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Launching a New Franchise in 2024... Good Luck | Firelink Podcast
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This week on Firelink, Marty, Nick, and KC discuss launching a franchise in 2024 and the difficulties surrounding that.
Second Wind is fully independent, employee-owned and fan-funded. Consider supporting us on Patreon for as little as $1/month at patreon.com/SecondWindGroup
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This video is brought to you by SCIM, a gorgeous puzzle platformer that was one of our favorite games from the recent Steam Next Fest. SCIM is out July 18th. Head over to the Steam page to check out the demo and wishlist the game today.
00:00:22
Speaker
Oh, we're on. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Fuckerly Podcast, episode number 29 for Wednesday, July 17th, 2024. My name is Marty Sleva and I am joined by Nick Calandra, Casey Wosu and producer Eric. Thank you all so much for putting up with those technical difficulties and welcome to the show. We got a great one for you guys ah
Amazon Prime Day Xbox Bundle Discussion
00:00:42
Speaker
tonight. We're going to be chatting a little bit about ah Amazon has a Xbox bundle for Prime Day called the No Console Required Bundle. What's going on there? And I want Casey, I don't know if you knew this. I'm already signing you up to be the guinea pig for this. I did. I did order one. So I can now I can just write it off now. Please. Perfect. Thank you
No Man's Sky Updates and Impressions
00:01:04
Speaker
so much. ah Also a little bit about ah No Man's Sky.
00:01:08
Speaker
the game that keeps on going just got its 5.0 update and people are like oh the game is now like bigger and crazier than any of us ever thought it could be so i feel like this is one of those games we just don't talk about enough that it is like the little game that could keeps chugging along ah And then, ah speaking of chugging along, our main topic is going to be talking about what it what it means to launch a franchise in 2024, why it's so difficult, why some games managed to land the plane while others ah seem kind of DOA on entry. Talk about some games in recent years that we feel like were able to successfully launch franchises, maybe hypothetically, because a lot of those games might not have a second installment yet, and then other games that may have failed to do that, and why it seems tougher now, I guess, to do that than than maybe in the past.
00:01:52
Speaker
And of course, chatting about all the stuff we've been been playing and watching. And then right off the bat, Corey Richardson. Thank you so much for joining the Green Gang. And also thanks to our sponsor, Skim. I say that because this is one of the rare games that has sponsored the show that I've finished fully. And I will have a bite size up probably the next couple of days. Skim is great. I give, i give the bar goes up, I can say it. Skim is delightful. And if you have a couple hours this weekend, I only suggest you pick it pick it up, jam through it. It's a cozy little rainy day game. If it's raining by you, you can play it. If it's not raining, gotta buy it and wait till it's raining.
Casual Host Banter
00:02:26
Speaker
Them's them's the rules. The Marty skim rules. How are you guys doing? Welcome. It's Wednesday. It is Wednesday. Once again, I'm doing okay. I'm feeling, uh, I don't have high energy, but I also don't have low energy. So there's that little, little medium energy, medium level energy. I'm feeling okay. Um,
00:02:49
Speaker
Yeah, not no nothing like crazy to report. Like I've just been coasting. Like the the games have been all right. Like, again, nothing mind-blowing, but there are there are a couple things on the horizon that I'm looking forward to, that that bow... You're getting a lot of codes. Yeah, the bow. Yeah, that bow... What is it? Path of the tea leaves? Path of the tea leaves? The lotus of the... Lotus of the teal leaves. I dont i can can't remember... Oh, bow, lotus. Bow, path of the teal lotus. so We said all those words at some point. Yeah, the title was in
Anticipation for Upcoming Games
00:03:20
Speaker
there somewhere.
00:03:21
Speaker
um I'm really looking forward to checking that out because I had my eye on that for a little bit because ah just like nine souls before it, like it looks an awful lot like Hollow Knight. And it seems like it's got some great movement. And um I'm going to give that a shot. Probably since we're done here. I was i read off this list on Yahtzee Tries just a couple hours ago, but it is crazy that we're in this like week span where there was kind of a trickle of games every once in a while, but in like the the span of like 10 days or so, we got Anger Foot, we got Flock, which we did those two for Yahtzee Tries, and then we got Bow coming out, Dungeons of Hinterberg, Skim, Kinuzugami, Cataclysmo, Valley Peaks, Arranger.
00:03:59
Speaker
It is a new Earth Defense Force. It is wild. People are wild out here just releasing games. Nick, ah do you got game fever? yeah green Game green? A little bit. I'm just kind of exhausted. Yeah. You know why? You had concord fever. You had concord disease. at playlo that this weekend We're going to talk about that later on. Jealous. Yeah, getting that beta. But it's coming out soon, right? August. Yep. Yeah. I guess August is soon. That's supposed to be an open beta next weekend, right? this This coming weekend. Yeah. Oh, this coming weekend. Yeah. I'm hoping that works for me. Easy peasy. Yeah, but we're chatting about Nick's time in Concord. Plus, Casey reviewed Flintlock. I guess review is not up yet, but we can talk about the game because it's one of the one also one of the bigger releases of this week.
00:04:48
Speaker
um Well, before we kick things off with the Amazon news, King Dead, thank you so much for a $2 donor, reviewing a sponsored game, Git Marty, a so shill hat. We literally brought it up that I removed, I excised myself from the sponsorship. From the like, that I didn't write anything, I didn't VO anything. I was like, this game looks cool, but I need to step away because I'm bite-sized in it and I got journalistic integrity. and You also reviewed it before it was sponsored by us, right? ah did the ah No, I did the Steam Wishlist. It was part of my... Ah, gotcha. Or not Wishlist. You know, what was the video? The next fest video. Yeah, our next first thing. The yeah next fest video. And then I did... You already went forward to it. Yeah. I got skin fever. i I encourage that. If we shout out your game at some point in some video and you're a dev, hit us up to sponsor the thing because we already are feeling good towards it.
00:05:41
Speaker
That's our thing. Halo? Probably don't want to sponsor us. We've been very critical of Halo, so I don't know how to sponsor us. I mean, what would Halo have to sponsor? Closest will us game fuel. You got it. Master Chief Doritos. got In Quintuple A, thank you so much for a $10 demo from Overzealous Enthusiasts. Marty Love, the world needs more Marty Love. If you ever feel down Marty, do not forget you are a positive heartwarming presence in this vastly frightening world. very It was very sweet words and I'm confused if you said that or Overzealous Enthusiasts said it, but I'm going to assume Overzealous said it. If you were from Overzealous Enthusiasts. I mean, I could say anything. I could say this is from Michael Jordan. This is me fucking MJ.
00:06:27
Speaker
So he said he is a possible liar, which I guess is fair. He's definitely lied before, but he's great, but lied before. The subscriber second wins. Well, we do say friend of the show. We want to do a supercut. Jack and I were talking about of all the different friends of the show. And ah that would be so many. ah Oh, I did say a results enthusiast. It's a euthanasia. OK. I said enthusiast. That was a that was a guy you guys did on Monday. Right. Yeah. Fun fact, that's a hard word to read properly when your brain is split in half from streaming. yeah of all And we say the word enthusiast all the time. Cause we used to work at a place called enthusiasts. Get off our asses. Pretty grim games. PTSD and our super chats.
00:07:16
Speaker
but bo with a $10 dodo.
Podcast Sponsorship and Listener Interaction
00:07:19
Speaker
We can't even get to this news item. Guys, you guys could, this ah this could technically be a filibuster. We could just not do a show. If you wanted to stay here longer, just keep setting the super chance before Marty can start the topics. I literally set a heart out. but This can't be, this is what happened in, this happened in Rewind last week and ended up being like a two and a half hour show. It was like as long as I loved every minute. I had to do several shows that day. and're like oh ah Thank you so much for the $10 Dono. Shout out to Marty for sponsoring this chat. you know what i would If I could sponsor just the chat and not the content itself, I would absolutely do that. um So I appreciate that. Let's write that down. We'll have a meeting about that. How do how do we sponsor just the chat?
00:08:04
Speaker
chat And Rose Delta with a $5 don't know things and remember all your donations right now are going towards that is a topical donation because it Oh, I guess all of our donations are topical because this is our company so everything's ah But Casey and I continuing our ah long-running tradition of playing through series of games with Metroid Prime the trilogy and maybe a little other em We can sprinkle a little other em in there if you're feeling nasty um So thank you so much Rose Delta. You're not feeling nasty. um we'll We'll see how nasty other M is. We'll see. I finally have a consistent income again. So more donations. Thank you so much. Also Thor from pirate software seems like he'd fit in as a firelink or dev ads guest. A couple of people have have suggested that. Yeah. Well, keep that in mind. Speaking of guests, we can't, I don't even say it yet. I don't want to say it yet because I don't want to jinx it. Dev ads on Friday. Hachimachi, they might have a guest.
00:08:57
Speaker
We hyped it up in the last stream. I'm hyping it up again. It'd be funny. It's worth the hype. If it fell through, it it's just Jack. I've never made a game. Hi, guys. Here's my clown horn honk honk. god ah Finally. Amazon's also required bundle. your chances are more exciting Keep them coming out. Amazon announced, obviously Microsoft's Microsoft's seem to have two big pillars of this generation, which is consoles are no longer
00:09:32
Speaker
a central part of a gen of of their plan. Their plan is that you could play Xbox anywhere, thanks to the cloud. um And that game pass is central to that. Obviously, game pass, we talked about last week, there could be a little shakiness there, but it seems like they are pot committed to the idea of playing Xbox wherever you want. and ah Amazon Prime released a little a big thing for Prime Day that ah you can buy, I believe it is a ah bundle for $78.99 that ah is like fresh off the box. It gives you access to the Xbox library and Game Pass, thanks to a Fire TV stick. And I believe it also comes with a controller.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think that bundle does come with a controller. I just bought the fire stick. I did not buy the bundle. Gotcha, gotcha. um so And a Game Pass Ultimate subscription. So the idea is this could ostensibly be for the price of a game you could... jump into the current generation of consoles. Obviously, all that is dependent on your internet connection. Like I don't know i like i have you I haven't spent like a ton of time playing cloud gaming. Like the most I've spent is PlayStation portal. And that is a little bit different because it's just like speaking to my local area network or something. Not, I mean, not technically because I did use it on vacation or when I was in a hotel using it, um, on a triple one on. And so it just, that but that's still Wi-Fi goes back to your houses. And like, if someone would have turned that TV on, it would have, it would have shown that.
00:11:03
Speaker
Um, and it worked pretty well. Not like I wouldn't want to play a whole game, but it was good for, I think I was reviewing final fantasy at the time. So I was just like doing some tide quests and stuff like that. But, um, like I have either of you guys spent a ton of time, uh, doing, doing cloud gaming, whether on X-Box or elsewhere. And like, do you feel like a great place now, or is it more of a, okay, if we just wait a little bit, it'll it'll get there. I feel like you need, I feel like you need fiber for it to be that smooth or fire fiber and a wired connection to really have the smoothest connection. The wire like defeats the purpose of the whole thing, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:39
Speaker
and like have away from your home I've, I've used it some, but mostly to test it. Like I've not used it like in a practical sense where like I'm out somewhere and like, I'm just turning on my phone to like mess with some Xbox games, but like I've used it like upstairs in the bedroom to try and mess around with a couple, like smaller titles. Like I experimented with, uh, what do you call it? The, the game with the, the girl ushering spirits to the afterlife. I can't remember the name of the spirit fair. Yes. Haunting. No. What is it? I assume it was a new game, not an old game, but no, no. Yes. I tried spirit fair cause it's cause it was a while ago. So like, it's not like the current thing of it. Like I experimented a little bit with like Halo and that actually ran surprisingly well. And like,
00:12:25
Speaker
And that's even with like the controller, you know, connecting to the phone, which then connects to the the Wi-Fi, I mean, the the cloud signal or whatever. And that worked surprisingly well. Like I was surprised how functional that was back then. Yeah. So yeah, I feel like. Like the the promise of Game Pass is the ability for like just all your games on that platform in that library to just follow you anywhere. And me not being the biggest just on the go mobile gamer like its something I was really excited about, but didn't really have practical use for. But for some reason, like i was I was very excited about the idea of this dongle because I do travel every now and then or I'll go to like, ah you know, a family member's house for like an extended stay. And if I just had this thing that I could plug into like, you know, a spare TV and like catch up on something in my Xbox library, I think that'd be really freaking cool. Because like, their yeah their house might have great internet or like,
00:13:18
Speaker
The hotel maybe has decent Wi-Fi or something. and am might Or even if it functions well enough because my my phone gets decent hotspot access, I'll usually play like Smash using using just my phone hotspot, for example. So if it carried that, it can maybe just carry enough of a signal to let me play like a turn-based tactics game or something that's been more like Sea of Stars, like something that doesn't require a ton of like Twitch reflexes, just a bunch of stuff that I've been meaning to catch up on that's just sitting in that library. anything that requires high latency. It hasn't been, I don't, I still don't think it's there. At least Stadia was the smoothest out of all of them. Like I was able to play destiny on Stadia with no problem really. last yeah you kind of love but even Even on a wireless connection. i still It was still the best cloud tech. It's stupid that they didn't do anything with it. I'm not saying you're wrong. You're literally the only person I know who used Stadia, yeah but you're like, youlthough you seem to be very high on it always. Yeah.
00:14:13
Speaker
I've had better experience with it than PS Now or Xcloud by a long shot. The only other thing that comes close is GeForce Now, which you get through an NVIDIA graphics card and subscribe to that. Something I don't like about this period of stuff. I want them to figure their shit out and come to me with just one option. Same thing with VR. Sort your shit out, everyone. Have your little VR war, haveier have your cloud gaming war, and then come to me when you're just like, okay, this is the best one. Just buy this. The VR war is over. Meta quest one. We know on one, won right? Like, yeah, it feels like everybody else dropped out of it, basically. Index doesn't do shit. HTC Vive is basically dead. like Congrats, Meta. You're now like, you're a king of the dirt. PSVR 2. PSVR 2 just didn't get supported again. Yeah. yeah yeah if you if you buy if If they announce a PSVR 3 and you buy that, you're an idiot.
00:15:07
Speaker
You yelling at me? No, just anybody that's listening to this. Oh, I was like, damn, I don't have a PSVR2. Stop yelling at me. Yeah, no. If you buy a PSVR3, I will call you an idiot. I'll save my money and for Lambo. God, not Lambo. Yeah. That would be the same for a minute.
00:15:25
Speaker
um Yeah. I'll be, I'll be curious. So Casey, Casey jumped in this fire stick thing. yeah but Yeah. Obviously we don't expect to be playing street fighter, like any competitive game like that. But like you said, like I'll try it. Like I'll see if it yeah works. Yeah. But yeah, but yeah i I think it's a good deal for it. Cause like, again, like that's the, that's the good part of that library is that there's a ton of stuff on there that you, that isn't your main go-to, right? But stuff you just want to try, like just, Like some of those, narrative like Pentamint or something, right? Like just yeah smaller indie, like it can be a oh just a really good way to just rack up a bunch of time and a lot of and all the other games that you, when you do sit at home and turn on your Xbox, cause sometimes you're playing to other stuff outside of that. You gotta go, you gotta to go for your mainstays. Like, yeah i'm I'm guilty of that. So like when you're on the run and you have no other options, this is now an option.
00:16:15
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's my my, again, the most time I've spent in any of these is PlayStation portal and I like it. is It is sort of like my RPG grinder, not grinder like the dating up, but like grinder like what I was grinding to look like a dragon or ma as he said, I was on there and I was sending a message at Ichi Ban and a cloud and be like, Hey, what's up? you doing you guys and big and calling would big Oh my god, anchor foot has a big head mode that Yahtzee unlocked. Remember big head modes? Yeah, they can be all the way. GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, I guess that was two games. Maybe it was just rare. They they called them like DK mode in GoldenEye. Oh yeah, because they were and rare. Yeah. yeah
00:16:58
Speaker
those so That was clever of them. So yeah, a lot more on that once Casey is able to go hands on with that. Before we move on to our next topic, Nask, thank you so much for an eight Australian dollar donor. Marty, thanks for recommending The Bear. I binged it, loved it. It's like Ted Lasso, but it makes my chest hurt from the stress. ah Yeah, The Bear is great. Season three. This has received a little bit of pushback and I agree it is it was my least favorite of the three seasons however Three and four were filmed back-to-back and they're they're like the end of the show so my opinion. This is almost Set up yeah, we're Atlanta's on their last two seasons back-to-back and a lot of people were a little
00:17:39
Speaker
lukewarm on the second to last season until the last season aired and then it very much felt like it was the first half of a final chapter. um So that's kind of where I'm at with the bear waiting to see again, you can judge it as a thing. It is season three. It's like there's no. ah You know, but I'm um'm reserving my job. I still love those characters. I think the show is absolutely gorgeous. um I love its depiction in Chicago. Good tunes. The food looks shitty is my big thing. Like the fancy food. And this is because I don't like fancy food. Maybe that's on purpose. Because cause I agree. I feel like a lot of like when you do sit down at a fancy restaurant or you're at a fancy thing and like they come and serve you, it's like the portions are tiny. The food is bland. It's like they're trying so hard to hit whatever this quality bar is that they kind of don't give a shit about just what it tastes like anymore. Yeah, 40 bucks for a single scallop.
00:18:28
Speaker
Yeah, i like they're kind of losers on a little peas and they're putting there They're specifically placing six peas and I'm like listen kernel Sanders perfected this when he created the famous bowl Throw all the shit in there and I'll eat it like a pig
Movie Franchises and Failures
00:18:40
Speaker
just serve it to me to trough Unless there's unless there's too many meats in one bowl. This is more than one meats. No, I don't we don't need the trough life. I'm close doors Just vegetables and he's fine pick go that's is a salad v is metro That's just salad. salad. And Joel, thank you so much for the two year old don't know who's still excited for Dokevie. I am. Yes, absolutely. but Don't forget the the little, little vapor in the end.
00:19:12
Speaker
forget the little piece with wind. That's just col it was yeah, I think it was. yeah I'm so excited about Dokaveed that I like did a little toot on accident. I'm going forward towards it. Yeah, that's probably a mechanic in Dokavi. Yeah, I'm excited for Dokavi. Yeah, I wanted to come back. It's not real and it will never exist. Yeah, I'm starting to lose faith that we'll ever get it, but like, what a reveal, right? It makes me so happy. That might literally be my favorite live reveal of a thing that I didn't know existed. Right? Yeah, it was so shocking. It just keeps getting better. So shout out to you, Dokavi. I hope you're doing well out there in video game heaven.
00:19:54
Speaker
i And then the last thing I want to talk about before we head on to our main topic was No Man's Sky. getting a it's It's the first part of its 5.0 update, which, did you guys know that they were still working on this? Like, they were still just... No, well I had no idea that they were still actively developing on that. Like, every three months. it's It's like, one of those things where when they announced ah they announced their in their new game last year, it was kind of like assumed, oh, like this has to be the end of of No Man's Sky, right? And it turns out, no, they're they're adding things like like a completely new physics engine, a bunch of multiplayer things that folks have been kind of like hardcore fans have been wanting, but ah
00:20:37
Speaker
not just kind of assuming they would never get. There's like a new bug stomping mechs that ah ah you can have that and the the get like new insectoid armor that people are like, oh my God, you're just like putting a little hell divers inside of this video game. might They might be. Um, like you look at this and you're like, this doesn't look like the no man's sky originally when it was like, go around to this weird planet and there's this shitty brontosaurus and look at it. Like, um, yeah, it's, it's kind of impressive that this game just keeps chugging along and part of me thinks.
00:21:10
Speaker
everything they're adding to this game is something that can also be applicable or useful for their next game. um That whatever tech they add to this or whatever sort of engine, like, you know, small, the ability to have sandstorms or whatever like that is something that they can pull over into their next game. So it doesn't feel like you're just getting rid of the work, you know, doing work and then throwing it into an old game. What was that over promise that he that he made for the new game? Oh, it was one. It's an entire planet. Yeah, it's an entire planet. Like a to scale the size of like an actual planet. Right. And that we're all dropped onto the same planet. But, you know, there's a good chance you're not going to see anyone because if there's like 100 of us on a planet, we might be far away. God damn. Then those numbers are really matter. Yeah, gnarly would need to run into someone though. Oh, what's going on?
00:22:02
Speaker
Um, yeah, that's good. Uh, good stuff. So I'm, I'm curious about this. I don't know. I really liked the story of no man's sky because it was, you know, that, that was one of those games that, um, rightfully so. Got a lot of flack right at the, right at the launch because the, it felt over promised, you know, i part of that was the fault of the devs. Part of it was the fault of Sony, um, sort of positing it as this massive game. And part of it was the fault of press who kind of got really excited and drank the Kool-Aid. Um, And so I think we all parties involved have gotten a little bit better at that over the past decade, because it's literally been a decade since this game's hype cycle. So romance got changed the industry, you would say?
00:22:41
Speaker
but Maybe like if a if a misstep can change the industry, like, oh, new safety protocols were put in place. Like, sure. We could see cars. This car crash was so bad that we created it. And cyberpunk still happened, too. And cyberpunk still happened. Yeah. i After this, too. And after this, we haven't learned. we haven't What's the last time it happened, though? Redfall. No, nobody was nobody was really hyped for that. I was very worried about Redfall from the start. I was like, I don't know what anybody else to see it in this. yeah Why do you hide your Redfall tattoo then? I don't know. I think the game that and I'm hoping it doesn't have the game that I feel like might hit that a stalker. Oh, the overhype. The first two. Yeah.
00:23:27
Speaker
um i don't dont know when yeah Yeah, I don't know what that series is to be hyped or or or not hyped about it, to be honest. Yeah, you know, Josh is Starfield. I feel like Starfield delivered what it set out to do. It just wasn't that interesting. Which even from the start, we we're like, no, this sounds a little worrisome. Yeah, yeah because i think everybody from the start was kind of worried that the planets were going to be too barren and boring and they were
00:23:53
Speaker
and Realistic galaxies aren't fun to explore devs. Sorry. No, no, it's not. Mars looking kind of boring. Every time they say the Mars, I'm like, congratulations on getting the Mars. There's a bunch of ours big red Mars in a video game has been Destiny 2, in my opinion. Yeah. See, what but if more planets in real life or like the Destiny planets, that'd be cool without like scary monsters. and No, put the monsters on there. Fuck it. Oh, go, go, go. it We need a we need a unifying threat to our planet Earth to be excited again. That's not that's not global warming. I was about to say that's literally global warming. That's just not an exciting one. We need a new unifying threat. I'm not global warming. Not a global pandemic. and We need something that could be punched in the face. Lasers. Yeah, you can't punch a laser. It's what a laser wants you to do.
00:24:43
Speaker
Think about it. You're playing right into the laser sand You're not even gonna have a hand anymore cut your hand off like a lightsaber jewel row It's another five-year-old don't know just classic jewel row little don't know. Appreciate it. Jewel. Thank you Why did why did Derek say my Nick right? What what what about me? No, he's talking about Nick right the the actor from Shaun of the Dead Nick Frost and Edgar right together We made a go tank or whatever
00:25:14
Speaker
I'm more confused than I was two seconds ago. That's fine. Just roll through it. yeah go So to let you understand who Gogeta is, right? It's a fusion of two children. These children are the children of both Goku and Vegeta who were sworn enemies, but then learn to work together to the point where they themselves used Um, and I'm sorry. No, that, yeah. Go tanks. I'm thinking of go tanks. Right. I'm sorry. I made it worse. Even further. I thought I was clearing fingers up and I made it worse. I apologize. And he came from the planet saying and like a little thing, he's like, he's like a naked baby, but he's got a cool, he's got like a monkey tail.
00:25:57
Speaker
You got a monkey tail, but if you pull that monkey tail, he gets fucked up. It's like if you, it's like an Achilles heel. If you're a killer, he'll kill his tail. Also, he can't look at the moon. That's very important. That's what happens when he looks at the moon. Nick, I'll give you $5 if you guess what happens when Goku looks at the moon. He sees these nuts on it. No, he turns into a big monkey. He's just so powerful. He's just turned into a big Kong. The monkey tail should have been a clue, but none of us guessed. I feel like if I saw a man with a monkey tail, I'd be like, keep them, keep them away from the moon. Just fucking keep them inside at night. If it's a full moon, don't let them out there. Uh, red dwarf, the file I don't think so much. Best Mars game is red faction to red factions. Good. That's a good Mars game. That was a red faction too. That was a red faction. Gorilla. Oh, they're all on Mars. Red faction and Goku.
00:26:50
Speaker
Retraction Goku, think about it. And more ink. Five Canadian dollars. Thank you so much. Full salute. I learned that the O7 is a salute. I bet you guys didn't learn that. I don't know anything about the Internet. every Language is changing. Oh, I see it. Yeah. Cute. Cute little salute. Yeah. Yeah. We came up with that. That's just a little thing. I always thought that was just an arrow pointing. Oh, like, ah oh, I thought it was one of the generous emojis for salutes. What are you doing? Keep an O7. Yeah. Fucking loser. Only losers use emojis. this what that This is what the kids do. You just put O7, Eric, and fucked it up. Let me see what you're... Let me see. In our messages here on Slack. ah there there it is There's a thumbs up on the Skimm ad. No, that's a reaction. That's an emoji.
00:27:39
Speaker
but just That's just a little thumb up. ah Let's get to our main topic. Guys, somewhere dilly-dallying. We got some busyness to go to. go to ah We want to talk about launching a new franchise in the year of our Lord 2024. This is a little bit from Casey playing ah Flintlock, from Nick playing the Concord beta. But just from the idea that you know we complain about how there's no there's no new games coming out, everything's a sequel, everything's ah everything's a remake. um You look at the Game Awards last year, every single one of the Game of the Year nominees was part of a big franchise. It was Alan Wake, it was Zelda, it was Mario, it was Resi, it was... um
00:28:17
Speaker
uh you know these these things that have been around for years or sometimes decades and so we're always like do something original why can't you make us new new franchises uh and why does that seem really difficult in 2024 compared to in the past when it seems like energy every generation we used to get what felt like it does a dozen new franchises that would get seconds and thirds and fourths and everything um and we just don't get that now and what what do you seem, do things seem tougher now to do than before? Um, like what are some of the stumbling blocks and everything? Like, what do you, what do you guys think about that? It's a good thing here to put the, uh, the fire on there. Cause I have a take that's going to be hot. All right. You want to lead with that? Sure.
00:29:03
Speaker
It's very hard to launch new franchises when social media gets very angry about them being woke immediately when they're announced because there's people of color in it. And then the and the negative, negative attribution to that thing is all you fucking hear about. Cause I literally played Concord this weekend. Fun game. I didn't even know there was a culture war bullshit going on around this thing. I posted a fucking minute 30 video of it on my social media. I was just like, Hey, this we've talked on the podcast. Like I've said, I don't know how this game's going to do. I don't know. Like it doesn't look unique or original. and I can't really say it's unique or original, but it's, it plays well. It's really actually a lot of fun. I'd probably put eight hours into it over the weekend. And then, Oh my God. Like my replies were just.
00:29:46
Speaker
Sort of of this game just it's failed. It's woke. It's stupid. It's, you know, diversity, blah, blah, blah. Like shut the fuck up already. Just shut the fuck up. But is that real or is that social media noise? I don't know. But like it it keeps it. It keeps it from I think it keeps it from entering the public conversation because like people don't end up wanting to talk about it because it's just constant on social media. Like these these games live or die by their communities online. good word of mouth and it's been soiled before it even hits anything. well Well, I think that is true, that um excuse me that a lot that the a lot of the games, especially new ones, do require like a level of buy-in from the public to get going. I do think like that sort of noise
00:30:33
Speaker
is still is background noise. like It's a constant that does show up every time for all of these games that fit whatever stupid criteria they've come up with. ah you know, now, but that's something that publishers even account for. Like they are aware that there's going to be this level of of pushback here. And then they kind of put that in a corner and then they wait for like the regular people to weigh in because cause that is literally just noise. Like those those people are mad about all the things. Those people are not players. Like they don't they don't intend to actually engage with any of this stuff in any meaningful way. So like,
00:31:13
Speaker
But I mean, it's not just on there, though, like you see it in the user reviews on the wet on the pages. like But those are the same people. That's the thing. like they But they're but they're but they're not playing the game. They're just saying it's shit. And people who don't know better are just reading that and being like, OK, well, I'm not going to play them. Like and I would argue, I would argue that the people who would read that stuff do know better because most people will never see it. Like they just don't engage with that level of research to the point where they are swayed by what is obviously like noise, right? Like the people who would go and check out a bunch of steam reviews, particularly know that these reviews don't matter because they didn't put in the X amount of time or like they're you know using platitudes that they've heard on their Twitter feed or whatever. like
00:31:58
Speaker
I think you might be discounting like that having a mostly negative stat and mostly negative reviews of that red that red label on your game because people don't like whatever fucking reason that has nothing to do with the game itself. I mean that that you see that mostly negative thing and it turns you off from a game even looking at it. It's when developers are are really. Really concerned about getting that review score up on there. It doesn't matter. but Say, say you're not playing on Steam. Like, say you are one of the however many million people who just own a PS5. And you look at the beta, it's got two stars attached to it. Most of it's from bullshit reviews. Are there are there stars on PlayStation? Yeah. If you go to the product, yeah if you go to the product pages like this, there's user reviews. and
00:32:49
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't know. I just. ah You know, it's one of those games that like the people are, you know, we had our preconceived notion of it from the reveal trailers. It didn't look anything special, whatever, you know, played it. I just think a game like this often lives or dies by word of mouth. And sometimes these games get so muddled up in the culture wars shit almost immediately. Like social media is a big part in driving people to these games, whether we like it or not.
00:33:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think i'm I'm signing a little bit with Casey in that I think maybe Casey and I are putting too little ah impact that this has. I think he might be putting a little too much impact on it um because we see this as well in movies. New franchises and movies are incredibly difficult to launch. And we had this year, you know we had ah the the fall guy with ah Ryan Reynolds and ah ah Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt that had a massive marketing campaign, great word of mouth to what felt like big movie stars, and it kind of theatrically landed with a thud. And it's one of those things where it seems like we simultaneously have people saying, we are sick of franchises, we're sick of Marvel, we're sick of Star Wars and everything, give us something new, and then something new comes out. And it doesn't
00:34:06
Speaker
crack through. And then obviously there are, last year we had Barbie, which was something new, although obviously tethered to something, but they ran an incredible marketing campaign and that marketing campaign helped them. It also helped that they had two, you know, huge stars and huge musicians in the movie. And and that that movie also was victim to the same culture war BS where they're like, they're trying to infantilize men and blah, blah, blah, blah. Bad Boys recently came out Bad Boys 4. Remember, remember how the internet and society supposedly canceled Will Smith? No one gave a fuck about that when Bad Boys 4 came out. That movie did gangbusters because people were excited for the thing. like pearl The pearl clutching of him slapped the Chris Rock. and was like Yeah, you shouldn't have done that. Of course, it's not a good thing, but y'all blew it out of proportion. This is the scariest thing I've ever seen in live TV. You just wait. Was it last year? Hogwarts Legacy was another one. Massive controversy. Tons and tons.
00:35:01
Speaker
of just negative energy and drama surrounding it. But it was like the best selling game that year. Well, but it's also an established IP with hundreds of millions of fans of Harry Potter. I think it was always going to be selling fine culture where put culture was going to have no influence on whether that game. So I mean, there are Star Wars games that are to perform. There's like, yeah, but we're we're looking there to perform. But we're talking about new franchises here and we are. But but the the point I was making was that the people who are looking for like new games, the people who are actively like I want to try something new, aren't paying attention to that noise. Like they'll probably just try it themselves. Like that's that's what I'm getting at because like the people who were looking for the Hogwarts didn't take any stock and other stuff. They just went and bought Hogwarts.
00:35:47
Speaker
Yeah, I don't disagree with that. I just I'm like, you know, when nobody wants to talk about Concord, like I think it's going to have a really tough time succeeding, you know, the press and the press are going to want to get, you know, a lot of people and just don't want to take part in these things. And like any time you have to any time you voice ah an opinion as an influencer like we are on a game like this, it's like you're met with just constant negativity and then people end up not talking about the games that they want to talk about. Like, ah you know, even in my own Twitch personal stream, I was like, man, I'd like to make a video about Concord, but also I just know what the comments are going to be like. And I'm like, eh, let's make a video. not come you i like I like to get engage with it. It's like, I don't know. It's just not something I want to deal with. Then you don't you don't have to like it. Like they can they can talk to a void. that's Yeah, that's true. Like usually that's what they're doing. They're speaking to a straight avoid like. yeah So.
00:36:48
Speaker
But if we look at it, no, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, no, because I was going to kind of pivot a little bit. No, all I'm saying is like. Like, this is a ah sad fact of the state of the Internet today, but like it it's i I personally don't feel like it's this weight that destroys everything it touches. It's like a stain in the corner. And like you can you can ignore it. You can be like, all right, this this new car has got a dent on the door. But like it still drives. like I'm still going to take this to the party, yeah to the function. like if my If my goal is to ultimately get to a place, it'll get me to the place. Yeah. We we i mean we always we always talk about ignoring it, but I mean, that our jobs are online. like It's our job to be involved in these conversations and all that, so it affects us more. and so you know But outside of that, I mean, Concord, I don't know what it is with these games like continually trying to do the same
00:37:46
Speaker
Aesthetic over and over and over again and it's clearly not selling and I don't think it has anything to do with diversity It's just not a very interesting aesthetic aesthetic like Concord The gameplay is fun. I don't really care about the characters or anything that I've played from it. Like they're zany, wacky looking. It's fine. But it's also like it's just like hell divers. You get fucking capes. You look like cool space Marines. Like I think I just think people are kind of sick of like the outcast kind of feeling, you know, we are you weird, weird, weird. Nailed their aesthetic versus something like Concord. ah Yeah. Hell divers has a clear aesthetic to it. It's it's a badass aesthetic like people
00:38:27
Speaker
I think usually respond to that. I mean, Halo Gears of War, all that kind of stuff. You might be right. i But i I feel fully ah the reverse on that, because like, Haldar was very generic in in that regard. well Like generic, unfortunately. People like to hear. No. and And I think you're right. And that is kind of sad. But yeah, just give me like. brawny soldier man, and then they're happy, right? But like, you try to do something cool. And a lot of people have tried to do something cool. Like when I look at Concord, I see like Guardians of the Galaxy, which is like a visually cool ass universe. but Like,
00:39:03
Speaker
Yeah, I guess. Yeah. I mean, over overwatch works because like you take that art style and they really make cool interesting characters with it. I think kind of worked because it felt like it wasn't trend chasing. It felt like it was delivering. It wasn't delivering. what we think that people want, it was making a statement, here's our thing, you are going to want it. And there's, there's kind of a lack of that confidence or that swagger, I guess, in development, because so many things like, yeah, Concord, like clearly is inspired by Guardians of the Galaxy, which, you know, the visual tone of that clear, inspired by stuff like Firefly. But, you know, when a big movie comes out and you're like, ah, our AAA games should be inspired by this thing, let's go into development, six years passes.
00:39:47
Speaker
And then you don't know what the next like six years ago, Marvel was the biggest thing on Earth. And now maybe that'll change again. The the reports that the Russo brothers are coming back to do the next two adventure movies like that might get it back on track. But it's a part of it is that that argument we we talk about all the time and all the shows about how games are just it's these are these ships are not nimble enough to kind of work their way through these through these trends. There's too much on the line. So even if it's new, it's like it's It's based on what was new before that worked. Yeah. But especially, especially for the FPS market, like look at the top selling FPS games on Steam aside from Fortnite and Apex Legends, really. I mean, it's Greyzone Warfare. It's ready or not. It's hell it lose a lot. ARMA 3, like all the players play zone warfare. That can't be real. It's an extraction shooter.
00:40:43
Speaker
But yeah, I mean like those those are the games that sell for like the hardcore audience, which Concord feels like it's more for the hardcore audience than it is for the casual audience after I've played it now. But I just ah yeah i don't i dont andt know. it's It's like people people want new franchises. I said it before the stream started. I don't think people know what they want until they see it. ah Absolutely. That's usually the case. Yeah. Yeah. And then a lot of these three. I mean, I have to assume Concord was going to be free to play at some point. They've transitioned it to premium kind of knowing
00:41:16
Speaker
Hey, like at least we need to make some of our money back on this. Yeah. Cause free to play just isn't the wave anymore. It's like, is it $40 or is it full full price? 40. Okay. So that weird middle, that was what held the average was, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The good price for an only multiplayer game. Yeah. I agree. So I made a list of some things. Obviously, it's hard to judge ah what's going to be a franchise in the five year orbit of the thing. I mean, we used to be able to do that because we on the PS one, we'd get three Final Fantasy games in the span of five years. Square release Final Fantasy seven, eight, nine and 10 like ah five years.
00:41:54
Speaker
Uh, on, uh, Naughty Dog on the, the PS3 made Uncharted one, two, three, uh, the last of us and, uh, left behind like, uh, kind of like absurd. What, uh, the, the, the pace that these companies used to be able to do things. And we, we've made a mistake. Like we, we gotta, we gotta go back. you yeah be we gotle down can't put the jiy bag in the bottle There's too many graphics in games. We can't get rid of any of these graphics. Um, so I made a list of what feels like, let's start with some of the things that I feel like tried to be franchise starters and ultimately failed. And I came up with a list of, uh, I think a half a dozen. And I noticed one thing that, uh, a lot of them shared in common. So, uh, from the last, from last year, two, to two games that I feel like tried to, are these like recent? All these are all like relatively recent or these are like ultimately. No, the last like two years or so. um gotcha I feel like the last year's mortals of avium and four spoken. In an alternate universe, both of those were huge hits and we got seconds of those got announced. ah Then the next three were Redfall, Hi-Fi Rush, and Ghostwire Tokyo.
00:43:02
Speaker
And, uh, those aren't happening because the studios don't exist anymore. Um, so like all of those things, I feel like maybe that's a like Microsoft, it feels like all of their games are trying to be, which are your first parties. I feel like any Nintendo PlayStation game, like the idea is this will become a franchise, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But not wanting anything on purpose, Sony studio. If you look at what all the major Sony studios are working on. You get your God of War and Horizon and Uncharted or Last of Us and Ghost of Tsushima and stuff like that. um But it seems like those were the games that when I think of like AAA games that ah intended on making a huge splash and didn't, those were the ones.
00:43:43
Speaker
um And then at the same time, I don't know. I was just say, like, I don't know how many I don't know how many games actually want to be franchises anymore, considering most of the games that would be franchises like Fortnite, they just keep building for 10 years. I mean, out of the list Marty just gave, I think those games definitely wanted to be franchises. Yeah. And only of those games, I would say only Redfall was sort of positioned to be a long tail game. Right. They plan maybe not to be a service game. Everybody forgets they had like they sold a character up for new characters and they just had to refund it reasonably. Yeah. Yeah. and And obviously some of this franchise stuff, you know, this franchise, the reason we have fewer franchises might be linked to the idea of live service games because like. That's true.
00:44:29
Speaker
like Fortnite is a franchise, even though there's no Fortnite 2. Maybe that's why I love 2s. You got to bring back the 2s. Like Minecraft, these are clearly franchises. Obviously no one would say no, but like the franchises don't evolve in the same way they used to on the PS3 generation. You know, franchises are a game that's updated forever. Um, so then we, if we look at some ones from the past few years that either are clearly going to be franchises or you can make a good guess, uh, from this year, I think we're going to get a Stellar Blade 2. I think that's,
00:45:00
Speaker
Seems like that was a big hit for them. A big enough hit for them to get a Stellar Blade 2 from last year. I think I but believe they've announced follow-ups to both Liza P and Lords of the Fallen. you um And very easily those games, if they were not good, would have just become those kind of forgettable ah you know, any one of those other dozens of souls likes that came through and we've are sort of weird trivia questions now. um More on the indie front. ah I think Palworld clearly we talked about last year, last week about Palworld was now a multimedia thing. Palworld will be something we'll be talking about for five years.
00:45:37
Speaker
If it has legs after that, I don't know, but, um, Dave, the diver also feels like that won't give it to like power will just be a thing that gets stuff bolted onto it. What if they just made power all the red and blue? Do you think, do you think at that point, do you think that would come in? Um, those colors. That's true. Who does? These colors don't bleed. um Dave the Diver has already proven that with all those tie-ins and with the crazy amount it's sold, I feel like that's going to be something that continues. And then we enter kind of a more nebulous zone. ah And the games from the last couple of years that I could feel becoming franchises are Returnal, Sea of Stars, Stray, and Elden Ring.
00:46:25
Speaker
And I would put $100 down. We get Elden Ring 2 is in development. And we're going to get an Elden Ring movie and this thing will be, it'll be a franchise. We'll think of it more as a franchise than we do Dark Souls now by the end of this. Smell the money. Yeah. And with this stuff, you can't tell right away. There are very few games that have come out four or five years ago that have gotten a sequel. Like Hades, this is one of the rare games that came out about four years ago, and we're getting a Hades 2 clearly. But when you look at the games that have come out this decade, um you know launching in this decade, we don't see a lot of them. It's mostly we get equals to games that came out 10, 15, 20, 40 years ago, and then the case with Nintendo. Or we get shots at original things. um
00:47:18
Speaker
So yeah, I don't i don't know if there's a secret sauce to those games. I don't know if there's one thing other than the games I named probably continuing are good and well received and the games I named that aren't continuing where you're modestly received or poorly received. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we've hit the big indie wave in the last five years, really like India's kind of hitting that double A market. So I think we'll see more sequels. I mean, you know, we got Darkest Dungeon. We got Darkest Dungeon, too. I'd imagine another Krebs. I'd imagine another Krebs treasure is going to get a sequel at some point. I can see that. I feel like Casey has reviewed a lot of these games, Flintlock among them, which the embargo is up for that, but your review is not up, correct?
00:48:00
Speaker
Yeah, the view is not up. ah I'm pretty sure the embargo was a couple of days ago, but I don't want to make sure it's today. Okay. Gotcha. um So you reviewed Flintlock, you reviewed Immortals of Avium, you reviewed Atlas Fallen. Sorry, there's all these like sort of AAE games that all just meld together in my heads of, again, in alternate universes, these would have sequels. These would be the things that are like a prototype. Yeah, like fes or yeah these are all be that's like a focus entertainment's entire thing is trying to launch new franchises. yeah And the one that people's most excited for is Space Marine 2.
00:48:36
Speaker
like came out over a decade ago Didn't that just, did I just read that second that like an early version of that leak? Yeah, an old build leak too. Oh, that's a bummer. Yeah. I mean, I feel like we had this been at the end of escapist. I feel like we had this discussion about movies and we were like thinking about franchises and movies. Like what new franchises launched in the last. And like the only one we really thought it was, I guess, kind of Avatar and John Wick. Yeah. And even Avatar was
00:49:08
Speaker
almost 50 John Wick is like the only huge one that I can really, really like think of. That's not tied to a book or something that would already exist. Top Gun Count. um That was the sequel of an 80s of an 80s movie. Like it's it's. I mean, half the TV shows they're announcing these days are not even original IP anymore. They're just added animations of books or remakes. yeah the Great ones where it's like Shogun is like fucking awesome, but it's like, well, yeah this name has kind of cultural cache, so at least we can work off here.
00:49:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting to me. like And I've definitely noticed it a lot more in the last probably three years, really, just the going back to the well of existing IPs and trying to milk them for all they got. But I think that's a part of. I think it's tied to the streaming industry just needing endless, endless profits. You got to go back to the well that works to get those profits. You can't put as much risk in. It's the same thing with the games industry and life service stuff. We've got to keep going back to that well to keep bringing those things in. and So I mean, when's the last time like?
00:50:15
Speaker
I mean, to give some credit to Xbox, like they've announced quite a few new I.T. Further upcoming. like that And then all of a sudden you were thinking about like, oh, perfect. years Yeah. i I was thinking otherwise knew a about the new about contraband is cons new Everwild, if any of those some of those games might never know. Yeah, I guess the ones that I'm mostly unsure about, the ones that are not existing franchises. So I didn't know the Nintendo cheese from last week. Nintendo launching a new rated horror franchise. Uh, it turns out it's a new entry in the, uh, Famicom detective, uh, club or whatever. So it's a sequel. However, it is being produced by the director of super Metroid. And if you directed super Metroid, you can do whatever you want. You can kill someone. You could kill someone. You can kill a family member and I'll defend you in court super metrotro is that good. So I took a turn. Listen, I have some strong opinions.
00:51:13
Speaker
no other game case closer I think Ubisoft's generally very good at ah creating franchises and... and iterating upon them, like our first game being a building block for Assassin's Creed did it and Far Cry did it. Well, they used to be. They haven't really lost any. Well, my worry is we had it. We had it in our hands and it was fucking Jesus. I almost said Immortals of Avium. What was the immortal Phoenix Rising? Immortals Phoenix Rising. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was like, I go back. I look and I'm like, why didn't we let this one slip through our hands? We collectively as a society, we had this and we let it slip through. What was going on at the time?
00:51:50
Speaker
It was the new consoles launched. Everyone had Astro Bot fever. That's another one that was like, yes, it's discount. Discount tears of the kingdom is what everybody kind of labeled it as. And now we're back later. It is the best. tears of the kingdom, like, or breath of the wild, like that isn't breath of the wild or tears of the kingdom. That's great. That's good company. It's better than good. I think, you know, as far as like mega franchises are like, you know, I think indie games are launching new franchises all the time to be clear. I think. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. You mentioned circus dungeon too, but frogun too. Shout out to frogun. Yeah. I mean, I'm just, you know, kind of been digging through steam here. I mean, like,
00:52:38
Speaker
I like Hollow Knight's definitely a franchise. I'm sure Pizza Tower is going to be a franchise. Atosok comes out, it's not a franchise. Atosok comes out, you're legally not a franchise. Yeah. I mean, does does it count as a franchise if you keep adding DLC to a thing? No. I mean, that's what we were talking about. Like, that's five joints on Hollow Knight. Well, a franchise to me is a franchise at this point because they've kept building on it. yeah Yeah, that kind of feels like a live service thing right now. Yeah. no a friend A franchise to me extends beyond just ah one medium. for a lot of things, I think. I mean, I think there's, yeah, there's different there's different ways to define it. I mean, I know, like we're talking game sequels and all that, but you know, like yeah, I would say like a multimedia franchise is a little different, but yeah, I get your point. Something that, you know, Slay the Spire is a franchise. Now there's a sequel coming. I'm sure at some point dead cells would be a franchise. Like who knows? I don't know. No, but that's a weird statement to make.
00:53:33
Speaker
but i Yeah, I said, who knows and that? I don't know. It's not me. know Yeah. Doctors don't even know. I asked my doctor the other day. I do. Like I do wonder if like the days of like new mega franchises are over. Like, ah what do we get all the time? We get Star Wars, we get Marvel. Keep going back to the well on Indiana Jones. like Yeah. And when it does seem like we're getting something that could like start to crack that egg, it's kind of a flash in the pan, like with Power World, like with Helldivers. You know, it's like, yeah, this is big right now, but then it dies down a little bit and it becomes more normal. We're going back to fucking gladiator for. sake l Yeah, well, I don't like that. That was a good trailer. i yeah's a No church in the wild. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that movie, but also it's just like.
00:54:24
Speaker
a franchise now like or how far back are we or is Braveheart going to get a sequel? Yes. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, it actually, I did get a sequel. Oh, yeah. Yeah. ah it And it wasn't that hard either. No, it did. They got like a bullshit like secondary sequel following the guy's name, Richard. richard wasn it like those ah disney movie direct to v h one and a half right literally one and a half's called robert the bruce I don't think that's a C that's just someone trying to, because those are like real folks, right? So I think they were just trying to be able to know Gibson's brave heart.
00:55:05
Speaker
sequel with Anis McFadden, surprising his role as Robert the Bruce. Is that his name? No, but I call him that. But he's literally the same actor from Braveheart, reprising his role as Bruce. Classic Anis. Are you sure you didn't get track tricked like my friends got tricked by Black Papa? Look it up. It's right there. You know what? They looked it up and they got tricked by Black Papa. Black Papa. I'm just worried. It's weird for you. I don't trust Robert the Bruce. Um, the yeah, the i yeah. Well, the boys, you know, the boys started as a comic. I guess it's a media franchise now. vice is Absolutely. Yeah. It's good. I guarantee the boys thing. It's a franchise. Boys, the boys, Mexico is coming. Genevieve. Isn't there an animated one? It's a TV franchise. I don't see that getting a movie.
00:55:49
Speaker
I'd bet it's going to get a movie. Yeah, that show it ends with a movie. Yeah, they said in interviews the other day, like they want season what five to basically finish and then use do like a feature length film to wrap it all up. And that being said, I thought philmo throne should do the same thing and I was not correct on that. cost So what was the other big franchise they were going to do that for? I forget. Downton Abbey. Yeah, downtown, I don't know, picky, picky blinders, picky blinders. I have to wait on that damn movie. What an unsatisfying ending to that show. Yeah. What an absolutely unsatisfying. Pinky blinders. Did you argue that placeholder says, placeholder says, aren't you talking about outlaw king? No, there's a movie called Robert the Bruce. And if you look it up, it's a sequel to Braveheart. Without looking it up, I think you're lying.
00:56:42
Speaker
I'm not going to look at it. I'm not going to look at it. Uh, Darwin's done me with a $2 don't know talking about franchises too expensive to make. So they stick with old IP. I mean, that's the other thing is like, if this is designed by committee and this is market research, a company looks at what they have and they're in their, in their vault and they're like, well, we have Star Wars. Is it too expensive to make though? <unk>gen but and Well, yeah, yeah, but like even these existing IPs, like look how much money they're putting into Star Wars games and Indiana Jones. andll Oh, no, actually I think they just think it is a safer bet to align yourself with a known brand like yeah established whatever. Right. Yeah. Yeah. but like just but But what's crazy is like that's the problem is that they dump so much money into
00:57:26
Speaker
the the sure thing because they they're all their analytics say it's a sure thing. Whereas back in the day, like you could get a new franchise to pop off with like half the development cost. Why can't the new franchises just start a little smaller? Like why go out of the gate with such a massive budget? A million dollars. The sickest movies are like $75 million. dollars sneak a lot The last time I advocated for a brand new franchise, I got burned real fucking hard. and You know what it was? Rebel fucking moon. Oh yeah. I mean, that was, I couldn't even finish that movie. How much did I hype that shit up? Fuck you. That was the worst bet of last year. And I made the bet that the crab feeder would be the biggest character on House of the Dragon. And everyone who read the books knew that he was not. and So still, we I'm still, upset I'm still upset that Riddle Room didn't pretty funny nail it. Don't worry. The director is going to come out and everything. will The second part of that came out, right? Was that any better? I don't know. I didn't, I haven't finished the first part.
00:58:26
Speaker
You know, you're not a true, you're not a true moonies spider verse fan rebel makes more sense. I don't know why with the second word first words, literally there, uh, Faz with a 10 pound don't know. Thank you so much. Faz new IP needs to hit hard nowadays with all the competition. Concord looks fine, but from playing the beta doesn't do anything. Other live service games aren't, which is a tough sell for a premium game. Yeah. That is the other thing is you, you have to. simultaneously be familiar enough to get someone's foot in the door to take a look at it, but do something new to keep them there. And it's a weird balance that i don't I don't know how to
00:59:07
Speaker
How to sort? Yeah, i don't I don't have the magic sauce. I don't have the i don't have the the secret answer to the magic sauce. it I definitely don't have the magic sauce. I'm not even sure what that is. I feel like a lot of these would-be franchises that try to compete with existing franchises like Star Wars or Jurassic Park just end up half-assing it. yeah moon Like just what like Netflix, what are you doing? Why did you think this was good? ah The other one's like a fan base. The other one i was excited about ah which I thought would usurp Jurassic Park was 65 with Adam Driver.
00:59:41
Speaker
Then I could have told you right off the bat. So that movie shot like five years ago. Oh, and they didn't know what was going on with it. And then they were like, well, he's he's doing well in Star Wars and now he's an Oscar. So let's put it out now. And he was like, i I can't remember filming that. I don't remember doing this, um which is always telling me this before I wins. That's that's like the last movie I went saw in theaters and I was like, I'm done with this. I mean, ah now I understand why you're kind of off the theatrical experience. Yeah. Every time I get excited about a new franchise, it hurts me. Yeah. You're you're you're suffering. It's trauma. um Eric. Yeah. I support my franchise about my money and I get burned every time. Listen, I went to see Longlegs in theater. I want it. I want every I want every year. I want a movie about someone with longer legs. There's still to a point where like activity movies.
01:00:30
Speaker
until there's a movie, just a dude with the absolute longest legs. It's going to be great. Does the bad guy in that have like longer than normal legs? Like, is that a thing? I'm not sure why he's even called long legs. He's Nicolas Cage. He's got like normal. He's creepy, but he's got normal legs. I feel like I personally would be very upset. Like, this is what I paid for. I'm a very literal moviegoer. I'm a very literal moviegoer. And this man's legs were totally normal size. um Eric, been a member for six months using his ad-f free ah ad-free chat to say YouTube is bothering me with the membership benefits. So screw it. Marty, remember Ninjala, the Switch game plus anime that had an Evangelion collab. I don't remember the Evangelion. It was an anime? I do remember Ninjala, the game. I do not remember an anime and I do not remember an Evangelion collab. Yeah, I played a decent amount of Ninjala. It was fun.
01:01:24
Speaker
Yeah. Not to be confused with Ninjago, which is different. Yeah. That's like, that's Legos something. Yeah. Legos who kill each other. Um, Harry son. Been a member for six months. Thank you so much. Harry son. Uh, just gave me a community movie. You know what? We'll work on it. Six seasons in a movie just for you, Harry son. I think they all work on that, right? And then he can blame our other people for being the Donald Glover is too busy. And then he was like, no, it's Joel McHale who's too busy. um That's a really funny response from him because we all know Joel McHale's not doing anything. Did you see the trailer for Donald Glover's new movie? Yes. Oh, man. i should Yeah, we should bring that up. That trailer looks nuts. Okay, the trailer looks sick as hell. It's got a little album. Also, Joel McHale is doing something because I started watching X-Files reruns again because no I think I'm depressed. no That's a different topic. He now does ads for an online like casino app and he's just john mcel and it looks like one of those ads Jeff Winger would do when he hits a low point. And like it's a cold open to an episode and Britta comes in and like pulls him out of his funk and I'm like, oh no. Is everything all right, Joel? That's funny.
01:02:36
Speaker
Yeah. Nutskoon. Holy shit. We have been greeted by a celebrity. Nutskoon himself here with a $5 Dono. Nick, where are you at? I'm stuck in Persona Limbo and waifu lists until you come back. You know what? I can say we we have been trying to figure out when the next Dokapon stream is. Have we figured it out? No. Have we been trying? Yes. Yeah. I will also say we haven't been trying anything with Persona. So Nick, Yeah, let me alone. per September? September. I gotta go to PAX West in September. No, you go to PAX West in August and you come back September 2nd. You can't get a hall pass for the rest of September because you spent the first two days at PAX. Not how that works. First three days. You get a pass until September 5th and then afterwards you can't break it up anymore. What else is going on in September? Abdell. Persona is what's going on.
01:03:35
Speaker
That's to a 9-11 charity stream for persona. that why don't even say That's one of those ideas that should have kept in my mouth get all this stuff Thank you so much in the green gang for eight months, but Nick Why don't you wait for movie reviews or why don't you you have several co-workers? Who watch so many you have one who's like literally the best critic ever? Yeah, but I've been dead like Oppenheimer just hasn't got that review score. I need to watch it yet.
01:04:00
Speaker
It's got to be like... Isn't the 4K Blu-ray on sale for Prime Day or whatever? I know a lot of I the last... How is it? Oh, you bought already. I've had it for months. Yeah, you should've waited till Prime Day. You know what I finally decided to watch the other night instead? Was that... Pong X Godzilla. That was... I thought that was really boring. It was terrible. You know what I like? I like Blu-ray. Then I made a worse decision, and I watched a new Transformers movie, and that was awful.
01:04:25
Speaker
Uh, oh no, the one in the nineties. No, rise of the beast. Yeah. That was terrible. Oh, but it had good. song ask Yeah, that's probably really bad. That rise of the beast contract is the only good thing about it. Half the other is just the kid complaining about his life.
Transformers and Nostalgia
01:04:37
Speaker
That was what transformers one was about Jonathan lip. Nick, you know, what was his name? Yeah, but it was shy. Yeah. yeah sort of why do i remember that Jonathan Nicky is the actor who played the weird little kid in Jerry McGuire. He's like, you know how many bones are in the human skeleton?
01:04:56
Speaker
shout out did not the ni nicki not What did that kid grow up to be? He grew up to be like, long legs. I put extra bones in my legs. I think this movies is your own problem. I just needed two movies that made my brain shrivel up and die for an evening. And that happened. listen i And watch the good ones. Like what are you doing? My brain is activated during those. I don't, I didn't want that at that time. I just wanted to feel dumb and I got what I wanted. You still don't watch Under Paris? We got all watch Under Paris so we could talk about the last five minutes. I see i i want to see that, but I don't want to see it by myself. I'm going to put a hard and fast date, and at that point, I'm just going to spoil the shit out Under Paris for everyone. I'm going to give everyone like a solid
Dragon Quest I and Age Jokes
01:05:43
Speaker
two months to watch it, and if you didn't, I'm going to spoil it. I have i have ah the creator lined up to watch. I might watch it tonight.
01:05:51
Speaker
That's a good mindless movie that is pretty as hell. Yeah. Yeah. um shit that's pretty so got I just got my copies of monkey men and civil war. Oh, I really want Maybe wait till December for Civil War. No, I need to watch it now. So I know what they're playing. And then Harry Sutton, thank you so much for Five Australian Dollars. Lesson of the day, be excited for one-off, contained stories and not planned franchises. Well, you're in luck because we're at what we've been playing and none of it's a franchise. My first thing, Dragon Quest I.
01:06:27
Speaker
ah but I've never played the early Dragon Quest games and I played Dragon Quest I. which it was ah literally left like, that is the err JRPG. um And I did not realize there's no party in it. It's just a man. I assume that you only fight things one at a time. I'm like, I assume there'd be a whole row of folks. Like he's just one man. The game is six hours long. ah Delightful a delightful little blueprint. My only my thing is I got it. It's on sale on switch. but It was like two dollars ah It is it's like the mobile port which has quality of life features, but as ugly as sin Eric has it up here now the little character that does not little character look so ah I like the drawings like the Toriyama drawings ah but the the carling side and To the mobile thing like yeah, like when it when it is first release what year did this originally come out?
01:07:17
Speaker
Uh, I believe 86. I believe it came out like very close to my birthday. No, I was born in 1886. I'm not vampir, Nick. Wait, you were born in 86? Yeah. I thought we were the same age. We can be the same age. You're both old. I'm 38, but born in 86. At some point in the next year, you were going to be 38 because I've only been 38 for like a month. but sure, but the filter just threw me off. ah you Are you afraid to say your age, Casey?
01:07:52
Speaker
No, I'm, I'm, I'm the same age as Marty. When are you going to actually in January? So you're in your year for six months. No, yeah I am six months old. If you're six months, we're going to be the same age. And then for the next six months, I'm going to look at it that way. I feel like you're a year older than me. You were born
Movie Marketing and Reviews
01:08:10
Speaker
in his years before my year. is Again, I, this is, I get mad at to save it for Mondays. This is 30. This is Wednesday. We're not dealing with this shit. ah smart looks and We're absolutely not dealing with this shit. That's a that's a really good age filter on Marty right now, though. Like that's almost exactly like my uncle. I look like ah when they gave her the old man makeup in True Detective season three. Oh, no. he Eric just did it the other direction. It's a child mustache. Horrifying. And then King Dad with a two dollar down under Paris. I think you mean Shark de Triomphe.
01:08:45
Speaker
That should have been called Shark the Triomphe, if we're being honest. They really, really screwed the pooch on that one. They really screwed the Great White on that one. um Yeah. And then the other, I mentioned long legs already. I don't want to spoil it. It's a hard movie to talk about, but i it's getting a little pushback from press because I think everyone bought into the, there was like the pre-hype around it where this is the scariest film of all time. And, uh, you know, this is, we, we, the marketing was actually like absolute top tier. It was like legitimately some of the best marketing I've ever seen on a horror movie, uh, to
01:09:17
Speaker
to hide what Nicolas Cage looks like the entire time to like not reveal that in the marketing to do the thing with the I don't know if you saw the trailer for the main actress, but they had her like they had her heart monitor on when the first time she did a scene with Nicolas Cage when he was wearing that makeup and like her resting heart rate like fucking propelled into oblivion during that scene. They use that as a marketing beat. So like that's marketing. But I don't want to spoil too much. But the movie, the movie feels evil. in a really good way. Like I left the theater like being like, I need to zo shower and call my loved ones and tell them I'm here for them if they need me. And then the last thing I played with Skim, which obviously, like I mentioned, was our sponsor for this episode. I was not involved in that sponsorship. I have a bite size review. Everything is in for it probably up the next couple of days. um But just a delightful four to five hour ah puzzle platformer where you play as ah in sort of an opening 15 minutes
01:10:13
Speaker
you You play as this little ah kind of shadow sprite that kind of like moves like a frog, but you live in the shadow of this dude and you play as him from a kid growing up into an adult. And then that opening kind of plays like a Pixar opening, like a up or wally or something like that. sure And then you get separated from him and the whole game is about trying to get past. trying to get across town and reuniting with your, I guess, more corporeal half. um
Hero Shooters and Game Reviews
01:10:38
Speaker
But you can only exist in the shadows of objects. You can't exist in the ah you know in in direct sunlight. And so it turns into this kind of puzzle platformer where you're bouncing between all these objects, trying to interact with them. Some things, oh, if you interact with ah with a forklift, then its forklifting will go up, and it creates a new shadow that you can then live in that shadow to get to the next thing.
01:10:59
Speaker
um just in the As you are seeing now, if you're watching this video, an incredible visual style, this isometric view and beautiful kind of two-tone color palette. ah Excellent music that feels like, it just feels like a really low-fi beats to study to kind of thing. And nice and short, out of out of your life in like four or five hours. I thought it was delightful. I think it's coming out for a PC switch in PlayStation, I believe. ah Tomorrow, really good stuff. Big fan. That was it. Nice. That's all I did. Jumping from shadow to shadow is my daily life during the summer. Oh, no, my skin. I am burning. Yeah. um Yeah. ah Nick, would you would do what have you been getting into lately?
01:11:44
Speaker
Well, I said earlier, just put put a lot of hours in the Concord beta this weekend, which is somebody that really hasn't gotten into the hero shooter genre outside of like Siege, really. Concord like really nailed it for me. ah I'm definitely picking it up and I think I'm going to play it quite a bit. I really liked what I played in the beta ah but essentially plays like Destiny meets Overwatch, which That's an A plus combination. Yeah, I think ah ahly like I know I know people who play a lot of Overwatch and Paladins and all that would disagree with me. But like I've never felt like those games exactly felt good to play. Like I don't feel like a lot of feedback when I'm hitting things or anything like that. It's just kind of, you know, whittling down health bars. And a lot of people really love them for the strategy. But this
01:12:33
Speaker
This is a this is a slower paced hero shooter. It's a lot more methodical. the The guns and the characters all feel like weighty as in like that destiny kind of style. So um yeah, no, I really had a good time with ah the the I'm hoping the open beta this weekend has like the ah that wasn't a tornado or it was an amber alert. um I'm hoping the open beta this weekend has like whatever payload. mode like and you I'm sorry, a child is literally missing those. Yeah, yeah we got to find that baby. And I just kind of just wave that one off. Yeah, now I feel kind of bad for talking about video games.
01:13:18
Speaker
But yeah, overall, like I came away really surprised by how much I really enjoyed the game. like And also, when I do play Overwatch or Paladins or anything like that, I usually only stick between like two or three different heroes. ah i I happily switched between like almost all of the 16 heroes that were in this, or 12 heroes that were in this. like I found them all... Actually, I think there were 16. I think there were 16 heroes, and they were all very fun to play. like There weren't any that I really didn't like. And it just for the beta as itself like felt relatively balanced to me. And I think it just it just scratched the edge that I've had. Like I've wanted to play a hero shooter of this style. I have any of the story stuff in it because that's but I know you said that that stuff like you don't really care about. That was the stuff from the trailers that I did. find Like I did kind of like the characterization and I do still kind of like the Guardians of the Galaxy. Yeah. fine it travel well Yeah. um um' I mean, that's the.
01:14:13
Speaker
since they're like USP for the game, the unique selling point for the game is like that these characters will really have fleshed out stories and that you're like following a narrative week to week. um So like when you start the beta, ah there there is like an opening cutscene that introduces you to small casts of the characters on their ship and like what the the plot is for why they're going to do these missions and stuff like that. It didn't really do anything for me. It kind of felt like the usual like try hard, like we're trying to be cool for the kids kind of writing.
01:14:45
Speaker
um I'm sure it will appeal to some other people, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't really care. I'm just there for the gameplay. I like that idea though, because I feel like that was always a weak point. of Overwatch is that they would give you like these hero, they would give you these trailers that would elicit a ton of like emotion and care about the characters. But then like everything about story was like in the margins and like they released like a graphic novel that was online only like every three to six months or something. And that was the only time you would get info like the characters have little voice lines that just hinted at things. Whereas everyone kind of just wanted a movie by the end of it.
01:15:26
Speaker
be like, can we get like an actual story? Tell us what the hell's going on with these characters in this world would be cool, which I'm sure would not work from a gameplay and would just anger fans who just want to play this game is to have it like legitimately have the if there is a weekly story, have it legitimately impact the characters you can play as. Have it be where a character has gone missing and that character is not available that week and you'll find out in the story why, like where the character was and why they're off the map. ah Have, if two characters get in a gnarly fight in the story, have them have some sort of like either synergy against each other or like with each other. They're not allowed to be on the same team or something laughing yeah yeah or like I do not think that would work for like balancing a multiplayer game where people who don't give a shit about the story, but I do think just overall it's kind of neat.
01:16:14
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't have a green box. Yeah, the thing that actually has me excited about this game or like Overwatch and others didn't is ah been I feel like with the direction when they've gone with this, like just being in space where anything can really happen. um not Not that Overwatch couldn't, but I feel like Blizzard has just dropped the ball so hard on Overwatch is like this. If they treat this like Helldivers, they can make any hero they want for this and like take it really in any direction. ah so that that i think If they do it right, i think this I think this game has a chance to be quite successful after this open beta this weekend. because like
01:16:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's social media and all that was like, oh, the game's a failure because the numbers, the numbers and it's like, well, the game didn't work for like 90 percent of people on PC anyways. Yeah, we can. You can. Yeah, we don't know. it We don't know what the numbers were on PlayStation, but I mean, like the subreddit and everything's pretty like very surprised with the game. Very happy with it. So I think they if they find their our audience, I think this game, I think this game will be a hit. I get plays really, really good. I think it's going to take word of mouth. to get it out there like this, this is solid. I i haven't watched skill ups video yet. I know everybody's pointing at that. He didn't he didn't really like it, but I'm i'm going to have to go watch. I'm curious what he said, because he's a much bigger destiny player and I'm sure, you know, hero a shooter player than I am. So I may be the I may be the outlier audience that like this hits that itch, but for longtime players of hero shooters, maybe not.
01:17:44
Speaker
Uh, the other game, the other game I'm playing is, uh, pregnant butch in her name, but horticular. ah It is literally Pixel Viva Pinata, like to the bone. You build a
Series Reviews and Anime Discussions
01:17:58
Speaker
garden, like you you go to a stranded world and you're basically rebuilding that world by building gardens and attracting different animals to it. So like bees and frogs and horses and all that kind of stuff. ah And it's got the same almost same, almost the same exact like shop system
01:18:17
Speaker
that V.O. Pinata has where you start the game, and it's just got that really nice progression loop of every time you complete a challenge, like you're getting something new, you're either getting a new plant, a new item, a new access to a new creature, access to a new plot of land, access to a new upgrade, something has got all of that in it. Like it's literally just a constant progression loop, which is what V.O. Pinata was so good at. Like everything you did was contributing back to your garden, contributing to your gardening level, You know, you were making money. You were increasing the happiness of your your animals. You're fixing the world. You're getting upgrades like it's just a constant dopamine drive of like it that this sounds really pleasant.
01:19:01
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it's ah it's extremely pleasant game. You know, there's there's is' a little bit of like ah there there is like an enemy in the game that you have to contend with. But yeah, overall, like if if you if you're wanting a new video pinata game, this game is 100 percent inspired by it. And I i can't recommend that enough. I mean, yeah, you specifically have been wanting a new video game. So that's that's really cool that you finally got one. Yeah. ah Yeah. I mean, like my only disappointment with it is like I would have preferred if it was just like animals. It was more interesting creatures. Like can't really say a bumblebee excites me, but especially like pixel art form, like, you know, basic animals are kind of boring. But overall, like the the gameplay progression loop is what's keeping me in there.
01:19:51
Speaker
And it also plays very, very well the controller. Like they built it around a controller. So you want to play it on your Steam Deck? Perfect place to play it. Amazing. I probably wouldn't play this, but fabulous. but Well done. Well done, team. Anything else? I wrapped up the acolyte finale last night, which I actually really, really enjoyed. You've been hearing no thoughts about that finale. I didn't know I was finale. I somehow have not. Well, I'll watch it. time Yeah, it's ah and I wrapped it up in a satisfying way. And I kind of, a you know, i' my my feelings grew in a more positive direction the longer the show went on. I mean, it's only eight episodes long, but I think the start of the show is pretty rough. But once you get about to
01:20:35
Speaker
three episodes in, I think it really comes together. And then by the end, like it was actually a pretty good emotional ending, which I don't often say about Star Wars, except for like Revenge of the Sith, maybe. i um And it's taking it's taking the the franchise in an interesting direction. ah And I think like I know from reading the subreddit reactions on Star Wars to the episode, like people are very happy with it overall. Uh, so yeah, I think, I think, yeah, if you watch it as a bin series, I think you're probably going to enjoy it more than a week to week, kind of like the same issue almost every Disney show has. Cause they're either too long or too short. you said You said it started to get better at episode three or four. And that's when Basil came in. I'm going to be honest, Basil, Basil, our little, our weird little gopher man who likes sniffing things. Yeah. And the show. Yeah. And, uh,
01:21:27
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. you know Again, I'm an outlier. I guess Nick agrees. I'm an for Star Wars shows where I really love the Soka and I think Acolyte's my second favorite. You have a book of the word tattoo? No, no, no. Well, if if I do, it's on my ass, so I just sit on it all the time, but yeah. Of that Rancor, both of them riding his Rancor pet. Casey, what have you been watching playing? um I've been watching um some nonsense, truly. ah But no, I started, I went back to Bungo Stray Dogs, um which is an anime series that I think just finally after a really long time got its fourth season.
01:22:10
Speaker
Um, but it had been so long since I, cause I watched like seasons one, two, and three straight through, like just binged the hell out of all that was like really ah and enamored with it. Um, and then like the gap for season four was so long that I forgotten literally everything about the show. I just remember that season three was a big flashback and that it was really good. And so I was like, crap. I watched like the last episode of season two, knowing that that was the last one that was in the present. And I was like, this is a good episode. i so I don't remember anything about anyone. This is worrisome. So i iron let me let me just watch the prequel season and maybe that'll give me all the reference I need to then go back to the present in this new season.
01:22:51
Speaker
And I'm realizing, like, yeah, I don't remember anything from this. So um and i'm I'm also realizing that it's a little slow. Like, I've i'm been like a couple of episodes in and like it's not hitting the way I remember that show hitting. And I don't know if it's like nostalgia goggles or if it's this thing that I've that I very recently have started thinking about is that a lot of shows will do a full season that is just a prequel. And I don't know if I'm a fan of that option because like this happened with Jjutsu Kaisen. Yeah. And like that was by far the worst season of those shows. And I was already kind of lukewarm on those shows with all the hype it had. But that prequel season was like, this might be a bad show. And then as soon as they like went back to the present, I was like, okay, I'm i'm kind of back in. like there're They're hitting their marks again.
01:23:37
Speaker
So I just, I think that's a little strange that they, they choose to do that sort of stuff as opposed to like wrapping in some of that history just over the course of the series. But I'm gonna keep, I'm gonna keep going. Cause I, yeah, I, I think I have vague memories of like the finale of this, uh, prequel season. And like it, I remember it being like really like, Not concerning, but like it like it's affecting. It was like, oh man, like shit just popped off and this explained so much about like these characters, whatever, by the end. So like i just i I just need to remember the steps that got there and then hopefully that I'll be good going into the fourth season. But like big fan of that anime series, hopefully um it's not smoke and mirrors and that I'll continue to be a fan. um And outside of that, a very very obscure web cartoon called Punch Punch Forever, which I found not that long ago.
01:24:27
Speaker
um the There are only two episodes exist, and funny story, the first one was released about a year ago today, and like the hype for that series and like the mythos around it has just existed like very heavily, up until it finally like shadow-dropped its second episode like last month. Took a year for a second ad. It took a full year. Like the the creator is this dude Speedaru. Speed-o-roo, I think is how you say his name. He's just a YouTube animator. He's got like a bunch of like little animatics and shorts. I think he's worked on a bunch of like random series of throughout the industry for a while now. um But like this, like Punch Punch Forever is, the premise is there's this sort of like demon world tournament and like this little girl is this martial arts master who goes and competes in it. um But it's,
01:25:16
Speaker
It's the sort of like 80s style Japanese anime that like the the story is that the creator like found this videotape, and like his grandfather's attic or whatever. It's all BS, but it's like placing you in like the headspace of like what this is supposed to be. Like it's yeah it's very much feels like it's a very old anime, but like it's funny as shit. Like it's one of the funniest little like animatics I've ever seen in my life. like just like crude humor, like ah referential stuff. um He even slices in like old like VHS-laden commercials in between like the um like the episode interstitials. When you would get a commercial break, you get literal like bits of commercials. um like He has actual like Japanese voice actors doing all the voices.
01:26:06
Speaker
and stuff. So like, if like, it really feels authentic. Like at first glance, you would think this came from the past, but then by listening to the writing, you'd be like, there's no way that they were doing this back then. But like, it's, it's so funny episodes, like 20 minute episodes. I think they're a little shorter than 20 minutes, but it's like eight to 10. Yeah. Like I think the first, first episode was like eight second episodes, like 12. But like, yeah, it's fully animated. ah super well voiced, super well written, hilarious as fuck, like there's even good action in it when there's action. um So like, I want someone to give this guy as much money as possible to just make this a thing. Because like this person is super talented. um If you have any interest to check it out, like it's it's
01:26:49
Speaker
It's to the point where like I became a fan after just that episode and luckily had found it so late that the second episode dropped like within like a couple of weeks. Yeah. But like other people have to wait another year. i I guess so. Hopefully, hopefully somebody will ah pay this man. Pay this man. and give them some folks to work with Yeah. Like give him some help. Give him help. littlell team Yeah. um check Check out his YouTube channel as well. There's a lot there's a lot of, like, not safe or worse stuff on there. What porno? There's not, like, straight up porno, but, like, you yeah he's one of those kind of, he's one of those kind of artists, but, like, he's a great writer. butpidar ah But, yeah, highly recommended. um Outside of that,
01:27:31
Speaker
um i I finished the Kunitsu Gami demo. Like I know we have like coding account, but I figured it's coming to Game Pass. I might as well like check it out on Xbox. yeah um And if I like it, you know, start to save there. um And it's like short story. It's a tower defense game. It's got like a really cool setting. And it's got like some light like combat mechanics and how you like kind of defend after you set up your your units by like, you run around like these sort of like corrupted top-down maps, um and you gather resources, and then you spend those resources on those people who you save from like that corruption, and you make them either soldiers, archers, spellcasters, whatever, and they you can position them on the map, and there's a lane from like where the the demons are coming from, and then you have your goddess who you are also spending those same resources that you're using to create these units on building her a path to the gate in order to seal it. And so there's a day-night cycle where
01:28:32
Speaker
on the first day, you may not get enough resources to trace a full path. Or if you do trace a full path, you might only have yourself to act as defense because you didn't spend any on soldiers. So it was kind of a risk and reward type thing. So I found that loop fairly interesting. I didn't get super deep because it was just like three missions in the demo. yeah But it seems like there's there's potential for them to like add like a lot more complication, like more lanes, like different kinds of units that you'll need to handle specific things. um I don't know if there's like um more like abilities and moves that you get. I do know like um you can like swap out different special moves that have specific uses based on like the kind of enemy you're dealing with. So I'm sure like this is all stuff that you just learn over time.
01:29:14
Speaker
um And even though I'm not a big tower defense guy, the aesthetic and like the feel of everything, like yeah like it's set up so well in terms of how you run around and then like issue orders to things. like you like You go into a list by just the press of a button and you just cycle through your units based on their name, which means when you create a ah guy, you have to read and remember that guy's name because you're like, all right i put ah Uh, uh, what's, the what, what's and so so and so's, uh, on this hill, but I want him over on this crest now i to remember who that was to then send him, um, where he needs to be, uh, as a situation is like,
01:29:53
Speaker
advancing There's like little interstitials like there was a boss battle where like you have to call everyone to you to help you like gang up on like this big guy or send them all to the priestess because stuff is getting around you guys and she's in danger or whatever. um So like there's enough variety and I think there's enough gameplay to build upon. But um I think it's missing like a real narrative hook. Like um it was weird like they had me choose whether I wanted English or Japanese voiceover. but no one talked in the demo. i don't I don't know if that's just a demo, but like there was literally no voices. And yeah I'm curious if the, if the demo is just kind of a like to give a taste of the gameplay and that there's a more big story, everything. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I think this, it it would greatly benefit from like a narrative that gets pulls you along and like keeps me invested in just what I like, why I'm going from like place to place and like who the characters are and like why I want to protect the priestess or whatever. Like what her deal
Game Expectations and Monetization
01:30:45
Speaker
is.
01:30:46
Speaker
You know, the trailers, ah trailers have said there's a narrative in it. Yeah, the trailer the trailer looks like that's the case. It was funny. What what you're just everything you described about. I didn't realize how tower defense heavy it was going to be. it This seems like a ah weird experimental PS2 game. And I mean that with every with every compliment I could give it. You know what it you know, it sounds like sounds like Pikmin. We have a single goal accomplish it over a stretch of time. You're talking about how there's a day night cycle You got to be like what am I gonna do in this day? How much how much should I buy off in this day? You're sending orders orders of different units spreading them out. This is a picture like soon it Sounds a bit closer like orcs must die
01:31:25
Speaker
You know what Orcs Must Eyes? A Pikmin, like... Yeah, those are all at core. Yeah, like the core of all those games are strategy games. And I guess that's what tower defense is at the end of the day, right? Like you build up defenses to strategically, you know, take down whatever's attacking you. Tower's moving. Tower's constantly moving. You're not like... Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not tower defending a stationary castle. You're tower defending a mobile princess. ah Yeah, it's got me if you will. I don't know what that means. Yeah, is that I don't I don't know what can it's got me either. so But um, but yeah, I am very intrigued. Like I do want to play more. Um, yeah, comes on friday yeah like it comes out pretty soon.
01:32:07
Speaker
um Yeah, I think I think if it has a story that like hits that like holds my attention, like it might it might be the sort of thing that like kind of steals a ton of time for me, like without me realizing it. Cause that gameplay loop is is nice. there are they now still po me costumes and i'm excited And I like that Capcom is still, for its multi-million sellers, its street fighters and monster hunters and ressies and stuff, it's still given a little time. Weird games like this, even last year with Exo Primo, with whatever pragmata is going to be, I like that we're still, Capcom is like using, it's using its its funds for good.
01:32:44
Speaker
Um, it's a case where they kind of have an overabundance of like ideas, because it's like, you still want them to go. Like we complain about everyone else going back to the well, but it's like Capcom, please go back to the well. There's so many wells you have to go back to like, yeah. So yeah, we're, we're full on hypocrites. I know and it's fun to go to the well. If you surpass the originals, that's an evil seven did that for them. You can't just live at the well. You gotta like, see, there's like other stuff other than the well, like go to the well, go back to the well every once in a while, get refreshed, but also explore beyond the well. Yeah, yeah ah I don't want to go too heavy in the film a lot because the review is going to drop tomorrow, but um that game, I was excited for that game. Like it it had a really good showing. ah Also, if you look at any of like the trailers trailers or marketing material for that game,
01:33:37
Speaker
some of the best like just graphic design on just the trailers. I love like the the font and like the way like they're cutting like the like the imagery and like the like it's like two-tone. It's dark on the top, top ah light on the bottom. yeah That game looks fantastic. It presents very, very well. It it just doesn't play as good as any of that. like As good and kinetic as those trailers feel, like moment to moment, that game is a lot more boring. And that that's kind of disappointing. but like the The nitty-gritty is in the review, so check that out when that drops, I think, tomorrow. Yeah. And that's the next game from A44, who were the developers of Ashen. Yeah, they did. Ashen. Yeah, which I liked. I liked Ashen. That was a good soul. Yeah, this this feels like this feels like a huge kind of like leap forward, just in terms of fidelity and like help help the scope of the game. Yeah, it's pretty. It's definitely like pushing those teraflops or whatever the hell's going on.
01:34:33
Speaker
ah retir andwa anymore who oh I was surprised by how much to like the demo just didn't click for me for that one, too, which I was annoyed by. I was like, this is a game. this I want to like this game a lot. But the demo, I don't know. Yeah, I think like the ah big part was just like the acting and the characters are all very stiff. Yeah, like it's not it's not a great. Like I like the setup and I like. you know um I like what they were going for, but like they just do not hit any of those marks, sadly. Yeah, that's why the yeah like the action games like that that really hit from here are the ones that like if you're going to have like really a not super interesting narrative or characters, just just put me in the world and let me do my thing. Yeah. Yeah, it's a tough balancing act there. Yeah, because Steel Rising had that same problem.
01:35:29
Speaker
Yeah. Liza P doesn't have that Bronx. I barely have to interact with any people in that game. So I mean, you could, you know, I guess you don't have to, but yeah, you got a little silent little emo Pinocchio there. Casey, you have one last game. Emo. Emo Keo. I like you. I'm sorry. I don't know why. shop a little bit I like that. There's only three letters I want to talk about right now. I'm still, I'm still playing ZZZ. Zella's on zero. Have I, I've met you that last week, right? I just, I feel like we you've talked about it just in every, in every interaction I've had with you and all yeah about it. That game, uh, someone described, I think someone at PC gamer wrote a whole thing that game is like overfilled with juice as the kids call it, right? Like all of the movement and the actions and the menus.
01:36:18
Speaker
and like the little unlocks and like you're you're getting all this freaking currency you're getting so much currency there's like 80 different currencies in that game all of it's important if you want to uh uh rank up your characters or whatever but like going through the the menus and just checking the list and like doing the dumb little side quests where you should talk to a guy and then you go talk to a little robot and then that robot tells you to kick a soccer ball there's no kick button mind you you just walk um ah yeah and you walk and collide with the soccer ball to get it to go where you want it to go. And then that that checks the box that you need for you to then get that currency. I'm all in. like it It has hooked that part of my brain that just wants to see the numbers go up. And like it's worrisome because the gameplay is very fun.
01:37:02
Speaker
But it is like 20% of what you do while playing Zenlyzone Zero. Yeah, like they don't let you fight that often. And like the fights like they they encourage you to get get them over with as soon as possible. Like you have bonuses for like finishing in like a minute, two minutes, like four and a half if you're like doing like one of the the bigger story missions. And it's like, I want to do a lot more of this combat because it's really kinetic. It's fun. um like it's it's the character moves are so so freaking well animated like they do this nice mix of um like the 3d animations and stuff but then they'll throw like what just looked like straight up 2d anime like i think you're seeing in the trailer now like 2d anime filter stuff on top of the 3d and like it's used so
01:37:48
Speaker
so amazingly well to just like transition between gameplay and like the big character cutscenes when they do like their super moves um and the transitions to the actual trailers. um Like it is it is a super kinetic and fun and thrilling game to like sit and be in awe of. But like, yeah, it's it's kind of a problem because it is very much a mobile gotcha hellscape. Yeah. and I've not spent any money, mind you. I've not spent any money, but like i um if i was a different person If I was a different person, I'd be a goner. Sounds like a more a more aggressive monetization than even Genshin Impact. Yeah, Genshin Impact has way more game. like That's the thing.
01:38:33
Speaker
Like the the monetization stuff doesn't hit you until way later in Genshin because you have to get through so much of the big open world and then like you're stuck behind having to grind to like get your character and stuff up. This game is sort of feeding you a lot more story rather than game. And a lot of that, and a lot of your progression to get to the next story beat is like do all of this side stuff, which just but just encourages you to like chase more currency because then that that currency lets you like pay into the thing that gets you more characters unless you continue the whatever. It's a bad loop. It's a bad loop. And I already remember the characters out right now. It's not like you have a problem. Yeah. Your son's going to see you. Your son's going to be like, I'm going back to Roblox then. Roblox is full of perverts. That's a totally different issue.
01:39:24
Speaker
thai is a great choice Roblox has a bunch of long legs. We can't get them out of it. Uh, incredible. Uh, I wish I was going to say and all that. I was just going to say, man, I wish how are you ever so like use Genshin for your, your money, but man, make a premium game. Damn it. Because they're games. They are fantastic game devs over there. It's just everything they make is just tied to that monetary scheme. You think they'll ever make just a a traditional 60, 70 or no way. Everything they everything put out makes like a billion dollars.
01:39:55
Speaker
yeah Yeah, but what if you can use that money for good do what Capcom does and be like, well, we'll get take that is one they taglines. Isn't it like otaku's saving the world or something? That's like their mission statement. I would love a world where they release a game of the year contender like a premium regular ass game. That's like people like this is fucking good. Yeah. And we they can do it. They have the skill set. They can absolutely do it. ah my Counterpoint money. That is true. Counterpoint money. ah Chinese Mr. Krabs over there. Uh, before we, uh, I don't even know what that means. Sounds awful. Someone says awful things the entire show. It sounds terrible. Uh, before we wrap up, Abdell Corral is, uh, with a $5 don't know. Thank you so much. This is for Eric and his fantastic producing habla, habla daddies. What is that word? Hillbilly dates.
01:40:52
Speaker
I don't know what that word is, Abdull. Oh, skills. Is that Spanish skills? Damn, Abilodatas and Qster. Ten dollar demo. Thank you so much, Qster. Just as my Qster as our resident XO Primal expert, speaking of Capcom games, I take a risk. Just as my weekly update, XO Primal, as of July 5th, has ended development. sort are still up and seasons one through four content will be recycled. I haven't been able to play since the news dropped too sad. cutro I'm sorry to hear that. i can yes I've never had a live service kit. I mean, I guess I had the Avengers, but that was like a, I got out of that relationship by then. Yeah. I kicked that, but it only took like a solid year, but I kicked that. but um
Live Service Games Reflection and Conclusion
01:41:36
Speaker
Yeah. I've never had a live service game that like, when, when just like, it'd be sad. Yeah. I've had like restaurants. I like and bars. I like clothes. And that was sad. So pretty much the same thing. to be something to smell Yeah. so all fun i have I still have a copy of evolve. I'm still annoyed. That never reaches potential. I think it was just a little too early. Yeah. A little bit later, I think. it could was could be bigger um Don't worry. That'll probably bring it back like gigantic at some point. that That'll go just as well. I don't think it's going very well. No. Um, that, that, that does it for us today. Thank you so much everyone for tuning in for, uh, this, this, uh, episode of firelink, uh, Casey, what do you have going on? What should, what should folks check out? Uh, well, like we mentioned earlier, there's a flintlock, the siege of dawn review, a bite size review on the way. So check that out when it drops. Um,
01:42:32
Speaker
Also, Marty and I will be continuing our devil may cry adventure with devil may cry five tomorrow. So that should be a fun time. But we're looking forward to seeing if that game does take the crown as the best DMC game. Cause right now a ninja theories, DMC does hold the crown and they're holding it tight. So it's on, it's on you not done me cry five. Yeah. um Outside of that, ah make sure you're watching those Adventure is Nigh remasters. They're dropping every Saturday. There's great stuff in there. um We'll also have... Oh, like you, like Marty mentioned, we're we're planning a Dokopan thing at some point. That's hard to find several hours for that workflow for us.
01:43:18
Speaker
So it's coming, that's all we can say right now is that it's coming. um But yeah, ah for personal stuff, follow me, Sigma Gears 9, all over the internet, ah the wedding streams with me, my fiance, and my child, um as well as Super Smash Sunday, every Sunday at the same place, 2.30 p.m. Eastern your Standard Time, 2.5.30. It's three whole hours of just the most smash. ill like I'll leave it at so much. So much. I popped in for a second this weekend. Your commentary. Great. Well, thank you casting almost like your your play by play. Like incredible. Like it felt legitimately professional. I'm not doing play by play. Yeah. Yeah. When I'm not in the ring. Yeah. I try to. kind of jump Someone else. Yeah. Yeah. So you get to hear what it sounds like. No.
01:44:03
Speaker
They sounded correct though. There was like DDD doing some shit. No one one actually knows. No one knows if i'm saying what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great time. Come through. Awesome. Nick. You have dogs for sale? Yeah. Do you have a dog for sale? I have a episode of Unpacked locked and loaded in the chamber for next Thursday. Finally. Uh, and then maybe on a sponsored stream tomorrow with Jack they was but strong old Jack for a new two central older.
01:44:36
Speaker
Union of Gnomes, the much talked about Union of Gnomes that you've seen probably before several videos and streams. Jack is very excited for that one, so Jack and Nick will be checking that out. 2 p.m. central tomorrow. And then figuring out what Friday looks like. Don't know if I'll be there for Call of Duty this Friday or not. May have some things come up. And then no game night this weekend, but we probably have a game night the weekend after. So. Great. Sweet. And then, you know, you know, check out all those new thumbnails we're working on and the animal will documentaries. If you're on Patreon, you can submit questions for the rapid fire question video we're going to do with Billy Basso. So you can go do that.
01:45:14
Speaker
a Yeah, there's other stuff going on. I don't know. There's a lot of stuff. My solo streams. He wants me to play my solo streams. I probably won't be on tomorrow. Tomorrow's a very busy day for us. So, I'll be back on Sunday for more siege, probably, or Concord if the beta's going. Conquered. Conquered's bad for a day. I don't know why I said that. um I don't know. I don't know why I said that at all. Yeah. and then um Yeah. The stuff we're going to talk about. DMC or Devil May Cry 5 tomorrow. That'll be my last stream for like a week and a half because I'll be out on holiday next week. So no. Won't be on Windbreaker. Won't be on this. Won't be on the Rewind. Won't be on Devil May Cry. In case you just have next Thursday, you don't got to do anything.
01:45:54
Speaker
Nice. You can go to a pool. Maybe I will. You can go to a pool. And then I said there should be a skim review up at some point, so tune in for that. Excellent. Uh, for Nick and Casey, uh, this and Eric, this was Marty. This was, uh, finally like episode number 29. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Anyone who watched live, uh, anyone who donated, anyone who's a member, anyone who listens on our podcast services, we really appreciate it. Uh, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your evening and we'll see you all later. Bye everyone. Take care.
01:46:37
Speaker
you