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Episode 12 - Xbox and Sony Future predictions, Gears Reloaded, Death Stranding 2, Halo rumors, 28 Years Later, Lazarus
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Episode 12 - Xbox and Sony Future predictions, Gears Reloaded, Death Stranding 2, Halo rumors, 28 Years Later, Lazarus
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Transcript
00:00:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
okay
00:00:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
oh Hey everyone, how's it going? It's the Detroit Gamesters and it's June 27th. We're back for episode 12 and it's been a couple of weeks. June 27th? Sorry, I mean it's July 1st. Where have you been the last couple of days, bro? Is this why I never see you anymore? i I'm not living in a linear timeline at this point. Whatever everyone, this is Shamir. talking to a past...
00:00:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
south of Arjun. Arjun's ghost. Yeah, it's July 1st. I know we're a week late. I just kind of felt like there wasn't as much stuff to talk about. also, this is just kind of a weird time for us because... We're in between game releases, launches, new... There was just like a massive burst of gaming news and I feel like now things have been kind of quieter. i haven't been gaming as much. you know God forbid I've actually been getting outside of the house more. you know Enjoying the sun. The console wars are dead. You guys have heard. i Enjoying the poop the pool. And I'm actually going to on vacation. I'm heading over to Europe this weekend.
00:01:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I was thinking, okay, I kind of want to stage it. So I'm doing one right before i leave and then one right when I get back. so And i I'm supposed to be in San Diego right now. But those trip that trip got canceled. So I'm just kind of in limbo at the moment.
00:01:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. So my plans have been all over the place, but that's caused a lot of shifts in our schedules. Yeah. Which I guess like, it does make me kind of wonder, I feel like a lot of games don't necessarily really release in the summer. Yeah. So is it like a chicken and the egg situation? Like, do people just know people aren't going to be gaming in the summer and they don't release stuff? yeah Or is it more like because nothing is out, no one's gaming?
00:01:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, it's a bit of both. Like 10 years ago, I would say everyone knew the time to release games were always during the holiday. Even when you had a new console launch, which made most sense. But now everyone has changed the expectations and defied that. So Nintendo releasing a console in the summer.
00:01:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
We have new releases like Death Stranding and donkey kong in the summer like it's just weird to see this because ten years ago, this was not the case. yeah Maybe I just got through this high of just like there were so many games that came out like February, March, and especially April, right? And then even in the May, April and May was crazy. So To me, it just seemed kind of slow. And yeah I guess we were going to talk about this eventually, but you know I'm just not a big Death Stranding guy. So even though that's on the beach you know even though that's like the big game right now, and you have been really trying to convince me to buy it It's got a 90 plus open credit. I know. And then I was like, okay, if it gets over 90, maybe I'll buy it. but Maybe. He'll play a 60 Metacritic game when Hellblade Senua, but he won't touch a ninety it at 90. I think that was like
00:02:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
eighty I actually think Hellblade 2 was 80 Open Critic. I'm just going to check this. You can look it up. don't know. I guess for me, i get really into the hype of what everyone else is saying is really good. 81. 81. I told you, bro. Either way, it's asking.
00:03:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
I liked it. But I don't get into the hype of these games that I'm not going to be interested in, but everyone else keeps talking about them. So I'm like, okay, I got to jump on the bandwagon. That's like the hot thing to play. You want to be part of the conversation. And feel like because it's Hideo, yeah, Hideo.
00:03:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
that's again worth playing people are saying very reminiscent to Metal Gear Solid V. But I did like Metal Gear Solid V. I think we talked about it, like the only Metal Gear I liked was IV. Maybe from a gameplay perspective though, because the story is still going to be as unique as it as he always makes games to be.
00:03:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think the first one, everyone was lost on Death Stranding once. I feel like if they fleshed this out a little better to make the story, the pacing better, so So my problem with why i don't want to get into Death Stranding 2 is I think it's a really interesting setting.
00:03:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't like the way Hideo Kojima does storytelling because I think some people make something that's really dense. And the reason you're playing is so you can finally understand what's going on. And so you're just sitting there because you're like, okay, I'm invested.
00:04:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's really interesting and curious. And I just want it to make sense. yeah that's not and for me like i don't really like that type of storytelling as much because i remember when i was playing dead stranding one i was like oh my god like i'm so lost the way he's describing everything exhaust it's out of order and the only reason i'm playing is because this is such a fascinating world i want to understand why the rain is aging people like i want to understand these things so that was like the hook for me i think part of it is this creativity yes but his games are meant to be
00:04:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
played more than once that degree that's why he made that director's cut for death training one and he also enhanced the gameplay on top of it so it kind of like it was like okay cool you made this newer version people got to replay the story and it's the definitive version like i feel like with death training 2 i'm not saying they're going to have a director's cut but that story is meant to be rewatched a couple of times it's like going watched that three or four times because it was so dense and so so i get that i dissected i think this is a hot take and i don' know i'm probably gonna get a lot of crap for this but i just think it's kind of pretentious and it's just like not my my way of doing stuff because like okay so when i look at writers i'm trying to emulate like i was reading on writer by stephen king right and he was like you know the best way of saying something is just saying it simply and i think a lot of times like people just caught up get caught up in like making it
00:05:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
flashy or like sound good or this or that but sometimes you don't have to make things so dense you know like what's wrong if like instead of giving me like all of what I need 90% of the game and actually not even all of what I need because really I have to play two or three times to get it you know so I guess maybe that's just me like I'm not someone who also likes the storytelling of Elden Ring and Bloodborne and stuff like that.
00:05:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't like these stories where have to piece it all together. Yeah, where the lore is all the place. Yeah, and like Destiny, like where you have to argue like, and look for people who are into that, you know, I get it. You know, like there's so much catalog of videos you can go through and pour over it. There's a lot of fun to it. yeah But I just, I like more of the, more of the like the Sony cinematic style of God of War or Last of Us where it's a good story that's well told, but there's still some things about it that'll make me think about life.
00:06:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. I mean, I think with Dustin, what I'll say this, I'll give credit to Hideo is like, He came up not only with a new IP, and this was after being like leaving Konami, he created such a big world that he was able to spawn a sequel. That doesn't happen often.
00:06:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, and I feel like if you have that much to tell, yeah, that means maybe you didn't give us the direct, hey, here's what the story is about. But I think I'm okay with that, you know. I'm going to play the second one. I didn't really play the first one. i've watched it But the second one looks like it's given a lot of quality of the life improvement. that's what everyone was saying. Like, I think even the IGN reviewer was saying, like, the Death Stranding one was like a 7 out of 10 for me. And, like, the new one is like a 9 out of 10, right?
00:06:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I and love that improvement. I love the fact that he's able to make something... that's very unique and artistic and all those things. But at its core, I just don't like the game. Like I, I remember all those hours I spent delivering the boxes and it just was not fun for me. So that's, what's changed in this game is that in between missions now you have a lot more camp bases where you're fighting enemies. enemies Which is fine, but it's like, why should, and this is again, my opinion, like even if I'm getting like more,
00:07:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
action that I would like, I still have to play things I don't want to play. You know what it's like? If the core of the game play is primarily moving boxes around,
00:07:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I don't like that. Like the fact that now you're giving me a little bit of jelly to make it taste better. Like, right. But still, that doesn't mean that the core is something I enjoy. Yeah, I mean, it's some of that stuff I mentioned is optional, too. so it's not like you have to play that way. It's just it gives more options. And the critique that the game had was that there wasn't enough action. Like story-wise, again, i think Death Stranding is a game I would have watched, you know, not played.
00:08:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
and this game looks like i'd rather play now no it remains to be seen try it out maybe maybe it'll fit for you i mean for me i've just never been into like the whole survival sim like you know and even though that's training is obviously not a survival sim like it's just it's just not my cup of tea like it i like for me i like shooters rpgs and action adventures you know and this this is and for me i think with that standing run i convinced myself that i would like it and then i i really tried and then i was like no i'm just coming in i i didn't even play the first one i just
00:08:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
like oh this isn't for me like i'm not gonna play but this is in between what you said this is espionage slash action which i don't like i really don't like every core espionage i said the same thing until i played metal gear solid 4 and i said fuck i actually like this game the only reason i like metal gear solid 4 is because i got a grenade launcher sure you did more action than espionage but i appreciated that like there was different ways to play that game and it didn't always forced me to do it that way it wasn't like slowing me down it was this is the primary way, but if you want to do the secondary way, you can also run and gun and just blast through it too. So, okay, maybe this is just a weird thing. I wonder if anyone else games like this. So if you do let us know, but when I play stealth games,
00:09:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
I purposely try and create as much havoc as I can surely because then it makes the action like 10 times harder yeah because you're not supposed to be able to do that right? But that's not the point. So then it's like I went from normal mode to like veteran mode. Sure but that's probably not what this game is. It seems like it's both in parallel.
00:09:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
So you can now upgrade the exoskeleton suit so you can run like a madman in Death Stranding 2 and you can purely play it as an action game and it's meant to be played that way or you can just always stealth and not fight anyone they actually give you two parallel paths so what you're saying is different it's not really meant to be this way but we gave you an option and now it makes things difficult but i can't just play the whole game as a shooter i still have to deliver packages no that's that's on top of what's been built at the core of the foundation so the foundation being you're delivering packages regardless now you have two additional layers on top of how you can do it you can either be stealthy or action so it's like
00:10:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
The core of the game is being an Amazon worker, yeah but on top of it, you can approach the game like that. You only get paid minimum wage in this game. So I kind of feel like what essentially happened and maybe people who have played the game can sound in, you know,
00:10:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
They just took the elements of Metal Gear Solid that worked well, and then they mixed it in actually to the elements of Death Stranding 2, so some people didn't balance it out. I'm seeing a lot of people calling this game Metal Gear Solid 6, like legit, and I could understand that. It's like, okay, this is the evolution of what 5 probably... Did you like 5, though?
00:10:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, I didn't beat it, so I thought it was okay. I didn't like it as much as 4. I liked 4 the best. I really didn't like 5. I just remember the beginning was so jarring, and then I was just like... can't get into this.
00:10:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
This is just way too jarring. And it's one thing if it's weird, like I like weird, like I like high on life. That's a super weird game. But for some reason, some of those games are just too jarring. So we'll see. i mean, right now I'm holding off on dying, Death Stranding. And I guess this goes into another point. I feel like my value proposition has really changed and I do kind of blame game pass for it. Right. Cause like in this year, like if I'm playing bangers,
00:11:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
like Doom and Clear Obscure, right? And to me, i think about it as a banger, but i know a lot of people disagree, but still, you know, full price games, right? Then do I really want to pay 70 to 80 bucks for a game that I might not like, right? Yeah.
00:11:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so it just kind of changes the whole value proposition. Like for me, if that's trending too, if I could, you know, wait and buy it on sale when it's like 39 99, then maybe I'll go. see let's See, but now you're, this is a psychological thing for you because you're saying a game that's full price should be a banger. That's what you just said, but it's on game pass, but yeah it's the same way. from So my point is not like a game full price has to be a banger. My game is, ah ah my point is if it's a game I'm unsure about, I'm too scared.
00:12:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
to dip my feet in and potentially be let down because then it's a bigger time like money commitment and i'll feel bad about it yeah of course for instance like i just bought metaphor i bought dragon's dogma i bought stellar blade which were all games that were really hyped i didn't like any of them yeah and so now i'm like okay but that's just that's the risk you take whenever you buy a game right if you haven't played it regardless of the reviews because all those games you talked about had pretty decent reviews what i'm saying is that from a psychological standpoint for a playstation consumer they say
00:12:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
oh that's stranding too press game i know that's also going to be a anger and i i'm going to pay for it then play it on gameest because if it's on Game Pass, it's devalued in some way. I mean, I get what you're saying. Like, the argument is that, well, if Sony is feeling confident enough to charge full price on this, then they really trust the game. But, I mean, that doesn't always turn out.
00:12:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, but it's the same for the game. Concord? Yeah, but it's this well, Concord wasn't a full price game. That's the thing. It was a $40 game. I think Rise of the Ronin. Yeah, but that was a second-party collab.
00:13:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
So again, quality control there. Like, again, with the way i look at Game Pass is you liked Avowed a lot, and that kind of fit your style of games. but that didn't really fit for me and i wasn't even interested even even though it wass on Game Pass. and i have game pass I have Game Pass Ultimate.
00:13:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay, but if I was a full price game, would you have bought it? No. So... No, but again, that's just... I already... if it was on Game Pass 2, I still wouldn't have touched it. and i so So either way, you wouldn't have been injur interested. yeah But for me, I think, especially... Like, as I've gotten older, I've started to get a better sense of, like, hey, I don't like this, but I'm not normally into this, but I'm going to try it because I think I could get into it, right? And I would be surprised. Like...
00:13:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
Astro Bot, was like, I don't know if this is really for me, you know, but I think I might like it because I liked Super Mario Wonder. So I bought it, I played it and I was like, Oh my god, I'm happy. yeah Like this changed my mind, right.
00:13:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then other games like I'll be like, Oh, okay, I don't know if this is for me. Like, that's how I felt about metaphor after I played Persona because Persona is not for me. I really didn't like all the stats and talking to people and grinding in that way is boring to me.
00:14:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then was like, okay, everyone's saying it's like a 10 out of 10. Bought it, played like five, 10 hours, couldn't get into it. And I think for me, the one that really like made it crystal clear to me was like Dragon's Dogma.
00:14:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like I knew from the second I saw all those videos, I was like, literally the part of video games I hate the most with these RPGs is when you get lost and you just have things pop up. Yeah. And I, I i don't like that. Like I literally, I and just go straight to what needs to be done. Like I told you, I played oblivion.
00:14:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
I would literally fast travel to where I wanted to go. I don't want to walk there and discover things. I know people are into that, right? And, you know, it obviously it's one of the most successful games. I like that. That's not me, right? Like I'm really into just narratives and characters and how those characters grow. Like for me, I want to play games as if it's an interactive movie, right? yeah But then I was like, oh, but Dragon's Dawn with the graphics look good. I was saying it's amazing. I tried it.
00:15:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
really gave it a chance and just I felt like I wasted my time and money there. So that's why now i'm like, I've been burnt a lot last year and it's stellar. Like, Oh God, you know, I felt about that one. So I just feel like I've been burnt a lot this year.
00:15:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
so I'm just kind of like, yeah, yeah I mean, the way i look at it for us still, it's a value proposition thing. We're still like, you know, just for those that don't know, we're so middle class people. So our time is also important, but so is their money. We still, I am hesitant to put in a lot of money and sink into something that I'm not yeah confident about.
00:15:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
But if I was rich and I could yeah afford a lot of shit, I'd probably buy even about it. Even though I wouldn't play it, I'd be like, fuck it. You know, because I want to own the games because people are talking about it. Yeah. But I don't know if this is YouTube, but then I get like a guilt factor.
00:15:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
don't know if rich people don't have that. But then like, I just have this guilt factor because I'm just like, oh man, there's all these games and I spent this money and I'm not going to play it. And then it's like, I start forcing myself to play something that I'm not enjoying. And then like i like, my wife will sit next to me and she's like, why are you playing this when you're clearly not having fun. It's like is sos possible of being a give you pay for yeah like as a principle of beating a game you paid for. Or you'd start it even if it was on game list because you're still paying for it. So I think with that, like because I'm unsure, like i don't want to pay full price for it.
00:16:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
But if it was like pretty cheap you know and I had nothing else really that I was playing like it was a quiet month, I might pick it up. like Wait four years? I'll go on a second. was just mad. think Who knows, man? But, I mean, I guess Sony games do go on sale. They're not like Nintendo. Yeah, they're not like Nintendo, so. But, I mean, hats off to them.
00:16:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think... And I think it's kind of funny timing because I feel like in the PlayStation community, I've been hearing a lot of people very critical about the PS5 and they're like, oh my God, how are we already talking about the PS6? There's really been no bangers that have come out.
00:16:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
And what's the point of me upgrading my PS5? Because I'm not really getting anything that's showing off the power of the PS5. And it's just like timing wise, like I feel like that conversation really crescendoed like a week or two before Death Stranding 2 came out. right And it's like now Death Stranding 2 comes out and it looks absolutely it amazing. right And they're really using they're really using the PS5's engine and obviously this not something that could ever be done on a PS4.
00:17:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I just thought that was funny timing. But guess, what do you think about that? Like kind of that feedback where a lot of people who have PS4s, they're like, hey, we're five years now into the PS5, right? Just about, right? Just about.
00:17:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they look at all of the big Sony games have come out. And I would say the best ones have all also been on the PS4. They're like, yeah, it was really worth the upgrade. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say it wasn't worth the upgrade. i think the upgrade was necessitated.
00:17:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
But what I say it's too early. I think we have this arbitrary cycle of upgrading every seven years. And these OEMs have decided seven years is when we should upgrade to a new console or you know iterate.
00:17:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think for PlayStation 5 to 6 specifically, think seven years is not enough time. It's too soon. I think they're definitely going to be in 2028. Yeah, and here's where I look at it. I think, as Sony said this specifically last week at their little press event, this was is really funny.
00:18:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're relying on PS4 owners to carry them through into p s six so what does that mean they're still creating games like third-part games exist for ps4 the new call of duty game that's coming out is still going to be on ps4 but the thing like harry is but why is this generation different because you know i feel like people adopted the ps3 and the 360 relatively quickly and the ps4 and the xbox one relatively quickly but people are just not really adopting the ps5 in the same way i mean people are obviously buying them right like ps5 is selling very well it is i think it's just
00:18:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
we're in a different point like
00:18:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
to not want to spend as much money. But like 2008 crisis, right? It's not like we haven't had hard times before. I think PlayStation 3 really hit its stride towards the end of its life cycle. So that was probably 2010 to 2013 after the recession. And I think right now people are like, we don't have much money to spend. And I think people are going with the mobile platform with Nintendo and then sticking with their PS4. And I think most of the monthly active users on PlayStation Plus or are on PS4, actually. I think I would have to look the numbers back up.
00:19:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I guess I was just thinking, i mean, especially when you have a soccer game and the best shooter game always on PS4 every year. yeah So I guess i was just thinking about it like I was wondering, A, is it related to the fact that we're not having a massive graphical jump, right? Because, that's you know, I think one of the big things is, okay, if we're really just jumping from like 30 frames per second at like, you know, 800p to like 60 frames per second at 1080p, but everything is being super sampled anyway, right? The scaling technique. The scaling tech, you know, so then people are like, is it really worth it? So PS3 to 4 was actually still a substantial jump, right? So you still saw like, hey, better pixel count, better polygons, looks more dense, it looks better
00:20:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
but i look from four to five like sometimes it's like other than a handful like demons sold okay cool stand up returnal stand And the thing is, PS4 was kind of like punching above its weight, right? Because even early on, like I thought Order 1886 looked fantastic, looked fantastic, Horizon looked fantastic, and I mean it goes to show you more.
00:20:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah i mean Horizon Forbidden West was able to run on PS4. Ratchet and Clank? Right. Well, don't think the new one was on PS4. It was only on PS5. The 2016 one. Oh, yeah. That looked so good. That looked great. Like Pixar movie. So I guess it has been kind of disappointing in terms of graphics. And I think one of the big changes has been, okay, you don't really have to deal with loading screens, which is nice.
00:20:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
But now you still have to download like 100 and 150 gigabytes of massive games. yeah So like how much better are we? Not really because most people are used to loading screens for the last 30 years. Like even on the older, like that was just a thing you got used to.
00:21:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. And like actually was an opportunity to go use the bathroom or like do something else. Yeah. So, I mean, it did really suck for some games, but it wasn't like the worst thing. And I guess where I'm getting at is in my mind, I can see like,
00:21:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
big changes that happen with each generation, right? Like, you know, if from PS1 to PS2, we're getting more 3D than PS3, man, like the texture quality or the resolution, really you saw that improvement.
00:21:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
PS4, I would argue that really the open world of game really came into effect because now you're able to have a lot bigger, you know, game worlds. But in the PS5, like, you know, what have you had? Like you've had more of like an evolution of like how large and, you know,
00:21:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
it was more open it was to look it wasn't even that it was like more efficiency games so compression and decompression of data and uh audio those two things like grew exponentially but you know what while audio is like a really big thing in games and while decompression and compression of data is a big thing because you see less loading screens and like uh what's it called distance to Why am I bringing this to book? Not even LOD, but how assets are being streamed.
00:22:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, me as a gamer, I care more about the artistic vision. So when I look at a Nintendo game that doesn't do some of that shit, doesn't matter to me. speaks more to me. For instance, Donkey Kong Bonanza blew my mind.
00:22:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
When I was looking at, oh my god, like you went from Tears of the Kingdom. Drawdice. So you went from Tears of the Kingdom, right which to me,
00:22:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
was pretty amazing for the Switch, right? Just like how the physics engine was just amazing, right? And what you could accomplish with that. And now you go to Donkey Kong Bonanza, and I'm like, okay, I can just by watching like a preview of the game, I can see why this would not run on Switch 1. Agreed. Right? And I'm just like, oh my god, you can literally just destroy your way into like the subterranean level.
00:22:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's insane. Yeah. But again, while I look at that as like, as a great thing to have as an improvement and efficiency game I look at Breath of the Wild and that was a game that came out two generations ago on the Wii U. So I get what you're saying. like We're getting less and less like advancement, right?
00:23:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I guess I do have to give Nintendo credit. like They were able to take their advancement and show you how it can be relevant. right Like, okay, we have more prowess. yeah And so because of that, now you can do destruction in a Nintendo game that you were never able to do. maybe we You were able to have more players in Mario Kart than you were able to do.
00:23:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
But now when I look at the PS5, what did Ratchet and and Returnal really do that others could? Particle effects and loading right away. So the big thing was like, okay, you're not dealing with loading screens, so now you can use the rift to go from one world to another, right?
00:23:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
And was like, okay, that's cool. But also I played Titanfall 2 and that was one of the abilities you had. Now, of course, like the ability was way more complex than Ratchet and Clank, right? And well-developed, but it didn't blow me away in the same Well, tell me this.
00:24:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay. instant loading screen and ratcheingt up Rift Apart, whatever it's called. You add a five second load screen, maybe even 10, maybe even 15 seconds, and you put it on the PS4. Would you still enjoyed the game on the PS4? No, I would. That's my point. I would, yeah. that's So everything to me feels like icing on top of the cake. It doesn't feel like I'm getting a cake.
00:24:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so I guess I'll pivot a little bit. ah ah Like the games that now are coming at the end of the generation. Now I'm like, oh man. Right. So like when I saw Grand Theft Auto 6, I was like, oh my God. i was like, dad looks at insane. i was like, this is what you need to buy a PS5 and an Xbox. And let's, let's make a little comparison here.
00:24:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Death Strand. like wow like that's uh so now we get all full circle because i think i got distracted but uh thanks for reminding me but i brought up that stranding for a reason because it's like now we're actually starting to see it that oh my god now it makes sense right could you imagine if and i can understand why they didn't do it but it's the decima engine if you were making a horizon forbidden west and you really just wanted to you know make it PS5 only, have a feeling you could have really knocked it out. yeah I don't know.
00:25:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know It's speculation. We're just speculating. but mean it' so It's kind of like the God of War to God of War Ragnarok Switch where it was... Wait, no. Ragnarok also came out on PS4. Also on PS4. Okay, so I was thinking about this the other day.
00:25:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
Let's think about... And you can pull it up if you want, but these are just the ones I remember. So forgive us if we forget any, but these are the PS5 only games I remember, right? So Demon's Souls remake, right? you have Ratchet and Clank, you have you have have 2, and the now you have right? Death Stranding 2 is like, I don't even know, like they could have scaled that down to the PS4, like legit, probably.
00:26:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
have a feeling they could have too, but you know, I'm happy that they they really tried to make the graphics top notch. And maybe I have to play the game to really be able to make a definitive statement. But I think if they really wanted to, they could made dumbed down version for the PS4.
00:26:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now, again, don't get me wrong. Innovations in 3D spatial audio, like you wouldn't get some of the stuff they've innovated on in the audio sector in those games. Fine. Death Stranding 2 specifically has a lot of audio music enhancements.
00:26:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
But again, I don't need that. Yeah, I guess i was just pulling up some other ones. Then you have some second party exclusives like Final set final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which is eventually going to end up on everything. yeah And that's going to be able to run on a Switch 2 more than likely. So if it can run on a Switch 2, it can run on a PS4. Right.
00:26:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then, i mean, I'm speculating, but why wouldn't they? And then they're already being a Stellar Blade, but that didn't blow me away. So then really like, is and when you're looking at first party, like Astro Bot, Spider-Man 2, Helldivers 2, Ratchet and Clank, you know?
00:27:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
and then so really you you don't have And then I guess Returnal, right? so So I'm not saying they're not like good games. I really enjoyed all of them, right? But it's just not anything that gripped me in the same way as the PS4 generation where i was like, oh my god, yeah Uncharted 4. That blew me away. And I was like, yeah okay, I have to upgrade.
00:27:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, like even from Uncharted 3, that was such a huge step up. And that that game went through development hell too. So it's funny because they found a way to make justify the existence of some of those games on that generation only.
00:27:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
even though i didn't like all the games on ps four like actually the funny part is in twenty nineteen to twenty twenty is when most of the bangers came out for PS4. It took actually a long time. And it was at the end of the PS4.
00:27:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
So you got, what, Ghost of Tsushima and Last of Us 2, right? And Days Gone. And Days Gone. All those games were all coming out right at the end. And one more. Yeah, and one more. Yeah, and it's like, yeah, like so it's funny to see that. so So what I feel like between now and 2027, we're going to get a lot of first-party studio games. Wolverine, which again, Wolverine, Sorrows, ah Heretic, and...
00:28:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
Ghost or Yotai are probably the four games left, right? Yeah. Okay. And I think they're, I think they're all going to successful. yeah I think they're all going to be big hits. I thought, you know, even though I'm not into roguelites, I think Returnal was a very good shooter. I'm excited to see what they go with Saros.
00:28:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think Wolverine will be a smash hit if they finally get it together and release it. Naughty Dog has not let me down. So I think they're going deliver. And then, you know, what other things, you know, I was hearing this rumor that,
00:28:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're going to make that God of War 2.5 Metroid, Dread type of game. They basically, so it was supposed to be announced this year. And then Jeff Grubb basically said they've delayed it to 2026 to add voice acting.
00:28:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
So they didn't even initially plan for voice acting. That's really strange. Yeah. So it was probably a small project and they realized probably wasn't going to do well, but adding voice acting to in my opinion, probably it also doesn't mean whole either. Yeah.
00:29:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, and so I kind of get it. Like it has been but kind of barren and I think, What Sony has done very well this generation is they have found second party exclusives that are like diamonds, right?
00:29:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
I might not think they are, but you know, Stellar Blade, right? That did huge numbers for them, right? and um technically had Black Myth Wukong as a one-year exclusive. That did amazing for them.
00:29:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
What's that game coming out August? The one that just got delayed from me. We're talking about Ties of... No, it's not Ties of Annihilation. It's Lost Souls. of Lost Souls. So we'll see. But, you know, that's that's what they've done a really good job at.
00:29:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, padding things out in that way. Then they show off Borderlands 4, things like that. So they they do make you feel like you have things to play across. across the whole generation, but that that output has just not been there from, you know, the PlayStation Studios.
00:30:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I do think now they're finally hitting their stride. yeah I think Ghost of Yotai is going to be great. And I guess that can tie into something else to talk about, which would be what games are you looking forward to for the rest of the year, right? Marathon got delayed. and good So, and obviously, you know, Grand Theft Auto 6. So I was just thinking about this.
00:30:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
From now until the end of the year, what are you looking forward to the most? Most of them are either multi-platform or to Nintendo. I mean, Donkey Kong, Pokemon Legends ZA, Metroid Prime 4.
00:30:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
If that comes out. If that comes out, Borderlands 4. That's about it, really. Yeah, so I guess I'm actually really excited for Ghosts of Yotai as well. Oh, sorry. no i was I was disappointed in some ways from Ghost of Tsushima.
00:30:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
I still really liked it. I think it was like an 8, 8.5 out of 10 game, but people talk about it because it's a 10 out of 10. It wasn't that for me. But I've always liked Sucker Punch. And I think they're going to really be able to expand on Ghost of Yotai.
00:30:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm not really feeling the whole, like, Assassin's Creed Origins, like, revenge story style. But I was just looking it up. And I guess, like, Yotai is, like, around the Hakone-like region. It's, like, mountainous.
00:31:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, it's, like, very different. Right? So I'm kind of looking forward to that. Like, I think the vibe is going to be different. You know, the environment. So I think that's one of my most excited games for the fall.
00:31:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Ninja Gaiden 4 and Outer Worlds. Oh yeah, Ninja Gaiden 4. Yeah, I think those are going to be big games for me. And then maybe Mafia. yeah But that's about it. Like that's not a ton for the rest of the year. It sounds like a ton that we've listed them. It's just, there's not enough big releases there. Like they are big, but they're not like the triple quadruple A. Yeah. Like compared to like 2023. Yeah. twenty hundred do is a not but I think 2026 is being incredibly stacked.
00:31:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, hopefully I just want to, I really want to see Wolverine because what Sony just announced and they're again, event or press event or whatever they want to call it. They said, we're still committed to Wolverine, but it's like, when are you going show it to us? You know,
00:31:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I hear you. i mean, and I know i have said multiple times I'm more of an Xbox fanboy, but I love my PlayStation like exclusives. Some of my favorite games are, you know, God of War and Last of Us. So I really am, I'm waiting on that output, right? And yeah I really am hoping that, you know,
00:32:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now Death Stranding 2, but then Ghost of Yurtai, they really just get that cadence in, right? And I guess that can tie into something else. So I was just picking Arjun's brain a little while earlier before we started the podcast about some of the sales figures about the Xbox exclusive games that have gone to Sony. And I was personally really surprised at how many of them sold, you know, and how well they sold.
00:32:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think for me, the one that, two in particular, were you know the one that blew me away the most was Grounded. And across, this is kind of speculation, right? But for the trackers, they're saying, you know it's probably about 5 million copies sold. like between Because i think Steam is like 4.1 million.
00:33:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then I think so PlayStation is not a ton, maybe like 3,000, 4,000. But that was months ago. So it's probably more now. But know a lot of people played. Like, they mentioned, like, what, 15 or 20 million players? Yeah, so 20 million.
00:33:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
But, man, for 5 million copies sold, like, that's a lot. It's good because it was a small team that put the game together, and it probably had a small budget. So they made all their money back then. massive, massive amount of money. and And then it started making sense. i was like, oh, okay, I guess if you sold a lot, like, you have money to now really do this thing with, like, the DeuceX developers. The DeuceX, I did not expect them to partner off Yeah, that's weird.
00:33:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
so So that surprised me. Sea of Thieves, I guess i shouldn't be surprised, but man, that has been such a massive hit for them. Because remember when Sea of Thieves first came out, and I remember how much we were kind of dogging the game. I mean, that game is garbage, you but I'll say this. And i try I forced you and some of our other friends to play Sea of Thieves with me so many times. I'd be like, guys, guys, we can sail this ship. And didn't they just announce a new expansion again during the Xbox 360?
00:34:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
They did, yeah. I mean, God, they were in like season 15, something like that, something crazy. And I was reading it's like 15 million sold. That's probably one of the most successful...
00:34:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
Xbox games since the 360. As much shit that we talk about some of these other studios, like, what's the studio that made LittleBigPlanet? LittleBigPlanet? ah Media Molecule? Media Molecule. And a couple other ones that haven't been outputting over the years.
00:34:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
I can't give shit to Rare because the fact that they put out a product that has leverage much i'm like You guys do whatever you want. If you can do something like that. I'm not saying they've been irrelevant, but they've been so in the shadow. mean, everyone had kind of given up on Rare, right? Because I feel like they were like, all no Banjos. You guys are making amazing games for this N64, 360. People like Cameo, but they were kind disappointed in Banjo.
00:34:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
And Xbox One came out and we had no exclusives. All did was a rare collection. Yeah, rare collection. We all had high hopes for Sea of Thieves. And then it came out, we're like, what the hell is this? but And I guess this also speaks to Grounded and Sea of Thieves. They did a really good job creating like a very passionate community, listening to that community, giving that community what they wanted.
00:35:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then that community was really their marketing or like the advertisements. Like I remember like Shoud, I think he was like a, he's a big streamer still and he used to play some Halo too. And and you I don't really follow streamers like that, but he started playing safe these right now.
00:35:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then they got like a huge search from there. Yeah, word of mouth spreads. But I think this is funny now that i'm thinking about it. You mentioned Astro about earlier and Sony had basically admitted after won game of the year, said, Hey, we want to create more games in that genre because that's like an untapped potential. for Well, you look at more all the Mario games and now Donkey Kong like those are big, right? For kids.
00:35:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, look at Sea of Thieves and Grand Theft. think that hit the same audience. Yeah. And I think so. Xbox has started taking advantage of it. They're like, we know we have a big audience for this type of game, especially on PC.
00:35:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think if they continue down their route, like that's fine. They will sell well. mean, think about it. Like when we think of like live service games, like I think of like Halo Infinite and, you know, but man,
00:36:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
Microsoft actually has a lot of live service games that are still going strong. Like technically Forza Horizon 5 is live service, right? yeah Because they're still making updates. It's still selling so well. I was just reading, we were talking about it.
00:36:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
They just sold like easy 2 million copies on PlayStation. Insane, right? Yeah, that one's insane. And so like now you have that community that's still going grounded, Sea of Thieves. And honestly, like I wasn't expecting those games to be the ones that were so successful. And I was just talking to you about it And again, this is a lot of speculations, but when I was looking at something like the Indiana Jones sales figures, right?
00:36:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
I thought that would be selling like hotcakes. I thought that would be killing it. You know, easy four, six million games sold, right? And I was kind of surprised where I was reading something where Microsoft was announcing, okay, like 4 million people who played Indiana Jones.
00:36:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, Avowed, which everyone says is a trash game, it was like 5.6, 5.9 million, nine you know, gamers played, right? And the same with Doom, like the numbers were lower. And Doom, everyone is like, you know, Doom is like insane, and I love Doom, but it didn't sell that crazy welcome to like Doom and Doom Eternal. Yeah, said only I think they said only 3 million people played the game?
00:37:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. the first month, so. and then and So again, like, I think we have these narratives and we just like really had these skills on like, what is a success and what is a failure. And it doesn't always line up because I would, based off of how people talk about it online, like I would never say that allowed.
00:37:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. Had more people who played. and had more sales than, you know, and those games. And again, this is speculation because it's not like we're getting actual release information, but just based off of how people have been tracking these games, the fact that there's even an argument to be made is insane, right? Yeah, I I don't know. I feel like gamers our age are more selective.
00:37:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
And we grew up, again, for people around the 30s, mid thirty st cetera We grew up in an era where when we were kids we were playing maur game so when we were teenagers or like ten years old we were playing helo sure oh yeah i think uh i first started playing halo yeah when was in using elementary school yeah so think about it we grew up with mature rated games and that's why we continue to love them but we're the most outspoken about them kids of this day and age what do they grow with minecraft and they roblox so what speaks to them the most sea of thieves uh rounded i mean i guess i don't know as many people that age group like you know i mean i have a nephew but
00:38:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because you're right, because when I think about 2006, 2007, we're 13, 14 years old, we're dating ourselves. but you know And what was I playing? Mass Effect, Bioshock, Halo, Assassin's Creed. That was eating good, right? Yeah, but again, all we now... So our expectations is like... Okay, so we were spoiled because the games were so well-written. So much choice and player freedom and... like We're spoiled in that we expect the same type of game now. Well, I feel like the industry has changed, right? Because, you know, we don't really have games that are like storytelling games in the same way, right? yeah Like only like the cream of the crop will really have just great narratives, right?
00:39:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
But now a lot of games, they, you know, in even like new games that come out, right? Like brand new IPs. they don't always have a single player. They don't have like a story that's being told, right? yeah And in the past, like that was something expected of every game, you know? Like you would never release the multiplayer only game. Which is why a lot of studios, it's funny, Arc Systems said this last week in their presents, is that it's so risky to create a new IP that's a AAA game because oftentimes now it just fails.
00:39:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah Especially if it's not well known. And so what they do now, and they they were saying this, and I think a lot of studios are doing is this, they want to go midrange you want to make a double a game has a decent budget that has something that's appealing to everyone but it's not this massive open world i mean it it makes sense and i mean i guess i don't really know who's to blame don't know anyone's to blame like maybe things just change but much as we hate just sequels on top of sequels and remakes on top of remakes like you know people are paying with their wallets right and so like you know switching over to movies
00:40:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
like Elio bombed. Right? Oh yeah. I heard about that. You thought it was going to do good. thought it would do good. Reviews were good. You know, like people are like less in their political feelings about Disney. I they still are, but not as much as they used to be. Right.
00:40:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
Um, i was like, okay, like, I think this is going to be good for them. They've been releasing, they're just off the heels of inside out too. Right. People love that. So probably those people really, Oh, Elio, I'm going to go check it out.
00:40:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
Absolutely bombed. Right. And even Pixar was talking about it. Like, okay, Like you give us crap for making like to Toy Story 15, right? But then we make a new IP and it's not like it's a, I haven't seen it, right?
00:41:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it's not like it's such a terrible movie. Like it actually has good critic and audience reviews. No one went to go see it. So then like, why would you, you're telling these executives that like, we don't want new IPs, right?
00:41:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so then they're just going to remake stuff. Like look at Lilo and Sesh, you remade that and made ton money. You remade how How to Train Your Dragon and made a ton of money. Yeah. Why would anyone greenlight a new IP? They don't want to. They're not going to. It's the same with the video game industry, which is why it's funny. I think there's a Disney executive that just came out saying, hey, we have a lot cooking now. We we know in the past several years we've been doing live remakes.
00:41:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
We're going back to animation. And it sounds like they're going to be remaking, again, the animation movies in animated form again. So it's kind of funny because it's like, yeah this is what everyone complains or maybe a minority of people complain about wanting new things.
00:41:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
du the majority of people just want the same shit over and over again. Yeah, yeah. and And I guess that's like, ah kind of the ah ah harsh reality. I mean, there's still breakout successes, and I'm happy there has been. don't know, I guess I have to really think about it. But I feel like and As the decades go on, I feel like there's less breakout successes. That's why I lost risk now.
00:42:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because like even in our generation, like what would you say are some of the the big narrative breakout successes? right like Baldur's Gate 3, but technically but that's Baldur's Gate 3. and so okay They had two before that.
00:42:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
Black Miss Wukong, that was a big game, brand new. sure they know And other stuff people have just not really been happy about. right But that's technically the fourth iteration of a game.
00:42:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
Aldering is like the mass the culmination of how old is Demon's Souls, guys? Demon's Souls is 19 years old. you know So they've just been building on themselves.
00:42:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I guess like we went on a kind of a tangent. yeah And I guess if we're talking about you know old stuff coming back, you know we might as well talk about Gears of War as well. of War Reloaded.
00:42:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
arms a wo key so I was very surprised at how many people are pre-ordering Gears War. I think maybe you weren't as surprised as me. i mean, I'm surprised. i like yeah how is like I don't know the exact sales figures, but I read an article that Gears of War Reloaded has more pre-orders than Death Stranding 2. I mean, that's obviously like two weeks late.
00:43:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, it's crazy to hear that. Because that's coming still only two weeks before i release of a game where you would thought most of players already came in. So I mean this is like I think two or three weeks old news, but still like you would think a lot people would buying Desperating 2 right before he came out. Especially for a game that's now almost exactly 20 years old. It's 19 years old.
00:43:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
just like And it's not like they really did much. They didn't do really anything. Because they, you know, 2015, you know, they redid the game a little bit, right? And then now it is, it's four k And like, it's weird because I've seen a lot of people posting clips on Twitter and these clips are garnering. So for those i don't know, the beta or Gears War Reloaded, there was a two week beta.
00:43:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
The first day was so horrible. The extent the beta by an extra day, because the servers were just constantly going down fine. Maybe a lot of people were playing, didn't expect it, but a lot of Twitter clips are getting posted for multiplayer.
00:44:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
I would say about two to 300 K views, which is not bad for an old yeah twenty year old game really good yeah and people are just reliving the old Gears of War multiplayer moments. Like, the stuff i used to see of trash talking is, like, back.
00:44:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
And people are just going ham. And they know this is funny game. I've been watching, like, people raw bouncing and stuff. And I've been watching people, like, complain about the sniper and stuff that. But they don't know that the game has been always broken. And like, dude, this how the game is. This the game. This is the game, bro. It's so old. Yeah. And I'm like, damn, I missed this. And I'm like, again, you just don't get games like that. I grew up, see, again, 12. A mature-rated baby. know. That was normal for us. So it speaks to me, but will that speak to kids this day? No.
00:44:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. i don't I just don't feel like it will. But also, it's so janky and unique that, again, when I played it at the time, it felt right. So it still feels right. i haven't lost the muscle memory.
00:45:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
I remember, bro, I was so annoyed at you with that sniper. Because when I used to play, like I didn't realize how much you played. Because I know I played a lot of more Halo than you, but you played a lot more Gears than me, right? I think so. And God, you sniping everybody. I was always a natural guy. I just loved the master battles.
00:45:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, i mean, I, I love the sniper so much. I would blind fire and just anyone that ran at me with a shotgun, I would still snipe them. I mean, it's amazing to me now that like it's having its Renaissance and you know, I know some people might be kind of, I don't know if people are upset about games of war going to PS five. Like I, I feel like when, uh, Halo makes the inevitable job, I think there'll more outroar. We'll be very outraged about that.
00:45:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I feel like the Gears community has really embraced yeah it embrace everyone. Because honestly, like the Gears community was kind of on the down. was kind of dying. you know my life support of right and I think you know people like Gears 5 and you know because it's been a while since Gears 5, like now and then Gears E-Day, we got the trailer and looked amazing.
00:46:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's why there's been a lot more, you know, fervor and people are excited for it. But man, just like the energy that is soaring, like it comes to the Gears community and just talking Gears has been amazing to see ever since like, you know, people have gotten to really play Gears Reloaded.
00:46:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I love that. And I love the fact that like Gears is now cool like cool again. And people talking about it you know? I like to see that because I just, it's like,
00:46:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
i hope coalition takes one thing away from this and says if the multiplayer that we're working for on e-day has anything it it can do try to mirror a little bit of what gears of war one and two right but you played gears five multiplayer right and i did not like it at all so i didn't i don't know maybe i just don't see the difference but i felt like Gears 5 wasn't that different than Gears Ultimate Edition.
00:46:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, I think like it was more like Lancers and stuff yeah like that, right? It became Call of Duty-esque. Yeah, yeah. But I guess like you know compared to when you play Halo 4 versus Halo 3, that was darn experience. that was a very like halo like gears 5 to me it was just kind of like uh like maybe they made some traceed changes that are like unpopular but i can still kind masher the way i like sometimes yeah snipe the way i like to so so yeah i mean i kind of wonder if like gears e day ah sorry if gears reloaded you know massive hit right and then if all of sudden people play gears 5 like but now everyone
00:47:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
be gassing up gears by. I mean, I don't know. I just feel like they, they need to bring some of that jank back into the gears multiplayer to bring that magic back. think it's smooth. Yeah. You want to bring back the wall bouncing? Yeah. Bring back the wall bouncing. Just make it simple.
00:47:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
like that was the great thing about gear it was so simple that it was so playing annex or king of the hill just constantlyly dying and reviing are responding so fun stupid and and and yeah stupid fun and the maps were so good and brought more life to the game 5 it was just honestly the map no i kind of get what you're saying yeah because like i feel like gears of war 1 maps were really unbalanced yeah and even gears war 2 maps were really unbalanced but that's like what made it fun yeah especially when you were doing king of the hill you're like oh man they are just
00:48:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
being squatting the bone shot out there and you're like what are you gonna do? what are gonna do? and so then when you finally overtake them you're like damn! so that's kinda funny you know I guess it kinda has it's an identity so I wonder what they're gonna do with Gears in the game well I hope they look at this and they'll look at the numbers and let's say it becomes a big hit on release on August and a lot of people play Playstation specifically Playstation they go okay maybe let's make this a multiplatform when it comes out jersey day and let let's give just a separate mode not the whole multiplayer like
00:48:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
package, but a separate mode that mirrors Gears 1. Yeah, I just make a... Well, speaking of, I just got back into Halo Infinite. God, I feel like Halo Infinite is the X I can never leave.
00:49:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, I didn't realize this from the thing, and it just showed up in my YouTube feed, but apparently they made like a Halo 3 throwback, and so I was like, okay, I'll try this out.
00:49:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh my god, it feels like Halo 3. Does it? It feels like Halo 3. How long is it gonna last for? I don't know. i mean honestly, if you want that like like feeling or that itch, like that nostalgia, you should download it and play it.
00:49:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
The movement is exactly Halo 3. The jumping, everything, the maps feel exactly like Halo 3. They should be advertising this morning. oh my god, it's like all of the freaking maps.
00:49:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they actually look really good. And I was playing the game, And I was like, damn, I just, i feel like it's 2007 again. And, uh, you know, they don't have like the assault rifle, you know, from, uh, back then, you know, cause it functions a little differently, but they have like a, the submachine gun kind of thing. And it kind of feels similar. So yeah, I was surprised.
00:50:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
maybe this is an unpopular opinion too. Uh, but I didn't really like it that much. Oh, you didn't like it much. I didn't like it that much. The you are talking about it made it sound like it. It was really cool to like be thrown back in 2007.
00:50:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I just feel like it's datad the way I game is so different. I was like, man, this is darn thing. Look at the comparison now. Gears multiplayer, my opinion, never felt dated.
00:50:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
But with Halo, it evolved. yeah like Legitimately evolved. So i think with me, I never realized how big of a but difference sprinting and clambering makes, but my God, it changes everything because when I'm playing Halo three, you have to be so strategic about your placement. Right.
00:50:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I feel like when I was playing, Halo infinite, like you have to be a little strategic, but if you get yourself in a bad situation, um, know, you can do some advanced movement techniques, use some equipment, stuff like that. You have like options to get out of there.
00:51:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
and so in that way, like you didn't have to be so mindful of your placement at all times, but I feel like at a high level, when you're playing Halo three, like, or Halo three, like, um, gameplay, you have to be very mindful of like, Hey, how far away am I from cover? Okay. This is a BR game. You know, if I'm this far out of any cover and these are the places that people can attack me from.
00:51:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
They are going to shred my shields and kill me before I can get there. Right. And you can have your little shimmy technique and get really good with it. That's true. But like for me, placement was king. Right. And then you can't just easily clamor. You can't really go vertical in Halo three. Right. Because.
00:51:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
You can grenade jump. Yeah, but then you lose your shield and you're going to be an open, you know, it's going to hard, right? People are going know she and and shred you. But in Halo Infinite, you have a lot more verticality to escape, right? When Halo 3, it's very horizontal gameplay, right? And so you're going to have to stray if going to have be careful about cover.
00:51:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it just felt so tactical. And I feel like if I played it more, I would enjoy it more. But right now, like the whole time, I was just getting frustrated because I'm just like, oh, God, I'm not good at this anymore. You know? Right. I wish I could just like, you know, slide away from people and things like that.
00:52:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I enjoyed it because of how like perfectly to me it really captured the Halo 3 feel. and God, that's amazing that forge is that, you know, flexible that they can do that. Right. That's just amazing. Right. yeah But, yeah, I still kind of like Halo and think gameplay better. And I know that's an unpopular opinion because a lot of YouTube streamers have been playing it and they're like, Oh God, this is amazing.
00:52:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
Why can't all games be like that? You know? but you know, if, Gears of War I-Day could do something like that, best of both worlds, oh, that would be amazing. We'll see. I don't know what it looks like. That's what scares me. But if they find the right way to evolve the game, like I said, Halo did that.
00:52:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Then it makes sense. And speaking of Halo, we might as well talk about this now. So it was just announced by Halo Studios that they're going to show what they're working next during the Halo World Championships. and i always do this they always talk about their big stuff at the championship instead of not just talking about it at a showcase.
00:53:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know? It's like, jesus for some reason, like, Halo just wants to just, like, do Halo things on Halo time. And it's like, guys. bit of an ego. A bit of an ego. Right? Like, no. It's like, okay, like, Bethesda.
00:53:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, you know, their games are selling way better than you guys. You know? Call Duty. Their games are selling way better than you guys. ah ah Call of Duty isn't going show up about an Xbox showcase like Halo, bro. Why don't you just show up on an Xbox showcase?
00:53:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
So yeah, I mean, I find it interesting because, yeah, first of all, it's just stupid in general. But, you know, they had showed off Project what is it project Foundry last year, which looked as if, well, they confirmed they were using Unreal Engine.
00:53:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it looked like a demo, almost a combat evolved in some way. or product i here was And now they're saying that they're going to show what they're working on. going forward and rumors are right now that they're working in Comet Evolved for Unreal Engine. I thought a lot about this since last time because think last time I was thinking hey i hate it's going be certain infinities multiplayer mode and it's going to come out and then afterwards I don't know why it just struck me and I was like you know I've been thinking this whole time that Halo CE is going to be a remake right and it's going to be like one of the Resident Evil games and stuff like that and they're gonna bring in Halo Infinite's like
00:54:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
all of their changes and they might even change their story and things like that. And i was like, you know, if these guys are going to release in 2026, Wouldn't they just basically do what Oblivion did?
00:54:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, wouldn't they just take the creation, like they took the creation engine and they just basically skinned Unreal on top of it and they made some modifications, right? To some of the gameplay elements. They could be doing it that way. Right?
00:54:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
couldn't you just have the base game running in the blam engine and then just put unreal engine on top and make it look really nice yeah and then just incorporate the speed and sliding in a way that doesn't break the game from halo infinite and call it a day so that's why I feel like the rumors are probably true it's probably combat evolved and this probably wasn't a ground-up project yeah this was just them to get their feet dirty little bit hands wet and i think that's what it is because you can't get this out you can't show this at your prior end so then it really like halo ce remastered right but it's not like but it's not like uh the playstation remastered which is not a remaster it's just what it would look like it was running on the next console which is funny because like there was also rumors that master chief collection was coming to playstation and nintendo switch i don't think that's going happen
00:55:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
you're not gonna then also put mccc It's just you're fighting against each other. At least going to go, unless you find a way to space it out, right? Like, unless in November you're announcing for, like, January or February, and then but the next thing comes out November.
00:55:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, I feel like if you space it out, like, 10 months. But isn't the comment involved on Master Chief Collection the remastered? The one where you have the remastered graphics already? Yeah.
00:56:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
So then what would be the point, then, of remastering? Okay, but I guess, like, this is kind of, like, niche Halo stuff, and i don't know if, like, general people would care, but I think a lot of Halo Bros really hate that remaster because even though it looks a lot better, they kind of screwed up the lighting in places and they like kind of screwed some stuff up so it looked kind of weird and didn't function the same way.
00:56:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
But that's not going to matter because don't have of Halo fans on PlayStation. That's true. The point is to introduce it to a new audience that probably has never touched it. Yeah, that's true. So will they even care? like i get I get what you're saying. just So i i I think the only way it makes sense is if...
00:56:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
they're confident that Halo CE remaster looks very different right than the Master Chief Collection. Which I think it will. Like, has to be, like, light years beyond. Well, I'll say this. Like, look at Ninja Gate and Black 2.
00:56:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
That is still both miles beyond the original version. And it looks... I can't still believe I'm playing a Unreal Engine 5 game. And it's, like, beautifully. So, but now the more and more think about it, like, I feel like that's plausible.
00:57:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, I think there's still a possibility that like there is a certain affinity project or even that it's like basically that reskin and then, you know, certain affinity is just kind of making a multiplayer mode. yeah I don't know.
00:57:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't think it's going to be like a massive project, right? Like, uh, I feel like it's going to be like a $50 game type of thing, you know, $60 game, like not a full game. Right. we are defining those things now.
00:57:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I just thought that was kind of curious. I did not expect them to announce anything for... like I didn't i did think Halo Studios was gonna say a word about what they were up to.
00:57:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
I didn't either. But the fact that they are really surprised me. it's weird because like Phil kind of teased some Halo work but didn't outright call it out in the Xbox track and now they're saying oh yeah four months later we'll we'll have something to talk about.
00:58:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah so it's like so Yeah, that's that's kind of odd, right? Because you would think Phil would know that timeline. So they're going to be like, oh, and one more thing that's been with us from the beginning. Yeah.
00:58:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
maybe you'll get a sneak peek later fall. Yeah, later in the fall. Like, that's not hard to say. Right? Like, what the hell? So that's why, I don't know, again, and that's coming from your CEO. You know, if your CEO said it, like, okay, you know.
00:58:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
But yeah, so I just wanted to talk about that really quickly because of all these rumors that been going on. And it's funny because in the post by Halo Studios, they acknowledge that there's been a lot of rumors about what they've been working on.
00:58:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I found it funny. It's almost like their way of acknowledging that, yes, some of what's been going out there is probably somewhat accurate. We'll see. Yeah. So, and speaking of Microsoft, I feel like we might as well get into it now.
00:58:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
There's been a lot of heavy rumors that starting tomorrow, I know this will get posted later, but July 2nd, there's going to be some layoffs at Microsoft and Xbox. Well, there's already been layoffs in Microsoft and there's been layoffs going on for the last 14 months, but Xbox is about to in.
00:59:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think we have kind of different takes about it because I think it's going to be more of like pruning. And I think they're just going to be more like laying off like 10% of their workforce systematically just across the board, right? So like certain studios might get a little bit more than others, but I think it's just going to be a pruning across everybody.
00:59:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
But you're thinking it might be more studio specific and certain studios are really going get hit hard. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if we have one maybe two closures.
00:59:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
Look, so here's what Jason Schreier reports. Xbox fiscal year ends today. And this was about, this was on June 30th, but the mass layoffs, mass. Layoffs that Bloomberg News reported on last week are expected to hit on Wednesday for people wondering.
00:59:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now let me let me bring up one other thing because I think this is relevant. Microsoft invested ah approximately 182.5 million euros in into Ninja Theory between the acquisition and June 30th, 2023.
00:59:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
And here's the crazier thing. Microsoft acquisition of Ninja Theory cost approximately 90 million and their subsequent investment was another 92 million. So that comes out to 182. Total revenue during this period amounted to approximately 23 million.
01:00:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. So massive loss for them. So wait, so is that including Elwood? and It's just between years when they're required to 2023. Not including Hellblade, it's just between those years how they invested in that. How do they even make revenue then?
01:00:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
What were people buying? Hellblade? What was that one Xbox multiplayer game we played? Leading Edge? People actually bought that? I mean, apparently. So, okay. i so i mean I could see either Massive, Ninja Theory, or then maybe they get closed.
01:00:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because they just released Hellblade 2 on PlayStation. They have some pro enhancements, but no one's buying it, obviously. Yeah, so I was thinking about that too because you know they have Project Mario, but that's kind of like questionable like where they're going with that.
01:00:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I think out of all the studios, the one I can see getting hit would be Ninja Theory. Now, you know with the thing is with Microsoft, I feel like they got a lot of crap for Hi-Fi Rush, right?
01:01:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I don't know if they would just want to like kill the plug, you know just kill it you know all are outright, you know if that's what they're thinking because of that backlash. think they should. just kind of see them pruning pruning pruning pruning until there's nothing left right yeah so pruning pruning pruning until they change into something else like for instance they basically almost cut you know shut down 343 right and then they made a halo studios but it's not like they had to deal with the flack of oh yeah we just shut down it's not about the flack though it's it's you prune because when a project comes out it's a failure you go back to the drawing board then incubation phase there's a lot of engineering that you don't need and a lot of roles you don't need You we only need you when we get close to ah ah production again. yeah
01:01:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
So they prune, say you all are not needed until two or three years from now, we'll hire people like you back then again and we're gonna go with a small team to develop a prototype until we get to a phase that... Yeah, because if they're more in like pre-production, right, as opposed to like full production, it makes sense like you don't need like that full team because what are those people gonna do? anyway Like you don't need a marketing manager and a community manager. so so but my my point being is you brought it up earlier do they want to live with them continuing on this project mara thing and them developing new technologies for their other studios i say cut ninja theory they're there that's a loss at this point you don't need them anymore also think double fine is going to get hit i mean i'm not going to lie this new game that they revealed looks like garbage arjun i think you're just speculating too much i mean this is all speculation but i'm saying they need to hit double
01:02:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
double Funny enough, Tim Schafer just came out Twitter a day or two ago with something really ominous that he tweeted and it then he deleted that tweet. He definitely probably knows about layoffs. I don't know if it's for his own team, but I just think that team needs to get hit. too like secondconauts great well written but ar did you ever play like i didn't actually play like two and a half hours oh my god awful jumping in that game the platform is fucking atrocious like I'm not going true but the story was amazing I think Psychonauts is probably one of my favorite games of this generation so I guess how many units for you I'll have to disagree because I don't think it's like and I guess me if it ends up being tomorrow you know we'll find out by then maybe even by the time this is posted but I don't see them getting cut that hard because they don't have a huge workforce to begin with Psychonauts 2 like Double Fine is a really small studio
01:03:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they've always kept things really nimble. And for a long time, you know, they've actually functioning on very little. Right. And so with that in mind, like, I really don't think they cost that much.
01:03:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. I mean, about 103 employees and Psychonauts two only sold 1.7 million copies. So maybe that makes about sense for a studio of that size. So I think Psychonauts is, I don't think Double Fine is going to get hit because I think they're in that Goldilocks region where they have,
01:03:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
probably multiple AA projects. And even if each AA project is making very little, right? Or, you know, how we would define very little. They're probably even. They're breaking even or they're making enough. And I think people have so much respect for Tim Schafer. Like I think Microsoft gets a lot of brownie points from like certain generation of gamers just because they have Tim Schafer there. Yeah, I can see that. Logically, that makes sense. I don't, you know, I can see them if they need to prune, right? Because if Keeper is, you know,
01:04:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
right there on the horizon, maybe they don't need all those people, you know, that they normally would need, right? Because they're in the last leg. But I don't think they're going get hit hard. I do think out of all of the studios, the one that, you know, looks like they would get pruned would probably be compulsion.
01:04:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then see that ah definitely I can see the Hellblade team, right? Like I can see that because that, I mean, objectively it underperforms, right? I also think Turn 10. I think Forza hasn't been doing as good as the Horizon. I mean, yeah. I mean, i don't know how big Turn 10 is, though.
01:05:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's the only thing. But from what I gather, they're pretty massive.
01:05:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, exact numbers are not known between one to 200 contract workers. But the thing is like, and a hundred fold times three hundred we're in a stage right now where like, I really can't judge, right? Because if I was just being like hardcore, you know, manager, like, let's look at just like, you know, wins and losses. Like, I mean, and as far as I can tell, like Indiana Jones didn't saw that great, you know, Doom didn't saw that great, you know, compared to what we would expect.
01:05:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
So you could argue that, hey, shouldn't those be axed in a similar way to Hellblade or Compulsion or things like that? Because it's surprising what things have underperformed and overperformed in the Game Pass generation because Game Pass just changes the perception of success yeah for a lot of these games and studios. that's So they have to look at their measurement of success differently. So that I understand.
01:05:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I also look at the company that made...
01:06:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
Indiana Jones, they also their output is much greater than Ninja Theory. So, like, if I'm looking at it for is that perspective... Is it, Because the last game they made was Wolfenstein. Yeah, but how many Wolfenstein games have they made? Two. Well, three, but one them was trash. Yeah, but three plus Indiana Jones. That's four games in a span of ten years.
01:06:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
No. It was way longer than ten years. It was, like, 15 years. Okay, 15 years, four games, so that's an average of three and a half years a game. And how many games has Theory foul put in the last 15 years?
01:06:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
Three. Four. Four? But one of them was a PlayStation? No. So they had Devil May Cry, Hellblade 1, Hellblade 2, and then they had Bleeding Edge. Yeah, so now you look at Devil May Cry and Bleeding Edge. Bleeding Edge was more of this experimental game.
01:06:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, Devil May Cry did pretty good. Oh, and they also had Enslaved. Did Enslaved do Fairly good. Okay, so yeah, fair enough. I mean... Well, the way I look at it is Ninja Theory has to go regardless. or dude I think you just really hated Hellblade 2. Honestly, yeah, it was like bad.
01:07:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
It was like really bad. I liked Hellblade 2, so I think that's why i don't really... I mean, which which one did you like better? Indiana Jones or Hellblade? Ooh, that's a hard one. but I'm just curious.
01:07:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
I have to think about it. you know I really have not thought about it before. Probably I would say Indiana Jones. There you go. Let's like let go of Ninja Theory. I could be the CEO of Microsoft. I'll just let them go over tomorrow. Yeah, but I liked Hellblade...
01:07:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
50 times more than Death Stranding 1. And metaphor, and Dragon's Nogma, and Stellar Blade. But Death Stranding 1 stole like 4 million. million yeah and so they's all better than al heres here's the thing we're thirty nine minutes away from wednesday i can make a call to fill right now like like yo Let's get rid of this chat ninja thing.
01:07:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
Arjun, I think you play very few games and the fact that you invested in and you were disappointed. Exactly. did you tell me earlier? What did you tell me earlier? That you don't like to take risks on games you don't think.
01:07:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I took a risk on a game you recommended. I told you you like it. You recommended this game game. I told you you would have done it. you always did this thing. You prefaced it, but I'm just warning you. or You're like, this wasn't one fault, but you should try it. I knew you wouldn't like help it because the gameplay was terrible, right? And I think for me, like, it was just, ah ah it made me really think and it was just kind of creatively cool. The setting was cool. the setting was cool. So that's what I liked about it. The graphics were good, but the gameplay was not that great.
01:08:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
get it. And so so i get it and How Blake 2, I think objectively, even though it's a game I really like, I think it's an objective disappointment across the board. like It did not hit the metrics that people expected. You're saying the second one generally? The second one. I actually enjoyed the first one. I think you know in terms of sales, you know in terms of sentiment, you know in terms of critical reception, like it did not you know pass the mark.
01:08:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
But again, the thing what we're not seeing is what else is cooking in these studios, right? like We have no idea. Yeah. they they They don't like to announce them sometimes too early because every time Microsoft has announced them so early, it normally gets canceled in some weird way. Yeah. So so that's why like it makes it hard for me to speculate. like I think if they're going to do some pruning and they really have to be hard by the numbers, then then you know, that's what makes sense, right? Because, and especially like the, how you know, Ninja Theory team is pretty big, right?
01:09:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
I would still want them to see, I would still want to see Hellblade 3, right? And I would still want other games from that because I do like their output. But I think this can be kind of a wake-up call because I think at a certain part, a point they may have focused too much on being more artsy.
01:09:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
and being less focused on like gameplay, right? And I think that was to the debt detriment of Hellblade 2. I think they really focused a lot on making it really realistic and authentic to like the experience of psychosis, but the gameplay suffered, right? And I think that's going to be one of the big learnings for them.
01:10:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I agree. i mean, I want to read a couple of quotes here too. So IGN just interviewed, Friar, Laura Friar.
01:10:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay. She's one of the founding members of like Xbox hardware. And basically what she said is she believes the firm's hardware ambitions are dead. And I quote, there's literally no reason to buy this handle. She's referring to the raw guy, expect the ally that was just announced here recently and She goes, obviously as one of the founding members of Xbox team, I'm not pleased where things are today.
01:10:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't love watching all the value that I helped create slowly get eroded away. I'm sad because from my perspective, it looks like Xbox has no desires or literally can't ship hardware anymore. So this partnership is about a slow exit from the hardware business completely. personally i think xbox hardware is dead and it has no desire or literally can't chip hard so do i bring this up it's tangential to what we're talking about with these layoffs because a lot of people have noticed that there's been this pivot so but xbox originally bought bethesta and ah Ninja Theory and all these other studios, they still had a desire to want to win the console awards. Right.
01:11:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then as soon as they bought Activision and they spent half their treasure chest, it completely changed. And I think part of that aligns to what like some people like the, hey i just don't think that they haven't publicly announced it but this is where they're headed towards and it is set to see like the devaling so it comes to layout. Yeah, but I also feel like this person is kind of biased. They're biased because of their original You know, obviously made the Xbox and the Xbox is running on a certain architecture and if now Xbox is being subsumed by Windows, the Windows bros run out. And if you look at the history of how the Xbox team had to
01:11:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
werere talking about that documentary yeah and god Like it was really a massive accomplishment and they really had to put themselves on the line to make Xbox a thing. Right. And so now, you know, to put yourself out like that, and then it was probably one of the most difficult and scariest things have to do in their whole career and ended up being a huge success.
01:12:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
But now all of that's being eroded and consumed by the guys that you had to win a victory from to even become a thing. It's a big slap in the face. It is. Here's the funny thing. Now that you talk about the documentary,
01:12:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
Think about what they admitted in the documentary. We tried to buy Nintendo, right? If they had bought Nintendo, they could have just said, well, we're pivoting. We're not going to do hardware, really. We just, we have a partnership with this great company and, you know, we're making money from them.
01:12:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now they've done the same thing. Instead of continuing to make their own games, we're just going to buy Activision and we'll try supplementing that here and there and publishing some stuff. But Activision is going to be a cash cow. So and and in a weird way, 20 years later, they fell back into the same loop that they initially had back then it's just one experiment failed and the other one succeeded yeah but that like that's the weird thing about microsoft like that's just how in a way like it seems so chaotic but it's kind of how they win and they like succeed because in every single g like thing they went into like pc this and that you know they kind of just like eat things up and pivot and experiment and eat things up and pivot and experiment until like
01:13:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
one of the things finally works, like look at Zoom, like look at Windows Phone, look at all these massive things that wind ended up being massive failures and write-ups. Now look at their stock value, look at how good their company is doing. They randomly went into cloud and AI and like, you know, that really worked out for them.
01:13:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. And so I think like Microsoft is one of those like companies that like makes a lot of mistakes, but then has no problem doing things that'll probably also be mistakes.
01:13:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
because they're like, eventually we're going to bang Yeah, I mean, I agree. that's that's so But that it's sad because that line of thinking has been passed on from executive to executive in a weird way. That's their culture now. But it is funny because when they failed to acquire Nintendo at the time, they said, we have two options.
01:13:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
We can either continue going into this route where we're very new and naive in, And we can make something. And guess what? We made the Xbox hardware and it became big for some time. I wonder if, if the Activision acquisition didn't go through, they had two options.
01:14:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
They could have completely exited the hardware business or they could have tried one more time and maybe they would have succeeded again. So I think like when they had to do the math there, they were like, okay, if we don't buy Activision Blizzard, like we're going to always stay on the same level of competing with Sony. So like, even if we win and it's unlikely we won, but even if we win,
01:14:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
what are we going to gain? And then they looked at that and they're like, all right, let's say we win and we outsell Sony. Is that really moving the needle for us for like a $2 trillion, $3 trillion dollar company? Like, why should we care?
01:14:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, like, let's say we literally slug it out with them. How much money is that making us? Right. Nothing for them. Right. And so then they're like, okay, so it's not worth it. Right. So why should we even bother?
01:14:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then they're like, okay, you know, if we take a different risk, and you know what are the odds of us being successful in the cloud or you know um mobile space right they're like maybe just as good as speeding sony right because sony has this beat they're like okay but what is the potential win there right and we can make a lot of money right but because the juice is was the juice really worth the squeeze you spent 79 billion dollars like that's not a snap of them i'm like hey like even if we lose this bet
01:15:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
whatever this is half your work has so that's where I think this whole thing they made all that money back by now they make like what 23 billion or 25 billion dollars like a quarter yeah like it's the profit it's absurd amounts of money that they're making right and think about it like these are the people who burned like what six to eight billion dollars on like Zune and like Nokia they're making just insane money actually godam every year they' profit seven to 80 billion.
01:15:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's insane dude. Like it's insane money that they're making. Almost like they're making all that money back in one That's insane. Yeah. For shrinking a windows user base too. Yeah. Because cloud and AI is just making insane money for Microsoft and their their stock is like just doing bonkers. Right. So, you know, even if they had to write off, you know, $79 billion, dollars it's not going to actually kill Microsoft. Right. Cause they're just that massive. Actually, this is kind the biggest troll you can think of. Cause they're like, yeah, so we're just going to like really jam our fist down your throat and we're still going to be okay. But I think what they were thinking is like, dude, like if we could make Netflix for gaming, like if we could actually make that a thing, like that's worth it.
01:16:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. And so, and you know, I say all that because I'm actually excited for Microsoft. You know, I think I've like mourned the loss of Xbox that was really sad for a while. But I've just accepted the fact that Xbox was dead, right? Like the way I knew Xbox is gone. Yeah, the way you knew Right? The way you grew up with it. Yeah, exactly. And so I just have to like see it as a different brand. And I just have to see it in a certain way. And if that's like seeing it as Sega, great, you know?
01:16:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, it's the disruptions in the industry. they They are pivoting and they're pivoting fast and they're being agile and they have to do it a lot. Their path to their vision is never going to be linear point. And the thing is, it's unusual for us to see company big big having their experiments this public, right?
01:17:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because most of the time it's more behind closed doors. Like you don't see this stuff, but it's like, we're literally seeing year on year, like what experiments they're doing and what's succeeding and what's failing right in front of us.
01:17:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so that's why i think it's so chaotic as a fan because we're just like, what the hell uh microsoft like you're like that relationship where i never know if you love me or hate me because you don't even know yourself right maybe i mean my problem is like every company especially in corporate america has a purpose they have a vision and they have a strategy their vision should be their north star so whatever they're trying to accomplish strategy again will change it it's not going always be linear but they want to get to their north
01:18:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
the Xbox is not telling us what their vision is anymore. So if you don't understand your vision, you're not going to be able to drive business results. You can pivot, you can change. The reason I'm saying this is I'm in the thick of it with GM.
01:18:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
GM has always said that their vision is zero, zero, zero. You've probably heard that. It's probably like a really public thing. Zero crashes, emissions, congestion, right? EV, AV, software and services. But they also know that there's
01:18:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
or all the or kodak and this and that so i can understand the pivoting but you need to clearly show me what your vision is so i think like i think microsoft has been saying it but people just haven't been like realizing that they're serious because it just seems like it's a stupid slogan but i really think their whole vision we want everybody to play our games everywhere Okay, so then you're going to want... every screen. That's literally what they want. that's the vision then.
01:19:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
So if that's the vision, then I understand why they're pivoting the they're going. Yeah, because like that's that's the end goal, you know? Like they literally want it to be that like whatever screen or non-screen is in front of you, you can play our game. Yeah, so to the people complaining that like,
01:19:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
why would xbox allow the team and up on there consoles because people will just buy the game on pc and Xbox will lose a run is because they want to be able to have everyone play their games everywhere, anywhere that's Xbox. Because I think like what they want is they just, at its core, like if everyone is just talking about your games, as much as people talk about Mario and Zelda and all those things,
01:19:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
and you can just get that everywhere and shove it down everyone's throat, that's how you make killer money. I think actually what's funny is, again, people might be very short-sighted, but Xbox has the chance to be very disruptive. Instead of being reactive, they might be end up disrupting Sony 10 years from now or 15 years from now. So that's why I'm really curious to see how this happens. and I feel like we talk about Xbox a lot on this podcast.
01:20:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
But in part is because I'm really curious to see like what that disruption is going to be. And I actually think this bet on like merging Windows and Xbox together I'm really excited to see if they can pull it off.
01:20:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
But when I was like watching Jiju Foundry's video on the Xbox Ally, I was like, oh my God, I agree with them. I get it. And like everyone was giving them crap, like why are you guys so negative? Like this is exciting stuff, but I get it. Like, my God, it's a mess.
01:20:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, it's such a mess to be able to try and bridge the gap between Windows PCs and Xbox when you're also trying to have backwards compatibility and shared libraries.
01:20:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
It is so impossible, right? Well, that's why Bond had just announced that she put together a team to carry over backwards compatibility going forward with new silicon. That's why they announced a partnership with AMD to we're now going to have new silicon to do that. I see the moves they're making, but oh my God, they have to have amazing engineering teams.
01:20:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
They literally need have the best of the best to be able to bring that all together. If they do, my God, that's going to be amazing. I'm not going to say I'm confident, but I actually think they can pull it off.
01:21:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think they can pull it off, but I don't think they can pull it off in the timeline they want to do. No, no, no. Right? Like if they want to do this by the next generation, right? Like I feel like the Xbox ally is kind of like forcing. bridge gap. It's a bridge gap and it's forcing them to speed up their timeline. Yeah. But if you want to get this done by 2027 to 2028, like this is a monumental change. Like this is something that easy takes like five to eight years.
01:21:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it's funny that now that I say the comparison, bro, this is so funny and weird. And again for those that might this might not make sense but if you're in the automotive industry or understand what's going of GM and Tesla and whatnot. GM is trying to pivot and they're trying to get into EVs, AVs and software and services. And they do that by taking all the revenue they make from their ICE vehicles, internal combustion engines, 80% of that is funding these new ventures.
01:21:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
So what's funny is what we've been saying within the industry is if GM, Ford and all the big companies don't pivot eventually they might just die out yeah funny enough xbox trying to do that i think sony So stuck in their old ways, maybe they're not seeing the writing on the wall.
01:22:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I don't know. I feel like, that so again, if we go back to what we said earlier, Sony said, we like our strategy of taking waiting 14 to 18 months before we put a first party game on PlayStation Plus. Okay. Understandable that this makes sense right now, but in the future, if you can't offer the same type of service that Microsoft is offering,
01:22:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
You shot yourself in the phone. so So the thing is, like, it all comes to me, it comes down to your confidence in your games, right? Like, I think Microsoft realized shit, like, we don't have the same confidence in our games because people don't necessarily want to make Halo forever. So, like, Bungie left, right?
01:22:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Epic, you know, they didn't want to make Gears for forever, so they left, right? Who knows if new IPs will be as good as the old IPs, right? And you know we're we're not able to replicate the success over time of Mario and Zelda, right? And we're not able to pivot to new IPs as successfully as Sony has done.
01:23:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
And each time you're taking a risk, right? And they're like, man, like if some of these things blow up in your face, you could lose a whole console generation and then you have to catch up. And that sucks, right?
01:23:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think their failures taught them that. Sony, on the other hand, is so adept at avoiding failure because they planned so well in advance. They didn't have that learning, right?
01:23:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because as long as you're constantly releasing good games at a good rate and keeping your consumer base happy, like you can just keep the status quo and maybe eke out more dollars from them as time goes on, right?
01:23:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
That strategy is totally viable, right? Sony can do it. But if you screw up a little bit, it starts blowing up in your face. Well, let's go back one step. And i that comparison is great. Now, ICE vehicles are profitable for most companies.
01:23:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
Is making first-party games that are not offered on any other service besides buying it full price, the ICE of their... Yeah. I mean, it's basically the ICE, but it's not as lucrative as it used to be, right? Because you're spending more on development, right? So a good point. so that So then I think those are the things that are starting to show the and Sony is armored, right? so and But the thing is, like Sony cannot do what Microsoft has done because in order to do that, you have to take a massive L up front, right? And no one else has those deep pockets as Sony, right? right
01:24:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
So the only thing Sony can do is either they can start merging yeah Like I heard that they want to buy HBO. Yeah. Right. there's You start merging and things like that and synergizing, and then you slowly get bigger and bigger and level up that way. Yeah.
01:24:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's a strategy. So you're basically gatekeeping a bunch of IP away from your competitors platform. Or, or you pad your potential losses. Right. So I think if you continue to, you know, overperform with your second parties, right.
01:24:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
Or hell divers, stellar blade, things like that, you know, then you know you can maybe survive a little better and then you'll be fine. Which is funny because now the developer of Helldivers is taking a partnership with Tencent and as adamant they don't want to do a Exclusive game with Sony. Really?
01:25:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yep. They said, fuck you. No way. Their next game is going multi-platform and they're not doing the show. I guess they did not have a good relationship or partnership with Sony. Man, that's surprising because you would think that Sony would be so happy with them.
01:25:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, but maybe it's the way that they worked where Sony probably didn't believe in them because they didn't market the game really well, by the way. And they probably gave them next to nothing in terms of market budget.
01:25:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I bet you that pissed off Arrowhead. And then they were like, see if were good. And Arrowhead so well and then they were like... Sony, we're getting too many players. yeah and We need help. And the next thing that hurt them was when Sony mandated you have have PSN account, especially in regions that didn't have PSN support.
01:25:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they're like, you're now limiting us from selling this game, which probably still hurt them. God knows by how much, but still it did. So it's stuff like that where Sony shoots themselves in the foot without realizing half the time.
01:26:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they go, oh, people just flock to us. yeah Not all the time. So, I mean, I don't know if this is like another contentious opinion, but it's something i was thinking. Like, I can really see Sony trying replicate Disney success, right? Like, like, I feel like that's a good pass for them. Like, let's say they even ate up, you know, HBO, right? You can synergize so well with HBO, right? You have a lot of the interesting IPs, you can, and you you can turn them into movies and TV shows, you can turn their movies and TV shows into video games, you see specifically right?
01:26:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
And you already have Spider-Man, right? Like, you know, yeah I think I can really see that doing well for them. try and get more into amusement parks. Yeah. experiences, yeah you know collectible items. like i I feel like they could be get bigger and bigger the way Disney has. I can see it.
01:26:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, i don't know. like I'm just going to... It'd be funny to see 10 to 15 years from now, somehow Microsoft got back on top and reclaimed the throne. like I wouldn't even be surprised at this point.
01:27:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, I guess it's like how... Reclaim the throne in what way? To be the number one platform to play all video games. you know okay Because me, like... like Even though everything is going to be multi-platform, right?
01:27:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
and For Xbox pretty much going forward, right? I think that's fairly easy to speculate. If they pull off the next generation handheld in a way that's similar to the Switch, that would be dope.
01:27:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
So that's another thing. That would be really dope. And so I can see them actually sell really well with something like Yeah, i could too. So, you know, again, Sarah Bond put out a video and so did, what's her name, Amanda Su, or is that the CEO of AMD?
01:27:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, maybe, yeah. Whatever, yeah, whatever her name, or Lisa or whatever. i think it's Lisa. They were both so ambiguous about their partnership, but one thing that came out of it is when Sarah basically said, and there was rumors just a week prior from Jez Gordon, so he's not always reliable, by the way, he goes, oh, they've counseled their hand, dedicated handheld. And then all of a sudden, Sarah Bond says, something in your hand, yeah.
01:28:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, something, you like literally suggests that they're still working on a handheld. And I'm like, hey, Jez, you're stupid. You're normally 50% wrong all the time. and then the other thing is actually stuff on that interesting because i think if they do put out something dedicated in a couple years.
01:28:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Dude, think that will sell Gamebusters better than the Steam Deck, better than the Raw. Oh yeah, would love that. And you know, I actually just realized this, maybe this is common knowledge and I'm just dumb. Did you know... confirm dumb.
01:28:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
I am dumb, bud. Did you know that if you buy Xbox digital games, You can cloud stream them all to your devices. Not all. So there's certain games. So for example, Assassin's Creed Shadows. So that's what I'm talking about. So I just bought the physical copy because 50 bucks on Amazon and i was like, oh, I wonder if I can stream this to my ROG.
01:28:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I was like, oh, I can stream my Xbox to my RLG, but if I had bought the digital, I could just cloud-streamed it. And it would have probably worked really well. Yeah, so it's not on Game Pass, but they're doing this thing like NVIDIA GeForce now.
01:28:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
So essentially, the service basically takes your game and places it on their back end on a Xbox Series console and I think they're using a mix of Series S and Series X. So it's basically like a way to use Xbox cloud gaming for a game that's not on the service.
01:29:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yes. If you own it. Exactly. And then GeForce is great at that because they have very low latency and what I like about Nvidia GeForce just as a comparison, it can access all your games on Steam and Epic and stream those games on their Nvidia and say here you you pay a monthly subscription so xbox is getting into that now most People don't know about this.
01:29:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, so great when I found that out, i was like, oh my God, this is like the first time i was thinking, should I have bought the digital game over the hard copy? I'm starting to. And then I was like, oh my God, like that's a killer feature. let's pivot a little bit here now.
01:29:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
Microsoft, people have been bitching that like when Doom just came out and think Indiana Jones, they were primarily digital. So even if you bought physical game, there was just a digital code in there. It just the disc with the licensing.
01:30:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
they're doing this purposely because they realize most people are transitioning to digital on their platform. Also because when they released the Series S, that was a digital only thing. But now with all these cloud options and Play Anywhere, you can quickly cloud save everywhere and access your game on any platform without having been digital. So I guess you know you've probably done more cloud gaming than I have.
01:30:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, I do still like physical copies and it's nice be able to resell them even if you don't get that much money, right? Which is my struggle right now. I'm trying to resell some of my games. But man, like if if the cloud streaming is really good, right?
01:30:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
Then that's a killer feature. Like that's a game changer for me. So look, I've always been about buying physical games. do You know, the Switch, I always buy physical. PlayStation, I always buy physical. school you know what's funny? I only want to buy digital now on Xbox. And it's because it's the way games are provided on the platform.
01:30:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
So because I have this convenience now to play my ROG, my phone, or my Xbox,
01:31:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
i wanna to buy dish yeah incentivize me to buy digitally and on playstation because I can't do that. or switch i can't do that I want to buy a physical. Yeah, I get that. So I think that was a big eye-opener for me.
01:31:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Again, it's kind of like a stopgap because you can envision that when everything becomes Xbox Play anywhere, then you know you basically have the Windows copy and the Xbox copy anyways, so then you wouldn't really need the Cloud Stream.
01:31:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
but then you would actually still be able to Cloud Stream if you wanted. You would still want to Cloud Stream because if you don't want to download a 100 gig game, you're going to be, let's say you're at an airport quickly connect to Cloud Spot. Or like me where I use 1.26 terabytes and I get charged for it. Yeah, that or you're at an airport and you go, Yeah.
01:31:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, so I say that because like, I'm excited for that future, you know, cause like that actually feels like an evolution. Like we went to online gaming and now if we can get to like very, you know, identical, like online streaming.
01:32:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
versus like home console playing, that's going to be nice. But again, it's kind of a strange thing to figure out because, you know, if they are almost 100% the same, then why do you need a console?
01:32:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right? Yeah. No, I agree. It's just because some people still care that they like to play their game the highest fidelity output you could have. But that's going to become less and less prevalent over the years.
01:32:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
So after this next generation of hardware that comes out, i think more people will just want to stream the... Like my... my phone is so big i'd rather just play clouder and than play on my tv i legit i'll be honest with you because i have a playstation i can enjoy high fidelity games there and i'd rather just play despite games on my phone it hits the sweet spot really yeah so yeah i mean if the streaming is pretty good yeah i played it both on data and on wi-fi and they're both roughly the same yeah so so that's that's pretty interesting stuff
01:33:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
thinking about any other gaming news for us to talk about i think we've hit most of the the major points yeah i guess kind of a small thing thing um i just thought it was kind of weird you know sony was removing some games from their playstation catalog yeah which i just think is a really weird move because we talked about okay some of their playstation 3 games that might be hard for them to run because it's on the cell architecture or whatever but then like infamous second son is ps4 game so then that wouldn't be hard run but then they're like okay we want to divert people to newer games or other games but like who is not playing a new game because infamous second son yeah on the service especially if there's no other you know it's like and and resistance too like you just brought resistance 1 2 and 3 to playstation plus like literally like six months ago
01:33:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
in the best way possible but I can kind of play it and I was going to literally play it and then as I'm about to get to it I realized they removed it I'm like what was the point I mean I can get like okay new factor we want it to be a rotating menu so you always have what am I going to play now but these are your own games you know like most people want to pet out their service right like you know what if all of a sudden Disney Plus was like we're going to do a rotating assembly of our different You know, Marvel movies, so you guys always have something to realize.
01:34:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's like when Destiny did the whole vault thing, and they like locked up certain maps and ah vaults and raids and weapons, and then you could only play it every once in a while. Like, this is the dumbest thing ever. really in it yeah It really didn't make sense to me.
01:34:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
With this, like I'm upset because, like okay, if you took down Resistance 1 and 2 and you go, oh, it's because we're remastering the game, I'd like, thank god i can now play it natively on the playstation five and i don't don worry about streaming it because Again, the way it's being played now, you can't natively play it. It has to be emulated on PS3s and streamed to your PS5.
01:34:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
Stupid. It's just so... And it's not like, okay, are they really going to remake Infamous Second Son? I love that game, but it wasn't that popular, right? So they're not going to do that. so and so And Resistance hasn't been touched in 15 years.
01:35:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah you know It's just such a... And like here's the other thing that like pisses me off. It's like, no rationality. If you're going to do it, do it. Tell me why, though. and but Be straight. Be like, oh, you know what? We barely had 100 people download Resistance 1 and 2 and play it.
01:35:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay, fine. Yeah, so it's like, okay, it costs more for us to keep this running than the amount of people who use it. Okay. Okay. Fine. Who is going to be like, going to pull their hair out?
01:35:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'll be the minority. You know, they'll be like, okay, you know, I guess it's all of our fault because we didn't play it. yeah Right? ah But then it's just... But don't just do it and then not say it's just odd because i just i don't see how this helps sony in any way other than you know either someone has like ocd and just has to keep it like neat and organized or really it's for some reason just costing more yeah to keep it on the service than you know how much value it brings because no one's yeah and i don't want to like three people playing you know yeah which it probably was the kids like don't get me wrong but on all three of those games there's probably like a tall like ten peopleable one yeah
01:36:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
like but again i've been wanting to play resistance so bad but i want to play any a and the best way possible so if you can at least remaster it and find it it might not sell well but like that's a drop in the bucket for you you can't just remake because you know you're never going to make a new resistance game so why not just remaster it for the hundred thousand people that really want to play it like i i don't even understand that logic either yeah fine that is a loss and i mean i'm also surprised they don't just have some tech that can just easily super sample yeah right and like unlock frame rates yeah that one should i feel like investing in tech that could just do that easily yeah would really help you like we have so many games now locked to the ps3 ecosystem like literally legitimately this is funny resistance one two and three infamous one and two little big planet uh one two degrees kill zones one and two and the funny part is
01:37:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
They found a way to remaster God of War 3 and they brought it the PS4. I mean, you did that one five years ago, but you couldn't do these other ones? I think that Uncharted 1, 2, and 3. Yeah, and Uncharted 1, 2, 3. So, like, the ones that were really, like, big hitters for Yeah, and they found a way.
01:37:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it plays on PS4 and they're remastered. yeah And not even remastering, remastering. They just found a way to upscale. Like, bro, you can't do it for these other ones? You can't tell me that the Uncharted... Killzone 1... Killzone... 2 and 3 were pretty successful.
01:37:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
I know. They big games for that generation. I would legit, like, you don't even have to bring the multiplayer. Fine, fuck the multiplayer. we will just play the single player again. I just want to play the goddamn game. So yeah, that one is ah ah just a pep game of mine. Like, it's annoying. Yeah, it's kind of strange. Okay. Especially when there was rumors that Studio Bend, what they call it? Yeah. They were working on an open-world Resistance game before that they got canceled. was like, bro, oh they pitched it. They at least pitched it. That would be great, but...
01:38:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
I guess finishing up some stuff, we can give some updates on things we've been watching and playing. yeah So I'll just talk kind of quickly about some games. So, you know, I've really played a ton.
01:38:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
And, you know, I think after that, I took a little break. I beat Doom and I beat Claire. Now that I've had some time to digest Doom, I still think it's the worst for me out of the three, but still it's a good game, right? So I'd probably give it like an 88.
01:38:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, 87, like I really liked it. I think my biggest, my biggest disappointment is really the game just too easy. You know, like if I'm playing on one of the hardest difficulties and it's easier than the older games on easier difficulties, like it just, I just thought it was, it didn't hit that same Doom niche. And like, I know you can adjust some settings and things like that, but there's like a certain adrenaline rush that you get when you have a certain state of focus in Doom that's so unique to that game.
01:38:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
And though I did get it from time to time in Doom to Dark Ages, it was not the same as Eternal. Like, Eternal was this high that you hit, like this flow state where you just felt like a god, like of gaming. And like, so to me, that was kind of my disappointment with the game. But i mean, after I finished beating it, I was like, oh man, i want play again.
01:39:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, I had a blast. And some of the new gun additions were great. Like, I know some people don't like the chain shot because I think it's weird that you're just like blasting a but like ah iron iron ball people and killing them, but I thought it was dope.
01:39:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
Enemy variety was dope, so i really liked that game. I heard you had a really nice controller to pair with it. I did, yeah. you know Arjun hooked me up with the Doom controller and then the Witcher 3 controller, which has been nice. Doom was fun. I beat Claire Obscure. I know you haven't really played it yet, so I won't really... I heard it made a grown man cry.
01:39:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
I did. I did tear up. So I didn't really tear up in the later parts of the game, which I think were supposed to be the really emotionally devastating parts. i mean, I guess this is kind of spoilers, but like early on in the game, there is some like really emotionally hitting scenes. And I was not expecting that.
01:40:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. So for me, because I was so caught off guard, like i was just oh, my God, like this game can really be depressing. Right. And so then after that, I was on guard. i was like, OK, like this is what they're going to do to me. Right. So I should expect that like sad shit's going to happen. Right. And so that's why i was fine after that.
01:40:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
no i think for me uh i really like claire it's like definitely probably gonna win game of the year this year be up there if that goes to yotai that's or donkey kong honestly donkey kong could win it good point but you know i don't think i i love it as much as everybody else you know although i really did enjoy like the turn-based aspect of it for me like you know Parrying and dodging everyone just after a while made the game feel really repetitive because yeah, you're seeing a lot of the same enemies like there's good enemy, but you're still seeing a lot of the same enemies.
01:41:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
But you have to get so focused on their attack patterns that even if I saw an enemy like 10 times, it felt like I was fighting that enemy like 100. Right. Because like I had to really understand this attack pattern.
01:41:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it was always the same attack patterns, right? Like they don't have different moves, but you know, you remember the cadence and you always have to press the same buttons, right? To like survive that. Right. And so I think even though that was fun and it gave me, kept me engaged in all the battles, after a while, it didn't make the game feel a little repetitive, like from a gameplay standpoint, which is kind of ironic, right? Uh, it's a weird combo for me.
01:41:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
I also think that like the scaling is a little off in the game. And I think intentionally so. I feel like some other JRPGs, they're like really hard and you really have to master the combat system in order to do good. And that's what keeps the game fresh because you're like, how the hell am I going to survive this?
01:42:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
And the only way you grind or you really master the combat system. Right. But I felt like in this game, could just either repeat battles and just get better at parrying and then I fine. Right.
01:42:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
where I basically just found a cheese and basically I was playing the game it was really hard and I just changed up you know my gear and stuff like that oh my god the game was so easy i was blasting through everything uh story is pretty good you know i actually think it's kind of similar in some ways to my first novel so I was just like that hit me a little emotionally because I was like damn I should have published this a long time ago It's different enough, you know?
01:42:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
But i I say that because the whole idea of like, what's real, what isn't real, I won't go into spoilers, but you know, it's about like imagination and reality and all that type of stuff. And I love that type of stuff, like Inception type of stuff. Like, it's just totally my vibe, right?
01:42:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I loved all that. I also think it's kind of like M. Night Shyamalan, where like you have to wait for like a lot of the big reveals and twists later. And, you know, I don't know if, have you watched any M. Night Shyamalan movies recently, but like,
01:43:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
it can be kind of can be kind of like a mixed bag, you know, because it's like when the twist comes, it really delivers. But then a lot of the game is waiting for reveals and twists, right? As opposed to a game that's just like keeping you engaged the whole time.
01:43:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I think I'd give that game like like probably a nine, you know, like eight and a half, nine. It was solid game. I still have to think about if I like Rebirth or Clare Obscure better. I think I might like Rebirth better.
01:43:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
Wow. Yeah. But yeah, that's what I've been playing. And I think you've been still grinding out Ninja Gaiden Black. too I've been another like four chapters. I finally got to play recently. Yeah, I mean... Where are you at now? went chapter, like, 13-something. Oh, I just played that that one ninja girl with the short purple world hair.
01:43:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, remember that level. I don't know if I like that level as much. The gameplay was so different. It's so different. Honestly, she's really OP. Like, she was really She a different ninja, i like an actual ninja. Yeah, she was she's super fast, agile.
01:44:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
She can, like, juggle you in the air really quickly. For me, like, it almost felt too fast compared to what I was used to with Ryu that I was like, oh, man. yeah it was and But that level was short. I mean what i i will give some credit for this game in the sense that all the bosses are super unique. Yeah, right?
01:44:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're insane. like They're all like weird as hell. Wasn't there one where it was like a bunch of skeletons? Yeah, the skeleton. like the one I just merged was like a massive spider witch.
01:44:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
like Oh, man. Wasn't there one where like your plane exploded and you crash landed? Dude, that was hilarious. What was that? It was like a ice and dragon? don't even know what that was. There was a water dragon. It's just crazy. there was some There was a level that you're legitimately on a plane.
01:44:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, and then you fight the spider clan dude. And then after being the plane just crashes. And as soon as it crashes, you verse another boss. That explodes or something like that. Man, this game is so absurd. and i So for those that probably played the game 10-15 years ago, I'm the hardest difficult back then if there was only like one difficulty anything in the day it was probably super tough to get through every bond Yeah, so i I beat Black, but I realized that the difficulty i was playing it was one notch lower than what I played it in as a kid.
01:45:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I'm playing on that, and it's honestly easy as hell. It's just that i haven't had the time but i'm almost done now and i'm like breezing through it so by the time I beat it I think the next game I'm going to start is just Donkey Kong because that's out in two weeks from now so I was actually hoping Donkey Kong would come out a little earlier because then i could have played it like when it I was on my trip but uh oh yeah you could have brought it with me yeah but it's going to come out like right when I'm on my tail end of my trip so probably not going to happen Yeah, that's fair. I'll say this.
01:45:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like said, I'm going to have bit of ninja At first when I played it, I thought it was like the Sun-Cost Fallacy. I'm like, oh, I'm too far in it. I need to be. Now I'm actually enjoying it again. I'm like, you know what? This is a strong... Yeah, takes you back, right? Yeah. To those old action adventure games. Yeah.
01:45:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, yeah. yeah And in terms of... So those are the things that I've been playing. You know, going forward, i downloaded a whole bunch of like old games that I haven't been able to beat on Game Pass.
01:46:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
So probably going to play them a little bit on the plane. Shadow of War, Lord of the Rings. I don't know why never even got into that, but I'm playing it pretty fun, honestly. It kind of gives me Assassin's Creed vibes. And you're to really like the story. Yeah, like yeah I know. I love Lord of the Rings, and I'm like, oh man, this is Celebrimbor.
01:46:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
I didn't realize it was Celebrimbor from Rings of Power. I know. I told you upselling this last year to and you're like, no. I'm like, dude, we're literally watching the show. I know. I was like, oh man, I'm going to play this.
01:46:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think it it might be canon, actually. Yes, canon. Yeah, it was crazy. so so So I'm going to play that. I played a little bit of Dishonored 1, and then I played some Spyro Crash 4. You know, that was kind of nostalgic, but don't think I'm going to play it anymore.
01:46:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
I tried to play Xenoblade 3 because I was like okay, finally I can play on my Switch 2. And it's for me, I just felt like the Switch 1 could not handle it, and I really didn't like that. and It actually looks blurry around the Switch 2. Yeah, I know. It looks so blurry. And then as soon as I turned it on, like, okay, frame rate is good. The screen size is great.
01:47:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
But oh my god, I feel like I'm looking at water. Yeah, I hope they announce optimizations for this. Yeah, soon as they do, then I'm going to get back in the game. But right now, this... God, it's like It's so bad. Yeah, it's so bad. So Zen Ode 3 is actually, out of all the games, it's the best one by most people's accounts.
01:47:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
So i won I have the game. I just want to wait until they optimize it. Yeah, so that's what I'm waiting on. But probably play those a little bit later. I guess I've actually probably been watching more TV lately.
01:47:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I've been watching Murderbots. It's still showing. That show's pretty good, honestly. i think in the beginning, it's a lot like their hook is just really fascinating. So it keeps you hooked the whole time.
01:47:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think like near the kind of the middle to tail end of the season, it starts to kind of slow down, but it's pretty hilarious. I mean, I can just tell you a little bit a about it, but basically it's like a robot that now has the ability to kill humans.
01:48:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And he doesn't want to be around humans because he's afraid that the humans will realize that he can't actually do whatever he wants. And all he wants to do is be distracted and be left alone so he can watch shitty movies.
01:48:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
dramas so like space dramas and all he wants to do is just binge and so he just binges tv all the time but because he's binging tv it's kind of causing problems does he even understand what he's watching like he's a robot he does but it's just so but they're just like talking about like his understanding of these human tv shows and how it compares to like the humans and man the humor in that is so well done because like he's a robot and you'll talk about like how humans are like kind of creepy and sometimes robotic and kind of like sexually creepers.
01:48:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
And he's just like, it's a fucking It's just such a funny perspective, bro. So I think after a while, like... Especially with Skarsgรฅrd being the robot. And so I do think, like, the show kind of beats a dead horse a little bit because that's really the gag to keep going. And afterwards, you're like, okay, I've seen this one. But it's still really funny. and I'm really enjoying it. There's multiple books, so... Yeah.
01:49:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
So then that's been good. And then I finally finished watching Lazarus. So I have some thoughts. not it was awful, yeah. So I was disappointed.
01:49:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't think it's as bad as like IGN and other people like make it. Maybe I'm biased because love Samurai Champloo and stuff like that. I would probably give it seven, but probably it's more like a six. probably think it's like a seven.
01:49:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
It really shows you that like he really has the same kind of thing. you know like It's his thing where basically he gets like he shows up a couple of really cool edgy characters right in the first few episodes, and then they all kind of come together And then they have some adventures and then in those adventures, you get to know their backstory. And in the end, the past comes back to haunt their present and puts them into a life or death situation. And, you know, you don't know if they're all going to survive.
01:50:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
And that's kind of what they did in Samurai Champloo is what they did in Cowboy Bebop, it's basically what he did again, right? It's the same general premise. But I think the reason it doesn't work as well in this show is because like he has had this kind of chill vibe, right? Where it's like chill, but also action-packed adventures because life is unpredictable, but our characters are badass.
01:50:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
But here, there's a ticking time clock the whole time. So like his chill vibe kind of seems at odds with the fact that the world is going to fucking all end right And so it just kind of feels disjointed in that way.
01:50:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think that made the tone kind of off. And then the second thing is the characters kind of feel little cliche and it's probably because we've seen characters like this a lot, even from him. why Because it's like the third anime that has the same kind of general you know structure.
01:50:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then the third thing is I think it's too short. Like it's 13 episodes. And the other shows were like 26 episodes because there were like two seasons. right And I think for me, like the show ended, i kind of like some of the stuff they did. It was kind of cool. It had some kind of interesting concepts and questions.
01:51:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I was like, man, like if this was just 26 episodes and we actually had like more tension and we got to like explore some of the characters more, you know, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more, but it's like, you know, you have your episode that you know, it's going to go into the backstory of the spy.
01:51:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. And so they introduced the backstory of the spy at the beginning of the episode. So, you know, by the end of the episode, it's going to get resolved. Right. So it's going to formulate. formula So, so I think for that reason, I was kind of disappointed, but I think overall it's, you can tell it's hip.
01:51:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
because like the music, some of the choices he makes with like the character and just like having like music playing and this you know in this scene and like the way he edits it and has like a montage, I'm like, this is totally him.
01:52:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
and So I was happy from that perspective. You just gave shit to Hideo Kojima for trying to make similar games compared to Metal Gear, and he's like, he doesn't change shit up, and then you're like, oh, this is a lot of similar animes.
01:52:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, I agree with you. like I can see how that's kind of hypocritical, but that's because I really like Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop and I don't like Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding.
01:52:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
If I loved Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding as much as I loved Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, it would be a totally different story. right so That's what I mean, it's just not for me. right but like People who love it, they're probably looking at me and they're like, what the fuck is wrong with you? yeah right so fair So that's kind of like what I've been watching. i know we watched 28 years later, right? yeah That's an interesting film. I mean, not as good as I thought it was. Like, I can't give it a 9 out of 10. It got really good. Yeah, i was surprised to give it a 9 out of 10. Yeah, the ending tone did not match the rest of the movie. You know what I was just thinking about?
01:53:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
What if they had just made that last scene, like an end credit scene. Yeah, i felt like would have been better as an end credit. Right, like, it seemed such a simple well answer or solution. Not to spoil anything, but I now understand why part of that scene was there.
01:53:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
Did you realize that the kid in the beginning of the film, that was him? Yeah, because crossed. Yeah, I didn't realize that it hurt. So I got it. You know, I instantly understood it. And they're like, okay, you're trying to have juxtaposition because like, this is like on the island. This is like outside the island, right?
01:53:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
I get it, right? And it's like different types of crazy, right? I totally, and i but it was just such a dramatic, total shift. I was like, this is terrible, right? This ruins the show. Especially because right before, up to that point, which I thought was the ending, about this kid really accepting the fate of his mother after going on such a journey. I'm like, wow, I didn't expect this to come out of this film, right?
01:53:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then that. It was such a beautiful, like, moment. And you're like, oh my God. And then it's like, this is kind of spoilers, but it's like, You know, and they like danger feels so real. The zombies feel like they can kill any of us at any moment. And all sudden these guys come out and you're like, what the hell? These zombies are just jokes, yeah right?
01:54:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
I really think that should have been an end credit scene. Yeah, I think so. Because you wanted to tease enough to make people want to watch the next movie, right? To show that there's still a story to be told, right? Which is the point of an end credit scene, right?
01:54:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
And we know there's like, this is like trilogy now. Yeah. So it's like, I think overall this movie, I'd give it like a 7 out of 10. I enjoyed some aspects of it. it looked It felt like an indie film. Would you give it an 8 out of 10 if the end credit scene was in there?
01:54:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, maybe I would have. That's what I was thinking. For me, it's an 8 out of 10 without the end credit scene. Yeah, let's say would say it. shouldn't call it end credit scene, but you know. Yeah, the finale or whatever, ending, whatever. Yeah, I'll just give it an 8 out of 10 regardless.
01:54:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'll just ignore that person. But I think, you yeah, there was a beautiful message to be had there. And like this kid was brave enough to say, like something's wrong with my mom. She's been done wrong, a little dirty by now my dad. And also like accepting the fact that like no matter what, like everyone dies. But what was the message that I said? like Okay, everyone will die. but everyone must love too right i think that was the messaging i'm like that really beautiful it's like yeah you know yeah so i think they executed that really well um do think out of the three 28 movies or whatever i think it's the weakest one yeah think 28 days later for me is the best one just because man that was so revolutionary at the time like i feel like up until then i've only seen movies where zombies were like slow and and this i was like oh my god these things are like insanely scary like
01:55:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't think I was as scared of like Shaun of the Dead or Dawn of the Dead type zombies, but these ones i was like, oh my god, these things will destroy you. These and the World War Z zombies.
01:55:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, so 20 Days Later came before it. Yeah. So, so it was like, oh my God. And funny enough, when we, we talked about when we watched 28 years later, we're like, this is Last of Us. we're like, this also came from Last of Us. Like kind of funny that like all these things took inspiration. 28 Days is so old, right? yeah So I like i really liked that. I think 28 weeks later, just like the way you see the zombies, like start messing everybody up again and like popping back up.
01:56:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
That was really well done. I really liked 28 weeks later But yeah, I think 28 years later was a disappointment for me overall. I'm just happy that they were able to still tell a story in that world. I'll take what came out of that. And it wasn't my just complete trash.
01:56:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
But like to me, I keep 28 days later in such a high bar you know and weeks later that it just didn't reach that. Sometimes it's like, a again, the first film is like very unique. And it goes, there's so much around this world that we can build upon.
01:56:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then the next several of films after, it's just like you're straight up linearly telling a story. And you're like, oh, there's no... That magic is gone. Yeah, yeah, I get that. And really, I mean, I feel like I'm being the dead horse, but man, that scene really was just... I feel like that... It's not often that one scene can make the whole movie feel like it's going down a point, but yeah. I felt was almost watching a different film. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I was like, that is stupid thing.
01:57:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
But, you know, they did confirm that Cillian Murphy will be introduced at the very end of the next film so he won't he'll barely be in the next film and then in that he'll be heaven all wrong with the fact that they've already like and out three is kind of weird yeah but i mean i think they were banking on the fact that it was going to be successful and you should keep your budget small you know yeah and i like the way they filmed some of the shots in that movie the way they killed some of the zombies yeah i mean when you have time dude you got to check out 28 days later i'm going to you know you know i won't set the bar too high because i know i do that i set it high and then i set it low like it's a good movie like you'll enjoy it i don't think you're going to be disappointed from it
01:57:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
um i won't talk all of it about was ballerina watch that so this John Wick spin-off for those that don't know it takes place between movies three and four so Mr. Babayega is in the film spoilers but it's also the trailers yeah I didn't realize that until after you had seen it and I was like oh man i didn't realize He's in it.
01:57:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, it's actually kind of funny the way he's in it too. But first I'll say this. Also, ah Mr. Sam Bridges Porter is also in the film. What? I did not realize that. Yeah. Has slightly important role, but he's like in the film for only 10 minutes at most.
01:58:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think overall, as a spinoff, I don't think this was necessary. This is a cash grab. And the way I'm saying this is because specifically, the fact that they had to bring Keanu back in this film.
01:58:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
To carry it. No, he didn't carry it. But it was a cool, fun little thing. But... it was almost like if you had to bring him in for this then you're telling me this can't stand it on its own like even if it was a small role like you didn't have to yeah well i feel like that universe like they really tried like there was like that continental tv show right on nbc or you know peacock or whatever and you know i don't think that did amazing numbers it didn't get great critical you know ratings and stuff i feel like john wick like that series really works because of the action but also keanu you know like he really is just
01:58:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
kind makes it So, yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'll watch it. Like, I think that's something I was thinking I would stream it. It's a streaming thing. And even then, it's like, what comes out of that film really isn't a whole... It doesn't add a whole lot to the Well, do have to ask you this, because this is the one thing I make fun of with John Wick, you know, movie and, you know, people who love it.
01:59:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
Do they have the thing where he he just grabs his coat and he just starts blocking bullets and he just is like... pow pow pow because I always thought that was the funniest thing i was like what are these guys doing they literally just are taking like fabric from their suits like their radiators and they hold it up as if their hand's not getting shot but they're like pow pow yeah i like so haest thing or The funniest part is when that scene in John Wick 4, where they're in the airport or wherever, and John is all way on the first floor, and that one assassin's on the second floor, and they're both just shooting each other like, and no one sees the science.
01:59:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
I made fun of that stuff all the way. like so so the one thing is john like i do love the action you know but that's one thing i always make fun like the action is across the board so much better than other hollywood movies and like it deserves like a lot of the praise it gets well like but like that that's one of the reasons i don't like love john wick as much as other people because that just sounds like that's kind of jarring for me you know because i i'm just like oh man this is like the biggest badass ever but like he's using his his sweater yeah so i will say I think there was a scene in here where he does that again. Like, can't you just make like a whole like body suit out of the armor and then someone will be unkillable? Yeah.
02:00:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
So he does do it, I think, once in this film again and it's so stupid, but he actually does, he uses ends up using a different weapon of choice that he normally doesn't use. I'm like, okay, interesting enough. And it's again, it's a very unique...
02:00:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
reason for why he's there. and I'm like, okay, interesting. So, yeah, I mean, i haven't I know I haven't watched it, so. Yeah, I think overall this movie just wasn't needed. They've already confirmed they're working on a John Wick 5, and they also basically confirmed that Keanu is going to be in John Wick 5.
02:00:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
like So I don't, I just didn't understand like why. He already grieved the death of his wife at the end of the fourth one by getting his revenge. yeah let it go right now she's a yeah it's okay so so there's that um then yeah squid games uh season three which was the finale of squid games which honestly just felt like squid games season 2.5 like it was really just an extension super short isn't it it super short six episodes all about an hour long i like that honestly i'll say this like without giving too much away every episode hit really hard so i didn't give it a seven out of ten
02:01:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
because i think it was just so straight to the point in every episode like things happen and it's like realistic and realistic not in the sense of the games realistic in the sense of the choices that are made and the people that have to win and lose you go oh that makes sense it's pretty direct it's obvious there was no more twists and turns so i think so it wasn't like convoluted it was not convoluted ban those stories do get kind of yeah so igian i think was upset for the fact that it wasn't convoluted because that's what gave it its uniqueness in the first two seasons right but now was just straight to find like this person dies this person lives this presenter in boom boom i just kind of felt like
02:02:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
maybe from their eyes, like they just want to get the story done. Yeah, it's just a true ending. Like boom, boom, boom, boom. This is it. But you know what? they It hits so hard because while the people are living and dying and they're playing the games, it's still unique. Like when we watched the movie like Hunger Games, right? Or we watched Game of Thrones. There was something really crazy about the idea and that story and that world, the world built.
02:02:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
looking at so how end of them like this is still such a unique story that like i love seeing everyone hey play out like i'm like yeah Like yeah they executed, you know? So do you feel like now that you finished the show, right, you were satisfied with the ending for the last season?
02:02:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Man, like that's such a good question. Am I satisfied with the ending? From where it started to where it ended, i would say,
02:02:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah actually, I think I am. like i Are you happy they kept going past season one? Because for me, like I was satisfied with season one, so I didn't really need more. With season two, I was like, okay, this is good. like At least I'm getting more, but like I didn't necessarily feel like it needed to be done.
02:03:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I would say here's where they screwed up. So I would say it could have ended at season one for sure. i think season three adds so much more context to season two. The fact that they split it up was dumb i think they should have went straight straight and filmed all of it and dropped it all because season now when you see season 2.5 or season three it's like oh like kind hate how uh netflix has been doing that they did the same thing like stranger things season five part one and one yeah and i'll give you the absolute great comparison you season four but they split in two first half made no sense was dumb
02:03:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
but when you saw the second wow it tied everything together. It's so annoying not seeing them together. Yeah. This is exactly what happens. today I just think this is like a Netflix strategy they're doing to like kind of keep viewership up, you know, engagement up. So whatever.
02:03:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. So all I'll say is like, could there be more split games? Maybe. But, i like I said, I actually enjoyed the ending quite a bit. So, yeah, we're planning arm we're planning on watching that in the plane, so that'll keep us busy. You guys will like it, I think, for sure.
02:04:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
And there's still tension. The fact that they built up the new cast of people to be very similar much to season one, I'm like, damn, like they did it twice. like in my opinion fact that they found so many unique people in season when i'm like they can't replicate the skin and Honestly, they kind of did.
02:04:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. Again, with a new cast of characters. Yeah. And I think, you know, because I know we've been going on for a while, but just one thing that I have to learn as I've like written more is the power of the side characters.
02:04:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yes. Dude, this is all about the side characters. Because like, I think really good stories and really good writers, they will use their side characters in such a way that it like compliments, flashes out, challenges like your main character.
02:04:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I know a lot of times like when I'm writing, like the hardest part of like a novel is like to me the middle part. And I'm just like, oh my God, I know where I want to end. I know where I'm beginning. I'm really struggling. And now in hindsight, I realized it's like, okay, the beginning is easy because I love my setting.
02:05:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. And I kind of like my main character. Right. The ending is, is what I want to get to because it's a satisfying conclusion. And I'm like, oh, it's going to be epic. Right.
02:05:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
but the middle is so hard. And then the way I actually got better at it is because I was like, Oh, if I introduce side characters, like a lot of times I've just been putting them in there to help my main character get from point A to B to C. can But when you actually bring them in and they have a purpose and they engage with the main character, help that main character grow, challenge that main character.
02:05:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like that's fun because like the, The story between the antagonist and the protagonist is kind of more straightforward, right? Like, you know, one person is going to get a leg up, then the next person is going to get a leg up, the next person is going to get a leg up until finally one person succeeds.
02:05:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, actually. But with the side character, like that dynamic is lateral, but it can go in so many different ways because yeah yeah you can really get so many different ways either of those characters can change.
02:06:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
right yeah i think and then that can feed back into the fight between the protagonist and antagonist so i think like a lot of people don't pay enough attention to their side characters i think that's what squid games did so well is that especially season two and three the side characters really help the main protagonist grow in ways and interact in ways that you would not have otherwise seen because we know that the main antagonist has been the sky that's been hosting these games all the time but it was the side characters that made him grow and realize like throughout like the whole course needed to do found his purpose yeah and then on top of it to expand on what you just said the metal being so hard the writer of this show straight up lost teeth multiple teeth writing this entire series that's how stressed he was so especially i'm sure figuring out season two oh man season three that's the hardest stuff man yeah that's really
02:06:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
makes or breaks me in every story yeah so i honor your i mean i don't understand it people i think people understand your pain in that And I'll be honest man, good side characters can really make a show, can make or break it. And that's why, like, as, if people are disappointed by this show, fair criticism, I don't think I was disappointed by the end of this. Yeah, I mean, I feel like if people are disappointed by the show, it might be because season one was like such a cultural iconic moment that it really set a high bar. You set a high bar. mean, when you're saying that this is like the most streamed and successful show on Netflix. Even more the Stranger Things.
02:07:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
up and it was a really niche idea like who would ever think a niche idea like this could become such a cultural phenomenon and so beloved by so many people in so many different languages in so many different countries like it's an insane moment and everything clicked like okay it's like lightning in a bottle right like how do you get that again yeah it certainly did certain amount stranger things as the most watched show on netflix the actors the acting was and it was unique and it was in a different culture or different language other than english and You got all everyone to actually care watch it. Yeah.
02:08:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, me, that was mind-blowing. Just insane. No one would have expected that. And then to replicate some of it with season two and three, I'm like, damn, like, as hard as that was, it's kind it reminds me like, Lord of the Rings and ah Game of Thrones seasons one through three. Like, they did replicate it a little bit after the fact with these new shows, like, ah Rings of Power and stuff, but it wasn't always, like, yeah it's hard to you know catch that same lightning in the bottle right yeah so yeah that's all I'll say about Squid Game State don't want to give it a give it yeah well probably by the next podcast we have you know I'll have watched it so maybe we can get like more into specifics because i really want to talk about it and i know man this is how i felt after i finished watching you before you and then i feel like you were just like and struggling so much yeah that was the struggle but like the ending was still good yeah so okay and i think you know it might take us a little bit longer i know we're trying to get these out like every two weeks but it might end up being more like three weeks because of summertime and we're having some vacations and stuff like that but uh hopefully that'll give us a lot of stuff to talk about
02:08:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. yeah So I think that's it for today. So we'll see you guys next time. All right. Take care. Take care.