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Four Years In, How's This Console Generation Holding Up? | Firelink Podcast
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This week on Firelink, Marty, Nick, and KC chat about the state of this current console generation, four years after the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
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Support and Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
This podcast is brought to you by us. Since Second Wind operates 100% independently, we rely on your support to help us continue delivering the great content you love. Consider checking out our Patreon if you want to access ad-free versions of every podcast, plus your name featured in our video credits, as well as other exclusive perks. So if you like what you see, hear, or smell, maybe, visit our Patreon page and become part of the community today. Now back to the show.
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Firelink Podcast, episode number 44 for Wednesday, November 13th, 2024. I'm Marty Saliva, as always, joined by Casey Wosu, Nick Calandra, and of course, producer Eric. And have we got a show for you today? This, dare I say, is going to be the greatest podcast we've ever done. Wow. No pressure. This is this is an episode 50, right, Marty?
00:01:00
Speaker
so This is episode 44, unless my numbers are off, because I thought Windbreaker was episode 49, and apparently it was episode 50 this week, so. I don't know how it works. i don't know how either the works ah But yeah, welcome, everyone. we got ah We got a wonderful show for
Industry News and Moves
00:01:13
Speaker
you today. We're going to talk about ah big developments from ah one of one of our ah one of the most acclaimed Japanese developers who's who's left ah his longtime position at Capcom to start to join a new studio under the umbrella of Tencent, so we'll talk about that.
00:01:27
Speaker
um Maybe a little bit of a sprinkling of predictions for the game awards, because I feel like we're we're hours away from getting those game award nominations. And we don we don't need to go far into it, but the question I'm going to posit is what six games are getting that game of the year nomination?
00:01:43
Speaker
That's the question I want to posit. And then that's going to sort of lead us into the the topic de jour, which is a couple topics combined, which is the state of the current console generation. Because this week marks the fourth anniversary of the release of both the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X. um And then we also got the PS5 Pro just came out. And Phil Spencer sat down and gave some interviews to to Bloomberg and to Steven Tatillo with some some interesting tidbits on where where Xbox is at right now. so Sort of just ah ah doing a little un-backing, if you will, of ah where where everyone's at right now. I don't know why. We put a switch in there just because, oh, big little brother. if You like to like invite them to things. like something Yeah, something will happen at some point. They live in a post-generation world. Yeah, and then, of course, all the stuff we've been watching playing. How are you guys doing?
00:02:34
Speaker
doing good. It's been raining all day here. I, you know, if you hadn't told me it was fall, I would have thought it was spring the past few weeks. Yeah. Seasons do not mean anything anymore.
00:02:46
Speaker
it's always war big It's just just one smeary blob across the across all four seasons, which which we like to see. I did want to bring up because we missed last week for several reasons that some stuff happened that I feel like we well, I don't know. We're not probably at the best place for this sort of news. But I feel like it's something we would have brought up had we been here. Sure. And it got overlooked. ah Tony Todd died.
00:03:14
Speaker
Yes. And actually that that is going to tie into something I want to talk about later. OK. Because he's the antagonist of the new Indiana Jones game, which might be his last game. Right. Yeah. Yeah. i And he he very recently was he was the voice of ah like Venom in the movies and stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:30
Speaker
um And Quincy Jones died, famed music producer. ah He's responsible for so much like legendary music. yeah And I felt like that just kind of went like a blip because of just everything else that was happening last week. yeah yeah Like that's a big deal. like that is a that's a But the thing is, he was like 90 something years old, like that man lived a life.
00:03:51
Speaker
Yeah, that guy was like deep into his career when he was producing a thriller. We already lived a life that he's like, hey, I'm gonna produce thriller. um like His daughter's Rashida Jones, who is yeah you know also just doing great. So you know what? Great job. Well done. That's how you do it. That's how you live a life.
00:04:10
Speaker
quiy joke ah Yeah, that one was really sad too. Not all deaths are sad, but that was one of those like fuck like gone gone Yeah, a little bit like land critic and everything um The other year wouldn't yeah, just a just a fucking bummer Tony Todd is so good Jesus. Yeah, it's like the greatest. He's like the best dude ever now. He's not the best Well, he's sad at all. A lot of those people have a cup but yeah But he's like, yeah, ka his performance is getting better. This is one of my all time favorites. Yeah, he's just been like low key, like sort of like this background Hollywood known. I did like a lot of people probably never just knew his name, but like he always had like a presence and like it it just sucks that like, yeah, like he's he didn't get to live his Quincy Jones life.
00:04:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's also known as he's the like harbinger of of fate in ah the final destination movies. He's like the dude they keep going to because he like understands the whole rule of death and final destination. Also, I did not know that near and dear to my heart. The Quincy Jones song that might mean mean the most to me is. If soul boss and over, which is the Austin Powers.
00:05:18
Speaker
like doesn i love like billy jean like that's it i did I did not know Quincy Jones produced that. Incredible, right? That's amazing. That's amazing. um So, you know, that's a life well-lived when you produce Thriller as well as the Austin Powers song. So, good good for him. ah Yeah, that's great. I'm gonna be honest, I got worried when you were like, there's some stuff we need to talk about from last week. i was like yes oh go but seriously yes There's this thing we didn't know about. It was sad. wouldn now say I thought you wanted to talk about the election. I was like, Casey, what are we doing?
00:05:58
Speaker
was think I don't know where you're going to steer us. I didn't know where you were going to steer us, but I was excited no matter where it was. um Before we ah before we move on to our news biddies, a couple of super
Anniversaries and Audience Interaction
00:06:12
Speaker
chats came in. Thank you so much to folks. ah Obviously, folks who who support us over on on YouTube during we are using Super Chats, when we stream on Twitch, people who support us on Twitch, all of our incredible patrons, which of course this weekend we're gonna be holding a big ol' almost 11 hour, 10 hour, one year anniversary stream on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. Central. ah We'll all be there. All your faves will be out, so you'll be there. Jack will be there and they'll be there. Guys, I don't know if I could break this right now. You know what, Darren just messaged me like an hour ago? Bought a Switch.
00:06:42
Speaker
all of He's like, I bought a Switch and he said, quote, my Saturday morning is going to be me doing a ah Mario Kart training montage like in Rocky. to get right second and I put him on the schedule for Mario Kart 8 and not knowing he didn't have a Switch. I thought he had a, he always talks about Nintendo. I thought he had a Switch. No, because he had a Super Nintendo.
00:07:07
Speaker
wishes dedication ah so So Darren didn't even say to Nick, Hey, I don't have a switch. What did I do? he just where boughtnet yes that's me there that's like deeply irish him i love ah But yeah, yeah, please tune in for that Saturday. We'll, we'll be streaming all day, all sorts of fun games. Return to Doke upon as well. So tune in for that.
00:07:26
Speaker
But of course, our our Super Chats bookworm, thank you so much for a $2 donation. I'm still rocking my 3DS. You know what? I cracked open a 3DS over the past week. I kind of want to save a lot of that talk for tomorrow though. Like you because i'm but cracked it open to play or you cracked it open?
00:07:43
Speaker
Oh no, I cracked it open in a good way, not in a bad way. It's still functional. I opened it because I've been, uh, listen, you know, I've missed Metroid because we didn didn't do Metroid last week. I've been missing Metroid. I've been playing a lot of 2D Metroid games and I've gotten to, I've done all the Gameboy Advance ones and now I'm on to Samus Returns, which was a 3DS game. And let me tell you, that game's hard to play.
00:08:04
Speaker
that be very hard to play. Um, but I'm glad you're still rocking your 3DS. I play my, uh, I have a, uh, a 3DS that may or may not have every 3DS and DS and GBA game on it, um, through extremely legal means. Uh, and it's great. I'm a big fan of it. Don't let Nintendo hear that.
00:08:24
Speaker
ah does you go set it alive
00:08:30
Speaker
Uh, no, youngling gets gored by Rambi the rhino, uh, old hunter 77 with a $2 demo. Thank you so much. Since I got free tacos, you know, my taco money, you know what? Hold on there. Congrats. I'm getting free tacos. so co when accomplish is Do you remember when LeBron James tried to, I feel like I bring this up a lot, tried to trademark Taco Tuesday? Because I feel like that that, like the fucking gall of that. He's not even a restaurant though. the Also, I don't associate him with Taco Tuesday. Where did that come from? don't
00:09:04
Speaker
Like if you want to do like Dunk Friday, okay, you could do Dunk Friday. you talk I just wanted to be like a Shaq cause at Papa Jones, you've got the Shaq pizza. you already patron of LeBron James with a taco in the corner. That was so quick. but but you That was very fast. That's incredible. Uh, you never failed to impress me. Uh,
00:09:25
Speaker
Far, uh, far frogs, too many less, far frogs than too many less. Fucking did that on purpose. I feel like J.J. is the name on purpose. Yeah, that name has been jazzed up. No, I'm sorry, fuck me up. But if I don't know, thank you so much. I've been doing more console things amidst long COVID after being a PC gamer for years. To me, it feels like the needle's barely moved.
00:09:46
Speaker
We'll definitely begin.
Game Awards Speculation
00:09:47
Speaker
That's definitely something we'll be getting into. And then Fat Cock. Welcome Fat Cock. Friend of the show. Five dollar don't know. So I've heard that Sig is trying to quietly lay off staff. The makers of Star Citizen. Oh no. I thought they held like StarCon though. Didn't StarCon happen? And they're like, it's coming out in 2026. It's coming. Didn't they say? Not Star Citizen. Squadron 42, the single player thing.
00:10:14
Speaker
You know what? That game doesn't deserve for me to understand what game switch. I haven't earned the right for me to differentiate between the games. They can't lay people off until they've at least released the game, I feel like. No. and up they can Turns out they can. Nick, I'm still waiting for that exposé. Or just for you to play 10 minutes of it, just tell me what it's like.
00:10:35
Speaker
and I think Jay Jay has told us that he has actually put money into our citizen. By the end of this year, we need to stream this game. OK, well, the last you go I'll do it. I'll do it on our last stream of the year. No. Well, not not December 20th, but the day before. OK. OK. You're you're pre last year. There you go. Yeah. Everyone get excited. Sounds like.
00:11:00
Speaker
It absolutely smells like something else. Jumping into
Tencent's Strategy
00:11:05
Speaker
ah news quick, the first bit that we mentioned here from gamedevelopercut.com, Hetiaki Etsuno, the director behind games like Dragon's Dogma, Devil May Cry 5, longtime Capcom employee has been working since the 90s there, ah left the student leftff Capcom earlier this year, felt like it was like on one of those good and don'ts, you know, ah on good terms, said he was excited for the future. And then the news dropped today that he is joining a ah Tencent subsidiary studio called Lightspeed Studios. They're opening a Japan studio. And they're going to be, he's going to be heading the team and working on a 3D character action game, as you would expect from someone like him. ah So Lightspeed.
00:11:45
Speaker
is a name that I wasn't familiar with, but it's from Googling and they have, it's it's a studio under the Tencent umbrella that has locations worldwide. They have L.A. locations and Singapore locations in England. And they kind of made their mark by doing PUBG Mobile.
00:12:00
Speaker
But then they also revealed a game last year at the Game Awards, which I'd forgot until like an hour ago called The Last Sentinel. And it was a, it was just a CG trailer, but it looked almost like Ghost in the Shell mixed with Terminator, kind of like a near future Tokyo. And it was like a cinematic trailer of like a person fighting some dudes and then it turns out she's a cyborg, that kind of thing. But that game is going to be a triple A narrative driven open world game, they said. didn't sound like multiplayer, didn't sound like free to play or anything like that. So, um, this game, the last Sentinel or it's, you know, this game, uh, the last set and Sentinel is a game that sounds like it's going to be an open world, triple A narrative driven, non-microtransaction II game. It's, you know, this game sounds like it's going to be a triple eight character action game. So, you know, what he's known, the van of devil. Yeah. So, um,
00:12:52
Speaker
Obviously, when people hear Tencent, they tend to a little bit. like Understandably, any any of those big companies that catamari a ton of studios and talent and and ah have questionable sources of money ah ah can can lead us a bit astray.
00:13:09
Speaker
I don't know. It's in those games are really cool. And if he gets a level of freedom here that maybe he felt like he didn't have a Capcom, which is interesting because I feel like he's been working on like Dragon's Dogma 2 was like had to be a pet project. Right. Because yeah, that was kind of like a reward for like a job well done in other areas. It it seemed like. Yeah. Yeah. but i'm I'm
Creative Freedom in Gaming
00:13:28
Speaker
curious because it's you know, is he like one of the last like big name Capcom dudes? Because like almost everyone else has left. Right. Like ah What's his name? I mean, Shinji Mikami left. Yeah, Shinji Mikami. Kamiya left. Kamiya with Platinum, who has now left Platinum. Who is... ah Does Street Fighter have like their own Harada? Like Harada to attack him. Oh, no? Yes. Is that a man? Yes. that's yeah against real name. He dresses up as Blonk a lot. ah I feel like if if if I was working on Blonk against that also. Yeah, Yoshinori Oh, no. Yeah. All right. So, yeah, he's still there.
00:14:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's just because like, ah you know, it's the same like Resident Evil has a bunch of different teams. Now there's no like maybe Capcom's just getting away from that idea of like a single does Monster Rancher like have a dude. Monster Hunter. Yeah, honestly, yeah, I don't know who if there's like a singular entity yeah that leads that.
00:14:29
Speaker
I mean, maybe they're just getting away from that. Like maybe, um, I don't know. I think it's just by all those developers are like, we made a ton of money. We want to go do our own thing now and not be tied to franchises forever. Yeah. And that's the interesting, like we mentioned those, those, a lot of those names you mentioned earlier, um,
00:14:46
Speaker
with Shinji Mikami, ah creator of Resident Evil, and and most recently, the Evil Within and stuff left that studio, and then Kamiya left Platinum. and so and Both of them have not announced what their next things are, but um I could envision a thing like this, like them landing at a place like this, ah or you know getting kind of deals where and I imagine Tencent just kind of a fat check. And he's probably like, I don't know. Yeah, they can do that. Yeah. Yeah. So, um yeah, something worth keeping an eye on. Obviously, i had this game, I imagine, will not be coming out for a very long time. But, you know, the Eastern market has been really interesting to watch because, you know, they've been so focused on gotcha and mo games and all that for so many years. And they seem to be actually doing what the Western publishers should be doing is
00:15:39
Speaker
ah taking that money and funnel it back into new single player projects and all that instead of trying to create open so ah live service after live service after live service game. You know, yeah, it's an impact. And I mean, ah in the and the Chinese market, like, you know, miHoYo has every life service game part of the sun and they're all huge. That's a studio like specifically designed to make those games. But like, I think NetEase and ah you know cap even calcom was trying to get them on a market they just canceled that blue protocol thing
00:16:13
Speaker
and all that keep forget that yeah A lot of the Korean publishers are getting into ah single player stuff because like, uh, Neo is they, they did a lot of stuff and they made lives or published lies at P. Yeah. Um, we just got the news that, uh, shift up the, the studio behind, uh, Stellar blade, uh, this week, the big thing was like showing off the near collaboration, but they said the game's coming to PC, uh, next year. And then they also said that they're like opening up a Western studio. That's going to help. And they wanted, they want an animation. to thing I think I just came up with my unpack topic that I needed earlier today. Well, you say that one for the future. There you go. Yeah. Say that one for a rainy day. Cause this, this story is never going to end ah for being perfectly honest, but um yeah, it'll be something to, it'll be interesting to keep in, ah keep in mind. Also there is, I feel like every one of the last several ah Jeff Keeley showcases, whether the summer ones or the winter ones ah are, uh,
00:17:10
Speaker
Uh, it's possible that, uh, we're going to see a game from some of these studios. Uh, so, you know, we're going to see one of those games where we're like, Oh, what is this? It's a new IP. And then you click into it and it's, uh, uh, then you, you know, you look into it and it's one of these games from, Oh, they use their money from the gotcha market and ended up, uh, you know, uh, the triplay space, which is always cool to see. Um, it's yeah, like why?
00:17:36
Speaker
aren't more companies, I guess, copying. like you You mentioned earlier, like Tencent's endless pockets seat like feels dubious, but isn't it just from like good investment? like They give everyone a lot of money, but then like they have hands in just all of these actually very popular ah i p So like that money, just like they just get paid back for all the investment that they've made. like They kind of make good choices and like they back like quality products and they just ask for like a little piece. They don't ask for control. They don't say, now that we've put money into this, make it the way we want. They just kind of let the people they give money to cook. And that seems to have been working out. Yeah, yeah.
00:18:17
Speaker
different Yeah, I don't remember. Maybe that is something that's going to be happening now. um Like maybe the floodgates are opening for that. I don't know. We'll see. Also, apparently, apologies. ah the I did a lie. Stellar Blade is coming to PC, but the LA studio and Netflix thing are not, were not confirmed. I blame Eric for that because I just read a tweet that Eric shared. yeah did No further reason. Wario 64. How are we supposed to live in a society where we can't trust Wario 64? I just trust the deals. I don't know if I trust the news. like
00:18:58
Speaker
For shame Eric. No, for shame I mean for not doing just the smallest bit of due diligence on that just a smooth click and I could have figured that out. And before moving forward, Tekkokk back with a $50 dono, a Shiba Inu dressed with a sick ass helmet.
00:19:18
Speaker
Saying you're amazing. I don't know how that works. It's like samurai regalia on that chibi. I would play this game. What if Ghost Tsushima, the next one, just start Ghost of Shiba Inuusha.
00:19:31
Speaker
but
00:19:34
Speaker
I'll probably play the the one they're making instead of this one. this yeah one One thing you forgot earlier on the Patreon is if you are not signed up yet, you can get 15% off any tier,
Patreon Offers
00:19:44
Speaker
both monthly and annual. I didn't forget. I just didn't even know that. That wasn't something I forgot. That wasn't even knowledge I had. You were in the meeting yesterday. We didn't have a meeting yesterday. it's monday evening It was I don't know what's going on. We forgot.
00:20:02
Speaker
Forgot with what? At what point when I was talking, did I forget that? You can't forget something you didn't forget in the first place. But nothing I was talking about was ah about that. I thanked people for being patrons. I didn't even tell them to subscribe on Patreon. I just thanked them. It's OK.
00:20:19
Speaker
it it You forgot that you forgot that you also forgot. It's just gaslighting at its best. Great work, everyone involved. God bless us, everyone. And Zoom's bear with a $2 dodo. Thank you so much, Zoom. Marty's suggestions, not available on my device.
00:20:35
Speaker
wait all my my suggestions like my mobile device and my mobile game suggestion oh do you got an android if you got an android i don't know what's going on what's not available on android that's available on other stuff i don't know i don't know what he was talking about several weeks ago this is two weeks ago yeah when you made all your mobile game suggestions and they can't play any of them i don't know i don't know to tell you also so two weeks to ago i've emptied that recycling but i don't really ready know I remember some of the stuff you brought up were things that were part of Apple Arcade. I don't know if they've been freed from that. I don't know if Apple Arcade is still like a thing that's running, but that might be a problem.
00:21:13
Speaker
but more like a zoo problem than do you Oh, a zoo. That's how the zoo problem more than a new problem is really good. Okay. You want to put that on a t-shirt? That on a fucking t-shirt. 15% off for y'all.
00:21:29
Speaker
And before before we get into our our main topic, I did want to touch on, so the the Game Awards are, what what are we? One, two, three, four weeks away from the Game Awards. so Thursday, December 12th. Of course, we'll be doing our our usual watch-along shenanigans. But we're also right at that point where we should be getting nominations any day now. um I would not be surprised if they were literally tomorrow.
00:21:52
Speaker
um And ah we'll we'll also be doing our Windbreaker thing where Yahtzee tries to guess nominees when we talk about them. but But I don't want to go deep into it, but I was just wondering, as we get into talking about this generation and this year and everything, what do you guys, six games are always nominated, unless they change that. What six games do you guys think will be nominated? Okay.
00:22:16
Speaker
a It's Greg Nashville, guard. You think, okay. I'm getting the feeling you didn't do the homework that I said, please do the homework. is this podcast row You didn't do the homework where I said, please do the homework. How I start with my list? i mean yeah I did, I did, I did a list, but I also, I did like extra credit as well. ah so good So you got some oh eyes outside looking in.
00:22:44
Speaker
i mean because I'll just go into it then. um my I picked the stuff that I feel like we'll get picked, which was the homework. Then I was like, I didn't play most of these games. Sure. Yeah. So like, here's the stuff that I would think needs a place on this list. So I just kind of made a second list of stuff that I've played that I think would okay would make the conversation.
00:23:05
Speaker
Uh, and there's, there's maybe like one crossover thing possibly, but I think call of duty black ops six is definitely going to be a contender. Like that's probably like the best call of duty, uh, in several years. A lot of folks seem to have said I had a great time with the multiplayer. Um, also review the level like got nines at IGN and stuff. So, and these are the people who are some of the part of the voting block.
00:23:27
Speaker
Right. So I think that's a shoe in for a nomination. At least, uh, Astro bot seems to be a hot topic conversation. I don't get it. I've also not played it. So I'm not going to like weigh in super heavily, but like just it like that.
00:23:42
Speaker
Like it was the same with the other one, the Astros playroom. Like folks were raving about it. I put time into it and was like, this is doing nothing for me. And so like this, this sort of bigger sequel looks very much the same and like nothing ah about it or nothing I've heard about it has like convinced me that it's something that should give a try. Like I probably will continue to be, but to bounce off of it is my guess. Yeah. Balachro is going to get a nomination. That's just super hot.
00:24:11
Speaker
Not on my list of I would not give it a nomination because I don't understand that game, but I think that would be one of the two indie games. Other people like it, yeah. Yeah. What was that, three? I think Metaphor refantazio will get a nod, which that would be like the dark horse. Hulldiver's two because they they they they want to like show, they want to pay homage to the success it's had, even though i it will not win. but Like they're not running for winner. And I think I think... See, this one was a bit of a toss-up. Maybe Power World, for similar reasons to Helldivers 2, but won a game that I did play a ton of, I think ZZZ could get a nomination, and I think it would it would deserve that six spot more so than, say, a Power World or Helldivers 2.
00:25:01
Speaker
Johnny ZZZ. Look at you. You still ZZZ in every day? Not every day, but yeah. When I when i get some time, I do hop in, put some time in. I share four of those with you. I do think Bellatro, Helldivers, Metaphor, and Astrobot are going to get numbs. My last two there are Animal Well.
00:25:25
Speaker
I think it's going to get also indie game representation and a nod. And I think Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is going to get out. I completely forgot that came out this year. And I think it's actually going to win. I think that that is going to win the whole thing. Yeah, I think there's enough nostalgia in the voting base. And it also came out early enough in the year to where it's a weird thing because it's one of those if it came out early in the year.
00:25:49
Speaker
Are people gonna remember it? Is it fresh in their head? But if it came out early in the year, you had a longer tale to play it. Whereas like Metaphor only came out like a month ago. and the And the voting for this stuff had to be done a few weeks ago. So like, you didn't even do a flip that game quick. um I do think they'll be nominated, but I don't think it'll win. My big question mark is I don't know what Shadow of the Earth Tree is.
00:26:12
Speaker
I don't know if that can be nominated. I went back and looked at nominees for every game awards, and there's never been DLC or expansions as a nominee. So I probably disqualified within, right? I just don't know. There also really hasn't been a kick-ass expansion or DLC. Really, that's deserved.
00:26:30
Speaker
but But they, I think they separate those out, right? They usually have their own sort of expansion slash DLC category. if Yeah. there's like go some going Yeah. Something like that wasn't nominated didn't win. I would be shocked if shadow of the retreat was nominated for a game of the year. Sorry. What it what was the first part of that? Blood and wine, the Witcher three expansion. Oh yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I guess not. And I mean, like the game words does love, uh, uh,
00:26:57
Speaker
From Soft Jesus, I forgot their name. Like, Sekiro won Game of the Year for 2019 and Elden Ring won for 2022. So um i yeah I feel like they're just gonna... I don't know what the voting rules are. I i don't know. I imagine this will be an ongoing though, but um it's tough because that might be... Even like when I talk about like, what's my favorite game? but Like, I don't know where I put...
00:27:18
Speaker
Shadow of the Air Tree. like I don't know if i in my head if I consider it. I always consider it in a remake kind of like nebulous in the same place where I'm putting like Silent Hill 2 and like Persona 3. But those get nominated. Remakes absolutely get nominated for Game of the Year. I mean i just thought Final Fantasy 7 was going to win. That's a remake, so what do I know? that is Yeah, you're right. That is a remake.
00:27:38
Speaker
and well be okay you before any games do you do you think there's any standouts there ah yeah all i was gonna say a shadow tree shadow the ear tree isve i've been thinking about a lot lately just kind of thinking about like how much how little it stuck with me this year oh interesting yeah Yeah, I mean, i I liked it when I played it, but like I didn't.
00:27:57
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I just didn't like, I think maybe just because it wasn't as fresh as Elden Ring was at the time. It just didn't yeah stick around as long, but. Yeah, it was kind of more Elden Ring, right? Like it didn't yeah do too much different. Yeah. My my six would be Astrobot, Metaphor, ah Animal Well, Bellatro. What was that for? Helldivers 2, I think is definitely going to be up there. ah the the The last one, like,
00:28:26
Speaker
um ah Well, obviously it'll be Final Fantasy. That'll be up there for sure. I was just always iffy on remakes. I was looking through like the list of the most highest rated games this year. It's like kind of shocking the amount of like just remakes that are up there. It's Final Fantasy Silent Hill 2. It's all anyone's personal really. Persona 3, Paper Mario. Yeah.
00:28:48
Speaker
Yeah, the interesting thing is none of us mentioned a Nintendo game to be nominated game of the year, which I don't think like I like Zelda. I liked Paper Mario. I don't think they're going to. And I have mixed feelings on brother ship, which we'll talk about later.
Console Generations and Innovations
00:29:02
Speaker
It's end of console life releases right now. So like, yeah, they're not putting their best stuff.
00:29:09
Speaker
Yeah. just Even like even their B teams make interesting things. It's just that they're a teams are assumedly working on games for the next console. And I do think metaphor is going to take it actually, though. so i would I would love that. It'll take game of the year, you think? I think so. so you You know, it'll be more fresh in people's minds. And I think, you know, I think I think Bellattro's got it.
00:29:38
Speaker
There's a lot of Bellatro boys out there. yeah like like And it's been a while since like ah like an indie thing has been crowned king of the games. Like they they like the last couple have been like high profile, big AAA things. So like, I think there is going to be like a ah shift of folks being like, we want to recognize the smaller stuff again.
00:29:57
Speaker
That's not if Bellato wins over animal. Well, that's going to be my stray moment. It's going to be me just losing my goddamn mind and be like, you can't I know these games are different, but you can't do this. Then you're going to have to hate play Bellato so you can really understand why you hate it. I tried playing. I just don't get it. Somebody somebody in chat mentioned Wukong.
00:30:21
Speaker
and Uh, get off Twitter before it's going to blue sky. Cause if that game's not nominated, that's going to be a stolen election. yeah I mean, we're calling it stellar blade. Like I feel like they had their moments, but like no one's.
00:30:37
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. They had their stickiness that that Devil May Cry five or a second row ahead. They just talked about their names. They had their moments elevated by culture war nonsense. I mean, they're they're both fine games, but they're they're either one fine. Either one tells like a story that sticks with you or anything like that. They both very good looking games. Stellar Blade has way better gameplay than Wukong, I would say. Agreed. Absolutely. Your DLC, though. I think that might get me to sell it, but. I mean, I'll play through it when it comes to PC. Yeah. Still boys got good combat. Just the world just bored the absolute hell out of me. It's just the entire thing. I think the characters is a piece of paper. And then Wukong's combat. I like it, but
00:31:27
Speaker
No, I don't like it, actually. I stopped playing. Yeah, it frustrated me. like I tried to give it as much of a chance as I possibly could, and it was like, I don't like how this feels. Yeah. um Yeah. We'll have more, obviously, once the actual nominees for everything come out. And then, of course, like I mentioned, four weeks from tomorrow, the three of us should be doing our our regular Watch Along shenanigans. So tune in for that.
00:31:51
Speaker
ah Before we move on to our main topic, a couple more Superchats came in Denmark. Thank you so much for a $5 don't know. Teal goal thing. Neat. Let me just say, ah this will let me say something really important. Persona 3 reload is bad because it's too easy and the redone music sounds worse.
00:32:09
Speaker
pay ru denmark God play metaphor. What do we do in Denmark? You're going to be so happy when you play metaphor. Oh my God, there's the ah there's a democracy moon in the sky. There's good music. You're going to love it.
00:32:21
Speaker
democracy move yeah there's a moon there's a many mentioned specific drive did that come out this year well this year but the fuck oh yeah yeah that's okay Like a dragon like a dragon Hawaii came out this year. Well, maybe that overlord came out this year unicorn overlord came out Jesus I can't that is insane that I put 40 hours in that game and I have no memories of it Like that's bad on me I actually think I played all of it while like what well crushing X-Files tape, so that's like- Yeah, that'll do it. That's why you don't remember anything. Stop multitasking. like It doesn't work. You don't remember the X-Files, you don't remember Unicorn Overlord? Nothing. I don't. I don't remember- I mean, Casey, you didn't you didn't play like a dragon, right? ah No, I did not. mar Marty, you did obviously like I did. I'm kind of surprised neither of us included that on the list. Just too far gone. ah Not too far gone. I just don't think.
00:33:15
Speaker
I just, to me, it's like in a, it's in a, a tier below, um, which isn't a bad tier to be in, but it just feels like, um, I think are good. Like I'm fucking, I, I'd like to call a duty campaign more than I've liked one in ages. Um, but I just, yeah, in my mind, just sort of a tier tier below. Yeah. I know. I know for me, I at least like the first, like a dragon more than this one.
00:33:40
Speaker
I think that was a share. Yeah, maybe it was more a novel. um Yeah, I don't know. I think I agree with you there. And then Zoob's back in their $2. Thank you so much Zoob. The games are too old. My tablet is too new. Zoob's, this is a me problem.
00:33:57
Speaker
I don't know any new games. ah The games are too old. That's not a thing, right? I don't think so. Like a new tablet to be able to want something to like really show off a new tablet to the games I'm recommending are just like dusty. Yeah. What happened did you get? Didn't they launch like Resident Evil 7 on like whatever new iPad? I just got an email that Resi 2 remake is coming to iPad.
00:34:21
Speaker
I'm like, who's playing this on iPad? What are we doing? That Stranding is on iPad? What are we doing? Yeah, let's do that. If the nominations are. Possibly this week, somebody is asking as well about like ah any more new games coming out this year. Nope. I'm sure the cut off is already done, so no stalker, no Indiana Jones, no Marvel Rivals, Marvel Rivals. Which means what would they miss next year's award cycle to because they came up during that that I think they do include like whatever is just after their cutoff, right? Or no, it they just fall into the void. Yeah, but it's just ah that's like the... I get why he wants to do it at the end of the year before Christmas and it makes sense, but like that just sucks for games.
00:35:06
Speaker
Like there's even like, yeah, back when, when I was at IGN, like there was always discussion over like when to do, uh, the voting for things. And it's like, I remember there was one year, I think 2012, it was like, we just did the voting and then Far Cry three came out in December and everyone was like, this game's really fucking good, but that sucks. Smartest person in the world and does best for some Glandis at the start of the new year. Um,
00:35:31
Speaker
Yeah. Captain President, $5 down. Thank you so much, Captain President. Slitterhead for Gody Book Market. You know what? We're going to put on our own game awards. and slitter heads All the Slitterati are going to come. Slitterati. Yes, we call ourselves. I haven't checked in with anyone, but that's what I call ourselves.
00:35:49
Speaker
but What a game. And then Denmark with a file or download. All right, Marty, you've convinced me. I'll try metaphor. If it doesn't do it for me, I will be very disappointed in you. Just start with the demo. The demo's free and it's like six hours. And ah I'm sorry if you don't like it. so Yeah, I don't even think I've put six hours in my playthrough yet. And um um I've already kind of bounced off. it i'll try to I'll try to at least get past the six hour mark. You got to get to the democracy moon.
00:36:16
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't know what the hell you're talking about. I feel like Doxy Moon enters the chat pretty early on. So yeah, you'll see. I gotta see if it hooks me still. Yeah, you love Doxy Moon. All right. I guess that' a that's an easy segue into our main topic, which is just sort of ah an overall overarching discussion of the state of this current console generation. Because like we mentioned, four four years ago, within a week of right now, were the releases of the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5. Honestly, in in November of 2020, obviously those were in the the midst of the pandemic, a weird time to to launch consoles.
00:36:52
Speaker
ah Which is why 2021 felt kind of like a weird, ah as Jay would put it, teething problem ah year. And then it feels like we started to get those games and we're like, okay, now we're now we're cooking with stuff like Elden Ring. Still a lot of cross-gen stuff. ah But now we blink and we're four years into this generation and PlayStation has already released the refresh of the PS5 Pro, which which Nick has gotten some hands on.
00:37:18
Speaker
And Xbox is already talking about plans for the future, and it's like we are well past the halfway point of this generation, ah I think. And so like what do we just overall, like what do we think of the PS5 Series X generation when we think of it compared to what we think about the PS4 generation, the PS3 generation, the PS2 generation, you know the the along with its Xbox companions?
00:37:43
Speaker
I kind of honestly, ah when I was writing, so I started on a pack script today, kind of talking about this a little bit, and I swapped subjects because my brain wasn't working right. ah But this to me, this kind of feels like PC's generation, to be honest.
00:37:58
Speaker
Um, is really where I've kind of landed on it because the consoles are kind constantly catching up with PC now where it kind of used to be flipped. Um, because like PC ports weren't as popular as they used to be. Um, you mean ports of game console games to PC or PC games? yeah yeah so Yeah, PC console games to PC. Cause if you remember like 360 game, a lot of 360 games, PS3 games, like those never came to PC. Yeah. It wasn't really a thing. Right. Like.
00:38:28
Speaker
I mean, Japan just really wasn't considering the PC market until relatively recently. Did did not mention about it. ah This generation's big theme has been like just.
00:38:39
Speaker
The advancement of tech has kind of been so quick in the visuals department with ray tracing and all that, that we're just playing catch up and everybody's trying to get all that best performance and all that out of there. But when I was like really thinking about it, I was like, there hasn't really been too many games that I would like say are like that pushing the
00:39:00
Speaker
pushing the medium forward in like super interesting ways. because i like When I think about that, I go back to games like on the 360, like Red Faction Gorilla, and having an open world with that destruction tech. And since then, we have never seen anything else like that.
00:39:15
Speaker
from a AAA studio, like there's definitely a lot of indie games that do destruction tech like, uh, tear down is incredible tech and all that. But like, as far as like anything innovative in the open world market, aside from like, I guess, de innovating, like go Sushima getting rid of UI to like have the wind directing around or, or whatever and stuff like that. Um, or like Zelda's kind of like free movement through its world.
00:39:41
Speaker
Uh, but even that was a generation ago. Uh, I just don't feel like we've seen that kind of like, wow, like this can only be done on next gen help. Hellblade two did that for me in the visuals department for sure. and What did we lose as a result? It's like that much of a game there really. Um, and then like the last game that did that for me.
00:40:05
Speaker
Kind of in the gameplay department is cyberpunk and like the mega city and everything and being able to go into all these buildings and the incredible amount of detail and immersion in there but again it's all a lot of visual.
00:40:18
Speaker
advancements and we're not seeing, I don't think like all the the game mechanic advancements that I was hoping for from physics and all that. Cause, uh, another thing that I was going to, I keep tying it back to the destruction, but like the crackdown three and re initial or original reveal with it's cloud tech destruction and all that. Like where is all that stuff?
00:40:40
Speaker
It's like what you're describing is actually so scarily similar to like cell phone advancement, where it was like, for a while there, it was like every new iteration was like this sort of leap forward that like gave you all these new features and all these new possibilities of like, Oh, what can I do with this technology? Like video game consoles, every generation was very similar to that was like, we can do so much now. And here you go. But then we've, we've reached that plateau point where it's like,
00:41:08
Speaker
OK, we have the technology. We just don't have any new ideas.
00:41:17
Speaker
And so it's basically.
00:41:20
Speaker
lead but It's that time of year where we get the new console refresh because that's the market that we built up, but we don't have anything to offer. And like the PlayStation 5 Pro it was kind of like the antithesis of that revelation of like, here's the thing that we're supposed to have right now, but we don't know why we have it. Like it's like the cart before the horse almost.
00:41:41
Speaker
ah And like the the money that gets spent to do this is why that innovation ah slows down, because they don't like it's too risky now. like They don't want to give a brand new idea all this funding, but like we'll we'll pay for the short thing that we got last time because it worked last time. And like that's you know that's just how these companies work nowadays. We also just don't have that ah in a-generation evolution and iteration that we had in prior generations because games take so long to develop that a team is lucky if they can release one game a generation now. Whereas if you go back to the PS2 and the Xbox generation, at this point in those consoles lives, so four years in those consoles lives,
00:42:29
Speaker
ah Kojima released Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3. We got Halo 1 and 2. We got Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas. We got Jak and Daxter 1 and 2. We got Ratchet and Clank 1 and 2. Like teams were like
Live Service vs Static Releases
00:42:45
Speaker
cooking. Silent Hill 2 and 3. Like teams were releasing a game, learning from it, making their next thing. And then by the... Most of those teams by the end of the generation had a third game that was like, holy shit. And we even had that in the next generation. Like you said. Uncharted released all three games. Uncharted, one, two, three, and The Last of Us in a single generation. Like, it was crazy. And now we have gotten no new Naughty Dog games this generation. We've gotten remasters of The Last of Us 1 and The Last of Us 2 and Uncharted games, but we've gotten no new games. And we'll probably get one. I can't imagine we'll get two this generation. We got a TV show. What about that? And so that is the thing that, like,
00:43:28
Speaker
I don't know, in my mind, like that that the generation just seems weird because you don't see that like internal growth of ah of a studio or a franchise um in a small span of time that that you did back then. you know there's a cycle It was a four year span in the PS1 generation that Square released Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9. That's crazy.
00:43:49
Speaker
like we just And we just don't get that anymore from anyone. I guess the closest thing is like an evolving game, is to look at a live service game and be like, look at what it looked like four years ago compared to now. Like but a what Destiny 2 looked like in 2017 compared to what it looked like in 2021, that kind of thing. Funny you bring that up, because Bludger's Overwatch, they're currently doing their classic... Free ones doing that, right? Yeah. Yeah, like while WoW was doing it too, right? Fortnite does that, yeah.
00:44:18
Speaker
Yeah, and Fortnite is doing it, yeah. Also, from four years ago, yay. Everyone's complaining about how broken original Overwatch was. They're playing it like, oh, shit. we this the What we have now is actually way better. Fucking rose tinted glasses. I love it. I love it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I just don't know if... ah Yeah, i don't do you like generations exist anymore in the traditional way?
00:44:42
Speaker
No, I don't think they have in a while. like I don't think it has since PS4 and Xbox One, really. yeah Especially because so many of the games came out for PS4. So many games this generation were still also... They had an older ports, older versions for the PS4 and the Xbox One.
00:44:57
Speaker
We're development is so slow now that we're re-releasing PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Yeah. Lollipop, Chainsaw, and Shadows of the Damned. and Yeah. um this And they opened a dusty box and found Slitterhead from the PS3. We're like, oh, yes. I do think like the truly next gen feeling games are far off, though, because you know we have GTA coming, which I think is I mean, I would be surprised if that's not a generation defining game technology wise, too. ah And then I have a pretty good feeling the next battlefield is going to support like wow, people ah just considering where where the franchise has gone and Vincent Pella and what he's kind of talked about, like we need to get battlefield back to the forefront of things. so
00:45:45
Speaker
Um, and destruction, you know, people been asking for destruction for years. And if Vincent, Vincent Pella does listen to the fans quite well. Um, so I think, you know, you're going to see that, especially, uh, I did it again, especially when, uh, embark studios and the finals and like the destruction tech there, that is a next gen feeling game to me with the destruction of those maps and everything. Like it's, but ah so that stuff is out there. It's just not coming from the publishers that were used to.
00:46:12
Speaker
Um, it's like, I haven't played shadows a doubt, but the way you actually described it would be, ah you know, that to me feels like a next gen experience with how the detective system works and all the AI and all that going on in there. and Uh, but yeah, like, uh, you know, other, some other games I was thinking about when I was kind of working on that script, it was like kill zone. One of the big talking points for kill zone two and three was like how reactive the AI was to the combat scenarios and all that. And like, there's what the shut off wasn't real. No, no, no. Even in the real, even in the real games, like two and three, like to this day, people still make videos about how good the AI is in those games and fear, fear as well. Um,
00:46:49
Speaker
Like we haven't talked about AI. It's just out of cheap and cheap and things now instead of like, man, those those bots were really good at reacting to your movements and and trying to flank you and everything. Like when's the last time we've heard a game about heard a game like advertise that over. Oh, we have retracing reflections. Right. Yeah, like.
00:47:09
Speaker
It's all about the tech rather than the ideas. So you yeah have you've been playing with your PS5 Pro, right? Yeah. What? I mean, and just I legitimately, via YouTube videos, I can't tell a difference, which maybe that's like.
00:47:27
Speaker
how this kind of stuff works is it's like no YouTube compression and is is not a way to show this thing off. And I know I've watched some like a Maximilian dude who's a fighting game ah streamer, YouTuber, who's also obsessed with Final Fantasy 7. It was freaking out over how good Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth looks on the pro, which is a lot of people have said is like the best looking, ah the best like pro visual ah upgrade. um Have you like noticed anything that really stood out to you or is this just sort of,
00:47:55
Speaker
Stuff stuff's a little get bit better. um It's a little bit harder for me to notice, probably because i'd I've been playing on a 4090, which is still even more powerful than my PS5 Pro. So like yeah the the game, I really like ended up getting it because I was like, OK, Dragon Age came out. It has this fidelity mode. It has this performance mode like.
00:48:22
Speaker
this feels like the most recent game that would actually give me like a real feel for does this extra power do it and so basically um but its there's definitely a difference it's not like oh my god i'm good i can't believe i bought the pro and it's so fucking amazing because i can see the pores on the grass like No, it's it's not. It's not that mind blowing. And like, if you already have a PS five, like I would not recommend rushing out to buy this thing. um and Like, I think it's a PS. Did you get a PS four pro? No, I never bought a PS four pro.
00:48:58
Speaker
it's that Also, that launch i launched three years after the PS4. That launched in fall 2016, which was three years after the PS4. I remember, again, it did the thing that this one did where it didn't really long so launch alongside a tentpole showcase game. ah The PS4 Pro did launch alongside PSVR.
00:49:18
Speaker
the original one, which, um, I think they were like, Oh, it's going to make your VR experience better. So welcome to the future. And then, you know, almost 10 years later, like the future is still not there. Uh, like the games come out and, and they seem really cool. Like I really want to play that Batman game, the the Batman VR one that came up months ago, but trying to wrap up all these new games that came out so I can get over to VR. Cause there's Metro awakening Batman that I want to play. Behemoth comes out soon. such yeah You're such a big Metro boy.
00:49:46
Speaker
am It's good. You guys are missing out on good FPS campaigns that you want. Probably seems too scary. It's not scary. I don't know. There's mutants. Yeah, it's. You know, it's going back to kind of what we were talking about, just.
00:50:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool if you're if you really, really care about ray tracing and all those little, you know, all the little nitty gritty details of visuals, you know, it's worth it's worth the upgrade for that. And and if you you know want the best performance, because, you know, and it's nice having that super high fidelity at 60 frames like nobody's going to nobody's going to say it's not. But is it worth upgrading now?
00:50:28
Speaker
no Yeah, I can't, I can't imagine it is. I can't, yeah, I can't really justify it. I saw that stalkers got stalkers, Jesus, uh, scalpers, uh, gobbled them up. There's also got to be a better term for scalpers that has to be offensive in 2024. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, crew resellers gobbled up a bunch of them and then it turns out there was no demand for their supply. ah good it start so that they're Great. theyre done Yeah.
00:50:57
Speaker
They deserve what they got. I, I, believe that crippling debt. I completely agree. They start selling them for under cost now. Like I'll only buy from them if it's by a loss. Yeah. That's like the the annoying thing about like the pro consoles is like I want to hear what is what is what why do I need this? What can it do that the PS five cannot and like.
00:51:24
Speaker
Okay, ray tracing. Cool. Great. That's that's fine. But like we had reflective mirrors back in the PS1 generation. A lot of games don't even take the time to do. And we had physics engines that ah let you break windows in correct ways, and a bunch of games don't even let you break windows in the correct ways anymore.
00:51:43
Speaker
so like You know, you go back and look, there's there's like some videos on YouTube that like from a Splinter Cell I saw that like show you all the reactive environment details that used to exist in those games that just don't exist in games now. And like you shoot a water tank and the water like slowly, you know, seeps out of it. And today you shoot a water tank and it just blows up. Like there's all those little details like those are those are the details and water tank that blew up.
00:52:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yes. Why is this water exploding? Guys, you want to know what game I just played that still looks good as hell. Mm. Rice on a Rome. Yes. I saw the stream highlight clip. So good. It looks so good. It's actually not surprising to me at all, but that that's still looks good. It's still very boring to play. It's hellboy boring to play. on But it was very pretty for a game from from 11 years ago. Hachi machi. Yeah, i mean that's how that's how you do it. you You want to get as pretty as possible. You strip all that gameplay, the F out.
00:52:48
Speaker
but that's that's how you make it work and my microphone is always where i scream at them to to to gather around me for a phalanx or fire arrows or something. I was like, I'll just hit this button. Thank you though. Did you play that on the PC or on the? No, no, I played it on Xbox. it There was a way to screen. I was talking to my microphone though because I was streaming it, so I don't know.
00:53:09
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe I wish firing arrows and not realizing it because I was just like talking to the microphone. Yeah. Cry engine was like always a generation ahead for its engine. That sucks that what are they doing now? There's a hunt showdown. There's hunting showdown. Well, they're making they're making the next crisis. ah I'd like to do it. Yeah. Yeah. It's calleded like a year ago. yeah they did Yeah. I remember that announcement. The only other game that's using crime that I know of is Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.
00:53:36
Speaker
Interesting. Uh, and then there' the, uh, that Wilson Lords of mayhem used cry engine, uh, that ARPG, that but yeah, that's out of that. I don't know if I don't, I mean, I don't think they're like licensing the engine like they used to. Wilson Lords of mayhem is a game that I've only ever heard uttered from your lips. ye Yeah.
00:54:01
Speaker
I've literally never heard of it or seen it in any other context other than you bringing it up occasionally over the last few years. Cupec as a star citizen was using at some point, they're using like their own version of it. They like a heavily modified version of it. Yeah. You still had to pay for it, I guess. Right. A sonic sonic game was the sonic boom was made on Core Engine. I forgot about that. Yeah. All right.
00:54:28
Speaker
to throw everything at the wall. Uh, we talked a lot about, uh, Sony, uh, we, we mentioned Xbox before, uh, obviously they have a pretty, pretty big fall with, um, Indiana Jones coming and Diablo got that expansion a little while ago. Call of duty is now ostensibly an Xbox game. Uh, shout out to the, uh, sensibly. Someone said, I use this on a little bit of a run or it looks like they're leading up to a bit of a run. They just, they just released a dev documentary on, uh, the compulsion game south of midnight. That looks so good right now. Yeah. That looks really cool. It's also crazy. So the South of Midnight's the game that they they showed off this summer, I think? Yeah. The Showcases, that's sort of like a take on like ah ah like Southern kind of like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, like Southern like Gothic folklore of the area and stuff. Looks looks really fucking cool. um The creative director is like from Mississippi, grew up there, and so like it was very much his story. Also, I was like, why does this guy seem kind of familiar? And it was just like just like a slightly older white dude. And I was like, what's this guy's deal? I click in. He just created the SOCOM franchise for PS2.
00:55:35
Speaker
But he was just creating all those SOCOM games. I'm like, this is very different than those SOCOM games for PS2. But yeah, that dev diary looked ah sick as hell. And ah that's obviously one of their big games of ah next year. And Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, gave a couple couple interviews ah this week, with one with Bloomberg, one with Steven Tatillo.
00:55:55
Speaker
And a couple of like the big bites that came out of it were that the reason Avowed got pushed to next year wasn't because the game wasn't ready. Like the game was ready to come out this fall, they said, but it was just they felt like the game pass schedule was two packed and that they wanted to give it room to breathe. I think that's smart.
00:56:13
Speaker
I think that's smart because of out does not have like the name recognition behind it that a call of duty or a Diablo expansion and they put it into february or is completely it's not yeah because everyone put their games in February. Yeah. um They also, he also said that ah going forward, no game is off the table from possibly getting a PlayStation port.
Microsoft's Expanding Strategies
00:56:33
Speaker
um And that it's interesting hearing that and then thinking about things that they've announced and talked about recently about how there's no it's not a Gears 6, but it's a Gears prequel, and how the next Halo thing might be a Halo 1 remake before they jump into the next Halo thing. It almost feels like they're like,
00:56:53
Speaker
Oh, let's start a new... let's Okay, let's clear the board. And then like he was like the start of a new Gears thing and the start of a new Halo thing. And look, a nice introductory spot for all of our friends over at PlayStation. um So I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but um I found that kind of interesting. And then also just mentioned that they are in the prototyping phase for a Microsoft dedicated handheld, but that it is still very, very far away.
00:57:19
Speaker
which Not super surprising, considering how how um lucrative Switch and Steam Deck are. I'm sure Microsoft wants their own version of that, and a handheld that can natively support Game Pass and everything sounds great. Yeah, like that that would actually be a big deal, and it's something that ah fans have been like waiting on. ah like like Even though the idea of just like the the dongle, where it's like, hey, just give me game pass and in ah and a form that I can plug in other places. like Maybe that will work for me, but like a dedicated handheld is a good idea, especially going off on the success of these other things. It makes sense, though, that they would wait. like Switch
00:57:57
Speaker
has like dominated the market. ah Valve got the steam deck out there and it's been doing well. It's way too late for them to join this party. They might as well wait until like they were refresh it like the switch to we're going to be out at some point, I assume. So at some point between, hey, the switch to exist, this is what it is. And then here's our version, which just shits all over it in terms of power. Yeah, that's I think that's the sweet spot for them, which is where Valve kind of showed up when they did their steam deck. and Yeah. Didn't you buy that dongle, Casey?
00:58:28
Speaker
ah No, that was just the Amazon 4K thingy. But they they've not released like a dedicated ah like Game Pass device. ah But yeah, I do have the 4K. I do use it. ah It's okay. But it's all right. like the The limitation really is on what what Game Pass allows to be like cloud shareable, because not everything that's in the Game Pass library is like on cloud share or whatever. Like some stuff. right So like if everything was there, like that would be ideal.
00:59:04
Speaker
um Yeah, still the cloud thing is still like even Sony just announced the the ah November games that are coming to ah PlayStation Plus, and it was like Resistance 1 and 2, and I'm like, Oh, that's cool. Oh my God, there's still fucking cloud like you got to play them on the cloud. like Oh God, I can play games on the cloud. I just there's something about it. I just don't trust the cloud. I sound like a hundred year old man, literally yelling at the cloud. I going back to the exclusives thing for a second. I'm just going to maintain that, like, I just don't think exclusives exclusives matter to get people into the market for whichever console they want. But I think once you are in, it doesn't really matter anymore, because again, everything's digital. Are you going to leave your digital, entire digital library behind to go to a new platform?
00:59:54
Speaker
No, that's rough. Like you're stuck on the ecosystem once you're in or you just get the other ecosystem. ah And so like it's it like to me, it just seems silly at this point with with how like consoles are structured and the digital age to not release those games on other consoles. Like I think it would have been stupid for Xbox to not release Indiana Jones on PS5.
01:00:17
Speaker
And I do think like Skyrim, the next Elder Scrolls, I do think that's not going to be exclusive anymore. Like ah it'd be silly to lose out on an insane amount of sales from Skyrim players by not putting that on PS5.
01:00:31
Speaker
Yeah, if if they had somehow taken over the market lead, then they could play those games. But like they're still just not there. Yeah. And the game was as big as the next Skyrim, which we don't know if it will be because that's certainly wasn't as big. It wasn't the next guy. I mean, like this that's a sci fi thing like a fantasy always does bigger than sci fi thing. But there hasn't been a game of the year game pass game yet. Day one, game pass Microsoft. Like we don't know, right? Cause like despite all of these studios they own, like who knows what would happen if they would have been called and he's not coming to PlayStation anymore. Like, I don't know what would have happened if this game just didn't come to PlayStation. Like I don't want that to happen. I want more, more people to do that, but there's just no
01:01:24
Speaker
I don't know. There's just no, like, how many people are going to sign up for this thing? Eric, you mentioned high for Russia. And then that came to other consoles. And that was like a small tier game of the year. I mean, like a generation defining game, like a Skyrim, a Witcher, a Last of Us, a Grand Theft Auto. yeah like what like what is the possible best game out right now. It just hasn't been from it and there's like but incredible games like for the is incredible, but like, that's not that like, yeah, yeah you know, Mike, my gut tells me fables going to be that pivotal moment for Xbox. I don't see it. I think fables always kind of been.
01:02:03
Speaker
second season Second banana. this is This is a new fable. It's from Playground Games. It's from a... It's a new fable. yeah But it's fable. like it's like it's it's so It's a long-standing IP.
01:02:17
Speaker
like yeah know Like this seems to have so little to do with the old fables. I mean, they're going for a completely different art style. You know, I know I understand that completely, but like this, like we are we are in the game of IPS. So like Fable has its position in the pantheon of just rankings. Like I don't think it's going to break out just because. It's like a anyone under 20 remember Fable?
01:02:46
Speaker
but right that' what mean That's what I mean. It's like it's a whole new IP for the vast majority of people that are going to be interested in it. My biggest question, Mark, with Fable, do we have an example of a developer who has pivoted so hard from a genre they're known for to something else and had it really succeed? Like playground is incredible top of class at ah open world racing games. Oh, freaking.
01:03:08
Speaker
Gorilla game so yeah, it's one from yeah, I went from pretty linear shooters to dinosaur games.
Gaming Sales Surprises
01:03:15
Speaker
Yeah dinosaur games. I don't care about that self 30 million dollars yeah um and i guess so horizon be rise The horizon franchise is a sigh up look I do not understand those numbers. Yeah, I don't know they're that good I don't think they're that I get that Lego. There's a Lego horizon game. It's just out. I think it's like I play on switch What's going on like that about most Sony exclusives? like
01:03:37
Speaker
I don't think any of them are. So that's at least you know, people who are like fucking people. I played Spider-Man five times or I, you know, I have a Last of Us Ellie tattoo like Amy love freaking ah Horizon.
01:03:52
Speaker
She was big on that. Also, it's Tom X. did last one That's what did it. That's what did it. It's like any game that's got a big tall neck that I could climb. ah That's funny. Couple super chats before we move on. Denmark with a $5 don't know. Thank you so much. Do I get a prize if I just slam down four more of these? That was when we were at six of 10.
01:04:15
Speaker
at our target goal, which is now a thing. However, Captain President then jumped in with separate messages, must reach. And then Denmark just said persona three and Captain President got cucked and said goal at the end. So we saw we saw a live cuckin, which is wild. That was a that was a sight to witness. So well thought, everyone. um oldtime It's not Horizon Hate. It's Horizon, I don't get it. Like, I don't think Horizon's a bad game. It's not a bad game. It's a solid seven in my mind. Just like Ghost of Tsushima. Oh, so Tsushima's better than a seven.
01:04:59
Speaker
It's a solid seven. It's like, remember the ghost of she be a new joke I told her that ghost of she, she, she, she, me, me. a fastty me i like Forbidden West and stick with me, but like the original, the original horizon, like, I think it's kind of.
01:05:15
Speaker
that that game that's That's the one that I had to know bad of the original one who's like I do think it is I do think it is so funny that both that those two games came out right within the window of ah Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring like that is genuinely funny And it's so very well so I don't feel bad like it's not like oh no they took all of our copies It's just maybe that's the reason I don't think about it because I think about those other two games quite a bit ah Because I'm weird Um, yeah, that was, that was just kind of, I don't think we, there was like a, there's no conclusion we could come to from all that. Just an interesting, an interesting moment to look back on the last four years with obviously the asterisks of the pandemic throwing everything into a, into a weird little, uh, scenario. but I think there is a conclusion that like, there just hasn't been like a next gen wow game that like is like a really pushed the medium forward, at least from the the big publishers.
01:06:11
Speaker
I think there's been a lot of indie indie stuff that has done that. Will there ever be again? Like, like, is one like around the corner or like, are we, are we, I think it'll be yeah gta GTA six. I think it's going to be one of those games. I think battlefield could be is going to be one of them.
01:06:27
Speaker
And then um I can see gta for GTA even I feel like like they're they're even they're also at a point where it's like their last thing was such a big deal it was such a game changer that It's to the scale where like we don't want to f this up We don't want to make a big change or a big risk We want to keep doing more of this so like their next game is not going to be some sort of like massive leap forward in ideas, it's going to be more of the same. And like, yeah, that's that stagnation of of tech and money that that we're in. Like, jar that's, that's what I'm not ready to bet against rockstar. Yeah. Like, that's that's the thing like I,
01:07:10
Speaker
Like I played and loved Red Dead Redemption 2, but I didn't really spend a whole lot of time in its open world just kind of exploring and doing all kinds of stuff. And like every time I get on Facebook or Instagram or whatever, there's some short video of something I miss in that world and some crazy detailed interaction. That's not a quest, not anything. Like I saw this one the other day. There's like six different ways to interact with this guy that gets attacked by a wolf out in the world.
01:07:37
Speaker
And whether you're you, ah ah if you point a shotgun at him, he has a different reaction. If you point a pistol at him, he has a different reaction. You can save him before the wolf attacks him. He can be attacked by the wolf and you just leave him to die. You can handle medicine. You can handle bandages. I'm like this completely non-essential interaction in the world that has nothing to do with anything. No quest, no nothing.
01:08:00
Speaker
and It's like it's just there like that to me is like next genie Stuff and like that's what I'm that's what I'm really interested to see from GTS is like how far do they take that and like all these little minuscule interactions in the world um and like battle, you know, I bring up battlefield not as a ah genre defining game, but more of like Can they are they only to defining franchise attack defining franchise? Yeah. They're going to bring that destruction in a big way that like they've they've they've taken destruction back and back and back in the franchise because they're like, oh, it ruins the maps, you know, like ruins the flow of the game. And people are like, that's what we want. We want to just blow the shit out of buildings and figure it out. Let us do it.
01:08:43
Speaker
ah Yeah. stop Stop with the revolution. All the scripted bullshit. Let us have our sandbox and play in it and just we will figure it out if we destroy an entire building and we got to run around it. Great. We'll figure it out. We don't need the cover. Just let us blow everybody up.
01:09:00
Speaker
um And then like Fable Fable, like we don't know much about Fable ah from a visual
Game Analysis and Critique
01:09:06
Speaker
standpoint. I mean, look, it looks a leap ahead to me. um ah but then I'm curious, like,
01:09:13
Speaker
you know playground really I think playground really changed to the racing scene with Forza Horizon. like You have the crew motor fest that's trying to ape it now. and test drive The new test drive tried to ape it a little bit too. um To me, that that game something something about that game I just feel like has to be different from just another Witcher, open world, RPG, whatever they're going to do. And I think like my my gut tells me that there's going to be some social element in there that surprises us.
01:09:42
Speaker
because the fable is so much about the social elements of it. And let's not forget, Wilson, Lords of Mayhem. is already out 15% discount for Patreon. Yeah, I that. There is one other ah game that I'm not keeping an eye on is like a ah big next gen experience is that it's got a weird name in Zoe. It's that that. Oh yeah. And sort of like. Yeah, that second life sims thing that looks so fake like that somehow looks like an NFT scam. Yeah, it does. No could be. It's not really. Yeah, kind of. Yeah.
01:10:20
Speaker
Okay. Just disturbingly hyper-realistic Sims is what that game looks like. Yeah. But that paradox, ah parax paradox, paradox. Interactive was doing like life by you or something like that. And then they canceled it to finish line. Yeah. Before early access. Yeah, I saw that. That was weird. Yeah. Yeah. I think I got to see that at GDC.
01:10:41
Speaker
two years ago. And they did not like having as soon as I mentioned, oh, like, how does this compare to the Sims? Like, don't talk about the Sims. I was like, Oh, okay.
01:10:55
Speaker
Don't compare it to The Sims, really? Yeah, even though it's why the guy that made The Sims. Yeah. Don't compare it to The Sims. Oh, and for for folks, Eric, you might know know that Enzo is the game. Enzo, yeah. It's a very terrible name. It's got a very nice cat on the... That does look fake. Look at that wedding. That's like a real wedding. The first image on the Steve page is just like a real ass wedding. I think they did like a 10 minute breakdown of the game and like showed a lot of the mechanics and everything. If if that thing comes out and does what it says it's going to do, I mean like that, that's something that's like, since it's going to have real competition.
01:11:33
Speaker
I think it looks too realistic. Yeah. Like, ah yeah, yeah. Like controlling real people doing real things. It's always weird. yeah like i see what up in that Yeah. That would get real big in like a, ah like a small section of the world. Like, but Korea is going to eat this up, but then nobody else is going to know what it is. Yeah.
01:11:53
Speaker
I hope you can get that game. That'd be nice. Cool. Let's move on. We've been playing. We've been playing we' been watching. can I can jam through my my my two main things really quick, which I've already touched on, and I've already talked about a bunch of other shows. I've been playing Slitterhead, and I've been playing Mario and Luigi Brothership. Slitterhead, I am just fucking continually delighted by. I think I'm getting very close to it. Okay, you're into it. I am so, I am so, so into it. And it is, Casey, it is this year's wanted dead.
01:12:22
Speaker
It's wanted dead. I literally shouted you out at the end ah at the end of my Patreon post about it this week. I said, this is one of those games that like five to 10 years from now, your favorite YouTuber is going to make a banger 40 minute video on saying everyone slept on this game and it's actually genius. And here's why. And I said, so you can either get aboard the slitter train, you can wait for that to happen, or you could just follow us because Casey's already doing that and then I looked here.
01:12:47
Speaker
nice because you're already you're already a soothsayer when it comes to these kinds of games. No, I was gonna say I saw this at PAX and was thinking of my I should give this a try and tell Marty like what it looks like. But like the line was kind of long. And also it looked so janky. Watching the gameplay like I don't know if I want to waste my time. It is really, it is really janky. And, uh, as speaking of, uh, you know, earlier talking about it, Suno and folks like him and, uh, Makami and everyone, uh, this is by the creative director of Silent Hill one and siren and the gravity rush games, uh, left Sony Japan studio informed his Zone Studio, Bookcast Studio, which has a lot of folks who worked on those games, including the original Silent Hill. and This game feels like a um a melding of all three of those things. It feels like it has the um sort of the the ah atmosphere and otherworldly nature of Silent Hill. It has direct mechanics from Siren, including like the various playable characters that each have their own unique abilities, as well as the ability to literally like mindjack into villains and see through their eyes, which is something Siren did.
01:13:55
Speaker
And the city has that like cramp claustrophobic feel that you can kind of glide through in the same way that you can gravity rush. And this is a game I made a joke earlier, it just feels like this was a PS3 game that they forgot about. Like they just and then they like they cracked open like ah an airtight vault and was like, Oh, shit.
01:14:13
Speaker
We made this game, we forgot to release it. And then they release it now, and it just it makes me miss the Sony of that era that was just doing doing weird shit and making Tokyo Jungle and Africa and and Rain and... um And even other other other developers making stuff like 3D dot heroes and just these weird kind of like one off experimental things. Yeah. Really, really enjoying this. It is janky as hell. But um I'm just I i just thoroughly am enjoying it so far. It's also just it's not open world. It's just got levels. Remember levels. Remember when a game would just be like, here's some fucking levels. It's weird, but I guess that's how they they get. I see I saw some of the Slitterhead stream that you were on with ah with Jay and
01:14:56
Speaker
Or Jesse, Jesse was my Slitterhead. Jesse, sorry. Yeah, Slitterino. He's a fellow Slitterati. Slitterino. And like just the level of detail in the city and like all like the interiors and stuff, I was like, I was very surprised by it. I was like, oh, but I also thought it was an open world. But that kind of makes sense now, if you're saying that it's actually level based. That you load into a level and you're in a small little slice of the city and you can only go to these things. So yeah, and that's that's where you get some of those. So infatuated with Slitterhead. And then ah they I'm about seven or eight hours into a Mario and Luigi Brothership.
01:15:25
Speaker
And it is, ah the it's fine so far, I guess, like it's visually and and the writing is very charming in the way that most Mario RPG games are. I like the core, like everything revolves around these like light socket electrical like puns, like the whole thing, like ah Mario RPG games are always like, Jack and I were goofing how it feels like they came in at the last minute. Like, you know, what a kid comes into show and tell and forgets to bring something from home and is like, I got this folder. It feels like they come to the room and they're like, what is the theme of our game? And they're like, uh, stickers? Because they look at a sticker or origami?
01:16:08
Speaker
Right. And this one is just like ah light sockets. The theme of our game is light sockets. um But it it leans into it really well in terms of characters and enemies and places you go to and and puns and everything. um The reason I'm a little iffy on it is because ah So far, at least, it feels like ah every time you get to a new island, ah you just do the same thing to get to the end of it. Like the battle system, once you learn what an enemy attacks like like, you are just going through the motions every time. Even though it is that active battle system where you need to jump over certain things, you need to time your buttons to dodge or to hit, um it just feels like they every time you get to a new area, you just do the same thing over and over and over until you get to the end of that area. That said, I've heard from several reviews that the game does not start on a strong foot and that it just keeps getting better. And I'm looking at this footage Eric's playing right now and I'm like, fuck, all that stuff looks fun. I want to do that stuff. so I'm going to stick with it because apparently it's a pretty long game, but I'm hoping it grabs me more.
01:17:12
Speaker
like I really, really love the art style they've chosen for this. And like the animation and work that is in it like is just really eye-catching. And for that alone, I would like give it a shot. So hopefully, like you're saying, it does you know increase its like playability and like get more fun over time.
01:17:35
Speaker
because I really want to see more of this. Like I would I would love like just any amount of Mario content that just looks and moves like this does. The animation has so much style to it. You're you're 100 percent right. Like it has this like they're like very elastic. They almost feel like Looney Tunes in this in a way that Mario usually doesn't. um And it just feels so playful to look to look at and even to see in battle. It's just that playfulness.
01:18:00
Speaker
starts to wear and tear a little bit when you fight the same enemy 30 times in a row and you're kind of seeing the exact same animations over and over. So yeah, we'll see. and So the footage has, you know, both brothers running all over the place. ah Do you control them both? How does that work? So yeah, you control Mario and Luigi just runs behind you. ah But then you have a dedicated jump button for Luigi and a dedicated hammer button for Luigi. And then you can like hold one of the triggers and Luigi will kind of context do things. So like if you're near a bunch of blocks that you can hit with a hammer, you can hold the trigger and Luigi will go hit him with a block. Or there's certain puzzles where it's like, oh, I need Luigi to be manning a switch while I control Mario to go on a platform. And so I need to jump on a platform, hit Luigi hits the switch, and then I jump to the next platform and Luigi just switch again. so
01:18:46
Speaker
um Yeah, it's not like you're in it's not like that brothers game where you where you had full control over two brothers at the same time. It's more of like a soft control over an AI character.
01:18:58
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Okay. That's probably playing better, honestly, than controlling them both simultaneously. Yeah. I feel like that's probably the worst part of the brothers game. It was that you actually control the ball at the same time. The worst part was that was very sad at the end. so but That's the best part. the sadphon best part Yeah. Yeah. I really want to see what they do. What, what Haze Light does next. Um, yeah, yeah I feel like we'll know at the game awards, the game awards. Yeah. really pf house yeah yeah they'd like They've been teasing it for a couple of weeks now, the name of the game and everything.
01:19:29
Speaker
They said the name of them. They were teasing the name of the game. They keep putting on a document, and I think people are. Yeah, that's probably coming. close Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, that's it for me. Casey, what have you been doing?
Monster Hunter and Mechanics
01:19:41
Speaker
ah Yes, I had all of last week off, so I spent a lot of that time just watching a ton of stuff. um Also, at the start of that week, I did get some time with the Monster Hunter Wilds beta. Oh, nice. so um Monster Hunter Wilds, I'm very excited for, but at the same time, also very like it's a very bittersweet feeling because that game feels like the very natural um direction of Monster Hunter World, which was a fantastic game, really broke that franchise open for like the Western audience. And this is like taking that ah formula and like
01:20:25
Speaker
expand because like I only had access, I believe, to like the first area, but it it feels like, whereas you would be sequestered to a village, you have to do stuff in the village, which is like kind of your camp, and then you're sent out onto like the different levels, this is like everything is kind of happening on one giant map. like The village is a big campground, so all the people you need to talk to exist in the world. and if like Similar to Red Dead Redemption 2, your campground is in one location in the world, and when you just leave the campground, you're out in the world.
01:20:54
Speaker
And like the monsters you're hunting are just around and the hunt starts dynamically as you like engage with whatever creature that you're actually looking for. And like that it just feels like a much more free version of that gameplay loop that just will allow you to get very, very lost in just doing all the hunts and getting all the gear and stuff. ah That being said,
01:21:17
Speaker
it It really did leave behind everything that I loved from Rise, because Rise just, is it feels like a much faster they're fluid. game. Like all that stuff that the Wirebug introduced that lets you kind of slingshot yourself around and swing and double jump. And then like all these moves that add like a ton of movement ah to every single weapon, like every single weapon which have been in the game for like years and years now, got like three to six additional attacks that just add to like the repertoire because of the Wirebug. All that's gone.
01:21:51
Speaker
So in that aspect, it does feel like a slower game, especially with certain weapons that are like are traditionally very slow. like You used to, in Ra has been able to like use the wire bug with the great sword and like launch yourself across like a huge distance, like spit like a spinning blade to hit a monster, which is just super satisfying. It's just gone now. like You just can't do that sort of thing anymore. And it's disappointing.
01:22:15
Speaker
to compensate like they've added the focus mode, which I didn't really get the hang of in the moment. But it's supposed to help, especially with those sort of like more rigid weapons, where in the middle of a combo where like you start and like you're just swinging off at nothing because the monsters moved, you can redirect yourself by like hitting focus by in the middle of a combo. I wasn't able to really get that to work. It doesn't seem like super Uh, intuitive, intuitive, at least you know as a, as a newbie messing with it. But like, maybe that'll end up being like something very useful, but that's nowhere near as exciting as all the freaking nutso anime junk that the wire bugs introduced. So like I was two minds about it. Like I really love the concept of what they're introducing, but I really do miss a lot of those mechanics that just made the last game insane to play. Yeah.
01:23:05
Speaker
So and that's where I'm at right now. like I'm definitely gonna give it a shot when it comes out, but um some of the Wirebook stuff in Rise did take a while to unlock. like you start kind of like you You still have like the basic stuff that lets you like swing around, but you get like the special weapon moves after putting some time in. I'm hoping that there's other mechanics that will expand like the way your weapons feel and move in this as well. So there's still hope for that.
01:23:29
Speaker
Yeah. I am. I am Robinosa. The chat said 10,000 hours in the series, which is fucking Jesus. And says n Casey is 100% correct. Uh, months, a hundred wilds is a game that feels dumbed down, uh, for casual tourists.
01:23:43
Speaker
ah I mean, i I said the same thing about Rise because they they streamlined so much of like the hunt in that you really just kind of went to base, did two or three things and then ran out to like fight monsters and it was like super fast. But it wasn't until like all the Wirebug stuff came up that I got like really, really hooked on just the play. So like maybe this will find a better balance with that where like maybe the hunt and strategic stuff will come more into play because that was very big in world.
01:24:11
Speaker
but then they'll slow down the hunt so that you really do have to like pay more attention to the monsters, like maybe use more like equipment and gear and and planning. And maybe that will help even it out. Like there's no way to know right now because it was just a tiny slice of what that game is. But man, I miss those wire bucks. Yeah.
Anime and Storytelling Critiques
01:24:27
Speaker
Yeah. It feels like a two steps forward, one step back kind of thing. Yeah. And I was so worried about that too, knowing that that rise was like this separate thing that went to switch first and then got all these ports because it ended up being surprisingly good versus just like the next thing from the world team. So like they those those ideas are just very disconnected, it feels like. um So outside of that, um I finished Attack on Titan, finally. Congrats. um that that is That is a ah show that I believe is a classic. Like any he aspiring anime fan, any fan of anime in general should watch Attack on Titan. Great. up It's ending.
01:25:12
Speaker
i and like I understand it why it's controversial. um There's a lot of media nowadays that play in this realm, like the boys was doing it with their ah most recent season, where it's like, hey, we have themes here that are supposed to be a damn nation of a practice, but the audience doesn't seem to get it. The audience seems to really think that these characters are cool and the good guy. yeah So at at some point, we have to let them know this is bad. yeah And so when that happens, it does feel heavy handed, and it does feel
01:25:47
Speaker
like um Like it's specifically calling out Those all this ending is bad And it kind of in bad are not the same reasons why it's actually bad they're just mad that their hero now looks like a bitch and But it's bad because it does take the nuance out of letting the audience understand why this character is not the hero he thinks he is or was portrayed to be by the end of the story. Like they just spell it out for you and like, yeah, I don't think that's just good storytelling. Every time a franchise does it, I almost universally love it and people get so mad at it. I feel like Ryan Johnson did it with The Last Jedi, I feel like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ronald Wachowski did it with The Fourth Matrix movie. Yes, this has been happening a lot. The end of Evangelion does the same thing, where it's like, oh, you like Shinji? Oh, OK, well, here he is. He's cranking off bedside next to his friend who's in a coma. You like this little sick boy?
01:26:46
Speaker
ah you you brought up You brought up the boys. I did not realize that was going to be a ah accurately predicted.
01:26:59
Speaker
I just got a real big sense of dread in the back. All of our media has been reflecting it back at us this whole time. And folks are refusing to see it. ah But again, like.
01:27:14
Speaker
Yeah, like that that ending is a little on the poor side, but overall, fantastic. Like all the stuff leading up to it, um the the fight sequences, the animation, um even like even the plot, like the the details of the plot, aside from just that sort of like dump at the end where they say, hey, here's all this stuff that you didn't know beforehand. Outside of that, I thought it was super well done. like Bravo ah to that team in that series.
01:27:40
Speaker
um um I also ah caught up on um that time I got reincarnated as a slime. That's just a delightful show to watch in general. ah Season three. um And i think the thing is, I knew this, but I guess it's been so long since I went back and watched the the series that I forgot how much of that show is actually just Game of Thrones.
01:28:02
Speaker
Like it's it's the characters. Yeah, like the like the characters have built a society for monsters. Right. and But in order to do that in this world, like they have to make deals, they have to set up trade routes, they have to do infrastructure. And a lot of the the episodes in season three are literal meetings of the main character who's the slime king of his of his country now. And all of this, these lieutenants who he's like,
01:28:28
Speaker
Um, you know, gathered around and given jobs within the kingdom and like, just saying like, Hey, what's going on with that situation? And they just sit there and tell him like, Oh, well this happened. That happened. We got to figure out how to do this. And he's like, uh, what about that? And then somebody else would chime in like, you know what, we got some guys who do this. What if we helped you do that? And they're like, yes, that's great. Also, they're like, great job, everybody. Let's move on to the next topic. And it's so interesting.
01:28:49
Speaker
Like it's not at all boring like I was like I benched through this so quickly I did like 26 episodes in the in the in the season. I finished it in two days Cause I just, I couldn't get enough of just seeing how they built out their world, their infrastructure, how they defended it from threats. Cause other people outside
Wrestling and Culture
01:29:07
Speaker
of it are like, well, these are monsters. We can't just let them do what they want. We gotta, yeah we gotta investigate. We gotta to send some folks to hurt them. And then like, they, they beat them down. They want to be peaceful. I look, you attacked us. If we killed you, you'd be real mad, but let me just show you how strong we are. And then maybe you can work something out. Like this was a big misunderstanding. Like you, what you got, you got like barriers or something. Maybe you use that over here.
01:29:28
Speaker
to do things that start making deals and stuff. It's just super engaging and entertaining. But everything is like, like there's bad stuff that happens.
01:29:38
Speaker
But overall, it's just a very uplifting feeling show. Like it really leaves you in like a happy place to see what it's like when different entities try and work together and what they can achieve. Like it's it's it's it's is really positive in that way. And I'm having a great time with it. Metaphor Re-Fantasio has a similar similar theme tree. So again, I've watched a lot. So on the opposite spectrum though,
01:30:01
Speaker
I watched the Mr. McMahon documentary in its entirety as well on Netflix. So this is, this is Vince McMahon's ah sort of WWE history, like how um
01:30:13
Speaker
Basically like the origins of like how the WWE started cuz it was a wrestling company run by his father who he was a strain from until he was like 12 years old. First of all, Vince McMahon led a crazy life. like He has a tragic history, like he was like abused as a child. like He didn't know ah his ah his father for a long time probably because his mother seemed to also suffer from some sort of mental illness and was like abusive to him as well.
01:30:37
Speaker
Um, but once he did get into his father's life, that's how he got introduced to all the wrestling stuff. He worked for his dad for a long time, bought the company from his dad. Like he, he wasn't handed it. Like he literally worked and bought it out from under his dad who did not want to give it to him, but bought it, made it into like the biggest freaking wrestling entertainment thing. And they're like, they go through the whole story of like, um,
01:30:59
Speaker
how he basically created Hulk Hogan into like this worldwide ah known, what's the name, like how he had beef with WCW, their back and forth, how he bought it from under them, and all of the the scandals or whatever that followed them throughout the years, all the way up to the present day where like he was forced out of the company because of several sexual ah This kind of allegations which the documentary keeps referencing it but like they filmed all that stuff before that came out So like they let you know like all these talks and stuff is just before Most of that stuff happened and he was like ousted from the company
01:31:33
Speaker
um But the the thing that really stuck with me is how many times they sort of revealed how prominent the WWE w e is as a sort of mirror of American culture. Like the stuff they would do in the ring and the stories they would tell would directly reflect things that were happening in the real world, not just because Vince McMahon was the ah writer of those sort of storylines that he would use his own life. like A lot of stuff was just stuff that he was doing, stuff that he was happening between him, his family, interpersonal stuff with other wrestlers. But like stuff that was happening in the world was like, hey, let's comment on ah the the Iran-Iraq Operation Desert Storm or whatever. Like yeah yeah he would just pull from headlines trying to make interesting stories in the rain. but So that stuff would reflect back to his fans who would then react back in like the, wi like and it would it would turn into this melodrama of the real world that hyper focused on just what America is. So when you look back, especially at old wrestling and you see how insane it got in terms of like the the violence, the over-sexualization, like the racism, that's America. Like you can see,
01:32:43
Speaker
all throughout ww WWF slash E history, what America was that like when we look at the news and when we look at like our neighbors and stuff, you sit there and wonder, they vote for who I think they voted for. Like it's kind of laid bare in all the wrestling storylines in like this really fascinating way. So I think that's actually incredible. Like for that alone, it might be worth going back to watching wrestling, yeah um which I've not done in a very long time. But just to get a glimpse of like, what's the temperature of the country right now?
01:33:13
Speaker
I got, I got back into wrestling this year. Wrestling will probably tell you. Yeah, I've got, I've gotten back into watching wrestling. I like, I pop in every once in a while. I watched the pay per views. Uh, it's coming to Netflix next year. Like the big deal. Like wrestling is just all WWE using me on Netflix next year. Do you hear me? Am I talking? Oh, he hears me. ah I don't know what happened to my sound.
01:33:40
Speaker
Casey forwarded himself. Did you hear this now?
01:33:50
Speaker
You know what? Okay. While Casey figures that out, Nick, what have you been watching and playing? Casey, can you hear me? he care just got roll through with her back that's back oh it's back you were just being askedlic couple times I tried to chime in and you just steamrolled through me. and I was like, well, goddamn, I guess I'm so sorry. was able wrestling i here I'm so sorry. Yeah, I couldn't. I couldn't hear you guys. I don't know what. I don't know when. the I was trying to talk about when Sergeant Slaughter defected director. Yeah, they talk about that in the doctor. Wow. You two just had like a whole conversation where Casey heard none
Invincible Fight Girl
01:34:24
Speaker
of it.
01:34:24
Speaker
great yeah so that's that's most every thursday at seven p m to nine p by much one ah No, that's great. I highly, highly recommend that talk as well. ah you You watch it play anything else, Casey? I did. um I want to bring up one more thing, though. um Invincible Fight Girl. There's a new ah Adult Swim animated series.
01:34:49
Speaker
I thought there was like an invincible spinoff series. all was like I don't know what this is. yeah This is this is not related to ah the the Amazon show, Invincible. Yeah. um This this is basically like it's an American anime like it's clear like an anime inspired. But the if anyone remembers the also Cartoon Network show, OK, KO, which was like this is a world of superheroes kind of just living mundane lives when everyone's a superhero.
01:35:17
Speaker
It's sort of that, but with wrestling. um And the main character, like it's it's it's got shonen energy in that the main character wants to be a wrestler, but like they're they're not from the wrestling world. like They grew up on an island of accountants or whatever, and her family history is like, oh, accounting is in our blood, but she wants to be a wrestler because she's inspired by this legendary wrestler as a kid. So it's the story of her essentially going out on her own, trying to do this thing that's supposed to be impossible, and you know her journey succeeding. Her journey ah trying to succeed at that. um It's very funny, one,
01:35:51
Speaker
um It's the like divorce work is like super impressive. Like everyone sounds so natural and hilarious. ah Like just the dialogue back and forth between characters. um It looks great, like the colors, like the environments. um it's It's over the top in in the way that anime tends to be. um And it's just, it's it's a really fun watch. Like there aren't, like only three episodes are out right now. Like it's being released, I want to say week by week.
01:36:18
Speaker
um And as of now, like the stakes aren't like super high. It's just like you just want to see what happens next. Right. And you're rooting for the main character because like she's she's plucky. She's adorable. ah She's got a dream and you want to you want to see if she can reach it. ah and She's got she's got that that that heart and spunk to like get it done. Like the the first episode has ah ah root like a really cool fight in it. That's really just her like getting her ass kicked. Yeah. But it's like you.
01:36:49
Speaker
you're like, ah but it's it's a really fun watch. I'm like a deeper thing. Because like, it it does feel very surface level right now. But again, it's at the very beginning of its story. Like we haven't met I think like the whole roster of characters who are gonna like be hanging out with her. um But um, like this is the sort of thing I want to see more of like more original, ah like Western animation, like I love
01:37:17
Speaker
anime. I want to see more stuff that um blends the two. Like they've taken a ton of inspiration from just anime stuff, but like, tell us, tell us a goofy story about like a black girl from accountant Island. Like yeah I love stuff like that. Sounds great. Didn't even know that exists until now, but no Q. Yeah. Everybody watch it. So it doesn't get canceled warrior.
01:37:40
Speaker
they wouldn
Game Reviews and Updates
01:37:41
Speaker
Don't worry, adult swim under under the Zazloff umbrella, everything's safe. Everything's fine. ah Yeah, that's all I got right now. Awesome. Nick, what about you? What have you been playing? watch I have ah been playing, well, at first of all, I went back and finished Resident Evil 4 Remake, finally. Congrats. Yeah, I played through a bunch of it when it came out, and then I assumed other things came. I think that was, was that around the same time as Shadow of the Earth Tree?
01:38:10
Speaker
It was no, because it was last year, which I thought it was too that much. other she was a year ago but well ah Yeah, I went back and finally I just decided I wanted to finish it after Halloween was over for some reason. So I went back and finished that. I really enjoyed the I really enjoyed it. Like, it's just a well paced campaign throughout the entire thing. Like, there's never a boring moment in a resident before. but So like, I completely understand why it's ah the most popular of the series.
01:38:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's it's really fucking good. and The remake so good. Yeah. Yeah. And then ah that did make me want to go play Resident Evil five just to see I own the game when it came out. I never finished it. So I want to go back and just go through it. And then I picked up the revelations games as well. i I don't have much of any interest in playing six. Have you played the two remake?
01:39:03
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah play the two remake i haven't played the three remake yet though um three uine kind of sucks yeah that's mostly whatever i'd skip three six yeah ah And then, yeah, so I finished that. And then I've been working on, uh, dragon age, obviously.
01:39:22
Speaker
ah I'm basically running into the problem that I think a lot of the reviewers had where like the first six to eight hours or so is a a little and not very well paced. it's The writing's fine. like I don't really see any of the issues that people are complaining about.
01:39:39
Speaker
um but But the pace is like you're basically going through and collecting all the characters that you need to fill out your party. And the pacing just feels kind of all over the place. But it sounds like after you get done with ah getting all those characters, it starts to smooth out and get more into like the actual story of what's going on and all that. So I love the gameplay of it. I'm glad it's not open world.
01:40:01
Speaker
um you mentioned levels in Slitterhead like basically Dragon Age has levels too and it's all you know nice and self-contained and there's exploration if you want it you don't have to do it so it's like a I guess it it looks like it's linear but there's a lot more depth than you might think um and so Yeah, i I'm having a good time with it. I'm having a hard time sticking with it. And I know I just need to sit down and like really let myself get into it to really go have go and finish it.
01:40:32
Speaker
So I'll be looking forward to doing that. But the one the other game I returned to this past week was the crew motor fest, which I've i've kind of raved about quite a few times on this podcast. um They actually just released their fifth season and it came with a whole new island to explore that they you don't. There's no loading screen or anything. They literally just created a bridge system that you can just drive on and go right to the new island and it introduces all new races, all new locales, everything. um And I've had a really good, really good time. And that's what one of those games on the PSY Pro that like actually feels like it got a nice boost because ah before it had fidelity mode which had ray tracing and then performance mode which was you know 60 frames now it has ah just when you play it on the pro it just has ray tracing and and the 60 frames all together and it's a very smooth very fun experience
01:41:21
Speaker
That's what it seems like a lot of the PS5 Pro things are, instead of having to choose one or the other, you get both. That's kind of, I guess, the big island. And this was, Motorfest was the one that's just set in Hawaii, right? Because the crew was originally like, all of America. And then this is just Hawaii? Is that right? Yeah, this one's just Hawaii. Just the islands. Okay. Yeah. But there's so much... I've never been to Hawaii. So but I guess it's accurately representing it like there's so much variation and environments on those islands. Oh, yeah. No, that wasn't me trying to like it's only Hawaii. It was mostly. Yeah. Oh, I know how varied Hawaii could be. As someone who's watched Lost multiple times, Hawaii can be all sorts of biomes. Yeah. I don't think all those roads are over there, though.
01:42:06
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think all the roads going up into the volcanoes as far as I can tell. But, you know, I don't know. I've never been there. I also don't think you can fly a plane and then like just change into a ah car while you're in midair and and keep driving on those now. Yeah, I got those any sick volcanoes. Are there any levels where like a volcano erupts? You got outrun lava? ah Not yet. god You know what? Playing this game makes me miss Motorstorm Apocalypse. Yeah, that was a good one. Are we getting Motorstorm games anymore? What are you doing, Sony?
01:42:34
Speaker
oh Yeah, if you look for the horizon, like the crew motor first, it's not as not as good, but like they copied they copied their homework and did it really well. So um if you
Star Wars Acolyte
01:42:46
Speaker
want a racing game that is really going to hook you in, I would i would highly recommend the crew motor first, like a really ah but I think I put like 50 hours into an hour. I really like it a lot. Damn. Thank you. Why there's so many why there's so many British racing developers?
01:43:04
Speaker
Evolution British playground British there's two isn't a Wasn't top gear a British show that'd be British to British like ours. That's why Yeah, I guess the first like cars that you would think more American developers on their cars. Yeah, that is that is my dream car James Bond's Aston Martin is Criterion UK to criterions UK what's going on? Yeah is that We just discovered something and got to the mot of it Yeah. Uh, and then of course to, uh, then piss off some people on the internet. Uh, my mom and I have, uh, been rewatching the acolyte together.
01:43:42
Speaker
And that show is mostly that way i want it no kidding i like data i liked it i i like ah it's much better as a binge series than it was a weekly series. There's like a lot of Disney stuff. The pacing, the pacing feels right when you're binging it. I'm actually enjoying it a lot more on this rewatch than I did as a weekly series.
01:44:02
Speaker
item So, you know, some of the some of the writing still not great in it early on. But, you know, as far as the ah the action scenes go, like I'm more than happy to watch it just for that. Yeah. Yeah. and I like that. I like the I agree. Some of the writing is a little flimsy. I like the cast. um Yeah. I love Manny Jacinto as the bad dude. Mm hmm. Hell yeah. Yeah. The third third episode. ah My mom, my mom has watched Star Wars before.
01:44:31
Speaker
But Manny just sent a ghost through and just murders everybody. She was like just gasping the entire like, what? This is Star Wars. And then he stabs that one girl three times in a row. She's like, what the fuck just happened? Listen, Anakin can kill a bunch of children. It's fine. These are adults. It was implied child murder. These are soldiers he's killing. It wasn't implied he started a murder. They didn't show it. Yeah, he did. No, no, no. I'm talking about Anakin.
01:45:00
Speaker
Oh, just yeah, you just see the lights have gone. Yeah. but What was the line he said? Oh, yeah. Stole just goes, she was a child. He's like, she it was. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he refers. There is an eight. It's rude. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. He's great. She's turned back around. I like the acolyte back.
01:45:22
Speaker
Yeah, she's seen she's seen Order 66 speak easy, but I think but you're like he's a he's a brutal ass character on that. And that's also I think if you're older, you just think of Star Wars as like more family original, the original three movies. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. The worst thing to happen is like your dad cut your hand off, which is bummer. Like admittedly a bummer. that's your hand off a three hole Yeah. Yeah. That sucks. But yeah.
01:45:51
Speaker
Star Wars. It's back here on the rewind. We talked about Arkane over there, which I need. I'm going to go watch the third episode tonight, but oh, my God. Yeah. You watch Arkane yet? You watch season one. Yeah. Yeah. I did watch season one. It's fantastic. That that's a binger.
TV Show Anticipations
01:46:07
Speaker
So I'm not going to give it the arc schedule, though, with three episodes. I heard that. That's better. So maybe I'll be tempted to jump in. You could do a season one rewatch.
01:46:20
Speaker
There's so many other things to watch. Yeah, but how do you remember what was going on? I did my rewatch. I forgot all those characters. Because you don't watch the show. No, I feel like I watched that one. I feel like I watched that one, but it's good idea, but I give it I give it the full full Shabam. All right. Arkane's great. um Man, I am. It is insane how much I am like I'm day one for any animated series that studio does in the League of Legends universe. And I don't care about anything else in the League of Legends universe. Like I genuine really don't. Yeah. Ruined King is a good JRPG. Like if you wanted to try something that's League of Legends adjacent with a good story, I'd go try that game.
01:47:00
Speaker
Does it have an Imagine Dragons song in it? I said, I was brave enough to admit that I think the Imagine Dragons intro is a never skipper. Like I fucking love that intro and I got roasted in the comments.
01:47:16
Speaker
I'm like, I don't like a Imagine Dragons. I just think this song with the art behind it is sick. It's a good intro. Like it has nothing. It has very little to do with the magic dragon, but they are a part of it and you can't deny them that. Yeah, I got fucking roasted. I got deservedly roasted in the comments, so I'll take that one. um I need to go back and wrap up. ah Yellowstone was just this part two of its final season, which it sounds like it. I've seen all the news stories, but it Game of Thrones that I'm like, oh, no.
01:47:46
Speaker
it was it would They had to because they just couldn't come and do a deal with Kevin Costner because Kevin Costner is like, well, I also need to film all four parts of the movie that I've liquidated my assets to film. And my wife has left me because I want to make this four-part Western. And they're like, well, you need to be here for the show. And he's like, what if I am not?
01:48:08
Speaker
We're going to it away and people aren't going to like that. Yeah, I finished season four and I just haven't kept up on season five. So I need to go finish it. But now that I know it's Game of Thrones, I'm concerned. Well, I mean, it's not. It's very hard to watch the show, but it has watched what they've done this season. It's the Game of Thrones thing. It's like, well, how do you fix a problem like that? But, yeah. Well, you can't just bring back Jon Snow from the dead and Yellowstone. It doesn't work that way in the show.
01:48:38
Speaker
so but he came back from, it was fucking red magic. It's fine. well yeah And that that happens in the books, right? I think so, isn't that like, that's like many often why I saw that. You can't you can't pour bud light on somebody in Yellowstone and expect them to come back to life. So that would be sick. Could you imagine that? That's that's that possible. We're
Upcoming Events and Content Tease
01:49:01
Speaker
going to see. Shout out to Kevin Costner, friend of the show. I think that's it. I think we did it.
01:49:09
Speaker
I can't believe it. We did great. Oh my God, under two hours. What ah what a great show. Casey, what are you doing? Oh no, before before we do what we will we we got going on, Denmark with a file or don't know. Thank you so much, Denmark. Sometimes you want to skip the side stuff and murder an electric wang monster in deafening silence. And that's why I like Rise.
01:49:29
Speaker
Does Monster Hunter Rise have an electric wing monster? I think several of the games do. What's crazy is I thought he was talking about Persona because Persona also has an electric wing. That sounds like a very old Persona thing, but yeah. That first egg creature you fight in Metaphor is fucking weird. Yeah, and then you got that dude just like spit bars in the song. Get to the first like big monster boss in Metaphor if you're not hooked after that.
01:49:54
Speaker
This is post army for it, right? This is this is everything. It's like you need to get to the top of the it's like you fight it at the top of the castle. It's the weirdest design creature I've ever fought in the army for it, right? The thing at the top of the army for no, no, no, no, no, not that thing. The first the big boss after the first big dungeon.
01:50:14
Speaker
Oh, the guy at to like the top like when you have 20 days to do it. Yeah, the big boy. There's a lot of big boys. Egg boy. Okay. Egg boy with people dancing inside. We love an egg boy. Casey, what do you got going on? What's your folks what's your folks check out in your neck of the woods? You know, the usual ah follow me on social media at Sigma Gears 9. Don't have any videos on the horizon, but ah Should be back doing the Metroid Prime playthrough with Marty tomorrow um We'll be doing ah the all-day stream ah Saturday for our one-year anniversary. So I'll be there for a lot of that and Yeah, I think that's it okay, yeah as a reminder that starts at uh, oh I keep telling people 10 a.m. It starts at 11 a.m.
01:51:02
Speaker
Technically start at just 10 to 45 a.m. With the several different a.m. Is depending on your time zone. That's even crazy. 11 a.m. Central. Well, a little bit earlier is when our announcements are going to be. Now we're start playing games at 11 a.m. Central on Saturday. So tune in for that. Cool. Nick, what do you got going on? ah I'll have a new unpacked script ah next week or an unpacked video next week.
01:51:25
Speaker
Shit, script tomorrow. ah I'm not going to share the topic yet. I'll let i'll let it be a surprise. my My brain went to places today. ah So you'll enjoy that one, I think. And then, yeah, join us on Saturday for our all day event. Our schedule is up in the Discord and on Blue Sky and on Twitter. For how much longer we're on Twitter. ah And then ah it's on the Patreon as well. And then we will share it on the YouTube community tab if you're on none of those platforms by tomorrow.
01:51:53
Speaker
uh this will be there and have uh that will be playing three different games with the community or two different games with the community three different games sorry mark card eight go with your friends uh and fall guys so have those downloaded if you would like to take part And then, of course, if you haven't subscribed to us over on Patreon yet, that's what we're focusing on for this event. 15% off all of our tiers and memberships, both monthly and annual. So go join up with that. And then, yes, my man ah also points out the AMA with Yahtzee over on Reddit on Friday will be on our games, ah mostly focused on Yahtzee talking about and making sure people know where to find fully ramblement because we get comments every week. They're like, Oh, zero Your punctuation isn't just dead. like yeah yeah ah what time What time is that on Friday? 11 a.m. Central will be starting. The thread will be up an hour before at 10, so you can start so many questions there. Lovely. Hell yeah. A lot of stuff going on.
01:52:46
Speaker
Uh, and then before we, uh, before we wrap up, Thomas Kingsley with the final, I don't know. Thank you so much, Thomas. All of the monsters in metaphor. We fantastic. You're modeled after the art of the Dutch 16th century painter, Hieronymus Bosch. Hell yeah. Garden of earthly delights. That dude saw hell. That dude had something with him and he just saw hell when he closed his eyes and that he would open his eyes in the morning. He'd be like, I'm going to paint hell. I don't know. You don't just come up with that. You are literally seeing demons in your dreams. If you're that dude, this is, uh, yep.
01:53:16
Speaker
We're trying to get Karan Misbasha on Windbreakers, but he's been dead for 500 years, so. So it's a tough get, but we're we're still working on it. Proven to be, proven to be difficult, but yeah, we're not gonna stop. ah So yeah, check out all the all the stuff that everyone, everyone mentioned. Tomorrow, like Casey said, we'll be back 7 p.m. Central with Metroid, but also at 3 p.m. Central tomorrow, Jack and I will be doing a sponsored stream for Mind Cop.
01:53:42
Speaker
Which let me tell you, we're very excited for. if You feel like all cops are bad, except if they're mine cops. Yeah. So those sound like worse cops, honestly.
01:53:52
Speaker
No, it's like a detective. Detectives are good. Cops are bad. That's not a thing I should say. I'm not going to say that. What about Jake Peralta? He's both a cop. By the end of the show, he's detective. Detective Jake Peralta. He's also a cop. Detectives are fine.
01:54:07
Speaker
ah So yeah, tune in for that tomorrow. And yeah, thanks thanks to everyone for tuning in today. we yeah we We appreciate you, everyone on YouTube, everyone who who listens on your various podcast services of choice. We appreciate you all. So for ah for Nick and ah Casey and Eric, this was Marty. This was Firelink episode number 44. Thank you all so much. And we'll see you all tomorrow. Bye, everybody.