked about it on the show. I don't remember where you can download offline one version of the game, but I do not think it's the PS3 games. I could be wrong about that.

Anyway, just wanted to shout that out to read. Thank you for the correction and thanks to others for the corrections as well over time. We'll try to be more mindful of that. And maybe I should just try PlayStation now at some point out why I'm having it.

Steve Nealey wrote it in the list and said, what is the difference between moist and damp? I think it's pretty easy, actually. Is it moist? It's like a heart service and damp is like cloth, right?

Because you don't say think of like a wall as a damp wall. You look like a cloth is damp, but you could also be damp out or is it moist up out? What is that? Like damp outside is damp outside.

Like I just rained or it's overcast or it's got that fog in the air. That's dampness. I mean, but a basement is also damp, but not moist. Basements are dank.

I've heard dank. I've heard dank in that similar fashion. I don't like that word though. No, I don't like the word moist or damp.

No, to be perfectly honest. Now they're not particularly good words. Damps? Not as bad as moist, but it's pretty bad.

I think damp is worse. You think so? I'm looking at it. It's a pretty bad word.

Not like the MP at the end. It's a bit aggressive. Yeah. Moist is like, oh, it's a cake.

Right. Yeah, it could be a moist cake. Couldn't be a damp cake. No, he's like, oh man, that cake was so damp.

Is that just a damp cake? Well, here's a question. Can damp be used in a positive fashion? No.

Damp is almost exclusively negative. So maybe that's the difference between moist and damp is that moist has a positive inflection and damp has a negative inflection. I am so sure there are people listening to this who are cringing right now because they hate these words. Moist?

Moist is a common one that people really can't stand. They don't like what the word represents, right? I think a lot of it has to do with, frankly, the female form. And that's why I think that word is hilarious.

But both words kind of are discussing for the same reason, right? Otherwise, why would damp be unsettling unless we're talking about private parts, right? No one describes private. It's private.

It's damp. Really? No one says that? Sounds somewhat erotic to me.

Yeah, it sounds like a problem. It sounds like a problem, like a medical issue. Sometimes I garage is damp. You know, it is what it is.

I can't argue. Jason Bolar wrote in what's on Patreon. It said, T.H.U. Nord, it continues to ridiculous and debbers by having an AMA on 8chan.

What is going on over there? Were you able to make any headway in conversing with them? Brian, so I haven't tried to talk to them yet. I was going to put this in the news last week.

Yeah. And then again, this week, I don't really feel like this is newsworthy. I feel like we should acknowledge it. Do you have anything to say about this situation for people that don't know, basically, T.H.U.N.W.E.

could always make fun of because they're just buying random things. They're probably in financial health. It seems like they are actually. They did an AMA and asked me anything on 8chan.

Now, I don't know anything about 8chan. I still don't really know what Discord is. Okay? Yeah.

So 8chan is apparently a like a 4chan board. I think 4chan is like an anonymous message. Where do I explain this right? Well, 4chan is a site in 8chan is kind of like a spin off site.

I think the numbers of the Chan's get grime here and grime here as you go along. I think I could be wrong. I think there was a 2chan at one point and then I became 4chan then 8chan. I'm sure we'll see a 16chan and a 687chan.

2chan was like outright Victorian, right? That was pretty innocent compared to... I guess. I don't know.

I'm not even sure if it's real to be quite right. But it's basically an off-shoot site where people were like, ah, 4chan is too restrictive. But the idea is that you post anonymously, right? No, that's what anyone is.

And so a lot of horrifying shit happens on this just by the nature of me. Yeah, it's like babies first dark web. Oh, okay. I would kind of compare it to that.

It even looks like construction paper is actually kind of funny. But yeah, they did an AMA on it. Honestly, it strikes me as just kind of... T.H.E.

Nordic is an American company, right? They're... No, they're Austrian and actually their holding company is Swedish. Yeah, so it seems to me more like they just weren't familiar with what it was.

It doesn't surprise me that they saw, hey, we want to answer questions on this website. And then they were like, okay, sure, we'll do that. I don't know. I don't really think it's a huge deal.

You know, in reading cursory about 8chan, afraid to almost read too much about it. Yeah. Apparently, Google won't even spider them. So like, their stuff doesn't even appear in search because it's so heinous.

And apparently well-known for some really unsavory stuff, including child pornography and all those kinds of things. So I do think it's a big deal in the sense that you got to do your research, especially if you're a marketing or PR guy. Oh sure. But it seems like it was an innocent mistake.

I can't imagine that someone at T.H.E. Nordic was like, let's take this risk. You know, this is a big gambit we got going on here right now. Yeah.

So I kind of think you have to chalk it up to just as sad as it is, like it's just innocence and move on. Because it's very weird, like the conversation going on around this about how punitive it should be and how people should never forget. No, that's ridiculous. It just seems to be a lot of things.

It seems like a negligence and a bit of a language barrier. I don't know. I really have a hard time believing that they were like, oh man, you know what we should do? Let's intentionally go to a place that's particularly alt-right.

It's like no one's thinking that. Right. No one's thinking that. Yeah, they're just thinking like, hey, this is a place that people want us to do an AMA on.

Let's do it. Right. I think that's probably what it was. Yeah, it's like spread shot marketing.

Probably not the best way to do it. But something I just wanted to acknowledge, I don't really feel like we're talking about at the top of the show. So I guess it's technically even more than it was worthy than anything we're going to talk about today. But as you know, this show doesn't really work like that because again, we talked about McDonald's at the top.

The difference between the most important damp something about Patreon and PS now. So really, actually the order in which we talk about things has no importance or something. I will say this, which I'm very excited about. Chris and I are going to sit down and do another Let's Play today, which will go live the day after this podcast goes live on Patreon.

So by the time it sits three feeds, it will already be live for all on YouTube. And I'm going to start an arbitrary, completely arbitrary Grudge Match with Chris in Scrabble on PlayStation 4. I just want to see what happens. Okay, yeah, let's do it.

Because we're supposed to be Kingdom Hearts 3 at some point, which we will do this month because that's what won a Patreon. We'll put up another election for you guys to vote for another terrible game for us to play. But I'm not ready yet. I'm not ready yet.

I got to wrap my head around this like Kingdom Hearts and I got to settle in. It's a lot to take in for sure. So we'll get to that eventually. But I want to start the Scrabble Grudge Match.

Dictionary and shit like that. That's how I played Scrabble. I was on a plane in 2003. Well, you play, oh, so you play analog.

It was like weird, like portable, like in a zip sleeve. Yeah, weird. It's like the old chess that they used to play with as well, which were even more on satisfactory. Now, Chris, what are we playing?

We're both playing according to the notes Far Cry New Dawn in yours. It says, parenthetically, a little bit. Yeah, I'm trying to play all these different things. I'm trying to get into Anthem, but Anthem is like gonna be a lot of problems.

I think that's mostly to do with my internet connection for some reason. We have horrendous internet where we live. I don't know why I hear Estonia is pretty good internet compared to where I live. I have no coming up.

It's wild. But I'm trying to play that. I'm really enjoying Metro Exodus. So I'm playing Far Cry a little bit, but I'm really detached from it.

Like, I'm not grabbing me at all. Because I just feel like I'm switching between Far Cry and Metro and Metro just feels so much better to me. I'm looking forward to playing Metro. I still haven't gotten to it yet.

It's the game. Now, the bigger you're deep into Far Cry, though. Yeah, I have pretty much completed everything in the game. I just have a few trophies to clean up.

I've done all 30 fortress takeovers, whatever. I've done all the expeditions. Basically, there are only 10 fortresses you take over three times with increasing difficulty. There are seven expeditions you do them three times with increasing difficulty.

I've done 20 of 22 missions, all 10 side quests, all the collectibles. So I'm playing it and I'm enjoying it. But I agree with you, the attached is a great way to describe it. Because I feel that this is such a shameless in a way checkbox game that the story is not even important.

I don't even really care or know what's going on in the story. I don't even want to spoil it because it's so weird if you played Far Cry 5, especially, like who's in it and who you're interacting with. It's a little strange, but it's scratching the edge of the gunplay. I think it's really good.

I love the way the game feels. Yeah, it's not grabbing me that way. I don't like the gunplay of it. It feels weird.

I feel like Far Cry 3, I really liked. And then every Far Cry afterwards just felt kind of exactly the same. And not in a good way. Far Cry 3 was special to me specifically because I hadn't really played an FPS quite like that.

It did feel like, oh, it's an open world FPS that I can like hunt in and it's like a genuinely good narrative with a compelling villain. Whoa, weird. That wasn't a common thing back then. But with Far Cry 4, it's like, hey, here's another villain again that's very clearly trying to do the vast thing again, but not quite.

It's a little bit different. And there's always the bad guy in the beginning that's like, I'm going to talk to you and I'm going to get all up in your face. And then I'm going to do something wacky and wild. So, you know, I'm, I mean, serious business.

And then deal with my lieutenants. I'll see you in 20 to 25 hours. I would like to see them kind of do weird stuff. I would have loved if Blood Dragon was like a proper sequel that had like a, you know, the full team effort.

Because that seems like it could have been an interesting direction. Interestingly, Primal is the one that's most different. And that's the one that's most disparaged. I like Primal.

Well, I think it's disparaged because it's so divisive. And I think when you have something that's that divisive, I think that's almost kind of like a good thing. Yeah. In a way, yeah.

I mean, I enjoyed I just planned a bit earlier this year. I played it when it came out, but never beat it. I don't know. It's interesting.

There's just something about Far Cry games that I really enjoyed. But I think the novelty per your point, it's starting to wear off a little bit just because as you said, when Far Cry 3 came out in 2012, first person open world shooters were just a little scarcer. Like they just weren't around. We had Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and a few others on console.

Like it's actually still somewhat novel to play out a fine controlling first person shooter in open world. Typically these are action RPGs or straight up role playing games or something like that. So I actually really take to Ubisoft certain Ubisoft games. It would be interesting to see, even that game steep, I think was kind of like a similar.

Yeah, kind of. So it seems like they do what they do, which I respect. But I think that they have to kind of retreat now with Far Cry for a little while and make something really special like the Regan. I think that three hinged on the interesting characters and interesting interactions between the villains and stuff like that.

It was also fresh at the time. And it's not really all that fresh anymore. Right. Well, that's what I was going to say.

It reminds me of the Uncharted quan tree, right? What order they were delivered in and therefore this is the way people feel about them. I kind of feel like if you're viewing up five first, that people would feel that way about five. I am fully aware that that's the case.

If five had come out in three's place, and yeah, obviously not the same exact game, but like the more or less the same sort of the same functionality, yeah, I would be like, oh, Far Cry. It's like, well, I haven't there been better Far Cry games since. Let me talk a little bit about a pet pee by having a tweet about this. And it's interesting to hear people's interactions about this.

But Far Cry has one of my pet peeves in design, which is that the game plays music when you pause it. Now I'm not talking about the game in the menu, like when you're on the map or whatever. When you pause the game, you're not in a firefight. If you're just walking around or doing things and then you pause the game, the game becomes louder.

What does that mean? Like, when you unpause it, it becomes louder? No, no, no. So if you're just walking around, there's ambient noise and whatever's going on, then you pause it and like a music track is playing.

So the game just becomes, you're pausing it to get away or check the phone and the game is just loud. It's one of my weird design pet peeves. We talked a lot about this with God of War. Like, why are the easy things so hard?

And the hard things so easy, apparently. And this is one of those things. You should be able to pause, there should be a pause option in every game, unless it's like you're playing persistently online, where the game stops. Everything stops.

The music stops. There's no sound. The point of pause. The pause means in every single medium.

Exactly. And it's just one of these things that some people online are like, you know, you just go to the home and you're like, but no, like I want to pause the game and I want it to stop. That's easy to do. In fact, what you did, Ubisoft was harder than what we needed to actually be.

You know, and the other design flaw that is not in this game, I was talking to people and kind of interacting with them about was when games have timers, but they don't stop. There are certain games like Rogue Legacy on the beat is a really great example. Where Rogue Legacy starts counting the time, based on your Vetus clock and doesn't stop. So you can shut the game off and come back a month later and you have played the game for 30 days.

Oh, that's just bad design. These are just little design things. They're bad design. It's just wrong.

Well, it's like that. You have to check these things. It's just incorrect. So I just, it's just one of those things where like the little design philosophy is far cry new dawn.

As weird as it is, I don't understand why the easy things are hard. Do you feel like new dawn in particular feels more like, I want to be careful with how I wear this. It feels kind of mobile-esque in the way that it kind of makes you kind of scroll past like monetize sections to get. There's something about it that is rubbing me the wrong way in that way.

It is weird. Like when you, I have so much so many resources that I never would need to buy anything. Yeah. But every time even with those resources, when you upgrade a weapon, for instance, it asks you if you want to buy currency from them or use your own stuff.

And I'm like, I can't add you to click this accidentally. I'm sure there are steps to go through. But yeah, it is a little weird and it does keep shoving it down my throat. And as I said, I think last week it is clever because this is one of the only games I've encountered where it gives you some of the currency you can buy.

So it tantalizes you with what you can do with it. Well, I mean, I guess they do a lot more often in live service games where microtransactions are a lot more like, like Destiny, I think gives you some of that ever-versed stuff. I'm pretty sure the division did too. I'm not entirely sure I don't remember.

But yeah, that's a common thing. It's definitely not common in these kinds of games though because microtransactions of this nature weren't really all that common until kind of recently. I have no problem with single player microtransactions, but I do agree with you, they're plastered everywhere. And you can really use them.

If you wanted to just dump in $23 probably, you could just buy a ton of perk points and all of these stuff. Yeah. And I mean, it doesn't really break. It does fundamentally break the game.

But since you're not playing with anyone else, it doesn't really matter. Yeah, it's not like a competitive compromising situation. I enjoy it. I think $40 is a reasonable price for it.

And I do like about it is that it doesn't feel too big. I get overwhelmed by far cry games sometimes. This game is tight. There's a lot to do, but also not a lot to do.

It kind of feels like the size of Spiderman. You know, for 40 bucks, not really. It just feels a little bit dated, especially compared to Metro, which has all sorts of bugs in it. But like, it just feels so much more interesting with what it's doing with this open world kind of formula and like a no way point thing is interesting and like, oh, this is new.

It feels actually kind of unique. Even though you could really just shut off waypoints in any open world game. The fact that it kind of forces you under that is also worth noting that I was going to jump into Anthem next. But the game is apparently breaking people's placations.

Have you seen this? What? No. So there's rumblings.

And I got to put this in the news because there's just not that much about it yet. Some big sites I could talk about, but there's just not much corroboration from EA or Sony. But rumblings were beginning that the game was actually breaking people's PlayStation 4s. And it's apparently not a widespread problem, but it apparently has been fixed in a patch.

But Sony had been apparently issuing refunds, which is almost unprecedented for Sony to do digital games. And then Kotaku wrote a story today saying that a developer was talking to Jason Shire behind the scenes about how it fucked up his PS4 and stuff. So just based precautionary measures, I'm not going to be jumping in an anthem anytime soon. I highly doubt it's going to do anything in my PS4.

But maybe Metro is next up now because I was going to do Anthem and then maybe Metro. But maybe I'll be done with Far Cry probably at some point today. So we have that told forward to I guess. Chris, let's get into the news.

Alright, let's see. Chris, number one, The PlayStation Vita has officially left production. Oh no, news comes by way of the official Japanese PlayStation website as reported by multiple sources, which notes that the two SKUs that were last in production, they're black and blue, and both had their shipments ended. In quotes, as you'll know, we reported just recently that Venus quotes shipments are scheduled to end soon, and quote, also according to multiple sources that translated the same website.

So the website has changed over the last couple of weeks. As Vida has now only been truly viable in Japan for some years now, it's ceasing production there, officially an undeniably signaled that we've entered the handhelds of final days. Vida was launched in late 2011 in Japan and elsewhere in the world in 2012 and was the once promising successor to Sony's PlayStation Portable or PSP, which launched in 2004 in Japan and then in 2005 in the West ended up selling well over 80 million units globally. Sony has never revealed Vida's cumulative global sales, though most predictions have it at around 15 million units sold.

Andrew Mendoza wrote it on Patreon just like all of you can and said hey, pride of Long Island and Christopher Ball Ragon with the demise of the PS Vita all but upon us. I see a lot of vida's on your normal digital garage sale apps price anywhere from $6,100. My question is, should I scoop some up as a little nest egg? By the way, I have a PS Vita TV that I bought for $40.

They're going for upwards of $200 now. From what I understand they can run emulators, so there's that. Thank you for your time and I consider my Patreon sport well worth it. I love you both.

Good night. Well, that's how he closed his letter was good. He loves us. Thank you, Andrew Mendoza.

So good night, sweet prince, the PlayStation Vita has officially ceased production and I think now I have to reiterate what I said a week or two ago when we first talked about how it was ending production. If you want a new vida, you really need to act because I just can't imagine, and I'm saying not a pre-owned, but if you want a new inbox of vida, then I think you really got to act now. That's my opinion. Take it with a grain of salt and do what you want with it.

I mean, that's accurate. It's not a really opinion. I think I just can't imagine that inbox of vida's are going to be. I have three of them just to be safe, you know, and if you've been on the defense for seven years, I doubt you're going to want to change now, but if you do want to change, now is the time to act.

Now is the time to act. So there's not much more to say about it. It's very sad. It's very sad.

Now the PSV TV I never bought, which was a mistake. I think it's a little card shape, a deck of card shape thing that they released that would allow you to play vida on TV. That was called the Vita TV. PlayStation TV was actually what it was called.

And it was like not, it didn't do anything. I know what that is. It confused me with the vida TV. Yeah, it's technically called PlayStation TV, I believe.

I could be wrong about that, but I think that's what it's called. No, you're definitely right. So there's that. So yeah, just, you know, I'm just throwing it out there.

If you want to have a vida for a legacy, if you want to buy a pre-owned one or new inbox, or you can open it or just I want to put away. Like I did, I have basically a launch unit that's kind of on the frits. I have a slim unit that I use and I have a slim unit just in the box, just in case. Yeah, just in case.

I got one. Yeah, even Chris has one all the time. Even Chris has one guys. So RIP to Vita, it really is over as we're about to find out games are still coming out and still being out.

So I don't think it's quite dead yet. I think it'll be more ceremonial. So when the last game comes to it, the last game is published. It's in hospice right now.

Exactly. But who knows maybe the PS5 will just be a big vida. That'll be great. I would love that.

Number two, Sony has revealed March's PlayStation Plus games, which will be free from March 5th until April 1st for any current PS Plus subscribers. This month's two games are a famed shooter call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered and popular open world puzzle game The Witness. As you'll recall, last month was the last month we were slated to get PS3 and Vita games as part of the service. The last month's last gen and handheld offerings will be available until March 8th.

So you still have a couple of days. It's clear that Sony doesn't intend on replacing these lost games with anything, at least for the time being confirming that we are indeed getting less for our money. Does this bother you? Yeah, I mean not personally.

It bothers me on principle, but like I don't really download a lot of these games anyway. But as just a value proposition, yeah, it's definitely like worse. Like objectively, it doesn't bother me too much. Yeah, it is objectively worse.

You're absolutely right. Yeah, it doesn't bother me too much either, but I was expecting them to, again, I don't know why I keep expecting Sony to do cool shit. They just don't seem to do cool things anymore. But like, just like I said, with the end of the Vita and PS3 support, why would you give away a shit ton of games and celebrate the history of PlayStation Plus?

And it's the same thing here where I expected, oh, they would have a thing where it's like, now we're going to integrate a PS VR game or we're going to integrate exclusive demos or it's an opportunity for sure. I just don't, I don't understand what they're doing. And it's so weird while this is concurrent with PlayStation Plus showing an all time cumulative subscriber high, you think you'd want to retain people because as you said, again, objectively, objectively speaking, you are getting less for your money now. And I'm just surprised that they didn't integrate a PS VR game or anything, you know, it's just a little weird.

Maybe that's the plan in the future and maybe they have plans for PlayStation Plus in the future, but if you're upset that you're getting less for your money now, I do not blame you because you are. Number three, Horizon Zero Dawn has officially surpassed 10 million units sold, making it one of PlayStation 4's best selling exclusives and a bona fide commercial hit in addition to its fantastic critical reception. Gorilla Games released Horizon on February 28th of 2017 and as a studio known only for one genre and one series, FPS is end-told and most respectively, they surprised and delighted players around the world with what is very easily their best game to date. Unfortunately, we are still awaiting word on its inevitable sequel, which is almost certainly a PlayStation 5 game.

Connor R wrote a nuance on Patreon and said hello, Christ, and he says Christ. I'll take it. Horizon Zero Dawn just celebrated its second anniversary and has sold over 10 million copies. After some quick googling it appears that it makes it the best selling PS4 game to date.

Now, I just wanted to jump in. I don't think this is true. Yeah, no way, right? It's gotta be like, what, Red Dead?

Yeah, I mean, if you're talking about exclusives, it's up there, but I think Spider-Man and God of War are both in that region as well and maybe even uncharted it. So I don't know if that's necessarily what you could be right. So we just want to throw that out there. Very well deserved in my opinion, it was one of the main reasons I finally bought my PS4 last year and it became my first platinum.

So if the sequel is almost certain, do you think it would make more sense as a swan song game for the PS4, a watch title for the PS5, or one of those cross-generation games released for both? Also, what are some things that people can improve on or differently? Thanks in good luck with the roaches after my dad had his house fumigated, he found a pile of roach shit two inches high in his garage behind some boxes. Holy wow.

Two inches high. First of all, many congratulations to Dutch, Sony, own studio, grilling games for 10 million copies sold. Horizon sequel is obviously guaranteed at this point. Chris, would you like to see Horizon on PlayStation 4 or would you like to see Horizon on PlayStation 5?

Ideally 5, but I do think we're heading into a weird cross-generation where like you're just going to get games on PS4 that kind of run less well. I think this weird cross-generation thing is going to be really different moving forward just because of how things have progressed with PS4 Pro and Xbox One X and all this, but I would hope that it's a PS5 exclusive. Yeah, that would be ideal from a consumer standpoint. I think what would be ideal from them from a developing standpoint is to release it as a PlayStation 4 game.

Now, I don't think that this is going to happen, but I do feel for some of these teams that really dumped everything into, you know, now this is running, I think on a modified Killzone engine, they use proprietary tech, but it's the same stuff actually that I think are Death Stranding is running on, but it's a shame for them that they dumped all this time into this engine and to the fidelity of it to run perfectly on PlayStation 4 and then they have to move it. Now, I understand that because of the X86 architecture and kind of the PC nature of these consoles that I don't think that the segways is big of a deal and it might not even be that big of a deal for them internally if they were planning this internally to like kind of make that jump, but I feel for them if they have to like do a shit ton of work on a sequel to a game that didn't really have a chance to breathe on PlayStation 4 and therefore has to make you know some sort of fidelity jump in order to justify it's really some PlayStation 5. So I think that we haven't heard from it or about it because I think it is a PS5 game, but who knows and you might be right these games might play between both consoles. I just don't know that's smart to like continue to sport PS4, you know.

It's not necessarily that it's smarter like a not smart thing. It's the issue is like when is this going to launch because ideally you know the beginning of any console's life cycle you have these weird kind of cross-generational titles across the board typically. You don't typically see it with exclusives all that much, but it really I feel like it really all depends on when this next horizon is going to launch. Like if it's going to be like a launch title or if it's going to be like a year or two in a year in I say you could justify it, but now that people are used to like hey we're running better on PS4 Pro, hey play on everything but hey it's going to work better on Xbox One X.

I feel like you know our expectations are kind of shifting. I still have them am of the mind and maybe I'm crazy I still think that they're making a Killzone game. I don't know why you would abandon that franchise and I feel like that game actually makes much more sense as a PS5 launch game than the horizon. Maybe that's not true, but I think you have or want to have a proprietary first-person shooter on your console.

I think that's very wise. I think the other reason Shadowfall didn't really shine as brightly as it could have when I watched was because there was a Call of Duty and Battlefield game at launch too, so I think that that injured it quite substantially. Still Killzone sold millions copies, but nonetheless I don't know what direction Gorilla is moving into, but nonetheless congratulations to the horizon. It's a great game.

Yes what we want out of the new horizon. I think we have plenty of time to figure that out. I want much more of the same. I think Horizon is one of the greatest feeling third-person action RPGs ever made.

I think it's better than Zelda. I don't know. I always felt like because of the time in which it came out it kind of got short-trip too. Yeah I think so.

I could see that. It did really grab me the first time I played it, but it's also one of those weird situations. Games are weird because sometimes you play a game and you're like, ah this is awful. And then you go back to it in like two years and you're like, wow I actually get it now.

Metro was like that for just like a one day when I was playing. I hated it in the beginning. I was like oh wait I get it. I like it.

So you know I gotta go back and like give another chance. Yeah, Horizon's right now. It's really one of the very best PS4 episodes I think. I'm gonna shout out to you guys.

I'd love to hear what you think about it today. Number five. We're not going to have to wait much longer for the official reveal Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. The EA published Star Wars game announced in E3 last year under development at Titanfall and Apex Legends Studio Respawn Entertainment and due out before at the end of the year.

Lucasfilm has officially announced that the game will be shown off for the first time at Star Wars Celebration. The annual Star Wars gathering being held in Chicago this year in the middle of April. As reported by Polygon we also have the first snippet of what the story is about. The game is about quote a padawan who survived Order 66 in the time after the fall of the Jedi Order and quote this therefore squeezes the game as fitting in the Star Wars timeline after episode three.

So we're gonna see that soon in about five or six weeks from when we're recording this. Weird. I'm interested to see it seems like they're going on on this still at the end of year release date. Respawn is very busy.

That's interesting that we haven't seen anything about it. It's due out this year. That's what they say. They're still saying it's coming out this year.

Could it be smart? I mean showing in a Star Wars celebration may be hitting another beat at E3 and then just kind of letting things go releasing in October or November. Yeah I mean Fall Out 4 did that. Yeah.

The Fall Out 4 was even more truncated actually than that. Yeah. Because I think Fall Out 4 came out or was revealing June and came out in October. We're seeing a game reveal in April probably I would assume November but it'll be interesting to see if they hit that date too and remember as we were saying a few weeks ago Disney seems perfectly content with the A and Star Wars games which is strange but I think this one really is I think it could be the make-or-break title for them in terms of their legacy with this.

Can they really handle this or not? And we'll see. I don't see any reason to doubt Respawn. So number six.

On last week's show we noted in the news wrap up that Overkill's The Walking Dead game wasn't cancelled for PlayStation 4 but merely delayed but that was apparently not true. Right after the show aired Skybound Entertainment the owner of The Walking Dead IP owned by Walking Dead creator Robert Kerbin released a statement to media outlets that noted now this is a fucking crazy. The reason I wanted to know is no one ever talks like this in the video industry. I really like seeing this.

Did you read this statement? No. So here we go. No one ever talks this candidly and I really like this quote.

As of today we have terminated our contract with Star Bree Studios and we'll discontinue all efforts on Overkill's The Walking Dead. Our creators and their stories are the core of Skybound and since 2014 we have worked hard to expand the world of The Walking Dead into an exceptional co-op action FPS. We did our best to work with Star Breeze and resolve many issues that we saw with the game but ultimately Overkill's The Walking Dead didn't meet our standards nor is it a quality that we were promised. We are exceedingly sorry to our fans and share their disappointment in the game.

We remain dedicated to providing our fans with the most premium quality content we can offer and will continue to look for alternative video game options for the IP end quote. Overkill's The Walking Dead was launched on PC in late 2018 and was so poorly received. It currently sits at 51 on Metacritic that its console ports were delayed. When word leaked that it was outright cancelled for PS4 the game's publisher 505 Games denied those reports which seems to have forced Skybound to say something.

As one side of this deal had no idea what was actually Star Breeze Studios the developer was founded in 1998 and is best known for its Chronicles of Riddick games as well as 2012 Syndicate and 2013's Payday 2. The developer has been in financial peril publicly since last year and will wait to see how this affects them moving forward. That's my next wild. My assumption is Star Breeze is finished and that is sad.

Star Breeze has existed for almost 20 years. They're scanning an avian studio with a pretty good shooter pedigree. They've made some interesting games but the Chronicles of Riddick games by the way are great. Those are great games especially the first one and Xbox I loved it.

We love that game. One of the collectibles was like cigarette packs which I always remember so we'll see how this all turns out but you very rarely see that kind of candor that level of candor about a game. This is not the quality we were promised. That's wild.

It says the publisher of the developer. I think we probably talked about it on the show last year but Star Breeze is because of European laws and labor laws and all that kind of stuff a lot of that kind of financial peril stuff happens in public over there and so Star Breeze hasn't been known to have money problems for a while and I assume it's only going to compound that issue or shut them down all right. It's a shame. Number seven the Division II is trying something interesting with its DLC.

Last week we reported on the Roadmap Ubisoft as that line but now we know what its one strange season pass was going to contain. It was strange because the first year's DLC support was reportedly going to be free. According to Ubisoft however the so-called year one pass will give paying players access to DLC expansions episodes one, two and three seven days early as well as eight classified assignments instantly on lock specilizations and other perks. The season pass costs $40.

It's worth noting that as I said last week the Division II Twitter account follows me. It only follows like 200 people. I DMed them to see if they can get in touch with someone for me. I've not heard back from them so we'll see if anything happens there.

Adam Basie I think I'm saying that right. We're into what's on Patreon Chris and says with the Division II release imminent. Can you talk about the past Ubisoft still gets on all things hate? Division II has loot boxes on a pre-order release chart that laughs at Anthem's simplicity including two collectors editions with different statues making it impossible to buy one and get everything.

They also have the staggered release with deluxe and season pass holders getting new content seven to four days earlier as someone who achieved platinum on Division I and enjoyed the game and is looking forward to the second. These things still bother me. It seems the focus on gamer hate is on EA and Activision. Do you think that this is due to Ubisoft being a second tier type publisher?

I am more worried the outrage model focus on these things next to Division II could be a fall out 76 type response with a game studio traditionally getting a pass no longer getting that pass. Alright so first of all I do think Ubisoft gets a lot of passes but I think that Ubisoft's cumulative quality of game is way higher than EA or Activision and I think that's why they get passes on stuff. I mean that's my opinion. No I think that's right.

I mean they put out siege. I mean Raymond was like one of my favorite games like ever like of the last like that's ever come out like in the last like 10 years. So the worst thing about them is probably the annualization of Assassin's Creed honestly is that that's like the thing that really bothers me about it and even that apparently the new Assassin's Creed games are pretty good and people like him. So I mean I don't know what to tell you about that.

Yeah I think that there's just something about Ubisoft in the mind of the hardcore gamer. Alright so keep in mind first of all we said this before most gamers and I really do believe this and I still feel this way don't really know the difference between publisher and developer. Yeah don't really know who's even making games or who's publishing games. I bet you if you talk to half of even Call of Duty's fanbase.

I don't know maybe fanbase is the wrong word of a player base that they wouldn't know who made this year's Call of Duty. They don't know about the Treyarch Infinity Ward sledgehammer triumbrinship and so I think that the reflection on Ubisoft is actually a positive reflection simply based on cumulative quality and I don't know how anyone can look at their games and I say this to someone who that polo tries a big problem with me so I'm obviously I'm telling you this truth I think that Activision and EA's cumulative quality of game is just far lower. There are no or very few anthems or Mass Effect Andromeda's going on with Ubisoft and even when you look at Just Dance or Trials or any of the other series that they do that they support they're smaller people love them. So I just think Ubisoft gets a pass because while they do the same thing over and over again they play the PR game right they play the marketing game right and I think that they react the players and what they want good examples with the Assassin's Creed thing recently fixing that romance they went out of their way to do that.

Yeah I think Ubisoft is a different kind of company. I agree with you that they are getting a pass and I agree with you that the Division 2 stuff does seem confusing just as confusing as the anthem stuff but people really hate EA they really do. They really do. They mess up so often.

Right isn't they? That's really the reason. I don't know how I feel about this DLC thing though. It is a little weird.

So the DLC is free for everybody but the pass is like an early pass. Yeah so apparently you get just weak early access all the new content if you pay $40 and I guess it seems like from what I was reading that they're all also you know season pass exclusive stuff like assignments and you can instantly unlock specializations that would otherwise have to be unlocked in the game. Right I don't know how I feel about that. Part of it's like oh well the DLC is free for everybody and it's just being kind of supplemented by people who just have the money to buy these weird early access passes.

Is this a competitive game right? There's like Dark Zones and stuff like PDP. Is that it does have early access? Grand power.