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Stellar Blade is less than Stellar & NIntendo Switch 2 news! - Add to Party 05.01.2024
21 Plays7 months ago
Apologies, James' audio is choppy, all the recording have the same errors. I'll understand if it bugs you too much.
This week we review Stellar Blade & Sand Land, discuss Nintendo's latest moves, and Square Enix cancelling games
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Two Party' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
you
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to a two party, your weekly, your weekly French simulator masquerading as a new show podcast. And I'm your host, James Hartwell, and I'm joined by
The State of News: Negativity vs. Positivity
00:00:31
Speaker
I was actually just questioning, do I go next? Uh, Andy K and I've been joined by, or I am joined by Derek Castilla. Hmm. That's right. We're back again for your weekly dose. I'm tired. I know. Also news, also news is boring sometimes. I don't know. I've,
00:00:57
Speaker
I don't I don't necessarily know. There's the friendship simulator piece of it where we want to. We can just vamp and carry the thing by ourselves, but to certain extent, too. I want to have interesting things to talk about. That's fair and somewhat positive things, too. We can't just have. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's like we've got so many podcasts are like more layoffs this week. Actually, you know what? You're right. Most of the
Exploring Adult Onset Eczema: Personal Stories
00:01:20
Speaker
highlight. Well, I don't want to call them highlights, but features almost is just everybody's getting laid off. Today's not different.
00:01:27
Speaker
No, no, it's not. Unless we want to skip that story. We are. Well, we'll talk. We'll we'll we'll address it just because there's there was an update to it. But no. Well, you know, I don't think time has passed. And can I tell you about my aging body? Oh, God, what did you do to it now?
00:01:47
Speaker
Nothing really, I guess, but I'm curious for you guys. Is this a thing? Adult onset eczema? Because I'm getting all sorts of flavors of eczema now, and I don't know what's going on, and I don't know if I'm alone in this.
00:02:05
Speaker
I've never had problems. Do you guys have eczema? Do you know how many
Skincare Routines and Unconventional Treatments
00:02:09
Speaker
types of eczema there is? I mean, I'm sure there's a bunch. And as we get more and more diverse, microplastic floor and farm out there, we're gonna have even more.
00:02:21
Speaker
Maybe that's what happened to me. What have I been drinking? Well, I've been drinking less. That's the problem. No, but we're also we are pretty much all consuming poison in the United States also. So that's true. That's true. OK, I'm willing to blame micro plastics.
00:02:39
Speaker
but I don't get it. And then, like, when you send a dermatologist that's inside your phone a couple pictures, all they do is throw a bunch of steroid creams at you. And some of them make you, like, turn weird colors, and one of them made it bleed, and then another made it disappear. And now I have other ones, and I don't want to put any more steroids on it, and I'm trying beef tallow. Have you heard of beef tallow? Yes. Are you rubbing the tallow on yourself?
00:03:06
Speaker
What's that? Are you rubbing beef tallow on yourself? Yeah, I am. I'm rubbing that all over me. I'm rubbing. I just I discovered that's a challenging idea. Beef tallow. Yeah. Oh, there's like I'm not like it's it's there's special boutique blends that's meant for skincare.
00:03:27
Speaker
Mine's like mixed with honey and olive oil and blah blah blah. Yeah, it's in the same realm of products like goat milk for bathing in. Like, they do stuff to it that makes it not so good to eat, possibly toxic, but also really good for the outside of your body.
00:03:45
Speaker
Well, our skin is an organ and we have to take care of it. And now I've been on this whole- It's the largest organ in your body.
Favorite Skincare Products and Rituals
00:03:51
Speaker
It's the largest organ and apparently there's lots of eczema and it's awful and it's itchy and it bleeds and I hate it. And now, do you guys have skincare routines? I started a skincare routine. My partner definitely wants me to have one.
00:04:09
Speaker
James, let me walk you through this. And Derek, Derek, do you have a skin care routine? I have psoriasis. Of course I do. Oh, is psoriasis also? Wait, is that like eczema? I don't quite know. It's dermatologic in the same way. Like it'll create bumps and rashes and whatnot. But it's driven from the autoimmune system rather than just eating like shit. Wait, do I have psoriasis? I don't eat that bad. I've been eating more vegetables.
00:04:39
Speaker
Now. Now, Andy, Andy, is pizza one of those vegetables? Shut up, shut up, shut up. Yes, it has tomatoes. The government said it's good. But no, I've started. Oh, my God. Well, I had to learn all about like, well, now I'm washing my face. I'd never washed my face before. Do you guys wash your face? Yes. Yes, I wash my face. I've never done that before.
00:05:08
Speaker
No, I mean the shower. I wash it in the shower. Wash my face in the shower with an exfoliator. I have a facial cleanser for if I feel icky in the middle of the day. I've got moist towelettes with moisturizers before going to bed. Oh, interesting. It reduces oil on your pillows too. Sure. Do you use the CeraVe moisturizing facial cleanser?
00:05:35
Speaker
I use CeraVe moisturizing cleanser, CeraVe SA lotion and CeraVe psoriasis lotion or cream. Okay, what's expensive? No, they're expensive as hell. And they give you straws that are too short to get to the bottom of the container to take off the lid and then get in there with your hands. Oh, no, good product. Horrible salesman.
00:06:01
Speaker
If there was any alternative, I would never buy CeraVe again, but. Well, I just bought a big tub of the CeraVe. They've got moisturizing cream. I bought the CeraVe PM like ultra lightweight lotion with God, there's so many different types of acids in these lotions, too, like hydroclonic, I think, and like
00:06:25
Speaker
Salicylic? Salicylic? Guys, this is a rabbit hole. I didn't know I'd fall into. I'm trying to cure my eczema. Derek, that's interesting about the psoriasis, though. So is this so like, do you have to wait? Do you have like a body moisturizer, too?
00:06:42
Speaker
Oh, so I have a biweekly injection of the biologic. Oh, interesting. And a topical steroid in a foam for if it gets bumpy. OK. And I have something much milder for my face, but normally just the salicylic acid kicks it out. OK, interesting. Yeah. And James, what do you do to take care of yourself?
00:07:04
Speaker
I have I have a I have a beauty bar that I import from Japan. Oh, really? Wait, what's a beauty bar? It's a bar in one. It's what? It's not a seven in one. No, it's wasn't Japan. I there's a I exclusively use bar soap. I'm a bar soap boy, too. Yeah.
00:07:29
Speaker
Um, and I found a bar soap that I really liked while I was over there and it's, it's a beauty bar. It's called cow. And now I like it and it has a Jasmine scent. Oh, that sounds nice. Yeah. So I, I now pay too much money to get it sent to me because I'm like, this is really nice soap.
00:07:51
Speaker
Hey, you know what? Bathing should be healing. OK, spiritually fulfilling. And so you might as well have your nicest soap. That's, you know, Andy, the only people who actually really believe that are the Japanese like we watch. I get it from them. There we go. Filth off ourselves. And then we call it a day. They wash the filth off themselves and then they go heal spiritually.
00:08:20
Speaker
That's true. Let me tell you, when I came back from Japan, my partner was like, your skin is glowing. Ooh. From the body. Has your skin continued to glow? Oh, no. It was because I drank nothing but water and good food while I was over there. And and a peacock, what was it? A peacock sweat or whatever it is. Oh, a peacari sweat. Yeah.
00:08:45
Speaker
Oh, I didn't guess I didn't realize it improves your skin being healthy. I mean, I want to be healthy. I'm just going to say I don't want to be healthy at all. I think it's just he had like a week or two away from processed, super, super processed foods. Yeah, I know that too. It's like I had three weeks away there. Yeah. You probably felt the best in your life on that plane and tried back.
00:09:12
Speaker
Well, didn't you say you were craving salads there? Yeah, they didn't have salads. That's interesting. Well, they have, like, tiny three-byte salads. Yeah. Well, we all got it together. I wanted a good old-fashioned American sweet green. I hear you. Listen, let's just all take care of ourselves, you guys. Let's take care of our skin. Let's take care of our bodies. It's been a lot on my mind. I keep adding products, you guys. I need to stop.
00:09:43
Speaker
For who, Andy, for who? Who do you add them for? I don't know. Well, I'm not going to lie. Well, I did the body cream because I'm trying to I'm trying to help my eczema and it did help. I didn't know that your skin could just not itch. It just never occurred to me to use. That's that's bad. I know. I know. I was extremely ignorant and stupid. So I needed to take care of my skin. But I kind of like the ritual of washing your face at night.
00:10:12
Speaker
I kind of like it. It's a good ritual. But also, Andy, besides just throwing stuff on top of your skin, how's your exfoliation game? So here's and this is where I've just launched into. Now I'm learning about exfoliation. So the only thing I add is body lotion and then you have to wash your face. And then I didn't know you're supposed to moisturize your face after washing your face. So that's a thing.
00:10:36
Speaker
But then I learned about exfoliation and so I bought a face exfoliator thing from Setafil and then I bought like an exfoliating cloth. It's like this long cloth that you like fold up and then you exfoliate your whole body. But I only do that once a week because it's a lot of work.
00:10:57
Speaker
And then you gotta put lotion all over your body after it. Guys, it's so much work. Andy, let me add one more. Everybody listening to this podcast, imagine Andy lotioning his body. It's okay. And now especially that there's a building up that can see into my bathroom, I've got to shut that door.
00:11:15
Speaker
I'm contorting in all different ways. It's horrible. But Andy, let me add one more to your list, OK? You should be wearing sunscreen on your face anytime you go outside, even if it's cloudy. Oh, oh, Derek, that's my am face lotion.
00:11:30
Speaker
Yeah, they have lots of good sunscreens that also moisturize. Yeah, I got the CeraVe AM. So I put that on the morning after I've washed my face and then I have their CeraVe PM at night that I put on my face. I know this is all riveting, but I'm learning all about skin care, you guys.
00:11:51
Speaker
Um, but that was the thing I learned or was told is that the best thing you can do is wear sunscreen on your face. So Andy, the sign that you need to pull back is when you start looking at the importance of skincare kits from Korea. Oh, no, I haven't did that. Do you use rosewater and stuff? No, I do not.
00:12:11
Speaker
Cause that's, I hear like Korea is on their game, as I understand. They're all about skincare. They're all about skincare. And I've, I've stopped at what I think is the practical limit. I am not trying to be too beautiful or anything. I'm not trying to have beautiful skin. I just like, I just, but I mean, I guess I don't really need to wash my face, but I just like washing my face at night. It's a nice way to wash away the day.
00:12:38
Speaker
That's my bath. That's my spiritual cleansing, just washing my face. It's kind of nice. I won't take a bath though. Baths are still scary and gross. I can't do it. Andy, shower, and then take a nice soak with some colloidal oats, maybe some oat milk also, and just relax.
00:13:00
Speaker
So that sounds beautiful, but I have a bathroom where the tile is like a hundred years old and you're never going to make a hundred year old tile look clean. Like, and so it's just, it's just not great. Like the thing is clean, but it doesn't feel right. It just doesn't feel right. Can I make my landlord redo all the caulking around my tub? If you want to pay more per month. My rent just went up for the first time in like eight years.
00:13:30
Speaker
I've never had my rent ever go up. Really? Well, you've moved places. Yeah, that's true. I haven't stayed place more than five years. Yeah. Well, even still over five years, that's a long time not to raise rent. I'm a good tenant. You're a good tenant. Mine went up by $25. So I'm very happy. Oh, that's not bad. Mine went down $200 this last cycle. It went down? Yeah.
00:13:56
Speaker
That's incredible. Well, no, they they had some units that were unfulfilled for a while, lowered their price to get them in. I saw that they were lowering it and I was like, OK, I'll play your game. I went month to month for one month, waited for it to dip and then said, hey, can you match what you are offering? Or maybe I should look elsewhere. And then boom, it's been like 100 extra for one month to get 200 off a month.
00:14:27
Speaker
Heck yeah. That's a lot of money to save. Holy cow. Well, good find. Good find. Look at us taking care
Game Review: Stellar Blade
00:14:35
Speaker
of our bodies, our financial responsibilities. I'm so proud of us. Yeah. And even though we've already tangent off this, speaking of beautiful Koreans. Ooh. Hmm. What? Let's talk about Stellar Blade. Oh!
00:14:54
Speaker
Uh, made by the Korean studio shift up, uh, released last week. I've been playing it by the way. Uh, came out to an 82 on open critic with 85% of critics recommending it. Michael Saltzman at IGN gave a seven out of 10. Still my brain is great in all the most important ways for an action game, but total characters, a lackluster story and several frustrating elements of its RPG mechanics presented from soaring along with the best of the genre. Uh.
00:15:24
Speaker
Imran Khan and GameSpot give an 8 out of 10. A strong battle system and exciting moments make Stellar Blade more than just an imitator. And Stephen Mills at Destructoid also gave an 8 out of 10. Overall, Stellar Blade is a journey worth experiencing. I feel like with some improvements in certain areas, Stellar Blade could be a legendary landmark experience like those that it clearly draws inspiration from. But even in its current form, Stellar Blade offers a fast-paced action combat system in a unique world with a rewarding narrative. It's not quite stellar, but it's certainly solid.
00:15:55
Speaker
Oh, look at that. Look at that clever wordplay. I want to hear about your impression of it because it's sounding good. It's fun. I like it. So it's it's I think a lot of people kind of look at it as like a soul's like it's more like a soul's light. L.I.T.E.
00:16:15
Speaker
So you don't really, you know, you have the kind of limited healing potions, enemies respawn when you rest at rest points. You know, there's a focus on timing. It's actually it's more like Sekiro than anything because there's a heavy focus on parrying. Hmm. So it's not a super heavy focus, but if you want to play focused on just parrying everything, that is an option from what I've seen. Yeah.
00:16:43
Speaker
Yeah, you don't have, there's also, there's Dodge mechanics. I, I've found the pairing to be better for lack of a better term. Um, in, in terms of like just mechanics, like dodging can feel a little funky to me while pairing feels like you can do a lot better. Of course you have to get the timing right, but that's, that's just get good scrub. Um,
00:17:07
Speaker
But no, it's it's definitely but you don't like it's not like souls where, you know, you're collect when you die, you drop all the souls you've been collecting or everything like that is just you just get it. So you could technically speaking, you could just grind an area for XP if you really wanted to and, you know, die and then.
00:17:26
Speaker
redo it as much as you want. The boss fights are good and they're inspired. So far, they have been that hard to me. I think I've gotten most of them in, I don't know, under 10 attempts for most of them. I one shot at least one boss. You are a souls expert. I am pressing people on the streets of Japan. That's true. Me and the lies of P devs.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's there's a lot of
Stellar Blade's Mechanics and Comparisons
00:17:57
Speaker
combat, too. Like, so, you know, you you have your sword. There's also you have a drone that kind of turns into a handheld gun that has different different ammo types. It has shotgun, slugs, missiles, a Mega Man-esque bean cannon. Oh, so it sounds stupid, like in a great way.
00:18:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think like it really kind of just at a certain point in this game, you go into a almost like Resident Evil Dead Space kind of area where it's like your sword doesn't work in here. You can only use the gun when you're playing a third person shooter. Oh, wow. Yeah. So it's it's it does a lot of interesting things. I'm not.
00:18:41
Speaker
I think an 80% or an 80 is like a good place for it because I am enjoying my time with it. However, I'm not like, I don't know. I wouldn't say I'm like driven to keep playing it. Like I kind of dip in and out of it when I have time. Um, but I think the time I do have with it is enjoyable. The story is pretty schlocky anime RPG. Um, it's definitely taking a lot of inspiration from near.
00:19:09
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah. Now, that's not to say it's like a smash up of secure and near which the fan. Yeah, it's not really a bullet hell because near is a bullet. Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:23
Speaker
But that's what they like to say during the pre-release gameplay footage is that that was said a few times and does not. I think the the world setting and the story is very near like near automata. So I think there is a better. Oh.
00:19:44
Speaker
What the the when I was playing on town, it felt so overcast. It was just like so like dull is the no, I would say it is it. You're you're playing in kind of like post post apocalypse. OK, so it's your it definitely has that kind of feeling like you're in a world that's been broken over twice kind of thing. OK.
00:20:12
Speaker
Um, so yeah, there's a lot of overcast. There's a lot of depressing characters and depressing stories. Um, and then, you know, your character's running around in a skintight by suit. Um, and you, and she has just right. What's up. And there's multiple outfit changes. There are 22, I think. Yeah, there's about 22. I, some of them are distracting, distracting.
00:20:40
Speaker
And not even in a way of like, Oh, she's so hot. I'm just like, it's just like, that's just too much skin.
00:20:49
Speaker
Like it doesn't even look good. Like it's obviously designed to just like titillate you. But like when you're playing, you're just like, that doesn't even look realistic. Like the physics of this dress don't make sense. I actually. Hold on. That's going to be really interesting for anyone who's just been like looking at all the drama. What's the drama? Lots of people are complaining that they censored and made things less revealing.
00:21:16
Speaker
Oh. Yeah, they did something to like her crotch area to make it less to make it less skin tight, I believe something I heard. Betraying the director's intent. No, no, the director has come out and said that this is the version that he intended for. There was also less crotch. They they've reduced the amount of crotch area that was visible without. Yeah, clothing on.
00:21:42
Speaker
There was also a thing where there's a graffiti, there's a store in the main hub town and there's like a neon R and then next to it, there was graffiti. I never saw this in the version that I played, but I heard games media talking about it. And graffiti next to it, it's hard. So it's the hard R shop.
00:22:06
Speaker
Um, so the shop is help is like grabs in with an ARP and then points towards it. And no, but like the graffiti next to it also said hard. Yeah. Yes. Yes. But the ARP was intended to be there. The crime was just a random graffiti looked like in the West.
00:22:23
Speaker
Well, yeah, I think, too, like they eventually during the review period went to them and was like, hey, hey, this means something in America. And they were, oh, OK. Yeah, no, we didn't realize that. And they go, no, no, no, we get it. We get it. Yeah, they fixed it. So what they did was they're like, oh, I get you. I understand completely what graffiti look like. And then they replaced it with the word crime. Yeah.
00:22:50
Speaker
They just wrote crime and graffiti on the wall. Well, it was it was said hard and graffiti before. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. So, you know, that's that's the other thing. Oh, getting upset about just random words in a game. It's like, no, it has connotations. Oh, my God. They got mad about that. Oh, I know.
00:23:14
Speaker
games or gamers are terrible. I mean, they can take offense at that. And they fixed it. So like good on them, they go down to the woke mob. Woken all caps. That's right. And and also so.
00:23:30
Speaker
the like the censorship that's claimed like a lot of the more revealing outfits a lot of the details don't even look finished like some drawstrings are still hard and have no animation like this that's the thing that bugs me about them like they don't flow properly and that's because if they did she would be naked
00:23:49
Speaker
Oh, these these are details on the costumes that got fixed in the day zero patch. I haven't actually seen any reviews of the in game because I'm hoping in a year it'll be on PC and I find them out myself. Oh, yeah. PC. No, it's right now it's PlayStation five exclusive. It's also 70 dollars. Well, I.
00:24:11
Speaker
I don't know if it's worth $70 that if you I don't think anybody should be running to play this game. Like if you have nothing better to do, it's a good game and it's fun to play. But if you can wait, I don't think there's a reason to. It's not like anything's going to get spoiled for you. So it's not like a soaring achievement in the the souls born area. So
00:24:36
Speaker
You know and it but it has a lot of I think much like Liza P came out which is also another Korean studio
00:24:44
Speaker
came out and really did like a lot for like, Hey, we're going to tinker with the souls formula and put our own, our own stamp on it. Well, he does that too. And like, it has these kind of makes it much more of an action game and you have these combo abilities. So it's almost devil may cry. Like you're trying to knock out combos with certain button presses. And, you know, you also have these ultra abilities, extra damage. So it's, it's different from a normal souls game in that way. And I think those things do make it worth playing, but.
00:25:14
Speaker
I don't know if, you know, it's not something I'm like the game, the game as it stands so far that I played and I played, I don't know. I was like 15 hours. That's a decent amount. 12 hours. I've seen people say it took them about 25, 30 hours. So I'm probably halfway through it.
00:25:37
Speaker
I feel like character action games should be like 10 to 12 hours. Yeah. Well, there's new game plus and some other nonsense in it, too. I mean, maybe that's earning it 70 bucks and more costumes will be coming. So I settled for I settled for one that's kind of like like like a like a punk, like she's she's fully covered, but she's wearing kind of like clothing. No way. She looks cool. I like it.
00:26:08
Speaker
Well, it's pretty good, but you know, it's not what Sandland. Oh, yeah. I will disagree with that judgment. Well, you disagree with the critics then because currently sending it to 73 on open critic with the 53% of crickets, critics recommending it. Michael Hingham at IGN, you had a six out of 10.
00:26:30
Speaker
Sandland's vehicular focus shows potential, but devolves into a by-the-numbers open-world action game, a storytelling that only occasionally manages to live up to the joys of its original work. Daniel Cassata at Hot Consolous gave it an 82 out of 100. He doesn't invent the wheel, but his recreation of the desert world and above all his vehicle battles and a lot of personality. I guess he's talking about the main character. Ideal for those who want a light and very Toriyama-esque adventure.
00:27:00
Speaker
And Kyle Hillard at Game and Forward gave it a 7.8 out of 10. Sandland has its shortcomings. It feels a little overlong despite seeing credits around the reasonable 20 hour mark, but it maintains a charm throughout. Toriyama's fun sense of humor is front and center with Beals above the main character, taking on the adventure primarily so his dad will give him an extra hour of video game time every day.
00:27:23
Speaker
I may have not had strong connections with most of the cast and was annoyed with a number of specific sections, but I like spending time in Sandland and beyond and seeing Mirage upgrade and grow, which I guess is a feature of the game. Derek, what are your opinions in Sandland? Because I played the demo and I was like, this is OK. It didn't make me want to play it. And certainly these reviews are not making me want to play it any more than that. What do you have to say about that?
Game Review: Sandland
00:27:52
Speaker
OK, so the storytelling or the storytelling is not exactly like flawless. It's very uneven. There's some design flaws in the gameplay itself, but like it just comes off as a shown at adventure. Like this is so Sandland is a manga from Akira Toriyama, author of Dragon Ball and R.I.P. R.I.P. Yeah. And he his like
00:28:21
Speaker
Just a lot of elements that were an early Dragon Ball come out here. Lots of the same designs, lots of the same elements. And the gameplay is genuinely fun. So you have the capsules from Dragon Ball and you can just change from tank to walker to bike. And it's nothing amazing, but it's it's.
00:28:46
Speaker
A very entertaining experience. Did you get there or did you watch someone play it? I watched someone play nine hours of it and I think watching it is an equal experience for this game. The gameplay is nothing special. The story is fairly weak but the mechanics are solid and the characters are fun.
00:29:09
Speaker
I mean, I, I, I take opinions from people I've watched play games too. So I don't think that's not fair or it's unfair of you to form an opinion based off of that. Um, I haven't seen anyone playing it, which I think of itself is kind of its own indictment of the game. Um, at least, you know, the people I usually follow who play these games, I saw a lot of people try the demo like I did. And they were like, maybe, maybe when he goes on sale, but
00:29:39
Speaker
I didn't ever even heard of sand land. I think it was the manga he did before Dragon Ball Super came out. Oh, okay. Super wasn't a manga though, right? No, Super's manga. Oh, I didn't know that.
00:29:58
Speaker
For some reason. Hmm. Hmm. Okay. Well, you know, this is making me think. I think super started with anime and then he went back and redid it. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um, well, hey, you still involve or had his hand in it, but I'm thinking now, what are we going to do about the next Dragon Quest? Can you even make Dragon Quest anymore?
00:30:21
Speaker
Yes, like. Oh, yeah, the money printing machine of Japan will continue to be made. But how do you do it? His style is not hard to duplicate. I'm sorry to say. I mean, also, he has assistance. I forget the name of his main assistant on Super, but they've talked about how, like, you know, it's. He has people who are trained in his style and work with him for years, so.
00:30:47
Speaker
who are, you know, great monkeys in their own right. Sure. All right. OK. Dragon Quest is saved. Unfortunately for every Hunter Hunter fan. Oh, that's right. Listen, he's not writing that anymore still, right? Then a couple of chapters come out recently. Let me check the GitHub hiatus excitist real quick. There's a GitHub of it.
00:31:14
Speaker
Just for like all this fan translate. People use GitHub like a Wikipedia sometimes. I find it very weird. That's interesting. Yeah. So the last chapter was in the first four weeks of issue four of the year 2023. Oh, I thought it came out recently. I guess I was wrong. I mean, that's sort of recently like the drought before that was three full three and a half full years. Where is he getting money? Volume sales. Maybe.
00:31:43
Speaker
I mean, live your best life, right? He has no obligation. But I guess going back to Sandland, it was just making me think of Toriyama. Yeah, I had never heard of Sandland at all. So this threw me by surprise and then it just didn't look interesting. But I'm glad it's fun. You know, it's not fun. What? Nintendo's long arm of the law coming for Gary's bod.
00:32:07
Speaker
Oh, does is Gary's mod made for porn? No, no, no, it wasn't made for. Right, right. I guess they know you're thinking of the source film maker. Oh, that is what I'm thinking. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Source film maker is where.
00:32:32
Speaker
OK, because I was going to say it's not unreasonable for Nintendo to say stop the porn, please. Gary's mod is more for weird games and deep fried memes. Oh, is that where Skibbity poop comes from? I don't know. And I don't want to know. Skibbity, Skibbity toilet, Skibbity toilet. I don't know. Keep going. Sorry. Well, so if you're unfamiliar, Gary's mod is a
Nintendo's Copyright Actions
00:33:01
Speaker
how to describe Garry's Mod. Garry's Mod is a game, for lack of a better term, that loads assets from any source-based game or source engine-based game and that you can use to then develop like your own little games or movies or sets or things like that. People, however, have also taken to the Steam Workshop and imported
00:33:27
Speaker
everything. Let me give another definition for Garry's Mod. Sure. It's the first in the original Roblox. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you know what Roblox is, yeah, Garry's Mod is a very apt way to describe or Roblox is an apt way to describe it.
00:33:45
Speaker
It is a creation engine for you to play with, you know, models. Prappa came from Gary's mod, didn't it, Derek? It did. And then I shifted to Team Fortress 2. No, Team Fortress 2. And then I think a few Counter Strike 1.6 servers implemented it and then Call of Duty stole it.
00:34:04
Speaker
Shamelessly. Stole what? I missed that. Prop Hunt is where you have two teams. One team are hunters and the other team are props. And basically what that means is you are props in the level of the game. So like you're a couch or you're a vase or you're a chair or you're a mug and you have to hide on the level and make it so the hunters can't find you.
00:34:33
Speaker
Oh, that's kind of fun. Oh, yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah. But actually, I have a history change. It was actually in Counter-Strike source first and then ported to Gary's mod. Oh, really? Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense. So, yeah. But how does Call of Duty steal that? And they just. Just like, oh, we should do that, too. Well, like I'm a coffee mug and Call of Duty. Yes. Well, it's just because, yeah, because the level of sheet of metal. Yeah. Or a tire. Call of Duty is that goofy.
00:35:03
Speaker
Like, no, it called these very goofy sometimes. Um, now, now that we've spent five minutes explaining the Facebook, so yeah, everything. Uh, however, Nintendo was like, Hey, Hey, Hey, uh, what's going on over here?
00:35:21
Speaker
Uh, as a Gary's mod put up an official post on steam workshop saying Nintendo stuff on steam workshop. We're working on removing all Nintendo related stuff from steam workshop. Some of you may have noticed that certain Nintendo really workshop items have been taken down. This is not a mistake. The takedowns came from Nintendo. Honestly.
00:35:40
Speaker
This is Nintendo's content and what they allow and don't allow is up to them. They don't want you playing with that stuff. That's their decision. We have to respect that and take down as much as we can. This is an ongoing process as we have 20 years of uploads to go through. We want to help us by deleting your Nintendo related uploads and never uploading them again. That would help us a lot.
00:36:03
Speaker
How do they not know? How did Nintendo not know? Or why does Nintendo care now? There's no there's no universe where they didn't know this was happening. Oh, hey, there's this game on Steam that's super popular and people are saying Salsa from Pokemon. Oh, let's look at Gary's Mod. I don't know. I'm speculating that Power World getting popular gave them pause and made them reevaluate how
00:36:31
Speaker
Strict they needed to attempt to put down IP violations. Sure. They can't just go after people streaming their game on release because, you know, that's not stopping anything. Mm hmm. And that is something Nintendo likes to do. They give streamers like a limited amount of time to stream new Pokemon games. They only allow them to stream like the first quarter of any RPG games. Oh, interesting.
00:36:58
Speaker
Like they're very strict with that. And they've been very strict on emulation as well. But here's one. It's been going on like 20 years and it's fair. Fair enough. Yeah, I mean, it's it's one of those things where it's just like, yeah, they're not paying anything to license holders. Like, yeah, people of their own free time and free will upload stuff.
00:37:21
Speaker
For free, I think. I don't know if you can. I don't know if Gary's want stuff is monetized. If someone was monetizing stuff, that would be stupid, but. But yeah, it's it's hard to get mad about, but it's just also weird, like you said, Andy, to be like.
00:37:39
Speaker
going on for like 20 years by now. Yeah. Why? I don't. And like, honestly, this is like, it sounds like because for some reason I still can't wrap my brain or brain around Gary's mod, but it sounds like a toy box. Like you just. Yeah, that's a great way off and you play around. It's like I get it. Like if no one's charging money for it, like I feel like it only helps Nintendo to let everybody play around. I agree.
00:38:04
Speaker
Like the only times I ever saw Nintendo characters were them using Nintendo characters as skins like I just posted to the Slack and it's like very harmless but
00:38:16
Speaker
I've been far away from the Garry's Mod for a while, so maybe they've been recreating games or something. I honestly don't know, but I definitely do have seen Nintendo assets used in game, at least modified and blah, blah, blah. It's obviously Mario and Peach, but I've seen it.
00:38:35
Speaker
I mean, it's also one of those things where the sucky part about how copyright and IP protection work is that if you don't go after them, it weakens the defense against when you need to go after things. That is a very good point. It is very is a very bootlicky opinion, but they do have to defend it. Yeah. The way the way the law is set up, they have to. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Does anybody play Gary's Mod anymore?
00:39:02
Speaker
Oh god, how many people are playing it right now? Probably a lot. Lots of prepubescent teens. Is it for children? No. There's very much not children things going on that are filled with children. That's all things. How degenerate does Gary's mod get?
00:39:23
Speaker
There are 15,000 people in game right now. Wow. But the ones I'm thinking, the ones I played, this is going to be telling a 1942 RPG, which of course you're playing in Nazi Germany in 1942, various as various members, including the hobo who cannot be stopped by the police unless they're committing violence.
00:39:46
Speaker
And most of the other people are just having money printers in corners and buying weapons and having a fun time. It's just a very edgy take on the RPG system that's Garry's Mod started. Sure. And one where they replace the money printers with drug printers. Oh, you're printing marijuana.
00:40:08
Speaker
Oh, no. And I spent like five plus years away from it. Came back so many squeaky high pitch voices. I could not. I could not partake in that. By the way, the average player count is somewhere in the mid 30,000s month to month. Hmm. That's incredible. Yep.
00:40:29
Speaker
Yeah, there's all kinds of games like Watermelon Race, where you pilot a watermelon with very rough controls over a rough terrain, free build. You can try to create a spaceship and launch the highest in a certain amount of time. And I think the most famous game mode is Trouble in Terrorist Town. Yep, Trouble in Terrorist Town is also. Trouble in Terrorist Town, Andy is
00:40:58
Speaker
is I don't remember did werewolf come before I think it would have to it werewolf never came up in an episode this is an FPS version of a social deduction game you've got yeah but I mean like did werewolf I know social deduction games existed for a long time but
00:41:17
Speaker
Yeah, no, Mafia was a game you played with the standard 52-card deck for, like, what, since 2000-ish? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, but it's basically that. Okay. Werewolf or Mafia or Secret Hitler, technically. Okay.
00:41:33
Speaker
Yeah. You know, hearing about it, this is so beautiful that like a game that is meant or built around community expression, just people having fun and making whatever they want. 30,000 people engage with that a month. That's incredible. And Nintendo doesn't want you to see their name anywhere. Yeah.
00:41:55
Speaker
Well, I mean if we've got edgy, you know, marijuana printers, maybe we don't want Mario next to the thing that prints marijuana.
00:42:06
Speaker
Completely reasonable. Completely reasonable. God, the amount of edgy games that must be on there. Oh. Oh, yeah. Well, especially if it's a creation tool accessible enough to young people, which you made the comparison to Roblox, that must be edge out the wazoo. Roblox. Oh, Andy, dive in. You like video essays? Dive in some Roblox video essays. Oh, she gets crazy in there.
00:42:32
Speaker
Yeah, I don't actually know much about Roblox. I've seen it at Target. That's as close as I've gotten to Roblox.
00:42:39
Speaker
and then hearing about how they're exploiting children for money. No, no. According to the Roblox media people, they're liberating children in untoward situations and allowing them to make an income. Oh, that's right. Oh, my God. I read that interview. Oh, my God. It's just like, yeah, we're making money off children. What do you do? Stop us?
00:43:05
Speaker
Tell that one kid that made some money in third world country. Oh my God. I could all well, you know, I just I think that's just very special that there's these tools that just these community it builds them up and it had it had legs 20 years.
00:43:24
Speaker
Great. And then we have Source Filmmaker for the rest of it. Hold on, Andy, I think... That's for adults. That's for adults. Andy, Garry's Mod 10 hasn't been the entire 20 years. Before, it was Garry's Mod 9, which was completely free. You could just download and play and do a lot of these things. And then they had the gall to charge like, what, $10 or something? $10. And it goes on sale very often. Yeah. But it's like, how dare they?
00:43:53
Speaker
I might own it, but I don't know what it is. And I think I've known about it for the 20 years of its existence. I've just never understood it. And I'll be on the record. The worst content I've ever had in Garry's Mod was servers, the cinema servers, where you can go into different movie theater rooms and watch what people put from YouTube. Oh, horrible stuff. Horrible stuff. Long for a piece.
00:44:19
Speaker
Long what? Long furbies. Oh, hey, there's nothing wrong with long furbies. OK. Oh, I had another deep dive. I can't. No, we're not doing that.
00:44:30
Speaker
No, I dodged Charlie the unicorn as a child and had to reach had to view it as a semi-adult. It was horrible. What is Charlie the unicorn? No, no, no, no. Like it's always one hand. Nintendo taketh away with the other it giveth.
Rumors and Speculations: Nintendo Switch 2
00:44:50
Speaker
Because we have more we have more news about the Nintendo switch to that's right. Nintendo is really trying not to fuck it up Yeah, they're really trying not to be you it This article from WCC
00:45:07
Speaker
says the Nintendo Switch 2 will be a conservative hardware evolution over the original model according to a recent report from a Chinese preferable manufacturer. In a Facebook post-shirt earlier this week, which has since been edited, Chinese manufacturer Mobipad revealed some additional information on the next console by Nintendo.
00:45:26
Speaker
The console, according to the report, will support both the Pro Controller and Joy-Con controllers as well as the HD Rumble, but the size of the new Joy-Con motor will be smaller. While the current Joy-Con controllers will be cat compatible than the Switch 2, it won't be possible to attach them to the console in handheld mode due to a new horizontal magnetic docking system which will only support the new version of the controllers.
00:45:52
Speaker
Uh, regarding backwards compatibility, Mopad revealed that Nintendo switch two will be fully backwards compatible with both physical and versions of the original switch games. The new console also retains USB-C port. I fucking hope so. Yeah. Why else would it be? Yeah. We're going to lightning. Uh,
00:46:12
Speaker
which will be compatible with the new generation of docks featuring minor design improvements, such as a metal bracket for improved angle adjustments. And as previously rumored, the console screen will be slightly bigger than that original console and support 1080p resolution. So the big news came out of this was that the new Joy-Cons will be magnetically attaching to the new Switch. And also all your Joy-Cons you bought with all those colorways and all that shit.
00:46:40
Speaker
You can use them, but they ain't gonna attach to your console anymore. You know, fair. And that sliding mechanism, mine slide out while I'm holding it. Do they? Mm-hmm. I think I also want to, like, twitch, like, push on it. I'm blaming myself somewhat for it.
00:46:58
Speaker
Like I kind of fidget with it, but sorry, Derek, I think I spoke over you. No, no. So if you're holding at an angle and you apply force, like it locks in place. It's not like a friction lock. It's just like, it's not a good friction lock. Like once it's fully inserted, it's sort of locked in place and you can push it out with slight force. Then this magnet is supposed to help prevent that.
00:47:21
Speaker
Which, you know, I barely play my, well now I use, James, you turned me on to it where you use the pro controller. Oh, the Fisher. Yeah, it's great. It's great. I played a lot of the new Prince of Persia using it that way.
00:47:37
Speaker
Oh, I didn't know you were playing that, Andy. Oh yeah, I beat it. I 100%ed it. Oh, what happened? It's fantastic. And you haven't been to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth yet, huh? Nope, nope, I haven't. But I played, it was actually a little bit ago. But I cannot recommend that game enough, you guys. It's so good.
00:47:57
Speaker
That's that's that's on my list which is it's funny that I'm playing silver blade not that but I don't know why I'm just Not I need in the mood to play that game and I'll get there. I got it I you're you're gonna have a blast It's as I was playing it I was in awe that like they like a triple-a studio Cared that much about a single-player game. It just wasn't making sense to me
00:48:20
Speaker
It just wasn't, it's so good. It's so good. But anyways, that's how I played it. I don't know. Are you guys excited about a Switch 2? I don't care about the system. I want to know what the new Mario is going to be on it.
00:48:35
Speaker
It was another Odyssey. I thought he would be Odyssey too. Yeah, but I think my main concern is, will James see this as an upgrade from the OLED he has? That's true. Oh, I do have the OLED. For a second there, I was about to say, I don't have the OLED. I was thinking of the Steam. I do have the Switch OLED. So, yeah, if this is a big upgrade, I might get no one. Oh, no, I mean, no, I will get I will get this. This will be because
00:49:00
Speaker
Man, some games just run like dog shit on the Switch. Prince of Persia runs fantastic. Well, I think the release date's still 2025, but... I think they're targeting... Yeah, the rumors are still targeting March 2025. But you know, that just means more of a library to be printed for whenever I eventually get a Switch. There if you want my OLED when the Switch comes out. Again, you have to ask me.
00:49:29
Speaker
OK, I'm not going to give it to you. You have to say, James, I would like it. And then you get it. James, I would like it. OK, do you want the original? Well, do you want the original one right now? Because I'll give you the original. No, I want the OLED, I think. All right. Well, then I would actually use it as a portable console, not playing at home. I'll give you the OLED when the Switch 2 comes out.
00:49:56
Speaker
But yeah, now I'm doubly excited, Amy. That's exciting. That's exciting. I don't know what I want to play on Switch, so maybe I won't get it. I want Tears of a Kingdom running at more than 20 FPS. Oh, that's fair. Maybe I'd revisit on that. Maybe I'll give Bayonetta another try. As much as I love Bayonetta, I couldn't play the third one.
00:50:19
Speaker
Not even because of performance, actually. It was just too much was going on. Too much was happening. And I think I'm too old now for that much activity on the screen. This is too much.
00:50:31
Speaker
But I'm glad we got some news on it. Nintendo just announced it. Just do it. It'll probably be this summer. One of their summer Nintendo Directs, I would not be shocked if we get the announcement. Mm hmm. Maybe they're waiting for like the right investor time. Yeah, it's either. Tober might be too late, but I don't know. I either put my money on June or October. Mm hmm. Well, we'll have to see.
00:51:00
Speaker
But, you know, speaking of earnings or stock, whatever, or maybe we want to skip that bummer news of Square. Well, let's just let's round it out with that.
00:51:15
Speaker
Uh, oop, I have to bring up
Square Enix's Financial Troubles and Future
00:51:17
Speaker
the article. Oh, that's, didn't come up. Click that again. There we go. Square Enix detects more than $140 million loss next quarter as it abandons numerous projects in development. This article from fatarkplace.com.
00:51:35
Speaker
Square Enix, the developer and publisher behind Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean, Kingdom Hearts, the Mana Series, and more! The series expects 140 million lost in Exporter as it abandons numerous projects in development. In a press release, Square Enix shared, Square Enix's holdings expect to recognize extraordinary losses pertaining to the abandonment losses associated with the content production.
00:51:56
Speaker
The company that provided more details on the losses in the light of myriad changes underway in the environment surrounding its group, the revised group's approach to the development of high-definition games, the attention being more selective and focused in the allocation of developed resources. The company is carefully reviewing its consolidated forecast for the fiscal year ended March 2024 to a substantial impact for other...
00:52:20
Speaker
So we don't really know what they scrapped, but there's rumors that Stranger in Paradise 2, another 2D HD, or what did they call it? Yeah, 2D HD. 2D HD, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest Builders, and Harvest Stella 2 were the games on the shocking block. Of note, that rumor is from 4chan, which makes me not believe it.
00:52:48
Speaker
Now, here's the rumor. Well, not a rumor. I think they said it was an open world RPG initially worked on by Luminous was being dropped, which sort of sounds like Forspoken 2 was being worked on and getting dropped from lack of success and interest. Yeah, I never played Forspoken.
00:53:11
Speaker
How dare you? The CEO of Square Enix himself wanted it to be a tentpole franchise. Okay. Would have been cool if it was. It looked so pretty. It looked really cool.
00:53:26
Speaker
The other reason I... I was going to say, it needs the power of the PlayStation 5 Pro. That's what it is. Yeah, we need that pro. I was going to say, one of the reasons I also don't believe this rumor of at least the listed games was that they said a 2D HD Final Fantasy. Are you kidding me? They would cancel that. That doesn't make sense to me. I don't know how well those games sell. The 2D HD's may not be selling that well.
00:53:54
Speaker
Well, the last one they made was live a live or live alive. I don't know how to pronounce. Well, that's that's a different thing. So this is this would probably be a remake of a Final Fantasy. Right. And well, the live alive was a remake. And I don't know why they chose that. What's that?
00:54:11
Speaker
That's true, it was. So and I don't know why they chose that to be the one, but whatever. So maybe that didn't sell. And as I understand, Octopath Traveler 2 didn't sell as well. It was it was a indie dark or it was a darling, though. It got reviewed incredibly well. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was reading something about it. I think it was the timing. But you know what? I also don't have the numbers in front of me so I could be making it all up. But I just can't imagine if you had a remake in that style that that wouldn't sell. I just refuse to believe that.
00:54:40
Speaker
The Dragon Quest Builders thing bums me out, because I don't know if I talked about that on here, but I was playing Dragon Quest Builders 2, and that game's incredible. Incredible. It just blew my mind, and all I want is another one. I didn't know you were into that, Andy. I didn't know either. I got the PlayStation Game Pass, whatever it's called, PlayStation Super Plus or whatever.
00:55:05
Speaker
And I was like looking around and then I saw Dragon Quest Builders and then I looked it up and everybody's like, don't play the first one. And I would also agree after playing it. But I played the second one and it just took me away. I invested so many hours. I just lost my life in it. It is it is perfect. It is beautiful. It is wonderful. I think it's incredible. And maybe the third one's canceled. I don't know. Yeah. So so I don't think it's an issue of quality from Square Enix. I think it's
00:55:34
Speaker
They single handedly put up competition for every single one of their titles with their other releases. Of like story driven RPG. So just for 2023, we had Forspoken, Theatrhythm, Final Barline, Octopath Traveler, Paranormousite, Final Fantasy VI, Pixel Remaster, Final Fantasy V, Pixel Remaster, Final Fantasy IV, III, and II, Pixel Remaster, and I, Pixel Remaster.
00:56:03
Speaker
Uh, Live Alive, Final Fantasy XVI, wait, Final Fantasy, oh, on PS5, uh, Ketsuko Danshi, Dragon Quest Treasures, Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai, Star Ocean The Second Story R, Dragon Quest, Monsters of the Dark Prince, and Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis on PC release.
00:56:25
Speaker
Man, they really released a lot. Square goes through it, man. Yeah. I really do wonder what they're canceling. It's always a bummer to hear that. Yeah, but I think most casual gamers, they will play six games a year, six new games a year. Is that fair to guess? That's fair. I think for people who's not their main hobby. Yeah. And honestly, I think it could be lower.
00:56:54
Speaker
Yeah, no, see, that was a generous one. But no, I feel like almost every fan of any of these games would enjoy every single one. But they might play one or two. And they've got to pick which one or two. And I just feel like they were just
00:57:12
Speaker
much like everything during the Covid times, they saw a boom and they tried to ride that boom and now they're buzzing. Sure. I like that point, though, that like if they were a fan of one, they would have been a fan of a lot. So diversify.
00:57:28
Speaker
And, like, I feel like PS1 Square was, like, used to do it all, right? They used to do it all. I was at a convention with a friend, and he picked up, um, iNeeander, or whatever. They made us shoot them up! Like, Square was doing everything! Go back to that! Go back to that, Square. Well, maybe they tried that with Forspoken, and that didn't work out. I mean, I just want them to stick to their strength, and, uh, make it a very solid product. Yeah.
00:57:58
Speaker
And not saying any of them aren't solid products, but maybe that's just too many. Maybe you shouldn't remastered Final Fantasy one through six all really shut your mouth. OK, if someone bought that pack of five Final Fantasy games, why would you buy anything after April 2023? You can still be playing it to this day.
00:58:22
Speaker
I just care that they did four. Four is my favorite. Yeah, but it's just like, if you really like their RPGs, that's two years of content right there, almost. That's fair. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe they're figuring it out. I just hope that none of them had to do with Parasite Eve or Brave Friends or Musashi. Give me those. Leave them alone. Make new ones, please. And thank you. Well, we'll have to talk about what Square is making on another weekly episode of that.
00:58:52
Speaker
That's you farty, a friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I've been your host, James. Yeah, maybe we'll be back next week. Hartwell, and I've been joined by Andy, a skincare influencer. Now, that's right. Sponsor me, Sarah B. Kay. And I've been joined by maybe Derek, maybe biased by Toriyama Castillo.
00:59:22
Speaker
Have a good night! Have a good night everyone! Good night! Bye!