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

Players

Squidge

Jay

AndrewD

ZBoi

Russell

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Content Warning

Just the one this week, folks. But it’s a big one:

At 01:21:45 AndrewD talks about a very specific record set by an actress by the name of Lisa Sparks. This is a very adult themed record, so I would recommend skipping this part if you are in a work-like atmosphere, or have little ones around. AndrewD brings it up as part of a silly discussion on how many people could you mean in a year.

Listen out for the klaxon telling you when it’s about to begin, and when it will end

there’s a chapter marker for the end of it, so you can skip directly over it, if you’d like

The whole section ends at 01:22:43, lasting just over a minute.

Please listen responsibly.

Show Notes

we’re back again with another episode of the podcast, and this time we’re finishing what we started in episode 99

here’s a link to that, if you haven’t heard it

by asking our guests what they’re looking forward to this year. In episode 99, we spoke with Stoo Cambridge and The_B, but in this episode, we asked AndrewD and ZBoi what they were looking forward to.

As with last time, 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

Previously: What We’re looking Forward To

So that you can compare and contrast, here’s the table from last time showing what we and our guests are looking forward to:

you know, episode 99

Dumpster Fires of Dumpster Fires

We kicked this episode off with ZBoi and a little recap of what we’d talked with Stoo

which we hadn’t recorded yet

and The_B along with only referring to 2020 as a

ZBoi

[a dumpter fire that was in a dumpster that was on fire] that was shot into the sun, that was in a dumpster that was on fire

I think we can all agree that 2020 didn’t live up to anyone’s expectations.

We started with me monologuing about how I could fool ZBoi into thinking that we hadn’t silenced him, us looking forward to the future and focussing on the positive things which could be coming down the pipe. When suddenly AndrewD comes in with some amazingly positive energy and sage to burn.

let’s keep that positive energy going

Uninterrupted Sleep & Breakfast

We’re back to this old gem. Those of you who listened to the previous part of this series will know that Squidge has the goal of:

Squidge

14 hours of uninterrupted sleep, followed by a cooked breakfast

Which, you’ll agree, is a pretty good goal to have. Unlike last time, we didn’t end up talking about Rube Goldberg contraptions, but we did agree that we needed a mallet and someone to cook it. AndrewD then brings up the topic of the day

that part of the podcast was recorded on December 21st, 2020

and whether Squidge’s breakfast foods will still be available. However, ever the optimist:

Squidge

I’d settle for cake

Wouldn’t we all, Squidge. Wouldn’t we all.

Jay

14 hours of sleep followed with enchiladas with cake for afters, or cake with enchiladas for afters?

Squidge

Yes

I like the way you think, Squidge.

Then suddenly we have a conversation about whether you could make cake enchiladas - either a tortilla wrap with cake within it, or an enchilada which is actually made of cake.

A Village and a Book

Even though AndrewD is looking forward to both Resident Evil Village (aka Resident Evil 8) and Alex Aniel’s book “An Unofficial History of Resident Evil” (emphasis is mine), he also potentially offered to bake Squidge his cake

Seriously, AndrewD is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met - and I haven’t even met him in person yet

Speaking of the book, we’ve interviewed Alex about his book in the past

see: episode 81

and both AndrewD and I cannot wait for this book to be released.

AndrewD

A month of Resident Evil

We all agree that more Resident Evil is a good thing, but that too much of it would mean that it would descend into madness and stupidity

need I remind anyone of Survivor or Operation Racoon City?

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.

I then talk through the word play involved in the “itchy, tasty” quote. It’s an amazing example of goroawase

"goroawase" a Japanese wordplay game

something I talked about in my article about Segata Sanshiro

but I won’t go into exactly what the story is here. You’ll have the listen to the episode in order to find out what the story is. Suffice it to say:

Jay

Let’s just say that if you ever happen upon an itchy horse, please help them out. Because horses are really nice, and we should be nice to animals.

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.

You’ll agree that it looks like a hefty book, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

And since we talk about my glorious beard and how Squidge wants to dye it different colours, here’s what it looked like in October of 2019 (at EGX):

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

Firefox users will need to click through to see it, due to the default settings in that browser

We also bring up AndrewD’s book: Dreamcast Year Two - which, if you’re interested in the history of the Dreamcast, you should look at backing

we also discussed it, in depth, back in episode 82

definitely give that episode a listen, if you haven’t already

We then talk about just when the Resident Evil series fell off the deep end and went a little bit more weird than normal. A discussion which includes Resy 4, 5, 7 (and that bonkers ending), and the remakes. We also quickly mention Resident Evil: Extinction

watch this space for a potential goes to the movies about that one

A little birdy told AndrewD that Village might have potentially been originally designed as a sequel to Revelations 2.But we’re all in agreeance that there should be a Revelations 3 with Rebecca Chambers as a main character. Especially since she hasn’t been in anything since Mercenaries 3D

it’s important to point out that we recorded this episode at the tail end of 2020, as such we had no idea that RE:Verse was coming out

Can I just say that AndrewD’s description of what Resident Evil: Outbreak could have been is amazing. Hey, Capcom! Make this! And take AndrewD on as a creative consultant.

Although, after both he and Squidge discussed the zombieifed animals, maybe not.

Working From Home More

ZBoi (whilst preaching to the converted) tells us about the joys of working from home - including being able to close his laptop at the end of the day, leave his home office, and immediately start playing games with his kids.

When I say

on another show

I was talking about Tabs & Spaces, which you should totally listen to if you work in the tech space

that’s the ad placed. ZBoi will be happy about that 😛

ZBoi

I plan to code in, like, parks and stuff in the summer

Although ZBoi’s description of what he might say, should someone walk past whilst he’s working on some code in the forest is a little strange. Then again, he agreed to talk to us for a while, so there might be something in it.

And we all agree that Graveyard Keeper is like Factorio and Human Resource Machine, in that you end up going back and refactoring

which is what us devs call it when you go back and re-work something which is already working, hoping that you can make it better

everything. Also, it sometimes feels a little like work but in a fun way… if that makes sense.

Squidge then starts off the description game, where he and ZBoi each try to come up with different descriptions of Graveyard Keeper.

Squidge

I see Graveyard Keeper as a gothic Stardew Valley

ZBoi

It’s Stardew Valley clone but with a medieval theme and an undertone of purgatory

I’m pretty sure that both of those descriptions are spot on.

Whilst talking about simulator simulators, ZBoi reminds us that DLC Quest exists. If you haven’t played this game, might I suggest it to you? It’s wonderfully short and very silly.

Cyberpunk 2077

Yes, we tackled Cyberpunk 2077 again.

Whilst we don’t tackle the businessy side of it

but we did in episode 99

we did talk about our hopes that the patches will be released and perhaps some DLC for it. Thankfully, they’ve fixed the save corruption bug, but Squidge was saying that he was having a problem with trees being displayed everywhere. Thank goodness he didn’t get this strange bug:

which is a bug that I’m going to be attempting to explain in a future episode. So keep it locked, as they say

It sounds like the console gamers have bit hit the worst with the bugs in Cyberpunk 2077. But I’ll repeat what I said to The_B:

Jay

I’m genuinely surprised with what they’ve made

And that’s not in a hand-waving kind of way. A lot of people seem to forget that CD Projeky Red have made a massive game, with a huge storyline and a whole bunch of branching narratives. The fact that they pulled that off, should be noteworthy in itself.

I’m not trying to detract from the controversy at all - there are some definite causes for reflection on CDPR’s point - but we must remember that they’ve achieved one heck of a lot with this title.

Squidge then drops some knowledge about updating the game and your graphics drivers. This was because ZBoi had said that the glitches were breaking his immersion into the game - as a narrative driven gamer, he prefers that immersion. Although cars falling from the sky is something that ZBoi would enjoy, because it would be hilarious.

There is a wider discussion to have around Cyberpunk 2077 and it’s development. And it’s actually started happening in the dev community, as people are using it as an example of why you should always keep your code in a “ready to release” state - no matter what you are working on, it should always be ready to be released. In fact, this has been the topic of a video by Dave Farley:

if you’re a dev, I’d recommend watching this. If not, it might not be too useful

One of the things to remember about Cyberpunk 2077 is that CDPR announced that they were working on it in 2012

yes, you read that correctly twenty-twelve

and that there were TWO video game console generations during that time. Which means that they would have had to change their entire development systems twice during that time, but still keep backwards compatibility between them.

But not just that. It’s a combination of us and the games journalists who are always clamouring for something new. There’s always got to be something new out, and as soon as it comes out, we start clamouring for the next new thing. And that’s not healthy. For anyone involved.

And Square-Enix are the worst for this. Look back at the last 10 years of their trailers at the Tokyo Game Show and E3, and you’ll see a huge number of trailers for products which never got a release. But that’s because they know and - more importantly - play up to this. It needs to stop. Seriously.

Then again, ZBoi hits the nail on the head with:

ZBoi

I feel like marketing hype is the only thing which keeps AAA’s alive these days… and I think that a decent chunk of gamers won’t buy pre-orders now, because they’ve woken up to it

And he is absolutely right.

Buying The New Consoles

Because of the way that the new consoles were launched, almost no one was able to buy one - of either. As such, Squidge’s plan has been to wait for the stock levels to be replenished before attempting to buy any of the newer consoles. There’s also the sage advice from people like Brentalfloss:

Seriously, friends don’t let friends buy consoles at launch.

I completely agree with AndrewD when he says:

AndrewD

2020 was just a joyless year for so many people. And for the console launches, so many people were looking forward to them, and that so many people could not get hold of them, and it was so stressful.

AndrewD then tells us about how, at one point, he had a PS5; however… well, I’ll leave AndrewD to tell you that story.

But there’s a silver lining: by not owning a newer console as soon as they come out, it forces you to play the games that you haven’t yet played

remember in episode 99, when The_B said that he had games from a decade ago which he hadn’t gotten around to playing?

and that’s just what AndrewD is going to do. There’s also the hardware revisions which happen between the launch consoles - which are generally manufactured as cheaply and quickly as possible - and the first revision version; usually the hardware revisions fix bugs, provide a better experience, increase hard drive capacity, or just fix known manufacturing issues

red ring of death, anyone?

And to parrot Brentalfloss, from earlier:

The OS will be a mess

So you’d better the staunch, kid

Don’t ever buy a console at launch

AndrewD and Squidge back this up with tales of their hardware woes.

AndrewD

and hold it I did, many times. And inserted things into it

I say!

Squidge’s story was almost as woeful

if less dirty sounding

and is related to both Dark Chronicle and Fallout 4. It seems that Dark Chronicle could, somehow, break the RAM in the PS4 to the point where certain games would refuse to run afterwards.

Jay

What you’re saying is you want to become Segata Sanshiro

Doing More of the Things We Enjoy

Although going to conventions and seeing people are high up on AndrewD’s list, it’s not the next thing. Doing things that we enjoy is one of the best answers we’ve had so far, and add to that the fact that AndrewD wants to get better at some of the new things that he picked up during 2020.

And one of those things is podcasting. AndrewD has been on our show three times now

he says four, but that fourth appearance isn’t out yet

and that his shows are really taking off - not that they weren’t before, it’s just that they are now hitting another level

it was shortly after we recorded this episode that AndrewD announced that Dreamcast Years would be premiering on Radio Sega for instance

and that he has been brought in to run other podcasts - such as Dreamcast Junkyard - based on his experience and knowledge. But podcasting does have it’s bad side:

AndrewD

I’ll just be finishing work, and then going and recording one of the podcasts. It’s basically what happens at the moment, but it’ll be nonstop. I’ll never see my partner, we’ll split up, I’ll have to sell the house

Maybe not that bad.

…

Maybe.

Jokes aside, it’s amazing to see this happen and we both

Squidge and I

are super proud and amazed to see it happen. Keep up the great work, Andrew

I find myself agreeing that I’d like to get back into doing podcast recording in-person, too. In-person podcast recording is a lot of fun. Whilst remote recordings are great too, it’s the experience after hitting the “stop” button which is lacking.

Generally, when recording in person there’s a few minutes of setting everything up, a sound check, and lots of chatting and bonding; and when you hit the stop recording button, there’s a chance for everyone to relax and talk freely - leading to some amazing, yet unrelated, conversations. Whereas, with everything being remote you don’t really have that

and I ought to know. The majority of The Modern .NET Show is recorded remotely

I agree with AndrewD that:

AndrewD

We need to stitch these pieces together, because I’m hearing pieces of the story of how Waffling Taylors happened throughout various podcasts, and either the story’s changing or I’m hearing different parts of the story. And so you need to, at some point, stitch all the parts together and do, like, and origin story through stitched together pieces from different podcasts, and then see if the all match up, and see who’s right: you or Squidge

We might have to do this, actually. Watch this space.

More Uninterrupted Sleep, Breakfasts & More Cyberpunk

This time bringing it up with ZBoi, Squidge and I agreed that he has better chances of winning the lottery

and we’re not talking a jackpot or anything

than getting 14 hours of uninterrupted sleep. That’s when ZBoi tells us a story of pizza and laziness from his London days.

Jay

The interesting thing about cyberpunk [as a genre] is that the first few novels that are cyberpunky that came out before Neuromancer where set, at that time, in the past. It’s got nothing to do with futurism, but it’s really cool that they’ve sort of mish-mashed it together with tech-noir.

Then ZBoi drops some Shadowrun knowledge on us:

ZBoi

You know how like D&D is set during the middle ages with magic, and orcs, and warlocks and all that kind of stuff? Well, in [Shadowrun’s] world that actually happened, but it was in the middle ages… And then sometime around 2027, people started being born with, like, green skin and pointy ears and all that kind of stuff… Like this futuristic society that has orcs and goblins and all that kind of stuff, and magic, and hacking. So you can magically hack security stuff. They have all these mega corporations, and at the top of the mega corporations are dragons. Because dragons horde a lot of gold. It’s really cool.

Which sounds like my kind of literature. I might have to track down a Shadowrun book or two - apparently, there are quite a few.

We then have a quick game of “create a subtitle for Untitled Goose Game 2”, and ZBoi comes up with this zinger:

ZBoi

Untitled Goose Game 2: 2 Goose 2 Furious.

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. And ZBoi mentions a Waffling Taylors meet-up or a live episode

we might do both - keep it locked

ZBoi

Don’t come an poke me in the forest.

It’s important to know that we will be able to be social again, after all of this. In fact, AndrewD challenges Russell to do the maths.

Russell

HELLO, MY NAME IS RUSSELL AND I AM THE REAL DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THIS SHOW.

UPON QUICK CALCULATION, I HAVE DETERMINED THAT A 28 DAY FEBRUARY YEAR HAS A TOTAL 31,536,000 SECONDS IN IT.

Therefore, as Jay meets people for five second increments, assuming that he isn’t stopping to do human things like sleep or eat, he can meet up to a total of 6,370,2oo people in a year

Now back to the humans

#theydidthemath

Which then sparks a brand new idea for the next podcast that AndrewD and I can make: “2 minute interviews”

I never said it was a good idea

AndrewD then talks about an actress

and I use the term in it’s most adult way

who set a very specific record back in 2004.

Retro Console Rebirths

AndrewD brings up a great point about the rebirth of some older

some would say "retro"

console names and hardware lines, but with a more contemporary feel. Like the Intellivision Amico and Atari VCS

Squidge calls this the CVS, accidentally

At the time, I was still unconvinced about these new retro devices. Mainly because I don’t actually see the point. They’re emulators which are running on top of either a Linux distribution or Android

which actually runs on a Linux kernel

Sure you can boot the Atari VCS into Windows - if you have a separate USB stick with Windows on it - but at that point, you’re locked to the hardware installed on the machine. What you’re buying is an underpowered laptop in a fancy case… for a lot of money.

Still not convinced.

Then again, the Amico sounds like a good idea. That being said, the Ouya had similar goals and look how that turned out.

Dungeon Crawl Classics in a pub

ZBoi is hoping that working from home will lead to more time with his kids and game library

ZBoi

I reckon I’ve got over a thousand games, and there’s so many that I haven’t even installed

But that might have to wait as ZBoi is wanting to restart his in-person DCC sessions at the pub.

Squidge and I attended one of ZBoi’s virtual DCC sessions - it was over Google Hangouts - and it was a tonne of fun. So if the online version is anything to go by, the in-person, down the pub, version will be off the chain.

We all share the sentiment that whilst the Jackbox games are fun, they have been played to death this year. They feel like they were 2020’s answer to Cards Against Humanity

again, a fun game. But over exposed and played to death

After I bring up something that I was proven wrong about

it was originally announced that the Final Fantasy VII remake would be seeing a Switch release, but that has been silently dropped

ZBoi reminds us about what he calls the “ninja removal of features” with a story about DC Universe Online and cross-play, which was promised in all of the pre-release marketing. Which reminds me of No Man’s Sky, and loops us back around to ZBoi’s hope that CDPR can fix Cyberpunk 2077 and “pull a Hello Games.”

We then talk a little about No Man’s Sky. And Squidge reminds us that The Witcher 3, Oblivion, and Skyrim were horrendously broken on release, yet went on to become industry darlings

as well as memes in their own right.

What We’re looking Forward To

And here’s the table from this episode - I think you’ll agree that both Squidge and I stuck to our guns. Actually, there are a few points which didn’t make it into either episode

maybe we’ll release them as bonus episodes in the future

There was a further 30 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.

which I’d really like you all to hear

External Links of Interest

• Support us on Ko-Fi
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• Tabs and Spaces
• ZBoi on Twitter
• Zboi’s Samurai Cat videos
• AndrewD’s many podcasts:
  • Dreamcast Years
  • The Cross Players
  • Three Prix Pod
  • and any others that he may have thought of just now
• AndrewD on Twitter
• Rube Goldberg machine
• These are all cakes meme
• Goroawase
• Dreamcast Year Two
• Xbox 360 Technical Problems
• Radio Sega
• List of Shadowrun novels
• #theydidthemath
• Intellivision Amico
• Atari VCS
• Ouya
• DCC
• Death to 2020
• History of Swear Words
• Daddy Dreamcast

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)