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The Geoff Awards
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Join Dave and Jake as they cover their personal highlights (and lowlights) from The Game Awards in this week's episode!
Intro:
- Paper Mario: The Origami King - Autumn Mountain Battle (Thinking)
Outro:
- Paper Mario: The Origami King - Autumn Mountain Battle
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Welcome
00:00:09
Speaker
it going everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake. I'm joined by my co-host as always Dave. How's it going tonight Dave? Alright Jake, let's get right into it. What are we talking about tonight?
Overview of the Game Awards
00:00:21
Speaker
Yeah, ah so tonight we are talking about the Game Awards. Which I know you saw at least some of because we were in the same discord call for it. um is this it is this the gaming event of the year can you skip everything else and then just watch the game awards now no uh we will never be there just because there's so much that happens in a year um but between like the three major console companies there will typically be at least um
00:00:54
Speaker
an event or a YouTube stream for that. Yeah. um TGA is nice for some stuff because some things were only going to be announced at TGA. Right. um But you could just watch the trailers
Cringe and Humor at the Game Awards
00:01:11
Speaker
afterwards. That is true. It's also more efficient and you do cut out some of the cringe.
00:01:16
Speaker
Yeah. I do think this one was less cringy to me than like last year's. But it was still cringy. um There's because it's a big event now and they're selling advertising space and you know how business works. um
00:01:35
Speaker
It just.
00:01:38
Speaker
I feel like some of it is part of the fun of watching it because you're expecting like, oh, what are they going to do? um yeah None of it's been so crazy this year. Yeah. But still, because it is like a big corporate to do, that's always unfortunately coming along with it.
Generational Views on the Muppets
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah, I even think, though, like... I mean, it's hard to escape cringe in general for all of this. But, like, having Miss Piggy hit on Jeff Keighley or, like... It's the jokes. The jokes are always bad. I don't think they've ever made a good joke. Like, they all are...
00:02:15
Speaker
i I will say the Muppets are allowed to make shit jokes and I will still be like, they're endearing. That's fair. But you you have to understand that this is also like a sign of the times, basically. right Like the Muppets mean nothing to the next generation. They're just going to be like, who are these characters and why do they keep making bad jokes?
00:02:36
Speaker
Honestly, do you think like of the Zoomer generation is used to like any type of puppet character? i mean, they they probably have more affiliation for like Blue from like Blue's Clues and stuff like that. That's animated.
00:02:53
Speaker
But I mean, they're not attached to anything. They don't know Jim Henson and his like. Yeah. I think that's probably true, but I also don't know all kid shows. So maybe that's not maybe that's not the case. I'm not saying that they should be marketed towards kids either. It's clearly like people kids do not care about game critique. This is the one thing we know about children. um They don't even care about playing good games.
00:03:17
Speaker
I was literally talking about how I played games that I no longer consider good when I was a kid. But like at the same time. I would be okay if they cut some of these jokes. I think you can keep them up. It's, I guess that's fine.
00:03:33
Speaker
Um, and just focus on the
Content vs Entertainment at the Game Awards
00:03:35
Speaker
content. Cause I mean, that should be enough, right? I don't need somebody to, you know, have a, tell a joke. That's going to make me grown between every trailer that I may or may not be interested in, you know? So,
00:03:48
Speaker
so Maybe that's the most boring answer. Actually, I'm just I kind of want it to just be more business focused and less entertainment focused. But like I think if the entertainment's entertaining, like when they do the music.
00:04:05
Speaker
Oh, that's yeah, it's awesome. That's art. Yeah, it's like a really cool thing they do. You get to see flute guy who's always a classic. I think we counted. Seven? There was a lot, yeah. Seven, nine, eleven. It's a lot. Mm-hmm. There's like six, seven of them, yeah. Yeah, it's a lot.
00:04:23
Speaker
But, um... Sam Dave's looking at me like... That's one thing they need. literally in a work call earlier today because, like, somebody was just, know, approximating something and then someone else is like, the rest you don't have kids because nobody commented on that? Like, fucking it's everywhere. Yeah.
00:04:44
Speaker
no no escaping it it was a I can't remember dictionary.com word of the day or whatever but I think it was um Webster or one of the other like actual dictionaries um their word of the and not word of the day I meant word of the year their word of the year was slop and I was like okay that one's good that one I think is that one makes sense as a forerunner this year but preface by AI yeah exactly well there exactly um But yeah, I really like the artistic theming. And some of the trailers, my favorite thing they had going on this year was like trailers that interwove we're even interwoven with the um presentation on the stage and like the music and the stage itself also like,
00:05:31
Speaker
The Diablo
Showmanship and Production at the Game Awards
00:05:32
Speaker
4 thing. Yeah. Like that was that was kind of like a big screen and that was awesome. That looked cool. and I'm sure it was awesome like in person, but they also like would lift part of the stage at times. They had all these other effects and stuff like that. There was like a tremendous amount of showmanship going on in the show itself.
00:05:50
Speaker
That I appreciate. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't like when it's like, and some celebrity. It's like, hey, I've been a big fan of video games for forever. ah My favorite is actually not that at all, but when they take someone out who like readily admits is basically they're part of their intro. They're like, I really don't understand video games. Like, I'm...
00:06:17
Speaker
I'm here. I'm not one of you. I was in something, but like, I don't know why you guys are here. Like, why why do you why do you care? How much how much should I get paid to do this? the fuck is going on?
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah. The entire... this ah This one kind of crosses over far enough that it's almost cool again. But the entire Street Fighter cast... The fact they got everyone there is actually back to being kind of impressive. Except 50 Cent, I guess. but Who, by the way, is the only name there.
00:06:48
Speaker
I guess the next would be like Andrew Schultz, who is the comedian who... threw in a joke at mortal combat 2 it's like oh okay yeah but it is just kind of crazy to have like the entire cast on the stage for anything other than the game of the year award ceremony at the end yeah that was just part of their show who um and i will say i didn't like their whole how they presented it.
Anticipation for Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic
00:07:21
Speaker
But like from watching the trailer, it does look like it's going to be and more of a fun video game arcade style. Yeah. Versus the, I don't know. It was in in the nineties. There was one.
00:07:33
Speaker
Yeah. little bit more trying to be edgy or cool or something like that. I think that was just like the, the era of lots of like smoke and light effects.
00:07:48
Speaker
Yeah. Mm-hmm. For them, it was Tuesday. um But outside of that, i mean, we could talk about some of those specifics as we talk about highlights from the show proper.
00:08:01
Speaker
As is always the case, there's a bunch that they go over that I know other people will be interested in, and that's absolutely fine. I'm going to talk about the stuff that was at least of note to me.
00:08:14
Speaker
And hopefully at least some of the things that I cover, you also had some, some thoughts for if I miss something that's on your list, we should, we should. get I honestly looked through and this was pretty much it. There were some other ah titles that were mentioned. Yeah. But,
00:08:30
Speaker
Again, just were not of interest to us specifically, but it could be your jam. So go go peep what things came out. Yeah, there were some souls. After you finish this episode, so we get our ad mic. Exactly. Yeah. Priorities.
00:08:44
Speaker
Like they had... um ah things like Resident Evil and they're never going to let Leon rest apparently. That was the funniest part to me. You're like, is he a grandpa at this point? youre like, whatever. Yeah, protagonist. He's the only one we have.
00:08:59
Speaker
ah And ah a bunch of Souls likes, like a good number of Eastern type ah games and things like that in the Souls like or action RPG space.
00:09:11
Speaker
But like, I don't know. I'm not too excited for those right now. I'm ready to be wrong, and maybe I'll enjoy them later. but I will say Black Myth Wukong was enjoyable.
00:09:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:26
Speaker
You're looking forward to... or i think it's out, right? Wu Chang, Fallen Feathers.
00:09:33
Speaker
Is that out? I think. I thought it was. I mean, I would be curious.
00:09:41
Speaker
Yeah. i don't think I don't think it's like a 10 out of 10 game, but... The gameplay feels good. Very beautiful. um I like some of the the story stuff going on.
00:09:54
Speaker
And also it's just a degree similar to Souls of just having some of that anime over the top stuff that I think just makes it more fun. Yeah, I really thought that this was the same developer, but I think it might not be. I literally thought this was the follow but you're right. It came out too soon.
00:10:13
Speaker
ah Fallen Feathers came out in July of this year. It's not enough time. Yeah, I mean, things like that. Wukong, I'd probably wait until like it's on a big sale. um But, you know.
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah, it it got good reviews and even outside of China review bombing it like in the opposite direction. I think it was pretty well received. So ah
00:10:37
Speaker
games like that, though, those aren't really those aren't the ones those aren't the ones that I put on my list for this game awards. The first one, I know you're a huge fan of this IP Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic.
Nostalgia for Star Wars Games
00:10:53
Speaker
How excited are you for this, Dave?
00:10:57
Speaker
audience i need you to imagine that i closed one eye at a time and then opened them in the same pattern like a frog yeah i think yeah and like the very sleepy like booboo um i will say i have enjoyed some star wars games in my time yeah but that was more so like ps2 era and um You'd know this. What was the one where you play the most powerful Sith?
00:11:28
Speaker
Oh, ah crap. I literally literally saw him immediately. um ah Force Unleashed. yep Force Unleashed. Yeah. Like that and like an early battle battlefront early on. i enjoyed.
00:11:40
Speaker
ah but haven't really kept up with things since. Yeah.
00:11:47
Speaker
I mean, that one was really cool, though. That's 100% power fantasy in ways that Star Wars really hasn't gone back to it since. But man, pulling an ISD out of orbit into the planet, even though it was like spoiled in like the teaser for the game. And the fact that it's not really gameplay, you're just fighting some guys on the side. Then you go back to like pulling it down into the city.
00:12:08
Speaker
Too cool. Too cool. sometimes It's just like in action movies or something. It's like it doesn't need to make sense. Just like that was over the top and fun. Yeah. um But this one in particular it comes with a little bit of background. But one fate of the old republic.
00:12:26
Speaker
heavily implies that this is going to be in the old Republic timeline for star Wars, which to me is just about the only timeline that's interesting. Um, I I'll be honest, even like the old movies and the story of Luke and stuff like that and take it or leave it. It's kind of just a hero's journey with some cool sci-fi that established things that were used later.
00:12:49
Speaker
Um, I recognize it was huge for cinema and all of that, but I wasn't alive in the seventies to appreciate that firsthand. For me, most of the early exposure was actually for like the prequels, right? Like Phantom Menace, Clone Wars, stuff like that. Attack of the Clones, stuff like that.
00:13:08
Speaker
Phantom Menace slaps. Yeah. Like there's some awesome characters in there. Um, But the one that I'm most interested in, it really is the old Republic timeline, because this is where like there's actually like wars in Star Wars. Right. Like even in the original ah the original movies, it was the Empire versus the Republic or not the Republic. Sorry, the rebels.
00:13:36
Speaker
And like the rebels are just they constantly lose until they just win via MacGuffin. Right. Like they had Luke on their side. Yeah. Like the Empire controls everything. Yes. And there is a faction of rebels.
00:13:49
Speaker
Yes. And in the old Republic, you legitimately have the actual Republic versus the outsider Sith in this case. And like there's so many interesting stories.
00:14:01
Speaker
Obviously, KOTOR 1 and 2. um like ah seminal entries in how character driven RPGs exist these days, right? Like when you have RPG characters and they have their personal quests and you're talking to them at camp and stuff like that, like these are the games that really helped push that alongside Baldur's Gate, the classics and stuff like that.
00:14:23
Speaker
But I didn't think this game was ever going to be made because Bioware has caught on caught on fire, basically. ah They worked on Anthem, which, you know, o people love that.
00:14:36
Speaker
um They worked on the new Dragon Age game, Veilguard. um And from all reports, so many people have, like, just hemorrhaged out of that development team. They're just not really the same people anymore.
00:14:51
Speaker
This one is being made by one of the original, the CEO and game director was one of the original Bioware people back 16 years ago when they were making the original Knights of the Old Republic game.
00:15:06
Speaker
And that immediately gets you some hype in certain groups. um He's got to prove it, right? He and his team have to prove it. This is a new studio. Their previous studio didn't work out. That's also a little demerit as far as my hype.
00:15:19
Speaker
um but they have the IP to run with this. And it could be awesome. It could be. and I don't want to shit on your dream. It could also like not be. It might not be. I think there's a good chance. Because...
00:15:40
Speaker
Like, I remember feeling very tied to Blizzard North because I enjoyed Diablo 2 so much. yeah So when they branched off, I was like, oh, I want to hear you about this, like, Hellgate London thing. and And never really panned into anything. Yeah. But I was very optimistic because of what that team produced in the past. Yeah.
00:16:02
Speaker
So, like, that part of it I entirely get. and you hear... um Oh, this is a bad example, but ah this was made by the guy who made the original X-Man.
00:16:13
Speaker
and it comes out with um Mighty No. 9. Yeah, yeah, right. like It's not a guarantee of success, but I think now, especially with kind of a a cynical atmosphere towards what game developers might be doing and publishers and companies and things like that, it's not a bad thing to find some reasons to hope.
00:16:36
Speaker
I also don't think it's a good thing to like mindlessly ah hope and consume and, you know, don't preorder games. We've talked about this, right?
00:16:47
Speaker
But like um and there were plenty of examples of hype not living up to it, but maybe they find some way to deliver in the future. They can turn around something like cyberpunk, No Man's Sky, whatever. Like it's possible to turn failure into success um if you work really hard and you're lucky.
00:17:03
Speaker
um But we've also seen like some examples of games that came out and they were really good. Yes. And like this, this year has actually been kind of a crazy year for game. isn' it Anytime I say that, I can't like name a single game that came out. Well, I will say for some years past, it felt to me at least that there was kind of like a clear winner.
00:17:28
Speaker
Like not to say that other games weren't good. God of War was an amazing game. Yeah. But it wasn't. Was it Elden Ring that year? I actually don't remember. Let's say it was Elden Ring. Yeah, I think Elden Ring might have been a year later, but yeah, we can put them headto head to head.
00:17:45
Speaker
ah Versus ah this year had, i mean, for me, two contenders. I still felt like one was kind of the de facto one.
00:17:56
Speaker
Yeah. Which weirdly won. yes Yeah. Won a lot. Oh, yeah. And I mean, but it's not a spoiler. It would be impossible not to know about Claire Obscure and Expedition 33. But I mean, yeah, if 32 people and a dog can make that game, like we have room to hope.
00:18:18
Speaker
Like we have. Yes. um but and Well, and we'll get to that one. Right. Another reason maybe we have room to hope was there was a certain other game that was teased in what could be The most adult gruesome game teaser that I've ever seen, actually. So I have the list up on the left, and I was like, which one is he describing? And then he's like, oh, oh, no, we're on the same page page. Name drop it. Whatever we got coming on o coming coming up, Dave.
00:18:53
Speaker
Divinity. Yeah. So this is going back to... Before my time, because I played Divinity Original Sin 2, but Original Sin is its own thing off of Divinity
Divinity Game and Trailer Analysis
00:19:06
Speaker
itself. Yeah. Divinity Dragon Commander, I guess, is where we're going. Damn. But it felt like a Blizzard trailer, honestly, for like how detailed it was and just for the environment too. I'm like, I could definitely see this being a Diablo type thing. That's what I thought it was early. Yeah.
00:19:28
Speaker
Thought it was Diablo. And then they started having like a man burning alive for like a good minute. Yeah. um People having sex in front of the fire. um Yeah.
00:19:41
Speaker
Demons coming out of his back. um And we were still like, there's still like a 40% chance this is just Diablo, but they were trying to sell it a little bit. They're still trying to recover from Diablo 3 somehow and make it a little more hardcore.
00:19:56
Speaker
Yeah. But no. yeah This is going to be Larian again. Yeah. Who again, Baldur's Gate 3, another clear-cut winner in their year.
00:20:06
Speaker
Yeah. um So yeah, high hopes, I would say, because they have been pretty consistently hitting. Yeah. And also Baldur's Gate 3 for Larian was basically the equivalent of like engaging in a rap battle and then like dropping the mic and then like vanishing into Shadow. like That was basically how they interacted with that game. They came out of Shadow like over the next couple years, i guess, to like release updates, which might have diminished the allure a little bit of their vanishing. But like...
00:20:38
Speaker
um Definitely, they they have an aura of being in demand and having the power to pick their projects, because I guarantee you 100% Wizards of the Coast would have chosen to keep them on their IP.
00:20:57
Speaker
yes because that ip is gigantic it is now so there well yeah i'm saying like there's a lot of potential within that universe oh yeah yeah absolutely it it is vast yeah i we've said it before i think but i feel bad for whoever else is going to make a baldur's gate game forever right like You're the next contestant after the previous one dropped the mic, right? like You're like, I pick it up, I guess? Is that cool? Can I pick it up off the ground and not lose all my crap? This crowd's really pumping tonight, huh? Why are you all so fricking noises? You're like, I like them too. like them too. Just give it a hand for... but yeah It's a very big shoes to fill.
00:21:51
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I feel like if I were... was it Wizards? Yeah. If I was WotC, I would want to divert my attention elsewhere for a bit and like let that sit on its pedestal and don't even attempt to dethrone it yeah because it's just going to be...
00:22:16
Speaker
Pale imitation. Like it might be an anthem type thing, right? Yeah, right. yeah You don't want to be in the shadow of this. I agree. You would want to let this sit for a bit. Let some time pass and then come back to it when you can make your own thing. That's not going to be immediately eviscerated just due to comparison with Multiscape 3.
00:22:36
Speaker
Which would have been like a perfect segue if I was willing to take it. But i still want to talk about Divinity. ah The lead up for this. They had a monolith statue thing in the desert.
00:22:48
Speaker
And um did you were you aware of this? Were you were you in the know? Are you saying like in real life they had a I guess I don't remember this part of the lead-in video. Yes. So, yeah, before the Game Awards even happened, people found a monolith statue in the desert.
00:23:07
Speaker
um And if you've seen the trailer, that was the payoff, was at the end of it, after the sacrifice was complete and all of the people were amalgamated into this giant, like, ah sculpture, it made the same shape as the thing in the desert.
00:23:22
Speaker
um And then the Divinity logo, like, splashed on that. um It got kind of spoiled because they used a different um they use like a different legal department. They got an independent legal department or whatever to like patent Divinity, the logo, and then the shape like for the monolith and stuff like that. And so somebody the the people who like just looked through patents and then...
00:23:47
Speaker
write news articles where like someone just submitted these three it's like divinity of the monolith and this thing so we have a pretty good idea of what might be coming um but it's still excellent marketing to have that payoff you're like yeah like whatever you're planning next could be like a children's birthday party put a monolith in the desert first to advertise for it i thought you were gonna say for the children's birthday party you could take them down to see the monolith yeah right I would I would keep kids away from this. This is well into the the realm. Look, con it started to calcify.
00:24:24
Speaker
I mean, ah speaking speaking plainly for a second, like about the sort of ah adult content, you know, it's at least adult oriented content.
00:24:35
Speaker
Kids shouldn't see that trailer, the teaser. It's incredibly violent. It'll give people nightmares. It's incredibly gruesome and dark and gothic. And there was the sex in the middle of it. um But one of the reasons that Larian's willing to engage on some of those darker themes, I think, is what lended to how grown up and mature Baldur's Gate 3 And they seem to have recognized that going into Divinity, right? They're like, we're not going to, we don't need to pull punches as far as like the content in our games. We're not trying to make a porn game, but like this is going to be one where it's expected that you're an adult. And if we, you know, have these themes, it's going to be um more engaging because it's going to make the world feel more realistic compared to if it was Barbie's dreamland D&D adventure.
00:25:26
Speaker
Yeah. The target demographic is not, people who want rounded edges edges or children. So yeah, they rail into some they can go in some pretty adult directions and just be like, you're an adult. This is an adult scenario of just in this fantasy universe. This is something that could happen. Okay.
00:25:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Expect to be engaged and and feel things. um And I'm obviously excited for it. hot hot take, ah thumbs up, thumbs down on on hype for Divinity. Maybe even compared to Star Wars if you want. Much more excited for Divinity. Yeah.
00:26:12
Speaker
Because that was a ah pleasant surprise. And I like their stuff and definitely want to check that out. Heck yeah. Because I also don't want don't know anything about the old Divinity stuff.
00:26:23
Speaker
Yeah, me either, honestly. And even... They did say it we do know a little bit about it. um There was the whole AI thing. I don't feel like we have to cover a crazy amount, but there is currently a minor controversy right now because they were talking about like using AI for concept art and PowerPoint presentations.
00:26:41
Speaker
And I can understand why some people are are really upset about that. We'll see how that hashes out. Right. Um, We've talked about AI before. um I personally still have a lot of hope in Larian, and I think they're going to make a great game. But yes, also, you know, leave people some room to not be perfect in your eyes. And, you know, putting people on pedestals isn't a great idea either.
00:27:06
Speaker
um But um they did say it was going to be larger than Baldur's Gate three. I find that line kind of concerning. because i don't need a game to be larger than Baldur's Gate 3.
Game Length and Player Experience Concerns
00:27:20
Speaker
And if you remember the last chapter of Divinity 2, Original Sin, things started to sort of come apart at the seams as they ran out of time and money, I think. um So I would almost rather them create a more...
00:27:35
Speaker
focused even if it is sort of like open world experience, then do the whole like Skyrim GTA thing of like, we made the world bigger and there's all this stuff and all that.
00:27:45
Speaker
I don't need that. Yeah. But it it will be nice to, I guess, to be able to fill a game that much and have that much content.
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah. And to be able to deliver it not have it just be like filler stuff like, ah Where is my purse? Help me find my purse. Yeah, that type of thing. um And have like enough engaging original things.
00:28:13
Speaker
Kind of like how Cyberpunk, I thought, did a pretty good job of making all of them feel fresh and not like, oh, I got to this shit again. For my recollection at least. Yeah, they definitely also had that in Cyberpunk. It's like, oh, do you want to collect all the cars? Do you want to like fight all the cyber psychos or whatever? We did litter them through the entire city so you can like run across them.
00:28:34
Speaker
But they also didn't like have that be a distraction away from the critical path, if that's what you wanted to focus on. And the critical path was like triple AAA. It's crazy. Yeah.
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's fine either way. The only the only thing the only reason I want to emphasize, i don't want them to go too ham on the size of the experience. However long they go in this, this is all development time.
00:29:00
Speaker
And like how old do I really want to be when I play Divinity?
00:29:09
Speaker
um and at a certain point it's usually around the 40 to 50 hour mark. I'm like, this has been a good game. Yeah.
00:29:22
Speaker
Even things that I have enjoyed in the past. Um, it sometimes can feel like a slog. okay Some of that might be the game design. Some of it might just be like, I've done enough of this thing and I need it to move on.
00:29:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Even games that I really enjoy, I generally don't want to play in one burst for that long. For JRPGs, it's like 110 hours and you're losing me. I'm on life support getting through this game. That was the way was for Persona. The reason I haven't played Royal at all is because I know it's even longer. I don't care if it's better. You made your game longer than 110 hours. Why would you do this to me?
00:30:05
Speaker
It's like when they figured out they could start loading or uploading the 10 hour videos on YouTube. And you're like, why? Like, we can't. Yeah. Really pushing that 10 minute mark. Classic joke. Always funny.
00:30:18
Speaker
um I have fewer words on some of these next things, but this was the aforementioned off ramp. This would have been the segue. um Wizards of the Coast is working on a couple games. One of them is Exodus, but it's like space game sort of.
00:30:38
Speaker
i had no idea what vibes to get off of the trailer. I was just surprised that Wizards of the Coast was making this. Is this the one where like they were on horses and it was like a hero shooter type thing? That's the last one. That that that one we'd get to. That one's High Guard, but this one's Wizards of the Coast. and i don't remember anything about Exodus then. Yeah, it kind of looked vaguely like Mass Effect, maybe.
00:31:01
Speaker
um I don't have a lot to say about it. I don't think we know a lot about it. i don't want to disqualify it out of the gate. So won't. There you go. And then they're making Dungeons & Dragons Warlock.
00:31:17
Speaker
And I've penciled in a joke here One of 13. Because there's 13 main classes in Dungeons & Dragons. So... I also don't have any thoughts on this. This feels like the game that I would have a game titled. This is what I would have bought at Walmart in the early 2000s for $10. On CD ROM. Yeah, I get the vibe. It's King's Quest 8. Mm hmm.
00:31:47
Speaker
Yeah, I'm always going to be skeptical of WotC doing anything because it's a gigantic company. Yeah. Honestly, hmm. i hope They want to just ah milk an IP dry. Yeah, I have.
00:32:03
Speaker
I wasn't, you know, i guess we haven't really talked about this. How Wizards of the Coast has been like impacted in recent years and how they've changed their marketing and stuff like that. I know so much of it is top down from Hasbro, but they literally even on the D&D side had like Chris Perkins left the company and joined like Drawsteel and like other names who are like core top of the totem pole designers for D&D left.
Magic the Gathering's IP Integration Strategy
00:32:28
Speaker
And I mean, on the magic side, you know, they've been basically incorporating any other IP that they could ever make a deal with. um Imagine if you don't know what magic is. Imagine that like somebody has created this universe similar to like a J.R.R. Tolkien where it's like yeah there are these different...
00:32:51
Speaker
worlds that they like planes of existence basically and they'll have like three different sets in each of those planes and each of those planes will have their own planeswalkers there's like unique mechanic on each thing and now it's like oh I want the Spongebob counter spell I was literally thinking I was like I'm gonna wherever he insists I'm gonna reference the Spongebob counter spell and it's like oh man I guess my Spider-Man will never see play because he countered him with Spongebob Yeah. Thankfully, I've got Toph. So, you know, that'll help.
00:33:25
Speaker
yeah I'm not big on the Avatar thing either. i think it's Final Fantasy, I think, was more interesting, but still, I don't like it. It's at least fantasy? Like, I don't know.
00:33:37
Speaker
I... Yeah. Like, they had a Fallout commander deck. They had a Warhammer commander deck. Lord of the Rings. Even that game. Lord of the Rings. It's fantasy. Yes. It's not magic, right? It's not Magic the Gathering.
00:33:53
Speaker
They have cool world building, by the way. that They had a source book for D&D that was ah Dominaria, I think, was the plane name. And, like...
00:34:04
Speaker
A bunch of cool stuff. It's like, hey, if you want to run a D&D campaign in a magic fantasy universe, like with Planeswalkers and stuff like that, you can do it. I'm like, that's really cool because the magic world building is awesome.
00:34:19
Speaker
Arguably somewhat stronger than the SpongeBob world building and also different. Yeah. It's...
00:34:31
Speaker
I remember like the early days of like early internet. A lot of things were like, ah this is what SS7 Goku would look like. And you're just theorizing things of like what if they made ah this Digimon?
00:34:45
Speaker
And it very much feels like they're like, oh, what if it was like... this instead and they just pull something out of complete thin air and try and stuff it into the you know i don't know it's like if it was Marvel what if but like on crack like that's what they are doing with their IP they do not care what deals they can make it is going to be a magic card yeah nice one of them was cancelled recently right it was like ah was it the Capcom it was a Capcom product um where they were just like
00:35:20
Speaker
I mean, that would be a Street Fighter, right? I can't remember if it was Street Fighter or not. I think Capcom has other things, but like, I mean, Mega Man, but I can't see them doing that.
00:35:31
Speaker
Oh, sorry. Yeah, go ahead. Going back to my point, it's like, I remember when people would upload stuff on Reddit of like, ah what if this character from this video game was a magic card?
00:35:44
Speaker
h And everything very much has that energy. yeah And as inspired as you know some of the design designs can be to try and make it seem like the source media. was Monster Hunter, by Why the fuck is it in there? Monster Hunter, by the way, in Dota recently.
00:36:03
Speaker
Yeah, that one got canceled. Dota was at a higher bar than Magic the Gathering. um And it was like within a week of going out like at the printers, basically.
00:36:16
Speaker
But they did cancel it and they didn't say exactly why. But like people were reviewing the cards and they were like, none of this is worth money. First off, for the actual effects of the cards. But also like...
00:36:29
Speaker
It didn't look like they put that much effort into linking like the actual card identity to like an associated card. they're just like, this a monster. This is a hunter. Monster hunter. I don't know. And the theory is Capcom actually pulled the plug. They're like, oh this is actually just too too low quality for our product for a cross. Honestly, yeah, I could see that because like the two big things for Magic, which you touched on are People are going to want to buy the cards because they they like the other IP. Yeah, like I know people were like i do like Final Fantasy though and then they like get some cards where they might have not before.
00:37:06
Speaker
Yeah, um but for a monster hunter um They very much care about their IP and don't want it represented in a poor light I'd imagine.
00:37:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's factor and then the other reason that people buy magic cards is because there are different magic formats and you need good cards to win. Good cards go up in price. So if you print good cards, you can make money. Yeah, yeah. but And that's something like with power creep in general and card games. it but But you don't want to have cards that are just... You wouldn't normally draft or pick them or have them in a playable deck and then have like your...
00:37:48
Speaker
ah your main characters from your IP be associated with these weak cards that are otherwise worthless. Right. So, Hey, you know, this, uh, final boss from our third game.
00:38:01
Speaker
Why is it a three, three with vigilance? Yeah, pretty much. Um, But that's probably enough WotC hate. i Not hate, but I have questions with where they're going. right I think it's fair to say I have questions.
00:38:16
Speaker
And I have a lot more excitement for what Larian's making than what for the licensed so developers working for WotC are making. um But again, that just means that's room to surprise me. right Prove yourself.
00:38:33
Speaker
different game also coming up uh it's this one's probably more brief but we did an episode on the previous game ontos uh voiced by stellin skarsgard and the only reason i can remember that name is because i wrote it down um they made soma which we did air we did an episode on and i think as far as like the thinking cerebral type games i really enjoyed soma Yeah, Selma was really good.
00:39:02
Speaker
um Recently watched Mandalore's video on it. And I'm sure you saw it. I'm sure I linked it to you because I'm like, this guy keeps complaining about how dumb the main character is I hated it so much.
00:39:17
Speaker
Because as the main character, he should have picked up on obvious things. You could see where the game was going. yeah But yeah, it was a very interesting... game but like it was fun to explore the the human the humanistic side of things ah exploring transhumanism which is one of my favorite subjects oh yeah yeah and they did a really good job of it it's honestly like it's tough sometimes to find a story
Control Resonant Trailer Speculation
00:39:46
Speaker
to tell in that space because like
00:39:48
Speaker
It is the go-to cyberpunk dystopic idea, right? transhu what point are you no longer human? What does it mean to be human or whatever? But they actually incorporate a good personal angle to it that makes it interesting. The fact that Simon is basically a Pokemon and he's just one step beyond being able to say his own name, like it does detract from it a little bit, but it's still a good story. Yeah.
00:40:15
Speaker
ah So I am curious what on toast is going to be. This was another kind of gruesome trailer, to be honest. I think there's a part where persons like peeling off their own flesh very briefly. It's like a flash, but i was like, don't need that.
00:40:26
Speaker
um But we'll see. Right. We'll see what this game is. i mean, it looked gorgeous and interesting and another type of first person story game.
00:40:37
Speaker
that yeah i hope does well i hope that was good but we'll need to see a gameplay trailer or something you they can distance themselves more from machine for pigs um control dissonant the next game resonant resonant evil yes upon second read it is a resonant actually um yeah that was i think my most hype trailer because as one of those how it starts was incorporating some of the uh stage screens and environment which is cool but i had no idea where the fuck it was going or what game it was initially because i didn't have enough context um
00:41:25
Speaker
And then I think somebody in the discord call called it of like, I think this is a control thing. Yeah. And then you see like the back of Jesse Fane's head. You're like, it is. Uh huh. Uh huh. That's the direct. That's the like, uh, popcorn Leonardo DiCaprio point. points The director. Yeah. That's the director.
00:41:45
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, this is the game people wanted instead of FBC Firebreak. So, yeah, I have more hopes for this one than the other. Yeah, it's I believe it's going to play differently, a lot more aggressive, fast paced and melee.
00:42:07
Speaker
Yeah, it looked like it based off the action sequences. There's also like almost Agent Smith versus Neo ask fights in the air at various points. Yeah. So what ah I forget has been a little bit since I play control.
00:42:24
Speaker
um But when the director speaks to the board and they're in that other type of dimension or space, ah it seems like a lot of the game will take place in that environment.
00:42:40
Speaker
Yeah, there was kind of like there was there was another thing that was hypothesized, and I don't know if we got confirmation on this or not, but at least when we were watching the trailer, it kind of looked like the... um It's the oldest house, right? That's the name of the yeah place where all that takes place. It looks like things had escaped yeah into reality. Like it was bleeding through um outside of this otherwise contained SCP-esque facility. Mm-hmm.
00:43:07
Speaker
And you technically get to play as one of the SCPs. yeah Yeah. I mean, it's it's exciting. And I really did enjoy the first control. I had performance issues, optimization problems and stuff like that. I'm hoping they can they can work through some of that.
00:43:22
Speaker
But um excellent world building. That honestly overcame my any mechanical gripes I would have had about the game. um Yeah, it was... I had no idea what was going to be going into it. Again, this was a recommendation off of Demuch way back. Play Control.
00:43:42
Speaker
I started playing it and the gameplay itself was unique and fun. Like you get a gun, you start getting psychic powers. You're like, okay, i can vibe with this.
00:43:54
Speaker
But also the whole environment is so interesting and mysterious and you don't know where things are going to go. um but also with the existence of all this SCP stuff, it just, it kind of takes it up to 10. Yeah.
00:44:10
Speaker
And yeah, they just did a lot of cool and interesting things with it. And I got super engaged into what was going on in the story. yeah I love Mr. Bones. Um,
00:44:21
Speaker
From like the the scary children's puppet show thing. Yeah. Yeah. There's so many, so many great concepts in that universe. And they did a good job of like just leaving questions, leaving mysteries. Yes. They didn't feel the need to explain everything. You just show up as a person.
00:44:39
Speaker
you find a gun. The fact that you're able to use the gun means that you're now the director. Like it's, that's, that's, I feel like that's kind of like King Arthur esque right? It's like the sword in the stone sort of idea almost, but a much cooler modern take on it.
00:44:56
Speaker
Um, I will say, yeah, they also do a really good job of having mixed media. Hmm. It's not all just in engine stuff. Like they will have cut scenes and they will have cut scenes with real people. Yeah. And then do other stuff. Um,
00:45:11
Speaker
Yeah, they relay information to you in a lot of different ways. And a lot of it is diegetic. Hmm. It's good word. ah Meaning it is done within the context of the game.
00:45:23
Speaker
So like you'd watch something on a TV screen within the game type thing. But the classic example being like dead space, the health bar is diegetic on the spine. Yeah.
00:45:33
Speaker
Yeah, they just did a lot of great things. And again, i I feel like playing so many games, it's rare that I am kind of taken aback or surprised by something. Yeah. um But it was it was really novel.
00:45:49
Speaker
Yeah, I liked it a lot. With crappy world building, Control could have just been an action game, right? Like it really was built on top of the bones of that. um And so i I also have high hopes for this. I really hope Control Resonant is good. It was telling how much I enjoyed this IP when Alan Wake, which I enjoyed the first one. I haven't played the newer one. Don't judge me too harshly. I'm waiting for it either go on sale or Game Pass. The exact same boat.
00:46:16
Speaker
But I enjoyed it. And then when the DLC for Control was like... Alan Wake-esque, you know, in that universe or whatever, I was like, oh. Because I wanted more control. Like, I wanted more expansion of the control universe.
00:46:31
Speaker
And they're both cool universes, but they are. feel like control does not need to cede any ground to Alan Wake. Yeah, exactly. i was i'm I'm fine if they're different.
00:46:42
Speaker
um And at the same time point, like um making the darkness and Alan Wake just like another SCP, basically an anomaly and control also feels diminishing to Alan Wake. Right. It's just like, oh, well.
00:46:56
Speaker
This is kind of your whole deal is that you're fighting against this. It's just some, we should have put it in a box. That was actually the weakness. If you put the darkness in a box, then that's it. You know, keep it in a well-lit room, I guess. Yeah. it It feels like Batman's in like this massive fight and somebody comes up with a a spray bottle. It's like, stop it. not that Oh, that was the solution the whole time.
00:47:17
Speaker
Yeah. ah Through
Gang of Dragon and Protagonist Discussion
00:47:20
Speaker
a couple other ones. a Gang of Dragon I saw here and I was like, this could be Yakuza game. I haven't played all of them. I own some that I have not played or beaten. It's not. It's a completely different game. And I had the note, Kiryu never killed anyone.
00:47:35
Speaker
I think this is meant to be ironic because I'm pretty sure the protagonist kills people in the trailer. Yeah. yeah with I think the Kiryu meme is from like him picking up like motorcycles and like hitting people with them and other stuff. and it's like, no, they're all fine. Throw some out of a five-story building. You're just like, yeah, it's and's fine.
00:47:55
Speaker
But the only thing I really know about this beyond that is the mocap person is based off of Don Lee, who is a a Korean action film guy. oh yeah.
00:48:08
Speaker
ah But he does lots of like... Martial art type comedy like where he'll be like fighting with people. Mm-hmm, but he's like this big guy and he's huge. Yeah, he's ah yeah, he's a huge guy, but he also is like really laid-back and sweet mm-hmm So check out the roundup on prime video or wherever hmm, it's a nice fun watch nothing crazy amazing nothing bad.
00:48:37
Speaker
Yeah And otherwise for this game, I think we're waiting on details. Yes. um But again, nice to see more things in that space. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And also not to just have like a scrawny, cool guy protagonist in a fighting game, right? like There's not that many where it's just like, hey you are like the beef tank character, this massive person. but's You walk into the room, everyone else is immediately threatened, doesn't usually play as like the protagonist in these types of games. So it is a little bit different in that respect.
00:49:12
Speaker
um The people that didn't know Majima also probably might not have been as intimidated by him when he enters the room. But as soon as you do, you will be. That's crazy.
00:49:25
Speaker
and This is the one I want to kind of hype up the most. I have to throw you bone as well, you fucker. We were watching ah this trailer and like a lot of the trailers, it kind of starts out with it doesn't come up with the title of the game. It builds up to that. So you're trying to figure out what game this could be based off of like evidence. And going through some of the the clips, I see one thing. i'm like, that seems familiar. Like I've seen that before. and Where have I seen crunchy one cheese before?
00:50:00
Speaker
um i think Jake said like, oh it's, it was at the forest is three. And like, we're seeing like, aliens and like you have like a space arm attached to your character and there's low gravity i'm like this isn't a fucking forest game that makes no sense also i doubt they're making more games yeah And then the fucking title comes
Forest 3 Trailer Surprise
00:50:24
Speaker
up. Yeah. And it's literally Forest 3. Crunchy Lunchies is a cereal brand that I think they've had in all the games. And it's just like a silly little cereal box asset. Yeah. um let Listen to the jingle after this. once Once you're done with the podcast, look up the Lunchies. have to listen to it all the time. in It's in my soundboard for this.
00:50:45
Speaker
um But... i moonshot calls aside uh for the for for the actual game i do appreciate that um i have no idea what this is exactly because i thought i'm sure you tell me if you disagree but i thought they had told their entire story in the first game yeah and then they're like let's have a second game we're like all right we'll check it out yeah it feels like ah a shitty imitation of the first game where like it felt like the same kind of exact thing yeah it was really playing I mean they did kind of allude to it in the ending of the first game if you actually saw the narrative ending yeah yeah lot of people didn't but um but that was kind of like they this is the thing everyone does you leave yourself a hook for whatever the next thing is right whether it happens or not who cares yeah but I agree right like there wasn't a whole bunch of novelty
00:51:42
Speaker
But at least like both of these were on islands. They were different islands. They had the whole plot thing with like the cultists and figuring out the secrets of what's going on. But for the forest three, here's the weird thing to me.
00:51:54
Speaker
i thought that the forest was for the trees. Yeah. And if you're in space, where is the forest?
00:52:05
Speaker
yeah why Yeah. So I don't know exactly where they're going with this. um My guess is it's going to be something about the homunculi. Yeah. Has...
00:52:21
Speaker
maybe become like a virus and it's a bad thing that's spread through humanity and now it's leaked into space. Yeah. um Or maybe it's just, they're going out and exploring something on the moon and they're like, Hey, what's this?
00:52:36
Speaker
And it's more of those things from the forest. Yeah. but I am. Yeah. What are they going to have fucking forest for Pennsylvania? That's where the trees are. There are trees there. Yeah.
00:52:48
Speaker
Believe it or not. So ah absolute absurdity aside, and this is absolutely absurd. Having a space game with any association with trees. That's not like outer wilds is crazy, but there's a chance.
00:53:05
Speaker
I'll be, I don't know what that percentage of that chance is. that there could be some cool novel ideas for a space survival game that we haven't really seen because pretty much no one does that. ah You have like, ah crap, actually, Breath Edge is a game. It's not a really good one, but that is a game that is a space survival game.
00:53:29
Speaker
You don't feel the need to look it up. I'm pretty sure it's mostly positive at best. um And FTL is a roguelike kind of like, but it's not really like a multiplayer survival game, right? Like you're not building structures, surviving zombies, stuff like that.
00:53:45
Speaker
I am kind of curious how they migrate some of those mechanics because Forest 2 was built off of the mechanical base of Forest 1 where you literally cut down trees, build things out of wood. Yeah.
00:53:59
Speaker
You use rocks and bones to construct things. Yeah. It's far removed from like I'm using space age polymers and moon dust and lasers. Did you cut down the moon dust? Right. Yeah. Like presumably you can mine or something. don't know. just go around with like a space vacuum to the surface of the moon.
00:54:21
Speaker
I mean like there's I have no idea what they're going to do and maybe it is also just a forest right. You could just have an alien world where there's trees. yeah But like I feel like that wouldn't that wouldn't be exciting for me to be like, oh, we're all in spacesuits and we have to manage our oxygen. But let's go out there. We've got like 20, 12 trees. We had to chop down in order sort to finish our log cabin in space like that doesn't.
00:54:47
Speaker
Like, what are we talking about?
00:54:51
Speaker
question for you. Yeah. Do you get more stressed by your character drowning in a video game or running out of oxygen in space? Ooh. Um, drowning. I think yeah probably drowning. Yeah.
00:55:06
Speaker
I don't know exactly why it is, but probably drowning. I think it's because drowning is kind of scary, but like running out of oxygen in space, I've got no evolutionary, No training on that whatsoever. i think you clutch your throat. think that's step one. Well, no, I mean like in order to be afraid of it implicitly, like we we are afraid of drowning because because people terrible have drowned. Like it is a possibility, but losing your oxygen, ah not that calm. Yeah.
00:55:39
Speaker
It's like, and I think that there's probably, you could use this in a like a horror video game or something like that. I don't know exactly how, or maybe just storytelling, but it would be a novel idea to have humans encounter something that they are intrinsically afraid of that they've never encountered before. That would be awesome. You'd be like, Oh, like, yeah, the creator of the race or whatever built in this sphere is some safety mechanism.
00:56:04
Speaker
You can, you can use that idea authors out there. Um, But yeah, I have no idea what the forest is doing. but We'll see. We'll get more information on it. It'll probably release in early access. And my hope is that it leans more into the sci-fi than the ah agricultural.
00:56:22
Speaker
Yeah, like I do enjoy base building and doing some stuff here and there, but I much more care about the story and what's going on it's unfortunate i know dude the trailer for the forest 2 when that came out it looked so fucking good yeah and then it was through like hey so we have the forest one but we'll give you a scooter yeah yeah Yeah, I don't know um where they're going here. I'm sure the plot will be insane, but I feel like we have to play it. I mean, unless they make it cost 80 bucks or something like that, where we're committed at this point. um This is why we can never play two games in a series consecutively otherwise committed.
00:57:17
Speaker
Yep. ah Did you want to touch on high guard briefly? Yes, ah we'll definitely do high guard. So this is the last game.
High Guard Hero Shooter Reactions
00:57:25
Speaker
ah This was the big reveal. This is the one that Jeff kind of like hyped up.
00:57:31
Speaker
He's like, this could be revolutionary and blah, blah, blah. By people who worked on these things. well Well, there was the thing like in Discord. We're just like, okay, every and quiet up. We're going to listen to this because the people who worked on these things were like developers of Titanfall.
00:57:46
Speaker
And they said also Apex. I'm like, I don't really care about that, but Titanfall. And um it's a meme. It's like an old man gamer meme to be like, oh, man, I hope they make Titanfall this year, or whatever.
00:57:58
Speaker
But like Titanfall was legitimately an awesome FPS. Yeah. Again, that's one of those things where like, like oh, FPS is kind of figured out. It's a point and shoot. You just try and make your levels interesting. Yeah. um but they actually made the levels really interesting to play. Yeah. One of my favorite levels that at least stands out in my mind is you're going through like this giant factory that's like printing houses. Yeah. You're essentially trying to like climb up it as it's actively moving.
00:58:30
Speaker
um You get to go around in a giant fucking mech and have mech specific stuff. It just it all felt really good. Yeah. And the time shift level. That's the other one people call out where you're going like to the past and future with like a device to toggle back and forth. Oh, yeah. What are we doing? Freaking playing braid? Like what's going on here? um Really cool ideas there.
00:58:51
Speaker
And so we're like, all right, this could be this could be big. Right. This could be something in the mech space, sci-fi space, something like that It's fantasy hero shooter on horses.
00:59:05
Speaker
I guess. I think the horses are not on all the time, but it's for mobility. Yeah. The idea is like you can make the maps larger because you'll be able to use the horses to get two objectives. Right. Um,
00:59:19
Speaker
Did we mention there's three lanes? Right. It doesn't go that far, as far as we know. Yeah, I don't know. They had MOBA-esque elements, though, because they had things of, like, collecting objectives. that At one point, they claimed a sword, I think, and then they used it to, like, power a ram or something to, like, force their way to progress through the match.
00:59:38
Speaker
Control point type stuff. Control point's a push-the-flag type. Yeah, exactly. Or push-the-payload. Mm-hmm.
00:59:47
Speaker
I guess, do you have any, did this do anything for you? No. but The sad thing is, um, hero are shooters have kind of flooded the market.
01:00:00
Speaker
And by that, I mean, there's been already two big things where Overwatch has been around forever. Sure. twenty six And then rivals came to eat its lunch, yeah um, over the past year or so.
01:00:11
Speaker
And there hasn't really been anything else. And now you're trying to introduce, hey, here's this kind of thing. And it's vaguely fantasy, vaguely this thing. Yeah. um It's going to be very hard to stand out from something that's going to be as recognizable as all of these iconic Marvel characters. Yeah.
01:00:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I feel like there's there's one other one in the in the big three, and the other one's Counter-Strike slash Valorant. I put them in the same boat. Valorant is more, yeah, the hero Counter-Strike.
01:00:43
Speaker
But, like, if you wanted something that was more towards the ah fantasy more towards the shooter side, but, like, accessible, you've got Overwatch.
01:00:55
Speaker
And like Counter-Strike's super hardcore, Valorant's pretty hardcore, and Rivals has like the action-oriented brawler type bent where there's more characters that are similar, like Doomfist or something like that, right?
01:01:06
Speaker
I don't know what space is left in this market that people keep thinking it's a good idea to make games here, right? Like what is going to be your design difference that is gonna make you play this versus any of those other things we listed, which are all successful and they have like huge player bases.
01:01:24
Speaker
What was the I've already forgotten the name of the other game that they they as a like the games company has done another hero shooter that felt very Guardians of the Galaxy ask the trailer. The one that. Concord. Yeah. Yeah.
01:01:41
Speaker
Like, I don't know if everybody got that bug early on when a hero shooters kicked off and it's just they've been sitting in development and now they're releasing too late for it to matter. Uh huh. But.
01:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, i I can't see it doing great. I feel like the reaction so many of these games should have had when Concord came out and like was the least like it it gave Atari ET a run for its money.
01:02:07
Speaker
Basically, it was like the legitimately More of a failure than ET. And ET caused the entire gaming industry to crash when it came out. The only reason that didn't happen, like those all ended up in a landfill, right? This is the common PC or not PC, but like Atari fact.
01:02:22
Speaker
They literally just buried them. This was back when a write-off for a company was we will literally bury it in the desert. um But ET didn't cost nearly as much money as Concord did to make.
01:02:36
Speaker
So Concord actually was more of a financial failure than ET was. um The reason that the industry didn't collapse is because there's all of these other areas where gaming is wildly successful now. And it's just like eclipsing all of these other entertainment media, things like music and television and whatnot.
01:02:53
Speaker
Awesome. As someone who has gaming podcast. But like, I feel like as soon as people learned what happened with Concord, they really should have just been like,
01:03:05
Speaker
looking at their reflection in a nighttime window, staring off into the city, thinking somber, thoughtful, meaningful thoughts about what they should be doing in game development. Because, like, why are how are these still coming out as live service?
01:03:23
Speaker
I feel like Ark Raiders is an exception because there really wasn't an exception accessible extraction shooter um that ah played to its strengths.
01:03:37
Speaker
um But even then, it was a little bit of a surprise for me. But this isn't that. This is the kind of game that Concord was, right? Like, this is the this is a hero shooter. i don't know, guys. What are we doing?
01:03:51
Speaker
And also, it's not even, like, sci-fi. You can't even say, like, it's got some of that sci-fi sort of bent. This is closer to, like, i don't know. It kind of looks like Asgard.
01:04:02
Speaker
esque magic like a simple high fantasy yeah like some people have technology but it's blended in with we're swinging swords and hammers and stuff technology it's powered by magic yeah And like, I honestly, I don't see anything overwatch in this at all, but I did see a comment that was like, hi, over, guard, watch. We've we've cracked it.
01:04:29
Speaker
I thought that was funny, but also everything is compared with whatever a big thing is in a given genre, whether that makes sense or not. um This was not, this should not have been the last game. Like if this was Divinity...
01:04:46
Speaker
different vibes for the end of the show. Yeah. But we had people in Discord be like, all right, let's let's like, everybody shut up. we're going to We're going to want, like, this could be it. This could be this Titanfall thing.
01:04:59
Speaker
No. Out of respect, we were like, there's some stuff there that looked, no one's going to play this ah Like...
01:05:12
Speaker
ah There's like that certain where like you're in like a meeting with ah people at your company and like there's some executive talking on the call and you just like look at your buddy who's like the same age of you like fucking bullshit, right? Yeah, yeah man.
01:05:28
Speaker
And then they have no concept that like it's not for them, you know? Yeah, yeah. They're going to have to, this is the positive take. They're going to have to show something completely different than what they showed to make me interested in this.
01:05:45
Speaker
Oh, another example I wanted to just throw onto the pie real quick before we end. Yeah. um Man, blanking on all the names tonight. What was the, the old, not bungee, the old IP from marathon marathon, marathon, marathon extraction shooter.
01:06:04
Speaker
Yeah. That's called marathon. Yeah. Yeah, I think that they are either canning that or they're going to try and rework it. Yeah, they they already had a delay baked in.
01:06:14
Speaker
They were like, this isn't because they did like a beta thing. They had an open beta where people could play. And the sentiment coming out of that was like, if we ship now, we are going to... like launch the boat and it will just fall into the ocean like there it will not it will not float on the water at all and it will just be straight to the uh seafloor the abyss someone had that vibe because they pushed it back and they do not have a concrete release date yet in the interim time arc raiders has come out and probably made their release prospects worse that's yeah um
01:06:53
Speaker
Man, i I feel a little bit bad for people in the games industry who want to make something for people. And it's not just, will this make us money? Yeah. um Type thing, because there are a lot of different things coming out. And it's not like they're all in like a discord together. Like, what are you dropping your game? what What mechanics do you have in there? yeah um So, yeah, it's.
01:07:18
Speaker
Difficult to find something that's going to land, but it means all the more when things really do knock it out of the park. Yeah. And then we get to have a little show to celebrate some of those.
01:07:29
Speaker
Thank you, Jeff. Exactly. And the Muppets. That's very nice. And the Muppets. um I also don't think, for the record, I don't think that... I don't think like the impassioned video game developer is like... I came into this interest industry to make...
01:07:47
Speaker
another live service hero shooter or something like that, right? Like, um, these could easily have been other projects, but instead they're being pushed into this live service pipeline when it's like, to be completely honest, ArcGrader super successful.
01:08:06
Speaker
People in our friend group aren't playing it anymore. We're just going, we're playing hot. We had a five stack for heroes of the storm last night against bots. Um,
01:08:17
Speaker
that's where we are as people right um yeah so i guess i don't know be careful with live service games if they're gonna cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make and you may have zero players on launch like concord that's that's too low a blow concord had a hundred players on launch so across all platforms so you said they weren't gonna be two digits and they did uh-huh beyond the tens place we're like well over time we haven't even talked about actual awards at all um nor should we uh we'll see that save that and not spoil if you if you want to see who won an award google it ah shorthand expedition 33 everything there
01:09:05
Speaker
yeah everything there you go And I mean, deserved. But we also had an an episode on Expedition 33. So we already know that we're the kingmakers for this. We're like, point by point, these are the game awards that they should win. And I'm pretty sure we were 100% right.
01:09:23
Speaker
I don't listen to our episodes, so I don't know. Same. ah We should have somebody audit that and go back and figure that out. Were we right? yeah
01:09:33
Speaker
Two other games, because I'm going to mention him later, and I'm done. Dave's going to kill me. he's He's literally dying in his chair right now. Diablo 4 expansion. I'm kind of excited for that. I want to go back and kill the Lord of Hatred.
01:09:45
Speaker
Total War, Warhammer 40k. We've wanted this for years. It's going to be garbage. Don't buy it at launch. Wait like two to three years and it'll be pretty playable. After the community has made some mod patches and stuff.
01:09:59
Speaker
Well, for these games, that's not necessarily the concern. It's just the developers work on them a long time. So like usually it launches and then they're like, okay, now we're going to keep patching things in. We're going to add new commanders. We're going to like pull in content from the previous games, which I don't think they're going to do for this one. It's going tonna be the first one where it's like, oh, you don't get your, you don't get your, uh, your fantasy orcs as a potential commander for your space orcs army. Oh, that sucks. Jeez. All right. Well,
01:10:33
Speaker
But yeah, it would be very funny to just play like elves against giant humans with guns in power armor. And you're like... These aren't the laser elves either. These are just... These are tree elves, right? so These are normal hot elves. Yeah. They can't fight.
01:10:52
Speaker
um That's it. That's the full game awards.
01:10:56
Speaker
This a good time. Yeah. um If you want to watch with us next year... Just watch it on YouTube. There you go That's what we'll be doing. I do think they hide us in the comments.
01:11:08
Speaker
That's the one thing we probably should do is actually like stream it or something like that, though, because um it was very funny when people would desync during the awards and be like, oh, my gosh, like freaking ah Barbie Island won best soundtrack of the year. And then like no one else was that far ahead in the video. And they're like, I thought it was going to be Lego Batman.
01:11:31
Speaker
And everyone goes, what do you mean it wasn't Lego Batman? Why would you even say that? Yeah, accidental spoiling just because we desynced while watching the same stream somehow. but We'll figure it out. It's technology.
01:11:45
Speaker
Anyways, thank you guys for listening. If you have feedback on this or other episodes of this or other podcasts, you can send that in. All of our socials are in the description.
01:11:56
Speaker
And as always, we'll see you in the next one. Have a good night.