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Episode 2

S1 E2 · Detroit Gamesters

12 Plays4 months ago

CES 2025; Switch 2 leaks; EA and Ubisoft in retrospect; Warhammer, Stellar Blade, and Indiana Jones impressions; and our favorite anime and tv shows of 2024

Transcript

Introduction and Podcast Goals

00:00:00

Shameer Mehdikhan

Alright everybody, it's Detroit Gamesters, episode 2. This is Shamir, and I'm with my buddy Arjun, and we're gonna get right into it, it's the start of the year. So I thought we'd start off with some hot news topics, so I think the thing that is getting everyone's attention right now is CES, you know, talking about all the different brands and what they're really bringing to the forefront.

CES Highlights: Nvidia's New 50 Series

00:00:19

Shameer Mehdikhan

And yeah, Arjun, did you get a chance to check out any of the CES stuff? Not completely. I know that ah ah Nvidia announced a couple of their new product lineup with the 50 series, obviously some stuff with Lenovo and their all Legion handheld mobile device.

00:00:34

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, so maybe we'll start off with the video. Did you see the trailer at all for new graphics man? It was pretty good. I'm not gonna lie. I feel like every time in the video like has to present anything like they know exactly how to present it. They come up with some slick gameplay, you know demo and I swear in all these years. We've never seen anything that looks like any of the clothes to it, but.

00:00:56

Shameer Mehdikhan

Did they, was it a specific game in development or like a demo? Oh, I forgot the name. It did have a name to it, but it was essentially like a third-person shooter and there was just amazing particle threats, like amazing lighting. Like it really looked amazing. like So what's the new key feature of the 50 series that that compared to the 40 and 30 series, was it the multi frame generation for DLSS? I think that was like, one of the big stories, definitely, you know, you're getting more and more frames that are generated from the AI. And, you know, at this point, it's just kind of ridiculous what they're claiming. I think everyone online has been seeing, you know, you can get a 40 90, you know, and a 50 70 now, which is basically a quarter of the price, I think it's a third of the price, which is probably going to piss off all of the people who have a

00:01:38

Shameer Mehdikhan

A 4090. Exactly. And you're going to destroy the market, the used market now for 4090s. That's another thing. It's going to tank the prices. And then in terms of supply chain, like how many of these things are they going to actually be able to sell? Because as usual, scalpers pick these up really quickly, online only. You either have to be a member of Best Buy's paid membership or something else for you to even get it, which most people aren't.

00:02:01

Shameer Mehdikhan

So I just feel like I feel like we're rolling right back into those days. Yeah, scalping days. And the thing is with the video, like, I know their strategy is definitely working. And I think they are giving gamers like a sizable increased generation after generation. But I feel like it's kind of leaving a bad taste in a lot of gamers mouths, because, you know, for every generation now, like, you know, 3000 series, now 4000, now 5000.

Nvidia's Pricing and Marketing Strategy

00:02:24

Shameer Mehdikhan

They always make DLS such a headlighting feature, and they bring a new generation in it. And they're like, oh, yeah, well, too bad it's not coming to the prior generation. And then they're throwing out some insane numbers. but I really wonder you why can't they just bring DLSS forward to the older generation? That's part of their whole marketing pitch and the way they generate a lot of revenue is honestly they gatekeep the feature now to their latest hardware which generates a lot of interest and then so many people try to buy it and then they sell out and they go

00:02:54

Shameer Mehdikhan

we're gonna do it all over again and what's the cadence or frequency of how often they release a new generation i think they've been doing it about every two years and this time it's been three years but they they've been keeping it up and pretty much is backed out of the high end market so they really have no competition when it comes to the fifty ninety the fifty eighty s so they can charge what they want, they can do what they want at this point and people are gonna suck it up. And that's funny because AMD just I think also announced their new lineup of GPUs and even though it looks promising like just knowing that you said that the 57 is as cheap as it is like everyone's not gonna care this kind of just supersedes all that and I think

00:03:30

Shameer Mehdikhan

You know, again, you're getting into that territory of like potentially diminishing returns with this, maybe not like, you know, the iPhone, like Apple releases a new fine iPhone every year and you go, yep. And they go, they still go. And that's with very minimal changes. You look at this every two years. If you're getting the mass, it's pretty sizable.

00:03:45

Shameer Mehdikhan

Did they show a comparison of the current gender, previous gen saying this is the numbers? Okay. And what was it pretty much always do? I mean, at this point, I don't know the graphs off the top of my head, you know, I wasn't like, I'm not the biggest 50%.

AMD vs Nvidia: GPU Competition

00:03:57

Shameer Mehdikhan

It looked like it was for some games, they were trying to say double, but then there was a couple of slides where they were showing I think it was off the 5070 or the 5080 and they were showing games without the DLSS frame generation and you were still getting like 20% improvement so and for the same price or cheaper so across the board these graphics cards are way better you know I think in the video could have made it way more expensive but they did it but at the same point at the same time like I just can't feel

00:04:26

Shameer Mehdikhan

can't help but feel a little annoyed at the fact that they're just gatekeeping everything to every generation. and Even if I wanted to get a $40.90 and now the price is going to drop like crazy, like the back of my mind, I'm always going to think, man, that newest version of DLSS is just killing it.

PC vs Console Gaming Preferences

00:04:40

Shameer Mehdikhan

Part of it too is based on the hardware. The MLAI hardware, some of it's absolutely needed to support this new generation of DLSS. so I'm assuming they're calling it DLSS4. Is that what they're calling it?

00:04:50

Shameer Mehdikhan

So some of it, it's warranted. But at what point do we say, can we backroll some of these changes to previous generations of hardware? And I feel like maybe there is a way to do it. If they wanted to, they could find a way. I feel like they could. And it's like, you don't have to release it this often. Or they can build from the ground up, keeping backwards compatibility. Yeah, to some extent. And again, it's not going to always be possible. When you start to push the boundaries, you do need new hardware. That's why they upgrade some of those GPUs to say, you can only do it on this generation. But still,

00:05:17

Shameer Mehdikhan

I'm like, I've been excited for a long time about PC gaming.

Handheld Gaming and AI Upscaling

00:05:21

Shameer Mehdikhan

And it took me a while to get into it from consoles. But at a certain point, I go, this is so overwhelming. I don't want to really PC game because there's too much hardware out there. Yeah, it's like two minute too much variety, too much choice. And I'm like, I just want a console that I can pay for and run. It's just kind of straightforward. Yeah, I feel like especially when you get older, like, you know, it's just so much more straightforward. You don't have to worry about updates. You have to worry about compatibility and things like that. And Of course you're getting you best performance on PC, but I think, you this kind of segues into the next thing we want to talk about, especially with the rise of handheld gaming. you You've heard this from me for a long time. I've really been wanting a 5090, but now that I have a Asus ROG Ally, you I kind of don't have that same desire now to get a 5090. Because graphics aren't the most important thing to you anymore. And here's the crazier thing.

00:06:08

Shameer Mehdikhan

If you look at it, the fact that Nintendo, who partners with NVIDIA to have custom hardware and a custom SOC, they're going to potentially now have AI upscaling in their next product. I didn't even think about that, actually. And they're doing it. There's a specific patent that that just came out that was made public to reduce the size of their games on their carts, because their cartridges can only support maybe 60 gigs, maybe 30 gigs.

00:06:30

Shameer Mehdikhan

And they're going to be able to use this to downscale the input to maybe 540p. But you can still support 1080p games. And you reduce the file size by almost 50% to 100%. And it's so smart. I mean, that's going to be a huge game changer. And you right now, you're not going to, I mean, I don't see the PS5 or the Xbox being able to use that same technology, right?

Nintendo Switch 2: Features and Market Strategy

00:06:48

Shameer Mehdikhan

Because their chips are outdated. So it's kind of ironic that they're going to have to wait until the next generation to really get more AI on board. And meanwhile, Nintendo Switch 2 can you know, profit off of that right off the get go. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. Honestly, like, I know, we haven't got the official unveil the Nintendo Switch two and I'm super excited for like any moment. But the fact that they're incorporating that in some fashion makes me super excited because again, not only get do I get to portably game, I get to get a decent looking image from

00:07:17

Shameer Mehdikhan

Nintendo, who's never prioritized that ever for any of their goddamn games, including Breath of the Wild, things that barely run, you know, on they portable mode. And people have emulated those games on PC at 4K 60. And they're looking so good. And they look so damn good. And it's like, just give me something that runs stable. And I think, again, going forward now into the next generation of consoles, whether it's Xbox, you know, 2026,

00:07:40

Shameer Mehdikhan

or Nintendo or PS5, we just have different things to look forward to. And it's not going to be graphics anymore. yeah I mean, I'm loving that resurgence in handheld gaming. I did doubt Steam Deck a little bit when it came out, but it really has shifted the game a lot. now you have other manufacturers that are going to be working with Steam, Lenovo, to bring you Steam-powered devices.

00:07:59

Shameer Mehdikhan

And so, you know, you see that market growing, you see Xbox trying to get in, you see PlayStation trying to get in, you see Nintendo really just killing it where it's at right now. And so, you know, that's a good argument to have, you know, graphics versus portability and comfort, because, of course, we all want the most amazing looking experience. But, you know, if we're on the go and we just can't find the time to do it, you know, and how gaming really is a great way.

00:08:22

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, well, the numbers speak for itself, too. Nintendo just surpassed the PS2 in the US as the most sold console. And it's sitting at over 150 million. And you think about it this way. Nintendo has its brand specifically. Its own IP that sold that system at 150 million without games looking well. Now, think about what Nvidia is doing for it. You're now going to get so many third-party games ported over to the Switch 2 way more than the last generation. Dude, I think it's going to surpass 150 million.

00:08:49

Shameer Mehdikhan

You know, I think we're gonna get closer to that 200 million mark. Like dude, I'll be insane. Imagine playing now Call of Duty. Imagine playing Oblivion. Microsoft's trying to do that. So I'm telling you all on Nintendo too. That's a that's a big take man. 200 million. Dude, kind of insane. I don't know. I'm just super pumped. I feel like switch is still going man. I you know, and there's gonna be I actually just had a family friend who is who just bought a switch for his kid and I was like,

00:09:14

Shameer Mehdikhan

Hey man, you know, switch dudes about to like come out real soon. And he had no idea, you know, and, and I feel like even after switch two comes out, you know, if they, they would just do a price cut on the switch, which was kind of insane. I don't think the switch has ever had a price cut really, really never. And honestly, what they did was smart though. What they did, what X-Box kind of was doing in the prior generation is making multiple models. And Nintan has always had this kind of motto where you make the switch or you make some piece of hardware and then you make lighter versions of it. So the switch light being $200 already. It's super affordable. Yeah, it kind of feels that niche. So you don't really have to discount the original. Exactly. Parents see it out in the wild. They're shopping at some store at Target or Walmart. They go, yeah, I'll pick that up for my kid. They deserve that for Christmas. So it's just a win-win overall. And I still see, I still see switch doing numbers. Like I still expected to hit 160. Like I think it could even surpass the DS because I think the DS is like very close to that. Yeah.

00:10:09

Shameer Mehdikhan

So, yeah, I mean, you know, I have never been like the biggest Nintendo fanboy when I was when I was younger, I could never play Game Boy because my dad thought I would go blind. So I had to you hover over my friend's shoulder when he would play Pokemon Red and stuff like that. And, you know, my first Nintendo console as ironic as it is was actually the Wii U. So, oh, my God, that lead to the generation. And, you know, I actually still enjoy the Wii U. You know, I think, you know,

00:10:33

Shameer Mehdikhan

Getting into Super Smash for the first time of my life, honestly made the Wii U just totally worth it for me. and I had so much fun you that in grad school. and Well, it's even funnier that you say this now because you joined into Nintendo in a generation where everyone perceived it so poorly. Yeah, like the worst generation. The worst generation. And now you look at the Switch and they have, I think, eight to ten franchises on that system that have now all sold over 20 million units. That's crazy. Which is utterly insane because that's more than what the Wii U itself sold, which was 13 million units. So, and I mean, now that we're talking about this topic, I kind of want to get into is the new Nintendo Switch 2 leaks that have been kind of going around.

00:11:09

Shameer Mehdikhan

for those that don't know or aren't aware and that don't want to be spoiled, I mean, I'm going to talk about these for the next couple of minutes. But essentially, a lot of the hardware has been leaked. The controllers, the way they look, which are very similar to the ah Lenovo Legion Go, which are detachable via magnetics, you have oh bigger display up to potentially eight inch. The dock has been basically leaked. And so they mention anything on if it's Hall Effect joysticks, because man, that That Joy-Con drift is brutal. Oh, man. I hope they fix that. And no, there hasn't been any mention of that. It's hard to tell even with the Joy-Cons being leaked right now, because the one thing that can be tested is that for some reason, people have the controllers leaked and in hand, but they don't have the actual

00:11:51

Shameer Mehdikhan

console unit yeah hand, which is weird. You probably haven't torn it down and everything yet. Yeah. And maybe it's getting leaked through China. It's hard to say, but it most likely, which means that the console has been manufactured probably since September, October, and they're probably trying to stack this up so people can't scout the hell out of it. I totally anticipate it's going to come out in like March or April. Yeah, I do too. And you know, I wonder like if it's coming on March and April and that's exactly when the new graphics cards are coming out for laptops, I wonder what graphics Chip is going to be in the question. Like, do they have a contract in the video and they're going to get the newest stuff or is it going to be It's going to be like somewhere in the middle. It's so custom. It's older architecture, but customize is cheaper. But yeah, it's customized to like work for them. So it's like somewhere in between. And that's what happens with all consoles where they get something unique, like what PS5 and Xbox did with AMD, but then they customize what AMD had.

00:12:41

Shameer Mehdikhan

So do we know if it's going to be backwards compatible? We do know. They've definitely confirmed that about a month ago, Nintendo itself, which is great. Thanks for those that have been purchasing switches over the holiday break. It's not a bad thing. They can sell it again, you know, but keep the games.

00:12:55

Shameer Mehdikhan

I don't know. I'm excited because now that all of the hardware has been leaked, I just want to see software. I don't even care anymore. It doesn't do anything for me. It doesn't get me excited anymore. And I think most people can probably guess, but what do you think is going to be the one-two punch for ironic? The one-two punch for Switch 2 when it comes out because they had that with Zelda.

00:13:12

Shameer Mehdikhan

Mario, right? So I feel like that's Nintendo's, I think, game. Because if you think about it, if you just have one exclusive, you're like, oh, I really want this, but I don't know. And then when you get two, you're like, oh, man, I got it. So we know already two Switch games have been announced for 2025, which I think they going to be cross gen. I think for sure Metroid Prime 4 Beyond is going to be cross gen. So I think that's one. I think it's day one.

00:13:32

Shameer Mehdikhan

I think you're going to get Pokémon Legend Z8 being cross-gen, maybe an optimized port of it on the Switch too. I think that's going to be a huge hitter. I think it'd be day one, or do you think it would be a little bit later? Because that's what they did with the Switch, right? Did they have Mario and Zelda a little separated? They did. So I could see Pokémon being summer, fall. And then I wouldn't be shocked if Nintendo makes a second Pokémon game that comes, like, there's been rumors that they're releasing a second Pokémon game this year. Like the remake?

00:13:57

Shameer Mehdikhan

It's hard to say. Rumors, I don't know if it's a remake, a new spinoff again. Are they gonna finally bring back your black and white? Oh my god, I really want a black and white remake, man. And then I think for sure Mario Kart 9, it's been due time. I think it's been a long time since we've gotten anything. Deluxe has been out forever. It's been like eight years. So true. And outside of the DLC, I mean, that team must be working on something right after all those years. And then I also think we're going to get a new Mario RPG or open world game because that team hasn't released anything since Mario Odyssey. So it's been seven, eight years now. You might even get a new Xenoblade. We are getting a Xenoblade remaster. So I could also see a new Xenoblade on top of it. I feel like what Nintendo does well is it takes franchises that are kind of old and finds a way to keep them relevant where they'll pair a remaster with the next part of that saga, right? As opposed to Sony and Microsoft because it takes so long for them to develop games. It's really hard for them to get that cadence when you have like a good remake or remaster followed by

00:14:58

Shameer Mehdikhan

you know, the next part of that saga. Yeah, it is strange. There's their games always seem to line up the remake, remaster and then a new version. Yeah.

Nintendo's Game Release Strategy

00:15:06

Shameer Mehdikhan

like at Metroid, right? If you had like, you know, and I feel like when you do that, you keep a game in the conversation, right? If it's if I mean, if you really just have a spectacular hit with one game, then it'll remain in the conversation. But when you have you know, Metroid popping up in multiple areas, right? Then it keeps people thinking about it. Yeah, that's definitely true. And I think, you know, again, rumors has been that Nintendo has been sitting on a remaster of Twilight Princess in Wind Waker. And I can see them releasing that with a remaster of Breath of the Wild because they demoed that at Gamescom last year. I can see them releasing multiple iterations of Zelda for the Switch 2 as well. Well, I also feel like like Nintendo will kind of sit on things, too. So they're probably

00:15:46

Shameer Mehdikhan

They, you know, I feel like they probably had the Switch 2 ready to go for a while and they were waiting until they could get that amazing cadence of like every three months, yeah know, let's hit a banger because they don't need to release the beats, you know, Sony and Microsoft. They're kind of in their own lane. So they have the comfort and the ability to go when they want to go and just make sure that their software is lined up. Yeah.

00:16:05

Shameer Mehdikhan

And again, that was the rumor that they delayed the launch of the console, which was supposedly targeted for fall of 2024 into the first half of this year, just to get that software ready. I think that's absolutely true. I think there's some truth to that. So I'm excited, man. I can't wait to see the software. I'm no longer excited by hardware leaks anymore. That used to be my thing when I was a kid, when I saw how the PS3 looked like, the PS4, but that doesn't get me excited anymore. Yeah. Well, and it's also, I mean, there's,

00:16:31

Shameer Mehdikhan

how much raw power there is in the console but there's also the creative juice and I know we've been a little bit hard on Nintendo because you know the raw power hasn't been there but I mean the creative juices at Nintendo man like they they find a way and I'm excited that now they're gonna have more raw power with those creative energies but I mean you do have to give it up to them to be able to pull off what they've done But the original switch hardware, you know, you just jog my memory here So another leak that came out because everyone's like well What are they gonna innovate with the switch to it's just gonna be bigger a little better a little more powerful Well, they apparently and part of the leaks the joy cons have optical sensors on the bottom now. So people think

00:17:43

Shameer Mehdikhan

Even though I think the PS Portal has been just a smashing success, you it makes you wonder you if there could have been some you different technology that was used there to help with the lag. It's one thing if you're obviously away from your system, but you whole thing is attached to your PS5 being around. It makes you wonder if you can have two you systems working in tandem and one allows you to have better connection in the house and one allows it to work outside the house. Right. That's exactly right. And so again, you know, to give Nintendo some credit, like they find a way with every generation.

00:18:15

Shameer Mehdikhan

And they're smart enough to pivot away when it's not working. Yeah, that's exactly it too. They know that when they, if they have to take an L and accept that they've done that, they'll admit it straight up. And they'll like, you know, we've seen, Satorio Iwata at the time when the Wii U was a failure, say I'm taking a pay cut. but You know, the Wii U was a failure. Like this was on us. This was on me. I'm taking that. And I agree. And I just wonder what's going to be after the Nintendo Switch too. Like I know that's so far ahead, but like I don't see them really needing to change their formula. Like if you're like,

00:18:44

Shameer Mehdikhan

they've tried different things and it's all condensed together into the switch and I just don't see a better version of the switch. Unless they go wireless, you because now we are getting like wireless TV technology, that was a big thing in CES too. you know Unless they do that, I mean, what does Nintendo want need? I feel like their whole identity in the last 20 years has been building up towards the switch. They've always done portable gaming, they've tried VR way in the past, they've done all this weird shit. And I feel like it's all been building to this. So where do they go? yeah And I don't really want to worry too much about it. Because again, what matters to me more now is their IP and their games and their brand and the fact that they're moving into like movies and films and shows. I love that. But I feel like Nintendo will somehow make handheld gaming or their version of gaming always relevant.

00:19:29

Shameer Mehdikhan

And unless mobile gaming, even though mobile gaming is a massive market, to me, it hasn't captured the same type of hardcore market as you the general console space has. But to me, Nintendo is always going to be releasing that type of hardware unless somehow they're creating you new technology with phones that allow us to really feel like we're getting a quality Zelda and Mario experience.

00:19:52

Shameer Mehdikhan

us feeling like touchscreen is kind of a drag. I can see them pivot into that only if somehow hardware technology on phones evolves in such a way that it's not so cumbersome. Other than that, really just wireless you connectivity. but Beyond that, i I feel like they're just going to milk the swish model. Maybe the generations start to last a little longer now. Maybe it's eight years, 10 or 12 or 14 years. you and you just have mid-cycle refreshes this time. Yeah. And I also think, you know, and this kind of goes into another thing that we wanted to talk about, you know, just like zooming out at the big three, you know, console makers and their strategies, right? opposed to getting to the nitty gritty of all the games. And, you know, you see so many kind of doing this too, but, you know, I think Nintendo is starting to really realize the power of their IP, right? You know, across different forms of entertainment, you know, you're seeing the success of, you know, Nintendo world, right? Or Nintendo land, I think that's what it's called.

00:20:41

Shameer Mehdikhan

And I think that's one thing they're going to lean into a lot. I think at one point I showed you, and for anyone who's curious, you should totally look up a graphic of the most, you know, money making franchises and where they make their money from.

Nintendo's Revenue Strategies

00:20:53

Shameer Mehdikhan

And I think Pokemon is pretty much on top.

00:20:56

Shameer Mehdikhan

through their plushies, their merchandise. It's through the plushies. Even though the game sells so well, you it's the plushies. And it blows your mind, right? And it goes to show you that it's important to create like a fictional world of characters that really resonate with people. But really, you're going to sell people in on all the tangible things in the real world, whether it's plushies, whether it's experiences like going to the movies, whether it's going to a park or things like that. That's where the big moneymaker is.

00:21:22

Shameer Mehdikhan

It's funny you say that too, because they really are leaning into the whole new Nintendo Land at Universal because they even had a dedicated direct this past fall for it. They've never done something like that. A dedicated direct to talk about the new additions coming to Nintendo Land in America. I was honestly, in a way, like, you know, and this is something my wife is always telling me about, you know,

00:21:40

Shameer Mehdikhan

these are fictional worlds, they don't exist in the real world. But in a way, now you're crossing that gap, because you're making it tangible items that people can experience. And for people who might not always understand like, Hey, this is like a virtual space, right? Like, how can it have so much meaning in someone's life? Like now when you're seeing it tangible across the world, like It kind of hits a little bit. It does. Now you can create specific food catered to their you IP at the park. you Your kids will now want to say, who's Donkey Kong? Oh yeah. I remember when I went to Japan like few years ago with her.

00:22:11

Shameer Mehdikhan

We were really trying to get into a Pokemon cafe, and man, there were so many places that were difficult to get into in Japan, but that place was impossible. It was impossible. So busy, so crowded. It's not like you saw a bunch of gamers like were just going in there and just going nuts over Pikachu. It just seemed like any other cafe, and it just seemed like people were really just enjoying the experience of being in a cafe that's immersed in a fictional world. right That's so cool. And it's it's it's it's just such a cool overlap. And you're seeing that more and more like, even with Harry Potter, like you're, you know, we're going to a Harry Potter dinner, like in a couple of weeks, right? And you know, me, me, my wife, we just went to see the new Cursed Child play, you know, and you're seeing so many of those like real world experiences, right? With these fictional worlds, or, you know, we just saw like a Harry Potter baking show on HBO Max, and it was actually pretty good. I'm not gonna lie, I actually was pretty interested in that.

00:23:03

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, it was cool. Maybe you should check it out. It's on Max, but like they were making all these kegs. I mean, I like Griffin, you know, actually were just so creative with what they were doing. But it just goes to show you that like, you know, these fictional worlds are just loved across the world.

00:23:17

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah. And I feel like sometimes it can be like a sensory overload because like with Harry Potter, for example, you got this game that just came out a year ago. That's been a big hit. It was also controversial from the the maker itself. You've got this baking show you're watching. You got the shows, the remaking. Oh yeah. So sometimes you can't, you can't just like go too hard on it. You know, you got to give people some breathing space as well. Exactly. And sometimes you're like ramming it down people's throat. Well, you know, it's kind of interesting. Like I feel like people aren't really looking forward to the Harry Potter TV show that much.

00:23:45

Shameer Mehdikhan

But in a way there doesn't seem to be that same Harry Potter fatigue as there is with Star Wars, right? I feel like there's like a massive Star Wars fatigue, right? Because I think the difference being is that the products they put out in the last several royal years years for Star Wars has not been good. And so then they say, well, I'm tired of seeing bad things. If it's consistently good, you say I want a little more or I don't mind a little. Yeah, I mean, I feel like across the board, like, people have their problems with the politics of Disney, and they have the problem with the politics of Harry Potter. But it doesn't seem like the Harry Potter franchise has suffered as much for it, you know, even though it has, don't get me wrong, as compared to Star

Franchise Popularity: Harry Potter vs Star Wars

00:24:21

Shameer Mehdikhan

Wars and Disney. Tell me what's the last Harry Potter product that came out that wasn't that well received? Honestly, I can't think of one that hasn't done just

00:24:32

Shameer Mehdikhan

crazy numbers commercially. mean, when Hogwarts legacy came out, man, the internet was just going crazy. And if you look at Twitter or X, you know, or, you know, people have been raging about Harry Potter forever. And, you know, we're not trying to make this a political channel. So I'm not going to try and go into, you know, pro, you know, one side or the other, but it's still sold well, but it's still sold well, even though it may and that the amount of the the Controversy and vitriol that was all around that from all sides, you know, it's crazy, right? Which is why I think when I look back at Star Wars my I feel a little tainted my mouth is because it's like oh, yeah episode eight and seven I didn't personally like yeah and I think sorry episode nine and I think there's a lot of people that didn't like And I think they've created so many shows that were hit or miss. There really hasn't been anything that's hit super well consistently, right? Since the dizzy face. I like Mandalorian. Don't get me wrong for certain seasons, but even Mandalorian, they kind of ran that you with seeing Baby Yoda everywhere. That's when they're milking because they're now making a film on it. And it's like, did anyone really need a film now on Mandalorian? I don't think so. That's the next movie that's coming out.

00:25:37

Shameer Mehdikhan

So that's where you start milking the franchise. That's called milking the franchise or milking a property because you're going so overboard. It's like, again, yes, I've had a couple of hit or misses, but like take a break. Like if you look at, let's say Jurassic Park, right? In the last 10 years, they brought back Jurassic Park.

00:25:53

Shameer Mehdikhan

And they made three or two successful movies and they're making a thermo Scarlett Johansson now. And I'm like, I'm okay with that, that they're switching it up and they're bringing in different actors because consistently these movies are fun. yeah They remind me of my childhood and they're not overdoing it. I do feel like there is some fatigue with Jurassic Park. Like, don't get me wrong. I love Jurassic Park or Jurassic World and I am definitely gonna go watch the new one as soon as it comes out. There is some fatigue, but not to the same level. It's not to the same extent. And I'm not overly excited, but I'm not, again, I'm not thinking of it in a negative connotation anymore. So I'm like, you know what? I feel like with Star Wars, there's that uphill battle. Like there's actually some, some shows or show ideas that are coming out. I'm like, man, this is like kind of a cool idea, but I just, I can't get myself to watch it. Like I think I had seen a leak. or I don't know if this was confirmed at some point that Disney is considering, uh, considering doing like the contour time frame.

00:26:40

Shameer Mehdikhan

Republic yeah for one of their shows which I've never I mean I played couture a little bit when I was a little kid but man I was so young that I really didn't comprehend what I was playing but I had a blast right but you know that's so loved and people have been wanting that for so long and you would think oh my god people would be going crazy but that that fatigue is hitting hard and when you when you put out bad a bad product. You don't have any more faith from your fan base to say that the movie that I should be excited for the show I should be excited for will actually be good now. So there's you lost a lot of trust. And I think with that being said, look, we just had a great game Jedi fallen order oh survivor, great games, but I didn't get excited to play the second game I played the first one I beat it I had fun but

00:27:24

Shameer Mehdikhan

Man, I gotta say, I wasn't super hyped going into Jedi Survivor, but I think we talked about my favorite games for 2023 and I was shocked that game hit my top five. like I absolutely love that game. I liked it more than Baldur's Gate. I liked it more than Alan Wake. like liked it more than most of the game of the years. And I just felt like that just did so much justice to the story ah of Starry. Do you care if I spoil it a little bit for you? Not that you spoil it, but like you can spoil it. But see, some people might say that game is a hidden gem. It really isn't because we expected it to be great because the first game was great. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, Respawn knows what it's doing. I mean, I, there's a little doubt that I have because it's like, all right, star was a little played out. Like, how can you make me care about what you're doing? But, uh, there's a little bit of a spoiler, right? I don't think your mind too much because it's not a huge spoiler. there's like, there's one point where there's actually one of the characters that's fighting Darth Vader and like, obviously, you know, what's going to happen because you know what Darth Vader does later in the movies, right?

00:28:26

Shameer Mehdikhan

And in spite of me knowing the ending, I was still so invested into that battle and what happened to the characters. And that just goes to show you, man, they did a great job with their writing and knowing their audience because that's the prequel problem. If you know how it's going to end, why should I care how it goes? for that game, man. They hit it. And it's so sad that you just had this, like, people drowning in Star Wars. And because of that, like, people don't even, like, pay attention as much to, like, the one just amazing thing that's happened in the last few years. And that's so funny because I believe Respawn has said this is going to be a trilogy. So maybe the next game would be the last, I think. And it's sad because probably this game probably sold worse than the first. And then they're going to say, well,

00:29:07

Shameer Mehdikhan

Wow, like, do we, will we get the same budget for the third game? Do we have to make it? I don't even know what their budget was like, but, you know, it's the same problem that Final Fantasy VII Remake is having. Rebirth sold, not as well as Remake. And then they go, well, we need to get this third and final part out. Do we give it the same budget anywhere?

00:29:24

Shameer Mehdikhan

was it worth the investment? yeah So it's just sad. I really, I really hope they get a good budget on that. Because you know, I think EA gets a lot of flack, you know, just like Ubisoft and everyone. And you know, but you know, yes, to me, I don't know if this is a contentious take, but they're really not that bad. You know, they actually do try, you know, they tried with the mortals of AVM. They're actually trying with new IP. think Jedi was really good. yeah know, they're giving what's his name? Joseph Harris. They're giving Joseph Serifs a Part launch, do whatever he wants, you know, and you're trying to come up with new IPs. And of course, they're going to do sports games forever. But you know, when you compare them to like, you know, the woes of Ubisoft, you know, but let's see, the thing is with EA, because maybe we can talk about this a little bit, there's a stigma attached to the name because 10 to 15 years ago,

00:30:08

Shameer Mehdikhan

They truly were horrible.

EA's Evolution and New IPs

00:30:09

Shameer Mehdikhan

Oh, yeah. They did fire a lot of people. They did cut off a lot of games. They didn't innovate. They didn't create. And that has stuck with them for so long that even when they are doing good, they can't wash off the bad. And so do I feel like Microsoft? It is kind of like Microsoft. People don't have people don't forget. People don't forget. And we're all like elephants, man. We don't forget exactly. But you know, at the same time, it's not like I feel bad for these companies either because guess what? They're still making oh their CEOs are killing it. Yeah.

00:30:35

Shameer Mehdikhan

So while I applaud the fact that they're giving more freedom and time to create new games, I'm not upset with the fact that people still look at them with a little bad eye. You know, it it is what it is. And you vote with your wallet. That's my that was always my saying. I'll buy the games that look enjoyable to me. And if I enjoy them, hey, that's all that matters to me. I don't care what the Internet thinks anymore.

00:30:58

Shameer Mehdikhan

you know, about something that used to be really hardcore and like leaning towards like in specific opinion of someone on the online side. Hey, you know, don't support EA because of X, Y, or Z. Maybe I would believe it, but now I'm just like, I just want to play a good game. Yeah. I mean, the internet is such an echo chamber. it So I was just talking to, you know, my wife and she was talking about how like, you know, I mean, she's more into like the baking world and things like that. And, you know, even her, like she'll go on YouTube and she'll like look at some of the comments that people are having and she's like, what in the world? Why are people hating for no reason? And I mean, you see that a lot in algorithms because it feeds on itself. And don't get me wrong. Like if, you know, we should hold people accountable. Yeah, absolutely.

00:31:37

Shameer Mehdikhan

But I think what really bothers me is if you have a contrary take, and it's actually a contrary take. like You're not just like trying to be contrary to be contrary to be edgy. actually just feel different than everybody else. I feel like it's hard to have an opinion that's not going along with the masses. It's always been like that, but especially in the social media age, it's just so much harder. like I talked about this in our last podcast, but and I've actually thought about it more and more. I really do think my game of the year is Dragon Age Valeguard.

00:32:02

Shameer Mehdikhan

And I never expected to say that after the game came out, because after I saw reviews from a lot of the prominent YouTubers, I was like, dang, I don't know if I want to try this. You know, this does not sound like what I want. And maybe because I went into that game already, like knowing its flaws, that's why it didn't bother me as much. But looking back, like there was good games in 2024. I do think it was kind of a quiet year, but that was probably my favorite game.

00:32:28

Shameer Mehdikhan

But you have to also look at it from multiple perspectives, too. It's one thing to consume a product as a consumer. It's another thing for you to who are your writer itself. And then you're able to kind of relate further more to this game because there's a bunch of writers building this game in a specific way that might have called to you. Well, that's one thing like me and you have kind of talked about, too. You know, sometimes I like a movie or I like a TV show or a game know solely because of how it inspires me. you If I play a game and it makes me feel something and I'm inspired, like even if like the game is kind of crap, you know, like I'll be kind of excited. So the the thing that I kind of think about is how I play too. Right. And to me, you know, I think it's a terrible game, but I think it's a really good, like a digital experience, you know.

00:33:14

Shameer Mehdikhan

Plus about the topic itself that it kind of goes about. like That's, again, in your field. That's in my field. I give them so much respect for them and so the authenticity of it and how realistic it's going. and and The more I thought about this game, I realized that I think it was almost in their quest to make this very similar to real lived experience of psychosis.

00:33:33

Shameer Mehdikhan

that the gameplay suffered because you know one of the things i was thinking about is you have to get these rocks that line up with each other right and so you know when you think about the lived experience of psychosis you know it's it's kind of interesting how you know you're seeing something that's there but it's not there right and it's kind of messing with your mind like was it there i wasn't out there And so that's so fascinating and you know, it might actually be more realistic. But from a gameplay perspective, you're kind of just like, I don't know, man, I'm not feeling it. It's just putting three rocks together and opening up a doorway, you know. But that's why, again, to kind of come for an eye, I'm not trying to belittle people that are purely consumers of a product that don't then have experience in the field. But when you do have someone like yourself that's been in the medical field or are a writer or me who's been a software developer that understands

00:34:18

Shameer Mehdikhan

how much effort it takes to build and develop a product like a video game, you have a different opinion of those. I think you can appreciate it for different things. Like, are you appreciating it for the entertainment value for the gameplay value for or what do you appreciate it for? And I think what I try and do is like, you know, try to be more objective at some points and say, like, what did I take away from this? And like, what did I appreciate and not appreciate? And so like, for how blade, you know, like it gets my creative juices thinking when I think about like,

00:34:45

Shameer Mehdikhan

a little bit of spoilers. you It's been out for a while on Game Pass, so you should play it. the concept of mass hysteria. ah what does that look like in you older generations, where we don't have science and you we're forming opinions about the world around us by the stories that we're being told.

00:34:59

Shameer Mehdikhan

we're not able to look at like a microscope right and like look at what's actually there and so you know in a society like that how easy can mass hysteria propagate or what does that look like right and so that's just such a fascinating idea and I feel like you can be toyed with and I don't see that popping up a lot in fiction so for me any media that's able to capture like a fascinating take on something when everything is so rehashed, like, I'm going to give you so much credit because I'm like, man, I struggle with coming up with fascinating days. Exactly. And so, again, like, that's the balance that those creators had to take because I think in their decision to really be authentic and realistic and unique, like, to their vision, I do think that gameplay suffer. Yeah, that's fair. That's a fair take. and And that's why I think it's so divisive, because if you're looking at it as a game, you're like, man, what is this? But if you're appreciating different parts of it, then you're going to come away and think it's like an eater or not. Exactly. And that's why I think coming back to what your wife said about these

00:35:54

Shameer Mehdikhan

these comments on like YouTube videos and stuff, most of them, again, as unfortunate as it is, don't have a lot of that experience. And so they're looking at it from one viewpoint, and they go, hey, I didn't like it because the gameplay wasn't that in depth, or there wasn't that much substance to it. Fair enough. Well, a lot of other people are gonna appreciate it different reasons then. And so, like I said, I like to now vote with my wallet. If I think a game looks enjoyable, or plays enjoyably or written enjoyably, okay, I'm gonna play it and enjoy it and love it and I'll keep it and I won't sell it and I'll remember it forever. So I mean, I think that's one of the benefits that we have because we're older adults now and like we can actually make choices with our wallet and like, you know, consume what we want to consume. And if we get a game and we end up being disappointed about it, it's like, okay, I'll resell it. And you know, I want a huge loss. You know, that's like, you know, do you know how expensive a dinner is nowadays? Like, you know, it's not the biggest deal. I mean, I do feel for people who, you know,

00:36:43

Shameer Mehdikhan

they might not be in the same place in life or, you know, I remember what we were like when we were a teenager, right? Like if I got one bad game, man, how long is it going to take me to get a new game? yeah I get it. I understand. I empathize with it. You know, that's why that's why I'm a big, you know,

00:37:00

Shameer Mehdikhan

a proponent of just you saying what's really on your mind and being honest about how you feel as opposed to just kind of being in that echo chamber. yeah Rather yeah Rather than just purely hating and jumping on a bandwagon because so many other people are hating on a company or purely loving said game because everyone else is like, tell everyone what you feel. And you speaking of this, you Try not to shy away too much from contentious topics. How are you feeling about Ubisoft? Oh, god. mean Honestly, I am a little hyped about Assassin's Creed, the new game.

Assassin's Creed: New Setting and Gameplay

00:37:30

Shameer Mehdikhan

I am too. What is it called, Shadow? Shadow, yeah. Honestly, with all the gameplay, like they're actually showing small snippets of gameplay, so they're not showing a whole lot. They're teasing a bit. But it looks so great. It kind of looks better than Ghost of Tsushima. There's more freedom, yeah more options to, like, stealth the combat. I mean, you know me.

00:37:48

Shameer Mehdikhan

I'm actually one of the few people who I i just wasn't the biggest fan of Ghost of Shishima. Now don't get me wrong, like I'll preface this by saying that's an 8 out of 10 game for me. It was a solid game. But people talk about it across the board like it's a 9 out of 10. And for me, sometimes I feel a disconnect because you'll see a game that has amazing sales, the same open credit score. And yet people will talk about games in a completely different light. right starfield you know i'm sure starfield did good numbers you know it and open critic wise not that bad i think it's sitting at like 84 or 85 but think about the conversation around that you know compared to ghost you know if i had to take a guess maybe ghost is sold more but it's not like either of those are bad selling games right xbox the thing releases that they have had 13 million unique players play starfield so that's a lot it's a

00:38:36

Shameer Mehdikhan

a ton of people who have played, right? And didn't push the needle on Game Pass a ton, but overall, I think it was a success for them. But just the conversation around that's so different. And so that's why going into Ghost of Shoshima, I was expecting to walk away with like Last of Us or you God of War, which are some of my favorite games ever. And it just wasn't there. like was a solid eight. And I thought the story was pretty good. It wasn't like, blow me away good. It was kind of a little cliche. I thought it was pretty good. you Characters not more interesting as time went on because at first they were kind of boring. I wasn't feeling in the gameplay though. And I felt like I was kind of cheesing a lot of the game and I didn't really feel the need to kind of do things kind of differently.

00:39:17

Shameer Mehdikhan

And so to me, Assassin's Creed looks great. I've always wanted the the Assassin's Creed in Japan, and I think the gameplay looks terrific. Well, I think so. They're doing some unique things here. like First, let me say this. I'm very cautiously optimistic about the game because the last several games of the game, even though they sold well, weren't for me, to be quite honest.

00:39:34

Shameer Mehdikhan

but the Assassin's Creed games? Yes, but what's going on? What is the last Assassin's Creed game you've played? Oh my god, the last one that I've actually played through and beat, I think it was, I want to say three. Wow. I want to say three, so I didn't even get to play Blacklight. You didn't even play four? Four? It was so good. Which is what everyone says.

00:39:52

Shameer Mehdikhan

but one is I'm cautious about this game but two they're bringing in something really unique which is not only do they have two protagonists you get to play it as both of them throughout the story so there'll be a change of pace in the story that says hey you can no longer play as the assassin you gotta now play as the samurai and vice versa and you have to switch between yeah I like how they're pretty different you know I haven't played every Assassin's Creed game I think they tried to do something like that with Syndicate where there was a male and female protagonist they did the same thing with Odyssey male and female protagonist but if the two characters are actually fundamentally very different yes you know that could be pretty interesting but that's the thing so this is not just a male or female body and you just play as one or the other it's there's a unique story about both of them in the game and you literally you you might be forced to play as both at some point in the game and you say the experience like i can't beat this enemy type i might have to switch over to the other playing stuff And I'm not sure like what part of Japan it is or like where it's at, but look, I love ghosts, but you know, to ghost credit, like they did such a great job with that story. And I mean, how many of us actually knew about the island of Shishima beforehand, right? But if Assassin's Creed syndicated, Shadows is not held down by that. I would love to see Kyodo, you know, I would love to see Osaka, you know, from back in the day, I'd love to be on Osaka Castle, like

00:41:06

Shameer Mehdikhan

That would be so cool for me. So actually going to 2025, that's one of my most hyped games. I understand, don't get me wrong, that Manubisoft has just been on a losing streak lately. So I can understand you how there's a lot of reservations. But I just hope people do give it a chance. Because if we do get a quality Assassin's Creed game after so long and because of the controversy surrounding the game and because of how much people just frankly hate Ubisoft after like five major disappointments, which I just wouldn't want the one good gem to just fail. in in And look, every Assassin's Creed game that's come out, regardless of how it's been viewed, has sold well. So it's not like any of them have been a financial flop in any means. It's just that the games have gotten more and more expensive and the profit and revenue they've made off against has become smaller and smaller over a year. So speaking of how expensive games have gotten,

00:41:57

Shameer Mehdikhan

I just read this today, I think. Do you know how much it cost for them to make? I think it was Call of Duty Cold War? $700 million. $700 million, and that's without marketing. Oh my goodness. And if you think about it, only sold 30 million copies compared to Modern Warfare, the remake, which sold 40 million and was less expensive.

00:42:18

Shameer Mehdikhan

so they're diminishing returns in terms of the amount of skyrocketing so look i mean i hate microtransactions i really hate microtransactions i never buy them but yo if it's taking you 700 million dollars to make a game plus the cost of do you now understand why they're doing what they're doing It's crazy like you're gonna have to make over a million dollars just to make a a profit to make the next game and You got to find a way to cut costs But then you're so screwed because if you I mean if you've hired too many developers and now you need to cut developers Everyone's gonna hate you for that, but it's hard to and it's taking so many years to make games You can't even recoup costs by having multiple releases. Yeah, it's it's a mess.

00:42:57

Shameer Mehdikhan

So think about it this way. This game is so expensive with them reusing assets. Imagine if they waited every three to five years and they try to innovate, it would be even more expensive. And now you understand why they take a lot of their in-house studios and make them support studios. Oh, yeah. You know, Raven and what was the company they bought out?

00:43:14

Shameer Mehdikhan

Oh, I forgot. Yeah. But they now made them. I think they were making toys for Bob. They all made them support because they need the help if they want a quality product to sell well, at least at a minimum. Don't get me wrong. It sounds pretty greedy, but it's like they want it to be financially successful. And in order to do that, like, again, look at Ubisoft. Look at the game. That's exactly why. I brought the example of Call of Duty up. And look, I mean, we all hate the microtransactions of Call of Duty. So maybe not the best example. But my point is these rising development calls on games that are not going to be smash hits. Like you know your Sony game is going to be a smash hit. You'll make up your costs. But if you're trying to make AAA games like Star Wars Outlaws and Skull and Bones, and if any of those don't hit the mark,

00:43:58

Shameer Mehdikhan

you are losing hundreds of millions of dollars each time right let's talk about that too because sony you know naughty dog releasing the trailer for their latest game what was it called interstellar intergalactic They had a bunch of like weird ads in there with Adidas. And I wonder if they're subsidizing the cost by saying, well, we'll put your stuff in this game now. Microsoft actually debated about like having in-game ads too, right? So like for live services, I feel like they would totally do that. Like I feel like for your traditional campaign game, like that would drive people. And because it's not that intrusive, but when you play a single player game and then you see Adidas all over the place or Coca-Cola or whatever, it kind of gets kind of annoying.

00:44:38

Shameer Mehdikhan

It did that in Death Stranding. You had, I think, monster energy drinks. Like, you could drink that. Like, it was weird. I mean, I find it hard to believe that Monster would actually, like, pay for that because it's like, I mean, are you trying to tap into people's unconscious because I didn't remember seeing any monsters. Yeah. Or maybe I did. I just forgot about it. I'm pretty sure you're doing monster energy drinks in that game. So it was, again,

00:45:01

Shameer Mehdikhan

And yeah that would make sense because Hideo was just starting off again as like an independent and it's like he needed the money. His game only sold two to three million copies. That's not enough to pay for a whole studio's worth. He needs as much money as possible. So yes, it makes sense that people are trying to subsidize their games out because they're way too expensive. yeah And you don't you can't keep making a three or four or five hundred million dollar game only to sell what?

00:45:20

Shameer Mehdikhan

fuck two million units, five million units. Yeah, you're gonna massively be in the hole and nobody wants to pay even $70 for a game. So you're gonna be massively in the hole. And I say all that because man, I am so worried about Ubisoft in 2025. Yeah, I mean, were, you know, they're scared of a hostile takeover, they want 10 cent to buy them out, but they still want to keep control, which I don't really see ah being possible. 10 cents basically saying we're not going to buy you if you keep and the gear or family keeps control, you know, the voting rights and whatever. So I don't see that being a thing. I feel like if this because from what I'm remembering, they're just gonna hit us with a ton of Assassin's Creed games, right? And I feel like so that's like, for instance, that's like Disney, like, Oh, man, we're screwed. Let's just keep making sequels, right? Because now we need to go to our bread and butter. So I feel like now this is Ubisoft, like, man, we got to give people what they want.

00:46:10

Shameer Mehdikhan

Let's just drown them in Assassin's Creed. yeah if it doesn't work out, you know, I think it was Jason Schreier or maybe I forgot who it was. Someone from the media that basically came out and said, oh, expect 12 Assassin's Creed games in the next six years. that's two a year. We don't need that much drama in Assassin's Creed.

00:46:27

Shameer Mehdikhan

You know, so you're right. And I'm, again, not that I'm worried that we're going to lose a whole bunch of franchises because you have Far Cry. You had Splinter Saw at one point and Assassin's Creed, which were like the biggest IPs. Would I be upset if those IPs were gone? Maybe. But at the same time, it's like I really do feel like in two to three years, Ubisoft is going to be bought out. I just don't know by who, you know. Yeah, but but I think Tencent will be the entity. But here's the bigger problem. There was so much blow at this company, 20,000 employees.

00:46:54

Shameer Mehdikhan

Whoever buys them out is going to fire a ton of people. I think that's worse than anything, losing anything else. Like even if you lost some of your IP and you say, we're never going to touch this thing for 10 years, the fact that you're going to have to fire a bunch of people, cause you know, you're running and it's going to suck, you know? And I mean, look, you know, I'm sure everybody was working hard, but if you have management management, that's just not leading you in the right direction, then yeah, like it's very expensive and you're not recouping those costs. You know, if management is screwing around and you know, how many games has Ubisoft canceled at this point in the last two years? Oh, yeah. And I mean, how long do they work on skill and blow? and Oh, my God. What happened to that? yeah Or they announced the Prince of Persia remake in India. Cancel that. Oh, my goodness. Like, come on, man. Like, how many games are they going to do this to? So

00:47:36

Shameer Mehdikhan

I do feel like 2025 is going to be, a lot of the big stories we're going to see are going to be revolving Ubisoft. I do too. Because I feel like there's a lot moving there. Well, you know what's actually really sad? Ubisoft was always a supporter of Nintendo Switch hardware every generation and they made Mario Plus Rabbids, what was it, a Sparking Hope or whatever. That's true. And those sold incredibly well, especially the first part of that game sold 10 million units.

00:48:00

Shameer Mehdikhan

And they were very well reviewed, like critically, amazing game. So I don't know. It's just sad because I don't think they're going to have the opportunities to innovate and make those small games like a, like that, or like a pentamet style type of game anymore. They're not going to take the chance, the risk anymore to do that. They just want, like you said, I want their bread and butter. Yeah. Well, you know, actually my backlog, I still do have, uh, the next, the Prince of Persia

Ubisoft's Challenges: Prince of Persia Cancellation

00:48:21

Shameer Mehdikhan

that just came out. So yeah probably the only reason I happened to actually play that game yet is because I bought it on my PS5 because it was,

00:48:27

Shameer Mehdikhan

$5 cheaper and I probably should have bought up my Nintendo switch. Yeah, man. I'm telling you any game that you want to play now That's like somewhat niche buy on the switch man. Those cards are just sell really well Which by the way, I think the the rumor was they canceled the sequel ready already for the game Oh man, so then it really didn't do good numbers. Yeah. All right So, you know, I thought we would switch gears a little bit and talk about what we've been

Borderlands 3: Gameplay vs Narrative

00:48:49

Shameer Mehdikhan

playing lately. So I You know, it's been a couple weeks now. You had some time in the holidays. What have you been up to? What have you been playing? So I've been playing Borderlands 3 maybe 15 to 20 hours in. I'm about halfway through. I actually ended up playing some of the DLC, which I bought, which I didn't even realize I activated in the game. It's not really straightforward to know what missions are part of which

00:49:11

Shameer Mehdikhan

the main story of the DLC but overall I think it's a great game. I understand the concerns that people have had about Borderlands 3 and going into Borderlands 4 that hey the writing of these two antagonists were horrible and I can see it and I understand why but the gameplay loop is still there. It reminds me of Halo Infinite where the loop was down perfect it was great but the story was just hit or miss the some of the open areas weren't there same thing with Borderlands it's like wow these the guns the loot the grind it's so fun and fantastic it sinks you in really quickly what's good that they still have the grind you know they still got that down because i feel like so many companies have tried to make that grind a thing and they just haven't been able to do it yeah they really have and i think even when you have a really bad story it still makes this game to me like an eight out of ten and that's really solid because this game i think sold 10 to 20 million units

00:50:00

Shameer Mehdikhan

the last several years. So it was very successful. I did not expect that from Borderlands 3, wow. Exactly, which is crazy because that's probably why they justified making a film out of it. Oh yeah, nothing bomb. And then it bombed and they said, well, why? Because so many people buy this game and they go, OK, maybe they didn't plan right because they hired the wrong actor. You know, I think it's so funny that whenever these things happen and like some movie or some game or something underperforms, they try to come up with a reason why it underperformed other than just saying that, yeah, the writing sucked.

00:50:27

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, yeah, exactly. The writing truly sucked on that. They always will blame everything else in the world like, oh, the the the market just wasn't excited for this. We thought they would be. I just don't understand. Yeah, like, okay. And I think from like, the only way at this point now is off, like, the writing was bad. And I don't think they can really screw this up with Borderlands 4 at a minimum, you're not going to get something worse. So I'm not worried because it's a lot of pent up energy to for that type of game. Because I mean,

00:50:53

Shameer Mehdikhan

who knows what's going on with Destiny now, right? Exactly. There's not that many games that are going to match this. And so there really isn't any good looter shooters that are on the horizon. That are cooperative, that have always played well. You know, and you know, games that I can kind of find that are somewhat similar but aren't in the same genre is like Diablo, that always had that loot aspect with cooperative play. But there's so few and far between. But you know, I do feel like And maybe I just feel this way because I don't play a lot of Battle Royale's, but I do feel like the shooting genre just hasn't been the same in this generation. You know, like a lot of the big players just aren't really making shooting games, right? Like first-person shooters. Look at Killzone and Resistance. Where have those been? They're gone, right? Well, we were supposed to be in a perfect art game, but that's been silent.

00:51:39

Shameer Mehdikhan

You know, I mean, that'll come out eventually. But, you know, if you if you think about like this generation, what big shooters are there other than Call of Duty? I love Taylor, but I'll admit that it underperformed. Right. You don't really have those just, you know, interesting franchises, you know.

00:51:55

Shameer Mehdikhan

there's been battlefield that that really underperformed. And you don't even get a campaign anymore. you so I feel like there's a pent up desire for those you classic return of the shooter, FPS. Because what's popular now is Counter Strike, still Team Fortress, things that again have been monetized so heavily because it's like an esports type of game now at this point. And don't get me wrong, there's a very unique community for that and people play it all the time.

00:52:21

Shameer Mehdikhan

hundreds of thousands on Steam. It's always top five, but it's not the game that I've been wanting to play. you And I know extractions on the horizon. I know Battle Royale is still popular, but you as we can see by all of the games that do well, like people still care for single player narrative games, right? Or cooperative you games that you can play on the couch or online. And so that first person shooter niche is just gone.

00:52:42

Shameer Mehdikhan

You have people go into Elden Ring now in order to like fulfill that niche or monster hunter and the use of the shooters, right? Because people want to play together and you unless you're hopping online on a free to play game, like I feel like most people aren't playing together. Which is so funny because the next shooter that I'm legitimately excited for is coming from a publisher that barely ever makes them. And that's Nintendo. and

Anticipation for Metroid Prime 4

00:53:03

Shameer Mehdikhan

That's Metroid Prime. That's a good point. yeah It's like that will fill a void. I actually think that will sell better than most Metroid games. I think the highest selling Metroid game is like not dread, it was maybe the prime games and that was like 3 million units or something. Nothing. I do feel like Metroid Prime 4 is going to actually be a great system seller. Oh, yeah, I don't think gonna sell like hotcakes, you know, because there's a lot of pent up desire for that, you know. I mean, for me, I think

00:53:28

Shameer Mehdikhan

I'm a big Halo fan. I'm always going to be excited for the next Halo, but I'm excited for Perfect Art. I'm even excited for the next Call of Duty. This is an opportunity to talk about that, but I've actually just been getting into Black Ops 6.

Call of Duty Innovations and Elements

00:53:41

Shameer Mehdikhan

I've actually been pretty pleasantly surprised. like I already expected my experience to be better than what I anticipated based off the reviews, but the campaign is different. you different. you know It's really not what you would expect.

00:53:54

Shameer Mehdikhan

and I know you haven't really played it so I won't go into too many details but there was actually one level and I don't know if you've read about this online but I felt like I was playing Alan Wake it was so creepy and so much fun they basically like kind of spoilers but they took zombies right and then they found a way to like stitch that in right and so like a lot of the zombie enemies you're fighting is actually in the campaign But they found a way to kind of add a horror element to it. Interesting. Wouldn't expect that. And again, this is what I mean when I say, there's anything I can see that kind of gets those creative juices flowing, I'm going to really be a big fan of that. And there was one scene in particular in that in that in that and that level where you basically had to find some files and move around and stuff like that. And then there is a bunch of mannequins in the room.

00:54:44

Shameer Mehdikhan

And what you don't realize is that mannequins are the enemies. And so you're moving around doing something, and they're actually moving closer to you each time. But you don't really notice it, because you're just like, oh, it's just a bunch of mannequins. Like, you're not expecting it to be that kind of game. All of a sudden, I start getting hit. And I'm like, what is going on? And I turn around. It's just like 50 mannequins are in front of my face. Like, being the crap out of you, I'm just like shooting all of them. I'm moving around. and The mannequin's staying still and then it's moving towards me again. I'm just like, what in the world am I playing? I would not expect this from you call of duty. and That's what I was kind of getting at because I'm really hoping that they're able to flex more of their muscles going forward. But I like the fact that they're actually trying to do new things in call of duty.

00:55:27

Shameer Mehdikhan

And I remember, I haven't played all the Call of Duty's, but I'm pretty sure this has not been a thing. There's one level in particular, and they were trying to make it a little bit more open world with side missions and things like that. And I know they kind of may try to do that in modern warfare three, but essentially it just felt like you were cloning after the Battle Royale, right? But this actually felt like its own unique take. And so basically you get in like a Humvee and you just kind of go all around like the desert.

00:55:54

Shameer Mehdikhan

and you have like three objectives and you can hit them however you want but there's a whole bunch of side missions across this entire area and when you do the side missions you'll actually get perks and better guns and all type of all those type of things and you can carry them throughout the whole level and they substantially like change how you can play the rest of the level and they substantially change, really the gameplay. Right. And at one point I got like a bomber and I was just like going crazy, killing everyone with the stealth bomber. sh And in modern warfare three, it was kind of annoying because you know, when you had those levels, if you died, you had to restart and it was so annoying.

00:56:30

Shameer Mehdikhan

And, but in here, like I love that Ford progression. I still got while I was doing these side missions and some of them almost kind of had a story. Like there'd be like a down, you know, you know, transport copter, and then you have to like protect the guy and then call it air strikes. And I was like, man, this is how you, this is how you branch out and you make all do unique. yeah Like everyone, okay. Single player used to always be an afterthought, like all the time to the point where I'm sure they saw the numbers and said, no one's playing it. And I think,

00:56:57

Shameer Mehdikhan

The fact that they now split their development to have two teams do one doing multiplayer, one doing single player now. is actually kind of a build. And I like the way they're kind of flexing their muscles. And you I feel like with Halo Infinite, like was trying to do something different with the open world. And it didn't fully hit with a lot of people. And I feel like with Call of Duty, they're being very mindful and careful. And they're kind of just slowly integrating changes in each one. So it doesn't feel so overwhelming all at once. And I've actually really been enjoying Black Ops campaign. I'm really enjoying the game, even the multiplayer overall.

00:57:28

Shameer Mehdikhan

I'm surprised that it's not really higher up in people's list. Like I know it's not cool to like Call of Duty, you know, and say it's like in your top five, but I really feel like probably Call of Duty is in my top five right now. So this is the unfortunate part now about annualizing adventures like this. So when you do have a game that's really well liked, even by the masses, like really average ah FPS players like us I would kind of say like we don't play it often right or competitively The fact that there's gonna be a new one a year later is kind of sad because you want maybe two years for You know because there's so much stuff I am curious to see what they'll do like I know there was that rumor that new Xbox is coming out in 2026 with the new Call of Duty and you know, I wonder if Microsoft is really gonna do that and you know release the next month or for along with it because I know that would be a smash hit but

00:58:14

Shameer Mehdikhan

You know, they could pack kind of ride the wave on Black Ops 6 for a while. They could. And I want to talk a little bit about multiplayer. This is a specific aspect. So Call of Duty in the last several years has now been incorporating cross-media events into their game, kind of like what Fortnite's been doing. And the most unique one's been Squid Games. And so now you can play Red Light. I saw that, yeah. Which is hilarious because as you're playing, not only can you play as the characters from the show,

00:58:39

Shameer Mehdikhan

when red light hits, you have to stop. And if you move, you get sniped out of nowhere. And it's honestly, I thought it was the dumbest thing when I heard about it, but when I saw it is so legit. I was like, this is how you hype people up, not only on the show, yeah this is how you innovate. man It's great media. You know, I mean, I tried this moda like wasn't for me, like I played it once. I probably wouldn't play it again. But like, it's interesting. It's different. And I feel like especially in the streaming world, like, you know, it gets people talking, and gets people interested in things like that.

00:59:07

Shameer Mehdikhan

And it creates so many unique clips online, yeah like those 30-second clips where it's like, hey, I tried to get this guy, I had to pause, and then he got sniped. Yeah. I remember I was playing that and then my wife walked by and she was like, what in the world is this? And that's so funny because it's so recognizable by people who don't. Oh yeah. Oh, she instantly knew what it was. And she was like, what in the world is going on here? Cause I mean, even the audio, like you just recognize it. Yeah, exactly. So I have to, again, give some props to after as weird as that sounds is like, this was the first time in a while where I think it had a four year development cycle.

00:59:41

Shameer Mehdikhan

And I want to say they actually took the time to make it pretty polished and unique. I actually wonder if a lot of these first person shooters like eventually as time goes on, if we're actually going to truly get open world like, you know, RPG first person shooters like kind of like Cyberpunk, if we're going to reach a convergence point where, you know, like we talked about with RPGs, now you have RPG label, but really you have some RPGs that are like Dragon Age, which are all action and they don't have the original RPG elements in them, right? yeah yeah Versus like Baldur's Gate. And so that RPG term is just so broad.

Evolution of Shooter Games

01:00:13

Shameer Mehdikhan

or action game is so broad and i wonder if shooters are gonna start evolving in that same direction we already have we already have so we've seen it with gears and that transition happened in what years five years five but again hit or miss so if you go to that and you go well this is we wanted to innovate as a developer but we didn't see the the numbers we wanted to And then all of a sudden you say, we're remaking Gears of War and it's going to be linear again. Yeah. You know, and that's disappointing. Yeah. I mean, I feel like everyone's just been like kind of getting their feet wet a little bit like Call of Duty did it. Halo did it. Gears did it. And I wonder like when is going to be the time where we actually get someone jump right into it and they're just like,

01:00:50

Shameer Mehdikhan

from the ground up, like let's try and actually make an open world shooter. And what does that look like? Because Cyberpunk did it from the perspective of a good RPG team. What about you have someone come from the opposite direction? right Think about God of War. like It's always had those like action elements. But now, even though it was in a true RPG, you did see God of War Ragnarok starts steering in that direction a little bit harder. It feels like there's a convergence. The levels were no longer linear. They were a little more fleshed out semi-open world. You had RPG mechanics. And then maybe I didn't play the game for that aspect, but you go, there's something there that made the journey more worthwhile. It wasn't this quick.

01:01:30

Shameer Mehdikhan

It makes it feel more like a bigger world. Yeah. And and I think when you look at God of War specifically, you go, oh, the first three games was like a boss rush. But now when I play the game, it's like an actual story that I can feel more, you know, it's like more relatable because you're like, it's a journey. Yeah. It feels like a journey. Because it feels like you're in the world and you have control over as opposed to going level level. Exactly. With me, you know, I like my linear games, you know, don't get me wrong. But of course, like there's a balance, you know, like if you find like a good open world game, you can get inburst into like,

01:02:00

Shameer Mehdikhan

You're going to lose me in that game. you Like Witcher 3, I got lost in that game. just have to make sure the things feel relevant, right? And so you if you got like something like that for an eventual Call of Duty or Halo or Gears, I think that'd be pretty cool. Yeah, exactly. And I'm excited for it. Again, there is open world fatigue. Don't get me wrong, right? So many times someone says, well,

01:02:20

Shameer Mehdikhan

let me justify the cost of the dollar I spend based on the number hours I get in a game. But that doesn't always translate, right? But at the same time, this is where you innovate a little bit and say, well, we're going to make a spin off of gears. We're going to make a spin off of yellow, call it ODST. And we're going to say we're going to make a unique RPG out of that. I mean, think about how much people love that part of ODST that you get to crawl around the city. Yeah. And that was so awesome. And that was so great for people.

Critique of Indiana Jones Game

01:02:46

Shameer Mehdikhan

Right. So, you know, I do feel like As much as I do also have open world fatigue for bad open worlds, you know, I do want to see some more open world shooters. Like I just, I want to see what that idea looks like. Yeah. And I agree. I agree. So yeah, coming back to the, to the topic itself, Borderlands 3 again has been on my mind. It actually has me wanting to play more. And once I beat it, I think the next thing I'm looking forward to is one of three games, potentially either getting into Indiana Jones.

01:03:17

Shameer Mehdikhan

either potentially playing a vowed because by the time maybe borderlands about I think it's coming in about a month in a month or finally playing last levels. man you need to get on that you know that is because because the show season two has been announced now for april or may and that's true okay this might be time although i i think the the tv show is only going to be probably half of last i'm sure to the game but yeah man you know i've been telling you i've been hounding you to get on that game for so long because it it again in spite of the controversy last of us two is one of my favorite games of all time i had an absolute blast with that game

01:03:51

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, and I have it. It's on my mind now. I want to prioritize that over the hundred other games that have in my backlog. So honestly, me playing Borderlands, I wanted to play Indiana Jones. But I think knowing now from you that the start is kind of slow. Yeah, I might just do Last of Us. I could talk a little bit about that. You know, I started playing Indiana Jones, you know, and I.

01:04:12

Shameer Mehdikhan

I had mixed feelings going into it because I'm a big Xbox fanboy. So obviously I really want to play every big Xbox game. And so that was a part of it. The graphics look amazing. I've always wanted to get in Indiana Jones, but I never did. So even at certain points, I try to like rewatch the movies and I just couldn't get into them. So I was pretty excited for it. I got good reviews. The thing with me is I have never liked stealth. Like in almost every game I play, if there's a stealth option, I'm going to go guns blazing.

01:04:39

Shameer Mehdikhan

that's actually what kind of pissed me off about Modern Warfare 3 because I tried to always go guns blazing and it did not always work out but at Black Ops 6 it works out for me. But I say that because with Indiana Jones like there's more sneaking around that i that I anticipated it but you know it's just never kind of been my thing right so the gameplay of that has been you know not the the greatest for me it's been slow that's how I can describe it you know the gameplay feels slow because The puzzles take, maybe I'm just dumb, but it takes me a little bit of time to figure out all the puzzles. And sometimes I have to look it up. The fighting you does get my adrenaline pumping up, but it does feel a little clunky to me. And I kind of suck at it. But it's been fun. I will say the fighting has been kind of the best part of the gameplay for me. The traversal, I didn't know how I would feel about it going in. But the traversal, really, again, mixed feelings, because

01:05:34

Shameer Mehdikhan

After you pop around places in Indiana Jones and you look back at other games, it's like you felt like a god and everything else. And now you're playing Indiana Jones and you're like, yeah, this is actually how people would move around, like in an environment. So it feels realistic, but in a good way. It doesn't feel realistic in like an annoying way. Right.

01:05:54

Shameer Mehdikhan

Now I say all that because those are the reasons why I haven't been able to blast through Indiana Jones and I'm just kind of stuck in Egypt right now. The thing that's really keeping me going is man that story and those characters are so good. I don't really know Indiana Jones as a character but dropped me into that game and so quickly i know exactly what indiana jones is like i can kind of anticipate what he's going to say in each scene because you're such a strong personality and it's a lovable personality so man hats off to that team and the writers and everything in the story and absolutely i want to play through the whole game for the story and

01:06:32

Shameer Mehdikhan

I anticipate this game is probably going to be a solid eight, eight and a half for me. I don't know if it'll be a nine, but I just haven't been able to translate my hype for the game into actually me beating the game because I have found the game is a slower pace than what I'm used to.

01:06:47

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, and that's why I try to now keep my expectations and check no matter how good of a game I'm expecting out of any publisher. But it's so funny you say what you said because you never really watched the movies. Imagine if this wasn't an established franchise and they put this game out. You still probably would say, oh, there's an interesting story here. I would probably still give a shot, definitely, because it just seems so polished. And even if I didn't know Indiana Jones as a franchise,

01:07:10

Shameer Mehdikhan

If I started playing the game like it would still hit for me because the writing is just so good the characters are just so believable and the interactions between them are so solid like when you have there's a reporter in the game spoiler alert and she's talking Indiana Jones even though the quips that they have back and forth as you're navigating the environment feels so authentic and realistic like I actually I feel like I'm in the movie. Yeah, it feels like it's a movie translated literally just to a game. Like it's not any different, right? And then some people say like this truly was like another movie that they're watching. And I think that's that's interesting. And I want to talk a little bit about the graphics of the game because you've been playing it. How good is it look?

01:07:50

Shameer Mehdikhan

So I also have mixed feelings about the graphics because I'm used to just crazy, hyper-realistic graphics and just being blown away by them. To me, I thought Hellblade blew away my mind. Horizon blew away my mind. you To me, Hellblade's still the best looking game ever. And I know you may not feel the same way, but I really like how amazing that game looked.

01:08:11

Shameer Mehdikhan

So for me, going into Indiana Jones, you I think the artistic style doesn't make it look super photorealistic. But it's kind of in this zone where it feels photorealistic, but it's not. And so it's kind of hard because the game looks really, really good. But it doesn't look good in the way that I feel like I've been conditioned to think a good game looks.

Warhammer Game Review

01:08:31

Shameer Mehdikhan

you you see Crisis, you there's a certain way the lighting in that game looks, and the the the character details look, and all of those the animations.

01:08:39

Shameer Mehdikhan

And my brain just automatically thinks this is what a good looking game looks like. And maybe this is just my bias, because in the last few years, I feel like I've just been playing a ton of Unreal Engine games. And so maybe I'm just used to more of that Unreal Engine look. right And I think of that as like best looking game. Now, objectively speaking, I think the game looks fantastic. I really do. And I think the measure of a good game is both what do the characters look like and what does the environment look like. so many games, they can nail one, but not the other. And I feel like the characters are really hard to nail. And so kind of related to this, like Warhammer, you I actually just beat the game. I wanted to talk about that too.

01:09:16

Shameer Mehdikhan

To me, the environments look great, the aliens look great, but I don't know if I'm going to get some hate for this, but when I was looking at some of the characters in-game and they're talking to each other in in-game cutscenes, I was like, man, what are these faces? They look like PS3 and Xbox 360 faces, like edits to side characters, right? So I understand you're going to use your budgets, a AA game, you're going to focus on the main characters, but I'm like,

01:09:39

Shameer Mehdikhan

What in the world is going on with these faces? That's when it makes it really jarring and kind of takes you out of the experience and you're like, it's so but ugly that you're like. So jarring because you look at these aliens and it's amazing. You're looking at these executions that looks amazing and then you're just like, my character looks great. What is this side character delivering dialogue look terrible? And I think you said it, you hit the nail on the head there. It's a double A game. It was made by, I think, Saber Interactive. They had a very limited budget. They didn't expect the game to sell as well. Oh, they did terrific with what they were, what their plan was and what their goal was.

01:10:11

Shameer Mehdikhan

And I think they i said in the first month they sold two million units. I think at this point it's already at four million now. That's amazing. And they said they want to support with more content. So like, I can't be so harsh on them when the first game did just push the technical bounds and said, okay, we want to make something just as great. And they still did it, they delivered from their perspective and their budget, they delivered. But you're right, it could have been a little more how to say. Yeah, I mean, those fine details are like things that really help you know the difference between, okay, what's the budget of this game? Is it double A, is it triple A? Because a lot of double A games are hitting so above their weight, right? That they really feel like the triple A experiences we've come to get used to, right? And you know, really, you know, how long are you looking at the face of a side character? Like a minute, 60 seconds, no big deal. Especially when their helmet's on. and But most of the time they don't have the helmet.

01:11:02

Shameer Mehdikhan

across the board. Yeah, it's consistent. Those characters just look great. Yeah. Well, so to me again, this is just me, gameplay has always been king. So if I'm still enjoying the game and getting a lot of enjoyment out of it, I go, you know what? I can sometimes look past it, but I will. The reason why I brought up the graphics portion of it is because I think Indiana drones was made with the same engine that was used to make Doom. Oh yeah, Doom is going to look amazing. And so yeah, I'm so now hyped for the next Doom game as well. And so looking at Indiana Jones, the fact that it kind of, again, it looks like um you're watching a film, like legitimately, it's like, okay, wow, I can kind of see it.

01:11:35

Shameer Mehdikhan

I feel like Indiana Jones is a game you have to play to understand because like we talked about Hellblade being more I didn't call it a film for a reason because it really does feel like this like digital experience right but indian Jones truly more so than like any game I remember playing in a long time made me feel like I'm in a movie and it just executed that self-lawlessly and look for people who love Dishonored and for people who like that type of game right you know They're going to absolutely be in love with this. But for me, you know, that's just never been my type of game. That's just never been my type of game play. So I am planning on getting back to Indiana Jones. You know, I think.

01:12:11

Shameer Mehdikhan

Right now, I'm kind of in this weird zone where I'm also waiting for a vow. you I kind of have some backlog to go through, but I'm not super excited for anything in particular. I have Astrobot, but Astrobot, for me, is I've had a hard day at work, and you just want to chill and play something for half an hour. That's the moment of play. I have Stellar Bladed. I tried the first hour of that. you It was all right. you I think the level design is not the greatest. I just feel like the hard part for me when it comes to Cellarblade is it's an objectively very good game. And the gameplay is good. The graphics are good. I am excited to eventually meet the whole game. But after I've played Lies of Pete, and I've played Elden Ring, it just doesn't hit the same for me. you Because those games have just put the bar so high.

01:12:57

Shameer Mehdikhan

I understand that it's not a soul's life in the same you way, but it's just after you've had a certain type of gameplay experience, other games just like don't have that same luster. you And so you to me, it's probably going to be like an 8.5 game. I think that's a solid game. But I'm just not as excited to dive right into it. I think objectively, some of these games are good, the ones that you're talking about. But I think it also depends on when it comes into your life. and how you've been looking to play your games, because when Stellar Blade came out, for most PlayStation fans, there hasn't been that many exclusives last year. So it's like it came out at a time. Oh yeah, that was kind of a quiet time, because there was Final Fantasy came out, and then other than that, there was a stretch where people needed something to play. Yeah. And Rise of the Roman, I think, for a lot of people underperformed. Underperformed, so I think Stellar Blade kind of really captivated them. And they're like, OK. So people said this was unique enough that said, hey, the character is somewhat interesting. The story was bland.

01:13:49

Shameer Mehdikhan

But they go, OK, semi. So somewhat linear, somewhat semi open. And they go, this is fun. And the action is what's good about that game. And so again, it hit a spot. And everyone loved the eye candy. Yeah. I wonder how good the game would have done without the eye candy. Of course.

01:14:03

Shameer Mehdikhan

So all of that being said, it came out at a time where if you were normally just playing one or two games every year, that's kind of hit the sweet spot for you and and give that you little itch that you've been, or scratch that itch that you've been looking for. So for you, I think because you have a backlog of games and you're, you know, such a savant of so many different types of games in that genre, you're going to be comparing it a lot. You know what I'm saying?

01:14:24

Shameer Mehdikhan

But you that's on my list. And kind of similar to the topic of what you just mentioned, you thinking about Warhammer, you I think I was telling you, you it comes to the game, I thought it was an an objectively a very good game. But I think that game just hit at the perfect time. Because I haven't played Gears in a while. you There hasn't been a solid Halo game in a few years, even if you loved Halo and put it. It's been like three years, you three and a half years. No, it's been three years. And so it's been a while since you've got that. I feel like that game just took a little bit of ah multiple games and just put it together, right, to create its own identity. Like you have, you know, things from Gears of War, you had kind of that Halo feel as well. You had melee combat in there, you know, and that kind of made you feel like a Hacker Flash game or like an Elden Ring or something like that. They kind of just brought all that together. And like to me, like if this game had come in on a year where like there was a really good Halo that came out or really good Gears or even remember the back in the days when we had games like Vanquish and like really good, you know, third person shooter, you know, maybe it wouldn't, you know, have hit the same, you know, but for me, because I haven't had that experience in so long, you know, it just, it felt so cozy, it felt nice having that. But to me, like, as much as people were talking about, oh, you have to be kind of nuanced in your strategy and you're fighting the aliens,

01:15:38

Shameer Mehdikhan

i really didn't find it that nuance i was pretty do pretty much do it the same thing for eight hours and i enjoyed it don't get me wrong but it didn't have that same level of depth and i'm sure like the expert players will use that level of death but for me i play every game on hard mode right not the hardest but hard mode and for me i really didn't have to use that much depth to get through It's a fair critique. I mean, look, if you got in Draymond out of the game, that's probably, I still haven't touched it, but just by the looks of it, it's probably gonna be the first Warhammer game that I actually enjoy. I just know it. I mean, for 50 bucks, you know, that's what I paid for. And to finally actually get a good taste of Warhammer.

01:16:15

Shameer Mehdikhan

I've always wanted to kind of know what the Warhammer universe was about. That was a great entry for me. And it did get me kind of more interested in Warhammer. Now, for me, like kind of a critique I have like versus Halo. You know, I felt like when I was playing Halo, which I feel like a lot of people are going to compare because they're essentially both space marines.

01:16:34

Shameer Mehdikhan

with Halo, I didn't actually think about that, but yeah. Yeah. Right. So i even do right. Like for, for, for those games, like the state, like the stakes of the game actually kind of hit a little different because if your protagonist wins, you know, it can have massive consequences across the whole universe. Right. But when it comes to Warhammer, I'm like, man, Warhammer is such a long established, you know, franchise. And there's so many little side stories that are going on. Like even if we win.

01:17:01

Shameer Mehdikhan

What does that really change in the cosmic sense? You know, it's like we're seeing the day in the life, which is cool in its own way, but it just doesn't hit in the same epic way, right? Because especially with Warhammer, there's so much pre-established where there's like gods and there's like superhumans and like all these again, all these different aliens. It's like, like I said, what does it really do? Yeah. And I may have stopped a bunch of aliens on this planet, but like,

01:18:24

Shameer Mehdikhan

Now I'm kind of worried that with Warhammer kind of coming live action with Henry Cavill, it's like, there's so many stories to tell, you're never going to get a conclusive ending, like legitimately, it'll just go on and on. And it's going to be like, what was the point is, you saved a life or two, you saved a plan. I mean, like, if you have good writers, like you can make us really care, right. And I again, like that was kind of one of the critiques I had for Warhammer because there's there's a book like Save the Cat and you know I don't know if you've ever looked in the screenwriting but it kind of talks to you about like how you can make people fall in love with your character and you know kind of building off of that, right? It's kind of similar but you know, you know you in order for us to like feel connected to like a story like There has to be some stakes that matter and sometimes those have to be personal stakes like last of us did that really well you had personal sex and so even though technically

01:19:12

Shameer Mehdikhan

the world didn't change that much, right? I mean, it could have potentially changed a lot if he didn't, you know, do what he did in the end. But that's a hypothetical, right? But truly, from the beginning of the game to the end of the game, right, we invented someone who was a cure that we could stop that from being a cure, like we just kind of invented all of this. So really, from the objective sense of the world, nothing really changed, right?

01:19:33

Shameer Mehdikhan

But it's still so captivating because you did such a good job of showing that humanity and the what if that just sticks with you. So like you there is a way to do that. Like even in Warhammer. Right. Like you don't have to have this massive cosmic change for it to just hit different. But you have to be mindful that like hey this is what I the cards I'm dealt with. I have to write around it. Yeah. So if in Warhammer again, it's a personal unique story and take on a character that's been struggling and he goes from maybe being Nobody to a hero and nothing changes again in the cosmic sense. I'm still invested in it because I saw character grow So that's why I mean like you could take like different things, you know, you know from different ah stories and you know some games or or stories really you fall in love with them because of how much things change in the cosmic sense or you know overall and other times it's just like how is this character change, you know, and and so like for me with it it came to Warhammer and

01:20:28

Shameer Mehdikhan

character kind of changed, but not a ton. And so I am excited to see what Henry Cavill does. you I'm definitely going to watch whatever he produces, because it's just amazing and fascinating for me to be in new universes that I've never experienced before. Warhammer is so beloved, and there's It's actually some really crazy fascinating stuff that's going on in there because you don't get to see a lot of like clashing between like magic and like science like in the future and just the whole idea of like essentially Roman Empire in the future because that's what we have to do to survive is is really interesting but you know that's one thing you have to tackle in these stories like

01:21:02

Shameer Mehdikhan

How do we make people really care when nothing necessarily is changing? Yeah. No, that's fair. That's a fair take. So yeah, it seems like you've been hitting quite a few games in a really short time span compared to me. is So yeah. Well, and I know this is another thing we wanted to talk about. I know we are Detroit gamesters, but.

01:21:19

Shameer Mehdikhan

From our perspective, like people who are in the gaming are in all sorts of things, that's anime, whether that's you TV, whether that's books, you movies, it's not like we own the game. I feel like a lot of times what I've seen on gaming podcasts is people will just a dead horse, and if there's nothing interesting in the news world, they'll just Keep talking about it, and there's a lot of new stuff We could have talked about like you know all these Sony franchises that are you know becoming movies? But like what is there to say you know if we come until it comes out like you there's not much There's not much to say you can speculate some you can speculate, but you want me to say oh I'm excited to see this movie when hope it's good. Yeah So for us, like what we were very conscious of going into this, it's like we don't want to just become limited to only talk about video games. We just want to talk about the stuff that we think is cool. And so I know I've been gaming heavy, but you've been watching more anime, right? And more TV shows and things like that. So, you know, what couple of shows I wanted to talk about. And there's some that you can definitely jump into because you've seen as well. But I actually want to start with

01:22:17

Shameer Mehdikhan

new penguin show that came out HBO Max. That's essentially a sequel to the Batman film that just came out by Matt Reeves directed and written and produced by him. And it's this show about a a side character in the first film where ah ah Robert Benson, and that's the penguin itself. think they did a great job with the show because I listened to a couple of interviews by Matt, and they never originally planned to make a show like this. They always thought his character was fascinating, but Colin Farrell bringing life to the character is what kind of set this whole project off.

01:22:50

Shameer Mehdikhan

And they're saying, well, wow, he brought so much depth to it. It's not that we just wrote it. It's just his acting brought out a lot of it. And they're like, we want to explore this a little more. And this show is unique because it's about Oswald coming to power post the flood. Spoiler alerts if anyone hasn't seen the Batman film by Matt Reeves. But at the end of it, the Riddler basically sets off a bunch of bombs.

01:23:14

Shameer Mehdikhan

And there's huge flood within Gotham, just just destroys and kills a bunch of people and just destroys a bunch of the city. And so this is post that couple of weeks and it's this rise to power. And he has to address Carmine Falcone's family, essentially, because Carmine himself has died in the film. And it's like, who's going to rise next. And it's essentially about his daughter who comes out of Arkham Asylum.

01:23:36

Shameer Mehdikhan

So this is a really unique take between two characters because they're like both part of the same coin but just different size almost in a sense and they both struggle because they have a very human aspect. Yeah it's like a foil character and I feel like we've kind of moved away from that like we're having there's characters to have a lot of similarity but one obviously has something that's very different about them and so because of that that's why we have a difference between the protagonist and the antagonist.

01:23:59

Shameer Mehdikhan

exactly and they did a great job too because they they also show the human side about these characters one was very traumatized in Arkham Asylum they were which i have some feelings about yeah yeah yeah because i do have to say you know although i really liked her story arc right and i haven't finished the show so i'm gonna finish it eventually uh and she's pretty good looking too but for me i mean and If that's the only portrayal of mental health and ECT and things like that that you see, then it's going to create so much stigma because that is not like what what any of it looks like. And the thing is, for a lot of people, that is the only thing that you see. So I 100% get that it's a fictional story to like, you know,

01:24:41

Shameer Mehdikhan

You know, hop off, you know, like let them just kind of create their world and it's a, you know, it's a fictional world. So I can only critique it so much because I understand that this is a superhero place and there's going to be absurd things that happen. But the problem for me is.

01:24:56

Shameer Mehdikhan

If people don't experience the real world counterpart, then they're only going to base it off of the superhero thing. And so this actually makes me think of a totally so so different thing, like an aside. Like I remember I was watching a YouTube video that was talking about, you know, Indian food or kind of how people feel about India and how there's a lot of racism that you see towards India as a third world country for people in the West. And one of the things they brought up is in one of the Indiana Jones movies, you know, they're going into like a Maharaja, like a King's Palace.

01:25:25

Shameer Mehdikhan

and they're eating scarabs and everyone and like a snake and i get it like i guess in that movie is the temple of doom movie in the next of the temple of doom but like you gotta understand like there are people who have never seen india and so like they you know that kind of unconsciously permeates into your mind creates a bias And and it creates a bias. And that's an extreme. Don't get me wrong. But my point is like, if you've never actually seen ECT, if you've never stepped in you front of like a into a psych humans, then where are you going to pull your information from? And unconsciously in your mind, those are the images you're going to have. So, you know, that was kind of one thing that soured me off of the show a little bit.

01:26:01

Shameer Mehdikhan

It was that and then I'll be honest is super basic But I saw that one week and then the next week I saw the IGN review for the next episode and think it was like a six and I was like, oh no I'm not watching this yeah but I will say I I did really have a blast in the first four or five episodes I saw I really enjoyed it. So I'm planning on getting back into it eventually. Yeah, so I think you know a couple more things like I Oswald's relationship with his mother and Victor who's this kid he meets who's trying to carjack him and instead takes him in as someone to mentor I think was unique too because again it showed

01:26:35

Shameer Mehdikhan

that there are so many people that struggle in this role. And I think it's very common to say yeah super relatable. Yes, very relatable because he's been hurt so much. He's done something really bad as a child. He killed his brothers and maybe he didn't really mean it at the time. But he made a mistake and he didn't get a whole lot of grace from anyone, including his mother. And at the very end of his mother dying in this show, he still got a lot of flack. And I think it's well, you know, if you think about it, like, that's what the show does so well. And why people like it because anytime you have an anti hero, it's hard to make it like make people care about it. But if you think about it, like he is dealing with issues that everybody is dealing with. like do I deal with an aging mother who has dementia? you That's such a relatable thing. How do I make a living for the world when everyone wants to put me down and they're judging me based off of where I come from and what I look like? It's such a relatable thing.

01:27:20

Shameer Mehdikhan

and then even you know even though if you've seen the show like it's not like he's an angel and this is why he saves the kid you know but when you see the fact that like there's deeper meaning for why he's saving the kid him seeing himself in the kid right know those are the the moments that the writers were very conscious about that flesh out that character make it more believable and make you You know, fall in love with the character, even though you can tell that this is an evil guy who does evil things. Well, the point I think they're trying to make was not everyone is perfect. Yes, he's done. He's committed crimes. But, you know, they they had a couple of moments there that were really, really hard hitting. It's like,

01:27:56

Shameer Mehdikhan

Hey, Victor finally says, I actually might want to get out of this. I want to leave. I have this girl that I'm in love with and I have a chance to leave Gotham. And as he's trying to leave, Oswald says, go ahead, leave. Everyone's left me. You're no different. I've done so much for you. Think about how many different ways that scene could have went down. And if it was like a cliched scene, like.

01:28:14

Shameer Mehdikhan

the bad guy would be like, no, you're not leaving. Screw you. Or they'll take the girl and kill her or something like that. We've seen that so many times. and how smart was that where it was like flip it and like leave if you want. And then you're asking yourself, is this guy like really feeling this way? Or is this a mind trick? Yeah. then as a reader, as like a viewer, then you're really engaged because you're like,

01:28:35

Shameer Mehdikhan

What's going on here? And, you know, what's crazy is Victor decides to stay and goes, you've shown me so much love, Oswald. I want to be loyal to you. And by the end, he's Oswald still kills Victor because he goes.

01:28:46

Shameer Mehdikhan

you Oh, you haven't seen it. Well, spoiler alert. Sorry. Doesn't matter because I'm trying to make a point here, which is he goes, I still can't trust you because you're my weakness, me loving you and you've seen my weak side, my human side. yeah yeah You're you've now become my weakness. oh oh And because of that, I can no longer have you in my life because you're a liability. Yeah.

01:29:06

Shameer Mehdikhan

because you can tell someone how many times I've broken down because of me loving my mother or what my Achilles heel is. But then that makes you in a way have like pity for the person, right? Because you're just tragic. It's tragic. And that's the story. It's like a tragic hero. And it's like you feel bad for him because it's like man because of your actions and what you want out of life. You can't truly find happiness and look at like if you even have a little little bit of happiness look at what you have to do yeah and and i think this is probably what's going to happen i think going into the second film he'll probably have a not a big role but i think again he he gets to a point where it justifies why he's more of a villain than an anti-hero and honestly it could have all changed if he had just let victor in and said you can make me a different and better person but he instead says i don't deserve this

01:29:53

Shameer Mehdikhan

And so that's relatable in my life too. Cause I feel like we've all probably have had experiences. I hate to generalize, but like we've met probably someone so great in our lives and said, maybe we don't deserve that person. And I'm going to continue doing me and trying to learn on my own because I made so many mistakes. When I think about like, you know, mental health and how it kind of correlates with the show, it's so interesting. Like to me, like, they really have the greatest depiction of, you know, what an insane asylum like looks like in the present day, maybe in,

01:30:20

Shameer Mehdikhan

their world, it makes sense, you know? But, you know, what you're talking about, that's so beautifully executed, right? Like you're talking about, you know, someone's self-image and how really like you keep yourself down, right? And, you know, maybe he has some low-lying depression and yeah that's why he feels so guilty and that's why he's always punishing himself or some survivor's guilt and things like that, right? And that's why really he's really being his worst enemy because he's not allowing himself to really forgive and move on and fight happiness and all those things that's so beautifully executed. and you know, it's all about showing and not telling too late. And those are all things that you can understand without him going, you know, on a monologue and explaining it all. And then I think that's another thing too. And I think what's unique about it is like, it can take a long time to gain someone's trust. And I think that's what this show throughout this whole season is Victor gaining Oswald's trust, but you can also break it within oh a matter of seconds. And again, it's so relatable. It's like, that is what you see in the real world often. And so, you know, that's what I love about, you know,

01:31:18

Shameer Mehdikhan

you know those writers for that show like really they had a lot of confidence because it was a slow burn yeah it was a slow burn with all of the dopamine rushes we get in like you know modern television to make something you know consciously that's a lot slower to get into and that builds characters you know a lot of times you don't see people like spending that same time like i'm a victim of this as well like actually trying to build characters because you're just trying to get them moving forward in the plot to like where you want them to be as opposed to Building the characters and then you understand why the plot is moving forward because that's what those characters gonna do in a scenario Yeah, exactly. Sometimes it becomes too predictable. And so, you know once I finished the show I was like, you know what? I really want to give the first Batman film Another chance because I really it really wasn't my cup of tea. I think the Dark Knight with Christian Bale was Something I enjoyed a little Yeah, why do you think you didn't like it as much the first time wasn't because like I mean for me personally and going into that man and

01:32:15

Shameer Mehdikhan

I love the Dark Knight trilogy so much and it's been such a huge inspiration to me. I was like, why would you ever spoil the name of the Dark Knight? That was so good. Why? And so I had a huge bias against the movie going in. I had a huge bias against Robert Pattinson and he just freaking delivered to me and I loved it.

01:32:33

Shameer Mehdikhan

Maybe again because I had underestimated the show the movie that's why it over performs so much for me but I've always been curious how come you didn't like it at all I don't think I understood the world so well I think you know in a two and a half hour film you already have a pre-established Batman he's not his first year it's not like him becoming Batman and I think him like constantly going back and forth to this club going to Oswald trying to figure out these clues and I think It was like not feel like a Batman movie for you. Yeah, I didn't. But you know, this is somewhat I'm not saying this is a unique take on Batman because Batman is also somewhat of a detective even in the cartoon shows in the comics and stuff. But I'm not used to that image because my version of Batman was never. Yeah, you have like established image of what he's like. We talked about like audience expectations, right? And so like we expect a certain thing out of a superhero. And when you're basically getting like almost like a

01:33:23

Shameer Mehdikhan

Like a David Fincher or like a, you know, kind of like a thriller type of movie. Exactly. And then it's like complete and it was critically acclaimed. And so it's not a bad film at all. But when I saw this show and I got a better understanding of the world building.

01:33:36

Shameer Mehdikhan

And I watched it again. I was like, wow, I actually really love this Batman in this world because now it does connect with Oswald and like what Oswald's trying to do. yeah yeah And you had this Batman that's like struggling because this world is full of crime. It's so hard to be a hero in this world. And it's interesting because like all the other Batman movies we've seen, he's already formulated the idea of Batman and what Batman means as a hero. But in this one, he's only called himself vengeance. I'm vengeance. He doesn't say I'm Batman. I'm vengeance.

01:34:03

Shameer Mehdikhan

And so it's like interesting that that's the character arc where it's he's going from on vengeance on Batman. Well, he's also struggling just like Oswald. So it's not just Oswald that's having the problem because in the prior films Batman saves everyone all the time. And even though, yeah, and maybe the second film, the love light, the love interest dies and stuff. But then he's saving the mass.

01:34:21

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, right. He's still like the hero you expect, like the idolized hero, right? Yeah. But with this, Batman's still struggling, goes, I don't know who my father was. I don't know why my family had this weird stigma attached to them. He's a little more on hinge. He's more on hinge. And he goes, I'm struggling just like the villains are struggling in the show. And that's what makes it unique is that everyone has this like, it's an interesting take on all the characters, either you're a hero or you're a villain, but you don't know your true identity.

01:34:48

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, it's like the the first Batman from Tim Burton is like, you know, Batman's a little theatrical and this one, it's like, yeah, our Batman and this world would be a little deranged. Yeah, exactly. He finds his way. So yeah, I really, really enjoyed the show. I now enjoy the movie more, and I'm more excited for the second film. Unfortunately, it was just delayed again another year, so 2027, but I think filming starts this year. So I don't know why they're taking so long to release it, but it'll be interesting to see how this Batman film compares to the Brave and Bold Batman film that James Gunn ultimately ends up producing, because there's going to be potentially two versions of Batman now.

01:35:22

Shameer Mehdikhan

so much to wrap your head around. So I think even though I didn't finish it, that was probably one of the best shows I watched last year. I'm trying to think what else came out last year. I know I really like the Fallout TV show. I feel like it's been so long that I can't really go into the specifics of what the story was like. But I do remember really enjoying that show when it came out. So I think those were pretty much, I don't think Shogun came out last year. I think that was the year before that. It was the year just prior, I think? Yeah, I think it was the year prior. But other than that, I don't think any TV show really, really hid for me, right? That's fair. I mean, I've been watching some anime and Dragon Ball Diamond has been kind of on the front.

01:35:57

Shameer Mehdikhan

forefront of my mind. And are you caught up with Daima? I'm caught up. There's been some unique things in there. They've they extended and added to the lore. And it's very Toriyama like to do it. And he ended up coming up with this idea just before he passed away. So it ah ah started production 2022. I think Toriyama just passed early last year, or end of 2023.

01:36:19

Shameer Mehdikhan

And so at least the show got produced with his thoughts in mind on it. So it's not like someone else came up with the idea. It's actually adding to the lore and I can see how this extends to potentially Dragon Ball Super in the future.

01:36:30

Shameer Mehdikhan

But what I don't like is that it does seem very kitty. Like there's some unique takes where Vegeta sends and gets Super Saiyan 3 and it's like that was so cool. But as a kid and it's only it lasts for maybe a minute and a half. Yeah. like it doesn't hit the same because like we've always wanted to see that with adult Vegeta and it's like we kind of get a little bit but like not completely. Well, we wanted to see a full arc with it. Like when Vegeta obtains Majin Vegeta and becomes Super Saiyan 2, there's a real reason for it. He had a such a hard time training. He couldn't obtain it on his own. And when he gets it, he struggles between being a good or bad person and killing people versus know giving in to his urges versus being a father. But getting Super Saiyan 3 now means nothing here. It literally meant nothing.

01:37:12

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, that's a good point. And I never thought about it. know, and feel like Dragon Ball has been like the precursor for so much of anime as well. But yeah, in Dragon Ball Z, people really had to work for, you know, their level ups. And it was like, you had so much stress that was put on you and so much responsibility. And you rose to the occasion because you had to and you had to do something dramatically whether that was like you know go in the time chamber and just go crazy or you know go to another planet and and a new technique or something like that you know it didn't actually just feel like something you were just pulling out of nowhere. And Vegeta struggles so much he literally couldn't obtain Super Saiyan 2 but all of a sudden he obtained Super Saiyan 3 in than a year because he saw Goku do it. To me that's a cop out. And think about how hard he had to work to achieve Super Saiyan 2 and like to send a Super Saiyan and and how angry he was if he couldn't keep up. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, I know, now I got up. And that's why I think in the latest iterations of Dragon Ball in the last five years, it's all been more fan service than actual depth.

01:38:11

Shameer Mehdikhan

yeah so again, while I want more and more Dragon Ball coming out, I'm in love with it. It's been my child's favorite series of all time. I just think that it's not what it once was. And it's now unfortunate that the Toriyama has passed away. Rest in peace. But his prodigy who potentially takes over, like we don't know how it's going to continue going forward. I don't know if it's going to be the same anymore. And I don't know if I want the same anymore.

01:38:34

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, no, that's a good point. ah For me, I'm not as far along in Dragon Ball Diamond as you. I've probably seen like the first few episodes. I haven't got to the point where they fight the whatever that big robot thing. you Tamagami. The Tamagami. I haven't seen that yet.

01:38:48

Shameer Mehdikhan

I was enjoying it. You know, I like the fact that I felt like they did a better job with their exposition and like their world building. yeah And I feel like as time has went on, probably the writers have noticed that like there's a lot of inconsistencies. And I feel like they've been trying to put in more effort to address some of those inconsistencies. Like even with that Dragon Ball super superhero, whatever, I feel like they actually spend a lot more time on exposition on like,

01:39:13

Shameer Mehdikhan

okay, how does this person just catch up? I don't know. How does these Dragon Balls work? like How does this and that work? And I was actually surprised with Daima, how well they did that while still pushing the narrative forward. I remember watching the episode with like the Minotaur, and even though it was kind of a throwaway episode, it didn't feel like a throwaway episode, because things were happening, and it was fighting that character, and you were learning the power levels and all those type of things. It was still fascinating, but like how much actually you you changed. you And so I had a good experience with it, but after a while, I just stopped watching because for me, that Ford driving momentum really wasn't there as much because I was just like, kind was like, there really isn't that tension and really like for a story to propel you forward with good pacing, you need good tension. And for me, I was just like, yeah, I know Goku is going to get strong enough and it's going to be this character and then to go to another character. So that's why maybe I felt like more fan service because I'm like, the world is getting enriched and it's like cool.

01:40:05

Shameer Mehdikhan

But I'm not really like at the edge of my seat exactly and this is ah also limited series So I think there's potentially only 20 episodes in total which means not a whole lot can happen Yeah, we already it's predictable if we know what's going to happen and honestly, it's only worth watching the big moments now like I'm doing I've been just kind of keeping up with the big moments I mean overall like when I first heard about Daima I really was not excited for it at all because I've just never been into like the mini character thing. Like I remember Gundam did it. and was like, I'm just like not into this at all. Um, the first few episodes, the dragon diamond definitely hit for me way better than I anticipated. You know, I was like, I was actually like really hyped. And I think we were talking like, you know, last year was pretty good for anime. I feel cause you know, I don't think there was anything that just like was an absolute breakaway success for me, you know?

01:40:52

Shameer Mehdikhan

But Dragon Ball Daima to me overperformed, you know, overall, but, you know, I can see like how, you know, now it's kind of like wondering, I don't know how is this is going to turn out. So that was pretty good. I know you like, was it Terminator Zero? haven't seen that one. It's akin to like Cyberpunk, Edgerunners or whatever that show is called.

01:41:10

Shameer Mehdikhan

it added a lot to the lore and i think what you was unique about this anime specifically was it's almost canonical like they didn't really wreck kana a lot and it was so unique that they took a take or a spin on ai in the modern sense they added a lot and said hey here's a new family a new set of kids and you have that same type of Set up where it's like hey someone's going back in the past to alter the potential future to say can we either stop the war or can we extend it so that way humans get erased from from all of humanity or whatever but the way the address again it was super unique and i think.

01:41:45

Shameer Mehdikhan

this this is how you extend well-known ip you don't have to constantly do live action films because there's a it's like the likeliness whenever you cast a new actor for a live action film that you're remaking you go oh they'll never be able to live up to the original actors that's it's hard film it's very hard truth but when you do an anime or an animation or a cartoon no one thinks about that but yeah because you have kind of like a disconnect in your mind exactly disconnect and then you have lower expectations so then normally it can kind of serve Surpass and exceed those i feel like sometimes they have the opportunity that's gonna be just like the thing people do like lord the rings try it out the i bet you harry potter is gonna try it out at one point you and normally it's cheaper to go that route and honestly if you have a huge success unless you're arcane unless you're arcane you spent two hundred and some million which was insane

01:42:30

Shameer Mehdikhan

but maybe it still might end up helping the brand rather than hurting it. Like, yeah, they might not make it. Well, I feel like Terminator just hasn't been hitting the same for a while now. Like we all know Skynet, like it's like a thing we all talk about, but you know, in the last five to 10 years, like how much is really going on with that franchise? Yeah, exactly. And it's more relevant now than ever because AI has become so prevalent in our lives. Now's the time. Now's the time. So the question in this series specifically is,

01:42:54

Shameer Mehdikhan

A new scientist creates another AI program similar akin to Skynet, but he doesn't know that if he brings it online, will it help Skynet kill all of humans or will it help keep them alive and destroy Skynet? That's a good ethical dilemma. It was a very ethical dilemma. It was very unique. Don't ruin it for me. I won't ruin it, but it takes him the entire series to figure out what to do.

01:43:15

Shameer Mehdikhan

And even then, at the end, it's still not conclusive. It's open-ended. Do you think there'll be a season two, or did it end in, like, the way Cowboy Bebop ends? And you're like, okay, it's a inconclusive ending, but it's a conclusive ending. it's It's conclusive enough that you could just say it could be a potential... How do I say this? You can open it. If they wanted to, they could, but they don't need to. But they don't need to. So, like, it feels like it was cathartic for you. Like, it hits the spot. It was cathartic.

01:43:39

Shameer Mehdikhan

they never choose to do something else. You're fine. Maybe I'll check it out. You know, I know you've been telling me to watch Terminator zero for a while. I just, I don't know. Like I feel like some of the enemies on Netflix, like even though they get a lot of hype, I just couldn't get into them. Like I remember, even though I really love dragon age, I couldn't get into the anime completely. completely. Um,

01:43:58

Shameer Mehdikhan

I tried to get into, I think, Dear the Dragon's Dogma anime. I couldn't get into that the same. So that's why I'm always a little hesitant. There's a Tekken anime. Yeah, and I feel like there have been enemies on Netflix that have really hit well. Like, I know we wanted to talk about Pluto too, because that's one of our favorites. But other enemies, they just really haven't hit. Like, I remember there was Blood and Zeus, and like, oh, that was kind of okay, but eh. And I think, at least with Terminator again,

01:44:21

Shameer Mehdikhan

just to kind of go back to this consistent animations the voice acting is great music is very unique and then they they they mix on little bit of CGI and they go okay again I see why people are going towards us now it just kind of makes sense of this overall arching thing because certain moments like really require it now and it's like this is great you're not flexing it too hard this is perfect so i think they find a really unique balance it's like a solid eight out of ten for me and it will take them yeah and it's short enough that you can finish in one sitting eight episodes 20 minutes each you know you're only getting what like three hours in total i think i would be a little basic as well and i i really need to stop doing this but i think uh ichian gave turbo data zero seven out of ten i was just like oh

01:45:03

Shameer Mehdikhan

I don't know. I don't know. But they also said if you actually read the review, that's your problem. I'm basic. I'll be honest when it comes to this. If you read it, they also said it was one of the most unique and best stories in the Terminator franchise since Terminator 2.

01:45:17

Shameer Mehdikhan

maybe I'll check it out. Maybe it'll inspire me. I think it will. And I think especially with the way you write oh you know, as soon as you started saying AI, I was like, man, I hope it's not stealing my AI idea because that would kill the story I'm working on. It's very unique, man. That's what I'll say. So, and at the end, they actually have a little moment. That's like kind of like a shocking, not a twist, but it's like, okay. Wow. Like, again, I wasn't like on the edge of my seat all the time, but I'm like, this had me hooked. That's a good anime. When it has you hooked, it's like, you know, it's like, it's worth watching.

01:45:46

Shameer Mehdikhan

All right, I'll check it out. And now, I know, kind of talking about anime in general and what we've liked in the last year, have you been able to watch any of Don the Don on your own yet? I have not, but what I have watched, what I'm addicted to right now is that stupid opening. You know, I listened to the American version of that opening. The English cover? The English cover? Isn't it better than the original? I still like the original better, but it's good. It's good. They're both good in their own way, but man, and it's so funny, my niece who's like, I think two or three, like she's dancing to it. It's so catchy.

01:46:15

Shameer Mehdikhan

they killed it with the opening song and and it's made by a band that's called creepy nuts that's so fun that's so hilarious but tell me have you watched any of the episodes yet no so what i am going to do is they just announced that they're working on season two and they already have a teaser trailer i think coming out next year i'm going to wait till season two comes out and then be you always say you're going to do this this is my plan like bleach i'm waiting for all four seasons oh that's fair that's fair i'm doing the same thing for bleach as well because you know I have Hulu with ads and I don't want to deal with the ads. I'll fast forward through the parts with that kind of filler and I'll see all the good fights. That's my plan for that as well. I can tell you about my experience with to Down. I didn't really expect much at all going into it.

01:46:54

Shameer Mehdikhan

And that first episode just hits. you And I feel like what Dun to Dun does really well is it kind of fuses a lot of different things that we see that are really popular in anime together. But also, the twist to it is that like take the raunchiness, but they just make it really funny.

01:47:09

Shameer Mehdikhan

And it just hits so well at that specific type of humor. And I feel like sometimes that type of Japanese humor that's a little raunchy doesn't always hit for me, but in Don to Don, it just totally hits so well. So like, for instance, like I kind of get some like, ah ah you know, fully coulee vibes with how the, ah you know, the fact that there's like a female character, and a male character, both of them have a lot of agency in the story. And then both are a lot of, you know, making a lot of differences. So I think that hit really really well. It has your traditional like high school falling in love story right and so and they follow all of the kind of templates for that pretty well and so that it hits on that level as well. It has you know kind of the whole shown in like let's power up and you know fight people that hits really well. And it really has just like phonetic energy in the first episode where like

01:47:52

Shameer Mehdikhan

It goes from one ridiculous thing to another ridiculous thing, and then right when you think it's gotten ridiculous enough, it goes to the next ridiculous thing. And then the next few episodes, it files a way of dialing that back, actually having a good story with good character development between the uh the main characters and so that to me was like expertly done they had like running jokes that were hilarious uh i will say you know my wife's not a fan because there's a lot of just really awkward inappropriate scenes that happen around balls in that in that anime which is just so absolutely funny but honestly if you didn't tell me that the show you were describing was down to that

01:48:29

Shameer Mehdikhan

I would have said you're describing Mob Psycho. Honestly, if you love this show, you will absolutely love Mob Psycho because it's literally the same thing. So I'll tell you what my problem is with Dontadon and why, you know, I'm not super hyped for the next season, even though I love the first three episodes. And I don't know, I watched a little bit of a Mob Psycho and I couldn't finish the first episode because for me, like.

01:48:50

Shameer Mehdikhan

I have seen too many you of the training animes, too much of the power-up animes, and I'm just kind of sick of it. And I just can't get into it anymore. And then for me, a certain point, Dontadon was just hitting those notes. Like, OK, we need our characters to power up, and we need to have random fight scenes, so let's bring back you know, these enemies and those enemies and I found myself kind of forwarding through it because I was like essentially these 20 minutes are just let's fight a random enemy and then the next episode we'll move on to a different enemy and I was like oh this is so boring for me like it's not really doing much and then it started really like kind of fitting the cliches too much of like you know awkward man awkward you know girl to a certain extent and they're just kind of dancing around the fact that they're falling in love and so I was like okay I've seen this so many times in anime you know

01:49:33

Shameer Mehdikhan

And so I feel like Kaiju as well, that show you has that came out, same type of feeling I had where, you know, they know kind of the tropes of the shonen anime and they kind of inverted it a little bit in the beginning.

01:49:44

Shameer Mehdikhan

But then later, they revert into those same exact tropes. And so that's why the last couple episodes of that season just really dragged for me. And there were some new side characters they introduced. And they didn't exactly like fit the mold of your traditional Japanese anime character. And so I like that. There was one episode in particular about a ballerina. And man, that was one of the best episodes of the anime I've seen for a while. That hit me hard emotionally. That was amazing. 10 out of 10 episodes.

01:50:10

Shameer Mehdikhan

but really the last few episodes was a drag I thought the show ended at such a weird portion part and a lot of these animes I feel like now instead of giving us that 26 episode season they're doing like I think they're called Coors yeah yeah it's like 12 episodes it just ends in an awkward spot that's true and it's the norm was 26 like 5 to 10 or 15 years ago but this is a way to kind of like hype up the engagement a little bit to say we're going to keep you on a cliffhanger. We know we're stopping at an awkward spot, but there's more to come. And then we can wait another one or two years to actually do an actual second season. Yeah. But I feel like for this one really, it was just an awkward spot for it to end. So, so to me, like when I watched the first few episodes, like, man, like maybe not everyone's going to feel this way, but this is like a nine show for me. And like,

01:50:58

Shameer Mehdikhan

The last three episodes were like a six. Which is fine. Hard to watch. You're not going to ever find a consistent shonen anime that's so good across the board every episode. It's been hard for me to find a good shonen anime like that. Even with Jujutsu Kaisen, I know there's a lot of lovers of Jujutsu Kaisen, but for a while had an ups and downs too. you It's been really a long time since I've seen an anime like that that's hit hard. know Maybe you would classify attack on Titan in the same realm But that's really that hit well, you know and think about how much time they had to take off, you know So it wasn't like so much blow like really it was just like concentrated and to the point Yeah, that took way too long. So you're right. There's just not even my hero to a certain extent drag for so long There's so many and went on for such a long time I mean I was so hyped on my hero and then I'll never forget there was a A few episodes, I had the gentle villain. I couldn't watch after that. i I know I've been really wanting to get back into my hero, but it drags so much with that part. The show finally ends next year and I'm hyped that it's finally ending, but the animations aren't as good as I thought it was going to be too.

01:52:01

Shameer Mehdikhan

I feel like the quality went down because I remember it the first two seasons had some amazing it amazing and then I went down and I think I hope that they go all out with the budget on the final season because it's the final friggin thing but if not it's just i probably well I mean look at bleach like look at how those I mean the animations are just yeah right it took 10 years to come back with that Now, granted, Bleach was the highest rated anime this season, which was great to see. Every episode was over nine. Well, you know, I'm kind of having mixed feelings about, like, the rating system now, because, again,

01:52:32

Shameer Mehdikhan

maybe people will hate me for this but solo leveling just came out with the new season and I haven't seen the first episode but like I think you got like a 9.9 you know I'm not gonna hate on something I haven't seen yet so I really have no idea how good that second the first episode of the second season is but I don't know 9.9 is like crazy high for an anime episode especially because the first season in terms of animation quality was a letdown in my opinion so was pretty good. I didn't think it was good. I think it was okay. They only had two to three great episodes and the rest were subpar. And that's not the feeling I got when I read the Manwa. When I read the Manwa, every chapter was so on point and I was reading a comic. But when I didn't translate well in animation in that first season, so I can definitely tell the difference.

01:53:18

Shameer Mehdikhan

And they kind of flopped. They didn't put as much into it. And they knew how popular the series was. And I'm like, you couldn't have invested. And they they did a thing where they were being very cautious and they wanted to know if it was going to be popular. And I think I'm betting you season two will be more consistent. Oh, yeah. I mean, I mean, I guess like because I didn't have the experience reading, you know, anything about it, like for me, just going into it, not expecting much from the show. I was like, man, this this is pretty good to me. When I tell you that I read a comic that had me so excited, I couldn't stop reading it. I was literally five in the morning from midnight to five in the morning, reading like 50 chapters a day. That's how crazy this invoke evoke this emotion for me from a comic. Wow. And because every panel jumped out to me, it was amazing.

01:53:59

Shameer Mehdikhan

Yeah, so I guess like the bar was really high for you. So when you saw it in animation, you're just like, I mean, I would imagine season and two two probably stepped it up a lot. Because I was hearing that from my cousin that like, you know, we felt like the first episode, like it was sick. And he felt like the animations were good and everything. So that's the thing, they got some really popular artists to make the opening and ending song now.

01:54:19

Shameer Mehdikhan

Season the episode once seems to be really high quality. They're gonna cover some really great arcs in this new season So I think my hope again, I'm being cautious about this is that it's gonna be way better and they've learned from season one so Excited for it for sure. Okay, cool. So I know we've been going on for a while now So maybe we can talk about what we're looking, you know forward to in 2025 and we've been touching upon this, you know throughout the whole, you know podcast and Maybe for our next episode, we're going to delve more into it and we'll pick out you specifically why we're super excited for it. But yeah, what are the top games or top enemies or movies you're looking forward to in this year? I mean, let's see.

01:55:03

Shameer Mehdikhan

In terms of maybe shows, there's actually a lot of movies coming out this year. And I remember seeing a list and it's a lot of sequels to old movies coming out this year specifically. And I don't have a list on hand, but I'm excited for just a bunch of movies. I'm excited for the Switch 2 and all its software being released. I'm excited kind of for Death Stranding 2.

01:55:21

Shameer Mehdikhan

Really? Because you didn't even play the first one. I wasn't, but that trailer, that Hideo kind of trailer made me so hyped. Was it the graphics? It wasn't the graphics. It was the stupidity of the trailer of someone having a guitar and being able to fight with a freaking guitar. and So it was just how ridiculous it was. It was how ridiculous and how hyped that got me. So I'm like, okay, you know what? Even though this game is about delivering Amazon packages and UPS and FedEx packages, I actually think there's some potential for the sequel because now you might actually have a competitor to Amazon in this game and it's like, right? Like, let's go. I actually don't think I finished the whole trailer for it because

01:55:57

Shameer Mehdikhan

I remember I played like 40 to 50% of Death Stranding and I enjoyed my time with it, but at a certain point I was like, man, I do not want to feel like I'm working a second job. So then I stopped playing. Which is fair. I can't blame yourself for that. I didn't expect you to say you were hyped for Death Stranding too, so okay. Metal Gear, Solid, Delta, I'm excited for that. I'm not as excited for a Ghost of Yotai, it just hasn't been on my radar really as much. I didn't play the first one yet. And I'm just like Assassin's Creed has my attention more.

01:56:26

Shameer Mehdikhan

And then honestly, I'm kind of looking to see if Xbox decides they have so many games releasing this year, but what did they announce by the end of the year? Are they going to announce new hardware plans? That actually has me somewhat excited. What's coming out in 2026 because they got some potential bangers coming out in 2026. Well, it's the pivot now. This is the realization that they've been trying to tell older fans since 2015, like we got games. it's finally coming to fruition now oh yeah so i'm hyped for this year because you're gonna actually deliver products like fable potentially south of midnight and a bunch of other so so speaking of which and you know i'm not going to be the person who's like oh you know this is a year for xbox because actually i've been enjoying my xbox here in my you know games the last couple of years but i am really looking forward to a lot of these xbox exclusives like definitely

01:57:09

Shameer Mehdikhan

I think top of the list for me is Fable. I've only dabbled a little bit in the first few, view I am super excited for that one. I'm excited for Avowed. I'm kind of excited for South of Midnight as well, but not as much. But really, I would say Avowed and Fable I'm super hyped for. I don't really know what Sony's going to be bringing out yet. We have to see if Wolverine comes out, I might be hyped for that. But you you know i mean ghost of yo tai 2 i think it'll be a great game but i don't have that same enthusiasm metroid i'm super excited for um that's going to be a big one for me some of the third party stuff like i'm actually really excited for obviously if grand theft south of six actually comes out that's going to be amazing mafia kind of snuck up for me so i'm kind of really looking forward to that one as well and then

01:57:51

Shameer Mehdikhan

you know, really, we're just going to see how the year goes. Other than that, like movies and anime wise, I don't really know too many that I'm super excited for. You know, I've never really been into Superman like that, like out of all the superheroes, he's like really not been my superhero. But I am really looking forward to somebody potentially doing what ah Christopher Nolan did with Batman, potentially with Superman and, you know, from the the real Superman fans, it seems like,

01:58:19

Shameer Mehdikhan

He's nailing the right notes, you know, from the trailer. Yeah, so that I'm actually I'm surprised at how much I'm looking forward to that. I am kind of looking forward to the new Jurassic. I think that'll be kind of cool.

01:58:31

Shameer Mehdikhan

Anime-wise, I don't think there's really much, you know? Yeah, there's nothing too excited on an anime front other than the last cower of Bleach, which I think is supposed to come out at the end of this week. Yeah, that's gonna be hype. Like to see those last battles, yeah that's gonna be hype. And you know for sure they're making changes because the author of the manga, he's been helping produce all the seasons, so I'm sure they're gonna change up the ending a little bit. So I'm excited to see how they finally ended, you know.

01:58:56

Shameer Mehdikhan

So, all right, guys, well, I think that will be a wrap for this episode. And, you know, tune in two weeks, probably, and we'll be talking more about, know, some of the news and kind of going through 2025 and more depth. Take care. All right. Peace.