Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to Seriously Irrelevant, a gaming podcast still very much in development. I am your host, Dylan Gursley, joined by the indifigatable Brendan Connolly. What's going on, Brendan?
Speaker: How's it going? Cheers. Cheers. Get the beers going. I feel like we've reversed roles here. My waveform looks beautiful. Yours, non-existent. You seeing that?
Speaker: Flat. Unlike my ass. Flat. Yep. Yep. The other day in the office, ripped my boxers just straight in two. So your boxers ripped, but but the pants held? Pants held. Pants held.
Speaker: Impressive. Can't relate. Better than the other way around. Yeah, you can't relate, though. was picking up my cat earlier and busted them wide open. Split that ass open. boy This, I got to tell you, the monitors with the headphones, my voice so loud, it does sound rather sultry.
Speaker: um Bricked up. This show is an aphrodisiac for Valentine's Day. Too bad it's coming afterward. I'll have to wait until 27 to be used appropriately. But really excited to talk games with you today, buddy.
Speaker: No women talk allowed on the pod. Keep it keep it for after dark. Zero.
Speaker: A lot of different things going on in my life. We haven't recorded in so long. It doesn't feel that great to be back. It feels very normal. um I mean, we talk every day.
Speaker: We talk every day. only wish we recorded it sometimes. Yeah. Some of it can be used against me in a quarter of a while. I can barely hear you over my loud, booming voice. My own voice in my head. Yeah.
Speaker: What have you been playing this month? Let's start there. Oh my gosh. So I this starting this year, I'm actually back on the PS3. um I think I think when we were last recording two years ago. i was still doing AC Valhalla and I was like deep into that. I think I played that game for like eight to 12 months or something. Did all the DLC.
Speaker: thought it was 24 months.
Speaker: ah Dude, I was i was in that game so long and it was actually you conversations with you that convinced me to maybe take a break from like big games and just go for like shorter stuff. And so i over the last year,
Speaker: I've been doing this thing where I alternate between like a more action oriented game, you know, something that comes in around like 10 to 20 hours. I'm a completionist though. So I'm, I'm going to be get going for the platinum with whatever I'm playing. And then I'll play something like that. And then I'll do a palate cleanser, like a, either a walking simulator or something like a telltale type game or like a, the dark pictures anthology. I was doing a lot. So I think I got like 15 or 16 Platinums last year, kind of like just going through all these different games that are in my backlog. And I, starting this year, I've been thinking a lot about the PS3 and kind of the aging of the system.
Speaker: And frankly, Sony's surprising continued i guess i guess support of the ps3 psn like i know they don't do sales or anything they don't put anything else on it but like you can still purchase stuff off of the ps3 psn and you can still sync trophies and cloud data and stuff and i i'm just thinking more and more that's not going to last forever and i've kind of been in a mood to play older games so this this year I booted the PS3 back up like in earnest. And so I actually i played two games over the last month or so.
Speaker: The first one was remember me, which like I don't think anyone really remembers, um but it's it's a game that was ah it was published by Square Enix and developed by don't nod. So the people that did like the first Stranger Things are not strange to Jesus, not the first Stranger Things. The life is strange and did ah Banishers Ghost of New Eden most recently. So it's it's a neat game. you know You can tell it borrows a lot from Arkham, which was big back then when it came out. The combat is very Arkham-inspired, but AA quality, nowhere near the the same caliber of those games. But it was a neat little diversion. um
Speaker: Can't say I'd recommend it heavily. The the the story, the world was like okay. The combat was okay. The characters were pretty cheesy. It kind of felt like watching...
Speaker: a movie on the sci-fi channel that would only air at like 2 a.m. m um So it was fun. It was neat. I got the platinum in it. Like that's still doable. um But the game I just finished was Alice Madness Returns.
Speaker: And that was fucking awesome. um So i know i know the Alice games are like cult classics, I think particularly the first one. And i never played either. um What's cool, though, is so if you have Madness Returns, you can actually get the first game kind of as a packaged in DLC. So I played through the first game first. There's no platinum for the first game. It's just like five or six trophies you get throughout the course of it.
Speaker: it's not too difficult i mean i played on normal mode which i would actually say if that game came out nowadays that would probably be considered hard mode um but you know it's an older game so standards were different back then 2010 uh no so it was actually 20 i think 2010 or 2011 was when the second one came out i want to say like 2001 was when the first game came out and so but you said madness returns is that not the second one Yeah, yeah. So Madness Returns. So I played the first Alice, the package and DLC thing. um And then I played, then I rolled right into Madness Returns.
Speaker: And you can see, you know, there's a massive step up. um The game's longer. The combat is way better. There's collectibles. The art direction is incredible. um Super, just just relentlessly interesting. Yeah.
Speaker: And what's what's very cool is like the the story is a little bit difficult to parse throughout. like The whole premise of the game is she's trying to reconstitute her shattered memory by kind of living through this this fantasy inner world of Wonderland that's become like corrupted. And so inherently, the story is not linear. It's fractured, and you're like putting it together through a mix of actual sequences that take place in the real world and a lot of like metaphorical uh imagery and things that you're experiencing in your own mind um but the combat's fun the platforming is fun and it's extremely dark like it's got a lot of gothic kind of gruesome and imagery throughout but what i was surprised about the ending i'm not going to spoil it or anything but the themes that they wind up
Speaker: kind of not just touching on, but jumping headlong into in some ways was really, really surprising. And I thought very good. I thought it was, it's not something they needed to do for the sake of the story, ah but it certainly made it more interesting. It certainly made things more more tragic overall and the the twists were were really good. And then actually,
Speaker: as part of getting the platinum. So like I beat the game first on on the nightmare difficulty and then had to go collect the, go back and get the collectibles. I didn't use a guide the first time through. And so because I didn't do that, i kind of, I used a guide the second time through getting the collectibles and had to essentially play most of the game again. And it was interesting seeing a lot of the, uh,
Speaker: the imagery of Wonderland in each level through the lens of understanding the complete story and everything that happened. um And I did find that the that gave me an additional appreciation for the art direction of the imagery that they they brought to bear in the world. Like there's a lot of things you you experience where the first time through you're like, oh, that's that's a neat enemy or that's a neat concept.
Speaker: of enemy type, but then with the complete story and in your mind, you realize like, oh, the enemies are manifesting in her mind this way because of what was happening in the real world.
Speaker: not just what was happening, but also her interpretation of it. So really, really good game. Like that's a game I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys like action adventure, 3d platformers. It's very linear. It's, it's relentlessly linear.
Speaker: Um, but it's not, you're not walking through corridors. The level design is also very good. Sometimes they kind of overstay their welcome a little bit. Like Really great level design.
Speaker: Maybe there's more of it, you know, in sequence in a row than I necessarily want, but the art direction is just so good. So I, yeah really, really happy that i went back and played that game.
Speaker: Um, So yeah, what do you been playing? Yeah, i've I've, it's funny you say this, um going back to the PS3, out of fear, you do things out of fear, I do things out of purpose and pleasure.
Speaker: um I kind of, i haven't been playing on PS3, I've been doing PS5.
Speaker: I told you over text, this is now ostensibly a PlayStation show. I'm so disenfranchised on the Xbox that i don't even buy things on my Xbox anymore.
Speaker: I still think it's a great system for back and pat. That is where I would play Alice. I would buy the digital version on there and get the 60 FPS and all that stuff.
Speaker: Yeah. As long as you want to play them. Say it again. As long as you don't want a platinum. Yeah, I mean, i think about that all the time. Dude, don't don't twist that knife. i long for a a a consolidated gamer record of myself. But...
Speaker: Anyway, I have been playing games on the PS5 from that era. Most notably, probably, Bioshock. The 2007 masterpiece from Ken Levine and Irrational Games.
Speaker: um Absolutely incredible. I've told you many times, you've tried it yourself. I said to myself when I first started playing, if I can just beat... where you got to which was about 12 trophies i was like that'll be a win um it's an experience that just demanded so much of me in the first couple hours that i never pushed through it probably tried it over five times this time I just completely fell in love, broke through it. I think those first two levels, the medical pavilion and Neptune's bounty, once you're through those, it is, it kind of loses its, its creepy grip.
Speaker: Um, not in a bad way, just in like you get to more varied environments, you become more comfortable in the world. And that's why I love platinum and games and and going for the completion of stuff, even if you don't get there is I think you find a way to exist in the world that just feels so natural that those things no longer become hindrances to your enjoyment.
Speaker: and And I think that really transcends like the genre of game, right? Like Lies of P. I just got so into that. that and And I loved those first levels, but they were, it was like an arduous experience getting through them.
Speaker: And then you just fall you just fall into a rhythm. And Bioshock was the same way. very You can go through an area very methodically, just clear it out, do the side quests, do the different things.
Speaker: the atmosphere, the exploration, you can see the vestiges of a ah much greater RPG that they were going for. But I think they hit a sweet spot with some of that stuff.
Speaker: The systems aren't over aren't too overwhelming, um but you just kind of exist in Rapture, really kind of engage in the story. I don't really want to, you know, everyone said all the words there are to say about Bioshock. There's nothing really new I can add to it.
Speaker: want to try to. I'm going to read that stupid Ayn Rand book, um Atlas Shrugged, really get to the bottom. Because I think Bioshock is an allegory of that book pretty much through and through. But as a game,
Speaker: I can't think of many better experiences I've had. Definitely launches itself into my top 10 quite easily. um I wish we could talk more about it. because you know you're so much more eloquent than I am. But really, the' the it's a must play.
Speaker: You got to play it. If you're on the PS3, maybe pick up a DualSense and fire up Bioshock Remastered. The only thing they didn't remaster that they freaking should have is the audio, dude.
Speaker: I mean, I know we're struggling with audio here today. Let me tell you, the audio in that game is so mastered so poorly, mixed so poorly. It's part of the reason why I struggle to get through is like in the other room. And it's like, Jesus Christ, I don't even want to move. I just want to pause the game and turn the system off. um yeah always It's always fun when there's like a ah you're basically in a submarine, essentially.
Speaker: And it sounds like someone's right over your shoulder and you're like, this is impossible. Yeah, I'm in a bathysphere withstanding like untold pressure from the water.
Speaker: But I can hear some some drug addict splicer thirsting for my blood. um Yeah, it's bad. But really an incredible game. Doesn't hang on too long.
Speaker: There's a little um exploit you can do to get the platinum at the end without really breaking your back with Survivor. which is great. I do think the final boss fight was a little anticlimactic.
Speaker: I don't think... It's hard for me to imagine from a design standpoint how to design a better boss in first-person shooter type games. um Because, you know, then they just become a bullet sponge.
Speaker: Sort like Far Cry 5 when you're fighting those bosses. It's kind of lame. But anyway, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm all over the place. Another game that I really liked that I want to explore more in my own media. Maybe do a video on it.
Speaker: Something. What Remains of Edith Finch. One of the shortest, most impactful, powerful game experiences I ever had. Definitely not in my top 10, but as far as like a walking simulator, hard to imagine any being better.
Speaker: Easy to say when you haven't played any others, but I love how it's like under three hours. Everything about the game is totally built for you to just move through the world and explore.
Speaker: Never really had done a walking simulator before. really blew my mind. The variability in the storytelling, the different presentation kind of left to your own interpretation, the story and how you feel about it what it means.
Speaker: Little things that happen in the plot that if you just look down, you might realize earlier than when they tell you. Although that same thing is...
Speaker: I mean, she knew she had to climb up the house. Let me just say it like that. She knew she wasn't a shouldn't have been a surprise to her that the nine room house with all the room stacked on top of each other shouldn't have been a surprise that she had a climb.
Speaker: I mean, she grew up there and lived there, but she was so surprised if I knew I had to climb so much, maybe I wouldn't have done this. Well, did you live there or not, Edith, sweetheart?
Speaker: um Anyway. I have no idea what you're talking about. I know. I hope somebody listening to this, I mean, there's going to be like three people that listen to this, and none of them will have played What Remains of Edith Finch.
Speaker: No, I really want to do a video on that. um Dude, I watched the video of the PS4 version because I thought, oh, I'll go back, record gameplay of the PS4 version, get the trophies there. Who cares?
Speaker: Don't do it. I mean, you could, but there's no Platinum on the PS4. I already got the Platinum. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it just looks so bad. I don't know. Really? looks better on PS4. Well, it could have been the guy who captured it. Maybe he captured... You know, maybe his capture card wasn't that good. But yeah, I i was like, damn, the PS5 version is definitely better looking than this.
Speaker: um But anyway, that's what we're playing. I moved on to Dishonored, which I think has a lot of similarities with Bioshock and Feel. um Kind of heavy-handed. They're like, you're an assassin.
Speaker: And I'm like, nobody... Like everyone just told me this. I never felt like I was that. But all of a sudden everyone's like, so you're an assassin now. Well, you're a bad man. And I just don't, like I just don't get it.
Speaker: um Also played Mafia. That was a ah really good experience. ah Very tedious and kind of unfun platinum, I think. um Don't know if I'm going to go for the platinum, but I do want to play Mafia 2 and 3 in the old country.
Speaker: What's annoying on the cross media bar when you hover over Mafia 1, it doesn't show Mafia 1 background. It shows Mafia the old country background. background And it's like, buy this.
Speaker: And it's like, cool, boys. I kind of want to see my own background for the game I already own. Thanks for the ad. Thanks for the ad. I paid for an ad placement here. um Maybe one day you too can pay for an ad placement on Seriously Irrelevant.
Speaker: Thank you for listening. Let's get into the news, as it were, even though when I wrote this, so many things have happened since that kind of render these almost non-news.
Speaker: um So anyway, timely is always let's get into this. Everyone's favorite topic at the moment. Everyone wants to have an opinion about a game they haven't really played. um Here we go.
Speaker: Though the dust has barely settled on the annual game awards, the one more thing announcement has already met its unfortunate fate. Layoffs and low player counts. High guard will be another title used as an adjective when describing ill-advised live service projects.
Speaker: but the response to the game and its impact is arguably more interesting than any of its gameplay or systems. Are gamers at fault for its early design for its early demise?
Speaker: Or was it the result of lazy developers who did not seek the right feedback? Was Jeff Keighley himself the villain when he shifted High Guard to the last spot of his vaunted Game Awards showcase?
Speaker: So a lot to pull out here. I think we're all familiar with High Guard if you're even remotely interested in games. Comes on, kind of foisted into the spot of the last, the one more thing at the Game Awards. ah The previous one more thing the Game Awards was Intergalactic, which funnily enough also ah garnered quite a negative reaction online, even though that game looks incredible.
Speaker: um Agreed.
Speaker: High guard launches over one and a half million people play it. Some very small percentage of players play more than an hour. It is a free to play game. Nobody sticks around. I think player counts as of yesterday were about two and a half thousand.
Speaker: Not enough for a multi hundred million dollar game. Probably put it around three, four hundred million to develop. Maybe a little less. What do I really know? But that's what I would say. Wild light entertainment laid off.
Speaker: The vast majority of his staff, I think I, again, I could just be totally making up numbers, but it was like 90% of its staff laid off. Are you looking this up?
Speaker: Please fact check me. um i am One of the developers, Josh Sobel, went on Twitter and wrote a Twitter article. Which, by the way, I'm a Twitter user, you're not really, but you can like click these articles and they're just in Twitter.
Speaker: I don't know if they have like links or anything they can send to people, it just opens in the app. But he writes, You know, we were really excited to make this game. It's never perfect developing a game, but he had a really good experience developing this game, shipping the game, shipping a game in AAA space is a big deal.
Speaker: um All of the feedback prior was this is lightning in a bottle. You guys really have something here. This is the next new thing. This is amazing.
Speaker: All of it was positive. I'm sort of paraphrasing because long story short, Josh goes on to say, nobody asked for the spot at the Game Awards, even though journalists kind of accused them of that without fact checking that.
Speaker: And then pretty much from the moment of that, everyone was down on it. Josh goes on to sort of blame gamers and gamer culture and the way they respond to things for the game's demise.
Speaker: He notes that a lot of reviews that were negative on Steam had less than an hour played on the game. I think there's a lot of interesting stuff in that article.
Speaker: Unfortunately, I can't show it to you because Josh deleted his entire Twitter and that article no longer exists.
Speaker: kind of just want to pull out some threads. You know, I asked questions. Are gamers at fault for this game failing? I think yes and no. That would be my, like, sure.
Speaker: If you have a culture like gaming where everyone is so eager to just have the next negative story to hate, the next Concord, like everyone wants to crown the next Concord.
Speaker: I don't think High Guard is is a Concord in the sense of I mean, it's not shut down, but it's it is. ah Even as I'm speaking, I'm like, it kind of is gone, Cork.
Speaker: Right? I mean, save me here. I feel like I'm rambling and you're just making faces drinking beer. No, wait for you to pass the ball, dude. Here, I pass the ball. ah Yeah, well, I think there's ah there's a couple different things. I i do want to push back a bit on the idea that any particular game lives or dies by the pre-launch I guess, climate towards it.
Speaker: Because I personally think at the end of the day, people play things because they're fun. And I do think that nowadays, whether people think something's going to be good or going to be bad, if the barrier of entry is low enough, they're going to try it. And so actually with High Guard, I do agree. Like the climate following the Game Awards was was like, what is this?
Speaker: You're throwing this live service free to play slop, you know, at the at the the one more things slot. And there was a lot of a lot of issues that people took around that. But I think that when the game come out came out, if if I'm understanding correctly, I think the player count initially was massive.
Speaker: And I think a lot of that was driven by people being interested. They were like, well, we haven't really seen much of it. There's a lot of anti high guard sentiment, but I'm not sure the anti high guard sentiment translates into people not trying the game.
Speaker: I think the trouble was that people tried the game and they were like, there's just not enough here. It's fine. But like there's nothing. It's not enough to stick around for. And yeah, but I think it's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Like.
Speaker: If I'm not a huge new Taylor Swift guy, if someone plays a new Taylor Swift track, this happened the other night. I was hanging out with my brothers. um A Taylor Swift song comes on. I'm like dancing. I'm like, yo, yeah who who's this dog?
Speaker: It's Taylor Swift. If I had known it was Taylor Swift, I'd be like, skip. Oh, you're going to bias right there. Yeah. Right. So I think that's important to know too. It's, it's when you want to hate something, won't you hate it?
Speaker: I think that's possible. I also think there's like, you have to remember with a live service game, especially a free to play one, every like the the whole, the whole spectrum of gamers who are interested in that kind of thing get to participate. So like, yeah, there could be a lot of discourse online and negativity online, but like, let's look at arc Raiders.
Speaker: There's a lot of positivity around that, but I'm going to bet that the vast majority of people that are playing arc Raiders and still playing arc Raiders, had no real idea what the expectations of the discourse was around it prior to playing the game and realizing, oh, this is a lot of fun.
Speaker: Like, I think if High Guard came out and it was much more like content complete and or or really it sounds like what should happen is it should have gotten like a lot more playtesting, come out in alpha or beta and had more time in the oven.
Speaker: um and more runway to put out more content, it might have fared better, which is surprising. Like it really wasn't out that long. um I think a difference between High Guard and Concord is that Concord was, they had a plan for additional updates and content releases, but like it was a fairly feature complete game when it came out and they were asking what, like $40 for it. So yeah,
Speaker: so High guard is it's so odd that like it's the team is being hit with layoffs right now after the game only being out for a couple weeks. It's like guys, it's free to play. i you thought the money was going to start rolling in day one like people have to get into it. They have to be interested in additional content updates is like how you drive that.
Speaker: So I. I don't know. i think think so that's I don't mean to cut you off, but it's like i kind of you already know how i feel about this, that it didn't launch content complete. It's like it's a live service game.
Speaker: I think it in some and some scenario, you you have a year-long roadmap, year one roadmap. So yeah, it's like you kind of expect it to reach a fever pitch three to six months in.
Speaker: Yeah, there's got to be enough there for you to engage that first three months. But right. It's supposed to like keep you coming back. Yeah. And they have to stick with it.
Speaker: Like you can't, you can't put out, you can't put out a, a lot, a light live service launch game. You know, they, different live service games launch, I guess, light to heavy on content.
Speaker: This, it sounds like launched very light. You can't launch a light game and then give up on it two weeks in. And like and well you what do you, right. But if you have no players, don't you give up?
Speaker: No, not necessarily. I mean, because you, I would, I'm not a business guy, I guess, but I would expect if you're launching a a free to play live service game, you have to recognize that we're not going to make money on this day one. We're going to get a ah day one player count that's going to be big.
Speaker: That's going to either persist or it's going to drop off. in either case, we should still put out additional content according to like, like you said, maybe a multi-month roadmap at the very least, and then see how momentum is building.
Speaker: Um, right. But they, I, they did very quickly. the The biggest piece of feedback I heard you watch skill up. So you heard bad feedback. Um,
Speaker: The 3v3 map in such a large space, the 3v3 mode on such a large map was not enough. There wasn't enough player interaction or jeopardy seemingly at various stages of the capture flag ah game. Yeah.
Speaker: So, dude, I think it was less than two weeks later they came out with a 5v5 to kind of attempt to fix that. And then they saw, they said themselves, they were like, player count is split between the two pretty evenly.
Speaker: And...
Speaker: ah Again, maybe maybe I put too much stock into what randos say online, but people were like, you know, EA wouldn't have done this this quickly. Activision wouldn't have done this this quickly.
Speaker: You know, an entire game mode rolled out 10 ish days after release. Mm hmm. That's fast, man. Yeah. And that, and though they are triple A in the sense of the budget and the talent and all this stuff, they were sort of independent.
Speaker: Like they aren't, you've never heard a wild light wildlife or wildfire whatever the hell they were. They're gone now. Um, anyway, you're a defender of this game. I know you defend.
Speaker: I, I, the funny thing is I haven't played it. This is not my kind of game. Um, i just ah Something else I think about with Concord is like the Sony corporate component.
Speaker: I think that when what at the point that Concord launched, Sony leadership had already decided, hey, this whole live service direction that was ah that was pushed under Jim Ryan is not...
Speaker: is not where we want to go or it's we don't want to go there in that way so i think that sony had already pretty much lost faith in concord before it launched which is why i think remember the beta was was not even right it was abysmal and so they they at least they even knew going into the launch like we might have to pull this but like sony is a pretty diversified gaming company like they have a broad a fairly broad portfolio and and they're a platform holder so like with um With Highguard, it's very different. Like, you guys are going all in on this.
Speaker: And, like, you can't... If you pull it, like, you're that's it. Um... I don't know. it's just It's surprising to me that there wasn't more interest in sticking with it, at least for a few months, and getting additional content out. Like you said, they put out a 5v5 game mode. I mean, something that I think about, and I'm a bit of an ignoramus here, but like Halo.
Speaker: classic Halo or Halo 3. I remember playing Halo matches where like they were pretty freaking big. Capture the flag modes where you're like driving buggies across massive maps.
Speaker: And yeah, sometimes there was more limited player interaction. But I think like the map design, maybe it was a little bit tighter in Halo versus high guard. And I also think the movement was very different. And when I When I think of those two things, it makes me wonder like, well, maybe the mode wasn't the only thing that could have been tweaked in high guard. Like maybe you could provide players more things to do, more options for interactivity, teleportation. Like, I don't i don't know. Yeah. um but But they have mounts.
Speaker: Yeah. Spectral horses. I don't know. hey Yeah, I remember that as a kid playing that Valhalla map. Yeah, like there were some big maps and it was. Yeah. But that didn't that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker: Well, it was when you were only playing couch co-op and there were like max. dudes next to you Right. No, that's true. But it yeah it also makes me wonder, like ah five V five, maybe those big ass maps they made for high guard could be even even larger, like.
Speaker: I don't know, it it it feels like the publisher most likely is giving up on the game too quickly. Well, was it self published? I think it was, right? Oh, I guess. Well, I guess publisher developer then. Yeah, it kind of feels like they're giving And of course, there's going to be a business impetus for giving up on it. But like, yeah, if that's the one thing you're going out with, it says to me that maybe they didn't give themselves enough financial runway.
Speaker: to support the game in the absence of revenue as long as they needed to. Yeah. I also think that to go back to kind of the the questions asked in the beginning, it's like, I do think Jeff kind of shot this game in the foot.
Speaker: It shouldn't matter that it's the one more thing, but I think, i don't know. It's just like you kind of gave people too much ammunition to to shit on it. And It kind of, it makes me wonder what, what's the counterfactual? Like what, what do we think it would have been like if it wasn't placed at the end? It was just like in the middle of the show.
Speaker: Right. Cause you could argue, you kind of said it earlier, like 1.5 million players in a month is impressive. Yeah. Like that's what it needs to, to achieve like persistence, but.
Speaker: Right. So it's like, then it, then it goes back to the game. It's like, if you're not keeping 10% of those guys. Yeah. You know, if you're not keeping at least, I don't know, Call Duty and all these games, Steam numbers aren't everything, but it's like.
Speaker: Like 70 to 100,000 is pretty good, right? Yeah, I mean, I would I would actually think so. I that's that's what's confusing to even. the Yeah, I don't know it.
Speaker: it's It's odd.
Speaker: Well, I for one never respected Jeff Keighley's gaming taste. Just kidding. I don't actually have an opinion. I don't think i and for the record, I don't think he loses credibility for that at all.
Speaker: I don't think so either. i mean, there's there's a couple of the games in those in that show that I think would have made more sense in the one more thing. Although those those reveals also came with like a lot of stagecraft. So I kind of think that that might have been part of the reason they weren't eligible for the one more thing slot. Yeah, you're right.
Speaker: That's an interesting point. I never consider that. Yeah, I'm thinking of Divinity and Control Resonant. Like both of them had a stage thing and they were probably like, we can't just move that to the end of the show.
Speaker: You know, what's funny is i like for us as enthusiasts, it was really kind of fun to journalistically learn how that that show is set up. And yeah, like I always thought people were paying Jeff to be there.
Speaker: But that on second thought, it's like that doesn't actually make any sense. Why would a company have to pay to be there when. It's like the ads are what.
Speaker: Should fund them being there, right? Well, they do pay for trailer slots, I think, still. That's not my understanding, because then they would have paid for the last spot. Well, I thought i thought they they paid for a slot, but then there was... you think that's just a flat thing?
Speaker: i'm sure I'm sure the amount differs based on the placement of the show, like beginning, middle versus end, because the my understanding was that they were probably going to be in the middle of the show buried somewhere, but then whatever game was supposed to be in that last slot got delayed, and so they pulled out of the show, which also makes me wonder what game was that.
Speaker: going to be. um But then so Jeff had this open slot and he was like, hey, high guard, do you guys want it? Like you've already paid for a slot. Do you want this one? I mean, it would be even more surprising if they didn't, they hadn't paid for any slot and he just called them up and he was like, do you want free this at the game awards?
Speaker: um Oh my gosh. if Maybe I need to read more articles, but like if that's what happened, I don't want to speculate on what might be fiction, but Go ahead. Well, if, I mean, oh my goodness. Well, so I'm, I'm seeing the game awards 2025, which included a three minute trailer cost around $1 million. dollars So I think they paid about a million dollars to be at the Game Awards. i think It's just so confusing to me. like what Then what are the ads for?
Speaker: I understand the whole thing is a glorified ad. Yeah. And that is a High Guard ad, but I'm there to watch that. Yeah. And I'm not there to watch the Gacha Game ads. I think those ads probably cost less money, I would guess, than like the...
Speaker: world premiere uh right slots world premiere yeah um well hey this is this this has been nice not our best ever work a lot of lot of holes that we don't actually know i'm gonna look into this more because i do think it's interesting how is this show made because into our next topic i was thinking that as we're watching the state of play where it's like you know did ember labs pay and like who sent the crew out to film the two studio founders in the office as they kind of describe the game well i don't i don't think sony makes their first party like developers favoritewise is ember labs a first party developer
Speaker: It's well, I actually that I think it might be second party because i mean, so we ah the new canon game is PlayStation exclusive. Yeah, the the the first canon game and the next one are both PlayStation exclusive.
Speaker: Okay, those are. Yeah. So if it's if it's not first party, it's definitely a second party. I'm right about that Okay, let's double check. That was one of the big reasons it was in. Well, that's is a spoiler to say it was an Astro bot.
Speaker: bleep I mean, if you want to be like Genki.
Speaker: um Yeah, you're right. it's I mean, it's PlayStation. No, you're wrong. You're wrong. I mean, I knew you were wrong. It's on Xbox. Really? Kingdom One is on Xbox? And it's on Steam. Wow.
Speaker: I think that... Well, that I guess I'm wondering, is the new one going to be on Xbox and Steam?
Speaker: That's not even on. Here it is. Yeah, it's going to be on Steam, it says. Okay, but not Xbox. Yeah. Okay, all right. Thank you for fact-checking me in real time.
Speaker: You needed it. I needed it, Pat. I mean, it frankly, it doesn't surprise me that it's not coming to Xbox. ah Kind of as you hinted at earlier, like, would it be financially worth it?
Speaker: ah square annex thinks so wait what is uh what would it wear next remember a few months ago they were like we are returning to xbox because final fantasy it's like they're mad at sony and it's like boys yanko make yanko make no money over there yeah i think that might have been like subsidized or incentivized a bit too funnily enough Best way to play Final Fantasy XIII is on an Xbox Series X. Oh, I don't dispute that. That is that is the thing. Yeah, anything that's back-compat... I was actually... So I was in this ah our local used video game store. It's called Orbit right up the street. And we were...
Speaker: I was just, we were looking at PS3 games and stuff like that. And I was talking to the people that work there. and And we were talking about how like, yeah, when it comes to bat compat, I mean, you could argue that certain stuff on Steam, maybe depending on your PC could be a better way to play it. But I would never argue PC is the best place to play anything. yeah Anything. Even things that are exclusive to PC. ah Update your drivers. Yeah. But yeah, like I do agree. I'm a PlayStation player through and through, but I do agree that any, especially anything from like the PS3 360 era that's available on both is best played on a modern Xbox because of everything that they've done for the back of pat technology.
Speaker: The Series X is an incredible system. yeah Not only is it designed as a piece of hardware better than the PS5, but it's a pretty immaculate thing to use for yeah old games.
Speaker: As long as you don't care about platinum trophies. As long as I mean, really, what do you care about if you have an Xbox? Call Duty and FIFA. Yeah, it's, it you know, subscription services.
Speaker: Well, speaking of sad, the sad, sorry, state of affairs really is a nice segue into my next sentence. Though we can lament the sadness of failure in games, a showcase, a state of play, a developer direct, they remind us of one thing.
Speaker: This is supposed to be fun, and that's what it's about. Sony returned last week with a 70 plus minute state of play chock full of great announcements. Let's discuss our top picks and just go through the list of the games.
Speaker: So I'm now looking at the list of games. I see you have your stupid, stupid little list. Yeah, some of us prepped ahead of time. Oh, yeah. I mean, dude, Sony's... Wow.
Speaker: Honestly, I'm looking at the the Sony blog. It sucks because it's not in show order. It's alphabetical. Yeah. I think it makes sense. And they have, like, the trailer links or, like, the entire window. Yeah. So you're, like, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. And also, this is...
Speaker: the they do trailer and then the title and then the description, which I feel like for me reading it, I'm like, it's not intuitive.
Speaker: It's Japanese. All right. So I, yeah, you read a what bottom, the top, right to left. Yeah. No, you start with the end. Um, here, let's go. what do you I mean, do you want me to talk about my topic?
Speaker: Yeah, well, just give me a general grade because what are you grading this? oh Overall, I would say solid a Solid a Does your grading system include an I it I think what...
Speaker: dies i i think what that what you would need for a state of play, in my opinion, to be an S would be, to have to announce kingdom come deliverance on PS5. Oh yeah. No, it would have to. Um, I mean, it would be like this plus either like a really big shadow drop, which I know they had a shadow drop in the, the gods of war sons of Sparta.
Speaker: I don't consider that like S tier shadow drop. Um, trying to think like what it would even be. Yeah. yeah Intergalactic shadow drop or, or like a very big reveal that we don't yet know about. um Like, I don't know that the next God of war game, like actual God of war game or something um that at the end,
Speaker: But like, so, okay, the intergalactic state of play was fairly, it was more on the weak side. And then they had that big reveal at the end. I would say if you had this state of play and then the intergalactic reveal at the end, like, you know, combined with the God of War Shadow Drop and all that stuff, that would probably bump it into S tier, maybe.
Speaker: It's like, this is the next Naughty Dog game, especially if the... release window for that big reveal is kind of in the near term. I would say in the next like 365 days.
Speaker: That's part of it too. Like the God of War trilogy remake teaser reveal, to me that doesn't even like factor in. It's like, okay, great. I'm excited about that. Like I'll be excited when those games come out. That's like one of my top reveals, I would say.
Speaker: But it's so far out. not even really a reveal. it Right. it's It's like an announcement of a concept. So i having that kind of stuff in there, it's like, ah, that that weakens it a little bit.
Speaker: you're You're not absolute S tier. Yeah, I hear you. I still think this is one of the most, certainly for Sony, best state of play. Yeah, in a while. Maybe the entire generation.
Speaker: um It starts with Kena, Scars of Cosmora. I know you want to talk about that. So bad. Then we get into Ghost of Yotei Legends. Not really. i mean, cool. Not for me. i haven't played Yotei.
Speaker: Death Stranding 2 on the beach goes to PC. For loop, which, you know, i want to talk about. i actually thought was really interesting. Pragmata. um The first.
Speaker: I'm kind of smitten with that game. That's the first trailer where I'm like, i don't like that. I thought the tone of the characters was so bad. I'm like, show more gameplay combat.
Speaker: They did it at the game awards, no? Yeah, the last trailer had some gameplay combat. And I'm like, no, guys, need to show more of that. Don't show this guy talking to this little Android girl about what it's like to be a kid. Like, come on.
Speaker: Show the gameplay. Yeah, i was I was really disappointed. I hated the tone. Just hated the tone. Those like... I think the visuals look incredible. the Yeah. Those like, like i don't even know what they are, like cricket things that have human faces.
Speaker: um I was loving the, they what did they call it? Like luminous something. It's like, I guess the stuff in the world is created from, it's like 3D printed with light or something. So when they're like walking down the street and there's like a normal looking car and then a car that's like half made and like kind of scattered. Yeah.
Speaker: that That stuff was cool. Yeah. and And then to have it with that, like like those cricket things drop in behind him and he goes, what the? ah It was like, God, what just awful.
Speaker: um But funnily enough, that's a Capcom game. They're not saying enough in our opinion. And then we get the Resident Evil Requiem where they say way too much. way too what I don't even need to play Resident Requiem.
Speaker: Capcom always, always does this, especially with Resident Evil. They like their first reveals of every new Resident Evil game are like perfect. It's just a little bit.
Speaker: It tantalizes you. It's creepy. And then they have like another trailer that kind of like fills out a little bit. Like these are some of the characters involved. Here's the gameplay. Here's maybe one like cool looking scene.
Speaker: And then they always like. right before, you know, within a couple months of the actual game coming out, they're like, here's like a big fat trailer filled with spoilers. And it's like, guys, just you didn't need to do that. Like, what are you doing?
Speaker: Yeah, I really because i want to get into Resident Evil. It's like none of it really stuck with me, but I bet you were watching and you were probably like, can somebody mute this? You were probably. I actually, so I haven't played Resident Evil 7 or 8. So I do think like probably a lot of the spoilery stuff was lost on me as well. um But I mean, there was stuff in there. I was like, oh, you're like...
Speaker: You're showing that Leon, not only we knew Leon was in the game and we knew that his gameplay was going to be a bit different than a than the other character, but they're showing him with like some kind of like infection or something, which actually funny enough, that harkens back to Resident Evil 4 because in 4, there's a, I don't know. Please no spoilers.
Speaker: Okay. That harkens back to 4. Okay. And I don't like I can't comment on for remake, but the original for there's a ah period in the game when he's he's dealing with an infection issue. um So that's like a thought of consumption.
Speaker: That's a cool theme. um And who knows, maybe those those are related in some way, but it's like, why did you show us that in the trailer? Like you don't save it for the game.
Speaker: Legacy of Cain, Defiance Remastered. know you're excited about that. Brigandine Abyss. I was wondering why Brigandine... the land of runertia or whatever it's called on a deep deep sail this game looks way better visually i love a strategy rpg so that's interesting to me tell your girlfriend to go to bed dead or alive six last round and a new dead or alive game is officially in development much like the god of war thing it's just thank you for telling us that you're doing work
Speaker: crim Not Crimson. Control Resonant. I know we we want to talk about that. Crimson Moon. I didn't realize how co-op focused this was when I first watched it. yeah Interesting. Game Freak showed off another look at Beasts of Reincarnation. Another time, I think, where there was a lot more story than gameplay. I think at the developer direct a few weeks ago with Xbox, they showed more gameplay.
Speaker: Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition. You said this to me. I don't remember seeing Rayman on the show at all. Maybe I was... It was quick. It felt like a an interstitial. Main of the Hollower, a limited time demo is coming out. PlayStation exclusive.
Speaker: Colin Moriarty, big fan Yacht Club games. Shovelmite fame. He's all over this. I don't get the point of a limited time demo. I don't understand that.
Speaker: going to weigh in? No, you don't you don't understand it either. I mean, what's eva what do you mean limited time? debt like it's Yeah, you can play the demo for a bit and then it goes away. I don't know. I kind of i guess the alternative is keeping the demo live for after the game comes out so you can demo anytime. Yeah, yeah actually it is odd now that i'm I haven't really thought about it much. but i think Nii 3 did the same thing, as did ah Hell is Us.
Speaker: Yeah, why would you make a demo limited? Unless you're like, unless it's more of a beta test kind of thing, but... it Could be. Which is fine, though, but you still like, yeah. I don't know. I guess in the... in the Sony is more difficult with with refunds than Steam. I think with Steam's refund policy, like demos are largely unnecessary.
Speaker: But yeah, if you have a demo on PlayStation, like you probably should leave it up. just Just a quick aside. One of the things Xbox does better than PlayStation. The way your collection is organized, like why is media player and remote launcher included in your library?
Speaker: Those are apps. Put them in an apps section. Are you talking about PS4 or PS5? This is PS5. I don't need to see those items in my collection. Additionally, demos are kind of the same thing. I kind of wish they were spliced out a bit. Oh, yeah, I agree. I don't have any demos, I think, at all, but...
Speaker: I wouldn't want to see him in there. Neva Prologue, kind of an artsy puzzle platform yeah game. Yakko Shinobi Ops. I thought this game looked sick.
Speaker: Like hardcore, hard, hardcore. Co-op stealth action game. 2027. I know you weren't particularly taken with it. Project Windless has a lot of people excited.
Speaker: I thought it looked a little too muso for me. Like I appreciate the epic scale. I think these consoles are capable of that. Very interesting buff chicken character. No, he's not tasty. He's just muscular.
Speaker: um I would I would actually say like so I agree I'm not interested in Musos in general like. I know there's like the dynasty warriors, the Hyrule warriors, and probably a couple others.
Speaker: I will say of all the Musos I've seen, this does look the most interesting to me. I think maybe because it's more like gory and gritty and like the whole chicken thing is kind of off the wall.
Speaker: This, this is totally a game though, where it's like, I'm not putting it on my wishlist or anything, but like, we'll see when it comes out. Uh, Well, I think the fact it's called Project Winless indicates it's pretty early. It's probably two years away. Yeah.
Speaker: They say 2027, but that's probably December 31st, 2027. Yeah. So that that might even be like a PS6 kind of launch area game. No, dude, they're pushing that back. I don't know. mean, maybe you just heard about it. but You think beyond? I know it was... Like 2031.
Speaker: Really? they're No, I'm joking around. Okay, I was like... think they do push it to 28. Yeah, I agree. But... um Yeah, I don't really need a new system. PS5 Pro is total waste.
Speaker: Add that to your list of things you told me to buy that weren't good, like Windbound. Star Wars Galactic Racer looks pretty great, gotta say. 007 First Light, this was the first trailer of this game that made me interested in it. Although, again, feel like we've seen more gameplay at other...
Speaker: other showcases, state of plays, whatever. um I don't think you want to talk about that. No, you don't. Metal Gear Solid Master Collection 2. A lot of people are like, oh, Collection's doing a lot of heavy lifting for two titles.
Speaker: Boys, it's Metal Gear Solid 4. You haven't watched this game because you don't play it. You haven't watched this game since the PS3. It has been jailbroken from its imprisonment on a pretty junky console. So we're real excited about it. I still think that's great. Darwin's Paradox, no clue why that was announced right after metal Gear Solid. Like it held the same weight.
Speaker: Castlevania, go ahead. It was previously announced. They just, they they keep bringing it up. It's like promo for it. Okay, interesting. You're still not going to buy it. No. Castlevania, Belmont's Curse. I think that's very exciting. Didn't love the art style. Felt way more akin to the anime, which I think makes sense.
Speaker: But I thought it was kind of lacking a bit of the the darkness and grittiness that I associate with Castlevania. But I'm not... Yeah, kind of the art style kind of landed for me somewhere between like classic Castlevania is obviously not pixel art, but like classic Castlevania and ah the Prince of Persia game that came out.
Speaker: Yeah. um Yeah, it's a little yeah more cartoony. It's definitely it looks more darker and grittier than Prince of Persia than that game looked, but somewhere between those two.
Speaker: I woke up in the water again. Konami showed off Silent Hill Townfall. I think that looks really great. um I'm intrigued by Silent Hill as a franchise. I know you're not.
Speaker: Yeah, I just, I mean, Silent Hill Townfall, I don't know what all the gameplay is going to look like, but I feel like no matter what they have in it, it probably would benefit from some fishing components and maybe like a like a ship, like a small ship building upgrade system as well, where like you go out into the mist, maybe like a day-night cycle kind of thing, where like at night there's like creatures and stuff. Something like that would really get me into it.
Speaker: Yeah, no, they should just make it a very elementary timed fishing minigame and extrapolate that out. Yeah. On a map that's too big with ah a vessel that's too slow. so I'd be all over that.
Speaker: Take my money. Dredge dredge was good. maybe maybe to some people um rev noir have literally nothing to say about it john wick um this looks cool to me this look i mean yeah it looks pretty cool it's a prequel i think which is interesting i always love seeing keanu reeves in video game form i just think it's so cool that you can like capture people like that. I mean, it's not new.
Speaker: Like Jesse Faden is the, the actor, actress that plays her. Yeah. Um, marathon. I've always thought the art style of marathon was really cool.
Speaker: Um, I think that game to big success. It's my take. um Then there was Big Walk. Saros. I think Saros looks incredible. Seems like they took a lot of feedback from Returnal and instead of updating Returnal, they just released Saros.
Speaker: Cool enough for me. Marvel Tocan. Neither of us are big fighter guys, but looks cool. I got to say, I think it looks cool. Yeah. I hope people take to it. God of War trilogy remake and the final final final big drop that wasn't good enough for Brennan to rank this as an S was God of War you said Gods of War earlier it's just God of War singular i don't know if you know God of War Sons of Sparta sorry about that yeah God of War Sons of Sparta most it's ah again an origin story of Kratos 2.5D to your earlier point I think it looks a lot like Prince of Persia
Speaker: Talk to me. What were your favorites shown? What do you most want to discuss? Yeah. So, I mean, Kena is my easily my number one. I mean, it they opened the show with it and I i am definitely partial cause I was actually just looking at my, my platinum trophies and I, I did platinum the first Kena, uh, March of last year. So just under a year ago and I hadn't played it before that.
Speaker: Um, I think it came out in like 2021. So I was a little late to the party, not as late as I could have been. But yeah, for me, like that game's pretty, pretty fresh on my mind. i was really taken with the art style, like the art direction is amazing.
Speaker: I thought the level design was was good. um It's the kind of game that that feels more full than it actually is. Again, because of that, i relentless art direction and just beautiful visuals. But I really, i love I did love the combat in the game. I thought it was really well polished, very fun. The the bosses, the enemies had good variety.
Speaker: The bosses had good variety and they were, i to get the platinum, you have to beat on the hardest difficulty. And like, it was not easy ah for me. Maybe that's me just not being as good as I could. i haven't played any Souls games, but like this game had you know parries and stuff like that.
Speaker: um But I just thought it was great. It was such a good game. like the story The characters were charming and endearing, but like the story was also... it was kind of kind of dark, ah sad, emotional, meaningful. So yeah, i thought I thought that game was great. I'm very excited for the sequel. It's also...
Speaker: Like, i didn't know what Ember Labs was working on for the last few years, but the first Kena, it was the kind of game that didn't, like, demand a sequel.
Speaker: um Like, if Ember Labs wanted to do something completely different and be like, yep, that was a cool IP that we made and we're going to do our, know, something totally different now, like, that would have also been justifiable. So the fact that they're, like, continuing...
Speaker: this this story of this character and continuing the the art style and presumably evolving um the combat and everything i'm just i'm so psyched for it uh yeah you you i think i'm just not super interested in the first one but you wax poetic about it even with my intrinsic need to hate what you like, as soon as the state of play started with that, i was I was like, wow, this looks awesome. It looks like such an improvement over the first one.
Speaker: Yeah. Which were reviewed well. I think it's about an 81 on Metacritic. I'm really excited for it. It deserves more. It's such a good game.
Speaker: I think you're to get more. Oh, I can't wait to get more. Yeah. you' Yeah. fight In five years. ah Yeah. I mean, ahead. great I hope it's a lot bigger than that. That's an interesting point too. Yeah. That it has been at this point, it's been almost five years. And like, by the time it comes out, yeah, it will have been five years. So like, I know that development cycles in general are longer now, but I'm hoping they,
Speaker: have used that time, especially because like they did establish the world and the art style and everything. I know I have to like build new assets, but I am hoping that it's significantly more built out.
Speaker: And it looks that way. Like the first game, there's no open world or even open zone segments. Like everything is very like level design. You're kind of going through corridors for the most part that like they do wind up like intertwining and interweaving with each other. But I think there's like one area of the game where it's kind of an open field.
Speaker: um And you... you don't ride anything. I think you're you're like running around and maybe teleporting a little bit. So it's totally seeing like a mount in this game that you're riding on implies to me that the the scope will be much larger. And it sounds like they're going to have like more NPCs and stuff to interact with. So I'm i'm excited for that.
Speaker: Yeah, I really think it looks incredible. um Another game that I think looks even more incredible is Control Resonant. Oh, yeah. I'm really excited. i'm such a remedy Remedy head. I put you on to Remedy. You have now surpassed me as a Remedy stan.
Speaker: um It looks incredible. I don't think they've given it a date yet. No. Well, obviously focuses on Dylan named after me and kind of different, more staccato movement style to Jesse Faden.
Speaker: Looks like there's a lot more kind of verticality and like 3D. I don't know even how to describe it You could walk on walls like gravity rush kind of yeah gravity right invert invert the perspective where the where the gravity is do all that stuff very cool very interesting none of the enemies fought in that trailer fought back which i thought was weird kind of wanted to see more of that i imagine that the game is not going to be like that um his powers his giant axe or not axe giant like hammer thing he just looks awesome more character actiony than than i would equate the original control to um but yeah i mean you can talk to me more about what excites you about it i don't have anything to say other than i'm in i'm sold
Speaker: Yeah. When is it coming out? When is it coming out? because June 30th, actually, is what it looks like. um Oh, they did say. Yeah, I just looked it up, and it's saying Control Resonate June 30th, 2026.
Speaker: Very good date. Yeah, like four months away, summer. That'll be good, dude. Yeah, that's a good date. I think any, not any later. You can go a little bit later, but you start you start creeping up on GTA 6 territory.
Speaker: We could talk about that. i i' I'm one of those people that I'm like, I have just no interest in GTA 6. So it's funny when everyone's like, all these games are avoiding GTA 6. I'm like, I'll be playing those games, I guess.
Speaker: But yeah, Control Resident resonant looks very cool. And it's funny, similar to Kena, like... You got me, you didn't get me into Kano, but you got me into, uh, into remedy stuff. And it was last year that I, I'm looking back at these trophies. I platinum Alan wake remastered in January of last year and then control in April and then Alan wake two in May.
Speaker: So like I am real fresh on remedy right now. And I think I didn't platinum it, but I did play through and beat the first.
Speaker: Oh my gosh, Max Payne. Did you play the second? No, the the second is only on Xbox. Oof. In PC. Yeah. Can't believe. I watched the cut scenes. And I think Max Payne 3 I haven't played, but that's like Rockstar. It's kind of not canon. Yeah, yeah. So I don't think I'm like missing anything. I didn't play um or couldn't play Quantum Break on Sony. So watch those cut scenes.
Speaker: and Not canon. Yeah. Yeah. But snow is, but they still like play with it. That's the fun. Right. That's a spin, butter but it's more like a spin off. Yeah. I just, I love that, that like, even if it's non-canon, if you're familiar with it, like you're going to get something out of it. Yeah. It's an altered world event story. I'm i'm stoked furra for Resonant. I didn't expect it to come out this year. The one one thing I'm really curious about is I think Remedy announced in the last year or so that the Control Resonant budget
Speaker: was going to be lower than some previous games. So I don't, I think they said the budget for Control Resonant was going to be lower than Alan Wake 2. I don't know how they said it would compare to the first Control.
Speaker: So that makes me a little bit nervous. But at the same time, Alan Wake 2 was such like a, masterpiece and it's like a high fidelity, just like beautiful grounded game in a lot of ways.
Speaker: I'm, I think control residents going to be amazing. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and they all, I, I'm guessing that they're probably maybe reusing certain aspects of the first control game in some ways to, to hopefully save on budget and maybe even have saved on development time. Um,
Speaker: aye But it looks awesome. Yeah, the whole New York City flipping around fractal buildings and and setting like, oh my gosh, looks awesome.
Speaker: ah Very excited. Yeah, I agreed with all those things. Alan Wake probably has way more like live shot yeah scenes, which is I imagine where a ton of the calls come. Yeah, I think graphically the most impressive game I've ever played, Alan Wake 2.
Speaker: Yeah. You, of course, hold it over my head that I never completed it. but I played the absolute shit out of I remember her name was her name. Oh, ah oh, my gosh.
Speaker: You're real special remedy, aren't you? The FBI agent. Yeah, I keep I keep thinking Strava, but that's not it. That's not it. Oh, this is embarrassing. Yeah, you're caught. Caught you with your pants. Caught you with your pants split.
Speaker: Split the fuck over, dude.
Speaker: What is... I gotta look it up. This is... I can't not know this. It's not Robert Nightingale. That was the ah guy from the first game.
Speaker: Ah, anyway. I don't know. It's not coming up. What? You can't find it. It's Nordic, isn't it? Yeah, I'm like picturing the scenes right now. This is like totally... Saga.
Speaker: Saga. Duh. Yeah, I beat her entire section, and then i'm I'm stuck in the Allen section because I think they're... ah Quite honestly, I don't think they're very enjoyable.
Speaker: um Two puzzle forward for me. You told me to just push through. I think find them challenging too. like Those apparition guys just beat the shit out of me.
Speaker: I think it once you once they click, like once the Allen sections click and you like get it, they're actually very easy. and it's And they're they're enjoyable. I do agree. I had more fun with the Saga sections. um But the ah the Allen sections, I think, i think are still good.
Speaker: But they don't they don't come they don't click quite as easily, i think. as the saga stuff.
Speaker: But I, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, I think, but Control Resonant, I think it's going to be amazing. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Really excited. um Didn't super love Dylan in the first Control. Yeah, he was weird.
Speaker: Yeah, so like, i I will say when it was first revealed, I was like, ugh, really? Yeah. But the more they show, I'm like, yeah, I'm all in on this. And it's almost like, of course they're geniuses, but it's like,
Speaker: Yeah, why would you do another Jesse? you need more We need something different. Yeah, I love that they're doing that. Yeah, so really excited for that. But that really brings us to... I don't i mean, what what do you even have to say about the God of War trilogy remake other than this is a remake ripe for a culture war?
Speaker: And... I thought the TC Carson thing, while cool, was a little cringe. I find that somewhat in general about some gaming announcements anyway.
Speaker: But what did you think? I thought it was cool. um i So my open question going into into the show and into anything talking about God of War is when are they going to get...
Speaker: the not only the original God of War trilogy but also like the PSP games on modern hardware because all of those games were released as HD remasters on PS3 but they're stuck on PS3 and these are Sony exclusives so it's not like you can play them on PC or whatever so And i coming out of the show, I still have that question.
Speaker: Because even if you're going to remake the original God of War trilogy, and in fact, because they're remaking the original trilogy and they're not just remastering it, I expect those are going to be substantially different games than the original trilogy, at least the first two games. you know I don't know how much they'll do with God of War 3, but remake...
Speaker: remake carries some weight to it. And they said they're in like early development. So like it's a development. you know They're not just saying saying like, hey, Bluepoint,
Speaker: you know, grab a few guys and. Yeah, here's the source code. yeah and remaster the the the even the first two games, because you can get God of War 3 on modern hardware. It's really the first two God of War games and then goes to Sparta ah from the PSP and Chains of Olympus from the PSP. And I guess Ascension, if anyone cared about that. But like those games are locked to the PS3 and the PS2. So if you're going to remake the original trilogy, like earnestly ray remake it,
Speaker: To me, God of War 1 and 2 are still worth bringing forward. um And at a minimum, they could port the PS2 versions of those games. I think that they should show it more respect than they showed like Jak and Daxter and Sly Cooper and actually get the HD versions from the PS3 era operational on modern consoles. But like at a minimum,
Speaker: you could port the PSP games to yeah you and be in the PSP games. Like they they've shown that I don't know who, i don't know what the port studio is that does it, but like they have all of the ratchet and clank games. Those are available on modern hardware. Same with Jack and Daxter and same with, I think Sly Cooper, unless thieves in time is not available on modern hardware. I'm not sure that might be PS three only, but yeah, like God of war is such a weird missing piece.
Speaker: on modern hardware and so like I get why they're gonna remake them but you should still have the originals on there like those are good games that's that's still like let part of the legacy even if they remake them it's It's kind of like Resident Evil. Like, just because you have Resident Evil 2 and 3 and 4 remake doesn't mean that the original games should just be completely forgotten about and done away with. Like, Resident Evil 2 and 3 original, they're not my taste in terms of gameplay.
Speaker: But, like, the original Resident Evil 4 and the Resident Evil 4 remake... are both great games in their own right. And I would argue both are worth playing if you're into that like over the shoulder kind of gameplay.
Speaker: So with with God of War, it's like, yeah, doing a remake of the first two does not, I don't know, doesn't invalidate, I think, the original two. Unless, I don't know, maybe they can do it the way that like the Dead Space remake was where it's like, actually, this is truly like a more definitive version of the game.
Speaker: you You will miss out on nothing. playing this version of the game, but I'm, I'm skeptical of that or who knows, maybe they'll just package them in. They'll be like, Hey, uh, you get these and you also get the original, original. so you play those two.
Speaker: Maybe they'll do that. Like PS2 ports or. Yeah. I mean, I, I come back to, they already did. i know it's like the cell processing all that shit on PS3. So it's like, it's not easy, but I think that there's something odd about,
Speaker: having like a superior version of these PS two games on PS three compared to modern hardware. Like um I think the best way to play jacket Daxter one through three or Jack and Daxter and then Jack two and three is on the PS three, not the PS four or the PS five, because those are just direct ports of the PS two games.
Speaker: Right. um I think that's, I played up your arsenal Ratchet and Clank three. I didn't enjoy the PS3 version and it's not to say I would like the PS2 version, but I'm just saying I found that a weird experience. i it's funny. Yeah, the the original Ratchet and Clank three didn't. I always liked going commando the second one much better than the third one until I replayed the original trilogy on the PS3 and then I realized like, oh
Speaker: The third game really did evolve pretty much everything that the second game went to. I think it actually is a stronger game. But we're getting totally sidetracked here. Yeah, it doesn't. Who cares? God of War trilogy being remade. Yeah, we'll see. It makes makes you wonder what they've been working on for four years. Yeah.
Speaker: Hey, we just started working today. ah Well, maybe for the last four years, they've been doing this thing that Shadow Dropped called God of War Ghost of Sparta. Yeah.
Speaker: A 2.5D side-scroller that explores the origin story of Kratos. The game, priced at $30, has amassed over 4.8 stars on the PlayStation Store as of this writing, but has left God of War creator David Jaffe decidedly unimpressed. He actually came out with a new video today that I haven't watched where he tried to play more of it.
Speaker: Give more credence to his thoughts because people were like, you can't say that. Yeah, I'd be interested in ah and thoughts after more gameplay, for sure. Yeah, so he he Jaffe posted a short review on his YouTube channel where he wondered, who the fuck greenlit this?
Speaker: Is Jaffe misguided? Should he have given the game a fair shake? Or is his opinion completely unwelcome? I do think, i don't think people respect David Jaffe enough.
Speaker: I know that you're not like a super big fan of his as ah as a content creator, but you also admittedly say that you don't really engage with him. He's kind of slapstick, um bombastic, boisterous, rambunctious. He's off the wall. He's not everyone's cup of tea. I get it.
Speaker: He's incredibly progressive. That rubs people the wrong way. Doesn't bother me. He's the creator of God of War and Twisted Metal. He helped build in no small part Sony and PlayStation into what it is today.
Speaker: I think he deserves kind of an undying level of respect. He's also very, I think he's more humble than people give him credit. That show he did with Colin, I think it's free for everyone. where It's the makings of Twisted Metal.
Speaker: And he'll tell you, he's like, listen, we didn't know what we were doing. We wanted to make movies. And now all of a sudden I'm a game designer. I think kind of figuring it out and creating those properties that are multi-billion dollar entities today, multi-billion dollar IPs today.
Speaker: Literally, this guy is the man. And yeah, there's a lot of personal bias in there, right? He's kind of... He's not at Sony anymore. There's a reason for that.
Speaker: um Does he have a bone to pick? Probably. um I haven't played Ghost of Sparta. Probably won't. I'm not paying $30 that.
Speaker: um But are we really so far gone that we disagree with Jaffe, the creator of God of War, by the way? We're not allowed to... He's not allowed to make a video and say, hey, this isn't the God of War that I created.
Speaker: Or, hey, I don't like it because X, Y, Z. I don't know. He created the character, guys.
Speaker: It's literally David's baby.
Speaker: Well... I do feel i feel a little differently. i it yet is it is interesting. I have been thinking a lot about like the creation of something and then kind of owning that when you make it. But then at some point kind of having to relinquish it to like other creatives and they they then take it in whatever direction they want.
Speaker: And in some ways you may think that that's too much of a departure from the original creation or betrayal or something. So with God of War specifically, like the original Kratos is not, not necessarily like a deep character.
Speaker: um He's a rage fueled, like Spartan muscle man that is angry at all the gods and For putting him in a position where he did something terrible.
Speaker: um And so now he's taking revenge on all of them. mean Like that is the entire like impetus for the first three God of War games. um And it's a great motivation. And the stuff you do in those games as cool as fuck. ah it It also makes him ripe for.
Speaker: what they did with 2018 and Ragnarok. Right. Where they, they take this character that was, uh, I don't want two dimensional, I think is too reductive, but maybe 2.5 D. Uh, but like, yeah, he's kind of one no Yeah.
Speaker: Like he, he's just, he's just pure revenge. Like that's all he is. It's, and he's got good, you know pretty good reasons for it, but it's like, that's what he's about. And then, yeah, like the newer God of war games are like, actually, well, what if, uh,
Speaker: he maybe changes over time like most people do. ah And things happen and and he's not the same person when he's older than when he's younger. And like, that makes sense.
Speaker: And so it's it's funny because like this new God of War game, the 2D one kind of seems like that in the other direction. It's recognizing that like, well, the Kratos you play as in the first three God of War games, that is post the tragedy.
Speaker: And so what maybe was he like pre tragedy? Was he just like a rage machine or was he actually a deeper, a deeper character? Like I i was watching a 10 minute kind of developer commentary video and they were like, yeah, the the new God of War game, like the structure of it is that you are.
Speaker: Kratos pre tragedy and he's telling stories to his daughter Calliope of what he experiences he had when he was younger with his brother Deimos. And so you're playing as like Kratos the father.
Speaker: um talking about himself when he was Goliope's age and living a very different life than she was. And that's, that's a different Kratos than we've seen in the original God of War games. That's even a different Kratos than we see in the 2018 games where he is a a father, but of a different family. And so i don't,
Speaker: I don't know that to me doesn't sound like a bad thing to explore, especially in like a I don't know, like a low stakes spinoff spinoff game. So, ah you know, yeah, ja Jaffe's vitriol in that first video after ah also after only having played the game for one hour, um I thought felt a little bit reactive.
Speaker: um So I would be curious, you know, if his thoughts after getting more into the game. um I'd also be curious, like i ah Jaffe mentioned that he liked the 2018 God of War game, but he didn't like Ragnarok. and so But he liked Valhalla? Isn't that a Ragnarok DLC or whatever? Oh, maybe. I don't know. know if you like Valhalla. I thought Valhalla was like the... was that the Roguelite?
Speaker: Or was that? Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah, so maybe maybe that might have been more gameplay. But yeah also maybe he liked the storyline components of it. But I just, it's like, i don't know, if if this if the character is like, the character that you made and you worked with, if that one was like not necessarily the deepest, most complex thing ever, and then like people kind of like build it out later on, like is it is it really a betrayal of the character? I don't know. well We'll have to see. Yeah, because it because listen, I felt it too. It's like, you I think you could see Jaffe's bias and that's okay. Cause we all have it.
Speaker: And it's, and especially if you can identify it, that's good. Right. Then you can take it for what it is. But I think dressing it up as just like, that's all it is. I don't think it's fair.
Speaker: And I don't think kind of gives respect to the gravitas that he has in the space, which is, He's a G. All right. Yeah. I wouldn't take away from that, but like, you got to play a game for more than an hour.
Speaker: Come on. Like, yeah, well, you said it was okay for people to play high guard for an hour and never play again. Hate it. Leave a negative review bomb on Steam. Well, I don't, I don't agree with that.
Speaker: I think it's fine to play a game for an hour and then put it down. Never play again. No one is obligated to play a game, but I do agree that like when it comes to reviews, I do think that like,
Speaker: However reviews are aggregated or viewed like your gameplay time really should should be a a huge component and your completion of the game should be a huge component in the I guess the validity of the review.
Speaker: Right. But but again when we were talking about high guard over a million players 1.5 an
Speaker: an hour was enough for most of them to say no thank you. Yeah. And we're saying that's a criticism of high guard. Yeah, I think that like if you're if you're like, well, do you want to play High Guard? Yes or no?
Speaker: That's great. That's perfectly fine data. What's your review of High Guard? I don't think you can really play a game for an hour and actually form like a cohesive opinion of the product as a whole.
Speaker: Right. but But we're saying that it's it's good feedback for wildlife to get, hey, nobody's sticking around yeah once they download it and play a couple times. Yeah, for sure. and if that's So why can't that be good feedback for Ghost of Sparta?
Speaker: You mean Sons of Sparta? so Yeah, yeah. Ironically, Ghost of Sparta is kind of what this is a spinoff of a little bit. Ghost of Sparta was the PSP game. It was one of them, yeah. Yeah, okay. No, I think that that's like that's that's fine. I literally wrote a Ghost of Sparta in the write-up. You didn't say anything.
Speaker: Oh, missed that. Yeah, i think I think if you play the game for an hour and you're like, this doesn't resonate with me. And and yeah, in Jaffe's case, he's like, i i have a personal identify identification with this character. Like this character means something to me that maybe even this character doesn't mean to other people. And I feel like that...
Speaker: how he's being represented here is in some ways a betrayal of like how Jaffe sees that character or doesn't resonate with him. He's like perfectly entitled to saying this game doesn't stick with me.
Speaker: I'm not interested in it. I think it was to to me when I like watch that video, it was the level of vitriol, the who the fuck greenlit this? How could they possibly think this was a good? It's like that seemed to me like a bit of an outsized reaction given the level of interaction with the product.
Speaker: That's what I'm saying. Like if someone plays high guard for an hour and they're like, how dare somebody deemed to make this piece of shit product? It's like, well, you, you only played an hour of it. Like that's enough to say you're not interested, but don't think that's enough to say like, how dare you?
Speaker: Yeah, no, I think the point's taken again. I think that's Jaffe style. That's who he is. Hmm. So you take it or leave it, but you know you know what you're getting. um Yeah, I don't know. I'm Team Jaffe, obviously.
Speaker: But I'm just not taken with this game. I thought I was. Because we've been hearing rumors about it for months, right? A 2D God War side-scroller.
Speaker: I was like, sick. Sounds cool. And then I see it.
Speaker: And I'm like, ah yeah, to me, it looks fine to me. I want to make it clear. Like, I'm not I'm not going to, like, die on the on the cross for this game or anything. Like, to me, it it it looks perfectly fine. It doesn't. I agree. It doesn't look like a God of War game. It's not gory from what I've seen. It's not. It's too bright. It's not too kiss brutal. It's not gruesome.
Speaker: um Like, that's it. Yeah, it doesn't. I don't know. but I think it maybe it was Jaffe that was saying this. He's like, if you stripped the God of War IP from this and just put this out, it would be like, oh, generic Greek or Roman coded side scroller game.
Speaker: And yeah, it probably like no one would be interested in it really. Like the the visuals are nice, but it kind of feels like the God of War IP is supposed to be doing a lot of heavy lifting here. But I don't like, like he was saying, Santa Monica apparently is more driven by story now than like anything else, which makes me wonder, like, does the game tell a good story?
Speaker: he He does have a major contention with the idea that a game... would be more about story than gameplay which again i think if you didn't know that david jaffe said that i think most players maybe not most but i think a ah a vocal segment of players would say absolutely gameplay is king well then they shouldn't play any walking simulators
Speaker: Yeah, see, I just had such a special experience with with Edith. Yeah. baby girl. But that's a conversation for another day. Brendan, you're wrong about Ghost of Sparta because that game came out in 2006. Okay. I don't actually know when it came out, but it's Sons of Sparta.
Speaker: I won't be playing it. You already bought it. Waste of $30. Good job, Yeah.
Speaker: what what will we i just did it i did it the inverse i googled sons of sparta looking for ghosts it's 2010. it is ready at dawn what the hey what's our favorite ready at dawn game oh uh what else did they make the order 1886 boy that's right they did that too yeah that another game i platinum last year wow last year was auspicious
Speaker: um I thought ah
Speaker: i thought Mafia had a lot of overlap with um The Order 1886. Yeah, mostly the werewolves probably, right? Yeah, like vampires. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Kryptonite.
Speaker: No, this was good this was good to get back on the get back on wax here, buddy. um I will be asking you to record again in probably like three days. so Okay, yeah, yeah because i'm I'm not going to be around next weekend or the weekend after because of the work trip.
Speaker: Oh, really? when When do you leave? it's So we're leaving here. We're leaving Asheville. Are we still recording this? Yeah, is that right? I know you hate when Colin goes around and asks everybody what they're doing. Yeah, no, we... So we're we're leaving where we are to go my parents' house.
Speaker: That's on Saturday. And then we're flying out to Utah on Sunday, the next day. and then we're flying back to my to Georgia on the following Saturday, and then we're driving back here the next day on Sunday. So we're gonna be gone for like nine days, exactly.
Speaker: So just just for the record, you said earlier in the show, right down the street from me, Orbit Games. Yeah. And now you're trying to obfuscate the town you live in? You doxed yourself. Actually, based on the the time of day and the angles of the lights outside, where we could triangulate. on the East Coast. Yeah. Like, I heard this vehicle drive by this many times. Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, you're based on your your setting. I mean, that could be anywhere, dude. You'd be in some apartment in North Korea for all I could tell. Is it? Yeah. Is it too? It's not too white, but it's like maybe I need a little something different. Well, the the baby gate that's folded up in the corner is a little questionable.
Speaker: It's not a baby gate. Actually, it's a it's like a clothes rack for drying them. Oh, okay. Nice. No comment on the CRT. the Oh, there's a CRT. I've been trying to figure out what is in the red box. Is that MSI? what What is that? Yeah, it's it's the other monitor. So i i that's why my webcam is so high.
Speaker: I need to reorient my desk, but I was more focused on getting this up and running. which we don't even really know if it's up and running properly but we're gonna find out pat's gonna be in a text for me he didn't answer me earlier i was like mayday mayday he was like nope what's he doing he's pretty probably breastfeeding his kid or something yeah the other day he was like yeah he's uh 20 months now i was like stop it just say he's almost two yeah don't hit me with the month count My mom will do that. 1.75 years. She's 37 months.
Speaker: Okay. She's three. Just say that. Yeah, just say that. Brendan, beta boy, king of the cucks. We kind of went through a show rebrand. I'm much nicer to you these days. Yeah, yeah. Well, got to be king of something. du i mean I can see.
Speaker: I can see moisture coming through the windows because it's raining. Going to get my moisture meter out on that ceiling. I'm right. rubbing all over dude i will say oh one i'll save it for next time i'll say it next next time we talk about games uh there was a couple things about alice i forgot to put in but i'll i'll bring it up later yeah because i forgot to mention ball pit um which was a really good game think about it i last year i completed 10 games completed is probably too strong a return for you i've beat i beat or platinum 10 games last year
Speaker: I'm already at five for this year. That's strong. Yeah, that might be a good ah a good exercise to do if it's like a slow news week to go through like what are our, what what are I don't know, what are the games we're most proud of for completing or like what's the, where, I don't know.
Speaker: I kind of talked about last year, but. Yeah, and like I said, I really do want to try to do like a longish form video on Bioshock and Edith. So we'll see.
Speaker: But that has been seriously irrelevant. A gaming podcast still very much in development. We thank you if you made it 92 minutes in. We thank you for listening.
Speaker: All three of you. You're very special to us. We hope to get Josh Sobel on the show because his Twitter doesn't exist. So I'm sure he'd love to go on a podcast that barely exists.
Speaker: Get his feelings out. Brendan, take care, buddy. You do, dude.
