Sport Special

How is The Last of Us Part II looking in the latest trailer?

Chris - If you missed it, I'll play you a bit of it now.

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Chris - So we just watched it for the first time... it’s been really hard to avoid watching that trailer because it's so highly anticipated.

Leigh - What do you think

Chris - I like this game a lot. The Last of Us is one of the best games because the graphics are really good but usually that means that the gameplay is really rubbish. The shooting in the game is amazing, and the story really follows through as well... and it had really good multiplayer. It looks like it carries on from the first one with Ellie who is the girl who you trying to rescue in the first game. The massive shock there for me is that Joel... I think he's called the guy you played as in the first game... comes back. He's back baby.

Leigh - I mean I'm excited for it.

Chris - Yeah it looks like it's a bit more sinister than the previous games. Quite gory. More gory than the last one though, because in the last one the clickers... they didn't tend to have you know it wasn't loads of blood or anything but this one that went well yeah.

Leigh - It looks quite brutal didn't it... you love it because you like your zombie games.

Chris - I do but I liked this one particularly because it's from the same team that made the Uncharted series, so they've got that kind of amazing movement and story from that... but it just looks like they pushed the graphics up to the next level. Like the facial technology you know you can see people's emotions in their eyes and stuff. It's bonkers how good it is nowadays really.

Leigh - It's something I play. It's just it seems to be a lot of games out at the minute that are quite similar. Very similar storyline to you know Days Gone. Quite a similar storyline again isn't it. You know you've got to save the world and battle the zombies. I'm just waiting for something a bit new. That's why I loved Control.

Chris - Oh yeah. We reviewed that last month because that's something different. Their kind of selling point is that you can destroy the environment and throw it at the bad guys around it.

The Last of Us Part II is set for a February release and it's a PS4 exclusive. So if you haven't bought one… maybe for Christmas.
 

Chris Berrow - Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are coming next month to Nintendo Switch...

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Leigh Milner - Lots of people are very excited for this one.

Chris -  I thought I'd quiz you on your Pokémon knowledge. Now I know that you know the original hundred fifty Pokemon pretty well. How well do you think you know the new pokemon?

5 questions, some of them are real Pokemon, some of them are made up!

Okay question number one: Scorbunny.

Leigh - Oh you've made that up.

Chris - Scorbunny is a real pokemon. Fire type. It's a rabbit like Pokemon that has a white body in orange and yellow markings.

Pikamoo?

Leigh - Oh you made that one up as well.

Chris - Yeah I did make it up. I was pretending that it is a cow-based Pokemon!

Sliggoo?

Leigh - Oh I think that's a real one. Sounds like a yogurt.

Chris - Is it real Pokémon. It's a dragon-type Pokemon but it really looks like a slug. It evolves into Goomy. And then it goes into Goodrun at level 50.

Shoop shoop?

Leigh - I think most of our listeners will not know Cher… I’m saying real.

Chris - It's false. It's not a real Pokémon. I made it up because you're going to see Cher.

Leigh - I wanted it to be real and I wanted it to be a little Pokemon with Cher hair.

Chris - Question 5: Zigzagoon?

Leigh - Yes.

Chris - Zigzagoon is a real pokemon. It has zig zag markings but it's a raccoon.

Well you did very well three out of five actually which is a win.

Pokémon Sword and Pokemon Shield are coming to Nintendo Switch on the 15th of November so we'll be reviewing them in next month's episode.

Stephen Sexton has been nominated for a Forward prize for 'bet first collection'. He tells Chris Berrow why Mario inspired him to write poetry...

Stephen - I thought it would be kind of silly if somebody wrote about video games... not in general maybe but more particularly Super Mario World. And part of that…. I mean it's a little mischievous but part of it is a little bit about certain ideas of higher art and lower art which I don't necessarily subscribe to. But nevertheless I can't shake that because it’s there.

Chris - You said in one of the headline quoted things “for me death and Super Mario have always been connected”. Now there's obviously like a lighter side of that statement which is that if you play Mario and you’re rubbish, you will die constantly. But I think that there's a more serious side to that as well which you're working into this.

Stephen - That's absolutely true. And as I said much as I thought this would be kind of funny that it would be kind of silly... I mean my mother died in 2012 so when I was writing these in 2015 I suddenly got this feeling that that's actually what I was trying to talk about. So when I was looking at the video game and I was thinking... Yoshi’s House is one of the first places to go... there's a tree and a lot of little berries in the tree. So when I was thinking how do I make this into the real world as such... I thought of the house that I grew up in that had a holly tree in the garden. And it's all red berries.

Chris - That must have been really difficult because, you know you obviously didn't run out of ideas but was there a point where you said - how am I going to do all of the different levels in this... how am I going to relate everything and tie it all together because it must have been a huge challenge.

Stephen - My narrative I suppose is one that describes illness and cancer and treatment and a period of remission and ultimately loss. So it was absolutely hard to do that. But the hardest thing I suppose is being true to that experience even if a protective urge encouraged me not to.

Chris - You really have written a poem called Yellow Switch Palace for example and Yoshi's Island 2 is there next to Yoshi's Island 3. So it is giving you the framework ,but then you express yourself through that I imagine.

Stephen - Absolutely. And that structure was extremely useful. Donut Plains is missing a big hole in its middle. You know I managed to suggest perhaps that the Northern Ireland and Donut Plains are in some ways comparable!

Drew Miller Hyndman reviews FIFA 20...

Drew - Another year another FIFA. They've completely changed up how the gameplay works this year and I am loving it. It's actually difficult to play for against the A.I. again. They've also fixed the pace so a fast striker is actually faster than a sense of back. Very satisfying. You're not gonna be facing the same three strikers online and the same for defenders online because you've got a way out. Do I go for speed where I know I can probably outpace someone but will be hopeless in the air or do I get for a bit more height and hope that my pace is still a little bit higher than theirs.

I'm absolutely loving online play and I don't really play online. They've added new modes. They've done pretty well with pretty much everything that it's fun. They have got a new sort of story mode that replaces the journey mode of previous years. That's really cringey and actually quite unplayable in terms of cut scenes. It's fun to play the VOLTA mode, but it's less fun to listen to one dimensional characters deliver lines in a way that just makes me bite my tongue and curl my toes. But the main change is to the gameplay and I think it makes this FIFA probably one of the most revolutionary since we had the Frostbite engine first come to FIFA and I think it also makes it probably one of the best ones. I think this will actually be enjoyable.

The one thing that I think I'm not positive about is the changes to career modes that were really really hyped up. It is still another FIFA. In essence it is still another FIFA but it's probably the most different FIFA from the previous year. We've seen in a long long time and I'm really excited to explore all the new features they put in and the different ways they've changed the game.

Chris Berrow - So it sounds good but after about a week of playing free for 20 Drew actually sent us this update.

Drew - Now unfortunately for all this excitement there are several game breaking bugs coming in this game. It basically means that right now career mode is unplayable at least one of these glitches will happen to you. It's kind of sad and it's a real shame. And they have promised a patent is coming soon but. Right now it's not something that I can even play or recommend buying for now. Maybe when it comes towards Christmas time they will fix that but right now the bugs are pretty unforgivable.

Chris - So not actually looking as good as it originated. So maybe wait till it comes down in price.

Chris Berrow and Leigh Milner review one of the strangest games of all time... Untitled Goose Game...

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Chris - Untitled Goose Game was the number one seller this month on Switch. I love this. And it outsold Zelda: Link's Awakening. Rightly so because Zelda: Link's Awakening was a bit jerky as I mentioned last month.

It's basically a goose simulator. Stay with me here though because it sounds ridiculous but it's it's it's really good. You're a massively anti-social goose honking about stealing stuff.

Leigh - I mean there's there's a part where you untie someone's poor shoelaces. He's got glasses on he falls and you nick his glasses.

Chris - But it's funny though. But it's really like you know you're a brutal goose.

Leigh - Exactly right. And it's quite funny. You have some quite complicated puzzles you have to sort out. And for 18 pounds! I think that's very cheap.

Chris - The only criticism I have is that it's quite a short game. So you can complete the whole game in four hours if you're just going to bash through it... but you don't bash through.

Leigh - I disagree. It took me four hours just to get to the second level. But what I'll say is when Chris gave me this game...

Chris - You were not impressed at the idea!

Leigh - It is really really good and if you're in a long car journey or you're flying abroad to Antigua say for a wedding... It will pass the time quite well.

Chris - You get lists of stuff to do. So some of the objectives are things like steal the old man's hat and then have a picnic. So you have to like drag carrots out of his garden patch… get a tomato, picnic basket and a sandwich. But then every single character once you've completed the little level puts up a no goose sign. It could have a few more objectives but that might come in the future.

Leigh - It's out now on Steam and Nintendo's Switch, and its 18 pounds... and for more simulators download our Simulator Special episode from August. Available now on iTunes, Spotify everywhere!

Chris Berrow & Leigh Milner review Call of Duty Mobile...

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Leigh - Now the new Call of Duty Modern Warfare is coming next month. But if you can't wait that long then why not try. Call of Duty mobile. You get classic maps a great team deathmatch mode although the controls are a bit fiddly. It's basically the same maps that you've played before in previous Call of Duty games.

Chris - Although there are only five at the moment it's actually fine though for a free game as well. For a free download on your phone it was very good. The controls are fine. You know how it can be very difficult to do like a first person shooter on Your phone. Because there's no light analog sticks.

Leigh - I can't imagine how you would play that.

Chris - Well you sort of press onto the screen so the left half of your screen is moving around the right half of your screen is aiming but the hard bit comes when you've got to shoot and aim at the same time. But they've managed to do it reasonably well... then the new thing which I've never seen before is there's a Battle Royale mode which is very similar to Fortnite... we talked about Battle Royale modes for people who don't know what Battle Royale means. Have you ever seen The Hunger Games.

Leigh - Yeah.

Chris - It's basically like that. So you get a massive area is 100 people and the area gradually gets smaller forcing you to the middle and it's a huge massive Deathmatch and last person standing wins. I could see why people are addicted to it... in that mode you can go third person rather than first person so the camera can go over your shoulder which is I've never seen before in a COD game... so that's really good. It also got more downloads than Fortnite when it was released.

Leigh - I'm not surprised it's very popular.

Chris - You can stick a controller onto it and played through a controller but then what's the point of getting on your phone. I would say stick to deathmatch because the Battle Royale is is fine, but you know it's nothing special... but deathmatch is great.

Leigh - Call of Duty mobile is out now for mobile devices.