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Let's Fix Games in 2024
7k Plays10 months ago
On this week’s episode of Windbreaker, Yahtzee, Frost, and Marty reflect on what they want to see from gaming in 2024, from trends that need to die out, franchises that should return, and more power being given to the actual creatives.
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Transcript
Merchandise and Collaborations
00:00:00
Speaker
Bare midriff, exposed shoulders, wind blowing across your nips. Cover yourself up if you want to. With second wind shirts. For a reason we can't legally discuss, our artists have had a little free time. So they've come up with brand new designs for our brand new channel and mostly new shows. Fully ramblimatic, design delve, coal take, and the second wind itself. It's some kind of bird.
00:00:26
Speaker
Act fast because some of these designs are only available for a limited time. We've partnered with Shark Robot to make the shopping experience as easy as possible. Because let's be honest, life is hard sometimes. One day you're happy and working, and the next day you're called into a meeting and HR is there and you're just fun. Head to sharkrobot.com slash second dash wind or click on the link in the description to check out all of our shirts today. And I think there's a desk pad too. That's fun.
Podcast Introduction
00:00:58
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the windbreaker podcast last one of the year actually. So yeah, crazy. I'm Yahtzee Krogel. I'm joined by Marty Sleever. Welcome. And the ginger dead pan man. Sebastian Ruiz. That's good. Oh, that caught me off. That is really good. Welcome everyone. You seen, have you ever seen the ginger dead man?
00:01:22
Speaker
No, is that a horror horror? Is that a spooky film? Spook them up? Yeah, it's sort of a tongue in cheek, low budget horror movie with... Who's the famous actor they got for that? Who's the one with big teeth? Gary Busey? That's the one. Wow! He's the one with big teeth! Yeah, he's got the mightiest teeth. Well, there's another one, but I don't know him yet.
00:01:46
Speaker
See, I was trying to think like, oh, the dude whose son was in Starship Troopers. I also had big teeth. Yeah, JP you see, also big teeth. Yeah.
00:01:57
Speaker
Okay, well, we got a handy dandy list of things to plug before we start. Oh, my gosh. And if I were a professional, I'd have already brought it up. But that's on me. As any side of you guys got
Support and Funding
00:02:09
Speaker
it? Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, just to let everyone know, as you know, at second wind, we are primarily funded by incredible viewers like yourself.
00:02:18
Speaker
So we appreciate everyone who's already subscribed to the patreon and if you haven't Give it a look Every little bit helps if you if you toss five dollars a month you get access to multiple Darren columns every week And let me tell you Darren Mooney just a wild man a genuine wild man Incredible takes on Wonka. He's got Godzilla minus one. He's gonna have all sorts of Oscar talks. He's talking about a 24. He's gonna have a
00:02:43
Speaker
New studio Ghibli thoughts and then of course Thank you so much for your super chats your don't knows and if you are going to donate anything You know maybe higher than then your standard $50 or anything consider doing it through PayPal if only because PayPal takes a far less of a cut I think zero of a cut Compared to Google which takes a little bit of a cut because Johnny Google's gotta eat and then of course we have our merch store and
00:03:09
Speaker
going right now so if you if you maybe in time for the holiday want to sneak in a little little shirt little little mug merch oh my god incredible
00:03:20
Speaker
Oh man, why is no one as prepared as Frost for these things? Frost is very prepared. Frost is shockingly prepared. And he cut the full screen. Incredible. And then of course, yeah, we currently have our funding goal. It's not up right now because we're still trying to figure out how the funding goal works between the two channels, but we are currently funding for Adventure is Nice season four on location filming in the spring.
00:03:42
Speaker
We have the full rights to adventures and I back it is very exciting Yeah, we're already we're already like over a tenth to our goal and our goal has only been up for like a handful of days So thank you guys so much all don't know they're going towards that
00:03:55
Speaker
Yes, if you didn't catch it on Saturday, we've started re-releasing season three. That'll be going out every Saturday until that season is over. But that's enough plugging.
Gaming Industry Trends in 2024
00:04:10
Speaker
Let's discuss the topic for this week, because with the new year arising, we thought we could go into it with an air of positivity and talk about what gaming's gonna do to fix itself.
00:04:24
Speaker
Is that positive? Here, I'll do it. It's as positive as I get. That's true. Let's not dwell on the grim past. Let's talk about the hopes that we have for the future.
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like 2023, I think a lot of people think was a very good year for games, a pretty crummy year for the people who make games. But moving into 2024, let's try to see what can this industry do to write the ship? What sort of positive lessons can we take? Double down on the good things, avoid the bad things. What can we do going into next year?
00:05:00
Speaker
Well, for my part, I think what the industry does needs to do is more of what it's currently doing. I think we're on a positive projected path in a lot of ways. Well, besides all that, but largely because of I'm not blowing the mic out of it. I can never tell how close to put the mic to
Shift from Live Service Games
00:05:21
Speaker
my mouth. Because if I don't put it really close, people complain that I'm too quiet.
00:05:26
Speaker
I go tongue length. I try to lick my mic at the beginning of every podcast. Wow. Because what I've been feeling positive about is the general rejection of the live service model.
00:05:40
Speaker
And there's a reason why Suicide Squad is on the thumbnail this week, because the most positive memory I have from the whole year is the reaction to the Suicide Squad gameplay reveal, where nobody was like, hey, that could be good. Everyone was like, what the fuck was that?
00:06:00
Speaker
to be fair this is like superheroes with superpowers and they're using guns of all things well it's the suicide squad you know they're not traditional superheroes and they're out here to kill the justice league as the subtitle has informed us
00:06:18
Speaker
But yeah, Rocksteady is the latest developer who was at one time lauded for their wonderful single player games in the Arkham trilogy, who then seemingly had their had their hand moved by the powers that be on the publisher side to create a live service game, even though that was not their bread and butter. And it seems like this was one of those decisions that was put in several many years ago, half a decade ago, when it seemed like live serve every game going forward was going to be live service. And obviously in that time,
00:06:48
Speaker
that trend has kind of trickled down to we're seeing more and more games come out. It was such a bummer this year to see this happen. You know, a few years ago we had Anthem. We had Bioware having to come out and sort of change their game plan. Anthem, a dud. A few years after that Crystal Dynamics and the Avengers game came out, a dud. Earlier this year, though not live service, Arcane Austin
00:07:10
Speaker
having to get outside what they were known for to create Redfall, a dud. And then we just had the news this week that Naughty Dog has cancelled their Last of Us multiplayer live service game and wanting to focus more on single player games. So it feels like we're in a good trajectory and Suicide Squad might be like,
00:07:30
Speaker
the last victim of this. Yeah, hopefully the on the positive part of the sine wave that we've gone through so many times before. The publishers find the new money spinner tried to push the multiplayer experience, the live service experience, and realize that there's only a few of those that can really dominate the market. Everything else crashes and burns. And we return to the focus on solid single player focused games.
00:07:56
Speaker
much as we did around the time Bioshock came out. Do you think we go back to this solid single player because I believe we're past the point of no return.
00:08:07
Speaker
I said, I think at the start of the year, last year that games as a service were becoming like the food industry and you're always going to have your like top five. McDonald's is never going away, but they're all about that content. Minecraft, I'm just saying commit to live service. Minecraft, you can play any version of the game ever that's ever been around. And you can see the patches, you can see the updates that are coming through. If you don't like it, you don't have to commit to it, but it is making more content. I'm sick of multiplayer games as a service.
00:08:34
Speaker
where it's constantly getting different patches, different contents. If you wanna just sell cosmetics, have at it. But I wish they'd put more thought than just like, well, we don't know when we're going down. We're just gonna keep going until we collapse.
00:08:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's not really a positive has been. For one thing, you lose the satisfaction one gets from a really good ending, which is something that's going to be coming up in my semi-ramplimatic this week. Ooh. Fitting for the last one of the year.
00:09:05
Speaker
yeah because like you know live service is incompatible with storytelling storytelling is beginning middle-end and when there ain't no end there ain't no story so i've never liked superhero comics because they can't die because they never fucking die
00:09:23
Speaker
Love it. So, and you know, all the like, the layoffs in the big money industry, obviously, that's terrible for people being laid off. But you know, there's also a positivity to be seen in the crashing and burning of the industry as it currently exists.
Impact of Industry Layoffs
00:09:44
Speaker
Hard one to swallow.
00:09:45
Speaker
I mean, I saw this pattern in like microcosmic style back when I lived in Brisbane, because there was a time when Brisbane was full of big studios, CHQ, Chrome, Pandemic, and basically all of them went belly up one after another, for various reasons. And what resulted is that that is now like 10 million indie developers in Brisbane, like Defiant, who made
00:10:10
Speaker
God, I feel so bad, I've forgotten what it's called. The card game procedural thing. Thank you, Brain. To find the hand of fate, Fruit Halfbrick, who made Fruit Ninja, like one of the biggest mobile games ever in history. Australia's problem.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, so the big, the big studios break up and the end result is a million indie devs make him interested in shit. So you know what, all those layoffs, to my mind, can be is just part of the pattern, part of the positive pattern.
00:10:43
Speaker
Something we've seen before, we always look back at the Looking Glass family tree, how Looking Glass had all of these developers during the System Shock era and everything that eventually went off to form AAA studios, indie studios, that's how we got the Bioshock games and then a bunch of
00:11:03
Speaker
Indie games like Gone Home and Firewatch and things like that. So it feels like, even some of the Arkane games, so it feels like, yeah, your hope from this is that the seeds kind of are able to get caught in the wind and spread and then grow somewhere else. Yeah, I mean, like a big studio goes down, everyone talks about it like someone's died. But no, all the things that matter, the people, they're all still alive, and they're all gonna be looking for shit to do with their lives. Yeah.
00:11:34
Speaker
That being said, that was another one I had jotted down was
00:11:39
Speaker
I want to start seeing accountability from the actual people who are making these terrible decisions because it never seems like it is the C-suite people who have to reap what they've sown.
Accountability in Gaming Industry
00:11:50
Speaker
It's the actual creatives. This year has been just inundated with Embracer after their massive fucking catamariing of so many studios and then completely dropping the ball and being able to get
00:12:04
Speaker
Saudi blood money, them ending up being like, oh, well, we have to cancel all these games and lay off all these people and shutter all these studios. Some of which before they even had a chance, like free, they were like, we're reforming free radical to make time splitters in the entire studio. They're like, no, we actually don't because we don't have any money because we had no business plan. However, the CEOs just fine. Don't worry. They'll be, they'll be just fine.
00:12:26
Speaker
Well, they can't go far without any talent, can they? I mean, that's kind of what we learned when we split from corporate owners this year. And I like to think we've demonstrated the ongoing pattern as the corporate industry continues its merry march to collapse. Everything's just going to revert to independently funded little life rafts floating on the big churning sea of bullshit. That's what's going to happen.
00:12:55
Speaker
Hopefully, yeah, I think we get a better class of CEO and better C-suite, because someone's got to do it, even here. We've had some of us have had to step up and do the paperwork and that gross stuff. Oh, God, that's so boring. It's horrendous stuff, but someone's got to do it. But these indie
00:13:12
Speaker
developers are the ones that are going to be able to step into it, right? So good times all around. It turns out it's not actually that hard to be a CEO work-wise. We should use AI. There we go. Make them redundant, the whole C-suite. I feel like AI CEOs, there's like several Philip K. Dick stories there about that. You know, just like tweak it a little bit, more pizza parties. I was thinking the merge with the AI ending from Deus Ex.
00:13:40
Speaker
There you go. Finally, art replicates life. There is a philosophical argument in favor of humanity turning over all governance to AIs.
AI Governance Debate
00:13:52
Speaker
I forgot which one of the words. AIs have no personal stake and are incorruptible. Theoretically. Well, I've corrupted a hard drive or two. Like that's an absolute lie there. Well, not in that sense. Oh, like moral. I see what you mean. I forgot who it was that said if AI was actually built proper, so to speak, it would side with the workers. So we would just make Tron, I guess. I fight for the users. That's the line in the movie there. There you go.
00:14:19
Speaker
So yeah, that's also the other thing where it's sort of like silver lining, very bittersweet, epic games, massive layoffs, but those layoffs were predominantly in the expansion department. So if you want these companies to stop chasing infinite growth, well, they're going to have to fire that part that is assigned to chase infinite growth. That's the only silver lining there, I suppose. Yeah, that's entirely the upper corporate layer.
00:14:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's the people who made the decision to chase the infinite growth are the ones who are affected by it, which is a problem. Just strip off that layer and the actual talent will be like, hey, what did we need that layer for? It's not even that cold. No.
00:15:02
Speaker
Oh, it was like a coat. It's like a windbreaker. Like a windbreaker. Beautiful. I'd say throw it away with the Suicide Squad games of the service. It's even slipped into single player. I hate these incremental loot. Not 5% more damage. Like 3% more absolute garbage. Like 100% more damage is not as exciting as now is like
00:15:27
Speaker
double how many bullets come out of your gun and you just hear it and you can see it just gone through. Or you can visualize you are doing different things as opposed to, I always hated that and as much as I liked the modern God of War games, the getting something and it being like, oh, a 3% chance of causing burn damage. I'm like, I don't, this doesn't mean anything to me. Like this is stupid. Why are we doing this? Yeah, no, not a fan of that. Even single player needs to get away from those. Yeah. Agreed.
00:15:55
Speaker
All right, so gear scores in the bin, please. Yep. See, I had. I don't think everyone should do it. But I did like high five rushes, ghost drop, where it was just boom. So like closer to release is when I would like the hype, please.
00:16:12
Speaker
Yeah, I think that works when you have a product you know is really good and has strong broad appeal. It's definitely not the road you want to take if you're aiming for niche appeal. Sure.
00:16:27
Speaker
And it works specifically in that case, because it was a combination of tango, which is, which has like a pedigree behind it. And also, yeah. But also, it being on game pass means that, you know, folks can
00:16:45
Speaker
If the tens of millions of subscribers can just download it and try it and there's no barrier to entry and there's no worry about spending your money on it. It was funny that we got that and Metroid Prime remaster Shadow Dropped in the same week or so. Those are very different examples. Metroid Prime works because it is a known quantity and it is a beloved game.
00:17:05
Speaker
But yeah, at the very least for us, I'd love to see shorter tales because there are so many trailers we saw during the Game Awards or that we saw during the Game Awards several years ago for games that won't be coming out until probably the tail end of the decade. That Star Wars Eclipse, in 2018 we saw Elder Scrolls 6. This is strictly a hype problem. It's a games taking way too bloody long to make problem.
Game Development Timelines
00:17:32
Speaker
It is, yeah. And it's also studios needing to use them as hiring tools, because if they're so secretive, they can't say they're working on a Star Wars thing, it's gonna be hard to hire people. Whereas if you say, we're working on a Star Wars story game, it's probably easier to get people to apply who might be good at a thing like that. But I completely agree with you, Yahtzee, the time it takes to make these games is too damn long.
00:17:58
Speaker
Yeah, and I don't think that's sustainable either. I mean, as we keep saying, all the indie games hardly need all that. Ultra realistic graphics and they're just a train of success stories. Most recently something like Lethal Company, which was less than a gig download and looks kind of primitive, but it's just massively popular.
Indie Game Popularity
00:18:20
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. I love when these like nasty little ugly troll games become super popular. Everyone's like, oh, I want a good graphics and great story. It's like, nah, they just throw it all together on a weekend. Look at that. And the pumpkins are still there. One of the things I had on my list was the broadly positive trend reflected by Dave the Diver.
00:18:38
Speaker
which a lot of people were talking down because it's indie but not because it's supported by a massive corporation. But you know, what do you want of massive corporations? That's what I want of massive corporations. I want them to split the money up into a bunch of excited driven indie teams. Well, not indie.
00:18:56
Speaker
And, you know, spend these financial joy, like, to make low budget, non-realistic graphic games that are just fun. And the actual, like, passionate creatives can put their work into it. I mean, and all that, you know, arguing over whether it counted as indie or not over the game awards. That's on the game awards. Yeah.
00:19:18
Speaker
But no, how great, you know, we were sort of singing this song like a decade ago when Ubisoft showed off like Child of the Light and Valiant Hearts. It was like, oh, this is pretty cool. AAA studio is allowing smaller teams to make things where you can see the thumbprints of the developers more clearly. And then that kind of went away. But how great would it be to have
00:19:40
Speaker
You know, Sony, all their first party studios, while they're working on new Spider-Man and Last of Us and Tsushima have small teams at those studios working on smaller, few-hour games. Yeah, I think it was Insomniac Games brought out Song of the Deep. Yeah, that was really cool. Oh, make me sad thinking of EA Sports. Ooh, brother. Yeah, EA Big.
00:20:01
Speaker
You know, the really sad thing is that this used to be like just the standard practice. You have your big tentpole game and then that would like fund everything so you could spread the money around all the other projects you actually wanted to make. Yeah, that was how it was done. And now these days they just pile all the money into the tent poles and it just doesn't work.
00:20:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's like the same in Hollywood. There's always that idea of like the one for them, one for me kind of thing, but it just doesn't seem like that actually happens in the games industry. It feels like it's one for them and then that one makes a lot of money and now we're doing those forever.
00:20:33
Speaker
And if it doesn't, we shuttle the studio, and if it does, we shuttle the studio anyway. You know what the small teams in Ubisoft are doing now? They're making Assassin's Creed Mirage. That's what's classified as a smaller game for Ubisoft these days. Yeah, which is kind of wild.
00:20:54
Speaker
Yeah, right. Mirage is, I think, as big. I'm sure it was more expensive than the first game, granted it was 15 years later. But I like to hear, we have that Prince of Persia game coming out, which is, again, more indie-spirited. I don't know how, another way to put it, because it's 2D and it feels like a little Metroidvane. It's made by the Rayman team, like the Rayman Origins and the Rayman Legends team at Ubisoft Montpellier, which is cool. So I just want to see more of that.
00:21:18
Speaker
Yeah, the third item on my list, I just wrote down, Assassin's Creed, just stop. Generally, just stop. Does that apply to a lot of franchises or just Assassin's Creed? I think he started reviewing them. Most especially Assassin's Creed. At what point did you realize, you know, you didn't have to keep doing COD and at what point would that hit for Assassin's Creed?
00:21:43
Speaker
I don't know. I think it was after, like, I did Modern Warfare 1, sort of. Well, I played it. First one or the second one? The second Modern Warfare 1, which is getting to the problem. But when the second Modern Warfare 2 came out, I was like, I don't think I will. I just won't. So I didn't. And I haven't since. How did you feel at the moment? It helped with Call of Duty that
00:22:11
Speaker
they were putting less and less effort towards the campaigns. And so that felt like an easier breakup, I think, on your end, whereas the Sciences Creed is still just like, you know, predominantly the single player experiences. But I agree, it's hard to, I don't know, even like when the franchise has had like a shakeup,
00:22:29
Speaker
It hasn't felt like it's shaken up enough, or maybe it's been shaken up in a direction like the RPG-ification of Origins and Valhalla. This is why I'm saying Assassin's Creed needs to stop, because I think what we've learned is that there's no shaking up that can help things at this point.
00:22:42
Speaker
Well, people like the new ones. That's why I wait like five years in between a franchise. But then it feels new enough. If you have to do one by one, it's just a boiling frog effect. And you're the frog. I think there's any I don't think there's anywhere that physical IP can go that would feel like something new and innovative. Japan. I think they've tried everything and it's just been milked to a little dry husk.
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, aside from putting me in the animus itself, I think that's it. We've run out. We've run out of room. You are looking at that at home, kind of? Yeah, could you imagine? Well, early on, early on, there was like a coherent theme to the plot. It was like Assassins versus Templars, exploring the philosophy of the Assassins and the counter philosophy of the Templars, who both, you know, broadly agree on some areas, but disagree on like the crucial
00:23:36
Speaker
area of free will or whatever. But in like the last nine Assassin's Creed games, that has just been goodies versus baddies. Assassins of the goodies, Templars of the baddies. Well, then they swap them like in Rogue. Yeah. And even in historical settings that predate the Hashashin Order, it's just the goodies versus the baddies and the goodies of the Assassins in all but name, the hidden ones.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah, different name, but the same coat of paint. We never get to like the first ones, do we? It's just a universal theme. Like I keep saying, if you'd said Go to Tsushima was an Assassin's Creed game, I wouldn't have doubted you. Because, you know, you say, oh, the Japanese, the samurai are the assassins and the Mongols are the Templars somehow. That's how it worked out in that particular theater of history. Good luck. And next fall or the fall after, we're going to have AC Red, which is just doing that.
00:24:31
Speaker
Oh, for Christ's sake. Lovely. So it wants his ending. Yeah. I mean, I think, are there any, any longer or like long running franchises that you think do it right? Or do you think this is a problem with all franchises across the board? Or do you think there's anything that like gives enough time in between?
00:24:50
Speaker
installments that they actually put creativity in it. And this is my way of segueing into talking about Nintendo. God knows I don't want to talk about Nintendo. Funny enough, yeah, them. I feel like if you have a strict enough Bible and strict enough people that are working on it, yeah. I think maybe Metal Gear was the franchise that sort of evolved over time. But I think that's kind of done now.
00:25:13
Speaker
we're getting the remake of three could possibly go wrong. Yeah, I mean, that's like very firmly moved on to Death Stranding now it seems. Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna say, was it from software? If they're only the Miyazaki games? I think they
00:25:28
Speaker
Evolve pretty nicely on each other. Yeah. Not just the Miyazaki games, like Armored Core had an- I mean, yeah, I guess it's weird, because FromSoft is one of the few developers people consider all of their games, like, the same, like, oh, it's them, whereas they have clearly, like, lines of delineation with Sekiro and Armored Core.
00:25:47
Speaker
Yeah, as that goes. No, I think eventually you just ship a Theseus yourself to the point where it's not even a ship anymore. This is like a nice Corvette Cadillac, but it doesn't sail right. Why are we still in the water? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Assassin's Creed's about as the chip is Theseus as anything can get probably was around the time of Assassin's Creed Odyssey since we're talking about it.
00:26:12
Speaker
I saw a funny tweet the other day. It said something like, the Wikipedia page for Ship of Theseus was started in 2006, and as of today, no part of it is the original text.
00:26:28
Speaker
I saw that, yeah. I forget the novelty account, but they just do a bunch of Wikipedia gone wild tweets. That's great. Yeah. Marty, what else you got on your list? Yeah, well, sort of leaning towards Nintendo, I'm looking forward to this new fucking Switch just being out so that we don't have to talk about hardware anymore, because I think talking about hardware is pretty boring, personally. I think hardware is the least interesting aspect of
00:26:57
Speaker
talking about criticizing games. And I guess I'm just waiting for games to move to the point that movies were at where it's just all DVD players are basically the same. Let's just get ones and then we can play DVDs.
00:27:12
Speaker
And that like the tribalism that comes from it and like the fact that people get mad at a thing because it has a first party behind like it's all I get that not everyone is in a position of privilege to be able to own all these things so that where it comes out doesn't matter but like I just I think the What store a thing releases on what console the thing releases on that kind of thing is so damn boring like whether I'm not gonna play cuz it's on epic and it's not on Steam like I think that is like such a Yeah, such a boring way to talk about art
00:27:41
Speaker
For a while there was an interesting argument over what's the best controller layout, but the controller hasn't really been improved since the DualShock 2. Are we done with that? Are we done with like major, like is there going to be like majors before it? I mean you don't see any of them wacky controllers like what the Atari Jaguar had with the little pocket calculator attached to a Mega Drive controller.
00:28:02
Speaker
No, it's all two analog sticks, two sets of shoulder buttons, four face buttons, and a D-pad. That's every controller now. Did you guys see this Splatoon setup that Nintendo had recommended? No, the one where you tie the wheeler to the top. Yeah, absolutely. I love Nintendo because they don't give up. They're like, there's got to be something. Yeah. An archaeologist is going to find these and be like, we came from five armed humans.
00:28:32
Speaker
What did man look like back then? Yeah, man had feathers. Yeah. Um, yeah. And like, you know, folks have tried like valve with this, with the steam controller with sort of the, um, you know, how to turn mouse inputs into a single thumb thing. And that never really clicked on. Uh, we had the movement based, uh, push of like the late aughts between the Wii and connect and PlayStation move. And that didn't really connect there. Like,
00:28:59
Speaker
catch on. So I don't know. Yeah, it feels like controller inputs unless. I think there is always going to be these niche movements and people wanting something, but I have a hard time imagining in the next 10, 15 years, some radical new way of control that is going to, but maybe that's the point of it is like, if we could think of it, we'd be millionaires. So we can't think of it. Well, there you go. I love it when they first were like, Oh, this is, I forgot what game it was. It uses the disgusting was it a movement scheme.
00:29:29
Speaker
I forget which game it was. But yeah, they were just like a horrible, horrible thing. And yeah, those older games were like, what, ZXC spacebar? I remember when they first put the like the extra touchpad thing in the middle of the PS4 controller. That really felt like we're really desperately trying to find ways to improve upon the Dual Jog 2. I was like, it's not really efficient for using with your hands, but it's perfectly positioned for if you want to make a game you can control with your nose.
00:29:59
Speaker
I was thinking, yeah, like if you put it on your chin and talk like through it, voice activated kind of thing. Or lick it. Yeah. You lick it if you want to have fun with your controllers. A taste based game. There you go. I was hoping after Astro's Playroom launched with the PS5 that more games are really going to go in depth with kind of the haptic feedback and like
00:30:21
Speaker
Genuinely interesting uses of rumble on the new controller, and I feel like that's very few and far between now. I don't think those theme park rides where they shake your chair around while you watch a video were a significant step in the development of movies as an art form. I saw Top Gun Maverick in 4DX, and let me tell you, I almost fucking fell out of my chair. They shook me around so hard, it was great.
00:30:43
Speaker
The problem I'd have to feedback and rumble is that games are all about immersion. And immersion happens when you stop thinking about what you're doing. Your hands are just an extension of your instant conscious reactions. And when you add stuff like rumble and like motion control to that, then suddenly you're right back in the room again, shaking your bloody Wiimote like a complete spaz, feeling like an idiot.
00:31:08
Speaker
I look forward to that haptic bodysuit so you can feel it when you get shot. The res bodysuit, that's all I want. The vibrotron. It never crossed my mind playing Half-Life that this would be so much better if it was knocking my drink out of my hand every time I got shot.
00:31:26
Speaker
Yeah, but like, I mean, so Rumble came, the first Rumble game I remember, I think it might have been the first, was Rumble Pack with Star Fox 64, and it was a huge novelty, but then Rumble just became a thing in games, and it became a way of conveying information to you that you don't really think about. Again, like the sound design thing, where it's like, if sound design is done well, you're not thinking about it. And so I don't find
00:31:50
Speaker
like good uses of rumble to be distracting i found it even more immersive i would say yeah you're very kind you i'm mean-spirited to mine like if i'm playing a game and my controller goes off i'm like who let you speak where do i turn off the rumble so do you speak i think i liked it as a kid though i don't know what happened
00:32:11
Speaker
I have that problem with the speaker. I mean, just like, you know, your controller rumbling when you fire a gun, I guess I don't really notice anymore. That's pretty much standard these days. But the controller speaker in my PS5 games, I really don't like that at all. I'll turn that off. I mean, that's always weird if you have headphones, if you're listening on headphones and then the controller is trying to talk and go, what, what'd you say? Yeah. Say that, say that to me again. No, I think, I think we've gone as far as we can with like controllers and maybe even hardware, which makes me excited because I think
00:32:41
Speaker
Okay, this is what we're gonna be on for like the next 10 years Let's start making games like within that time window instead of anticipating the next one outside of that one guy who he made his own haptic feedback system and he likes to snipe in shooter games where it kicks
00:32:57
Speaker
right in the bloody shoulder the whole time just knock him uh just to feel it like okay so that's a little too much there was a story i read years ago that uh some kid was taken to hospital with a disease that had previously only been seen in workmen who used like power drills all day well because he'd been using like rumble controllers for like 12 hours a day Jesus what he has like sort of separated all his nerves or something
00:33:26
Speaker
Oh, you're like tenderizing your hands. Yeah, it was something gross. Yeah. Ooh. Oh my God. I guess on the segue of the Nintendo thing, I liked that Tears of the Kingdom returned to its old setting. Like it was still there. I haven't played games that are sort of like, Hey, we're back in a very, very long time. And I'd like to see more of that if nothing else.
00:33:51
Speaker
I think it's a smart way to, I mean, Grant the Tears of the Kingdom took a long time in development, but it is a smart way to kind of be economical with what you've already created while
00:34:00
Speaker
Framing different mechanics and different things to do around that and we saw it twice this year. I think all these that I can remember with New York in spider-man 2 and and Hyrule in tears of the kingdom I thought it worked better for tears of the kingdom because your tool set made existing in that world feel so different than it did in breath of the wild where spider-man was just a
00:34:22
Speaker
You know, the swinging and the sort of the flying stuff gliding felt great, but it didn't feel like remarkably different from the first one. But no, I'm fine with that. Like, I don't know. Hollywood would reuse sets. Like, he already built it once.
00:34:38
Speaker
People are not happy with that. I understand, I guess, in Tears of the Kingdom, but for New York, I'm like, what, you want another borough or something? Yeah, what do we do? Like, do we create Sky Islands above New York if you want? Yeah. Well, we could add another suburb, extend out a little more. Yeah. Happy New Jersey. You gave us Queens and Brooklyn. What else can we ask for? Just being on expanding and going back to it. Yeah. As far as like, I think the last of my list was more like,
00:35:07
Speaker
ethnic, more cultural games, Venba, hot stuff. My most anticipated game for next year is this super Mexican Metroidvania that's not Guacamelee. Yeah, that was really pushing the Mexican thing. Yeah. Talk about Constable Blimey chips. Oh, but that's like Nacho Libre. We love that shit.
00:35:27
Speaker
Yeah. Like, did you know they took that away because they figured it was too racist, but Mexico was like, give him back. That's that we want. It's ours. That tends to happen. There's like a stock Brazilian Disney character who was like one of Donald Duck's friends and he's like massively popular in Brazil. Yeah, I don't know. We love that stuff. The Green Parrot Lad, you know, one of the three Caballeros. Oh, I loved it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:55
Speaker
Yeah, that sort of ties into my second to last one, which was everyone from developers to publishers to us as players sort of embracing curiosity and getting outside your comfort zone, which again, ties into what we were talking about earlier of like,
00:36:13
Speaker
wanting to see these AAA studios take risks and make smaller, kind of stranger things that might not be as mass market as a Spider-Man, but might really mean something to a smaller group of people. And then- There's a rather meaningful change in the industry like this can only come from a shift in the audience perspective as well.
00:36:33
Speaker
Yeah, the audience have to vote with their wallet, they have to say more What the fuck is this when Suicide Squad trailers come out? They have to like check out the interesting innovative indie stuff. It's it's on you audience, you get the industry you deserve. Yeah, the game awards you deserve. It's on us to really platform that stuff, which I think the three of us do pretty well of when we, you know,
00:36:56
Speaker
whether it's your Dredge or your Pizza Tower, your Shadow of Doubt, your Highland Song, your Neon White, really going to bat for these smaller games. We try our best. Yeah, and I think it's easier now than ever. There's a democratization of these games that if you have Game Pass, a bunch of these games come there, PlayStation Plus. Steam has crazy cheap sales all the time. Next Fest is an awesome way to check out a bunch of demos and get a little early on what the next big thing is going to be.
00:37:25
Speaker
You know, I'm not saying you always need to, you know, everyone has their comfort games that they're going to return to, but at the same time, it's good to sometimes broaden your horizons and it goes for anything. Movies, TV, fucking food. Just become a little comfortable with being uncomfortable. You might find something that you didn't realize you love. Word. Uh, like Dredge was easy to go to bat for. Rust and Moss is a little harder, but then the hardest one was, um,
00:37:47
Speaker
The void reigns upon her eyes, even with 100% overwhelming. Yeah, and I'm like, is it funky looking one, but sure, not sure.
00:37:55
Speaker
I, I'm now, I feel like I'm becoming a games journal father where before I didn't feel any responsibility. I'm just like, I'm going to talk about whatever I want to talk. But now it's like, I feel like I almost owe it to someone to talk about this game. Yeah. Welcome to my world, bitch. As Freddy Krueger once said, good movie Freddy Krueger. Having a big audience comes with it. Responsibility. I'm afraid. Yeah. Oh, I realize the head that wears the crown.
00:38:22
Speaker
And then my last one was, everyone needs to start giving more of a shit about,
00:38:30
Speaker
preservation in game history. We see that with digital stores closing down and Nintendo being like, well, there's just no way to ever play 3DS or Wii U games. Bye, everyone. We see that with servers being closed for multiplayer games that I personally don't care about, but I think just losing these games fucking sucks. He who forgets the past. Yeah, exactly.
00:38:53
Speaker
It's a C in history class. Yeah, exactly.
Preservation of Gaming History
00:38:58
Speaker
And so you have people sort of, you know, carrying the torch, not only, you know, the piracy, which ends up becoming like the only way to get things done at certain times, but stuff like the video game historical foundation, stuff like the digital eclipse games in limited run, like the making of Karateka or Karateka, which is
00:39:19
Speaker
You know, a real cool glimpse into video game history and then bringing back weird old franchises like Tomba and Gex, like treating these old games with respect and not just like schlopping them on shitty collections, but like just making them easily available to everyone.
00:39:37
Speaker
Well, because that's something we can contribute to as well. But just making lots of retro reviews and keeping these titles in the collective mindset. Yeah, we're gonna do a Chulip long play. We're gonna play all the Chulip in 2024. Oh, I'm I lost. I don't think that much kissing. It's a kissing game. I remember. I remember that. Yeah. That video. Yeah. Well, so much kissing. Oh, my God.
00:40:06
Speaker
I know he just popped up on his own free will because he woke up and realized, hey, I'm not being shown to the internet. I'm ready for my close up, Mr. Deville. You summoned your spirit, Ash. Did you guys have any other ones?
00:40:25
Speaker
No, we pretty much went through all of mine. And, uh, I see super chats off the starboard bow. Yeah. Like a bunch of smaller things to probably bring them up themselves, honestly. And, uh, as a reminder to everybody, this is the last wind breakers podcast until the new year. So if anybody wants to tell us how cute we are, that they have a crush on us with money, feel free to do that right now.
00:40:45
Speaker
Yes, this is the part where we read out all your super chats with we know. So our next episodes won't be till the eighth. Yes, following his nearest will take a week off to, you know, be human beings and interact with our families and share it.
00:41:02
Speaker
all that tiresome drivel before then we've got all these super chats to read out i've only got the super chats themselves not the live member chat so marty remember yeah the first one was uh loki loki welcome to the green gang and then we kicked off with jacob kitty which i think yes jacob kitty with five dollars who says marty your review of a highland song was beautiful thank you for putting eyes on such a wonderful indie game for me it's this year's spirit fairer
00:41:30
Speaker
Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Yeah, going back to the previous thing of trying to shine a spotlight on games folks might not know about, especially if they come out really late in the year, weirdly enough. Yeah, we have a new series called Bite Sized, which is sort of the evolution of
00:41:45
Speaker
if you remember 3MRs. But yeah, I did one on Highland Song that I was really proud of. And we have a bunch of them in the works now. Some of them should be up before the holidays. Some of them might be up during the holiday break. That's not just a series I'm doing. A lot of people are going to be contributing to them. But yeah, a little kind of meatier looks and more essay tinged looks at games. So yeah, check out the Highland Song one. I kind of bounced off Highland Song. That's fine. It's not for everyone.
00:42:13
Speaker
It's a little, it's kind of, it's, it's, it's definitely in the Marty zone. It might've been bad luck. Cause, uh, it wasn't really clicking for me. And then I like had as round to a bug, the sort of soft lock my run didn't really feel like trying again because you've been closer to Scotland. You know what the chipping is like. Yeah. I've brought this up before Scotland has less of a sort of glamorous world of fantasy air in my mind.
00:42:40
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know the chip shops and have you seen Trainspotters? I love Trainspotting. I don't know. To bang the drum I said last week, I do I like my games with a sense of place and it doesn't matter what that place is. Like if that would have been like, take place in Appalachia or something, but really made me feel like I was there, I would have been just as impressed.
00:43:05
Speaker
You and your sense of place. I see that makes sense. Yeah, because I grew up in Appalachia and Assassin's Creed did it. I was very like, No, never. No, no, no. Cars of Fort Langley gives 10 Canadian and says my first super chat my first time catching this live. Just wanted to say thanks for the literal years of enjoyment and congrats on the second wind. Happy holidays to the team. Thank you Cars of Fort Langley.
00:43:32
Speaker
I've only been here for like three weeks now. Years. And then, Gardo, welcome to the Green Gang. Thank you so much, Gardo. As KarutaCowboy gives 35 zaarrs and says, random question, but Yahtzee, what's your opinion of Brandon Sanderson's books if you read any? I don't think I've read any. What's he written? He's like a big fantasy author, right? I bet it's got boats in it.
00:43:58
Speaker
No, he's almost like a George R. R. Martin adjacent. Oh, right. The Mistborn series, which is a big series. Oh, I think my missus would have written those at one point. He also finished Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan passed away. Oh, well, I guess somebody had to.
00:44:21
Speaker
I don't know how to feel about that sort of thing. Always feels a little bit mercenary. Yeah. I mean, it depends if like there were plans in set while the person was alive and could sign off on it as opposed to. Yeah. That could be sweet though. It's sweet, mostly like Boba Fett, you know, after Django. Sweet mercy. The piss bandit gives $10 and says the industry will be saved with a triple A porn game. Thoughts? That was the old God of War.
00:44:50
Speaker
Yeah, I think you might not be right there. I feel like the latest generation has proved itself to be of a slightly more prudish mindset than their predecessors. No, no, no, we're hornier, but we've got a higher threshold. This is too vanilla. It's pathetic.
00:45:07
Speaker
Oh, you need like to see hardcore full on insertion action. Maybe more plot maybe like a bear. That's just so I don't know 2004 even because we grew up on like the Robin Hood when he was a fox. What's that gonna do? We grew up on Lola bunnies and Roger rabbits. What is this? Yes, we never saw any of them. Fuck though. That's not about the fucking it's about the circumstances.
00:45:30
Speaker
But I would argue it feels like, at least when I pay attention to film Twitter a lot, and it seems like there's a lot of like pearl clutching about sex scenes and movies and TV now about like, they have no place here and we shouldn't do them and they are useless and we shouldn't be doing this.
00:45:48
Speaker
Well, that's an impression I've been getting. It's less about, you know, corporate, like conservative purse clutching, and more about people saying, oh, this isn't representative, or, oh, sex is something that does not belong in our nice, cheerful, innocent lives.
00:46:06
Speaker
Yeah, to me, it's more execution. So like, if every every fucking film had like, I'm driving a work scene, I get very tired of that really quickly. And if everyone's not now just fucking, but if you end up with something like, I don't know, a more exciting drive to work, something goes weird, like in what's his name, Sean, falling, falling down.
00:46:25
Speaker
Yeah, that was a drive to work on crazy. Yeah, yeah, you know, that kind of stuff. It's all about the execution. I feel it's gone just to vanilla or almost just to formulaic, right? Oppenheimer was kind of silly in that sense. I thought the sex scene in Oppenheimer was great. That's what I'm saying. I was like, that was the Bhagavad Gita and let's do it in a like a Senate judicial hearing. I thought that was great. Well, yeah, yeah. Let's be the change you want to see in the world. I liked it.
00:46:54
Speaker
I liked seeing Kate Winslow get her tits out in Titanic, because I could think about it later and jerk off. I like looking at tits. That's so long ago. I like the circumstances. I also enjoyed Kate Winslow, but it was everything leading through and for and seeing Jack's hand on the foggy window. I thought it was romantic. I liked that it was romantic.
00:47:17
Speaker
But again, it was all the execution, all the circumstances. I think there was more, not even class, feel free to be raunchy, but there was more into it than what we're getting nowadays. I also like bums. Are there sex scenes in games that you think have been handled well?
00:47:34
Speaker
What do you mean? The only one that ever leaps to mind for me is the see the bath house scene in Prince of Persia Sands of Time. That feels to me like one of the only genuinely erotic sex scenes in games. A lot of the times it's just the sex scenes in you know, like Fahrenheit Indigo prophecy, where it's just really embarrassing for everyone involved. Yeah, I think I think the Witcher three had a pretty good because he's got amnesia. So it's like, Oh, yeah, the blood she thickens.
00:48:03
Speaker
The Witcher 3 had some good sex aims, where I was like, this is hot, I'm gonna think about it and jerk off later. And that's what you want. But again, to me, this comes down to circumstances more so than the actual thing itself. This is coming from a man who's had enough sex to consider it trite.
00:48:22
Speaker
It's too blase. Yeah, just more. I mean, this is someone who's had kids talking. Sex is still pretty neat, even after it's been put through its practical purposes. Oh, Nick, get your hammers out of there. Grow up, Nick. None of us would fucking exist if it weren't for sex. Yeah, you should have more sex, Nick. Hammers down, dongs up. This is why we went independent, dammit, so we could talk about sex.
00:48:53
Speaker
We'll see if the next, uh, uh, team, the Atlas game, the, uh, metaphor refund Hasio, we'll see if they evolve what persona and Catherine tried to do with sex. No.
00:49:08
Speaker
I'd respect Nintendo if there was a Zelda Link sex scene in Tears of the Kingdom. It was like, acknowledged that they lived together in Hateno Village, but... Yeah. I don't even like make a fuss of it. Just have them, like, wake up, and they're both in their underpants, and Zelda's just, like, spread-eagled over Link and snoring in his face, and he looks a little bit put off. I figured a kid would be more nonchalant while still implying the same circumstance.
00:49:34
Speaker
Yeah, we don't know in Hyrule if that's where kids come from. The Deku Tree sprouts them. That still feels like hedging it to me. You want to say like people first thing in the morning when they're in their underwear and they're looking at their most unattractive, just sort of spread eagle over each other and covered in hideous night sweat. That's how you... It would be spread ruto in Zelda. Anyway, we've stuck on the subject for a long time. That's another podcast.
00:50:04
Speaker
Humane Shield gives $1.99 US and says, Frost, love you, Letter Kenny, to be fair. Oh, Letter Kenny's fun. I don't know what he's on about. It's a Canadian show. I know about Letter Kenny. Yeah, I've never watched it. A lot of people have recommended it to me. But it's on my list of things that I'm gonna be honest, I probably not gonna get to.
00:50:22
Speaker
TommySultie gives 10 Polish Lotties and says a sequel to 12 Minutes would help the industry. Speaking of sex. If you like. Do you think there should be like full-on incest porn? Oops, spoiled brother. That brother. Spoiler alert. Spoiled the whole game. What are you doing, half-brother Chan? And wing potato, welcome to the tip jar.
00:50:47
Speaker
Terrible thing to be talking about a tip jar during all these conversations. Just the tip jar. Robo knob the snob gives a brace yourself. 119 99 euros who deep red super chat and says paying for Patreon and super chat is like only fans without the boobs. So I'd like at least to see Yahtzee saying something very positive about anything Marty something very cynical and Sebastian something with an uncharacteristically squeaky voice.
00:51:17
Speaker
I really like Peppermint Bark. Uh, every single one of us is going to die alone eventually. Jesus. Oh, yeah. Voice is easy. What's uncharacteristic of me. I feel like I talk the most shite on this one. Let's just say we represent the Lollipop Guild. We represent the Lollipop Guild.
00:51:42
Speaker
There you go. You can go higher than I can. That was really impressive. My voice is sort of locked into this register. I can try to go higher, but it goes... Wow, it just disappeared on him. Yeah, where did it go? Pick it back.
00:51:58
Speaker
Also, we have a couple donos from off platform. Tommy Salty donated over on Ko-Fi, thank you so much. Dear Windbreakers, it's me, Tommy. I think we can easily fix the gaming industry. It's all about respect and trust and smiling and not chasing the easy bucks and paying the creators what they deserve and about not mixing meats. By the way, have you heard about Vojtek the Bear? That was beautiful. And then Alexander, $100 dono through PayPal.
00:52:27
Speaker
Oh, you know, we're gonna, you know, that sounds like a little Alexander the Great. Am I right? Yeah, that was a great Alexander right there. Yeah. Thank you so much, Alexander. And Tommy. Thank you guys so much. Okay, then Dylan cunts gives a comparatively poultry but was so we're still grateful for for 99 and says Merry Christmas and Happy New Year glad the channels doing so well. Thank you so much. You really really threw me for a loop. And then Robo knob the snob comes back.
00:52:55
Speaker
after his huge donation, with a $5.99 donation, to say, also I'm announcing next week's Yahtzee Tries, the Danganronpa series. You'll be lucky, robo-nob the snob. There's nothing. The lights will be out next week. Okey Kong rom-com. Luke Humineers gives two Australian dollars and says, comment loading. That was clever.
00:53:17
Speaker
It was a clever little joke there. And Tommy Dianault's archives gives five Canadian and says, Marty is saying the Last of Us 2 is of higher quality than the 2021 Best Picture winner is a horrible thing to say, especially when Last of Us 2 didn't deserve Game of the Year. When did you say that, Marty? I didn't say it was specifically better than the 21 Best Picture winner, although I do, I mean, depending on if you're talking about the Oscars of 2021 or the movie. What was the 2021 Best Picture winner?
00:53:42
Speaker
It would be either Nomadland or Coda, depending on which year, if you're talking about when the Oscars aired or which movie. I do think The Last of Us Part II is better than both of those. But my comment was generally, I think Game Awards winners, by and large, are better than
00:53:59
Speaker
the movies that have won Oscars for the past 20 years, and there are exceptions. I think stuff like Parasite is incredible, but I think it is way better. A game award winner is generally of higher quality than something like The Artist or Crash or The King's Speech. I always like going after those because they're real boring movies. Poor Colin Firth. Poor Colin Firth. He's doing fine. He's handsome.
00:54:24
Speaker
Real and quake gives five US dollars says a game dev friend of mine is very worried about the future of game dead because of all the layoffs and potential investor loss of interest. Well, that's actually games without make games without investors then. So it's all games that are cheaply made. But you got to how do you pay the bills? Kickstarter, Patreon, same thing way we do.
00:54:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's tough. We're fortunate enough to have previous fan bases and everything. If we just came together fresh, I think it would have been tough.
00:54:56
Speaker
The unfortunate thing is you kind of have to have a normal, a real job, so to speak, as you're angling to get through. Yeah, it's a rough way. I wouldn't be as pessimistic as I've seen it. It's like, oh, why be a game developer? You should do it because you love it, but just be careful that you don't chase the dream into a corner. Yeah, game development's never going to go away. It might be less lucrative for a while. But, you know, we're all in it for the passion, just ostensibly.
Holiday-themed Games
00:55:23
Speaker
Of the crows.
00:55:26
Speaker
Eero Lang gives five euros and says since it's almost Christmas, what are your favorite Christmas games or games you'd like to play around the time of year? Thank you for great work. Anyone ever think of is James Pond to code name Robocod? What? I wrote about this for for a column that you can read on the $5 to your Patreon and above about how there's a lack of holiday games in my mind because no one can predict when games are going to come out anymore because it takes a long to make.
00:55:54
Speaker
Yeah, but like we have holiday season rolls around. I have a fucking stacked list of like 10, 15, 20 movies I like rewatching for the holiday season. Whereas with games, it's like, well, there's this one level in Banjo-Kazooie. That's a pretty cool level, Freezy Z Peak.
00:56:10
Speaker
So there was Christmas Nights, the game Nights in the Dreams, shout out to Yuji Naka, had a full-on expansion that was just Christmified everything, which I think was neat. And Parasite Eve is my favorite Christmas game. That was the Christmas QNICOM 3D expansion. Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:27
Speaker
Two things there live service games are constantly updating themselves for that stuff Yeah, and the other the actual game I place well, I try to play Skyrim at first snowfall. It's nice the windows like that. Yeah Yeah, there's also the games that sort of take place on a real calendar to where you can get some of those vibes your stardew your animal crossing Stuff like a boy or persona. Yeah That's not really a Christmas game. That was a
00:56:53
Speaker
No, there's like Christmas bits of it. Stuff that feels kind of festive. Bully out of Christmas time. Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah, there was Dead Rising 4. That was all Christmas themed, right? Yeah, and it was awful. It was pretty bad. Not great. Yeah, I remember calling that the Dead Rising Holiday Special.
00:57:15
Speaker
Oh, no, just see clever. It just wasn't good. Just pause for a little round of applause there.
Physical vs Digital Releases
00:57:21
Speaker
Wesley Thomas gives five Canadian dollars says we need offline play and physical releases. Remember, if a download isn't legally property, a pirated game can't legally be called stolen goods.
00:57:34
Speaker
Yeah, you don't argue that accord of law. Yeah, that's true. Here's the funny thing is like that makes games closer to like food and your dine-in dashing is a thing. I do agree. Even though I've strayed away from physical, I always think it's a bummer when something like Alan Wake 2 comes out and doesn't have a physical version.
00:57:54
Speaker
Granted now with so many day one updates, what is a physical version like? You can always make a physical version if you want one that bad, you know, burn it to a desk, get an empty box, print out a cover. Like they say, pirating. You just want to display it on a shelf and that are the options available. That's true.
00:58:16
Speaker
Mm. Ryan Betts gives $5 says the game Soma had an AI CEO, and that turned out very badly for both the characters in the plot in general, but I say we give it a shot. Yeah, it's like the plot of Portal. Yeah.
00:58:30
Speaker
Well, you know, fiction always like turns it into this classic sci fi lesson of we should not have advanced. That was bad of us. We went too far. Oops, you know, AI will only be hostile if we let it be hostile.
00:58:52
Speaker
Uh, Humane Shield gives 4.99 US and says, games need to focus on gameplay loop and not flashy game mechanics. Devolver digital type studios are needed. We need better than life and be done. Boy, that was all over the place. Better than life. What was that one? I think it's a reference to the red dwarf concept of a VR game that just realizes you're every inner most subconscious desire and fantasy. Oh. Sure, that's particularly practical as a target. Oh, look at that.
00:59:20
Speaker
I don't think, the focus on gameplay loop and not flashy game mechanics, I don't think those are necessarily separate. I would say that Portal is a combination of both of them, right? Portal is a very flashy game mechanic, but also leads to a very good loop. Yeah. But that, you know, those are tricky to come up with. Yeah. I suppose they just mean that like substance over spectacle, which you talked about in your cult deck about, uh,
00:59:48
Speaker
Yeah, something like Super Liminal or Viewfinder could be called a game with a flashy game mechanic. That doesn't really go anywhere. Yeah, that's a good point. I'd say for spoken was hella flashy. Very flashy. Yeah, well, in the sense that you could flash a lot of magic around with your magic hands. Yeah, yeah. Well, it wasn't anything crazy, but yeah. Sorry. Factor. Join the tip chair. Thank you so much, Factor.
01:00:14
Speaker
Oh nice. Madeline Identis gives ten Polish Lotties and says, hey y'all, any of you ever played Drakengard?
01:00:22
Speaker
No, but I've watched so many video essays on it. That was the precursor to Nier, wasn't it? Correct. Yeah. And I believe Drakengard 3 has one of several endings that is quite literally a canonical prequel to the Nier games. Apparently, they do not play very well. They do not hold up mechanically. But I've watched essays on them. They're kind of fascinating. It reminds me of when you think about early FromSoft games, your Kingsfield, your Echo Knights.
01:00:52
Speaker
to where I'm like, I don't know, I'm gonna go back and play these, but I like knowing about them. And then Hyoth87 gives a 50-year Danish crooner and says, I just want a parent tap. Cuts all filler and gives a recap and briefing if you join after more than a week. Love Cyberpunk and Baldur's Gate 3, but they be long. What game did you guys say had a recap function?
01:01:17
Speaker
Oh, there's a few. There's the Alone in the Dark reboot, also called Alone in the Dark Inferno, had a sort of TV style previously on flashback thing that would play every time you loaded a save. I think Final Fantasy 13 had 16 has like the act of time lore thing to where you can kind of
01:01:38
Speaker
get caught up. I'm playing, so I didn't, I really liked, I'm going somewhere with this. I really liked the first two Pokemon games. Pokemon Blue and Pokemon Silver. And I didn't play another one until the Switch. I had a big gap where I didn't play any. And so I got this fancy 3DS that has all the 3DS games on it and I'm not telling anyone where I got it because it's illegal.
01:01:57
Speaker
But I wanted to play a Pokemon game, and so I'm playing Leaf Green, which came out for the GBA in 2004. And every time I load my game up, it shows a quick montage in black and white of the last four major things I did in the game. So I made it to this town, and then I beat this gym leader, and then I made it through this cave, and then I got to a dead end because the Snorlax was sleeping. And then I get into the game, and I'm like, this is great.
01:02:22
Speaker
Like, why don't more games just do this? This was very smart. Have things that are sort of like key moments, and it just shows you really quick clips of the last few you did. I like it.
01:02:32
Speaker
Thumbs up. A superb owner gives $5 and says, how about we keep the shutting down of the solar studios, but instead of laying off the devs, they just split up into Dave the Diver sized teams. Well, that's what they're doing as superb owner. Yeah, that's why they're just doing it without you know, the corporate mandate, they just decide independently to become Dave the Diver sized teams. Be funding. Yeah, well,
01:02:57
Speaker
No system is perfect, is it? Bag of Dex gives $5 and says just want to say thanks for all the years of laughs and to the AIN crew for introducing me to D&D been having a blast literally just exploded my character. Exploded with such impact that you lost the last letter of half your words. Wow, magic can do that too.
01:03:22
Speaker
Yeah, Wild Magic Will. Yeah, thank you so much. As a reminder, Second Wind, Omar and Jack have the full ride to Adventurers Nye back re-airing season three on a weekly basis. Episode two of season three will be airing this Saturday, every Saturday until we get to the brand new episodes, probably in February. My math.
01:03:41
Speaker
Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing Mortimer get his actual character arc finished. Yeah. And then as a reminder, all the super chats over the next month or so are all going towards our next funding goal of Adventures Night season four on location this spring. Which we'll be heading off to record sooner rather than later. Yeah.
01:04:02
Speaker
Yeah, after season three's finished going out. Yeah, he has a bigger behind the scenes crew, so even better production budgets and quality and everything. So good shit.
01:04:11
Speaker
Yes, indeed. B.S. Marsh gives $5 and says, have you guys considered a tier above the Phoenix level? I know I would get it, and I'm, others would as well. I'm sure others would as well. Also, hi Toffee. Oh, Toffee. What's above a Phoenix was a big bird. This guy? This guy? Just little guy. This guy who plays you on, yeah. Yeah, I think that's something Nick has considered. I think we have to sort of
01:04:40
Speaker
After the holiday break and we've had almost two-ish months down, I think we're going to be looking at our tiers, seeing what we can tweak, what's reasonable, what we can add, that kind of stuff. We don't want to nickel and dime anyone. We want to make everything worth it. So we're putting a lot of care in everything. We appreciate it. Have we brought back the get to dictate what game I review in the next slow period? We sure have. That's for Phoenix tier. Oh, OK. Ooh, that's going to be a big tournament bracket.
01:05:09
Speaker
Yeah. Hjor37 gives 20 Danish krona and says, Marty, tell me about Skies of Arcadia. You're cute. I take it that's in response to your retro review. Skies of Arcadia was a game that was released for the Sega Dreamcast and then remastered in Skies of Arcadia Legend for the Nintendo GameCube and has never been anywhere else.
01:05:30
Speaker
An incredible swashbuckling air pirate RPG from an internal team at Sega Wonderful characters. Yes, you won't even like it because it is swashbuckling. You are air pirates. You are just pirates that soar through the air Well, I do like a good swashing of the buckles. It's yeah, is it the same without water? Oh
01:05:50
Speaker
Yeah, you even move your ship around the world map. There are not only people who jump on your ship and they're sort of hand-to-hand battles, but there's also ship-to-ship battles, which are cool and tactical. Really big adventure. I really like it. There's also, it has one of my favorite base building things. Like halfway through the game, you get stranded on a desert island, and then you start to make that your pirate fortress.
01:06:13
Speaker
and you recruit, you recruit characters from around the world. You'll meet a chef, and if you help his side quests, he'll come and become the chef for your pirate fortress, and then your character's healing does more for your characters in battle and stuff, and the island grows and grows as you get new people. It's very cool. All right. Ord now. Save it for your retro reviews. Nope. We're voting. That's what you're playing this summer. We already decided. Damn.
01:06:38
Speaker
arms and legs gives to a Canadian and says, how much money to get everyone in costume? Zero for Frost. I have a rule that I only put on costumes that to the uninitiated party looks like normal clothes. I dressed up in a James Sunderland for Silent Hill 2 costume once, and very few people got it. And that was gratifying. Did you just rub your face a bunch?
01:07:02
Speaker
I put a lot of effort into it, actually. I like printed out patches to put on an old green army jacket and everything. My threshold's lower because I will go out in this, so. I'll bet you will. Yeah, we'll do it. We'll dress up. Halloween. You provide the costume, I'll wear anything is the thing. Because this stuff gets expensive. If you had like carte blanche, what would you most want to cosplay as, Marty? Banjo. The bear.
01:07:33
Speaker
And I want an actual live bird in my backpack. Oh god. Can I be the Riddler? You really? You could put all the shit trophies everywhere. I bet I could pull off the Riddler pretty well. Yeah, you're kind of like a Riddler. Yeah, I'm really good at escape rooms. I bet the Riddler is. Building and playing. There you go.
01:07:57
Speaker
Uh, Ana Lingusdingus gives five dollars, says glad to catch this one live. Merry Christmas, everyone. Merry Christmas, Ana Lingusdingus. And then John Connor gives 20 Canadian and says, will consumer rights get better or worse in the coming years in relation to best buy stroke Walmart, saying they won't carry physical games and online libraries deleting games or denying access to owned game? Game certificates? Question mark?
01:08:20
Speaker
It'll get worse and then it'll get better once they get sued. Yeah, life is eternally a sine wave. There will be ups and there will be downs. That's a shit version of life is a highway. Ew.
01:08:33
Speaker
I want to ride it. Oh, man. There's a sine wave. Well, highways are pretty flat to get out of the cities. Best Buy and Walmart. I don't think they have any legal right or legal obligation to sell physical games, do they? No. Well, no one's got any legal obligation to sell anything.
01:08:54
Speaker
Damn. You just wrinkle up my brain. If it doesn't make financial sense to, you know, then they won't. Yeah, the government would have to take it and say it's too big to fail. So. Hunter Roach gives a massive 50 US dollars. Oh my gosh, Hunter. Say Happy Holidays to everyone at Second Wind. Looking forward to seeing what you do in the new year. Keep on being awesome. Will do. So many cool things. Happy Holidays.
01:09:22
Speaker
Lucky 7th gives 30 shekels and says, now that you've used up your second wind, will you reroll into a different class or remain a fighter in the industry? Merry Christmases. Ah, D&D jokes. Oh. Ken Walter gives $5 and says, I know Yahtzee only believes in games with narrative, but party games are valid too. Who's giving me something to play with my eight year old besides Mario Kart?
01:09:45
Speaker
Well, you could always, you know, go out to the backyard and throw a ball around. Asshole. I mean, Nintendo does give a lot. Your Mario parties, your Mario wonders. Go to a park, push them in a swing. Merry Christmas. Party animals. That was a nice game we played. I feel like kids could enjoy party animals. That was a cute game, man. It takes two. Teach your son about divorce. Yeah. Swing in my backyard. Did I push my kids in on occasion?
01:10:13
Speaker
Me too. Funny enough, I don't have kids. That's weird. No, it came with the house. Oh, okay. Yeah.
01:10:23
Speaker
Are there like ghost children? Do you ever look at it? I think so. I think everything, everything, everything children related is scarier. It's a house where I lived. It's got like a swing in the front yard. And during Halloween, they put like a corpse riding the swing. Like a fresh one? No, no, a fake one. But I think it's still up there. It's still up there for Christmas. Put a hat on it. Santa hat on the corpse.
01:10:46
Speaker
Oh, thank you so much, Eric, for providing people with Toffee Cam. Toffee's under my lap desk at the moment. He likes burrowing into little tight spaces.
01:11:04
Speaker
Kree gives $5 and says, with this $5 I fund you. Now dance, dance for your money, dance. Now Kree. Our obligation is only to read out the words, not to obey the commands within them. Perhaps you should have read the small print. Give them a little white man jingle. You got full screen for the white man jingle. I forgot what show I just watched. It's like God gave the white man this dance.
01:11:30
Speaker
That's far too much vertical movement to be a white man down. That's horizontal. Alabama Inc gives $10 and says what breed is Toffee? Toffee is a Chihuahua mix. Just don't ask me what mixed with. He just that was the best guess the shelter had. He was like five years old and we got him. Hmm.
01:11:56
Speaker
Uh, Plastic Roses gives five dollars and says, Happy Holidays, my spouse introduced me to you all. He hasn't stopped talking about second wind. Appreciate the content. Boy, he sounds like quite a second windbag, Plastic Roses. That was good. Tell your spouse he's a real gem. A real, a real, a real superb. A big old fan of that as well. DarkGroove86 gives five euros says, Marty, were you good enough to beat Lice of P without using Spectres on boss fights?
01:12:25
Speaker
I got about 45 minutes into Liza P and then I quit. I was gonna sell. You guys have played way more Liza P than I have, so... Yeah, I got way further than that. I beat it, yeah. Spectres, I'm assuming, are like the spirit ashes? The summons? Yep. Yeah. Did you use... Yeah, I don't recall them being much help.
Nintendo's Approach to VR
01:12:45
Speaker
Oh no, they're good if you get some fruit upgrades on them. But yeah, didn't use them too much.
01:12:52
Speaker
Gay Bear Bro 2 gives $10 and says, with Nintendo generally being the first to experiment with game tech, handhelds, motion gaming, etc, how unlikely do you think their next system might be a full dive VR system?
01:13:04
Speaker
Not at all. I think Nintendo learned their lesson. They have resisted the VR pool thus far. They're done with single player stuff because they're the family unit, the family console, that's the one that all the Latinos go for. And so VR, one helmet, I don't think there's a draw for them. I mean, they have.
01:13:26
Speaker
I mean, the big they had the virtual boy, they had the labo. Um, both virtual boy, I would say was ahead of its time and bad labo. I was way, way bad. It was just bad. Um, but yeah, I do. I don't see Nintendo as being the one that being said, anytime I try to predict what Nintendo does, they, um, do something very different. So my prediction is that the, the next switch is going to be just a very similar to the current switch, almost a switch to, but I'm probably wrong.
01:13:58
Speaker
super switch. I can't even think of what it would look like. This is this biblically accurate switch. biblically accurate switch. It designs in accordance with the design specifications of the Ark of the Covenant. Is that what you're saying? That or the angels with like all these eyes going fear not. Because if you've read the Bible, if you've read the Bible, which I have, Fleety Bitch, it goes into surprising amount of depth as to the exact proportions of the Ark of the Covenant. And it's like a DIY guide.
01:14:28
Speaker
It's like the fourth chapter called numbers. It is just numbers. It's awful. Yeah, basically. At least it is what it says it is. Yeah. And then Harry Sun. Thank you so much in the tip jar. Appreciate you, Harry Sun.
Media and Body Representation
01:14:42
Speaker
And Doron Grossman Naples gives five dollars and says there was a neat article called Everyone is Beautiful and No One is Horny about how a lot of media fetishizes the body while desexualizing it. I know, I've made the point once in a review that there's a difference between sexualizing and having a character who's sexualized and a character who's sexual. As in, you can imagine them having sex as like a regular part of their lives. Marvel movies in a nutshell. Sexualized but lacking any sex to speak of.
01:15:11
Speaker
I think of, like, JRPG anime girls. There's a lot of anime girls that basically just designed to cater to fetishes, but you can never imagine them actually having sex with anyone. Yeah, I see what you mean. Could you imagine Bayonetta having sex with someone?
01:15:27
Speaker
Not having them survive after the fact, no. It strikes me the type that eats after mating. Because that's very clearly a game that's trying to be, you know, flamboyant and sort of sexually open with its, like, fetishistic element. But still, the character doesn't strike me as someone who would actually have sex with someone. Yeah, because it's like a hot art teacher going here. You're still sort of, you know, there's that separation. Yeah.
01:15:56
Speaker
Still maintain reverence to it. It hits in the fucking... It'd probably have to be a lot of, you know, destruction of the environment if she had to have sex with someone. It hits the Madonna whore complex. Yeah. That's what it is. Boom.
Impact of Internet Fame
01:16:11
Speaker
Christian Hansen gives 279 and says, has internet fame changed your opinion of yourself?
01:16:18
Speaker
Well, it's kind of had to, Christian Hansen, because I never used to think I had a decent sounding voice. But, you know, people have hammered into me over the years, but I do have a decent sounding voice, even a decent sounding singing voice. So I've just had to basically accept the fact that my voice sounds different in my head than it does to people listening to it. That's the case of everyone, right? Because it's coming, like you're hearing it through your own skull. So yeah.
01:16:41
Speaker
Yeah, but even when I'm listening to recordings of myself, I don't think my voice sounds that great. No, fair enough. But you know, everyone tells me Oh boy, I love listening to this people who aren't even trying to butter me up. Like people who like by my audio book and say like, well, I never heard of this author and I didn't thought the text was shit, but the voice recording was really good.
01:17:02
Speaker
You love that, don't you? Hey, get out the way, asshole, with the nice sounding voice. Yeah, yeah. How about your money? Has your internet fame changed your opinion on you?
01:17:12
Speaker
No, it's always humbling to occasionally meet someone who recognizes me for my work. I remember I went to Milwaukee, maybe it was almost a year ago, and I went to a bookstore that I used to live by, and I used to be in my regular bookstore, and it was back when just Yahtzee and I were doing something else, and the guy behind the counter was like, oh my god, I was watching your episode this morning while getting ready for work. I really appreciate you guys.
01:17:39
Speaker
That's incredible. I mean, it's the world to me like that. I don't know. That's just it's really cool. Especially when it's just sort of a small fleeting thing like that. It kind of puts in perspective that we make things that people enjoy and might get them through a shitty day. Which is cool. And stuff. You know, I Felicia day mistook me for Matt Mercer once. That's peak. I've there's nothing anyone can say to me that will go. I haven't met Felicia day, but I once nearly met her.
01:18:09
Speaker
She was in Brisbane for, like, the local game convention, Supernova, pop culture convention, and she just happened to be in my favourite bar at the time it was on. My favourite bar where I liked to sit at the bar and just drink and chat to people, but she was, like, surrounded by her fans, so I just, like, avoided them and just sat at the bar and drank, and the bartender was going, hey, that's Felicity Day over there, and I was like, oh, how interesting.
01:18:34
Speaker
And then she left. And then I posted a tweet saying, hey, that's funny. Felicity Day was just hanging out in my favorite bar. Then she replied, why didn't you introduce yourself, you asshole? See, that's the thing there. It always if one thing has changed is that I should have said something more.
Unlockable Characters in Games
01:18:53
Speaker
I'm too nonchalant. But then these people are like, oh, we were in the same location. We could have talked. It's like, oh, I should have said something. I'm sorry. Yeah. Oh, well.
01:19:03
Speaker
Ah, yes. So anyway, Yoshi Katoshi gives us all 99 and says what do you all think of games that have unlockable characters with completely different mechanics like Symphony of the Night or Lament of Innocence? I love those Spining of Isaac, getting Green Goblin after beating Spider-Man in the old Spider-Man games. I like a game that once you've beaten it, it unlocks a way for you to just take the game apart. That often with like an alternative character with silly mechanics.
01:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great thing for the people who really love the game and want to replay it. And then at the same time, if you want to bounce off and play something else, you don't feel like you're missing too much. Good stuff. Which is ism gives $25 and says Happy Holidays, gents. I hope you all enjoy
Holiday Gaming Plans
01:19:50
Speaker
your time off. What games are you planning on playing during break if any? Time to play March. I'm going up to the mountains with the in laws again.
01:20:01
Speaker
Oh, nice. You going to ski in? No, probably sit around like looking out over the snowy scenery, drinking hot chocolate and being, you know, thoughtful. Take your switch with you. I went skiing once and I fucking hated it. Go sledding. Go sledding. It's great. It's like skiing, but you get to sit down.
01:20:24
Speaker
I'd rather just not be covered in horrible wet snow that makes me feel cold and miserable stuff. Yeah, it's got a point there. Oh, me right now on the duck. If anything, I'm, I'm making a big list of all the games to be coming through in 2024. That way, after New Year's, I can just crank on those. So cookie cutter just came out. It's been looking neat. Oh yeah, I started on that. Haven't gotten to play yet.
01:20:49
Speaker
We're gonna be streaming that tonight, 6 p.m. Central, Casey, Jesse, and Jess. Gonna be sure to go. Maybe I'll play some more of that. I did play through Sanabi. Yeah, Casey's got a review of that coming up as well. I quite liked it. Yeah, he liked it a lot too. Really liked the grapple hook mechanics and he thought the story actually came together well.
01:21:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'd say so. I don't know if I'd like be shadows of doubt excited and wanting to push it to everyone I heard. But I like it. Is there early access? It's out, isn't it? Yeah, I think it's out. Yeah. Yeah. I think you just meant shadows without excited as in like not putting the Yeah, like rule breaking. Okay, I figured it's like rule breaking. I think I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah. What are you doing over the holidays?
01:21:39
Speaker
In terms of a game I haven't played at some of this, I need to sit down, restart, and fully play Alan Wake 2. It came out at just the worst fucking time when we changed jobs and I just haven't been in a headspace to sit down and totally immerse myself in that, so I'm going to do that. And then in my current quest to replay everything Final Fantasy VII adjacent, I finished the original and I'm going to be jumping into Crisis Core in Dirge of Cerberus soon.
01:22:07
Speaker
Well, Durgis Cerberus is really bad. Yes. I would like to my recommendation of playing Alan Wake 2 is don't be one of those people who feels like they need to kill every monster just because the combat mechanics are a thing. Okay. If you just disengage and avoid them where possible, you'll probably have a much more fun time. Okay, great. I still have that mindset from replaying on the Silent Hill games. So I'll just continue that. There you go.
01:22:36
Speaker
Ahem, the Chaos Card gives $1.99 and says, have you talked about how one of the creators of Baldur's Gate 3 said they won't do season passes because they created a big game worth the money?
Reception of Free DLC
01:22:45
Speaker
Quite.
01:22:45
Speaker
Yeah. Was it game pass? They don't want it on there. They want to buy it for the price that they put it up. Good. And then, um, God of War Ragnarok just gave out free DLC. That's like a really meaty bit, like a meaty story thing. Yeah. And the way everyone, whenever that happens, everyone goes, boy, it's nice when they do that. So one would hope that would be, uh, perhaps become a more common practice. Yeah. Again,
01:23:14
Speaker
It's not just chopping off bits of games and selling it back to us like it was for a while. Because it's it's instant goodwill, isn't it? Like the Stardew Valley guy just constantly putting out more content for his game. Yeah, yeah. It's hard to hate someone who does that for free. Maybe he's hiding something.
01:23:38
Speaker
Well, that's the cancellation of an individual that I probably would never be able to cope with. Eric Barone, don't get cancelled now. Yeah, that's his responsibility, not mine. You were the chosen one.
01:23:58
Speaker
There's no we face race valve or have you say that gives $5 and says we don't get holiday games anymore because the last one was so awful it killed an entire franchise dead rising for the mall. Oh, right. I think I remember getting that for free once I was like, why is it Christmas because it was like during games of summer? Oh, well, that's why I don't that's why they didn't do holiday games anymore. Isn't there? We got to bring him back
01:24:25
Speaker
Uber noob gives $19.99 US dollars says Merry Christmas all enjoy your time off next week. Great hoodie frost. Thank you. And then Mark Davis gives one 99 British pounds the best kind of pounds and says have a lovely Christmas gents xoxoxo. Oh, thank you, Mark. I was in this to you too.
01:24:48
Speaker
Uh, Devin Ashton Brenner gives $10. He says, do you think that more studios might do free DLC seeing how good of war just came out of nowhere with its DLC? And as far as I can tell, warmly received. Oh, didn't even know that was coming up. Uh, yes, I think more, I think people are sitting up and noticing how it gets you instant free goodwill. I think it depends because from what I've heard, this is like so different from the main game. As far as like the actual mechanics, you wouldn't want to pay wall or something like that.
01:25:17
Speaker
Well, it actually acknowledges God of War 1 to 3, apparently. Very, very much so. Fill my ass up, gives 50 Norwegian krona and says, how would you prefer your
Sequel Game Mechanics
01:25:30
Speaker
sequel made? One that improves upon existing mechanics or one that tries something new and daring? Well, both can be true. Fill my ass up. That's the wonderful thing about video games. I'll take, but if you had to choose, I would say I'll take the first one.
01:25:47
Speaker
Well, if it's a sequel, then yeah, improve upon existing mechanics. If you're making something new and daring, just make it a new game. What if it's like the third sequel? I mean, to bring back Metal Gear, I think Metal Gear does that. I think Metal Gear Solid 2 does both of those things very well. It improves upon the mechanics of the original while doing something very daring that a lot of people did not like at the time, but has been looked back on fondly.
01:26:12
Speaker
There you go. Hageroth gives $10 and says, have you heard of the Dralox creator? Seems like they're making an indie game in the background while writing out lore on their Discord might be cool to check out. Oh, Dralox is the game creator is the first word of the next sentence. Oh, yeah. Looks like little creatures. I'm not getting anything. You got a link?
01:26:38
Speaker
I just found like a tweet or a Twitter account. What is it called? Putting it in the chat. If this is the thing, it looks like fish men who fuck. If this is the thing I'm thinking of, but if you look at these pictures, it does look like fish men who fuck. Well, thank goodness someone's fucking. See, if humans are going to do it, then the fishermen will have to stand up. And Eric Headley, welcome to the Green Gang. Thank you so much, Eric.
01:27:07
Speaker
Fish don't actually fuck with physical contact though, do they? They just lay eggs and then one of them jerks off over them. These ones do. Yeah, these ones look like they use probably their head tentacles, much like the avatars. Okay, well, moving on. Raylin Pratt gives 20 Canadian dollars and says, been living the new Rogue Trader game. I'm just curious if there's any related upcoming content you can tease. Enjoy your break.
01:27:35
Speaker
Keep hearing about rogue trader Warhammer. Yeah. Yeah. I ain't played it.
01:27:41
Speaker
Yeah, it feels it's one of those games that slightly out of a lot of our wheel houses also came out very late in the year to when we're all sort of winding down for the rest of rest of the year. I know people people really liked it. I've got my review of avatar coming out this week. And that's enough of this year for me. Thanks. They do any technical sex in that in that video game? Like an avatar. Can you use your cynical? Yeah, that's like a big thing in the movies. They use their braids to like
01:28:07
Speaker
Yeah, you plug into like trees. And that's how you get upgrades. Oh, interesting. Is it like a USB was like, oh, the tree internet. I'm sure there's a pun there somewhere. Anyway. Anyway, Paul.
01:28:29
Speaker
Oh, sorry, Mr. One. Fella Guy gives $5 and says, is anyone a fan of the Ogre Battle games? It's a legit crime that Nintendo won't release Person of Lordly Calibur on the Switch. No, I've never played them.
01:28:42
Speaker
I've played a little bit of like ogre battle 64 and ogre battle tactics let us cling together And then I know if they release tactics ogre a new one on switch and PC or maybe just switch But yeah, I've never I've never dabbled too far into them. I know they love them though Did these used to be on arcade cabinets? Ogre battle. Yeah, I feel like I was in a bowling alley and they had this in there. I
01:29:06
Speaker
No, Ogre Battle was like Final Fantasy Tactics. Those would be weird games in the arcade. Maybe you're thinking of Gauntlet? Maybe, yeah. Has a bunch of like half naked dudes hanging out. That'll do you. Yeah. Paul gives $2 and says Marty, can you give me your best Nick impression?
Humorous Impressions
01:29:21
Speaker
Oh god. I'm Nick Calandra, Editor-in-Chief of Second Wind. Halo, DVD, tin sets, Mountain Dew, hockey, your band.
01:29:35
Speaker
Blu-ray. These give us money. Love Blu-rays. I love Blu-rays. The big one. And you scream like a girl in scary games. Oh, I love, I love getting, I love a spook him up. And these nuts. These nuts? Loves these nuts as well.
01:29:52
Speaker
Three gives $2 and says $2 clarification. It's pronounced cry. You should have read that before I read it at his name there. Sorry, guy. Doomriding is $5 and says thoughts on teaming up with dropout as fellow thriving Corpo survivors. Ooh, wrap out was the college humor, I believe. College humor folks that did a similar thing. I know. Oh, dropout. I see.
01:30:20
Speaker
Uh, yeah, very clever girl. Uh, I think Nick might've modeled some things after. Oh, after, after that, or it was taking a, it was keeping an eye on them in terms of like how they, how they did something that was similar to what we did.
01:30:40
Speaker
Well, okay, then. Yeah, I think there's quite a few corporate survivors make these days and I fear there's only going to be more. Can't all cross over with each other. There'd never be enough time in the day. Hunter is tired gives 999 and says just wanted to say you all are doing an incredible job with second wind can't wait to see what great things you bring to us in the future. Hope you all have a wonderful day.
01:31:06
Speaker
Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. Interesting. Then Humane Shield comes with 199 and says feck girls drink, which is a reference to the Irish sitcom Father Ted. I've seen it but I don't remember that. Who makes that? I'm a father Jack. Father Jack just can only communicate by yelling feck girls and drink. Yeah. God, it's been a while since I've seen Father Ted.
01:31:34
Speaker
Beneath 1111 gives 100 Swedish krona and says, idea the Yahtzee tries, write random game name on paper sheets, spread them on floor, put dog treats and see what Toffee will go for first. Also Frost Dance gave an angel wings. I fear the problem with that method beneath 1111 is that it will be biased towards whichever one was closest to Toffee's face. It's a practical dog. Yes.
01:32:00
Speaker
And he loves his little treats. When he's in the kitchen, he loves licking the floor all over where the babies sit. There doesn't even need to be treats there anymore. He just instantly beelines there and starts licking the floor. Phantom treats. Just refreshing the paint again because they keep flooding in. Oh, we're almost out of cat.
01:32:27
Speaker
Captain President gives tenuous dollars and says, merch idea, t-shirt with Marty's face captioned, don't mix your meats. It's true, we should not mix our meats. There's a story. We as a society need to have single meat meals. There is nothing wrong with mixing mates, surf and turf and all that. Do you think you'd go for surf and turf if it didn't rhyme yet? I feel like that's most of its buying power. I generally don't like seafood, so I wouldn't get it anyway. There we go, yes.
01:32:57
Speaker
I like all meats. I just, we just need to, we gotta keep them separated. The offspring. This is a weird hill you keep dying on. I don't keep dying on it. I just mentioned it once and then everyone keeps bringing it up and I'm being persecuted for my beliefs. This is true. It's not, Marty doesn't bring it up. We do it for him. You ever had barbecue takeout? You just order some chai tip and some pulled pork and maybe some chicken on the same plate. One meat, many sides.
01:33:25
Speaker
Wait, what if what if multiple meat but same animal so you've got like pork chops and links? Okay, it has to be the exact they have to have a certificate that it was the same physical animal. This is hits its belly. Okay, fine with eating beef with jello on the side. Yeah, as long as it's from that same cow. Interesting.
01:33:53
Speaker
Alright, then cry. Thank you for telling me how to pronounce your name gives $5 and says Yahtzee, do you find that being a maker of games affects your ability to enjoy games, since you know how the sausage is made, so to speak.
Developing vs Playing Games
01:34:05
Speaker
Well, it does in the sense that sometimes I'll play an indie game I really like and start thinking you asshole I wish I'd thought of that. Oh, that's gonna suck. Yeah. Yeah.
01:34:16
Speaker
Ooh. Because often you play something that's such a simple idea that makes you think you do yourself, oh, I could have done that. Do you have an example of that? If, I don't know, Mosalina maybe? No. Such a simple concept and yet nobody had done it. Oh, you swine. Oh, you beautiful swine.
01:34:41
Speaker
Onyx Alchemist gives $10 and says, Phoenix tier here. Just wanted to say thanks for the coverage of World of Horror. I've been buying friends copies for years and it's nice to see it getting more attention now that it's out of early access. Yeah. It's really cool. It's that sort of Junji Ito style rogue like thing. One bit, two bit game. What makes a rogue? Runs. Like you end a run and then you kind of redo. You're meant to get better at the game as you
01:35:08
Speaker
Well, runs are relatively short and you can fail runs and yeah. Um, but yeah, that's great stuff. It's very, uh, story focused. Yeah. One of the rare games it's on switch and it's on steam and it is way better on PC because that game needs a mouse interface, which it is kind of bunk trying to do. Is it proper runs or is it time loop?
01:35:32
Speaker
It is proper. So, uh, ostensibly to get through the game, you need to like complete five quests that are pulled from like a pool of like something like 30 or 40 that have some random elements to them.
World of Horror Game
01:35:43
Speaker
Uh, and you need to complete all five quests within a certain amount of time, sort of like the day to finish the game proper. But then you learn things about the quest so that the next times you do them, it's, it's easier and stuff. That's cool. Can I eat?
01:35:57
Speaker
Doran Grossman Naples gives $5 says Oh, and for the record as someone who ate Papa Murphy's every Thursday for eight years straight, it is terrible pizza. Just wow. Wow. He didn't say anything. We didn't bring it up this time. This is like the meat mixing and the incest and mine's gonna be Papa Murphy's rum. I like what you like. I just find the business idea a bit odd. But yeah, like what you like. What a contentious topic this continues to be.
01:36:27
Speaker
Pirate Captain Jack gives $5 and says going to put more hours into Baldur's Gate 3. I know I am over the holidays. See I'm tempted. I'm actually I'm like I'm real tempted but like the download alone. I think I've been playing Talos Principle 2 to finish off all the optional puzzles in my spare time. Still fun. Still fun as long as I'm listening to a podcast while I do it. I like puzzles. What's wrong with that?
01:36:57
Speaker
Yeah, puzzles are great. unshaven. Dylan gives $5 says thanks yards for calling me a windbag. I talk about second wind non stop been in the community since day one. Happy to continue to support second wind. Ah, the other side of that argument. World's greatest windbag. That's that's what all our fans are now they are windbags. Thanks for the money windbags.
01:37:26
Speaker
And finally, snake in the garden gives five euros and says forget meat mixing. Marty, please tell the class your shirt buttoning philosophy. I where do you start? When you when you are going to button up a shirt? Where do you start? On the job like which button you start from the top? First top first one. I start in the middle and more often than not I get it wrong.
01:37:50
Speaker
that several buttons down, I've realized I'm not aligned. Yeah, see, that's the issue with starting in the middle. I don't know what got you started on that habit. It feels much better. See, I used to do that. I've converted because that kept happening when I was like, I got a janky shirt. No, I'm just an idiot. How does it feel better to button from the middle? It feels better because when you get it right, that that is a thrill that cannot be replicated.
01:38:18
Speaker
Do you feel good about getting to the end of buttoning your shirt? You get to do it twice. One time out of five, I feel great. I feel warmer after I finished buttoning up my shirt. That's what you mean. I used to do that, but no. Loki's wager says, what's wrong with him?
01:38:42
Speaker
Yeah. Cause it's not like anyone's going to start from the bottom and being Hispanic. And I used to wear like plaid shirts. You get that little Cholo moment. So I was like, maybe there was like a wrestlers in WCW who just had the top top one button. They might've been Conan. Those are Cholo's. Yeah, that was great. If they only button the top. Yeah, he was great. Yeah.
01:39:05
Speaker
Uh, oh, Eric, uh, remember for one month, Eric, our producer, uh, used his one month member chat to say for my happy birthday, I ate an apple cake with Pikmin 4 decor. Oh my God. A cake with Pikmin 4. Did you take a picture? Apple cake. Also Argentinian barbecue. That sounds incredible.
01:39:26
Speaker
Otherwise, you ever had? Is it Brazilian barbecue where you like shaving off the sword or whatever? And they keep bringing you in meat until you tell them to stop. You'd hate it with your mixed meat problem. Wait, they what? Oh, a Brazilian restaurant like a Brazilian barbecue restaurant. You basically you sit at a table and you've got like a little token on the table. That's like green light. And if you flip it over, it's a red light. And as long as it's on the green light,
01:39:53
Speaker
People keep coming to your table with like meat on skewers and says, would you like some of this? And you say yes, sir. And they keep doing that until you turn your token over to indicate you are full. I take that as a challenge. I'd sign a DNF or a DNR because I'm going to go into a coma. That's beautiful. Yeah. Fogged a chow. That's the big chain version of that. Never had one. I grew up on a farm. Oh, that'd be great.
01:40:24
Speaker
Snake in the Garden gives two euros and says, you know, your sicko squad loves you, Marty. Sicko squad. And then Mary Mello gives $5 and says, here for FYI, got lots of Papa Murphy's growing up. It was the only pizza you could get for a restaurant on food stamps, because it wasn't pre-cooked. That's the thing. That was the detail we didn't know about. Yeah, that's the thing there. Someone said I think it was Monday.
01:40:46
Speaker
who said, Little Caesars shouldn't be bullied because the guy helped Rosa Parks and all this kind of stuff. And I go, someone's ethics, I do not take into account when I'm talking about the taste of the food. Sure, sure. Right, that they're doing the food stamp thing. Yeah. I've not taken any of that into account. No, that is always funny. The Little Caesars thing is where the owner or the CEO of Little Caesars
01:41:09
Speaker
but quietly paid Rosa Parks his rent until the day she died and never made a big deal out of it. And I'm like, that is amazing. Your pizza still tastes like cardboard. Yeah, I was more dickish when that was brought up to me. Because they're like, he helped Rosa Parks. She should have helped him make a better pizza. I hired her. I'm Gandhi. Oh, terrible cook. Hope you like rice, Grool.
01:41:36
Speaker
Anyway, that's all the super chats. Let's start wrapping things up before any more come in. Because I got to go get my lunch and shit. Thanks for listening to this the windbreaker podcast. I was yet to fuck off. Brazil. Do not fuck off there. That is a wonderful donation.
01:41:55
Speaker
gives 500 plans and says here's a token from me. So you keep bringing us the meat. You are all wonderful. Oh my god. Yeah, we're gonna mix. We're gonna mix the meat. You're gonna have so much meat. You're gonna you're gonna choke on us. Wait, what? Anyway, yes. But it's lever and Sebastian Cruz. We're here to we were
01:42:12
Speaker
And we've got we haven't quite finished our content for the current year. We're going we're off work as of the end of this week. Off from the 23rd onwards until then we've got shit coming out pretty much every day. I've got my fully ramblymatic review of avatar coming out on Wednesday. Avatar fun tears of Pandora.
01:42:38
Speaker
Uh, and I will be streaming something that day for Yahtzee tries. Haven't decided what we'll do. Nick suggested house flipper, but I've been playing that solidly since it came out.
Upcoming Content and Schedule
01:42:52
Speaker
So no, uh, fresh perspectives on that. I'm afraid. What about cookie, cookie clicker? What's the name of that game? Cookie cutter and cookie clicker.
01:43:02
Speaker
Oh, cookie cutter. Yeah. Oh, my God. But I didn't really. I started but I didn't really connect. So yeah, maybe we'll do that. Yeah. cookie cookie cookie cutter. Yes, it is. Two games. The other one could be cookie clicker. Who knows? Um, yes. And I got a semi rambled matter coming out on Thursday as well, which will be on the subject of endings fittingly for the end of the year.
01:43:31
Speaker
And then I will be featured as one of the cast members in Adventure is Nigh, the latest episode of which will be out on Saturday.
01:43:40
Speaker
before we all go off on break. What have you guys got to show for yourself?
01:44:02
Speaker
with another cold take talking about the permanence paradox, how our games should be able to last for a turn, or they could just be gone tomorrow. Yep. It's a bummer. And that should be it for me, I believe.
01:44:18
Speaker
Cool, and then yeah, in about an hour, Darren's new backdrop will be going up on Rebel Moon, the latest film by Zachary Snyder, the Justice League himself. It has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of any movie in his career, which is saying something. So Darren's video on that will be going up. Later tonight, like I mentioned, over on the live channel, Casey, Jesse, and Jess will be playing the aforementioned Cookie Cruncher.
01:44:51
Speaker
If 6 p.m. Central, I toss a link in there over on the live channel. Go hang out with them and support them. And then, yeah, we'll have stuff throughout the week. We'll have a new bite size tomorrow, new design dev on Friday. Streams tomorrow. Oh, you guys are doing the stream six thing tomorrow? Oh, that. Oh, that's right. 3 p.m. Central. Yeah, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're... Big announcement, yeah. Yeah, we'll be figuring that out in the details. But that should be mostly on Twitch.
01:45:12
Speaker
That's never going to learn the name of that game.
01:45:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's gonna be a massive event for everybody to come on and get some free shit. Oh, yeah. So 3 p.m. Central tomorrow, we'll have the full details, but that should be YouTube, Nick and Jamaite, I believe playing games that hundreds of people in the community can play.
01:45:36
Speaker
Uh, at the same time, so we'll be showing off that stream six stuff, which is very cool. Um, tomorrow evening, we'll have the fire link podcasts on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, because on Wednesday, Nick is going to be on the min max trivia show. Oh yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, Thursday, uh, we'll be, we'll be closing out the year. Uh, Casey, now we'll be doing some more devil may cry too, which spoilers is bad.
01:45:59
Speaker
Did you cry yet? Yeah. You know that type of cookie cutter, I have to concentrate when I say it because I have this, one of the quirks of my accent is that I'm stuck between the North of England and the South of England. So I sometimes mess up my ooze. Sometimes I say bucket when I'm trying to say bucket. But if I wasn't concentrating, I'd say cookie cutter, which doesn't sound right at all. Actual Burmese. You're not from the black country, are you?
01:46:25
Speaker
Yeah. Or I'd say cucky cutter. And that's a different thing altogether. It's a game I'd play. See what's going on over there. Okey cutter. It's having the having the two in the same title. Yeah, messes me up. Lovely. Anyway, that'll be it from us then. Toffee's staring at me. So yeah, yes. Oh, yeah, that's off. Okay, see you all next time.
01:46:54
Speaker
Bye everyone. Have a great holiday. Thank you all so much. You're great.