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Indiana Jones & The Great Circle and Prince of Persia is good again! - Add To Party 01.18.2024
8 Plays11 months ago
This week we recap the Xbox dev direct, Ubisoft move to subscription based services, the halo battle royale getting cancelled, and reviews for prince of persia: the lost crown
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Transcript
Introduction and Meal Disappointments
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to Add to Party, a friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I'm your host, James Hartwell, and I'm joined by Andy K. And I'm joined by Derek Costiha.
00:00:27
Speaker
Good evening, gentlemen. I have an important question for you. Ooh, I want to know, tell us, ask us rather. Okay. What was the most recent meal you had that was disappointing? Ooh. Now, Derek, you were just eating.
00:00:44
Speaker
Is it the most recent one? Because it might be sad. Well, no, no, I just had lasagna and it was delicious. Although I sort of wish I made lasagna soup because it would have been done much faster than an hour and I wouldn't have been late today. Lasagna soup? Oh, yeah, you weren't on the socials like two years ago.
00:01:04
Speaker
It's just a tomato base for Coda. You cut up those onion noodles instead of having them as big sheets. And it looks good. I've never had it. Huh. OK. Hmm. But disappointing meals. I. Oh, oh, I think. Wait, give me a second. OK. I.
00:01:23
Speaker
Okay, it was a place we ordered from. God, what is it? It was called, I know it as suspiciously cheap wings because it's like, you get like 12 wings and fries for like $8. And there's no way any of that is above the board. But I just had it recently. And normally it's what you, you get what you get. But the last time it was just, it was just blah.
00:01:52
Speaker
But for that many dollars, God, what is the name of that place? I don't know. But that much food should not be eight dollars. That that just doesn't feel right.
Mac and Cheese Debate
00:02:00
Speaker
OK, I finally remember like that stood out dim sum takeout we had in Seattle last time where I got the mavo tofu from a dim sum place that I should not have done that, but I was craving it.
00:02:14
Speaker
but the most recent where I was really disappointed was a very close local sushi place. They've been going downhill lately. And the last time I went, all of their front house staff, you know, I'm not trying to be racist here, but they were all white. Oh, I see. Yeah. I should have just walked away, turned right around when that saw that.
00:02:40
Speaker
but I was there with two other people. We were all disappointed with our meal, getting regular stuff that we get every time we go there. It was just the quality was not there. No. I don't know.
00:02:53
Speaker
That's disappointing. We're carrying a lot of trauma. James, what happened to you? I made bad box mac and cheese. How do you make bad box mac and cheese? Well, it wasn't Kraft. Oh, was it Annie's? I heard that's one of the worst ones. No, Annie's. Well, I will not support them after the injuries they had at their canning facilities and lack of worker support. Oh, their mac and cheese is better than Kraft dinner.
00:03:23
Speaker
Oh, you're wrong, but that's OK. I watch people on YouTube say it was worse. Are you going to tell YouTube they're wrong? Yes. What did you make? Did you make like Kroger brand? Did you say? No, it was it's this brand called Goodles. Oh, yeah, I love Goodles. Yeah, but it was like their Cacio Pepe mac and cheese.
Snack Preferences and Habits
00:03:46
Speaker
And it was just like very fake Parmesan. And they're all like.
00:03:51
Speaker
Cacio Pepe is a very like one of the four most popular noodle dishes nowadays, I think that's fair to say. Parmesan cream and pepper. That sounds delicious. It is. Oh, and lots of fresh black pepper. Catch a catch a pep. Catch you. Catch you. Catch you. See a CEO. OK. Pepe Pepe.
00:04:15
Speaker
Looks tasty. Cool. I'm glad I haven't taken the gamble because they twist my parm and their hats, chili one are solid. Why the twist my parm, if it's the same flavors that I don't think it is solid. I had their normal mac and cheese and I was like, okay, this is fine. Still not as good as Kraft mac and cheese. Okay. You're eating chickpea flour pasta so that it's less unhealthy. No, I mean. Give it a little bit of leeway.
00:04:45
Speaker
Like, I mean, the pasta is fine. I don't have any specific index. I had no issue with the pasta. It's the sauce. Oh, oh, this is certainly more than a dollar. Holy moly. I think it's like 250 or something. It wasn't like that bad. I also in trying to disappoint myself, there was like a Cheeto Mac and cheese that also a box that I also got. OK, that one. That one is kind of good.
00:05:14
Speaker
Oh, you've had it? Yeah, because it was like on turbo clearance, which made me think it would be terrible. It was like 50 cents. And I was like, oh, they're just trying to get rid of this. And then I had it and I was like, oh, that's kind of cheesy. Let's go. You know, it's just sometimes you're like, there's no way this is good. Let's get it and see how disappointed. Yeah. I mean, for that price, I didn't mind trying it out. So did you get the regular or the flamin hot?
00:05:38
Speaker
Uh, just regular, regular. I don't like flaming hot Cheetos, which makes it, which makes me the wrong one, but that's okay. No, no, you're not wrong because it's the best flaming hot or the flaming hot Funyuns. The Cheetos are just a poor vehicle for any powder.
00:05:54
Speaker
To be fair, I ate a bad Cheeto in sixth grade and I've avoided them ever since. Well, are you a puff man or a crunchy Cheeto man? Oh, I am puff all day. Just it was the crunchy Cheetos. I don't know what I had, but it literally it was one of the I don't know, but it sticks with me and I don't like eating Cheetos or the hard Cheetos. I'm a crunchy Cheeto guy. OK.
00:06:19
Speaker
Well, you've never been cursed in sixth grade. It just feels it feels like I'm eating styrofoam when I eat the puffs. Oh, I don't know why I like it. I don't know. It's nice that we're completely balanced as as a group because I will not be caught with Cheetos of either variety. Whoa, you take personal offense.
00:06:40
Speaker
I just don't like them. They did nothing wrong like Amy's or any of the other people I don't consume from. Oh, I'm sure they did something wrong. We just have to... Yeah, Frito-Lay has blood on their hands. Yeah. But I just don't like either one. Well, you're a connoisseur, Derek. You do snack across the world.
00:07:01
Speaker
Yes, but you can also give companies money and do the same. Well, what is your if you turn your nose, OK, to American classics like Cheetos variations, what do you go to? Where do you run? Who holds you?
00:07:16
Speaker
So I'm partial to the latest batch of Pringles. They so they are being very sneaky. They're like labeling like, oh, it's regular Pringles mixed with sweet potato or mixed with whole grain. Oh, no, they switched up and added a lot of cornmeal. OK. This is me off because I like them so much better than regular Pringles. The cornmeal ones? Yes. Or the sweet potato ones? Both.
00:07:45
Speaker
Like they just snuck in a bunch of corn into my little snack. And I, when I got home and read it, I was so upset and then I opened it and made it and they were so good. Number one, I commend you for reading the list of ingredients, Derek. Okay.
00:08:01
Speaker
You're a good person. I never look at it. Now, are these the harvest blends you're talking about? Yes. Yes, it is. Harvest blends. I didn't even know this is a thing. Wait, what's harvest blend? The harvest blend Pringles. Isn't that, wait, that's sunships though. Do they, are they putting that on? It's a crossover? I don't know. No, it's, uh, it's harvest blends. So, uh,
00:08:28
Speaker
Let's see, they've got some that are multigrain sweet potato, one of the two, and also corn is the first ingredient now. Have you had Mexican Pringles? I have not. It's Pringles that the can is entirely written in Spanish. It's called habanero maras maras.
00:08:51
Speaker
and it's like spicy with lime. Oh, it's so good. I've never heard of this. Well, they actually serve that in Texas that's on shelves, the Fuego Limon. It's different than the Fuego Limon. Okay. I don't snack, apparently. I don't eat anything except ruffles. You got to hit up the 7-Eleven, Andy.
00:09:15
Speaker
Oh, I don't go to convenience stores. Oh, is this where this, this, this myriad of options are? I guess, where do the stoners go? Hold on. So you'll just fill up your tank of gas and not a single time thing to go in and support the good people who are providing that to you. Literally. Because the margins on gasoline are actually, well, most of the time and historically have been raised the razor thin and make a lot of money on the inside.
00:09:44
Speaker
Really? I didn't know that. I only go into the gas station if I'm on a road trip. I feel like nowadays, it's probably gouging everyone because everyone is gouging the consumers. But when I first heard about it, that was the truth as far as I know.
00:10:02
Speaker
I'm supposed to get snacks. And you're telling me that I need to get snacks if I want to be a good person, if I want to shop local. Actually, the Pringles are like a guilty pleasure, like once every three or four months. The real snacks are the Costco almond bags or nutbags. What would they not be if it's not a bag?
00:10:23
Speaker
If they weren't what? I thought you said not the almond bags. They have almonds, cashews, peanuts. But those, I always have my pantry. You guys, you have such diverse palettes and the motivation to fulfill them.
00:10:43
Speaker
I don't like that one. Life is nothing without adventure, Andy. I
Xbox Developer Direct Highlights
00:10:46
Speaker
apparently can't do it. Literally, my special treat is ruffles. I love ruffles so much. And that's about it. That's about it. But I sit here embarrassed and you don't get the you don't get the sour cream cheddar ruffles. No. Mm hmm. Andy, Andy, maybe you treat yourself not with treats that today, but with good meals. Mm hmm. Of course not.
00:11:13
Speaker
Well, I haven't done HelloFresh for a while. I have about a month worth of box meal or meal prep in my freezer because I kept gathering them. And then I was like, I just can't. And I just threw it all in the freezer. So.
00:11:30
Speaker
That'll be that's, I guess, February. That was my New Year's resolution is like, look at me, I'm gonna start cooking again. And then I didn't. And then it was just a lot of mac and cheese, which is why I'm surprised you messed it up. James, how do you mess up mac and cheese? I don't even use water or milk. I just use water. That's disgusting.
00:11:49
Speaker
Well, sometimes I use the starchy water. I don't know if it makes a difference. The starchy water does make a difference. Yeah. But it's also a lot of sodium in that bad boy. There is. But I'm disappointed in you. Maybe I got to make the cachet of Pepe. I don't know what it is. I wouldn't recommend it.
00:12:07
Speaker
But you know what I would recommend? I want to know. Tell me. Guide me. Change me. That's all the content from the Xbox Developer Direct that aired earlier today. All the content was our snacks? Yeah, that too. OK. No. So today, January 18, Xbox held the Developer Direct.
00:12:28
Speaker
Focused on, what was it? Five studios, I believe. We got to see everything. We got to see Avowed from Obsidian Attainment. We got to see more on Senua Saga, Hellblade II from Ninja Theory. Square Enix popped up and came and showed Visions of Mana. Weird. And not 14. Visions of Mana. Yeah.
00:12:50
Speaker
and our history and told by oxide games. That's the, we talked about them last week. It's the, uh, for axis legacy and the first look at Indiana Jones and the great circle by machine head games. Um, it was a, before we dive into the individual ones, I just want to talk about it as an overall. And I'm like, I think this is a nice little direct.
00:13:10
Speaker
Like it was, they didn't, you know, it was, it was very much developer focused. Um, but it didn't, didn't linger too long. Like, you know, sometimes they have those developer docs and you're like, yes, I get it. You're very passionate about this. You know, I was actually going in with the opposite take from it. I appreciate that they gave them so much time, but obsidian and, uh, sinua's saga, like both of those just felt like the developers just.
00:13:40
Speaker
going on and on about like their culture and their efforts. Yeah, but I don't feel like they did it for too long. Like it was, it was like, you know, maybe like five to maybe 10 minutes of it, which is, I'm like, wasn't enough for me to get tired of it. And usually they intersplaced it with gameplay. That is true.
00:14:02
Speaker
But yeah, so let's talk about Senua Saga. One of the big known is Senua Saga Got Its Date. It's coming out May 21st, which is soon. They also announced, they might have done this after the direct, but they also announced that this will be a digital only release and it will be $49.99 because it's going to be a shorter narrative experience.
00:14:32
Speaker
at $50? Yeah. I like the lower price, but no physical options at all. It's sort of a red flag to me. Well, I mean, it saves them money because it costs money to print discs.
00:14:49
Speaker
Yeah. And it's every store that sells them takes their cut. So, I mean, of course, Steam is going to take their 20, 30 percent. Well, I don't think I don't know if it'll be on Steam, but Xbox also takes a cut as well. Well, they're an Xbox studio. So, well, yeah, that's true. Yeah, it's coming. It's coming to PC, Xbox consoles and Game Pass. So even even then, you don't even have to buy 50 dollars. You just have to have Game Pass.
00:15:18
Speaker
Oh, wow. It's just game pass. Yeah. Gosh darn it. Game pass. Yeah. Um, it is profitable, I think. Right. I mean, it's, it's their future business plan. So sure it is. You know, I was reading a little bit about, so I haven't played the first one. Have you guys? I have played a little bit of it. Um, it's very much like a story about experiencing mental illness.
00:15:49
Speaker
Yeah, maybe that's not always the vibe. Well, that vibe seems to be a focus in this one as well, but with completely revamped combat, which I'm interested in.
00:16:03
Speaker
Which I think, like, I think that's pretty cool. And I bring it up because I was reading the comments and some people were talking about how they experienced the first one. And they were talking about how you absolutely have to wear headphones. You have to wear headphones. Yeah, because it's a surround experience. And that got me super interested in it, too. And then one guy. I think someone said it's the closest to experiencing schizophrenia. You know what? I wonder if they have a trigger warning. And I mean that seriously, like.
00:16:32
Speaker
That can be a dark place to go. But one person was like, yeah, I loved it. It was a great experience. I enjoyed it on my 150-inch outdoor theater in the rain. And I was like, what is that experience? What is that life? How big is 150-inch TV? That's got to be it. He was probably a projector.
00:16:54
Speaker
150 inch to feet. How big is that? That's 12 feet diagonally. Yeah, I was going to say probably like 12 feet. Yeah. 12 feet diagonal. I just can't understand it in the rain. So they have like a you're outside in the rain. I guess it's covered, but you still get kind of wet. I don't know. What? Uh, either of you have anything else about Hellblade?
00:17:19
Speaker
I just want to know what this luxury. I think it's gorgeous from what it is. Ninja Theory knows what they're doing in terms of like visual and audio. Yeah, that's their jam. I'm down next. The first one to try. I think I own it, actually. Oh, we do. I should check next. Next up avowed, which is the the obsidian entertainments swing at doing a Skyrim.
00:17:48
Speaker
Uh, so, you know, they, they made fought new Vegas. They made the outer worlds. Um, now they're doing avowed and they showed a little gameplay of it. And you know what, man, it looks like better combat Skyrim. Um, okay. I mean, I don't even want to, uh, like, yeah, you might, that might be a good representation.
00:18:09
Speaker
So the combat allows you to mix and match and have presets that you can switch between, like on the fly in combat, you can have one or two wands in hand, a wand and a sword. Yeah, dual wand, dual guns. What does that mean? Because you have two wands.
00:18:28
Speaker
They just have special effects instead of just pure damage like the guns. Like you could freeze them and then shatter them. And that looked cool. That is cool. And the combat was what kept my attention. And then they went to the narrative part and I sort of stopped. Like they went into like a little sub quest and dialogue with this group. And I get that that's good that they're being open about what your gameplay is going to be like. But if. Was it no bear romance?
00:18:58
Speaker
I mean, the writing was kind of a little, I don't know, stiff. It's like this guy called me a baby or something like that. No, the one that got me was, oh, you're just a bunch of thugs. Although I'm not one to talk. It's like, come on. Actually, no, that's the one line where I rolled my eyes and then stopped paying attention.
00:19:22
Speaker
But they did confirm branching dialogue trees, you know, very, very much, you know, fallout-esque, where, you know, you can have choices depending on the narrative, probably depending on your class or your stats, you know, a kind of classic fallout style. And hopefully they learned from the past five years of make the choices matter, make the choices impact the results.
00:19:48
Speaker
Well, I got a suck for them with Baldur's Gate. Yeah, this really does like really, really kind of put the narrative choice making like that's rough. I don't
Exploring 4X and Mana Series
00:20:00
Speaker
think literally anyone can live up to that. I don't know if anybody's going to be able to.
00:20:04
Speaker
Now, it'll be a while. I understand there's a lot of different endings. And my one game playthrough is not, you know, everyone else's, but I don't see the narrative in Baldur's Gate to be amazing.
00:20:20
Speaker
I think that the freedom of the choice is it's really more just how how how much you can change it up in terms of how you experience the game. The narrative is pretty standard in the grand scheme of things. Oh, I haven't played it, but I thought it was lauded to be like even the general overarching narrative, like everything. I mean, it's it's a classic fantasy story, like it's not doing there's no twists or turns in it where you're like, oh,
00:20:50
Speaker
Like, no, this is very much classic hero's journey kind of thing. But that's not underselling that it's, you know, all the dialogue is very well written and all your companions are interesting and all that. Yeah. So don't stop at just the writing. The actual voice acting is top notch. That too. Yeah.
00:21:09
Speaker
So, so this is like a valid's got to compete with that. Um, yeah, it sucks. Uh, so I don't think the overall narrative is that much better than a similar game, uh, Solasta match or the crown. I may have, but you could never finish the last. But.
00:21:26
Speaker
The voice acting in that just kept me from actually being able to enjoy the story. Baldur's Gate. OK, but maybe enough about Baldur's Gate while we have three other games, or possibly four, if we want to keep talking about Avowed. God, Baldur's wouldn't be broader for years.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah, no, it will be all these games. But yeah, the other ones, Indiana Jones, how do you feel about that one? I was going to say that one for last, but we can do it. Fair, fair. I mean, here's the thing. We're not. Let's let's just do visions of mana because I don't think we really have to do our. It's very our as a forex game. Do you like forex games? You probably are. It's a forex game with a slight.
00:22:11
Speaker
twist.
00:22:30
Speaker
I'm curious how the crafting will end up working out, but I mean it. I mean, it's you see the bones of civilization in this game, and there's nothing wrong with that. Civilization really doesn't have competitors more or less. So is it a former Civ guys? Yeah, it's a former former Firaxis devs. OK, so makes me curious. What's what's the latest Civ? Are we in Civ five? I have no idea. I don't know. I was left. I played.
00:23:00
Speaker
Yeah. So it makes me curious what civ six is going to be, um, considering all these dolphins left to make their own civilization game. But yeah, it's a forex game. Uh, but yeah, in the surprise square index code up and like, Hey, want to hear about visions of mana? Want to see how we made it like a tails game for some reason. I don't think they did that.
00:23:24
Speaker
I mean so it's it's not turn-based it is an action as actually more of an action RPG in the vein of a in the vein of Final Fantasy 16 I would say honestly I mean it's more in the vein of the other like 16 mana games that have come before it wait I thought man it was turn-based
00:23:45
Speaker
No, they did have some spinoffs on the phone that probably were like, Oh, see, this is my ignorance. I apologize. I thought, I thought secrets of man was turn based. They did a lot of mobile games though. So they probably, you probably saw some turn based games. That's fair. That's fair. So wait, how was it not turn based on the SNES? Now I'm very curious. I have to go look at a gameplay of this.
00:24:12
Speaker
Yeah, it was an action one. They had action ones, at least after the PlayStation era. But I'm going to have to put an asterisk next to my mana fan card. I've only played a spinoff when I reviewed, looked into the history of the mana series. I've only played one spinoff to completion and one spinoff a little bit. Which one? I thought you played Legend.
00:24:42
Speaker
I played Legend of Mana, which is a spin-off. That's a spin-off? That's a spin-off. I did not think it was a spin-off, but it had different gameplay from all the predecessors. Oh, I remember it being the same. And then I played a little bit of Children of Mana on my friend's DS because I didn't have one. But enough about old. I'm looking at it. I'm looking at gameplay of Secret of Mana right now.
00:25:09
Speaker
Look at that. It is an action RPG game on the SNES. This reminds me of what was the one on the PS2? The PS2 that was a main series one. Yeah, that one. I just remember it had really good music. I listened to the soundtrack. But anyways, it looked like that one to me. But that one was like a single player, single character adventure, and it had like a gimmick with the weapon or something. I don't know. I think it was like a fine. I don't remember. And there's a similar gimmick in this one.
00:25:38
Speaker
I'm surprised you haven't played the Super Nintendo one. We never had it, so I didn't... You never even rented it. How could you? With that box art? You're a monster. I was too busy getting Mickey's Magical Adventure. Okay, that's fair. It's a good one. But...
00:25:59
Speaker
Dude, the soundtrack to Secret of Mano. They were very particular about highlighting that they would keep the soundtrack being amazing. They even brought up the background music and how it suddenly changed from non-combat to whenever he struck. I listened to that a few times and I was vibing. It definitely transitioned seamlessly.
00:26:24
Speaker
Well, now you got me excited. I didn't get to watch it completely with sound on. But if they're even aiming for that, yeah, like man, the games have always had really good music. I like listening to their soundtracks. They
Indiana Jones Game Anticipation
00:26:34
Speaker
also said it. They also said it will be coming this summer and it will be coming to PlayStation as well as PC. Let's go. I'm into it. I loved every single bit of this six minute, 51 seconds, just every single bit, except there was one moment that gave me a little pause.
00:26:53
Speaker
The creator Koichi Ishii said that he would strive to use the latest techniques to bring his ideas to life. And that may be a rough translation, but don't cancel them. Nothing about AI has been mentioned.
00:27:09
Speaker
Using the latest techniques, like that foam game that's supposed to be PlayStation's Splatoon, they have like 0.01% of their art is AI-generated and they're getting shit on online. Yeah, they are. And I think they just meant to bring, because I read into that and I think it was just to generate the album art to the fake soundtrack. That is my understanding as well. So it was just- That's Square Enix too, actually.
00:27:35
Speaker
Yeah, they were talking about how they want to lean in heavy. But like, I think that's a fun way to use AI. Now, I think they said they use taking money at a hard working artist. So if they're using mid journey, that's a problem. But like that use mid journey. Yeah. So now like I kind of get that. But like, I think Photoshop built their own.
00:27:55
Speaker
AI with a library that's like completely, you know, all of it's like licensed and whatever that you can use it with no problem. Like if you're training on data that's meant for it, go with God. But like, no, they used like mid journey. So that's a problem. Yeah.
00:28:11
Speaker
So keep an eye open. It may have some A.I. art as a part of it. I'm not going to spread rumors that it is. He's just using the latest techniques, his words. But let me go into the peak of this video for me. Yes. OK, you now get
00:28:31
Speaker
Canine companion that you can ride. Oh, like in Kirby Dreamland, too. So they're called Pickles. P I K U L S. Pickles. Oh, which. Oh, no. Pickles on for me. But they're just adorable. So I want to be quicker than past games, which, you know, with my attention span waning every day from Instagram is only a good thing.
00:29:00
Speaker
Well, uh, and then let's get to the, the big, big reveal, which is the first footage and, and gameplay of Indiana Jones in the great circle. So why do you call it the big one? Like this was the only one that was just a traditional trailer with no, no, they had a whole depth thing beforehand.
00:29:20
Speaker
Okay, I'm watching the videos that they put up on IGN. Oh yeah, on the IGN video they don't have the dev stuff in there. They just have the trailer. Oh, okay. Well then let me retract that then.
00:29:31
Speaker
Yeah, no, they had they had a bunch of developer talk talking about like the legacy of Indiana Jones and being a part of it. There's a lot of discussion about how they wanted to make the whip like iconic in gameplay. So it's it's you know, it's there for combat, but you can also use it to distract enemies. You can use it to climb like you can whip out. You can like whip certain things and then use it like a rope to climb up. So.
00:29:56
Speaker
You know, they're really trying to focus on playing the playing the experience or the fantasy of being Indiana Jones. If you're not familiar with machine games, by the way, there are the people who did Wolfenstein, all the new good ones. Oh, really? They hate Nazis. And what is Indiana Jones fight? He fights Nazis. There's a theme. Yeah, it is. That explains why it's first person, then. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:23
Speaker
They talk about that, too. They said they wanted to keep a first person because, A, that's their that's their style and that's their most comfortable. Like, you know, they're the most comfortable making those kinds of experiences. They do say, though, and they showed that there are periods of time in the game where you go third person. And like if you're traversing using your whip, right, you go into a third person mode or you start mantling or climbing or something like that. So it's not all first person, but
00:30:52
Speaker
I think the majority of your time will be spent in first person. They also talked about how, you know, they're, they're adding puzzles, both in the game, both as a part of the main story and optional. So, you know, that kind of like expiration of like, Hey, there's, there's like an ancient mystery over here that I can solve to get a whip. That's 2% better. I don't know if that's how environmental puzzles. Yeah. Tomb Raider did that in the new ones. They had like little side areas to explore. Yep.
00:31:18
Speaker
And it looks like it's going to span kind of the entire world. The idea of the great circle is basically all these places around the world form a circle, which is so stupid.
00:31:29
Speaker
It is, but it's it's also very Indiana Jones. But you end up you'll end up going to the Vatican, the pyramids of Egypt, Africa, I think South America, too, but I'm not sure. It looks like, you know, it's going to have a lot of diverse graphics and it is coming out unless they push it in 2024. So this is probably going to be fall's big Xbox game for them.
00:31:53
Speaker
No, I have to say that's a little bit disappointing because like you brought up the way being using gameplay that might be well implemented. But from the game, the air quotes gameplay they showed in this trailer, it looked disappointing. Like, yeah, you could whip and drag a Nazi to you so you could punch him out. But then they'd go and just show the Nazis just shoot at you and then you're still there with the whip. It's like, why wouldn't?
00:32:20
Speaker
And then my second thing from just the trailer, maybe they spoke of in the developers section, but it feels like you're playing a movie is what their goal is. They wanted it to be that way, which they did talk about that in the developer. They wanted this to feel like a, like this is part of the movie trilogy, or I guess what is it? It's five movies now. So I don't remember what the term for that is.
00:32:45
Speaker
And while I don't see that as a positive, there are big successes that have done the same and just crushed it because of it.
00:32:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's uncharted vibes in here, but I would say it is distinct enough that you don't feel like you're playing an uncharted clone. Keeping a first person, I think is a big part of that. It threw me off the first person, especially cause it's like you're playing Indiana Jones. Do you want to play him as third person or first person?
00:33:19
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. It just it hit me wrong. Oh, also, Troy Baker is doing his best Harrison Ford impression. He's the V.O. for Indy. That's usually up to the job. Wait, we don't like Troy Baker now, though, right? What do you do? I don't know. Maybe you turn up. I don't know. And let's not. Yeah, I think him and Noah North had a falling out. I can't remember who is the.
00:33:45
Speaker
Who is even who? So yeah, I hear it. But well, good deal. I mean, to get that much money behind something like that. And I didn't even hear about a multiplayer mode. Oh, wait, there's a multiplayer mode I didn't hear about. I don't know. Oh, no, no, no, no. What kind of game gets that kind of money? This is very much a Sony move, it feels like.
00:34:06
Speaker
Yeah, this is very much like a Sony cinema. Like if I were to compare this, this this feels like kind of their Spider-Man type game. You know what I mean? It's big budget. It's single player. It's blockbuster. And hopefully it sells. Oh, my God. And if it comes out on Game Pass.
00:34:24
Speaker
Well,
Gaming Platform Performance Concerns
00:34:25
Speaker
I believe it will be coming out on Game Pass. You guys. And then it goes back to that. But then like even Baldur's Gate, though, they're like, oh, we're not going to release on Game Pass. And they were even people to said, nah, we're not going to do. They will eventually. Maybe. I don't know.
00:34:43
Speaker
But I like how they frame it that they have more value. I think like Baldur's Gate says, we think we have a value to deliver outside of game. So it really depends on the conditions offered to them. Sure. I think they go through like so much money upfront. Oh, yeah. And until they make that much from some kind of metric that I have no clue about, that they only get that much. And they saw the success and just like, oh, no, we're happy with this money.
00:35:09
Speaker
And to let you know, it will be on Game Pass, Xbox consoles, PC game and Steam. Interesting. You know, I just signed up for PlayStation Game Pass. What is that called? I don't even know what it's. It's I believe it's premium, isn't it? There's a lot of good stuff on it, by the way. But it still just doesn't feel like it measures up. And I think it's because Game Pass brings out these day one things. Yeah. And it's PS plus.
00:35:38
Speaker
PS I like the PS plus premium or something I guess plus plus PS plus plus who the heck knows it's branded so poorly. But even then even after getting that I was like ah yes now I have game pass but I'm still looking over at the grass is greener like
00:35:55
Speaker
Now, here's a PlayStation fan that you are. Mm hmm. If this game comes out and it's like, you know, Spider-Man like reviews, nines, tens. Are you going to feel the pull to come play it? The problem is, I probably will. I am such a sucker for these kind of games. Yes. But Andy, do you know what works on your PC? What's that? Your PlayStation controller.
00:36:19
Speaker
I it's what I use. If it's at all available on PC, you can just play it on PC. Like every time. So I wonder if you guys have this feeling. Well, James, you probably don't because you have a God graphics card, but like you boot up a PC game and then you wonder.
00:36:38
Speaker
Am I good enough? Like, is my computer good enough? Is my card good enough? Is my RAM good enough? Is anything good enough? And then I just feel like I'm not good enough every time I play a game. I like it. As long as you don't go more than so, you don't have to buy a high budget PC. I typically spend six or seven hundred dollars whenever I do a fresh PC build. And it lasts me six, seven years. No problem. I don't play the AAA games.
00:37:07
Speaker
But I feel like there's been enough esports attempting games where you have to aim low and be very efficient and everything except hard drive space that it'll just keep me going until it breaks, something breaks. And then and then I see something like Asus's new GPU connector, so you don't need power cables for your GPU. And I'm just like, really can't wait for that. Oh,
00:37:33
Speaker
Well, I don't know. It's going to be interesting. You guys built my PC, I think. Well, not the graphics card. I went around and kept taking people's old graphics. But before
Game Ownership Evolution
00:37:43
Speaker
anyone thinks that I'm calling Asus innovative, Apple did the exact same thing on the Mac Pro 2019.
00:37:50
Speaker
Oh, so. Oh, it's a good idea, but it's not innovative basis. I still love you, though. Listen, the Twitter mob was about to come for you, Derek. All right. I appreciate your clarification. But well, that's why I'm scared to play Indiana Jones, because it's going to boot up and his face is going to look like his butt and it's just going to be terrible. It's awful. But well, no, that's fine. That's fine, Andy. You're going to be in first person. You can't see his butt or.
00:38:20
Speaker
So I got nothing to worry about. I got something for you to worry about, Andy. Oh, please, I need another. It's Ubisoft's director's description saying you need to be comfortable with not owning your games anymore. Oh, my God. Spoiler, you haven't owned your games in a while. I know.
00:38:39
Speaker
So there recently was a interview with Ubisoft's director of subscriptions, Filipe Tremblay. I don't know if that's how you pronounce it, but I am a dumb American.
00:38:51
Speaker
Uh, talk, uh, talking to game industry biz about the digital feature in Ubisoft plus, which is Ubisoft's game pass essentially. Um, and he had a quote where one of the things we saw is that gamers are used to a little bit like DVD, having an owning their games. That's a consumer shift that needs to happen. That being the consumer shift to you not owning your games.
00:39:11
Speaker
And, you know, moving to more of like a Netflix game class model where, you know, you just pay a subscription fee and you get games. Now, here's something I will say. You haven't owned games since you've had to have always online and and content on patch patch on day one. Right. Like discs don't mean jack shit anymore. No, they don't. So there are very few. There are very few games you can put a disc in and play it just straight off of.
00:39:41
Speaker
James, you're not entirely correct in that we can't own our files.
00:39:47
Speaker
So thanks to one person who loves FIFA, a trans woman and a transphobe, we have so many games that are completely cracked and not online required. That's not owning. That's illegally owning. Look, if the option is you cannot legally own it, like they shut down the servers and are no longer supporting it, I see no moral dilemma in acquiring it.
00:40:14
Speaker
Oh, by the way, Derek is referring, we've talked about this before, but Derek is referring to the software crack scene, which is dominated by three people, a trans woman, a transphobe, and one person who only cracks plural evolution soccer. Yeah.
00:40:30
Speaker
But that's incredible. It's such a small community. And it's those are big. But like, I, I will fully admit I torrented and well, I downloaded a cracked Sims one. Where could I buy Sims one? I can. Yeah.
00:40:47
Speaker
I mean, I've torched it a lot, but I don't equate that to ownership. Like if you have the files, you can run them yourself. You're not dependent on an online. You didn't pay money. It's not ownership. That is theft. Extra steps. If studios like Capcom are going to put in
00:41:08
Speaker
spyware DRM on their older like 10 plus year old games. Oh, yeah, we're not going to bring that up. But Capcom went back and added DRM to a bunch of old games in a really dick move. And so they have money on the industry. Do not toward new games. Do not. I mean, you knew it everywhere. Listen, I listen, I'm not I'm not here to tell you what you do and you don't do. I was going to tell you, don't don't have some sort of moral of that. I own a game because I got a cracked version of it off Fire Bay.
00:41:39
Speaker
I'm not supporting the piracy of new games. I'm just saying that, you know, the studios might want to watch their language because they might get more than you wouldn't download a car. Would you?
00:41:57
Speaker
Um, no, but listen, this is not about the moral standing of torrenting and cracking games. I think just this idea of like the industry is pushing towards subscription based modeling because it is a steadier revenue stream, right? And we've talked about this game pass, but it's like, it's so much easier to be like, we have this many subscribers. We can forecast that maybe we'll get a bump when a game releases of this amount.
00:42:25
Speaker
And it's so much easier to do financial forecasting with that where it's like, well, we're going to spend, you know, $50 million on this game and maybe it'll sell well. And maybe you won't. Yeah. But you got to be profitable. Like I need to go on the other side of the coin though. So users not owning what they pay for is what led to Sony removing some purchased films and movies from people's guests. Yeah. Yeah. I should say it.
00:42:53
Speaker
I am being flippant about it that we don't already own it. I do think ownership is important. Um, I still buy blue rays of stuff when I want certain things. Um, they're actually for you to, it might be interesting. I don't know if you saw, they're releasing a 4k restoration Blu-ray of the 1997 berserk anime. Oh, are they really? Yeah. I'm going to get that.
00:43:18
Speaker
It was one of the many good attempts. It was so far the best attempt. If you get past CGI, the latest one's not good still. But no, I think this...
00:43:34
Speaker
Well, his argument of ownership, it was more in the context of a subscription, right? Not necessarily paying $60 and still having that taken away. Right. This is me saying where it's like gamers have to get comfortable with it. I think basically we were already comfortable with it. People just don't realize it.
00:43:54
Speaker
Right. Yeah, with our like, like, yeah, when the PS3 shuts down its store or screwed when the 3DS shut down its I don't have access to games I paid for anymore. There's no ways I can ever get them. But actually, I forgot if they left it up for existing purchases. I don't remember. But one of my issues, though, is that the one game that's only releasing digital
00:44:15
Speaker
You know, we were just talking about it. Yeah. What happens if for some reason they just decide to stop hosting it on the Xbox store? Yeah.
00:44:28
Speaker
This I mean, this is the same problem that's coming up with some movies and television shows recently where, you know, they're like, we're not going to release it and just take the the the tax relief for it is like a failed project, even though it's entirely filmed and made. This is like the the Batgirl movie that was that Brendan Fraser was in. Oh, he was. Yeah, he played Firefly.
00:44:56
Speaker
We're in a weird time where companies have a little too much control over IP.
00:45:06
Speaker
I wonder what the collector's market is, because I because PS4 games and PS5 physical are worth nothing. Right. Like, and even in 20, you know, I bet in 10 years it might be a little more. I can't see the meaning anything because like what you said, you pop in the disc and you need. There were some that work in the PS4 era. Definitely towards the end of the PS4. Yes. Towards the beginning, there were probably, you know, it was a higher split of games that worked on disc.
00:45:36
Speaker
I don't know. I like I've been going through my collection and there's not a single like super Nintendo through PS2 game I would get rid of. But my PS3 and PS4 like so much of them feel worthless. It's like I should only keep it on my shelf if I want to look at it. Like none of it means anything anymore.
00:45:54
Speaker
There's a guy that comes up on my TikTok lives a lot who has a collection of essentially every game that's ever existed and people just message him like a name of a game and he'll just go through like, yep, here it is. And it's like every fucking game, any game, any platform.
00:46:10
Speaker
Yeah, I love his videos where he's like, Oh, I found this in this little flea market in Honolulu. I found this game being offered and I didn't own it. So of course I had to fly there and get it. What? I think he did. He's done that something like that twice. If we're thinking about the same guy. Who's this person?
00:46:29
Speaker
He's not in my, I'm not following him. He just occasionally pops up. Just as an aside, my TikTok live has gotten real good lately of just people playing like retro games. I'm like, Oh, I just watched the band play Mega Man three for like 20 minutes the other day. Oh cool. TikTok live
Halo Battle Royale Challenges
00:46:47
Speaker
you said? Yeah. I guess that is a thing, isn't it? Yeah. It has a low requirement to get in. I think it's like a thousand followers or something. Yeah. And you can get a thousand followers easy if you know what you're doing.
00:47:00
Speaker
Did you throw, do you throw money in TikTok? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. You know, but speaking of throwing money down a hole. Oh, let's talk. What? The Halo Battle Royale is more than likely canceled. Poor Halo. Yeah, Halo just can't catch a break. You're optimistic though, weren't we?
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah, so when Halo Infinite came out, there's a lot of discussion about there being a battle royale in the works. I believe they said nearly 100 people were working on it. However, some rumors and reports by unnamed sources. Let's see, independent.
00:47:43
Speaker
Yeah, they can't confirm it officially, but unnamed sources, uh, as a part of the project have said that the project is canceled according to the reporters. Um, this is from Todd or Tom Phillips at Eurogamer. Uh, so, you know, we, we say it like it's so easy, like just make fucking a battle royale game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:08
Speaker
But I do credit Xbox to be like, well, are we going to actually support it? Like did they really look at it and go, we really have to do all this work or it's going to fail and just decide that, you know what, we're not just going to put it out to fail.
00:48:24
Speaker
I think the bigger issue is projecting market share. Halo gun work is in a really middle ground. Call of Duty has really short time to kill. Apex Legends has really long time to kill.
00:48:41
Speaker
It's like right in the middle for time to kill, speed of gameplay, and it's just like, are you really going to pull people from both of them? Or are you just going to get overlooked by people who want really fast gameplay with longer time to kill versus people who just want to one-tap people?
00:48:58
Speaker
Like I can't think of any other battle royale that's meaningfully successful, industry-wide. Yeah. No, that's fair. Like where is its place? And also who even cares about Halo anymore? Like Zoomers don't have any emotional attachment to it. And I think the rest don't have time for video games anymore. Andy, you're hurting me physically.
00:49:24
Speaker
I was, I put so many hours into like every Halo game, including Halo Wars. And I think that's beautiful. But how many years ago was that? Like, did you play Infinite, Derek? Yeah, I played a little bit of Infinite. Oh, screw me then. I didn't stay, though. I didn't pay for the single player. I played the free online they had. Oh, you didn't play single player. OK, I think we all played the multiplayer together. I mean, I want to be honest, after 343 took it over, I did not care for the
00:49:55
Speaker
story plots. That's fair. And also the story should have ended after like three, maybe ODST was a good middle ground. But then after that, just just make a different IP. They did with destiny, which has its own host of problems. Apparently. Well, first thought was bungee. And yeah, their own problems. I don't know. I just I don't know where where is this. I've been hearing this term boomer shooter.
00:50:23
Speaker
Hail is not a boomer shooter, right? No. Boomer shooters are Doom, Quaker. That's right. Wolfenstein. I loved that term. I was like, oh, boomer shooter. I've also been hearing the term dad gamer. Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:39
Speaker
So there's a whole like new market cropping up. And I don't know if we're just like, coming up with these things to make fun of them, which I think is fair to do as well. Well, but I don't know your shooter has the connotation that this was the first super popular shooting genre. Every, every gift shooter for a little bit was trying to be the next doom. Oh, yeah.
00:51:02
Speaker
Dad gamers or dad games are games where you can put in 5-10 minutes, but then when the kid cries you can immediately stop. You're not letting anyone down.
00:51:12
Speaker
Oh, see, I thought dad gamers were millennials revisiting properties or Gen Xers revisiting properties and wanting it to be the same and then just getting mad about it, if that makes sense. I don't know which one is more the more common definition, but I could be wrong to be fair. And maybe it's a little crossover, right? Because they just want to relive their past as they're trying to deal with their present, like putting down their kid.
00:51:43
Speaker
Well, speaking
New Game Releases and Reviews
00:51:44
Speaker
of reliving the past, Prince of Persia is good again. Oh yeah, it is. I want to play that one. Prince of Persia in the Last Crown is out as of today. It was in early pre-order access since last week, but it's officially out today.
00:52:02
Speaker
January 18th. It's currently sitting at an 86 on open critic with 95% of critics recommending it. Christian Donland, the Eurogamer, give it a 4 out of 5. Ubisoft ditches its normal formula and finds the ideal way to bring back gaming's original prints back to life.
00:52:20
Speaker
And Phil Hamsha at IGN gave an 8 out of 10. Returning to a 2D perspective, let's Prince of Persia lost ground, perfect its controls in combat while capturing everything that was great about the heyday of the series. Yeah, so we talked about this when we played it at PAX. It sounds like it continues to the experience we had at PAX where we played it for, I don't know, it was like five, 10 minutes.
00:52:47
Speaker
Yeah. It, you know, we had a great time with it and it sounds like that experience continues through it. Um, I know, uh, this is available on Ubisoft plus. So if you want to do their game, you can get their game pass equivalent and play it that way. Oh, sure. Uh, as they, or, or you can buy it outright at 49 99, I will say 49 99. Yeah. It's a, it's a lower priced game term.
00:53:15
Speaker
It isn't available on steam. It is available on the Epic store though, which is just a little more complicated for me because I want to play it on my steam deck. I'm sorry. I do want to disagree on one point. I don't think this is going to be like the experience in there because that very kind Ubisoft employee, she kept telling me, no, you need to go this way. It's like, let me fail. It'd be nice to be able to fail on my own.
00:53:45
Speaker
And I'm going to like find the way, you know, I'll just get lost a little bit. Yeah. And I think the controls were very reactive. I felt like the game was complete last year. Yeah. Well, it wasn't last year. It was the summer where this past year. Yeah, that's true. It is last year. You're right.
00:54:05
Speaker
Listen, we have to shift our minds. We live in 2024 now, everyone. Time's moving forward. Time's moving forward. Although it is very weird to think of something as last year in December, especially when you say it like with that like kind of like knowing inflection. But also one, correct? It's not just on the Epic Games Store. The Epic Games Store allows developers to post their own games on their own launcher. So the Ubisoft game launcher will have it.
00:54:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I said. It's I said it's on the Ubisoft game launcher and they're in their game pass. No, you said it was on Epic at the end, though. Yeah, it's not on Steam is what I'm getting at. Yep. I want to buy it. I want to play this. Well, as I'm not playing like a dragon until rebirth. Yeah, you can play Prince Persia. You probably knocked that out. Yeah, maybe I play Lost Crown.
00:54:58
Speaker
Honestly, that's the kind of game you could drop for a few weeks or months and come back. Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking maybe playing it on Switch.
00:55:07
Speaker
I don't know. We played on Switch and it played real well. I didn't see any particular issues on the Switch. It's got a certain kind of, I don't want to say low poly style to it, but it's definitely not going for hyper-realistic graphics. It's going for the CG animated look that has
00:55:29
Speaker
low levels of detail in some place and high levels of details and other. So I don't think it's going to push the switch too much that it played. We were playing on switch when we demoed it. So it played great. Everything was great. So I actually don't mind. Oh, I'm playing Mario RPG by the way. So my Andy. Oh, are you really? Yeah. How far did you get? Um, I'm probably three fourths of the way through now. OK, I just got like the fourth star.
00:55:57
Speaker
OK, I think I might have gotten the fifth. I don't know. But I'll tell you what, I got that far in a weekend because it's nice that a game is so short. I feel weird playing it because I'm like, do I need to grind? Should I be grinding?
00:56:14
Speaker
No. Not even a
Charity Events and Conclusion
00:56:17
Speaker
bit. It just holds your hand. It's not that it holds your hand. It just lets you just go your own pace. It's so nice. And you didn't play the original, right, James? No, I never played Super Mario. No nostalgia for it. But what's your impression then with no nostalgia? Oh, it's fun. Yeah. I think I'm just off put because it's just kind of a weird RPG.
00:56:41
Speaker
I do want to maybe change the description of the difficulty. It's easy enough that Big Brother can beat it for you.
00:56:47
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I think it's it's it is the first game I've played. And to be fair, not that I've played many others like it, but like it is a game for kids to get into RPGs. Yeah. And it very much reminded me of I'm a bad person, but the one I played at PAX where his specific intention was to craft a JRPG for kids.
00:57:14
Speaker
And to handle like maybe some more or to engage with maybe some little bit more difficult themes, but to be digestible by children. But it's like, where do we have those opportunities? He's was crafting it because it didn't exist. And Super Mario RPG.
00:57:29
Speaker
does it and it's goofy and it's fun and it's dumb and it's it's it's it's just great it's just great i've been i've been loving it i've been loving it one last thing just before we cut off for tonight um speaking of great uh agdq awesome game's done quick is going on right now
00:57:50
Speaker
Hopefully, I'll get this posted up tomorrow, Friday. So if you listen to this, you still might be able to catch some of Friday or Saturday's stream. As of right now, they have raised just about $1,015,000 as of 10 p.m. on January 18th, Eastern Time.
00:58:14
Speaker
That goes to the prevent cancer foundation, which is for the screening and like cancer awareness to help people make sure that they can't catch cancer early. Yeah. It's been pretty good so far. I've had a good time watching it. I've never, um, it's, oh, it's a, if you don't know, it's a speed running, uh, marathon. It started this previous Sunday and it's 24 seven, uh, Sunday to Saturday. What was the best speed run you've seen?
00:58:42
Speaker
Honestly, one of them was someone played the bluey game. Oh, there's a speed run community around that. There's a speed run community where it's kind of like there should be like a rule 34 for speed running. If there's a speed run of it. Oh, what's a game that you want speed run?
00:59:03
Speaker
I don't know. We'll have to talk about that on another episode of Add To Party. We're over an hour. That's fair. That's fair. I try to keep us to a tight hour. And it's appreciated by everyone. God bless you. I've been your host, James. Maybe you don't get Cacio a Pepe, Hartwell. And I've been joined by... Oh crap, I gotta go. Andy, wait, why are you hating on it?
00:59:28
Speaker
Just just the. Just the Goodles version on it. Just the Goodles version. Oh, oh, OK. Well, Andy, I'll I'll do it myself then. Cacha de Pepe. OK, and I've been joined by Derek Pickle and Joyer. Ooh, wait, Pickle, in terms of the the man, a man and man.
00:59:57
Speaker
But also, I think you like a good pickle, Derek. I do. That is one of my hobbies, is pickling. No, you pickle? Of course you pickle. What do you pickle? All right. Well, we can talk about that next time. No, I want to know about the pickling. Talk about it later. Have a good night. What a cliffhanger. Have a good rest of your day. Can't you pickle anything?