PCC Multiverse #433- The Ending Of Andor, Doom The Dark Ages, And Is Fallout Headed To Vegas?
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Don't be alarmed. The quasi-shimmering light before you is a trans-dimensional gateway to other worlds, other voices, other thoughts, and other realities. Up feels like down, and down feels like the number seven on a Wednesday morning. Don't worry. That quivering, blood-boiling sensation under your eyebrows is all a part of the charm. Welcome to the PCC Multiverse. Another episode of the PCC Multiverse. It's...

Gerald Glassford, thanks so much again for joining us. Truly want to give a big shout out to everyone out there who checks us out, whether it's on podcasts or radio stations worldwide. Just cannot thank you enough for all your support over the years and just looking forward to another great conversation in the fascinating world of pop culture. But I couldn't do it alone.

And I'm not going to do it alone. I always have a good friend with me. And today's good friend is someone who you know and appreciate his infinite wisdom in the world of pop culture. A man who I went and had and made sure I put TGO on the envelope head for the great one. When I sent him his copy of...

the outstanding PlayStation 4 video game that got remastered, but he wanted to go ahead and have the original of Days Gone. It is the great one, TJ Johnson. TJ, great to have you here. How has been the adventure of Days Gone been so far? Oh, well, first and foremost, G, thank you for having me. Second of all, thank you so much for sending that. I think from here on out, though, I'm going to have to be introduced as TGO.

the great one because that was that was i'm reading i'm like tgo and i promise you i had this epiphany bulb moment it was a little later on because i'm like why would he say tgo what was t what would tgo stand for what the heck and then i'm like oh it hit me like a sack of bricks man so now

It took a second. I had a slow moment. It took a second, but I got it. I got it. But anyways, man, thanks so much for having me on. Thanks so much for sending that. That was awesome. Love it. I've been a fan of Ben Studios' Days Gone since... I can't say I played it when it first came out. I have to admit, I did not play it when it first came out. But when I bought my PlayStation 5 and they had the Essentials collection and they had that as part of it, I got to experience it for the first time and I was just...

I was floored by the world and how just engaging it seemed to be. And I was actually pretty shocked at the reception that I received and the lack of sales and all the above. I just, I couldn't imagine it. So yeah.

This remaster was right on time as far as I'm concerned. And I'm hoping that they see the excitement, they see the fanfare behind it and decide to maybe move forward with a sequel. I mean, who knows? Worse, weirder things have happened, you know, longer development times and longer years have gone by without extra games. So, yeah,

It could happen, but if not, you know what, this is a great way to send it off. So thank you so much for that. And looking forward to another fantastic episode of the pop culture cosmos. I still couldn't believe you when you told me that prices of that game had risen so sharply in your area. That just blew me away. Yeah.

I mean, I understand that video game prices, depending on which video games do dramatically rise and fall,

on occasion of some of these older games. I know that sometimes it's like stocks. They just, you know, the way they just, according to price charting, they're one day at $5, the next day at $50. But yeah, it just blew me away when you said that. I'm like, man, all right, so I'll go check it out. My good friends, Retro City Games, just had it for like 20. And I thought, okay, you know, that's right around where I thought it would be. Maybe a little bit less, but you know, it's,

I just didn't think that game that sold, what, two or three million during its initial run would be that expensive just because of the remastered.

I'm assuming it's because you were able to upgrade it, I think, for free or upgrade it for a minimal amount because of it? Yeah. It was pretty much the standard upgrade fee for PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5 or previous gen to current gen technology, which is $10 if you have the previous gen copy of the game. I think that's what it is because if you didn't have the

So for people like me who didn't buy the original at first, who got to experience it for the first time through the Essentials collection on the PlayStation 5, you had to pay $50 for the upgrade. You had to pay for it. Yeah, they wanted you to pay the full price. $49.99. And I just...

I understand that I never bought the original game. And I also understand that having not bought the original game, I technically have never given money towards the purchase of this game. So I get it. However...

you know, I got three kids, man. I can't spend $50 on a game that I can get for $10 or, or elsewhere, you know, for, for that same price for a much, much cheaper price. So that's when I started looking at, you know, okay, well I can just go find a copy of it for like 10, 15 bucks somewhere and then pay an additional $10 for the upgrade. That's not bad. 25 bucks all the way around, you know, and I never once bought the game. And when I go to call like of the local game,

GameStop or Disc Replay or whoever. One, a lot of people didn't have the copies. And then the one place that I did call that did have it, they said they wanted like 30 bucks for it or $35. I'm like, what? For a game that is as old as this, you guys want how much for it?

And they say that their prices are dependent upon the demand for the title. So, or how much stock they have of it, the demand of the title. So they had people buying up the other copies. So that's why the prices on them started to go up. And I'm sure somebody got wise and said, Oh, we were going to buy it for this reason. So we're going to raise the price. So it's, it's, it's, it's profiteering. It's almost like war profiteering, but.

you know it's it's it's kind of the way of the world so as as mad as i am at it i'm not mad because i get it but at the same token you know the best way to do it is not spend your money on it so i was like i wasn't gonna buy it with them i was gonna buy it with somebody else and you happen to have a a good buddy indeed was able to send it out so i appreciate you guys man thank you all

No worries. All the time, man. No worries. Just glad to see if I can help you. Glad to help you in any way possible. So now you are...

through the world of Days Gone and it's remastered so I'm hoping you will enjoy it. Yes. I know that my good friend Douglas Hoyobu of Retro City Games swears by this game. He swore by it back then. He was one of the early champions of this game. So I hope you enjoy it thoroughly like he has. Absolutely. Absolutely. In the middle of all the other stuff I gotta enjoy. Well

One of those. And I know we got a ton of stuff to talk about today, but one of the things I wanted to talk about was a game that just came out on Game Pass and PlayStation 5 because, you know, they're now PlayStation's largest and best-selling third-party developer, and that is Xbox. Boy, I didn't think I would say that 10 years ago, but I am now. Yeah.

With that, it is, of course, Doom, The Dark Ages, which is supposed to be a prequel. Does anybody really care about the time frame and where this fits in the timeline? They just want to go out. You just go out. You kill things. You're on a different planet, a different world. You're a space marine looking to go ahead and just shred aliens up and demons from hell and all that good stuff.

And you're doing just that. It's a little bit different from Doom Eternal in the way it moves and the way it feels, but it's no less thrilling. It's no less impactful. Have you had any chance to go ahead and at least give Doom the Dark Ages a little bit of a try?

No, you know, I haven't had the opportunity yet. I worked today and I think it released, was it on Tuesday or Wednesday? It's on Tuesday, right? Yeah, Tuesday. Okay. All right. So I haven't had the opportunity to play it yet, but I do have it pre-downloaded. So it should be ready to go for me by the time I make it home today. I'll definitely be giving it a shot. I got to admit the Doom franchise for me was one that

One that has a lot of history. And what I mean by that is probably one of the few games that I can remember that I actually played with my dad. And we didn't play much. We didn't have the greatest of relationships. But I do remember...

having LAN parties with my dad and, you know, him being upstairs and I'm downstairs and we're death matching each other. And, you know, we would do that until, gosh, two, three in the morning. So I have very, very vivid, very fond memories of that. And of course, you know, I was way too young. I shouldn't have been playing Doom at that age, but, you know, you don't know what you don't know. And my parents back then, they were just enjoying having fun or

And I was just enjoying doing something with my dad. So I say all that to say, fast forward now years later, you know, the new Dunes, it took me a while to get into them. It took me a while to kind of get the rhythm. You know, there's a certain rhythm when you play Dune. There's a certain flow. You've got to keep moving. You can't be stagnant. You can't stand still. And it took me a second to kind of grasp that concept. But once I grasped the concept, I tell you, I held on to it. So

I have to play in the first Doom or the newer Doom, if you will, and then Doom Eternal. I'm all in with this next one. I just got to make sure I carve up enough time to get it done and get into it. So I'm with it, man.

I'm happy for you, my friend. And the fact is I've spent just a little bit of time with it myself. Again, this harkens back for me. And I've said this on the show before that the first times I got to play it were when it was shareware.

shareware and you know basically it was free and people were passing it around so that was very enjoyable to play it for free and get those full Doom experience later on and Doom 2 it just really enjoyed it and then of course I also played the LAN party at the time very expensive silicon graphics workstation at a

At a place I was very familiar with, you know, helping to make movies happen in Pacific Data Images doing special effects. So I remember us getting together as a crew and, you know, it just is something where I enjoyed it very much at the time. Getting together is the first real experience I had playing multiplayer games.

And I just thought at that time, what the future of multiplayer could look like. And obviously that melted into Halo and other multiplayer games that really came up. But the fast, frenetic pace of Doom was always a blast. You know, you didn't care about the story. Some space marine, aliens, hell, stuff like that. Bars, something like that. Yeah, you don't care about all that stuff. Yeah, demons and all of that.

Yeah, you just want to use a chainsaw. Just want to use a chainsaw or a BFG and get out there and kill things. And Doom is not complicated. It doesn't try to remake the entire thing. I know that this one is a little bit more plot oriented than others, but it doesn't go heavy into it. It does tell probably the best story

story of them all, which is, you know, the bar's not set very high on it, but I will say that, you know, it's all about the killing. It's all about what you're doing out there on the battlefield and the unique ways of you doing it, plus your shield,

Your shield that you can also use as a weapon that you sling back and forth is very satisfying, along with the variation of guns. There is no true BFG or chainsaw in this one. There's just a lot of really, really good guns that all feel good. And again, it's another success story for Microsoft in a slew now of success stories since Redfall.

They have really turned things around. And I think this caps it off. I mean, I understand next month they're going to go ahead and have a conference on what's upcoming for Xbox. And we've got Gears of War Reloaded coming up later this year. But this is the final game of this period of time between Flight Simulator and

of last year, heading into Indiana Jones, heading into Avowed, heading into South of Midnight, heading into all the stuff that they've made previously, plus all the releases for PS5. They are on a road of really solid games. And I, for one, say it's great. But man, if they only brought it out, this slew of great games, this slew of good games,

seven years earlier five years earlier excuse me and and things might have been different things you know i don't i don't know if things would have been different and i i'm a firm believer in everything happens the way it's supposed to happen when it's supposed to happen um i think that this is really kind of a perfect scenario for xbox and here's what i mean by that if you think about the last four or five years how many big playstation releases have we had

We've had Spider-Man 2, which was, you know, it was a big release, but it was clearly a disappointment as far as sales and as far as its overall critical reception. Yeah.

And then after that, you really haven't had a ton of new releases or new experiences on the PlayStation 5. So the reason I say that we're really kind of in a sweet spot where I actually think Microsoft is in a really, really strong position. And I think this is probably better that they released it like this because, you know, the last major game releases have all been Microsoft titles. These have all been titles that have been put out by Microsoft or one of its subsidiaries or one of its studios that has purchased games.

Microsoft is really running the gamut on

the consoles right now. Not the consoles, but as far as the games are concerned. They're really running the gamut. You're listening to the Pop Culture Cosmos. I remember going back and looking at all these acquisitions, the Bethesda acquisitions, the things that just finally got approved or finally got officially approved and nobody can contest it anymore. All these different acquisitions, the Activision. And we were saying, okay, well, where are the games? Where are the games? Where are the games? And obviously the pandemic happened. And it kind of really put a damper on a lot of things. And I don't think I...

Personally, as a consumer, realize just how serious the restrictions of COVID really were to game development. I'm thinking, you know, they all work on computers. They can work on computers at home. They can do all that stuff. But it's a completely different, apparently, you know, it's a completely different beast working on that type of stuff at home, trying to get all that stuff figured out in the middle of raising kids at home. It's just different.

Say that to say, you know, we're finally at the period where we're coming out of all the things that were in the works during COVID. Obviously, we're still waiting on Grand Theft Auto 6 until May 26th of 2026. But whatever the case may be, we're coming out of the tail end of all the things that happened during COVID. And now we're really kind of seeing the fruits of that labor, the fruits of all those acquisitions starting to play out. And it really goes to show, you know, and, you know, we've been talking about it.

I've been talking about it a lot of times, even when people have had some harsher stances on Microsoft and what they're doing. And granted, while I think that there's something that should remain pure to Microsoft, I'm looking at the Halo series. I was thinking Gears of War 2, but apparently they weren't thinking Gears of War. I'm hoping that it stops with that and doesn't go into Halo, but

I say that to say Microsoft is very, very keen on everybody being able to play Microsoft products no matter where you are, no matter what you're gaming on. And while I think in the grand scheme of things that that's cool, where they're really showing it as being the better way forward is literally

All these number one titles being sold on other consoles are owned by Microsoft. And we're talking about the Forza being a number one seller on the PlayStation. Indiana Jones being a number one seller on PlayStation. Like,

all these are Microsoft-owned studios and Microsoft-owned products. So they really did go to show, hey, we know what we're doing moving forward. And a lot of people were questioning their direction, questioning their leadership, and honestly still are. They're still questioning the direction of what they're going to do. Are they going to turn to the next Sega? Are they going to turn to the next software distributor? Are they going to turn to a quasi-Steam? What exactly is it that they're looking to do? Are they going to make consoles? There are still a lot of questions that I'm hoping that this upcoming conference

will kind of help ease or answer some of these questions and ease some of the concerns that Microsoft enthusiasts like myself may have. However, what can't be questioned is Microsoft said that they knew what they were doing. They said to just trust them. And they said to just kind of let this play out

And now we're really starting to see the fruits of that labor and starting to see the return on that investment of time. Was it frustrating? Absolutely. But here we are now, 2025, and Microsoft is just...

I mean, they're coming out with hits left and right. It's actually pretty cool to see. I can't keep up with the games that they're putting out right now. And the quality of the games that they're putting out is actually really good stuff. So now if they start putting some of that ingenuity into their hardware, into their controllers, into their peripherals, you know, I think you really are putting yourself in a position to be much more of a contender to Sony than you may have been in the years prior to. I mean, you couple all that with the Game Pass experience

which is still by far the best value in gaming, even if they did change the conversion rate just recently from Xbox Core to being able to go Game Pass Ultimate. They just changed that conversion rate. So even though they did that, this is still by far the best value in gaming. And as you can see just from the title that we've just been talking about between South of Midnight and Doom Eternal now, not Eternal, uh,

During the dark ages. Thank you. The dark age. That's what I meant to say. Between that, during the dark ages, the Indiana Jones, all these games are day one on game pass games.

And I mean, it just goes to show you the absolute value in this game pass. So I really do think Microsoft is in a position to set themselves up very, very nicely for the future. They just have to think they have to be clear on who they want, who they are, who they want to be. And I think that's the part that's really concerning moving forward for Microsoft and the Xbox brand is that.

figuring out who they are and who they want to be moving forward. So the future is bright, but we won't pretend like there aren't still question marks over what they're doing at Xbox. The thing is, though, if they're going to go all in with Gears of War, putting that on the system, on the PlayStation 5 like they are with Reloaded, and then also as well later on with E-Day,

I think you got to go ahead. I disagree with that. I think you got to put in Halo. I think the Master Chief Collection, I understand, is the holy grail, but they've already dipped their toes in the water too far. I think if you put Gears in there and you put Fours in there, I think it's inevitable you got to put Halo. I mean, Master Chief Collection, now that it's finally been updated enough to where it's probably a great representation of Halo, I think it's about time that you do it. I know it'd be absolutely weird

And absolutely just, I guess, different from what we said one year ago, even, where we both didn't want this to happen. But it's happening. They want the cash. And what a way to go ahead and introduce people to the world of Halo. Introduce a new audience to the world of Halo who have never wanted to step into the world of PlayStation than with the entire Master Chief collection. I just think that would probably...

spice things up. I mean, there's no more sales you're probably going to get for Xbox with this game, this collection, which is still very much an incredible selection of games. I just think it'd probably be best to go ahead and just introduce it to a new audience. And if it's all about generating revenue, what better way to do that than have a seven-year-old, eight-year-old game? Maybe even, no, that's about seven, eight years old.

go ahead and be introduced on a new system and make millions off that? Absolutely. And if I was thinking with my head as opposed to my heart, I'd be right there with you. And obviously I'm pretty sure that's what Microsoft is doing. They're thinking with their head versus their heart. And this is probably why I'm not a business owner. Because I'm looking at it from the standpoint of Nintendo has not put a Mario game on Xbox or Sony.

Sony has not put a God of War title on Microsoft or Nintendo. So it's like, okay, so Microsoft is willing to open up their vault, open up their titles that are close to their hearts.

and allowing the world to experience them on different platforms, I feel like if that was reciprocated, I'd feel a little bit differently about it. And again, this is my heart, not my head talking. I feel like if it was reciprocated, I'd feel a little differently about it. But because it hasn't been reciprocated, because you have Microsoft consumers who have not had the opportunity to play some of the Spider-Man games or the Gods of Wars, any of the titles, it

if they don't own a PlayStation console, if they don't own a PC, because obviously you can get those games through PC. If they're strictly Microsoft console gamers, they haven't had the opportunity of experiencing those games. And as a, again, Microsoft enthusiast, I really feel like there are some things that you just need to hold on to. There are some things that are bigger than dollars. There are some things that are bigger than...

revenue generation. And that is preserving, to me, preserving a legacy. Now, granted, again, preserving a legacy can look like different things to different people, depending on how you're defining preserving, right? Getting additional sales on another console is a way of considering, would be considered a way of preserving a legacy. And I can understand that concept. I just...

Again, my heart talking here, it just doesn't feel right. It just doesn't feel right to even talk about the Master Chief on a Sony PlayStation console. Now, granted, we could be talking about an inevitability at this point. However...

the Microsoft love in me is like, just please, that's got to be the one thing that we can't do. Like, you know, the original Xbox didn't have Gears of War. The Xbox 360 is what introduced Gears of War. So Halo, again, is a little bit more revered on the Microsoft standpoint than Gears of War. Not that Gears of War isn't revered. It absolutely is. And for great reason. But we're talking about the Holy Grail. We're talking about Master Chief. We're talking about Halo.

And that's a different ballgame, even when you compare it to Gears of War standards. So I don't disagree with the fact that it's probably an inevitability. I don't disagree with the fact that we are more than likely going to see a Master Chief collection of some sort on a PlayStation console or any other console. We may even see it on the Switch 2 console at this point. It does not change the fact that my heart says that this feels wronged.

It doesn't mean that it is wrong, and it doesn't mean that it's not going to be a money swimming in like Scrooge McDuck. It doesn't mean that they're not going to be hand over fist pumping out copies of it and getting PlayStation gamers on board. It's just that there's this love fest happening, and Microsoft is the only one giving the love. Well, does this mean someday we'll get to...

the Resistance Collection or the Ratchet and Clank or some other type of famous PlayStation IP on Xbox. I'm not holding my breath there, but

Uh, we will see in the new age of video games that we're playing in right now and, and Microsoft being all in on this transition. Uh, I would have spaced things out a little bit more as far as further releases, uh, personally, uh, you know, both on PlayStation five and Xbox, but it kind of spaced things out to let things breathe. Cause you wonder like a game like South of midnight avowed, which are really solid games, uh,

Will they get played by the right people or the right amount of people? So we'll see. But yeah, Cooper DJ on Twitch says it's what's best for business. So we will get Socom on Xbox or Uncharted. If it's what's best for business, PlayStation doesn't have to blink an eye because they're ahead of

four to five to one in comparable consoles. I don't see them viewing the Xbox marketplace as enough to go ahead and make it worth their effort. But the PC market

and focusing on that for PlayStation, that is going to become of great importance for them over the course of the next few years, TJ. Yeah, and if we're still talking console sales, absolutely. Microsoft doesn't have a leg to stand on in this choice. But if we're talking about what it looks like to be a gamer in 2025, 2026 and beyond, and what it looks like to be able to play these different titles on different consoles, I think that it goes to show that Microsoft is willing to

to allow that to happen everywhere. And the way of the future may not be console sales. The way of the future may be in software and may be in digital distribution. And what Microsoft is showing is that that's our focus moving forward. They've already, for better or for worse, waved the white flag as far as the consoles. They knew that they weren't going to catch console sales from...

almost from the word go. The PlayStation was outselling the Microsoft console. At one point, it almost seemed like it was three to one. I think it ended up going back to two to one. But saying that to say, they've been outselling them. They waved that white flag a long time ago. They're more interested in the distribution. They're more interested in getting Xbox brand everywhere. So yeah, I can understand it being quote unquote best for business from a dollar standpoint. But again, and again, this is why I don't own a business because in my heart, it's like, okay, yes,

that might be best for business, but is that the best business for our brand? And there's, there, there needs, for me, there needs to be a difference between the two. Yes. Dollars do money talks and BS walks. I get it. But my heart is just like, you know, it just, it just doesn't feel right. Be that, you know, be that as it may, it just didn't feel right. So it doesn't mean it won't happen. As I said, I'm sure it's an inevitability at this point. It's just a matter of when they decide to push the button.

uh PlayStation Plus can't hold a candle to game pass especially when it comes to PC Koopa uh saying and I I definitely agree although I would love to see an Uncharted I would play through the Uncharted series again on Xbox just absolutely I don't know why but I I guess I would so um especially for the cost Koopas yes you're right uh it's something that they're dipping their toes in but uh you know just like

Xbox is charging you full price for going on PlayStation, for playing their games on PlayStation. I know with PlayStation, they're making sure they're going to try and charge as many of their upfront games when it finally gets over to PC as much as possible, trying to maximize that opportunity from that growing community on PC. But yeah, just definitely interesting to hear your thoughts on that.

If you guys out there like Koopa, have thoughts, and definitely looking forward to getting Koopa back on the show when he can as well. But yeah, if you want to go ahead and share your thoughts, please go ahead and let us know. Are you happy that a lot of these Xbox games are headed over to PlayStation? I know Melinda is. My good friend Melinda Barkhouse has a lifelong PlayStation owner.

owner who was constantly said on this show that she would never ever migrate over to xbox she didn't have to she didn't have to now she has no reason to do that now because she's getting all the xbox games over to her but if you have thoughts on that please let us know pop culture cosmos at yahoo.com you're listening to the pop culture cosmos

Well, one half hour down. It is, of course, the great one, TJ Johnson, along with me, Gerald Glassford. Thanks again. I truly appreciate it. Yes, Koopa, got to get you back on the show when you're up and able to, my friend. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the world of video games and pop culture. It is, of course, though, here, the great one, TJ Johnson, along with me, Gerald Glassford. Thanks again for watching and listening.

What does Disney Plus do now? Well, Ironheart, but that's over a month away. So everybody just cancel your Disney Plus subscription for a month before Ironheart comes on because Andor has finished its run. Season two is over with its last three episodes that debuted this week. I had a chance to go ahead and check it out. All I can say is the great one. I don't know how much of Andor you have seen.

I will say that episodes seven through nine are the best. I'm going to be in the mix with this. I'm going to be in the overwhelming opinion that episodes seven through nine, TJ, are as good as Star Wars that's ever been all the way back to Empire Strikes Back. Only Empire Strikes Back, I think, is what I feel is better.

But not by much. Seven through nine episodes of Andor are truly outstanding. Did they stick the landing is what everybody is asking with the latest 10, 11 and 12 episodes, the final episodes as it leads you into Rogue One.

I'm going to say they tied a lot of loose ends, but there's still a lot of shoestrings that are actually still like hanging out all over the floor because they didn't get a chance to close everyone's arc.

But they tried to do as many as they could. And in doing so, they did tell a good story at the end and finishing off, leading you into the events of Rogue One. It makes for me the Rogue One movie better. I'd given it a right around a seven, seven and a half, right around the same that I gave the initial Star Wars reboot to.

When it came out, you know, as far as when J.J. Abrams rebooted the franchise, I thought it was right around the same. So I'm maybe on a little bit lower side, but this has made Rogue One better for me.

This has made Rogue One a more appealing movie for me. It's this show. It's some of the best Star Wars, like I said. Season one, there's some really killer episodes too. And I think I mentioned that the same thing, that it's some of the best Star Wars they had done this century. Your thoughts on Andor? Again, there were so many stories that they had to tell. They couldn't tell all of them. Some of them they didn't have to. Like, for instance, Cassian Andor himself.

Spoilers, they tell you most of what happens for him in, of course, Rogue One. So they don't really have to finish his story. But, you know, all the characters that are in Andor, that are exclusive Andor, that are not in Rogue One, and also as well, to an extent, Saw Gerrera as well. This kind of little, just put him at little bits here and there, didn't really, you know...

do as much as I was hoping to, especially because Forrest Whitaker is such a great on-screen actor and on-screen character. But your thoughts on Andor? Again, they didn't stick the landing 100%. They got like one foot. They're like that gymnast that flies through the air and sticks it with one foot and then the other one is just like a little bit off because they didn't tell one story. They didn't finish everyone's story as much as I would like. But your thoughts on Andor?

So I think I have to probably be in the minority here. Oh, watch out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And here's what I mean. I absolutely loved Rogue One. And when I say loved Rogue One. You're not in the minority. You're in the majority. That's not why I'm in the minority. Here's what I mean. I loved Rogue One. I loved Rogue One so much that I have it ranked in my top three Star Wars films ever. Ever. Ever.

And that's a big deal for me because I'm a prequel guy. I loved, I loved Revenge of the Sith. I loved all of those movies. And granted, they might've been cheesy, whatever, overacting, underacting. Hayden Christensen was wooden, but it was because he was directed to be wooden, whatever.

I love those films. They just, they struck a special core with me just at the time that I got to watch them, you know, and I got to enjoy them with my younger brother and we would go out and have these lightsaber battles with these force effects lightsabers. And, you know, it was just, it was a very, very,

Very special time for me. So those have a very special place in my heart. When I tell you that Rogue One, to me, really reignited or reminded me of the magic that is Star Wars, the magic of what Star Wars could be. It was so much more than just lightsabers. But when the lightsaber came out, it got real, for lack of a better term. It was so much more than just...

you know, Jedis and so much more than Sith and light and dark. And it was just a great culmination of this entire world. That's why I was so excited for Star Wars Outlaw, to play in the Star Wars universe, to play in this sandbox, but not have to worry about if you're a Sith or if you're a Jedi, what color lightsaber crystal you're going to put into your, you know, like all the stuff that I didn't have to worry about.

Because I always wonder, well, what's going on with everybody else? Okay, Luke and all of them, they've got their own feelings, their own stuff that they're dealing with. But there's galaxies. We're talking about galaxies of aliens and different species. There's so many other things going on. So that's why it held such a special, special spot in my heart. And again, that last scene with Vader and the lightsaber and

Oh, I get goosebumps thinking about that scene. That scene was so intense. And you knew what was going to happen. That's what made it so intense. You knew what was coming. Anyways, I digress. I say all that to say I'm in the minority that have not gotten the opportunity to watch, or not that we didn't have the opportunity, but didn't watch Andor because...

I have such a reverence for Rogue One. I don't want anything to mess that story up for me. And a lot of times when these publishers, these producers, they keep dipping their toe back into places where they shouldn't be dipped into because they're trying to get more and more and more out of this particular property, this particular franchise, this cash cow, if you will. And it's like, sometimes more is not more and sometimes less. And I,

I was always very, very hesitant to get myself invested into these stories because again, I had such a high reverence, such a high reverence for Rogue One.

and their story and the world and the feelings and the people. So to go back into that and continue to dip the toe in, especially when Disney and the people that are running it have not really had the best track record of going back and pulling on some of those old strings to try to get new responses out of it. They haven't had exactly the best track record with it. So I'm one of the few who, even though absolutely loved Rogue One, I have not dived into the Andor series. However,

Hearing your analysis, especially on those last few episodes, does pique my interest a little bit more. So I may actually start the process of watching and or kind of getting into it. I can imagine that it would be a great story. I was just scared to do it. I've been hurt before, Gerald.

I've been hurt by Game of Thrones. I've been hurt by Rings of Power. I've been hurt by these shows that are based on properties that I love so much that I just, you know, I just, I can't, I don't want to be hurt again, Gerald. I just don't want to be hurt. However, if you're saying that it doesn't quite stick the landing, but it's still good, I can roll with that. I can roll with that. So while I haven't seen it personally, I can roll with if you say it's good, it's good and be willing to subject myself to it.

Season one is no slouch either. I thought it was really good. There was a couple of filler episodes, but there was some really...

peak Star Wars 2, especially with Andy Serkis, who gives a brilliant performance in the few episodes that he's in. So that's something to look forward to if you want to go through it. For the most part, most people I've talked to have enjoyed their time with Andor. Again, for me, it makes Rogue One even better and more fulfilling of a watch. But

Again, seven through nine, episode seven through nine, where it details a major, major point in the Star Wars timeline about the creation, why there was the creation of the Rebellion. It recreates that and it's something that's only been talked about and mentioned in a couple of other Star Wars shows. Something that actually needed to be told and it gives you a reason why, right?

that the rebellion is where it's at. And they did a great job of that. Plus, it gives you an insight into a world that you hadn't seen, really. I mean, not just the creation of rebellion. You've seen other parts of the Star Wars universe talk about and deal with parts of the rebellion or just life in that gritty side of the world. But you never really looked at the Empire side of things. What's it like going to work

and clocking in for the old empire, the old emperor and all that stuff. And that part I think was really intriguing. You know, something I wouldn't mind to have seen more of. There's actually a, actually a couple of characters in that work in the empire that,

that are really, really good that I think you should check out. I think you'll find that interesting. And just the way they portray life in the empire on a day-to-day basis was kind of interesting indeed. It is all mustache twirling, but they embrace it. They go deep into the mustache twirling when you talk about the empire. That in itself is really...

Really fun to watch. And again, for me, episodes seven through nine, this is the best Star Wars since Empire Strikes Back. And for me, it's plus also as well, a little bit of there were some scenes in season one that were way up there as well that I really enjoyed. There's a prison escape scene that is truly, truly fascinating to watch as well. So yeah, I give it truly high marks.

And then saying that, you know, I know Kathleen Kennedy is leaving by the end of the year, but finally she has something after so many sketchy years of up and down stuff in the Star Wars universe. She finally has something with the success of Andor that she can hang her hat on. It is Star Wars for adults.

I'm not sure kids will always get everything that's going on, but it is Star Wars for adults. It's meant, uh, like Rogue One is probably meant more for a skewing, an older side of the audience. Um,

And I know Josh and I have always talked about how Star Wars needs to get with the times and actually try to create a new part of the Star Wars universe away from the Skywalkers so that it can connect with a younger audience so that they can have their own Star Wars going forward. I understand that. I've said that. But for us who have seen Star Wars and have lived through the Star Wars experience, I think Andor might be the one last great opportunity

attempt by Disney and Star Wars to connect with our age of audiences, our audiences, our familiarity with the Star Wars universe, and it connects very well. Again, it didn't quite stick the landing as far as it was good.

But man, coming off the seven through nine, I think you just, it's good that you got a lot of good to finish off a lot of stories. I wish it would have finished off a little bit more. It had this montage at the end trying to go ahead and explain away everything. And you can't do it all in a montage. But outside of that, again, some really great performances. This will be considered for an Emmy. This series, I think this season will be

And it's a great way to finish off Andor. They're not going to make any more Andor. They wouldn't, they weren't going to do it anyways after seeing the price tag for it because everything was practical and

Not everything, but almost everything was practical. And everything that could be practical was practical. So you can just imagine what the kind of cost involved with it. But it is something. It reminds me a lot of what Star Wars used to be and the great storytelling it once had that for quite a few years has gone away straight away. So I'm glad for it. And I'm glad I was able to watch it.

And it does make Rogue One a better movie for me to watch. Again, I wish I had liked it more originally like you did, but I'm glad that I am now getting into that kind of group. I'm getting into that kind of demographic that really likes Rogue One and really appreciates it for what it is.

That's awesome. You saying that definitely gives me a lot more hope for it. And so it makes me a little bit more eager to give it a shot and not be disappointed, if you will, if it made you like it even that much more.

And then there's the skeleton crew, but we won't go into that. Star Wars for the Goonies crowd. So I'll just leave it at that. But it is, of course, Star Wars Andor. If you have thoughts out there like I did saying this is some of the best Star Wars since Empire Strikes Back. Again, episodes seven through nine are an emotional gut wrench episode.

And then also parts of season one as well are truly, truly brilliant Star Wars storytelling. If you have thoughts on Andor, we'd love to hear it from you. Please let us know your thoughts. Koopa Dijan agrees with me that I probably could have used one more episode to finish all those stories. But otherwise, it's really, really, really good. Star Wars season two of Andor is really, really, really good.

I hope you get a chance to see it. Yeah. And if you have any questions, let us know. Or any comments, let us know. PopCultureCosmos at Yahoo.com. You're listening to the Pop Culture Cosmos. Well, my friend, 45 minutes in. Still great to have you here as always. It is the great one. TGO!

TJ Johnston. TGO. I like it. Yes. TGO, indeed. But before we head on out, before we get to Final Destination and all that, Fallout really had a... They're doing upfronts this week. It's funny because streaming...

back before when streaming first started, streaming didn't need an upfront because they don't need the pitched advertisers. Well, now they need the pitched advertisers. So Disney and other streaming services have been doing upfronts all this week. Fallout

uh was debuted as far as the trailer is concerned for season two uh it's heading to new vegas wish they would have saved that off for a next season or or maybe a little bit later in the food chain but they didn't uh

So they're headed to New Vegas because that's, to me, one of the, is the best game. It's the best game in the Fallout series, in my opinion. Your thoughts on Fallout real quick before we get into Final Destination and some T-L-O-U before we head on out.

You know, I was never super, super heavy on Fallout. I have to admit. I thought it was one of the few titles that I did. I was able to play and I was able to get the concept. Well, let me ask you this. Are you more of a universal question or are you more an Elder Scrolls guy like me? I'm an Elder Scrolls guy. Yeah. I'm an Elder Scrolls guy. New Vegas is the farthest I've gotten on a Fallout game.

Yeah, and I, you know, if I'm being honest, I don't think I ever picked up New Vegas. I think I picked out the latest Fallout. It kind of piqued my interest a little bit more and kind of going through some of the funny situation, if you will, of the premise of Fallout and dealing with Vault-Tec and all this other stuff and what's really going on behind the scenes. I never really dug into that story.

After watching the show, I can say that I was probably a little bit more interested. It piqued my interest a little bit more. But I was never like, oh my gosh, I just love the world of Fallout. So while I'm excited, because the Fallout show was phenomenal. It was a great show. And it really is kind of part of this renaissance of video game medium. VDK is...

different mediums and feeding uh we're looking at you know again the last of us obviously looking at fallout the last super mario brothers son of the hedgehog franchise there's been a really good run after decades of dismal terrible runs it's been a really good run as the late of video game media video game properties being put in different mediums and succeeding so the latest fallout

was just another example of how good they've been doing. Now, with this new fallout going to New Vegas, I think it makes perfect sense to do so. You don't know how long you've got to strike while the irons, you don't know how long the iron is going to be hot. Right now, everybody's kind of all in on fallout and being able to experience that world in a different way.

And so I think it makes perfect sense if we're talking business, right, if we're talking with our wallets and not with our hearts. I think it makes perfect sense to go into the world of Fallout New Vegas. Now, what's going to be interesting is to see how they progress beyond Fallout New Vegas if and when the next season is ultimately greenlit.

That'll be the interesting part to see. But as far as I'm going to New Vegas, I would expect that because again, as you've mentioned, that was by far the best game in the, in the, in the series. And again,

it makes perfect sense for them to want to capitalize on the success and on the popularity of that series or that particular game in the series. So I get it. I'll be watching just because, again, it's Fallout and I've enjoyed what I've seen thus far. So I'll be watching, but I won't have the nostalgia factor that I'm having while watching another show, you know, like The Last of Us right now.

Which is where we're going to turn to next. The Last of Us Season 2. I want to ask your thoughts on this. I mean, you said you wanted to talk about it a couple weeks ago and I was like, maybe we should hold on. But I got to talk about it because the fact is I'm still kind of...

On the fence on whether or not they should have done the dirty deed and kill off Joel this early in the season. Now he's just going to be coming back for flashbacks. Oh, yay. You know, oh, it's a flashback. Oh, it's a flashback. Instead of just doing these flashbacks just as part of the natural progression of the series.

Your thoughts on this? I mean, we have seen previously major characters getting killed off on TV shows and that in essence, and some of them, not all of them, but some of them killed the interest in said shows. The Walking Dead, for one, is probably one that I'd like to point out. And even trying to bring back some of those main characters never really brought back the audience that it once had.

I'll start with that. But your thoughts on this, my friend, because TOLU, The Last of Us, again, still a really good quality show. But now we're just so focused on the events of what's happening in the part two of The Last of Us.

I just think, again, they should have waited until later this season or maybe at the very end, the last episode of the season to do this. I think it should have stretched out the Joel and Ellie story a little bit more. But your thoughts on the last of a season two so far, my friend?

Hmm. Okay. All right. Well, my thoughts on the season are going to be different than my opinions on what you just said. So let me let me start by saying that my thoughts on the season so far, I think the season has been been been pretty good. I've enjoyed it. There's some things that I do wish that they would have done differently. I'll get into that a little bit later.

But I think overall, the season has been a complete hit. And I didn't expect it to not be a hit. So it's really not a surprise to me that it's been doing a lot of the asking. Back for HBO Max, which, by the way, is for HBO Max, which decided to change back its name from what it was previously. Not just Max anymore. Now it's HBO Max. Yeah, God forbid. People get paid to figure that stuff out.

Everybody stopped calling it HBO Max. Oh wait, no they didn't. So...

Just give me a break on that. I remember I worked for a company called The Good Guys, a chain of video game, excuse me, audio video superstore. And they wanted to have a bright idea to go ahead and take the V out of their name and spend millions of dollars on that. And one of their last desperate moves before they actually eventually closed all those stores and

Everybody said, well, where are you going to go? They don't say they're going to go to good guys. They said the good guys. So HBO Max, yeah, all that stuff. Again, why? Why are you doing that? But need I digress on The Last of Us? Again, you think it's shaping up well. I'm not saying it's not shaping up well. I'm just saying that now we have to go ahead through a myriad of flashbacks with Joel and Ellie. And I'm sure there's going to be some of the audience that's going to get a little tired of that.

Well, again, that's where I feel like you and I are going to disagree on. And the only reason I feel like we're going to disagree on it is because it's exactly what the game did. I mean, we're not going to pretend like the game didn't have us go through flashbacks. And this is actually right in step with what happened in the game as far as the timetable of events. So I'm not surprised. I'm not shocked. And honestly, I'm not...

I don't think that you're going to lose the audience because of the flashbacks. Because again, we're talking about Pedro Pascal. And let's be honest, nobody's going to be upset with having more Pedro Pascal on the screen. I mean, he's been in freaking five different properties almost at this point. So nobody's upset with having more time with Pedro. And he's such an amazing actor and such an amazing presence on the show that I'm not going to be upset about flashbacks with Pedro. Here's where I...

Don't like some of the direction. And I know we've talked about possibly doing a season recap where we can kind of get more by episode by episode about what's going on. But I think overall, what I don't like is they gave us this entire backstory of Ellie. If you remember when The Last of Us 2 Part 2 came out,

We didn't know who this girl was. We knew nothing about this girl whose boots we were thrown into all of a sudden. Now we are seeing this new...

this new world through her eyes and we're seeing her go through things and and seeing her meet up with who we look at as the hero we look at joel as a hero and we look at joel and tommy meeting up with abby and oh my goodness abby's safe and you know i don't even know if we knew that her name was abby at the time i just know we knew of this girl and all of a sudden now she's killing off

who we all have come to agree or come to know as the main character the main protagonist in the last of us and we don't know anything about her we don't know her backstory we don't know that her father was a firefly we don't know that you know she's on this mission now to find and track down joel and she's tracked them down to this general area and now looking for him throughout jackson we don't know any of that information right as we're playing the game so imagine

Playing this game and dealing with this protagonist and they give us like the Metal Gear Solid 2 switch route where they gave you a little bit of Joel and then they took him away the same way they gave you a little bit of Solid Snake and then took him away and replaced him with Raiden at the time who was crap. It ticked everybody off. And I know it ticked me off, but it didn't stop the fact that I wanted to play the game. So I say that to say.

I wish that they would have stayed true to that and not given us Abby's backstory, not given us the, why she's doing it. The fact that she was tormented by so many things like, cause truth be told it, it, it,

We still don't care. We didn't care when they finally gave us her backstory in The Last of Us Part II in the actual game itself. Nobody sided with Abby. Nobody gave a darn about Abby. Nobody was empathetic to her. That doesn't mean that we didn't understand her motivations. We understood her motivations then. We get it. It's a revenge story. You're essentially the opposite character.

you're the other side of the same coin to ellie we understand that concept we just don't care uh well my friend it's been a great episode and since you and i uh really i've only seen the final destination series through my time on youtube and watching all the deaths there because really why do you want to go ahead and sit through and deal with any plot

My friend, please be careful since it is Final Destination Bloodlines weekend and is going to be the number one movie in the box office. But yeah, just watch out for those funny, weird things falling around your house and make sure you're not stepping on some glass or anything like that. But any last thoughts before we head on out? A couple last thoughts. One, in regards to the Final Destination, I don't think I've ever had a more influential film in my life. And the reason being is that to this day, I still would not drive behind a trailer that has logs

That's by cable on the back. I won't do it. I won't do it. I refuse. I refuse. I refuse. You can call me traumatized. You can call me over superstitious. You can call me whatever you want. I don't care. I refuse to drive behind the trailer that has logs on it. And that is because of the movie Final Destination.

But yeah, so after seeing that, I still refuse to drive behind trailers that have logs attached to them. So I'm not going to watch Final Destination. I don't need any more, any more glimpses into what could, would, might possibly be. Whatever's going to happen, just let it happen. Just let it be a surprise to me. I don't, I don't want,

i'll be thinking about moving forward have you ever seen this show it's on apple tv it's called severance you ever seen that yeah i come i think i've caught it uh maybe in that episode if you have or not but i started watching it let me tell you man that is a very very interesting premise for a show to be blanked out from your work life

and from your work life to be completely blanked out from your personal life is a very, very fascinating, very, very fascinating concept. It's kind of piqued my interest a little bit. So I want to thank you.

And I want to apologize that it's taking me so long to get on board, but I'm here now. Oh, that's okay. I mean, you and Josh, Josh's saying, well, I'm going to check it out. It's been three years now for Josh. He's going to check it out. So, yeah. There you go. Well, I'm here now. Let me tell you, this has been a heck of a show thus far. So I'm excited to kind of dive further into this world. Like I said, I'm only about three, four episodes in. In the world of pop culture, I am now catching up.

other things that i need to be caught up on and uh it's it's been it's been a ride it's been a ride i've been having some fun oh well i'm glad you're enjoying it again i've said especially season one one of the best original seasons i've ever seen fun season two certainly packed a punch uh as some of my best pop culture along with andor along with all the stuff we're watching tllu a lot of good stuff that you're seeing out there and hopefully you're catching it along with us but tgo

Glad you're playing Days Gone Remastered. And glad you're getting into Doom, the Dark Ages here shortly. And glad you're able to go ahead and catch all the great pop culture. Always great to have you here. It is TJ Johnson. And I know as soon as TOLU ends, you're going to be right back with us as soon as possible, my friend. You better know it. So for TJ Johnson, it's Gerald Glassford. It's another beautiful day in paradise right here in the pub.

Culture Cosmos. We thank you for listening. And here's hoping you have yourself a great day.