Transcript
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: How's it going everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake. I am joined by my co-host as always Dave, the esteemed Dave. That's your handoff. Thank you. I'm glad that I'm finally getting the recognition.
Speaker: ah My title is still in the mail as far as the sir. and then I'll try and put it on my license plate with the DMV. Mm-hmm. You got to let you got to buy a foot plot of land from like Scotland or something like that.
Speaker: And that's the way. Did you ever. Not even a square foot. Just the line. We're actually a lot cheaper than you think. What was it called? It was established titles. Is that what I'm thinking of? I think so. It sounds right. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: It's very, I mean, i give them, this is the only credit you can give them. It's a little bit more real than selling someone a certificate for a star, right? It's just like, oh, that one over there.
Speaker: Out of all the ones you can see, that one's yours. hundred bucks, please.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel like, I feel like scamming people is so easy. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. ah Oldest profession actually is what they call it. Yeah. um Scamming people.
Speaker: Before there was any job. I had a great time. I thought it was totally weird. But yeah. ah Been a little bit. Had a small hiatus as i was dedicating the majority of my life and energy to RGB LAN.
Speaker: um and that was fun i'm gonna jump in and just just talk about that preempt the one question it was fun uh absolutely exhausting probably got like five to six hours of sleep every night had so much caffeine to make up the difference across the entire duration and then but it was good did you enjoy running the tournament stuff Yeah, no it was it was definitely fun. i was taking notes like a mad lad. ah We're going to have like a retro for improvements and things like that for next time.
Speaker: But i have a spreadsheet, which would surprise no one. And in this spreadsheet is all of the tournaments, their start times, how long they actually went, when they were supposed to start, ah like their end times, how many people attended them, and then like notes, basically feedback for next time. And yeah, we're going to we're going to refine this. we're going to make this good.
Speaker: But overall, it was very smooth. um Even when things didn't really go as planned. It still just kind of worked out. So the front facing experience was generally pretty good for the people who were just there to to play games and have fun.
Speaker: That sounds like a good time. Yeah. Yeah, was it was definitely a good time. Now, I will say. I have a pretty good graphics card. not going to name it specifically, but I brought my computer up on the stage and I put it under the desk so I could use it as like the stage PC.
Speaker: And today, my particular graphics card is pretty much like out of stock. And ah today I realized or I found out that because it's pretty much out of stock, the cheapest you can get one new is like $7,000. And and i I'm retroactively scared for the situation I put my computer in.
Speaker: And I'm also a lot more cognizant to make sure I never accidentally dox myself because now I'm i'm scared. um But hopefully people had a good time. um Yeah, no, it was ah but definitely a highlight for me. is um Are you familiar with Lethal League?
Speaker: Yeah, that's the character re-character side-scroller where you hit a ball back and forth and it gets faster and faster. Yeah. So I had four controllers up there because 8-Bit Doe controllers, like, we're not sponsored by them, but, like, i think about it.
Speaker: Think about it. I'm enjoying mine for playing Elden Ring, but for whatever reason, it's not letting me remap X and Y. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I think Elden Ring itself is not. Maybe I can do it outside of the client. Yeah, they kind of have... I will say the one thing against them is they have different types of controllers. So, like, they have an ultimate version, which is, like, it supports all these different consoles and jazz like that. But then they also have one that's, like, designed for... To be, like, Xbox-like, X input. And then there's another one that's designed for, like, Switch input.
Speaker: And there's really no visual indicator. Like, it's not at all obvious which one you're looking at. And they call them all the same thing. um So it's kind of a pain. I didn't even consider that to be.
Speaker: Looking at it, though, I think... Y on the left, that is Xbox? No, no, no. They were Y up top. Yeah, I think up top, yeah. Y up top's Xbox. But but yeah, anyways, like there's there's supposed to be, if you have it like powered off and you hold a button when it turns on, you can like toggle X input or something else. But anyways, all of this is like not very consumer friendly. I would say that's the the element against them. But for the money, they're about like $30 for a controller that's of build quality around like $60.
Speaker: And if you spend like 60 bucks, you get like a really nice one. So anyways. It's a 64 bit though. m See, there you go. They really aren't paying and us us enough money for this, um but they should be. Reach out to us. If you want to do other powers of two, you can reach me. Exactly.
Speaker: um But I had four of those up there because I was just like, OK, well, I've got a couple already. I'm just going to grab another two like cheap, cheap ones, hook them up with a little USB cable. So I had the traditional ah RGB colors and these extended USB cables that just went up to a USB hub.
Speaker: um I had red. i had blue. I had green and I had purple. And it worked really well. played a Lethal League Blaze and it was literally like I didn't know I was going to need to run that tournament until the day prior.
Speaker: And so I have a rules document where it's just like all of the rules for each tournament. And this one is just like empty. So I pretty much I'm just like, i I feel like I'll probably be able to wing it. So what I did is just had like everybody come up to the front stage and I'd be like, hey, four people, whoever the first four people up, just come up here free for all. Winner, write your name on this piece of paper.
Speaker: Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Tell it through everybody. Great. Congratulations. Winners come up for people. Do that. You're a semifinalist. Next group. You're a semifinalist. Cool. Face off. And it was the entire tournament. Like no, no other work necessary. And people were so hype about it. I was standing up there with a microphone, just like emoting. Basically when stuff happened, there's like, Oh, you know, somebody gets hit in the face at 300 an hour.
Speaker: um And also Blaze is like, I don't know if you only played the original one or not. I had not. I think so, yeah. I hadn't played Blaze, but it's got so much more, like, it's one, smoother graphical fidelity. Like, as the ball starts to accelerate, people are hitting it more.
Speaker: it starts to rain and there's lightning in the background will like start to like become red as reality is starting to distort over the, uh, the, the speed and it'll like zoom in whenever somebody hits the ball back and it's just absolutely anime a million percent.
Speaker: Um, good time. Um, and that was, that was probably my highlight. It was a good time.
Speaker: do Would you say that you're getting more so used to the public-facing speaking? um i'm I'll be honest. like I have to role-play it a little bit. I don't really... Like you turn into a character, basically? Kind of, yeah, a little bit.
Speaker: i have to be like, I'm just going to go up and do it. right like I'm just going to have this public-facing persona. Which like is me, but it's also like...
Speaker: um i don't know you know what i mean like it it's definitely you are the most social and confident version of who you think that person is yeah exactly you're like i'm gonna say hello to every person instead of just look their way and nod my head yeah exactly um And I mean, that's that's fine. like There's nothing wrong with that, I don't think.
Speaker: um So, in general, yeah. like I don't know if I would have always been comfortable being the only person up on stage and running the event like the event for that tournament, but...
Speaker: Yeah, now is definitely, you know, lot more comfortable. It helps if you're really tired. And to be honest, if you're really tired, it's just like, I don't care. I'm like, I'm too tired to be embarrassed by all this stuff.
Speaker: Like, let's just get through it. um Jake's in his full medical gown and his slippers. ah It's why indoctrination works, actually.
Speaker: It's one of the strategies. you're going to join a cult. Slippers? Yes. ah Actually, probably, maybe, actually. But, I mean, unified clothing. You strip individuality from people. So if slippers are part of your getup, then it could be.
Speaker: But sleep deprivation... um reduces inhibition. So, yeah. There you And so does eating hot wings, Sean Evans. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I was catching... um He's doing, like, advertisements for YouTube Premium on Spotify, I think, because i was, like, listening to Spotify, and you would think that having Spotify Premium would give me a break from the ads, but, like, no, it doesn't. Not not if...
Speaker: podcasts and things like that are actually operating off ad revenue see they need our model i think um which is make no money but oh well reach out to us a bit though we got it rgb land people will go to it next year say hi That's it.
Speaker: Do you expect there would be a bigger turnout next year? i don't know. Because I assume that... I mean, it was pretty big this year, I think. I think we had like 120, 130 tickets.
Speaker: It's not too bad. There's a little burst towards the end. Gamers tend to be like procrastinators. If I could insult the entire populace at once. I just, I mentally, I can't grasp going to something late, especially when I've paid for it. You know, I've paid for that time. I'm not going be like, oh, catch the last two hours, you know?
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know whether it'll be more or less, but um I mean, it was a pretty healthy count. It's also like, We do different things every year. This is my first year as staff. I was a volunteer the last ah the last time, last two times maybe.
Speaker: um But if the count ever got like substantially higher, it's just like all of the seats are taken, for instance. One, awesome. Two, we will have to change the shape of some things because it's just like a lot of people. um But.
Speaker: Vertically. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, that might be the next trick is we double decorate. um Hey, you guys need to actually put, you know how some of you are putting your computers under the desk. Some are putting the computer on the desk. We need you to put all of the computers on the desk because we're going to stack more tables on top of them. so ah Please rotate each of your towers 90 degrees based upon the the PC tower below yours. Right.
Speaker: ahha right Um, it's just legal liability. Uh, your computer will not make it is what the waiver says. Um, but yeah, no, it was it was definitely a good time.
Speaker: Um, so we'll see what we do next time, but I have my list of things to fix and i aim to always be lazier than I was last time. And sometimes that requires a lot of work.
Speaker: So we'll get there. As long as you do the work in advance. hmm. Mm hmm. Exactly. But beyond RGB, been a lot of stuff in the news.
Speaker: ah Probably because we actually delayed the record, I think. Like, was BlizzCon confirmed before we canceled our episode? Or they just figure, like, oh, if that's out of the way, we can definitely run our event. I have no idea what BlizzCon was.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know either. I mean, it happened it happened during RGB, so it would have been... It's past weekend. Yeah. Yeah. It was probably around 9-11.
Speaker: who It's also funny having a public event that's largely a celebration and charity raising thing for these these various charities we have.
Speaker: It's just like, yeah, I mean, we're here to play video games, but also nine alone so What is 9-11 gonna get the whole weekend? The whole thing? Come on. You get like 10 minutes at best. Next is gonna be your nine eleven a week, huh? Then your nine eleven month.
Speaker: Yep, exactly. It's also, it's it's been a hot minute. Like, I'm i'm all i'm all good for Memorial. But like, it has been a hot minute. yeah Since 2001. Yeah.
Speaker: ah Maybe 25 years. night Napkin math. Napkin math. Yeah. But BlizzCon did happen and they announced a crazy number of things. I want to cover the things. I want to talk about these with you. And then I want to hypothesize on the the the red string board about what we think this means.
Speaker: For Blizzard because i I'm in the mailroom. ah um' i'm um I'm working on the board right now. um So first off, ah new Heroes of the Storm character, not even Heart of the Swarm, right? Heroes of the Storm.
Speaker: And they officially put the game in maintenance mode 2022.
Speaker: Make this make sense to me, Dave. Your comment from earlier makes a lot more sense now um because I had that context initially before you said the thing. Mm hmm.
Speaker: You said it was in 2022. 2022. Yeah. yeah So if it's now four years later and you're needing to add a character to kind of like revitalize something that you kind of like killed off,
Speaker: It's not good. That's the sign of like, we're going to kind of shotgun branch everything, see what does the best. Yeah. And then lean into that.
Speaker: feels like more last ditch efforts than well laid plans. Yeah, it's really like we really have all of the freedom and the leeway and we just let the people who are interested in this game well work on it because we don't care whether we make money or not. Right. That or like sheer desperation, like lemmings running off a cliff. There's really nothing in the middle. It's just like absolute freedom and ah self-deterministic utopia.
Speaker: Struggling to keep our jobs. like i don't I don't think there's anything else there. um Because even the last CEO, the ceo the person who was CEO when um Xbox acquired Blizzard and was kind of like hyped about the Blizzard games, we were talking about things like, oh, what if there's a StarCraft game or something like that? He's like, oh, I'm a fan of StarCraft and we're all like reading everything into it. That person's not even CEO anymore.
Speaker: Like a Ashra, Ashra, Ashra, I think Sharma, um she's the CEO. And this is the person that laid off a ton of people and then was like, I will now let that simmer at some point in the future.
Speaker: The same number of people will also be laid off. All right, everybody back to work. Have a good time. Enjoy weekend.
Speaker: So like that's the background for some of this stuff, right? So it sounds good. But Blizzard's owned by Microsoft. so think about it think about it netflix diablo would you watch that oh god no yeah me neither good it's not going to be there you go it's gonna have some bot uh articles where it says it's good but maybe i am jaded and maybe i am
Speaker: projecting question but generally netflix stuff tends to lean closer to the marvel side of popular demand not too offensive kind of straightforward tropey so i'm expecting to take like the dark world of diablo and put it into like something very simple and almost like, oh yeah, I can watch this at dinner with my family. Right. Christian Diablo would be very funny. um
Speaker: You might be right. We'll see because... Next item on this list that I'm reading from the next Diablo was announced Diablo five.
Speaker: What we know about this one is the setting. It takes place in apocalypse land where I'm trying to figure I don't care if it's a spoiler or not high level.
Speaker: um The end of the last expansion, and this is the actual last expansion for Diablo 4, was Lord of Hatred. And there's a little bit of... It's not literally just like, oh, Bale corrupted the Worldstone. But it's like, eh, it's kind of a little bit of Bale corrupted the Worldstone. It's like you get Mephisto instead of Bale.
Speaker: You get like... a big pool instead of the world stone. But like, yeah you know what I mean? Yeah, it's something. um But anyways, yeah, next game is like, hey, what if ah demons are actually winning the war over sanctuary?
Speaker: And Diablo hasn't really had this sort of angle to it for a very long time. Like, I think ever since... I want to say like Diablo 2.
Speaker: It's basically been like, oh, those demons are at it again. There's some incursions here. You got some dungeons. But like humans are still basically in control. Yeah, like you have encampments and towns and stuff. Beetles ain't getting into loot go lane. Sewers are kind of fucked though. Yeah, you're doomed. But... Yeah, you're talking about the ah the beneath the palace, right?
Speaker: Ugh. No. Uh-huh.
Speaker: But yeah, six years after Diablo 3 launched. How are you feeling about, or not, 3. Diablo 4 launched um and also announced three years before release.
Speaker: how does How does that fit up on our conspiracy board, Dave? So they want to release this in 29? Yep.
Speaker: Announced now for spring 29. Now, I think it's a hot take to be like, yeah, we're going to be ready. Spring specifically three years from now. That's like, huh?
Speaker: Like, why not just say 29? You know what I mean? But whatever. I guess it makes it seem more intentional. I don't know how much that matters from like a PR standpoint.
Speaker: Yeah. Because if I just needed to announce something, i would pick some vague time in the future. i know that we could pretty safely get it done by that time. Right.
Speaker: and I don't know. yeah Even Elder Scrolls 6 was like, here is a teaser splash screen with an animated mounted flyover and the title bar. And then right after that, they're just like Todd Howard grabs the mic and he's like, we have literally nothing.
Speaker: We have nothing. We have not even started working on this game. We have no plans to start working on this game. Ask nothing of us. This stage isn't merely a cardboard wall. um This is a little more confident than that, at least.
Speaker: And it's it is kind of funny because I saw a discord comment that was like, oh, they're like kind of hanging up, hanging up the the towel, so to speak, on Diablo 4. You know, it's like, ah I mean, it had three years of support before they like stopped expansions. I'm doing any more expansions for it.
Speaker: But also like as a midpoint thing, it's been around for three years. and We know it's going to be another three years before the next Diablo. It's such a weird time to announce it to me.
Speaker: I guess they want to have some hype or something for the future for their market to look forward to. Three years is a long time though.
Speaker: All they needed to say was basically like, there will be another Diablo game. And it would have been around the same amount of hype generation to me, right? I know. don't know.
Speaker: All right. StarCraft, open world shooter. They also confirmed this one's going to have a story and a beginning, middle, end. It's not going to be like a live service forever type thing.
Speaker: Also a pretty cool teaser, like a trailer. Did you see the trailer for it? I did. i don't think it has anything to do with the game, but Blizzard still makes nice cutscenes. I don't know. um I'm always going to be skeptical of Blizzard stuff from now on, just from like a our history together. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I think it would be really cool to have something in that vein. you said open a world, not first person necessarily. Yeah, I mean, well, actually, do we know it's an FPS? I'm going to look this up. I'm going fact check myself and see here. In either case, though, i think that the Starcraft universe is super interesting and cool and they can go into it at other angles.
Speaker: And again, like Starcraft Ghost was supposed to be a first person game and it was going to be the Halo killer. And it would just be cool to see that universe from that first person aspect.
Speaker: Oh, my God. These are are fucking huge. yeah I mean, yeah, canonically in a lot of these cut scenes. So I am just seeing this one person on Reddit said a third person shooter.
Speaker: So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see about that. I kind of like the first and the person. um But. Yeah. Open world narrative driven.
Speaker: That's hos I think I think the person is easier. Yeah. Or at least I am having a hard time with first person. Yeah, I mean, like, I think of, of um like, Space Marine or something like that.
Speaker: And also, part of this is because, probably because the teaser just followed, like, a Space Marine. And hey, what the first surprise, surprise. They just go through training. They get all their promotions, all their metal upgrades. And then they just die in their first engagement and then rinse off the metals to use on somebody else. And I'm like, ah, yes.
Speaker: Peak war. War. Dominion. Anti Minsk. ah Type of ah ah propaganda stuff. But Yeah, um ah if if you were to have a camera there, i would rather much rather like not be constrained by the visor. I don't need to get the Master Chief experience. I'd rather just see the cool armor and weapons and stuff like that. But i don't know.
Speaker: It definitely seems like it's going to be from the perspective of the Terran at least partially. It would be really cool to have like ah kind of a callback to the um original Starcraft and be like, oh, this is a split campaign. you're going to be playing as Terran and you're going to be playing as Protoss going to be playing as Zerg. And Zerg, I assume in this situation is basically left for dead because that's when that's pretty much the experience you get as an infected.
Speaker: You actually play as creep and you slowly expand. Some people are into this. this isn This is a peak for some people. um It's just very funny that we get this like so far removed from Starcraft Ghosts. ah Like the the first potion shooter that never happened.
Speaker: um But it does seem like they're trying for a slightly more modern take perhaps.
Speaker: Yeah. And i wish them well in that generic sense. Yeah. Because it would be cool if it was a good game and added something to the space.
Speaker: Yeah. I don't wish it to fail. I'm glad it's not live service. that's That's the one thing. like That's the way you can pretty much guarantee this would launch directly into the ground. is like It's another live for life service shooter.
Speaker: Thanks, guys. And probably somehow destroy Blizzard. like It would take down the entire company. Do you think they did that as like an intentional goodwill move? i mean, they're going to want to make money off of it, which is the thing that surprises me because unless something has changed, Blizzard generally doesn't move fast, right? Like they've taken forever to make their games.
Speaker: um Overwatch is the only, well, I guess Overwatch and Hearthstone and WoW are there like actual live service games that they release things with any cadence.
Speaker: But like for new games and jazz like that, they let them cook forever. Like, you got to remember that even Overwatch used to be a different game called Titan before it was basically canceled. And then they were like, can we just, like, use the bones of this for something? And they made Overwatch.
Speaker: um Because was going to be an MMO, which is crazy to think of. but um Blizzard and MMO would never work. Yeah. In this economy? No. Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, don't know. I'll see what it's like. I am withholding judgment for now. But if they just launch it, it's like, hey, this is a $50 game and it's a decent shooter.
Speaker: I might play it like when it's on sale or something. you know put it Put it in that space. um I played a shooter or two back in back in my time. And I just don't want another live service thing. i already have enough of those.
Speaker: There's like no space for it. Which is funny because Destiny 2 is literally out of the picture. But there's still no space for it. and so Yeah, I only have Dota 2 and...
Speaker: Calling it live service is eh. I mean, it is. three But it does get updated every month or so. It is actually the definition of live service. don't know why I imagine it.
Speaker: But it's also like they're not like tapping the counter, be like credit card here as much as some live service games, as much as like a gotcha game or even Warframe, to be honest.
Speaker: No, they're very much the battle pass type setup. And they kind of have like a, I guess right now a story arc to go through. Yeah. And then there are like some other mini games to get things to progress. And as you progress, you get candy. The candy works will let you re-roll for like cosmetics and stuff. And it could be anything technically.
Speaker: Do love re-rolls. And I don't have to pay money to do that. I just have to play the game. Yeah. But if I paid money, i could unlock more stuff and faster and maybe some exclusive stuff type things.
Speaker: Yeah. Entirely fair. I mean, they got to make money at some point or in some way. Now, yeah we could have an entire we have had an entire episode on how much money, you know, they should make. But um it's a very complicated alchemy.
Speaker: Because if you're like a small game with a very small player base, you technically have to monetize more um in theory. Or if you have like a huge development team, you need to monetize more.
Speaker: But if you make Dota and you occasionally were like, hey, you guys can like drop a dollar on this. Everyone's salary is covered like immediately.
Speaker: um But anyways, yeah. There is space for live service games. I just don't think it's the time for it. um Too many of them have launched into the ground.
Speaker: Give me a game that I can at some point buy, own, complete, and then set aside. That's I want.
Speaker: It sounds like you want the physical copy of Control Resonant. Yeah. When it comes out in a week from now. Oh, my gosh. I actually missed that it was next week.
Speaker: That's little scary. You know, they have um you you you may may or may not have seen um this is a D&D guy, ah Zach the Bold on YouTube.
Speaker: and I'm not familiar. Yeah. Yeah. Well, just the real brief skinny because he again, he's not paying us. If he does like little skits and things like that is like YouTube shorts, but also longer form stuff and outsiding being and outside of being slightly bolsterous. I generally agree with a lot of his opinions and he's literally running for like most of the critical role crew a dagger heart.
Speaker: one shot in the control resident universe. um And apparently, including the protagonist, like the actor for the protagonist of resident who's going to be there in the campaign.
Speaker: um And they're like, he also kind of implied in this teaser. He's like, and I have a little bit of inside information about the control universe. And it's just like, ah just imagine the fishing hook sort of, uh, animation of the casting the line and reeling me in.
Speaker: Um, so it's cool, but I mean, control, it's better than now. I'm like, like, let's, let's just say it.
Speaker: You got to play too, dude. Before you're saying that, that's fair. I'm not up to control. I need to also replay again. Cause it does slap has been a minute though.
Speaker: Um, Also, i don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say. i think all of the Remedy games are in the same universe. Seems like it, man.
Speaker: So I wonder if they will again give like an Alan Wake nod. Uh-huh. I still hope they don't. We talked about this in our Control episode, but like...
Speaker: I don't know. I love the SCP, oldest house, the director, all of that, like the board, the whole setup, like so much is just it's it's a perfect It's a perfect setup for like withholding information and pulling people in.
Speaker: It's very like X-Files. like We are only really touching the the tip of the iceberg of what this all means. And sometimes you don't get any more than that. And like so many games and media feel like they're just like, we have to give you the whole picture. And then Control is just like, i don't know. it's like a It's a toaster, probably. But it seems like it does some other stuff.
Speaker: Maybe. i don't know. It's a doster. Probably. right like so i i don't know. i like that. It's engrossing.
Speaker: Yeah, do think a layer of mystery is always engaging, just say the least. Man, I didn't know it was coming out next week. I literally have on my list a game that did come out that i was like, hey, I want to play this.
Speaker: but like if Control Resonant comes out next week, what is this on Green Man Gaming? I'm going have to look this up. Anyways. Also on that date, Silent Hill F. I'll probably skip that one. That one's less compelling to me than Control, but worth mentioning.
Speaker: Silent Hill F Landfall or something. Because Silent Hill F I think was the the one that came out within the last year or so.
Speaker: Gotcha, gotcha. Dang, Dragon's Dogma 2 is $14.28 right now on Green Man Gaming. That is not much money. They just removed the de novo from that, I remember reading.
Speaker: But yeah, I'm sure Silent Hill is good. Townfall.
Speaker: Cool. I mean, they made some really cool looking games.
Speaker: For me, it's going to be a nice watch on YouTube.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, I mean, there are also good games for that, to be honest. um I'm bad. Let me have it through a movie. I can pause.
Speaker: ah No, you can pre-purchase Control Resonant, but there's no discount right now. It is a full $59.99 plus tax o and this economy That's your retail.
Speaker: I'm looking at the pre-purchase bonus offer and it's just a picture of a guy with some skin condition shirtless. I'm going to send you this and you're going to be like, ah, that's exactly what it is. she That's it. The pre-purchase thing is just like, hey, here's a shirtless guy with a skin condition.
Speaker: All right. Yep. Remedy's done it again. Knocks it out of the park. What does it mean Uh-huh.
Speaker: Man, I hope it's good. You're right. I do need to play the other game, but at least it's not $70. $60. I'll start. I'll start coping now. I'm optimistic.
Speaker: Um, cause I slept on Alan Wake 2 for a very long time. at least like two years, ah after it came out and I still think very solid, infinitely better than one because one is just very dated. Uh, but this was, i've already said fun, engaging, liked it.
Speaker: Um, And yeah, it kind of has me back on the wanting more remedy content. Yeah. train i want to see him succeed especially after ah control fire break was their last big sort of uh product and ah that was a live service game and it was a live service game near the epicenter of concord so guess how it did yeah it didn't look promising and i think we said then we're not expecting it to do so so great it didn't we we were prophetic um
Speaker: But yeah, I also want to see him succeed. Like ever since Max Payne, they've done really cool stuff. And I don't know. I want to see i want to see studios survive the current market conditions and the current state of game games development.
Speaker: um And I don't want people to be out there struggling to find jobs. So let's do it, Remedy. make I don't ever want to be considered an old hat, but I do kind of miss the certain pedigree that gaming companies had where it's like, oh, this is PlayStation.
Speaker: They're like one of the big three. They do X, Y, and Z, and now it's just... I mean, I guess it's more of i was a kid then, it probably seemed more impactful.
Speaker: Yeah. But and it's just it's nice to see, like, let's say Tolkien stuff. Yeah. That's something that I have a fondness for. And I'd like to see that have like a positive legacy that lasts beyond itself. Right. Yeah.
Speaker: And same with like good game companies. I want Double Fine to still keep making games. And if you pay them money, they will. Right. Because I think they're independent now. Xbox covered to them.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I think they had some sort of sweetheart deal. They're like, hey, we'll haggle for it. It is. Yeah. I don't know. Xbox really is just the EA 2.0.
Speaker: I think as soon as Saudi Arabia was like, hey, we could buy EA. Xbox is like, oh, no, but there must always be Lich King or something like that. Let's freaking curse ourselves. Let's let's doom all of these these studios. We got to be the next EA. There has to be somebody that's EA even when EA gets eaten, like devoured.
Speaker: um I had no idea, but like EA being the killer of game franchises. Yes. Those who do not remember the lore. Yeah, ah they literally they they can they had to have been one of the very early iterations of that, like Grim Reaper ah image macro where it's going like door to door and it's like, hey, the studio is dead. the studio is dead. The studio is dead.
Speaker: Like that was EA. And i mean, realistically, Probably going to continue, but we'll see what oil money can do, I guess. Go from there. um But yeah. Microsoft, do better.
Speaker: What about Nintendo? Have they had any news recently? Nintendon't. Yes, they do. ah The Ocarina of Time remake. How do you feel about it?
Speaker: I would say that the art style has been contentious.
Speaker: I think it looks better than the 64 game, but I have no dog in the race. Yeah, because it didn't model the dogs. It's the one argument I have against it now. No, it looks incredible, to be honest, to me.
Speaker: Like, I get it. You didn't want to see the, like, what was it? Alita Battle Angel will eyes on Young Link. Sure, I get it. Like, i understand it.
Speaker: But he's like an elf, right? like How much you can be looking at his eyes? Aren't you usually running forward? Just saying. yeah I mean, you gotta pan the camera. Or maybe if you idle there for a bit, it'll start to just spin around you and do whatever RPGs do. But also, they're voiced, which is, like, crazy. But...
Speaker: um I would like the character designs. I think those are fine. I don't fully agree with the people that like it's like Unreal Tournament or whatever. Because in some ways I feel like that's just conflating a realistic art style with a Game engine and like unreal tournament can't just own that right it can't be like oh we went for a realistic art style Freaking unreal tournament every time you're like now probably not um Be very funny if that's what they use, but you know unreal engine Oh, I see tournament. Yeah. Yeah unreal engine. This is what you you this is what happens when you reuse the same name for everything I
Speaker: We played Unreal Tournament 2004 for the LAN as well. Got 32 people in for that. That's the cap. um But... Did you guys do the Space Towers map?
Speaker: I don't think so. I think it was an open map with a bunch of vehicles. Like, 32 players, that's actually a tough map for it. Like, that's so many people. um But it's the old base style map where it's like you have to use your link gun and like build orbs to control them or destroy your enemy control points. And anyways, Unreal Tournament.
Speaker: um I will also say for the locales, some of the area redesigns for the new Ocarina of Time, they look really good. Like I never thought about how empty Kakariko Village looks like um and the town map or like near the fountain in Hyrule Castle Town.
Speaker: But like you throw some stalls down there, you throw down some some construction materials and a stage and stuff like that. i'm like, dang, this looks like a video game or something.
Speaker: ah um And I'm sure it's because like they just did a more true remaster at some point. They're like, this game's freaking empty. like We got nothing here. We got to spreeze it up a little bit.
Speaker: But yeah, I don't know. It looks a lot more dense. um It seems like a solid upgrade all around. Yeah. I feel like people... if you dislike the art style that much...
Speaker: Don't play it and play it. You don't have to You're also probably somebody who's already played the original. right like This is a game that came out, what, 1922? Something Give or take.
Speaker: everything um Yeah, Nintendo was back in 1808.
Speaker: George Washington was the first reviewer for Ocarina of Time, actually. little known fact. but I think in general, it's Obviously, we want it to be good for the people who grew up playing it and want to re-experience that joy.
Speaker: ah But what about the people who've never played it and are like growing up in this generation? Exactly. Are you going to say, all right, you got to go find a DC power outlet. You got to blow in this thing, slam it in hold the button, then pray. Uh-huh. Right.
Speaker: I also think like... Pretty much every Legend of Zelda that's ever come out has been like, oh, we hate this art style. Like, what do you guys even think? Yes. Like, I'm thinking of Wind Waker. We're just like, oh, my gosh, is this ah is this a Zelda game for babies?
Speaker: Like, what are we looking at here? never understood that because I always thought it was super cool. i always liked going to peek the the trailer at Walmart. Mm hmm. Yeah, and Wind Waker is, I think, if I could speak for the entire community with no evidence, basically people's favorite art style from all of the Zelda games now. It also is evergreen. Like, it'll never age because it, well, it wasn't going for hyperrealism, which this new one seems to be a little bit. So, you know, maybe a point against it. But yeah, no, like, it's just an artistic style.
Speaker: So... I don't know. i understand like Ocarina of Time was so old and the art style was so very much like we basically made everything out of laura croc laura croft's boobs like that was the exact shape we used for everything um it's the only asset they had they built from there god damn uh-huh um like they kind of had to make a relatively bold decision about how things should look now and they could have gone with i mean they could have gone with something a little simpler but
Speaker: I don't know. It's going to be different, you know, in the future. It's going to be different than how Link link looks and all these other games. um And I guess people people weren't really ready for that. I don't think.
Speaker: Oh, at no point have i been like, that looks nothing like the canon version of this character. Yeah, they're all slightly different flavors of the same dude. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, we'll see where they land with it. I'll be honest. I'm kind of excited. I played Ocarina as a kid. It was like when i'm ah one of the games that came with my in sixty four Pretty good. I had that.
Speaker: I did not. I think I had Majora's Mask 2, actually. Goldeneye, Mario Kart. It was a pretty good lineup. um And I remember talking to my parents and I was like, I really want to get Super Smash Bros.
Speaker: And I had to like beg and plead because it was like $24 on eBay. And in retrospect, I look back on that. was like, was that game actually $24 on eBay? Like, why did they, why did they care so much? But anyways, yeah.
Speaker: Now that's that's not even a poorly made DoorDash decision. You know what i mean? Yeah. And I mean, it's not like, oh, you're like inflation or whatever. Like games are so much cheaper. No, no.
Speaker: They were still $50 back then. Like that was the retail price. It's just you could buy the game for half price on eBay. I was like, why is it so expensive? It's freaking $24.
Speaker: Because as a kid, you probably had two nickels. Yeah, that is that is true. I was like, I'm going to be in debt forever if they buy me this game. Speaking of open world games. Hmm.
Speaker: Speaking of Nintendo games. OK, where are we going with this one? Kirby oh the world beyond or something like that. Yeah.
Speaker: But it's going to be an open world Kirby game. Yeah. And I was going say, speaking of evergreen design, you know who's never bitched about the design of this character? Kirby. It's true. Looks the same all the time. He's a sphere.
Speaker: They made him out of yarn the one time. He's still a sphere. It's true. Also also a sphere. Sakurai can do or no wrong. He said it. They stretched him out over cars.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. He can do no wrong. He can do no wrong. Yeah. Now, I do curse his name sometimes when literally playing Rivals of Aether. ah Make that make sense. I'm not going to be able to.
Speaker: But yeah I mean, Kirby is... what Is it Lox's up B? You're like, it's the it's the Cutter Slash. Uh-huh. Sakurai, please. Come on. Come on Every time you do a back air and the person goes in the opposite direction, it's like, come on Who coded this stuff?
Speaker: But yeah, Kirby game. How are you feeling about it? I know ah Kirby's pollo. Pollo Hermano.
Speaker: Pollo con aros. I mean, I like Kirby in general. um I don't usually keep up with the games as much.
Speaker: Like I didn't play the The one we were talking about where you, uh, for everything. Yeah. Air ride, Epic yarn. Yeah. And air riders, uh, which was on switch two, I think.
Speaker: I don't have a switch too, which is part of the reason why i'm so blind on these, but, um, that's going my, that was going to my followup question. Be like, if you expressed interest here is like, is this what makes you make the jump for a switch to now that it literally costs more money than it did in the past? But it sounds like the answer might be no.
Speaker: Um, not by itself i guess i'd have to see more because again it's at this point i need the i need like the the foot in the door yeah to be like hey hey it's me and i'm like cumulatively i'd be willing to pay 900 for you right that is kind of the issue also with the nintendo games is They tend to be very expensive. When we were talking about Ocarina of Time, when I first saw that, I was like, this going to be a $100 game.
Speaker: And like, I might be wrong. Like, I have to be at least a little bit wrong. But I'm hoping like I'm a lot wrong and I don't think I will be. It's going to be like $70, $80, easy.
Speaker: You know, they've done that with other games. I don't know if they would do the same with Kirby, which is meant to be kind of like all audience I don't know, but Nintendo games tend to be expensive and stay expensive forever. Curbo. Jesus. um I was going to say, Nintendo games always launch at their full price unless it's like a third party developer type thing. Like any of their main IP stuff.
Speaker: Kirby in the Forgotten Realm, um I think was full price 60 at the time. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you're lucky if you get a discount when they release it on virtual console 20 years later. So, like, that is that is the Nintendo pricing.
Speaker: They've kind of gotten away with it because their games just tend to be, if you're interested in them, basically like must-haves. Are you a Pokemon fan? you're going to play Pokemon? um like I bought a Switch because my wife wanted the ah Ants game. Yeah.
Speaker: This is a game for ants? It's a Tamadashi Life, I think. Something like that. Oh, yeah. But, you know, we also like picked up a Pokemon game, which I don't think has been played because of the ants.
Speaker: um I was like, okay, I mean, eventually I'll i'll get to something here. But I could see it, right? Like, I would love to make the argument, hey... It's been a while.
Speaker: You can, you know, get a console, pick up Duskbloods. It's 50% off. Pick up Kirby. It's 50% off. Like, not in this ecosystem, not Nintendo.
Speaker: It's going to be more expensive. Duskbloods will be $120 by the time you can get a Switch 2. Doesn't make any sense. Digital version. Maybe.
Speaker: i think there's also, like, a little bit of that hump, too, where... Not that I feel set in my ways, but in my mind, I very much have the mindset of I i like what I like and I know what I like. Right. Yeah. I'm not looking to.
Speaker: Seek out new experiences as much as a younger me would. That's great on a dating profile. I'm not looking for anything new.
Speaker: We will have porridge for breakfast. if you If I don't already know you, don't contact me. ah Please only close friends and family reach out. One of those specialty dating sites. I see yes sir um baseball no no I'm 100% there with you. By happenstance, I have a Switch 2 because there were some must-have games. But if the decision were entirely up to me, i haven't seen anything land where i'm like, I got to have that.
Speaker: And like Duskbloods is weird. We've talked about that. That's not a console seller for me. um Kirby, not likely to be a cons console seller. Ocarina of Time is a game I've literally already played. So like even if it's fancy Ocarina of Time, i they could make the Shadow Temple force me to pee myself and I might not even pick this one up. And they probably will. Right. Like that's a very scary place.
Speaker: re-deads the shadow temple didn't I mean so re-deads were actually more in Majora's Mask or like Hyrule Castle Town and also I feel like in the fields don't play Zelda games by way no that's fair the shadow temple was scary because like um you needed the lens of truth I believe to traverse a lot of it, which would show you like fake walls and stuff like that. But also like the walls and floor and ceiling were just like made of corpses.
Speaker: The texture was just that the music was deeply unsettling. um There were all kinds of like traps and things like that. And like as a kid, it was kind of too much. It was honestly kind kind of kind of too much.
Speaker: I'm really curious to see what they did. It's one of the things they didn't show really at all in the trailer.
Speaker: Now it's just pictures of actual bodies. Yeah. um That would be very funny. They're like, I don't hype it realistic. Like, ah get some some dead people up there. Put them up on the wall. yeah
Speaker: Probably not. But yeah, I can understand holding out on a switch shoot, especially since they did raise the price, I think 50 bucks because of like RAM or whatever the crap. yeah Yeah. So.
Speaker: We had a list here. um The other one that I really wanted to talk about, at least in some of these remaining moments. Wolverine. wasn't actually not. Here's your TLDR for a Wolverine.
Speaker: Pretty much nobody nobody gave it a good score. Yeah. There you go. Like some people complained about different things, but the sentiment was like, it doesn't really matter how violent it is if the combat doesn't have a lot of variety and the game holds your hand ridiculously through the entire thing.
Speaker: There was a um a skill up video review I saw on it and then I like listen to a good chunk of their podcast. It's a friends for per second podcast. um Don't listen to them. Listen to us, but like they're pretty good.
Speaker: And the one specific moment that summed it all up for me was there is a time where like Wolverine returned from the optional like stage area and you get like scent lines, which is just literally the Skyrim guidance spell or whatever the crap. You can just follow it on the ground to where you're supposed to go. Also, the game is linear. So jot that down. You know, love that.
Speaker: um But. there was a like yellow arrow pointing to the scent line to indicate like, Hey, I don't know if somehow you flipped the camera around, we would still be able to find where the start of the path is in this game. And it's like my brother in game development, what are we doing?
Speaker: Yeah, it's, Got to be some like shit decisions made higher up. Yeah. Because.
Speaker: All of it looks professional. Yeah, that's why it is very. High visual fidelity. um Shout out to the sound scene. I went to high school with one of them.
Speaker: was cool to see them do a thing that got released in the world. um They worked on this game, are you saying? They work in the audio stuff. I mean, the audio, i it's amazing. i don't think that anyone has ever here had better audio. and I don't know good versus bad um too well in that regard, but... Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I... Just yeah, it's a little bit unfortunate, but I mean, even if it was excellent, like I don't know if this would have been the game I really super would have jumped into.
Speaker: now it falls into the like the Marvel superhero space where it's.
Speaker: Going to be a little generic size, a little rounded edges for. More approachable for more of a wider audience reach. Yeah. And like this is Insomniac games, by the way, that's the developer. So they made Ratchet and Clank. They made a lot of the new Spider-Man games that were really well received.
Speaker: The new Spider-Man PS5. I really enjoyed that. Yeah, I think I think that was one of them. Yes. Marvel Spider-Man Miles Morales. Why do you prefix it? Marvel's is there a different Spider-Man Miles Morales? Whatever.
Speaker: um But, yeah, I mean, not going to land it 100% of the time, I guess. And this could just be could just be one of those.
Speaker: ah This was supposed to be the aside to the game that I actually wanted to talk about. How did turn into an actual discussion? Shout out to Dave's friend. goodjo Sorry that I interrupted with... I thought it was, um you know, buying time. No, no, no, no. no this was ah I mean, there was a good discussion of it.
Speaker: um Of all the games we mentioned, this one's probably... Not on my list. Kojima Productions. Gotta talk about it. this is this is the ah This is the hot tea that we may sit. I am not up on this. Please pour the tea into my mouth. Or ears.
Speaker: So generally in game development when there is a breakyout break up breakdown when they break it down um it's publicly amicable.
Speaker: ah And Kojima Productions, after splitting with Konami, um got real tight relationship with Sony. um And that's maintained through Death Stranding, Death Stranding 2, which apparently didn't sell as well as the first one. That was my fault.
Speaker: But the new game that Kojima is working on is Fizzint. which is the return to tactical espionage action.
Speaker: um And we don't know a ton about it, but that's basically what we know. And like this is the wheelhouse, right? like This is, hey, it's not Metal Gear Solid, but Kojima could make like anything basically as weird as Metal Gear Solid. I trust in the man.
Speaker: um all of his games are the Metal Gear Solid mindset. Yes. He approaches things from like again, like the anime style of stuff of like, Hey, wouldn't it be cool if, and then let's do this. And then it's just, i want say things for the sake of things.
Speaker: Kind of. But sometimes it does feel very much like a lot of the design choices in Death Stranding. We're like, I think it'd be cool. I want to I want to face Matt Margot Robbie, not Margot Robbie. Um,
Speaker: I don't know. Margaret Qualley. Mm-hmm. She was a mama, I believe. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah, incredibly weird, and I agree wholeheartedly, right? This is my go-to example is Hartman lives on a heart-shaped island because why not, I guess.
Speaker: um Also, everyone's named after their one most noticeable feature as if, like... I don't know. I don't know. It's absurd. It doesn't make any sense. He learned about name nicknames from middle school. And that's basically where it ended.
Speaker: um But to the news piece, um Sony came out and was like, hey, we really appreciate the time working with Kojima Productions.
Speaker: We're going to be ending that relationship, going different ways, yada, yada, yada. The amicable separation. And then Kojima came out is like these guys effing suck. And ah he didn't like literally say that, but he was very critical.
Speaker: He's like, you know, um you know, basically saying, you know, they're not supporting us. They're not really giving us what what we need here. We need to go in a different direction in ways that are like in Japanese culture, like very aggressive. So so Microsoft is not the next word that you want to hear, but Microsoft ah stepped in and it was like, oh, yeah, we'll we'll we'll help out.
Speaker: We'll, you know, do our part for publishing for Fizzint. um Now, Sony might have had some good reasons to be like, hey,
Speaker: what's going on over there? Because according to them, after this all started to become more public, right? ah Missing deliverables for Fizzant, going over budget, very on brand actually.
Speaker: um And also, they kind of don't have a huge payoff for this and that it was always going to be a limited... route um limited time exclusive. They're doing the same thing as Death Stranding.
Speaker: Where eventually it's like going to PC, it's going to Xbox and whatever the crap. Microsoft is like, we don't care. Put it on PC and Xbox. Awesome. We have that. Like those are our things, right? and So yeah.
Speaker: This is kind of like an island off on the conspiracy board. But it is really weird that Microsoft is cutting all these studios and then they're like, yeah, Kojima production. actually let's Let's go It's a little scary
Speaker: guess why I'm a little bit lost on that like why why is Microsoft picking up the development cost for the rest of this?
Speaker: No, I have a theory for why they would do that. I'm just saying, why is that scary? I mean, it's scary because of just the nature of what Microsoft's done recently, right? They've turned into the next the new EA. They're tearing things apart. Now, Kojima Productions will remain independent. Like, I'm sure the game is going to get launched.
Speaker: I'm pretty sure the game's going to get launched. um It would be really weird for them to, like, hug and then, like, stab each other in the back at the same time. But... by I don't know what this says for the longevity of studio partnerships with Kojima Productions because like Microsoft has not proved themselves to be a reliable actor as far as how they support game studios.
Speaker: Whereas in the past with Sony, like they literally stuck through with Concord for a full two weeks. Like that's basically infinite time when 52 players is your maximum player count.
Speaker: So like.
Speaker: I don't know. It's kind of a ah weird twist on its head. I expected Microsoft to not be in a supporting mood. And I kind of expected Sony to stick with it, at least until the game sold.
Speaker: I mean, i agree with you on the Sony part. I think the Microsoft thing is just because Microsoft has infinite money, like a lot of large companies do.
Speaker: It was just for the sake of doing it. And in the public eye, they look like, oh, Sony and Kojima are having a breakup. Oh, Kojima said that they did something bad. Sony's bad.
Speaker: Microsoft came in and helped Kojima. Yeah, yeah. You think this is kind of the good guy PR move. High-level simple optics, I think. Yeah. I don't think it's guaranteed that's what it is, but...
Speaker: No, you could be right. My two-second theory. They might kind of need to wipe the blood off their mouth, so to speak, after all of their other interactions with studios recently.
Speaker: so i don't know. that's ah That's a pretty plausible explanation, I think. so we will We will see where if you're right in the future. I am just happy. If I know rich white men...
Speaker: um you don't even have to be You don't even have to be white. um You can be a rich Asian man. And it's it's fine. Regardless of your race, you can be a ah rich white man.
Speaker: so You also need to be very old. Yes, it does help tremendously if you're very old. um I'm glad Fizzant is not just dead in the water. Like, that's nice.
Speaker: um Because... ah Yeah, I am so curious. Like, I kind of, I'm kind of good on Death Stranding, personally. And then I saw some of the stuff and the absurdity going into Death Stranding 2, and I was like, you guys realize this is what scared me about the first one?
Speaker: Like, I'm just imagining the protagonist just hooked up to a monster i v um It's pretty much where the second one went. I remember something about ah Conan O'Brien literally, like, receiving a pizza delivery or something.
Speaker: The game makes no sense. Fizzant. i don't know. I don't know. He was an NBC on a side quest in the game. Yes. Like one optional thing because he likes having cameos in his stuff.
Speaker: That's true. Like he loves Mads Mikkelsen. Mm hmm.
Speaker: Yeah, Kojima just is like Norman Reedus also for some reason. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm curious. I'm curious what happens with Fizzint though. I'm hoping it's a little bit more grounded. Maybe that's a lost hope. But I'm curious about it in a way that I wasn't necessarily beyond the first Death Stranding game.
Speaker: um So I want to see it come out. Why not? You know, different things out there. Kojima is probably always going to pick a different thing to throw out there based off of our experiences so far.
Speaker: and That's something I like is he just does his own weird stuff. oo And I think a lot of times it's six because it's so committed to itself.
Speaker: Metal Gear Solid 3 being an example. Yeah, so many of them. But we will see in the future when we talk about things as they come out.
Speaker: so On planet Earth. pan Yeah, exactly. That is the podcast. Thank you guys for listening, sticking around. ah Coming back after we took a little bit of a break.
Speaker: um If you have ideas, feedback, episodes, personal anecdotes, requests for advice, a good Craigslist deals, send them in.
Speaker: Our contact information is down in the show notes. And as always, we'll see you in the next one. Oh
