Transcript
neocharge: What's up, everybody, and welcome to Shapes of Gaming, the conversational podcast all about video games that's unedited, unfiltered, and unhinged. I'm one of your hosts, Matt Stenson, NeoCharge on PSN, and joining me, as always, we're on episode number 60. Oh my God, you guys are fucking hilarious.
neocharge: is the retro gaming encyclopedia Bob Harriman Leon Light Hartley on PSN what's up man you guys are doing some crazy shit to the the video people can't see it but I can
Leon Lionheartly: I love Jesus.
neocharge: okay oh yeah at first at first it sounded like you said Jesus and was like what
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, no! You're by something. Oh, no!
Leon Lionheartly: i
Leon Lionheartly: He's my bro.
neocharge: but but
Leon Lionheartly: Me and him are homies. We go way back. I promoted him when he was in the army.
neocharge: Hell yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: Gotta let them just take the wheel sometime. As you can also hear, we are are joined by, ah he's basically the, the third person on this cast because we're bi-monthly at this point or bi-weekly.
neocharge: I don't know what the fuck.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you've you've buy something
neocharge: Uh, Yeah, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: It is Caleb Schiff, Admiral Murps on PSN. He's the guy that, you know, has pretty much 100% all the lists. He got all the rare Final Fantasy trophies.
neocharge: What's up, man? How's it going? Good to have you on the show again. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): right ah How are you guys?
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm good. I, yeah. I fucking i got the 100% of the endless Ragnarok DLC of a Grand Blue Fantasy Relink, which is no small task.
neocharge: My goodness.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, yeah, you're not wrong. I need help.
neocharge: My goodness.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I need help.
neocharge: My goodness. And ah this is basically super familiar because we've all been playing a little game called Halo. We've all been on mic. We've been in the party. So this is kind of like an extension of it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: When we were playing today, actually, like, i don't know, five hours before we recorded today, maybe three. I was like, you know what? Let's just bring Bob in the party. We'll record the party and we'll just play Halo and record the cast.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I would not have been mad about that. We got to play with Bob some more because he ah the work he had to work like a fucking chump, make a living, be a be a useful human being.
neocharge: Right? I'll look into that. Yeah, we do.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, some of us were busy killing brutes over and over and over again.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Over and over again.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): God damn it. Yeah. But it's fine.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The game works. It's 100% flawless. Don't worry about it, guys.
neocharge: can't.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Everything's fine.
neocharge: Can't wait to talk all about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Jesus. Yeah.
neocharge: ah We are definitely going to talk about it on this cast.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So welcome everyone. ah You know, we I know you've missed us for last week and we're here and we're going to do biweekly.
neocharge: I believe is a bi-monthly or biweekly. I don't fucking know these these terms.
Leon Lionheartly: Technically bi-weekly because
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bi-weekly, yeah.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Exactly. That's what I thought. So, yeah. ah Twice a month. Maybe we'll do a spoiler cast here and there. we might still do a first light. We want to do an Elliot. I don't know.
neocharge: We're gaming a lot.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, yeah.
neocharge: Right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Shit. like I forgot. I'm not going to lie to you. I completely slipped my mind. like Yeah, we we do need to do that.
neocharge: Yeah. There are... There are so many video games out we want to play. ah August is pretty packed. September is crazy. October is even crazier. We're getting into a ah season of just a ton of video games. The industry is kind of falling apart, but it's honestly the golden age of video games if you're a gamer and you just want to play the game. So that's what we've been doing. We've been playing the games. That hasn't stopped. And here we are, all of us, for you all to talk about the games, talk about the news,
neocharge: and talk about everything. What's up, Caleb?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, rumor has it that the night before Mount Vesuvius erupted in Pompeii, it was the greatest night of their lives. Much like the video game industry.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): These games are incredible.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We're all about to die.
neocharge: They are.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's Because every studio is fucked.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Which, you've heard us be sad about it before.
neocharge: Yep. It's that meme.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just... ah But at least the games are good right now.
neocharge: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The games are are are killing it.
neocharge: They're great. Yeah, they're great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but Mostly.
neocharge: And I mean, there's.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Mostly.
neocharge: Well, let's let's get into what we're drinking.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's like
neocharge: Caleb, you go first all the way from Ohio. Do you have a local brew?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All right.
neocharge: What are you drinking?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I did not have a local brew, but I do have something i wanted to ask you ah you about specifically.
neocharge: OK.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do you know the difference between, if there is a difference, between just like a regular sour and a kettle sour?
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yes. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): what What is it?
neocharge: It's a different brew. It's a different brew process. ah It's a little more on the craft side. And typically a kettle sour is way more a puckery sour than a regular sour. So it's going to hit you. It's like a warhead sour.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, so i i this's I don't even know who does this. It's a peach ale. I'm to show you.
neocharge: Okay. You're
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): My lighting isn't really that good. I'm sorry. But that's I'd never heard of it before.
neocharge: you're good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Lisa surprised me with it because I love like peaches are my my favorite fruit along with raspberries.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like ah the good fresh stone fruit peach.
neocharge: Heck yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They're good for like three weeks out of the year in Ohio.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We usually get them from Georgia and they're amazing, but that it is my favorite along with raspberries. So she got me this cause she, she saw it at the store and was like, let's try it out.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and
neocharge: Heck yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): she got it for the world cup final. Like that you know, week and change ago.
neocharge: OK.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I had one and I love sours and I love peach.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): weirdly, this tastes almost like an IPA. And I'm not a huge fan of an IPA.
neocharge: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I i don't like the the bitter hoppiness at the back end, if that makes sense.
neocharge: It's...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was going to ask you if a kettle sour made it do that.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I mean, I like it enough.
neocharge: No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm obviously drinking it again, but it was just a little disappointing that it wasn't more peach flavored and more sweet. However, I do also have a very intense sweet tooth.
neocharge: Let's get... look Let's get a scientific...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So it's probably perfect for everybody else.
neocharge: overview of this. Yeah, no, kettle sours. I've never had a kettle sour. First of all, I've never had a sour that says... like ale on it. I mean, there are sour ales, but a kettle sour, every kettle sour I've had has been a very, uh, extremely sour beer.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay, yeah, sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Hmm.
neocharge: Uh, unlike their traditional brethren, kettle sours like a Goza or Berliner Weiss brew faster than the traditional method, ah appropriately labeled quick souring.
neocharge: Not only is it a stainless steel kettle or fermenter used instead of a conventional wooden barrel, but but lactic acid bacteria, often lactobacillus, is also pitched to make it a more potent sour experience.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. Was that a chat GPT or was that like a Google AI?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like what, who, where'd you get that?
neocharge: Google.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Was it?
neocharge: Just Google.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. No, I just wonder. Well, anyway, so that's what I'm drinking.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know who makes it. And it's, it's really, really light, lightly written.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll, I could look it up. Nobody cares. It's fine. It's fine.
neocharge: So the bitterness at the end, that is the what's considered the IBU, the Imperial Bitterness Units.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's it's
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Does it have an IBU count on it? Because typically on the can somewhere, maybe.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Where would it say that?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but like Yeah, this is 7%.
neocharge: Usually it's on ah bre and on on a brewery wall, ah but sometimes they have it on the can. Usually you have the ABV on the can, of course. that's I think legally they have to put that on there, but some but sometimes they'll...
neocharge: Okay. Sometimes they'll do the IBU.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's the only number on here. Yeah.
neocharge: The IBU is the higher the number, the more bitter it's going to finish and the more hoppier it is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Well, here's here's the entire, it is a kettle sour Berliner Weiss style ale with peach puree, apple and pineapple juice, which sounded awesome.
neocharge: So.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Ooh. Yum.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it, I mean, it's good, but I just, I don't, I don't like that added really an IPA might not even be the right term.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just every time I drink an IPA, it's the same feeling on the back of my tongue that I just don't quite like.
neocharge: Yeah, it's like licking a tree.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's you yeah how many trees have you licked in your life?
neocharge: A couple, you know, when I was younger, or I was um expelled.
Leon Lionheartly: He licks a lot of wood.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah Yeah, I know he likes a lot of wood, but the trees I was curious about.
neocharge: Oh my god oh ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So anyway, yeah, no i'm I'm super excited.
neocharge: That's good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's ah It's a big boy, and going to see if we can capture this.
neocharge: Cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ready?
neocharge: Oh, damn.
Leon Lionheartly: Well done.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I am all that is man.
neocharge: That was good. That was good. Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I may have sprayed it on my on the microphone, but that's okay.
neocharge: I mean, we heard. We heard.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I can't control myself most of the time.
neocharge: Amazing. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And now that I've got two handsome boys in my screen, what chance is there?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Anyway, bob what are you drinking?
neocharge: i
neocharge: amazing
Leon Lionheartly: Not a kettle sour. No, ah I went very basic because we've been going to Cogstone Brewing a lot lately and they've got a Irish red there that I quite frankly dream about.
Leon Lionheartly: Like it is,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ooh, that sounds good.
neocharge: hu
Leon Lionheartly: it You remember our dad belt ah that we shared? This is like just a micro couple of steps below a dad belt.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: It's that good, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Mmm.
Leon Lionheartly: um So unfortunately, I can't get it in a can anywhere that I can find unless I get a growler. So I said, fuck it. And I went and got myself the Goat Patch Brewing Red Ale, which is very non-offensive, but it's very still good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ooh.
neocharge: Beautiful. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I like red ales. I don't get them often enough, but I i very much like a red ale.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: You give me a red or a brown and I'm just like swimming like a fish in the ocean.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. In the beer, swimming in the beer. Yeah, I like red eels too.
Leon Lionheartly: m
neocharge: They're sometimes my go-to. And ah ah you've had the red from Goat Patch from the tap, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: Oh. Yeah, it's great. Go Patch is a nice little brewery. It's attached to a taco shop called Nacho Matrix and also a really awesome coffee shop and a bread ah vendor.
neocharge: They make their own fresh bread. It's like a trifecta of amazingness around there. So you get your coffee.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's kind of cool. I bet the smells are wonderful, right?
neocharge: Oh, my God. Yeah. And it's in an old school. So it's amazing. We have a couple of those here. So, yeah, ah I am drinking a local brew as well from Breckenridge Brewery. Breck, of course, is one of the resorts here. I've been to the brewery many times. It's one of my favorite places to go. I snowboard. And it's it's one of the best resorts in Colorado, in my opinion, all around.
neocharge: ah Keystone has better runs. But Breck has all around ah a really cool feel to it. And ah can't wait, dude. It's like 13 weeks until next season. But who's counting, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): him
neocharge: This is one they make a summer-themed beer. It's called the Summer Cerveza. And it's a salt and lime lager. It's basically a tastier Corona.
neocharge: I mean, not to... Not to bash it at all, but it's ah it's a pilsner.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: ah Well, it's a lager, but it's a light lager, and it's ah salt and lime. So, yeah. Wreck makes some good shit. ah It's not my favorite they make, but it's good nonetheless.
neocharge: so it's
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Will you hold up the can? Can you hold up the can?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I want i want to see.
neocharge: It's a bottle, actually. I would do a cast crack, but it is actually a ah pop top, ah and
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, it's a bottle. Okay, do your best impression of what it sounds like when you pop that top.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was pretty good. If you're on a fucking cartoon.
Leon Lionheartly: You know what? telling you, Matt.
neocharge: i way and often the I don't know.
Leon Lionheartly: No.
neocharge: Oh,
Leon Lionheartly: we're we're going i'm telling you matt Come this Christmas, this winter season, I'm going to go to our Class 6. And for people that don't know what Class 6 is, it's the liquor store on base.
neocharge: yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um And we're going to get some real German beers because they come in bottles, but they're not a metal aluminum top.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: It's a cork that you lo literally but break. and eight eight It echoes throughout the house when you break those.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ooh.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's nice.
neocharge: You came over when I got the German imported Oktoberfest, right? Last fall?
Leon Lionheartly: That's right.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah.
neocharge: Yeah, that was good. I got a shitload of them. And oh, my God. The Germans know how to do beer. I am partially of German descent. So I i know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): How dare you?
neocharge: I know. German. I'm super Irish. So those two, I'm already born a drinker. So.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Were you raised Catholic?
neocharge: I was, yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. Well, just the Irish thing. That's the only reason I asked.
neocharge: Yep, yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know. it's Yeah. hey Okay.
neocharge: Yeah, so.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Neat. my My mom was too. So I get it.
neocharge: Interesting, interesting. Yeah, i did one of those DNA tests. They have my DNA now. I was super ah curious about, you know, where I'm from. It's it's cool to see. So, yes, ah this podcast is all about...
neocharge: drinking beer and talking video games. And that's what we're going to do. So ah if you're not part of the community, ah we have a discord. And we're pretty active on it. We have a Twitch stream. We've been streaming Halo and all the antics and all the crazy things we were up to with ah four Master Chiefs running around the fucking screen. So shout out to also, of course, you, Caleb, you joined us. And of course, Cyclon Berserk, he's part of the community. And ah Bobo.
neocharge: Burrito Supreme also. So ah those two were on the Twitch stream and man, we were having a ah bunch of fun. So we're going to talk all about it. ah Yeah, you can catch us on Twitch, twitch.tv forward slash shapes of gaming. ah You can catch us on Discord. We have ah a I don't know, mild social media presence, but we're working on it. And i hate all that. I just like talking games and drinking beer and like in front of the mic and I don't like any of the other stuff. So.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but I have a question for you.
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just just before we go too far, this Bo Bo, Bo, Bo Rito Supreme you're talking about, is this the same guy that needed to be hard carried through two missions because he's not good at Halo?
neocharge: Sure.
neocharge: Oh, let me get a timestamp that
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Love you, buddy. Just fucking with you. For the record, for people for people that don't know, Bo is very, very good at video games.
Leon Lionheartly: I gotta
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I'm just fucking with him on this recording because it's fun. ah
Leon Lionheartly: got ask, Caleb, are you sure about that? Because this isn't this the same Bo that screwed up the legendary Warthog run in the Maw, and I had to fucking save it at the last second? Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's true. That's true. That was, I mean, I didn't compare him to the rest of us. I was just saying he's a good gamer, but he ain't no, no gladio driver. Like Bob is Bob knows how to drive a fucking warthog.
neocharge: Dude, you came in.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He, you can drive anything.
neocharge: I was with you during that, and you came in clutch. I was just witnessing it. I was like, we're not going to make it. Like, dude, with fucking three seconds left on that clock.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Five or three seconds. There's three seconds of ridiculous.
neocharge: Yeah, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was awesome though.
neocharge: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was, it was very, very well done.
neocharge: Yeah, this is a...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Meanwhile, Bo and I are in the back going, fuck, let's just, let's catch up and throw grenades.
neocharge: Right. God. Yeah, you did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Which we did, by the way. But yeah, that was, that was nuts.
neocharge: ya you did Yeah, you did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was nuts.
neocharge: This is a new segment on the cast called the bow bashing segment. It is going to be new.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: And no, we love you, buddy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That bitch. That bitch is seeing Spider-Man. He doesn't get to have joy tonight.
neocharge: That's true. That's true. That's true. But yeah, ah if you're not part of the community, hey, Caleb, where can people find us? Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um Your butt. Shapesofgaming.com. And you can get the Spotify, the YouTube, the...
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't remember all of the services that exist, but I know that you guys have...
neocharge: It's pretty much any podcast app. The main ones are YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. so Or the podcast app of your choice.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and As you would say, or the podcast app of your choice. Just like that. so ah Yeah, but Shapesofgaming.com also has the Discord on there. And you can come on there and tell everybody how much you hate me.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You love them.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm sorry.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You hate me. Shut the fuck up, Admiral Murphs. Let them go. But yeah, shapesgaming.com.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Pretty simple.
neocharge: Awesome. Yeah, we're all on there. We have fun. And that's where we put all our announcements too. So, and you can subscribe to the cast. It's free. We don't ask for any money. We just ask for your time. That's the most important resource in your life.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You can send money to me if you guys want.
neocharge: So yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No.
neocharge: what's your address? Tell everyone your address. No, don't do that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm going to make a PO o box just for this.
neocharge: Right, right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): just What is this for?
neocharge: But yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): This is my my income stream from all the listeners that want to pay me.
neocharge: and
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If you pay me more, i will shut up more. how about that? That's a quick way to get rich.
neocharge: Kind of like the Uber feature. Uber feature like ah the uber feed is shut the fuck up feature.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. ah Yes.
neocharge: You could pay $5 for them not to talk.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yes. Man, I really like listening to these guys, but when Caleb's on, I would pay more to keep him off.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's your advertising. How do you delete this third wheel from your cast?
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so
neocharge: I'll put timestamps to skip Caleb's 25-minute stories.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep. There you go. You don't want that bullshit? Send him $5 and he will allow you to skip it.
neocharge: Speaking of, do you have any crazy stories for our listeners? I think they're dying to know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): the Not really. i mean, there's always something every day, almost always something every day.
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Today, the weirdest story, I had to go to the bank earlier. it's It's not that exciting, but there was this old man who was right behind me in line and he just kept getting like closer and closer.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i don't think he meant anything by it. He was just a very old man.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There wasn't anywhere further forward for me to go. you know, you're waiting and by the counter for the next teller. And he just kept scooting up when nobody else was scooting up. And I kept sort of looking over my shoulder like, what?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What's going on? And then it did. I swear it doesn't get creepy. But right when I thought, OK, I need to just move. His phone went off and it was the loudest fucking ringer in the world.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I jumped and both tellers looked at me and asked me if I was okay. And I was like, the phone, it's allowed. And I, can I be helped? I just like panicked, but that's it.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's, that's the only real super exciting thing today.
neocharge: Nice. Love it. Banks are so monotonous.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): At dinner, ah dinner, there was a dude, a waiter who had a power line shirt. If you guys remember a goofy movie ah from, I think it was like 95, 94, 95, something in the nineties.
Leon Lionheartly: Who the fuck doesn't remember that movie?
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, ask Alex if he remembers that movie.
neocharge: I'm old enough to remember that.
neocharge: Our baby boy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, really, he i maybe he hasn't seen it.
Leon Lionheartly: Do she?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Maybe he has. But Powerline, for those of you that either don't know, was the musical performer in a Goofy movie. But the dude's shirt was straight up 90s.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was awesome. It was great.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I stopped him and he was walking by and he was like, my man. And i he asked me if I knew who Powerline was. And I started citing the words. And he was like, going to put that on later.
neocharge: and
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, Lisa and I are leaving. So. Put it on for everybody else.
neocharge: Very
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But yeah, nothing nothing too crazy. i' I've just been mad at Halo.
neocharge: cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's it We'll get to that later.
neocharge: Yup. It's like a love-hate relationship at this point. Anyway, we're not talking about that yet, but we will get all into it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ugh.
neocharge: We'll get all up into Master Chief. Before that, news or state of the draft? Which one do we want to do?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): News.
neocharge: News.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): News and then State the Draft.
neocharge: Awesome. Because this is the State of the Draft, ah one of the State of the Draft episodes, and we are more than halfway through. But before that, what's in the news, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, man, you threw me off. I was expecting the state of the draft, draft, draft first. ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's why we did it.
neocharge: State of the Draft.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah But no, ah just surprise, motherfucker.
neocharge: Surprise. Surprise, motherfucker.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We'll get to that later too.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, that's just a couple of small items ah for this week or this episode, should I say.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: Ah!
Leon Lionheartly: See, I'm still confused, Matt. Look at that.
neocharge: Right?
Leon Lionheartly: There is we go.
neocharge: I know.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: I know. It's like ingrained in our brains. what What he's referring to.
Leon Lionheartly: of
neocharge: And I, well, if I archive it, I don't know if I can get it. But ah ah I fucked up the intro ah twice. And instead of editing it, we don't edit here. It's unedited.
neocharge: I was like, fuck, because I said weekly podcast. And i was like, ah, let's just redo it. And I've done that twice because it's just ingrained. What's up, everybody? Welcome to Ships Gaming. The weekly conversational podcast.
neocharge: But no longer weekly. Boohoo.
Leon Lionheartly: all If you don't like it, go pay $5 to not have Caleb talk.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
Leon Lionheartly: but
neocharge: yeah so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now, if you don't like it, pay five and then pay another five and maybe they'll go back to weekly because they can afford it.
neocharge: so orney
neocharge: yep yep we're literally we're literally gonna start a shut the fuck up Caleb Patreon
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Does that money go to me? Because that would be sweet.
neocharge: absolutely absolutely yeah right yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, you of course, you get ah you get a cut of it just like Bo gets a cut of his Bo bashing session.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, that's okay. I feel like I'm strangely comfortable with this. If a lot of people want me to shut the fuck up and pay me to shut the fuck up, I guess I'll shut the fuck up.
neocharge: so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: now
Leon Lionheartly: but Guess what, Caleb? Spoiler. That was 21 years in the army for me. ah
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): At least you got the battle scars to show it and show that you're a real man.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Mm-mm.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, maybe. All right. Well, the fun news ah for those that are uneducated, we've got a excuse me, Zach Krieger.
Leon Lionheartly: resident evil movie coming september 18th and on july 23rd a little bit after matt and i were this would have been last week actually um a trailer new trailer dropped for it um everybody here you gentlemen both saw this trailer right and looked at it yeah so caleb being the i have my thoughts but being the movie aficionado that you are how are you feeling about this one man
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes.
neocharge: yep
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I actually think it's going to be very good. I think the hardest part for people is going to be separating themselves from the games enough to ah like this movie. I can't remember when the first trailer came out a while back.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't remember if we talked about it on the cast. I know we did in our little group chat and you know we had plenty of thoughts. And at the time, the biggest concern was the time difference from the original incident from the games versus what it looks like now.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that I understand the qualms. We will get to how much I understand the qualms of something near and dear to us when we get to the Halo stuff later.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But with something like Resident Evil, what I get out of this, the most hypothetical spoiler free, because obviously i haven't seen the movie. It's not out yet. ah I'm okay with this guy and this storyline being just adjacent, just being in the world of and not being like, Hey, here's Jill Valentine. And this is an actress that is like hot right now. And she's forgettable. I don't want that. I don't want them to do that. I want them to do their own thing. And this trailer, this most recent trailer actually has me more sold than the first one did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh,
neocharge: Oh, okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's It's not really my style of movie. i I mean, I'm not a big fan of horror. I'm not a big fan of slasher and thriller stuff like that. ah I feel like I'm going to be uncomfortable watching this, but I love Resident Evil.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I absolutely adore Resident Evil.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so And this this director, is i'm I'm excited to see what they do.
neocharge: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm i'm very okay with all the all the parts. I just hope that the sum... is is is up there or greater. So yeah, i think I think it's got potential.
neocharge: Hmm. That's good way to put it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): As far as like box office, I have no idea. Things like Backrooms and Obsession have been fucking killing it this year. ah So it's, the you know, the horror genre and that is is not, it's not going alienate audiences.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The counter to that is And this is not intentionally shitting on the younger generation, but the younger generation may roll their eyes because it's Resident Evil. They'll like, oh, that's something from the 90s.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't care about that.
neocharge: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's not new.
neocharge: Well, they like that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): they Well, sometimes.
neocharge: The kids like that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sometimes they do.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But if it's an established IP, sometimes they are like, ooh, you need to grow up.
neocharge: Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, okay, boomer, that kind of shit. ah
neocharge: Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I hope that they give it a chance is what I'm saying. I hope, especially if it is good, I want them to give it a chance because...
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I really, really want movies to succeed. I mean, just like games.
neocharge: Always.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I really do. I love the industry. So ah but yeah so what are what are your thoughts about it, Bob?
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: um I think I'm with you on that in terms of the younger generation. um But well I'll get there in a moment.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: First off, I think this looks amazing. When you're going to do Resident Evil as a movie, um do Resident Evil in a name only. um And we basically is really what I say. Do something crazy. Do something creepy. ah Give it the eeriness. Hit it up with for a modern audience. And you're going to nail it.
Leon Lionheartly: um Because if I want to see Leon, and I'll go play RE9 again.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: If I want to see Claire again, I'm going to play Veronica next year and hopefully draft it. But
Leon Lionheartly: So let's go ahead and do that. And Zack Greger, I know some of his work, um but I'm not ultimately really familiar. So this is going to be a fresh take into everything that he's he's done.
Leon Lionheartly: um Because like I didn't see weapons or anything like that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, good.
Leon Lionheartly: like As you guys know, I'm not the biggest movie fan.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Weapons was dope! Sorry. Sorry, this this is very good.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm not the biggest, I believe you, but I'm not the biggest moviegoer in the world. And that's just a ah me issue.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But I think there is a chance.
neocharge: We can change that.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, we could. um I think there is a chance still that this does good. Maybe not necessarily back rooms or obsession.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, probably not.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that Those were like, those were diamonds in the rough that just fucking hit, so who knows.
Leon Lionheartly: okay. um Side question. Did you finally see back rooms?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes, but not Obsession yet.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay. All right. um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was more interested in in Backrooms than Obsession. It's just more my thing. And i think I think one of them's on Peacock now, so I could just watch it at home. But I don't have Peacock, so I don't know.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Oh, you don't have Peacock? Hold on.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I used to. i used to, but not not anymore. i we We bounce around.
neocharge: Tell them your password over the cast. the cast
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We bounce our our our streaming services around because there's only so much time. So why pay for everything if you can't use everything? So we pay for like two at or three at a time and then we drop one and pick up another.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's that's how we go.
Leon Lionheartly: The only reason I have Peacock is because both Xfinity and... So both my internet and my phone service companies are both like, hey, because you are with us, you get a Peacock subscription. So technically, I have two for free.
Leon Lionheartly: um But...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, that's nice.
neocharge: Oh, shit. Really?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: But I digress. The point is, those are psychological thrillers, and they appeal to the younger generation because there's two things that Gen Z and younger do not do that us elder millennials do ah grew up with and are are known for.
Leon Lionheartly: One is our heavy drinking. yeah that's out the That's out the door.
neocharge: Clearly.
Leon Lionheartly: Clearly. ah nobody Nobody takes down the champ, and this guy was a fucking reigning champion. all right ah Secondly, They're not, you they don't like, it has been reported that sex scenes, so sexualization scenes, make the younger generations uncomfortable.
Leon Lionheartly: They don't think there's a way to move a plot point forward, which is fine. You know, that's a discussion for another time because I can ah politely disagree.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Well, it's, it's hard to do. It's hard to do well. Like that a lot of people misstep.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It is necessary in certain circumstances. And that I agree. Cause our niece is around that age and she's not a fan either.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I've tried to explain to her, like, you're allowed to not like something, right? Like I get it.
neocharge: And
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, but here's why this works here and maybe not here. And, and the conversation is kind of what, what keeps that, uh,
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): not creepy uncle telling his niece about it you know like that's probably could be conceived as not okay but you know yeah
Leon Lionheartly: yeah Yeah. And the reason I say that is, and the reason I ask about Obsession is because ah that movie, despite the the very basis and the underlying nature of the DNA um of what that movie is really about, which is that ah the girl's obsession with the guy, I'll let you...
Leon Lionheartly: leave it alone. There isn't that necessarily ah that kind of ah material, if you will. um And when I look at this trailer, because it's a horror film and horror films typically have, who's the first one to die?
Leon Lionheartly: The teenagers having sex. That's the way it goes, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't see that here. I see a very dark thriller horror movie, and that has potential to resonate with not only as millennials that love the Resident Evil name, but with the younger generation who don't know the source material.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For sure. Yeah, i'm I'm very happy that it seems like they're just... not I mean, they're going to have stuff in there for us, right? For the fans that have been around forever playing the games and stuff. But i my only actual concern with the movie from a gaming perspective to film is Capcom has that magic.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): How are you going to bring this to a movie when Capcom is not directly involved in in like the creative? I mean, i trust somebody who is an actual fan
neocharge: They're not.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): of, of games and a film to do it right. But it's, I would say the same thing. If somebody was making metal gear solid, a movie and Kojima wasn't allowed to even talk about it. Like, what do what are you doing?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What are you fucking doing? You do not know what makes that magic happen. Like he does, but film and games are a very different medium, even though they've gotten closer and closer, uh, the older we've, we've become.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So yeah, I, I, I do agree with you. I, I think it, There's so much potential there that that that has me more excited than anything else. So I know, Matt, I know you talk about you when they have video game IPs being adapted in any way, you'd prefer them to be animated.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's fine. that It's easier to do the animation in a lot of game stuff and not just jump the shark.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, but do you feel that way about a movie like this that isn't telling the story of Rebecca Chambers, Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, et cetera?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, are you, are you happier to be further removed if they're going live action or do you still like, do you have your doubts what do you how do you feel?
neocharge: ah no um So I don't have my doubts that it's going to be a good movie on its own because of the director and what we've seen in the trailers, right?
neocharge: I think the success of this movie personally and on an individual level is the expectations you have going in. If you go in expecting a...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: Resident Evil movie like the games and like the previous Resident Evil movies, you're going to be disappointed.
Leon Lionheartly: or
neocharge: If you go in expecting a side story based in the Resident Evil universe, kind of separated from the games, honestly, because it's 2026 it's based said, or 2025. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's current-ish, but I don't know the exact year. I i'd believe that yeah.
neocharge: yeah yeah i I think it's all about expectations. When I first saw this trailer expecting a Resident Evil movie, I liked the first three Resident Evil movies with Milja Jovovich, right? They were good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I thought the first one was the best.
neocharge: I enjoyed them.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I really do.
neocharge: Yeah, absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cause they did different enough.
neocharge: But then they start, woo!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Then they, then they went, they went full dipshit.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It just got strange.
neocharge: Yep. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I like the animated ones. I like death Island a lot. Uh, it was a big fan service movie, uh, not to spoil anything, but it, it serviced, uh, resident evil fans. And it was, uh, very ingrained in the universe with the beloved characters.
neocharge: Uh, I'm going to go watch this movie. I think we're going to go watch it. And I think it'll be a great movie. I'm not going in expecting anything Resident Evil other than some slight nods.
neocharge: And if I do that, I might be pleasantly surprised with maybe an act three, which brings in some characters.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I don't think it's going to happen. I think it's going to be a good movie on its own, ah separated from anything we know Resident Evil. And it's following an NPC. And... going in wanting a Resident Evil movie, you're probably going to be disappointed, but going in looking for a good survival horror movie based loosely in the Resident Evil universe, it's going great.
neocharge: So.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, it's interesting because and because I know we don't this isn't a film podcast, so i will I will stop after this, I promise.
neocharge: Great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But one of the things that is very, very dangerous when you have established IP and you're translating something that already exists elsewhere, whether it be books, games, even music, um if you can't rely on your story without having the other like the known entities that that are fan favorites or fan hated
neocharge: Mm
neocharge: hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): then what are you even doing? And what I mean by that is, it's it's actually a better example with with the Marvel properties.
neocharge: Right. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The MCU, when it was crushing it years ago, was crushing it and a lot of the things were pulled from the comics, right? Not everything, a lot of stuff that they added hit more often than the stuff missed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, Thor, the dark world was not a lot of people didn't like that movie. The things that they established in it though, were necessary later on certain things like civil war that wasn't identical to the comics, but the idea came from the comics and the movie sort of stood on its own two feet.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, same with captain America, the winter soldier. It, it was a good movie first. And then it happened to be a superhero movie with, with Marvel heroes in it. The reason that I'm citing this is what happened in phase four and five, with the exception of Shang-Chi and maybe two of the Disney shows, like WandaVision, they they like got in their own way by just relying on the people that everybody already knew.
neocharge: Right.
neocharge: And it deviated.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, oh, this is another Ant-Man movie. And it's like, if you took Ant-Man by name out of this out of the third movie, this movie would probably have never been made.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like Like why you can't just say it's Ant-Man, so people are going to love it.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You could get away with that a little bit with Iron Man because people loved Iron Man so much as a character, but it still didn't make the movies good.
neocharge: Yeah. True.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like the first Iron Man is still to this day, I think one of the best Marvel movies ever made.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i My personal favorite is Captain...
neocharge: Agreed. And the original Avengers...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's it's like it's my favorite of the movies, but the best, in my opinion, is Winter Soldier because it was it was a great movie first that also had superheroes in it, not the other way around.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: Hmm.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And what Marvel has become since then, pre-Doomsday, for people that may be listening to this late, was just they relied on that old stuff. And when you adapt something from a video game or from a book, it's the same way.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If it's not going to work with the story you wrote without these other characters, then you might as well just rehash the same old shit because it's a waste of time.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And so that's that's my only real concern about this.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And the fact that, as you said, in Resident Evil, he's basically an NPC. I think that's one of the most perfect decisions that could have been made to make this movie successful.
neocharge: I...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I hope that i hope that we're not wrong about that. I really do.
neocharge: So, i am I agree with you partially. I do think you, if you adapt a game series to a TV show or a movie, don't tell the same fucking story the game did, okay? Okay.
neocharge: Just tell your own story, but give us familiar characters. That is where I'm at. that would That's my like perfect rendition of adaptations from video games to film or TV.
neocharge: Don't tell the same story. Tell a different story, but with one of your beloved characters you like. An NPC?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah Well, know but but the difference the difference that I'm saying is you can't rely on them.
neocharge: Eh, I'm going in not expecting...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like if Leon's in the movie and he's done well and he and he serves a purpose that isn't just, hey, look, there's Leon.
neocharge: Right, right. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's That's what I'm talking about.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You can't just throw them in there and be like, they're going to love it because there's this dude that everybody loves.
neocharge: It's hard to do.
neocharge: Yeah, you don't rely on them.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, if Leon shows up, if he shows up or if Jill shows up or somebody we know, Barry, Barry shows up and they're fine.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: They will at the end, probably.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They're not just shoehorned in there.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): great, then all the better because you understood the the assignment.
neocharge: Yeah. oh yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But if you just say, like, if you have a ah fucking camera cutaway to be like, like on the phone, well, let's ask the rookie.
neocharge: I mean, tell a good story. That's priority.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then they look over and Leon is just like, hi, my name is Leon Kennedy. And he like suplexes someone.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's just fucking stupid. But if he shows up for five seconds as like a background character that we know,
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it doesn't take away from the movie because you have fans of the series and then you have newcomers that are like, that guy was cool.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Who's that? Instead of, Oh, I know who that fucking guy is because they don't ever let him stop.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's, that's all I'm saying.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like you take Lord of the Rings, you take a game of Thrones, any of the big IPs, what happened?
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They stayed to the source material most of the time in a game of Thrones and it worked when they didn't. And they just relied on, well, everybody loves this character. let's Let's have them just be in every scene and have nothing to do in the last season.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like that That is just not the way to do it, in my opinion.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I'm no Roger Ebert or anything, but but that's...
neocharge: Right. Priority. Priority always is good writing, good story, good direction, and then bo beloved characters in there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: But the priority is always make a good movie.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And then, yeah, so exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Tell me a story. that's It did starts with, tell me a story.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What if...
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What if this thing?
neocharge: i just hope I just hope we see some familiar faces. In this last trailer, there were a lot of Leo-pointing moments like, ah, Resident Evil, Resident Evil, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And there were a couple in there, little nods, right? So I think it's going to be a great movie, ah but um but I'm not going to go in expecting what we've had prior film adaptation or expecting anything on the level of the games.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
neocharge: So, yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. It's a lot harder to do than people understand. Like it it really is.
neocharge: Sure, yeah, absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cause it's just, well, I mean, you have a medium that's about interaction. as much as it is about the narrative and stuff.
neocharge: no
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, in these kinds of games.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So when you take that away, i mean, you guys remember the doom movie, right? Like with the rock.
neocharge: Yeah, the Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um I'm not, I actually, from a film perspective, it's not good. It's not, but as like a gamer, yeah, I liked the first person shot that they did where, you know, he's going around.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was like, this is cool. You're, you're trying very hard, but the movie didn't really matter. ultimately and i mean not to say it wasn't fun because i yeah i had fun watching it but again that's that's an adaptation from a medium that i love to another medium that i love versus if you took the doom characters out of that and release that movie it would be like what is the fucking point of this movie like it just it doesn't really work on its own so that's the key i thought bob bob looks like he he wants to yell at me though or yeah are you a huge fan of the doom movie oh okay okay
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: No, no, no. God, and I never even watched it because I knew what that was going to be a fucking atrocious nightmare.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): okay
Leon Lionheartly: I know better. um No, I'm thinking because you said the trade we're talking you're talking about transitive media, so going from movie to game, do whatever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah Sorry, my ADHD brain. So this is Resident Evil movie based off of the Resident Evil game franchise, which was originally based, inspired by another video game that most people might have heard of called Sweet Home on the n NES, which was based off of the movie Sweet Home that released in into Japan in the fucking 80s.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: So full circle.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Full circle. Yeah.
neocharge: Ladies and gentlemen, the Retro Gaming Encyclopedia.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's why we have him here, right? The guy knows his shit.
neocharge: Absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know the game, but i the sweethet I've never played it.
neocharge: Yeah, you did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i Have you ever played it?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I never played it, but I've seen plenty of gameplay. I think it's something that if I ever get my chance to play, I'd really be interested in doing. um Because it's a it's a...
neocharge: Hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll sell it to you guys. It's a Resident Evil game, so it takes place in a ah single mansion, like a single facility, if you will, like the first Resident Evil, where you're fighting um the supernatural creatures and stuff like that with an emphasis on ah inventory management.
neocharge: Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: um heavily.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: But here's the twist. It's an RPG. A turn-based RPG.
neocharge: Oh.
Leon Lionheartly: and party and and party members And party members can straight up die and they're dead.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, damn.
neocharge: What?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now I'm there.
neocharge: Interesting. Okay. Very cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's the game that we need remade today. Like, that sounds fucking awesome.
neocharge: Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): now That sounds really good. So i've i never played the original, but I did watch the sequel, Sweet Home Alabama. Yeah.
neocharge: Oh, my God.
Leon Lionheartly: so
neocharge: With hit actress Reese Witherspoon.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And on that note, let's move on from the film.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm not mad now.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Stop it.
Leon Lionheartly: but
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Stop it.
neocharge: ah
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, thanks, gentlemen.
neocharge: My God.
Leon Lionheartly: I needed that one. ah This next one, it's going to be two stories.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Stop it. Stop
Leon Lionheartly: We're going to combine them because they both cover the a same a similar subject. um So I'll bring these both together. But um we were getting ready, Matt, and then ah to play Halo last week.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: We went ahead and we'll get into that later, but we got we got. got um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it.
Leon Lionheartly: but Unfortunately,
neocharge: We got we got got it in many ways.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, in many ways. and Unfortunately, on July 24th, shortly after you and I finished up for the evening, PlayStation Network services ah went down. People were unable to play their digital games um and reach services. They weren't able to hit purchases. It eventually resolved itself, but this was like a almost 12-hour outage.
Leon Lionheartly: Then that Monday on July 27th, the day before early access on Halo ends, the Xbox network has a complete outage and almost, and including disc-based games weren't working, um which we could touch on as well.
neocharge: Uh huh.
Leon Lionheartly: um So this one went for like 18 hours. um And unlike the PlayStation one, which was partially affected by an AWS issue, I say partially, the
neocharge: Mhm. Oh
Leon Lionheartly: The Xbox one appears to be completely internal. So, gentlemen, how are we feeling about that all digital universe coming up here in the future? Yeah.
neocharge: my god.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, i have to ask you, going to answer your question with a question. just Just to clarify, is this the same Sony that's killing discs? Or is this a different Sony network that was down? I need to be sure because I don't want to attack the wrong fucking stupid company whose fucking heads are so far up their own assholes that they can't even get this basic ass thing right.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: This was the PSN itself.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): the
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, and by the way, here's the kicker. The outage happened the same time that the Marvel token open beta kicked off.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cool.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's a great sign for the future that we're going to live in, gentlemen.
neocharge: enough
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Although I do have to say, like in all seriousness, I didn't realize that Xbox, that Microsoft was having disk-based problems, too, with this outage. I didn't know. i only knew that it was both of both of them were out on separate days.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I didn't know the disk was an issue.
Leon Lionheartly: Because their discs are licensed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um ah basically just the license key or key game card like ah the Switch and and for whatever reason it looks like the licensing between the console and the actual um services were broken so it weren't able to to play.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I unfortunately don't know enough about Xbox ah and how you can work around that because on PlayStation you can set your console as a primary and that fixes that fixes the local play issue but it doesn't fix things like, I don't know, the Marvel token beta that was happening.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right. Yeah, it's it's interesting because I know like back in the day, in the like the PlayStation 1, for those of you that remember mod chips, I was that guy that like I modded my own PS1, not because I was a criminal.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was more out of curiosity. Like, how does this work? I want to know. And so what the how the mod chip worked though, at least in the first and second gen PlayStation, the OG PlayStations, All it did, if you modded the motherboard with this mod chip, it skipped the that license check for an authenticated disk.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So if you had a burnt copy of a game and you put it in your system, it was still the game. And the mod chip just let the boot up process skip that license check just to make sure it was authentic.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, is I mean, as far as like a tech thing, it was brilliant because it was all local. So it's like, if you get around that, that's fantastic. You obviously can't do that on this with internet stuff when everything is being checked online.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): However, with the PlayStation 5, the fact that we can choose a primary and have a secondary system and and have the local stuff, that I do think that that's necessary to move to the digital, all digital future. And it's even more... ah clear based on these last two outages. Like, how can you excuse that today?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just don't understand how you can excuse that when you, when you bought these games and you paid for them. That, that is, i mean, we talked about that before for a long time, but the fact that this happened back to back with both Sony and Microsoft is, I just, I think Nintendo was sitting there and just like Mr.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Burns rubbing his hands together. We're just like, excellent. This is excellent for us. Everybody jumped to the switch.
Leon Lionheartly: I will say this, Caleb. that's That's the difference between you I. Two different engineering minds. You soldered a chip onto your PlayStation board so you could bypass that check.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I did.
Leon Lionheartly: I was the guy that learned that you could just put a toothpick in the CD tray and it held the tray down because the check only happened on boot up when the tray was closed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's right.
Leon Lionheartly: So if you put a toothpick, you put in a legitimate game, it checks, says you're good. You then rip the disc dis out, put in your burned one, and then it launches. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. i
neocharge: What the fuck?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, no, it's it's true. it's It's absolutely true. But yeah, I definitely went a little bit more insane with it but it but it works right it's we both got to do our shit so it's fine i do not condone like the theft and the piracy from back when you could actually own stuff however now fucking go nuts everybody if buying isn't owning then piracy isn't theft i will stand by that i don't care i don't if this is the future we have fuck them sorry if i ruined your podcast but i'm not into it either but if they're gonna go this way
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, i did.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh.
neocharge: Dang.
neocharge: Right.
neocharge: I'm not into it.
neocharge: Ruined? You enhanced it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know.
neocharge: I'm not into it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: I'm playing a pirate game now. I'm in a pirate mood, man.
neocharge: Not a pirated game, okay?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's true.
neocharge: A pirate game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You're right. Yeah.
neocharge: Assassin's Creed 4. I'll talk about it. ah Yeah. i I just think it's ironic that they announced this all-digital future that relies
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: on the fucking network for the license key check-in, which, i like I said on the last cast, we went into a tangent. I think this digital future can work.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I'm not for it personally. i don't want it to happen. But if they can get like the licensing and the ownership nailed down and maybe like an offline play some somehow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: But this is... This is just ironic that they an announced the all-digital future that relies on a network at this point. And then both the networks went down.
neocharge: I mean, PSN was down for what? Eight fucking hours? Like, if the p if if it was eight to 12?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i think you said 12. It's a while.
neocharge: Yeah. If PSN is down and you own a digital game, it can't check in and you can't play that fucking digital game. it During one of the PSN outages, I had Assassin's Creed Valhalla, digital and physical.
neocharge: I was playing the game and... it the It went down, tried to boot up my digital, didn't work. I dusted off my physical copy, put in the disc, it read the update file, boom, I was in. I was playing offline.
neocharge: Without that option, and I think there should be the option, then we're kind of fucked. And it's a dark future for video games, a digital-only future.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Just give us the option. Give us the fucking option. I'm not going to go on a tangent on this again.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): right
Leon Lionheartly: No, you're right. We're in for the dark future um a for that.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um is I'm with you, Matt. we did We discussed that ad nauseum, right? um But the the key thing here to remember is this yeah people we had both sides, the physical people and then the digital-only folks.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And they're daddy yeah going back and forth and everybody's pointing the finger. But not stopping to realize, whether you're digital or physical or whatever in between, the PSN going down, even if your PlayStation is your primary console, it allows you to play your games locally if you're going to play ah Adventures of Elliot or AC Black Flag.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: But PlayStation depends.
neocharge: Exactly. man
Leon Lionheartly: Most of its revenue, over half of its revenue... ja occur every year is from key titles that are online only. NBA 2K, Call of Duty, Roblox, and um ah fucking what's the other one Fortnite.
Leon Lionheartly: Those are um online.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i was going say, don't make me say it, Bob.
Leon Lionheartly: Sorry.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Don't make me say Fortnite.
Leon Lionheartly: As he says it three times. ah But those are those are things.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. No, I can't say it three times because it'll appear in front of me.
Leon Lionheartly: But
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not doing
Leon Lionheartly: yeah, those are those are critical. And then being as a guy who's worked in and around data centers, um I'm not going to get into that conversation about whether we should have or not. I'm just going... Folks, how the fuck do you screw it up this bad?
Leon Lionheartly: If you have hardware or software failures, you have backups. You have that stuff on standby.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It comes in in a fast beat. If you had somebody push a code that that then fucks things up and screws DNS and brings down the services, that person, that's a resume generating event.
Leon Lionheartly: You do things.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You test it. You then put it into development. Then you test it again in development before you put it into production. What the fuck are we doing, folks?
neocharge: Yeah. I don't know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Well, the the other aspect of this is because you know you've got people that would say, oh, the system's down.
neocharge: I don't think they know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just go outside and touch grass. And like, that's fair. Whatever. We're always going to have those conversations. But that's not the point. The point is there's literally nothing you can do about Like if your car breaks down right now and you it's going to be inconvenient, you're going to be late to work, you can't go to the store, you can't do what you need.
neocharge: No.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You can call somebody and have them fix it. If you can't fix it yourself, you can call AAA. There are other alternatives for you. if I realize that it's not the same thing for most of you, but if your PlayStation dies because of this, if it's fine, but the outage happens and you had one day off and that was the day that you were going to do your thing, you paid for it, you you want to spend your time how you want to spend your time.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just a ah simple matter of inconvenience. It's only there for them to get richer and for you to be inconvenienced. so that their lives are better, they're them being the corporate overlords.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's where where my the crux of my problem is, is that.
neocharge: It's
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because who cares if I want to sit in my underwear and do nothing for 10 hours or play a game or play tennis or go to the store? That's my prerogative as a person.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When you take away my my free will,
neocharge: your choice.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): for something that I bought and paid for. and And it's just, you're just fucked. And that's, that's the thing that sucks. Yes, I would be fine. Yes, I would go outside. Yes, I would go for a walk, hang out with my wife, whatever. But that's, that's not why it's a problem.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The problem is it shouldn't exist. It shouldn't be that way in the first place.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's imagine if somebody told you, you're only allowed to eat these five food items for the rest of your life. Like it's, it's similar to that. It was like, Oh, I guess I have to, because that's, that's all there is. Instead of being like, I don't like onions.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I would rather have broccoli. like You have that choice right now.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Words nobody said ever.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And we are not going to right now, but yeah, well, I actually like broccoli more than onions because heartburn and I'm old, but, but no, it it really is.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: oh
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's, that's the thing that sucks. It's really just the, the fact that it's taking away something and we're not getting anything from it. Like there's no gain to this.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, from From them.
neocharge: It's taking away freedom of choice. And that's not good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. if you if And if you're only going to speak money, all I'm saying is if I was the CEO of Arc System Works, I'd be calling fucking Herman Holst and Hiroki Tetoki Literature Club and going, you just fucked us.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): me
Leon Lionheartly: How are you going to fix this?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: I'd be having those conversation conversations.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Actually... If I were them, I'd call Disney for Marvel and be like, hey, can you guys fix this and go yell at them? Because you're bigger. Disney would probably be like, the fuck?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's just how I would approach it.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I'm a piece of shit.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: the
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's I fight dirty if I ever fight anybody.
neocharge: oh
Leon Lionheartly: I don't know.
neocharge: I mean, they could they could spend this and make more money.
Leon Lionheartly: like
neocharge: They could give us physical editions with maybe a booklet, charge us $20 extra, and we would fucking buy it. I would buy a physical ah version of a game for an extra $10, $20 with a straight-up manual, like booklet, straight from PlayStation Direct. Fuck yeah, I'd be all about that.
neocharge: I don't buy a lot. i Well, compared to casual gamers, I buy a lot of games, but I... like I'm picky about my games, and i you know usually pick about two titles a month.
neocharge: And if they gave me the option to have like a premium edition, I would rather have that. I don't want that. right I would rather have that than to eliminate the option entirely.
neocharge: right I know you'd do it, Caleb.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure. Yeah, I would. i just, it I know that that's not the future we're going to get as much as I would love that to be the case.
neocharge: I know. I
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it's just, if you're going to do this, you have to do it right. And the past outages, it did the timing...
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The timing could have been better for us. Like if they announced this yeah early July and then two days later it went down, it would have just been like, oh, this was, it was just long enough for some people to forget because they'd shown the new Wolverine trailer, the gameplay stuff. And they showed the two other games that were like, oh, okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then this happened and people were like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. That was, that was bad timing on their part, but I'm glad it happened. I'm glad it happened again because they need to be held accountable.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They won't be.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): People will still do it and and be fine with it, but we can, we can try our best.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So anyway, was there any other news on that front, ah Bob or, or.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Not on that front, but we got one small item left for folks out there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Mostly, this is a selfish point because I'm fucking excited, even though I'm not excited about the release date, um is yesterday um we got the reveal trailer and date for Neo 3's first DLC, um The Hell Rising.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: This is coming August 8th, 19th, I'm sorry, 2020. This is including some additional weapons, some new bosses, new arenas, the whole the whole gambit. um If you have the season pass, um it is already going to be included. um But yes, expect to see this August 19th.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm excited. um i know Matt is... ah did you You played Nioh 3, right, Caleb, or no?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I didn't. I actually just watched you guys ah because it came out and I just did not have time. I mean, it's it's it looked great, ran great. you guys have I liked vet Matt's videos of him running in and just dying immediately and that you and Bo saving us.
neocharge: ah
Leon Lionheartly: but
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it it was a good time. It's ah it's a great great experience. And i when I saw this trailer, I was like, fuck, I really should get it. But it's a wonderful time to release. Jesus. ah
Leon Lionheartly: It's a really wonderful game. So maybe next year you can get to it. um I know you you yeah you were doing this, right?
neocharge: Very... Very fun co-op, Caleb. Very fun. But it is a time commitment.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I bet.
neocharge: Absolutely, we're fucking doing this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Looks great.
neocharge: We're probably going to wait for the DLC to stack up a little bit, and maybe the last DLC will release in not a clusterfuck of other games and releases.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Heh. Heh.
neocharge: ah But yeah, Nioh is such a good time with friends, for sure. And we had a blast. So I'm very excited for this DLC. Looks like it's going to be releasing or or in introducing a lot of cool new mechanics.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well...
neocharge: So I'm excited. What's up, Caleb?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Didn't... Didn't Nioh 2 have three DLCs?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I feel like Neo 3 will probably also have at least three DLCs. um And I'm seriously not trying to put a put a negative spin on this, but in all sincerity, the third DLC will probably come out right around the time we're going to lose physical discs.
neocharge: Probably.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And depending on how the world looks at that point for us gamers, maybe then you guys can play it because you'll be like, fuck it.
neocharge: m Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not playing anything new because I won't own it. I mean, that's a real concern. So because it's that's only a year and change away.
neocharge: It is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I could see them releasing DLC number two next spring and the DLC number three the following following fall or winter. i mean, really, that that's probably what it's going to be.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it does look really good.
neocharge: Yeah, that would match up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It does. I think ah you guys are going have a great time whenever you get to it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, absolutely.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm sorry. I'm looking at this, ah the how long to beat on Neo3, because i was just, I thought about it because we completed in like a week, Matt, and it's a 60-hour completion.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: so So we put in some extra time, and there the polls on how long to beat, the fastest time on PC was 20 hours.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: The slowest, 138 hours and 54 minutes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, wow.
neocharge: Holy crap.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Jesus.
Leon Lionheartly: but
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Jesus.
neocharge: What's the average how long to beat for Neo3?
Leon Lionheartly: good
neocharge: To completion, platinum.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: 60?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, no, no, no. Yep, yep, yep. Right around the 60 mark.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is that what you guys what your playtime was for Nioh 3?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah.
neocharge: Around like...
Leon Lionheartly: Right around 60.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: So, man, not terrible.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cool.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, that' that's...
neocharge: It's not like you're John Desert. Okay? Just saying.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): different Yeah, you mean the game I'm probably going to go to now again until ah till Beast comes out?
neocharge: Okay?
neocharge: A hundred... How... Right. How many hours are you in Like, a hundred hours and you got, like, 8% trophies?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i think it's 100 hours. But it is it is very, very deceptive because I think I said this before. I haven't looked up a a list of trophies, but I do know of the ones that I popped, it's been like I've done all the things the game wanted me to do with a weapon or I've done all the things that the game wanted me to do in a sub a category of something like mini games or horseback ride, whatever the fuck it is.
neocharge: Good. Good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I've worked on a lot of other things too. So I feel like the second, I mean, I'm not even halfway through the story. I'm not, I know that I know how many chapters are in it and I'm just like, Oh my God.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The only reason I stopped wasn't, wasn't because I wasn't enjoying it.
neocharge: Jesus.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They just kept coming up with, with new patches and new content and new things. And I'm like, I'm going wait and just let them like finish some things, but they just keep giving us new shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But yeah, i think I think if I sat down and just tried to finish the story, I don't think I would have that much longer left.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Maybe 15 to 20 hours based on what I know about this game. But to platinum it, fuck, I don't know. 300? have no idea.
neocharge: Probably.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I have no idea. But I also got Endless Ragnarok and that was, I just really wanted to play it And that was probably another hundred or so hours I put into it.
neocharge: For DLC? Holy
neocharge: shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was like those a great DLC.
neocharge: Yeah. Wow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: holy shit
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i mean, it's a straight up expansion. It was so fucking good.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was really, really fun.
neocharge: while
Leon Lionheartly: Holy shit. That's that's nuts.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was nuts. it it's It was D's nuts. This is crazy. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: Got him.
Leon Lionheartly: Got it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Leon Lionheartly: i Never mind. I'm looking up this crimson desert. Oh my God.
neocharge: Don't tell him. Let him be surprised.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Go ahead. I don't I don't really care. It's.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Completionist is 258 hours.
neocharge: Okay. fat
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I better get going then.
neocharge: That's Wow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Good lord.
Leon Lionheartly: ah I'll be doing the same thing here shortly. So I get it. I'm with you, bud.
neocharge: Yeah, you should stream it.
Leon Lionheartly: no
neocharge: You should stream it. Just silently stream it. I'll tune in and watch. I won't comment, but I want to check it out.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): john desert the the worst part is going to be because it's been a few months since i've gotten to play they've patched it like like 20 times i'm gonna go in there and i'm just gonna die immediately and be like i don't remember what i i don't remember how to play remember what i'm doing because i have a stupid memory for that stuff but but remembering how to play i'm just be like that doesn't make sense
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: yeah That's always a challenge.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: well
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): up
neocharge: Well, that's going to be us with Neo and us, you and I, Caleb and Bo with ah Monster Hunter. Because, I mean, it's not a pick up and play. Neo is not a pick up and play.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's true.
neocharge: And so that's...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And Monster Hunter Ascendance is going to be hard. So we're going to go and we're all going to die immediately.
Leon Lionheartly: I...
neocharge: Uh-huh. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bob, that reminds me, you dual blade motherfucker, you need to play Monster Hunter with us.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I forgot that you had played it a little bit and then you just you just pissed off and played like vampire survivors or some shit and you never came back.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you need We need to do the rest of Monster Hunter with you and play the the expansion when it comes out next year.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For real, like it's it's a lot of fun and we're all different.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, Bo is a dual blade, right?
neocharge: Bose dual blaze.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): bill they made So you guys can be up you know hitting the monster in its fucking face.
neocharge: Yeah. oh
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'll be flying around like an asshole and and you know having butterflies rip through its innards while Matt's just in the back ah cowering like a bitch.
neocharge: Spine dancing.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, his's he's his Bo usage is is quite quite good and fun to watch.
neocharge: Hey, I'm on the perimeter. Fucking shit up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So you need to join us.
Leon Lionheartly: As soon as Matt gets around to fucking finally playing Doom the Dark Ages Revelation.
neocharge: Thanks, buddy. Thanks, buddy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): m
neocharge: I will. I'll play that this year. I own it. I bought it. It's on sale for $10. If you don't have Doom ah The Dark Ages Revelations DLC, there's a sale on $10. Crazy. Two weeks out, it's already 50% off. that's You don't see that. so ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): RIP old well I mean sort of
neocharge: But Bob, yes. Caleb is right. You need to join us. ah You can change your weapon if you want. If you don't like that play style, you can change it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: And there's 16, 15 other weapons that you can try out. But we would love to have you. And we ah we put, what, 125 hours into Wild's base? And then you put another, like, 50.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i I probably put another 80. I did all the stuff, all the new festivals, and I did the Final Fantasy crossover with Omega Weapon, which was fucking rad.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Of course you did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um It was hard, though. and And then after that, I was like, I need to stop.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I need to play other things. good because I mean, I had it in between.
neocharge: e
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I would do that for like a day or two, play another game, and then I'd come back to Monster Hunter because it's it's great.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it It really is.
neocharge: But yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You should try the the Gunblade, Bob. I think it's not like Squall Leonhardt's gun blade, but it's got a shield and a and a, yeah I know.
neocharge: Ooh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Fuck. You got me hard for a minute.
neocharge: but
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it's, it's basically a big ass blade that you can also shoot.
neocharge: It was bricked.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it and it's a shield user, ah you know sword and shield type thing, but you can do these clash things with monsters.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I mean, that's the most Gladio shit ever. You got to fucking do it. You got to do it. You got to try it. Just see if you like it.
neocharge: sure True. Or the long gun, even. He could just be ranged.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You could, because I'm, you
neocharge: Like, yeah. But the gunblade's peak.
Leon Lionheartly: All right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's my That's my second weapon.
Leon Lionheartly: Well, if I can find some time, it'll it'll be there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): my i' i'm a yeah Yeah, that's true.
neocharge: Nice.
Leon Lionheartly: um I have made the commitment to where I'm not...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's true.
Leon Lionheartly: like There's a couple of but ah no shit I'm getting them this year and touching them. Ooh, kind of games like Revelations.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Oh.
Leon Lionheartly: I mean, Resonance, 100%.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Everything can fuck off. I don't care. ah that That's one of them, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So there there'll probably be time because Bob is just sailing the seas, if you will.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Can
Leon Lionheartly: um Not Black Flag, but I'm just kind of sailing the seas and enjoying the...
neocharge: hear the black flag?
Leon Lionheartly: and just roaming and enjoying and going, oh, that looks like a fun game to play and just getting lost.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: Hey, Bob.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Dude, that's the that's the way to go.
neocharge: yo
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It really is.
neocharge: you You'll make time for your friends. ah
neocharge: The real treasure is the friends we made along the way.
Leon Lionheartly: It's a Prince, you son of a bitch.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): let's hold Let's hold Halo Remix hostage until he agrees to play Monster Hunter.
neocharge: Okay. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you think I won't be remixed by myself, fucker?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, you'll do it by yourself.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's actually quite easy.
neocharge: Oh, yeah, it's easy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's super easy.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, oh, wait.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: It's easy?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, okay. Yeah. I remember Mr.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Sweating it out over there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Not for the remix.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I'm looking at...
neocharge: Easier.
Leon Lionheartly: No, Matt was.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, man. Yeah, no. Remix is fucking cake. it I did it with no mods half the time. Like, it it's really not a big deal at all.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So it was nice.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: No worries.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But yes, that's all there is for the news. I'm going to hand it off to Caleb for State of the Draft as I go take care of something for the family real quick.
neocharge: Cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Boom!
Leon Lionheartly: Take it away, buddy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): State of the draft! Aft, aft, aft.
neocharge: Draft, draft, draft, draft, draft.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): All right.
neocharge: draft
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So this is going to be a hoot and a holler. Uh, the update for fantasy critic, the draft, the way it works, the quick overview.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We drafted some games the beginning of the year. We've been bidding on other games throughout the rest of the year.
neocharge: Sure did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And,
neocharge: Sure have.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Most of us have pretty much settled on our draft list as far as games. Some of us because we can't afford to buy, do you know, to bid other games with the fake money.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But other reasons, it's just like, why would we change it when we're pretty happy with the way things are going with our drafts?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that includes people that got totally screwed for bad reasons and totally screwed in the other way for good reasons, which we will get to in a moment.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um
neocharge: A good screw. A good screw-in.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But... A good screw-in for you guys, maybe. Fucking Halo. Anyway, totally deserved, by the way.
neocharge: ah Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): would We'll get there. But ah that's how it works. Points are added based on the reviews from OpenCritic. if reviewers do their jobs and review them. And then once the points are totaled by the end of the year, person with the most points wins. So we had a total of 15 games per person this year, and we're over halfway through the year.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So this is just your normal draft update. So we're going to start at the very bottom of our draft list, not by caliber, but just by the way it's listed on this, the way that we picked games, which with ah this would be with Mason and his staff.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): His league name, This is an Xbox and Why It Sucks, which, boy, was that appropriate at the beginning of the year.
neocharge: Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Big fan. He actually did not have anything else released this month. So no real updates for him.
neocharge: Wop,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah And his the counter pick that he has has not been released yet either.
neocharge: wapwap
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I'll do point totals at the end. So nothing new for Mason. ah Next, we're going to go to Bob Leon Lionheart with his new league name, Diskless Herman Holst, which is like 10 out of 10.
Leon Lionheartly: You
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I love it. um He had, i want to say, you have two releases. It was Doom the Dark Ages Revelations DLC, which fucking destroyed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it
neocharge: Sure did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): got, oh, it it actually dropped to an 89. I mean, it's still awesome. It's still awesome as a DLC.
neocharge: Yeah, it's still good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's That's fantastic. It was at it was at a 90 for a while. So he ended up getting 19 points ah for that. Excellent, excellent, excellent. ah yeah Interestingly enough, He had that, he dropped it, and then he picked it back up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So he believed in it.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We just didn't know if it was coming out. He finally got, you know, he needed to make another space for it, and he did, and that was a very, very wise decision. Another one that he had dropped just, what, last week, week before?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it was the first week of Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, first week. It was July. That's red July 9th. Which, as his competitor, obviously it's like, Yay. You know, like, yeah, you don't want him to score as many points, but it, it really sucks. He was, I think I'm more excited that it didn't do well because he was being a cheeky little fuck with his, with his game pickups. And he was hoping to like pull the rug out under some people and he kind of played himself, but it wasn't a bad pickup. It really was. The reviewers were not kind to this game and I didn't play it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I played, I'll just tell you it's, um excuse me, it's EA sports college football, 27, This is one of those now yearly releases. They started again in 25, I believe. and it It had been out, like gone for what, 15 years? It hadn't existed for quite a while.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah So they brought it back.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Something like that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um And the first one in in recent history in 25 was very good. ah Last year's was also very good. Now the problem with this is, for those of you that game, you know this, sometimes when you just iterate on the same basic game premise, it starts to lose its luster.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It turns out I think that it was mostly the the fucking pay mechanics more than anything else. Like the gameplay, the core gameplay is good. It's just the pay mechanics were too in your face this time. ea got too greedy with it. ah Bob, your thoughts, because let me just say the score real quick.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah It came out and it was lower than this. When it came out, it was at like a 74. It has creeped up. It is now at a 78.
neocharge: Oh, that's good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So he's gotten eight points for it. Like he's, it's creeping towards that 80, which is a little bit of a magic number for a solid release when you're, especially when you're bidding, you know, your initial draft
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The first couple are usually really good, and then the next are like, who knows? But when you bid on things, those are really what kind of make or break the draft, in my opinion. And and Bob has been killing it with his bids until this EA Sports.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that 78, how do you feel, Bob, as a person who who picked it up?
Leon Lionheartly: I'm a little disappointed. i'm glad ah so i will say i'm I'm glad to see that it went back up. and I'll get back to why I think that is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um Secondly, I'm a little disappointed because this is the lowest in the series scoring in the series, um which is unfortunate because it's ah it's an annual thing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um The fans that love this series love this series and they don't fucking care about anything else, really. um so That's what I was really banking on.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Leon Lionheartly: um The score came back up because... EA did reverse. They didn't necessarily say the reversing course, but they realized that they admitted they made a a faux pas, a fumble, if you will, pardon the a ball football plan, ah with the monetization.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Nice. I'll allow it. ah ah
Leon Lionheartly: Because the monetization...
neocharge: I won't.
Leon Lionheartly: Doesn't matter. Don't care. ah ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Get good. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Good, good, son.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
Leon Lionheartly: No, the ah the monetization is only to the road to glory. So the way this works is, for those that don't know, it is you just doing ah coaching, if you will.
Leon Lionheartly: And then as you play the game, there's a RPG mechanic and you earn experience and that makes the person better and goes on and on.
neocharge: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: you could set the progression level to slow or really high so that way there were some accessibility options. The problem is EA put a paywall behind the really fast progression pacing and that kind of soured the reviewers' experience.
Leon Lionheartly: But if you go and talk to people who play this game, It doesn't matter because this is the only thing they play.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: When you pay EA 70 bucks for EA Sports College Football, and then you pay them another, I don't know how much the thing was, I think $100. I don't remember. It doesn't matter.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's a lot, but I don't know. I think it's, I think a hundred bucks sounds right, but I'm not sure.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. You combine those together, that's less than what you and I spend in like three months on the PlayStation Network. um So you ultimately, that's what I was banking on. It kind of blew up on my face. But hey, at least it's kind of climbing.
Leon Lionheartly: We'll see how things go from there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right. And I mean, it it didn't do, it didn't get a sub, a sub 70, you know, it didn't lose you points.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just like in your shape, in your case, you're are still in really, really good shape. You have some excellent games and excellent point values on here.
neocharge: Yeah, you are.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's, it's really just an unfortunate because well, we're going to get to that with me and I'm, we will get into it in much greater detail with, with how I got fucked this month.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Not by anything anybody did, but just by an unexpected whatever. And that's fine. I personally think I came out ahead of where I should be based on my feelings of the game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So we'll talk to that later.
neocharge: Yeah, you did. Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it it is, at least it's positive points. That's way you got to look at it. Every point matters. You're still probably going to break that 200 mark, even if only by like a point. It's going to be close.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But Tokan is going to come out and it's going slap, dude.
Leon Lionheartly: but
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Tokan is going to be so fucking good.
Leon Lionheartly: it's
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You have nothing to worry about there.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Yeah, I'm looking at it, and projected points right now for me is 200.9 points. um Marvel Token is projected for 16, which I don't think that's the case.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, there you go.
neocharge: Dang.
Leon Lionheartly: And Xenoblade 2 is projected for 4, which releases tomorrow.
neocharge: Whoa.
Leon Lionheartly: and that' plenty of barcode There's no way in hell that game's getting 74. I'm...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: No.
Leon Lionheartly: so i'm
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No.
neocharge: You're going to crack 200, dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Xenoblade Chronicles 2, I mean, the original, I felt was underscored when it first came out. Because it it was very good. But I think it got, what, like a low 80s?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Something that?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it got like an 83 or 82.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like an 82? Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And this one, I've looked at the previews. Spoiler alert. They cleaned everything up and all of the problems people had ah with the original game up appear to be solved.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So this is probably going to hit 85, 87.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's yeah. And I think that the original release deserved an 86 to an 87.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I, those honestly was my, I, I did not like two as much as I liked one. But I didn't dislike it. I just like one to me was so good and so new and fresh and it was great. But two was a great time too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was just clunkier and messier because it was running on potato hardware. ah and But it was it was still fun and really well made.
Leon Lionheartly: I had
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So yeah, if they fix this ah with Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Bob's Bullshit, the subtitle, ah you're you're going to be fine. It's not going to get a fucking 74. You're going to be fine.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. but that, yeah, those were the only things that you had, uh, this month. And technically, like you said, Xenoblade Chronicles two drops tomorrow. There are no reviews for it yet that I have seen, at least not an open critic.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah So we'll just talk about that next time. it I think at the very least, there's no way that thing gets below an 80 unless it's just broken. And I don't see it releasing in a state like that. Unlike some of these other games that are, we're going to talk about in a minute.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, Now, last time on the draft, we touched on Rhythm Heaven Groove, which Matt, Neo Charge, and his league name, Final Nova. he Rhythm Heaven Groove technically wasn't out yet.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And do you remember what it was sitting at when we talked about the last cast?
neocharge: ah I think like an 85 or something like that
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was going to say, I know it was low 80s, but it it settled at an 83.
neocharge: that. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, i I personally, I thought it was in... ah Yeah, 85 or 86. I do not remember exactly. So it dropped a little bit, but 83 is great.
neocharge: do I.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's a great score for that kind of game.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It really is.
neocharge: Yep. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Unfortunately, it's only a small update. It didn't happen. It happened over the course of this month, but Star Fox dropped to an 82 from an 83, which is a surprise.
neocharge: Still happy about that. I mean, i was I was expecting a little more from that one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Anything double digits, I can't be mad about.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right. It's just, I feel like the game deserves more than that personally, especially a game that we're going to talk about on mine in a minute.
neocharge: um i agree. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like when you compare that, it's like, really? But the other game, the big boy that you were really, really excited for this month and turns out to be pretty fucking good.
neocharge: Right.
neocharge: Hell yeah. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Assassin's Creed Black Flag re-synced. It has settled. It came out at what? An 87? It was pretty good, right?
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then it dropped to an 84.
neocharge: 88, I think. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's still great. like It's still a great game.
neocharge: So great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm a little surprised that it dropped as much as it did, though, because I've heard nothing online that other than good things from people.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: Me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): People love this.
neocharge: It's fantastic.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They say it's a really, really fun. I'm talking like not reviewers, like just the players. And we've talked about it many a times this year that a lot of lot of reviewers' heads are up their asses.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But this sort of seemed to be beloved by all.
neocharge: Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So these later reviews that came in and dropped the score is a little bit of surprise to me. My question to you, Matt, as a person who A, has been playing it, B, had been following it more not only as a fan but as a draft person,
neocharge: Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do you know, have you seen the reviews that have dropped the score? if they said, why? Have there been performance issues for them? Have they just been like, I hate pirates. I hate fun. I hate joy. Like what have they said?
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Do you know? do you have any idea?
neocharge: No idea. No idea. I'm not i'm not reading them I love the game. It's a beloved game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Cause fuck them. Right. Yeah.
neocharge: Fuck them. Yeah, i I'm having a blast with it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: it's It stays pretty true to the original. ah It invokes that nostalgia. It reminds me of why I love the game in the first place. And it's gorgeous ay at that.
neocharge: So I really, I'm having a blast. I'm going to platinum it probably sometime in the next three days. And I don't really give a fuck what everyone else is saying.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, and I mean, welcome to the club. I i stopped caring a while ago. These assholes. And it doesn't even have anything to do with the draft. It really doesn't. It's just, this game is so good.
neocharge: I know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And ah but what do what more do you want? What do what do you want it to be that that would bump it up even more, you know?
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): are you want to say something, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: I was going to say, you know what it is?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: It is the way the review process is done. And we'll get into it with your game that released to this month, because I have some thoughts of why it's settled where it's settled.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): the fuck my gay
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: um Which is most people just do surface level.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Good to know.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: They do whatever it takes to get that shit out the door. And that's what it was without really engaging, without really engaging with it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's very clear.
Leon Lionheartly: um And black and then in their defense, black flag, how many hours do you have in it?
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: I think I'm sitting at like 67 at this point.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, that's not bad.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Why would you say it?
neocharge: God damn it it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Why would you say it?
neocharge: It is. That's what i I'm going to look. I'm going to look right now.
Leon Lionheartly: eight well the but the the That was beautiful.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Go...
neocharge: i'm pretty sure I'm sitting at 67. it. damn it
Leon Lionheartly: The point is, sixty said all right that that could be done in a week.
neocharge: Okay, nevermind. 63. Okay. okay
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Nah, you said 67 and I will not hear anything else.
Leon Lionheartly: and
neocharge: Fuck.
Leon Lionheartly: right but sixty three hours is doable i shit i did that in a week with matt playing neo three get fucked
neocharge: Ugh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, especially in the thing, the thing is it's clobbering time.
neocharge: Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The thing about this is it is literally your job to review things for the masses. I know that it's a hard job. I'm not, I'm not saying that they have an easy job because when you're given for all the great games that come out, they have to review a lot of shit that, that, that we've never heard of because they just never make it that far.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I get it.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's not an easy thing. Part of the reason I would love to be reviewer. The only thing I would hate about it is that I would not necessarily be allowed to play what I want. You know, like if I was working for a some outlet somewhere who was saying, you know, you want to play beast of reincarnation, but instead you get to play Chad masturbates in the funeral at a first steam. Like I'm not going to fucking do that. So that, that is a hard, difficult thing to do.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um But when you do get to play the good stuff, And the bad stuff. Your job is, that's what your job is. You have to do that. And so i I am right in the middle when I get angry. Well, I'm not in the middle. I'm actually angrier with reviewers now because I do think they're lazier than they used to be.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like back in the days of of Colin and Greg, those two fucking had, even if you disagreed with them, their review process was excellent. they they they were gamers first and reviewers second you could tell because they were fans even of the bad stuff they would say look at all the work that went into this game not for me but this game is scored x y and z and that that to me is is just missing now uh save two people that reviewed my game that we're talking about minute those people are the only two that actually fucking did their jobs damn it um
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Right.
neocharge: Right.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But as far as as far as that for Matt's draft, 84 from Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resync is still very good.
neocharge: Solid.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 14 points. Solid game. Highly recommended if you guys are interested at all. ah
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Black Flag is it's my second favorite Assassin's Creed, and it's Matt's first. So pretty damn good, um if we if we say so ourselves, right?
neocharge: Hell yeah. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Moving on, we've got me.
neocharge: Absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I had... two Two changes to my draft, not like drops and and pickups or anything, but two scores that applied. We will start with the good one first that is going to make Bob hate me and everybody else hate me. But the it had to be manually scored because, as we talked about before, some of these DLCs, some of these games are just not being reviewed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And we had all agreed the beginning of the year when there was the whole kerfuffle with the early access and all that shit. If there were reviews done by people on OpenCritic, we would have to manually score it just to in the interest of fairness. And this affected everybody.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's It's annoying and probably not going to happen next year, which is totally fine. i I condone that, even though it would affect me now. But I get it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i i just The rules are fair. And as long as we establish it up front, that's fine. So with with this, I had bid on Deltarune Chapter 5.
neocharge: Right. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I won Deltarune Chapter 5. Bob and Bo had bid on it as well. And...
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There have were only eight total open critic reviews that came out and four of them were unscored. Now that doesn't mean it's bad. It just means that they didn't feel like slapping a fucking number on there, which makes no goddamn sense.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When every other DLC got scores, that's the problem.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I actually, that's the the only problem that I really have is like, you went through the work and you just, did do you didn't, you did didn't do the very last thing you need to do. I'm confused. That's, that's literally what your job is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But,
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I also got very lucky because the game scored incredibly well from those, those, uh, the four reviews that actually got scores. It averaged above a 93. So I ended up getting 27 points from Delta rune chapter five for now.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I will, we will revisit that at the end of the year and see if any other reviews on open critic exist. Uh, I doubt it because ghost of Yote came out in March and there are no other reviews for that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So those scores are just kind of sort of set.
neocharge: crazy. DLC, to to be clear, the DLC, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now, Yeah, and Ghost of Yotes, while it was free DLC, it's not the first time that freedlc like free for Sea of Stars was scored.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like this This is not normal.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Very well, too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: I think you picked that up, didn't you?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, I did. i
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Actually, I think I drafted that. I don't think I bid on it.
neocharge: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think it was an original draft. So, not a pickup, though.
neocharge: Oh, okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think I got in the original.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Gotcha.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but But, yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so it it like as mad as people can meet, be it me about this getting as as high scored as it did. Like there's a reason we all bid on it. It was just real shitty that, that, that there's not, that we have to do it this way. Like that, that kind of sucks. But next year, it's a very much at your own risk. You just, you bid on things at your own risk. It, it, play the chips as they fall. Right. What's up, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: if I may for you, Caleb, um I think I know part of the reason why ah this is because chapters one and two are bundled together. Three and four bundled together.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Five came out separately, so I'm wondering if it's going to be a five and six situation because i can tell you from a person in my house who's played the hell out of all of them. ah Five is indicates it's not the end of the Deltarune.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: There's going to be another chapter.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Leon Lionheartly: um And then the other thing,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But that's such a weird thing, right? Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll tell you what's weird is it averaged a 93 or some shit for you in score when if you talk to, I've talked to a few Delta room players and chapter three is like still the best one.
Leon Lionheartly: So the fact you, you got away with highway robbery, fuck that Xenoblade Bob's bullshit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You got away with highway robbery, my friend.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know if it's highway robbery because at least my game was new. You fucking asshole.
Leon Lionheartly: but
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, but, but for real, for real, the score is like, yeah, I'm obviously thrilled for my draft.
neocharge: He's got a point.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but And I know that that the game it's well-received. Like the, the chapter is well-received. I, I maybe not the best received if you ask people to play it, but fine. My problem is that's a weird, I mean, you're, you're probably right. They're probably waiting for six, but yeah,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): One and two came out at the same time. Three and four came at the same time. Five and six did not. So it's just a weird... It's weird. I don't understand it. That's why next year, if the rules change, however you guys want to approach it, as long as we agree, like that's fine. That's totally cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But the only reason that I will defend the score is because the second game on my draft, Halo Campaign Evolved, we will get into this in great detail after the state of the draft.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The very quick version of it right now, just because it's draft appropriate, is that it scored an 83, which is 13 points. So basically the average is like the world rewarded me for shit by letting Delta Root be high, higher than it probably deserves. So they average about what I expected anyway. It's just something that I did not expect.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I will tell the listeners right now. I love Halo. I love Halo very much. Halo 1 is my favorite in the series, the OG. I think this game is overscored. Stay tuned post-state of the draft to hear why.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And ah yeah, it's bunch of shit.
neocharge: yeah wow
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But so I got 13 points for that. I think I actually got away with Highway Robbery from Halo Campaign Evolved more than Deltarune. I don't think I should gotten any for Halo.
neocharge: So...
neocharge: Here's my question. Do you think that's that score will settle ah lower?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): 83, the Halo.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, it dropped to an 82 yesterday, I think.
neocharge: When people finally play it on Heroic or Legendary...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Fuck. when they hit Well, it depends because the patch, who knows? There was a new patch today. And I don't know if they fixed some of the problems that we were running into.
neocharge: Yeah, that's true.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it to me, i mean, part of my problem, just not even with Halo, with any game, it's reviewed when it comes out and games keep coming out fucking broken as hell.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't think reviewers should be allowed to go back and change their scores to a fact. I think if you're going to release a shitty broken ass game in the beginning, you should, you should have to suffer as a, as a developer.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now I hate it when developers lose their jobs, but I also don't like when developers who shouldn't have jobs are in employed. That's just me. So anyway, but yeah, so, so I got lucky with, with Delta rune being a lot and would argue I got fucked with halo being not a lot because,
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah halo A Halo game should have been an 85 minimum. Like, just minimum.
neocharge: Minimum.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I expected it to be an 85, and I hoped for an 88. Back when I drafted it in January. That was honestly my thought. And to have it be an 83 after having played it and platinumed it, I'm just like, how the fuck did this game score as well as it did?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Which is unfortunate. But again, we'll talk about that after the state of the draft, because I don't want... If Halo... If you are a person who likes Halo and you have fun, you will have fun with the game. i don't i i just I have a lot of thoughts, so we'll get to that.
neocharge: Absolutely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but So those were my two releases this month. And lastly, we got Bo Rito Spring, your grandpa's favorite Gooner gacha game. Oh, i I skipped mine. It's Admiral Merps, and I just want to make donuts!
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): the But yeah, so Bo Rito Spring, your grandpa's favorite Gooner gacha game.
neocharge: You just want to make donuts.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He's finally having some more games released.
neocharge: YFGGG. Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The... i want I know they released really, really close together. I want to say Dench Attack was first. Yeah, Dench Attack was first. ah That game right now has settled at an 87, which is awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Great for him. Great for his average yet again. So he got, excuse me, 17 points for Dench Attack. ah If you want to know about it and you don't know about it, feel free to ask on the Discord. I'm sure that that Bo would probably tell you all about it. If you have questions or you want to know, But it scored really well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Great for him. That's awesome. The next release he got was Splatoon Raiders, which was a week later. And that scored an 84, which is awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think, again, comparing it because it came came out right around the same time that Halo Campaign Evolved did. I feel like i'm I'm actually glad, even though it went to my competitor, but for the game itself, I'm glad it scored higher than Halo.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i do I really do. I think it deserves it. I think it deserves to be a lot higher than Halo based on things like, I don't know, the game working for for starters.
Leon Lionheartly: here
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But yeah, so Bo got 14 points for Splatoon Raiders. That's awesome. If you have a Switch 2, he has told me personally and anybody who has a Switch 2, he's like, you would probably fucking love it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He highly recommended it.
neocharge: Yeah, I've heard really good things.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i Didn't he say, I might be wrong about this. Maybe i am I might be using a little bit of hyperbole, but I thought he said that it's the best game out for Switch 2 right now.
neocharge: You did.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay. Like for, as far as like a new, I'm not saying that like Xenoblade Chronicles one on the switch to isn't great, but, but Splatoon being like a new, you know, brand new game on the switch too.
Leon Lionheartly: No, he did.
Leon Lionheartly: yep
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's awesome. I'm really glad to hear that because Nintendo fucking needs it. They, they need people to have a reason to own their switch too, which is, you know, so great.
neocharge: Yes. Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm happy about all that.
neocharge: i still I still haven't bought a Switch 2 game.
Leon Lionheartly: Don't worry, I'm making up for you, bud.
neocharge: Yeah, you are.
Leon Lionheartly: No, seriously, I realized I made a mistake because I was looking it in my Amazon cart, and then I accidentally put something in the cart and forgot I put it there, so when I did another order, um unfortunately, I have a Switch... Well, it's not a Switch 2 game, but I have a copy of the Final Fantasy Pixel remasters coming in tonight.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes, I'm so happy about this.
neocharge: Wait, what? it Nice. Very cool. Very cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yay. Sorry.
neocharge: I have one of those on my Switch, too. I have Final Fantasy VI.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll have one through six.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): sorry
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. No, I bought it all a la carte. ah I was going to get the 1 through 6 collection on PS5, but I don't know. One day.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it it was a mistake. I hit checkout today and then I saw afterwards.
neocharge: That's funny.
Leon Lionheartly: I was like, wait, why is the amount that much? That's that normally what I and then I looked and I went, well, I'm not canceling it. I'm going to fucking keep it now. So, ah but yes, to answer your question, Caleb, this is the I've seen some of the cut scenes and in like Bose explained to me this game is chaotic.
neocharge: Exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, kind of I don't want to say extraction shooter, but somewhat in the in that realm where it's a drop in, survive, ah get out kind of a situation. And it is so chaotic that you think the Switch 2 would just like pull out a gun and shoot itself.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But apparently it stays locked at 60 frames the entire time.
neocharge: That's nuts, dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's awesome. like Like really, really good for them because a lot of people, I mean, us included have jokingly shat on Nintendo for being a potato when it comes to hardware and performance.
neocharge: That's impressive.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah even Even if their performance is better than expected for what hardware is running on, we recognize that it's not as good. And it's not all about performance for, for a lot of people, it is about the experience, but for them to be able to bring a chaotic experience like this and, and keep it running consistently and well, and just fun. That's, that's awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So mad props to him for picking that up and being able to score really well on that. That's, that's great. ah
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm going to go through the very end of this just real quick with like updated current scores and standings. And there was only one pickup that changed and mattered this month because it's not out yet. And that was ah Mason.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): His, I cannot remember which game was it. What was the game that that got delayed?
Leon Lionheartly: I got you. He he dropped Antos.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was Antos and got Minecraft Dungeons 2.
Leon Lionheartly: um Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay, yeah. I couldn't remember if Antos was the one or if that was...
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was thinking of, was it Altros of last year? but that I couldn't remember which which one.
Leon Lionheartly: That's right. Yeah, yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): came yeah so ah But Antos and Minecraft Dungeons 2 comes out later this year for him, I think, end of September, if memory serves.
neocharge: Great game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So ah he should probably net a pretty decent penny on that.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was ah those a really good snag because he only had $4 to bet with. but So he he was able to get that.
Leon Lionheartly: Bye.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, but so here are the current standings.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm just going to go current scores, bottom to top, and then projected. So in fifth still right now, because he didn't have any other games come out this month was, was Mason with 64.48 points. He's in fifth.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He is projected to be at fifth now with 145.55 points, but it's still early enough. Anything could happen. I, half my games don't have release dates. I,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't expect to see any of them. So whatever, it's fine. ah In current fourth place is Bo Rito Supreme with 85.55 points. And then his he's projected to be in second, though, with 185.62 points. Oh, and I skipped this with Mason.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Seven games have released. He's still expecting seven to come out. That's why he is unfortunately under 10 points per game average, which is the big number. the big kicker right now. Whereas Burrito Supreme has only had five games coming out.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He's expecting 10 more and he's already at 85 and a half points. So his average is well beyond that 10 point ah per game, which is very good.
neocharge: Nuts. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then currently in third is Matt with 98.2 points. He is projected to be in fourth, but barely by two tenths of a point.
neocharge: Dude, barely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um
neocharge: Like, ugh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. And so that's, that's like, not it's not worth commenting on you know mean like we'll just see uh he has eight games out right now and he has seven more he's expecting and then i am currently in second place with 119.82 points i am projected to be in third with 167.74 points which is that that two tenths extra over matt again that's like one more review could change that for either one of us from any any score so we'll just have to see I've only had seven games release, but I'm also only expecting six because of the Solasta 2 and other stuff. Like, you know, the shit we've talked about endlessly. But I'm... My average... I'm actually still pretty happy with my average points per game considering the the garbage that was replaced and ah Diablo 3 scoring low.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, the all the things. Like, whatever. i'm I'm happy with my score there. And last... but not least because he's in first Bob with 142.54 He projected to be first just over 200 points, 200.09.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He has had 10 games release. at just over two hundred points two hundred point zero nine he has had ten games release So he's averaging 14.2 points per game, and he's only expecting five more, which that's the only real thing that could be the wild card.
neocharge: Damn.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like if for some reason his don't pan out, but his draft is looking real good ah because everything has a release date, right? Yeah, everything has a release date for him.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And all of these release dates seem to be very solid. ah Like, Tocan comes out a week from Thursday, week from tomorrow.
neocharge: He's sitting pretty.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And Wings of Thieves comes out, what, October 2nd, I think? or act Whatever, it's like early October. ah Trails in the Sky is September. And ah didn't even look at the last one, because...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, whatever.
Leon Lionheartly: Galactic racer.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, Star Wars.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): the That's right. Galactic Racer...
neocharge: That's next month, too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. And that, that comes out, well, that's October 6th. So Galactic racers early October as well.
neocharge: Wait, what? Oh, I'm thinking of Zero Company.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Mine, mine is, mine is August. Yeah. The zero company is, is mine, which, you know, whatever.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But so I, I mean, that's, that's the state of the draft.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We spent a little more time on it than I thought, but that's sorry.
neocharge: Oh, we always do.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's my fault.
neocharge: It's all good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: ah What are the four games releasing this month, the projected?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep. the upcoming stuff, um, which tomorrow Bob gets Xenoblade Chronicles two of the Nintendo switch to edition Bob's bullshit.
Leon Lionheartly: you.
neocharge: Tomorrow, meaning yesterday, if you're listening to this on launch.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, Oh yeah, if if you're listening, yeah, July 30th. I'll go with the hard dates, July 30th. And then next up, one that he is very, very excited for, not only because it's on the draft, but because he's going to play it, as am I.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): a Beast of Reincarnation comes out on August 4th, and that's on Matt's draft. ah I think we're all hoping that this game does well.
neocharge: Yeah, dude. oo
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know that some of us are a little bit more on the fence about actually playing it.
neocharge: m
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I i am going to play it. i like i I'm going to play it, but I'm not all in.
neocharge: I'm all in.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not as sold as Matt is. I have my reservations.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just i feel like I want the game to do well. I hope that they do justice.
Leon Lionheartly: Can I ah give you a live update?
neocharge: On Beast?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, what's up?
neocharge: What?
Leon Lionheartly: So the link is broken the link was broken.
neocharge: Their scores are coming in?
Leon Lionheartly: So I think somebody accidentally ah slipppped ah slipped embargo. And I'm double checking because it is Delce Beaster Reincarnation. So day one, posted a medre ah already posted a review.
Leon Lionheartly: So it hit an 8 out of 10 for you.
neocharge: they're Okay. Solid.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: that's That's what I want. Double digits.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah I mean, yeah.
neocharge: Anything over 80. I'm hoping for high 80s.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When...
neocharge: I'm hoping.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The craziest thing is when this game was first announced, the very first preview trailer, i was like, holy shit, that game looks incredible.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then the first actual trailer...
neocharge: Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was not. It actually brought me back and I thought, ooh, that game, honestly, it looked like an 81. Now, an 81 is not bad. But when the first thing you show me is like a 95 in my head and then you drop to an 81, I get concerned.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and And again, this is all just me. That was how I felt. Matt loved everything he's seen so far.
neocharge: Mm hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He's he's all in on this game. He really he really is. um The last trailer that I saw, and then I'm done watching them, ah to me, it was like a strong 85. So it could be higher. That'd be cool if it was higher. I'm hoping for the game. That'd be great. But an eight out of 10 isn't bad.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, you'll take it, right?
neocharge: Not at all.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but That's good. So yay. um
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then two days after that, August 6th, Bob has Marvel Telcon Fighting Souls. And for all of you All of you out there that care about my opinion, I am i've told you, I am fucking excited for this game. I cannot wait for it. I just, I am over the moon. i really am. i We're having company next weekend.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I told Lisa, I was like, are they going to be mad if I play Marvel Toka on the whole time?
Leon Lionheartly: you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And she was like, don't be asleep at the board.
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, you'll be fine. And it's at least it's a fighting game. It's not like, ooh, I need to spend 60 hours just playing the story. Like, no, it's an easy pickup if I have 15 minutes.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I am going to be playing it. And I'm probably also going to be terrible at it. And I don't care. Give it to me. So I know that that's going to score well for Bob. It's Arc System Works.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They don't they don't miss.
neocharge: Agreed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They do not miss. Even if you fucking hate fighting games, they know they're shit. So that if he didn't draft it when he did, that was next on my list. So I'm glad that it's coming just because we can play it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but you know And it's going to score really well for you.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I think that's going to be, it's going to slap, as the kids would say.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. I'm not even a fan of fighting games and like everything I've seen has intrigued me. I like the source material, of course.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: Marvel's...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, yeah.
neocharge: I'm a huge fan of Marvel. I actually want to... I really want to watch people play this. I'm not going to get it. I'm not going to play it. I'm not a big fan of the genre at all. I kind of...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: I don't know. I i grew distant from it for some reason. ah But yeah, dude, the animations in this game are insane and I i would really like to watch ah gameplay of it for sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Well, it's the hard part is the games, like fighting games now are very difficult. And i mean, they are, they're, they're just difficult.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it's not like, Oh, I don't want to go online and lose. I mean, nobody wants to go online and lose. Once you learn that you're just, you're never going to be the Justin Wongs of the world. Okay. you Somebody has to, but they, he dedicates his time and his life to that.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): mean, he might play other stuff, but that's his thing.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And so I learned a long time ago.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i mean, I'm good at games. I'm not the best at every game. I'm very good at a lot of genres, but fighting games, I will take being average to above average. Because i as long as I know, like, oh, that guy's good, I don't rage out.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, i I just don't. If I think I'm better and there's, like, some fucking lag spike cheating bullshit, then I get mad. But it's like, eh, it happens. If somebody's better than me at a fighting game, though, I'm just like, good for you, bud.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I hope these 6,000 extra hours you put into it are worth it. But i'm i I do very much enjoy...
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Having something that when I have friends here or my niece comes or or whatever, we can just pick it up and like, hey, you want shit out of each other with Captain America and Iron Man, Spider-Man? like That sounds awesome to me. So I'm i'm looking forward to it. And Bo's going to play it. I know, Bob, you were interested in it. And I know with PlayStation's bullshit, did you lose interest in it or what's what's going on?
Leon Lionheartly: I'm still interested. um My problem is it's outside of the score.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Outside of the score, I'm talking to actually play it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, outside of the score, I'm interested in wanting to do this. It's just, it's a bad time right now um for games and everything else.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But like, when you're talking about, when this was first revealed, I thought it was Marvel versus Capcom, which is my fucking fighting game.
neocharge: Me too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Me too. I really did.
neocharge: 100%.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I did too.
neocharge: Yeah. I think we were watching it together and I was like, oh, this is Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It's got to be.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I really thought so, but
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Four.
neocharge: or
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Four. It'd be four. Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: 4. 4.
Leon Lionheartly: But when when when they revealed the last team, that was kind of like the hype alert.
neocharge: Whatever.
Leon Lionheartly: like started other We started to hit that hype overload ah because that last team has some of the best fucking characters. um Oh! Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite. Beautiful. um But yes, i'm mix I'm interested. If I can grab it on a sale,
Leon Lionheartly: and undecided. Let's leave it like that. But worst case,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is there anything that Bo and I can say that'll change your mind? i mean, i'm I'm not looking for like a humble brat or, you know, but like if we were like, oh my God, it's the best thing ever. Would you go out? Fuck it. but Let's go. Or would you just say, I'm still waiting on a principle as is my question.
Leon Lionheartly: it's not necessarily out of principle it's a how do i put this we discussed this previously in the castle i'll i'll say it it's a matter it's ah it's going to be an online fighting game and it's a matter of will i have the fucking ps subscription then
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh yeah. Okay. That, that makes sense for sure.
neocharge: Mmm, damn.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I understand that. Uh, so anyway, yeah, that's, that's going to be a really fun next week. Beast of reincarnation and Marvel token. Cause yes, please. Uh, and then at the end of August and these will be the last two, i won't go further than this cause you'll hear about them in the next state of the draft.
neocharge: Yeah, uh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, On August 27th, Mason finally has another release, and it's Resonance, A Plague Tale Legacy, which i'm I'm excited for. I loved the first two.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah As far as a game, i'm I'm really looking forward to it. Scoring on this one is tough because they, i don't want to say they score poorly, but they don't score as high as I feel like they deserve.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, and sometimes it's because of performance issues when the game's released, which is unfortunate, but they are, i mean, Matt, you actually know more about Plague Tale in the, in the studio that does it. They're double a, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Isn't that they're technically double a studio.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I think that sometimes they were held to a higher standard because their game was very beautiful and it was, it was just a unique idea. so I'm, I'm looking forward to this one. Are you guys looking forward to this one to play?
neocharge: Yeah, but it's it just releases in a bad time, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh yeah, no, I mean just eventually, like you're going to play it eventually, right?
neocharge: Oh, absolutely. I'm a huge fan of the Plague Tale universe. I loved Innocence and Requiem.
Leon Lionheartly: You look
neocharge: And this main protagonist was introduced in Requiem.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: full of you.
neocharge: And she's a very intriguing, interesting character. And this is apparently a prequel, ah which is before Requiem.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Maybe, I think, before Innocence or in the ah same time as Innocence.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's it's tough to say.
neocharge: But yeah, a Plague Tale
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We we don't know yet. Yeah.
neocharge: Right, yeah. Plague Tale is set in like when the Black Plague happened, 1400s in Europe. And it's an incredible setting. And it's it's got an amazing narrative. It's kind of like The Last of Us during the Black Plague in ah like Europe.
neocharge: So it's ah it's awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: You played both of them, right, Caleb?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, yeah. Yo, I platinum both of them.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They're fantastic experiences.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Actually, I owe you a lot for the first one because you had talked about the first one.
neocharge: Oh, cool.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I had heard about the first one and I i love I love all the French stuff.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, I mean, we talked about that a little bit on the clear obscure spoiler cast. And ah my wife does not like mice and rats or any.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, not that I like like who likes them.
neocharge: Oh no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I will tell you guys, because Matt said, like, no, it's actually really good. You should give it a shot. It had performance issues when it came out. So I just, I was like, I'll wait. I'll get it later. And Matt had said, hey, later has come. It runs really well now. You should get it. So I got the first one and I loved it. I thought it was a great,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): narrative. it's It's just interesting. It's it's not like glare obscure levels, no way. But it it was just unique.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was something that I hadn't seen before. The gameplay was double A.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I didn't expect a triple but it was a really polished double A after they fixed the bugs.
neocharge: Right.
neocharge: Very.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But one big recommendation I have, if people are interested in playing this game, do yourself a favor and try to play it with surround sound.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because, boy, some of the surround sound stuff is just, yeah, it's horrible.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
neocharge: Just the chittering that... well
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Lisa came down once to do some laundry and she heard just these horrible sounds coming from the room and she's like, what is going on in there? And I said, don't come in. dont because she If she looked at the screen, she just would not have liked it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So there was that.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um
neocharge: The rat mechanics are amazing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I don't think, yeah, I don't think Bob likes resonance or I don't think he's excited about it, right?
neocharge: They're amazing. And, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He he doesn't seem like, not really your thing, right?
neocharge: Gotcha.
Leon Lionheartly: No.
Leon Lionheartly: I played a little bit of one of them and I was like, oh, this is really good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But then I got distracted by something else. So it kind of missed me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. And that's fine.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's fair. This, this one's a little on the fence for me because I do like the character that they introduced. That is the protagonist for this as a side character in the second game, but I need them to do a little bit more than just like another one.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, I want her combat to be interesting. I want something that she does to really push it a little forward. I'm a little worried that it's just going to be more of the same with a different character. And that's,
neocharge: Um, it's, I looked more into it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know?
neocharge: It's not, it's more fast paced action combat with this character. And she's like a action gladiator.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Good, because she needs it. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. So I might play this on launch. It really depends on if I'm still playing beast of reincarnation, which I'm, I might be, who knows? I don't know how long that game is, but maybe not.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Uh, and I'm really, I do really want to play metal gear solid four on release when it comes out the 27th and this comes out 24th.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right. Right.
neocharge: So, or they they they come out at the same time, 27th.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, the same day. It's 27th.
neocharge: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah, it's this.
neocharge: So this will probably, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sorry, go ahead.
neocharge: This will probably be on my Black Friday list ah to get it ah during the i November, December lull.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Go ahead.
neocharge: Because i i don't think anything's coming out in November from from my ah recollection.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, i can't I can't think of any games coming out November.
neocharge: i don't really know.
neocharge: Yeah, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Nothing comes to mind.
neocharge: Nothing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i Yeah, and if it is...
neocharge: Yeah. I was actually going to play Rebirth. So.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's probably going to be shit. so that's Zero out of a hundred.
neocharge: Yeah. Or overhyped. Overhyped garbage. No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. No, it'll.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, I can't wait until it hits 30 frames.
neocharge: Yeah. So. Yeah. I hope Resonance doesn't have performance issues.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Fuck, but. Yeah.
neocharge: I hope they nailed that down. And i'm I'm hopeful for it. I have my eye on it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: It's on my list. I haven't pre-ordered it yet because I honestly don't know what I'll be playing at that time. And another game I really want to play is Mina.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: Mina the Hollower. I haven't been able to do that. And another one but before that probably Doom the Dark Age Revelations, Bob.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): For sure.
neocharge: I really do want to play that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: ah it It all depends on what I'm playing and if I have time to play it. And then, I mean, i don't know if I'm playing it on launch, but Wolverine comes out two weeks later.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: so
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: And Onimusha.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's a all all big boy.
neocharge: September 4th, so... Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. September is the month that's just like, holy fuck. And then October.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's like just wow.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But yeah, for me with Resonance, I'm glad to hear that it's a little bit faster paced.
neocharge: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Not that I had a problem with the first two because it does make sense for the characters you get to play as. It makes sense for their growth. That like she's not a fucking superstar warrior ninja.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like that makes sense. She's a big sister. That's that's how the game starts. That's not a spoiler. ah But for this character, if they were going to go with that mechanic...
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): from one and two, I was going to be a little let down because she just seems like this is their excuse to make things a little bit more punchy.
neocharge: e
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's that's what I want. so
neocharge: nothing
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah but But back to the draft part, I really hope it does well for Mason and I hope it does well for the game because I do like the series.
Leon Lionheartly: Bye.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I think that developer, you can tell that they like what they do.
neocharge: Agreed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i just i hope their quality testing, i hope they do their due diligence this time and just just just release it in ah in a workable state that is good. that's That's all I want.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The last game coming out in August that...
neocharge: Yeah, the developer...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead.
neocharge: that it The developer being Asobo Studios. ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes, that's their name.
neocharge: And yeah, they're published by Focus Entertainment. So Focus has done a lot of cool shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They are a French studio, right?
neocharge: I don't know that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, okay. I thought they were, but I fucking might be wrong.
neocharge: Or focus Focus Home Interactive now or whatever. They changed their name recently.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: So yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. ah Well, you had mentioned Metal Gear. ah Nobody has that on their draft list. It doesn't mean we're not excited for it. Just there are so many games, right?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But the same day, August 27th is Residents Plague Tale Legacy. And then also Star Wars Zero Company, which is on on my draft list. And we talked about a little bit before. That's like the XCOM people basically made a Star Wars in XCOM, which...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but I honestly think the gameplay is going to be fine. I think the Star Wars is going to make or break the points. If people are just fucking sick of Star Wars and it's not good, then they're going like, this game sucks. But they they know what they're doing.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So we'll see. i hope Again, I hope for the game.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: no No one has it on their draft. No one has Metal Gear Solid Collection on their draft because it's ineligible because they're technically ports.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You mean like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Bob's bullshit?
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Yup.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm just fucking with you.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, I'm not going lie to you guys. I looked up and I double checked to make sure that ah the Elden Ring Tarnished Edition wasn't available, but it was considered ineligible.
neocharge: Oh my God, you fucker.
Leon Lionheartly: you
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, you were, okay. Okay. Is that December?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is there a date for that?
neocharge: No shame.
Leon Lionheartly: um No, August. night It's next month.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, fuck.
Leon Lionheartly: like It's within two weeks. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That shows you how much I care about it.
neocharge: We'll see how that goes.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I liked Elden Ring quite a bit, but yeah, it's...
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: correct I
neocharge: Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: i i will tell you this, Caleb, in relation to your draft, I think i looked. The deluxe edition of this game is $60. So that plays like a real good reason for people to buy it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, Xenoblade?
Leon Lionheartly: Or no, Star Wars.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, oh, okay. Shit, that's great.
Leon Lionheartly: So, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Ten bucks off.
Leon Lionheartly: um I would say not just Star Wars. Unfortunately, even though it is Respawn and BitMedia, BitReactor, that's the developers.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Unfortunately, the publisher is EA. And I learned this from EA College Football.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know. know.
Leon Lionheartly: ah When you have a company that had the largest leveraged ah buyout in all of human history, um that that money needs to be made up somewhere. So...
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right. But I, and you're, you're, you're absolutely right.
neocharge: They're going to start gouging the shit out of players.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You're absolutely right. But they learned their lesson when Disney yelled at them for the early, like, cause they have the star Wars IP when they did battlefront one.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And Disney was like, if you fuck this up, we're taking it away from you.
Leon Lionheartly: That's true, yeah.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then we got, i mean, later on, we got Star Wars Battlefront which even though it was riddled with microtransactions and shit, the game was actually really, really solid. It was it was it was awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Really fun, cool experience. And then we got the um Jedi Survivor, Jedi Fallen Order and Jedi Survivor series, because they they trim they got rid of all that DLC or that paid bullshit.
neocharge: Oh, fantastic.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And they were like, here's a star Wars experience. Now this kind of a game, this team-based strategy does lend itself more for the cosmetics and all like that shit's going to be in there. So you're absolutely right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I feel like if anything, and this goes for your pod racer game too, I feel like Disney's the one saying, if you fuck this up, you're, you're done. so I think EA might be like, okay, let's just play it safe and make a good game first.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. I'm open for both of us. I think both of the Star Wars games look like they have potential. If I were to guess, I would say the pod racing game might actually be better, better received. It looks like it's going to be more fun for more, a wider audience.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, so that's cool, but I want them to do well because I do. I love me some Star Wars. It doesn't matter. I'm a fucking Star Wars bitch and that's okay. Uh, so any other, any other draft questions you guys have or want to do, or should we go to the, go to the, the big boy? Yeah.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Let's skip to what we're playing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: ah Yeah, no questions on my end. And thank you for covering, say, the draft. Appreciate it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Of course.
neocharge: Very thorough. Love it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. I mean, that's you that's what you asked for.
neocharge: No, i um it's not sarcastic.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I can't wait for people to pay $5 to skip it. ah people
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: That wasn't sarcastic. I like it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Good.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So games you're playing, Matt, go you go first.
neocharge: All right. I'm playing three. ah One, we're... So I think we should all talk about the games we're playing individually and then congregate on.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that's not the one. We'll end on the one. We'll end on the one.
neocharge: Yes, I'm playing three.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: ah Let me just talk about split fiction for a little bit. You've never played it, Caleb, right? Bob, we played it together and I'm playing it again, and it is just a phenomenal video game.
neocharge: I think this is my fourth playthrough or something like that. And just it's still it's still my favorite co-op game of all time made by Hazelight Studios.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Awesome.
neocharge: ah They made It Takes Two a Way Out, and this is kind of their ah crown jewel in their best game yet.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: It was nominated for Game of the Year, I believe. And it's ah just, man, every around every corner, they're changing up the gameplay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: They're changing up the formula. The writing is incredible. And if you haven't played Split Fiction... It's amazing. ah just It goes by chapters, and every chapter is super unique. It follows these two female writers, and one it writes about fantasy and one writes about sci-fi. And they go into a machine that ah they basically can revisit their stories they've written ah in a simulation.
neocharge: And the person ah that made the machine is supplying this experience for them. that's So you visit fantasy worlds and you visit sci-fi worlds. And man, if you played It Takes Two, you kind of know what you're in for from a gameplay perspective. It's just phenomenal.
neocharge: Man, Caleb, you really have to play it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know.
neocharge: Like it is so good.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I know.
neocharge: Like I've played a lot of co-op games, a lot of co-op games. This is by far my favorite. And it's just so well done. They nailed it. I think it's sitting at a 92 on OpenCritic.
neocharge: on open critic Like it's phenomenal.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That sounds right. i had it last year. i had That was one of my one of my picks.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was like that was an easy it was a slam dunk because Joseph Ferris, love him or hate him, the guy knows what he's doing.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and he He's very, very good. as a He's a creative director, right?
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, studio head and all that.
neocharge: Yes. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, he knows what's up.
neocharge: It's a game-ass video game. It's so fun to play. ah You can play online or couch co-op. And the cool thing is you don't have to have two copies. So if you play online, you have the the friend pass.
neocharge: So the other person doesn't have to buy the game, which is awesome. He he did that. And Orbital's coming out. He's doing that as well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: Former Hazelight dev. So I love that practice. And I think that's a really good practice. So yeah, Split Fiction.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that's that's a awesome.
neocharge: Incredible game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And the game wasn't...
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah yeah How much was it at launch? How much was Split Fiction at launch to to buy?
neocharge: Like 50 bucks.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that's the craziest part too for the experience you get and the fact you can play with a friend with that like pass, whatever it's called, for for essentially free for them. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but Like, that's that's that's awesome. i can't I can't praise that enough for the the work and the polish and the ah the gameplay that they provided and the experience they provided for people to also not cost a million dollars.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's just, that's stellar.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, good for him.
neocharge: Yes. And let me just say, these co-op games, if you're in a relationship or have a significant other, they're really awesome tools for the relationship. Co-op games are incredible. If your a significant other likes to play as well, you're coordinating, you're communicating, you're problem solving, and it's just a really awesome thing to do with your significant other.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, it's funny you say that because back when the Switch 1 was like in its prime, do you remember Snipperclips? you ever play that?
neocharge: i've It sounds familiar.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I got it because my wife is not much of a gamer, but this seemed to be a game that we could both just enjoy together. And and it was it didn't really require the most, you know, super twitchy hand-eye coordination.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): state what It wasn't like a super skill check.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): She is smarter than I am. Not that that's really saying much.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not that intelligent, but she is like a fucking genius. She's very, very smart.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I thought she likes puzzle solving. I'm really good at games together. This would be a great experience. You learn if your relationship is going to survive by playing snipper clips.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Let me just tell you, like, it's true because you'll be, you'll be working together one second and 30 seconds later, you'll be like, what the fuck are you doing?
Leon Lionheartly: No shit. No shit,
Leon Lionheartly: man.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But like in a good way, unless you actually hate your partner. Like I recommend, and I'm not kidding you. We had friends that were in like established relationships, but new and not like we'd been together forever, but we were having like newlyweds or or friends of ours that were coming over.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was like, you want to see if your relationship is going to last. We're going to play Snipperclips. And I'm not kidding you.
neocharge: ding
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There is a 100% accuracy on who lived, who survived the relationship and who didn't based on our review of them playing Snipperclips. Like they would leave and my wife and I would lay in bed and I'd be like, I don't think it's going to work out.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And like three months later, they split up or whatever. like Snipperclips does it.
neocharge: oh Holy shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. So I recommend Snipperclips for people who want to see if their relationship will survive.
neocharge: Wow.
neocharge: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Don't play Snipperclips as a new relationship.
neocharge: Interesting.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's a mistake. You have to know the person first and then play Snipperclips.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So you're right.
neocharge: Gotcha.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The co-op experiences are the way to go.
neocharge: What?
neocharge: Oh, yeah, absolutely. ah Overcooked is one of those games, too.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that's That's another one where you you lose friendships over Overcooked, that fucking game.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): this is Why are you making so much chicken, Rachel? We don't need chicken.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like That's a quote that actually happened from me.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): many a times yeah it's great yeah why are you making soup we need fish like yeah just fucking overcooked yeah yeah i mean for what it's worth we're still friends with them so it worked out
Leon Lionheartly: if
neocharge: Yep. Yep. Yep. You burned the soup. What are you doing?
Leon Lionheartly: What are you?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: An idiot idiot sandwich.
neocharge: Yeah. So yeah.
neocharge: Nice. Nice. ah Yeah, Split Fiction, incredible co-op. Go check it out if you haven't played it. ah It's amazing. Another game playing, of course, you've heard. I talked all about it on the last cast, so if you want to hear my overall in-depth thoughts of it, go check it out.
neocharge: But it's in my top five favorite games of all time.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: They remade it. Assassin's Creed 4, Black Flag, re-synced. ah What can I say? I'm in the... later stages of the story and doing some in-game content. ah I'm doing the... Basically, they're super boss pirate ships that you fight, ah and they are so fun. I've only beat two.
neocharge: i i feel like they increased the difficulty on them because they are hard as nails, man. But they're so fun, and ah the ship combat is what makes this game shine.
neocharge: ah you know You'll just be
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, for sure. I mean, in the original, that was true.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I'm glad to hear that about this one.
neocharge: yeah Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Big time.
neocharge: Yeah. You played the shit out of the original, you know?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: So, and they've added shanties.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: Shanties were a a ah Hallmark of sailing across the Caribbean. So I think there's like, yeah, yeah, there's, there's like 50 shanties opposed to 30 in the original.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I loved it in the original. I loved it a lot. So, yeah.
neocharge: So they've added some there and yeah, I, every time I dive into this game, I just become a pirate. Edward is an incredible pirate. He's an incredible character.
neocharge: He's an incredible assassin. So spoiler, he's an assassin in Assassin's Creed.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh my god, what the fuck?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Spoiler, I'm i'm done. i'm out of here. You ruined this game.
neocharge: But it's it's really cool. Right. It's really cool to see his character growth because, you know, I'll just tell you how he starts. He starts as a pirate, like out for himself, just looking for treasure. And there's incredible writing in this game. It's my favorite Assassin's Creed of the series. It's your second favorite, Caleb. And I feel like they just nailed it and they prettied it up.
neocharge: It's gorgeous. ah they The water physicists are amazing. They added all kinds of enhancements to the visual fidelity. And I'm playing on the the balanced mode, I believe, or it's either performance or balance.
neocharge: But ah it run it never dips below 40. And sometimes it creeps up above 60. It's VRR. ah Variable refresh rate, so that's cool and I haven't had a problem with performance at all there are some minor bugs that have happened maybe some longer than usual load times in specific areas, but overall incredible experience nine out of ten ah and Experience maybe even at ten out of ten.
neocharge: I love this game it might be a little biased ah but
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's fine.
neocharge: The great thing about a remake is if you play it and it's kind of a new experience, but at the same time invokes the reason why you love the game in the first place, because they didn't change a lot.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You don't say.
neocharge: Which brings us to our next...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's coming up. Coming up shortly.
neocharge: No, I'm kidding. And it's not broke as fuck and it plays well. So, yeah. I'll probably platinum it the next three days. I'm 63 hours in.
neocharge: probably that's on That's on PSN. So I'm probably like 59, 60 hours in real game time. And I'm...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Can you do me a favor and platinum it in four hours so that you got your platinum at 67?
neocharge: think It's 60. Yeah. yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: i
neocharge: Yes, I will.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah
neocharge: Yes, I will. I have about four trophies left, two more legendary ships to to sink. ah but yeah, i ah I love it. I'm having a blast.
neocharge: Highly recommend it. if It's the best pirate sim game out there, hands down, by far. A lot of games have tried to mimic it. Sea of Thieves has taken a lot from it. Skull and Bones, it failed, but it's pretty much just this ship combat as its own game, which I'd i'd play that game if it was good, but Skull Bones wasn't good.
neocharge: So yeah, making me super excited to do a couple things.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: One, go back to Odyssey and play that finally, Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: ah And two, Assassin's Creed Shadows. I really want to revisit that. And three, Assassin's Creed Hexay. Coming, ah who knows? But I mean, some of the rumors are this October. Probably not.
neocharge: But ah yeah, exactly, exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Coming digitally to everybody in 2038. but but
neocharge: But Yeah, it's an incredible Assassin's Creed game. Go play it. Check it out. But yeah, the other game I'm playing, we're going to all talk about as a group, like a therapy session, like a intervention.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure. Yeah. So, bob Bob, what are your other games? Your not fucked game that you're playing?
Leon Lionheartly: ah well can I'm going to ask Matt a different question or another question real quick then what's next on the board then for you
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, sure.
neocharge: ah i I think I am going to take a little bit of a break before Beast because I am going to dive into Beast of Reincarnation. That's this Tuesday. So four days from when you're listening to this, if you listen to it on launch, August 4th.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm excited, man. I'm excited for you too.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay. i
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And for me, but for you.
Leon Lionheartly: I figured that was the case, but I thought maybe there's an extra 12 hours to fit in a certain DLC.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Maybe.
Leon Lionheartly: Ha ha ha ha
neocharge: Maybe.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): oh Yeah.
neocharge: I think I... I know. i know. But I think I want to take some... like we We bomb through Halo. And I've been bombing through Assassin's Creed 4. right I've put a lot of hours.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I probably put 100 hours in the last two weeks. So I think I want to like take a breather, take a break. Because I have Spider-Man Friday. I'm busy Thursday night. I'm watching ah No Way Home.
neocharge: or or far Yeah, No Way Home before Spider-Man. And then the weekend... ah Sometimes i I like to get out and about on the weekend. I'm going on a bike ride Sunday morning from Cerberus Brewing, so that's cool with a friend.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Nice.
neocharge: Yeah. And, ah you know, Tuesday's going to come before I know it. So if I have some downtime and I have 10 to 12 hours, I do really want to play ah the Dark Ages Revelations, but I i think I want to let the let the console breathe for a bit and then just dive into Beast of Reincarnation.
Leon Lionheartly: I respect it, man.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's cool.
Leon Lionheartly: I respect it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah But yes, to answer your question, Caleb, ah so since we last did this, I did i started the so i started the DLC, Future Connected, for Xenoblade Chronicles.
Leon Lionheartly: um it is about I have to check.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I think it's supposed to be 12 hours. I think it's really neat, but at the end of the day, I was like, there's there's a Halo coming, there's a few other things coming. in I...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
Leon Lionheartly: I'm going to go look at the synopsis because there's a little bit of a like a minor connection to number three, if you if you're paying attention and all that shit. and i was like, I'm going to go look at the synopsis, whatever. So I still had a few little bit of time in between just before Halo started. So I've been bouncing between that, and I actually started going back into Dragon Quest VII.
Leon Lionheartly: Reimagined.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, okay. Nice.
Leon Lionheartly: Picking that back up, um it's been a great put on like a podcast and then just burn the burn through it as you're just beating the shit out of monsters for hours on end.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, that's true.
Leon Lionheartly: And then look.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you that's Yeah. The grind is real in Dragon Quest.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it's a real grindy game. like I'll go through an entire map area when I get to a new area and just grind everything till you get to the point you can do the ah preempt attack and it just kills it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep. Yep. Yep. that Yep. That's the way to go. It's true.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: maybe Maybe I should do that. Put a podcast on while I play that to get through it. Because, man, I fell asleep twice playing that game.
Leon Lionheartly: i I promise you it's a game changer and the story is Dragon Quest story quite frankly
neocharge: Stories peak. I love the story. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): how How far did you get, Bob? I know where Matt stopped, but where are you right now in this story?
Leon Lionheartly: a i ah I just got um how do I put this without spoiling it um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): How many hours do you have?
neocharge: but number What number party member?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Roughly. Because I...
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Let me put it this way. I have me mervvin r Marvin, um and I did the part after him that gives you the spell, ah the the bonus spell for the main character.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Got it. Got it. Okay. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. You're... You're still early enough that you'll just see when you get there. i
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The story... The story is... Like... They had an opportunity to fix some things.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And they... Didn't fix the right things As far as I'm concerned but yeah Yeah
Leon Lionheartly: They did it. They fixed some good things, but they didn't fix the right things. so like It's really weird because like when you're done with a main chapter point or a main story beat um and you beat the boss and everything else, in the ah original the other two versions of this game, you would go back and there would be about 10 to 15 minutes of dialogue between the characters, recapping the events, expanding upon the world. Here, it's 15 seconds it's of a black screen that says, and everybody lived happily ever after. Then morning comes.
Leon Lionheartly: And I'm like, what the fuck?
neocharge: Oh, yeah, I was wondering about that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, no, some of that is is nice because it's like, yeah, I didn't need to waste 15 hours.
Leon Lionheartly: So don't.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But some of it is like, wait a minute. What? This is what? It's like the like Star Wars Episode IX. I'm not spoiling anything because it's the opener.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Somehow Palpatine returned. You're like, wait a minute. That's what we need to play.
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What are you talking about? Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: that's exactly That's exactly it. So my recommendation, Matt, if you like the story, cool. But really, I found that this this story is not as good as Eleven's and some of the other and Eight and things like that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, not not even close.
neocharge: Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: not even Not even a chance.
neocharge: Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: So put on a podcast and just grind the game and enjoy beating the shit out of stuff for hours on end.
neocharge: Gotcha.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The end-to-end game is good, but go ahead.
neocharge: when i was saying okay
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: When I was saying peak, I meant the story was holding up this game for me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh.
neocharge: Honestly.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, okay.
neocharge: Yeah, not peak Dragon Quest. 11 is amazing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: Yeah, but I was saying like the the music is a little repetitive.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that can't be topped
neocharge: The battles are a little repetitive. The characters are cool. The story is what was holding it up and me progressing to learn more of the story in this game within this game from a Dragon Quest perspective.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I haven't played a lot of them, but I have or I can already tell 11 stories, but better.
Leon Lionheartly: Alright, so I'll put it to you like this. This is how specifically how I'm playing it because I'm being generalizing.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: um is I play a podcast, ah as you know, with the Astros on the PlayStation 5 while we're going through.
neocharge: Okay.
neocharge: Amazing.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll play that, but when I get to a town, and for context, folks, Dragon Quest is very cliche in the way it localizes certain groups of people.
Leon Lionheartly: So you have language that's written very German, very Spanish, very French.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't care to read that butchered ah French at all. so i' will So I'll play the podcast, but when I get to a main story beat, like a main objective, I'll pause the game real quick and then listen or read or whatever.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And then I start again because, ah oh my gosh, particularly with the like the the English one, it's like, the thou cometh and slayeth the deemeth king thou's destiny.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And I'm like, fuck off.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't like Shakespeare.
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, like it because it does add character, but I totally understand what you mean. I do have a question for you, though. You played Chrono Cross, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bob? So did it bother you when Harl would talk in her French?
Leon Lionheartly: Holy shit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because it was just...
Leon Lionheartly: That was terrible.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but See, I loved it because she was the only one that did it. And as a kid, I was like, what the fuck is she saying? But when I learned French, i i because I didn't really recognize it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, Chrono Cross came out when I was, what, like 10? I don't even know, like 12?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't remember.
Leon Lionheartly: um Something like that. Yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I remember what year. Maybe i was a little older than that. But I remember thinking, like, what is this supposed to be? this I felt like somebody had a stroke writing the translation. And then I realized that she was supposed to be sounding like a French person speaking English.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, like, Monsieur Serge, like she would say, and I'd be like, what is this?
Leon Lionheartly: He...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it would be written with like Z-I-S.
Leon Lionheartly: He's...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was so confused until I figured it out. And I was like, well, that's neat. But it would be a pain in the dick to read.
Leon Lionheartly: Well...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I i get it.
Leon Lionheartly: d ah Well, let me, I'll say this. What you're saying is true with her. It wasn't as bad. Dragon Quest goes a little over the line to where you're kind of, where you're kind of being more like um the the last Deadpool movie where like, oh, I'm going to make a name for myself today, boy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, yeah, they they wrap it up.
Leon Lionheartly: And it's like, what the fuck are you saying, dude? Well,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Woo! I'm about to name myself boy.
neocharge: Yeah, you are.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Woo! I'm about to make a name for myself.
Leon Lionheartly: Which is great for audio, but when you're reading it, oh my gosh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yes. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But yes, I'm still grinding through it. I'm going to continue to grind through it. And then i'm going to continue to grind through... um Well, I'm going to finish Halo, Galo, whatever you want to say.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um I'm going to get the platinum, whether I get you guys' this help or not, because that's going to happen, because then I have got 255 hours of my favorite of the Xenoblade series.
neocharge: yeah you are
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah you'll be fine
Leon Lionheartly: Hands down, i told Matt, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is my black flag of the series.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah oh yeah
Leon Lionheartly: um So I'm going to be hitting that.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Leon Lionheartly: Pyra and Mithra um are all... yeah I told...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): if you know you know ah
Leon Lionheartly: If you know, you know, I asked Crystal last night. I was like, oh, hey, is your book how's your book? you know Is it really good? She goes, yeah, it's a really dark ah fan ah romance fantasy, like really edgy stuff.
Leon Lionheartly: I was like, oh, one of those that you ah you you skip the trigger warnings. um She's like, yeah, absolutely, because i'm I'm for it. I'm like, cool, because ah this week I'm going to be playing the most Gooner gotcha game ever, and I don't care.
neocharge: ah
Leon Lionheartly: I'm
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, maybe that's up for debate, but, but no, it's crazy because Xenoblade Chronicles two is the lowest rated and it's awesome.
neocharge: we been We've been on the waifus.
Leon Lionheartly: right a i'm like, I'm going to be a
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I, I've just happened to like one more because it's, I just think it's really, really good, but two is so fucking good too. It's so good.
Leon Lionheartly: So spoiler, the blade gotcha system has been reworked. so now So now the rare blades are going to be easier and everything else.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Thank God.
Leon Lionheartly: It's going to be 60 FPS locked in battles. And the best one, watch this, Matt.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That sounds glorious.
Leon Lionheartly: He's going to be like, oh my God, you don't need to swap out your blades for the field skills.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, what?
neocharge: Oh,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's amazing. I did not know this.
Leon Lionheartly: Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And now my penis heart. Thank you, Bob. Thank you so much for that.
neocharge: my God.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah Hey, guess what I have right over there?
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and my Switch 2. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And it's a $10 upgrade.
neocharge: Nice.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I'm absolutely doing that. it's just i i've I'm going to buy it.
neocharge: That's sweet.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm just not going to play it now because how? With Beast and Tokon, there's no fucking way. ah But I get it.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): If this is your... i mean, this is like me saying Revelation, Final Fantasy VII Revelation. Like, I don't care if 10 of the games of the year knobs come out at the same time.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm playing Revelation. Like, sorry. Sorry, guys.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yup. Yup.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's happening. So, ah but I...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, i'm about I'm about to prove it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I feel you because Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was really, really, really fun. Underrated, I thought, us but really, really good. So...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah, that's exciting.
Leon Lionheartly: Outside of...
neocharge: I'm excited for you, man, for sure.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Outside of, ah what is it? Animusha. Matt's going to be like, how are you sure you can handle all that? And I'm going to prove him because I'm going to be doing Xenoblade, Dragon Quest. I'm going to finish Octopath. I'm going to go right into fucking Resonance. I'm on a JRPG kick until fucking February.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, you got to play Jon Desert.
neocharge: Love it. Love it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That'll prove yourself. Oh, God.
Leon Lionheartly: and But what about you, Caleb?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. ah So mine mine are pretty easy. i already talked about Granblue Fantasy Relink, the DLC called Endless Ragnarok. For people that don't know, that game came out in, I want to say, 2024.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's made by Psy Games. they did There's a Granblue Fantasy... It's got another name. It's Grand Blue something on phones. It was a gotcha game. It was a bunch of bullshit like that. But it was really, really good. It has a huge following. I actually never played the phone game because I was like, I don't have time for all that. I just don't. But I love the art style. I love the animations. I love the character designs. I liked everything about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They essentially made so much fucking money and they've always wanted to make a single player RPG. Well, they made a lot of money on this phone game and they were like, we're going to do the single player RPG that also has optional co-op.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But you're a party of four. There are like, God, I want to say like 30 some characters in this game. It's nuts. In the base game, it was, you know, they they added more in the DLC. But in the base game, there were, I want to say 20 something. It seriously is crazy. And they're all very unique.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You gear them all up. it's it's It's the JRPG for grinding to grind to grind, but the thing about it that works is the game the gameplay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The gameplay is so fucking fun. i mean, the character designs are great. The story is there. it's not it doesn't really It's not bad, but it's not like, I wouldn't say play this game for the story because you hate the combat. No, you play this game because it's fun.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's it. it's It's so fun to play. It's very polished, but it is very, very, very grindy. So I got the DLC on a whim. I was not going to. I was going to make myself go to Crimson Desert.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and Hades 2, and Hades 2, I'm still going play, I'm absolutely to play, but I needed something that was incredibly fast-paced action that was a JRPG that I could just grind and just get better, and when the DLC was coming out, I saw some of the characters that I knew about from the base game,
neocharge: Oh, oh. ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): are in the DLC as playable. And I was like, mother fucker. So I had to do it. And I'm glad I did. I put like a hundred and some hours in that DLC. I got a hundred percent on it. I, it was really fun.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I do recommend it.
Leon Lionheartly: you
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): People at least check it out for the gameplay. Yes. It's waifu and husband O stuff, but like it's, it's really good. That's the thing. It's not just like Gooner bullshit. The game is really fun, really good.
neocharge: Sure.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Highly recommend for people that like that sort of thing. Uh,
neocharge: Sometimes you have that JRPG itch. I had that ah later last year with Ni No Kuni and Tales of Vesperia.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. and And that was the thing.
neocharge: re Remastered.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i just i thought that I wouldn't need that because I got off of Diablo 4 when the season ended. And that's like it's very grindy.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and know It's an ARPG, but... I mean, this is not turn-based. Grand Blue Fantasy Relink is action. It is action, action, action.
neocharge: hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it is... It can be brutal at times, but boy, is it just fucking fun to play. little bit like a Monster Hunter 2 where you load up a boss and like you can play with friends you know online or just randoms.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): or Or you can do a three AI co-op or an AI party and you just control one. ah But you still have to gear them and you have to give them skills and... It's yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Recommend it for that. I just, I needed it. I don't know why. And it it really scratched that itch and I was really happy playing it. So that was cool.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um
neocharge: Awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The other one, obviously a little bit more Forza horizon six, just been picking that up on and off and it's still obviously very good. um
neocharge: Heck yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then lastly, before what we're about to talk about, just, I talked about it before that, that fucking bullshit Dissidia dwellum game. It's not great, but they release characters that I, I mean, they're all near and dear to my heart.
neocharge: Hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The character that just came out, was it yesterday? Yeah. Was Celeste from final fantasy six. And I can't speak, I haven't played as her yet because I've just, i've been busy playing, uh, Halo combat unfinished.
neocharge: Yes.
neocharge: the
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, uh, but I, I, you know, the, the character designs the models or everything. And I'm, I'm excited to, dive a little bit more into that, but that's, that's like back burner shit. Just like, Oh, I have 20 minutes. I'll play a battle.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, so last and least and not least.
neocharge: i'll let yes
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like what Go ahead. Go ahead.
neocharge: i We're all going to talk about this game. I think we should talk about the downsides and the negatives and then end on the positives.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Absolutely. Do you want me to go first then to get it out of the way?
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, so
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: What are we playing, Caleb?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Halo, Halo campaign devolved. um No, it's so it's Halo one remade yet again, but actually remade today um by Halo Studios.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And even though we're going to talk about the good stuff at the end, I will say like I didn't hate everything about this game, but you need to know where I'm coming from with my criticisms.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I told Matt about this earlier today and I even said on the cast tonight, I'm not going to rehash this because I don't think people care. But he he did say, no, you really should because it it's justified.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): My favorite game of all time is the original Final Fantasy VII. The way I describe Halo is the Final Fantasy VII of shooters for me. It is my favorite shooter of all time. The original Halo is my favorite shooter of all time.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I am not big into shooters. I'm pretty good at them. I've played a fair amount of them, but they're not something that I would be like, ooh, I need that new shooter. i yeah I played Destiny. I played Doom. I played Halo. I played Modern Warfare, i i the earlier earlier ones.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I played enough to know what's good and what's bad, but Halo one was always my favorite. It, it, I don't think it can ever be topped, especially after seeing what they did to this, to my baby. um I, this is not a humble brag.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I played in Halo tournaments ah when I was younger. My, my, I didn't realize how good I was at it because this was like before Xbox live. This was, all I knew were the people I played with in my hometown like friends of mine and I was I was the gamer of the friends like you just kind of knew I was probably gonna win those things so again not a humble brag it was just I was very good and I didn't really know it when I got to college and a couple friends like right before I went to college like that summer before they would say dude like you're really good at this you should enter tournaments or whatever I'm just like
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not going to do that. Like, I don't want to go and learn how fucking bad I am, you know, because these people do this and they make money and stuff. um But a very, very long story short, my college roommates and I would play a lot.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Some of them were on my case about entering tournaments So much so, and I just kept refusing because i was like, no, I play it because it's fun and I'm playing with you guys and it's it's a great time. Like we would land across, you know this was back before ha or Xbox Live. So we would hook up two to four Xboxes and just play in separate rooms and it was great.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um They paid to sign me up for a singles tournament, where was basically free for all. And it was, it was long.
Leon Lionheartly: Really? la
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it was, it was, I don't remember how many people started, but there were first, second and third place prizes. And there were like, I don't know, like nine rounds or something. i mean, it was, it was nuts.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I, when they told me that I was pissed at them. So was like, i fucking told you guys, no, I don't want to do it, but you had to pay to enter the tournament and they had paid, I think it was like 50 bucks or something. It was crazy. Um,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I felt obligated because they did it. Well, when we got there, I'm seeing all these people with controllers that have like stopwatches on them and shit. And I'm like, what the fuck?
Leon Lionheartly: SPEAKER 1
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, I'm not, not to like make fun. If this is what you like and enjoy, that's cool. But these people really, really, really care. They really, really try. And I was just there out of obligation to my friends.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, the short version of the story is I won first place. The final round in a free for all was 25 three. I won 25 to three in a free for all against other people. It wasn't team based. It was a free for all.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was very good. I won like 500 bucks or so. I mean, it was crazy. i I couldn't believe I was like, shit, maybe I am pretty good at this game. So then I was approached and asked by other players there to join a team.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I played on and and another tournament with them and we got second place and Two of our teammates were not good. And the fact that I was able to carry us to the finals and get second place was like, I'll take that. That's cool. We ended up winning like 200 bucks or something, might like 50 a piece. But the, so the point is I played a lot of the original halo. I fucking loved the original halo. I know everything about the original halo.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When this one came out, I did have high expectations. Certain things did feel a lot like halo. Other things did not feel a lot like halo. And that bothers me. That's a personal thing. i I didn't want SMGs to be in this game because they weren't in the original.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now, it doesn't make the game worse that they're there. So I'm not like holding on against it. But just so that people know where I'm coming from when I'm bitching about things, I'm not just i'm not just nobody who's like, oh, you've not you don't you don't care about Halo.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I very much fucking do. And i I mean, I used to do solo legendary runs all the time. Like it was just really, really fun for me. So when I started playing this, was like, man, some of the things just feel a little off. Like it's still, it's Halo though. Maybe it's, I mean, it's 25 years old.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They've, they've revamped some things. They've made some things prettier. They've, the graphics engine has obviously gotten a huge upgrade. um The things that felt off, I sort of chalked it up to age at first.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But then when things worked, when things clicked, it was like, oh, there you are. But then I would pick up my Magnum and it wasn't the pistol that I was used to. And it's not bad.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It just doesn't feel right for me again for me. It was really hard for me to shed that skin and move away from that thinking with this with this remake, because with Final Fantasy seven remake, they somehow made it feel like Final Fantasy seven enough that I wasn't heartbroken. I mean, I had my problems with some of the story beats and stuff, whatever, but it's it still felt like that world.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): In this, I don't know if it's the new dialogue. I don't know if it's the voice direction. I don't know if it's just the way that the engine is put on top of the reach engine, which is put on top of something else that some things don't quite work. The addition of sprint to me, it is awesome when we're playing with co-op and you're just trying to blitz through things. But it's also weird as a Halo 1 purist where I'm like, nah, I can't sprint. i got to just I got to just hoof it like Chief did back in the day. Now, that I can all forgive.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But the one thing, the one major fucking negative to me, I was playing it solo on heroic because honestly, I thought I was like, I'm not going to legendary the first time through. I'm just going to do heroic. I'll go easy on myself.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was having frame rate issues later on in the game, in the campaign. I was having enemies that were just like spawning behind me and not like they were supposed to, it would be like something killed you and there was nothing there.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then all of a sudden, like an elite would just be standing there and he wasn't shielded. He wasn't cloaked. It was just like a fucking engine problem. And I was like, what the fuck? How do you screw this up all the years later?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was, I was really getting frustrated and I thought maybe I just fucking suck now, but I got to a certain stage and these boys were playing on co-op. We, our schedules didn't line up so we couldn't play at the same time early on in the
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um I had you know real life shit, a dryer broke and I had taken it apart, whatever. um I was trying to bite my tongue because I didn't want to take away happiness ah for people.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because if you find it great, I don't want to take it away. Halo 1 or Halo Campaign Evolved is still very fun to play if you can get over the problems I had with it. But one thing that I will absolutely not stand for in a game that is such a tentpole IP and a remake of a beloved, it's just to me unacceptable.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I got to one of the later stages and it was literally unplayable because enemies weren't loading. The fucking textures of the map weren't loading. And it wasn't like, oh, you're just bad at this. It was like, I can't be good at, I can't even enjoy this because you released an unfinished game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Now I was very disappointed because reviewers, most reviewers did not talk about this. There were two reviewers when the early access came out saying like the pre-release, the five days early that were like, I had frame problems. And when I read the reviews before playing, I was like, this guy's fucking stupid. There's no way on a PS5 pro that there are frame problems. I can confirm unequivocally. And so can these gentlemen, we were all playing it on a PS5 pro.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was dropping to sub 10 FPS in some of these later stages, which is just unacceptable.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's unacceptable for any game as far as I'm concerned, but it is a double, doubly unacceptable for a fucking flagship remake of a 25 year old game that was optimized better.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I do not understand. And I like, I hate to shit on it, but I was like, man, all right, this game can be an eight out of 10. It can be an 85 out of 10 out of a hundred. Like that's fine. Even though for me, the original was a 99.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like this was so good. I think that that when I said I thought it was overscored at an 83, this game is a seven out of 10 for me. And the only reason it's a seven out of 10 for me is I'm going to cheat a little bit. I'm gonna talk about the things I liked before you guys get to complain about.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When I got to play with these guys, after I was done with the solo... Because I did it. I powered through. Even in the shitty frame rate, I somehow fucking did it solo, and I was mad at how they screwed up the end stages.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just i cannot believe how fucking broken it was.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And for for other reasons. I mean, i think there are too many enemy spawns just because they could instead of making combat interesting. I feel like they just turned cranked everything up to 11 without even testing it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's very clear. Because on normal and on easy... we we found out when we replayed through it, the frame rates aren't as bad. It's like they only tested it on the low and lower ah difficulties.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that's fine, except you're not even going to test the shit for for the... I mean, Halo is for the diehards as well as the the people that just jump in.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Everybody's going to be playing every difficulty of this game at some point. So that's weird, right? But when I finally got to play with these guys... um One thing that I will say, huge positive from Halo Studios, they upgraded the co-op to four-player instead of two-player in the original when you could play the campaign.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And that was seriously the highlight of this experience for me. it was playing with my friends and we had a great time. Even when shit was broken, it was awesome. So that's why Halo is a 7 out of 10 for me.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): A broken game for me is like no greater than a 5 out of 10. I feel like it's unacceptable.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Especially if it's unplayable. if there's If there's stuff that's like, oh man, there's this like game-breaking bug we didn't know about we fix it right away, cool. But when you didn't even try, when you finished 70% of your game, no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's just not okay. um I will save other things that I very much liked for later. I'll let you guys go because I got my little diatribe over with. But i i really, really, really was upset with what Halo Studios did and I'm i'm kind of, up I'm just disappointed in them because this game deserved better.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's It did. But it's fun.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's like when it works, it works. When it plays, it plays. That's great. Like super awesome experiences for certain things. um I'm just it was very near and dear to my heart and I was furious. One quick funny thing. I was texting the group chat and I was like, fuck this game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm going to be honest and you're all going to hate me. It's bad. It's broken, whatever. And they were they weren't that far yet. So they were just like, damn, it's been running perfectly for me. And I was like, what fucking level are you on? you know
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because I was butthurt. I totally admit it. I was a little out of line. I was like, no, fuck you guys. This is bad. you know But I said, let me know how it goes when you get to this stage.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, the next morning I wake up and... they were all trying to fucking gaslight me. They're like, had no problems here, bud. Must be all you, whatever. And then that did not last very long because I was like, I mean, I was sincere. I was like, good for you guys. That's awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But every other game has been running falsely on my PlayStation. So I knew it wasn't my solid state. I knew it wasn't my MPME. ah But I mean, I wasn't mad at them. I was just like, fuck me, I guess. I don't know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then Bob was like, we're fucking with you, dude. And then they showed me some videos that they got and it was atrocious.
neocharge: a
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So it wasn't just me.
neocharge: evening
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So anyway, I will, I will shut up. You, you gentlemen, you go, you can start with the bad stuff first for you.
neocharge: Yeah. ah Bob, do you want to go or I can go or do you want to?
Leon Lionheartly: Sure. i'll You know what? I'll take it. ah because And the reason for that is I know Halo is your favorite all-time shooter. um It's not there for me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, that's fine.
Leon Lionheartly: But Halo is very, very special to my heart. Halo 3 is in that that the upper echelon of first-person shooters for me. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, Halo three is awesome. it's It's my second favorite because it's great. So yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. And when that one came out, there were there were points in time where like I could have done tournaments, but it was a bad point in my life where I couldn't actually go to a tournament and play. So then when we I finally got back to the stateside and I'm playing online and it's two in the morning, I've had like seven rum and cokes and somehow I'm still in the Warthog and going deathless with my buddy on the turret.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It's just that's the kind of way we played played. So Halo, I have a lot of experience with it up until I stepped away from the Xbox platform. um I played Halo Combat Evolved so much growing up that it was easily the number one game that I played on my Xbox.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: um
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: This was pulling people together, doing four-player split-screen multiplayer with rockets in the canyon. Blood Gulch is like the one of the best fucking the best fucking maps in the world.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Fuck yeah. So good.
Leon Lionheartly: um And I'm with you. There is something about this game where you can see the little like shine points coming through and you're like, oh, you guys understood the assignment. And then there are parts where that for every one step forward you took, ah you went, you took one step back. So like, um for for example, sprinting, I think is a great quality of life feature.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: even though there is a skull that can turn it off, I think it's a great quality of life feature because when you're huffing it as Master Chief, the level goes from 45 minutes to an hour to more manageable 30 to 20.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: And that's awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Especially because we're old. Right? mean, we're old. We have shit to do.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I get it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. um But then you do things like they did with the pistol. It's the pistol from Halo 3, which while is not not the worst yeah weapon in the game, ah in Halo Campaign Evolved...
Leon Lionheartly: our combat evolved, should I say the first one, they nerfed the Magnum in three because in one, it was that fucking strong. it It had a kick to it.
Leon Lionheartly: You could drop Hunters in two shots with it if you knew what you were doing.
neocharge: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: Here, it takes like six or seven. um And that makes
Leon Lionheartly: and And you're welcome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Thank you for that.
Leon Lionheartly: and it's And it's frustrating because it doesn't it doesn't feel right. like there's so There's a piece of that missing.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um And then you end up with the...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Then you go into the framer issues. like When I first read DualShockers' review specifically, and they said they gave it a six and a half, i was like, what are they smoking? like What are they smoking over there?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, me too. I didn't believe it. I didn't believe it.
Leon Lionheartly: I didn't.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was like, there's no way that's true.
Leon Lionheartly: i did I didn't believe it until we experienced it. And then that told me who played the game on the harder difficulties in the campaign because that that that tells you right there.
Leon Lionheartly: If you go through easy to basically normal, you're fine. But heroic and legendary, it's broken. And that sucks because legendary lasso is required for the platinum.
Leon Lionheartly: Um...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and And it's just something that's fun. Well, it's supposed to be fun, I should say. And when you're just like removing that because you didn't even fucking test it. Like what? What are you doing? What what are you guys doing?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. And and i you touched on it too, they the enemy spawns. Halo has got a dance to it when you're talking about the enemy spawns. Here, it's fucking... It makes no sense um because you're going from salsa to breakdancing when you go into legendary mode because they're like instead of ah enemies like coming in...
Leon Lionheartly: They'll just come in waves ah for some areas, which is like, oh, that's kind of...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay, whatever. And then in other areas, they just drop 10 elites on you and say, have a nice day. It doesn't... there's There's a breakup in that combat flow because when you're playing the original Halo, you go through a wave of enemies.
Leon Lionheartly: You're cool, I got enough time. going to go grab this, swap this. I'm going to reload. Boom, boom. Here, there's nothing. It's just constant, constant, constant, and it breaks up. It makes the game harder, but it also fundamentally makes the game less fun to play.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, because it feels cheaper. That's my problem. Like taking away my strong pistol, I understand that they wanted to do bullshit with balance.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But the reason that I'm so mad about this is because I was promised a Halo 1 true to the original remake. And Final Fantasy VII, it's a good example because it's another big title that was remade.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They didn't promise that it was going to be a true one-to-one. That hurt me as a as a purist, but I knew going in, I was like, okay, let's just this is your own thing.
neocharge: Right. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Let's go. Well, with this, when I'm being told, this is what you're going to get, and that is not what I fucking got because you're going to throw more enemies at me. Okay, I like a challenge just as much as the next person.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but I don't like bullshit. If I had my old pistol and you're going to try to make it harder. Okay. Because now it makes a little bit more sense to be like, we're going to let you play the game that you know and love.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But this way they're like, Oh, you got six more enemies and also fewer effective rounds per enemy. So you're not going to have enough ammo to deal with this bullshit that we didn't test because we didn't care enough to test it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, like that's, that's kind of where I'm landing with it.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah you know you're you're right. There are little things that they... if you you This is your flagship.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You have a template with the anniversary and the original that all you have to do is just work off of that template and then you somehow still fuck it up.
neocharge: you
Leon Lionheartly: like my biggest ah My biggest complaint performance-wise, but like from a pure you updated and made a remake of this game that said it was going to be true, is you made the Warthogs destructible.
Leon Lionheartly: That should not happen in a in Halo 1 because when you get to the beach and you do and you're doing a and you're doing ah running around on that beach, everybody knows you throw grenades and you do warthog flips because that's what...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): hilarious.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was so fucking fun at the time, back in the day.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was one of the, that we wasted so many hours in college doing that shit, but it was awesome, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It was just so cool.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, that was and that's that's my biggest complaint peria from like a a fan and of guy who's played hundreds and probably thousands of hours of of the original. that's That's my biggest, like, ooh, why did you do that?
Leon Lionheartly: um And then ah lastly, I'll say, I think what really happened here, um and this take it as a negative, if you if you will, is um Halo's, and Bo pointed this out, I didn't realize that Halo's 25th anniversary November 15th of this year.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: which means a quote,
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You guys might remember last year when it was announced, when it was coming, I thought that it was going to come out on the anniversary. I was like, that's the next November release. It has to be. And then GTA got delayed and it was like, nevermind.
Leon Lionheartly: and
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): but but Like, that's not...
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. and
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: And I think what happened is GTA got delayed and then they were told, ah they were told ah them being Halo Studios 343, whatever you want to say, were told, here's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to release your game in late July. That's the best we can do because we've got... um Gears of War coming and and you can't push it beyond that because we we already know Fable is going to get delayed.
Leon Lionheartly: So that happened. And I think what happened with the team, and this is just an assumption, I have no fucking bearing for this, but I'm a guy who reads the writing on the wall, which is when the team got told you not only can't release on your anniversary, you have to release it four months before your anniversary.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I think the team said, fuck it. And then just gave up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, me too. I really, I think that you're right. We have no hard evidence of this, but we've been around long enough in the gaming space to know how this shit kind of works. And that that does read very true to me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's It's not outside of the realm of possibility. It's really not.
Leon Lionheartly: Because, yeah, because the first 80% of this game or 80% of it is great. And the first part, 80% is amazing. And then you get to the end and you see the rough edges and you realize that they were kind of like, you know what? It doesn't matter. We're going to get slaughtered at anyways, whether it sells or not. It's going to get butchered because of this. Fuck it.
Leon Lionheartly: Just go. and the in the And quite frankly, it feels like the spirit of what they were trying to do was gone.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. And it actually felt a little good. i mean, not to make light of it or make it like a happy moment, but I was very glad that I wasn't crazy because You know, ever you guys were playing it, you were having a great time.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And i was like, fuck, maybe it's just me. Maybe I just can't ever be positive about anything again in my life. Like, I really, I was just looking inward, wondering what the deal was.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But when I got to that, that like mini blow up and saying like this fucking shit broken ass, like I was so mad. But when I was saying it doesn't feel like Halo, listener of the show, friend of the show, Solo had asked me in the chat, he was like, you know, can you give me some examples?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And he had been playing it too with a friend of his. And so I just angrily just listed like five things off the top of my head. And he actually, he was like, okay, I thought it was just me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I wasn't crazy. Like he also felt this way. He played Haley. He was like, it's been a while since I played it, but he also played it back in the day. And not to say I was right about everything because who knows, but he was like that, that at least holds merit. Like I understand what you're talking about because it did feel just a little different to me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, and that's, it meant a lot that I wasn't crazy about that. Cause I was like, I, again, maybe I'm just old and mad, but no, I fucking know.
Leon Lionheartly: Nice.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Hey, I do it so well. So Matt, what, what about you? ah Your, your complaints about stuff like your negatives first, and then we can get some of the positive stuff.
neocharge: Sure. Yeah, definitely. ah My experience with Halo, I played all of them, including Reach. ah Haven't played all of them.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh yeah. Yeah. Me too.
neocharge: Yeah, haven't played all of them on launch.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Did you, did you play infinite? Sorry, did I just, I didn't.
neocharge: No, no, I didn't play five either.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay, that's the only one you haven't played. Okay.
neocharge: Sorry, I've played all of the good ones.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, no, I played all of them.
neocharge: And...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I got you. I just, I wanted to know. Yeah.
neocharge: So I've played most of the Halo games. A big fan. I'm not a really a big first person shooter ah genre type guy, but Halo is one of the greats.
neocharge: It's a classic. It's incredible. I've been very excited since they announced this was coming to PlayStation. to play with the boys, right?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: ah We all got it. Well, most of us got it early access. We've been playing it for the last six days. ah And yeah, negatives first. ah First of all, when I booted it up, I was super excited to hear that.
neocharge: Oh, like the, the intro title screen on.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah Yeah, I gotcha.
neocharge: hmm. on my my surround sound, my Sonos, and the logo screens came up. They were blasting. It was like bass heavy. was like, oh yeah, here we go.
neocharge: And the title screen's pretty compressed. I don't know if they used the original i track, but it wasn't as grand as I wanted it to be. So that was a little little bit of a letdown with the audio mixing and everything like that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Then we get in, we're playing, we're having a blast. We'll talk about all the positives. The... Performance issues were a bummer. They didn't affect my experience as much as you guys because I was really having just a blast.
neocharge: We were laughing at the downfalls. We were laughing at the bugs. I still think it's unacceptable for a game to come out in this state. It's 80% finished, honestly. Like, 7 out of the 10 main mission games.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: The 3 prequel missions, so fun. We had a blast. No performance issues there. But the frame drops and
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, those were good. Those were good.
neocharge: Yeah, yeah. Literally, like I was watching, we were trying to do a specific skull challenge and I was watching Bo run through the level at like 10 frames a second. And then he gets to the next area. The fucking terrain didn't even load in. He was like running in the void, running in space.
neocharge: I have a video of it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's a great video for proof of that we're not fucking nuts.
neocharge: And I was like, yeah. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's a terrible...
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah, but i have I have more fun, funny videos than bad videos. And the performance issues are unacceptable. I literally told... And I'm about to send this in the group chat. I literally have a screenshot of me saying, book I don't know. I don't know if I'm going to get it early access because it might have performance issues on launch.
neocharge: yeah And he's like, nah.
Leon Lionheartly: Ha ha ha ha she
neocharge: So...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I mean, honestly, though, i not to defend Bo in this case, i mean, I am. i would never in a million years have guessed that a ah Halo game
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): would release in this state.
neocharge: That's why I did it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I, really I really, was like, there's no fucking way that it's going to be that bad.
neocharge: I never do... I never do early access. I rarely do early access. But... I was convinced. And looking back, I'm super glad I did.
neocharge: I don't care. I still had a blast.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I had fun. And it's lining up to where I i platinum this game. I platinumed it today, actually.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: i And I'm going to platinum Black Flag.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yay.
neocharge: And then I'm going to have a little bit of time before Beast. If I got this on launch, which would have been yesterday, Tuesday, the 28th, I might not have had enough time before a Beast. So I'm glad it lined up and I'm glad we dove in and we had a blast. But the yeah, the performance issues were glaring. ah The audio balancing issues were a little ah unfortunate.
neocharge: And yeah, the frame rate is unacceptable on the last ah two or three levels. And and it's it's an easy fix.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): christ
neocharge: And then we were having issues where people were dropping out of our... out of our party. Like, just people were dropping and there were network issues.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah you mean like when i got decapitated i got decapitated by nothing and i mean at least that was fucking hilarious but yes that
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank
neocharge: yeah
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. We had to do some workarounds for what we were doing. Well, of course, we were exploiting it, right? let's Let's be honest. We were exploiting the game a little bit ah because it's unbalanced as well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Well, only because we had to. we We had to, or you couldn't you physically could not...
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The game wouldn't let you play it if we didn't exploit it to have fun.
neocharge: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We were... I wouldn't say cheating. We were making the game let us have fun because it would not let us have fun normally.
neocharge: We tried.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It just wasn't working, so it was like, fuck this.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: we We tried.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Let's just...
neocharge: We tried that Lasso legit run. Lasso is legendary, all skulls on. ah We tried it. Legit. We couldn't get five minutes into the fucking campaign because like we were just blowing up.
neocharge: The AOE of the explosions were...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): broken.
neocharge: Yeah, it's broken. It's unbalanced. they are There was a patch today, Wednesday the 29th.
neocharge: And they did fix some stuff. And I think they're going to continue fixing stuff. And I really do think they're going to balance that ah lasso run. The lasso trophy, the platinum, is sitting at a 0.01% right now. And it's because it's extremely unbalanced. So those are my qualms about the game.
neocharge: ah But let's get into the positive stuff. Do you want me to start and we can go back around?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Sure. Yes. Yeah.
neocharge: Or do you want to...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Go backwards.
neocharge: Cool. Awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: Awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: ah this was one of the most fun experiences I've had with my friends and ah in a while. It was incredible. I love co-op games. It took me back to the early 2000s. We were having a blast. And i know it sounds cliche, but even though this game was broken and you know it the the the best experience, the the thing I took the most out of this is the time I spent with my very good friends playing this video game.
neocharge: and the friendships and I'm just grateful for the friendships I have and the people I played with and the the fun we had.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: We were laughing our ass off. I got a core fucking workout from playing this game co-op because we were just finding all kinds of bugs and just launching the warthog off of fucking edges and man, we have so many clips and, you know, we were talking about life stuff during it and we were, you know, bonding and connecting.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: I know it's cliche and I know it's like, but I really, I want to play more co-op games because games are sometimes more fun with friends and it's, it's really a ah good bonding experience.
neocharge: And I, I just appreciate the friendships I have and I'm grateful that we got to do that on launch and shortly after launch with Caleb. And I'm just, I'm just grateful.
neocharge: I have these people in my life that love this medium along with me and that are experiencing this and love video games as much as I do. So that was a big takeaway for me, honestly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Quick. Quick interjection while you're going with, I wanted to just give a quick shout out to Cyclon Berserk, who he and I, we played Destiny together back in the day.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know if he remembers me, ah but um I was really glad because I felt bad when I i had the game.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i had pre-ordered as soon as it was available because it fucking Halo 1 remade for me. I was like, yes, this is going to happen. I didn't know it was even playable five days early until later because i I was going to get the collector's edition because of how much I love the OG Halo and it sold out at like three in the morning before I even knew it existed.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So fuck me, I guess.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I was like, nope, just going to get the better, the next best edition. i don't care. I want to throw money at them because it's Halo. And then I found out like that week that it was, oh shit, it releases like Thursday or, you know, whatever the day was last week.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um And I was just too busy to play. And I told you guys we were going to play on the 28th when it came out. And so that was kind of the plan. we were going to play yesterday. and And before we knew the cast was tonight, we're going to play tonight.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I felt I actually felt really bad because I know you guys wanted to jump in as a four four player experience. And I was the fourth and I couldn't do it for like the first two days.
neocharge: you
neocharge: No worries.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): was just like, I i got it. So I when I was creeping on you guys when I got on at like 11 at night one night, i was the the the wife was gone. She went to Cincinnati and i I was fixing a dryer, trying to fix a dryer.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I was like, I can stay up as late as I want. And I i thought about playing Halo, but I jumped on and I saw you guys were playing with when the Cyclone was the fourth. So i was like, i mean would he mind if I use his real name?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Is that, is he cool with that?
neocharge: Yeah. First name.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like Chris, right?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah so i Yeah, but i when I saw that Chris was playing, I was just like, oh, thank God, I feel less guilty now.
neocharge: Chris with a K.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because he's he's also a very good player.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you know and not Not that like you wouldn't have fun with somebody who wasn't very good, but you know that I'm very good at games too.
neocharge: Yes.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So I was like, he's really good.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They're fine. They're great. I'm just going to play some fucking waifu Grand Blue Fantasy and and then go to bed later. like i I can't right now.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah So just thank you for him being able to jump in and and have fun with you guys. That was really cool that that I didn't
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Made me feel like less of a dick. So anyway, continue. I'm sorry. I just wanted to mention that.
neocharge: Ah, no worries. Yeah. Yeah, and shout out. We appreciate ah the other two players. ah Good friends and good listeners of the show. Bo, of course, Burrito Supreme.
neocharge: He's been on the cast. He's been on some spoiler cast. Shout out to you, buddy. We love you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): you mean You mean the guy that had to get carried for two missions?
neocharge: And then... ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Noob.
Leon Lionheartly: Ha ha ha ha ha.
neocharge: Right down that time stamp. And then Chris, ah AKA Cyclone Berserk, a played.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): nob
neocharge: He's a really good friend of mine. He actually... So before this, we went to a brewery. We were doing trivia night. ah We did okay. And we talked about it as a crew. We brought you in, Caleb, too.
neocharge: And we were like, should we get should we get Halo Early Access?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
neocharge: And I was like, no. I don't know. Might be performance issues. Got a couple beers in me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: Got a couple beers in me. is like, fuck it. Let's do it. at the Well, no, Bob. Bob, you were like, oh I got it. Fuck it. And I'm like, well, okay, fuck it. And I got the deluxe edition. I have my physical edition waiting at Best Buy to pick up. I'll probably pick it up with Beast. Keep it sealed. ah But we we decided on that as a crew. And then Chris, he reached out to me just randomly. ah Longtime friend. We don't talk all the time, though. And we we game every once in a while. Play some Monster Hunter games.
neocharge: big on destiny, but this was like 10 years ago. Uh, I haven't talked to him in a while.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: He was like, Hey, are you getting campaign or halo campaign evolved? And I'm like, you bet your ass. We are, we're getting it early accessed. And I was like, and we might have room for a fourth, uh, cause our fourth is, uh, doing something else and he he'll be in later, uh, which is you, Caleb.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He's a dickweed who lives in Ohio. and Yeah, you gotcha.
neocharge: It's a dick. Fuck the fourth. Fuck that guy. ah No, but he's like, oh, awesome, dude.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah
neocharge: I've been looking for a crew. I'd love to be your fourth. I'm getting it early access.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: I'm playing it now. And I was like, dude, this game brings together people. And that's that's what it's all about. ah So, yeah, i was I was big on like hanging out with friends digitally. And then the game, it's gorgeous.
neocharge: The game is gorgeous. It might not run well, but they did a really good job with the the graphics, the sound design, a little compressed, but really good job with the remake aspects of like the audio video stuff on a performance level. Not not great.
neocharge: But ah Yeah, just the beach level, the water.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: I took so many screenshots. So shout out to them.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, the assets the assets were were done well.
neocharge: It's gorgeous.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i do I would agree that the assets...
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That did still look enough like the Halo that I... I mean, if you go back and you see OG Chief, like the the original Xbox game was still gorgeous for the time.
neocharge: Exactly. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But if you hold up side by side, you're just like, the fuck?
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it's how you remember it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like seeing it now is like, oh yeah, yeah okay. This is... Other than the Cortana online discourse that we don't have to get into, but... whatever.
neocharge: ah She's fine. She looks fine.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, yeah, but but that's online people. Like, she's Cortana. It's fine. ah But Chief looks very much like Chief. You know, the the design is just prettier now.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So that's that's great, you know?
neocharge: who Exactly. Yeah. So overall experience i in that aspect. Awesome. And then just the gunplay. It's Bungie in their golden years. They might have tweaked some stuff.
neocharge: I couldn't notice it because i'm I'm not as big into Halo as you guys are. I fucking love Halo as a series and I can't wait for them to redo the next ones.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Mm-hmm.
neocharge: ah So, yeah, I think they i think they did that those aspects really well. And honestly, just a really fucking fun to play. I think I might.
neocharge: There's a skull that you get that takes you third person. And I like i really like my third person games.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh yeah, i didn't I didn't turn it on ever yet I should, because that that's interesting to me Yeah
neocharge: Yeah. I got the plat, and then I was like, oh yeah, there's a third-person skull. I want to try it out. I enjoyed it. I played the first level. I actually might go through, and when I'm on online with you guys, no no offense, but I'm on my headset, and I'm on my Astros because I'm on mic, ah and i I'm not utilizing my
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: fucking theater 9.2 Dolby Atmos surround sound.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
neocharge: ah So i kind I did that level with the surround sound. And was like, oh, I kind of want to play this third person with my theater sound.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank
neocharge: So yeah, i might I might actually do that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That's cool.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just don't play don't play stages eight, nine or 10 on heroic or legendary.
neocharge: So.
neocharge: No, no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Don't, don't. Although tell ah you should try it at least once. Just try it to see how fucking trash it is.
neocharge: No, no, I don't think will.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): the
neocharge: I'll play it on normal.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You're not a real man.
neocharge: I got the plat.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You're not a real man.
neocharge: And kudos to everyone that helped me get that plat. Because it was a team effort.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Of course.
neocharge: And Bob, we're going to get you that plat. You just let me know.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Okay? I'm there.
Leon Lionheartly: hey you guys You guys will be I'll be able to make that run by myself so you don't have to stretch or go out of out on a limb for me.
neocharge: What do you mean have to?
Leon Lionheartly: Alright,
neocharge: I'm not having to do anything.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: I want to. And we'll just chat it up.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I mean, I did, I did 10 of them by myself.
Leon Lionheartly: alright. Alright.
neocharge: And we'll stream it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So like, whatever, but it's it's fun.
neocharge: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's actually a lot more fun than the other bullshit we were dealing with it. it And it it is easy. So you'd be fine.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I, Matt was a little nervous and I was like, don't be nervous. And he tried it and he was like, oh yeah, this isn't bad at all. This is actually quite, quite easy.
neocharge: Mm-mm.
Leon Lionheartly: and Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So you'll, you'll be fine.
neocharge: No.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's a cakewalk.
neocharge: we'll We'll do the remix missions, and we'll stream it for all of you beautiful listeners out there. Twitch.tv forward slash Shapes of Gaming. Bob, what were your positives and good takeaways from this game?
Leon Lionheartly: um You've covered a lot of it. um So visually, this fucking game is is amazing when it's performing well.
neocharge: Cool.
Leon Lionheartly: um The water physics on the beach alone are just mind-boggling how they managed to do that. It looks very, very natural, right? ah I'd also say the pre the prequel missions don't get enough love online.
Leon Lionheartly: And and it's due to discourse because of neckbeards with a certain character, even though you have to explain to them like she's there for the three missions and that's it.
Leon Lionheartly: So tell me you didn't play the game, you ass clown.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): right It's a prequel and you didn't see her in the original.
Leon Lionheartly: um yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): What do you think that means?
Leon Lionheartly: Let alone the fact that Yeah, let alone the fact that like her character itself makes sense because if you know things about the lore, you understand ODSTs versus Spartans and everything All of that good stuff, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Those missions feel like real Halo missions and are done amazing. So shout out to the team. You can tell they put a lot of time and effort into it. And I i i really loved it because some of those areas kind of felt Halo 3-ish.
Leon Lionheartly: So like when you're dealing with the jackals and the trees, i so immediately went to Halo 3.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I was like, fuck, ah because I did that shit on Lasso in Halo 3 without a HUD. Or a ridicule.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: So i'm like ah just I know where it's at. um the other The really big thing, though, about this game is the best part of this game is playing with friends. um And that's that's a double-edged sword because there's no multiplayer.
Leon Lionheartly: But the ability at least...
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No competitive. No competitive multiplayer. Sorry.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, there's no competitive multiplayer.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You can do the couch co-op multiplayer, which is amazing. i just wish we could even do a hot... so ah what a Not a hot seat, but like ah a hot room where you can just jump in, go into a map.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: There's Blood Gulch, there's the canyon, all that good stuff, right? um But at the end of the day, playing with friends made this... made swallowing this pill a lot easier ah because if I had done this by myself, this game would not be a platinum. um I would have put it away. i would have canceled my physical pre-order that I already still... I need to go pick up still. um But...
Leon Lionheartly: Overall, this is a satisfying game. Just know that you might want to wait and see what happens in a six months and see where the team ends up. um Because I know you said seven, Caleb.
Leon Lionheartly: um Quite frankly, i I can't excuse what they did fundamentally to the DNA of Halo 1 and then the performance issues.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: This is a six out of ten game for me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Wow, yeah. And I don't blame you. it I really don't blame you. I had a hard time making it a 7, but like you said, the friend like the the experience that we had together, I try to be as objective as possible with my reviews. You guys know that.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): that It's not like they really made that happen, except they did allow the four-player co-op. That's the thing that Halo Studios did that saved the score for me. It was like, okay, but I don't, I don't begrudge a six out of 10 for you. I mean, as a review for you because busted, just fucking busted shit. No, no excuses. Right. That's you said it very well.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, there's half-baked things near the end of a game. So like the most 7 out of 10 game I can give you is Hell is Us. the That is a all the way up to 80%. And then after that, you're like, what the fuck did you do?
Leon Lionheartly: But the differences, the fundamental differences, Hell is Us still runs good all the way to the end. Halo campaign evolved just goes off the fucking rails somewhere.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um It's a tragedy.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We, we should, for the listeners, we you guys should post a few of those broken ass videos and, and like, you know, spoiler it, but there's not really anything to spoil because all you're seeing is broken textures and like, it's it you know, there's not really much that you're looking at in a 25 year old story, but yeah, I,
neocharge: No.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
neocharge: I'll do that.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah that's
neocharge: if they're not If they're not too big, I can put them in Discord.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, I mean, i would recommend doing that.
Leon Lionheartly: okay
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't have them. You guys do. But you you should do that.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: you know
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Because it's just to show people that we're not fucking crazy, you know? it And that it's like, this is not okay. This this is not okay at all.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, you're complaining about dying randomly. I was like, what are you talking about? And then I saw it happen in real time on the Warthog. And I was like, okay, you win.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah a flight proven But were laughing about it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, like, I... Yes, yeah exactly.
neocharge: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We, we, that, and that, I mean, are you finished with your positives? I will.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, go ahead.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm sorry.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah You guys touched on, on a vast majority of it for sure. Um, I'm glad that you mentioned the bonus missions, Bob, the bonus prequel missions, the three of them. um And we were joking at the time because I played the OG campaign first and then I was going to go to the bonus missions.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Even though I know the OG campaign really well, I wanted to play the OG. I mean, that's why I bought the fucking game was to play the OG. And I thought the bonus missions will be a nice little treat at the end when I get my my happy playthrough of Halo. And when I got to...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Mission eight or mission nine actually was the one that I was just like, are you fucking kidding me? Halo studios. I was just like you. Cause I played it solo. Uh, because for me, it was very important to play it solo first, just cause it's so near and dear to my heart. And then I was going to jump in with my friends.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, But I was also going to be like, I was like, they didn't even finish this game. I'm not going to give it the time of day. I'm so fucking over it. um I wasn't even going to play bonus missions. I was going to put it down.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I was going to have like a 12% Halo as as more of a statement because you guys know that I am capable of platinum just about any fucking game. It's not a dick measuring contest. I was just like, you guys don't even deserve my time. Not you. Halo Studios.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And no joke, when I got on, I was like, okay, I owe it to myself to at least finish the fucking main campaign.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then I can just quit and be mad.
neocharge: Aw.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You guys invited me to a party and you were like, we're doing lasso right now. And i I was, I mean, you guys couldn't see me. I just rolled my eyes. I was like, no, we're not like, there's no fucking, I don't feel like it I just, it's just like, we, there's no way.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Um, and We did it. We stayed up how fucking late that night? I mean, for me, what was it? Like four in the morning or something? I don't know. It was late. um It really did redeem the game.
neocharge: Oh, that's awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it's not just... It redeemed the experience, I should say. It doesn't redeem what they did. But they allowed for four-player co-op. We had a great time with it. That was awesome. It was just... And we talked about how inexcusable the shit was. And it was great to to just all be on the same page there. But then...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You guys had played the bonus missions at that point. I hadn't played them yet. So we were going through some of the bonus missions and i was I was still, I mean, you remember this, Matt. I said, you can skip the fucking cut scenes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't care. I'll just go back through on my on my own and play it. like I don't need to.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm not mad at that choice, i but I am mad that I got to that point with one of my favorite games ever. Like I didn't even give it to Jaius. Like it's probably going to be fucking broken. But i I am happy to say I agree with you, Bob.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Those missions, we were joking at the time. I was like, well, these are good because they did they just didn't do the last three missions of the base game. They worked all but all their time on these three bonus missions instead because they were very, very good.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Very well done. It felt very Halo. It felt it was a good prequel. um And I'm going to spoil one slight thing for the listeners here. If you've played Halo, you know who Sergeant Johnson is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): One of the things on the lasso run is you can aggro your allies. And if you aggro your allies, they just straight up fucking kill you no matter what.
neocharge: Yeah. Uh-huh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You can have an overshield and they will just, they will just like one of the, one of my favorite quotes where it's like, he crazy.
neocharge: Murder you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then they just like shoot you and you die.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And on the lasso run, if you die, you, if you're solo, you start over at the beginning of the level. If you die in in co-op, it's just the last checkpoint. So if you're going to attempt the lasso run, highly recommend the co-op just because it makes you less likely to want to hang yourself.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): um to I mean, it really, it's very frustrating because I personally think that that's also an overlooked problem. Um, mean, I'm not trying to complain about it, but we were aggroing them when we weren't aggroing them.
Leon Lionheartly: you
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, we don't know what the fuck was aggroing them. Like sometimes they would just turn on us and it was like, is it an Aaron explosion that we're not even causing because the game engine is fucked and they think that it was us. Like, we didn't know that was part of what we were talking about with the exploit.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cause it's like, we can't, we, you, you can't fix stupid. Like what, why is this happening? But, One of my favorite memories that I will take with me to for the rest of my life, and I swear this isn't racist. and It's not intended to be racist. It was just perfect.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): When Sergeant Johnson is on these levels with us and we would aggro him, we were just saying, surprise, motherfucker!
neocharge: you
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like the Dexter meme slash gif with Sergeant Doakes.
neocharge: Yep. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It felt the same. And it was hilarious. it made us It made us able to get through those moments. of frustration. I mean, that was very frustrating where it's like, what the fuck? I don't want to do this 55 times because the game doesn't work, but you guys made that much more ah palatable and and like, that's a good memory that could have very easily been a sour memory.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, like that could have gone real hard the other way. ah So that was cool. And I really appreciate all of you for that and for being in good sports. That was that was great. What's up, Matt?
neocharge: speaking of that Speaking of that, I got to give a shout out to the my most favorite line in the game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Okay.
neocharge: It's in the prequel missions. And Johnson johnson is like yeah john's is like, hey, Chief, you ever get tired of being in the almost silent type?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, yeah. In Mission 2.
Leon Lionheartly: I know exactly what it is.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): The second prequel mission. yeah
neocharge: And Chief's like, no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): There's a really long pause and it is...
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I actually think it might be his best new delivery where he just says...
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): no it's just That's it.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And you're like, oh, okay. All right. that you you definite Like Bob said, they understood the assignment for the prequel missions. They really, really did.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): That was that was a highlight of of the experience for me from a Halo enthusiast of the original, of Combat Evolved, and the fact that they didn't exist.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. But, yeah, it's it's it's a bummer because I know the world is kind of sick of remakes and reboots. Like, I get it. I am too, unless they're done really, really well.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I expected this one to be just a fucking slam dunk.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I did. I expected it to be a home run. And I'm not saying that, like, as a draft score.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i'm so I'm saying that just, like, as a gamer and as a fan. And... It could have been, but I think Bob's right on his estimate of of they released it four to four months early.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It wasn't ready, and they just said, fuck it, let's go.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Nobody's going to play it on Legendary right away. It's like, do you know who your audience is? What the fuck are you thinking? oh
neocharge: right
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So, yeah, that was... at At least we had a really good time playing it. and And I'm sure we will again, even though we've platinumed it. We'll play it every now and again, because the good news is...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): This isn't like Destiny where they can just be like, bye. I mean, there are the you have to sign into the Microsoft servers and shit, but it's not like an always online. ah They don't have to spend as much to keep the servers going for a game like this.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): so
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it's not Bungie. mean, it's Halo Studios. But kind of weird that Microsoft would let this happen after they released... Doom, and then it was awesome, that they're the DLC, and then, you know, downsized most of the studio.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I'm thinking Halo Studios releases a game like this and nobody's in trouble. I mean, again, I don't want people to lose their jobs. I don't. But that was in the back of my mind, too, where I'm just like, how is that okay?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, they they didn't release broken-ass shit, and they're all fired? These guys released an 80%, 70% finished game, and they all probably got promoted?
neocharge: Yeah. Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, fucking kidding me? So... But yeah, um if like you guys both said, and I mentioned a little bit earlier, but I don't want to be super negative about this game.
neocharge: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just have to be a realist. I am a huge Halo fan.
neocharge: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It is still a lot of fun. If you're on the fence about it, ah you know hopefully this helps. I would not not recommend the game as long as you know this going in that's That's the thing. it's It's a full price, or not full priced, but close to full price, right? it Wasn't it a little cheaper?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't remember. I need to look at what it costs.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah, oh yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I just bought it. I just bought it right away. was like, whatever.
neocharge: it's a
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i Okay, yeah, so 50 bucks.
neocharge: It's 50 for the base edition and then 70 for the deluxe edition. And the reason we got early access, we did the deluxe edition, so yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. Yeah, but you don't need that anymore because it's out.
neocharge: Nope.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's out for everybody.
neocharge: Exactly.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But
neocharge: You get some digital goodies too, so...
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, but know knowing that going in, if you're looking for a game that you can have fun with friends, and if you are willing to just play it on a lower difficulty until they fix the frame rate and some of the the tracking and just the bullshit, um then yeah, you should play it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): if you're If you're a Halo fan, it's not like it's all bad.
neocharge: Right.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): it's just it It really hurt me that they didn't nail that landing. Even with some changes that I was kind of against, they're not the worst. Like some of them, some of them I think are fucking terrible and and unnecessary, but that's me being a purist. That is not necessarily like a game design problem.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We already talked about the pistol where if they're going to throw 45 extra elites at you just because they turned the number up higher, why would you nerf all my shit and then make me not able to deal with it? Like that, that's, that's a weird choice for me.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): ah But you know,
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, and and and that's really weird when you compare it to the shotgun, which is absolutely still old-school Halo campaign evolved shotgun, like or combat evolved.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): yeah, which is fucking awesome.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it's almost busted, but not. Like, it it felt good. It felt like a good, solid weapon, which I loved because I was worried when the fucking Magnum was there.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i was like, what did... I thought they were going to nerf my favorite weapon, the sniper rifle. That feels almost... almost like old times. They changed like two things about it, but it's still really, really powerful.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i Again, that's me being super critical. Still my favorite weapon in the new game.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): like that it was it As soon as I got it back, I was like, yep, this is just like old times. And and and when Bo and I were playing, just the two of us a bit, it was very nice.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He was like he saw shot or ah a sniper rifle on the ground and he was like, hey, you come take this one. Because he knew that it meant a lot to me. And then he's running ahead and I'm just picking off. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And at one point when we were playing, he was like, damn, you weren't kidding. And i was like, yeah, this is this is my bread and butter. like this This is great. And then he got a sniper later in the same level.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And the two of us were on opposite sides. just We were crossfiring. I should have clipped it because we ended a mission. we both Not on purpose. We both shot the same final mob in the stomach at the same time. And it made like a trail of an X.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And it was really, really cool.
neocharge: Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and And I just didn't think about it until like five minutes later.
neocharge: oh Oh.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah, it was great. and And he'll remember that. He'll know what I'm talking about. Because I think I said, like, nice shot. And he was like, fuck, yeah. And then I started singing, you'll get caught up in the crossfire.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): You know, like like the 80s and 90s children that we are.
neocharge: Oh. ah sp yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: it
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But it it was very cool.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Like, that was the moment to just piggyback again. that Those moments were what made this awesome. So that sorry to disappoint for people that expected me to just suck it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): cause I love halo, but I, I couldn't, I couldn't be dishonest about it. I, I was, I was let down until, until we played together. So.
neocharge: Yeah. Well, yeah. ah We appreciate the the candor for sure. And I'm sure the audience appreciates that as well.
neocharge: So.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): They don't appreciate the extra episode length as usual.
neocharge: No, no, no. Don't don' pay to don' pay to shorten it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i know this is the, that's why I extended it like 30 minutes.
neocharge: but
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Cause I really want to make some of that bank fruit for us.
neocharge: Oh my God.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: oh no we don't, we don't ask for any money. We're not profiting off this. We're just doing it because we have fun we like drinking and talking video games. So yeah. And we've been playing a lot of them.
neocharge: So yeah. ah what Real quick. What's next? on the on the we we kind of talked about it beast is next for me uh platinum assassin's creed and then taking a little break i'm still playing split fiction too so uh that and then ah yeah paving the way for beast man beast of reincarnation game freak i'm hopeful very hopeful for this game so what's next for you caleb
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I'm my my very quick is I'm right on the fence because i might just play more Halo with you guys just to have some fun like if you know as needed or as wanted or whatever um But I actually have pretty busy, like tomorrow I'm going to see Spider-Man.
neocharge: Oh yeah, me too. Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Really excited about that. i'm going to have some wings with some other friends. And then Friday night, I'm probably hanging out with the wife, which then it's, I would only have Saturday and Sunday and a little bit of Monday before beast.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I really do.
neocharge: Yep.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I also want to play beast. Um, Marvel Toh Con is two days later. i can play both of those at the same time because they're very different. Toh Con is just going to be like a staple. It's going to exist.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I don't know if I want to jump into Crimson Desert and just work on it a little bit right before Beast. I do i don't i haven't decided yet. My other thought is because I don't want to get into a big ass game.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I might do Star Fox. because i haven't I haven't played through Star Fox.
neocharge: Oh, okay.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I might do that. I would love to do Xenoblade, Bob's bullshit, but I don't have 225 hours, so I can't. but But yeah, it's it's definitely, like, Tocon is absolutely happening.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Just don't know if Beast is going to be right away, if I'm available or not.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): So what about you, Bob? What do you got next?
Leon Lionheartly: let's Xenoblade and then probably I'm up in the air because I am going to be getting on Animusha is next and I want to play Xenoblade but there's another game right in the middle of October that I really want to touch because I haven't touched it since it was on the PS3 and that's the Metal Gear Solid metal gear solid collection
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Onimusha?
neocharge: September?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Ace Combat?
neocharge: but in the
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Oh, Metal Gear. Metal Gear, yeah.
neocharge: In the middle of August, you mean.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Metal Gear.
neocharge: Sorry.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah. In the middle of August. It's right there in between now.
neocharge: Yeah, because...
Leon Lionheartly: and But Metal Gear Solid 4 is also a very seminal game and I want to take my time with it because it's been 20 years.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: So I'm like, ah yeah we'll see. i'm I'm in a whatever the fuck I feel like mood right now um just because I'm looking over the hill and I'm like, I can't keep up.
neocharge: There you go.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Just whatever I catch.
neocharge: Nope.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Right. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, this is, this is actually a really good time for me because August is mostly empty after the first two big releases.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And so, and i'm I mean, I'm busy.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I've got like a family reunion. I got to go to, I've got like friends are coming for the weekends, whatever. So I'm actually glad that it's not September. Cause in September I am fucked. Like I have so I'm getting everything in September.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Uh, I got to catch up on everything else. now So I feel you there. and I'm glad you get to play Xenoblade because, I mean, you and I both know how meaty that game is and you are going to just sink your nipples into it. Yeah, I said it.
neocharge: ah
Leon Lionheartly: Trust me, i'm I'm looking at, I'm seeing some of the screens because it's our it's already out in other parts of the world and I'm seeing some of the video clips and I'm just over there like, give it to me now.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: for bru
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Definitely, definitely. You'll have to tell me if you get Cosmos right away ah as your blade or Cosmos, however.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah I'll definitely be keeping you up to date on that. and if you know, you know, folks.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): I never did because my RNG is fucking trash. So I never got her when I played through it.
neocharge: Oh, no.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Never.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, really?
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah. And my my friend, my very good friend who I i had told about the first Xenoblade on the Wii when it came out, like, back... He he played, like, the Xenosaga and all the all the original.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): But I was like, dude, you gotta get this for the Wii.
neocharge: Thank you.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): It's actually really good. um When he... His favorite is 2. When he got Xenoblade Chronicles 2, he was like... like this is This is the peak game. But i he had just started it.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And I was like, well good luck with the fucking gotcha shit. And then 20 minutes later, he just sends me a picture of Cosmos. And he's like, is she any good? And I said, I fucking hate you.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): i hate your whole face. It was the first one he drew. and I was like, of course. He didn't know that she was like super powerful either. And I was like, okay, that that checks out. And then he wrote me back for earlier listeners on earlier episodes.
neocharge: Wow.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): He just wrote me back and he said, giant stalker boots. And I was like, God damn it, Joss. Yes, it is. He knew.
Leon Lionheartly: No way.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and and he he was like, I never took her out of my party the whole time. I was like, why would you? She's amazing. So Matt doesn't what fuck I'm talking about.
neocharge: Dang.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): We're talking, but we know and listeners would know.
Leon Lionheartly: ah soon i get As soon as I get it, I'm going screenshot it or capture it and I'll send it to you.
neocharge: Neither do our listeners. Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): And then I'm going to send you back the ah Delta rune score.
neocharge: and
Leon Lionheartly: ah Warplates there.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): and With a screenshot of the bid, the 15, 15, and 16.
neocharge: Well played.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): No, if you do, though, let me know how the gotcha works in the revamped version because I'm very excited to to get into it you know what after the digital future comes and i I'm going to go back through those games.
neocharge: Ooh.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Looking forward to it.
neocharge: Yeah. Yep. And you'll report back on that game the next episode, which will be released mid-August sometime. So... Yeah, that's been episode 60.
neocharge: We've been talking a lot about games. ah I'm about to get off here and we're about to play probably more games. That's what we do. We love it and we talk all about it. So thanks so much for listening. We hope all of you have a great weekend and hope you're playing some good games out there.
neocharge: Let us know where you're playing. Hit us up on the dis on Discord and ah let us know what you think about what you're playing or talk about whatever. We're there and ah we're always playing games and talking about them. So thank you so much for listening.
neocharge: ah Keep the conversation going and have a great evening, night, morning, whenever the hell you're listening to this.
Leon Lionheartly: Peace.
Caleb (AdmiralMerps): Bob loves Cheez-Its.
