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S7 E12: Red Dead Wukong
62 Plays3 months ago
From the latest in popculture news, like the collapse of Concord and the fistful of new games just released, through to reviews on Godzilla Minus One, Monkey Man and House of the Dragon season 2, we drink our way through a tonne of content, finishing with Tom's story of finally completing Red Dead Redemption, and Dan's first look at Black Myth: Wukong
Beers Reviewed This Episode:
- Hope Estate - FKA Juicy Hazy - Sour - 6%
- Hop Nation - Frisbee Guava Sour - 4.3%
- Beer Fontaine - Botany Best Bitter - ESB - 4.5%
- Beer Fontaine - The Freschness - Farmhouse Ale - 4.9%
- Hop Nation - Eggers - DIPA - 8%
- White Bay - Nebulosity - Hazy Pale - 5.7%
- Hop Nation - Saltwater - Black Lager - 4.8%
- Range Brewing - Life Finds a Way - Red IPA - 6.8%
- Hawkers Beer - White Stout '24 - 6%
- Surfboat Brewing - Sweeps Stout - Dry Irish Stout - 4.2%
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Evening's Topic
00:00:30
Speaker
Welcome back to Pixels and Pints. I'm joined tonight, as usual, by Dan. Yellow. And Tom. Hi. And I'm Pete. And tonight, we're going to talk about the same thing we always talk about, which is a whole bunch of our favorite pop culture, movies, TV shows, video games. um We used to do music, but we don't anymore. Board games. Anything that tickles our pickle.
00:00:56
Speaker
um So I think tonight we're doing a news and reviews episode. So do we want to kick in and while we're while we're talking, we'll be reviewing some tasty beers. Jesus, been a while since I've done an intro. tell Shut up. ah um Mostly Aussie. I think probably all Aussie, usually the way it works out. ah And Tom hates his. So let's start with Tom.
Beer Reviews
00:01:19
Speaker
He's just going to put him front and center so he can sink, pour and move on.
00:01:22
Speaker
He's not gonna sink a bore. He just needs to down it and hit. Oh, no, don't do that. That's the whole idea. Yeah. What are you drinking, Tom? I am drinking the juicy hazy peach sour by Hope Estate. And it's shit. It's just fucking shit. Oh, I don't know. That's about it. ror is there These days. It's it's The juicy peach flavor is just synth. It's like cordial. And then you get like, like gummy worms, sourness coming through. And it's super sweet. It's sickly sweet. That's, that's just horseshit. Like uppercut yourself.
00:02:02
Speaker
We don't we don't like Hope Estate for reasons we can't talk about on the podcast just generally although that was. i always I didn't see like it's the tiniest little Hope Estate at the top it's like this festival beer they did so I didn't see if I'd seen that Hope Estate beforehand before I picked the can it was also the last one on the shelf and it was like reduced so I was like fuck it why not it was a no way what's it sorry what's it called.
00:02:29
Speaker
FKA Festival Juicy Hazy Peach Sour. It's 6%. And it's just absolutely horrible. That's gross. That's ruined my day. That's one nice it's ruined my week. I've had a good week. That's ruined it. I'm going to march up to Hope Estate right now and punch them all. but It's a long march.
00:02:56
Speaker
I'll see you guys in two weeks. ah Yeah, I'm giving that a one. That's being generous. Okay. Yeah. That's, that's, that's dog shit. I'm almost excited we've got a bad beat. We rarely, if ever, ever pull anything under like a 375. So I'm sorry that we had to sacrifice your taste buds, Tom. It's because usually we strategically pick them because we know they're going to be decent to great. Yeah.
00:03:30
Speaker
Someone else go, that's yucky. Well, me and Pete are going to, or maybe potentially, oh no, he's a different drink, definitely drinkk drinking a different one to me because we both got them from the same bottle shop. I got the Hop Nation Frisbee guava sour.
00:03:45
Speaker
4.3%. I still wish they would stick to their standard green and white. I know they do for their core range stuff, um but I think they need to do more ah just their their standard green and white for their yeah limited as well, but that's just my opinion.
00:04:01
Speaker
ah The bee's great. It's nice and tart. It's, uh, not overly tart, but is, is really a good dominant tartness. The guava fruit characteristic is, uh, is really punchy. Uh, and, and not, uh, not lacking, like it doesn't fall off. Like some fruits in the sours do that you drink it and the fruit falls off really quickly. And the the sourness just takes over the fruit character stays there the whole time.
00:04:32
Speaker
It's really great. right It's actually probably one of the more dominant fruit, fruit, fruited beers I've had probably ever. It's a, it's really, really nice, really refreshing and everything like that. So I think it's great. Good job. Out of five? Four and a half. Four and a half. and Okay. Yeah. Four and a half. The key takeaway there is that Dan loves a dominant tart.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, of course. Whips and ballgags, man.
00:05:02
Speaker
Sorry, I just vomited a little in my mouth. Um, that's me. I don't know. With the whip and the ball gag.
00:05:15
Speaker
fuckar I had a key entity the other day just with that noise you're making time I had a key entity the other day with a couple of couple of friends to work and I spent the whole night doing quotes from. From my son's the lambs you can't just can't just drink a key entity without the calories actually illegal yes yes you can be arrested I am drinking Fontaine's botany best.
00:05:38
Speaker
bea Triple B. Yeah. It is four and a half percent. I thought it'd be a nice way to start the evening. We may coordinate our beers later, Dan. I think it's probably worth doing since we've got two overlapping beers. You're not having either of them in the first two, are you? No. I was going to have both of them in the back end. Yeah. Yeah. The white one third, I think. That was probably not a good Call it to me now, but both of you missed that, so don't leave it alone. I am just taking the high road today. I'm not sick minded like you did. Our best bidder inspired by drinking sessions around British pubs in our youth. This bidder has a firm, multi backbone, balanced bidness and drinkability and biscuity caramel backnotes complement this refreshing British ale.
00:06:27
Speaker
Crafted with Maris on a Malt Biscuit Crystal and Belgian Special B East Kent and Styrian Golding's hops and a British yeast. Oh, and yeah, I was going to lay out on the traditional stall.
00:06:44
Speaker
It's lovely color. Yeah, beautiful color. It's um, really it's actually a little bit more orange than it's probably visible with my, my gamer girl lights, but, um, I would describe, describe it as almost like a light red ale. Like it has all of the same flavor profile of a red ale. Um, probably.
00:07:05
Speaker
About the same bitterness, it's got a real kind of pithy bitterness on the edge, um but without, like, without being overpowering, like some red owls can be. And red owls usually come in at like six and a half percent or six to six and a half. so Delicious.
00:07:22
Speaker
You get a lot of the biscuity notes through it too, which is good. I did just eat curry for um lunch slash dinner, so my palate may be a little wacky, um but that's- The Brits love a pint, Nikkari. Yeah, that's sad. You're right on the theme there. But no, it's fucking great, actually. Yeah. I'm really glad I started the night with that. Yeah. And the bitterness does cut through some of the yeah ah the spiciness that was lingering. I'm going to give that a 425.
00:07:51
Speaker
Um, probably in terms of being on point for style, it's, it probably should get a higher score. My preferences kind of drag it down a little bit, which I'm attempting not to do as best I can. But no, I think I'm happy with the four to five. Lovely. I'm glad you guys are enjoying yourself. Perfect start, but we, we, we, we had a good one. Yep. Good to go. No.
00:08:21
Speaker
yeah No, no. You're gonna power on? No, Tom's not powering on. No, he's done. Oh, I thought you were getting up. Oh, no. it Oh, no. Keeping the listeners on the edge of their seats because they have no idea what just fucking happened. Tom did several seat adjustments to ah look like he was getting up to get rid of it.
00:08:42
Speaker
Oh God, it's just it's really bad. um um We interrupt this broadcast with some breaking news from the front.
Game Cancellations and Speculations
00:08:51
Speaker
Let's go into some news that crashed and burned. Speaking of. um Yeah, good old Concord.
00:08:59
Speaker
The game that I had no one had really heard of and then it suddenly was here and then now it's not. Two years in the making. Two weeks in the making. Eight years, eight years. It's like Garden of Good and Evil, whatever it's called. Beyond Good and Evil. Beyond Good and Evil 2, yeah. Eve Online, was that the other one? Eve Online's been going for years, man. No, what's the other big one that the guys keeps making money for?
00:09:25
Speaker
<unk> and yeah excellent yeah You can pay 60 grand for all the ships in my beta game that hasn't been formally released. like can die Yes, Concord, it was a hero shooter, similar to, um well, any other hero shooter, and it's been taken offline for what, yeah two weeks? it's Two, three weeks. Fourteen days. Fourteen days.
00:09:49
Speaker
that's um It's a bold move. but Cotton let's see how it plays out for him. um Yeah, there's talk about whether or not they're going to relaunch it back as a free to play model. They've refunded anyone. If you bought it on the PlayStation store or PC store, whatever you're playing it on.
00:10:06
Speaker
You've been given a full refund. I know EB Games were told to reach out to all the customers to come and bring it back for a full refund. It's going to cost them a pretty penny. Those those physical physical copies of a game that only lasted two years. Man, that's ah that's video game history there. Two weeks. yeah Two weeks, sorry. Two weeks. Yeah. They're, are they're already trying to, people are trying to flog it online for multiple hundred dollars. like four hundred bucks yeah People are already leveraging that. Yeah. It's ridiculous. Yeah. um I did see one dude in, in one of my trophy hunting groups, got the platinum in the two weeks. So fuck me.
00:10:42
Speaker
Yeah, they were a bunch of people were trying to smash it out before it closed. Today's the eighth that closed on the sixth of September. um So my understanding it was it was a live service PVP only shooter. Yeah. Yeah. But it was it wasn't free to play. It was a paid game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But so was so was the division.
00:11:03
Speaker
um Yeah, but it's trying, it's trying to do an Overwatch. Yeah. But an Overwatch is free. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what it was. An Overwatch style game. So yeah, keep doing three the the hero shooter, so 6v6, but fully, fully paid ah with a, with a roadmap. Which was pretty dismal. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't look at it, but a roadmap out to January 25. So six months worth of that Content now we're going to drop it had it had two seasons, you know, they like to call them seasons now. um Yeah, they were dropping the exact same content in each one. It would just said new character, new map, new mode, quality of life updates. It was like copy and pasted. Yeah. So they hadn't thought about how what they were going to deliver just that they were committing to delivering those elements.
00:11:53
Speaker
Yeah, but now I like I said, I was in the chat. I was pretty impressed by the trailer at first. And then as I watched it and then realized what style of game it was, I just completely switched off and completely forgot about the game until all this debacle about it being shut down happened.
00:12:09
Speaker
Um, see that's just the, the, the, the cut scene. So they were trying to do it as kind of a story driven to drive people forward. The cut scenes look pretty good. Like actually they look very good. I shouldn't say pretty good. They look very good. There's an animated something to go along with it as well. And.
00:12:27
Speaker
going on to news later on, it's got a it's got an episode in The Secret Level Anthology. So they dropped a gazillion dollars on this, and then they've gone, nah, fuck it, 6,000 total players or concent concurrent players on Steam um within that two weeks of launch. And they've an I mean, 6,000 is a dismal number. It's not as bad as some others. But It's a bad number for that type of game. That type of game, yeah. Especially in its launch period. Yeah. And they've dumped all this money into it. And apparently that episode in Secret Level is still going to be included in the anthology. So, I mean, Sony will find some way to revamp it and drop it on PS Plus and, I don't know, try and make some money back in microtransactions. It's insanity. It really is. Yeah.
00:13:19
Speaker
i mean It sucks if you like those kinds of games and you're looking forward to something new. And if you were one of the people who did go out and buy it and play it and was enjoying it, it's pretty rubbish that now you can't. yeah just <unk> You're getting it ripped out from underneath you. 6,000 disappointed people out there. 6,000, hey? Yeah. That's the half of what I hoped. How many kids did we have in high school, Pete? like Oh, you did go to our high school. Like 2,500 kids in the high school? It's only it's a three high schools, really. Sprinkled across the nine billion people in the world. Yeah, exactly. In all the countries and yeah, and compared to releasing in the same period as Blacksmith Wukong that sold 10 million copies. yeah Yeah. All right. Well, we'll we'll leave that that burning wreckage and and move on, move right on. um So we had some Gamescom
Gamescom News and Reactions
00:14:10
Speaker
news. The Gamescom thing that came out the other day it was pretty uneventful, really. um But, you know, nice to see that
00:14:17
Speaker
The Indiana Jones game will be coming to PS5 in the new year. um the They dropped a collector's edition you can get, which comes with a ah globe that can open up and you can store stuff in it. um So I would definitely, you know, I would probably buy that and then just hide beers in it for myself as little treats for later. Always wanted one of those, those globe bar things. yeah yeah ah That's on the wish list.
00:14:45
Speaker
um So that was some of the news, other big little tidbits. We got Borderlands 4, which was was like it's very funny. If you watch the footage of them announcing it and they panned to the crowd to get the crowd reaction and everyone has the bad taste of the movie in their mouth. And so it's just like there's one guy going.
00:15:04
Speaker
weeks apart, yeah the train wreck of the movie. and Train wreck of the movie, yeah. I mean, they obviously had it planned and it's just hasn't worked in their favor. Backfired on them. um The Mafia series is getting a a new game, it's the old country to be set in what looks to be country Italy.
00:15:22
Speaker
um Yeah, Mafia is a pretty decent series, so like I'll probably check that out when it comes out. I don't know what time period it's set in. they They've kind of done 1930s, 1940s, and then you were 1960s in the Deep South in Mafia 3. So, um interested to see ah what what that one turns into. And Starfield expansion is coming. The Shattered Space. Yeah, just looking at the details now, actually.
00:15:49
Speaker
They announced it in a really weird way. they They just tacked it onto the end of a trailer about um the new buggy you can get. Oh, yeah. That was it. We almost forgot. Oh, by the way. Here's a fucked up new content. 50 new locations in Varun Kai, where things should be tighter, more focused experience on a single planet rather than roaming large planets, finding the same 20 structures over and over. New grenades, who cares, there'll be formidable new enemies and you'll be running into some old enemies as well. Yeah, I mean, I do like this. Does it entice you to go back in, Pete? Not at all.
00:16:27
Speaker
Okay. Not at all. There's like 10 reason I put it in there. I was just like, i want I wondered if it would be enough to get you to go back. It's like, it's like 8,000 planets in the game and one of them has enough content to justify bothering to play a video game.
00:16:41
Speaker
Like, you know, god as as the Forbes article i'm I'm flipping through at the moment says it's a thousand miles wide, bit an inch deep as a game. he um and I got so jacked of landing on a planet and you go and explore. Like you have to let yeah the the cut scene to take off and land is cool the first dozen times. Yeah. But when you're doing it 50 times on the same planet to find one interesting structure to explore. Yeah, no, I'll pass. Yeah.
00:17:11
Speaker
there was a good There was a few other little bits and pieces that came out of Gamescom as well that were not new things, but new new footage of things that have been announced announced before. So the Altars is a is a survival, sci-fi survival building game um that looks pretty good. Some streamers have started to get pre-release copies of that from the devs. And I've seen some of that looks very interesting. You kind of build your base It's first but first person or third person, I can't remember now, when you're on the planet. But then when you go into your base, it goes to almost a fallout shelter, it's side on view. And you're in this big wheel and you've got to move the big wheel across the planet and things like that. So it looks it looks very interesting. monster Monster Hunter Wild for all the Monster Hunter people out there. um June Awakening got a whole bunch more stuff released. They're doing a whole bunch more dev diaries. It looks like it's going to be
00:18:08
Speaker
uh released soon uh one other one that streamers have got uh that got spoken about at games cons called we harvest shadows uh and it's a a first person have a farm building ah game ah but with horror elements in it. So it looks it looks a little interesting. You're kind of ah a lone rancher. You randomly buy this farm after a ah someone in the family dies, the mother dies or something like that. And ah you have to do all your work during the day and get inside at night and go to bed ah before all the shit starts to happen. Instantly.
00:18:49
Speaker
Instantly makes me think of that um Love and Robots episode um where their mechs, their farmers, and they've got neighboring farms, they jump in the mechs and have to battle it out with the alien invasion or whatever it is. yeah so That'd be a cool game, actually. like yeah um And then um that berserker, first berserker,
00:19:12
Speaker
ah Would you call make fuck berserk? Yeah, it's gone to that one. i I didn't, I didn't, I didn't get into it, but yeah, yeah I don't know. It, it semi interests me. It probably interests me more now after playing black with Wukong because it it is, uh, are you souls? Like, um, so it probably interests me a little bit more now. So I might look at it down the track and see what comes up. But yeah, just some other things that stood out at games. school Does Elden ring now interest you, Dan?
00:19:41
Speaker
Yeah. So that is so a conversation that we may have offline ah to to how similar it is or how similar. I mean, obviously I haven't played Elden Ring and you haven't played Black Myth. So we're going to have to go on each other's opinions on this. But yeah, yeah it was something that I did want to ask you about. Cool.
Secret Level Anthology and Exciting Releases
00:20:00
Speaker
Lovely. bla Um, yeah, we briefly mentioned this already, but the secret level anthology was also announced that, uh, gamescom, uh, from Tim Miller's blur studios. Uh, they have a ah ah pretty rich history of, um, doing like like CGI trailers for games. So they did all the Arkham ones that was them, those guys. So, um, pretty talented group of group of people making this. Um,
00:20:25
Speaker
yeah The Blur Studios, that's the same guys who did Love Death and Robots that we all just talked about as well. It looks great. It's 15 episodes or 15 little anthology shorts um covering a bunch of different video game worlds. They're mini animated stories set in existing ah video game IPs. Basically, yeah. like i'' a much betterr way of being Thank you, Peter. Predominantly PlayStation IPs?
00:20:53
Speaker
No. So, well, one of them is the PlayStation studios. That's one of the like brands that they've, they've kind of worked with for this. They released the full list. I should have written it down, but I didn't. You talk, I'll find it. Yeah. Cause the other ones you've seen there, no, I don't, that they wouldn't be all PlayStation ones cause you definitely see some of the like Xbox titles in there. Um, but it comes out, uh, through, uh, Amazon prime yeah on December the 10th.
00:21:22
Speaker
I'm actually looking forward. Dan turns into a ghost. But yeah, given how ah good Love, Death and Robots was, I um i'm have high hopes for this. yeah um it's like the for It's like the alien spaceship landing door just opened on Dan. Oh, you need like angels. I'll quickly read this and close the close the screen. We've got Pac-Man, Warhammer 40K, Concord, Mega Man, Unreal Tournament, New World,
00:21:55
Speaker
Aterium, Armored Core, Spelunky, Honor of Kings, Sifu, Dungeons and Dragons, The Outer Worlds, Crossfire, Exodus, and PlayStation, which features a number of PS games and characters. So that's where God of War is going to be. Yeah, nice. That's disappointing that there isn't a God of War, an individual God of War one. Outer Worlds would be interesting. It will be, yeah. Yeah, it will be how quirky out is what Outer Worlds is. I do like that.
00:22:23
Speaker
and who they get to do some of the voicing, given. Didn't he, didn't he get acquitted in the end? But he's still canceled everywhere. Who are you talking about? Outer Worlds. Oh, sorry. Wrong IP. It was the the, I was thinking the one on night similar similar release timeframe, similar game, the sci-fi shooter on Xbox with the gun that talks to you.
00:22:48
Speaker
Oh, you're talking about the rig and what he got. Oh, okay. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Outer Worlds is the Fallout space one that I played. Yeah. I don't know why the two merge in my memory, but. I can see it. I think there's similar, like there's some similar art styles in there. I can see it. Thank you for that allowing, allowing me my. It's a fucking long bow to draw, but I can. I can see it, but the arrow is not quite loosed, but yes, it's definitely a long board. Video games? They're both spacey.
00:23:22
Speaker
ah Right. These game releases, like, it's got to be the first time I've actually been excited about a series of games that have come out and yet somehow not excited enough to actually buy any of them. I'm i'm intending to, because I didn't want to start something a week before flying out to Boston. So, yeah.
00:23:43
Speaker
That's a spicy meatball. That is a spicy meatball, yeah. um Yes, there are a bunch of games releasing this month or have just released that ah that you know have taken interest for for us. um um There's Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2, which looks like fucking great. Nuts fun. Yeah. It's a fun planet. Hearing Ed talk about it. yeah It evokes the the visceral high pace of Doom, but set in an IP that I fucking love.
00:24:14
Speaker
And a couple of the gameplay clips that I've seen of when he's the you've it's just shown like the first bit where you're fighting the swarm, took me back to days gone as he's just trying to gun down all these like little swarming dudes. I was like, hell yeah. Funny you should say that. It's made by the guys who made World War Z. So they've got, they've got, World War Z didn't really pick up as a game, but apparently the zombie swarm mechanic in that is excellent as well. He's made it. He's made it.
00:24:45
Speaker
And aftertaste it could strip paint. That's a dirty taint. ah so So yeah, there's the, there's the horrid mechanic there that already, is that Tyranids Pete? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're finding the Tyranids.
00:25:00
Speaker
Yes, I got to tell you, sorry, I got to tell you the um the tie into the stupid fucking mobile game that I'm playing is is actually pretty impressive. And that game all round, I talked about it last time as a Warhammer 40K tacticus.
00:25:14
Speaker
I reckon I spent four hours yesterday playing that game on my phone, um a fucking mobile game. It's just, just fun. It's got a timer. You got to wait till your energy comes back. And if you want to spend real life money, you can refresh it faster. And of course that's the hook for these types of games. But yeah if you're patient and you just play it once a day, genuinely it was a lot of fun. And then so the tie-in for Space Marine 2 is there's a survival mode, which is exactly what you'd expect.
00:25:44
Speaker
You've got, you can only play as Imperial Space Marines, which cuts your roster down from like 70 potential characters to like, I don't know, a dozen. um And you pick a team of five and there's power-ups that pop up when you clear certain waves and they get more and more difficult and your tunes level up um through through the course of the waves as well. I've not heard them referred to as tunes for so long.
00:26:10
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, I'm old school and show my age. Um, yeah, it's just, I mean, it's a, it's a brand new game mode inside the game that was brought out just for space Marine two. And of course, one of the characters that you, that is automatically chosen for you out of your five is Titus, the lead character from space Marine two. He's got his own special abilities that tie back into the video game. As far as crossovers go, I'm actually pretty fucking impressed.
00:26:38
Speaker
Anyway, sorry. Carry on. that's ah Real games. But I mean, it just goes to show the amount that they actually care about the IP and how much they want to support base marine too, because I mean, i'll like that's something that they didn't have to do, but they saw an opportunity to do it and tie it in properly. so and they And they tied it in properly. They tied it in properly. I mean, but then you look at, um,
00:27:04
Speaker
Excuse me, I can't remember the name of the game when I was reading the news article today that after 10 years, they're shutting down a very popular gacha style video game out mobile game.
00:27:16
Speaker
And gacha games are all about collecting a bunch of tunes and you know pumping money into the game to get your tunes faster and then level them up. it's it's kind of You can tell that it's the foundation that that tacticus was built on, but's but tacticus is not a gacha game. But after 10 years, they said that they made two billion dollars.
00:27:36
Speaker
on a fucking mobile game with paywalls in it. That's just mental. And clearly $2 billion dollars over 10 years wasn't enough for them to bother keeping to keeping running the servers, so they're shutting it down.
00:27:50
Speaker
ah Just you imagine all those people that have spent tens of thousands of dollars playing a fucking mobile game for some guy to just go let pull the big switch. Bye. See you later. Thanks for all the fish. I'll just quickly list through the other games, unless you want to talk about them. but um Star Wars Outlaws, I've played the first couple of hours so far very enjoyable, so I'm going to get back into that when we're when we're back from It's getting mixed reviews, so I'm going to be interested to hear your thoughts when we do a proper episode and we can cover it. Yeah. Once I've definitely sunk some time in it, I'll want to give it a, it's, it's due. Um, Dan is, uh, balls deep in black myth Wukong. I think it's the only way to describe that. And by all accounts, thoroughly loving it. Um, which I'm sure he'll talk about later. Uh, legend of Zelda, echoes of wisdom, uh, released. It's the first game, uh, legend Zelda game where you play as Zelda.
00:28:43
Speaker
Yeah, right. It's the main character. You don't play as Link. I was completely lost about what LOZ meant on the notes. um I looked at it and like, what the fuck was that? Yeah. i ah read on there there yes Sorry interrupt. I read an article today that um they've now formally said that the ah the Ocarina time and the what's the follow one game from Ocarina of Time? Next one after that. George Mask. No, it wasn't that one. It was another. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, you what you're thinking of.
00:29:10
Speaker
are officially not in not not part of law or not part of canon. The Zelda timeline. yeah they've They've dropped a new new new canon or thing and they've they've got it branches off. i was I was reading the article too and it sets games in in whether the hero wins or the hero being Link or you. ah fails and then completely off to the side a Breath of the Wild and um Tears of the Kingdom, which I'm excited to get back into Breath of the Wild on the flight, um because that's kind of the only time I played the Switch. I don't play it at home, but... Rumors of a Switch 2 coming too. Sorry, I keep interrupting you. Carry on. yeah bad
00:29:48
Speaker
um Astrobot yeah also came out, apparently it's getting fantastic reviews. It looks good. so it it it fun I'm definitely going to get it. there Did you guys play the demo for when PS5 first came out? i thought it was a I thought it was the perfect way to introduce the PS5. And then they did, a a a I've got to say, a pretty rad um Similar, like it's not a demo, it's more like a tech demonstration, but it is a full game. They did the exact same thing for PSVR too. I got to tell you, it's pretty fucking good for a VR title. It's it's pretty good. it's I mean, it's it's Mario. Like to me, it's a Mario west game. it's Yeah, platform Mario style. Yeah. So yes, they've released the the the big game now. It ties in with its um the start of the PlayStation 30th anniversary.
00:30:34
Speaker
ah Festival event that's about to kick off at the end of the year. and No doubt we'll lead into the PS5 Pro announcement, which is already yes lots of rumors swirling around and ah I think it was an image, a picture, there was some drawings in the background and people have picked it out as the pro.
00:30:52
Speaker
What's the ps5 pro if it looks like it's ah the images they've circulated it looks like wolverine's first mask when you have the whiskers. that's yeah yeah i can see um And a bunch of remasters age of mythology ah lollipop chainsaw. ah think da i' waiting for that Yeah, well, it's now in HD for you, Pete. so It's one of those ones that's come out of left center, right? Like, i I don't know. It was obviously a reasonably popular popular game on the PlayStation 2 or whatever it came out on. think it was Jesus Christ, Peter. Yeah.
00:31:26
Speaker
Overcarved or bad for? I suspect that I'm going to take the the blame for it. i've got to I've got a Loki on my lap and he's sitting really awkwardly and I'm desperately trying to pour a beer without making, without covering him in fucking beer. So am I making piss off? Yeah. Anyway, carry on. Sorry. um Yes, yeah it was wildly popular, Dan, because you played as a, you know,
00:31:52
Speaker
blonde big breasted cheerleader running around in a miniskirt. I've always wanted to be a blonde big breasted cheerleader. I know it's one of your key fantasies. Um, and then you use the chainsaw to carve up zombies. I mean, and what's your like who says you've got to see yourself in the main character. enjoy Well, yeah actually I completely want to rephrase my statement that it's not happening at all. Nope, that's already going. Oh, dear. Fuck. I'm going to move on. I could really get behind that main character. Oh, there we go.
00:32:30
Speaker
I'm going to go wash my glass out of that disgusting shit I just drank. I'm sorry. those and Pete can take over with the next bit of news. I'll be back. All right. um all Oh, my next beer is very Belgian. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. I don't know, man. i it' got an ah It's currently got an 82% rating on audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. so um But I'm not seeing many positive reviews in other news media. A lot of people are saying that it's it's too much nostalgia, not enough substance that it's just doesn't like it. It's desperately trying to capture the magic and has failed. It's overreached. Yeah, I got that a little bit from even the first trailer that got released. I didn't like that. The one one aspect I hate of
00:33:25
Speaker
One thing Star Wars does excellent in the first in the original trilogy is the characters change over time. so i they they they They grow and they change, but they they wear different clothes. and it's it's taught You can tell time has passed just purely by what they're wearing.
00:33:45
Speaker
it's thiss It's not the same thing. But then Winona Ryder in the trailer is wearing the exact same style of dress and everything. She's got exactly the same hair as she did when she was a fucking teenager. Like, she's in her fucking fifties now. It's like, have the woman have a style that has evolved from what she was wearing when she was a teenager in the first movie, not just a carbon copy of that, because it's so out of place. Yeah.
00:34:14
Speaker
And yeah it's it's things like that that I really hate because it's it it makes me feel like exactly what you said. They're trying there's trying for nostalgia, ba but they haven't actually fought thought through this and they want it to be ah there the same thing without any evolution.
00:34:34
Speaker
Yeah, total ham-fisted evolution. I just, yeah. Apparently, it it it does have a level of evolution to it, but ah I don't know. We'll have to see, I guess, when when the movie comes out on, free you know, Free to Watch. Oh, me and Louise are going to see it next weekend. Are you? I'm going to watch um Next Weekend. Oh, just before. Yeah.
00:35:00
Speaker
And I am ah going to see Wolverine finally on Wednesday. Not Wolverine, Deadpool Wolverine, yep. Yeah. Did we talk about Joker? ah We did not. But do we before we do that, do you want to do second beers now, or do you want to do it after the news? Mine's fine after. OK. All right. We'll carry on. No, mine's a bit keen.
00:35:28
Speaker
Yeah, mines mine's a big can, but I'm not taking responsibility for the second attempt. That is over-carved, because that was poured properly the second time around. It's just foam. Secondary fermentation, it's because it's ah you said it was Belgian. It's a foam house, yeah. It's an aggressive yeast, yeah.
00:35:46
Speaker
um Joker fully ah do is getting smashed by critics. Absolutely destroyed. I haven't seen too many specific articles about what's wrong with it. Just that it's getting really bad bad rankings out of five and out of 10. That's not out until October 3rd. So ah another four weeks away ish. Yeah. Only things I've really seen about it were just like it it takes If you're wanting to be like this musical like movie, it just doesn't hit the doesn't hit the notes, which is a weird way to say it. but its i know what you mean and pace it the Apparently the pacing is just completely off. They spend far too much time in Arkham at the start and it doesn't go anywhere.
00:36:34
Speaker
I think Pete's having a bad day this time. That foam is horrible. Oh dear. Usually when you drink foam, it's, it's okay. You just get a little bit of light beer flavor. That's got a real tangy. Bunk. Bunk. Yeah. That's definitely secondary fermentation. I would almost go so far as to say it might even be infected. Um, yeah, I don't know. I wasn't really interested in saying the film either. Like it hadn't, hadn't drawn me in any of the trailers so far or anything. like I didn't really enjoy the first one as much as others. I thought his acting was really good and like the way he he portrayed the character, but it was also, like we all said at the start, it was ah before it even came out, it wasn't the movie that we ever wanted or needed.
00:37:21
Speaker
Yeah. To relaunch Joker's backstory. Yeah. you know it does It doesn't need a backstory. I'm sure I've prattled on about this every time this fucking movie gets brought up. I like the movie. I like, I like, I like the first one. It felt like an art house project, frankly. yeah But it didn't, it didn't need to be the Joker to be what it was. Yeah, true. yeah it It was, it was purely ah Hoodwinking people by pulling a DC character in to get people in seats, rather than just being a good movie on its own, which I still think the first one is. Yeah. It didn't need to be a Joker movie. It could have been exactly the same movie.
00:38:02
Speaker
Take the Wayne characters out of it Thomas and Bruce take them out of it completely call it something other than golf and fucking call it golf and it doesn't fucking matter but take those other primary characters out of it and it was still a good movie it was what actually did it was interesting.
00:38:20
Speaker
it would have I reckon it would have had a little bit of like the right kind of hype if it had been portrayed as just an arthouse-esque psychopathic fucking clown movie, exactly as you're describing. But if they had used the word Gotham somewhere in the movie but not in the trailers, would it would have just been this nice little easter egg that would have gotten people in to see it just out of interest to see what the tie-in was. I think it would have been a better idea. Until they get Tim Burton back, I just, I don't know if they're going to have another, another Superman, Superman that really has that grittiness that I miss from the old movies and it goes back to our last episode around nostalgia. That's a big goal.
00:39:07
Speaker
They've done good Batman since Batman's Batman. I'm not sure what the what the plural there is. a But it's just it just doesn't have that balance of weird awkward fucked upness, grittiness and just that dark.
00:39:25
Speaker
Like that real perfect balance of the original Batman where he's not a good guy. He's not a bad guy. He's a good guy doing bad things, striving to be good. And that's that complexity to that character. I just don't think they've recreated since.
00:39:40
Speaker
Anyway, I disagree with that, but sure cool. Fun little fact. I was for some reason, whatever today, listening to the Batman begins soundtrack. And obviously it's a nice little thing that they name all the tracks after, um, bats, the tech, the scientific names for bats or all the track names. Okay. But I didn't realize that Hans Zimmer, the clever little bastard in the middle of it has put six tracks that if you look at it, it's the first letter spells out Batman.
00:40:07
Speaker
Fair enough. I just have to be looking at the tracklist and I was like, oh yeah, Batman. Well played.
00:40:16
Speaker
um Last little bit of news and I don't know how I feel about this. I think I'd prefer that I'd not read it and that it didn't happen. ah So and Andy Serkis who played Gollum amongst a whole range of other um amazing
Movie Discussions and Speculations
00:40:28
Speaker
characters. and He was the the main character um all the way through the Planet of the Apes, movies up until the most recent one, because obviously the main... Caesar. Yeah, because obviously Caesar's not available for the final movie or the most recent movie. um So he's now directing or potentially directing a Lord of the Rings movie, The Hunt for Gollum. And he's serious enough about it now that he's he's and ah he's approached Orlando Bloom and Sir Ian McKellen to talk through whether or not they'd be interested in signing on for the film. um The article I read said Orlando was
00:41:04
Speaker
Orlando's basically said, I'll do whatever I'm told to do if it's got peter Peter Jackson involved because they pretty much launched his career and he feels like he owes him something. um But apparently the the conversation turned pretty quickly to how the fuck like it's been, what is it, 20 years since Lord of the Rigs?
00:41:23
Speaker
Uh, it's 24, 24. And he said, so like I'm, I've aged, but I'm playing a timeless elf. How the fuck's that going to work? And, and Andy's just got an AI, like, we'll, we'll, we'll just figure out a way to make AI, AI deage you in real time. It's like, I hope they don't do the movie. Yeah.
00:41:43
Speaker
i and know Well, i they I'm pretty sure they're definitely going ahead with it because Andy Serkis is um in New Zealand. He's in Hobbiton with the crew. um So something's definitely happening ah around that. They posted a picture the other day. But um yeah, definitely it's an interesting choice for to bring Legolas in. um I know originally when they first expressed the idea of doing the hunt for Golan, there was talk about bringing Vigo back by Aragorn.
00:42:10
Speaker
I definitely wouldn't work. Um, be like same thing. It's just like, it's, it's, it's set, you know, while Bilbo, it should be set like just before Bilbo kind of sets out is, is the timeline that it should, it should be in like, which is the start of all the rings. Like most people forget there's actually like a, like a 20 year gap between Gandalf leaving and Gandalf coming back to the shot. yeah Um,
00:42:37
Speaker
And I just don't know why they're all suddenly obsessed with making things about golem. Like. It's just really weirding me out. This was going to be my point, too. like i think you Well, circus is fucking directing. Yeah. His character. Well, he's been given rights to do a lot of these projects. It's not just anything that circulates around Gollum. But yeah, I forget the actual wording of it. But he got rights from WB or whoever owns it a couple of years ago to
00:43:08
Speaker
pursue these, these projects. So it's it's just, ah it's, it's the it's the Star Wars thing all over again, isn't it? It's just it's these things into these timelines where you don't need to cram things into these timelines, because all you're doing is tainting the original work when you could be creating something for yourself.
00:43:33
Speaker
I know someone tried to do that recently, which we will not speak about, but they could do big jumps into the future in both timelines, in both IPs. And create a whole new storyline set in that universe. And that's exactly it. And now you've you've completely ah ah removed yourself from these original characters.
00:43:54
Speaker
uh that and have them as inspirations and everything to build this world on but just separate yourself out and create something for yourself don't piggyback off these giants who made the original the original original work i'm talking about Tolkien here and then Peter Jackson who made an a trilogy of masterpieces and then obviously lost interest in himself a little bit too when he was forced to make The Hobbit and and do something for yourself and it's just like these these And this is going to sound awful and I mean it, but I don't mean it. But these hacks that are trying to slot themselves into someone else's, someone else's ah masterpiece of work. You are not as good as that person who wrote this originally and don't think you are. So create something of your own in an own timeline.
00:44:44
Speaker
in an own era that can be part of the world, don't ham-fist it into this this this section. shoehor yeah the whole The whole idea of The Hunt for Golem is from like ah literally like it's a throwaway paragraph in the in the books. Yeah, but that's weird that's true for the entire Rings of Power series too, though. That's just anda hobbets snippets of- No, The Hobbit was a book, though. Yeah, but not three movies worth. No, no, no, true. But at least it had a narrative That was ground in the standard. They had it a bunch in, yes. As opposed to the similar one. The hunt for Gollum is just literally, there's one thing where they talk about how Aragorn found Gollum and took him to Mirkwood and gave him to Thrandrill and Legolas. And then that's the whole reason that Legolas is at the Council of Elrond is because he's come to report that Gollum's escaped. And it's like they're just picking up this very, very tiny piece of a massive, massive book to go like,
00:45:38
Speaker
let's let's blow that up and and do it and it's like I'd love to see more more work around like getting someone new to play Aragorn and some of the because Aragorn had he was eighty eighty seven eighty eight by the time the of the Lord of the Rings story like he fought in Rohan when Theoden was a child like there's so much story you can create about him but it's just this is just it feels like again it's just too close like Make sure you wonder what involvement the owner of the estate has in green lighting projects and and perhaps. Is it still Christopher? Is it still Christopher Tolkien? Because is he still alive? I can't remember. I don't. I'm not sure. I think he is because he's recently been continually publishing.
00:46:25
Speaker
unfinished, like, works that Tolkien started. Yeah, they just got to squeeze that stone for that last little drop of gold and blood. but But I think, but like, you just have to wonder if maybe they they have to sign off on new works created in that IP and they're more hesitant. Oh, they do, because that's the whole thing with Rings of Power is that, you know, as we've spoken about before, they, anything that's written that Tolkien's written about that in the second age and stuff, they can't change, but they can add stuff in. To fill in the gaps. To fill in gaps and- We'll talk about my thoughts on that so far in in the second half, but um yeah, anyway. And I just want to clarify too, my hack comment, I don't think Any Circus is a hack, I think Any Circus is great.
00:47:09
Speaker
um That wasn't necessarily a slight at him. um It was just, it was my frustration in saying they need to fucking leave this shit that has already been done excellent alone. Yeah. And and do something, do something of their own creation. If you think you're good enough, then you should be able to understand on stand on your own two feet. Yeah. 100%. I overheard one of the, you know, 18 year olds at the pub the other day say like,
00:47:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's been long enough. They should probably remake the Lord of the Rings trilogy and someone had to grab my arm, just grab my arm to pull me back. And I was like, I can't have that one procreating. Like, stay about that stupid. Just glass anyway. Shall we talk about our second beers? Yep. Sure.
00:47:59
Speaker
Pete, do you want to go first? Cause you've got the, what apparently is the not nice beer this time. It's not that it's not nice. It just, I don't know. I like, I got a shit ton of foamy head. I blame myself originally because I think it was a bad pour to start with. But once that settled down and I went to pour the other half of the can, I got just as much head and I bought it properly. And the head tasted like acid. When I tried the the dregs in the can, I got lemon, lime and band-aids.
00:48:28
Speaker
And I'm pretty sure the bad days means. Phenolic. Yeah. No, no, no. So that can come from certain yeasts. Phenolic. It is very yeasty. It's a very Belgian yeasty. So, um, I'm drinking and I did, I did warn you, Jeremy. Um, ah so I'm drinking beauty Fontaine's sunset season ale. I think it's called the freshness. Um,
00:48:55
Speaker
Yes, it is. The freshness, sunset season on ale, ah juicy yet crisp, refreshing, bright and zesty notes with a delicious lemon lime aroma. Okay. ah Perfect at a barbecue, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Just want to see what it was made with. This spear was crafted with Belgian Pilsner malt wheat and as acidulated malt.
00:49:14
Speaker
and said ah why NZYIT and Motaweka hops and Belgian Saison yeast. Yeah, so that's where all the lemon and lime is coming from. It's where the farmhouse funk is coming from. I don't get band aids in the glass, though. I just get it in the can and that that foam was not good.
00:49:36
Speaker
um Having said that, now that it's settled down, I'm not a big fan of Belgian yeast, typically, and I've talked about that before. There's farmhouse and then there's farmhouse. um so I'm not going to mark it down for the for it not being my favorite style. It's certainly a lovely golden light color.
00:49:55
Speaker
um
00:49:57
Speaker
Oh, 375? 375. Yeah, 375. I'm going with that.
00:50:07
Speaker
Lovely. I've got a, I've got another hop nation, uh, double IP Eggers, double OPA, uh, 8%. Super dank, like crazy, crazy dank. That was what my punch in the face face was for 10 minutes ago. Uh, it's got some, it's got Nelson in it. So it's got, uh, some sort of back end funk to it as well from that hop. Some,
00:50:33
Speaker
some blue cheese characters coming through on the back palate it's got oh no no no it's ah it's a it's a nice finish off nelson's a really good hop and just yeah we've been we've had 100 beers with it and it's just you have the way you describe blue cheese i hate blue cheese yeah it's just just one of those blue cheese so we'll see how we go oh yeah uh it's got uh cryo mosaic in it um generous dry half of Nelson and a second of cryo mosaic. ah And it's like crazy dank like super piney and really
00:51:09
Speaker
really grapefruit oil, like not the pith, like the Negroni squeeze the peel over a Negroni kind of thing. It sounds really good, but I reckon ah it it also sounds palate fatiguing after a while. Oh, yeah. it's ah in ah And it's a 440 mil can. I would have probably preferred this. I mean, I actually don't have to drink at all, but it's a very good beer.
00:51:38
Speaker
It's a hundred percent do have to drink that whole beer because every time we record in person and there's a little bit left in my glass you go finish it. I'm going to finish it i definitely am but it is. I would buy extras of these but I wouldn't drink them all together.
00:51:58
Speaker
yeah yeah Because I think you would wake up in the morning and the only thing you would smell for the rest of the day was. Pine. Yeah. It's like going ah going camping with nothing but a case of Jedi juice as a random example. yeah That's definitely not a memory. Just the random example would do that. Surely not. Dehydrated in the bush. Yeah, great. Pissing pure Jedi juice. Out of five.
00:52:24
Speaker
Um, I think this is another solid four and a half. It's a really enjoyable beer. I just, in catching a glimpse of the color there, I'm yeah, that looks yes. Yeah. Nice and bright. It's a, it's just a, it's a, it's a very, it's a very enjoyable dank beer, but you would, that's why I grabbed it this time because the next ones will be, the next one should be a a fresher style of beer too. So something to come through all this.
00:52:54
Speaker
Lovely. I'm having a good beer this time. I've been nice to myself. I've treated myself. It's only what would you do. um I'm having the White Bay Nebulosity Hazy Pale. That's 5.7%. It's got the brand new branding, which I still don't enjoy. That's just my take on it. I've been told I was wrong when I told when i said the same thing as well. but Oh, you just told you were wrong. just Yeah, I was told I was wrong by somebody else and they're like, no, no, no, it's great. And I'm like, yeah, no, you're wrong. Yes. Uh, it's pretty average. Um, it is look, it's just, it's a great example of a hazy pale. They've used, um, Citra Simcoe and motor worker. Um, so it's, it's, it's nice and hoppy enough. Um, it's, uh,
00:53:49
Speaker
Yeah, it's just enjoyable. And especially after that dumpster fire of a can I had the first one. um It is it is really nice and juicy. ah It's very it's it's soft and pillowy as you would expect from the style and it's I could easily have probably it's a four 40 mil can. I'd probably enjoy another one. If I had it on tap, I'd probably have another schooner of it. After that, I would similarly, similarly feel it would start being a bit fatiguing. I'd want to move on to something else. Um, but I'm, yeah, that's, that's a, that's a cracker. Uh, it's a four and a half out of five. Yeah. Nice. Um, it's really well made. Very delicious. there' the Yeah. Shame about the branding. not Well,
00:54:31
Speaker
Um, we're going to finish off this half of the episode and we're bang on time, which is good for change. So I'm not going to ruin it now. Um, a couple of trailers, uh, Netflix terminated zero, which is a new series, uh, coming, I think it's actually already series. Uh, maybe it is a film actually. I thought, yeah, I think it's an animated film, isn't it? I must have misread it. Research! Research! Isn't it out as well? Because it keeps popping up on the PlayStation Network for me. yeah ah August 29th came out and ah yes, it is. No.
00:55:06
Speaker
No, it's a TV series. I was right the first time. It was eight episodes in the season. ah It is animated by Production IG, who did a whole bunch of stuff, good quality stuff. I'm just, yeah. um Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis, Evangelion, if you've ever seen Evangelion, if you've ever seen that, they've done fuck loads. They're almost studio guinea kind of, should yeah.
00:55:31
Speaker
And written by the by Matt and Toml, who was co-writer of the Batman movie. um Looks really interesting. I mean, it it follows apparently it follows the same like story that's been weathered to death in the Terminator series and then gets to about the halfway point and takes a really interesting twist in terms of the lore of the universe and really fucks up the whole concept of um being able to go back in time and change past, which I thought was a cool twist. I'm not going to ruin the twist for anyone who's not going to bother looking at the articles and getting spoilers because it is a bit of an interesting enough twist to want to keep that for yourself. um Yeah, looks really good. I intend to watch it on the plane. Lovely. Yeah. How are you going to watch it on the plane?
00:56:22
Speaker
by pre-downloading it, being a Netflix subscriber, you can download it to the app, and I'll watch it on my iPad. I didn't know that. With headphones. Okay. What? You'll watch it with headphones? In this economy? Well, damn. Actually, I gotta got to dig up my noise cancelling headphones. Yeah. um My screaming toddler cancelling headphones. Yes. And the second one was yours, Tom.
00:56:46
Speaker
Yes, ah going off from ah ah my you know lengthy rant about Lord of the Rings, this one I'm excited for. Lord of the Rings, The War of the Rohirrim. This tells the tale of Helm Hammerhand, who is voiced by none other than Brian fucking Cox. um Get excited. yeah If that doesn't make you a little bit turgid, there's something wrong with you. um It is done in an anime style. It is being released in theaters as well. I'm hoping it gets released in theaters here. I'm sure it will. um It is set about 180 years before the events of ah the trilogy. um And it tells the story of ah basically the first retreat to Helm's Deep. So it's a fight between the Rohirrim and the Dunderlings, which are like the wild men of of the land of Rohan.
00:57:35
Speaker
um Yeah, I've seen the that they've dropped a trailer for it. It is crisp animation. The studio behind it, um which I just pulled up, ah is Solar Entertainment, um which are a Japanese studio. though traditionally um focus using um sorry They traditionally use more CGI ah style of animation. They've gone for traditional hand-drawn 2D style animation for this. um it yeah like If you think of what ah a Studio Ghibli or like a classic anime looks like, it's that style. um It looks really good. So that's where I disagree. Yeah? Yeah. I think they all look fairly flat and lifeless, honestly. I think there's there's only two tones to their face. It's skin and shadow. There's no there's no subtlety in any of the shadow. i just I think the animation looks actually really not the
00:58:31
Speaker
animation of the animmate the animation, like the movement of the characters. I think just the the the actual and just flicking through the Terminator ah Zero trailer as well. I was trying to use them if they were can trusts them juxtaposed, but it's exactly the same. there's It's such an overused and When I say this, it's because the the other ones that we've watched on Netflix, ah these animated ones are use all use that same animation style. It's skin and shadow and there's no contrast. Castlevania is the Castlevania, the the one that followed Vesemir was the same, but it was early on. Box Machina uses the same style.
00:59:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's much more cartoony though. yeah yeah It's it's it drawn to look a little like the old D and&D cartoon on purpose. But yeah but but yes, similar similar sort of style there. i just And with the colour palette that they've chosen for Rise of the Hyrum, I think the the, and I know they have to go with that color palette because well, they don't have to go with a color palette, but they've chosen to go with that color palette to link it into the the movie world. Yeah. um I think it all looks extremely flat and extremely boring, but that's just me.
00:59:48
Speaker
This is where I said we were going. Well, fuck. right I mean, and that's, that's, that's fine. Yeah, it is. I think it's just studies that is the truly traditional style. the Yeah. And that's, and that's like where they don't really want to deviate it. And, um, I totally get that, but i I do see, I can totally see what you mean by it as well.
01:00:11
Speaker
Um, this is, this is, this is kind of where I fall into this. It's not, and I ah know they've chosen the Japanese style because one, the Japanese are fucking good at it. And yeah like they've created an entire genre that is millions and millions of probably a billion people around the world watch. Yeah. Probably more. Um, so I understand why they chose that, but it's a European.
01:00:36
Speaker
based story. yeah And they could have chosen a dirtier European style rather than a super clean, crisp Japanese style. And I think even in the ah the young, the hammer hands, daughter's face, you can definitely see the Japanese influence there. ah And if they'd chosen something that is... Yeah, the pointed chin and... Yeah, the very nice. Yeah, features to it. Yeah. If they'd chosen something that was a dirtier, scragglier animation, European like an dna style animation. Yeah, potentially. Yeah. There's there's it still two tone, but.
01:01:14
Speaker
Yeah, i'll I'll see if I can find up ah a Witcher one that somebody did just as a bit of a 30 second. um ah I think it's about 30 second trailer for Geralt's animated story. um Yeah, just a fan thing. And it's this super stylized, thick, rough sketchy lines to it, but it looks beautiful. And I think it'd be much more interesting, but it would also absolutely decrease the appeal to yeah the the the exposure to people, the the people that would be interested. They're like, oh yeah, no, that's too weird. I don't like that. But I just, that this and this is just purely an opinion. I just don't, I don't think it was the right animation choice for a European story.
01:01:58
Speaker
But I exactly what you're just saying there it is it is I guess the safe approach for them. That's exactly what it is. Yeah. But it's for for them to do something which I guess a lot of like Lord of the Rings fans weren't exactly keen on when they first heard about it was that it was going to be an animated feature like they wanted.
01:02:16
Speaker
live action. So for them to have turned and gone, cool, we're going to do animated, but we'll take the the safe option in that, like the risk in the anim and doing it in animated, but in the kind of counterpoint to that, we'll take a safe option by doing this very, a very popular. And yeah there's been a lot of it lately, too. So it's quite familiar for the audience. It'd be it'd be really interesting to see the split of ah original lord of the ring movie ah maybe maybe even box off but distribution watches viewers of the original lord of the ring movies and see how much of that was azure or japan.
01:02:55
Speaker
And then once they release this, how much interest in the franchise in those countries it builds yeah and what, what the post animation, because they're leaning into that, that Japanese style of animation, what the post viewership of the, uh, the original Lord of the Rings and, or, or sales or viewership brings up a renaissance or something. Yeah. Yeah. well b See if it sparks interest in those, uh, into the, I mean, it's not something that's, I mean, it would be quantifiable for people that did some research, but, um, not us. so
01:03:25
Speaker
and all these guys And on that note, I think we're going to go to go of a break. Sorry. I hijacked Tom's thing there. You don't have more to say about that, Tom? No, I'm just keen as mustard. Yep. Little yellow jar, just like my hat. All right. well We'll be right back.
01:03:43
Speaker
ah that then ten then it then then and and and and hey and then then then then and then then and and and and hey get the third and and and then then and hey Welcome back. We are. We are back. I'm just making sure I don't overpour my beer as I'm pouring it to the side. Dan and I are, our last two beers, our second two beers are going to be the same beers.
01:04:11
Speaker
Because we happen to shop at the same store. That's why we have the same clothing. And I'm a rebel without a cause and I've gone my own way. And that that happens. we we line up we We don't intentionally line up as often anymore, but no this was just a a happy coincent happy happy happy happenstance. yes Happy accident. Yeah, a little a little happy accident. and So paint some trees over here.
01:04:39
Speaker
So we are drinking Hop Nation's salt water. Oh, we just had a paintbrush. It's an oyster black lager at four point eight percent in a three fifty five mil can. Oyster black lager.
01:04:54
Speaker
Yep. Wow, wow, wow. Fresh oysters ah create a salty backbone. Aren't you allergic to seafood, Pete? I'll be fine.
01:05:10
Speaker
Just if we see Pete suddenly stack himself in the leg. Are we sure on this? Should we stop now? No, no, no. Are we going any further or what? That's all right. I got my IP pin. Yeah. Well, you're doing better than me.
01:05:24
Speaker
with chi Yeah, no one likes surprise chili. I got to tell you a story, Dan, while you while you process that thought. i am I don't often grab breakfast at work because I am trying to be a good little boy. um But i I got a bacon and egg wrap from the local cafe that I always get my morning coffee from on the way out of the station at North Sydney and I asked him to put cheese and tomato sauce on it.
01:05:46
Speaker
And I watched him put a good he opens up the wrap that's pre-made. David, a good squirt of tomato sauce, wrapped it back up, cooked it, and then at the last minute, opened it back up a second time and put another squirt of sauce in there. I'm like, this thing's going to be fucking dripping. Anyway, got back to the office, sat down, opened it up, took a bite. I don't know if it was both squirts, but at least one of them was sriracha.
01:06:10
Speaker
Oh! That's not what I expected at like, you know, 8.15 on a fucking Monday morning. It would have killed Tom. You reckon he, um, yeah, that's, that's the amount of places I go to and you just look at their menu and it's just like, here's your bacon egg roll with chili and chili jam. And you know, just a whole fucking jalapeno just chopped up on top of it. and on it Who wants to start their day with a burning ring? yeah like i put i get that I get these jars of ah Chipotle and Aribiado, however you say it, the tomato sauce that's in it, and I use half a jar in my breakfast that lasts me four days.
01:06:57
Speaker
So I put like big, three big massive spoonfuls of this chipotle in my minced breakfast that I have every day. but So Max, Max, we're going completely off script here, guys. Sorry, my bad. max who Max who run is the head brewer over at filter there. He tells me, he swears that he's, I think it's his grandfather used to swear by having chili every day and that he was like lived to be this ripe old age and never had any health problems. And so yeah, I'm like chili, chili. Except he's burning a nurse.
01:07:35
Speaker
I mean, it's supposed to be good in terms of antioxidants, but it's not how I like to start my day with. Surprise, Chillie! Yeah, they're surprised. yeah Knowing it's coming, Chillie. And even the the the Chipotle's aren't actually that hot. They they give it a little bit of spice, but not that much. But yeah, surprise, surprise. Sriracha. Sriracha sauce is ah the next level. yeah Interesting. Did you- Anyway, said oyster lagers, how are they going?
01:08:03
Speaker
It's pretty good. It's, yeah it's, it's certainly, it's got black malt and it's, it's got salt um at 4.8%. It's actually a little. No,
01:08:18
Speaker
no I can. It also does in big letters on the back of it say contains oysters Pete. Yeah. Um, it's fine. I think at 4.8%, it's a little thin. I would have, would have liked it a little boozy or I think just to cut through. Yeah. I think it's just perfect.
01:08:37
Speaker
Okay. yeah um it's um but two I see what you mean. It is thin bodied, but for this style of beer, it should be. um yeah states Yeah, it's super dry. It's ah it's probably down in the 10-6s, 10-7s, sugar levels, so like fuck all really. um And that black malt in there gives it a really, an extra dry astringency to it. I do actually think it's black malt. I don't think it's actually um roasted barley or anything like that because it doesn't have the coffee character to it. And it doesn't actually say.
01:09:21
Speaker
It's maybe a little coffee in there. Oh, and cats fucking cat fucking cats. Fucking cats. What dogs? I demand to sit on it now. and There's no salt in it, but it says that oysters should give it a salty backbone to it. An old Footscray collab. Saltwater, a local name for them. Meribiong River was created with our role our mates Mr. West and Dnk Live Seafood to celebrate Mr. West's seventh birthday.
01:09:51
Speaker
The addition of fresh oysters creates a salty backbone to this dark life, a drying complex with enough refreshment to keep you coming back for more. I don't know. Look, it's nice, but I don't know that I would come back for more.
01:10:05
Speaker
this is this is This is the conversation I have with one of my guys, James, all the time, because he's fully into these styles at the moment because they're the absolute craze in the ah beer industry, the Japanese rice lagers and black lagers and everything like that. And most of them I had are fantastically well-made beers, and I enjoy the ones I have, including the one he made, but they and I've said it to him. i just it's not something that is driving me on, because I'm not drinking these days to get drunk. I very much appreciate how well these beers made, and that is an excellently well-made beer and 100% of 475. But I'm going to go, yeah, great. Love it. Fantastic. Butte job. Clean. Absolutely hats off to the brewers because you've done it. Fucking bang up.
01:10:58
Speaker
textbook dark lager, but I'll have an IPA, thanks. I'll have yeah something, and it has layers of complexity in there with ah the the dark malts and that, but not not a huge amount, but it is definitely ah what I needed now as a palette cleanser after that big double IPA, but it's now a nice intermediate beer between the double IPA and the white stout that we're about to have after this. Yeah. so Yeah. I do think um I do think you get dry coffee notes out of it. You smell it, certainly more on the nose than in the flavor profile. um I can smell coffee, but it's very light and it's not that full, bitter, astringent, acidic coffee that you get if you just eat some granules. Which you should never do.
01:11:50
Speaker
What the cat was going to vomit on me then? What the fuck man? Fucking cats. It's very nice. It's very, very nice for you. Um, that would be stellar on nitro as well. Oh yeah. Yeah. I can, I can see that easily. Um, I'm going to give it a four and a half. You said four, seven, five. Yeah. Well, I will defer to Dan's gold medal winning palette. Um, Tom, what are you drinking?
01:12:21
Speaker
uh, life, uh, finds a way. Hey, um I haven't had one yet. Uh, this is the red IPA from, uh, range, uh, that they, they put up on their social media. The only reason they called it this was because they don't usually brew two red IPAs in, in the winter season, but they managed to this time. So find a way perfect little quote. yeah So life, life found a way. Um,
01:12:48
Speaker
Yep, it is. What do they say? They've heavily dry hopped it with Simco, Cryo, Mosaic, Rawaka Citra and Rawaka Hopkeef. Dan? What's Hopkeef? Yeah, that's a good question. Okay, sorry. I would say it must be a resin of some sort. Yeah. Or an oil pizza. How do you spell it? K-I-E-F? K-I-E-F.
01:13:11
Speaker
um Liquid Dry Hop made with a patent pending separation process Subzero Hop Keith delivers the full spectrum of flavor compounds in a normal T90 pellet without the vegetative matter. ah It is a very well made red IPA. um I was during the the AFL match yesterday that we won't bring up. um i was I was sitting on the the White Bay um Nomad red IPAs. Yep. paberat which was fan I was having a great old time. I had like four skinners of that. It was perfect. um This is actually a little bit more subdued to that. I had chosen two red IPAs in the fridge tonight. This or the the wooden axe. There's like new new kids on the block. And I was like, nah.
01:14:00
Speaker
I didn't want to risk the wooden axe in case it wasn't. I didn't want to do that, like, to to a new, you have, you've done one of their beers on. Okay. Yeah. I think you had their first beer, which is like a nitro or something. Um, but this, yeah, it's, it's a little subdued. It's, it's definitely, it's, it's not the big toffee caramel hit. Um, there is a nice, like nice bitterness there. It is, it is like.
01:14:28
Speaker
But again, it's it's not as big as I'd expect from range of all people. Like, yeah, it's it's very, for a red IPA though, it's very much one I could sit on and have a couple of, which is great. Fantastic news. um Yeah, I just, I don't know, ah maybe just, you know, from previous experiences with range red IPAs, I i thought it would be like a bit punchier. um It feels like they're just held it back a little bit.
01:14:53
Speaker
um It's still very very good. It's it's it's nice and balanced. It's very very nicely balanced. But yeah, um i I Wanted more from it. I guess I guess that's probably the thing. I've built it up in my head and wanted more from it What I say it is six point eight percent and I'm going to give that a four solid four Yeah, nice. Yeah, if it had a bit more punch, it definitely would get up there to the the four and a half But yeah cracking mine open on Friday night games next week Perfect. And we didn't try left on red on the podcast, which is the wooden axe beer that you're talking about. We tried, or I tried one of the two, um, phase two, which was the Cascadia dark ale. Ah, that was it. It's just the exact same logo. With different color. No, I knew we hadn't had the red cause it only just came out, but I knew we'd had one of the other beers. Yeah. Yeah.
01:15:47
Speaker
Cool. I was going to say, let's go through some reviews, but I'm the only one that's got content in here. So I don't know if you guys haven't added it, but I'm going to root through mine. Well, I've got opinions on ministry. I've seen ministry. Yeah. Okay. And I'm not sure I've watched too much else. Fair enough.
01:16:11
Speaker
I'm sure there's something there that I don't remember. Let me go ask Louise. I'm sure. Nah, fuck it. What's the... When I go to the video ref already. Fuck. Yeah, no, we do need to get upstairs then. Man, I need to go to the video ref all the time. I ask her. Did we get groceries? Yeah. I ask her before we do these recordings usually. What have we watched? In the last two or three weeks?
01:16:34
Speaker
I have to admit, I did have to, yesterday prepping for this podcast, I had to go back through my recently watched history on all of the different subscriptions. um Now that I have an amp again. Yay! I can actually watch television, that sucked balls. um Yes. And had to figure out what the fuck I'd seen recently. So let me rip through some of these quickly. Quiet Place Day One.
01:16:58
Speaker
um It was OK. It was better than I thought it was going to be because I thought it was going to be a bit of a train wreck. It was a kind of Lord of the Rings esque travel cross country to do a thing ah which was mildly pointless in this case. I mean, it's not in the Lord of the Rings. I'm not taking the piss. But um but it was it was good.
01:17:21
Speaker
It had some anxiety and some fear and and some more exploration of the aliens, which I thought was cool, but it didn't overexpose. Hey, this is the entire life story of why they're here and what they're doing. And it didn't go down that route, ah which I appreciate um as I did with Cloverfield, for example. You never really get an explanation of what the fuck's going on. um So i I would recommend it for a Sunday night watch. Sure. Made Dan remember something.
01:17:52
Speaker
He's remembered. No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here. ah I don't. Yeah, I haven't seen minus one yet, but you guys can talk to it. um Next one was Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which which we've all seen. Which we have. We can all talk about that. We have. We have all seen. Ballers. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The Nazis lose.
01:18:21
Speaker
Based on a true story, i' it's actually one of the few true story movies I've seen that I didn't immediately Google afterwards. How close to reality is it? Because, you know, there's a lot of poetic license in a lot of these films. And I think this one's going to be down that alley. um Yeah, it didn't it didn't feel like a Guy Ritchie movie. It felt like he played it a little straighter than he usually does.
01:18:47
Speaker
um ah Which I think I said the same thing about The Covenant. the ah Iraq war, the Afghan war one. you did yeah um So I think it's maybe him he's just, he's changed his style a bit, but It's wise and with age and he's pulled back. I found it interesting that it was it was advertised as the Ministry of ungentlemanly warfare and then in fine text underneath directed by Guy Ritchie as opposed to Guy Ritchie's blah blah blah. Yeah. So it's almost like, is he doing parallel types of film? Is he going to do some serious straighter shot stuff and then his traditional style?
01:19:24
Speaker
Is that what our branding exercise? Yeah. did did Do you think that, um, like obviously I haven't seen the covenant, but do you think because the, uh, these are bigger, encompassing stories that he might be intentionally playing it more straight on these where the, that those small London drug dealers are small stories affecting a couple of dozen slash hundred people rather than world. well it's it it's well It's war films. These two are both war films. Yeah. Quite possibly. That's a really good idea to think that he might be doing that. Yeah.
01:20:05
Speaker
He may also just be demonstrating that he has more range than what he's just been pegged as. Yeah. and So I appreciate the film. I thought it was good. It was the the the offbeat humor was on point. It was funny when it was supposed to be and it was serious when it was supposed to be visceral violence, which is always good, which will we'll get to again in in a second. um I definitely want to, so i I want to see more of that crew. Yeah. That's kind of what we all said at the end. We just like,
01:20:33
Speaker
It wasn't Guy Ritchie's best in in being a Guy Ritchie film, but you you wanted thoroughrely enjoy it i wanted to hang with the guys. yeah Sure, I'll commit some violence with them if I need to. They gelled well, they complimented each other and it didn't feel like the Italian job where everybody's named and titled at the start and they've got their place and it was it was a lot more organic. They actually did do exactly that.
01:20:59
Speaker
yeah I just found that the crossover and the, yeah, I know what you're talking about, but yeah but I think the interaction between them was a little bit more organic. and but ah Yeah. And they, they all worked well together. I mean, you've gone to big names in there with, uh, Kaval and Richardson, but you brison <unk> Richardson, rick wisonson rickson and who play, who are obviously the ah physically and I was just about to say, you thought fucking Henry Cavill was a big dude and then you see him standing up and you're like, holy shit. He's a monster. Yeah, he is a monster. And I appreciate their, I mean, they were meant to chew up the scene together. I mean, they were put there together with those personalities. The opening sequence on the sailboat where they were playing, were they Danish or Swedish? Well, he's Danish. I think it was Swedish. Fuck me. I laughed at the start of that film. Yeah, exactly. I pissed myself. fantastic plays on each other and the other minor crew members. I want to say that once again in quotation marks because they were minor characters in the film because of the star power of these two, but I don't want to discredit the people that the real, no, no, the real life people they were based on because they obviously played a very important role in how the war came out.
01:22:18
Speaker
um But they they definitely take a backstage to the the star power of um Henry and Alan, and I think so they should too. I mean, you you don't want to muddy that. You don't want to muddy those. You don't want a competition on set.
01:22:34
Speaker
i the I have to say, and i much to I must have rewound and rewatched it like three times because I was in tears when when um Richson was talking over the radio to the guy, giving him an orders orders to stand down. And he goes, and he's breaking up. be ah Sorry, you're cutting him out. Can you please- It's Cavill talking to him. Was it Cavill? Yeah, it was Cavill, yeah. Yeah, it was Cavill. Can you please fuck off and that the timing was perfect.
01:23:04
Speaker
I fucking cracked up. Anyway. Um, the other standout for me was, uh, I just had to look up his name, but Mr. Herron, who was played by, uh, Babs. Oh, dear. Uh, Olusan Mokun.
01:23:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's ah that's a long last name. um He was the the agent on the on the ground on the island, like at the base, the the the guy that the girl worked with. He was... It's a bazood from June. Yeah, he was charismatic. I was drawn in by him. He's always way he played that character. His voice and the way he delivers things and he has this humor and wit, but that he's played so dry at times. ah ah he's driving nus nasty Oh, He's just, yeah, i I think, because obviously he was Janus in June, but didn't get very much screen close because Janus dies at the end of the first movie, just after he's introduced.
01:24:03
Speaker
But he's is' seeing him in his eye. He ate up the screen when he was on there. Fantastic. Yeah. And he was fantastic. The other good, the other one that just, I just love seeing him now is like, he's, he's much older, but carry, carry olds when he comes in. He's just like, he's just like, man, you would make a good Lord. Like you'd be a great English Lord, like old dude. Like you'd you'd tear that up. yeah Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
01:24:25
Speaker
And then you've got Isaac Gonzalez, who plays the the hyper intelligent, feigns to be the damsel in distress role perfectly. Yes. She's been in quite a lot of stuff recently. She was in three body problem, which is where I most recently saw her. Ah, OK, cool. Yeah. The only the only fall down and on her and it's not her character, it's not her portrayal or anything like that. But the.
01:24:53
Speaker
I didn't like the how she got discovered. I thought it was two inglorious bastards. And I know they're very close in overall theme of everything. And it's like, oh, she pronounced it like this. Like a she's a Jew. Right. Yeah, exactly. The the three, the three finger thing. So Sorry, that sounded wrong, but if anybody's seen- Well, you're having an absolute crack at him, Jesus Christ. I'm having a stirler one tonight. Would have just let that through to the keeper that time. Oh, um but inglorious bastards, I just i thought that was too- That was the main problem that everyone just-
01:25:30
Speaker
like likened it to inglorious bastards. And maybe they did it for that reason. Maybe they didn't like, oh, everybody's like, oh, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the catch out point. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Like them saying at the start, we know we're going to get called out for being too similar to this. We may as well make a, hang on. it Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe.
01:25:51
Speaker
Good film though. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah. It was very enjoyable. today yeah i It took me two watches to get through it, but I'll definitely watch it again. ah that it was It was enjoyable. The four of those character moments was getting stood out. we We started, didn't even, didn't there's one of the few movies recently we've watched at home that we didn't, there wasn't a pause so someone could go to the bathroom. It was straight, like could stop. Godzilla minus one. Godzilla.
01:26:19
Speaker
sir ha fuck it's good it's just good i don't want to
Godzilla Minus One Review
01:26:26
Speaker
there's I mean, it's a Godzilla movie, so there's not that much to spoil, but not I think there's points. You can see it's a lower budget of movie at points where the the sets look like sets. you can You can pick up on it in the destroyed Japanese village.
01:26:41
Speaker
but but that's But it leans deliberate it leans into that yeah that that old Godzilla movie and in Tom's comments about how it looks like the old school Godzilla movie. it's on It's in the trailer, so there's no spoiling here. Godzilla gets damaged in the face at one point and it it heals itself almost like stop motion.
01:27:01
Speaker
Yeah. And it's things like that. And then just- You can tell why they won the Oscar for that. Yeah. It's the characters are wonderful and have depth. They're well acted and they're well Japanese acted with that big old school over the top Japanese. Everything needs to be yelled when it's a big emotional point because they're getting it all out. It's so opposite to actual Japanese culture.
01:27:31
Speaker
Yeah that's the point right it's an outlet. It could be yeah but it's it's so um so those old kirasawa black and white movies like the the acting was so similar to those sort of things that was hand movements and head turns and shouting of expressing of lines and to listen to it in japanese was wonderful.
01:27:52
Speaker
Yeah, and I think the other thing as well was like, because I got pretty frustrated with the main guy. I'm like, you're being a bit of a dumb idiot when he was dealing with his, you know, half fake wife or whatever you want to call it. His PTSD. Yeah. Well, not even that, but just like the way for half the thing, like, you know, they the the the relationship they had.
01:28:12
Speaker
It frustrated me because I was like, youre you're deliberately being pretty making some pretty dumb choices here, man, and making it harder for yourself. Like, but I also know that was meant to be kind of like that. It was that World War Two historical, like, that's that's the way it was meant to be acted. Like, that's the way they they did act around those things back then. And that just added that extra layer to it. um I know you just said you watched it with the Japanese. I ah did the first half scene in the English dub um because that was the default on... Yeah, I had to stop and start back. and Watching it in Japanese with subtitles was the perfect way to watch it. um Hearing the old-school Godzilla theme come back was just... apps this that know that well it's It's dirty and meaty and and throaty brass. It's just, oh, it's so good.
01:29:06
Speaker
Do I need to have watched any of the previous movies to get it now not not. It is just it is a is a fantastically set world war two era and it's it's it's such a potent.
01:29:20
Speaker
um Like message around Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the bomb. Like it's, it's, that is what Godzilla is. Um, but it's, it's, you it was just, I thought it was done so well. I was entranced from the, from the moment it started. I agree. Um, the way they made the Godzilla, it was full CGI, but they made it look like a puppet.
01:29:42
Speaker
Like there are parts where it's just like it looks like the old school stop motion. Stop motion puppet character the same way that Godzilla is chasing the little fishing boat and you see that it's the crazy eyes they get yeah yeah as it's like slowly coming out of the water it was yeah it was it was fantastic I I definitely need to watch it again um and it's one of those things that just like.
01:30:06
Speaker
It just held me the entire time, start to finish. Like Emma came home halfway through me watching it. And and she walked in and she was like, hi. And without even thinking, I like clicked and put a finger up and was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's like, do not interrupt this. I am completely in the zone. You're a brave man, Tom. Oh, you know, high risk, high reward. Um, yeah, it was, but that was, that was the thing. It it drew me in so much. I didn't want anything to break that bubble. Yeah.
01:30:35
Speaker
yeah I think I might. it but But it came back to my one regret was I didn't watch it in a cinema. Because I wanted that like all encompassing sound around me took it for that. like but I probably agree with that too. Yeah. ah There was conveniences in the plot, but they weren't contrived. Okay, they were, they were well thought out. And how the how Godzilla finally comes to being defeated in the end, as it's going to happen in a Godzilla movie, um, wasn't contrived. It was convenient, but not contrived and well thought out and something original that I hadn't seen before. I thought it was extremely clever. And then they did something in the final battle where the final battle started and I'm like, wait a minute.
01:31:30
Speaker
This is this is going to happen. And then they, without pointing it out, they had an answer to my issue with how the physics of the final thing was going to play out. um'm I'm being intentionally vague here. um I mean, it's not a big, it's not a big thing, but it's something that it is when, yeah, when it comes to how they plan to take him down.
01:32:00
Speaker
You stop and think about the actual layout of everything they're doing and you're like, no, no, no, no, no. it's So complicated. That is that is not going to work because of this and it's a glaring issue. But then it's like I i had the thought and then 10 seconds later it's. It's addressed. Yeah. It's but but not but not.
01:32:20
Speaker
It's it's shown not told, which obviously we've established that I loved. And and well, I mean, that's the definition of good story to and telling. Yeah. And and and that sort of it. So I thought it was great. And the I had to look up why in the end, why it was called minus one, which I think was a beautiful top off to the story. Do you guys know why it was called minus one? Nope.
01:32:42
Speaker
Because after Japan losing the war, ah they had hit rock bottom. They had hit zero. So so after the bomber dropped and they had lost the war, they were basically at zero and ga Godzilla brought them to minus one. Minus one. Wow. I thought that was that i thought that was an absolutely... and It's actually probably pretty inaccurate because Godzilla definitely took them to like more like minus 300. It's funny for a Japanese movie too, because they are quite critical within their of their culture and what happened during the war. But they're respectful about, I mean, and Japanese culture is all about respect. They're respectful. They're respectfully critical of what happened during World War Two. And and how Japan approached World War Two.
01:33:34
Speaker
It's one of the things that I have to give credit where it's due on the Pearl Harbor movie. They do portray the hesitance and the absolute um They had already hit rock bottom, they were running out of resources, their population was already starving, they didn't have the resources to continue as a country, and it pushed them into the war and out of desperation, and they saw an opportunity to get themselves out of this hole that they had no other way out of. And I think that's portrayed uniquely well in Pearl Harbor, because it's not something that's actually on screen a lot of the times when you you see a World War 2 movie with the
01:34:11
Speaker
the pacific theater is just japanese attacked us out of nowhere there are a bunch of bad assholes who sneak you know it's a sneak attack their evil evil evil and yet that was one film that did betray right at the start how,
01:34:25
Speaker
hesitant they were to enter the theater, but how desperate they were to do it and and it pushed them into that situation. So it's interesting you say that. it And this kind of addresses that as well. It doesn't address address address Pearl Harbor or the there their actual battles within the war, but it addresses how the the the government works with the people within the country or how they treated the Japanese people and the Japanese soldiers during the war.
01:34:53
Speaker
Yeah, okay. There's one specific scene which is is very critical but very respectful, which I thought was fantastically played. Yeah, cool. It's very good. you need yeah You need to treat yourself, Peter. I will. and and oh well definitely yeah um that's That's definitely one of the few films recently that I regret not going to the cinema for. Well, I'm about to be stuck on a plane for 20-something hours, so it's another one I can download.
01:35:18
Speaker
um like Going to power through these last three, just conscious of time. Monkey Man, um not- I actually just saw that it's on my flight, Monkey Man, so I'm going to watch it on that. yeah ah by it's it's on ours do you I won't give you any spoilers, but um it's not what I expected going in um and that's my bad, so.
01:35:40
Speaker
One, I expected it to be a Jordan Peele film and it is not. And two, I expected it to be some sort of linkage back to the Journey to the East kind of mythology and Journey to the West, sorry. And it is not. It is more, it's closer to Slumdog Millionaire. Yeah, but it's it's kind of closer to Slumdog Millionaire than it is to um to anything by Jordan Peele and I kept waiting for the The big reveal, like I kept waiting for the Jordan Peele twist and like the magic or the aliens or something, and it just never came. It's it it is a ultra violent, visceral, um enjoyable film, but it's more like Ong Bok meets Slumdog Millionaire. Yeah.
01:36:28
Speaker
It's not a Jordan Peele film. I think he- No, he produced it. Yeah. Yeah. And it was- Dev Patel. Dev Patel. He wrote and directed it. So Jordan Peele just bankrolled him basically, which is great because- Yeah. I mean, this is- Oh, I like Dev Patel. He's a fucking solid dude. And this is the kind of- I obviously haven't seen it, but I was very keen on it and I wish I'd seen it in the cinemas too. But this is the kind of thing that's going to start pulling these, and this sort of links into my game as well, is pulling these cultures that are not so evident in Hollywood filmmaking.
TV Show Updates
01:37:07
Speaker
they these This is like Sumdog Millionaire. This is going to be one of those ones that capitalizes on the style of film that's popular at the moment yeah and and pulls it into the zeitgeist.
01:37:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. And what a lovely word that is, guys. House of the Dragon season two got, got smashed by people that we were talking to. um I thoroughly- Almost finished season one. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Season two was spectacular. I mentioned a few episodes ago that there's some Shakespearean level fucking um ah ah dialogue and I can't think of any monologue. I think it was just dialogue.
01:37:46
Speaker
um So, yeah, I mean, it it ended on a on a. Ended on a low point, and I think that's why Suey, for example, had the shits with it. Yeah. Yeah, this big action sequence, I think two episodes before the finale, it bled into the penultimate episode. So one before the finale um and you had kind of the.
01:38:15
Speaker
I'd say the anti-climax, but it was a continuation. There was some climax climactic scenes and people moving like people moving the pieces around the the chessboard. But the end of the final episode of the season really ended on a consolidation of power and it was a low note. But you can also tell it's a narrative consolidation point before it moves into the the the second act.
01:38:40
Speaker
Or potentially the third act, I'm not sure how many seasons they're doing, but I didn't have a problem with it. Not ending on a cliffhanger or ending on this magnificent dragon battle. The dragon battles happened and people died and then you have the reaction to that. You have yeah the consolidation of power and then the ominous convalescence of all of that storyline at the end of the season two and yeah, it was a bit of a low note, but I don't think you can punish it for it.
01:39:07
Speaker
I'll tell you when I finally get there. And then ah two ah two episodes from the end of season one. Yeah. Okay. Season two's better paced. The Decrippate King has just passed. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Shit moves real quick from the from here on. um And then you wear four episodes into Rings of Power season two.
01:39:28
Speaker
yeah Now, I am not going to give any direct spoilers other than to say there are some, well, I think we we talked about this before the episode started. and There's some really cool characters that have been brought in that I'm excited to see unfold.
01:39:46
Speaker
Tom Bombadil is a massive Lord of the Rings character. and every ummbardil low he's jolly old fellow Very enigmatic um ah character in Tolkien's law. In fact, when I when I did some research you or some, you know, some Googling, I call it research, it's not really research. I did some Googling as to what he is.
01:40:09
Speaker
Hmm. Isn't that the age-old question? It is very undecided. There is no definitive answer to the question. There is not. The talk never gave that one away. But we we have Ents, we have Barrow whites, and the Barrow whites were depicted fucking awesomely. Oh, cool. Like they are. I love a Barrow white. Bad-ass ghost motherfuckers that can shred elves. And there was one other thing that I ah found really interesting.
01:40:37
Speaker
ah We met the offshoot of the halfling race that apparently Gollum came from, the store, which are ah the river dwellers. the yeah are They are not currently dwelling in a river. They are currently dwelling in a desert, but they're slightly larger than the half foots that are in season one.
01:40:59
Speaker
And they called store and they seem to be like an offshoot of the same species. But what I found really interesting is- There's three deviations of Hobbits. Yeah, okay. What I found really interesting was that they called the stranger. They referred to the stranger who wasn't present for the scene. And they said, was he a really tall guy? And yeah, was he like the Grand Elf? I was like, say that really quickly three times.
01:41:28
Speaker
And I think it's alluding to who the Istar is that, but I almost think that would be a shame. If it was Gandalf's first incarnation. They kind of alluded to that in the first one. Yeah, it's 100% of Gandalf. They danced around it. Could have been a blue wizard. No, I've seen a few people who've had a couple of fan theories and stuff. Oh, fuck off. The writers aren't that intelligent that it's going to be somebody else.
01:41:55
Speaker
Well, no, the only other thing I've seen is that it could be Saruman. Yeah. No, I think no. I reckon Saruman's there. so Well, I mean, I i started had started watching it. There's other cool magic that we've never seen before, some blood magic, which I i think is really fucking cool from the east in Rune. Yes. And the the the evil Dark Easterling. Yeah. did Yeah.
01:42:21
Speaker
Some very cool shit. So I'm thoroughly enjoying that. I think I saw a pretty solid take on, like I haven't watched yet, but I obviously will devour it. Um, but yes, uh, the dark Easterling, um, actually no, I'm, we'll wait because I could end up spoiling it without, without realizing it. So yeah, in terms of like what he is in the law. That's it for my reviews.
01:42:49
Speaker
peaces above corner Very random. Yeah, I have, look, I've been catching up on, I sat down. You're a little busy. Yeah, a tiny bit. But yes, I have managed to get through most of season one of House of Dragon. Intend to start Rings of Power probably while we're away. I'm, Pete, I finally watched another Mission Impossible film. Oh yeah. Yep. What was it? Episode four? The Ghost Protocol. Yep. Four? That was four. Yep.
01:43:21
Speaker
It was a good guess. Yeah, I watched that. ah that was That was enjoyable enough. It was just like, go Tom Cruise, go. um But definitely made me sit down and go, you know what? Yeah, I'm going to smash out the other ones. there that It's like you said, you just sit down and watch it. It's not the greatest film ever, but they're just fun. yeah yeah um But yes, no, there's definitely so much to watch in so little time. It's a waste away, isn't it?
01:43:47
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so now I intend to though, with, uh, two international flights before we probably next get to record, I'm sure we'll all get to catch up on some, uh, some content. Yes. I'll have a list of 18 film, 18 films. Like I did last time I went on an international flight. that i've watched Um, I'm going to read some Warhammer 40 K books. I think let's, let's move on to our fourth and final beer. I can see Dan sipping away. Tom, are you ready?
01:44:16
Speaker
I will be. Whereas my ah stomach acid is currently eating the inside of my stomach. which is quite the struggle. Yeah, you do look like you're struggling. Yeah, I really am. Just too much acid. No pooping yourself on camera. No, no, it's not that kind of, no, it's literally, I can, i yeah, when you've got bad acid reflux, you can feel your esophagus melting and your stomach lining burning. It's not pleasant. So uniquely fucked up feeling. Anyway, what are you drinking Dan?
01:44:50
Speaker
We are drinking ah the Hawker's bar bourbon barrel aged white stout at 6%. It's a 2024 vintage, um, cheeky motherfuckers, digital printed can, but it's got a uneven label on it. It does! It's printed uneven. Yeah.
01:45:12
Speaker
Yeah, i i don't know but you do I don't know whether they did that. Is it or is it just an illusion? No, it is definitely uneven. It's definitely uneven. Yeah. po But it's a digital printed can, so there is there is there is no there is no label. so There's no fix. ah Yeah, ah just ah that was that was quite interesting. It is quite a nice um like skull design. It's got a lot of tension. Snail skull. Snail skull, that's exactly what it is. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really nice. I like that picture. I don't know what. the um
01:45:45
Speaker
what the reference is, but, um, and be good mind too reminds me a little bit of Absalom from, um, Alice in Wonderland, but anyway, but he was a caterpillar snail. So much a darker take on it too. Yeah. Um,
01:46:06
Speaker
It's, I don't know. There's not a lot of vanilla. Yeah. There's lots of vanilla, lots of vanilla. That's about all I get a little bit and maybe a little bit of woody bitterness. Um, maybe a little bit of coffee in there, but they, they're all really muted behind that vanilla. It's, um, really vanilla and sweet dominated there for me. The overall complexities, not what I'd hoped it would be. Yeah. I agree with that. It's, um,
01:46:36
Speaker
There's nothing wrong with the product. Um, like it's not infected. It's not, uh, it's not, it's not tainted in any way. Uh, it's just not, um, quite as multifaceted as what the yeah i was product describes it to be. Especially given it's aged on barrels. So that went up clearly wasn't aged long. Cause it also, it also clearly states lightly matured in ex bourbon barrel casks.
01:47:05
Speaker
Yeah, okay. um Well, I don't know. i do you Do you mark it down because it doesn't do what you expected it to do or because it still does what it says it. Well, it does it though. It says on the back, it's it's roasting notes of coffee and rich toffee laden malts punctuate a decadent vanilla backdrop and all I get is vanilla with a vanilla backbone and just some back palate notes of more vanilla.
01:47:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, yeah I absolutely agree with that. It's not unpleasant. It's just so it's not what it says that it is. Yeah. You stick you stick it on it like a ah like it's an it's almost an ice cream fucking ice cream. What do you call it? Spider. Oh, the beer.
01:47:51
Speaker
Anyway. Have you never had a spider? Yes, of course I've had a fucking spider. OK, right here. Smokin' crack. Also, there's floaties in the bottom. Oh, is there? Yeah.
01:48:04
Speaker
yeah Big chunks of protein. ah Not in my glass. Oh, that's that. Yeah, that'd just be whatever's settled in the bottom of the can. yeah um I don't know. It's fine, but it's not. It's nowhere near what it talks up to be, even to have bourbon barrel aged on the front. I mean, if you were just doing it lightly aged, what did it say? What was it? Lightly matured in barrels. I think you would just leave that as lightly matured and in the description and not actually put it on the front of the can.
01:48:35
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, but it's fine. It's, it's a nice enough product. I would never ever take it back. It's, it's perfectly fine. Um, it's just really lacks any depth or complexity to it also. right Kind of thinking. Yeah. Yeah. Three, three to five. yeah somewhere in that Yeah. Three. Well, fuck Tom. Can you take us out with a winner?
01:49:01
Speaker
Um, I can actually, uh, for me, brewery. We've never tried on the podcast for new or brand new brand new one. This is surf boat brewing. Uh, they are in Warrywood up in the Northern beaches and this is dad's new go-to. but so My, my dad, his partner, Kath, uh, lives up in Warrywood and this is their, their little local horn. So it's just, it's literally just opened, um, within the last couple of months.
01:49:31
Speaker
ah Dad got me, Dad being my dad, he's done this a couple of times. He tends to love to, um um because he listens very, very routinely to the podcast and we thank him for it. Thanks, Daddy. But he loves to drop that I do a beer podcast to anyone who talks to me about beer, or that anyone he talks to about beer. He loves to drop in.
01:49:54
Speaker
um so being local, like cats are local to this this brewery, so they went down um to like the pre-opening night kind of thing, and he sent me a message, he goes, I was just talking to the guy who owns this, and I mentioned that you do this podcast. I was like, oh, did you, Dad? Yeah, that's unusual. um And he goes, anyway, I've got you your a mixed four-pack that he's he's he's given to you so you can, and I said, greatit I'll keep one to try on the podcast. um It was a Vienna lager, a raspberry stout,
01:50:21
Speaker
A pale ale and then raspberry sour. And then i um the stout that I've got now, um which I was like, that's the one I'm going to keep for for the recording. The other ones were very, very good. The Vienna Lager was for a new brewery. I was like, that's super impressive. It was really delicious. I was very impressed with that. um So it's a dry Irish stout. It comes in about 4.2%. The best type of stout. Yeah. It's kind very Scottish there, 10.
01:50:49
Speaker
it's fine we can um okay do ah don do irish to be sure to be sure ah but its potato you the wheel i put on It is like nice. It is very dry. um It is really nice like coffee bitterness to it. um It reminds me a lot of ELSI just without that nitro and that milkiness um in terms of just like it like that's the base before you add that lactose in. Is it called sweeps? Did I write that down right? You never actually said that. so Sorry, sweeps stout. Sweeps.
01:51:28
Speaker
sweeps town um thank you It's great. I also love just, it's a design thing, but it really, really works for me. So like, you know, it's got the name on the front and and the logo and the little picture of the beach, but then just on the back, it just says stout.
01:51:44
Speaker
Well, you know what? Candy grabbing, no matter which way it's ah it's it's grabbing, yeah. um It's really good for for a young brewery. It's really, really nice. it's It's lighter. I probably should have had this before the red. It was lost. The first few sips were lost by the having the red IPA before that, um but it's very enjoyable, very more. I would happily sit. I wish that had got me a four pack of it because I would have happily smashed a four pack in a sitting. um Yeah. I'm going to give that a 4.5. It's great. Oh, wow.
01:52:11
Speaker
See, if you're up in the northern beaches, um they are up in Warrywood. Gotta have a be big, big set of fucking shiny brass balls to open up a brewery at the moment, given how many are shutting down. So. Yeah. It's good to. Yeah. I still see so i still see knockers people opening them. I'm just like bold. Very bold. Yeah. Yeah. um So yeah, there we go. Surf by brewing.
Game Review: Blacksmith Wukong
01:52:39
Speaker
Nice. Well done.
01:52:41
Speaker
Cool. So we've got about 10, 15 minutes if we want to stick the time and we want to stick the time. I'm not sticking the time. Okay. Well, you best go first. Maybe you're bailing early. and No, I'm, I'm talking more than 10 minutes about Blacksmith Wukong. Well, you best start. I'll do my best. Yeah. Are you winning, son? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So obviously Blacksmith Wukong, uh, the, the new Chinese released by Oh, Game Science, who had only previously done mobile games, they started talking about this game four years ago or something like that. Yeah, been a while. And it was a pretty flashy trailer and a lot of people questioned about how this was going to play out. And as I said to you guys the other day, everything they've showed in those trailers has played out exactly how it played out in those trailers.
01:53:34
Speaker
So the cutscenes look exactly like the cutscenes, the worlds look exactly like the worlds and the combat looks exactly like the combat. Like there's one point in the trailers, i'm I'm not going to spoil any bosses or anything like that. I'll mention a couple in passing, not going to say what chapters or anything they're in. There's you fight a, it's not a dragon, but it is a drag. It looks like a dragon, Chinese dragon on a frozen icy lake. And in the trailer, the, um,
01:54:01
Speaker
The destined ones the monkey the monkey warrior is searching upon his poll on a point upon his staff um and it's ah going up levels and any yep.
01:54:14
Speaker
And is he's going up levels and that is definitely one of the stances. There's three stances so far that I've collected and that is 100% one of the stances and it plays out exactly how it showed it in that trailer. You perch up there until you run out of stamina or you let the hit go and it just goes. And it's it's beautiful and it's wonderful and I love it. I was always a big fan of monkey magic growing up as a kid.
01:54:43
Speaker
That was my first introduction to the story of Journey to the West mine too and the Monkey King. And this is, you start off and this is no spoilers, I guess maybe a little spoiler. I mean, the story has been around for 5,000 years. I think he can spoil it. yeah Not that long, but yeah, 1600s it was written or something like that. But you start off as Son Wukong, who is the Monkey King. And you do your first battle and you get introduced to a little bit of the world and the lore as Son Wukong. And then something happens within that opening fight and cutscene where Wukong is ah encased in his rock egg.
01:55:26
Speaker
On top of the mountain and then around hundreds of years later you it's the the the the rock is surrounded by a tribe of monkeys. ah Some are actual monkeys and some are humanistic monkeys and this is where the the destined one is brought in so.
01:55:45
Speaker
The story is set after Journey to the West. So right it references Journey to the West and yeah the the adventures of Sun Wukong and Tripitaka and Pigsy. I don't know what Pigsy's name actually was, but it references that backstory as you go through it. The destined one is a completely mute character and he does not say a word, but other characters in cut scenes actually reference him not saying anything.
01:56:14
Speaker
So they're right there hanging a lampshade on him being a mute character, and it's quite fun at times, depending on the character that you run into. ah But that's the that's the overall story. This destined one after Son Wukong is encased in the Rock is going on a journey to uncover the legend of Son Wukong and reclaim his his powers and stories.
01:56:39
Speaker
is ultimate God hood kind of thing. Yep. Um, I just need to say it's taking all my energy to not sing the monkey. I'm doing really well. I'm very proud of myself. I'm proud of you too. Uh, it does play in my head because the nature of monkey is it oppressible. It's what I get one. I get one.
01:57:00
Speaker
The the combat is great. I mean, it's a they've it's been spoken about as being a souls like it's been spoken about being as an action adventure game. It is a mix of both. It is definitely a souls like you have your shrines that you say that you die. You go back to the shrine. It's an in-story reason as to why you can pop back up the shrine. It's not like um This is my checkpoint. Yeah. This is, this is what bugged me about Jedi survivor and those sort of things. When you rested, it just said all enemies have been respawned or something where my thought in a game like that, it should have said reinforcements had landed. And it's literally text on a screen where yeah it stays, yeah it stays in world. Um, yeah this says in the load screen when you die, um, or sometimes when you die, it'll give you little, little tips on environments or something like that. But.
01:57:53
Speaker
ah When you load in, it says, ah when you rest at shrines, the energy released into the world ah ah draws out the guai from there from their from their dens. Like it says, yeah hey, you rest here, the energy that you're using to rescue this shrine is reawakening other other guai. it's just ah it's ah It's a more in-world description. It's a better way of doing it. Yeah, yeah definitely. um I think the combat is fantastic. I love it. it's it's It's fast paced. It's hard. It's so much fun listening to monkey make monkey noises as you swing the as you swing the bow style. It's completely dodge based. There is no parry. There is no block button. um There is a mechanic that you can do a kind of parry. But it's all about dodging. And I'm all about the dodges. Even in God of War, like I use dodge and roll against everything else. And especially in The Witcher 2, like I was always a dodge player. So I
01:58:51
Speaker
Really appreciate dodge common this perfect dodges um use your light attacks to build up focus and then you can do a heavy attack with whichever stance you've got done um and I just think it's it's great on that side of it there's it's very boss heavy and mini boss heavy and bosses use secret boss heavy and the the the lower level ones are just sort of thrown into the world. The stormtroopers of the game are sort of just thrown in there to earn you will, which is your yeah currency and that in there.
01:59:29
Speaker
It does one really fun thing or one one really good thing for someone who's not an absolute souls player that the really annoying enemies as you're traversing a level.
01:59:41
Speaker
Once you beat the really annoying ones once and you die in or respawn, those really annoying ones do not reappear. It's only the lower level minions that yeah so you die and respawn way back. You just run through some lower level ones and the the the the harder, more annoying ones. um ah Which i think I think is great. it's ah Do they reappear when you rest? yeah No. the really the re one and done They're they're one and they're one the one and done. So, yeah it's you you can farm if you want, but you're only ever farming lower level yeah lower level ones. It's it's those there's one stage where
02:00:23
Speaker
in In chapter two, you get to an entrance to a destroyed village and there's four arches on top of a roof that you can't actually get to. But further on, you actually come around the back end and open the door and the arches come down so you can then defeat them. If you then die,
02:00:40
Speaker
those archers aren't there again because you've defeated them all. So yeah kate you you you can just run straight past that point, defeat one guy at the front gate, who's a melee guy and keep going, which I absolutely appreciate. Nice quality of life. um Absolute choice. Quality of life. yeah It's weird and funny and strange and exactly what I wanted out of this game. Like it's, it's,
02:01:08
Speaker
I saw one Chinese gamer talking about it and having a go at some Western people who are criticizing it for what it is. And he's going, this game wasn't made for you. This was made for the Chinese market. And it's something like 87% of all players must be on Steam ah from the China region. But 83% of that 87 are from Hong Kong.
02:01:36
Speaker
wow Yeah, it's like it's a fucking enormous number of the yeah these and players on Steam ah from the Hong Kong or the Chinese region and that 13% external players and I 100% understand it. I mean, it it is steeped in Chinese culture and law and it doesn't explain anything to you. These characters pop up on the screen and I from monkey magic you've gone yep I know who that is and yep I know who that is and everybody else I got no fucking idea but I appreciate their character design or the the the battle you do against them or why they were put in there or just the plain out quirkiness of them being in there like I just I appreciate it because it's something new and refreshing.
02:02:23
Speaker
And going back to, yep, go. I read an article just briefly in the news that um that bosses in Hong Kong were giving staff time off to play the fucking game. Yeah. I put it in the chat. Yeah. Yeah. That was you that linked that article. Yeah. That's, that's crazy. That's awesome. A bit crazy. Yeah.
02:02:44
Speaker
The chapters, are it's broken up into chapters and at the end of each chapter, when you meet the but beat the main boss at the end of the chapter, you get a short, ah maybe five minute animated film, which explains the life story of that boss.
02:02:59
Speaker
And cool so far the chapters that I've passed, they've been in different animated styles. So the first one was very much a drawn animated style. The second one was definitely a claymation style of animation for it. And they that comes into play in that level or other levels. It links links back into it. and I think it's a really nice touch. And obviously it would make much more sense to people who are familiar with the lore and the Chinese history of it.
02:03:27
Speaker
ah the The levels outside of chapter one are really big. Like I did not expect these. I expected a far more linear map and story, but the actual areas are really big with a lot of diverging passes paths and a lot of stuff you can miss and it doesn't hold your hand on anything. There is no quest markers. There is no quest log and there is no map.
02:03:55
Speaker
No map. No map, nothing. Wow. When you go to a shrine, you get a list of the other shrines you can travel to, and that is it. There is no map, no quest markers, and there's side quests, but you actually have to listen to the dialogue of what the people say. Ooh, I like a bit more and more.
02:04:16
Speaker
Yeah, it really is great. I really do love it. And that's about it. I mean, I love the combat and the the the the three stances that I've got so far. And the spells are super fun and making... I got a spell where you can make doubles of yourself, which are like illusions, but they do damage. They have a certain amount of health and they'll attack whoever you're attacking and the other creatures in the area.
02:04:42
Speaker
And then if there's no one to attack, they all just line up behind you. And I just, they they all lined up behind me and they were all wearing those big Chinese hats. Oh yeah, it was great. They were all wearing the big Chinese hats. Yeah, yeah. ah So they all looked like that and they all, they the stance of the monkey guy, the Destin one is so good. Like it's just how he holds his staff behind his behind his back is great. And then the spell ran out and they all went, they put their hand in front of him and they jumped up into the air in all four.
02:05:13
Speaker
like one at a time and just disappeared in a puff of smoke. point point point And it was great. Like it's just, it's little things like that. And I even stopped and showed Louise next time I had that spell up said watch this. And she's like, that's great. Like it's just, it's such a beautiful little touch that didn't need to be there. They could have just popped into a puff of smoke where they stood. They didn't like they they they actually had a proper animation for it. Do you get to, um,
02:05:39
Speaker
So monkey could transform, do you get to transform into other? Yep. So, cool chapter one, you, it's been in the trailer. Uh, so I'm just not spoiling anything. You transform into a cicada and you can, uh, you fly through the level. I think what it does.
02:05:56
Speaker
I've now done it three times ah for different creatures within different levels yeah and I think what it's designed for is because there's no map it's kind of a hey we're giving you a limited but it's quite long chance to fly around this entire map.
02:06:14
Speaker
and work it all out before you go. Uh, because the, the enemies do trigger to some of them, but like I was a Fox in one of the, uh, in one of the levels and the enemies triggered, but I just could keep running. And then I just ran, ran, ran and found some paths and ran up and down it. And you can disconnect it whenever you want. So you if you get to a point, a level, which is you could run all the way to the boss if you wanted to, if it's unlocked to get there.
02:06:43
Speaker
and then just disconnect it and you've bypassed the entire level. Yeah, right. so Interesting. it's It's got some really interesting stuff there, but I mean, I just fucking love it. I loved Monkey. I think the costumes and the... You know what? I love this as much as I love Ghost of Tsushima. I love it for all of the Japanese culture, the Chinese culture in this and the costumes and just that wonderful mythology that we haven't really been exposed to. And it's just great and it's fucking weird. And I love it.
02:07:21
Speaker
It's, it's, uh, so, um, you know, and I recommended that book series to you, um, unsold, but it's one of the reasons why I found that books fascinating is that whilst it is a traditional and like fantasy slash sci-fi adventure, it does kind of delve into Chinese culture or Japanese culture on the periphery. I actually, I think it's probably more Japanese than it is Chinese, but unsold i think I thought it was Chinese.
02:07:49
Speaker
but But I'm not sure, because if you look at like one of the one of the earliest motifs that that plays well, that that has a role throughout the series is the I think is a nine tailed fox. And if you look at the mythology behind the nine tailed fox, it actually started with Chinese mythology and then was transferred to Japanese mythology through traders on the Silk Road. So.
02:08:19
Speaker
Well, on the extension of the Silk Road, because Silk Road was kind of, yeah, wrong direction. but You know what I mean? Like through through trading routes. um And then Japanese culture kind of adopted that fox. And that's in Unsold very early on in the books, like as in in the first two chapters, I think. um So I'm not sure if it's Japanese or Chinese.
02:08:41
Speaker
Anyway, yeah, fascinating. And I'm sorry I had to duck away. um I'll have to go back and listen to what you were saying before, because I really want to really want to understand how it contrasts and compares to Elden Ring.
02:09:00
Speaker
Yeah. certainly i'm I'm not a, I'm not a souls player. I have tried to play the souls games before and gotten some far into it souls like games. Uh, and I find them frustrating to an extent. I don't mind dying and I've said it before. I don't really, I don't mentally learn bosses patterns, but I've actually now mentally learned bosses patterns because of this game. Um, and.
02:09:26
Speaker
I- You certainly have to do that in Elden Ring. Oh, you have to do it in Wukong as well. I mean- But again, that's because you need to know when to when to dodge. Now you can block.
02:09:40
Speaker
in Elden Ring, but I never did. Cause I'm not a blocking player. Um, like you, I'm a dodge, dodge roller. Um, and you have to time those dodges pretty much perfectly cause there's a lot of bosses and I'd be interested to see if it's the same in black myth work on. If you dodge at the wrong time, you'll take more damage than if you just stood there and tanked the hit. So no, it's not, but these bastards do do like the telegraphing on their hits is.
02:10:08
Speaker
Like and fucking incredible. Like they'll, you, you don't think they could pause for longer to hit you, but they do. Like that you think the hits coming. So you dodge and then you get off. Fuck. I just finished that dodge and I cannot hit the button to go quick enough again yeah because it's, they pause and shit, but yeah. it's But it goes much, so much to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Drag, and I know that was a movie very much made for Western audiences, Chinese, Eastern movie made for Western audiences, but I see so much of that in this.
Reflection on Red Dead Redemption
02:10:43
Speaker
And it's just, ah it's it's it's fun in the way that they pause in mid-air when gravity tells them they shouldn't be able to do it. Yeah.
02:10:54
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. Anyway, who's winning? Who's up? Tom, are you winning? Peter? ah Peter, are you winning, son? No. Tom, are you winning, son? I am. I am. I finished today. I finished Red Dead Redemption. A hundred percent. Yes. On the PS3, I would have platinumed it, but I promised, I think, for Sui's enjoyment that I would record Um, my hog tying the woman and laying her on the train tracks and getting a run over by a train trophy. It's the last one I've got to get. Um, I've been having a battle with, uh, capture cards and trying to record off the PS3, um, and HDCP. No, no, no. It's a, Pete, I've been down the weirdest fucking rabbit holes. So I've got, I've got three different types of capture card and I have a magic box.
02:11:48
Speaker
called a HDMI splitter. I'm about to buy the magic box. It's the dodgy Chinese eBay HDMI splitter that strips HDCP. Completely illegal. Completely illegal. yeah No, what's dumb is that they put this into the PS3 but didn't put it into any other console. It's just a dumb thing from Sony. No, there's HDCP on PS5. If you run a capture card, you will not be able to record a movie that you bought to play on PS5.
02:12:18
Speaker
because it but you can You can record your own gameplay. Yes. True. Yes. yeah That's the problem here with the PS3 is you can't record your own gameplay. I wish i get it too i would have organized to drop it off. me na It's all good. ah pat of ah I've been on a journey of discovery myself. It's been fun. um Red Dead was fantastic. i'm really I'm actually really glad I left it until playing it now.
02:12:43
Speaker
I don't think I would have appreciated this game as much if I, when I played it, when it, when it came out as a younger man, um, it definitely resounded more with me. but can see that it Yeah. i'm I'm really glad I left it to a later date to play. It's kind of a coming of middle age reinvention of persona. Well, I just think a lot of it would have been lost to me like, uh, earlier on, like in, in the, especially my mid twenties when it came out, like I was, you know,
02:13:12
Speaker
I wasn't that, folk I was just, I was so happy just to, just to play a game and and fuck it off. Like being fully absorbed into the world, which I have over the last like couple of weeks. Um, it's been fantastic and I've really, really enjoyed it. Um, I've never gotten into rockstar games. Like I never got into GTA. Um, I don't know. There's such as something about the gameplay that never sat well with me, but this is the first time that i like, I was more than happy to get into it. Um, as I said to you guys on, it is, this is serious.
02:13:40
Speaker
There's still moments of hilarity. It's so absorbing. and so is on but I appreciate that more now, you know later on. It was great. Loved loved playing. know I had to spend guys the dayto- day today just tidying up the last bounties I had to get.
02:14:01
Speaker
tying the dude onto the back of the horse and then riding off into into the sunset. The story was fantastic. The music's app obviously so on point, even just when you're randomly riding around, and I'm sure this is all like a bit of flashback for you guys, but like, um, that's one of the cool things I noticed is just like the background music when you cross the bridge over into Mexico and then suddenly there's muted trumpet.
02:14:23
Speaker
just in the background music as opposed to acoustic guitar. It just triggers that little thing. I'm like, that's very, very clever. That's really good game design. I think that's the thing that I'm appreciating more now, playing it a bit later on. That's where Days Gone got the idea.
02:14:39
Speaker
Oh, a hundred percent. No, no, but this is just no but this is not that, not that long ride. I'm just talking about just randomly crossing the bridge. It's just instantly the music, like it was literally like it was strumming along as I was riding across the bridge and then like the strumming slowly ended and then you just heard this like muted trump start. Yeah. Like, and I was just like, ah, that's really clever. That's really clever game design just to do that. Um,
02:15:04
Speaker
Yeah, like this it was it was great. It was a really, really fun experience. um Obviously, I got to blitz through the multiplayer part of it thanks to some hackers, which was fantastic because I didn't want to have to drag that out. That's the only reason I didn't platinum it was just the multiplayer getting to level 50. I don't know if that's still still even a trophy or if they modified it. yeahp that's the That's the one trophy that fucked me.
02:15:24
Speaker
And, um, yeah, the one that fucked me was getting 500 kills with a automatic gatling gum. Um, so I made my own little mini game. I meant to tell you guys this. So like you think I figured out, uh, you, you, you could do it in multiplayer where you could have multiple spawning people. So basically I went into Mexico and I got into the fortress, um, the, the parrot perdiso. Yeah. And they had the Gatling kind of the cannons.
02:15:54
Speaker
But then I made this little game where it's like, you start shooting people and the sheriffs come, they aren't the Mexican army come. So my game was to kill the 500 people, I had to kill as many of them without killing their horses. So I was just trying to headshot dudes with the Gatling gun. And that became my own little mini game within the game. No one told me I had to do that. But I was like, no, no, no, let's see how many horses can survive and ride off. I'm just going to kill the dudes as they they come off that. Like I'm in Terminator 2, just wounding all the cops, not not killing them.
02:16:24
Speaker
um And again just playing playing the poker minigame is just so enjoy and like that's why I'm that's why I'm and really looking forward to jumping into outlaws with the with the sub arc minigame and just being able to walk in and play like I don't know it's it's so dumb but the idea of playing that kind of it was like gwent playing that minigame within this larger game is just so enjoyable I don't know what it is um and yeah here in that line of fetch me a whiskey and have a horse spit in it because it gives it an extra kick. It's just like, that dude needs a Pulitzer. Whoever wrote that line. that is and It came so randomly in just some random game in Blackwater of poker. I was just like, what the actual hell did I just hear? That's fantastic. Oh, that's so good.
02:17:10
Speaker
way to yeah yeah too man Yeah, I'm so keen to get into RDR2 now. You talk about game design and like that was the first game. like I've never been much for treasure map hunting things in any games I've ever played. I think they're too obscure and I hate sort of mucking around with them um and I'm not a trophy hunter either. You didn't collect the feathers?
02:17:36
Speaker
Yeah. I think the the map, you find those maps within Red Dead and then the way that they've beautifully designed the world is all of a sudden you'll be riding along and you'll just be rotating the camera to turn a corner or something you' like that. And you'll go, hang on, that rock formation. I've seen that rock formation before. And then you'll pull out an app and that's when you start to go,
02:18:00
Speaker
I'm going to go and find that because it's so well planned. It's intriguing. It's intriguing is definitely the right way to go. They've given you just enough little nuggets on the map for you to find the major landmark to then go off and find it. It comes down to that game design. It's wonderful.
02:18:25
Speaker
Nice. I've very much enjoyed it. I derailed you after your ah don know you comment. it's it was it it yeah It was a really enjoyable and and great game experience, and i'm um glad but I am very much glad that I left it to now to play. I think I appreciate it a lot more. I was trying to find the right words to describe it, but it's a story about ah a guy who You get to witness the the vigor of youth kind of burn away and you're in that second phase of adulthood in your 30s where you're trying to.
02:18:59
Speaker
redefine or define who you are and and potentially deal with some of the mistakes you made in the haste of youth in your 20s. Looking for redemption. i was avoiding yeah yeah I was avoiding those words, but yeah. I don't know why you just didn't because that's exactly what it is and I completely agree. Well, it's that last mission. It was just, yeah you know.
02:19:21
Speaker
Jack kills Ross and he yeah comes up with just redeemed or like Red Dead. It just pipes up Red Dead Redemption. You're just like, ah, I get the name now. Yeah. No, so I think you're right though. it It does require a level of leaving to appreciate the story, I think. Oh yeah. And I think, yeah I think RDR2 is even more so. A hundred percent. i think I think it's actually far deeper than, whether you use far deeper than the first one.
02:19:50
Speaker
But yeah, no, I definitely appreciated John's story more and the things he went through. And like, I felt the frustration more of his character, like being like a hundred percent, I've been doing all this shit for you. Let me see my fucking wife. Yeah. Fuck's right. Yeah. I totally get that now. Yeah. Opening those barn doors. One of the best scenes in video game history ever.
02:20:16
Speaker
Oh, the only thing I had with that was, I wanted to play that out a bit more and I wouldn't have just walked out. I was just like, he could have won that fight. That's the thing. I was like, I know that, I know that my John Marston could have won that fight if he just took some fucking cover. Yeah. I mean, I, I played it when it came out. I had no idea that was what was going to happen. And I opened those barn doors and I was as shocked as what John would have been. And yeah so I reacted exactly how John would have reacted. And you,
02:20:48
Speaker
I mean, you are scripted to lose. yeah so I mean, I open those doors and I'm like, oh, fuck. And just for anybody not playing, it's a fucking 15 year old game now. ah You're confronted with like 20 different but marshals out there just to gun you down. yeah You have absolutely no way of So we know but it was also, it was the, it was the perfect old West story. and Yeah. Yeah. They all end like that. Yeah. It was, it was, it was his point. It was his final. Fuck you. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Really glad that I finally took the time to play it. Yeah. And anybody who says video games aren't art and go get fucked because
Podcast Hiatus Announcement
02:21:34
Speaker
this proves you wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
02:21:38
Speaker
Cool. Well, there we go. I think that's us. I think it is. Hmm. Sorry, Pete. That wasn't 10 minutes. That's fine. Fine. It's fine. I'll make it work. He's so angry. Um, very good. Well, yes.
02:21:55
Speaker
See you on the other side. See you on the other side. Yeah. Yeah. The whole country. Um, so we will be off the air for a little bit, probably three or four weeks after this episode comes out, um, on audio and the video is going to be two or three weeks behind it. But, uh, yeah, we're taking a little break, but we all do some traveling.
02:22:18
Speaker
ah Jaunt around good old Mary old Boston. Mary old Boston. If you made it this far, thank you for listening and we'll thank you very much see you soon. See you then.