Big Head Mode Episode #134 – Powers

tonight on big head mode we're talking Powers video game Powers that's cuz of course we're reviewing a little bit late but uh definitely worth it life is strange joined in the studio by Carlo and Jenna from multiple nerdgasm first time on the show Jenna yeah hello nice to be here yeah look thanks for coming we got a lot to talk about we've got games um video games uh entertainment devices usually in electronic form and all sorts of games just all the games we're exploring all platforms were like George Lucas a legend of all systems that's all coming up on T Plus's only gaming show big head [Music] mode [Music]

that's right you're on big head mode welcome I'm your host Ben O'Brien joined now on a on a wonderful yellow new microphone it's Carlo Richie that's right uh for those listening at home or on the podcast it is a yellow microphone cover and boy it looks fetchy yeah enter the world of radio w woooo h and with a wonderful orange a bright orange uh it is Jenna from multiple nerdgasm we've now had both you we've had Matt y I mean we've got to get the whole gang on event it's going be a bit difficult the other two are not in Sydney oh that's all right one's in Singapore you'll have to fly him over we'll Skype him in we'll Skype him in yep he won't get to use these fancy mics though we'll Kickstart it we'll Kickstart it cuz hey look I mean there are there are more ridiculous

things to Kickstarter uh I mean I wanted I wanted to talk about this later but did you guys read about the Star Wars game Kickstarter no this is this is pretty incredible uh I mean we all love Star Wars right who doesn't and how much would you love a great just Star Wars open world RPG well they tried to make one it was awful they've made two now and they're both awful what RPGs yeah what not the Republic think MMO RPG the stuff of Dreams know that would be great I know well that is exactly uh that ex exactly what this young man Devin trip thought can he legally do that no no no he can't uh and he practically can't do it either he as a as a single person has kickstarted um what what he's just called on Kickstarter Star Wars open

world RPG he wants 200,000 because hang on there's a great quote there just he didn't know how much it would cost he just figured that seemed like a good amount yeah more than that and it's estimated to release in December 2017 what are the tiar do you get any other there were four there were four reward tiers the first two were the same reward which was just a signed letter that says thanks from him then it was a copy of the game and then it was like if you paid 1500 you might you'd get named like a you know a lightsaber or a planet it wasn't specific but I I love this guy's optimism cuz there is no way in hell this is going to the rights there's like literally everything that could be against you to make a game is against

this guy he he doesn't have he has a list where he talks about the risks involved and one of them is like don't have any professional game development it's fantastic it's so funny um actually that brings up an important point though and that is I heard Whispers And I you guys might know if these are true Whispers that BioWare got the right to an unnamed Star Wars game is that right uh I believe it is well EA got have all the rights now to Star Wars games and when they first got the rites there were three Studios that were working on games one was dice the other was visceral who made Dead Space yeah and then the other was meant to be supposedly BioWare yeah um but it seems like that visceral will be the next one to be sort of revealed so B are watch

this space scenario yes you want a Mass Effect Star Wars yeah that's that's all that's all we want wouldn't it be amazing just as a renegade choice you can just force Landing someone while they SP while they're speaking now speaking of I mean because obviously car I know you're a huge fan of Nazi Del Republic big fan we we just started literally like two minutes before the show started we just started talking about um if you could erase your memory of a particular game so you could play it over again a fresh what games would you play yeah and we were talking about um Jenna suggest you suggested BioWare Bioshock just all the bowar them the whole catalog bios the original it just the story of that game would be so incredible to live again

without remembering yeah absolutely and I guess Ben you're wanting me to say Nazi Old Republic so that I could you know relive all of those you don't have your answer I think bio I think Bioshock is a good one I really think it is um that's that's pretty tip to it's pretty solid because there's some games you don't want like games that had sort of bummer endings like like uh Red Dead Redemption great game but it got darker and heavier as it went on whereas like whereas if I could just play the first 20 minutes of that game and then nothing else it would be like great yeah yeah or just play the bit where you're just running your ranch with your family and everything's great and just Sho yeah shooting crows off the water tank yeah what a fun game that yeah that would be

amazing in fact just start from there as well and miss everything before that um no I'm surprised you didn't say the Mass Effect Trilogy cuz that would that would be a great thing to do it would be really cool to play through again but part of the reason that I think I enjoy it so much is that like each time I play it through I get to learn more about like different characters and what different decisions have ultimately outcom you know so yeah that's right like with Bioshock it's just one story the whole way you don't really influence it too much and it's such an incredible twist you know like that it would be it would be amazing to have that again it turns out they were in Space the whole time turns out it was just a it was a sort of a metaphysical space not

that it was 1958 um yeah that' be a great one I like and you were saying before that you you're finally trying to finish tomb raid the def Ed I'd happily erase my memory of that and all the Batman games I think the Arkham games my only complaint that I have with um the only complaint that I have with Tomb Raider at this stage is that there are so many little mini challenges and it does feel a bit awkward to sort of be like oh yeah hold on guys just you wait for that boat I got got to find me some eggs yeah I agree and it does sort of feel a bit when a developer does something like that it's of like hey look at this amazing story we've made but also keep an eye out for those flags well it was like with Zelda where they're like you have to do this genon

is going to kill everyone he's like cool cool do you have need help with these chickens I yeah see I that that was most of my experience of uh Fallout 4 which is just like you've got this incredibly personal story that you've got to track down the this this you know family member and then it's just like but also while you're here just you know explore well no have a bit of fun that's the big problem that since since morrowwind all of those big games have had huge problems with is just in in morrowwind it was like they encourage you to explore to say hey before you do this Mission why don't you go on and join some girls and become really powerful but then every other game after that it's sort of been like you got to get there otherwise the whole world's going

to collapse yeah tumerator especially when you're like your friend is in danger you have to rescue Sam and you're like yeah yeah cool I will just want to collect some things this is really interesting to me but especially like in scarm if you do it all in the other order like you could be the head of the Mages Guild and then go back to some really lowlevel main story Quest and they're like who's this here Bloody Chicken Chaser like uh I mean you know you might not have heard of me I'm the most powerful warlock in the entire North Region of of your country no I ain't never even heard of you yeah yeah good times though yeah good classic Bethesda I like maybe if I could just erase like portions of games for my

memory just for my own sake because they were bad yeah or just Char like if I could get rid of Kaden or Ashley from the Mass Effect games you don't like Kayden and Ashley no they're awful they're awful poor poor Ben doesn't understand the games I um I kept uh even though I hate Ashley the most I kept Ashley alive live in my subsequent playthroughs just so that I could watch her die at the end of mass viic 3 yeah that really brutal way bur in Hill Commander great and I don't regret a minute of that would you delete anything from your memory Jenner of just specific parts of games of just specific Parts like because I didn't like them or because yeah yeah or just if there was anything that you could just specifically take

out of a game o I'll have to give that a minute because I I feel like if I was to take something out I'd be like wow that game was terrific exctly I want to go back and play it again would be my way and you delete Mar have to play it again I really love my time with aliot colon Mar but for some reason all I can remember is the opening titles she had a great menu screen yeah I remember tears when I finished were they Joy I don't know better find out now where did I put my copy wait why there like shards of a sheded disc in my game drawer we got two copies of that game so we could play together worst purchase oh man that is did you guys go through all the way through oh we didn't even make it all the way wow I think we did three player

it was uh Luke from multiple nasm as well and um we tried to record it even like this is not even entertaining I've heard that though I've heard that you can't actually record it it's not physically possible like no human made equipment can capture any Vision or sound from that game it just sort of it burns itself automatically harrowing harrowing look let's go to a song This Is The Fallout 4 main theme Acappella version what that's right found on YouTube so what do you know uh we'll be back after this to talk about show and tells you're on 2R 88.5 FM and we're back we're back that was the Fallout 4 main theme in AR capella one bloke one bloke making all the noises with his mouth that's pretty pretty good is it though no it is it's

impressive there's a lot of that uh you see a lot of that on YouTube like Acappella seems to be the the thing for gam maybe we should do that we should make our own like deliberately like not deliberately but it would be bad well Liam and Daniel in bonus stage like in the bonus stage band they're well specifically Liam is in a um AC capella group we haven't got time for that professional business I'm talking raw Street Acappella you know have you heard smooth mcro I have yeah we played a lot of his stuff yeah smooth MC long beard long hair the best thing about seen that guy best thing about is just how happy he is to be doing aella there with his cat and just looks really happy Yeah Yeah Boy Acappella can bring joy can't it yeah all right uh look let's go on to

show and tell Carlo well what what have you got to show and or tell this week well I I Revisited a classic strategy games soundtrack I love n knowing what you're going to talk about find there was a series of games which unfortunately isn't being made anymore it was called the Sierra City game City Builder city building series um which is made by Sierra games which is now a defunct I think they got um taken over by Activision or something like that I'm fact checking everything you're saying by the way um and they made this series of games which are extraordinary and the best one of the lot really to check out is Zeus um which was it said in Greece you build ancient Greek cities and has like the most incredible voice acting

cast and it's so hilariously funny um but these look really cool so it's just Sim City but for historical time periods yeah and you're just building yeah building these cities but it's like Zeus is kind of really fun like it's it's it's not particularly historic accur like you'll build a temple and then the God dianis will live in your city and he'll sort of like bring wine to the people and it's it's not as gritty and realistic as Sim City was it's so comic like um I was quoting them the other day that's what what brought it up was my my friend and I were quoting it cuz we were out up in our hometown and we were like there's iron and them their Hills and I'm going to get me some which is one of the lines like when you every time you click on a guy like unrest in the city shut your

mouth it's nothing I can't handle like every it was awesome and uh the the person who did I think it might have been the same voice actor was definitely inspired but the person who was the homeless man was the same as old Gil from The Simpsons like thrown out of my home but anyway the success to that was a game called Emperor which was much more serious but had an extraordinary Chinese soundtrack um of like traditional Chinese instruments and it's really great so I really recommend checking it out well you know if you told us in time that's what all the music on the show could have been oh I don't know it's it's it's very atmospheric I don't know that you'd want to you know play it on the radio maybe next time no that's all we'll play next

show it's just like minutes of definitely check it out great songs in it there we go listeners what what's the name of that actual album it's called Uh Emperor rise of the Middle Kingdom OST all there we go YouTube that dear friends and uh report report back to us um that came out you know I think 2003 yeah I mean I mean Googling it now I recognize the covers which means it's sort of semi- recent yeah but Zeus and Poseidon are classic games and they're very very uh cheap online like you can get them for $5 for the two games okay great and they're definitely worth it there we go that's a solid gold Carlo guarantee two thumbs up don't trust him um okay Jenna uh what what about you what have you got to show

us show the car show you a bit of an old game okay but it's coming back it's coming back it as old as Carla's game it's not as old as Carla's game so I guess I will there thrown out of my home gone home is a game from uh 2013 I believe however it's being released on the Xbox Xbox one and PlayStation 4 on Tuesday so I mean it is it's it's relevant it's timely i' never played gone home but I've heard everything about it is gone home it's like set in Alaska or Minesota no no oh are you thinking of the little Eskimo game for neverone the one that's like it's like you going you're on a trip home and it's sort of you like it's this girl going home and like the sounds this landscape is like all these like snowscapes with trees no it's the whole game takes place

sounds L though it does find out what the game is I will find out this is the one that's the mystery of like you come home and it it's a mystery but it's not it's it feels like it's more of a mystery than it is so it's about a girl it's just an interactive story a girl that's been backpacking for a year and she comes home and her family's not there great family I know who are like oh you've been gone a year we'll be out it's just like home alone again then you have to set series of traps for a bunch of bumbling she's um her family's moved also so they say find your way to our new home and we won't be there so she gets in and no one's there and by walking around and picking up things and exploring the house you get the story of what's going on with your parents and

where your sister is and it's pretty amazing because in that year your sister has grown quite a bit and I'm looking at it now it looks like a it they've given it a kind of like kind of Gothic horror it it does feel it feels like a mystery like what happened what happened to the parents where is everybody didn't they establish though that it's uh I mean this was this is very Nash but one of the people who worked on I think had TI to System Shock the game franchise and he said that it's in the same universe as System Shock a a few of the guys who made it worked for 2K in a rational oh yeah that would be it then so I think they he like there egg that there's a thing from System Shock in it and they were like yeah look it's it's in the same universe right so

it could you know it could be dark and Gothic and that's coming out pretty cool it's yeah it's coming out on Tuesday on the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 it only took a couple of hours to play but I mean I played it in one sitting because like I have to know what happened where is everyone I really love those games that that are simple and easy to play but really I mean you don't do anything you click on things and it's just I mean there are games out there where you do too much you feel like a detective give me less to do that's all I'm asking like as we were talking about before BioShock Infinite would have been terrific if we didn't have to shoot anything yeah the first like 20 minutes of that game is the best part of the whole game yeah yeah yeah before the

town's people disappear I made that first like portion last about an hour or more just sort of like walking in every shop and sort of really studying the baseball goes downhill and you really does you notice it as well in just the level design like there is so much to see and to do in that first towns people even there there's so many unique signs and then everything after that becomes much more generic you know like sprawling empty zones like the same poster over and over again you know yeah on the beach every woman's face looks the same it's terrifying but that's why I didn't I mean I really looked forward to Dishonored yep and I found it the same thing like that was a game that would have been so much better if it was more about choice and less about like

you know go here kill these people but the choices everyone look the same everyone had that same awful the I quite like this on it I just am not too into stealth games but there are some really interesting effects that there are choices that you get to physically make like you can go oh I'm going to be I'm not going to kill anyone in this Mission and that will affect the story and if you don't get if you if you're not seen by anyone that affects it as well like our friend Neil who was playing that game he got through the whole game without ever being spotted and without ever killing anybody and so in later missions people are like there's a ghost like pretty awesome that's great yeah what's the other game like that mdal GE solid five where depending on how like

so early on like there's heaps of bases that are pretty easy to kill and so if you just kind of mercilessly hunt and kill them early on it changes how well equipped the enemies in that base are like the patrols get bigger if you attack a lot at night they start carrying like flash lights if you just openly go and just beat them up yeah or flashlights um car always corrects my like my regional pronunciation of things data data he likes that um uh oh yeah they get like more armor and stuff or they carry Shields and so like I I just went so gung-ho in the first two hours of that game I was just like decimating everyone and then the rest of that game was just brutally

annoying for me cuz everyone every base was just full of guys just this sort of like RoboCop esque dude classic Gods right um the thing I wanted to talk about which uh is probably my favorite gaming news story uh ever is that there is going to be no Assassin's Creed game this year didn't they just announce Egypt yeah yeah yeah but it's it's not coming out this year also isn't there one not a full Assassin's Creed game but there is something oh that Chronicles India that doesn't count as far as I'm concerned really I mean it's still part of the franchise yeah I mean they announced it last year it was meant to come out last year as well but they like those annoying like sort of 2.5d sort of like arcade gamy sort of

thing what I loved about it is just that like the the whole Assassin's Creed franchise is so overdone that it was a new story to say no Assassin's Creed came this year like that's but there's the must have seen that and just going oo okay but Egypt how do you feel about that I don't know like my feelings on assass grade is I don't care where all history is interesting just make a good game you know like uh the same a different skin every time like Unity like the French Revolution is a really cool period of history and that game was so BL and so it's like look I don't like wherever you want to say set it in the 70s you know I don't care just do something to make it more ridiculous now you know making fun give me give us a

give us a Cold War era Assassin's Creed where no one trust anyone' be great uh look let's go to some music this is uh Treasure Trove Cove from banjo Kazi be back after this here we [Music] go now Carlo in the break there you've been furiously Googling to try and figure out what this game is that you thought was going home so I'm going to give you in one of the dtas or Iowa I'm going to give you I'm going to time it I'm going to give you 15 20 seconds I'll say 20 seconds to describe this game and then it's up to the listeners to try and identify it based on your description have you played this game no no okay it's on special on hang on okay ready go

20 seconds it's now a game with gold like it's there's a discount for gold Gold members on Xbox one it's set in a snowy Tundra like Minnesota Dakota it's about a girl coming home and it's about letters and phone messages between her and her mother okay you got eight you got seven more seconds um I don't know very much about the game it's very cheap very it's like six bucks and there are five episodes there are five episodes I think bang oh wait no no not life is strange played that we we are we are literally about to that episodic that's a good clue though episodic that would narrow it down surely and if it's a list of Xbox games right now of the gold reward list is at home you have the power listening to the podcast we did it I'm I'm going to

forbid you Carlo from doing any more research really like you're not allowed to look it up anymore and it's up to the listeners oh man you got it guys I and people listening on the podcast they found it yeah they found it some time but little did they know that finding that game was just the start of a whole mess of trouble um let's talk powers guys cuz we're reviewing life is strange which is all about the power to rewind time and it did make me think about like how cool Powers have been and can be in video games yeah um I mean the rewind time thing I for me goes back to Prince of Persia um that's like a mess rewinding time it it really is how much would being able to change everything and you can't keep track of what actually happened yeah and then it

depends how far you can rewind like days and then everything's different possibility that you've created you've split the path of time and You' created a second version of yourself that's having a really awful time but would you but honestly though would you think about that if you had the power to go back in time wouldn't you be like eh that's alternate reality Ben's problem you know and I don't have to see that guy that's the nature of I mean technically we're making you know with every decision is like potentially branching off of ulate path I know yeah but you're not living them twice yeah but you know you don't have to see it you just go boy gone back suck to be that version of me it's like that great gwth ptro movie you know um where you

know Cruisin they was singing what they was singing in the that me be I know what you're going for there terrible sliding doors but I mean that's a great time travel games are always ways I think more stressful than they should be I mean the I the freedom that you would think uh having time travel would allow you it just makes you think like have I done it right too many decisions totally I mean Ma's Mas is like that as well go back well this is the thing and and do I undo everything that I've already done as well cuz it's not all bad yeah yeah well I still think the best time travel game for that is Majora's Mask because there's no perfect playthrough you can't do everything in 3 days so you have to

there has to be a point where you go you know what they're not going to get saved down on out on you know the ranch they're out the the aliens they can have them sacrifice yeah you got to make that sacrifice sometimes and that's pretty brutal that's um yeah would you say that's the best time travel game M your mask i' yeah yeah that I've played yeah life is strange is really cool because it actually dealt with the repercussions of time travel yeah and it kind of has two signs of time T I guess it has that sort of shortterm rewind like I really like the way you use that for social situations like H I said the wrong thing in that conversation go back don't mention the dying mother yeah yeah I really liked how that

though I think like n use it no like everything I do I sounded like an go back go back but it it makes you appreciate how much of a nightmare Groundhog Day would have been to the living in it if you make a mistake now I have to go and live through my entire day again but he didn't get to choose I know I know do you know the the writer um I can't remember his name but you know he was that comic that did Ghostbusters and things oh um Harold Ramos is it Harold Ramos yeah he said that when he wrote Groundhog Day He imagined it being somewhere in the like the realm of 10,000 years of worth of that day wow really yeah yeah that's awful yeah yeah and he revised it like more recently he revised it oh probably about 60 years 30 60 years what would

you I mean this is a very different conversation now but like you have like 24 hours you just pick a direction and just if you were in it trapped in it for that long you just start leaving you'd just be like end up in the same place every day so now you're just traveling for 24 hours and then you wake up you become an expert of like what is 24 hours away in every direction that's the whole point Grand Hog Day is they're trapped in that City cuz they're snowed in they can't get out leave you just leave or learn well I guess every time you die in the snow you wake up again in the town so well it could be I'm thinking like Edge of Tomorrow like you'd gradually become a real hardened sort of Merv you'd eventually learn how to not die in the snow who's to say that he

didn't I mean he learns how to sculpt ice so that's true yeah for survival purposes um back on the subject of powers briefly um I feel like it's an obvious one but I still haven't really experienced it done well flight you know like like where a character where a person can just sort of just an average person just a normal person like Superman style can just fly like it's always just using it to change light bulbs and things it's always awkward yeah what's the game here going home but with flight yeah just imagine that in that game rather than moving you're actually just hovering slightly ever so slightly above the ground just what you don't realize is that every first person shoter you've ever played You' actually been

levitating you're actually you're just you're just a head a disembodied head that just hovers around I think banjo kazui speaking of the song we just played did a pretty excellent job of flying you still needed those pads and you needed feathers like I hate it when a game makes you powerful but then puts an arbitrary limitation on that power like if I can fly Just Let Me Fly you want to be all powerful do you Ben well you then scale up chall game if that's yeah the purpose of this game is just to fly stuff out there you know like um flight simulator did really good on the par flight yeah that's true that's true actually there was a really good flight simulator that was like um you were Superman yeah that was one see you know

what maybe I just won a good Superman game it hasn't been one of them yeah that's what you're hanging out for B go back and play Superman 64 That's a classic all that toxic ass yeah that game scared me U what about you Jenna any powers that you'd like to see in a game oh that I would like to see or that you enjoyed see I really I'm a I'm a fire Mage at heart you just want to watch the world oh yeah absolutely and I'm always evil in video games too I think that's just how my heart is just so much more fun to play like that so a destructive power basically yeah I just want to burn things down so I love playing games like Diablo and where I can use my my magic yeah I love that to torch torch things yeah to torch things yeah it's always nice in a game

where your power can actually sort of affect the environment in unusual ways like it's I don't know if you classify as a power but the the songs in the Zelda games like it was always a fun game figuring like unlocking the song and then figuring out what song affected the world yeah yeah and I like it when you can do that with with in games you know oh I can burn I can burn my way through that field this actually brings out through that family of farmers oh God no man hey you're the evil one I'm just he's just giving you the Tinder yeah I mean it would be cool to see a really cool open world Avatar Style game well you weren't the Avatar you just picked one bending element and you just sort of lived a life in there or maybe

you're a cabage merch fun but it was a very quick game yeah cuz I mean would just love like imagine a you know you only see such a glimpse of that world but like the Earth Earth bending is my favorite bending and you see Earth Kingdom Nations and it always made me think like why the hell did the Jedi Temple have a doorway you know these are people that can like manipulate time and space why wasn't there like you know in omashu the city's gates are just living Stone and they just open them open it yeah like why didn't the Jedi Temple have that they would never have been able to be attacked by anybody who wasn't a Jedi you know look if we could question a lot of things that the Jedi did in those prequel movies yeah what's the problem what I don't mind sand you

know it's s all right I don't know problem is very hard to bend it is but worth it when you can uh bu where would make a killer avatar game I know now I want one thanks Carla I'm thinking like Dragon Age Orin you pick you pick a nation and that like that your avatar starts as and it changes the whole game like you start aligned to that Nation But ultimately you got to bring them all together and we just have to hope that Disney continues to grow as an entertainment ire Empire and eventually buys nickel that's the one that yeah I mean eventually they're going to own all of us so or D Martino and um the other one the other one make a you know who you are you're well loved and remember if you're

listening we love Avatar did some great stuff um make a uh make some game with Bowe yeah or they convert their new book that's not owned by Nickelodeon or I think it's just de mintino made it or can they just do a new thing like pick pick an avatar that hasn't been fleshed like I don't know the second or the third Avatar no one knows she too def you already know her whole story you just want col also she's voiced by Jennifer hail and bware would never have a protagonist voiced by Jennifer hail uh let's go to some music and then uh talk life is strange this is piano Fire by Sparkle horse from the life of strange soundtrack but not exclusively I think this is what the kids call popular music we back after [Music]

this well we're back with some pretty amazing news breaking news Nate or that's drudik on Twitter has uh has found the mystery game that Carlo so well described I found them the game is 34s home well done Nate well done Carlo well done everybody set in Nebraska yeah I mean you just as Carlo said kind of close and like looking at the images of it you don't have a lot to work with it's just a cornfield black and white cornfield but boy that game looks riviting uh we're just reading the plot game follows the struggles of one family uh the protagonist named Kelly is driving through rule Nebraska when her mother calls sparking a conversation O classic phone calls Mom that's what happens sometimes you get calls and you're doing stuff who what sorry I'm driving I'll

call you back yeah credits it takes place over five episodes yeah it takes a while for her to get back CU then she keeps forgetting you know she's got stuff to do pulled over for talking on the phone yeah but hey you know what is a good episodic look not making fun of that I haven't played it it could be great but what is a good game that we have played life is strange life is strange and like it's such a bummer that we we waited until or that we we both didn't finish it until the new year cuz this totally would have been on the list for game of the years absolutely I think yeah it's a great game Jen have you played it no um Ben told me today that you guys wanted to talk about that and I was like I've got like an hour so I watched a playthrough

of the first episode oh but that's about all so I know what it's about and now I want to play it it was amazing for me because I didn't know about the time traveling thing benj just said got to play this game so I got into it and thought it was some like I guess I'll find out what the point is and then suddenly I travel through time like oh God this is all the things I love no it's pretty intense the way that you find out that you can it is very intense for high school yeah yeah it's actually a really interesting game because it on a surface level it deals with a lot of like quite significant issues you know that are you know like I would say affect a lot of people in high school like it affects bullying um drugs domestic violence

um and you and various sort of ideas around popularity and figure and body type and then it um it on the other time like deals with this really intense murder mystery and and time travel like it's sort of like if you combined like Twin Peaks with like just a really good like teen drama yeah it did have a real twin Pixy Vibe well there's they must know it too cuz there's one like one of the things in the game is sort of it's the Collectibles of this game is that there are photo opportunities and one of them is in the public restroom of the diner someone's written fir walk with me on the on the mirror like it's yeah know and Chloe's Chloe's license plate is Twin Peaks yeah yeah like but it's not just that how did you guys make this connection we got there but I men's all

reading graffiti um but it's not just that like it's sort of like any sort of weird surreal kind of horror or sci-fi like there's a lot of references to a lot of different things I did get a kind of an Alan wakey vibe from it yeah yeah yeah the it also reminded me like it took a a little bit from Butterfly Effect I think um you know it's cuz Ashton koer was in it um you know there was some real there were some real um quite clear borrowings from that and from Groundhog Day as well and also it reminded me it reminded me a lot of a video game um I'm not sure you guys play it called Fahrenheit yeah yeah Fahrenheit was this game where basically you woke up having murdered a man in a toilet and you had no recollection of doing it and you had

to choose how you disposed of the body how you interacted with the cafe the cafe that you were in afterwards and then how you left and then that would affect the entire game that just that initial decision it's it's made by the same guy who made um like heavy rain Beyond Two Souls um and sort of like one of the first like sort of big console interactive movie kind of games I guess so does that mean it's PlayStation exclusive no it was it was and Xbox yeah I think Indigo prophecy is what it was called in um that's right in some places I I always forget which one we actually had and yeah there were so many multiple endings it was yeah it was pretty interesting as a game it it was a great game for actually letting you f but the story keeps going like a

character could just sort of die and I was like well that character's dead now you these other characters reacting to that character's Death Or you could or you could lose your sanity um sort of similar to um what's that other game etal Darkness yeah but yeah to go back to life as strange I I found it a really interesting like it was a very compelling story like I I found it very difficult to stop playing through the chapters I played them all in a row and it was very difficult to stop because I think when you add the Intrigue of a murder mystery it's something that just we instinctively sink in on you know like unpacking Clues and wanting to find out see I didn't I didn't get that from the first episode now I want that yeah yeah yeah right right of course would

you say that that that's what resonated with you the most the mystery or the Intrigue um that was certainly the thing that was driving me driving me through the game certainly I love the I love Max as a main character she's fantastic because it's just she might be one of my favorite prot agonists definitely one of my favorite female protagonists she was was just really interesting because she wasn't really a hero like it she was it was mundanity played so well I think you know like your you felt your reactions to the world were really right um and there was a decision that still haunts me after the game is I I overwatered my plant yeah and I still go like God damn it Le you should have re well the worst thing is cuz it does that Telltale thing at the end of a chapter where it shows

you what decisions you made compared to what decisions other people made but then it also shows you like things that you missed and that's what like that's what bothered me cuz it's like you have this power of time travel and it's like you want to you want to perfect life and it's like oh someone wrote something mean on like uh or I could have like left a nice message for a friend on their door or something to make their day better it's like all those yeah and you're totally right K it's lots and lots of small little things like you know you've got to go meet a friend and on the way you see this girl in your class get hit in the head with a football and you can you can you can slow time or rewind time and just warn her it's just like oh thanks Max you

know you're always looking out for me and it's such a tiny thing but like this one girl has so much stuff happened to her like gets splashed by the car all these little things and you kind of realize after doing all these small things that in this person's eyes you're like you're a hero you're a hero like you're really looking out for them and it's sort of like and and everyone's start sort of saying wow Max you're like you're really cool and you sort of feel like it's sort of I don't it really resonated a lot of responsibility it is but it sort of resonated this idea that it's like you know what like you can change everyone's everyone's Day by just doing the smallest thing which I thought was a really nice message for a kind of teen high school sort of drama yeah but

what I what I enjoyed about it is there's an in there's like in games where you have this decision um based uh gameplay there is a there's always that feeling particularly if you play it where you don't go back on your decisions you know like if you make a decision you just stick with it there is always that instinct to go oh did I make the right decision I want to go back and this is a game that actually lets you make those decisions in in the game over and over again and knowing those two outcomes or multiple outcomes is what will determine what your ultimate decision is and that's really terrifying to have all of that information and not really knowing where it's going in many ways it makes it more mature I think than say The Telltale

Games version where you're making a decision without knowing the outcome and that sort of tricks you sometimes it's like oh you know I tried to do this and this happened but life is strange there a lot more mature decisions it's like if you say this it'll hurt this person's feelings you'll achieve this outcome but it's still like it's a shitty thing to say yeah and like and you have to just sit with the weight of there is no just one good one bad it's just shades of like everything's going to have effect yeah exactly and some and I think I when I was first playing this game I played it through with that Telltale mindset and I be like oh this is the obvious good choice but something's bad is going to happen for and you make these decisions but that

you're never really sure if you have made the right decision like both decisions don't won't have a huge impact like that's the thing that I enjoyed the most really was that you would make these decisions which at the time seemed hugely relevant and you know gamechanging but it were so insignificant in the grander scheme of the game but you know that's that's kind of so you know that the powerful mundane decisions that you make every day you know yeah but you also like that that power makes you really protective of your choices cuz you sort of go well I mean yeah I've got the absolute freedom to choose however this goes but once I've stuck with the decision and then walk out the door I don't have any choice anymore and so you agonize over

it more now that's weird though if you can rewind time it's just the walking out the door bit you're like well that's well that's that's where I can't do anything yeah well it's cuz she sort of has like a very limited it's like she can rewind time for like 5 minutes or so and and there are instances in the game where um in fact sorry I'm not going to spoil anything in particular but um there are some great moments where you've gotten really used to having this power and all of a sudden sort of limitations or occasions start showing up where Max starts to realize that it isn't this Limitless thing and it really it really like sort of throws you for a loop when you've gotten used to this no consequences yeah exactly you're best friends with everyone because you've

navigated every conversation so that you've worked in like their favorite food and like hey I heard you really like this film oh yeah it's pretty great you know and then all of a sudden just bang and and you're like you're just like a normal person again you have to make a decision and it was great yeah no really really definitely wish I had played it in time to put it in game of the year because it is it is a really tremendous game um so you're going to have a lot of fun playing it Jenna I will I am going to try and race it it's got a murder mystery as well I definitely want to play that um yeah solid recommendation in fact I'd say probably better than any of the Telltale games that came out last year as well probably like the

best narrative game like sort of narrative episodic game of the year yeah and and it was just fun because the stakes you know in the in the stakes are so high generally in those Telltale Games and in those episodic games like you don't make the right decision you'll die like or someone will die whereas in this the stakes were so low there was this real it was just this very Placid um they were low but they mattered like they mattered yeah they it was still this ongoing suspense but you were agonizing over some very small decisions and I think that's quite a a great premise for a game yeah um look let's got us some messages and Say [Music] Goodbye

well that brings us to the end of another show Carlo and Jenna thanks for coming on hey it was a pleasure yeah it was great um as always you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter uh Facebook particularly is the place to be if you want to find out about our next bonus stage lot of gifts lot of great times got of laughs yeah um we haven't officially sort of announced it yet but we are doing an RTX after hours show on January 23rd if you're in Sydney come along to that uh we're we're still finalizing guest but there's a very good possibility we're going to have some cool should I say special guest yeah yeah that's as vague as we're going to get by saying it but slowly um so basically keep tuned to the uh to the

old page till then we'll play you out with threshold from the Journey soundtrack Matt K's up next we'll see you guys next week bye h