2021, Huh. What Is It Good For? (Part One)

Players

Squidge

Jay

The B

Stoo

Russell

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Content Warning

At 9:21, The_B says:

The_B:

A bit of a $h!t show

At 15:54, Squidge says:

Squidge:

I can’t drive for $h!t on it

At 55:31, The_B says:

The_B:

No one’s going anywhere, let alone Russia. Jesus.

At 01:00:09, Squidge says:

Squidge:

I’ll say it so you don’t have to: it was a bit of a cluster f*%k

At 01:00:13, The_B says:

The_B:

Oh yes, It was a $h!t show.

At 01:00:49, Squidge says:

Squidge:

And everyone just starts f*%king about and screwing each other over

At 01:03:48, Squidge says:

Squidge:

or the "f*%k up," as Jay puts it

At 01:12:38, Squidge says:

Squidge:

and all that $h!te

Please listen responsibly

Show Notes

WELCOME TO 2021!

We wanted to kick things off this year with great people, so we brought the following folks back:

• The_B
• Stoo Cambridge
• ZBoi
• AndrewD

We couldn’t fit all six of us

those four, Squidge, and myself

into one episode, so we’re splitting the 6 HOUR (!?) conversation into two episodes. Actually we recorded for a sum total of 6 hours, but we’ve edited the conversations down to about 3 hours total.

Why did we do this? Well, firstly there’s a lot of cross over in our conversations. Secondly (and slightly more importantly), these two episodes were actually recorded on four separate dates - with one happening a few scant hours into 2021

we usually like to record weeks in advance, but one of our guests just wasn’t available until 2021

Anyway, of the four guests you’re actually only getting two this week:

• The_B
• Stoo

That isn’t to say that “just” getting those two is in any way an inferior deal, at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. When Squidge was editing this together, he did try for one long cut but it just didn’t flow together nicely.

I asked all of our guests the same question:

Jay:

What are you looking forward to in 2021 and beyond? It doesn’t have to be about video games, it can be about absolutely anything

We started with a hungry B

something something starving artist?

and I nearly give the game away. Which is followed by me reminding you all that it’s been

one week since you looked at me?

36 episodes since Stoo was last on the show. His previous appearance was on episode 62 - It’s Good To Be A Leg-end

seriously, scroll up to the top of the page and click on his face

when we talked to him, after meeting him at EGX.

It was actually quite good for The B that we weren’t recording these episodes together as a group, as Stoo starts talking about mice pies and cream - and even mince pie flavoured ice cream

watch out JZ, we might end up trying to figure out how to send some over

Cyberpunk 2077

Yes, we tackled Cyberpunk 2077. But we didn’t focus on the release, but more on the business and development side of the story. My heart goes out to everyone involved in Cyberpunk 2077, as it was one of the most hyped games to have been announced in 2012. Yes, you read that correctly. The folks behind the game will have been working on it since around the time of the PS3 and Xbox 360 - two generations of consoles have launched since they started working on this title.

I will say this: keep an eye open on gamasutra for a “post mortem”

that’s where they tear down what actually happened

or for the inevitable series of books which will likely be written about it, soon.

Squidge:

I’ve had some wiggle-woo arms

We also discussed Cyberpunk with AndrewD and ZBoi

ding!

so make sure that you come back for that discussion in part two.

One thing to note: I mentioned

Jay:

One of the Tiger Woods games has that

and the game that I was thinking of was Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005. I remember the recall very vividly: they’d sent the wrong build of the game to the manufacturers, and had to recall every. single. copy of the game for PS2. I was working in video game retail at the time, you see.

Meeting People Again

Looping Stoo’s goal of staying positive back into the fold, we talked about how meeting people in person and talking with enthusiasts about the games and technology. And I completely agree with him

in fact, it was one of my things for 2021 - as you’ll find out soon

Attending expos, conventions, or just going to places and meeting people; it doesn’t matter how we do it, but it needs to start happening

once everything is safe again, that is

soon.

Stoo:

Let’s look forward to this, and put all the rubbish that makes you feel negative - put it all out. It’s not easy all the time, but it’s nice to try and keep a positive head on your shoulders

I mean, I agree completely.

Squidge:

How will you know that you wanted to Rugby tackle a mascot unless you go there first?

Again… I agree completely.

Stoo:

Just enough pain to make it feel good

I fear we may have gotten side tracked.

Uninterrupted Sleep, Baked Beans, and a Kettle

I’m not going to lie, as much as I’d love to start socialising in public again, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want to achieve Squidge’s goal. To the point where I came up with a Wallace & Gromit style Rube Goldberg contraption for waking him up in time for his cooked breakfast.

Squidge:

You’re overthinking it: you want something that’ll cook the breakfast, and while you’re sleeping it’ll just tip it onto your face

He’s right folks, I was overthinking it. That’s so much simpler.

Squidge:

It’s the sausage up each nostril that’s really unconformable

… er, right.

In-person Events

It’s not just the video game events. It’s the after work socials, the meetups, bumping into someone at the shops or the pub. The serendipity of everyday events is not something to be sniffed at and I, for one, will be embracing it with open arms.

The story I told about the programming event from 2019 is true, by the way.

Meeting people, talking about things, swapping ideas, and the random events of day-to-day are provide a lot of us with an escape from, or indeed a source of inspiration for, our daily grind. So let’s get back to it, when it’s safe to do so.

The whole thing with the kettles was completely unplanned, by the way. It’s what happens when Stoo, Squidge, and myself are allowed to meet up and talk nonsense.

Jay:

You’re making your next cup of tea, and it will come out all red from all the beans and that. It would be the most metal cup of tea ever.

Itchy, Tasty - An Unofficial History of Resident Evil

Episode 81 is an interview with Alex about his book

here’s a link to that episode

and I’d reached out to him about being on the show as soon as I’d heard about, and backed it.

At one point, I say: “He tweeted out only a few days ago:”

Due to the recent changes at Twitter, we are unable to embed tweets at this time. We apologise for the inconvenience.

It looks like a hefty book, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

And, yes, I have a Steven Segal story. It involves meeting the man himself accidentally, some cereal, and alcohol. One day, I might tell it on the podcast.

The book is subtitled “An Unofficial History of Resident Evil” (emphasis is mine), however parts of the book take the form of interviews with the folks who worked on the games. It only has the “unofficial” moniker because Capcom didn’t sign off on the book, though.

TheB:

I think Slipknot gave great instructions on how to read a book: "I push my book into my EEEEEEEYYYYYYYYEEEE"

Uninterrupted Sleep

It’s so important that Squidge brought it up twice

Though you’d hardly know it

because Squidge did such an amazing job at editing the show together

this episode is made up of two discrete recordings - one with The_B, and one with Stoo. Because of that, both Squidge and myself had to mention the same goals to each guest. But because of that, we kept the responses to each point with each guest. And because The_B’s response to Squidge’s “best goal evar” was so good, we wanted to keep it separate from Stoo’s

which was also amazing, I’m sure you’ll agree

Squidge:

The statistics are on my side, but I’ve only got 365 chances

All this talk of 14 hours of sleep and a cooked breakfast, combined with the fact that The_B was already hungry, had him legitimately trying to get a take out order placed whilst we were recording. Alas, Nindos

remember that?

wouldn’t deliver to his house. Meanwhile, Squidge and I discuss who would “win”:

• if he achieved his goal
• if I studied Russian

I’m sure you’ll agree that Squidge would win.

Back 4 Blood (aka Left 4 Dead 3)

Whilst it might not be officially called Left 4 Dead 3, Back 4 Blood is a spiritual successor to the franchise and it looks just as good, if not better than the games it succeeds. The_B was part of the closed alpha, and it’s interesting to hear that Valve aren’t explicitly involved in it - other than offering it on Steam.

The_B has a point about being in your 30s and finding a time when you and three friends can sit and play a co-op game together. As a real example, ZBoi had been trying to arrange a D&D/DCC evening with us from September 25th (2020)

seven days after we recorded the Street Fighter: The Movie episode

and only managed to get around to it on the evening of December 22nd.

that’s 8 days

Being an Adult sucks sometimes.

The_B then talks about how he’s more of a single player gamer these days. You know what, I’m totally there for that for the same reason: it’s hard to organise a game with friends. But of course he destroys the point by bringing up Among Us - the most multi-player of all games.

We then talk about just how ridiculously large the latest Call of Duty games are, and how you’re not really likely to notice the graphical quality because you’re playing it for five to 15 minutes at a time. I then come up with an idea whereby you only install the levels that you’re actually going to play, and Squidge talks about the fact that the re-release Doom not supports mods.

Home Improvements & Working With Friends Again

Stoo then brings up that he’s looking forward to doing some home improvements. And why not? If it’s going to bring him joy, then I say he should do it. And of course the discussion of cooking food in a kettle comes back again.

But one question we were unable to get an answer to was:

Is Chris Wilkins a Timelord from Wales?

We might need confirmation on this. Chris, if you’re reading this we need to talk.

Stoo:

Kettle Based Time Distortion

Buying The New Consoles

I feel like Squidge’s last point goes hand in hand with The_B first point. Whereas The_B was hoping for a “proper” line up of games for the new consoles, Squidge is looking forward to owning them. But both are quite similar. I’ve always said that you should never buy a console at launch, and Squidge will be taking that advice - albeit without really wanting to. Plus, there might actually be a few games out for them by the time he gets them

I’m not one to joke. I still haven’t gone through the PS4 and Xbone titles that I want to play - having never owned either of the consoles

Note from a day before release of the episode: It looks like there are still artificial shortages on the PS5.

Whilst discussing Resident Evil Village, The_B comes under attack - and by that I mean that someone set off some fireworks near his house - before talking about HDR and 4K streaming from his desktop PC, even though none of the streaming services have support for them.

Stoo’s Store

As we were wrapping up with Stoo, I brought up his new shop and he talks us through what it’s all about. Stoo let me take a look around a day or two before it went live proper

it was available to the public at that point, he just hadn’t started shouting out about it

and the pieces he has on there are truly amazing.

Stoo:

I’ve designed the art to fit the canvas

I would definitely recommend folks take a look around on the site. I’m not going to lie, I’m tempted to get a pixel portrait done.

What We’re looking Forward To

If you really want to skip over the episode and just find out what we’re looking forward to

why would you want to make Squidge cry? You monster!

then this table should have it all:

There was actually about 45 minutes of content that we removed from this episode, and we might put that out as a bonus episode or something in the future - so watch this space, I guess.

As an example, Stoo and I had a conversation about resurrecting the older games through newer hardware and the magic of FPGAs

which I’d really like you all to hear

and The_B and I went into much more detail about Cyberpunk 2077.

External Links of Interest

• Support us on Ko-Fi
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• Stoo’s website
• Stoo on Twitter
• Stoo’s new shop
• The_B on Twitter
• The B’s current (at the time of the episode’s release) writing gigs:
  • VideoGamer.com
  • PlayStation Trophies
  • Xbox Achievements
• Mice pie flavoured ice cream
• Gamasutra
• Tabs & Spaces
• EA recalls Tiger Woods 2005 for PS2
• Centre for Computing History
• Wallace & Gromit
• Rube Goldberg machine
• D&D
• DCC
• Field-programmable Gate Array

Music

Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.

• Intro music is Among The Stars, from the Cosmos Music Pack by Muz Station Productions
• Spoiler Break music is Spectrum (Subdiffusion Mix) by Foniqz (BandCamp)
• Pallet Cleanser music is Breath Deep Breath Clear (Wu Chi) by Siobhan Dakay
• Outro Music is I N e e d Y o u 私の側て by G.H (removed from BandCamp)