Transcript
Ali A Mustansir: And we're live.
Alec: Oh neat, we're live, alright. How's it going everybody? How do you feel about enjoying stuff? Do you hate stuff? Do you know why you hate stuff? Do you know why you like it?
Alec: We're trying to get to the bottom of happiness itself over here. And with a little bit of help and a lot of gumption, I think we're going to get there. We're going to be talking about the game of the year and all the nominations thereof. 2024. What games are you playing right now, Ali?
Ali A Mustansir: Uh, you know, we watched the game awards the other night and I was really interested in the fact that there was an expansion that got a game of the year, uh, nod.
Alec: Boy oh boy.
Ali A Mustansir: I thought that was, I thought that was kind of strange. So, I debated between picking up Elden Ring, which I've never played, uh, and also picking up Astrobot.
Ali A Mustansir: And I decided that since Astrobot won, there was going to be a game of the year version that's coming out.
Alec: Mm -hmm.
Ali A Mustansir: And so I decided to hold off on that. And I went ahead and picked up the Elden Ring collectors with the...
Alec: So, can I please tell the story of of how you acquired Elden Ring?
Ali A Mustansir: Go for it.
Alec: Okay, so so, okay, here's what happened, here's what happened, folks. Ali texted me and he's like, hey man, should I get, you know, ah should I get Astrobot or should I get Elden Ring?
Alec: And I'm like, I mean, you know, pound for pound, I think Astrobot is is quite an incredible experience. And he's like, yeah, but like, you know, they're like the same price and it's like Elden Ring. It doesn't go on sale very often. I mean, now is kind of the time to strike. Astrobot's looking right for DLC. And I mean, he's right there at this time. There's no game of the year But like, let's be real, it's probably going to happen. But I mean, we said the same thing about Super Mario Odyssey and we've never received DLC there. But I must have said like five times, yo, Astrobot and then Ali.
Alec: I thought he was like, yeah, but like Elden Ring, come on. And how's that going for you, man? How are we doing with that?
Ali A Mustansir: I've played i played a little bit.
Alec: What's a little bit, is it like two, three hours? 10 hours?
Ali A Mustansir: Well, about two.
Alec: Mm -hmm.
Ali A Mustansir: Uh, I got, I have to be realistic right now. You know, it's a holiday time and I do work in retail.
Alec: Oh, you got a lot going
Ali A Mustansir: Um, and
Alec: let let the Let the world know, Ali, there's a lot going on. I say with with respect. It's pride.
Ali A Mustansir: so I had a couple hours the other night, right after, uh, it finished downloading and I was like, I'm going to sit down and play. Um, I, I was not surprised.
Ali A Mustansir: to discover that you know you you walk out of the room that you start in, go what I would assume is about 20 feet, and immediately run into something that stomps you into the ground, quite literally.
Alec: That's the from soft formula. Yeah, man. Oh, yeah. Yep.
Alec: Yep. Yep If you do you what you tell me you didn't beat him your first time you didn't beat that thing that's supposed to wipe the floor with you dude
Ali A Mustansir: Uh, no, I definitely, I definitely lost and the game continued. and then I did the tutorial, which was actually kind of interesting learning the gameplay mechanics and the design and all that.
Ali A Mustansir: And I, I enjoyed that a great deal. And I was like, okay, this isn't so bad. This isn't so bad. These little, you know, what I eventually discovered were, or trash mobs.
Alec: That tutorial.
Ali A Mustansir: and I.
Alec: Yep.
Ali A Mustansir: I get out in the field and I'm like, Hey, there's a, there's a big gold thing moving around there. Maybe it's someone I'm supposed to talk to. And then he mopped the floor with me.
Ali A Mustansir: so now
Alec: Is it do you is it the guy that's like tries to lure you into the hole?
Ali A Mustansir: as a guardian or something, uh, he was a guy on a, on a Mount and the, he and the Mount were wearing golden armor right next to the starting point.
Alec: Okay.
Alec: Oh, I know.
Ali A Mustansir: I was like, okay, so and some, well,
Alec: Yeah, that that's kind of your first first one. I don't know if I think it's technically and like a mini bus. I think there is like a boss health bar, but I know exactly who you're talking about.
Alec: Yeah, you're going to get the yeah that is when you do get strong enough to beat him. That's kind of like your first, you know, boy, look how far I've come home and. That that is going to be your metric. I can't wait for you to get like farther.
Alec: Dude, we need to get to market the fellow man. Oh, my God, it's going to be awesome.
Ali A Mustansir: I don't even know what you're talking about.
Alec: All right. Exactly. Exactly. It's going to be great, man. We're going to have a good time. So stay tuned for that. He's a lot of Elden Ring updates. You're going to be coming up or your money back.
Ali A Mustansir: Yeah, most likely what money.
Alec: Exactly, exactly. So, uh, yeah, you so like, listen, I have played a lot of from software games. I love from soft. I played and beaten every single one of their souls games. And let me just tell you theirre their souls born games and let me just tell you.
Alec: Astrobot is good enough that it warrants a seat at the table of any from software game. I'm telling you pound for pound We can get into the philosophical discussions of you know, why these games of the year were the games of the year later and we certainly will but Goodness Astrobot is so good.
Alec: I just want to talk about it
Ali A Mustansir: Just as a, as an ironic aside there, uh, Astrobot was on sale.
Alec: Yeah. the Yeah.
Ali A Mustansir: Like two days later.
Alec: Right. Okay. That. Okay. Yeah. Sony's been playing a goose lately with their sales man. I got winter sales. They got post anyway. no, I, I know you, you famously bought persona five for like full retail price only for it till hours later, be like 15 bucks or something.
Ali A Mustansir: 30 bucks.
Alec: It was, it was, it was like so sad to, to, to watch that discount happen in that time.
Ali A Mustansir: yeah Yeah.
Alec: But anyway, are we talking game awards?
Ali A Mustansir: Yeah. I think we should talk about the game awards.
Alec: Let's do game awards.
Ali A Mustansir: And there's a lot to talk about.
Alec: First off, before we talk about anything, I want to say two things. One, the Emmys this year had, I think, 20 million views. Uh, did you hear about this the the numbers of jude?
Ali A Mustansir: I did not.
Alec: Okay, so let me get the numbers in front of me. I don't want to be wrong. But the me views this year Uh were something like 20 million. It was 6 .87.
Alec: Hang on in september 24 6 .87 million and then the game awards. I don't even have to look it up. I know for a fact. It was 141 million So, I'm not gonna, you know, explicit language be darned. To quote Joseph Ferris, frick the Oscars, frick the Emmys, Game Awards forever.
Ali A Mustansir: oh
Alec: Dude, I mean, dude, we're good. The Game Awards have a lot more of a a universal appeal.
Ali A Mustansir: but
Alec: Let's be real, but like that's still a staggering amount of recognition and uh, jiff keeley Did all right. He certainly got his suit game up, uh over the past couple years A lot of people know
Ali A Mustansir: That's fair. I will say that it's, it's kind of interesting, when you talk about gaming versus, ah you know, the game awards versus Emmys and all of the other award shows.
Ali A Mustansir: It's like gaming holds a very specific spot in the, we'll say the zeitgeist.
Alec: that was the culture yeah it's have you ever seen indie gamer the movie it's like a documentary all right well never mind i keep going sorry
Ali A Mustansir: the The interesting thing about it is there's no other form of storytelling that is like it.
Ali A Mustansir: It is a. No.
Ali A Mustansir: no, it's when you look at it and you think of, you know, can you tell a story like. Life is strange. In a in an immersive way. In a movie. In the same way that you can in a video game.
Alec: That's such an interesting example because let's be real. Life is Strange is good. It is good at its, you know, story, its atmosphere. It is in it is more of an indie movie game than any indie game has ever been.
Alec: You know what I mean?
Ali A Mustansir: Mmhmm.
Alec: It it has a Zooey Deschanel -esqueness to it. It has a 20, 10s, 500 days of summer, you know, a little earlier, but dare I say Fight Club -esque kind of vibe to it.
Alec: like
Alec: There's life is strange could be told as a movie and it has been told as a movie It's been all those indie movies, but you add that layer of gameplay and decision -making Knowing like the the things that you try to undo and what they cause Yes, it could be told in a movie, but it hits differently and I mean if We didn't believe that it hits differently. I don't know if we'd have a show to talk about But, there that I, we can even talk about something like Baldur's Gate, like where every decision.
Ali A Mustansir: That's true.
Alec: Oh, my, uh, Witcher cyberpunk.
Ali A Mustansir: Matters.
Alec: I mean, there, there are games where, you know, there's the illusion of choice. There's a classic Nintendo choice where it's like, would you do this? Yes. Or yes, please. You know, it's, it's, uh, will you take the sword?
Alec: Yes. Or, you know, and and it'll keep looping you back. sometimes there is choice sometimes there's the illusion of choice sometimes there's you know choices that feel like they happen automatically but uh they don't you know there's video games are that that's why they are what they are their their decisions and their weighted decisions and those decisions just yeah yeah they carry weight.
Alec: i mean they They make the experience more full.
Ali A Mustansir: They matter.
Alec: Life is Strange is still going on because one, it's got Square Enix money behind it. But two, i mean there's a i there's a platform for it.
Alec: I also think it's it's Fairly, I have not played the sequels. I really need to i'm very intrigued on how they've like franchised it but uh Yeah choice matters in games.
Alec: That's that's Sorry to this was your point. But yeah, like choice matters Okay, thank god
Ali A Mustansir: Uh, just a note on life is strange, uh, the sequels and spinoffs or if you want to call them that, uh, there it's more anthology. There's no, uh, there's no, uh, full on connective tissue.
Alec: good i i know there's something like to the before the storm but i'm glad to hear it's all self -contained because without s swallowing anything there's something fairly definitive about the implications of the story and the butterfly effect nature of like you know yeah that's all i'll say yeah yeah that's all i'll say
Ali A Mustansir: That first game. Yeah. but I mean, getting back to the game awards, uh, there was a lot of really interesting things announced and there was, there was a few surprises.
Ali A Mustansir: And as far as, uh, winners go, uh, I feel really bad for square Enix because, uh, rebirth was nominated for just a bunch of, a bunch of awards and it won one.
Alec: Is final fantasy the Leonardo DiCaprio of video games Is it is it incredibly well recognized incredibly well celebrated decorated and appreciated but just not much of a winner and
Ali A Mustansir: This year, for sure.
Alec: Is that the case? This year, it seems like 16 kind of sing the same song, unfortunately. And you and I are the biggest like, dude, you and I both had more time in Final Fantasy 14 than any other game going on this year.
Alec: And that says quite a bit.
Ali A Mustansir: By a lot.
Alec: I mean, for 14 stands on its own two feet. I don't need to defend 14, but. Final Fantasy is I don't know. It it holds an interesting. Ubiquitous in its ubiquitous in gaming, and it always has been that, you know, it's this amazing story franchise with like real adult mature characters and themes. And when there's so much of that going on in in our landscape, it's it's tough to know exactly what Final Fantasy is. And this is a conversation from that time, of course. But. Yeah, I have a lot of trouble
Alec: recommending Final Fantasy to my friends unfortunately like there's if if you've played it and you know how to chill with it like you get it but and again this is getting way off topic and an increasingly Fortnite -ified world and an increasingly you know ads gambling games -ified world uh man i miss some Final Fantasy man i miss when everybody was just playing Final Fantasy sorry okay let's game awards this so
Ali A Mustansir: You're spoiling future episodes.
Alec: okay so i wanted to say say say some stuff but yeah go ahead keep going boy howdy
Ali A Mustansir: No, I agree with what you're saying about a how everything is kind of moved to this free to play slash pay to win model. And it is hard to to bring something like Final Fantasy to, you know, your average gamer, because if I look at someone who's used to playing.
Alec: who
Ali A Mustansir: I mean, let's be honest, Fortnite isn't exactly that deep of a game.
Alec: No.
Ali A Mustansir: When you're used.
Alec: Tim Rogers describes it as as a party city dumpster. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, well, you do know, apparently Party City shut down yesterday, so.
Alec: Oh, really? What a world.
Ali A Mustansir: Yeah. So that's, uh, that's ironic, but so the, the interesting thing on, uh, on, on, on bringing someone new is, uh, well, we've gotten so used to this concept of media snacking.
Alec: Late stage capitalism, folks. Sorry.
Alec: Dumpster got a lot bigger.
Alec: Nice.
Ali A Mustansir: And, if you're not familiar
Alec: Wow, I've never heard the term I like it.
Ali A Mustansir: Oh, uh, basically it's, we take little bits of media. That's why things like, uh, tick tock. And if you remember vine, when that started, that was really the beginning of it.
Ali A Mustansir: just little bits, little bits of things.
Alec: Just these crystallized dopamine bursts, yep.
Ali A Mustansir: Yep. So someone hops on fortnight. And while I know there's people who will sit there and play that all day, uh, you know, you might play a match or two and then you're done, move on to something, uh, something different.
Ali A Mustansir: That is, we'll call it video game snacking. So if I turn to you and I say, hey, I know you play these little 10, 15 minute ah matches on Fortnite, how would you like to play a game that you're going to sink, you know, 50, 60, 100 hours into?
Alec: Yeah.
Ali A Mustansir: It's a daunting proposition. And then you take that a step further and talk about and MMOs like Final Fantasy 14, which I have something like, Oh, I did the check the other day.
Ali A Mustansir: I've got like 61 days of play time on one character and that's just one character.
Alec: Goodness. And you have like four characters.
Ali A Mustansir: I have a lot more than four characters.
Alec: I don't know. Yeah, I'm This guy.
Ali A Mustansir: but
Alec: All right, so you said 61 days times 24. I can do simple maths as 1464 hours. My friend.
Ali A Mustansir: Yeah, yeah, that's a lot of, yeah, that's Jessica.
Alec: Is that Jessica?
Alec: Yeah, nice. Anyway, yeah, no.
Ali A Mustansir: I'm more impressed that you said it correctly.
Alec: Yeah, what I learned, you know, I'm adaptable, very suggestible.
Alec: Yeah, Final Fantasy 14 owns. I mean, like, we that's actually how we met. I mean, that's a, you know, spoil our origin story, but it's it's how we we reconvened, I should say, but.
Ali A Mustansir: Uh, That's how, yeah, that's how we reconnected. We met because you worked at a, that retro game store.
Alec: Yes.
Alec: Yep, the job where like it or not you have the crown of thorns of You know your video game opinions being held in very high scrutiny like That job you like it or not.
Alec: You become a tastemaker. It's kind of what I was thinking like I would never describe myself like as a tastemaker especially at that time I was like
Ali A Mustansir: Yeah.
Alec: e 16 when I got my first GameStop job and I worked there until I was like 23 or 20. I worked at a game store until I was like 23 or 24. We're getting ahead of ourselves.
Ali A Mustansir: but Yeah, so I Mean obviously Final Fantasy 14 has been ah ah For me the last several years That's been my primary game.
Alec: Yes, please.
Ali A Mustansir: Like I actually played less this year than previous previous years Last year. I did Quite a bit more hours in 14
Alec: Did some good work.
Ali A Mustansir: But, uh, really like, I want to say pretty close to a third more, uh, last year than this year, like substantial.
Ali A Mustansir: that's the big one. What other games do you think, uh, monopolized your time this year that, that really like stood out?
Alec: Oh. Oh, I got a lot to say about this. year This is the best gaming year of my life, ladies and gentlemen. Ladies, gentlemen, everyone, all of them, everything. I just want to let you know that I had just about the best gaming year of my entire living life. is going to detract from the Game Awards conversation. But just as a quick aside, I'm going to read off Ali, you prepare.
Ali A Mustansir: Okay.
Alec: This is this is every game I beat this year, and I'm going to top five but for everybody at the end. So in no particular order, but also I did list these in the order that they came to my mind.
Alec: So that kind of says something. Hitman 1, Hitman 2, Hitman 3. These are the you know brand new Hitman games, IO Interactive. Phenomenal games beat them with my fiance. They were incredible. Outer Wilds, the game that turns my girlfriend into my fiance. We had an incredible time with Outer Wilds. That is a game I have so much to say, but we don't have time. We're going through this. Earthbound, so much to say. We can't talk about it right now. Undertale, so much to say. Can't talk about it right now. Control, Gears of War Ultimate Edition with my bro, John Michael. if You're listening. Hello, sir.
Alec: I actually a hundred percented super smash bros brawl and that was a lot of fun That was a personal achievement that I just needed to do astrobot on the ps5 platinum debt blood -borne platinum that yes I did kill the queen of Yharnam and I did it the hard way Don't you worry dark souls 3 the many pieces of mr. Koo final fantasy 14 final fantasy 14 heavens word final famous a final fantasy for on the PSP sonic forces sonic x shadow generations which we don't have time to talk about all the things that i want to say about that a way out with my fiance portal and katamari damachi i finally beat that uh also i you know there's no beating hell divers too but i played the heck out of that and sonic and sega all -stars racing thank you thank you uh for your time thank you i yield uh so this was the
Ali A Mustansir: You, you yield the floor.
Alec: there's some titles in there man there's some there's some wagyu beef prime hazel please
Ali A Mustansir: There is, however, there's one, there's one really interesting thing that I, that I noticed when you were going through all of those,
Ali A Mustansir: of the two that you, uh, that you mentioned that came out this year, well, um, twenty four One of them was the game of the year and the other one was nominated for a bunch of awards. It doesn't sound like you played a whole bunch of games that released in 2024.
Alec: Dude, so so OK, first off, also, let me say I did not be boll atrope. I've been playing the heck out of that. We there's a lot to be said about 2024 because it's kind of we we kind of have to think about it in a in a refined light. If you look at every one of the games of the year, none of these, not a single one is like a bold new gameplay style. These are all refinements. These are all just graduatory lessons these are are you know collegiate level executions of collegiate level ideas balatro is poker as a roguelite like it's just so simple and it's so perfect and it's so creative
Alec: And it's so, you know, endorphin inducing. All the the rumble features, the the card aesthetics, the joker looks, the loving nature of just all the different ways that card games can be interactive. Ballotro is such sophisticated, minimalist, executed game design.
Alec: Elden Ring is the same. OK, first off, you made that joke about it, you know, being a DLC. Did you do you hear them poke fun at that, like when they were doing the whole Muppets thing?
Alec: What are those guys names, Marley and Barley?
Ali A Mustansir: I don't remember
Alec: You know, that's those are those are the other ones. Those are Muppet Christmas Carol. Anyway that we don't have time moving on I don't fancy seven rebirth not only is it a a Sequel it's a sequel of a remake which anybody who's played it obviously knows it's not just a remake It is far closer to something of a sequel don't have time to get into the reasons why blacksmith Wukong incredible execution sense of scale. It's it's shadow of the Colossus esque at times, but at the end of the day, it's it's actually pretty
Alec: non. To me, it was is a pretty non remarkable Dark Souls game. I mean, I saw souls like it it did a couple. of It was a really nice, pleasant experience throughout the entire it's not it's it's it's we don't have time to talk about it. But it's the the point I'm making is that it is a a just refinement of a familiar game design aesthetic.
Alec: Metaphor Refantazio, a complete execution of everything they've learned across five plus Persona games, because there's much more than five.
Ali A Mustansir: Uh -huh.
Alec: Two is on its own two games. And then Astrobot. Astrobot is what happens when you make Super Mario with the hardware potential and the love and creation engine of just like the the human mind.
Alec: The heart, the heart of a gamer, you know, it's like Satoru Iwata says, like in my head, I'm a, you know, my, my badge, I'm a president. In my head, I'm a game designer. In my heart, I'm a gamer. That is what made Astrobot. There's no microtransactions. Let me tell you how much I love Astrobot. We're going to get into it. my fiance got a job, uh, in the middle of the summer, some, sometime before, you know,
Alec: she she She got a job and this job involved her waking up at like 7 a .m. I Astrobot announced some DLC that was gonna be released weekly every Thursday at what would be my time 8 p .m. Or sorry 8 a .m. So I would literally wake up with her on these Thursday mornings. I'd make her breakfast. We would have coffee and it would be amazing. I usually wake up with her but Thursdays were a little bit more special because I knew as soon as she left I had to wait like 10 minutes and then I would be able to play one more Astro Bot level. I get to see just a couple more video game references. I'd be, you know, subject to just a little bit more of their amazing level design. I mean, it's ah it's just a fun game. it's Just a fun package. I yield my time. Thank you.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, and that's actually something that uh, you know, you you just made the comment about it being like Mario it's a ah if With a hardware potential but But you bring up a valid point of you know, just designing a game to be fun, you know the the ah During the game awards right before the game of the year presentation
Alec: It's so Super Mario Odyssey -esque. I don't think it's even a question. Sorry, go ahead.
Ali A Mustansir: There was the Larian Studios CEO.
Alec: Mm -hmm.
Ali A Mustansir: I'm gonna butcher his name, but Swen Vinky.
Alec: Mm -hmm. That is a butchering. Yes Activision basically all the company all the big companies, but he he had some spice that's for sure
Ali A Mustansir: He had some pretty choice words to say about...
Ali A Mustansir: well Yeah, but... i don't think don't think he's he's necessarily wrong.
Ali A Mustansir: I particularly like, you know he said, it's stupidly simple, but somehow it keeps on getting lost.
Alec: Mm -hmm. It's it's short -term profits and short -term game with You know, it's like Metal Gear Solid never charged anybody. Okay. Well until Metal Gear Survive, but that's not a Kojima title uh people don't remember Metal Gear Solid because it charged them weekly to you know uh just play the next 10 minutes you know people don't remember Halo because of the like armor that they got to wear like these are people have been gaming and enjoying games far more than they've enjoyed they've enjoyed the aesthetics uh i'm a big Sea of Thieves fan but the only rewarding content you get in Sea of Thieves is purely aesthetic and it's kind of crummy in my opinion
Alec: I don't think that we should be in an era where, you know, uh, uh, an inverse color of a skin is worth like $10. Dude, I was going to, I was super excited for the stellar blade near automata DLC and it's 10 bucks for essentially just costumes.
Ali A Mustansir: Hm.
Alec: And why? i I get why like you know time and effort deserve financial recompense. I am not here to to qualm about all of capitalism, but like I just think it's kind of lame, the the modern ecosystem and the modern way we're doing games. We touched on this lightly. it's It's a little not game of the year territory, but like Marvel Rivals is is knocking boots right now. It's it's killing it.
Alec: doing incredible numbers and a little bit of that's the brand recognition of Marvel. But a lot of it is frustration at the modern dynamics of these, you know, MOBA type games. Overwatch 2 is maybe the only sequel in history to genuinely absolutely release with less content, with more restricted content with fewer options. It is And it's i my boss was a complete psychopath. But one one of the things that psychopathy allowed him to do was he got every single Overwatch skin except for I think like that one Mercy skin that was, you know, like some exclusive something. But he got every skin for every character in Overwatch. And then like all that content is just now gone.
Alec: Overwatch was the first game I bought for every system.
Ali A Mustansir: Oh, man.
Alec: I got on an Xbox one. I got it on PS4. I got it on PC. The first in in every one of those games is, you know, is gone. It's literally gone.
Alec: There's nothing I can do to play Overwatch one. I can give them my phone number and play Overwatch two, which like true. I just don't want to do. I don't really want to play Overwatch two that bad.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, and Overwatch has something in common with Destiny as well, because if you look at, uh, if you look at Destiny, both of these were published by Activision, uh, you know, through the chain and.
Alec: Mm hmm. Goodness. You got a lot to say, please, you know, because I just started Destiny, actually, and I have a lot of questions.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, when Destiny one came out, it was, uh, heralded as we have this 10 year plan for the story. So you buy this game, it's going to be relevant for the next 10 years. That was its.
Ali A Mustansir: That was the sales pitch. Like I, I worked at Best Buy at the time and that was the the sales pitch. Hey, this is a game.
Alec: I remember.
Ali A Mustansir: This is a 10 year game and it was on all their advertisements.
Alec: I remember I was working at GameStop at the time. Mm hmm.
Ali A Mustansir: Yeah. It was on all their ads, everything like this is, this is the plan.
Alec: It's going to live, it's going to grow.
Ali A Mustansir: And then a couple of years, a couple of years in, uh, Activision was like, no, we're releasing destiny too, which I mean, had some minor.
Alec: hmm.
Ali A Mustansir: some minor quality of life improvements as far as the, uh, you know, the HUD and interface go.
Alec: Mm hmm.
Ali A Mustansir: yeah.
Alec: it But it shifted to a free -to -play economy of missions and structure and dynamics, and it it makes the game feel incredibly disjointed, even though it does have bigger levels.
Ali A Mustansir: And then, and then now they've got this whole vault system where they, you know, put away worlds and
Alec: Oh, God.
Ali A Mustansir: What's interesting is that Yeah, and the the things that are that were put away are the things that really had the most Activision influence because about halfway through Destiny 2's lifespan thus far they said, you know what?
Alec: Restricting FOMO -inducing content, yeah.
Ali A Mustansir: We're not gonna work with Activision anymore. We're gonna self -publish and The stuff that most of the stuff that was during the Activision years is shuttered
Alec: absolutely blows my mind man can i tell you just real quick why that particularly bums me out like so in our you know
Ali A Mustansir: And there's a downside to that because the beginning the beginning story from Destiny 2 was some of the best writing and narrative that the game has had. And it's it's completely unplayable.
Alec: Lord of our Lord, a year of our Lord and Savior 2024. That's a joke. It's just 2024. But like I I'm somebody who realized a little bit too late, I'll admit, because I think Destiny came out like 2015. I was working a game stopped at the time and it's definitely it was marketed exactly as Ali remembers. It's it was a 10 year game. It was going to they didn't talk anything about Destiny 2.
Alec: I understand why they made Destiny 2 because Destiny 1 ran at like 30 frames. It had smaller worlds. It was had no PC, no cross play. I understand the the need for innovations, but they absolutely fumbled it from even just calling it Destiny 2 instead of you know rolling it into something new like Final Fantasy XIV. Or yeah did there's other examples.
Alec: But like I just realized, hey, halos, those Halo games are are my most seminal you know shooter experiences. They are my FPS gold standard. I love Halo one, two and three more than I love some family members of mine. But like and I realize like now these guys are are approaching, you know, games with this mission structure of like
Alec: of an m MMO, you know, Tim Rogers, uh, I want to quote him again, uh, but in his top 10, you know, games of the decade, he talked about destiny and destiny was number 10. But in it, he says, destiny gave me five minute goals, 10 minute goals, 15 minute, uh, set, uh, raids and like, you know, hour long set pieces. And like, it's, it's true, man. Like those people know how to make a good game, but it was so predatory.
Alec: and dismantled, afflicted, diseased by the greed of Activision.
Ali A Mustansir: Dismantled Well, and
Alec: and And we definitely live in a bad, you know, climate, economically speaking, but Activision needs to have a certain amount of scrutiny placed upon it.
Alec: Like we we cannot forget how awful they are and how many things they've ruined over the years.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, and if you, if you really look at it, uh, you know, the past few years, uh, it's been bungee doing the distribution for destiny themselves.
Alec: They bought the rights back, right?
Ali A Mustansir: Uh, they just got the, yeah, they got the distribution rights back.
Alec: Something like that. Okay, that's interesting.
Ali A Mustansir: but as a, as a result, if you look at, you know, this year, 2024, destiny, the final shape came out, which was,
Ali A Mustansir: the end of their 10 year plan coinciding with 10 years since the game released.
Alec: Interesting.
Ali A Mustansir: And what is the score that it receives? It's got a 90 on Metacritic.
Alec: I totally, man, see, I believe there's fun to be had, but. There's so much to to just ruin the but like, there's so much negativity placed upon it from, you know, the dwindling people that are online to like, you know, the things I read on Reddit, you know, of like how the game I the thing I read the most on the Destiny 2 subreddit is they don't listen to us. They're not listening. And I don't usually, I don't have any information to base this off of.
Alec: I've played exactly like 10 minutes of Destiny 2. I'm getting all the second hand, but I got to say, as somebody who has looked up like Final Fantasy 14 cutscenes 1 .0, just to know like what I'm, what isn't being told, I really cannot stand the disappearing content and the nature of it that we've just kind of seems like we've just blindly accepted.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, Final Fantasy 14 1 .0, uh, in comparison to what you just said about destiny is really a good, uh, juxtaposition.
Ali A Mustansir: Because if you look at Final Fantasy 14 1 .0, it was, I mean, they dropped the ball. It was, it was terrible.
Alec: Absolutely. Yeah is game design atrocity Oh, yeah
Ali A Mustansir: And. Uh, instead of just like giving up on the game, like, uh, what's that game? Concord. instead of just giving up on the game, they said, Hey, we're going to fix this.
Ali A Mustansir: And now it's considered one of the best in the, in their franchise. It is, uh, spoken about along with the world of Warcraft as the, you know, the example of how an MMO should be.
Alec: Absolutely.
Ali A Mustansir: And one of the things that's most important is. When you look at what the community has to say about the, uh, the producers for final fantasy 14 is they listen, they hear what the players want and they do something with it.
Alec: Mm hmm.
Alec: Yoshi P plays his own game, dude.
Ali A Mustansir: Yeah.
Alec: Yeah.
Ali A Mustansir: that is, that is something that needs to happen more. And it comes back to what Mr. Vinke said, you know,
Ali A Mustansir: You gotta let the developers make the game that they would want to play. And part of that is understanding the audience.
Alec: absolutely dude no in the the thing is there's there's never going that we have this like discrepancy this growing growing discrepancy between you know genuine artistic game design that is in design to elicit you know just you know, pure elation, joy, you know, intensity, you know, good feet, like all these things that games can make you feel, they can be done with a a artistic flourish, or they can be done with like this manipulative, mechanical, passionless, you know, aesthetic, aesthetification that seems to be going on in video video games now where it's just,
Alec: I don't know. I don't, I'm very optimistic about the future of games, but the disparity between quality and what people actually seem to occupy their time with, it's, I don't know.
Alec: It's like, it's like we're watching, it's like there's, scors it's like we're talking about Scorsese films amongst, you know, everything on VH1 in the 2000s, you know? It's, it's tough.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, and what you're talking about is actually kind of an interesting concept there as well. you know, you're, you're talking about this idea of the cookie cutter game that people just play. And my example of that, that drives me crazy.
Ali A Mustansir: And I'm going to get a lot of hate for this, but anything Holyo verse, you know, Genshin impact, the zenless zone zero.
Alec: holy Oh the Hong Kai star rails the Zen this I can't stand those they blind they there are some examples where they've just blindly taken from like near automata or it's It's like power world with Pokemon. I mean, you can't tell me that that's original. I'm sorry You can you can enjoy it. You can enjoy that it copies your favorite thing you can enjoy that it's the Pepsi to the coke or the RC to the Pepsi to the coke or the It's another one
Alec: I don't know. I ran out of colas but uh Kirkland de Cola, I don't know but do dr.
Ali A Mustansir: I feel, well actually yes, Kirkland, Dr.
Alec: Thunder It's yeah, man, it's it's it's a tough time and the truth is I
Ali A Mustansir: Thunder versus Dr. Pepper.
Alec: Games, people need to feel good. I'm not blind to that. Not everybody's trying to be challenged by the Last of Us or the God of War. Not everybody needs to. And that's why there there are things, though, like Astrobot, like not every game that's good needs to like have you sit down and like put on your serious hat. Like this isn't, you know, a torture fest or games are fun and they can be fun, but it's like
Alec: I don't, I don't know. I don't know how, cause like there's, there's things like infinity Nikki where, you know, that is a game designed around a beauty and yes, it's a gotcha game with all these like.
Alec: bad gotcha elements. I'm completely aware of that. But it's, it's exactly what it says it is, you know, then you have something way more dishonest, like Overwatch 2, which, which lubers you in with this idea of like a gameplay promise. And then it totally just restricts you with your character selection, with your modes that you can do when you can play certain know game types.
Alec: i Don't know I I don't really know if I have anything else to say like Insightfully, I just don't like it. I Wish I wish people would I get that people can't pay 70 bucks for astrobot and they can play I so I don't know.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, and yeah, but then you can go back and talk about Bellatro again and say that obviously it's, it's possible to make a game that is, you know, unique.
Alec: Is this an economics issue? I probably has to be with the economic way of things
Ali A Mustansir: I mean, not everybody's going to have that unique ID idea, but, uh,
Alec: singular
Ali A Mustansir: The Yeah.
Alec: Singular Homeboy didn't even invent poker like like there are artistic renditions of like he he literally me just tweaked it a little bit He just tweaked it and you can tweak something and it be an artistic execution, you know What is you got solitaire and free so out there aren't there? Kind of just you know weird card games that people made up there. They're kind of cool I don't know. They're they're cooler to me than anything by hoyovers. Yeah, I
Ali A Mustansir: and And that's, that's the thing is, you know, he, he, he took it, he took a formula, he tweaked it, he made it something new. And it's not just the same cookie cutter thing over and over again.
Ali A Mustansir: And that's something that I feel has been pervasive in gaming for the past few years is everything has it's reached a point that almost everything that is mainstream, that is big.
Ali A Mustansir: And I use that word mainstream very cautiously, is.
Alec: right
Ali A Mustansir: derivative of something else. So, you know, this year.
Alec: Black Myth Wukong didn't invent the Souls formula, and even Souls didn't invent the Action RPG formula, it just had a very specific flavor, so specific that it spawned a genre. Sorry to interrupt.
Ali A Mustansir: Yeah, no, ah but I mean, if you look at it, what are what is what is this year defined by what made what made 2024 a year that we're going to remember in gaming. I mean, yeah, there's a couple of standout games, but
Alec: There's not a lot of them. there's there's There's few and far between. I mean, it's like going to the movies. Like there's some good films, but I have like in this at this moment right now, I i paid, you know, like 10 bucks a month, like cinema.
Ali A Mustansir: yeah
Alec: And I used to go to movies all the time. I used to like never be able to like I would always be out of tickets. I have like 10 extra tickets. I saw Sonic three last night, which I would talk so much about, but we don't have the time.
Alec: was good.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, that's coming.
Alec: Watch it. That's good. watch it do it just do it then say for after the credits uh yes both of them yeah man i i think you're completely right when you bring up something like volatro volatro is ten dollars on your phone yeah it's ten dollars not everybody has ten dollars i completely do not blame you for not having ten dollars still think there's better uses of your time than playing something like fortnite i i i don't know that i can even say this the the phrase you must have $10 lying around because truthfully, I absolutely know that a lot of people do not. But I also would ask you, please don't forget that games are a series of decisions placed in front of you. and And it's about questioning who's who's behind the gun, you know, who's the man behind the man behind the man with the gun? You know, who is really placing these things that you believe are decisions in front of you? And are they really decisions?
Alec: Like, never forget, the only, the best way to win chess is just to, you know, walk away. Uh, Zugzwang, as they call it. anyway, I'm completely misinterpreting the point of that, but just, I'm, I'm just trying to say that, never forget that you, you always have a choice on what you play. should you happen upon $10? I think Bojo is a better use of your, you know, study break or, or work break than, you know, checking in on your fantasy football or.
Alec: uh you know seeing if your csgo stuff's working out i just i don't know i guess this is just turning into an anti -gambling thing all while endorsing a playing card based game called dollar trail the irony
Ali A Mustansir: Ha ha. Ha.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, and, and that's the thing is when you look at it, are we, are we about to see the, the changes back to that more, uh, narrative, uh, you know, just.
Ali A Mustansir: Artistic gameplay. you know, you look at the, you look at the stuff that was announced, uh, during the, the game awards.
Alec: I sure hope so.
Ali A Mustansir: So, you know, 2025. You know, based on, based on the trailers and announcements from the game awards, I'm thinking might be a pretty solid year. I mean, I'm looking at it and I'm thinking about that.
Alec: Oh yeah, we're stacked. We are. We are blessed. Out here with some of these titles, let me do some I haven't might get that pulled up 2025.
Ali A Mustansir: Uh, I'm thinking about.
Ali A Mustansir: What's the intergalactic by Naughty Dog? Let's be honest. You know, the Naughty Dog gave us Crash Bandicoot, gave us Uncharted, gave us Last of Us.
Alec: that's looking good yeah you looks like uh there's a lot of there's a lot of reasons it didn't work out for Bethesda there
Ali A Mustansir: So now they have this new IP that is in space. That didn't work out so well for Bethesda, but you know, I have faith in Naughty Dog.
Alec: They're they're working on this. They're driving the same engine since like 2005, dude Yeah, anyway, uh
Ali A Mustansir: Well, and I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but Bethesda is the company that ah ah to caused gamers to coin the phrase. That's not a bug. It's a feature.
Alec: Yeah, I mean it's literally a game that you you have to compromise yourself to understand it that is That's you sound like a sonic fan.
Alec: Come on now boy. Oh boy It's look
Ali A Mustansir: I mean, and then after years and years, we we have Okami 2 coming out, which I'm just, I'm very excited about, which are full.
Ali A Mustansir: Like there's some, there's some stuff happening that could bring us back to, you know, that a supposed 90s golden age, if they pull it off.
Alec: It I I feel like we're getting like a a 2000 sort of renaissance. It feels like it feels like They just started to understand 3d technology. That's what it feels like, you know on on a technical execution level not the clumsiness of like early Dreamcast games or early in 64 games, it it feels like Uh within without even like something being held back by like, you know Space or or level just like I played mode your solid four It's been like five years, but I still remember playing it for the second or third time years ago Uh and just being like wow like these levels are tiny like these these are very compromised levels and then I played mode yourself five with
Alec: just these big wide open landscapes, but also a lot of emptiness. Now it really feels like with the PS5 technology, with PC technology, where it is with graphical capabilities, it feels like there's just no limitations.
Alec: Like Astrobot does not feel held back in any sense. it ah ah In fact, it feels like it's propelled by its technological capabilities. Like I actually think the reason we're seeing some of these games, you know, so many games getting these reboots or reimaginings is not because I don't think it's like Hollywood where they're just out of ideas.
Ali A Mustansir: Uh -huh.
Alec: I think that technology and keep in mind, that's what makes games unique. Is their relationship to technology you emulating a game is not the same as playing it on an n64 There's there's so much lost in translation uh between it It's an it is not the same thing as watching blade runner on laser disc versus blade runner on blu -ray
Ali A Mustansir: Mm hmm.
Alec: it's not a matter of clarity it's not a matter of looking better it's a matter of like computational you know clumsiness in some ways you know some games are are beautifully clumsy some games are like i'm making my point anyway
Alec: Uh, I did actually lose the point as I looked at all these 2025 releases. Oh, but games are looking good. Games are looking great. I'm excited. Feels like there's no compromises. They're doing Onimusha because like, they know how to frick to do Onimusha now, you know?
Ali A Mustansir: Oh,
Alec: Uh, Okami, same thing.
Ali A Mustansir: Onimusha is going to be good.
Alec: Onimusha's gonna be great. I'm excited.
Ali A Mustansir: and Yeah.
Alec: Yeah.
Ali A Mustansir: And, you know, what's also interesting is it seems like, you know, there's all these, there's all these remakes and, uh, you know, remasters coming out.
Ali A Mustansir: and a lot of them are ones that is just kind of like, okay, cool. At least the last few years it has been, uh, but There's some pretty solid stuff coming up this year.
Ali A Mustansir: on'm the You know, I'm definitely going to mention Lunar.
Alec: Yep, it's gonna be nice to get some win our recognition
Ali A Mustansir: And I probably will every single episode until I have it in my hands.
Alec: oh I got to start on the mister.
Ali A Mustansir: You need to play that this year.
Alec: I I will it's I'm sure it'll be on your achievement board. Um, Um, I need to play that game but dude, like Mark Hunter is getting a sequel which you know, that's good for all those guys out there go go you guys and gals, Death Stranding to that is something I'm very excited about played every Kojima game in America at least and I have played and completed the crap out of Death Stranding and I'm down for it.
Alec: Metroid Prime 4, Grand Theft Auto 6, Ghost of Yota.
Ali A Mustansir: maybe
Alec: Yeah, we'll see. Ghost of Yota. These are all the most anticipated games in the game awards. I'm excited. I'm very, very excited.
Alec: I'll be honest, Okami needs to work a little bit harder for my approval. What's more exciting to me about that is that they got what seems like Clover Studios back under Capcom.
Ali A Mustansir: Maybe.
Alec: Just had to call me up.
Ali A Mustansir: No, no, no.
Alec: It's called hers.
Ali A Mustansir: It's a, it's a, It's a new studio named Clovers with the same people.
Alec: But it's under Capcom with the creative director. Well, wait, was was it is it?
Ali A Mustansir: It's the same people. Yeah.
Alec: Who was it was Clover Studios was also was it Koji Garashi? Because it was it was Shinji Mikami. Shinji Mikami no Shinji Mikami left a long time ago, but now it's being headed up by Yeah Hideki Kamiya Who's you know famously the?
Alec: It's the block you on Twitter guy Anyway, he is his whole shtick is that he just blocks people on Twitter. Sorry X. Oh
Ali A Mustansir: Yeah.
Alec: Gross.
Ali A Mustansir: X.
Alec: Gross. Uh,
Ali A Mustansir: well, so I guess what we're saying here is that was kind of hyped up.
Ali A Mustansir: Uh, I don't think it lived up to that hype. Uh, but I do think that there's some pretty, pretty big standouts that are going to be happening next year.
Alec: Not in quantity, that's for sure.
Ali A Mustansir: And that is, you know, new, new games as a whole, new games or well, remastered games, uh, maybe some games that we've been waiting 20 years for a remaster of.
Alec: just
Ali A Mustansir: and there's some, there's there's some pretty great stuff on the horizon. do you have any a particular goals for this year?
Alec: So I mean for me I I actually so I'm kind of in this interesting headspace this year I Don't know how how goalified I can make it But it's am trying to break free from the trend of franchises. I've always been a franchise follower, not exclusively. I've played indie games ever since I had an XBLA account. or You know, since it was a thing. I've always played indie games, but this year in particular, I'm really going to try to to play games
Alec: that I have absolutely never heard of. You know, especially getting this new PC, currently running a 4080 Super, and it definitely means I can play silly games like the many pieces of Mr. Koo. You know, I can check out, what's a game I want to check out? I can check out Raji. ah I don't know, unless that's kind of an indie game.
Alec: so i want to play probably I want to start at least the one Trails game. I want to complete Final Fantasy XIV. I want to check out Final Fantasy XI because I'm a psychopath and I need all of the Final Fantasies under my belt.
Ali A Mustansir: I will definitely join you on Final Fantasy 11.
Alec: Are you serious? Yo, we can make this... If if we have we have two followers, we can make a like a whole thing, you know?
Ali A Mustansir: because, I mean, the, the reality is I played Final Fantasy 11, uh, back on the PS2 and PC when it first came out hated it.
Ali A Mustansir: I hated it and I loved it.
Alec: it was a different It's a different game now. it's i we Our viewers probably know that, but yeah.
Ali A Mustansir: and I mean, I kind of want to see where it's gone. I want to, I want to complete it. And I think that it would be a lot of fun if we live streamed that.
Alec: Heck yeah, dude. No, I was absolutely planning on live streaming that over at the Dolanon Ranch, where the only thing we milk is our games for enjoyment. Anyway, yeah, I got a or hell
Ali A Mustansir: Uh, so i'll I'll join you on that. I'll spend pick it up.
Alec: Heckity heck yeah, so i'm currently trying to figure out the install process through square I would recommend using your square account brother had a lot of trouble getting ff14 to work through steam but uh yeah real quick i couple last minute mentions for games i'm excited for next year find another couple uh that first berserker kazan game looks good mafia the old country
Alec: That's how you gotta say it. I'm very excited about that lost soul rise is like this FF 15 fan game that got picked up with Sony money and It looks and plays like Final Fantasy 15 and 16.
Alec: It's it's quite incredible. Honestly, I Mean what else are you gonna use those buttons for man?
Ali A Mustansir: So we're going to be button mashing all day.
Alec: I But uh, yeah, no, we're we're gonna be pressing a lot of square on holding it down to teleport to a place But this one, I don't know. It's it's got some vibes.
Alec: I don't know what the stories looking like but It's got some vibes. I'm down for it I got some goals for you my friend. Uh, if if in you you're ready to listen I Yeah, okay.
Ali A Mustansir: All right. Let's hear it.
Alec: So we we've talked about doing this but now we're making it official i have in the uh frame set of an xbox 360 or xbox one game i have a thousand achievement points to bestow upon you amongst five different achievements uh they are for 150 points and i guess since there's points i guess we can measure and win so let's see who wins a year from now uh undertale for 150 points i'm basing these
Alec: I don't know how I'm basing them. Don't worry about it. OK, I'm basing them with numbers. All right. I love Undertale. It's maybe one of my it's maybe my favorite game. I can't talk about that, though. One hundred and fifty points for beating Undertale. Two hundred and fifty points for beating Outer Wilds. Don't worry. I don't ask me. I don't know. A hundred points if you spend at least 20 hours in a From Software game. Three hundred points if you complete any From Software game.
Alec: Anyone you can do demon souls. It's I don't you know, it's quick. And then finally a 200 point bounty. For bountying that Earth bounty in Earthbound.
Alec: Thank you.
Alec: That'll be all.
Ali A Mustansir: Well, now I'm going to have to come up with something for you.
Alec: Oh, you snake, I thought you did. I don't know for now, let's just call it a thousand points for Final Fantasy 11.
Ali A Mustansir: Not as well. I mean, well, no, I have a, I have things that I want, that I want to see you complete, but I didn't, I didn't assign a point value. So we're going to have to do that, but here's a.
Alec: Man, but can you can you like slingshot it just do your best? I want to I want to see what off the cuff that looks like Oh lordy at 12 above that's a joke goodness, I i mean I was not saying of course
Ali A Mustansir: All right. because of the massive time commitment, uh, I would say 250 points for a final completing final fantasy 14 and, and all the raids,
Ali A Mustansir: uh, another 250 points for completing lunar one and two.
Alec: Okay. All right, I can do.
Alec: I can dig. It's on the list.
Ali A Mustansir: I hope you're, I hope you're writing this down. Cause I didn't, uh,
Alec: Oh, I didn't. Okay, so I'm doing it now. Okay, go.
Alec: I think it was 250 for Lunar 1 and 2.
Ali A Mustansir: Oh, nope, nope, nope. I just went blank. Well, crap.
Alec: yeah all right well hey uh we're we're running on fumes over here guys what do you expect you know we're working class individuals uh you're looking at this quality as it is well that's our that's our o oh go ahead sorry yeah
Ali A Mustansir: Uh,
Ali A Mustansir: no Nope, no, no, I'm goingnna we're gonna, we're codify this and it's going to go up on our Facebook page.
Alec: yeah yeah
Alec: Yep, we are going to stick a piping hot piece of iron into this flesh and cauterize it. Going to seal it. That's powerful imagery. Well, thank you for listening, everybody. You can find us here the How to Enjoy podcast on a listening platform of your choosing and our availability to give it to them.
Alec: Yeah, you can find me at the Long Long Ranch, where again, the only thing we milk is your brain for that good sweet fun juice. What do they find you at, my man?
Ali A Mustansir: you can find me at the dad pods on Twitch, uh, and you'll be able to find us, uh, both at how to enjoy stuff on Twitch.
Alec: Heck yeah.
Alec: Yep. Yep. Yep. Uh, fantastic doing this. Uh, I'm going to go, uh, sweat for my dollar because that's what America's like right now. All right, man. Y 'all take care and always remember to game on.
Ali A Mustansir: Thank you for visiting. Take care.
