Ep. 1285: Where E3 is no place for fanboys

-What's up everyone. It's Monday, June 17th, 2013. We're back, at least I'm back-- the 404 show on cnet.com. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Ty Pendlebury. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -Welcome to the program. Let me get this straight Ariel. -Yeah. -So I'm gone for an entire week, right? Ty, I'm gone an entire week. -You're gone? -Out in-- -[unk] sit next to you but, you know, I don't know what's going on. -I don't know. There were just a bag of bones there and I thought, I'm out there all week doing my thing. Justin has no shows last week. Justin can't do shows right? I'm out here-- -You can talk about him when he's not here. -Well, no I talk about him when he is here and I come back, he's not here and I have to do a show? -It's terrible. -Can somebody just like-- -It's your dedication to your audience. Yeah. -Well that's clear. I think that goes out the same Ty. I just don't know, right? Is it near crazy. -I think you just plan it perfectly man. -It wasn't even like a thought like you told me. I also-- I'm not gonna do anything while you're gone, right? -Right. -And I'm like, I guess. And what about when I come back? -He said, oh you'll do a show. -Right, oh yeah. -I don't get it. But you know what? I'm so glad to be back. -Sure, welcome back man. -On the air with Ariel and with Ty today filling in for Justin. -Good day. -I went to E3, I survived. I lived to tell the tale. -You drove a car? -I drove a car apparently, aggressively. -Yeah. -Because all of our SF buddies who I drove around while in LA wide knuckled holding on to the railings for dear life. -A lot of scared drivers in California. -Well, let's just get it out there. -Uh-hmm. -If you're terrible drivers in California-- -I would say California do [unk] that stereotype. They're horrible driver. -Terrible behind the wheel. -And I'm from California. We don't stay that. Just terrible like should not really have the option of driving. -They drive like they're taking their drivers a test the whole time. -Well said. That's absurd. -That's really cool. -I was really just completely blown away. I mean, I've never driven in LA before. It's very easy 'cause no one ever goes faster than 35 miles-- -On the freeway. -On the freeway and I did it. I did the whole thing. I took for the 405 to the one gen. You got all-- I did all that. I did all that. It's easy. It's kinda funny 'cause wherever you wanna go. You know, you would wanna go like 4 miles away. You gotta jump on like a major park way with 7 lanes. -Right. -Yet there still traffic. There's traffic from 8AM to 8PM and then it just-- it's a ghost town. And then you could drive anywhere you're in. That's where they really enjoyed because I was just getting to where I needed to go in really fast time, like really fast time. But it was fine. Hate LA but I love--and Ariel is gonna be super excited to hear this-- love San Francisco. -Yup. -What a great scene. -Yeah, it's beautiful, isn't it? -I spent 3 hours or 4 hours, they don't like to lay over when I was going back to Australia, so when I did CES I got like a couple of hours and just played around and went to mission district, went to [unk]. -That's cool. -So that's cool. -Great, great, great stuff and while we were there we heard about naked guy on the bar. -Oh, yeah, or either during that. -I was in that station. -Yeah. -I went to that station where naked guy was. -What does that mean? -You didn't hear about this? -No. -So apparently some disgruntled circus performer, right? Is that what-- -I don't know what he was. He's like a gymnast or something. -He use something there-- a trapeze artist. -Yeah, yeah. -Just went not so on the bar, you know, dung swinging and everything. -Yeah. -And just like, starting rubbing up against-- -Yeah. -We laugh at it. It was-- -It was pretty. If you were there, it would be terrifying. -Terrifying. -No, no. I was-- -They're just at the same station. -I was in the station where it happened. So we could probably look that up so I could confirm where I was but-- -I think the 16th Street. -Yeah, yeah. That's-- yeah, that's ringing the bell. Really crazy-- so the video-- no one gets hurt in the video so it's okay to laugh. -Uh-hmm. -Maybe some people get traumatized and in one beam making-- I'm gonna break eggs often, right? -Yeah, right. -So there are a couple of people who clearly upset about it but then the guy starts doing these acrobatic, amazing, you know, dance move. -Yeah. -And it's just such an absurd video. You feel bad like the guy clearly snap and you just totally lost it for whatever reason. But yeah, I was there. You know, everyone-- it's not like a tourist attraction. -Right. -Is this where the naked man lay down stomach first? Is this where he like hang out and do his thing and I was like-- -Unless there's a San Francisco street before-- -Yeah, that's all. -Yeah. -It was some weird art interpretation, if you will. -Yeah. -But yeah, I really love San Francisco, great city. -Awesome man. -I love it out there and just, you know, despise Los Angeles. -Just a miserable, miserable place today. -I'm okay with that. -And we're all okay with that. -I never actually made it to Hollywood or anything like that, so-- -You don't wanna go to Hollywood. -Yeah, I never really had any inclination and he's towing downtown in I think one of the beaches. -If that's your aspirations to make it to Hollywood, freaking change your aspiration man. It's just like not the place to be. It's just good as then. I mean the water is okay and that's what I was blowing away with San Francisco. I was like-- is it air-conditioning outside? -You're right. It was always cold, always-- -Absurd, this is like 60 degrees gorgeous. -Oh, yeah you would love that weather 'cause you like the cold. -Yeah-- -Second year round. -I was-- and then of course, I went in two-hour San Francisco office, which just pissed me right off. -That's understandable too. -Oh, man. This freaking place, it's like a bellhop-- -Yeah. -Walk-in. Guys like, let me take your bag, starts combing my hair. And I'm just like, are you kidding me? It was a-- -It's pretty nice. -You really had a tough out there. -Oh, man it was nice. -How did you leave that often and come here? -It was honestly pretty tough to leave but, you know-- -Yeah. -Gotta try something new. -You do. You never been there, right? -Yeah. -Have you? -No. -And now they have that big coffee room on the bottom floor, right? -Oh, my God yeah. -It's like the break room. -And we had to fight to keep that espresso machine. -Yeah, like literally hold on to it, dig our heels into the ground and as the person drag it away, you know, we make such a big deal like every other Thursday is like popcorn day here, every freaking day. I mean, we are talking about popcorn, okay? So it's not a big deal but every day you walk in it smells like a movie theater in there. -Yeah. -I don't know what the hell like the priorities are totally out of wack here. They have a break room with all the free beverages you could ask for, six floors of majestic office space. They have like roof access and-- -Did you go to the GameSpot floor? -I did. -Yeah, yeah. -That's pretty doped down there. -Games everywhere. -Games every-- it's just-- man, night and day difference. So cosmically depressing coming back to this office and just being like, oh, cool you know, I share my cube with a couple of rats, you know. Out there-- there's cube room as far as I can see and this office is barely, barely, you know, struggling to maintain some sort of working order. -Yeah. -We're busting out the scenes with employees. Out there, Donald Bell has 17 cubicles to himself-- to himself. -You get a lot of workspace, yeah. -So much workspace. -It's a lot more-- the setup is a lot more communal in San Francisco. -Yeah. -I love there, yeah. -I would like that. -I woke up to like, you know, to like Chris Parker-- -Uh-hmm. -And empty office next to my-- who's the empty office for-- this is my dog. -What? -This dogs got an office out there. Every-- there's once a month you can bring all the pets you want. It's like a freaking Utopia man. -Yeah, that started after I left. That and the break room after I left. -The Wild West man, it's where the opportunities are. -People coming off to me taken off their hats and saying like, "Hello, sir" it's a-- I just-- the words can't do enough justice man. That's how freaking amazing that office is. -It's pretty nice. -And you come back here and you're just like, what am I doing? -I'm home. -What do I've done with my life? Anyway, I know-- -Poor Jeff. -I know, I have a real tough-- when Justin comes back, I believe he'll be back Thursday. The son of a bitch. How long is he been gone? -Yes, like he's already been on vacation. -And he's just going out west, right? -I don't know. -Who knows what he does. Anyway, he'll be back Thursday and we'll have a lot to talk about specifically because I had Mexican food while I was out there. -Okay. Yeah, we gotta have it special. -And we can-- I know you wanna get into it now. -Yeah, yeah. -But I need Jeff here for that discussion. -Yeah, there will be a lot more back and forth with him. But what I do wanna talk about Is what I was there for, and I was there for E3, and E3 was a very interesting event this year because it's officially a freaking circus. -Is it because there hasn't been a console in many, many years and there was something new? -That's got a lot to deal with it but I think the biggest surprise for me at E3 was the fact that they are still very much invested in the current generation of consoles. When you-- when I was at, maybe not so much Microsoft's booth when I was at Sony's booth. The PS3 kiosks, by far, outnumbered the PS4 ones. They're-- I mean they even have like 19 places to play the last of us and that game was coming out on Friday. So, I was definitely impressed with how much, you know, sort of base time they were still giving current generation stuff and-- -'Cause Wii U just had nothing from here, you know. -Oh, my God. Oh, poor Nintendo. -There were just nothing. -Oh, that Nintendo thing was rough. -Yeah. -Oh, it was rough. -I didn't see the press conference. -They come-- 'cause there wasn't one. -Oh, they didn't even have one. -They didn't even have one. They have a little gathering at their booth, a few hours before the floor opened on Tuesday and it was a little sad and I feel bad because they are just totally out of sorts. They're in a different category now. -Yeah. -And, you know, it's just seeing them try and steal some of the thunder that Microsoft and Sony both shared much more Sony. It was tough to see them be like, Mario Kart 8 look at this, right here. You can play as, you know, all these characters that you remember when you were 4. -It was sad. -Just seems like there's been a lack of innovation on their behalf. You know, they made a console with a tablet. -Yeah. -Or they could integrate it with iPad or something. They don't have to make their own tablet. -It's really just a sad state of affair, what's going on with Nintendo and-- you know, I think the 3DS is hitting its stride and it's doing really well this year, so far. But we Wii U are just-- people gonna buy Wii U to play Super Mario 3D world? I don't think so. Are they gonna buy it to play, you know, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze even though those games looked great and I played them on, they were all awesome to play. And Mario Kart 8 is great too. I don't know. -Yeah. -I just don't know if it's like a system [unk] -That's even new IP. I mean, what was that black and white game from a couple of years ago? You had like a sword and you beat up people. -From them? -No, it wasn't from them. As it goes to the third party might or something. -Black and white? I don't know. -Yeah. I don't know, you just-- you use your Wii controller as a sword. -No. I don't know. Not ringing a bell. Yeah. -It's pretty cool. The art was really cool-looking. But that was the only IP I can remember. -Oh, I know. Like the red steel game? Is that-- -Pretty [unk]. The UB soft gaming. -But that hasn't been anything really new come out of-- that console for years. -No. And, you know, and everyone talks kinda talks behind their back too, you know, like all the third party developers they're all like, no thanks. Like what are we spending millions a bucks to a game on the platform that no one really owns. It's sad, you know, and I don't know where they're going with it but, you know, you gotta just hope for the best with them. I don't know. -So tell me more about Microsoft and Sony then? -So this one-- -I mean, there seemed to be, you know, some people thought that Microsoft won, some people thought that Sony won. I'm sort of-- in the middle somewhere. -Yeah, me too. -I don't think that the used game things were such an issue for me. -No. -And that sort of won the battle flips Sony fans. -Well the fan boys decided that. -Yeah. -Okay? So we're at Sony's press conference and I'm sorry but it's a goddamn circus. They just let all these people in and they're standing and applauding every time the Triton guys says one little thing. Don't forget ladies and gentlemen and I'm so sick of all those crap again for people call me an Xbox fan boy. They could go after themselves, totally honest. You know, it's just so ridiculous like these people they're standing up and they're applauding. They did nothing. They're not changing any other policies. -Yeah. -They just didn't do anything. And they were rewarded for their not doing anything. Don't get me wrong. I understand why you're upset with Microsoft have their basically eliminating this cultural fascination that we've been afforded for all these years with the trading and selling and all that stuff, but if they do it the right way, it's not going to affect you and the way you think it's going to affect you. It's not going to bend you over. Okay? So relax. Everyone needs to just relax. And I got to interview Mark Whitten a little bit and talk to him, who is the general manager at Xbox Live and I was like, okay, you know, that kinda make your case. Let me-- and if they get the pricing right, which is matching on their digital store, what used games go for in GameStops and stuff like that? They will be fine because you won't feel that where it counts and that's your wallet, right? So as long as you're able to do that, it's okay. Would you be able to share game with a buddy? Well, not at-- not like I can give you the disc Ty and you take it home with you. It's not gonna work like that. I'm sorry. It's just not gonna happen. But, you know what, by the end of this generation, all these people are gonna be digital anyway, right? No one's really gonna be but unless you have no internet connection and you just completely strapped and, you know, you gotta drive 48 miles to the nearest Best Buy to get a new game, that's really what we're gonna be dealing with. -Do you think this is led by a consumer or is it actually led by Microsoft or any of the game publishers that they're trying, basically, trying to get rid of GameStops. -I don't think they're trying to get rid of GameStops, I mean, indirectly yes 'cause they're trying to get rid of that secondary market. And, you know, from a developer's point of view, I'm not too happy about my game getting sold and sold and sold and sold and sold and me not getting a taste to that. -Yeah. -You can appreciate that, right? -But what is-- I've never actually seeing any breakdown of how many people buy new games, how many buy-- -No, no. -Second hand games, all-- -They definitely-- it's sizable for sure. -Yeah. -I mean, there's no doubt about that but, you know, I don't know. I don't know how this gonna work or play up, so we'll see. But, you know, the big sort of takeaway was that Sony had won because all they did was say, we're not changing our policy about anything. -Yeah. -And the applause that erupted in that stupid arena after he came out and said that it was just like, you know what, this isn't for journalists, like what are we doing here? They're applauding standing up like it's the second coming. And, you know, I'm just like, guys relax, okay? And there were people in front of me, behind me, these jokers, these losers. Relax, okay? He didn't just say they cured cancer. He said you're gonna be able to play used games on their video game console. -Yeah. -Okay? Relax. Okay, that's really-- grown man like grown freaking ass man applauding like they-- when Kingdom Hearts 3 came out. There were some schmuck behind me, I'm not joking. He was an inch away from crying like straight up crying like, "Oh, my God". It's like-- I said, man I'm psyched about playing that game too. I am, I am for sure. But they didn't just announce like World Peace. They didn't say that. They just said this freaking Final Fantasy Disney games coming back that everyone figured was gonna happen. -Yeah. -So just calm down. And I just-- yeah, it just pisses me off. You know, I don't think and I know I'm sure I'll offend people by saying this but I don't care. It's not-- E3-- if E3 is gonna be for the public, let it be for the public. -Yeah. -Okay? Like it creates a misguided representation of what's happening there when you let all these people in and you compromise the integrity of the reports because, you know, those people in those arena is those people on the floor, those people staying in line for 3 days to go to a press conference-- -Yeah, I could imagine going there. -How are you gonna forward places as you forward comes out when you're clearly don't have a job sir? Right? -Yeah. -So he took time off. -Am I crazy? -For sure. -Or you took like, you know, like prioritize your PTO man. And I just don't get it. I just don't get it and I think by letting that public, you know, sort of element into the whole show, you're compromising what E3 should be and I think that's the way for journalists and reporters to report accurately and fairly on what's happening and I don't think we can do that now because of what's happening-- -Is it just that these conferences are changing and that they're trying to appeal to the public? CES is probably changing as well, you know, all of these big sort of things that used to be for a specific group and now opening to the public-- all, you know, in the case of WWDC opening to journalists. They just trying to incorporate more people that I guess to generate more hype. -Oh, that's to all it is like they don't care about us. -Yeah. -Like that's how they feel. That's how I feel. You know, I'm like-- -I'm only come to sell themselves. -They do. -That's a good thing about them. -It's fine but I also think like there's this certain buzz that really, you know, creates this false impression of what's really going on there, you know what I mean? -Yeah. -And they love it. So it's not-- and it's not up to the journalists to decide who goes and who stays. And, I mean if some normal, you know-- and they make money of it too like it cost a lot of money to go to E3, just as like a regular dude. -Right. -So, I don't know. It was just-- it was sad man. And it wasn't just Sony, was that Microsoft too like when Dead Rising 3 was announced. Oh, my God. People behind me-- forget it. -Why are they standing behind you? -I don't know. They're all behind me. -They're waiting for your reaction. -And there were almost like they're right in my freaking ear too. And I was-- and Roger is not here today but I wish he was here today so he could speak about it, how absurd it was. It's just like, you know, and I'm working there. I'm doing the live blog. I'm taking notes for stories later on and I got some freaking, you know, girl behind me and I say, girl-- -That was a girl? -No, I said-- and I say girl, like this grown man is acting like a little school girl. -Okay, makes sense. -Yeah. Gender equality is not quite there yet. -Women like games to but I'm making fun of this grown man saying he's acting like a little girl. And it's just absurd and I can't deal with it. I just can't. Next year we're gonna have to have some sort of barrier. -Right. -Like somebody-- -Like somebody at concerts. -Yeah, some walking-- maybe put me in a bubble. -So the people in the motorized scooters for the air tanks. They'll have their own little chorale. -Yeah, exactly-- would love it. Put them in a box somewhere, just let them fan out, you know, 'cause I think fan boys are the worst things in the world, I hate fan boys, right? -Right. Who-- -I don't feel-- -Who can respect a fan boy? -I don't feel that passion or about any sort of particular guy [unk]. -Of course because you're a normal human being that operates in the same Universe as we all do. -Yeah. -Except for these select few, these degenerates and you are-- I mean they are. Doesn't matter if Apple-- even Apple and Android fan boys too. -Yeah. -A world would be a much better place without them. -I mean they're very rabid. They're must rabid of anything. -Crazy, oh my God. -Yeah. -Undying loyalty. -'Cause I may know-- I was a fan, I wouldn't say fan boy but I've moved to Android and I love it. So, you know, I just go for the technology that superior and honestly I don't think the Xbox is superior or such but I was a PS3 player that was my first console after the Sega Genesis. -Oh, wow. -So-- -It took some time off. -I'm off for like 20 years, I was a PC gamer hardcore. -Yeah, right. -Went to PS3, I'm actually thinking of going to Xbox. -Really? -Yeah. -So that's interesting. So you definitely fall into minority with that. -Yeah, I'm going from one to another. -Because everyone is so freaking excited to tell you how they ditched their Xbox 360 already. -Yeah. -Right? They've done it 5 months before the console comes out. -What are they gonna play? -What do you gonna do 'til November guy? You're just gonna sit there super psyched that you gonna, you know, play Kill Zone when it comes out. -Salivate over Youtube videos in 5 months. -You know, and so I'm interested in why you are "switching to Microsoft"? -I do like the idea of smart integration, obviously over tv reviews. So-- -Right. -I like what they're doing. I mean that's what their first press conference was all about, you know, the cable integration. Obvious-- I think their only partner was Comcast, is that right? They haven't announced for Time Warner or any of the other-- -It sounds like you're gonna be out to do anyone. -Yeah. I mean that was pretty impressive, you know, I can remember when they did but it was like channel 29 or, you know, you wanted to watch ESPN or something. -Right. -It just came up. -Well, you know what's really interesting, did you read what I wrote about the kinect and how the kinect is gonna be the IR blaster? -Yeah. -What is that? -Is that crazy or is that's just me? -That's kinda cool. -It is cool. -Yeah. -So, did you hear about this? So kinect, the new kinect, which is all-- everything smaller than you think too. -Yeah. -Every console's smaller than you think. -I like the way everything looks. -Yeah. Well, I like that it's all black. I think Xbox is kinda ugly. I actually-- I think they're both ugly. -Yeah, it's a bit big boxy. -It's weird, right? It's-- I don't know how to get it. I can't imagine a plane's black box looking much different than that, right? -So, what they're gonna do is the new version at kinect, which you need to have it comes with a box. That's gonna blast IR out. Like so there's nothing-- you know, I was thinking about your wire that little blaster on top of your IR sensor for your [unk]. No. What kinect is gonna do is it's gonna shoot out IR into your room and then have it bounce back towards your TV and control all your devices. Is that crazy? Can that work? -It could. It depends on when you put your kinect and if you put stuff behind a cupboard. -Right. Well then you said you're gonna have to wire it. -Yeah, okay. -So I asked Mr. Whitten, I said, "Dude, am I gonna get blessed with like an unhealthy amount of IR?" -But it's only heat. -It's only-- yeah, it's only light. -Yeah. -So he said, he's like, "Yeah, you'll be find. You're not gonna get like weird IR skin rashes or something like that." So that was pretty impressive and he said a lot of smart things like, "hey, you know, kinect is located near your tv usually." So it just makes sense for us to just blast your room with it and it's gonna bounce off walls, bounce off you and go back to the thing-- so that sounds pretty cool. So I was kind of excited about that. -It helps if you're pasty. -It does. Oh, my God. I'll be able to control anyone in that. I was gonna-- that's gonna be like my little super power. Jay Cole in the chat room brings up an interesting point and I wonder if you could speak on this too since you're saying you're gonna move over to Xbox. "In my opinion in the Xbox showed me a better selection of exclusive titles that would want to play but the PlayStation 4 doesn't have their restrictions and it's cheaper." So I'm-- no, okay so Liz Kyno, "I don't believe that's correct. I don't believe Final Fantasy is a Sony exclusive. If it is, it's a timed exclusive." -That was a thing like a lot of things that they said, they actually announced a few exclusives at the time. -Right. -But like Titan Fall, is that what it's called? -Titan Fall. -Yeah, they announced that that was going to be an exclusive. -Well-- so what is gonna be a console exclusive. -Yeah. -Meaning, it won't be on PS4 but it'll be-- -Be on PC. -Yeah. -So, you gotta think about it like that. A lot of these things they'll don't forget, timed exclusives. In my opinion, while that's okay, it is not. It is most certainly not an exclusive through and through. I mean, you know, if you can wait just like the rest of the real world. We all wait for stuff, right? -I was waiting 'cause you get cheaper prices that way. -Yeah, for sure. So, it's-- you know, I don't like this flimsy sort of talk about exclusivity when it's only a timed thing. It's like saying, you know, with the Xbox and, you know, how they get the Call of Duty DLC 1st. -Yeah. -All right, places you can get it. It's not as quick. It's like 2 months later from waiting. I'm okay. So, I thought. I thought-- and would you agree that they did slightly edged-out with the exclusives that they slightly-- Xbox kind of made the case that maybe they had a few more big Blockbuster exclusives? -Yeah, well I wanna play Titan Fall. That's the only game that sort of excited me. -Right. -I mean, what was the other sort of survival horror game that was PS4, I can't remember. Wasn't the last-- -Outlast? -Could have been. -That was-- that's PS4 exclusives but it's PC as well. -Yeah, okay. -I think Sony-- no one can touch Sony when it comes to independent development. -Yeah. -I think they are really, really making the case that they are the system to be if you are looking for independent stuff. I mean, and that's so important and Microsoft's inability to comprehend that or at least-- you know, have some sort of transparency where they appreciate it. -Yeah -'Cause the vibe they've giving off is like, we-- it's just not for us right now and we're gonna support a few things but-- you know what I mean? -Like one of my favorite games in the last few years is being Journey and that's a PS4 exclusives. They put the games [unk] made it. I don't see any of that sort of effort from Microsoft. And I don't see any games of that level coming from Microsoft either. You know that's a fairly unique type of game experience. You just don't get it, you know. And this has been said for a few years, you know, just stick a gun in the hand and that's the game. -Right. -You just shoot stuff. -Yeah. -There hasn't been that many games out there probably kept on one hand that come out a year that are really different and, you know, like Unfinished Swan for example. That was another PS4. -Sure, I dug that. -PS3, I should say. So yeah, I don't see games like that coming from Microsoft at all. -And it's upsetting. I know they are supporting a few indie developers but you still have to at one point get published and have publishers supporting your software. The Sword and Sorcery guys that iOS game they made, they're having a game exclusively on Xbox called Below. But that really was the only highlight in that department. -Yeah. -And that's the pressing man and what drives me crazy is that this is something they can just flip the switch on. -Yeah. -And they just sort of-- they seemed really stuck and I don't like that. So yeah, it'll-- and now if you follow history and you appreciate like where history has decided the console generation winners, you can make the argument that PlayStation will win simply because it's got the cheaper price and that's really would kinda boils down to as long as you're the cheaper console and there's no really debilitating feature, you're in the clear. -'Cause they're both basically in the same market actually. They're both using the same chips. -The specs are very similar. There's a few things that are different. I think Sony used of RAM is-- they're using quicker RAM and they're also using, I believe they're allocating all of the system memory to games, whereas, Xbox I've read is only gonna allow 5 out of the 8 gigs of games. -But just still a lot for a console. -Still a lot. Okay? You're not gonna be like, "Man, I wish that 3 more gigs of RAM, you know, I wanna play Rise." I guess it's not gonna happen. The Rising 3 I thought was good. I thought Rise was, I don't know about that game yet. -It's interesting. -I don't know about that game yet. But I really kinda wish Sony showed more big Blockbuster game play. They're just sort of tease stuff, right? Like that in the order. It didn't show any of that. -Yeah. -You know, Kill Zone apparently, like I'm still not convinced that people enjoy Kill Zone. -They've played-- I played probably half-an-hour of that game like I said, it was like the Kill Zone 102. -Yeah. -That's all right. These guys who-- like gasmask and shoot their eyes and that's it. -You know, is it me or they really trying to say, you know, like people enjoy the series like they're treating it like it's their Halo, but it's not. People love Halo. I don't love, love Halo. I enjoy it but who like-- Kill Zone which is not the same franchise. It doesn't have that power. -All right. -Well they show was 4 seconds of that Halo thing. People lost their minds. -They're going to desert with that thing. -Yeah. -Yeah. -It's crazy. I don't care, it just doesn't have that same buzz. -No. -It's just not as popular and there's-- the pros and the putting, the numbers are there. But again, PlayStation 4 a hundred bucks cheaper, it's gonna be very interesting to see what plays out. -I think they'll enjoy the same sort of popularity if they do now. I think all-- -You do-- -People will forget all of the used game stuff and just become part of that, you know, background knowledge. So-- -Well, and it used to be that people made such a big deal about backups compatibility. And when you get your console, you never even use it anyway. -Yeah. -So will that play true with the used games discussion? I don't know. -You just keep your own old console. -Yeah, I guess. Right? Like whatever happen to that. Guess what? New consoles come out, your old one's worthless. So you're not trading it in and if you do, you get what-- $40 for-- -Yeah. -Come on. Return my $40 here. I don't know. -Not worth it. -I just-- I don't know. I don't know how it's gonna work. I'm still very interested to see how the tv-- the live tv-- how, you know seamless and how well that transitions as an overall experience? I'm still very skeptical about that whole setup. -This is the Xbox control thing. -Yeah. I'm still skeptical. -I mean-- that was a canned demos, so-- -Of course. -And they said, oh, it's live and I'm controlling it via the Xbox that you can actually see. -Right. I'm a freaking ballerina. Okay? So let's really cut through the crap and see what it is. -Yeah. -So, you know, again-- my fall is gonna be bunkers reviewing these two things. So we'll see how it goes and-- -What about the size? You did say that, that was smaller than you'd expect it. -Yes. -I think similar size together. -So, Xbox-- -Like the one is smaller than the other? -PS4 is smaller than Xbox. -Okay. -In the press conference when it came out, I said it was like massively different. It's not. But it is noticeably smaller. -How do they compare to the testing console. Are they smaller than those or bigger? -I would say, they are similar in size. I would say, Xbox One is similar in size to-- it's a little bigger than a slim Xbox 360. It's a little bigger than that, a little thicker perhaps. But the PS4 just feels like very thin and even smaller. So it's crazy. I also don't know about the power supplies if they're on-board or if they're, you know, chained in the power plug. We don't know that yet. -So that was a lock to angle little case. -It could be in there. We don't know yet. So that-- you know, the jury is still out on that. I really like the Xbox controller. I think that's-- I think it's awesome. -That don't have a share button. -There's no share-- but all they do, there's-- there are 2 dubious buttons on there right now, but we don't know-- -Okay. That share button is terrifying. -It's kinda funny. But yeah, there's-- the PlayStation 4 controller is definitely an improvement over the 3 but I just like personally my personally brand, I do like the Xbox One controller better. There's just-- and they fixed the whole deep head mess. -Okay. -That's just the nice experience now too. So, it'll be cool to see where these 2 go. I'll tell you one thing. The PlayStation 4 like touch pad that hold-- count that out right away. Yeah. It just doesn't seem like I-- -I don't know, it might be good if you like typing in like letters or something or-- -I don't know-- maybe if I can like somehow like draw and like make those turn into letters. I don't know. I'm trying to think like I'm really trying-- and I didn't really see anything convincing of how that's gonna be implemented in game play. I just-- I don't know man, I don't know. I don't what's-- -Gestures-- -Yeah. -They talk about gestures or anything like that? -No. But they might of but I didn't hear anything like that. -Yeah. You know what looks really good? The Witcher 3. -Yeah. -That looks great. There were a decent amount of games. I think the South Park game looks awesome. -I didn't hear about that one. -Yeah, they're making it a turn-based-- it's an action-adventure with turn-based battling but it's hilarious. -Yeah. -Oh, that looks really good. You know, Watch Dogs was there again but that's out in a few months. I'm trying to think something that really stood out as like something down-- Titan Fall was pretty impressive. -Yeah, I like the-- 'cause I like [unk]. -Right. -That's why I'm looking forward to if they have Battlefield 2143. -Right. -'Cause I love 2142, that was an amazing-- -Yeah. -So it sort of looks like that but a bit more action [unk]. -For sure. -So yeah, you know, I'm definitely down for answering questions people have. You can send it to the 404@cnet.com and maybe we'll get to the rest of the week in answering that stuff. But that's really is. If there's anything else you-- or super curious about before we say goodbye. -I think last week, a couple of weeks ago, we actually did some lag testing. -Right. I was in on that. -Yeah, so I don't know if you've talked about it on the show previously but we put up the results last week. So basically, if you're a console player, what TV should you buy to basically get, you know, better lights on. -Right. I mean, this is a huge deal. People don't realize like you could possibly be playing a game on a console and realizing-- you know, why am I getting Jack and Call of Duty all the time. -Yeah. -It might not be you sucking. It could be your TV having an input lag. -Yeah, like-- and it was a lot more than we expect it. -Oh, my God, a lot. -So the best TV which was a Sony 802, it's about 2,000 bucks so it's a bit pricey compared to, you know, the 600 bucks jobs that you can usually get. So it had about 14 milliseconds. -Right-- which is almost unnoticeable. -Yeah. You won't notice that playing it on the TV, but the worse was like between 100 and 120. Now that's definitely noticeable. -Yeah. Did you play all these TV? -Sure. How many did you play with this, like-- -I think-- like 6. And basically how we set it up as we gave Jeff the controller [unk] what game we play. -It was Black Ops 2. -Okay. So essentially we said-- here's the TV. -Right. -What do you think? And your findings were pretty much on the money with the lag that we would anticipate it came from them. -Right. -So, think to like-- there was a TCL, which is a Chinese brand that had like a 100 milliseconds and you really felt that. -Oh, it's terrible. -Yeah. -Very delayed. -I mean, you can change that right. You can change the-- -You can change the sensitivity but it's still not-- -Because that still have time lag. -Yes. It's still not giving you that, you know, real-- it's not compensating for the lag. You're just basically requiring a shorter, you know, movement to do the same movement but again, it's still gonna be lag. -Yeah. -So there's no real way around it. -Speaking of TV stuff, you had a question for Ty, right? -I did have a question for you. So, okay. I just-- this is very specific. -Yeah, let's hear it. Okay. -But you're not-- TV knowledge to the test. -This is the guy to ask. Yeah. -So I just moved into a new place in Brooklyn and the-- I mean the designing, figuring out where am I to put everything. The place I'm gonna put my TV is pretty small so I'm looking for like something-- and I want it wall-mounted. -Okay. -So I'm looking-- I think like the biggest I could fit is 36. -Wow. That's small. -Yeah. -How far will you be sitting from this thing? -Let see-- I probably setting like 3 feet, 3 or 4 feet. -Okay. That's pretty short. -Yeah. It's a small area. -Okay. -I mean, if it's that close, right? -Yeah. -That's why I figured it'd be cool, you know. -Well, is this a closet like-- -No, it's just a side area of my living room. -Okay. -Which is-- I mean, like real small area. -Okay. -Yeah. I mean, you can even look at the monitor for something that small because I mean, increasingly TVs aren't being made in those small sizes 'cause there's no margin there. -Uh-hmm. -If you make a 65-inch TV you can charge thousands and thousands of dollars for it. -Right. -But 32-inch TVs are like commodity. -The free-- -Yeah, pretty much. -What's the next above 32, is that 37? -Yeah, some people make 37s. -Yeah, 37. -So I could probably fit 37. -40-42. Yeah. -But it would have to be like a small bezel. -Yeah. -You know-- -Yeah, wouldn't go for LG. From what I've seen so far-- I mean they make really think bezels but they've got back line problems because they don't have-- 'cause the actual panel isn't connected to the actual frame. -Oh, right. -You can push it in. -Oh, really? -So the actual panel is sort of free and-- -Oh, that's wacky. -And the back lights, they doesn't look like they're still fixed and you get like huge, crazy big spotlight problems. -Yeah. Uneven, right? -Yeah. So if you're playing with dark games, you'll see big spots. -Oh, that sucks. You're saying more monitor--- go with the monitor? -Yeah, I mean. I've just got myself a new-- I think it's a 2412. That's not great for watching TV but it's a bit more multi-purpose I guess. -Okay. -But I mean, from what I've seen, the smaller Samsungs, they make some good 32-inch TVs which also can substitute as a monitor as well. -Uh-huh. -But yeah, unfortunately, we're not looking at the new range. We usually look at the 32-inches as it comes up to Christmas and the Holiday season. -Right. -As you get like the door [unk] like [unk]. But just generally, I'd usually say Samsung for the smaller sizes. -Yeah. -And stuff like Toshiba is a good too. -Yeah? -You're a fan of Toshiba? -Yeah, although they looked like they've gone for all cheap panels this year so I don't know. -It's gonna get [unk]. But [unk] good as well. -The sales? -Yeah. -Okay. -They've put a lot of effort into the video quality. -It's amazing how they've done-- like what they've been able to do. -Yeah I mean they actually enter the Australian market for about 6 months. -Yeah. -They tried to get in and-- yeah, I mean there's a lot of margin in the Australian market but I know it just didn't work. -All right. -So what's the price range around for the-- like that small of-- -For 32? -You should be able to get away with like 300 bucks. -Oh, okay. That's not bad at all. -I mean, if you can stretch to like 42, I'd definitely say get something like the S60, the Panasonic S60 which had, you know, in the lag test, it was really well. -It was awesome. Yeah. -Okay. -And that's really good too. -Forty-two? -Yeah. -Yeah, I would have to have like no bezel at all. I think-- -Yeah. -We'll measure it out. I mean, just-- -But you can just chop it off too if you want. -One of the weirdest questions I always get is the-- I've got a wall unit and I need a tv of this exact dimension. -Right. -It's like just find you a wall unit. -Yeah, right. -But I mean if you have a spice that, you know, physically something else-- -Against the wall and just, yeah-- -So what do you gotta-- like a cabinet or something that's-- -It's kinda like next to a closet sort of, like this is just the position in the area if I have it overlapping it'll be weird, you know-- -Okay. -Like I'll take up hallway space or clot a door opening-- -Yeah, so you gotta keep it in shape. Yeah. -I mean you can always look it like just spending from-- you can spend a lot of money. -But how do you do that? -That's fancy. -It's like-- like a-- oh, you could do that. I mean, the pretty line but-- -Yeah. -You can get mounts that will actually attach to the ceiling. -This is mounted from a pipe string. -Yeah. Basically a string right ther. -So just think about that. -That's it. I didn't think about that the mount ceiling. -Yeah. Why not? -Yeah. -You're fancy. -Yeah, I mean it sorta like 10 kilos or whatever you have in pounds your crazy pounds. -Oh, less in our pounds. And then before we left we wanted to mission really quick that, you know, we have been saying this forever how 3D is just going away of the buffalo. -Yeah, no one cares about it. -Then what's happening to ESPN? -Well it's interesting. They announced last week that they're getting rid of them dedicated 3D test. -Bye. -I mean, it's terrible. Yeah. I really wanted to spend that far to $10 extra a month. -Like what the hell did they think was gonna happen? All right. -I mean they came out. They are one of the first to say yes. We're gonna dedicated 3D channel. Everyone is excited about Avatar. He's like, yeah man, this is amazing. And then Piranha 3D came out and-- -And that was it. -And the industry tanked. -Yeah, yeah. No one cares about 3D. And I don't even say that it's 3D on the poster anymore. -Right. -He just get there and just like oh, I've got to pay an extra 5 bucks for this 3D. -Exactly. -So the interesting 3D is whining, which I sort of predicted that it would-- -Right who? Right we all said that. -Yeah, yeah. I mean you get 3D now and it'll just come with the TV if you buy a TV. -And that's that? -Yeah. You pay actually for glasses if you really want that. It's like 4K and another thing that's coming out. -Right. -You just have a 4K TV. -Yup. There won't be anything you can watch in 4K. -You'll just have it. -Yeah, it's like, you know, the Apple screens, you know, the retina display. -Yup. -You won't have any content that'll fit retina but you'll just have it. -You'll be able to do it in fantasy land. -But it sort of good that ESPN is getting rid of the 3D channel because-- I mean, [unk] I never paid for it, never watched it but it was a lot of radio runs and-- Who wants to watch an old game in 3D? -Right. -And that's particularly spectacular game. -It's weird-- and everyone put on glasses, it's just so stupid. You kinda like, what were they thinking. Interesting fun fact before we leave. Two terms-- two bits of terminology not used in other press conference. -Right. -3D and 4K. Interesting. -Not once. -Not once. -It's like, they just can't do it. Like I mean, if you get an uber good graphics card, you can 4K. -Sure. We actually did that with-- we had a 4K screen a couple of weeks ago. -That's right. -And I don't remember what part was as GForce or something probably. -Yeah, -I mean, you're looking at 800 bucks for it just [unk]. -Oh, screw with you. Come on. -So there's no way they're gonna be able to build that sort of technology into a console making it affordable. -Sorry, not gonna happen. -Yeah. But 4K, you know, you don't need that. -Nope. -Don't worry about it. -Don't worry about it. That's gonna do it for us. -Excellent. -Don't worry about it. That's it. 866-404-CNET, that's our phone number. Thank you Ty Pendlebury. -Thank you very much. -Follow Ty on Twitter @TyPendlebury. Always a lot of good stuff coming out of Mr. Pendlebury. -Yeah. -All right, make sure you do that. -Punk rock. -A lot of punk rock. Old school punk rock. -Yeah. Run it this way if you're lucky enough to see them-- -Yeah, rock and roll dude. And then you can e-mail us at 404@cnet.com. Justin is back on Thursday. We're gonna work on some stuff for tomorrow and Wednesday. Stay tune for that and we'll be back tomorrow. Hit us up. We'll see you soon. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Ty Pendlebury. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -This has been the 404 Show, high-tech, low brow. See you guys tomorrow. -It's fosters for beer. -It's fosters-- -What?-- -Still not getting over it. -And he's striving for beer. -How to speak Australian. Is that okay? -Yeah, Australian. -Nice. -I need to use more no's. -I just speak Australian. -I'll try that out. We'll see you guys.