00:00:00
00:00:01
Did You Know Netflix Had a AAA Game Studio? | Firelink Podcast
1k Plays18 hours ago
This week on Firelink, Marty, Nick, and KC chat the sudden closure of Netflix's big push into AAA gaming.
Second Wind is fully independent, employee-owned and fan-funded. Consider supporting us on Patreon for as little as $1/month at patreon.com/SecondWindGroup
Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
This podcast is brought to you by us. Since Second Wind operates 100% independently, we rely on your support to help us continue delivering the great content you love. Consider checking out our Patreon if you want to access ad-free versions of every podcast, plus your name featured in our video credits, as well as other exclusive perks. So if you like what you see, hear, or smell, maybe, visit our Patreon page and become part of the community today. Now back to the show.
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to Firelink podcast. Episode number 42 for Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024. My name is Marty Sliva. I am joined by Casey Wosu and Nick Calandra. Eric had some some computer technical difficulties overnight. So we are, as I phrased it, raw dog in it, like the old days. So there's no Eric and Nick is hosting and everything is fine and no one is crying.
00:00:58
Speaker
But welcome everyone. Welcome. Welcome to Firelink. It's great to have you all here. ah This will probably be a B-roll-less episode, which is fine because you got three handsome faces. That's a luxury. Three handsome faces, a zoomed in logo in the other corner, as well as a little bar, which is great. I knew I wore my hat for a reason on this episode. Don't you always wear your hat? No, every time. Well, I didn't want people to focus on me and not the B-roll today.
00:01:24
Speaker
Oh, okay. Beautiful. yeah makes perfect sense ah Welcome. ah Welcome everyone. We got a great, great show for you today. Our main topic is a main topic, but I feel like all of our topics this week, you know what? All of our topics are main topics. Yes. Think about that. We're gonna chat a little bit about the ah it was like six days ago was the Xbox partner showcase So talk a little bit about some of the highlights from that we'll be ah waxing a little bit on Masero Sakurai the the the father of Smash Bros the past couple years has been doing this educational series on YouTube but of of Just game design tips and he ended that series of this week and also announced that he has been, that series was filmed two years ago entirely and was, he's been working on a new game since then and also spent almost three quarters of a million dollars of his own money doing that, which is amazing. Also, we got news that there was a Monster Hunter wilds beta coming up. I'm gonna tell you, Casey, we're putting you in. Oh my God. I can't wait. Yes, mate. You guys are gonna have to hunt some mods these next week i tell me twice.
00:02:29
Speaker
Uh, did you know in the digital gaming voice, Netflix had a triple A gaming studio, uh, including, uh, uh, the led by Joseph stateon of, of, of the halo fame. And I use the word had because it no longer has a triple A gaming studio. It has been shut down before their project has seen the light a day, which is kind of surprising given the talent they amassed. Uh, and they'll also be chatting about stuff we've been playing. I finished Silent Hill. and ah Nick jumped into a little metaphor. Casey has been playing, quote, nada. Listen, that was me last week. I was like, I just got nothing. That's true. got absolutely about it
00:03:06
Speaker
um How are you guys doing? Nick, did you get everything out under of control? you rank Did you wrangle this hog? I did. I'm actually doing pretty good. So obviously my mom is living with me at my house now. She recovers from stuff, but ah she ordered a pair of pants from Amazon yesterday. Well, a few days ago, it came yesterday. Sorry, it was supposed to come yesterday. Instead, I got a whole box of ring pops.
00:03:32
Speaker
Which I haven't had a ring pop since I was like seven years old. So now I've got a whole box of ring pops that has the label on top that says it's pants, but it's actually ring pops. That is ah that is extremely strange. Is this some sort of scam? Like ring pop scam? Well, if I eat the ring pop and die, I will have my mother let you know. Why are you eating the ring pops? Like you haven't had one yet, but your mom wanted pants. You need to send those back. So that if Amazon fucks up, they're like, you keep that shit. We don't want it.
00:04:00
Speaker
rings of pop, rings of pop or rings of pop. Yes sir, George Lucas, I am talking about candy. We're talking about candy. We're talking about candy. There's also, there's a lot of folks in chats talking about audio stuttering, which then is being hood. It sounds like Tower Dodger might be hood winking us or that's on his end. And then possibly our volumes are low. But you know what? I'm going to be honest, guys, I don't give a shit. Fuck me. Fuck me. 100% real with you guys. I don't care.
00:04:29
Speaker
Literally in the red on my OBS. Yeah. Maybe maybe your speakers just turn the knob a little to the right. Yeah. So they I i mean, not I don't want to. I don't want to make it sounds like Nick, you're the quiet one. Maybe we weren't talking into the Michael Raphone. I did lower my. Oh, you know what it was because you had slack calls. Yeah. I always got no. It's Google. It's Google.
00:04:55
Speaker
Did you call it a Michael Raphone? A microphone is from Michael Raphone.
00:05:02
Speaker
Well, Alex says the audio is fine. So I'm just going to listen to the one person that says it's fine instead of everybody else that says that's wrong. That's what I do. No problems get solved. That's sir angel Andrew. That's Andrew. Sorry, Andrew. Sorry. Hey, my streams are always loud. So shout out to you, Andrew. I'm not curious what no no what i those for your personal streams. No, no, no mind the stream. I did. I hosted myself the other day. He said the volume was great. Hmm.
00:05:31
Speaker
I'm just saying I shouldn't be low anymore. I care about the hearing em impaired in our, even though I just said, I don't fucking care. That wasn't, that wasn't the main thing. Um, okay. Let's talk about this, this partner showcase. It feels like it was a long time ago because it was six, six days ago, but, um, so yeah, Xbox had a third party, uh, partner showcase, um, where, uh, they, they shut off trailers reveals for, uh, it was like 20, 30 minutes of ah various games.
00:05:59
Speaker
ah Most of them coming to all platforms, but some of them coming to just Xbox and PC, and some of them also ah coming to Game Pass. ah So I just wanted did you guys to get a chance to watch this, and if so, were there any were there any big standouts for you, Casey? um I did not get to see like the whole thing, but I have been like seeing news trickle out since.
00:06:19
Speaker
Um, and I was kind of, I was very surprised to see that, um, remedy released or are planning to release, I should say that, uh, FPC fire break co-op shooter. Yeah. Like that.
00:06:31
Speaker
First of all, just a huge fan of just Remedy's mixed universe thing, right? Like I'm all in for just the stories there. um Cannot wait for the next control. And this is essentially a piece of that puzzle that is in that universe, but just not ah not necessarily part of Alan Wake. Well, no, it's actually takes place in the oldest house, which is the setting of the first controlling, right? Control. yeah Yeah. Yeah. So like, so this is directly connected to that in that way. But it's a co-op shooter, like it's in the Left 4 Dead vein, it seems like.
00:07:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's three players co-op against like waves and waves of enemies. It's one of those things where as soon as I saw it, I was like, ooh, this makes sense. Because A, you could probably reuse assets that you made for control, you know, with with these things. But B, like it is like this, this world that they're creating not only with control, but now with, you know, Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2 and even, you know, Quantum Break to a degree. It makes sense to be able to sort of like poke around at weird different corners like this is one of those projects where it does make sense to have a game like this because that whole like SCP is a thing right like that's just known in like
00:07:41
Speaker
people's like collective consciousness. It's a creepypasta if creepypasta went to high school. right but But to my knowledge at least, like there isn't like a big IP tied to that.
00:07:55
Speaker
right like there're Yeah, no remedy kind of is on the ground floor of being the premier IP that is that SPS related stuff. So like them even branding it like, oh, FPC, SCP, like, yeah it just sounds like they are the ones who do this sort of thing. And like,
00:08:13
Speaker
It was it was literally my introduction to that universe. I didn't know SCP was called that or like that was its own genre until those games. So like it could be that for like a lot of younger players or even older because I'm not young at all. But it could be that for like a lot of people. I could really I don't know. I feel like it's a really good idea. I am worried because it is it's multiplayer focus. But I've said before, I do think the co-op thing is a much stronger avenue ah to sell ah kind of a lot
00:08:45
Speaker
I've serviced a PvP because you can you know gather a couple of friends. This is supposed to be launching on both ah PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass, so built-in audiences on both sides. Like for a game like this to immediately be like, you get as big of an audience as you can right from the ground floor.
00:09:01
Speaker
just like that The indie scene has been really big on the SCP multiplayer games for a while, but yeah ah I feel like the odd man out here. We're like I watched that trailer and I was like Is the guy that plays for the most multiplayer games here sure yeah guys are like your looks la above like control and Alan Wake right like and like Casey and I are big fans of that universe, but you're I yeah, I like I like them, but yeah, I'm not like. I mean, that's probably what it is, right? It's it's more of the appeal of just more of the universe than it is. Oh, this is a multiplayer shooter. Like it's more. Oh, this is more. Yeah. Control stuff. I'll have to go back and rewatch the trailer again because maybe on a glance, I didn't really catch anything that was super interesting about it. Just kind of look like another horror shooter.
00:09:50
Speaker
But yeah I mean, you might be right in that regard that like, yeah, they yeah like they didn't necessarily put in the trailer that some unique hook that kind of distinguishes it. Yeah, like if it's going to have like interesting story that but like maybe this will have connective tissue between control one and control. And that's the hope and remedy has been really good at that in everything else that is released. So like that might just be like why I'm defaulting to oh if they are releasing more stuff in the universe than like that stuff I want to see. Yeah, I kind of.
00:10:18
Speaker
It's not just a bug standard thing like that. There's a lot of puzzles involved in stuff like that, because that's that is like the games on Steam that are really been taking off in that realm are not just horde shooters anymore, but they offer a lot of complicated puzzles and stuff that you have to solve as you're dealing with that same stuff. So one like this game has that those don't is it's on consoles, which are for adults as opposed to for babies. So for it.
00:10:44
Speaker
but just saying if eric she use o won't play eric stream from a playstation ah We wouldn't have had today's problem so but had more problems from you not had more problems. We would have had an entirely new suite of problems. You had to use like the emotion pad to create. How great would that be? How great would that be? Just finishing Astro Bot. Yeah, there you go. God. Blow into your controllers. ah So, yeah, some of the yeah some of the other games they showed off or they showed off another trailer for the the like a dragon pirate game that's coming out next year. Pretty fun. I think it's fucking hilarious that it has full ship battles and Skull and Bones does it just look it looked like black flag with like a dragon's insanity when you go to like the the the pirate stronghold is this like massive cave that looks like Las Vegas inside of it. Like, I don't know, it just looks really fun.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah. And it's, it's, it's so divorced from everything else in that world. Like it feels like you could absolutely just jump into it and not yeah have any other baggage connected to it. the Yeah. The game that excited me the most out of that showcase was a surprisingly blooper teams that Corona's game.
00:11:51
Speaker
Yeah, so Blooper Team, the week they released Silent Hill 2 Remake, they announced what their next project is, which very much looks like it's in gameplay-wise a similar vein as Silent Hill 2 Remake, um Dead Space, but is more kind of like Dead Spacey sci-fi or, you know, we only got a little bit of gameplay at the end of it, but ah yeah, very much looks like, you know, an over the shoulder, a spooky over the shoulder shooter.
00:12:15
Speaker
um But yeah, well, it would be interesting to see if this is a turning point for Ploober because, you know, the Silent Hill 2 remake is, I think, far and away their best, warmest received game. And so to be honest, it's like their only like real gameplay game. Yeah, the rest of the stuff is Walking Sims for the most part.
00:12:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, even ah yeah, even the medium was what do you guys feel about the statement they made where they essentially was like, oh, we're done making shitty games. It's that easy. It's that easy. I mean, you know what? Why does it everyone do that? and What if we just got together and everyone you just like, you know, we're going to make some goodies. Yeah, I don't know. I would blue blue teams always been like in that interesting studio. I'm like, they their games have sold well enough that they didn't.
00:13:07
Speaker
At a consistent clip. Yeah. Like, I don't know, like their games don't sell that great, but they sell. Okay. And like, they've gotten some game pass deals and all that before, but, uh, definitely very curious where they, I guess Konami paid them a pretty damn good, pretty penny to mix on a little too. And they're like, yeah, we're going to make this other game at the same time.
00:13:24
Speaker
Yeah, and like ah the Konami said that the way it worked was they accepted pitches from a bunch of different studios for what they would do to assess like what their silo to remake would be in bloopers was the one they went with. um So I don't know, they got something going on there. So i'll but i'll be it'll be interesting to see if they they keep that ah momentum going forward. um To the other standouts to me, where we got another look at Eternal Strands, which is that um it's colorful. Like visually, it almost looks like Immortals' Phoenix Rising, but it is ah it's sort of like you're you're battling these these kind of giant titans climbing them, Shadow of the Colossus style. But the combat has almost like a Breath of the Wild. I hate that I just, I'm comparing this by just
00:14:07
Speaker
pulling a bunch of other games out of the hat. But it has this like kind of chemistry system to where you can ah use like gravity and ice and fire and combine them in ways like, ooh, ice and fire will make steam and then gravity can shoot that steam. Or if you have a gravity well and throw ice in it, it turns into a bunch of icicles that go and i like attack the enemy. So it seems very It's a very like player choice focused in its combat physics. Yeah. morg game yeah looks physics It looks very That reminds me of a that Battle Royale that got shut down. Spell break. Oh yeah. A little bit like that. Yeah. Yeah. Like that no that was totally a thing in that as a Battle Royale and it worked. Like it was really fun.
00:14:51
Speaker
Uh, and then this, this eternal strands thing, like it's a, it's a multiplayer thing. Yes. Single player, no single player. Yeah. It's totally, think it's a play adventure. I think it's like former Blizzard folks, uh, some form of Blizzard folks. We're working on it. It's my studio fireware. Nevermind. Bioware. Yeah.
00:15:08
Speaker
Um, so there you go. Uh, yeah. And that's coming to game pass as well. Uh, and then they showed this, uh, indie game that I think they showed off before called wheel world. That's just like a real, it's a real colorful looking Marty game where you ride around on a bike and you got a ghost on the front of it. And let me tell you, you put a ghost in front of my bike.
00:15:24
Speaker
Day one, absolutely day one. The other the other game that has really surprised me and I'm actually really excited to get my hands on and I was a stalker to look. Yeah. Reviews are really good on it when we saw it at ah PAX West. It looked really good. People really enjoying it there.
00:15:40
Speaker
sound I'm like, I'm happy to eat crow on that one. I mean, it that doesn't look as good as the initial trailer. Those were definitely those are definitely bullshot trailers. But, you know, so what the game sounds like it's really good. Also, I'm glad to eat crow, hopefully eating and crow on that when it comes out. Taste the crow. They pulled it off.
00:15:59
Speaker
Tasty Crow. Tasty Crow. Was there no interest in the Wuchang fallen feathers? Oh yes. Very interesting. I always take another soul's like, that looks good. Yeah. It's also published by 505 and I'm a bit hesitant on them sometimes. Really? Even though they published Control.
00:16:21
Speaker
good I mean, yeah, like they're just the publisher, right? So yeah, yeah, they just tend to, you know, more often that post kind of mediocre stuff. I haven't looked heavily into this, so I don't know who the dev is, but it looks like it's it's another kind of big budget thing coming out of Asia. Right. Like, is this like a Chinese or Korean? Yeah. OK. Yeah. So, yeah, similar, you know, it's similar to Yeah, I guess what, what was the first big one of fuse like Liza P and then we got yeah obviously stellar blade and we got, uh, Kong ko earlier this year. You forget Lords of the fallen. Uh, that is not by nature. That's not, that's not Yeah. um
00:17:10
Speaker
yeah So it's hitting that point to where like, it's, it's easy to get these, uh, You know, because it feels like we see one of a game like this, you know, most every showcase now. Yeah, like they even like space for one now sounds like well, you know, whoa long like their names are even. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously this one's delving more into like a kind of mythology. And some of the combat even looked a little bit more like a little bit like Neo to where there's some ah they yeah like gunplay and stuff like good period accurate gunplay, I guess. It looks a lot like ah Neo, honestly. um Yeah.
00:17:47
Speaker
but i don't know i've been I've been really hyped for these sorts of games, like just the stuff coming out of ah East Asia. Wukong did put a bad taste in my mouth. Like that that made me feel like, okay, yeah, they're not there's not like this treasure trove of just super talented devs that have not been able to send their stuff over here before until now. Like some of them cannot cook.
00:18:11
Speaker
here. So that that has taken a win out of my sales. Because I when I first saw this, like this ah released for like a very bullshot gameplay trailer as well, if I remember correctly. Yeah. ah But the concept looked super cool. So I was just waiting for the actual gameplay and the gameplay doesn't look terrible, but I'm still kind of weary. But I am interested. Like I would love to get hands on to see how Wuchang actually plays. Yeah.
00:18:34
Speaker
um Yeah, any other games stick out to you? That was a pretty decent showcase. Nothing groundbreaking for me, but just and further reminders that Cool Shade is coming out next year and beyond. So Nautica 2? That was a big one, right? Nautica 2? Yeah, I got excited. They threw a 2 at the end. of I don't care about Nautica, but throw a 2 at the end and it piqued my interest. So yeah, it seems like it's going to be co-op, which is something that the original game didn't have. so just ah ah Yeah, more examples of some some good some good ah good stuff coming to to Game Pass as well, so still worth that subscription.
00:19:12
Speaker
Oh my God, yes. Yeah. ah Cool. Well, moving on from that. ah So we, as we mentioned at the top, Masayra Sakurai, the steward of the Smash bro series for the past few years, he's been running a ah YouTube channel like since ultimate kind of wrapped up, I think he's been running this YouTube channel where like every week he's posted fucking 273 videos on this channel. and like every week it's just like a really cute edited sometimes short sometimes longer video on uh just like game design tips it's like literally like a almost like a college course on game design do's and don'ts from someone who has
00:19:54
Speaker
been making games for an extremely long time. Very successful games for an extremely long time. You can even go further than just game design sometimes and talk about like people management. Like he was talking about how to like interact in like the studio and like ways to make decisions and stuff. Yeah.
00:20:09
Speaker
um And so this the series came to an end and he revealed that he pretty much recorded all of these videos like two years ago. And ah he paid for all of them using his own money. And he does not have ads on the um channel because he thinks it's like a resource for young aspiring game developers. And he said he spent like a quarter of a million dollars of his own money on this project, which is like fucking ah kind of amazing. Like that's like such a a cool thing to do for the medium itself. ah Like I've been I've been singing Sakurai's praises for a long time now. Like he just he keeps getting better. He might he might be the greatest gamer on the planet.
00:20:53
Speaker
i guess that That sounds like hyper hyperbole, but like he like he's a masterful games player, masterful game maker. He's knowledgeable in terms of just the... Sakurai's so good at making video games because he's so good at everybody else's games.
00:21:11
Speaker
like what like what his kirby ah He's Kirby. Yes, he's Kirby. He's Kirby. Yeah. Like he's he's just a endlessly fascinating dude and like to see like how his brain works, like how his decision-making process works. Of course, it was an excellent, excellent YouTube channel. I haven't watched every single video, but like everyone that I did watch, super interested in.
00:21:32
Speaker
That's just nuts. To anyone watching or listening who's who's interested in in game development, which I know we have plenty of folks in our community who are, like I highly recommend these videos. um And ah yeah he also announced that ah for the but over to for like the past two and a half years, he's been working on his next game. And he didn't say what it is, but he said you know it'll be revealed sooner than later.
00:21:56
Speaker
um He said he could bet in Vegas that this is a smash game for this next switch. I don't think so. I'll be honest. I don't think so. I don't think whatever this is, I think it's a new thing. And whatever is going on with Smash, I think he is involved, but that's maybe starting like now, like that has started recently. Oh, interesting. OK.
00:22:24
Speaker
You don't think that they were immediately like as soon as Smash Ultimate wrapped like we got to get one of these in a production. This game sold so many fucking copies. And I think those'll just they'll just upgrade it for the new hardware and sell it again. Nintendo would do that. But they would defer to Sakurai, like that has been the relationship, right? And I don't think Sakurai.
00:22:48
Speaker
unless he fully is like tapped out. I was like, yeah, there's nothing more I can do with this. Just do that. And honestly, like in his heart of hearts, I think he has that dog in him in the sense was like, well, I'm not going to go out like that. Like my next one isn't just going to be a rehash. Like I'm going to go big because like he just that that's the passion that he has. Yeah.
00:23:08
Speaker
So I think it would be a fun another full fledged Smash game. um some Some folks in the chat, I guess we were just using his name kind of without explaining. keys ah but He's been at HAL Laboratories, right?
00:23:19
Speaker
Is that that's the name of the company? Yes. Yes. ah And now Sora. Now Sora. And now Sora. He started he was the director of the original Kirby and directed pretty much all the Kirby games throughout the 90s and then was the director of Smash and directed all the Smash games and then also directed um Kid Icarus. That Kid Icarus DS game. You think maybe it could be a new Kid Icarus game?
00:23:42
Speaker
It could be anything, honestly. yeah Like I'm sure they would trust him with a new IP. I'm sure. I'm pretty sure Nintendo probably gives that man a blank check. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Um, yeah, but, uh, yeah, just cool that, I mean, if he has been working on it for two and a half years, then it would make sense that this would be an exciting thing when they reveal switch or in the early days of the new switch to be like, Hey, and here's Sakurai's new thing. Like whether it's a familiar IP or whether it's something new.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah. Um, remember, uh, we, we talked about, uh, Sakurai and Harada and, uh, Oh, and like Mikami and Kami. Yeah. Like, yeah. They all sat down at like that, that dinner in Tokyo that one night. yes Yeah. Suspicious. Like the plot thickens, I feel like, like that, that may have been related to this. Like, like it's just an information session going around like, Hey, how would you handle this? How would you handle that? I feel like I don't know.
00:24:35
Speaker
Yeah. Power Rangers. Exactly. Yeah. We do know that it is most likely not that thing. I was really excited to sign up for that Nintendo play test. It has ah early morning dayss immediately leaked and data mined. And it's funny because it ah keeps all mentions of it on Twitter and stuff get nuked. And so people have just gotten a communal ah Google Doc that I have shared. This is not my Google Doc. This is a communal Google Doc that you cannot edit, but with all of the information that's been brought from it. You can't shut down a Google got Doc. It's so essentially what the game is. is like It's like a big multiplayer kind of like... ah
00:25:20
Speaker
the gaming experience thing where you you got to create these little like almost like topiaries and everyone's creating them and their worlds are slowly slowly merging. And this is by the Nintendo team that did like a labo and stuff like that. So they're kind of Nintendo's like experimental basement weirdos. Seems neat. Doesn't seem like my kind of thing, but seems neat. Question mark. It it like the premise sounded like Pokemon, not from, sorry, not Pokemon. It sounded like Animal Crossing. Yeah. yeah So like, if this is like a outside book but yeah if this is like a dummy version of them, uh, kind of figuring out like the next stage of an Animal Crossing like thing. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Like a way that like communities, good people's, people's villages or whatever could exist.
00:26:15
Speaker
in the same world. Yeah. and Like a connected world, right? Not just like, Oh, I, I went to sleep and I woke up in your world kind of thing. Um, or I took the boat over to your island, lived their leave their houses ever again. You just need another pandemic. If we get another pandemic, no, toss a toss, toss this, whatever of the fuck it is. But then again, like, uh, to immediately refute what I'm thinking here, especially since, you know, this isn't from the animal crossing team. This is from like their,
00:26:45
Speaker
like they're kind of R and D play house, right? I don't think those guys do anything that's tied to anything else. They just do what they want to do. So like, if this ends up being ah like a good idea, like it'll probably just be a brand new IP that they shop around.
00:27:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, Nintendo's, you know, they've- Like they're not scared to kind of launch just crazy stuff. No, not at all. and for as Yeah, for as eye rolling as it could be to get a, you know, out you're gonna get a Mario game and a Zelda game and a Metroid game and everything. Like they do still, you know, they they give us the stuff like Pikmin and stuff like Splatoon and ARMS and, um you know, some of them are more successful than others, but um yeah, they're definitely not shy about tossing tossing weird new ideas and seeing what sticks.
00:27:28
Speaker
um Uh, and then also speaking of, uh, I guess betas, uh, yeah, just wanted to touch on, uh, there was a little monster hunter showcase earlier today. Uh, and then they announced that the open beta will be coming next week, uh, which is exciting for PC, uh, Xbox and PlayStation.
00:27:44
Speaker
and case pc xbox and playstation no and that's it and kc it's it's coming he see yeah thepc yeah it's coming directly to you uh it's early access for uh if you have playstation plus whatever fancy uh you can and ah hop in on the 28th and then i believe everyone else else can like hop in on the the 30th or the 31st yeah and they said it'll be it'll be uh cross play as well between them so that's good that's kc from it no
00:28:17
Speaker
Wait, why did they get two days? Yeah, I can wait after you're going to sign up to play it. If I had placed it in the plus, I would play it there. No, I got to play these plus forever ago because I'd never use it. Like this would have been the only time in like the past five years or whatever that I would have tried to get it so you could download Daniel crisis. Uh, I do not care about down.
00:28:39
Speaker
Oh my God, the dinosaurs are in crisis. Who punches in the cap? I thought we were in crisis because of the dinosaurs. not is the way We're not going to know until you play it. It's true that I know that I was getting shot up in that game. I think they are in crisis. We need to help those guys. But yeah, we'll. ah I'm sure we'll have coverage. Like, you know, maybe if we could find a time for you guys to stream it, because I know you Jess and you made our big, big monoon fans. This is true.
00:29:07
Speaker
and so be great to to get be able to share that or the months emphasispha on these like that so That's different game. I want to put emphasis on the fact that this beta test is cross play. These games have never been cross play before. Oh, i know that yeah that's a big deal. I feel like it's cool. Like ah every platform, every hunter can play with one another. Like that's cool as hell.
00:29:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's very cool. I did not know that. um I think this game is going to be really big. yeah and It's not like that's a hot take or anything because all of the games have been really big, but really big. Yeah, especially with like with that cross play. Yeah, I wonder, I mean, I'm curious how quickly it gets ported to the next switch and once once that comes out because this. Look, I don't think the next switch can run it. I'm gonna be honest. We don't know what that hardware is we a version of it. musta her i'll get maybe a bad wish Sure. Maybe a really terrible version that is disconnected from the cross play universe.
00:30:08
Speaker
could only play with You only play with your friends in the weird nick Nintendo online experience thing. that i give I can see that happening. Yeah, exactly. The next switch is just the most powerful console that's ever existed. da i i I won't believe it even if I do see it. like That will never happen. Yeah, exactly.
00:30:30
Speaker
ah And then ah before we move on to our main topic, a couple of Super Chats that came in throughout the show. Fabio, thank you so much for joining. Tipchar and Lyle, thank you so much for re-upping. Appreciate you. Both Zubmer with a $2 don't know. Thank you so much, Zoo. Best offline tablet games, Netflix included. Do any of us even own a tablet to play games in? I do i actually just bought an iPad for Munga.
00:30:57
Speaker
Those are like comics, but Japanese. ah Oh, oh man I've been doing so much. We've been I'm caught up on on chainsaw. I just read all oh nice. I just fucking I've read all of it. Now I'm reading all dented in. It's like it's it's. Chainsaw Man is not a finished story, is it? No, it is not. There's 180 some issues. Gotcha. All right.
00:31:18
Speaker
And so yeah it's one of those where I'm like, wow, how are they going to adapt this all? ah But it probably won't. It'll stop at some point. I want to find like a nice 100 issue finished ah finished manga. But those are kind of hard to come by. Most things are just ongoing and never end. Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:35
Speaker
and ah But in terms of ah tablet games, I don't play a ton of games on tablets. Just some of my favorite mobile games, like the Monument Valley games, I think are are wonderful and they're very tactile. I think my favorite things about tablet games are ones that like um ah really use that sort of touchy feely factor of tablets. ah So i think I think those are delightful. Netflix honestly has like a ton of great games on it. um So I mean, on tablets, you can play stuff like Her Story and Teleglai's. You could play Bellatro. You could play ah that's in Netflix is a no game category. No.
00:32:17
Speaker
like but Oh, you're saying Bellagio. First story is in Netflix's category. Bellagio was not. Oh, Bellagio was not in Netflix. No. Right. Okay. Yeah. That's what I was that's what i was asking. Yeah. I like the Oxen free games. Yeah. there There's sorts of all sorts of great stuff. I feel like if you give me time to think, ill when we when we go next week, I'll put up a big whole list of Marty recommended seal of approval tablet games with a phone.
00:32:40
Speaker
Been playing a lot on my phone since the minute it came out. I've almost finished the entire difficulty course for the flush deck. Is it still boring? No, you're boring. Okay. I was just wondering, because every time I played, it's really boring. You just don't understand fun.
00:33:00
Speaker
ah I don't understand fun. Yeah. you just will be john' to They call, they call, they call me fundos finer. That was me trying to say fungus finder's name, but with song like the creepy s uncle your uncle, the crockle fat cock. Speaking of fun with a $5 don't know. Thank you so much fat cock. We need to PlayStation all stars too.
00:33:24
Speaker
Yeah. No, we don't really don't. Who would make it? Like, in theory, it isn't a bad idea. But I think Astrobot kind of took that lane. Like Astrobot is the PlayStation celebration.
00:33:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. PlayStation didn't smash game. They tried. I guess mean, everybody needs a smash game, but like that one was holds of a through two now. yeah don't gotrados in it does't it have crados in it might actually have cradless in it i don't know anything about that it does not it does not It's got a, it's got a dude who's like a Kratos cause his name is like Craig or something. I think reggos cra rago and close up ah speaking of crack ghost that they announced the, the showrunner left.
00:34:09
Speaker
The God of the river children they got a War Amazon series, however, has been replaced with Ronald D. Moore, who was the showrunner of the the modern Battlestar Galactica and the creator of For All Mankind. I'm like, oh, you made some good stuff, Mr. D. Moore. So there's like an upgrade. I think ah maybe it's also someone who's who's clearly worked in big budget genre stuff before. So, yeah, we'll see.
00:34:35
Speaker
um Yeah, I don't, im i'm I'm curious if it's going to be more of a, oh yeah, in Deep Space Nine. There you go. This is Star Trek, also boring. star trek is why bull of boring So yeah, well, Darren will probably watch it anyways. Darren's a curious man. He is. Yeah. Um, Shinzu with a five pound. Oh no, thank you so much Shinzu. Finally playing Persona 5. It is so good. Why do you never talk about it, Marty? At the third palace, a bit overwhelmed with stuff to prioritize. Any advice?
00:35:04
Speaker
I do. this is That's on me. Sorry. I should talk about persona more. Um, so that's, that's on me. Please do. Uh, this is going to be weird advice in the loading screens of the game in the corner. It says, take your time. And for a fresh play through, my advice to everyone is to listen to that is to take your time and to not worry about min maxing, not worry what you're missing out on. Don't worry about FOMO. Don't worry about Emma. The only thing you should, the only thing you should worry about is persona games near like the two thirds mark have a crucial choice. And if you don't make the right decision, the game just ends. So that's the only thing to worry about.
00:35:38
Speaker
that. but that's like an easy thing to Google. I literally, I thought you were leading into on those loading screens when it says take your time, make sure to use that time to go take a pee and come back. Yeah. Just take a, just take a big leak. Uh, but yeah, does the game tell you that doesn't give you any warning? Like, Hey, we choices are very obvious in both personas four and five. It's pretty much like a villain will be like, do you want to sell all your friends out? Uh, are you going to be heroic and like,
00:36:09
Speaker
So those are the burden for them and just don't be a dick just yeah be Like be the hero that the character is but also yeah roleplay in that way Like if you wanna if you want to just go on a bunch of dates Well a bunch of people call it a bunch of dates if you want to go to the batting cages like some sociopath every night Go to the boat batting cages every night. It's the most innocent advice for me. Go for the goth doctor. Go for the goth doctor. Yeah Go wherever your heart chokes you. It's got the good stuff, the drugs. Great. Great game. And we'll talk about later, but fans of Persona should definitely check out Metaphor Refantazio. I think it's very cool to see so many folks in our Phoenix tier chat going gaga over it. So big fan of that. And then put double A. Thank you so much for a $2 donor. Someone mentioned P5. I get to mention Metaphor. I already beat you to it. You mentioned Metaphor? Yeah. I mean, put double's one of those people in the Phoenix tier chat who keeps
00:37:02
Speaker
um All right. Main topic. Nick, we're getting to your favorite topic. Rebel Moon. Hmm. I have not even watched it because the first one was so bad. You haven't watched Avatar. No, no, no. Rebel, I at least started watching Rebel Moon. It was so weird bad I put it down. You know what? I love my avatar so much. I'm death petting it.
00:37:28
Speaker
Are you death bedding Rebel Moon? You guys are death bedded part two. yeah are not one side of the same coin but It's not. They're not. do Don't ever put James Cameron and Zack Snyder on the same point. They're on the opposite side. That's what that means. no different note ah' throw a point different So who's on the opposite side? is exizes cor Who's on the opposite side of James Cameron? That's that Snyder's a fucking like a rusty ass penny. And James James heat Cameron is like a second ja away a dollar.
00:37:59
Speaker
That guy that directed rise of skywalker and uh, you got your terror colin terro colin terro J. J. Abrams directed rise of skywalker. He did. Well, he picked it up after colin screwed it up. Colin Trevorrow. Yeah him and him and that stoop that first off, you know, j J.J. Abrams does not get to skirt blame from that movie. He's he's like, um he's like in the middle of the coin between them.
00:38:24
Speaker
No, he's not. He's got a coin. He's talking about. He's he's he helped create lost what he's ever done in his life. And then he fucking vamoose. Well, that's not true. Cloverfield is pretty cool. But again, all of this is cool. A second time, Cloverfield's got brought up to this. So he's on. Yeah. Ah. So Cloverfield being very good either.
00:38:47
Speaker
The first Cloverfield rules and Cloverfield rules too. The Clover, all I remember out of Cloverfield was just, it was novel because of the found footage angle. No, it was it was legitimately good. Wasn't with a lot of found footage stuff at that time. I think I was too young. Well, that was when the found footage stuff was trendy. It was at Cloverfield. Cloverfield, no, Cloverfield. Paranormal activity was super late to that party. Was it? It was. Yeah, but it was it was well received. And I feel like Cloverfield was also on the tail end of the found footage. Cloverfield was also it was directed by Matt Reeves, who had gone to drive to the Planet of the Apes 2 and 3 and the Batman.
00:39:24
Speaker
Well, the Batman, the titular Batman, he probably, he's probably thoughts on about that penguin as well. He's probably got his fingers and some penguin bias. Oh no. Uh, Netflix. I'm talking about Netflix. Netflix. Uh, so Netflix, uh, over the past few years was accumulating talent into an internal studio known as blue.
00:39:49
Speaker
and their whole goal was to develop, quote, a multi-platform AAA game for an original IP. So this was not going to be, you know, they they have some games in the works, like they had this ah ah Rebel Moon mobile game, they've had some Stranger Things games and stuff, but this was gonna be like a big like AAA experience. The studio is gonna be led by Joseph Staton, ah most notably of the the Halo franchise. ah They got like the art director from God of War 2018. They really, ah you know They've they they bolstered their ah roster with some like really some really big heavy hitters and with you know Netflix's seemingly unlimited reservoir of cash. And he built like a super group. Yeah. And the thought was like, oh man, this could be like a new LA-based AAA studio. That's pretty exciting.
00:40:33
Speaker
Uh, however, uh, uh, Steven to tell us, uh, game file, uh, newsletter, uh, announced that the studio has been shuttered. Uh, and, and the game that they have been working on for, uh, the past several years, we'll never see the light of day. So Netflix is four eight into triple a gaming was over before. I would say a lot of people in the audience probably even knew it ever. began That it happened. Right. Yeah. now Netflix is, uh, their strategy with games has always been weird.
00:41:02
Speaker
Because it's especially when Microsoft entered the subscription service game and Netflix was like, oh, that sounds fun. It seemed like a very natural way for them to.
00:41:16
Speaker
be competitive in the space like, Hey, we have the platform that's on just a million devices. Yeah. If we just put games in there and give you a way to play those games, like that's, it's just part of your subscription, right? It'll even justify jacking up the price, which they did anyway, and but they somehow managed to silo the game stuff to mobile and make it in discernible from any other video game app store. Whereas the platform that is just ubiquitous with just being literally on any device you plug into a screen, nothing.
00:41:46
Speaker
Yeah. It's how does that happen? It's netflix that's how it happens. Like the games that are on the the Netflix games that you can play. Like literally some of the best indie games of the last five years are just available on your phone if you have a Netflix ah subscription. We probably don't know because it's a massive pain in the ass to get to them. ah And like Netflix does a terrible job of of advertising this.
00:42:10
Speaker
ah But they've also acquired studios. like They acquired ah Night School Studios a couple years ago, the developers of Oxenfree, Oxenfree 2, Afterparty. ah They recently, ah in that same piece, they talked about how they ah they acquired Spry Fox, the developer of Cozy Grove. and so like ah While but you know incubating this AAA studio, they've also been acquiring yeah you know pretty well-received indie devs. and I don't know. my My question is just like for what? like What does this dude do that with them? Nice cool studio. be
00:42:48
Speaker
We're all concerned right about now. I mean, my thought is, so they acquired Night School and like Oxenfree2 was already in development. My gut says whenever they release, whenever we find out what Night School's next game is, it is going to be...
00:43:02
Speaker
in a Netflix world is going to be a Stranger Things game or it's going to be like a fucking, uh, uh, what's, what's the fucking, what's, what's, what's the scary game show? bridger tin no yeah sque quick game yeah um so you know'mquaring scary game show ah And it makes sense because like all these corporations want corporate synergy. Whether that works very much remains to be seen. Just do what Disney's doing, license out their IPs.
00:43:36
Speaker
I agree. Yeah. I don't see any reason for Netflix to own game studios. No, there was no. There was a reason. It's because they have a platform that literally everyone has access to. They just failed to leverage it like like Marty said.
00:43:55
Speaker
and Almost nobody knows that you have access to whatever games that they have in their library via their Netflix subscription. But what's weird is if you don't have a Netflix subscription and you want to play these games because you're looking for some of these mobile games. The fact that you don't have a Netflix subscription would stop you. I'm actually going to correct you a little bit there that like ah recently, I don't know how recently you've opened Netflix. Like on my phone.
00:44:22
Speaker
Even on your TV or anything. Yeah, like yesterday, maybe. but that familiar For me, the games like pop up right away now. Under TV? center Yeah, on my TV. hu I definitely don't pop up on my TV.
00:44:34
Speaker
That's weird. Yeah. What can you do with the games on your TV? Oh, I don't know. I've never tried them. That's going to be my next question. He's like, have you like, you like the controller to your TV? I don't think maybe that's changed. But that was what I was looking for when this thing first was announced. I was looking for the game section on like my TV app.
00:44:55
Speaker
Oh my God. If they would, if they could have snuck this in to just any console app version, like they just sneak their games out the fucking Xbox because the Netflix app is there already. Like I don't understand what would that disconnect happen?
00:45:09
Speaker
um just an ish channel support suit um have four for next week. Uh, Casey has to play, uh, monster hunter beta. Nick has to play star citizen finally. And I'll figure out how this Netflix link works. Okay. So none of us have tried these games. of folks I played some of the games on my phone. yeah i and the on my phone I can't what it was. but I didn't download the Netflix game to see how it functioned. And it's like, it's, it's a weird partition thing where like you have to go into the app store, download the game, but then it checks.
00:45:41
Speaker
that you have a Netflix description, so you have to sign into Netflix before it opens the game. Oh no, and the games run fine. It's not like you're streaming the games or anything like it is. No, yeah. You just download it like a regular app game. And that's why I was so confused. Yeah. Why like they put all these hurdles in front of it. Like it could have just been on the regular app store, but yeah via, well, I know because I guess then they would take 30% cut, right?
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah. So I guess they had to partition it that way. Why don't they just partner with Xbox? Well, because Xbox has cloud gaming and game past. What a stupid. This is stupid like if Netflix. um I was saying it just a second ago. Netflix should just revive on live. If you want to play games through Netflix, get a dongle on a controller and there you go. Download it straight from your TV.
00:46:24
Speaker
That would have been an option. But you can't take the boy out of the stadium. That would have been a really good avenue for them. I know, but you're still trying to chase that stadium high, you had. It wasn't good. Also, i google no no no joke. I would bet $100. I know what ah Night School Studios is working on. OK. There could i have an adventure game similar to Oxenfree, but in the Wednesday universe.
00:46:50
Speaker
you Why Wednesday? It is literally the biggest Netflix show of all time. Is it? Oh my God. By quite like quite a large margin. What? Yeah. Netflix is. There's only like one season of that show, right? Yes. You don't understand the youth. I don't understand. I am part of the youth and I don't understand the youth. You're not the youth. I'm sorry to tell you. You're totally part of the youth. Where did you get that information? I got five months until I'm 30. Absolutely not part of the youth.
00:47:21
Speaker
absolutely not part of the youth that's yeah ah Yeah, Wednesday, Wednesday is fucking is fucking massive. Wow. I did not realize that I knew Wednesday was massive. I just I mean, yeah, I think out of all their shows is the one that's in popular culture the most because like you'll see people dance on Instagram. It's like one of the most famous people on the earth.
00:47:44
Speaker
She's the star of one no and i seen Wednesday. I watched, I watched the show. I had no idea it was that freaking popular. Yeah. He's loved one thing. Uh, fat cock $5. I don't know. Thank you so much fat cock. Ironically, Netflix has the best version of GTA definitive edition that the, but that mostly works.
00:48:05
Speaker
it's funny I believe that is true. I believe that the the mobile version of GTA definitive edition, which is available through Netflix is the best version of that game, which we live in a very dumb, very terrible when how long that's going to last. Yeah. hi Yeah. I feel like there hasn't even been like an original series on Netflix I've been excited about for a long time.
00:48:29
Speaker
ah Well, yeah, now that Mike Flanagan's moved over to Amazon, I like his deal with Netflix is over. So it's funny you bring that up because I just got my mom to start watching The Hill House. Oh, nice. Are you going to terrify her? Yeah. You just could dump a bunch of ring pops on her during a jump scare. Yeah,
00:48:47
Speaker
um yeah I'm real. Yeah, I'm like, I wonder, I hope details at some point come out what Netflix was working on, but man, like,
00:48:58
Speaker
That dev team is not... I just can't imagine taking... They must have gotten paid really well because I can't imagine being comfortable taking a AAA job from Netflix. They had no room in the gaming space yet.
00:49:15
Speaker
Yeah, maybe that was maybe that was part of the i couldn the excitement of it. And it's one of those like, ah you know, it's like ah a snowball effect to where it's like, oh, they get an executive producer of Overwatch and then, oh, they get a former director of Halo and oh, they got the artists of God of War. Like, it almost feels like, oh, this is too big to fail, right? and this is This is so Netflix, right? But also, we've seen this before. We've seen when like a big company says,
00:49:40
Speaker
No, no, no, no. I mean, I'm talking about Microsoft in particular. He's talking about seeing it before they they bought. No, I'm not talking about studio I'm not talking about the streaming thing. i'm well and But they did do that. You're right. But I'm talking about Microsoft who put together the first quadruple a studio by trying to pick. Well, here's a super talented dad from here, super talented dad from there. If we just put them all together, then they'll make something great. Like it's it's like an equation that has never been tested like yeah on paper it makes sense. But like no one is a mathematician.
00:50:10
Speaker
Yeah. And we've seen how that fell apart for Perfect Dark. It's such an interesting um looking at that kind of mentality in those studios like in the West compared to when you look at Japanese studios like FromSoft or even Nintendo's internal teams or even um like the team behind Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth and you look at the names and that of like the leads on that game you're like oh you A bunch of these people worked on the original Final Fantasy 7. And a bunch of the people who worked on Elden Ring were working on Demon's Souls. And a bunch of the people who worked on Tears of the Kingdom were working on Ocarina of Time. like Unless you're Konami, it seems most of the studios realize what talent they have and don't waste it. Yeah. Did Konami do something bad? Yeah, that is true. Konami really screwed the pooch there. They had a great run. yeah Sometimes things just end.
00:51:05
Speaker
But sometimes end very dramatically in the case of coachy but we yeah, we we had this talk, man, of quite a few episodes are ago. But like, when you think about like the AAA studios today in the West, like you don't really think there's not been very many like legacy big devs left at those studios. They've all gone off and formed their own indie studios now. Yeah.
00:51:27
Speaker
It's yeah, I guess like who do like what do you have? You have Neil Druckmann at, uh, Sony's, Sony's held out talent for a lot of it. Yeah. Yeah. They've done a good job, but, um, but then they're, they're parent companies, Japanese, right? So like, they may, they maybe have some of those ideals that they hold onto for the Western studios that they own. and So you get the concord. Well, that's
00:51:53
Speaker
but it's funny Cause like that, This was a conversation I had ah like outside of like the gaming space with just like some friends, right? About how just people don't stay in an industry for 10, 20, 30 years, period anymore. Like just adults don't get to do that. And it's not because millennials are flippant and Gen Z's lazy or whatever, right? It's because the companies lay off and fire literally everyone because they're trying to turn employees to pay them less, right? Yeah. yeah so yeah or do you Or you hit a point where you're like, I'm never going to move up and I can never make more money. And so I just need to leave. I need to go somewhere else. and like Right. Because they're not paying you well because they don't appreciate you. yeah like That's just a cultural thing in the West that is hurting the video games industry and probably every other industry that needs talent to basically learn their craft over time.
00:52:48
Speaker
It's bad. and Also just teams that know how to work with each other. And yeah, that, yeah, they're like second wind goes to some patron. He was terrible. That's been so nice up until this point hasn't been so nice. It started off completely on fire and you keep bringing, you keep bringing up stadia.
00:53:08
Speaker
That's dead and buried in ashes. I think I was the only one who brought up Stadia so far. Yeah, I got it. Yeah, I brought up on live. Get with it. I like thinking about Stadia. It was such a good. God damn it. God damn it. Just just just just smidge too early. No, no, no. It was great on Stadia. It was right on time is what it was. Oh, it's on live was too early.
00:53:31
Speaker
No, I've worked better than most of them. OnLive worked better than Xbox. It was still too early. It was ready for OnLive. There's corners in my house, and I get bad reception there. If I can't use my PlayStation portal in every corner, nook and cranny in my house, if I can't go into my cobwebbed corner of my basement,
00:53:48
Speaker
get my Astro Bot trophies, then what are we doing? no that's I probably have lead paint or something. That's the reason the Wi-Fi signals aren't going through. Let's talk about what we what we what we've been playing, what we've been watching, what we've been eating. Nick, did you finish channel two?
00:54:06
Speaker
No, I, uh, I'm wrapping up the, no, I just got out of the apartment complex. Hmm. Gotcha. The spooky apartment complex. Yeah. was Is there any other kind in that game? I fought pyramid head for the first time. Oh, nice. Uh, well, technically the dungeon's almost like the first half of the dungeon is non-spooky. It's still spooky, but it's like spooky real world spooky. And then you get turns into hell and becomes spooky. Oh, okay. Yeah. I guess I should say there's the spooky and spookier version. so yeah i Yeah. Yeah, so I finished it over over the weekend. And ah yeah, I think, as we mentioned earlier, I think it's far and away the best thing Blooper team's ever done. I think in terms of story, acting, cutscene direction and everything, I think they fucking nailed it. Like the story beats like hit really hard. ah The game is absolutely gorgeous. I do think my my big two knocks against it is ah
00:55:04
Speaker
I think almost every section goes on a little bit too long. Everything has like this one extra puzzle where I'm like, am I still in this fucking prison? Like, I'm not gone. I'm not done with this yet. And you even get a little bit of it in the apartment. Every dungeon has at the hospital, which you'll be getting to. They all have it. And then I do think there's an interesting ah discourse going on today. I think partly stemming from from so you know some of Yahtzee's criticisms of the game in in this week's ah Full of Ramblematic, which I by and large agree with where the it the move to the Resident Evil 4 camera kind of homogenizes the game and makes it feel like Resident Evil 2 remake and 3 remake and 4 remake and Alan Wake and even like the new ah Dead Space and Callisto Protocol like like it's just like become the de facto camera angle for these things and by that virtue they do
00:55:57
Speaker
start to feel very similar wherein, back in the day, Resident Evil 2 felt so different than Silent Hill 2. Were they both fixed cameras then? Like the original games were both fixed camera now? Well, so, um I mean, Resident Evil, original Resident Evil had fixed cameras because it was like pre-rendered backgrounds, right? Yes. yeah Whereas Silent Hill was 3D backgrounds, but the game took control of the camera in weird ways. Like it would sway the camera in ways that would like disorient you and kind of make you nauseous, but like purposeful decisions. Like it had like ah almost a step removed from James that like you were
00:56:36
Speaker
It made everything kind of feel otherworldly, I would say. So you never had control of the camera in the original Soundhill? You could do small things with it, but no, by and large, the game took control of it. And for better or for worse, in some parts, it's really fucking awkward because the camera changes and you're like, what direction am I moving in? Where am I right now? But in other parts, it's used super effectively to bolster that sense of fear and distress and otherworldliness.
00:57:07
Speaker
yeah i I didn't get that but by having full control of the camera. It's like, well, it's less annoying, but at the same time, I'm just doing my normal, like sporadic, and looking at every corner with the camera and, uh, you know, i treating earlier ah the had fixed camera and. and and You know, I just, I didn't grow up playing those, those, you know, sound a little too and all that. So, uh, I can't stand fix camp, fix cameras. Like I have a very hard time being immersed in a horror game. I totally get it. I totally get it. Yeah. So like, I don't know. yeah Definitely, definitely a, uh,
00:57:45
Speaker
design of the times for you know having that camera and clearly, ah I think it's super smart to base it off Resident Evil 2. That's the same kind of audience you want to attract to this, the remake. The Resident 2 remake, yeah. yeah yeah so yeah i will ah ah Yeah. Let me just again clarify, I really enjoyed the game. I give it a thumbs up and I highly recommend it to to anyone who wants a nice spooky yeah and spooky experience. and yeah i and I am curious to see if What happens with Silent Hill next? I know there's those two other games that they've announced, like F and Townfall, but I'm just curious if Bloober remakes another one, and if that is, which one is that? Because Silent Hill 4 is a game that is fascinating, but definitely could use a remake, because there is some unwieldy shit in that original game, along with some genius ideas. It's just cool that a good Silent Hill thing came out. It's been a long time since a good Silent Hill thing came out, so I'm just happy that happened.
00:58:41
Speaker
Yep, I yeah my my first experience with Silent Hill was getting a review copy for Downpour. And that game was The game was not good. Yeah. how you don't Reminds me or for some reason, where always silent always reminds me that murdered soul suspect game. Oh, hell yeah. It wasn't terrible. You got to figure out how you died. How'd you die? Yeah. You got shot, I think. Was that wasn't a big mystery. You just got shot several times and you got bullet holes in you. Shot to murdered soul suspect. ah Well, what else? What else have you guys been playing? Well, I loaded up Metaphor refentesio. And I've been really enjoying it actually.
00:59:21
Speaker
I was saying before we got on the podcast that ah the time to gameplay in that is much shorter than getting to gameplay in Persona 5, so I appreciated that encouraging. Yeah, I think they took the feedback on ah speed things up a little bit, ah and but it's like a nice pace where they teach you all the.
00:59:41
Speaker
all the intricacies of combat before throwing you into that first dungeon. I will say the first time you're good of given freedom to be in between the dungeon and the days thing is a little bit. I'm not sure it's handled great because like you can go and rank, you know, do your talking and hanging out with people and ranking up your guts or your bonds with them or whatever your bonds and then like the stuff like ah much courage and courage. Yeah. And all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So it could have used I think it could have used a little bit more direction at that point, just because you obviously don't want to waste all your days, but I'm not sure what that is doing yet to actually enhance. Yeah, that's funny, because that. ah
01:00:24
Speaker
like i I felt like I didn't need explanation on that only because it's just the same as person. And because I'm like, well, I know exactly what, okay, I got these stats and I'm going to need to do these stats. And at certain points you'll hit roadblock with with party members or with confidants and you'll need to be a certain stat in order to to progress their story. Um, but yeah, I could, I could see that if you're kind of first time aboard it being a little bit like, well, fucking What do you want me to do right now? Like, yeah, guess good yeah like, like all the characters, uh, first story twist was pretty obvious when that came around, but whatever.
01:00:56
Speaker
yeah and Could use another battle theme or two. I really like the music, but it gets a little bit overused. That music might be why I start this game. I've been listening to the battle music. It was when they started doing like the Esperanto rap. Yes. Yes. Yep. I heard that on Twitter. I was like, all right, fine. I'll start. This sounds awesome. But now I've heard it so many times. I'm like.
01:01:18
Speaker
like it's me hyped If I hear that bubble, I'm just gonna start fucking swinging. I'm trying to land that critical attack before someone else gets me first. I wish people got this hype about the Fire Emblem Three Houses music, because the battle music in that game sounds a lot is like this. Yeah, but it doesn't have Esperanto rap. I guess not. Everybody's gone for Esperanto now. Only just learn what the fucking was.
01:01:43
Speaker
Yeah, when I'm not playing it for eight hours on a day. wi Yeah. If I believe in persona, playing persona is probably not the best way to put it. Uh, well, you know, I thought I'd finished it a little bit faster, but ah now that I'm playing, you know, at my own pace, I get, I definitely get to enjoy it a lot more. And I really love their combat system. Like I never get bored of fight everything. I never get bored of fighting on a combat system. Yeah. So feel tired of all the menus popping up. I don't think i need to see the XP stuff pop up every time I beat something, but yeah, you know,
01:02:17
Speaker
Yeah. They look cool. So I can deal with it. looks cool Yeah. Yeah. You can give it a pass then. Yep. Uh, couldn't top away with a $2 don't know. Just says good for you, Nick out of you for playing metaphor. You're all, you're all grown up. started to know Like you guys are are selling me like the music's been selling. Yeah. It's like, I won i want to know why the RPGs are fun. Yeah.
01:02:38
Speaker
yeah the side I think I'll do this one. I think I'll do this one. Have you been you've been playing anything, Casey? Obviously, we all checked out Demos last week for the next fest. I'll link that video now. Did any of those like really stand out to you that you you kind of want to shout out that folks should? um Well, yeah, I picked two for the video. I played
01:03:01
Speaker
Like, I played three, I tried to play four. I wanted to try out that VA proxy demo. I tried that. It would not work for me. Yes, the game wouldn't launch. It launched for me, but then the controls were just so bored that I had no idea what to do. And that's the one that, yeah, like the screen came up and like nothing would happen. That's the one that went viral on Twitter where it's like parrying the nuclear blast. Yeah, like parry nuclear bombs or you can, there was an article that said you could parry the ground.
01:03:29
Speaker
Good ground. I was just I was very curious to check out what that game was about. It just didn't function. So that was kind of disappointing. Yeah. I tried AI limit, which Nick actually played and put in the the video. I thought that was a pretty. ah Pretty standard, but like well polished souls like this, my Dark Souls one comparison apt. It's a little faster, but yeah, it's definitely like, hey, we can do that.
01:03:56
Speaker
and while looking at Dark Souls one. So like, yeah, that makes sense. But spirit strike or spirit X strike. Yeah, I never know how to like, yeah, whichever way they want. My family, like, yeah, I used to say Hunter X Hunter all the time. And then I got shamed for it. It was like, it's just Hunter Hunter, dude. I was like, Oh, well, fuck me then.
01:04:21
Speaker
but I don't know because I don't know. I just don't know. So spirit strike or spirit extract. Cause if you search for just spirit strike, you probably won't even find it. Yeah. Cause an X in the middle, but either way, um, it's a really janky, like goofy looking game. Like it's, it's clearly like made in East Asia. Uh, like, it like it's Chinese, I believe they're speaking. Um, it's like a a real,
01:04:46
Speaker
It's like a dude who is essentially Goku from Dragon Ball Z, but he's dressed like, um... the dude from Fist of the North Star a little bit. Yeah, that's what exactly what it reminded me of. So, like, it's it's it feels like somebody who loved a bunch of 90s anime was like, I can finally make the game I want to make, but they're actually nailing it because, like, it's such a fun, hectic-ass, just third-person action beat-em-up, right? Like, there's just, like, Dust Bowl arenas and, like, this kind of weird, destined town that they have in the demo. And, like,
01:05:20
Speaker
You can just do these like sick ass combos. ah You can parry ah attacks and like the the way everything's animated and the emphasis is so over the top.
01:05:36
Speaker
that when you're wailing on dudes, you'll build up their stun meter, which like a lot of games will do that sort of thing. You get to do like a finishing move, like say in Arkham Asylum, right? But like you just press one button, and like the guy will do this super over-exaggerated Dragon Ball Z power-up type thing, and then he'll just do like this sick-ass finishing animation.
01:05:56
Speaker
But then you can connect that into like the next guy who tries to attack you by parrying them or like dodging them or whatever. So like it's just a fun series of just combat arenas. The boss fight is absolutely broken. like that That game needs to be rebalanced to hell. But i I have an issue, so I struggled through it until I beat it. Yeah. But um it's a lot of fun. It needs a lot of work. But the core that's in that game is so much fun. So I really i wanted to highlight it because I want people to check it out. And I want people to be excited for it.
01:06:23
Speaker
so that this thing gets done so that yeah someone can actually finish and work on this. This is a really fun concept. The game, it reminded me most of which I'm not sure. I don't know if you've ever played, if we've ever talked about it was ah God Hand. No. Yeah. A ton of people. through game Yeah. A ton of people is bringing that up in the ah comments in the video. So I went and watched like ah like 30 minutes of gameplay. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of good.
01:06:45
Speaker
So, I mean, at least the desert energy, like the desert setting, definitely like, okay, that's what was reminding people. yeah like that remind It doesn't look like it controls similarly, but like it doesn't have the same energy of like this dude is in here just while I'm just wailing on everybody in the room was very overpowered, like ah moves and stuff. Yeah, so like I get that. i get that and the rest But I don't think those games, like from what I can see, they're a play guy, but yeah, it doesn't like they play similarly at all. Yeah. But it was a lot of fun.
01:07:13
Speaker
ah yeah I tried another demo for a co-op horror heist game called Dark Hours. Actually comes out in their early access tomorrow. That was pretty fun. it's ah I like the direction a lot of these, and I mentioned it earlier in the podcast, but I like the direction a lot of these multiplayer games are going into.
01:07:32
Speaker
Take like a concept like a horror extraction game, but also add in puzzles through the heist and all that. And yeah, ah lots of interactive elements in the environment. So ah the demo, the monsters in the demo are like ah when you ah Casey, I think you I think you played. Now, I remember in some of the se SCP games, there's like these creatures that if if you're looking at it, it will not move.
01:07:58
Speaker
But then if you go around who's weeping angels or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So if you turn around its or if it's out in your line of sight, that k chronos game from. Oh, yeah, I remember that one. Yeah. From the crap was the dev's name, the people who made. ah Oh, gunfire games. Yes. Gunfire games. Yeah. The Chronos game had that in ah in VR. I remember I didn't play the VR, but like that was a VR game first. And that would have yeah because that scared me in just a regular game having to deal with that bullshit in VR. I would not have been able to take that. Oh, yeah. Teriel licked up Mother Dolls in Resident Evil 7. So, yeah, that was a lot of fun. It's the. the
01:08:43
Speaker
I guess the concept of the game is you go out, you you're in this place, you have to find either a certain amount of money or certain objects in the game and like break into a vault to get those objects. And so there's a bunch of like puzzles you have to do to get into the vault all while avoiding the monsters or whatever is going on in there. And so there's proximity chat and, you know, light and sound is all affected. So it was it was a good time in the demo. I'm excited to play it in early access tomorrow with my friends. What was that game called?
01:09:12
Speaker
Uh, dark hours, dark hours. Um. Yeah, that that that actually sounds pretty neat. Yeah, it's it's a I think I think even Marty might not know me. I'm a coward. Well, yeah we you who know that. much more I don't want to play that. Uh. You guys haven't been playing to watch anything else. I did finish, I did finish Astrobot.
01:09:39
Speaker
Oh, nice. It's just a very, very delightful game. i Just just smile on my face, playing that thing. Yeah, it's really. Doesn't doesn't last too long. Has all those extra levels if you want to go play them, but it's just perfectly paced, perfectly. A perfect amount of levels before it like overstate is welcome. And then new ideas. toss you I hope if if there is a fucking God in the clouds, Tony will just give that team Carp launch to do whatever they want.
01:10:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's you know, for a lot of platformers, like a lot of them have like weird difficulty spike, even like the Crash game Crash Bandicoot games and all that always have like a very frustrating difficulty spike somewhere. Astrobot just didn't have that. It was just smooth throughout the entire game. Almost too easy. It's ah it feels like it took a page from the Nintendo playbook where most Mario games yeah are kind of designed so that kids can get through to the end of the game without hitting a crazy roadblock. However, there are optional levels or challenges that are like for the sweaties. And i don't I don't think anything in Astrobot ever got too sweaty. Like I think the hardest level I i probably had to retry like.
01:10:48
Speaker
20 times and that's just one of those like short kind of minute-long Sprint levels where and like dying response here right away But I think it's a smart way to design games for kids that adults can also like so yeah and speak easy as a game of the year material I i Don't think so. i I Think I'll be in the conversation. I think it's gonna be in the convert. Yeah, I think we'll be in the conversation but I I don't know. I like like I definitely liked it a lot. I just wasn't as hyped about it as I think it's a lot of other people were. Yeah, it's a Sony first party exclusive. It always gets thrown in that spotlight regardless. And I and I always feel like such a curmudgeon to be like, it's a Sony first party game. It's not that good. They have a formula or whatever. But like, that's just always how I feel about this stuff. Not that I I don't feel like I have a grudge against Sony. Do I have a grudge against Sony? It was like me and her.
01:11:39
Speaker
I'm just saying the shirt you're wearing right now oh hearing you ask if you sub i go x five shirt My joke was gonna be I don't know it's green and black and then you moved a little building next one absolutely like So yes, yes. she la a crush I might I might be a little biased, guys. I mean, your PlayStation control is to your left. You're balanced. I literally have Nintendo to your right. would I have just the one. I have more. I have more switch controllers than I do Xbox controllers, though. OK. Smash. Help. Having having played like Super Mario Odyssey, though, I don't think Astro about ever reached the heights of like Super Mario Odyssey.
01:12:21
Speaker
yeah I'm a weird. I'm a weird Odyssey hater. Not a hater. That is no it is weird that you hate Odyssey though. oh' Yeah, that's the watch roll Mario games I don't know. It's like a black licorice game. That's how I feel about Galaxy, though. I feel like Galaxy is a super boring 3D Mario platformer. Yeah. and I think it's like genius. So there you go. know Yeah. I tried. I tried playing Mario Galaxy not too long ago with the collection that you have on the switch. It's a little little little wonky without the remote in my mind. Yeah. Just the constantly changing perspective has made it. hard I don't really care for it, honestly.
01:12:59
Speaker
You guys are never going to space. No, I don't want to go to space. It's going to be an office. Space looks terrifying. Yeah, space is brutal. You can watch any anime, Casey. That's how you're asking me. I was I was getting really close to starting down to down like real close. You don't want to deal with that. Yeah, because I started watching the freaking intro music pretty good. It's a bop. It's a bop. The video's fun. Like what was funny was like when I first played it,
01:13:30
Speaker
Like I walked away to go to the kitchen immediately after, it was like, oh, that was kind of overhyped, I didn't think it was that good. Before I made it back to my office, I was singing the song, I was like, oh shit. I was like, oh shit, it's in my head that fast. I listened to it once, but like, no, I'm in. Yeah, it's like, it's one of those songs where it starts, you're like, oh, okay, I think I know what this is gonna be. And then five seconds in, you're like, okay, I think I know what it's gonna be now. And then 20 seconds in, you're like, oh my God, this is several things in one. There's a lot going on in this song.
01:13:59
Speaker
So yeah, like, yeah, that's definitely gonna be something that um I think about. And ah that it was gonna be the reason why I started to watch that. Let me just see what the show is. I'll just watch the first episode because the intro was so fun. yeah but i I got busy, so I didn't actually start that. So hopefully I'll forget. And then when it's done, I can just binge it, because I don't wanna get stuck. Like, you can watch it. what ah Okay, if I tell you this, the premise is a demon,
01:14:26
Speaker
steals the main character's balls. Like literal balls. He doesn't have balls anymore. And they got to they gotta to figure out how to get the balls back from this demon who's an old granny who lives and who lives in a dark tunnel and says like, I'm gonna eat your weenie.
01:14:42
Speaker
Was this raising? Is this lowering? I was always going to watch. He's asking me. He's asking me. You want to see him get his balls stolen. When he gets his balls stolen, does he go, Oh no, these nuts. Maybe in the original Japanese, but I cannot say. I will find out if he says that. I saw that. So I think a new one piece something is premiering soon in Japan now.
01:15:12
Speaker
Like a fan letter episode? It is delayed ah because and they don't want to publish it alongside the World Series because Japan is so interested in the Major League Baseball World Series because of Shohei Otani, which is fascinating. Greatest show on earth. That's the greatest thing any athlete has ever had. Shohei Otani, the greatest show on earth. The greatest show. show Nick doesn't even get it. Nick's still thinking about Turbo Granny stealing that guy's balls. Anything else? You want to wrap up? Yeah, I don't think I have much of anything else. I'm listening to music. You guys like music. Listen, I talk about Turbo Granny stealing balls. You can you could talk about music.
01:15:57
Speaker
ah I'm assuming no, but have either of you or anyone in chat heard of Joy Ola Dokun? No, that sounds made up. I don't even know how to Google it. It's is made up as Goblin Commander, which I posted about today. Everyone's heard of Tracy Chapman, right? Yes. Yeah. Ask ours. Essentially, new Tracy Chapman. The young guitar, so guitar playing, piano playing, black female singer. Okay. Makes beautiful, beautiful music, beautiful singing voice, like contemporary music, like she
01:16:35
Speaker
She sings about like three, she sings about her life, whatever. Like every, like I've been listening to like.
01:16:41
Speaker
last released another album like this ah like this week, I want to say, like in 2024. I was listening to like her 2022 joint, a little bit of her 2023 joint, but then the 2024 one came out, and like i'm um I have that on loop right now. She's she's like my new favorite artist, like just really awesome ah songwriter and musician. What is her name? If anyone's familiar with it? Let me i'm mean write it in chat. Yeah, you said it, and I started to type it out, and I was like, I don't know what words these are.
01:17:09
Speaker
I just want to double check I'm not dispelling it. Yeah, I got it right. Okay. So, but Joy Olodokun? Oh, I was trying to spell it as several words. That's what I mean. To be fair, I thought so. Yeah, yeah. I didn't realize, I thought, I didn't realize you were literally saying your name. I thought you were saying like, like it was like a band's name or something. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah, it's a single person. It's just her name. You don't sound like Count Dooku's daughter. It was not Count Dooku's daughter.
01:17:37
Speaker
I love Deep Gu. Even yeah it's even google then the first picture that pops up looks exactly like if you would Google like a Tracy Chapman picture. like even dress the She looks almost exactly like Tracy Chapman from events, honestly. That's great. I love that. I'm going to check that out. Great music. yeah Music is one of those things. like i need to I was so tapped in to music like in 2004 to 2012.
01:18:05
Speaker
And then I got in the fucking games industry and just music. I just like, I fell off. Like I didn't have the time to keep up with everything. Yeah. We got this anime where they're stealing balls. My i gotta watch that fucking 12 hours of football every weekend. It's tough out here. Yep. My brain has room for video game knowledge and that's about it. Yeah. Yeah. I forget and then everything else in my life. Yeah.
01:18:28
Speaker
yeah Don't forget everything else in my life. I just like you asked me like a pop culture reference i like I don't know what you're talking about. No idea But we go to you. You are a pop culture. You you're our youth correspondence. We call you Nicky. Nicky. Oh, you're Nicky. I got SpongeBob references for you and that's about as far as i I'll pass. They're also old SpongeBob references like this, that like nothing. I didn't even know they continued what making new episodes after I stopped. I just assumed SpongeBob stopped when I stopped. ah Yeah, that checks out.
01:18:59
Speaker
go ah We did it. We made it to the end of the show. I'm extremely proud of us. ah But that's that's we have so much more fun stuff ready for you throughout the week. Tomorrow we'll have a new semi-ramblematic. More thoughts from Yahtzee on Silent Hill 2, but kind of in a little different direction, so stay tuned for that. ah Casey, you and I will be continuing our Metroid Prime journey tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. Central. Nick, are you going to be streaming?
01:19:27
Speaker
ah Maybe stream streaming not a quiet place because oh my god bad ba it made that beautiful art for nothing i was very ah Was the game did the game suck and just I was very disappointed watching it because like I was hoping it was gonna be a lot more like I yeah in isolation with a lot of reactive AI, but it's very heavily scripted and like insta fail stealth sections. And I'm like, yeah. Also, like I was I was kind of making fun of the game because one of a lot of the objects that you knock over, like there's like red cans on the ground everywhere. And I'm like, who just left these cans like sitting upright everywhere for you to rock into?
01:20:07
Speaker
yeah cool huck it upons did somebody's trying somebody's either charlie just ja schools gonna knock get over Yeah somebody Somebody's trying to get you killed to so you can steal your shit the invaders wild Yeah, but i'm I'm figuring trying to figure out if I'm gonna do a different game tomorrow, okay well Oh, yeah, because there won't be no resi seven stream tomorrow. ah Jay is traveling. So none of that. um And then Friday, we'll have dev heads and ah yeah, all sorts of will we'll have a bunch of bite sizes are in the docket. We're ready to be fired out. New ones from new ones from Jess, new ones from Elise, possibly a new new contributor showing up very soon. So ah look forward to that. way and What else we got going on, Casey? What should we check out? Oh, I looked earlier, but definitely watch that ah the the steam next video.
01:20:55
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Watching next video, uh, mentioning bite sizes is is I actually have one that should be coming out at some point. Uh, Eric has helped me, uh, edit that while I work on some other stuff like on neck warrior five. So, uh, look forward to that. voice And plans. Clans. Yes. Cause back warrior five is it's already exist different game. Yeah. weird was that true Oh, wait. Did you guys see the star citizen games come out in 26?
01:21:22
Speaker
we shy video Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, outside of that, like Marty already mentioned the Metroid stream. Um, yeah, I don't think I'm on anything else.
01:21:34
Speaker
on second wind, but me and my fiance should be back for more dredge this Friday, and I should be back on my personal channel, Supergears9, for more Smash on Sunday. Super Smash Sunday, that is, at 2 p.m. In honor of Sakurai's final video. Yeah, every Sunday has been in honor of Sakurai. I've been doing that stream for like, I've been doing that Smash stream since Smash 4 was out, so. Really? Yeah, that's, I've been doing that for a very long time.
01:22:04
Speaker
That's like, that's more consistent than any relationship I've heard. Your relationship with Smash is healthier than I think.
01:22:15
Speaker
Awesome. Nick, did I miss anything? I have a new episode of Unpacked Out this week. I'm going over kind of the recent history of 343 Industries, now Halo Studios. ah Give that a look. ah We may have a game night stream this weekend. I remember when Jesse was trying to schedule his Dead by Daylight stream.
01:22:34
Speaker
Yeah, but we'll figure that out and or maybe we'll play that dark. I was getting the stream. Let's see if I can wrangle up some people for that. I think I said that wrong. I don't know what ah the dog was licking my elbow as I was trying to say that. Jesus. What? You said it right. Everything got so weird. You said it fine. That's weird afterwards.
01:22:55
Speaker
god and i've I've always been allergic to dogs. so I've never had a pet, but the idea of just a living thing in your house that could just sneak up to you and start licking your elbow is so weird to me. It's like so deeply weird to me. I just don't get it. I don't get it either. And I just live with it. Hey, three things. I don't get. boac elbow Palacho, Mario Odyssey, and this strange animal licking my elbow. This is not a person crawling up and doing it. I think we might have a problem. It depends. You know what you're into. Whatever comes out of that broken closet of yours. But on November 16th, we will have we will have our one year celebration event. We are getting things scheduled for that now. Should have some special guests show up for that. New announcements and lots of fun multiplayer games with the community.
01:23:41
Speaker
Heck yeah, Saturday the 16th. Saturday the 16th. Oh yeah, and as a reminder for anyone, I'll be posting in the Phoenix chat tomorrow, but if you're a member of the Phoenix tier, are ah our monthly movie night will be held a week from pretty much right now. We're going to be doing it at ah after ah Firelink next week, 8 p.m. Central. We'll be watching John Carpenter's The Thing, an actual good movie. And honestly, God, goody. The Firelink wasn't good.
01:24:08
Speaker
And honest to God, goody. No, you know, very bad. No, equilibrium is good. And Dick Tracy is good. We've watched some goodies. I miss Dick Tracy. I wish I could have seen that again. It's been like a million years since I watched that movie. Just a real good cop. ah Excellent. Thank you all so much, everyone, for tuning in live. Everyone, everyone listening, watching the VOD. We appreciate you all. So for Nick and Casey, this was Marty. This was finally episode number 42. Thank you all so much for hanging out and have a great rest of the night and we'll see you all tomorrow.
01:24:38
Speaker
I run. Peace. I don't think I have the credit set up, so. That's right. Bye bye.