Transcript
neocharge: welcome to Shapes of Gaming, the weekly conversational podcast all about video games. It's unedited, unfiltered, and we have always been unhinged here.
Leon Lionheartly: g
neocharge: I'm one of your hosts, Matt Neocharge on PSN.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: wrote
neocharge: And joining me, we have the crew, the entire crew here for episode number 50, our one-year anniversary.
Leon Lionheartly: no
neocharge: The 50th episode is, of course, as always, the Retro Gaming Encyclopedia, Bob Harriman, Leon Lionheart, Leon PSN. What's up, dude?
Leon Lionheartly: Happy birthday, Shapes.
neocharge: Right? One year's old. Holy shit. And like I said, we have the entire crew. So we also have Alex Meese, Goatlord Shriobix on PSN, also known as Oracle Mike on Discord. And he's he's a wizard when it comes to music production, has some albums out.
neocharge: What's up, man? How's it going?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Pretty good. I'm just really happy you finally said the name right after a whole year.
neocharge: Hey, I did it. The Goatlord himself.
Goatlord-Sriobix: but Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. And as always, you all love him. He's rounding out the Shapes crew. Caleb Schiff, Admiral Murps on PSN. He 100%s all his lists on gaming.
neocharge: He's the the trophy hunter himself. The best. What's up, dude?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): was ah
neocharge: Oh, my God. What happened?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): guy
neocharge: Yeah. All right. Welcome up to this 90s podcast. ah I'm one your hosts. No, we were just talking about scary movie. That's funny. Love it. Good intro. And then you stay silent.
neocharge: Just like amazing.
Leon Lionheartly: He wants to keep this podcast under three hours.
neocharge: So.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm trying my best. I have to start from the beginning.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and
neocharge: Fellas, this is our 50th main episode, our 59th episode we've ever done, because we, of course, have bonus episodes. We have spoiler casts. We have a spoiler cast in the works for you all, actually, recording soon. But we are on our 50th main episode. It has been one year. This podcast is going to go live exactly one year from the day that our first podcast went live, episode zero, Hello World.
neocharge: How are you all feeling? Bob, go first.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm scared, daddy.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Phenomenal. Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think you should name the episode, I'm 50, but I don't know how you write it so that people read it that way.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: May
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But that's just that's just my suggestion. I'm excited for you guys.
neocharge: 1st.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I really am. and that's this I didn't realize that you ah that it was last May.
neocharge: h
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I know that I was round and I listened to it, you know i didn't but I didn't realize that until the last few episodes when you had mentioned it.
neocharge: may first
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's that's quite the achievement. It's pretty great.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So good for you.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm i'm happy for you. that's That's awesome.
neocharge: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And a lot of our friends have been part of the journey. So, you know, shout out to bo Ben Burrito Supreme, ah Mace, Mystic Mace, Mason. Who else? Carrie.
neocharge: i I don't know her handle.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: ah Commander Shepard on Discord, I believe.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Ryan Barrett, Infinity's Inn.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ryan? Yeah.
neocharge: He's been on the show. Who else? Who else am I? Am I missing anyone? I don't think so.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
Leon Lionheartly: I'm
neocharge: If I am, if I am, fuck you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Your butt.
neocharge: no okay
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah If he you're forgotten.
Leon Lionheartly: forgetting my...
neocharge: Yes, exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, i don't know.
neocharge: But yeah, i it's been it's been a wild ride. And we i you know it's it's been amazing. It's just we we set out to Talk about games, drink beer, create a community, and that's what we've done.
neocharge: So ah we're going we're going to reflect on that, just kind of like a little celebration episode.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Of course, you're going to get the news. We got some big news to go over.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yes
neocharge: You're going to get what we're playing. we're We're not going to talk a lot about the main game we're playing because two on here have not played it, so... We're going to be very light on that conversation.
neocharge: And yeah, you're just going to get the normal ass episode and it's the 50th episode, one year anniversary. So let's get into it, shall we?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
neocharge: What do we start off all the episodes with? Beer. What are we drinking?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Who first?
Leon Lionheartly: Nobody.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): want me go first?
Leon Lionheartly: Sounds like you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll go first.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, go ahead.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll go first. ah So I don't know if it's a local brewery, but I know there's a local chapter of said brewery. I tried to look it up.
neocharge: Mmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Couldn't really find that many answers, but Crooked Can Brewing,
neocharge: Mmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Has a wheat Hefeweizen called Cloud Chaser.
neocharge: Yum.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): love wheat beer. I love it. it is I mean, I've talked about on earlier casts. ah it's The Blue Moon is just the normal. I know most people make fun of that, but fuck you. I like ah i like a Blue Moon. It's a nice little cozy beer.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I went with a friend to this Crooked Can. I had never been before. And... he i did not I did not order it because of the name. i Sincerely, I just said, can I try all of your wheat beers?
Leon Lionheartly: Enjoy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And they they let me try it. And I said, this third one. She's like, it's called Cloud Chaser. And I was like, fuck yeah, it is. My favorite protagonist in video games.
neocharge: Yeah, it
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Of course I'm going to chase that bitch. So ah yeah, i'm I'm drinking that. It's pretty good. ah Had to get a growler because i don't think they do 12 packs around here. Because I think one of the places that i when I looked it up, I might be wrong. I think it was Florida.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And not Ohio, but i I don't know.
neocharge: Interesting.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They have one about 20 minutes away from me, so that's what I go to now, and it's great.
neocharge: Very cool. ah That looks good. Looks very weedy. And I like wheat beers too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It is very weedy.
neocharge: ah They usually do a lot of fruity beers and they're just easy sippers, right? ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, they are.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
neocharge: Bob, you go next.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay, sure. First, for number 50, you always got to start it with the cast crack.
neocharge: The Cass Crack. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Anyways, so this one I saw, and I know this is going to be a mad-ass beer, but got to try it. It's coming from our favorite new favorite ah brewery um over there at Living the Dream.
Leon Lionheartly: um This is a continuation of their Powder Run series, except this time, Matt, it's a tangerine.
neocharge: Oh, I saw the orange. i was like, oh, shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, that sounds really good.
neocharge: That's a dream sickle. That's a dream sickle, isn't it?
Leon Lionheartly: it's a I haven't tried it, but my guess is it's basically a dreamsicle in a can. and Who can argue with that?
neocharge: You're experiencing it here first. We're going to get your live reaction for our listeners. The pour is happening.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Actually,
neocharge: Oh, that's a nice little... It it almost looks like a week.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i looks great.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: that's what I was thinking.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Nice glass.
Leon Lionheartly: almost
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Nice glass, by the way.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's cool.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So correct me if I'm wrong while he drinks this, a dreamsicle, I thought a dreamsicle was orange.
neocharge: I got that magfest.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is it, is tangerine the actual flavor that I don't, I'm asking.
neocharge: oh A tangerine is a small orange.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, but, but they're, they taste different.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like a Clementine tastes a little different than a Florida, you know, natural orange.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I didn't know if a dreamsicle was, uh, I guess that counts.
neocharge: That's true.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah, Powder Run is heavy on the vanilla.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Nevermind.
Leon Lionheartly: Ooh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Carry on. I'm an idiot.
neocharge: No, it's all good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: Powder Run's heavy on the vanilla, so i was thinking, oh, it's going to be like an orange taste, citrus taste with vanilla.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Maybe Dreamsicle?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sounds great.
neocharge: What's the consensus, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, that's basically what you're getting out of here. um You're getting that. It's the orange tangerine citrus up front, followed by a nice you know little finish of of vanilla at the end.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, man, that is the work that is a summertime beer, um if you know what I mean.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ooh.
neocharge: Mmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, maybe.
Leon Lionheartly: like It's refreshing like that.
neocharge: ah Save me one of those.
Leon Lionheartly: knew you were going to Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Maybe.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Tell him he can have one.
neocharge: Hey, man, I got plenty.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Tell him you he can have one when he wins a bet ah with you.
neocharge: Right. Hey, I have.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Whatever the next bet is.
neocharge: I have one. I have one. I want Wolverine.
Leon Lionheartly: he he can He got the Wolverine one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, you did win one.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. He can have one when he pays up his other dues.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Except, but Bob, Wolverine a wolverine ain't out yet.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Right. Dude, I'm ready to get a liquor store when you are.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Pacopia has gotten a 90.
neocharge: ha, ha.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So Wolverine ain't out yet. As much as it pains me to take that side, it is true.
neocharge: o Well, I think no Bob said it would never release, but I mean, it's got a skew. So it's going to fucking release.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it ain't out yet.
Goatlord-Sriobix: It does.
neocharge: It's going to fucking release.
Goatlord-Sriobix: It does.
Leon Lionheartly: Sorry, Insomniac got cut because Herman Holst loves to just dissect studios.
Goatlord-Sriobix: us
Leon Lionheartly: Wolverine's not coming out. I win the bet. You owe me another
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Herman Holst, actually, this is the news for you guys.
neocharge: It's true. 12. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He sold Sony to Epic Games. So it's just all Fortnite collabs from now on.
Leon Lionheartly: do it.
neocharge: Jesus Christ.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And saying that, I almost threw up on myself, just so you know.
neocharge: Oh, God. That is my...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was really hard for me to say.
neocharge: That is my own personal hell. I'll tell you that.
Leon Lionheartly: Last.
neocharge: Alex, we drinking anything tonight?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yes, I am actually. I'm not drinking beer though.
neocharge: Excellent.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I am not drinking beer. So, well, haven't had it in a while.
neocharge: That's fine.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He's drinking pee.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I picked up a bottle of Old Forrester over the weekend.
neocharge: Oh, Forrester.
Goatlord-Sriobix: So I figured I'd just have a little glass of bourbon while we're having the cast tonight. Not really in the mood beer.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Just kind of wanted something a little bit harder.
neocharge: Love it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Nice celebration of the 50. Yep.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. Nice little celebration. Uh, Friday we're going to celebrate in person, uh, have a beer and a bite or a drink of whatever we, we drink. Uh, we're picking up a Caleb from the airport.
neocharge: He's flying in.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: That's going to fun. So yeah, no, uh, all kinds of drinks are welcome on this cast.
Leon Lionheartly: We're making the place they had, some items they had.
neocharge: I think we've had water. We've had soda, whatever. ah Ironically, Bob, I am also drinking a Powder Run. And this is one you recommended to me.
neocharge: And it fucking tastes like cinnamon toast crunch or a ah cinnamon roll in your mouth. It is called Powder Run Cinnamon Roll. And it's a horchata style cream ale with cinnamon and vanilla. And it it basically just tastes like a cinnamon roll. You're drinking a cinnamon roll.
neocharge: They got some banger drinks, man.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: And they're concocting.
Goatlord-Sriobix: They haven't had a beer I didn't like yet. That's for sure.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm excited to try the the tangerine one for sure. So yeah, that's what we do here on Shapes. Our 50th episode. We drink. We talk about video games.
neocharge: But first, we talk about life. How's life going, Caleb?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, I told you if you wanted to keep this cast under three hours not to ask me any questions and you've already failed.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm going to do that.
neocharge: Do you have any Cheez-It stories? Do you have any Cheez-It stories?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. No. So i i don't I think I told you guys I don't remember if I mentioned on the cast, but ah wife and I went on a family trip with extended family to Cancun about a week, a little over a week ago is when we returned.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, no. my. Oh, Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, my. Oh, my.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Or actually, I think it was a week ago that returned.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, Oh, Oh, my. Oh, Oh, my. Oh,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Anyway, ah your boy here doesn't it do that well in the sun for extended periods of time.
Leon Lionheartly: my. Oh, my. my. my. Oh, my. Oh, my. my. Oh, Oh, my.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, Oh, my.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I actually was doing great for the first couple days.
Leon Lionheartly: my.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then I got heat rash in the back of my throat.
neocharge: Oh, what?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Which was not great. I didn't think it was possible. The actual medical version of this is that it's like an allergy, like an allergic reaction that can manifest anywhere in your body. Typically, it is you know where you got the most sun.
neocharge: Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i've i don't I don't want to be super gross, but if I've been in extended sunlight for a really long time, I tend to get it on my chest and my feet. because i got big ass flat feet and they're pasty white because I wear pants and shoes all the time.
neocharge: Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's usually where it happens. ah This year, this time, I did not get it on my back. I didn't get it on my ah chest. I didn't get it on my arms. I got it on my feet, my legs, the very back of my hands the last day, which was a new one. So it was just itchy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then i woke up i woke up in Cancun and thought that I was getting really sick. If you can tell, I sound slightly congested.
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I am not sick at all. I actually feel fine other than this stupid... I looked at my throat because i was like, what the hell is going on? And it it was just a couple little tiny spots, exactly like the heat rash on the outside of my body.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was like... What the fuck is this? It's nonsense. It sounds like utter horseshit. So I come home. I'm miserable. If I break out into a weird coughing jag on here, I'm going to try my best to mute the mic, but I think I'm healed enough that I'm doing okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But I had a dentist appointment, just happened to have a dentist appointment when I got back.
Leon Lionheartly: Thanks,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I went in there and I said, is it possible to get heat rash in the back of your throat? And Jenna, we've known each other for a long time. She just looks at me and she says, so how is Cancun? And yes, it is possible.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just incredibly rare.
neocharge: if matter
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was like, great. But she had told me that it was basically an allergic reaction, that my body was just fighting, whatever. And it just so happened that lucky, I got it right smack in the back of my throat.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it it just, it's itchy. It's just itchy all the time. So I would call, it yeah, it's it's weird. It's wild and weird.
neocharge: Oh. You're not looking up at the sky a gap mouth agape? I'm just like, the sun is going to...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, Lisa asked me... She asked me if I fell asleep with my mouth open in the sun. And I was like, I don't think so.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But even if I did, i think that's the most absurd thing that could ever happen to a human being. It's just, it's not.
neocharge: Oh, weird.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I mean, other than that, i you know everything's everything seems to be fine. I'm a little tired, have not had enough time to catch up every day. There's something else stupid that I got to do And I say that with love to any of my friends that are listening.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If I have helped you with stupid shit, I'm not upset that I've helped you. It's just still stupid shit. So that's why I haven't gotten to do Pragmata yet.
neocharge: Oh.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I did get to start Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred last night with my buddy who's been waiting for months. So that was like the one real free...
neocharge: Nice.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): extended period of time I got and i was able to do that, which was cool. but ah But yeah, can't really complain too much other than this stupid, itchy throat, nonsense gobbledygook.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Unfortunately, no Cheez-It story.
neocharge: All right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): haven't Haven't gone to the store, haven't done anything in time to, in recent history, but tune in next time. I'm sure I'll have some crazy bullshit.
neocharge: Yes.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I always do.
neocharge: Well, welcome back.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you know Thank you.
neocharge: We're glad you're feeling better. We're glad you're here.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): if
neocharge: And stop looking at the sky with your mouth open.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know, right? I was worried that I was like, how am I going to do the cast? I'm going to have to just pantomime shit and they're going have to speak for me because I can't talk.
Leon Lionheartly: All right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was it was pretty annoying, actually. Very annoying.
neocharge: Well, we're glad you feel better. We're happy to have you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Hey, thanks.
neocharge: So, Bob, how's life been, man? Anything new? Anything exciting?
Leon Lionheartly: Well, beside you know, I'm healthy, which is surprising considering I have been out of town as well, ah as we all ah heard on last episode, if you haven't gotten there.
neocharge: Thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Leon Lionheartly: um I was in ah Las Vegas for Level Up Expo. um Finally got a chance to experience this, gentlemen, because we recorded at the evening of setup. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: First off, I was there to assist and be a handler for my buddy Oracle Mike. ah he are I'm sorry, Chaos Creations. Oracle Mike is Alex.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Not me. Not me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, he's an Oracle Mike.
Leon Lionheartly: there are so much I know so many Mikes and Alex, it's weird. i don't know what's going on.
neocharge: right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You just really want to hold Alex's hammer is what you're saying, right?
Leon Lionheartly: ah oh And I see.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): His big hammer.
Goatlord-Sriobix: He never asks.
neocharge: In it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I've been waiting.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, he's a man who just takes charge. He doesn't have to ask for shit.
Leon Lionheartly: And I still wouldn't have a sore throat afterwards.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: Ha ha ha ha ha.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I deserve that.
neocharge: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: ah so oh
neocharge: ah
Leon Lionheartly: But yes.
neocharge: What was his name, Caleb? No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ricardo.
Leon Lionheartly: that
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, never heard of him.
Leon Lionheartly: His name was Sonny.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well...
neocharge: Damn.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah ah Oh, man.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
neocharge: What a roll.
Leon Lionheartly: You let that one go. but Yeah.
neocharge: Love it.
Leon Lionheartly: butun ah But...
neocharge: but I got it. I got We got the soundboard.
Leon Lionheartly: You are a bad distraction, my friend.
Goatlord-Sriobix: stupid
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: and
Goatlord-Sriobix: stupid bit
Leon Lionheartly: How did we get here? Oh, yeah, that's right. Life. Um... exactly So sure short is, long and short is, I was helping out my buddy, Chaos Creations, who was carrying around his 3D printed gravity hammer um from the Halo universe as part of the 405th Mountain, which is a cosplay community specifically tailored for um Halo universe. And three d printed this thing, gentlemen.
Leon Lionheartly: We weighed and measured it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: um It couldn't meet the con standards for props. Uh, but we got an exemption because it stood six foot seven and just over 14 pounds.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Wait, it was seriously 6'7"?
neocharge: Wow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Are you fucking with us?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: Oh, God.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Jesus.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm not, yeah I'm not fucking with you. you
neocharge: This has been episode 50.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, yep.
neocharge: Thanks for listening.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Matt's out of here.
Leon Lionheartly: isn Your bed's done.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i love that it was finally.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh, yeah no But no, it was it was a fun time. ah Got to hang out. Mask on. you know We'll just keep this going. um And i'll pass I'll pass it on.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): thought that guy would never leave.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, hey, he's back.
neocharge: Me too. Jeez.
Leon Lionheartly: But at the end of the day, Matt...
neocharge: Just
Leon Lionheartly: It was still a fun time.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: It's no MAGFest, though. um there's It's like when it comes to the conventions, you got to stack them. And this was our first year. It's the ah check ah the checkout. MAG is still king.
neocharge: sure okay
Leon Lionheartly: And then right below that, I'd say level up. it's supposed to be It's supposed to be gaming focused. And you can see hints of it there. So there's an arcade. There's an indie development table. Or with all these indie developers, you go check it out. Things of that nature. couple of people are selling some retro consoles. But on the other hand, there's still the celebrity aisle.
Leon Lionheartly: There's still the other non-video game related, more anime, comic book kind of related stuff.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: Not a big deal. Not any end of the world. it's very It's basically laid out on the two floors because as you if you know the Las Vegas Convention Center, that that thing just goes for days and days and days.
neocharge: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: um We were only in the south part um and still took up only a fraction of that that place, that building.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: Wow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you You said that it was it didn't meet the standards.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Was because it was too big? Wow.
Leon Lionheartly: It was because it was too tall.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Wow.
Leon Lionheartly: um yeah prop ah Props and ah prop weapons were only allowed up to six feet.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): wow
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, that ain't no gravity hammer. So I'm glad they made an exception.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We got to see a photo you had shared and that that's that's pretty great.
neocharge: Dang.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it was It was good. It was really cool.
neocharge: Yeah. So cool. Shout out to him. Chaos Creations. He's shown me a lot of stuff and all those pictures. You posted all the pictures on the Discord. So if you guys want to check out Level Up Expo, ah Bob graced you with all of the photos from that event.
Leon Lionheartly: yes
neocharge: so
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, definitely. it But it was a good time. um Came back um and I have been catching up on the office work um and trying to play what games I can.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: Hopefully now that things are settled this weekend, I'm going to be just hitting game after game after game.
neocharge: Awesome. Hell yeah. Alex, our beautiful baby boy. How are you doing?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: First off, first off, how about that new epic intro? Amazing.
Leon Lionheartly: and it wasn't like
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, thanks, man.
neocharge: Amazing. You have been cooking. And that is our new intro. As you heard, it was new, yet familiar. But you enhanced the song, that it it the album it dropped on, New Game Plus.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
neocharge: ah you You created our intro, our original intro, and then you created this song, VIP Remix. And I said, hey... For our 50th and our one-year anniversary, let's mix it up.
neocharge: Let's enhance the the intro.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
neocharge: So, ah yeah, we have a new yet familiar intro. And i got to say, like it has some synth chorus in there, and then it has more bass. I'm a huge fan. So, how's life going? And tell everyone about your amazing music you are creating and maybe what's to come. Who knows?
Goatlord-Sriobix: ah This is kind of weird to be put on the spot to talk about my music for a minute. Okay, so...
neocharge: Plug yourself.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, if it helps, if it helps, I'll get you started.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, so...
neocharge: Well, this is...
Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): This morning ah when I was getting ready for my day, I was like, you know what?
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I want to listen to X30. So I popped it on and I listened to the whole fucking thing again. And I was like, tonight when we record, I have to tell Alex how much that still fucking slaps.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I love it.
neocharge: It's so good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I really do. i I love it a lot because I don't know if I told you guys this. Normally, that's not really my style of music. I'm not saying that I don't like it. I'm just saying I don't gravitate towards it.
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um But it i just I enjoy it so much. I feel like I can actually see the story that you were telling ah throughout all of the tracks. And generally, I don't do that. Generally, i I have a song and I take it and I really like the song for what it does.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Or I need to be shown something while the song is on, whether it be in a movie or in a game, whatever. But with your album, it just does it on its own. It's great. And I'm not just saying that. it like Yes, you can picture me naked.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was in the shower when I was listening to the second half, and I was just like, you know, doing this in the shower. i was like, shit.
neocharge: Everything flopping around.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Oh, there there was big floppy donkey dick everywhere.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was great. So, ah but yeah, so I'm, that's your lead in. You get to follow big floppy donkey dick ah in the shower, but for real, man, it's, it's, it's awesome.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And this, this new intro track ah that I got a sneak peek of is great. So you should be really proud of yourself. It's, it's wonderful.
neocharge: Absolutely, man.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I don't think i could ever explain in words like how much it means like how much not even just you guys like everybody that's reached out to me that's loved everything I've released so far like even new game plus like I I've listened to it so much from listening to the podcast myself that I started to hate the song.
Leon Lionheartly: It's so
Goatlord-Sriobix: So when you asked me to re to to take the VIP mix and make it a little better, was like, you know what? Yeah, I'm going to make it something I actually want to listen to.
Leon Lionheartly: funny.
Goatlord-Sriobix: So that's what I did. I threw in the violins that were already in the VIP remix, and I increased the mids on them so they cut through the mix a little bit more. I changed the bass drum a little bit more.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I layered the 808 that I used for the bass in the VIP remix. Um, so it's actually two separate bass tracks, one that's all the way bass boosted and one that's all the way mid boosted.
Goatlord-Sriobix: So it sounds incredibly full. Like even in regular headphones, you can still hear it and feel it. And it was at the point where it was like physically shaking the crap on my desk and knocking things off of my top shelf up here.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
Goatlord-Sriobix: And all I have is a little soundbar on here.
Leon Lionheartly: SPEAKER 1
neocharge: yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Um,
neocharge: Beautiful. I listen to it in my car all the time. Like seriously, that music, that that album slaps.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah, I'm,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I, this morning I only had it playing on my phone. Like it wasn't, I didn't have AirPods in, I didn't have it on my sound system and I still can hear the highs and the lows. And and I mean, the mids are are strong enough. No, it's not as good of a, as a full on sound system would be, but it doesn't matter. It's like the balance is very good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it just, the melody is there. The counter melody is there. It's, it's, It gets me excited when I listen to it, which sounds weird to say. because And I'm not just bullshitting you.
neocharge: especially in the shower
Leon Lionheartly: shower god damn it yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i'm not Well, I'm always excited.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Especially after talking about your floppy dong, now you're telling me you're excited by it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: it's not floppy anymore no
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it started floppy and then ended very, very excited.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Clearly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): now But for real, I'm not just saying that because I because i know you. i would i would You know that I would tell you if I thought it was garbage. like i you know I would. I would just be like, hey, I don't think this works.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But no, I'm a huge fan of it. So you yeah you deserve the praise, my man.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. And they're,
neocharge: i've I've actually told you when we were working on the intro, which we can talk about when we reflect, ah but I was like, yeah, this this ain't it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: and they're
neocharge: this This isn't hitting. But then when you sent the New Game Plus, so I'd tell you too, Alex, this album is incredible and I can't wait to see what you have cooking. So...
Goatlord-Sriobix: well, there is plenty cooking. Um, um, that's going to, um, be a select start, you know, B space, a space select, slash space start, like as in the two player Konami code from Contra.
neocharge: Yes. Where can people listen to it? Where can
Goatlord-Sriobix: Um, That's going to be on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Pandora, iHeartRadio, pretty much everything.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sorry.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm on YouTube as well. um And, you know, you can listen to the full album there. You can listen to the old stuff. You can even listen to the... original version of new game plus not just the vip mix but the version that we have on the cast i will not be releasing on spotify or anything like that that's just going to be for us and i tend to keep it that way yeah i tend to keep it that way i want to i want to have something as intellectual property for shapes not just my music that i benefit off of um and then i do plan on having a
neocharge: Oh, exclusive.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cast only.
neocharge: Okay, cool.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Sort of a EP, not quite an EP coming out shortly. That's going to be more songs from X30 that didn't make the cut. or I'm just going to get everything together. i'm calling it X30 DLC, throw it all together, release it all.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And then a few months later, do like a whole compilation of everything. And a thank you for all my listeners and for you guys in shapes.
Leon Lionheartly: come up with the smart And it'll be better DLC than what Take-Two has given us lately.
neocharge: Heck
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's awesome. that's That's really awesome.
neocharge: yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Exactly.
neocharge: Right. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If you want it to truly shine, you have to disable it in like three months.
neocharge: Oh,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just take it away. be like, ah, this doesn't exist anymore. Fuck you guys.
neocharge: shit.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah I'm going to delete all my music and then launch this album and nothing else exists.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Don't do that. Yeah, please don't. Please don't do that.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Please just let me listen to it over and over again.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I would never that. would never
neocharge: No. ah We appreciate you being part of the crew and we we love that intro. And if you want to keep it exclusive entirely up to you. ah But yeah, that, that album, I think threat incoming that like that synth, that heavy synth like a line is just, Oh, it's, it's one of my favorites.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's so good.
Goatlord-Sriobix: and Wait until you hear the songs that didn't make it
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's so good.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I really, I can't wait.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think, all right, so you can use, you can use this sound clip, even though my voice is a little fucked shapes, exclusive for your, uh, the things that are on, on exclusivity here.
neocharge: Me too.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: I
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: love that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not as good as the girl, the girl vocalist in your, in your tracks.
Leon Lionheartly: going to take at the show.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): She's fucking on point, but, uh, you know,
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know my four-note range, and I stick to it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's about it
neocharge: Yes.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Hey, you play piano. That's all we need you for. You're phenomenal musician there.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it.
neocharge: quite well too. Played a little for us at your place.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Thank you.
neocharge: and yeah There was a piano at MAGFest too. there's a I don't know if it's a grand it's i don't think it's a grand piano. It's just a piano you can play. so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): At MAGFest, I think it was a Baby Grand, actually, but I don't remember.
neocharge: That's cool. Maybe grand? Okay.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but I think it was a Black Baby Grand.
neocharge: Sweet.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): black black yeah Black Baby Grand sounds like a term that I should not say in mixed company, but I did, and I don't give a shit.
neocharge: Well, look at that.
neocharge: Black baby.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Black Baby, tapes exclusive. There you go.
Goatlord-Sriobix: hu
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There's another one.
neocharge: Jesus, coming soon. No, ah that's cool. light and And yeah, the music is awesome. ah Life for me has been, it's so ever evolving.
neocharge: I'm in a transition period. ah Living
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Kyle, congratulations. We knew it. We knew you'd finally get there.
Leon Lionheartly: a We fully support you, okay?
neocharge: My name is Madeline.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): fully support your transition. Shapes exclusive.
neocharge: I would like to ah be addressed as Madeline now. ah and No. and Living.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Are you sure? i will call you Madeline for the rest of our lives.
neocharge: No, please. No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i
neocharge: A living trend living transition.
Leon Lionheartly: See, he loves Cloud so much, he's going to even embrace the side quest.
neocharge: Yep. Exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: And see, I kept i kept that obscure enough for you, Matt.
neocharge: Yeah, I literally have.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I have a sticky note on my work computer. with i I drew the buster sword. very It looks like a four-year-old drew it. And then it says B-Cloud.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: because I love Cloud so much, and he embodies what I want to be, minus the downsides he has in in the game, which I will not spoil, because we have the Rafferoth right around the corner.
neocharge: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep. ah Interesting fun fact on the bullshit Ever Crisis gacha game. ah The update tonight is the three Don Corneo outfits.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: Oh my gosh. Excellent.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): for for the For the two ladies in Cloud.
neocharge: If you know, you know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. it i like I saw the the little thumbnail and I was like, shut your goddamn mouth. like I'm so excited.
neocharge: you
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i don't even know what the weapons are to go along with the the costumes. I don't care. ah those i'm just going to say dresses. Those dresses are mine.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i will i i don't give a shit.
neocharge: Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's that's happening. Sorry. Continue.
neocharge: No, you're good. But yeah, life's been pretty tame, evolving, and I'm honestly just happy to be part of this and happy we made it a fucking year, which is crazy.
neocharge: So happy ah to be with you all. And that's what we do. We just drink and we talk video games and record it here on Shapes. So yeah, ah Caleb, you're here.
Leon Lionheartly: This is...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yo, I am.
neocharge: So let's do the state of the draft. The state of the draft. Draft, draft, draft, draft.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): State of the draft. tafttaft ta Okay.
neocharge: Draft, draft. Draft, draft.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: Draft. Draft.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I'm just going to go through what happened in April because April is essentially done, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, let's let's let's be real.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: This is coming out May 1st. This will be releasing Friday, May 1st. So April is behind us. And the game's just come along with it. So...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's true. ah Let's see Let's go. i'm going to start again. ah The bottom, not like bottom score, just bottom and in what I'm looking at. And even though it's technically not
Leon Lionheartly: Last drop.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It comes out tomorrow. We're going to start off with Mason, who had finally, the man finally got a game that was scored close to what it deserved, as even though we haven't played it yet. It feels like this is right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Saros serros is sitting in an 89, and it will be set in stone tomorrow. So he should be getting about 19 points for that, which is like good on you, man.
neocharge: Incredible.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah it's it's a
neocharge: Incredible.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i mean, we all wanted it, let's be real. But he got it
neocharge: yeah Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and ah
neocharge: First pick, too. It was his first pick.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yep it was his very first pick so he deserves he deserves that bad boy um let's see and then next up bob who had i mean he's been having a killer draft so far good for him uh the big boy the hitter of this month for him was pragmata that was also his first pick uh and it is currently sitting at an 87 it seems like it's settled at about an 87 so he's got 17 points for that great job on that one bob
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. door
neocharge: Fuck yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then the other game that he got this month that released April 20th was Saint Slayer, Spear of Sacrilege. And on the last cast that I was a part of, he explained a little bit about this game. My question is, I know Matt, you're playing it, right?
neocharge: Yes, I am.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes. And Bob, have you played, have you played it yet?
neocharge: I'm going to talk all about it.
Leon Lionheartly: It's on my list this weekend.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. So well you can talk about it in in great detail, but I am going to ask because it is draft relevant.
neocharge: sort Stream it. Stream it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So far, Matt, Do you agree or disagree with the score it received? It is currently sitting at a 75. Okay.
neocharge: The first two hours, no. Once the learning curve, you get past the learning curve, absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): okay
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Really?
neocharge: It's great. It's great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. but So you agree with 75.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You don't think it should be higher? Okay.
neocharge: No. No, I think 75 is good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just.
neocharge: Not good for the draft, but 75 is a good game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: um Anything...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, no, it absolutely is a good game.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But we just we've talked about it earlier that a lot of reviewers are are full of shit.
neocharge: It's...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And so I am genuinely curious because I have not touched this game. ah you know if If you agree with it or if it's like, oh, IGN gave it a three because it's too much Saint Slayer.
neocharge: Hmm.
neocharge: There are some...
Leon Lionheartly: I'm
neocharge: Yeah, I would say, yeah, 7.5 is pretty accurate.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like you know I didn't know if that a...
neocharge: There are some interesting design choices and it's it's hard to a fault. And it's from a ah it it was designed from an era that they they brought the downsides with it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: But it is true to form. It really is. So maybe, i don't know, between 75 and 76,
neocharge: six maybe? I don't know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. I mean, within the ballpark.
neocharge: 77? Maybe just a little higher? Yeah, absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I agree with the score. ah Definitely not lower, for sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Great.
neocharge: I got real frustrated with at the beginning, though.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, I'm,
neocharge: ah Probably,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm glad to hear it. Wasn't it, was it like 12 bucks or something? It wasn't that expensive, right?
neocharge: and 10. 10 bucks.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 10 bucks.
Leon Lionheartly: ten dollars
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's, I don't like to put a review score. I don't like to put the cost of a game in the review unless it's like egregious.
neocharge: Right. Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, if a game is going to cost $180 and it sucks, I am definitely going to rip it apart. But if a game is a normal price game, it seems like they put their work in and it's a fair cost.
neocharge: Yes.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't really think it should affect it.
neocharge: Oh, it's...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's just me. That's just me. So 10 bucks. I feel like that's a great value.
Leon Lionheartly: Was it?
neocharge: it
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Even, you know, it's,
neocharge: I would have paid 20. It's more than fair. it has a it's It's short. ah The first playthrough took me about four hours, but like the second was like 30 minutes. So, it's ah yeah, the replayability is there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and okay got it got it
neocharge: It's awesome. Can't wait to talk more about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah yeah no i'd love to hear more about it uh next up uh you actually had no games this month matt you had zero games this month uh you've got a few things coming up in the pipe though so that's cool uh for me i had two games that had dropped um
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: I do.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I feel like I'm going to have one of my weird coughs, so I apologize if I do.
Leon Lionheartly: This isn't.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah The very first one, I i will...
neocharge: Just hear right in the mic. Just right in the mic.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, man, it's it's not pretty when it happens. I sound like I'm about 90 years old. It's fucking terrible. um Vampire Crawlers, the game that Bob hates me for drafting because he wanted it, and I took it earlier because he took my fucking Trails in the Sky second chapter.
neocharge: Amazing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But... i'm I'm actually very happy with it. scored an 84. It settled at about an 84.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That seems about right. I know you already talked about this on the last episode, Bob, so I don't think it's spoiler territory. You mentioned that the weapons are...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah like The combinations are the same, um which isn't an evolution from...
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): the first one and I agree i agree that that it was very exciting when you could figure that out in the first game and just experience this new thing and for them to not evolve that seems like just a strange choice it might be one of those if it ain't broke don't fix it but it also is like you didn't even try but you didn't even add like a new thing I don't know it just you know you've played it so I figure your opinion is obviously more important but I feel like an 84 is a pretty decent score for it wouldn't you agree
Leon Lionheartly: I can tell you this much. So this that's the only game I've really had time to to ah to to play. um I've had opportunity to play Saintslayer, and I disagree with the score.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so really.
Leon Lionheartly: There's a reason I haven't touched anything else.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: um I have some small quirks, but that's coming in as a vampire survivor's veteran, um and we'll get into it.
neocharge: we
Leon Lionheartly: um But I think it's underscored.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Really? Okay. Yeah, i mean, i to be fair, I have not played Crawlers yet. I have not. I just, I i want to, but when the fuck when? My life has been a nonstop bullshit. So, yeah, we could talk about that a little bit more in detail later, but as a draft pick, I did hope it would get at least an 85.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm close. 84, you know, that's that's fine.
neocharge: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: All
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um And then the next game that I got, which just officially released yesterday, was the Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred expansion.
Leon Lionheartly: right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. I will tell you, i obviously have not played through it yet. I did get to play it last night with my buddy, though. um We played for a couple hours. We each rolled the new classes. So I rolled a Paladin, he rolled a Warlock, and we just played together. It was a great time so far.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So far, I feel like it's underscored. However, I have not gotten to the endgame. I have not gotten to the builds the build crafting yet.
Leon Lionheartly: Come on in.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know. It is more Diablo. It is more of the, you know... grindy, but the hamster wheel of new shit makes you stronger. So you get new shit, which makes you stronger. Like I like that, but how much staying power does it have?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know yet. We'll see. That also scored an 84. I'm not upset with that, especially for a DLC slash expansion. Uh, that's fine. I was hoping that that would score above an 81.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I feel like I, uh, am okay there. Uh, we are waiting on Matt to update my Slay the Spire 2 to the 95 that it's listed on OpenCritic right now.
neocharge: That's one score.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And he hasn't done it yet.
Leon Lionheartly: What's that?
neocharge: oh No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's convenient.
neocharge: um that Hold on, hold on.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No. Uh,
neocharge: We should probably talk about this because Bob and I were looking at that. It's like one score. oh I mean, at least it needs at least three, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, well, it had no. The funny thing was it had two other scores. And for some reason, they're just not on there anymore.
neocharge: Oh, okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's why that's why I sent it because I was like there.
neocharge: Interesting.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think one was between an 84 and 88. I do not remember.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm being honest. i I do not remember. And then another one was similar. I think it might have been a nine out of 10 or four and a half out of five.
neocharge: mean
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then I looked again just to see, and there's a different review that's a 95 out of a hundred and the first two are gone, but they were from different developers or different, excuse me, different reviewers, different sites.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: Huh. Okay. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So i was like, what the fuck? But I had told you before that I was going to seek out the actual reviews from places that had given it a score.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that didn't post it because they said that they don't necessarily for early access. But when I saw that the one was a 95, I was like, I'll take it.
Leon Lionheartly: Possibilities.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Let's go. And you you didn't you didn't update it, which is really convenient because that'd be a sweet 30 points for me.
neocharge: There you go.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But no, for real, i i that's that's just a zero right now because of the early access shit, and we'll deal with that later.
neocharge: Yeah, what?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then last but not least, no new games ah for... ah burrito supreme but he did have his mouse pi for hire we talked about it a little bit on the last cast but it wasn't out yet that came out april 16th uh and that has uh settled at an 81 so he's gotten 11 points for that and i feel like i feel like he would say it is underscored um based on his experience with it and especially knowing that it's a boomer shooter and the style game and again we've talked about that ad nauseum on other casts that If you're a reviewer and you are reviewing something that is a specific genre, you can't hold it to a standard that doesn't fall into that fucking genre.
neocharge: Solid.
neocharge: yes
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: And if you're if you're playing a mouse game, a mouse game, don't complain that it has too many cheese puns.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, like that's just, what the fuck? Like get out of here. I don't, was it, was it IGN?
neocharge: what the fuck?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Did it give it a six out of 10?
neocharge: Something like that. Yeah. It's like, it's fun.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm going to call them out.
neocharge: They were like talking about it. It doesn't have an engrossing story and it's not, it doesn't challenge the narrative. I'm like, it's a fucking mouse boomer shooter, bro.
Leon Lionheartly: That is all. Time to the guy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Honestly, though, who gives a fuck?
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you. Vince?
neocharge: Like.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is it fun to play? Is it well-crafted?
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is it a good game? That's it.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You do not need to give your social commentary on how many you know gay people were represented in this mouse fantasy world or weren't.
neocharge: Mm.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like And I'm not saying that as a political statement.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i'm saying that I'd say that on the other end of the spectrum. How many straight people are in this game? Not enough. like That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Just score the fucking game for what it is, not for what you wish it would be.
neocharge: Right. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Anyway, mini rant about that over
neocharge: Yeah. The fun factor. doesn't have anything to do. It doesn't have anything to do with art. It's just a fun factor.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: Right. So yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's it's crazy. So they have, and i I know that they, at least the last time I checked, just going back to the Slay the Spire, I believe they gave the early access a nine out of 10.
neocharge: IGN has been slipping.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know if it's still that, but I was happy with that review.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): read Not just because I had drafted it, but because the it actually read like, oh, you played this early access and it you've touched on things that are great. You've touched on things that are not so great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's a fair assessment. If they'd have given it a six out of 10 and said the same shit, I would say, what are you talking about? That's not what you just wrote. And I feel like IGN specifically just is fucking stupid.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So anyway, um, let's go with what was drafted, uh, this month.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, uh,
neocharge: Pickups, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Three, two, one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Let's see. Yeah, the pickup, there was only one pickup, it seems, in the month of April, and that was ah by Burrito Supreme, which was Splatoon Raiders, the new Nintendo Switch 2 game that is a little bit more focused on single-player Splatoon for people that are interested.
neocharge: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I've never been a fan of Splatoon. It's not bad. It's just multiplayer, and I didn't care. This one actually made me a little bit... I was like, oh, I'd check this out. I do not know the release date, though. I should probably...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Has it been announced? Oh, July 23rd.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Yeah.
neocharge: I think it's soon, isn't it?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's cool. um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Let's see. What else do we have? We already had Hades 2 come out. We already Pragmata. ah We had Diablo. I feel like there's another game that I'm forgetting, but we talked about Saros. So ah we'll just do the quick score update.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And going from last to first, and again, not all games are out, so this doesn't really mean anything. Burrito Supreme with only one release. ah He is in fifth right now with 11.27 points.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Neo Charge, Matt is in fourthright and or excuse me yeah and fourth right now with two releases, 21.81 points.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Again, only two releases, whatever. Jason is in third right now with 23.08 points, and he has had five games released.
Leon Lionheartly: last words?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So again, Saros, points have not been added to that, so he'll be getting 19 added to that tomorrow. ah roughly, which will keep him in, in third. In second place is me with 70.59 points with five games released.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that does not include Slay the Spire two or Solasta two. And then in first place, killing it so far this year, Bob with 95.05 points, even though he does have seven games out though.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So he does, he's about halfway.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He's a little under halfway of his, his full list. Um,
Leon Lionheartly: you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Last thing I wanted to touch on here, the very next game to release ah that actually matters, i my mixtape comes out ah april set or excuse me May 7th, but the game that I think actually matters is Bo is going to get another very, very big drop on my wife's birthday, which is Forza Horizon 6.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that is I think that's going to crush the scores. It's going to be fucking awesome. That's a game right now, i'm going to tell you. If it got a 70, I'm still going buy it. If it got a 60, I'm still to it. It's Forza. It's in Japan.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't need to know anything else, but I do think that's going to break 90.
Leon Lionheartly: Good. Good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think it's going to be really, really well.
neocharge: Nice. Are you getting it on Xbox?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so
neocharge: right Yeah, you are.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I am. i am i i
neocharge: is yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it' I can't wait. i thought I could wait. I have these other games to play, but I still don't know when PlayStation's getting it and I, yeah, I don't have to wait.
neocharge: Right. This fall, probably.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So why bother? Why wait?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Fuck if they're lucky, I might double dip when it comes out on my five pro.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Who knows?
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cause I love Forza Horizon a lot. I do.
neocharge: a
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I,
neocharge: I am excited for this game. I'm going to get it as soon as it comes to PlayStation.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah, it looks great.
neocharge: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Do you want me to touch on the other May releases that are coming? Okay.
neocharge: Yeah, let's talk about the other three.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So another one that Matt gets is Yoshi in the Mysterious Book on May 21st, which seems like a cozy enough Nintendo game, you know, whatever.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i do have it counterpicked because I didn't have any other choices.
neocharge: you
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think it's going to score decently. So I'm going to lose some points there, whatever. um I'll be honest with you, though. What do you what do you think this is going to score, Matt? you were to guess.
neocharge: Low 80s.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, i my honest guess is like an 81 to an 83, somewhere in that range.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's not bad.
neocharge: Yeah, low 80s,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's not bad. But that was why I counterpicked it. Cause I was like, I can do 11 points. All the other games I felt like we're going to score so much more.
neocharge: yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I was like, ah, and who knows?
neocharge: Yeah. A counter pick 80 or above stings. It does.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know, but I also did that last year and you know,
neocharge: oh Yeah, right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But this year, i don't I don't really care that much.
neocharge: One.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah I already won one.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't need to win anymore. I'm happy to share the wealth and just try my luck.
neocharge: eat
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you know But I hope it does well for you. I really do. um
neocharge: Yeah, me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The day after that...
neocharge: Do you still the crown and scepter? Do you still the crown and scepter?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I do. It's it's right over here.
neocharge: Excellent.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, good.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll send you my address after this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): the you are You don't want your own? You don't want ah a new version, a fresh version?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: No, he wants it to smell like you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): From one king... For one, oh, I mean, who doesn't?
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Let's be real. ah the game The day after that, and this is another ah potential big one, is Lego Batman Legacy the Dark Knight.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's out May 22nd.
neocharge: I'm excited.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Mason has that one. It was an original draft, I believe. I think he i think he did draft that originally.
neocharge: Yes. Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah I mean, Lego games have had a few that have been a little rocky lately, but I think this one's going to be awesome. This one looks awesome, sounds awesome.
neocharge: I do, too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Again, another one that I think should score pretty well for Mason.
Leon Lionheartly: Let's go, Juan.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then last but not least in the month of May is matt May 27th.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Let's go, Juan. Let's go, Juan.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Matt has this big boy 007 First Light, which I think we're all excited for. um
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I am just a quick, quick round the table because I've been talking a lot. Alex, are you excited for 007 First Light or could you give any less fucks, any fewer Blanchez,
Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm going to play it when I get to it. My backlog keeps growing and growing the longer I delay DS2.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ph.D.: But
Goatlord-Sriobix: What the...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But are you excited about it or are you just like, oh, it's a game I should probably play? you know i don't Do you like James Bond games? Do you like those kind of... ah I mean, it's a unique one, but what do you what do you think?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: it?
Goatlord-Sriobix: I mean, um I'm excited, yeah. It's not going to be like a pick-up-and-get-it day-one game for me. I have a lot more like going on that I'm already behind on. But I am going to definitely get it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I am going to play it. I feel like it's more of Bob and Matt than me. So they'll probably be able to talk about it a bit more.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I'll get it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I'll play it eventually. like
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cool. Yeah, i'm I'm kind of in that same boat. I'm excited for it, but I'm already like six deep in this year's backlog because of real life events. And they're all long ass games.
neocharge: Just a
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Crimson Desert. I am still, we can talk about that much later, but Diablo is obviously going to take up a lot of time. Hades 2, Pragmata, Saros. Like I have, i own all of them. I just went.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So 007 First Light, I will get it. I am excited, but Bob, I know you're, you're all about it. Are you, is this a day one purchase and play or, or
Leon Lionheartly: Let me put it to you like this. I also have the limited edition special edition PlayStation 5 James Bond controller on pre-order to come with the game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. yeah Yes, you do.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Now you got to be foaming at the mouth a little bit, right? This is, this is your alley.
Leon Lionheartly: This is a drop. This is a drop everything in play game. ah yeah I mean, there's nothing else on this list. ah It could be hit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You're literally, you're literally the man with a golden gun. So I feel like that says a lot.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah, this is definitely it. ah i I think for this game, the score might end up coming down to a couple of factors.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: ah My biggest personal concern for this on where I end up scoring it is just going to be performance. um But I don't have any issues.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, for sure.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't have any qualms. It's IOI. um They didn't actually make eyess eye a Mind's Eye. They published it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. No. What about you, Matt? Is this a day one for you or or not?
neocharge: It is a pre-order day one, put everything down. Super excited for this game.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: I'm a huge Bond fan. I love all the films.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I was a huge fan of Goldeneye on the 64. And I just, I love the story and the concept. I was very excited for, you know, IOI making a Bond game. That's like a match made in heaven.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: But then when I heard it plays like Uncharted, just sign me the fuck up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes.
neocharge: It's pre-ordered, picking it up day one, ah clearing the runway for it. Can't wait.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I agree with that. That's actually the big selling point for me because yeah I love the James Bond games. like I love James Bond as a character, you know cinematic and and in literature, but cinematic is where I live with the James Bond world.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But Once I found out in the trailers that it was a little bit of that uncharted magic, like a little bit of an Indiana Jones and an early Bond, I thought, okay, I am no longer questioning this game. I am absolutely getting it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): if If I can have a ah sweet month of May and just get through, i don't want to get through these games, but you know what I mean.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If I can play through them and enjoy them and and I have time.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I can play that with Forza Horizon 6.
neocharge: course.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Those are two very different games. I can jump into Forza when I have a little bit of time. I can jump into Bond when I have a lot of time. That's that's the dream, but I don't know that that's going to happen.
neocharge: yeah i like it oh i would have got the controller if it was an edge i just imagine edging or nothing but it's a display piece for you bob so i totally understand that yeah totally understand yeah heck yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For sure.
Leon Lionheartly: That's it. Yeah, that's a display piece.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): first her
Leon Lionheartly: sits in the box next to the golden gun.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, no, that's that's super awesome. i'm I'm really glad that you were able to get it and that scalpers didn't buy all of them and screw you because I was worried about that for you. I was. I thought, is this guy going to get screwed like we all did with certain PS5 Anniversary Edition pros or whatever and shit and other things?
neocharge: Oh,
neocharge: oh yeah. Dude, I was so close. I was so close.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): as
neocharge: I was able to add it to my cart, but I couldn't check out. And Bob, I suggest you definitely take it out of the box.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Bunch of shit.
neocharge: Unseal it. And i have I actually have a broken ah charger, a PS5 charger that I can give you that you can put it on on top of the golden gun, maybe?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, just display it that way?
Leon Lionheartly: Hmm.
neocharge: Yeah, because it's one of some of the pins are broken and they can't be bent back unless I open it up and I just don't want to do that.
Leon Lionheartly: believe
neocharge: It's a $30 charger, but you can just have that and you can put it on there and it'll be a display piece.
Leon Lionheartly: Ooh, I like that idea. You know what? I'm okay with that because these are the types of things I don't hang on to to resell. Scalper, you're not a fucking entrepreneur.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Shut up. um And I think that would be really good as a display piece.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Leon Lionheartly: I love that. um I'd even go as further as we could do that and then go and get a custom case for it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah, because...
neocharge: Yeah. Like a acrylic case.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, because if the ah voice actor who plays Bond ever shows up at a convention nearby, i i'll automatically, yeah, you see where I'm going.
neocharge: Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That'd be cool.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, I love this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That'd be cool.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, that would be sick.
neocharge: We'll be there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: We'll be there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But, but yeah, so I'm, I'm glad that you're excited for, I'm glad everybody's excited enough for it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, that I don't want to, yeah.
neocharge: I'm very excited for Lego Batman, too. I got to say, I'm like super excited because I'm a huge Lego game fan.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah. all
neocharge: I've platinum most of them.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: Skywalker Saga was awesome when you weren't in the levels and you were just exploring the planets. Yeah. But this one, huge fan of the Arkham games, played all of them. And it's they say this isn't a Lego game with Batman qualities.
neocharge: It's an Arkham game that is has Lego qualities.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank
neocharge: I'm like, sign me the fuck up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that sounds awesome. It really does.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like i'm I'm there for it. I am going to get that.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's another one when probably in like November when it's on sale.
neocharge: Right.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then I'll say, oh, yeah, i'd get really excited again. Because to me, I do think Batman games are more of a fall game. I don't know.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Maybe it's because of when Arkham came, the Arkham series came out. ah But not all of them came out in the fall.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just I'm pretty sure the first one came out on like November, October, November.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Might be wrong about that, but ah the the first game.
neocharge: Something like that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So it's always just felt like a fall game to me. But anyway, so that is the state of the draft.
neocharge: Yeah. that's
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i just i was We can move on unless you had questions about the draft. but But I think April has been a crazy-ass month. I think good scores all around um and also great games all around.
neocharge: Yeah. think so, too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, everything that we were excited for this month has so far been... great. So that's, that's excellent news for even outside of the scores.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like we just, we've been having a good time with what we've been able to play.
neocharge: Yeah, exactly. And we love doing this ah draft. And if you want to follow along, we have a channel dedicated to it on our Discord. It's the Fantasy Draft channel. So you can see it live. You can see like when the bids process and everything like it you You can see the list of all the games and what we're talking about. And you know pick a team if you want. You can be Team Final Nova or Team Your Grandpa's Favorite Goon or Got You Game. Who knows?
neocharge: Team YGGGG or whatever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): YGFGG something.
neocharge: Yeah, YGFGG. ah Yeah, we have fun with it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What?
neocharge: It's fun. We love having you on the cast to give us an update. And we do that every first of the month. And this episode released today on May 1st.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: So, hey, it correlated.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It just happened to coincide. It worked out.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah, and you're you're pretty much part of the crew, too, so you're here on the one-year anniversary of Shapes, and we have the whole crew together, so...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, I appreciate that. That's ah that's very flattering.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And i'm i'm now I'm upset that I don't have another Cheez-It story. I can't actually wait. I don't have one for me, but I can tell you one that my mom told me this morning when I was talking to her.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's It's excellent and it's short. So she's been bitching about the price of like milk and gas and stuff.
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, I mean, we all are. It fucking sucks. But she told me, she said, do you know how much milk was when I went to our local Kroger?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was like, why would I know that? I don't live up there anymore. Like i a 40-year-old man, what the fuck? Anyway, she she gets like this organic milk that normally costs ah somewhere around $3, $3.50, $3.75, something like that.
neocharge: It's not bad.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and And she showed me the, I don't have the photo proof, but she showed me, she held up her phone. We were FaceTiming it. It was $8, $7.99.
neocharge: Wow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And she said, she went over, she went like to a town nearby to get, she's like, fuck these people. I'm going to go somewhere else to get this note. I have no idea what she paid for somewhere else. But I said, how much did you spend in gas to save money? go you know And she's just like, God damn it. It's on principle. And I don't blame her. But here's the best part of the story.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): She went back to the Kroger.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. That where it was eight bucks and she opened the the thing to get like to check. Cause you have to open and put your head in to see the thing. And she saw one of the guys who worked there who was stocking the milk.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I hope I get this right. It was, if you knew my mom, you would laugh even harder. Cause it was awesome. She said, and when I saw him, you know what I did? I got up and I got up in his face and I said, it'll be a cold day in hell before I pay $8 for this fucking milk.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You could shove it up your ass. And then she like closed the door and she said she took a step away and then went back, opened the door again and said, you know what? It is colder than hell outside and I'm still not going to buy it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then she shut the door and she said that the guy looked at her like she was just insane. And I said, well, mom, that is kind of insane. Like, what are you doing?
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But then I was secretly very proud of her because I was like, I probably would have done that if I was in a terrible mood too.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it was just, I'm just picturing this guy who doesn't work for Kroger, who probably works for the, you know, a truck company that delivers the milk.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Who's just like, what in the hell is going on? But yeah, that, that happened yesterday. My mom told me about it this morning.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was so of her.
neocharge: Wow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So there's your pseudo Caleb Cheez-It story for the day, for the week.
neocharge: Amazing. How old is your mom?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): She will be turning 73 on June 13th.
neocharge: That's amazing. The old lady just comes up and is like, ah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, my dad's going to 77 June 6th. So, I mean, my mom would have done that 40 years ago. She doesn't give a fuck. like She's young at heart and and she's just as active as she was 30 years ago.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's It's great. But, boy, when she gets a bug up her ass about stuff like that, it is hilarious to listen to her rant.
neocharge: Very cool.
neocharge: Everyone hears about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, this is great.
neocharge: Dang.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm sure she's told all of her sisters and everybody that lives in that hometown.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): She's probably told it so much that it got back to the driver who heard it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I wouldn't be surprised. We'd be like, oh, that was Barb. Okay. You would just know.
neocharge: Small towns, man. Small towns, I tell you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, pretty much.
neocharge: That's awesome.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Well, we love your stories. Our listeners love your stories, too. And we love having you on the cast.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Hey, thanks, listeners. I appreciate it
neocharge: Yeah, of course. ah So yeah, that was the state of the draft. and ah before we get into the reflection, let's tell everyone where they can listen to us, right? We've had a huge uptick in listeners. ah We've like tripled our listener count. So if you're new and listening, thank you so much. We appreciate it. We're just a few guys talking about games, having some beers. And honestly,
neocharge: ah sharing our passion for, in our opinion, the best damn art form in entertainment. So that's why we're doing this and that's why we started this. So thank you. If you're part of the discord, you've been part of a one year amazing community. We're having a ton of fun on there. We have a bunch of conversations. We put polls up there. We have channels for everything.
neocharge: ah Alex, you've been doing our social media. You've been tagging a bunch of people. That's probably ah caused a lot of traction. So gathering listeners, all we want to do is grow this thing so more and more people can keep the conversation going.
neocharge: because we think when you talk about games in a subjective sense that it's just a celebration of art. And this, unfortunately, the gaming landscape nowadays is bit negative and we want to put a positive spin on things. So that's why we started this thing.
neocharge: And, uh, Yeah, if you're part of the community, thank you so much. If you're new and you want to be part of the Discord and you want to you know follow our socials and subscribe to the cast, Bob, where can people find us?
Leon Lionheartly: Ah, shit. Pop quiz. ah You think after a year I'd remember this? fuck No, I'm just messing with y'all. Yeah, just go ahead and get into that browser of your choice. um I use Opera GX, ah but go to shapesofgaming.com. You'll find our landing page. That's where you're going to get all of those good links where you can hear our shenanigans, see the awesome pictures from conventions and other community members who are doing their 3D printing or other types of artwork.
Leon Lionheartly: where you can learn about the draft and all of the links on, uh, for the discord that take you to those great channels are there. You can hear your voice through the podcast service that you choose, um, as well as YouTube.
neocharge: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: If you want to listen to us on YouTube, but I don't know a lot of people that do that, but I'm not, you're going to judge you. Uh, but anyways, come check it out. Socials are there. Go to shapes of gaming.com.
neocharge: Yep. We're on everything and we just like keeping the conversation going. So we're we're just a bunch of nerds talking about nerdy shit and we have a discord for it that you can talk about all your nerdy shit.
neocharge: And all we ask is just don't be an asshole. And this last year, dude, it's been great. We haven't, i mean, we've kicked a couple spam accounts and they were clearly spam accounts, but
Goatlord-Sriobix: yep
neocharge: There have been no issues. Knock on wood, right? Everyone's been cool. No one's been mean or or an asshole. And everyone's just getting along and just ah sharing their love of video games. so And that's ah that's why we started all this.
neocharge: One year ago, it was ah conceptualized in a brewery. It's no longer here, unfortunately. ah But if all of you didn't know, I used to run a gaming podcast.
neocharge: Caleb, I've known you for fucking decades and I have wanted you on the cast for a while, but we weren't able to do it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And finally, we have the platform to do it where you're in Ohio, we're in Colorado. We can finally get you on. I've been wanting to get you on the podcast forever and I'm so glad you're part of this now. So yeah, Bob and I were basically just talking and and meeting up about every Thursday.
neocharge: Alex, you were there some of the time too.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
neocharge: And we were just talking games and drinking. And I think Bob, you were like, why don't we just, why don't we record this? Let's start a podcast. Right.
neocharge: And I was like, well, funny enough, I have some ideas that I have a, I have a concept for it. And so it just kind of, Two months later, we released our first episode.
neocharge: And I'll never forget, we worked with you, Alex, for the intro. You sent us some samples. And I was like, ah no, that doesn't sound right. But then you sent me the the one. And Bob was there. i threw in my AirPods. i'm like, all right, let's take a look. And i was like, hold on.
neocharge: hold on. Oh shit. And Bob saw my eyes light up and I was like, Oh, this is the one. And then we set up a discord call.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: i didn't really know you at the time. I had hung out with you there, but we're like good friends now, but we were working on the intro and it was just awesome to collaborate. And I've always wanted to be a creator.
neocharge: I like creating and that's what we're doing here. So yeah, Bob, man, please.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Can I share a dirty little secret about the... So, Alex, just so you know, when ah when they were in talks about this and Matt was... He was talking about like, oh we have...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We might have a guy that can do some of our music. and And Matt knew that I was at least musically inclined in some way. So he's like, it's too bad that you wouldn't want to do it. And I was like, fuck that. I'm a lazy bitch. I'm not to able to do it. Plus, I wouldn't really be able to come up with something cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I said I'd be more than happy to listen to something, just give you my opinion. And if you love it and I hate it, it's going to be your thing. I don't care. I just, if you want my opinion.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And so Matt didn't send me the first one that he had sent you. And he wasn't mean about it, but he was like, i you know, I don't know if I'm feeling it, whatever. And like, I don't know how many days later when you sent him the one that he loved, he, I don't, I wish I had the text, but it was like all caps, like, hold on, hold on, hold on. And I was in the middle of something and I was like, shut the fuck up. I don't want to hear this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But he, he was like, you have to listen to this. You have to listen to this right now. And he gave me just a little clip. I don't remember if it was the whole thing, but I do remember was like between seven and 15 seconds. And he's like, what do you think?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was like, oh damn, that's pretty good. And I didn't, I mean, they hadn't released an episode yet, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They didn't, they hadn't had anything.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i knew was going to be a great,
neocharge: Oh, yeah. This was in the conceptualization phase.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, this would have been like month one of the two months that they were prepping for this.
Goatlord-Sriobix: oh
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But he was he really was legitimately excited.
neocharge: I
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And he's like, I think we got it. I think we got our guy. i think we got the thing. I'm so excited. and And I was like, okay, okay, this is taking root. That's cool. So, I mean, he's being sincere when he says his his face lit up and he was very excited because Bob may have seen it in person.
neocharge: he yeah i have passion I have passion
Goatlord-Sriobix: oh i know
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I heard it from seven states away. That's how excited he was. So so you're aware.
Goatlord-Sriobix: dude. So my memory of how it played out is a little bit different. Um, cause as far as I remember, cause it's been so fucking long now and I've made so much music since then.
neocharge: One whole year.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Right. That's a lot in my world, I guess at 29 years old. Um, sorry.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes.
Goatlord-Sriobix: had to drop the age there. Um, but, uh,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Back in my day, Sonny, you didn't even have your underpants on.
Goatlord-Sriobix: But like, no, so I had created the the first song and i wasn't even happy with it.
neocharge: We're at it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And like, I had gotten in the discord call with them. We were talking about how to edit it. And I mentioned, uh, what would later become new game plus, uh, and i had mentioned it and I sent it to them and they're like, hold up.
Goatlord-Sriobix: The fuck is that? You should try doing this. You should try doing this. You should try doing that. We were on a discord call for what was it? Like three, four hours.
neocharge: Something like that, yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I wasn't even a part of it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Figuring out how to make this song.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If I was there, it would have been nine hours long.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, figuring out how to make this song.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay. yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: We would still be working on it, Caleb. Let's be honest here.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's true. The cast would be starting this May.
neocharge: Yeah. Right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: ah
neocharge: Yep.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, no we we were on that call for like three, four, maybe five hours just trying to figure this song out, figure it out, figure it out. And then eventually we nailed it.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And then it was just a matter of me figuring out how to put the fucking PlayStation intro sound into it.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Which took longer than I care to admit, and then Matt just did that himself.
Leon Lionheartly: that
neocharge: Yeah, through GarageBand.
Leon Lionheartly: that it's funny
neocharge: It flew so well.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It's funny you mention that, man, because that's like all we're getting these different perspectives. And from my perspective, from the very beginning, um bringing this up to Matt, I don't remember what prompted me to. I wish I could remember what it was, um but I was just like...
Leon Lionheartly: if you ever want to do a cast, let's do this. um And then you wish you're wishy-washy at first, from my perspective. yeah Maybe, kind of not, I don't know. And then it was like, well, let's get let's take a look. And then you brought the idea of Shapes.
Leon Lionheartly: And you're like, okay, what about Shapes of Gaming? And like fuck yeah, I love that name. And then it continued to drag out. And then all of a sudden, one day out of the middle of nowhere, you're like, hey, let's go ahead and do this. i already bought the debate. and I got this set up. I got this set up. I was like, oh, shit, I need to find us a music guy. um Alex, hopefully can get us an intro.
Leon Lionheartly: And then it was, okay, we've got an intro.
neocharge: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: We've got, I think we have an intro. And as we're continuing to talk about that, we're trying to plan the first day that episode one, if you will, is going to go live. um I don't even have the setup that I have now. I don't have shit.
Leon Lionheartly: I just need time to be able to get it prepped. I'm like, Matt, give me a couple of weeks notice so we can get this done. And then the second Matt heard New Game Plus and heard that intro um within a couple of days, he's like, all right, cool.
Leon Lionheartly: Let's go ahead and record. We're going to put out May 1st. And I'm like, whoa, dude, what the fuck here?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): laughter
Leon Lionheartly: So...
neocharge: Sometimes I'm a bit ambitious.
Goatlord-Sriobix: That's pretty much how it felt. That's pretty much how it felt.
neocharge: Sometimes I'm a bit ambitious for sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah I mean, it's funny because I feel like the table's flipped.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And again, I'm saying this from remote and just getting like updates through the grapevine and then being a part of it over the last year. But Bob, we talked about the four of us, Gladio, Noctis, Ignis, Prompto, very Gladio thing to do to be like, let's just do it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, fuck all this talking. Let's just go and do it. And Matt, Ignis will...
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and I say this in a nice way, overthink it at first, but then when it, when you, when it's time to put, uh, put things to the, you know, I guess put them on fire, turn them on fire, whatever you want to call it.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He'll just fucking dive in first with his daggers and be like, ah, I'm going to kill all this shit. So it's, it doesn't surprise me that you were like, let's go. And then once he got over his overthinking preparation, anxiety, or whatever you want to call it, he was like, all right, I got my checklist. I'm going to get this done. Let's fucking go. And then Prompto's taking pictures and writing music. And it was great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And me, the whole time, I'm fucking asleep in the car.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep. yep
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And Matt calls me and he's like, hey, the work's been done.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do you want to be on it? And I'm like, oh, I guess. That's very perfect for all of us. So it does not surprise me that he wanted just dive headfirst after he got over that initial hiccup.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and
neocharge: Yeah. It was the logo and the branding, the equipment for sure. This is my third podcast I've been part of.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: ah The last one, and there was no fault to the crew, but there were external factors that made it, let's just say, fall through. right
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
neocharge: And i had I just had some concerns with that. And ever since I stopped that last podcast, I had wanted to start a new one. So I started conceptualizing and started like creating shapes and i have all kinds of other concepts. And like, i just had to find the right person and it just had to come naturally.
neocharge: And I was thinking,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: And I was thinking, like I was in your mind when you were like, we should like start recording this. Have you ever thought about doing a podcast? I'm like, actually. so But then I was like, okay, is this is this this the right time?
Goatlord-Sriobix: you
neocharge: or am i am I ready to get back into it? And so i was a little wishy-washy. But then when things started falling into place, you know you're in the right place. And I was like...
neocharge: Full speed ahead. Let's fucking go Let's do this. So dude, starting a podcast, it's, it's easy when you have everything set up and you're just, you know, talking on the mic and drinking a beer, but there's so much technology, like technological backend stuff you have to figure out.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: Uh, you know, we had to, you have to create the logo. You have to create the name. You have to make sure the name's not taken. you, Probably want to buy that domain. All kinds of stuff. You have to establish the RSS feed.
neocharge: Every time you hear us and every time you get the podcast, it's from the RSS. And I don't even know what that stands for. Like Relay System something.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's Referoth Super Smash.
neocharge: Yes. Oh, interesting.
Leon Lionheartly: Really simple syndication.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is that really what it means?
neocharge: really Yeah, really good.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: Really simple syndication. Yeah, it's it's basically a feed that has metadata that automatically updates on all devices once they subscribe. And that's how you do podcasts.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
neocharge: so And you they used to do email this way and everything. So the backend thing is pretty... And then Zencaster. We use Zencaster to do this. And I had to learn that. like I had always wanted to learn Zencaster. was like, oh, actually, we can use Zencaster.
neocharge: And you were like, what's that? And I was like, I don't know. I'm going to find out, though.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What?
neocharge: So I know like a lot of the prominent podcasts, the gaming podcasts we listen to use it because they mentioned it one time and I was like, oh, I think that's it because the last podcast I did was local and fuck it.
neocharge: I pretty much built a studio in my three bedroom house and like put foam everywhere, had a table
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And the crew just came over, we recorded and we were trying it so hard to get remote guests, but we just couldn't figure it out. So I had always been, I mean, that was like fucking nine years ago, I think and I had always been looking into it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, yeah, the tech wasn't there, right?
neocharge: It wasn't.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Wasn't it?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And now we're on video and I knew we had to be on video. We can't just do an audio. We can do an audio podcast for the listeners. Right. But you need, you need tells you need visual tells like, Oh, I want to say something, you know?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So man, what a wild ride. Yeah. When, when you sent that intro concept, i my eyes lit up and I was like, and i was like let's go listen to it in the car. And Bob's like, ah all right, all right.
neocharge: So Bob, you've been an amazing co-host, dude.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
neocharge: it's it's I'm just grateful every day for you and I'm grateful for the crew. And we just work. And sometimes like there's there's personality conflicts and we just like flow, man. And we have different tastes in video games and that's crucial when you're doing a podcast. You don't want...
neocharge: Like to keep agreeing with each other. Like, oh yeah, I agree. What do we want to talk about next?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: No, we, we like bounce ideas off each other. We're like fucking good friends in life, in real life, I should say. And yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know it's interesting because sometimes when we do the spoiler casts, most of the time we're doing it because we all love the game or at least aspects of the game.
neocharge: so
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And some of the hardest parts, some of the least interesting, at least as in a when I listened to them back, I'm like, we all agreed on that because it was awesome. But that wasn't a very exciting thing to talk about because we're all like, wasn't that great?
Leon Lionheartly: you
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes, it was great. I want to blow that thing too. Yay. And then you just move on to the next part where we might disagree and it's way more exciting to listen to. It doesn't mean it's bad.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just like, i feel like we should do a spoiler cast for a game that two of us hate and two of us love. Just like, just fucking rip it apart.
neocharge: Love it. I'm down.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know if that's going to happen because why would we all play it?
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like we probably wouldn't all play it, but especially not to completion. But I do have a couple friends that have listened to select episodes because they are very busy and because they talk to me in real life all the time.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So they're like, I already know what you're going to say for three hours.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We just have dinner instead of the cast.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, you know, but they do...
Goatlord-Sriobix: don't know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um I will say I don't have like a, a specific clip or anything to to say, but a fair amount of them have said like things have, you guys have gotten like better as it goes on. Like the first couple episodes they might've thought were a little rough for whatever reason, cause growing pains, whatever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, I joke it's cause I wasn't involved in the beginning and then they're just like, ah, whatever. And I'm like, yeah, I know. But no, they, they do have very positive things to say. The more episodes as they listen to, uh,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): in recent history, which is cool. It's nice to hear that even tangentially, you know, it might not be an episode that I'm a part of and that's not what it's about. I'm just like, have you listened to this? They talked about X on episode Y and then, Oh, maybe I'll listen to it. And most people say that to just get you to shut up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then it's really cool. And, you know, a week later they're like, Oh, Hey, by the way, I listened to that thing and it was actually pretty good. I'm like, Oh fuck. Yeah, you did it. So that's that's cool.
Leon Lionheartly: I
neocharge: That's awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I wanted to, I wish I had a better clip of actual quotes from my my friends, but you know they're not as eloquent as I am. So like I don't have any yet.
Leon Lionheartly: you know
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Plus when we're when we're talking about it, we're usually having wings or we're drinking and just talking about other stuff. So it's very quick. But no, the the best part actually about being a part of this is how easy it is for me being all these states away. The worst part is how guilty I feel with the slight lag when we talk over each other. And it's not intentional. It just happens because of the delay. And I feel really bad when that happens. I do not feel bad about extending your casts five extra hours because I'm probably the one that suffers the most being on Eastern time.
neocharge: It's true.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm up the latest and I'm always tired.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm just like, well, it's my own goddamn fault. Oops.
Leon Lionheartly: You did it to yourself.
neocharge: It's content.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: No, yeah it's really great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): freedom
Leon Lionheartly: I'm glad to hear that. and And thank you for the kind words, Matt, because this has been an amazing ah ride so far. You've been an amazing host and an amazing friend.
neocharge: All right.
Leon Lionheartly: um This is, i think about when we first started really talking, just like right before we were about to hit the podcast portion of it, um I was talking to my wife ah one evening and i explained, you know, I love talking about games.
Leon Lionheartly: They're my nerdy thing. I've been doing this for 37 years, give or take. um And you have I have friends, but they play games, but they don't really discuss and dissect games at a very deep level.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yep
Leon Lionheartly: And if you do that... um
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: When you find that individual, you need to hang on to them with that with that that common interest. And I told her one evening and I said, I've got a lot of friends who play games. But Matt is the one friend I've had in 20 that like really...
Leon Lionheartly: talks about games in depth, everything, the music, the story, the themes, ah the gameplay, most importantly, um all of that. And you know your shit, more importantly.
Leon Lionheartly: You're not a person who grifts in and says, yeah, yeah, I played Goldeneye and then I bounced in and came back on Smash Brothers Melee and then I played Uncharted.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that
Leon Lionheartly: And I'm like, dude, my brother in Christ, you've got so much more you're missing. um So it,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: yep That's what makes it really good. And it makes that's what really makes this process, quite frankly, easy when we're actually here behind the microphone. It's like you said, all the other bullshit, the the technology, the the scheduling issues, all of that that that, that's really the hardest part of this.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: and I want to say as like the only other person who is here at least cast wise before you guys even started this Shapes really isn't that different than the conversations were at Metric it's really not like we still have a beer in our hand we still bullshit we still talk about video games that's the main point of it but we still bullshit through it all um we discussed discussed video games news all of that back then and we still do it now
neocharge: It's the beauty of it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And it's great.
neocharge: Exactly.
Goatlord-Sriobix: It's like nothing changed because like I do miss metric.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I do. I think we all do.
neocharge: Oh.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And like that was that was the only social interaction I had back then. And then shapes has gotten me out of my shell.
neocharge: Hmm. Hmm.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm talking on the mic now. I'm not as uncomfortable as I used to be. shit, you guys fucking started a goddamn music career out of a stupid fucking passion passion project.
neocharge: um so
neocharge: I'm so happy to hear that, man. It's
Goatlord-Sriobix: And it's it's insane. Like I picked up a PS5, which I wouldn't have done.
neocharge: amazing.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like i got my I got my first, second and third plat trophies because I'm part of Shapes now and you guys are peer pressuring assholes.
neocharge: We're slowly converting you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and you like it. That's the other thing. You didn't just pick it up and say, I made a mistake. You actually like it. So it's not like, I mean, yeah, there's a joke about peer pressure, but if you didn't like it, you would not just be like, yeah, I love this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm going to keep doing this thing that I fucking hate because I'm a bear. No, you actually like it. And that's cool that that it's a new thing for you.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: My only regret with getting a PS5 is I didn't get two. Like, Aurora and I have share it.
neocharge: yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: like
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: But, you know, it i've I've grown a lot as a person. I've grown a lot as a musician now due to Shapes. Like, I'm not even shitting you. Like, i'll i'll I'll even put it out there in the universe and put it in the Shapes Discord, the original song that I put together for the intro for this. You guys can, all the listeners can hear how fucking awful it was.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
neocharge: I like it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: It was it was the only the second...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know that I ever heard the very original, actually.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'd be i'd be interested to hear the first one.
Goatlord-Sriobix: It was the second piece of electronic music I ever made and I did not know what the fuck I was doing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But you know what?
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You still did it.
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's like that's half the battle is that you tried it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): even if you fit I mean, everybody's their own worst critic. There's plenty of shit that I've done, work that things that I've made in the past that I'm just old and jaded and bitter because I hate everything. But I did like it more when I was when i tried before.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And even if I was really mad, like, oh, man, that performance sucked or, oh, this writing is terrible that we came up with, we at least did it. And most people don't even get that far.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So the fact that you did it and then you've also grown after that, you kind of, for lack of a better term, got over yourself, like got out of your own way.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: Thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): A lot of people get in their own way, especially creatives. ah You got out of your own way and dropped a fucking banger X30 and then some that I am very excited to hear. so I mean, I've only known you you know tangentially.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The very first time I heard you talk was on the Oblivion remakester, whatever, spoiler cast that you and Bob did.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. The remaster one. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um And I mean, I didn't know you at all. And even though in person, we only really hung out for MAGFest and and a little bit on these casts, but I, in this small amount of time, have watched you grow quite a bit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's weird. It's almost like like a proud parent and I'm not even, you know, that's like, I didn't have, I didn't have that much to do with it, but I've seen it.
neocharge: sir Our beauty.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And so I'm trying to tell you, that's like, that's really cool. And I am very glad that you met these guys. Like, I really am. because That that's, uh,
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. and
neocharge: That's awesome.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like, I don't mean to keep blowing smoke up y'all's asses, but like, it is thanks to you and Bob, Matt. It really is. Like, I've, I've known Bob for years now.
neocharge: That means a lot.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I've known you sort of like, you were just the weird guy at metric that just so happened to be friends with Nara and Bob.
neocharge: Definitely weird.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I was like, okay, who's this guy?
Leon Lionheartly: Ha ha ha ha.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like he's keeps popping up randomly and talking about, you know, work. I'm like fucking weirdo. I don't want to talk to him. And now here we are.
neocharge: Right?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. You know, a year a year later of shapes and then what, like three, four years now of like knowing each other?
neocharge: That's awesome.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: it's It's crazy how much things have changed.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's nuts. Sure.
neocharge: And we've we've built a huge community and a small community too. Friendships have blossomed and That's what it's all about, man. That's kind of why we created this, is to create a community. and but like you know You can play video games. They're fun. They're fun as hell.
neocharge: But usually, and our preference is a solo game, and you're just playing it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: And then after... you know like You want to talk to someone about it. You want to talk to someone about the experience and you want to get their perspective and you want to get their take on what they played and what they liked about it. And that's why we started this.
neocharge: and Honestly, it's it's not just a tagline. We legitimately want to keep the conversation going. And I don't know if you all knew this, listeners. I know you guys know, but our our logo, i it's also a double helix because gaming is in our DNA.
neocharge: And it's what we're passionate about. And it's the spiral. No, I'm kidding.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, God damn it.
Leon Lionheartly: you
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah No, i I do want to i want to ah piggyback a little bit on what Bob was saying about when he was talking describing Matt and Like this guy gets games, you know he talks about them more and he he he can i not tear them apart.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Core drop.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't mean that in a bad way, but like you can dissect, you can look at stuff. um One of the things that I used to say that was really important to me in college, nobody else really had this as much as I did in my inner circle with with video games, but it was closer with movies and television where there's a very different um thing than watching a movie, watching a TV show, playing a game versus understanding it when you When you play a game, everybody can play a game, whether they're good, they're bad, they otherwise they enjoy it, whatever.
neocharge: yes
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But understanding a game, I do think takes a special something. I don't know what it is. um I've always felt a little bit more like the odd man out back when I was a kid and it was just Super Nintendo.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, yeah, a lot of my friends played, but they didn't understand. like what it means to me is very different than what it means to somebody else. ah But when you can when you can have that conversation with somebody else, that's what makes it special.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I do think that that that's rare.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I do. i Game developers have it when they when they praise their competitors. It's it's the same thing at any award show, Academy Awards, Emmys. When you have a director or ah best actor, best supporting actor, they go up and they accept their award.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it it does seem a little hollow sometimes when they say, oh, I'm in such a great field with with all these other wonderful people. I've been in the industry and I know that most of the time they actually mean it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When they say things like, I don't deserve this because I'm i'm up against Meryl Streep. You know, Meryl Streep is the queen. like Why in the hell? How did I win this award? But it's not about being better.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just about understanding. You understand the craft. You understand why it's important and how it can touch people. And video games do that. And I do, I actually, i still to this day think our Claire Obscure spoiler cast is probably the best one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, it's five hours long, so that doesn't help. But I think that that game was one that just deserved to be dissected in such a level that we did.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: Oh, absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um And whether people agree with
neocharge: It's one of the most listened to. It's one of the most listened to.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. and And I think, you know, the game was obviously incredible.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): we We already glazed it until the cows came home.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I think that it was more justified. And I think all of us, while we might have disagreed with certain things, we talked about various choices that are made or whatever, but the game itself...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I feel like we all understood it, which is really hard to do.
neocharge: yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I, you can't do that with everything, but I do think that you guys do a pretty good job overall. yeah I mean, as an outsider, as a listener, I think that that happens and you really can't get that everywhere.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I, died not just in games, just, movies, television, books. Uh, I mean, look at life. People don't understand life that they're living half the time. So, you know, I mean, that's, that's a different, different beast altogether.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But, uh, I do think that you guys bring that thing to the listeners and the followers that you have, uh, whether they agree or not, I think that they just say, Oh, these guys really get it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's cool. That's, that's the thing that's the earned, not given.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I appreciate that. yeah you're youre You're right. Could we, and theoretically, Matt and I sell out this entire podcast with, yeah you know, like one of the things we're going to talk about later.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: We could have sensationalized it just as everybody else did and just plaster to get people's emotions charged up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Not in a good way, not for a good use, but just for the hell of it. And then, yeah, build a platform that way. But that's dishonest.
neocharge: is it
Leon Lionheartly: We want to talk about games honestly, what we truly loved or did not like about them and why and all of that good stuff that's in there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So, um yeah, absolutely.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm
neocharge: Constructive feedback, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: If you have a problem with something, give them constructive feedback.
Goatlord-Sriobix: hmm.
neocharge: Because I mean, in in playing these games, knowing what goes into it, you know, knowing kind of how the sausage is made. Right. And knowing how many people were involved in like lives that were involved in this art form.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And a lot of people see games today not as an art form. They see it as maybe a just so passive hobby or a time waster even, or something just to blow off steam.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: But ah we really see it as an art form, a true to art, ah ultimate form, in my opinion. Because I mean, ah books you can get really creative with, but it I just like video games because they invoke more senses.
neocharge: And you know you have your audio, video, and even like touch now. Right. And it's just in your, you're interacting, you control the medium.
neocharge: you You don't control any other medium, right? It's usually you either read it or you watch it or, and it's, it's, delivered to you, but you have control over this medium and the outcome, and you have challenges you overcome to get to the next plot of the story.
neocharge: Right. And I, I've just loved video games since I was fucking six years old. I've been playing since I was six years old. Uh, I have a, I have tight circle of friends, but the the ones that I resonate with the most are are gamers and even more so gamers that understand the narrative driven concepts in this medium like you guys and we talk about it and I think it should be talked about more and as much as I like the game awards I kind of don't because you can't you can't say something is the best
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: Because it's so subjective, right? And i that's why we kind of ah veered away from our top 10 lists, you know? Because every game delivers something unique, right? And everything is subjective.
neocharge: And, you know, I hate when people are like, oh, that game sucked. ah You're wrong for liking it. And it's like, well, that's how you feel. And that's a subjective perspective. And just sharing that, like just driving that home.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: This is art. This is subjective. You can like it or hate it, but you are neither right or wrong.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. And like, even even in our circle here, there's games that certain people will love that other people don't. And like, it's, it's clear as day. It's not even just from our top 10 list. Like how many times do I give you shit about final fantasy seven?
Goatlord-Sriobix: How many times does Caleb give you shit about final fantasy six?
neocharge: Right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: How do how many times have I shot Bob for his game taste?
neocharge: Oh yeah. All broke.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like, yeah, like the,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All Brooke.
Goatlord-Sriobix: and At the end of the day, it's making fun at each other because it's not meant to be taken seriously.
neocharge: Exactly.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like, yeah, but that's the lovely thing about art.
neocharge: No.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Art in general, not just video games. Art, music, video games, poetry, books, it's all subjective.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And we've we've approached... I mean, you had to teach me how to be or what a subjective opinion was at the start because I was really confrontational.
neocharge: I'm glad I could help. Dude, you came over and I side-eyed Bob and I'm like, you better stop fucking talking bad about Final Fantasy VII, man.
Goatlord-Sriobix: But...
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: no
Goatlord-Sriobix: oh yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: laughter
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, look, okay. So I do, I have to tell you guys, ah a friend of mine, I mean, he's a good he's a good guy.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And it...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He hates Final Fantasy VII. He's like, he actively thinks it's like one of the worst things that's ever existed.
neocharge: It's okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I mean, you know, you're entitled to your opinion. I i respect that. But at a certain point, it's like, we're about to throw down. There's about to be some fisticuffs because you're just not getting it. You're allowed to to disagree with my opinion about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But to say that it's literally the worst thing that's ever been created, you're just fucking dork. dork
neocharge: Probably don't understand it or
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So yeah, and that's that's the thing. It's like when you disagree with somebody, there's a way to disagree with somebody, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's that's And that that's very important.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I think that overall, I think that we told that line pretty well. I mean, a lot of our top 10 lists or top five, we would say things like, my personal top one, two, and three is this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Not, these are the best three games here and you all need to suck it. I mean, we might say that, but we don't.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I mean it. You guys can't mean it because you're all wrong if you disagree with me.
neocharge: right and i'm I'm happy I could help you with that Alex because I mean instead of like getting mad about it I'm like well do you understand like subjective and you're you're an artist because you're you like make music and I i explained it to you as best I could and I'm glad it it stuck and I'm glad I could help
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So...
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Well, now when I give you shit about Final Fantasy, you know I'm halfway joking. Like, I can give anybody shit about their favorite game.
neocharge: yes exactly
Goatlord-Sriobix: I don't care. You can diss mine. I don't care.
neocharge: yeah Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like, it but that's that's that's the thing. it's Everything's subjective. And we've...
neocharge: Right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: you I say we I guess it is we, honestly.
neocharge: And, mm-hmm.
Goatlord-Sriobix: um We've built the platform. You guys started it out, built this whole platform off of the subject subjectivity of art.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yes, we're going to have news, which is objective, but everything's subjective.
neocharge: And I mean.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. and it
Goatlord-Sriobix: And we're we're all, unfortunately, critics, if we really want to be negative about it.
neocharge: That's true.
Goatlord-Sriobix: We are critics. um And, you know, it shows. like People wouldn't be tuning in if they hated what we had to say. They wouldn't be tuning in if we said nothing but negative things about a game.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Unless it's High Guard.
neocharge: Right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: People want to hear people want to hear a shit on High Guard all day.
neocharge: People want to hear hate on
Goatlord-Sriobix: Exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: That's what I'm saying.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: So does that mean for critics, can I go write a review and up the score of all of my games? these are the rhythms this here Sandbag all of Matt's.
Goatlord-Sriobix: That's not how it works, Bob.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): One out of 10.
Goatlord-Sriobix: That's not how works.
Leon Lionheartly: so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That game's dumb because Matt drafted it.
Leon Lionheartly: you good
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ah, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Go into mouse PI. One out of 10. Too much cheese.
neocharge: Too much cheese.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): too much Too much mouse PI in mouse PI.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. ah
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, no shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): God.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I've actually, I've considered trying to like, to make a review site because I mean, I think, I do think maybe I'm speaking out of turn, but I do think that I try to be as objective as possible when scoring a game, even if it's not my jam, it's not my cup of tea.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't particularly like sports games that much. But if they're done well, I wouldn't review bomb them. I would say, I don't care about NBA 2K30.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's probably an 85 though, because look at all the work that went into it and look at how it plays. i would I feel like I would do that.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I've thought about doing that to to write reviews on things. And I just don't even know how somebody goes about getting that to that to make it so that, oh, he's an authority.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do you guys have any idea how you would even go about doing that?
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: i don't I don't know, but I'd be happy to look into it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't.
Leon Lionheartly: But I gotta say, Caleb, you just...
neocharge: Me too.
Leon Lionheartly: Sorry, my brain. um You're Slay the Spire 2.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You're good?
Leon Lionheartly: Did you see what's recently happening on Steam?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No. No, I have no idea what's going on.
Leon Lionheartly: it's getting It's getting review bombed by the Chinese players.
neocharge: Oh, no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Why?
Leon Lionheartly: speaking I think they nerfed GameThinit Dex or something like that and recently. And because of that, they're pissed off that they were review bombing it.
neocharge: It's crazy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Can we take a second to just...
neocharge: Yeah, there're there's so much discourse.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Hey, it worked for Hellbivers, didn't it?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's true. do you guys like or hate Review Bombs? Just personally.
Leon Lionheartly: him despise him
neocharge: ah No, I don't i don't like him at all.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like just
neocharge: Why would I?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but i
neocharge: No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i personally hate them.
Goatlord-Sriobix: If...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i just I was curious about it.
neocharge: I despise them.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Now, if if...
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well...
Goatlord-Sriobix: The way I look at it, if it's done for a positive reason, I don't mind it.
neocharge: It wouldn't be a review bomb then. It'd be a legitimate negative review. Review bomb, I think the term means that they they just want to lower the score for personal reasons rather than how good the game is.
neocharge: Like The Last of Us Part II got review bombed, and it's a phenomenal game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): well
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's interesting It's interesting you're saying that, but am my my only...
neocharge: in my opinion.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): because i do I think I know where Alex is coming from because I'm genuinely... i do agree that if it's the only way to get something done and get noticed to fix this problem, whatever that might be, and the only one that comes to mind right now is Monster Hunter Wilds on the PC release because it was just busted as shit.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: the
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And...
neocharge: That's legitimate.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Capcom, I love Capcom. I think Capcom is awesome. Like you said on an earlier cast, they're on a generational run. It's crazy how good they're doing right now. But they weren't fixing a fucking thing when it came to the PC version of Wilds.
neocharge: Dude, dude. Dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They were just making it worse and worse and worse. Now, that did not affect me, but I thought, what else would work?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They're not going to just write a letter to Capcom and say, hey, could you guys please fix this thing? like It didn't work. It was not working. So that was the only other option that that players had. However, I also hated it because it's like, ah, the game deserves better.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The people that aren't fixing it deserve this bomb. And i don't I don't know what the recourse is, though. I don't know what the alternative is.
neocharge: Well, that was affecting the PS5 version too, which was wrong.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): come It was. It was.
neocharge: So the PS5 version had some downfalls, but they they fixed them pretty quickly. And the game we played was pretty well put together.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: But yeah, they' theyre too there's so much discourse and negativity online in general. And in the gaming space, it's unfortunately pretty prominent. And people were always arguing like, oh, this is the best game. This is the definitive top five. And I'm like, it's guys, it's subjective.
Goatlord-Sriobix: exactly
neocharge: It's opinion. And we just want to spread that. that concept, like it's art, it's subjective. You can like it or dislike it.
neocharge: Just talk about it. Keep talking about it. Tell us why you don't like it. Be open to other perspectives of why people might've liked it or vice versa. If you really liked it, be open to someone else's perspective of, oh, why didn't you like it? Ask questions.
neocharge: Don't say you're wrong. I hate you for not liking Final Fantasy VII. If someone was like, oh, I didn't like Final Fantasy VII. I think we I encountered this. I was like, oh, why not? Like, what? May I ask why?
neocharge: And then if they give me a legitimate reason or like a constructive criticism, if it's like, oh, Cloud was gay looking. And I'm like, yeah, no, shut up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Cloud's a little bit gay sometimes, so it's okay.
neocharge: You know?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, you and I have...
neocharge: Of course.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. yeah
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I think that was actually a turning point in you and I's friendship because I can actually pinpoint that exact moment where you and I had that conversation.
neocharge: I think so. Yeah. Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: and And that's when you taught me about you know subjectivity and all of that, and I kind of explained my outlook on the game. where i was like, oh, I don't like Final Fantasy VII because this, this, and this.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: But I can still write real recognize real. okay the The game's still a great game. It's just not great for me.
neocharge: Right. Exactly.
Goatlord-Sriobix: like yeah and that's that's how that's how we all are like oh shit i don't think there's actually anything i've been part of spoiler cast wise where wasn't like oh this is like one of the greatest games ever made but like there were people i guarantee you that listened to our claire podcast or whole spoiler cast and were like oh well these guys are wrong this game was ass
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's the difference. That's the difference.
neocharge: Yes.
neocharge: And I...
neocharge: Yeah, tell us why. we have a Discord for it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: except yeah and
neocharge: Tell us why you didn't like it or why you didn't like something we said. Or even on the cast, be like, I don't agree with that. Cool, let's have a conversation about it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, yeah.
neocharge: that's Keep the conversation going. Talk about the things. You know, that's...
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): have a conversation about it so I can put you in your place.
Goatlord-Sriobix: hu like matt How many times did you get a hold of people when they were playing Claire and you were stalking their trophies?
neocharge: but but
Goatlord-Sriobix: And I know you did it because Bob did it to me, too.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Every time.
neocharge: Fuck yeah, i did.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Bob did it to me, too.
neocharge: Yeah, we're stalking your Death Stranding 2 trophies.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Well, he he didn't. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh,
neocharge: You better believe it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): do you want to know the real reason I haven't started Pragmata?
neocharge: Yeah. Why?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because every time last year, every time Matt asked me when I was starting Claire Obscure, and I was in France, not a near, I was 4,000 miles away from my fucking PS5.
neocharge: Even a better reason to start it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I told him then, and he's forgotten, which is fine. I told him then, I was like, if you keep asking me whatever next big game that you want me to play, it's just going to get kicked back one week every time you ask me when I'm starting it.
neocharge: Oh, shit.
Leon Lionheartly: so shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So apparently I'm not starting Pragmata until June 21st.
neocharge: i be
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sorry, guys. Matt will...
neocharge: Wow, he's got a date nailed down.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, no, I'm kidding.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Well, you want to make it Jude 28?
neocharge: im just excited.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: I'm excited.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm kidding. No, i I am excited to start it for what it's worth. But... um
Goatlord-Sriobix: and like the
neocharge: Just, yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: The amount of times like anybody got a hold of anybody and was like, you want to talk about it?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Hey. did did you like this thing in this game or, Hey, what did you think of this? Like it happens like not, not just with us four happens in our discord. It happens in our league, league of greatness chat with all of our buddies.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like I've had, like even you or Bob has hit me up just privately and been like, Hey man, you've played this. What did you think?
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like,
neocharge: That's what all about.
Goatlord-Sriobix: that's yeah that's the beauty of it Like we're, we're keeping a conversation going amongst ourselves.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And then eventually, like if we have a crazy topic we want to talk about, like I'll go on a rant on fucking Facebook messenger or something over something random. I saw we're like, Oh, let's put it on in the cast.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And that's just how it works. You know, we're we're, it's not just a saying that we say we are actually talking about the things that are we're passionate about.
neocharge: It's not. it
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: It's a belief, really.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You guys, you guys will love this one dinner tonight.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The guys I see on a regular basis to have chicken and stuff. ah I have one of them.
Goatlord-Sriobix: ah you got chicken, guys? you can guys
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): One of, one of them was ah never got into resident evil. Never. was just not his thing. I do think he's the oldest of us in that group. So mid, mid to late, later forties, mid forties. Good guy, you know loves, loves his JRPGs. That's his favorite thing. ah But he,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He just, you know, it wasn't really my thing. And I said, dude, because i was I was raving about Requiem, obviously, and talk about how excited I was for Code Veronica and the other two guys who were at this particular meal over the last couple of weeks.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): One of them has played almost all the Resident Evils. One of them has played a few likes them, but this guy played none. And so I said, look, you have to at least try Resident Evil 2 remake.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not, that's my my favorite is the Resident Evil 2. We've talked about that before. But I said the remake, like I'm not going to make start at the OG, but I just want, you know, he's a writer. he he writes novellas and stuff.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I thought the writing alone in the world building, you might not like zombies.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You might not like certain elements, but you should at least give it a chance. The game's not that long either. It's not a 90 hour JRPG that you have to sink your teeth into. So, but my one request was you do probably have to start with one Resident Evil one remake from back in the day. You got you gotta, gotta start there and then go to two. And if you do not like it after that, then you can just go away.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He played one. He did. he he played one and he said, ah you know, it's fine. And I said, please just give me a chance and play Resident Evil two remake. It is my favorite. So he, this was the reporting back tonight and and he sat down And I just was staring at him, you know waiting for him to see if he was playing it or whatever.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I said, how are you liking it? are you far Did you get far? i have not stalked his trophies. I haven't done any that shit because I've been busy. And he just looks at me and he said, I'm in my second playthrough.
neocharge: Yeah!
Leon Lionheartly: Ah!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Does that mean you liked it? And he just said... I'm on my second playthrough. And for him, that's that's a big deal. So he did but he said, I can see why you loved it so much.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's very good.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I i had recommended other games to him that that he tells me that I'm on a pretty good track record with a lot of my recommendations. And Resident Evil was the one that I didn't think was going to take because it's just not his cup of tea.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But the fact that he very much likes 3, he's promised to go and play 3 and 4 remake. Not sure what he's going to do about 5 right now. I don't know if I should say, wait and see what they do.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Or if I should say, fuck that, just play 7 and and Requiem.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I can tell you what happens in 5. We can move on. But but like like Alex is saying, we do this. Anyway, we do this outside of this cast. This is just kind of who we are.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And sometimes it's probably a little off-putting when, hey guys, order your chicken. What games are you playing? Yeah, that's that's just something that that I gravitate towards. We do talk about ah books and movies and shows too, but but games are the the thing that that we all kind of share and and have in common.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and it's It is nice to have that that level of understanding that I was talking about earlier. It's very cool.
Goatlord-Sriobix: See, my favorite things are when we recommend things to each other and we're right.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Or when we're wrong and we're like, okay, they I understand why I'm wrong.
Leon Lionheartly: I win.
Goatlord-Sriobix: OK.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I get why you don't like it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I think I think there was like three or four separate times over.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cool, you know?
Goatlord-Sriobix: i was over at Matt's place and Bob was like, dude, you need to play Nino Cooney. And now look at us now, Matt.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: How how many hours are you into that?
neocharge: Hey! Platinumed.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Good job, Bob.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We did it, fam.
Leon Lionheartly: i win
neocharge: Yeah, it was.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We got him to fucking play it.
neocharge: I mean, he kind of did have to twist my arm and I got something out of it too. He played Tales of Bergeria. So it it took all it took a bit. It took a while. So Caleb, don't feel bad.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: I know you recommended it like 10 years ago. I was dumb. That's all I can really say.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 13, but who's counting? Who's counting, you fucking ass?
neocharge: 13. pray Right, right. But yeah, man, we.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And like but Bob had pestered me about fucking playing Claire and it took me forever to get to it.
neocharge: oh
Goatlord-Sriobix: And then I started my playthrough and he was like, we're going to do a spoiler cast.
neocharge: sir Aren't you glad?
Goatlord-Sriobix: You got to finish the game if you want to be on it. i was like, fuck, I got to finish this game. And now I'm seven playthroughs deep. So how'd that work out in the long run?
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Pretty decent recommendation, wouldn't you say?
Goatlord-Sriobix: ah Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yep.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. it's It's truly a passion, honestly, for all of us. And that's ah why are we started this and why we keep attracting similar-minded people and why we created this community.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: So thank you all. you You are shapes. You made us... who we are and you're, you're growing us and we're just, you know, doing what we always have recording it and sharing it with, with you all. So, uh, happy one year anniversary to shapes of gaming.
neocharge: And, uh, what, what does shapes mean to you? Tell us on the discord. What, what have you met friends because of it? Let us know. it, it it's amazing to hear these stories because that's truly the reason,
neocharge: why we started this to create communities and bring people together to talk about an art form. And we'd love to hear stories, positive, uh, constructive even, you know, of what shapes of gaming means to you.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Let us know. That's why we have the, the discord.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And, uh, yeah, this is God, this has been amazing. It's been a dream of mine. Honestly, love every minute of it. And here's to the next year, man. And,
neocharge: hopefully more years after that. There's still games coming. We still like talking about them and drinking some beer. And it's, it's, I hate, I hate to be cliche, but this has been fun, but it has been about the friendships made along the way.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah You mean like me and Alex? Because we never would have met if it weren't for Shapes, which is really cool.
neocharge: Yeah. Bob and Bo, Bob and Bo, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah? Never heard of him.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Never heard of him.
Goatlord-Sriobix: ah yeah I would have never met Caleb, Bo, Solo.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Shit, I would probably never talked to you again.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah That weird guy at metric.
neocharge: Right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: like
neocharge: Who's this fucking guy?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I mean, honestly, i wouldn' i wouldn't have met Bob if it weren't for Shapes. And it's it's been great to get to know Bob and Alex ah more over the last year and and change.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It really has. It's it's cool. There are things that, like, Bob and I just sort of ah for lack of a better description, assimilated. or He's like, oh, this guy likes games that are good too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I thought the same thing. And we're just immediately, it was like we've known each other for 20 years.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it's kind of hard to believe that I've only really known you for about a little under a year because I didn't know you at the beginning of Shapes. Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, you're you're you're right. that I heard about you before through Matt, but that never actually met you. um And after MAGFest, I even came home and after you showed me all of ah the amazing things that you have in your basement there with that collection and the special editions and getting to talk about games that like Matt's just glazed eyes glazed over, like, I don't care.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right?
Leon Lionheartly: I told Chris all was like, if I grew up in and around Ohio, at five years old, Caleb and I would have been best friends. Like this just...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, lifelong best friends, for real.
Leon Lionheartly: just
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's not even a joke. That's 100% true.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's cool.
neocharge: It's amazing.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that That really is cool. But on that note, because we're here to talk about games,
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do you guys want to talk about some games?
neocharge: I was getting there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All right.
neocharge: I was getting there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, now you can go. Now you can do it.
neocharge: Yes. Uh, What are we playing? what's the That's the meat and the in potatoes of of why we're here, right? We play games, and then we talk about them.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep. yep
neocharge: ah Let's see. Caleb, you go first.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yo. All right.
neocharge: What are you playing nowadays?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): what i Well, when i've had what i've had the time when I've had the time to play over the last couple of weeks, it has been very Crimson Desert-y.
neocharge: John Desert.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um And I've got to say, it's it's interesting. If you've been listening to my my updates on these casts, because it's it's March 19th was when it came out, I believe. And even though I did have a lot of real-life stuff that took me away from playing it nonstop, I've still been able to put in a fair amount of time into it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah You're going to laugh. This now is game of the year contention for how good it has gotten for game reasons, not necessarily narrative.
neocharge: Dang!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not commenting on the narrative because I am not finished with the narrative. I have been, i'm not going to say stuck on chapter five, like it's difficult. I have been stuck there because I just will not move on.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I have been exploring every stupid nook and cranny of this game and finding better things and breaking the build and just having a blast with it.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it it I stand by my decision earlier that there is too long to get to the good stuff. I do feel like, unless that's been fixed in a patch, and I don't know because I haven't started the game over, um but i don't I don't think so.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They have added so many quality of life things. They have updated so many things that have just made the game a little smoother, sanded off some of the edges a little bit. And this is a single player game. Have not had to pay a single cent for it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The last patch that I can remember was, I think, 31 gigabytes, 31 gigs.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it was like, hey, we fixed this. We fixed that. We added this. There's all this extra shit. Also, there's 14 new quest lines. Just go deal with it. Have a great time.
neocharge: and
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That is awesome. ah So when I say game of the year contention, it should be in the conversation. It's more for... the developer and what they have done to make this just a really fun experience all around.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It is it is the Skyrim, the present day Skyrim, and it has shown what is what is possible in an open world exploratory sandbox. Again, nothing to do with the narrative.
neocharge: Pearl Abyss. Pearl Abyss made it, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You can't comment on that. But yeah, Pearl Abyss. And these guys have pumped out these patches faster than anybody else.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, yes, they have a lot of experience with Black Desert Online and and having the cool turnaround, but they are showing...
neocharge: I see.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): other developers just how lazy they are when it's like ah we'll fix that in three months and they're like fuck it we'll be done in five days and when they fix it they don't break other things it's not like oh i loaded up my save and it crashed and i and everything's ruined it's just been i'm i'm actually excited when the game gets patched like oh are there new mounts i don't know um but so i've been playing the shit out of that and i really think it is worth
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): playing at some point in your lives. Yes, it's a time sink. Yes, it's a lot. Yes, it's a huge ask.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now is the absolute worst fucking time to do it. So don't, you know, that that's that's the truth.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I am really happy with the evolution of this game over the last month and change that I've gotten to play. ah I do think, I don't know the exact number. There's these things that you collect that are basically challenges that you can do to unlock skill points and and other currencies and stuff.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think there's somewhere I might be overestimating because I have not counted. It might be around 200 or whatever, but they have little question marks in your menu if you haven't unlocked them yet. And I looked the other day when I was playing when I had a few hours and I think I only have eight left to find, which is nuts.
Leon Lionheartly: Holy shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I have not looked up shit except for like, oh, how does this mechanic work? It's not, I don't, I don't think I'm doing it right. Turns out that I was not doing it right because they never fucking told you how to do it. So whatever. But,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That is how much I've explored this game. It is silly. And i i'm I'm actually excited. I'm going to look for these last eight or nine, and then I'm going to continue the story, which means I'm going to log in and I'm not going to continue the story.
neocharge: What's
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm going to have ADHD and run across the fucking planet and find a cave and then six hours will have passed and I'll go, okay. So that's Crimson Desert. i do I actually went from not being able to recommend it to being able to recommend it for people that have the time to commit. If you do not have the time to commit, just don't do it But if you have the time and you're interested in an open world sandbox, this game is actually really, really solid once you learn all the all the bells and whistles of it. So that's the one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The other one.
neocharge: I've heard so many good things about it. How many hours in are you?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it it's I think I think I think I'm actually at 100. think i hit 100 hours, which is nuts because I didn't. It doesn't feel like it.
neocharge: Getting started. You're just getting started. no
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know. I mean, I really am. I'm sure there's going to be more shit that I unlock in the coming chapters, and I'm going to go, what? Like, I i just don't... I don't know. I came across a set piece the other day that I just i just stared at the Vista for a minute.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was like what the fuck?
neocharge: Nice.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What? And I can go there? I can get on all these? What? It was just a really cool feeling.
neocharge: Awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it hasn't been there in an open-world game. That's the thing. It's it's not... I can't judge it on its story because it's not good, bad, or or otherwise yet. It's just kind of there, but that's not what this game is all about. This game is all about being a game first and foremost. And that to me is so important because we don't get many of those anymore.
Leon Lionheartly: it If I may, ah you what what your what you're describing, I love.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's yeah.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: um And you may be right because I remember you saying, this is a game you're going to love, Bob. like
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I think it would be.
Leon Lionheartly: You should check this out. I think this is going to be this year's KCD 2. where last year I really wanted to get to it, but I couldn't.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: It came out at a terrible time for releases and backlog. And I think this is the same thing where the more I see and the more I hear, I'm like, oh, know there's something there, but can I really commit 200 hours to this game right now?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's It's weird because I usually, i mean, i I like to think that I have a pretty decent track record on game taste. And I love bad games too. If I have fun with them and other people think they're bad, they're still fun for me. So whatever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But with Crimson Desert, it didn't hook me right away. It didn't hook me 15 hours in, in the way that other games do. But I was still invested enough to say, you know what? I i really want to give this game a chance.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then there was a thing that happened. And it was I just felt, oh, there it is. There there you are. It's not the hook that I'm used to, though. It wasn't the first time I saw the Claire Obscure trailer, and I immediately knew, I'm going to get that game. I'm going love that game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That game might be Game of the Year contender. Those were my immediate gut reactions from the very first trailer.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And... That doesn't happen that often on on certain games. It does crimson desert. I, ah, it looks okay. It looks fun. I'll probably get it. And I actually owe a few of the March delays into April.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Me, I owe them a, a, a thank you because that's the only reason I picked up crimson desert launch. I was going to wait. And I, I thought real life stuff hadn't happened yet. I thought I was going to have a lot more free time for the first three weeks.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): or the first two weeks, at last two weeks of March, first week of April. Turns out I didn't, and that's fine. But I bought it anyway. i said, well, i'm I'm invested now. Let's go. And I am glad that I stuck with it. And I'm going to see it through to its end. And I'm probably going to platinum that fucker unless there's a broken trophy because I'm going to do everything.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm going to everything. i'm in a hundred I'm going for 100% in that game, which is a mistake. It's a beautiful mistake, and I don't care. i I am having that much fun with it. um So if you guys have questions about Crimson Desert,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and Feel free, ask on the Discord, whatever. I'm more than happy to answer it. I'm sure Reddit could give you more information, but if you want the most spoiler-free, objective opinion about certain things, feel free to ask.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah The other two games I'm playing, I will just be very quick. I am still playing Dissidia Duellum because I'm a fucking Final Fantasy simp and I'm mad about it because I hate myself and I don't care.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Clive from...
neocharge: You said it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ivan from 16 and Riku from 10 just released yesterday, two days either I think it was Tuesday.
neocharge: Riku.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I had not spent any of my in-game currency from the beginning of the game. So all the battles that i had won, all the battles that I had lost, I was running in on low abilities and low skills and not even players, characters that I wanted to be because it was just the luck of the draw.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I went full balls deep in for Clive and Riku's skills.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The very first couple matches I got in, I am now wrecking people more than I was before.
neocharge: Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm like, oh, this is what it's like to be pay to win. I did not spend, but I just hoarded from the beginning. So it was kind of cool to to do that. And, you know, it's it's a fucking mobile game.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's It's kind of garbage. i'm I'm not above saying that, but... It's fun for me. I'm having fun with it. I play it. I played it when I went to the dentist and I was waiting. We just played a match while i was waiting to be right. yeah I don't, I don't take out out time for quote unquote real games. So take, take that with a grain of salt, but I, I'm enjoying it. The music's fine. The graphics are okay. And you know, it's a fun, quick play. The last thing I started Diablo for Lord of hatred with my good friend last night because he was available.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I did actually have a few hours. I was going to start Pragmata, but he and I had an agreement. And when he was available, we've been waiting to do this for a while, and finally released and he was available on launch.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I rolled a Paladin, he rolled Warlock. We played together a few hours. It's it's a lot of fun so far. I talked about a little bit in the state of the draft. We're probably going to try to play again this weekend, maybe tomorrow if we get lucky.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And if not, then I will be playing either Crimson Desert or Pragmata. It depends on how much time I have. I don't want to start Pragmata and only play it for like an hour. that i can't
neocharge: I will totally understand.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I can't do that. Crimson Desert, I can now do that, even though it's really hard, because I can go in, I can just look for those stupid things, maybe do a story mission, move on turn it off.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But Pragmata deserves my full attention. I want three hour chunks of time at minimum. And once they get started, I'm i am very much looking forward to it.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It has been pushed above Hades.
neocharge: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): for my playing next, not just because of the potential spoiler cast, but I kind of like you, Matt, I've waited long enough to play Hades two. I'm very excited to get to it. I know that I'm going to love the hell out of it, but Pragmata has that special something that I want to see and I don't want things to be ruined for me.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I'm already embarrassed that I'm behind, but I've been on,
neocharge: Exactly.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): weird vacations and family stuff and busy and, and just this, that, and the other. So, so those are my three games.
neocharge: Getting throat sunburned.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Pragmatos. Yeah. Right. Pragmatos on deck. Very excited to get to it. Um, and yeah, any questions about the games I've played or do you want me to shut the hell up so you guys can go?
neocharge: Excellent. Excellent.
Leon Lionheartly: i'll I'll put it to you like this.
neocharge: the
Leon Lionheartly: i don't want to tell you that Pragmata needs to, no matter what, be the next one. um But there's every now and then there's a game that comes along and you go, it's got something.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Pragmata is that. I'll just say it like that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cool. That's kind of the feeling I got anyway.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so i'm And I love science fiction arguably more than most. I will take bad sci-fi over no sci-fi any day. So the fact that this is also good sci-fi is just a slam dunk.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i Well, at least presumably. I'm assuming that you guys are not just all trolling me. But also, I already bought, I mean, I pre-ordered it. It's been on my dashboard. It's been taunting me every time I turn on the PS5, and I just hadn't had time to to give it its due diligence, its justice. it it it needs to to be next.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So it will happen, I promise.
neocharge: Can't wait, dude. Can't wait. And I'm glad you're enjoying Christmas, Ezra.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you if it's like an ask if If I can ask, ah because I normally don't like to know, so if you don't want to tell me on the cast, but if you were to guess how long from start to finish just for a playthrough,
neocharge: What? Yeah.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Would you be willing to tell me roughly, is that okay? I mean, you consider that danger territory?
neocharge: If you think it's okay, and Alex thinks it's okay, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, for the listeners more than anything else, because I normally don't want to know that, but I do want to know for my next chunk of time.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm okay with that.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, go ahead. Go right on ahead.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because if you told me 120 hours, I know it's not that. But if you told me 120 hours, I'd probably be like, ah. But if you say 25, 20 to 25, cool. can deal with that. cool that's i can i can deal with that
neocharge: Bob, I think we should have fun with this. Let's say it at the same time after three. One, two, three.
Leon Lionheartly: Go ahead.
neocharge: Twelve hours.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Really? Okay. That's not bad.
Leon Lionheartly: I was going to put it to you like this. Dead space.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: Yeah, it's good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cool. Cool.
Leon Lionheartly: It's perfect. Perfect. That's all I can say.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All right. All right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh, perfect sci-fi like Mass Effect?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I think Alex, oh,
Goatlord-Sriobix: It's a perfect sci-fi like Mass Effect, the hit game series that Matt needs to play?
neocharge: It's, oh geez.
Leon Lionheartly: a
neocharge: Yeah. No, ah yeah. Let me, let me beat mass effect in 12 hours, but it's, it's a, it's,
Goatlord-Sriobix: No, no, no, no, no. no no
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I might be able to beat Mass Effect 2 in 12 hours. I've played through it enough.
neocharge: oh yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I might be able to sprint through that game. I don't know. i just... i That game's fucking awesome.
neocharge: It was ah just enough to, I mean, it was just right. Not too long, not too short and just a wild ride the entire time.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I'll probably play through it multiple times.
neocharge: It's amazing, dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's not about that. It's just more of the time management with all the other games because obviously Saros, that's also on my fucking dashboard preloaded.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Damn it.
neocharge: That releases, that released yesterday. So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: but my My question for you guys is, how's the replayability on it?
neocharge: Caleb, do you want to know? Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I got it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. That's, that's, that's not a problem. Go ahead.
Leon Lionheartly: Highly replayable and mandatory.
neocharge: Yep.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mandatory?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay. Okay, cool. That's all I need to know.
neocharge: For the platinum, not to, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): possible well but you you also want to replay it right it's not just oh i have to play it again like that that's that to me is a sign of a great game
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, yes, for the platinum, yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Because Yeah.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. it you know I've gotten every trophy besides one of them.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): blank yeah
neocharge: ah And i am waiting for my second playthrough to where I'm ah in. I can use my theater because now I'm on headphones. I'm on my Astros. love the Astros. They're amazing.
neocharge: this This game sits with you, and I'm still reflecting on it, and I don't want to dive right into the next playthrough. i want it I want to sit with it for a bit, and I want to marinate on it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: OK. Awesome.
neocharge: ah But I... Yeah, this game is very special, and... I'm waiting to for my next playthrough when I'm in ah in a place where I can use my theater system.
neocharge: Because, ah man, it's just ah it's ah technical marvel.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Makes sense.
neocharge: And sound design, amazing. Alex,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do you think it deserves, a I mean, again, early in the year, but do you think it deserves to be in the conversation at the end of the year as of right now?
Goatlord-Sriobix: awesome
neocharge: okay out alex do you want to know?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yes, tell me.
neocharge: Absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cool. Good. I mean, I figured I just, I was curious. So awesome.
Leon Lionheartly: Concur.
neocharge: It's a fucking, it's a fucking gem, dude.
Leon Lionheartly: Strongly concur.
neocharge: And I.
Leon Lionheartly: I...
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I heard, I ah talking to Matt on this of the side about this after, cause I finished before him.
Goatlord-Sriobix: This is...
Leon Lionheartly: And then I was like, like Matt, du did yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's what she said.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: I was like, yeah, that's all right. If you ain't first, you last baby. ah yeah yeah i I was like, dude, this, this game's got that like goatee mindset in it and it's there.
Leon Lionheartly: And he, and he's waffling and maybe, maybe not. And finally I got a text. Who am I fucking kidding? It is.
neocharge: you
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: i know' i don't want to I don't want to talk about like a goatee this early in the year.
Leon Lionheartly: no This is
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I understand, but you are also allowed to to sort of put it on that pedestal if it deserves. Because what it was Bo, and you had said it on the last cast, Bob, where the worst game that you've platinumed or played through this year entirely outside of High Guard was Nioh 3. Nioh 3 is awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's like to to show the caliber of games we have this year. And after that, to put this game, to put Pragmata up on a pedestal and say, wow, this should be in the conversation.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's not like come November, if the game didn't end up, everybody'd go, ah, you're stupid. It's just cool to say, let's point out how much we like this right now. This is so good right now.
neocharge: e
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Even if, even if six other games come out that are quote unquote better, doesn't matter.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's, it's awesome right now. And that's, that to me is what matters.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Get the word out.
neocharge: This game hits. It hits and it's incredible. i don't I don't want to hype it up too much, because i don't but i don't think I don't think I can set the expectations to where they it might be disappointing because it's that good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, we said that about Claire.
neocharge: We can hype this game up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We said that about Claire before the spoiler cast.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then, i mean, i i I still think we weren't wrong.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): In the spoiler cast, we said, we've been praising this on 15 episodes.
neocharge: he
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh my God, here we are. We can now praise it without holding back.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And i you said it earlier, that's the most listened to a cast episode for a reason.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
neocharge: It is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I'm i'm very glad to hear that. I'm i'm super thrilled that that the game not only is is great, but that you guys love it. and that it seems like fans and and critics also loved it that's that's uh so if yeah if you guys could just
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, sitting at an 87. And spoiler, we're going to do a spoiler cast on it. And that's our next spoiler cast, Prognata.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): if one of us would fucking hurry up and and beat it but i'm not gonna rush through it i'm not gonna rush through it i'm sorry i'm gonna take my time ah but that was another reason i wanted to know the estimated time but i i do think that um
neocharge: We'll be patient. No, don't. I didn't.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's it's important to note that Capcom, i think they're I think they want a game of the year.
neocharge: Dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's why they're like, this year we're releasing four fucking bangers, one after another. One of these has to hit or at least be in the conversation.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So good for them.
neocharge: Did you see the tweet they made where they they put the four games up and they're like, we ain't we ain't done yet with 2026.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes. Like we're not done yet or whatever. Yes. That was so good. Which also has me excited for Oni Moshe. I'm so excited that.
neocharge: Exactly. But yeah, this this new IP, fucking incredible. And i I don't know how we got this game, but I'm so excited for you to start it and I'll be stocking those fucking trophies.
neocharge: I won't.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Can you guys do me a favor and just add about 144 hours into each week so that I can have fucking time to play with it?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just need more time, damn it.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Or tell all the people in my life to leave me alone for a week.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just leave me alone. Just don't even bother me and then i will I will finally get to
neocharge: I've told you that for the fucking decades.
Goatlord-Sriobix: All right. Bye.
neocharge: I'm like, just say no. Just say no, bro.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it. I can't say no to my mom for Mother's Day.
neocharge: but well No, don't do that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I invited her to come stay. Yeah, but like, oh my God.
neocharge: but Maybe your 10th wedding, you're going to fucking go, no maybe not.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 10th. It's more like 38th.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So many weddings.
neocharge: you know that You know what this means. You have to come to Colorado for for Alex.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, yeah i mean, I need to know when, but yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: Yep.
Goatlord-Sriobix: You don't have a fucking choice on me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you have a date? Do you have a a date set?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What's the date?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. that We're looking at November 11th, 2027.
neocharge: There it is.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, 27.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 27. I was going to say this year.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Hell no, not this year.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You fucking can't. Okay. Just 2027. Good. Good. Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I can't afford that shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: That's what it takes to get Caleb a fucking wedding.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Jesus. Apparently. going to write it down. i' mean like I'm going to, I'm going to write it down. Even if it changes a little bit, be like, no, if anybody else contacts me, Oh, this was first. Sorry.
neocharge: Exactly. and you have a place to stay, too.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And the wedding venue has a free-to-play vintage piano that you can play the whole time.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, dang. I'm just going to show up and play garbage. just It's like chopsticks the whole time.
Goatlord-Sriobix: You know what?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah This is all I know how to play.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I expect nothing less. I expect nothing less.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Nice.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll have to brush up.
neocharge: and you You have a place to stay, man. I'll have my new place.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I appreciate it.
neocharge: so Yeah. You don't have to get a hotel or anything.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: and I'll pick you up from the airport. and Yeah. well
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For real this time, you'll pick me up from here.
neocharge: For real. I'll be like, hey, guys, I'm actually picking Caleb up from the airport.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. I'm going to show up and...
neocharge: I've been joking about it for like...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm going to have a mask so that nobody knows if it's really me. it Just wear it the whole time. And then at the wedding, just pull it off and, a and it's actually going to be, it's going to be Lisa.
neocharge: Holy shit.
Leon Lionheartly: You know, you need to...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's not going to be me. I'm going to be here playing a game.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): She's going to.
Leon Lionheartly: You know, you need to do the Bryan Cranston thing where he wore a mask of himself at a con and everything.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but
neocharge: Yep,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, yeah. It's not a bad idea.
neocharge: yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If I remember, I'm going to do that. ah But on that note, Alex, what are you playing?
neocharge: That's funny. Yes.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay, so I unfortunately broke a promise that I made to myself and all of my compatriots, and I'm currently not...
neocharge: see What ten games are you playing?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Actually, it's only one. You don't need to call me out. You're wrong this time. Let it be known Matt's wrong this time.
neocharge: this time.
Goatlord-Sriobix: So there's a level... Yeah, this time. Later, it might be 10 games. um But ah so yeah it's obvious i enjoy playing video games with my wife. You know, she's playing right now behind me.
neocharge: Heck yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: We're... We're currently playing Death Stranding 2. Jesus Christ. That's the other game I'm playing. We're currently playing Baldur's Gate 3 again.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ooh, great choice.
neocharge: Cool.
Goatlord-Sriobix: um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Great choice.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Hey, Aurora, go ahead and wave to everybody.
neocharge: They can't see her.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Turn around.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, we can.
neocharge: We can see her.
Goatlord-Sriobix: but
neocharge: What's up, Aurora?
Goatlord-Sriobix: She's currently playing BG3 right now, ah apparently.
neocharge: How's it going?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is she shadow heart right now?
neocharge: Let's have her on the podcast sometime.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): with
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, could.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: um so I'm 328 hours into this game. I have no idea how many playthroughs it's been.
neocharge: Holy.
Goatlord-Sriobix: She's 370-something hours into this game. I have no idea how many playthroughs she's had without me.
neocharge: I thought I put a lot of hours and tails, man.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's probably just two playthroughs because I think my first playthrough was 185 or something.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Um, no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): This is insane.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, our first one was really long, but like we keep coming back to this game, coming back to it. like we like We love gaming together. like It's that and League.
neocharge: It's amazing.
Goatlord-Sriobix: that
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: It's...
neocharge: That's the amazing.
Goatlord-Sriobix: it's Yeah, thankfully, I have a nerdy wife who doesn't chastise me for playing video games.
neocharge: Incredible.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): least not to your face.
Goatlord-Sriobix: As long as I play with her. As long as I play with her.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: If I don't play with her, it's a whole different story.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: But like ah it's besides that and League, like that's really all we kind of play together. um like She'll be on the couch reading while I'm gaming. ah Kind of same thing that happens with Bob and Crystal, his wife.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And maybe Caleb and Lisa. I don't know if she...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): She watched Claire and Kingdom Hearts. She doesn't give a shit about anything else. so
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: Hey, she watched Claire. That's awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, no, should that was, yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And she did enjoy it, what it was worth.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): She said, this is really good.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You weren't kidding.
neocharge: And she cried 47 times.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so No, that was me.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. And like...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. but
Goatlord-Sriobix: Same, bro. Same. I still cry.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. not Me too.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I still cry playing the game. But we've been playing Baldur's Gate 3, and then I've been playing Death Stranding 2. um Without... revealing too much to anybody you guys know of where I would be in the game. I'm in chapter eight.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I unfortunately got sidetracked with literally rebuilding everything.
neocharge: in Yep.
Goatlord-Sriobix: So all of the roads are finished.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I've fixed all kinds of like shit people have made um going through and collecting everybody's lost packages and all that. i think I've made no progress in the past 20 hours of gaming on it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): This checks out thousand percent.
neocharge: Welcome to Death Stranding. I fucking
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it really.
neocharge: love that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's great.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, du it it's been a ride. And I really, really, really wish I had gotten to it before I did Claire. Because this, unfortunately, has kind of shifted my perspective on game of the year last year, if I'm being completely honest.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
neocharge: Okay. Wow. Okay.
Goatlord-Sriobix: therere
neocharge: Okay.
Goatlord-Sriobix: there's so much to be said about Death Stranding. I know you guys already said it in a whole spoiler cast, but this game's beautiful. It really is. I have it on PC now too. I love the damn game so much.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I i only do that with a few games here and there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, nice.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And I only got it on on PC because Aurora was playing Skyrim on PS5. So, like, I wanted to keep playing it that badly that I...
neocharge: That's awesome.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like even with her yearly Skyrim break, I'm like, I got to buy this game a second time so I can keep doing this. um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Does it have cross progression?
Goatlord-Sriobix: No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): How cool would that be if it did? i Yeah, you started over, okay.
neocharge: Dang.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Nope. I played through the entirety of chapters one through six over again on PC and then got back on it on PS5.
neocharge: Oh my god. yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: I probably would be done with the game by now if I hadn't done that, but i don't know.
neocharge: Hey man. Whatever floats your boat.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I would have just bought a second PS5.
neocharge: I'm just glad you're playing it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Dude,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm being real. I would have just done that. But you already had a PC, so I get it. I do.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. And you know, I, I'm loving this game. Like, I don't know why i do so much.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like there's the, there's, there's just so much beauty in it. Like it's the story so far. I haven't even seen shit yet. And I know that, um, the story so far has been phenomenal.
Goatlord-Sriobix: The artwork or the art in the game has been phenomenal. Like even on base PS five, I'm still like, this is actually like not a photo sometimes. And it's crazy.
neocharge: He cooked, man.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Like,
neocharge: He's a wizard.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It is really, it's nuts how, I mean, wizardry, just pure wizardry.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah dude dude i'm um I'm so happy that there's a walking simulator too because this game is just fucking great and it's been a treat it's been a treat the whole time like and I do authentically enjoy it more than Claire at this point like even though I'm just pretty much playing Minecraft in it like I'm enjoying it more than I did Claire
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i
neocharge: That team is just amazing.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: Wow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So the true test will be if you play through it seven more times. Because you have to remember, you played through Claire seven.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: There's no fucking way. There's no way.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So maybe that's not Claire's fault.
Goatlord-Sriobix: dude there
neocharge: That's true. That's true.
Goatlord-Sriobix: You don't need to call me out like that.
neocharge: you you have
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I did.
neocharge: man
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm sorry.
Leon Lionheartly: We eat
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm so sorry.
neocharge: you have some You have some reflecting to do after you beat this training too.
Goatlord-Sriobix: No, you're right, though.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i'm just I'm excited for him to get through it and not get through it, like rush through it, but he'll know what we all know and what we felt and what how. Yeah, yeah i've I'm really happy for you to to to get there on your own time, even though we would all prefer that it was sooner than everything else that you're doing.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Push that to the forefront.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, and...
neocharge: Don't rush it. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Don't rush it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And and unfortunately, DS2 is the sole reason I haven't even touched Frogmata yet.
neocharge: Man.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Because, like, I have to finish this. I told myself I was going to. And I'm loving DS2.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: That's tough. That's tough.
Goatlord-Sriobix: But I know I'm going to love Frogmata.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: But I have to finish DS2 first. I made a promise to Bob.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Man, Matt, think think about this, Matt.
Goatlord-Sriobix: So...
Leon Lionheartly: what a journey What a journey.
neocharge: Damn.
Leon Lionheartly: He's going from DSU into Pragmata.
neocharge: Oh.
Leon Lionheartly: I know you who don't have context, Caleb, but you will soon enough.
neocharge: Man.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, but I don't need context because I know games. I think i know I know, enough that I think I, yeah, that sounds like it's going to be sweet.
neocharge: I mean, Kojima's mascot is literally a moon man. And, you know, so, and Sam has a kid and i mean, you got Diana.
neocharge: There are some parallels there for sure. So that's a,
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I've been told it's just running 3, you know.
neocharge: oh
Goatlord-Sriobix: But don't say anything else. Don't say anything else. I want to play the game. I want to love it. But yeah i've I've got to finish DS2. And it's been a grind. Like, I haven't
neocharge: You don't have to do anything. You want to. Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: No, I have to at this point.
Leon Lionheartly: I held up my end of the bargain, damn it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He's going hate play it.
neocharge: ah yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: it's not It's not even just that. like there's There's this overwhelming feeling of regret every time I play it where I'm like, why didn't I fucking do this earlier? Why didn't I play this last year? I bought a PS5 to play this damn game.
neocharge: You did. You saw it on my setup and you're like, I'm getting a PS5.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: And Bob and I look at each other and we're like, ah hell yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, it was weird.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Isn't it
Goatlord-Sriobix: it's It's what sold the console for me, and you know I hate that it took as long as it did.
neocharge: Mission... Mission succeeded.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's crazy, though, how Kojima can do the melancholy and not make you...
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I'm...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, you're sad, right? You're sad when you play for other reasons. ah But somehow his team makes even melancholy awesome. it's just It's just this feeling, I'm really glad I did this today, even though I feel sad, or whatever whatever feeling you want to say.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So you just have it with an extra layer because you were you're behind.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But we felt that we were playing because it was it was just...
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): sort of droll and drab and what is going on and ah, but you have it with like another layer, but which is kind of perfect for Death Stranding, if I'm being honest.
Goatlord-Sriobix: know
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. That is true.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Chapter eight.
neocharge: You're on chapter eight, you said?
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah chapter eight
neocharge: Do you want to chapters are or no?
Goatlord-Sriobix: More than eight.
Goatlord-Sriobix: That's all I need to know.
neocharge: All right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: ah glanced at the trophy list and I'm like, there's no fucking way I'm plotting this game.
neocharge: I haven't platinumed it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's really not that bad,
neocharge: Like, I beat the game. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's It's not that bad once you when you get through and you know what's up. You're like, okay, I can do these things. There's a couple that might be, I wouldn't say platinum killers, but you'd say, I don't know if I want to do that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I did want to do that.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I said, I want to try this. And then I did it. It was great, but you know to each their own. So maybe you'll go back and and do it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I will say, huge time sink I've been on right now has been five-starring everybody I've met so far.
neocharge: I definitely will go back.
Goatlord-Sriobix: So it's it's been...
neocharge: Don't. So pro tip, take him to four stars and then get the hell out of there. Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. For now.
Goatlord-Sriobix: We'll see.
neocharge: For now, for now, just trust me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For now. ah no I know.
Goatlord-Sriobix: we'll see
neocharge: bob Bob did the same thing on Death Stranding.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I...
neocharge: He's like, I'm doing everything here. I'm like, Bob, just progress the golden path. i was like And he's like, okay.
Leon Lionheartly: So,
neocharge: And he's like, I'm so glad I progressed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. It, I did the same thing for what it's worth, Alex. Cause I mean, you know me, you know, I'm pretty much a completionist. It there's one specific thing and I will not tell you unless you want me to, but I will do that off cast one specific thing that I kind of fucked myself with as far as a time commitment, because I did not just move on and it was annoying as hell.
Goatlord-Sriobix: then
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it's one of those things that had I known, i mean, i wouldn't have wanted to know unless a friend told me like just pro tip, don't, don't do that. Uh, it kind of It's the only thing that actually soured my experience in the game because I thought, this is unlike everything else that you've done in this game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What the fuck?
Goatlord-Sriobix: no
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's the one one ah criticism strong criticism I have. And we did talk about it in the spoiler cast. so
neocharge: we did yes i'm just trying to help i'm just trying to help yeah i i learned from oh go ahead bob
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but But Matt is right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I'm still blind on that one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, four four stars and move on from Adam. Yeah, it you'll...
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Okay. Gotcha.
Leon Lionheartly: I did. Oh, I experienced the exact same thing. You didn't listen to this spoiler cast, but I did the exact same thing because I'm neurotic like that too and came across the same problem. Caleb did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah Bob and I were both bitching about it.
Leon Lionheartly: So.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was it was not great.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. Yep.
neocharge: And for some reason, I learned from Death Stranding 1, like, just, you know, do do the side stuff and and always do the side missions and deliver the packages, but just know that around the golden path corner might be another tool that makes the mission fucking two times easier, right?
neocharge: Just know, like, the golden...
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And or and or faster.
neocharge: Maybe, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like yeah It might not just be easier. It might be way faster too. so
neocharge: Exactly. Exactly. So just, just know the golden path has many tools that you can go back and do things. I don't think anything is missable, so don't worry there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It is not.
neocharge: And yeah, just, uh, you know, do do the side stuff, but keep, just keep doing that golden path as much as possible.
Goatlord-Sriobix: OK.
neocharge: Don't rush it or anything like that. You do you, but just know there could be a tool around the corner that's going to make the mission you're struggling with cake.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. for For what it's worth, one caveat, or if you're still having fun, just have fun because that's what the game's all about.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Gotcha.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it For real.
neocharge: Most importantly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): if If you're having fun with it, then you do you.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but you might not have fun with one specific thing if you do this. So, you know.
neocharge: Right. And I think yeah chapter eight, I think that's around that time, I believe. So maybe.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I haven't ran into anything yet. I'll just leave it at that.
neocharge: Yep. So we're cool. Glad you're enjoying it. Keep on keeping on and keep delivering those packages.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Nice. Keep on keeping on.
neocharge: Keep on keeping on. And use that music.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you, Sam Porter Bridges.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): if our kids If I could spin around in my chair very fast, I would have, but I didn't want to knock everything over.
neocharge: like Use that music player.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There you go.
neocharge: Whoa.
Leon Lionheartly: There. There we go.
neocharge: You did it. And utilize that music player. Just saying.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, for
neocharge: I usually don't use music players in games, and I really heavily utilize this music player. so Cool.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I have been too.
neocharge: Good, good. And yeah, there's some characters in that game, I'll tell you that. So, Bob, what are you playing, man?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, sir.
neocharge: What are you playing? What are you playing?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. um I am playing one game, and there's a reason for that. There's a couple of reasons for that, okay? First off, I took my portal with me to Vegas.
neocharge: Nice.
Leon Lionheartly: Everywhere I go in this country, and this is ah going to be a tangent. I'm sorry. This is where a spiral is going to come along. I go from cross-country to cross-country.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: that
Leon Lionheartly: I can stop at a motel hotel in bumfuck Nebraska.
neocharge: The whole lease pattern.
Leon Lionheartly: And the internet is a free Wi-Fi connection. Not great, but it's still free.
neocharge: Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: But I get to Vegas and they want to charge me per day for internet?
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Get bent.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, awful.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Fuck that.
Leon Lionheartly: So...
neocharge: Dude, Vegas is so pretentious and expensive. I still love it. It's fun. But yeah, dude, i remember went to breakfast, spent like $55 on two coffees and a couple sandwiches. Fucking nuts there. So yeah, they'll price gouge you. cause
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, that that that pissed me off. So that means I didn't get to play um like I wanted to in Vegas because my plan was to play ah Vampire Crawlers ah from remote because it's a perfect portal game, right?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: why
Leon Lionheartly: That was going to be the idea. Because that didn't happen, I said I need to get into Vampire Crawlers when I get back. um And i want to continue Pragmata.
Leon Lionheartly: But like you said, Matt, I need to marinate and reflect on the game. And I've been doing that. So now I'm ready to do the second playthrough Pragmata. But I got this thorn in my side because I know we talked about it last cast.
neocharge: off
Leon Lionheartly: There were some things that I was yeah with like ah weapon combinations and things like this ah for vampire crawlers. I now realize by game design why they did that.
Leon Lionheartly: because this is fundamentally a different game. You have three d space for these weapons. So it's completely new artwork. It's completely new um animate ah you know firing animations and attacks and things like that nature. So because of that, they keep it kind of familiar. So that way you know what you're going for when you're talking about your combinations later. And you're like, okay, I bet you if I get this card, I can then combine it with this one because you don't you only get these combinations after you open up a chest. That's the only opportunity you're going to get them. And typical to roguelike, it's not always guaranteed, right?
Leon Lionheartly: So you can kind of build around your deck um ah in design for that.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: And I got to say, this game, and I'm going to...
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Well, I'll get to my final thoughts. um This game is a game where... I'm going, hey, I'm going to play a router too because I've got an hour to kill. And then next thing you know, three hours have passed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The best.
Leon Lionheartly: that the it's It's the best in all of that. This is the most arcadey. There's zero story. Don't need it. Because you're constantly progressing. You're constantly getting stronger. You're constantly finding other things that ah to unlock and to look into. um Which is a sign of a good roguelike.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Roguelike.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: it that That's truly the sign. That was the problem with Returnal. your Your power progression wasn't as good um as you continue to play.
neocharge: Which apparently they fixed in Cerro, so I'm excited for that.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah exactly why i'm i'm I'm excited for it. um And there was a point in this game when I was first playing it for the first couple hours, um and this was like five hours in. And I'm like, ah i I see where they're going with this, but a good game like this, they want you to be able to break it.
Leon Lionheartly: they they They're inviting you to go crazy and go ham with it.
neocharge: Love that.
Leon Lionheartly: And And then i found it. ah So for context, Caleb, I don't know if you listened last cast, as you get your cards, they have their mana cost, 0, 1, 2, 3, and you want to progressively go up so that way you can keep a com what they call a combo going.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I did, I did. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And then when you play the next card in the combo, it's stronger. The effects are stronger. um But when your mana is only 5 or 6 in a turn, you can only go so high with those mana costs.
Leon Lionheartly: until I got wild cards.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Wild cards allow you to play for free and you can mark some of your cards as wild cards, but they have built in ones.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: For free, you play the card for free and it starts your combo over. So you can go zero, one, two, hit a wild card, and now you can play whatever you want and start a combo, another chain combo.
Leon Lionheartly: So if I go 0, 1, 2, 3, wild card. 0, 1, 2, 3, wild card. 0, 1, 0, wild card. And this allows me to just ah start chaining and all of a sudden I'm going from 5 card combos to 30 card combos.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that's pretty sweet.
Leon Lionheartly: Just... Just all of a sudden it broke the game um because when you kill bosses, you get an opportunity to finish your turn with what what they call an overkill.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's pretty sweet.
Leon Lionheartly: And yeah as you get more damage on the enemy, um you get additional gold for it. Initially, it maxes out at 500 gold. And it's really cool. i love I love it because as soon as you kill them, it'll go overkill.
Leon Lionheartly: And I was sad.
neocharge: halo style
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I was sad because I would max it out, but I i could keep chaining. And I was a little sad. And then I got a relic that unlocks the overkill limit break. And then it'll be it goes into ah ultimate overkill. And you go from 500 gold...
Leon Lionheartly: And I was like, I wonder if there's a limit. So I chained it, chained it. It's a 5,000 gold limit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Now I hit the limit on mount on that one.
neocharge: Dang.
Leon Lionheartly: um And it's it's so addicting in that regard. um There's always this progression that goes in there.
neocharge: Awesome.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: um The music actually is really good, Matt, believe it or not.
neocharge: Yeah. I'll have to check out the soundtrack.
Leon Lionheartly: There go.
neocharge: I'm not going to play it, but I'll check out the soundtrack for sure.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. you I don't blame you for not wanting to play it for one simple reason. um This game, and I'll say it now, I remember a couple of years ago when Bellatro came out and it was in the game of the year conversation.
Leon Lionheartly: You knew it wasn't going to win because of the industry, but it was worth having it in the conversation.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: This is this year's Bellatro.
neocharge: Oh, okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Damn. So what do you think it it should be scored?
Leon Lionheartly: This game isn't.
neocharge: Cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, just personally, now that you've...
Leon Lionheartly: Personally, this is an 89, 88, almost in the 90 category. This game sings. It runs beautifully. It encourages you to break it. Everything about what this game wants to be is executed to almost a near-perfect standard.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All right, so honor system, Matt, give me six more points on the cast, or on the on the on the draft.
Leon Lionheartly: it It's...
neocharge: Awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think that Neo 3 was underscored, so give Bob another three points, four points.
neocharge: Oh, me too. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like that's just Let's just do that.
neocharge: Let me go do that right now. let' just Let's just fuck with it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Everybody wins.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Everybody gets 200 points. It's like the end of Harry Potter's first movie, first book.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just Dumbledore making shit up. Just do that at the end of the cast this year.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We're all kings!
neocharge: ah so
Leon Lionheartly: ah i'll give you I'll give you how like fun like there's that how much it itches that braid in there, Caleb, because you have context for this.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Nobody else will.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But you know how there's the amount um ah ah attribute, which is how many um bullets or whatever your weapon will launch when it fires?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: I have chain comboed so hard, that amount number got to 55.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): well Okay. um I'll allow it.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah So then I'll fire a gun and then it just sits there for almost five to 10 seconds going wah, wah, wah, wah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but That's excellent. Excuse me.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's funny. I'm a fan. Now you're going make me, I'm going add another fucking game to my list of have to play it by the end of May.
neocharge: Don't do it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it's just not going to happen. There's no way.
neocharge: Don't do it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There's no fucking way.
Leon Lionheartly: and and the best And the best thing is, if you know anything about Ponkel, the developer, this is their base game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It's $10. They're going to have you know a bunch of DLC, but each DLC is going to be $2.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's It's totally worth
neocharge: but Dude, the trophy list is already insane, isn't it? It's got like hundreds of trophies.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Isn't it like 190 or something? What what was it? this's This is crazy.
Leon Lionheartly: Would you like to know real-time? Because I was playing a little bit but ah before before we got into this.
neocharge: Yes, please.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: um There are...
neocharge: And also how many you have too.
Leon Lionheartly: a They're a grand total because there's the base game and then these like additionals. They're built like DLCs, but they're not. They're features the base game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: They're a total of 162. have 138. most. And that's long one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Jesus.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. I have
neocharge: Wow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Wow.
neocharge: for For reference, most games have like 50 at most.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: Usually like 30, 40.
Leon Lionheartly: and that's a long one
neocharge: Yeah. Damn, dude.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah and i have gone from five hours into this game to over twenty
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Dang.
neocharge: um dude
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it sounds awesome.
neocharge: I'm so glad you're loving it, though.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It sounds great.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like that All of that sounds really fun. so
neocharge: Sounds like a Bobass game is what it sounds like.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll get to it someday, I promise. I just don't know what that day is
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. yeah
neocharge: I won't.
Leon Lionheartly: be ready Be ready to dedicate 20 to 30 hours for it because it's going to...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep, you will not.
Leon Lionheartly: I guarantee you, if you liked Vampire Crawlers, you're going to...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: or I mean, Survivors, you're going to you're going to love this game because there's going to be enough familiarity.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. yeah for this one yeah
Leon Lionheartly: You're like, ooh, there's something here I remember I enjoy. And then you're going to get the new stuff and you're going to love it even more.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not mad about that.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What one bit? That sounds awesome.
neocharge: Awesome. Very cool.
Leon Lionheartly: But Yeah, after that, I'll touch Pragmata, go into Saintslayer, and then we'll see where the rest of the year lies from there.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Because we know May 22nd, or May 20th, next minute and month, ah end of May, is going to hit sooner than I know it.
neocharge: End of May. Yeah. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Are you going to get Saros are you waiting a little bit on that one, Bob?
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Saros is going to wait. Saros, Saros, however you pronounce it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah I don't know to pronounce it.
Leon Lionheartly: but
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It's going to wait because not only do I have this, I also still have Hades 2 that is screaming screaming to me right now.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: you
Leon Lionheartly: um Because that is a that that game, i see why it was in a goatee conversation.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): This, honestly, the thing that makes me sad is Hades 2 is the first super giant games game that i did not play on launch.
Leon Lionheartly: Let's leave it like that.
neocharge: Me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i Launch for my console or you know wherever I was going to play it. And it it kind of breaks my heart a little bit because it's just weird.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's weird that all these other top tier games have been coming out or were already out. And i that's why I need an extra 144 hours each week just to to be able to do this.
Leon Lionheartly: if i think that Ain't that the truth?
neocharge: Right?
Leon Lionheartly: Because I can tell you, because you didn't you haven't played it yet have you, Caleb?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, I have it installed. I have hovered over the the title card just to hear the music and I hated myself for it because it's so good and it just made me mad that I did that.
neocharge: Dude! I do that all the time.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I shouldn't have done that.
Leon Lionheartly: So I could, after sitting on it for after sitting on it for a week, um because it's in it it's a game you can go in and out of, after sitting on it a week now and not playing it, there's only one thing that I think is a little bit, not as strong as Hades 1, but everything else in there is stronger and better done.
neocharge: Yes. Tease yourself.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. what's the thing that's not as strong?
neocharge: Incredible. Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is that a spoiler or just, just an overall feeling? Like I,
Leon Lionheartly: um Um, let me say, it and it could be me. It could be me, but it's my preference.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I like this so far. I like the story of Hades one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's fair because I was concerned about the same thing and everything seems cool, but I love Greek mythology so much and they packed so much into Hades one that I thought when they were coming out with a sequel, I thought, well, are you just going to do the weird obscure shit?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Or are you just going to like make something up that I do not like?
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, I'm not saying either one of those things happen. I don't know, but you, I can, I can see where you're coming from because I loved the story for Hades one. That's it's my favorite roguelike ever. Uh,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So obviously I loved it. ah I'm hoping that Hades 2 can give me more of that. ah But as long as the music's good, which I know I've listened to one track and I did not realize that it was from Hades 2.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Holy shit. just The music was so good in that one track alone.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I cannot wait. I really can't.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): God damn it.
neocharge: I'm doing it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now I just went for Hades 2. That's it.
neocharge: I know, dude, the struggle is real.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yes
neocharge: i have been doing the same thing you've been doing, hovering over the app, just listening to that music. and I'm like, i i'll ah'll I'll be with you soon, Illinois.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I promise.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. It'll be worth the wait.
neocharge: So I think so.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know it will. I just, ah.
neocharge: I think so. Yeah. I know. i I think I'm going to do, i will do Saros. I have a pre-ordered day one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Saros is going to be the appetizer and Hades 2 is going to be the main course of my roguelike journey.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So you are going to Saros first.
neocharge: I am.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Interesting.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. Right.
neocharge: I am. So, Saros, I've stayed pretty dark, and haven't really had Hades spoiled for me. ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: Saros is new, and the the spoiler potential is higher. so i And I've been very excited. It's getting great reviews. I'm a huge fan of Housemarque, and i think it's a shorter game than Hades 2, assume.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, really? Okay. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. ah So I'm going to play Saros, see it through, maybe platinum it. Who knows? There's no broken trophies either that I'm reading, which is awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but Yeah, I haven't read any of that shit.
neocharge: No missables and no glitch.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know anything about it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's It's just totally dark on of them.
neocharge: I don't know the time. I've heard it's it's shorter than maternal. So I think it'll be Saros and then 80s too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cool.
neocharge: Yeah. um Yeah. Awesome. Bob, I'm so glad you're enjoying Vampire. Crawlers. It's awesome. It's not my get my kind of game, but it sounds really fun. so But my kind of game, i finally put a pin Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You're to okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You you did. You're done for now at least.
neocharge: The pin, i I put the pin in.
Goatlord-Sriobix: It's about time.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So did you get 69% like you were trying to do or what, what happened?
neocharge: ah
neocharge: Man, I had 68. I thought popping a bronze would put it to 69. It put it 70. was bummed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: i was bombmed So I got another trophy after that, and I think it's sitting at 72 or 74 right now. But I did another EX dungeon. It's an endgame dungeon, and there's some really cool surprises for longtime Tales fans in there, let's just say. And it was added for the definitive version, I believe. I had a blast doing it. I'm so overleveled. I've basically broken the game. I'm one-shotting most everything with my super weapon.
neocharge: These super weapons, every kill... gives it a ah physical attack level. So it's constantly just growing. And the more you kill, the power more powerful it gets.
neocharge: So I'm sitting like a high attack on this is like 3,000. I'm sitting at close to 7,000 physical attack for Yuri. ah It's been a blast, but I finally put a pin in it.
neocharge: I legitimately, I put 135 hours into this game and I legitimately was like, man.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
neocharge: And I reflected on it just sitting on the title screen and I'm like, Damn. Second favorite Tales game of all time. Like, up there with Symphonia, for sure. But yes, the pin has been put in Vesperia, and i mean, i i'm I don't think I'll ever get that platinum. There's some crazy ones, but yeah. And then...
neocharge: Pragmata, ah Bob, so I haven't done my second playthrough. And you're not doing your second playthrough, but you're going to do endgame stuff. And I did the endgame stuff.
neocharge: So I still haven't even done the second playthrough. I'm waiting. What a fucking gem of a game. It's still sitting with me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so
neocharge: I'm still reflecting on it. I can't wait to talk more about it. We're going to break it wide open on the spoiler cast. So I've greatly enjoyed my experience with Pragmata. And I've heard it across the board talking about it.
neocharge: So ah I was kind of in a like, okay, well, I'm i'm definitely playing Saros. um I've been very excited for this. And i was like, Bob, i what should I do?
neocharge: Like Saros comes out in four days. This was like two days ago or four or four days ago, if you're listening to it on the podcast and or listen to it when the podcast goes live.
neocharge: And I was like, I don't know what I want to play something, but I don't want to like dive into something and then have to put it down for Saros.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: And Bob's like, why don't you play Saint Slayer? And I'm like, holy shit, that's it. That's brilliant. It's like a bite-sized little game I've been excited about. ah And I already bought it.
neocharge: I wanted to support him. It's 10 bucks. And so, yeah, I i started Saint Slayer and I beat it 12 times.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So how, um, how long, how long do you think it would have taken you to get past all Brooke?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Are you serious?
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yep. I don't know.
neocharge: I don't want to dive in.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Hey.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep, it's the perfect answer.
neocharge: I don't want die ah talk about talk about a game I don't want to put down and dive into and put down for Saros. No, Saint Slayer is incredible. Made by Lily Mo Games.
neocharge: Published. It's a true indie. Made by Colin Moriarty. he He is one of the inspirations... I started this podcast and I started podcasting in general. He's a huge inspiration. I've been listening to him for decades now.
neocharge: One of the best podcasters out there. Sacred Symbols. Shout out. You're kind of, you're like my inspiration. So he made this game among other ones. He's got other ones, but this game specifically is very Castlevania 3 inspired.
neocharge: So Pixar, ah very retro. I'm playing it on the PS. I'm playing the PS4 version on the PS5, not because the trophies are easier because they're not.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
neocharge: He has separate trophy lists for PS4 version and PS5 version. And I looked it up and i was like, yeah, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Really? Huh.
neocharge: And so I wanted to start with the PS4 version. They don't sync over because they're different lists. And then I potentially wanted to play the PS5 version, like, eventually. So, ah yeah, I'm playing it PS5.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do you know the differences of the game itself? I mean, you said the lists are different, but no, but the game visuals are all the same.
neocharge: Not the game. It's same game, different list.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Everything else is the same. Okay. Interesting.
neocharge: Yeah. It's 16-bit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Interesting.
neocharge: It's an NES-style game, and you're not going to see a performance difference from PS4 to b s five So...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, didn't know if they had some, I don't know, weird isometric cell shading or something.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): don't know. Just something to to butter it up or whatever.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because if it has a different list, that that is very interesting. That's ah that's a choice.
neocharge: It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. So I'm a huge fan Castlevania, and I have been excited for this game. I didn't know when I was getting to it, but then Bob was like, you play Saint Slayer. i was like, okay. This game is called Saint Slayer Spear of Sacrilege. ah It's so...
neocharge: It's a short game, but it has a ah definite learning curve. So the first two hours, I was struggling. Hardcore. I was like, man, who do these guys think they are making a game this fucking hard? Like, what the fuck?
neocharge: And then I finally, like, it has many stages. They're bite-sized stages. Some you can finish in five minutes, right? And they're very unique stages. And it has the map, just like Castlevania did.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
neocharge: You're going through the the map eventually. to the the end. And it's pixel art. It's really cool pixel art. has an awesome story. The story is heavily like Christian in the older times, ah like in in Europe.
neocharge: And you're ah you're a farmer that eventually comes across this spear, the spear of sacrilege. And you're a farmer called Rudiger. And you just you start in this village. and he's just He's kind of an asshole, which is awesome.
neocharge: And all the characters are really cool that you come across. ah This game has a lot of charm. But once you get past that learning curve, and thankfully the learning curve is very short because it's a shorter game, I'm having a blast with it.
neocharge: And...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Would you consider the learning curve kind of like the same feeling you had with God of War, Sons of Sparta? Remember you said that Sons of Sparta was just like, what the fuck?
neocharge: Yes. Yes. Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then when you finally got over that hump, it was it was good.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: Absolutely. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): okay
neocharge: So I was struggling. you You determine determination and overcome the challenge. That's that learning curve you have to go over. But with Sons of Sparta, it was like 40 hours.
neocharge: Learning curve was about 10. With this game, mean, I beat it in four hours. My first playthrough, I played through on normal. ah And there are four difficulties. There's easy, normal, hard, and classic.
neocharge: And classic. i i so i beat it I did beat it on hard. I have beat it on hard. And I beat on easy. And it there's so many cool collectibles. that Each collectible, it has a password system like Mega Man.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah's cool
neocharge: And each collectible has a password associated with it. And if you put the password in, you have a specific set of parameters for a new playthrough of the game.
neocharge: like Maybe meat just drops from everything. Or, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: And there's there's rotten meat. When you pick it up, it actually takes a chunk of health.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): aha
neocharge: So that that's interesting.
Goatlord-Sriobix: One, three.
neocharge: ah Gameplay is really cool. It's fun. ah It's six buttons. I'm using the D-pad and then square and X. So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Control's pretty tight then? I mean, you you're a fan of the way it it plays or there's some issues that you've got.
neocharge: So it controls like an NES game, if that tells you anything.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. Yeah, no, it does.
neocharge: it's a It's a game true to form of its inspiration. And it does bring the flaws of the inspiration as well. And that's why...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but That's for better for worse, right? I mean, that to me is a style choice more than anything else, I would think.
neocharge: Yeah,
neocharge: yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah and i I actually just looked at it on Steam it is straight up Castlevania 2 and 3 like graphics wise and like
neocharge: yeah
neocharge: it is it's It's heavily inspired by Castlevania. still has its own identity, which is cool.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
neocharge: ah a It wears its inspiration on its sleeve. And I like it for that fact, but it also is unique in a way. You have one weapon, the spear, and you can either poke or or throw.
neocharge: And then you have spear abilities that you pick up. I think there's a total of, well, there's a few. So ah there's really cool ones. And Really cool enemy designs. There's a BCR, which is ah welcome.
neocharge: So yeah, I'm having fun with it. I think to platinum it, you have to beat it 21 or 22 times. ah Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Jesus.
neocharge: So I bet I was doing runs. Like I do about four or five hour chunks of ah sessions when I game. And I think I beat it like five times last night. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Not bad. You know what the graphics remind me of?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When when Bob was talking about this a couple couple casts ago when I had asked him for on the draft and all that, I looked up some pictures too because i that was one that i just hadn't heard of. And it reminded me of Zelda 2.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like Castlevania meets Zelda 2, which that that was like the color palette for me.
neocharge: Yeah, I can see that.
Goatlord-Sriobix: there. Yeah. jeff
Leon Lionheartly: It's funny you mention that because the three big inspirations for this are obviously Simon's Quest, Castlevania 2.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um we We discussed DuckTales, or we didn't, but DuckTales is an inspiration, as well as Zelda 2.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: Yep. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No shit.
neocharge: ah Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: yeah he knows He knows what's up. Or his team knows what's up. I think it was made by three dudes, and Colin wrote it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. Okay.
neocharge: Very very early in the game, you you can you're you can take the spear and do it downward and just hop.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah Okay.
neocharge: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that's cool. No, that's something that I've always respected about Colin Moriarty, even though that he can he can rub people the wrong way. i mean, we saw it back in his IGN days when he would give a review, and a video review, and people be like, ah, you're full of yourself.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): whatever But he he actually knows what he's talking about, even if you disagree with him.
neocharge: Right.
neocharge: He does.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You're allowed to disagree with him. You're allowed to not like his personality, too. i i actually really respected what he knew about the craft, though. So I'm glad to, I didn't know that this was a game by them until you guys told me.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's very cool that he, it's clear that he loves video games.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He's making them and talking about them. And he's not really published by anybody but himself. that he he's He's a self-made guy.
neocharge: Yeah. Self-published.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes, he had a ah big following from IGN. So there was that, but he didn't sell out, you know?
neocharge: a lot of ah lot of A lot of the followers from IGN don't really like him anymore. like They kind of followed kind of funny instead.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So he's I think he's hated by more people than loved.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And that's that's a shame, but that's whatever.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. And I get it. I mean, a lot of the a lot of the personalities, he's one other thing I've respected about him is, because there are some things I saw him review that I was like, fuck you, you're kind of a dick.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But he wasn't wrong.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He just he knows exactly who he is, and he doesn't really care what other people think about him.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that That means a lot.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): even Even if you disagree, it's like you can't fault somebody for that. if
neocharge: Yeah. i
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You don't want to be a chameleon. You don't want him to just bend everybody's will to be liked.
neocharge: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's cool that he just says, if you don't like that, go fuck yourself.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and it's like, I don't like that, but I also don't want to fuck myself.
neocharge: It's...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So good for you, Colin.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I hate you. I love you. Goodbye. like that's That's kind of how I feel when I hear him ah talk.
neocharge: It's funny you say that because the the constructive criticism he's had or, i mean, people bitching, like, this is too hard.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Especially just, like, stage five early on in the game. This is too hard.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: Are you going to patch it to make it easier? And he literally is like, no
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Just a serious clear answer. it's Yeah, I got to respect the game on that part.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
neocharge: Yeah, so it is it is a very fucking challenging game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Good for him for that. Yeah.
neocharge: I can't even beat it on Classic. I can't even get past Stage 5. It is very, very challenging. It's hard. It's it's it's incredibly ah retro and punishing, for sure.
neocharge: so But there are different levels of difficulty, and there's a flavor for everyone.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So I highly recommend you play it first.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: Man, on on normal, maybe easy. because I struggled in the beginning.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: But it's it's fun. I recommend it. ah And yeah, I'm excited to play more. I'm going to play Up Until Saros, which is tomorrow.
neocharge: And yeah, it's it it was a really good... i mean, I knew about it, and I had bought it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: It was on my fucking dashboard. ah But it was a really good recommendation, Bob. So I like like when I was like, what should I play? Saint Slayer. And I was like, brilliant.
neocharge: That's a good fucking...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Not bad for 10 bucks. 10 bucks.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, you can't, you can't beat that.
neocharge: Exactly.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: think I've put five hours.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: No, I put like ah nine hours into it maybe. So yeah, it's great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: It's great. So yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: i'm glad I'm glad to hear that. ah If you look at the other games, like there are other games that Lillimo has made. um like We've played Tribreaker, you've got Herboxia, Super Perils of Baking, and they're good games.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: they really They really are good games. But this was the one where I looked at it and I was like, they have that something here. Even if it's for the worst, like you said, with with control true to form for an n NES game, um you're like, there's something here and ah you know what it's going to do.
Leon Lionheartly: um So I...
neocharge: Yeah. if you know yeah If you know what you're going into, it just know what you're going into. It's a hard as fucking nails, Castlevania-inspired, true-to-form NES game that is fun as hell once you get past the learning curve.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: It sounds like my kind of fucking game, man.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: Dude, i when you play, you need...
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Yeah, you've already sold me on
neocharge: Hell yeah, awesome. If any of you play, I'd love for you to stream it. Bob, definitely stream it on Shapes ah if you if you want, because I'd love to to watch and... i just want to see if you struggled where i struggled because man the learning curve i want to be like am i am i that bad but i mean i beat it on hard so i think i think i proved myself to myself uh that i i conquered this game i think beating it 12 times i i in on hard i think i conquered this game uh i was ready to give up i really was and i was like no i i think there's something on the other end of this and boy oh my god And the fucking soundtrack, dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but
neocharge: The soundtrack.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Holy shit. Every level. that It starts out the first level is a banger. And i was like, okay. They fucking cooked. And then every level. There's a lot of stages. right Every stage is unique.
neocharge: And I can't pick a favorite track. Because they're all amazing. And I think that really adds to the replayability of this game. Man.
neocharge: The soundtrack is just fire.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So what you're telling me is Alex did the soundtrack. That's what you're telling me.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's ah
neocharge: Oh, yeah. but Listen to some of the... Alex, you'll appreciate it very much. Listen to some of those tracks. I hope you play it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: is it Is it like, i I want to know, like, it it's true to NES styling?
neocharge: It's retro NES. It's... I... No. i there's some There's some drum and bass in there, but not, like, prominent.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay.
neocharge: They they kept it pretty retro.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But is it MIDI plus drum and bass or what?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay.
neocharge: Yes. Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. That's cool.
neocharge: Yes, it's it's not n NES, but it's it's more than and NES for sure. And it it works. it It doesn't throw you off. It's not like too new or too modern, but it just works.
neocharge: You you just got to listen to it and ah you'll see. So it's just awesome.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Okay.
neocharge: So Bob, I can't wait for you to play it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cool.
neocharge: Stream it. I want to watch. And man, there's so much the game doesn't tell you. And there's so much you learn by just doing. ah It doesn't hold your hand at all.
neocharge: And my only pro tip is pay attention to those tips on the map screen. That's I'm going to say.
Leon Lionheartly: Got it. I will definitely stream it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So so now that now that you've learned to...
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): persevere and fight through the shit you hate, are you going to, this is a serious question, are you going to go back to Sekiro? Are you going to give it another shot someday?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank
neocharge: Oh, so second no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: no
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, i I don't know because I know that you ah may have raged out. so Yeah.
neocharge: um So with it with the edge, I have been thinking about it, but it's just the time at this point.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: I'm not afraid of the challenge.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's fair.
neocharge: And yes, I think input lag will help for sure. And the edge, and maybe I'm more skilled. I don't know. My reflexes are probably degrading, ah but it man, very true.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, yeah, but it it also could just be about your attitude. And I say that in a nice way. Like you might just be like, no, no, no, I'll i'll i'll not get as angry this time or whatever.
neocharge: No, I hear you. Yeah,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because I mean, we've talked about this in the past.
neocharge: dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Once I did Devil May Cry 5, you know, that that platinum trophy, i was like, I think I can literally do anything now that I've broken that.
neocharge: Oh my God.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I broke it. I broke past it. And now when I get mad at games, I don't get mad at games.
neocharge: Yeah. a good feeling.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And like, nah, I just, I got that in my back pocket. i don't need to prove myself.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But for this, you did it for God of War. You did it for ah Spirit Sacrilege.
neocharge: and
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So all I could think of when you said you powered through is like, man, I kind of wish he did with Sekiro just because it's my favorite Souls game.
neocharge: Okay. I'll keep in the back of my mind.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sekiro is my actual favorite Souls game. But I'm biased because of the Japanese shit.
neocharge: Fun, fun story. Bloodborne is mine.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, Bloodborne's good.
neocharge: oh yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's great.
neocharge: But, Bloodborne, I played it on launch. I couldn't get past the first boss. I punched a hole in my wall.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Father Gascoy.
neocharge: I put it on the shelf.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: I put it on the shelf. I picked it back up back five years ago, and then I finally realized, oh, you do a loop, and you level up a little bit, and you power level, and then you go through stuff. And then the hardest boss in the game was the first one, in my opinion.
neocharge: So Sekiro, I don't even know if I've gotten to the first boss. I just...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Based on what you told me, i do not think you did.
neocharge: oh
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but i don't Just based on your description, i don't think you did.
neocharge: and
Leon Lionheartly: oh my god
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i think I think you got to what I call a fatty.
neocharge: Bro, I have played.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i just In the games, like the guys that are harder to kill that might be a one and done, I call them fatties.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think you got to the first fatty and just died a hundred times and said, fuck this game. I don't know that, but i there's something about that in my memory that sticks out.
neocharge: And that was... i think that was one of my first Souls-likes, too. like i think de Yeah, one of my first...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, really? ah
neocharge: and i I think it might have been my first. And now i have some Souls-like experience, like Platinum,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's a hell of a one to start on. Yeah.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: I might have done myself a disservice there. I'll have to go look at my trophy list, but I'm 3% on Sekiro. So, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah yeah
neocharge: ive
Leon Lionheartly: I think based on watching you grow and the way you play things like Neo and and other games like that that are Souls-like, I strongly do not recommend you go back to Sekiro.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sorry.
neocharge: it Thanks, Bob. I appreciate your candor.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: The reason the reason that the reason i I say this, and I say it with all of love in the world, okay?
neocharge: okay
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
Leon Lionheartly: you are a You are a dodge guy and get in and go really fast.
neocharge: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: Hit a bunch of times. Dodge. You don't do that in Sekiro.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Combat.
neocharge: You get a parry.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's true. You do not. You have to parry.
neocharge: But i did I did...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You just have to fucking parry.
neocharge: You have to kind of do that in Black Myth Wukong, though. And I platinum Black Myth Wukong. So...
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it's harder Sekiro.
Leon Lionheartly: Touche. Touche.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I will just say that the timing window is much more narrow and there's more nuance to it.
neocharge: Okay. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank
neocharge: Yeah, it's just, I couldn't get it. I think I got to where you have to like step on the spear, ah the spear enemies, and I just couldn't get it. They just kept killing me, and I was like, fuck this game, and I broke my disc.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That spear enemy of me is a piece of shit for what it's worth.
neocharge: you
neocharge: Okay, good to know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's like that's like ah Zozo in FF6 where you're like, what happened?
neocharge: Oh my God.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Why is this garbage?
neocharge: don't want to even get started on that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's the spear enemy in Sekiro. The first time I got to him,
neocharge: Shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was like, i I hated the game too for a little bit. And then once I figured it out, was like, I will murder you every playthrough just because I can, you motherfucker.
neocharge: Okay. Okay.
neocharge: Yeah. Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that That's how I felt about that guy.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So you're not wrong. That spear guy's a dick.
neocharge: It's not on my list not to revisit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And he is not a boss.
neocharge: Let's just say that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He is not a boss.
neocharge: God. It's fucking ridiculous. I...
Goatlord-Sriobix: See, I'm on the other side.
neocharge: oh
Goatlord-Sriobix: Go ahead. Keep replaying Sekiro. Keep breaking discs. Because I got a copy that I'd love to increase in value. And if its as you decrease the population, that's going to go up.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. It was somewhat accidental, but I did pull it out and I just was like angry and i was like, oh, whoopsie.
Goatlord-Sriobix: So help your fellow collectors out.
Goatlord-Sriobix: do I mean, dude.
neocharge: So I like, well, that's that.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, look. you See, look.
neocharge: Fun fact, I still have my case too.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Caleb's thinking it's the same thing, too. He's like, keep breaking copies, please. Is the broken disc in it?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, Matt, is does your disc look like that?
neocharge: No. That is triggering me right now. No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do you want me to show you my platinum trophy in Sekiro?
neocharge: No. Please, yeah. That platinum, man, that's impressive.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Don't feel bad, though. I've never broken a game, but I've definitely broken hardware over video games.
neocharge: Yeah, we all have.
Goatlord-Sriobix: So I get it, dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: We all have. So, Soulsborne's or something.
Goatlord-Sriobix: There's a few dead PS4 controllers downstairs. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's how I learned how to fix controllers as a kid.
neocharge: Damn.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i think I might have said this on an earlier cast. Street Fighter 2 was the first time I ever raged out on the Super Nintendo. My cousin, who was better than I am at fighting games, at least at the time he was, and he beat shit out of me and I i did not like losing and I ripped the cord out of the controller because I was just so mad.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i was like, fine! I was seven years old or whatever. And then he had to go home anyway.
neocharge: Yeah. Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It wasn't like we fought. I wasn't mad at him. I was really just mad at the world anyway he had to go and then i realized like i came down off of my rage high and i looked down i was like oh no because i was a child i couldn't just buy a new one so i i didn't lie to my parents they didn't ask but i went downstairs to get a screwdriver to just try to fix it my i was like what are you doing it's like nothing i dropped something or whatever so i carried upstairs i take the controller part and i learned how to fix controllers from that rage out moment
neocharge: sure
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it's still to this day, I can fix almost any gamepad now because of that.
neocharge: Very cool.
Leon Lionheartly: not
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Got a soldering iron and everything.
Leon Lionheartly: not to
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Not to be the tangent guy or keep the spiral going, but my kids had that same...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's my job.
Leon Lionheartly: My kids had that same oh shit moment because they were playing Mario Kart 64 on a retro setup that I had and they never told me until later because one of them got mad and angry and went ahead and pulled the cartridge out of the 64 just so the the other person couldn't win.
Leon Lionheartly: um And they told me later because it was the fuck you shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Leon Lionheartly: yeah Crap. Dad's going to kill us.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: Damn.
Leon Lionheartly: if
neocharge: Damn.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. Overcoming challenges in video games is is satisfying, and maybe I'll give Sekiro a shot. When I have nothing to play, how about that?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I promise I was not trying to troll you. I i was sincerely asking because of your ah growth over the last couple years, you know?
neocharge: No, no. Oh, dude. Amazing. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. And yeah, I i i love it. So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now I'm going to try to trigger you and say, stream it. Stream it for all of us. I want to see it. I want watch.
neocharge: I would.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I want to watch this journey.
neocharge: I would. I would. And I could be like, what am I doing wrong? And why the fuck can't I beat this thing?
Leon Lionheartly: i Grab the popcorn and fly to you, Caleb. We can watch it on your big screen.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Dude, i would I would rent out a theater and just watch it in a theater. Invite all my friends be like, look, guys, this is a big moment.
neocharge: That's amazing. Oh, I would love to be that entertainment.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): This is the video game Avengers end game for me. I want to see him get through this game.
neocharge: Which one do you want to see me finish more? Sekiro or Final Fantasy VI?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Final Fantasy six.
neocharge: He's really thinking about it. Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Final Fantasy six. Sorry.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's really tough because i feel like Sekiro would be more entertaining to watch.
neocharge: i feel
Goatlord-Sriobix: really give a shit about the hero. So six.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But i I mean, you know that I would love for you to just play one of the greatest RPGs ever to exist.
neocharge: I'd love to as well. if
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, fuck!
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And finish it. It'd be cool to finish it.
neocharge: Yeah, that'd be cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's a tough call. But...
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i So, okay, here's the thing. Sekiro with, here's the thing.
neocharge: Here's the thing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's clobbering time. I should not have done that with my throat. Now it itches like crazy. That was stupid. um With Sekiro, I would need your commentary. Like, you have to be on the screen.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): With Final Fantasy VI, I don't. I mean, I would take it, but I wouldn't need it.
neocharge: Okay. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Whereas if I had just Sekiro and not your commentary and your raging out or your joyous triumphs, I feel like it would be less fun to watch.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but So that's...
neocharge: Like on mic or on camera?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i either either or i just being able to hear you go what the fuck is this guy doing or when you win when you just go ah like when you get really excited and you that would be that would be everything when you kill the spear guy if you ever go back and you kill the spear guy you might just say I'm done that's all I needed to do the game is over for me and I wouldn't blame you because fuck that guy he's a prick yeah yeah
neocharge: Because I don't do camera. Yeah.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. But that's, ah yeah, that's interesting. I'll revisit it sometime. But yeah, Saint Slayer, Spear of Sacrilege, incredible game. Highly recommended.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Good.
neocharge: So, yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Glad to hear that. That's cool.
neocharge: Bob, we might go over on time, but I don't care. We have, we're light on the news this this week, and we got one big thing we want to talk about.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I figured...
neocharge: So it's the 50th episode. It's going to be a long one. Who cares? Buckle in.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, i was going to say, let's so let's talk about that and kind of do that as our news and and get you get the spiral really going, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. It can't be too long because I do have to get up very early tomorrow.
Leon Lionheartly: um
Leon Lionheartly: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so
neocharge: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: so that's why
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But i would I would like to talk about this if you guys are up for it.
neocharge: Let's talk about this for another three hours.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, no problem.
Leon Lionheartly: no problem.
neocharge: now
Goatlord-Sriobix: You know what? That sounds great.
Leon Lionheartly: No, I feel this would be criminal not to talk about.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, great.
Leon Lionheartly: um So...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): don't have to go to bed and Don't have to get up early if I never go to bed, right?
neocharge: No. know. We got to touch on it.
neocharge: That's true. Logic.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Bingo.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I can't do that.
Leon Lionheartly: uh i did that yep exactly uh all right well the audience is probably like what the fuck are they talking about um now the big the big piece of news this week um this uh came out originally it broke from my understanding um this came out on april 25th um from a a ah twitter um handle does it play, so at doesitplay1, they noted that there was a change in the licensing on one of the games they had purchased um four place through PlayStation Network.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And that's why I never sleep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Leon Lionheartly: and This was just a digital-only game, not a physical, but the license showed a 30-day expiration on the... game that they had played. Because you can do this within your console.
Leon Lionheartly: You go in and you can look at the license information. You literally press the the options button and you can pull that information sub down.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um this To set this up for everybody, ah and then we'll go I'll spin it around to you guys, is this turned into, a quite frankly, a shitstorm. There's no nice way to put it.
Leon Lionheartly: of a lot of A lot of people angry.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, it was absolutely.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: um a lot of knee-jerk reactions um right out the gate. But then... We started, it and it didn't help that Sony hadn't said anything. ah they They just did this.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: So people started to speculate. And yeah if you spent enough time like I did following this, because I was really curious, um the long answer is at the end of the road, and there was theorizing, this finally came to a head,
Leon Lionheartly: as we were getting ready to report ah record. This is coming from GameSpot, where they are reporting that they spoke with a SIE representative.
neocharge: Thank
Leon Lionheartly: um and that the spokesperson told them players can continue to access and play ah their purchase games as usual. A one-time online check is required to confirm the game's license, after which no further check-ins are required. What this is indicating is when you first purchase the game...
Leon Lionheartly: you get the temporary 30 day license. And then once a period has passed, which is 14 days per so PlayStation's refund policy of not downloading, you are then checked in and issued a permanent unexpired license. um So that has been the official conclusion so far of this entire fiasco. um So, yeah,
neocharge: Awesome.
Leon Lionheartly: I have some things to say. i know you were fired up about matt fired up about Matt. So tell me this journey. Where you landing?
neocharge: Well, we should add that we initially thought that the media or the thing you purchased had to check in every 30 days or the license expired.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: That was where it was unacceptable, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. the Period for me.
neocharge: And...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And i I can't wait to hear Bob's counterpoint to this, but I, yes, I'm right there with you, Matt.
neocharge: Yes.
neocharge: Right. Uh... Yeah. So that's unacceptable. Xbox tried to do this. They said it's always online, has to check in every 24 hours or some shit like that. And they they got so much backlash and they backpedaled that real fucking quick and they don't do that. So ah because there are instances where people aren't online and when you when you buy something, i mean, you are essentially not buying the content, right? You're buying the license to play the content and download it whenever you want.
neocharge: Full stop. You should be able to do that whenever. Of course, you're not going to be able to download it when it's when you're not online because you can't get on the fucking internet and download it. But if you have it on your console and you've been offline for a while, you should be able to launch that game. No problem.
neocharge: ah yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Especially if it's your primary console, in this case.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): primary I understand secondary and tertiaries, whatever, but primary consoles, that should just be yours.
neocharge: Exactly. Yes.
neocharge: Right. Yeah. You should somewhat own it and have access to it whenever you want if it's downloaded on your system. Right. And this 30 day check in.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): did it legally. That's the other thing.
neocharge: if yeah through the psn for sure yes yeah uh so what we had were led to believe because it was maybe like clickbait or they didn't really go into it or to be fair playstation didn't fucking say anything and we were speculating uh we thought that if you purchased a piece of digital content after a certain date i think like
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: coming up like May 1st or something like that, right? That when you purchased it, it had to constantly check in every 30 days or you lost the license to it. You just couldn't fucking launch it. You didn't pretty much own the game and you don't have access to it anymore. It's like you didn't buy it.
neocharge: Unacceptable. I was ready to fucking rant about that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: ah This, still annoying, but necessary, I'd say. If it it needs to check in once, especially with the return period, I get that logic.
neocharge: Check in once, then and you know you get the temporary license, and then you get a permanent license.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: Never expires. I'm okay with that. I'm not a big fan of digital anyway because there's no tangible value with it, and it's locked to you. You can't you can't let a friend borrow it or anything like that. You can't display it on your shelf and have a conversation piece when your friends come over.
neocharge: How many times do we stand in front of my fucking game shelf of like hundreds of games and just talk about, Oh, this game's awesome.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
neocharge: i pulled out and I'm like, Oh yeah, check out this. It's just, there's something about physical, man.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: You can't, you can do that with digital by going through your library, but it's just not the same. Doesn't hold value.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: And yeah, this was kind of just a poor mark on it even further. And I was like, this is unacceptable. One time check-in after purchase after 14 to 30 days.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
neocharge: That's all right. Still annoying. That's all right. So yeah, I'm not as mad about it as I was. i was ready to go on a tangent and be like, this is not... Yell at the cloud.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh yeah, I was red.
neocharge: Yeah, it's unacceptable.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When this first came out, ah for multiple reasons, I won't get into a huge rant, at least not yet, because I want to hear Alex's thoughts as a person who's been on PC for so long, now on the PS5 as well, and obviously knows...
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): mean, I'm assuming that did... I don't know. Hollow Knight doesn't have a physical copy on PlayStation, does it?
neocharge: Silksong, no.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: Hollow Knight does.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): no Hollow Knight does, Silk Song doesn't. Okay. so i Because I knew that you owned it. I didn't know how you felt.
Goatlord-Sriobix: he
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but So how how did you feel about this when you were hearing about it?
Goatlord-Sriobix: So put it bluntly, it really did piss me off. like ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: i Because I was predominantly a PC gamer until recently, ninety almost 90% to of what i own is digital And I like I read that my mind jumped to the same thing everybody else's was ands like, oh, well, I guess we have to play our shit or we're going to fucking lose it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And I'm like, I have 270.
neocharge: Or at least be on the internet.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, I'm like, I have like 270 something games on Steam. Half of them aren't downloaded.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right. Right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: If I get a wild hair up my ass and I want to play something and I can't launch it after I paid for it, it would piss me off to no end.
neocharge: Right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: And. I thought the same thing. like I looked at my at my list of shit on PlayStation. I was like, there's games I haven't touched in three years.
neocharge: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: But what if I want to play Mass Effect?
neocharge: Exactly, yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: what what what What if I want to go back and I want to i want to boot up my PS4 and play one of my LEGO games? I can't do that then.
neocharge: yeah If you're not connected to the internet, if in this scenario.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: Steam doesn't do this at all, do they?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: they you you You buy the game, you own the license, and no check-ins. You can play it offline infinitely.
Leon Lionheartly: no no no No, no, no, no, no.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Go look at Steam's policy.
neocharge: Oh, okay.
Leon Lionheartly: It says you can enable...
neocharge: and That was a question. That was a question, by the way.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: you can in Yeah, and this is misinformation.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: That wasn't a statement.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You can enable offline ah play for games that are for your Steam client on your computer.
neocharge: Gotcha.
Leon Lionheartly: But they put a huge asterisk on there that says some games may not launch because you have not checked in after a 30-day period.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: I see.
Leon Lionheartly: Because Steam is still, Valve is not the publisher.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So all they're doing is a hosting platform.
neocharge: Right.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Exactly.
neocharge: Okay.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And you can have that with certain Sony games too, or the games on PlayStation, not Sony, excuse me. Games on PlayStation, if a developer decides ah we don't we want you to check in online and have their own bullshit DRM, that's something we can't necessarily hold Sony accountable for because again, they're just hosting the platform ah for this third-party developer to do it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But on the notes that you guys are talking about, um i I actually went more of the legal route. That drove me crazy. I mean, yes, as an owner of of digital games that are only available digital case in point right now, Hades to the only way I can own it is digitally on my PS five.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that was the first thought I had was like, what the fuck is that?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because I thought of things like when I was busy dealing with my aunt's estate years ago, and I may not have turned on my PS five for four months. So what like how is that fair that I would just potentially hypothetically lose everything?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And even if it's like, oh, I'll set a timer a reminder to log in and fucking start every game That is horseshit. Now, we don't we didn't know if that was how it worked, but that was the other end of the problem is that Sony didn't say anything. Nobody knew the truth. And that's a very dangerous game to play because...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Internet going to Internet and the game of of just mass hysteria happened online.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I'll admit i was a little bit of a part of it because all we knew was what the brief user research had shown us.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But on the legal side of things, my biggest problem with it was this was nowhere in the terms of service. This was nowhere to be stated before. They just did a stealth update in March and said, surprise, motherfuckers. Again, this is hypothetical based on the information we had.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Surprise, motherfuckers. You now have this, the thing that you're beholden to. And I was just livid. I was absolutely livid because I thought, okay, I am I do not like pirating games.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's just a personal thing.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Everybody's situation is different, but I do like to buy them. I like to support them. I want to show my appreciation for the medium. And when they were throwing this at me, no, I am not entitled to games.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): However, I've bankrolled you for fucking decades and this is how you repay me. That went through my mind. That really hurt a little bit. ah So I was kind of mad.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But one counterpoint to that, I was trying to think, again, trying to take a step back and look objectively. I don't have as much of a problem with it for the Switch and the Switch 2.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Having to check in on digital things But the reason you had to do that was playing them offline on a portable system. I get it a little bit more for a portable system. I'm not a huge fan of it, but I also... Nintendo told me that up front.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It wasn't a secret. They said, this is how it's going to work. Take it or leave it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And with this potential Sony thing, it was just a fucking mystery box. And I thought, oh my God, I'm so mad about this. How dare you people? So that was kind of where my...
neocharge: You're like, i'm gonna I'm legitimately going to Xbox. And I'm like, sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was so mad. I was like, fuck everything. I'm going to steal shit. I'm gonna steal everything.
neocharge: if
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I hate it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm taking the world.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah i was so upset. ah But I do think part of it is this this whole 14-day trial period for the refund refund and then having the license just to say, to match, did the the purchaser buy it on a console that's owned by them?
neocharge: Shocker.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah We're just going to do a one-and-done DRM check. I'm actually not that mad about it because... it's it like Alex said it earlier. I can't remember if it was right before we started the cast and we were briefly discussing that we were going to try to keep this under three hours if Caleb shut up and it didn't happen.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sorry. Uh, but he had mentioned that it, it might be for, um, people to, or for Sony to, to try to mitigate the, the refund scams that were going on.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I do, I actually, i think that that's smart.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So,
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All of that being said, i am dying to hear when Bob gets a chance why he he said that he was kind of on the other end of this this line here.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So whenever he's ready, I can't wait to hear it. Can't wait to hear his thoughts.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: My body is ready.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, Mike's all yours, Bob. Here you go.
Leon Lionheartly: No worries.
neocharge: and
Leon Lionheartly: So when this first broke, you you alluded to something big, Caleb. When this first broke, there was a lot of, oh, death to Sony. This is BS.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Flashbacks to 2013.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah If you know, you know.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): PTSD. I did.
Leon Lionheartly: But what you said about terms of service immediately threw it me because Sony will not play around with that.
neocharge: I was there.
Leon Lionheartly: And there was no change to terms of service.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So this and that was my hard fast.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: that the The whole truth isn't out there. And people are doing clickbait shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It goes back to what i when we were reflecting. And I said we could sell out if we want to.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: That's an opportunity because that's exactly what I'm talking about.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But I want to speak the truth and discuss things. And we didn't have the information to talk about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: Now, to that point, if Sony were to change its terms of service and you got to you got a piece ah a PlayStation update and you had a terms of service, you'd have to accept, right? You'd have to scroll through.
Leon Lionheartly: Question, not just for you gentlemen, but for the audience. When was the last time you actually fucking read the terms of service? Or did you just say, I want to play my games and hit continue and accept it?
neocharge: But that's okay for games going forward you purchase. It's not okay for retroactive games you already purchased.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that I do agree.
Leon Lionheartly: And I could see i could see that ah in some legal nuance and somebody, some lawyer who makes a lot more money than I ever will would have to dissect that. But even if they did go down that path, you' know you're not going you would not lose your games. You would lose the ability ah to play them in an offline console after 30 In the year of our Lord, 2026, if you do not have an internet connection to your PlayStation 5, and mind you, this was only for PlayStation Network purchase games, not physicals and not your PS Plus, which elapsed.
neocharge: you
Leon Lionheartly: You're telling me you purchased a digital game from a digital storefront and then refused to connect your console to that storefront again within 30 days?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): One counterpoint to that, one major counterpoint to that. And I'm actually a little surprised because you're the retro guy that, and maybe it did cross your mind and you just don't care. And that's fine. You're allowed to not, if you're like, i don't give a shit.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Certain older consoles like PS3 and PS4 got updates that just broke things on the console level, on the system level.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And as a person that might be like, you know what? I don't want to run past version 4.0 on this system And if you have it online, you can't do that. You're forced to update to the current system level for whatever reason. it doesn't really matter. But if you're if you're going 20 years in the future and you say, you know what?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I kind of want to boot up my copy of... This a perfect example. Dissidia Final Fantasy, the original on PSP, and then Dissidia 012 on PSP that are now on my Vita.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They're digital versions on my Vita. I can load up my... I can turn on my Vita and I can fucking play them. That hasn't been online in how many years? If I couldn't do that, it would it's just to me, it's theft. To me, they're stealing something that I paid for. and And again, I might be a little out of turn saying that, but I'm thinking about things because it was another thing with my, not to use my ANSA state again, but when I was traveling down there, if I had 15 minutes to myself,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): rarely did I get to play a game, but on occasion we would go back to the hotel room a little early. I actually took my Vita and i ended up ah platinuming uncharted golden abyss because I had it on my Vita. And I had, I was like, you know what? I want to do that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I couldn't connect to the internet in that shitty hotel room. I couldn't do any of those things. So if I was not allowed to play, Those digital purchases that do not have an online requirement component, because that's different too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I would really lose a lot of faith in ever paying for anything legally again. And I know that that's a bit extreme. It is a bit extreme. I admit it about myself, but I am a little bit more, I've seen that go really fast the other direction.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So to me, this was the start of just like, ah, it's the world is ending in my, in my life. So I'm curious about that for you with the retro stuff that that didn't, if you didn't think about it or if you just didn't care.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. No, i I thought about it. um And I have two two thoughts to that. First, you should have bought the fucking disc.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, well, yeah, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I know some you can't. I know some you can't.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, that's fair, but yeah, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But first off... You should have bought the disc. you You can still do that. And until they take that away, we don't have to worry about this. And number two, um you're purchasing these games from the digital storefront, but it's a software.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You know, do people realize that when you purchase a so a piece of software, it doesn't matter if it's Adobe, it doesn't matter if it's Windows, it doesn't matter if it's VLC. You're not actually buying, you're getting a copy included, but that's not what you're legally buying.
Leon Lionheartly: What you're legally buying is the license for that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, the right to use it.
Leon Lionheartly: And the license, the right to use it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And the license can be revoked, um not just because the company says whatever, um but that license can be revoked within legal parameters and there's nothing you can do about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: That's the way the world has worked since the So...
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, but, and and while that is true, does that make me have to accept it when it gets so extreme?
neocharge: hmm
Leon Lionheartly: so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, you're right. You're you're not wrong about that at all.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I don't have to agree with it up to a point, you know, that...
Leon Lionheartly: And and i I totally get that. But at the end of the day, you're right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: There are some things where you're like, oh, I want to be able to play this. ah So the argument I heard about this with, oh, well, what if I want to play on this version of the of the PlayStation OS for the PS5, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Because there's quote unquote bugs. No, yeah ah you know, no, i I don't believe you flat.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, whatever it is. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't believe that because you go back to the Switch. The Switch was pirated and cracked almost immediately. And Nintendo spent years
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): True.
Leon Lionheartly: years update the same thing with their DS and their DS XL, where they were constantly updating the firmware to try to patch the exploits. The only story I've heard and ever seen of somebody that wants to run the old version is because they want to exploit it for pirating.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. that's,
Leon Lionheartly: And PlayStation's keys, their root keys, were recently exposed. And that's why a PlayStation 4 game costs $250 now, which was not even printed by a Sony ah distributor.
neocharge: right you
Leon Lionheartly: It was done through limited run games, third-party provider. so PlayStation is just trying to keep itself protected and ah from from piracy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and that's That is true. That's fair. The only, the only counter I will have to that just because it's the only thing I've ever experienced myself was specifically with the original 60 gig PS threes that had the PS three, two, and one, all of it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You you could do everything.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I do not remember what number I'm sure with some internet sleuthing, we could figure it out. There was a patch at one point that made the, ah either PS two or PS one. I do not remember which one just unplayable.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was, it was a bug. It was a mistake. It happened. um And they didn't fix it right away because it did not affect the 80 gigs and it did not affect the, the newer slim versions. It was just the OG 60 with the hardware in there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I had one.
neocharge: I remember that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I ran into that and I actually did play PS2 and PS1 games on my PS3 because it was, it was a great system if it got out of its own way with a seven cell architecture and all that bullshit that we don't have time to talk about.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But, and again, that's a very niche problem.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I fully admit that that's very rare. But the fact that I had that is the first thing I thought of was like, no, I'm not i am not putting up with this because I'm a grumpy old man who bought his shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah And just with Dissidia, I could not use the disc because on the Vita, it did not read the UMDs.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I had it. I owned the disc, but i it was I had to buy it digitally to be able to play out of my Vita again.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I could have gotten it on my PSP because I still have the disc for that, but the UMD.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But those were the things that really affected me the most, was thinking about Hades 2, thinking about games that I had no choice. And i was like, fuck that. That's not cool. so
neocharge: For sure.
Leon Lionheartly: And and
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but But you're right. I do get what you mean about the security. That's that's very true, very appropriate, very correct.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: and and then if you think about it, that you said that was the PS3.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: We don't know of another situation. If that happened in today's age where, let's say, the PS Slim couldn't do that and they were under that umbrella, ah PlayStation would have a PR nightmare.
Leon Lionheartly: um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They would, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: absolutely in today's the internet, it would be just as bad as their 24 day outage. Like they would be getting crucified for that. And you would see their stocks stop ah start to take a dip from it.
Leon Lionheartly: um So I'm, I'm confident that that would not be a such a situation um at the end of the day.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: And the, and the last argument I heard and before anybody else brings it up is because this got brought up in 2013 was military service members.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, I can tell you this much. you go Alex knows. He's been in Korea. I was in Europe.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: You have access to the internet, and the only time that you really are not going to have access to the internet, like you can't get even ah ah a hotspot on your cell phone to update license files on a PlayStation...
Leon Lionheartly: um let's just say you wouldn't want your 700 console in that area like you're just not going to want it you're not going to have the setup you wouldn't want it anywhere near there um so and yeah come at me ah go guys cry wolf on that i served 21 years i did three combat tours so um i was there trust me i had an xbox 360 hooked up in my tent but it didn't go anywhere else besides that and even then it was kind of shaky because i was like fuck If we get hit with a mortar and I'm not in my tent, but it gets blown up, I'm out, you know, $600 worth of console and games.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yep
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): name
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What about in a submarine? I mean, that's a serious question. If you were in a submarine, and yeah you're obviously probably not going to have internet down there. ah Maybe that's not true.
Leon Lionheartly: You know, you'd be surprised.
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know. i i
Leon Lionheartly: you I'll put it to you this way. You would be surprised at what can be done.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: we have We have people who went to the moon recently, and they had Outlook to communicate on their emails, which requires internet.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: they have full internet on a fucking spaceship that's going 35,000 miles in space, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Dude, it's wild when they were like streaming the shit on the other side of the moon.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah amen
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i remember i was like, where are the satellites for this? How is this working?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't understand. is It's such a cool thing to see and think about if you know a modicum of anything about tech. It's very cool. So that doesn't surprise me now that you say that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just... I don't know. i i Part of it is the change of like, I bought this. i'm an and Because I'm an honest person that paid for it. And I realize they're combating the people that are not more than they are combating me.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But when I am negatively affected by it, I i tend to i tend to fly off the handle and just think the sky is falling. and you know yeah I know they can turn a switch off at any time they want and I'm fucked.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know that. But at least lie to me. Have the decency to lie to me and tell me you're never going to do like that.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's what I want.
Leon Lionheartly: <unk> I'll put it at the end of the day. I'll put it like to you this at the end of the day. I empathize. um And yeah, I'm a give physical game collector. You know that, Matt. we we We prefer our physical games.
Leon Lionheartly: um And I empathize with that. But if I was in a situation where my PlayStation couldn't hook up to the internet for 30 days, I probably got one bigger issues going on. And two, eventually I will restore it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And then at the end of the day, um that's just, it sucks. But that's just the nature of the beast. um And if you really have a problem with it, I want you to vote with your wallet, but I also want you to remember that the guys on the other side of the fence, their current terms of service are worse than PlayStation's.
Leon Lionheartly: um So where my question do we du be use my question would be if you said, fuck PlayStation, I'm done because they updated their terms of service to this. I want to ask you, where you going to go? Where are you going to go?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I have a PS1, PS2, a PS3 that all work fine offline, by the way.
Leon Lionheartly: in head yeah Shit, I'll come over and we'll hook up the multi-tap and make this happen, man.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But... Yeah. I got a Dreamcast with Marvel vs.
Leon Lionheartly: We'll play Tekken.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Capcom 2. I'm good. But but no, there there is one thing that Matt said that that was my actual biggest concern was the retroactive potential for this. Because if it's like, we're going update moving forward, I don't have to like it, but then, like you said, that's the nature of the beast.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If that happened... i would I would be mad just because I'm me but I would not fly off the handle if they said, all of a sudden, all this shit that you owned or you thought you owned is just gone because we feel like it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was what gave me like ah breathing problems for a minute. It's just like, how dare you?
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I really did just... I was i didn't i was not fun to be around for like an hour after after that news was shared with us. i Poor Lisa came home from work. She was like, how's your day? And i was like, motherfuckers.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, was just not great.
Leon Lionheartly: Where's the Jesus?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: Ha ha ha.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: No, you're right. And they wouldn't, and they wouldn't be able, I don't even know if they could, that would be something to ask a lawyer.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Pretty much.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right. it's That's a legal nightmare.
Leon Lionheartly: Could, could,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and And that's why I was like, what is happening?
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Could they change the terms of service to apply that retroactively? Because this update only applies to games purchased after March, 2026 digitally.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So could they retroactively? I don't think they could. And then it would just be for anything going forward.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, if they could, they would have, I do think legally they would have to offer you an option where it's like, okay, if you do not agree to this, then you no longer get software updates and play at your own risk.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Security be damned. I think that might be how they would have to do it. I don't think they could force it on you.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But that was another reason why Hades 2 came to mind because we found out about this, what'd you say, April 25th?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And they said they said March 31st or whatever that date was.
neocharge: Like a couple days ago.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was like, Hades 2 is the only digital game that I had bought. In the meantime, this was before I knew that information, after the date in question.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): How the fuck does that work? April 14th was the date. So if you're telling me as of March 31st, you have to agree to this.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's kind of why I was like, well okay, somebody is not is not doing what they're supposed to do. Or I'm fucking stupid and behind the ball because I've been on vacation and stuff. Who knows? But um that was the big question mark.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I'm glad that it's not that problem.
neocharge: Yeah. And thankfully, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): right now, at least as far as we know. ah But what do you have any, you have, I kind of cut you off a little bit, Matt. I'm sorry. Did you have other follow-ups for, for Bob ah or or things we've talked about?
neocharge: but No,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I feel like he and I kind of dominated a little bit there and I'm sorry, but if you guys had something else to say, go for it.
neocharge: no no, you're fine. Uh, love the conversation.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: And i agree with a lot of points, uh, primarily on your side. So I'm, I'm right there with you, but no, I liked it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Fair. Take that, Bob. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm sorry.
Leon Lionheartly: you
neocharge: I like hearing and your perspective as well, Bob. And thankfully none of this is happening and it's just, uh, man, the internet just ran with it and just all hell broke loose and shocker, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it did. Yeah.
neocharge: But yeah, so i I think I would be a little more annoyed if it was going forward. Like they they said, because man, like they should tell you what's going on with games you're purchasing and you have the option to read it or not. Most people won't read it, but it's still there and they're telling the consumer. And if they do this retroactively forward,
neocharge: forward. Honestly, it's anti-consumer a little bit and it's deceiving to the purchaser and it's a step in the wrong direction.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: But none of this is happening, thankfully. It's just a little, you know, after 14 to 30 days, you're going to, you get a temporary license and it's to combat these return pirates, I guess you could call them and fuck them.
neocharge: So, uh,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And potential, um I don't know what it's called, but the duplication theft. Like if I bought a game digitally and somebody tried to clone my drive and put it on their system offline, once the license was read, if they clone it the right way, they would effectively be able to play the game that I had purchased.
neocharge: Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like I know that's rare and we don't do shit like that.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I couldn't tell you how it's done, but it happens.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And so I do think that this is a smart way for them to combat that while not completely fucking the honest consumer. it's It's the best of both worlds. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think I, hopefully it stays that way, you know?
neocharge: Just
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: buy physical when you can. It's, I mean, yeah, digital is more convenient. Yeah, it's, but i don't know. There's something about physical. I will fight to the end with physical.
Goatlord-Sriobix: No.
neocharge: going to buy Hades twice. I don't care.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): right well that's that's the thing we talked about yeah at least i didn't want to wait for hades 2 ironic that i'm waiting waiting to play it now but i didn't want to wait for a physical version i didn't want to have to wait until maybe october november december whenever if it happens at all uh so i have no qualms yeah i i will i will buy it twice i don't have a problem with that uh
neocharge: i have Hades sealed.
neocharge: No, I'm not going to. here Right.
neocharge: Exactly.
Goatlord-Sriobix: though
neocharge: We've waited for like six months because it released on Switch.
Leon Lionheartly: you
neocharge: I was like, ugh. Yeah. Me either. And it's 25 bucks.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): egypt Just to support it and everything. But if for people that do not have that option, for people that do not have that you know way to so to have that income and make that decision, And they had to make this call.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If they got fucked when they paid for it, that's my problem. that That's really the at the of the end of the day.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because I have a lot of friends that said, I'm never going to buy physical. I have a one-room studio apartment. i don't have space for it. And I'm like, dude. But I get it. i get it.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's convenience.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And they paid their money.
neocharge: Use case.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, yeah. It's...
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I may disagree with it, but that's just for me. Their life is their life.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You're a bit of a minimalist, Matt.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So it must be a harder decision for you sometimes to buy physical because it's more quote unquote stuff.
neocharge: I am.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now it's good stuff, but it's still stuff.
neocharge: It's a challenge.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: it's ah It's a bit of a contradiction because I am a minimalist and i live with less and I tend to look at value with one item opposed 10 items, right?
Goatlord-Sriobix: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: ah it sometimes is a contradiction and a challenge, but i think of them as art pieces and it's my little bookshelf and it's their conversation pieces.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And ah it's just kind of a physical imprint of my history of gaming right there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Got a little mini GameStop in my basement. Love it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: No shit.
Leon Lionheartly: I love it. Yeah, you do, man. I love it. Like I said, should have bought fucking physical.
neocharge: So.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Exactly.
Goatlord-Sriobix: but it
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: I do want to drop a little tidbit because we saw something similar to this happen on PC a couple years ago now um where AMD, a graphics card company that I use, they came out and announced that past a certain point they were going to stop supporting
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: like a vast population of graphics cards that they put out. And if Sony wants to know how this type of thing would play out in real time, like this worst case scenario we all imagined, all you have to do is look at how far AMD stock dropped in three days and see that it lost three quarters of its value.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. That was not great for them. Yeah.
neocharge: were they going to deactivate the card make them useless or just stop supporting them wow
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
Goatlord-Sriobix: No, they were were going to do complete 100% no support for any of them. And it was it it was at the time, and it was actually the point where I panic bought my graphics card I have now.
neocharge: yeah yeah
Goatlord-Sriobix: Because I was like, if they fucking do this, I'm fucked. Like, I can't play anything new. And they they their their stock dropped tremendously from it, and then NVIDIA turned around and tried to do the same thing, and NVIDIA is still suffering for it.
Goatlord-Sriobix: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. Give them backlash.
Goatlord-Sriobix: It doesn't play out in the long run.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Consumers are going to notice.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Anytime you try and do something to change what we already love, what we've already purchased, no matter what the like financial value was for it, people are going to notice.
neocharge: Yep.
Goatlord-Sriobix: I don't know if Sony came out and tucked their tail between their legs with their response saying, hey, this is how it's actually going to work, or if they were testing the waters to see community outreach first.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: They could very well have been.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Cause yeah, there were three options.
neocharge: and
Goatlord-Sriobix: But
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The two you listed. And then the third one was that it really was just a huge nothing burger and the internet went ape shit.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): who Excuse me. Sorry. Who knows?
Goatlord-Sriobix: i get I get both sides, though. I love my physical games. I love my digital games. Most of the games I have, like I said, are all digital.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: It would suck if I just couldn't play them one day.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Goatlord-Sriobix: But it's also kind of my fault if I don't have internet.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: it it all wrap It all wraps up to what we said ah said ah we said earlier.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: That's true.
Leon Lionheartly: When we built this podcast, Matt and I, and then brought you you know you guys helped build this community, we wanted to spread the positivity and the truth of gaming and talk about it in depth. the knee-jerk reactions were exactly that.
Leon Lionheartly: That was a child who saw the potential to have their candy bar ah formula changed or something.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: so minor They didn't get their... Relatable to parents. They didn't get their orange juice in the right color sippy cup. And they threw a fucking fit.
neocharge: ah
Leon Lionheartly: When in reality, at the end of the day, it didn't matter.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, Bob, you you hit the nail on the head.
neocharge: So.
Goatlord-Sriobix: We hope.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now I give, give me my Capri Sun.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm the child. I'm the whiny bitch child that needs us to breathe.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm...
neocharge: Equo cooler.
Leon Lionheartly: No, Alex gets the Capri Suns. You get the meats and cheeses. Remember?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, that's right.
Leon Lionheartly: This is how this works.
neocharge: That's right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah, back off, bro. Come on. Know your place.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's fair.
Leon Lionheartly: anyway
Goatlord-Sriobix: Jesus.
neocharge: Yeah. So yeah, the internet ran with it, dude. We were ready to rant Bob like 10 minutes before we were about to record.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: was like, uh, breaking news and PlayStation had actually commented on it. So, so glad we caught that. And Uh, what do you guys think of, uh, our listeners?
neocharge: What do you guys think of, uh, this situation and,
Leon Lionheartly: Thank
neocharge: Are you a fan of physical or digital? I don't know if I've done a poll of physical or digital, but I should. We should do that.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yep, absolutely.
neocharge: So I'm a i'm i'm going to be a lifelong ah physical media ah advocate. And i mean, until they don't make it, and I'm forced to buy digital where I've been in that situation, ah I'll have to transition again.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Kicking and and screaming, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Congratulations. You're doing it again.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: but I'll do it kicking and screaming and man, I, I have done limited run additions. Uh, and I just, you know, I can wait if I'm waiting on physical, but not Hades too.
Leon Lionheartly: you
neocharge: I've waited fucking six months. I'm going to be waiting probably another month and no, it was 25 bucks and I want to support super giant. So I will buy their game twice.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, they're great.
neocharge: Yeah. I want to support them as much as I can because phenomenal studio, but so yeah, yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Yeah.
Goatlord-Sriobix: You'll love it when you get to it.
neocharge: Oh, I can't wait.
Goatlord-Sriobix: You'll absolutely love it, dude.
neocharge: I can't wait.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm looking so forward to it.
neocharge: So, yes. it's been It's been one year. This has been episode 50. More to come. 50 more to come. 100 more to come.
neocharge: Man, we're going to do our 100th episode. going crazy. ah We'll get on video at some point. I don't know. Maybe. we've we've We've gained so many listeners by just audio.
neocharge: We don't know how.
Goatlord-Sriobix: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: And honestly, it's just Zencaster. It just freaks out every time we do video Especially when Caleb's on here, his face breaks in caster for some reason.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's, you know, that's, that's what happens when you're in the presence of greatness.
neocharge: i don't know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: ah but
neocharge: Indeed. But yeah, ah Bob, thank you so much for putting that on the discord, that little message to all of our i community. That was awesome. I read it and i was like, oh, that's amazing. So if, if you're part of shapes and you want to see what I'm talking about, go on the discord.
neocharge: you know And like I said, share your stories. What does Shapes of Gaming mean to you? what of What friends have you made along the way? Because that's the real treasure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): God damn it.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: So, yeah, this has been episode 50.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: We're thrilled to still be here. We're thrilled you're all part of it. And ah fellas, I just wanted to say ah heartfelt thank you. ah for you know making this what it is. And we ah we've created this amazing thing. And I i got to say personally, i've I've had a blast and it's been a dream of mine. So I can't wait to continue it.
neocharge: And I love you all. So thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Thank you for having me. It really, it's it's been an honor so far. So as you said earlier, we'll keep on keeping on.
neocharge: Awesome. Awesome.
neocharge: Keep on keeping on. Yep. Death Stranding too. Amazing. All right, we're going to get the hell out of here. It's getting late. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being with us for a year, the the community members. And you got that, you got that little badge on discord. You're, you're the green color of the triangle button on, on the, the dual shock, dual sense, whatever you want to see it as. But yeah, you have a color. If you are the founders, I think there's like 25 of them.
neocharge: Uh, that, uh, That's special. And you you helped us kick this off. So thank you for that. We're going strong a year. We plan another decade, hopefully. But ah most importantly, keep the conversation going.
Leon Lionheartly: Peace.
neocharge: Be nice to people. And keep playing video games, man. They're the ultimate art form. And this is where you can make friends and talk about them.
neocharge: So have a great rest of your evening, morning, night, whatever the hell it is today.
Goatlord-Sriobix: peace
Goatlord-Sriobix: peace
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Shapes exclusive.
