Death, Taxes and Gacha Games with Delta_Zen

Transcript

Speaker: Disclaimer, all views expressed on this podcast represent the host and his guest and not the companies or agencies they are associated with.

Speaker: Welcome to Tony's Game Lounge, a biweekly podcast that covers everything in the world of video games, TCG, tabletop and more. Here's your host, Tony 14. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Tony's Game Lounge podcast, episode 201.

Speaker: If you've been counting that last week, this episode 200 big week, go check it out. If you haven't yet, I'm your host as always, Tony 14. And joining us this week is Twitch streamer, Twitch affiliates and the last newest member of the Game Lounge crew took part in the Game Lounge crew Summer Olympics.

Speaker: Delta Zen. Hi, hi everyone. Zen, welcome and welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. to be here.

Speaker: How are you doing today? Doing fairly well. Would have to say the drive from my bed to this chair was kind of killer, but... Ah, do I know that feeling? like ah so so Sometimes, you know, especially with the mocha cat, when I wake up in the mornings not wanting me to wake up because he's like, no, you're the comfortable spot I have chosen today. i'm like, oh, it's be one of those days today. I see.

Speaker: see you have cat, but sadly, ah my legs only get like one mile to the gallon. ha ha. Yeah, ah gas prices have gotten this day and age. whole Gas prices, energy drink prices.

Speaker: ah Well, because you're brand new to the podcast, Zed, we get to start off with a loading screen. ah So what is your favorite video game, video game character, and video game soundtrack?

Speaker: Oh, see, right off the gate, right off the rip, I have to go for favorite game. It's Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. nice For favorite character, I'd have to go with Katrin Glitch from Fortnite.

Speaker: They are becoming my obsession. They are becoming my waifu for laifu. Okay. And gaming soundtrack. See, the gaming soundtrack would have to go to most of what Zenless Zero provides. Like ah that music, it hit home. I'd be listening to some of the level music just vibing while writing. You can vibe to this stuff.

Speaker: Goddamn. We do like good vibes here. We do like vibing. e All right. And what is your hottest video game take? See, my hottest video game take is... I'm sorry. When it comes to it, Genshin Impact's story has officially hit new levels of... They don't know what they're doing anymore. They have to power scale the threat.

Speaker: Like, we're now fighting gods on top of gods. The moons apparently have power that were harvested. We have the world that's being corrupted. it it almost feels like this game wants to give us a world-ending threat, but it doesn't know how it wants to world-end threat. Yeah. A valid, valid hot take. Genshin Impact doesn't know how to end the world. Like chapter one chapter one, we start off with goddamn bandits stealing food. Chapter four, we're fighting a cosmic fucking whale. ah It's just like a JRPG.

Speaker: ah then this is... And this is right after we punched the electric god in the tit. Oh. Wait, I actually skipped through Maru. The whale is in chapter five. My bad. Chapter four, we witnessed all we witnessed the corruption fighting the light.

Speaker: My bad. If I knew what any of that means, I would be like, oh, yes, absolutely. But I don't play against shit. Thank you for those. We're going to get into our headline of the week now. And our headline of the week this week, Sonic Racing Cross Worlds World Championship 2026 was held.

Speaker: ah This was a big event, especially for my boy Emerald, a friend of the podcast, as he was co-hosting, well, not co-hosting, Yeah, he was a co-host of the event and doing play-by-play slash color commentary for the races themselves.

Speaker: ah So shout-outs to our boy Emerald and congrats on getting to be brought out to such an amazing event hosted by Sega. ah Your world champion going start with that is Exponso. They are the winner. They are the world champion of Sonic Racing Cross Worlds. And we also got a whole bunch of new announcements.

Speaker: ah for the game regarding year two DLCs and characters. ah Starting off the free racers that got shown off ah Bayonetta, who we kind of already knew, but Bayonetta ah it was revealed a bit more Sonic in a McLaren racing gear.

Speaker: And I'm assuming also McLaren race car ah is the second free character. And the third is I guess from persona three. um Those are the first three of the eight new free racers coming out in 2027.

Speaker: As for the future DLCs for year two, ah From November to March, the Evangelion and Godzilla DLCs will release.

Speaker: The Evangelion DLC adds a new stage. It also adds Reynazsica from the anime. The Godzilla DLC just gives us the new stage, but also a bunch of like ah race cars themed around Godzilla. You cannot race as Godzilla, unfortunately.

Speaker: ah ways It's just like Smash Bros. and Ridley. He's too big. but No, no, no. I'm sorry. You can't race as a citywide monster that takes up the whole track. No, I want to be in first place because my the clap of my ass is too thick. Yeah.

Speaker: uh from april to august the next two dlcs will release the first one san rio dlc hello kitty ah who else is there uh shit i don't i can't name any of the others off the top of my head ah side partner but uh the ones you named the ones that i had off right now ah My belody there's vi melody. my melody.

Speaker: there's a There's a chocolate one. I don't know. I feel like I'm going to just offend all the Sanrio fans if I keep going, but there's going Sanrio DLC. I believe Kitty is one of the racers that's being added with that one. I don't know if there was a second one or not.

Speaker: ah And then the second DLC is just another race course. It's the Sega land DLC. And that comes with a specialized, uh, console, like Sega console cars, uh, that you can ride. And then from S S September to December of 2027.

Speaker: Two big ones. One big one, one kind of tame one, like as with everything, uh, a persona three to five DLC. Uh, realistically, if I was a betting man, we're going to see a persona race course with that one. And also probably Narukami or Teddy as one of the racers. If not, those would be two of the racers.

Speaker: Uh, possibly. And the big one that came out of nowhere, Final Fantasy 7 being the remakes is getting a DLC collaboration as well.

Speaker: If I was a betting man on that, what we'll get with that one, we are going to get a, probably uh,

Speaker: motorcycle that cloud drives if not the truck that's driven when we exit the midgar section as vehicles and possibly the buster sword as an extreme gear see hear me out hear me out in regards to rideable vehicles can we just skip the bike and can i just ride cloud Unfortunately, this is a racing game, so I don't think Cloud can keep up with Sonic. See, hear out. Sonic's not allowed to race on his feet. Cloud can't either.

Speaker: Hear me out, though. See, that's a lot to unpack, because right now I feel like I could get Cloud to go to mock Jesus speeds if done right. I just have to drive his stick correctly. Jesus.

Speaker: Also, real quick, when it comes to it, did everyone get together and hold Sonic at gunpoint to say, listen, you blue rat, you're getting in a car so we could actually have a fair chance? Yeah, no, that is definitely how they get Sonic in these cars in the first place. Held up at gunpoint by literally everybody else to keep it fair. Even when he goes super Sonic, he has to be in a car.

Speaker: And the only reason why he stays in the car is because it's got like a Saw-esque style trap. Yeah. If you get out of this car, Chris from Sonic X will die.

Speaker: God. ah So yeah, the FF7R that ah re probably going to get a Midgar stage if I was a betting man. And as for characters, it's probably going to be Cloud and Sephiroth.

Speaker: Like, that's most likely what it'll be, or it'll be Cloud and Tifa. Or Cloud Aerith. But cloud is Cloud is, I think, guaranteed. It's just who the second one will be.

Speaker: and it's between all all of Cloud's wives. but And there's one last thing regarding Sonic Race and Cross Worlds that also came out. I believe if you pre-order or you purchase the year to pass, you get access to Hyper Shadow and his vehicle as well. Hyper Shadow, like Super Sonic, cannot be used in online races because their stats are through the roof, but the vehicle can.

Speaker: ah So you can get a Super Shadow, Hyper Shadow by purchasing the year two pass. And that was everything announced with the Cross Worlds World Championship. all Overall, all not too bad. ah The game is still going really strong and continuing to get updates.

Speaker: ah More gadgets and stuff for races and all of that in between is doing a really good job. I would say competing with

Speaker: if not being like one of the top racing games right now in this day and age.

Speaker: Which ah is really great ah for for Sonic right now. nah Not too shabby. ah Any final thoughts there, Zen, on Sonic Race and Cross Worlds? See, I'm curious to see where it's going to go on the same note.

Speaker: I don't know. it kind of It always feels weird seeing Sonic and cast in a car. Like I'm a Sonic fan. True and true. I played Sonic the fighters. Oh and yeah. Greatest so Sonic game ever right there.

Speaker: I forget the name of the other Sonic fighter game where there was the robot Emeril in it. Oh, they've done a so I think it's just Sonic battle. If I'm correct, I'm good. to Double check that though.

Speaker: I think that might be Sonic battle. It is Sonic battle, but coming from it, Sonic the Hedgehog has gone through so many adventures and but I don't know. I'm curious to see where the story comes from. I hope they don't do what they did with the board game where the plot ended up with Eggman winning and it was just a goddamn carpet.

Speaker: ah Good old Sonic Shuffle.

Speaker: Yeah, no, they like the thing with race racing cross worlds is unlike ah the previous Sonic racing game, ah Sonic team racing. There is no story to follow. It is all just immediately go race, go have fun, go. No, no story mode whatsoever. Just Grand Prix to play.

Speaker: With a ensemble of characters. Man, I was hoping Eggman fucked with something again and all of a sudden he made a monster that he thought he could control and it kicks his rear in the end. No, unfortunately, the the game does not have a story mode, but the game is still really fun and you can race as Hatsune Miku.

Speaker: Oh God, now we're going to settle the debate who's better at racing, Sonic or Miku. Oh God, the Miku fans are coming out on this one. Oh yes, they are. Well, that was our headline of the week. It's now time to dive into everything else that happened in these past two weeks as we jump into the week in review. Recapping the major stories of video games and the world of tabletop,

Speaker: Looking over recent releases and reports from the Game Lounge crew, it's the Week in Review. And kicking it off, some of the previous games that came out of these last two weeks, you had Planet Zoo 2 release.

Speaker: ah Valor Mortis, the game where you're... It's like Dark Souls, but French. ah Final Fantasy Resonance, the first HD 2D Final Fantasy game.

Speaker: The Jackbox Party Pack 12 released, which is a great pack. Has some solid games in there. ah Nintendo Switch Sports Resorts dropped, and also Stupid Never Dies.

Speaker: ah Those last two, i am picking up very soon myself, if I haven't picked them up already. See, at this rate, real quick, Stupid Never Dies is not just a game title, but it also feels like a challenge for me. Like, ah I will find creative ways to die stupidly. Yes.

Speaker: i feel like i feel like that better that that if I feel like if you ask the the the wrong person that they will try to find ways to fucking do that. ah Moving on to our video game news, starting off with a something massive ah from EA. EA has closed BioWare down. BioWare is done ah 400 people laid off from the studio ah and the new Mass Effect game that was in development has been canceled.

Speaker: It's all gone. Bioware is gone. No more Dragon Age games. No more Mass Effect games. No more Knights of the Old Republic.

Speaker: it's gone see at this rate this hits home but on the same note holy crap like i'm sorry bioware in recent years has kind of been like a very weird it's been in a weird state like without going too into it i don't think they kept their identity they lost it at some point and uh Their games really haven't been popping off of that as they have. I forgot they were still open. Yeah, I know that that has been like a big sentiment online. Like, while it is sad, like that, like, you know, peak Bioware was peak Bioware. ah Like the Mass Effect trilogy was I've heard nothing but great things about the early Dragon Age games. The first i even they even did the first two Baldur's Gate's.

Speaker: ah And obviously, KOTOR, a big, big part of that too. ah But then, you know, you look at like the last 15 years of Bioware, it's Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, not a lot of great games.

Speaker: Dragon Age, Inquisition, not Inquisition, Veilguard being very mixed as well. It's been, it's like... you you could The writing was probably on the walls for a long time.

Speaker: It is just also ah shitty that they never got to... make that redemption to like this to make a redemption from it all.

Speaker: I mean, speaking of sorry, gonna do a quick jump for a sec because we did mention Final Fantasy. Yeah, because right now Final Fantasy one was originally that company's entire redemption because that was their last attempt at making a game before they shuttered. Yeah.

Speaker: But eat but sadly, Bioware is not going to get that because I genuinely feel like at this point they were closed long before the doors shuttered. Yeah, no, it is very much so. It sucks. to It sucks.

Speaker: ah I think it mostly sucks for Canada as well as BioWare is probably one of the few studios that's like very recognizably Canadian.

Speaker: Like the only other one that I know is like's like, I think there's Eidos Montreal. If that one's still even up, I don't even know. And then a couple Ubisoft studios, but I think Eidos is part Ubisoft as well.

Speaker: Oh shit. Yeah. So real quick, BioWare is six years younger than me coming in at February 1995 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Yep, just ah a city north from from where I am.

Speaker: as Which is why BioWare kind of hits close to home with it closing. ah So rest in peace, BioWare. It's a shame but we didn't get to see what that new Mass Effect project will have would have been.

Speaker: ah in Fire Emblem news, Fortunes, we've announced three waves of DLC for the game. The expansion pass is available now, as well as the first wave, which adds the prototype weapons based on the hero relics from three houses for the four main heroes.

Speaker: ah So Kai, Dietrich, Theodora, and Lita all get one of like the four legendary weapons from Fortunes. ah Three houses that Claude, Edelgard, Dimitri, and Byleth used.

Speaker: oh in a wave two, we're getting new outfits for the four main heroes and three new allies to recruit that are gods question mark.

Speaker: Smirnos, Aurora, and Jura. That comes out holiday 2026. And then wave three is brand new story content ah for the rivals in the champion games.

Speaker: um So basically the four main rivals of the four heroes will get to see their stories ah in wave three, which comes out sometime in 2027, which is cool. So that's what the DLC plans for Fortress Weaver are.

Speaker: Are you a Fire Emblem fan at all, Zed? Have you played any of the Fire Emblems before? I have dabbled in some of the Fire Emblems. I've played three houses and i know a friend who has been playing Fortune's Weave and they are not done with any of the stories. They're over 200 hours of gameplay. This This game's about to be breaking thousands of hours worth of gameplay with just the vanilla alone. Yeah, no, this game, like honestly, with the amount of content that this was this game had, I'm like, yeah, no, I am not sinking my life into this fire emblem. Unfortunately,

Speaker: i but i I was very on the fence with like the calendar mechanics that three houses introduced, which is why I skipped three houses. and jumped right into engage, which I liked engage for what it was.

Speaker: Story was not great, but like everything else was very fun. ah And the fact that like, you know, it just basically expands three houses stuff. Yeah.

Speaker: So real quick, when it comes to Fire Emblem three houses, I just call it Fire Emblem Persona Edition.

Speaker: Yeah, basically, yeah. You're in a school, you're going through calendar events, you fight a big bad like once a month. All we need now is to add a card game in the mix and we can even make it a Yu-Gi-Oh joke.

Speaker: Honestly, yeah, I'm surprised Fire Emblem hasn't got like a card game. Because hear me out, Fire Emblem GX Generation ah Oh, God. Now I just imagine Jaden and Fire Emblem and I hate it here.

Speaker: Eventually in NSO news, three more Game Boy games were added to the GBA NSO catalog. Monster Rancher Advance, Metal Slug Advance and Kururin Paradise, which is its first time out of Japan.

Speaker: I'm going to say, yo, monster monster rancher advanced a yo. I remember I remember spending so much time grinding up a monster, trying to get it to be the very best. And then I lose track of time and it dies.

Speaker: Then I end up salty. Yeah. vampire crawlers uh first new i don't know if it's for is it if it's its first new update but the vampire crawlers new update death parade is now out adding new luck based triggers and a new hand cap relic uh so you can uh cap your hands only without uh with how many cards you draw and all that stuff The Game Awards. Okay, this was some big news from the Game Awards. As I predicted, I wasn't sure if GTA 6 would be nominated depending on when the cutoff point for the Game Awards would be.

Speaker: Well, if yeah if I had just done some Googling to figure out what it was, ah yeah we would have learned that it's the third Friday of November is their cutoff point. So because of that, GTA a six and Ocarina of time will most likely both be up for game of the year.

Speaker: ah But the big thing is big discourse that people found out when the, it was out like, yeah, the November 20th is the cutoff point for game of the year or just like game award nominations.

Speaker: ah That was that was that. So if I could chime in, I actually have a few questions regarding this. Just a few. Yes. and This is both for you and for whoever wants to put in the comments.

Speaker: So GTA six, let's start with this one. How much gameplay of the game actually has been shown at this point? Like, I don't recall seeing any trailers of GTA six other than here's a list of things that we're doing. And then the second question, I'm sorry, I'm about to start a war in your comment section. Oh, God. hey, yo, which one do you think is going to do better? GTA six or Ocarina of Time remake?

Speaker: Fight about it in the comments. I'll bring popcorn. he I here's the thing. I don't know how well GTA six is going to do. I think here's the thing. I think that the player's voice award is going to sweep. That's going to take GTA six guaranteed.

Speaker: i think it's almost guaranteed that player's voice is what is going to be GTA six. I predict that it'll probably God, it'll probably be in a different.

Speaker: if it Sorry, it'll be in eight categories nominated. ah is what I think GTA will get. It has probably eight nominations of those eight. I don't know how many it could actually possibly win because it's definitely going to be close on some, but I don't know. we We still don't know what all the games that are going to up for game of the year are yet.

Speaker: i' I'm going to spoil one of the brackets. I feel like one of the things is going to end up with like four Hoyoverse games. I mean, there's always going be a Hoyoverse game in for players voice because Hoyo players ah always vote for those things to go far so they can get some free gems.

Speaker: Well, here's a pitup pattern that always happens. Here's the thing. You ready? There was one award last year that literally had all the gotcha games from Hoyoverse in it.

Speaker: And there was like one other outlier, I think. I don't remember the outlier, but it was Wuthering, Zenless, Genshin. Oh, fuck. Honkai Star Rail. Those was were the four I think were in an award last year. Yeah, that sounds about right. i Yeah.

Speaker: that We'll probably see a similar thing again this year. So I get players voice is like the one award that I don't care who wins it because people is the one category that 100% of it is made.

Speaker: It is player voted is made as player voted. Like 100% player votes. No, nothing else. All, all player votes. No. What's the word looking for. Council jury. No jury votes. It's like all players.

Speaker: See, that's always nice when we finally get to hear the voice of the players in a gaming event. I think it's better to have like, Because like I'm going to say this a sometimes when everything is player voted it just and I'll use the example of the streamer awards ah where everything is fan voted. It's really pretty much who has the majority of the people watching them or video games turn playing them. Oh, well, that's going to win everything.

Speaker: And I don't like that system. I like when there's like a bit of a jury and it's like, yeah, like the player voice counts for a part of a part of it, but not the entire thing. We need a healthy balance. Like we need to mix the two systems together.

Speaker: Like we can't just have player or jury. It feels like because I feel like jury could almost be like bought off. But on the same note, we've seen we've seen fan groups. We've seen we've seen the fans and how rabid they become. My God.

Speaker: In Disney news or Star Wars news in a sense, Disney reportedly was a new Star Wars Battlefront game and it's eyeing to potential developers to possibly tackle the project.

Speaker: This is currently all just rumors, ah but the potential studios, the first one is obviously like EA because they did the remakes of the Battlefront games. ah But the second studio that's potentially up for contention with this project is Bungie of all places.

Speaker: Hmm. I mean, I wouldn't be against Bungie gunplay in a Star Wars game. I mean, hear me out. You ready? So I'm leaning towards Bungie because with EA, are they going to make everything into a DLC like they did with Sims 4?

Speaker: ah

Speaker: I mean, the Sims is their DLC factory at this point. Yeah, but the reason why I'm going to point this out is at least with Sims three, you could get pools with Sims four. It's a DLC. Yeah, DLC for everything. You want a horse?

Speaker: ah but pay him Give us some money. You don' want something else? Give us some money. You want the ability for your Sim to breathe? Give us some money. Yeah, basically. That's basically it at this point.

Speaker: me Uh, Saros' Zenith update is now out. Adding New Game Plus mode to the game, as well as a boss rush and even more content and difficulties to play through. Uh, in remaster news, Shrek 2.

Speaker: For like the PS2, GameCube, Xbox, that Shrek 2 is getting remastered. Hmm. And they announced it with like a pit, but while parodying a GTA six a little bit.

Speaker: So that's a very interesting remaster to get, ah but you know, a lot of, people I'm kind of here for it. Not going to lie. ah Let's go Shrek on the docket. Once more Shrek five, coming to theaters and Shrek two getting remastered. Let's go.

Speaker: ah In League of Legends news, Riot Games has announced that it's planning to end League of Legends Classic in January 2027. The game has only been out since July, or this mode of Classic mode.

Speaker: Oh, God. i don't even know what League of Legends Classic is. like i I believe it's like ah some balancing of like how things were, but apparently it wasn't as popular as they thought it would be.

Speaker: And yeah, no shit. It's a MOBA. It's it's I feel like keeping things up to date and balanced in a way is kind of the point. And yeah, well, I feel like it's a double edged sword because here's the problem. You have to power scale and power balance everything. But then you're also trying to release new characters which break that balance so horrifically.

Speaker: yeah Or you get some characters who now start to vibe or combo off each other in unexpected ways that the community discovers that I feel like the game devs kind of slept at the switch with.

Speaker: I've seen some nightmare team who builds that I don't want to relive, but.

Speaker: League Legends did me a favor by making it so that their danty cheat engine doesn't vibe with my PC. So I can't even play League because of a glitch outside of my control. I've tried everything to fix it.

Speaker: Nothing is working. Good. Save yourself from League of Legends. The Epic Game Store. ah boy, they tried to do something cool, something that they thought was cool, and it really wasn't.

Speaker: ah They announced that a preview build of its new store launcher was available for download, promoting it was now faster than Steam. ah It was then revealed to be a bit vibe coded. And if you do not know what that means, it means that it's like mostly coded by ai So, you know, probably not the best coding done as there could be issues with it.

Speaker: And then Steve was like, lol, we pushed out. They pushed out a small update and they made the themselves faster than the Epic Games Store again. So at this rate, ah don't get me wrong. I love Fortnite, but the Epic Games launcher has always been less than ass. OK, there is ass. Then there's the launcher like that launcher is so resource hungry and it makes me look stable.

Speaker: That says something. Yeah. Look, the only thing I can, the only thing that I'll give the Epic game store credit for is like three games every week. That's about it. Like I,

Speaker: I that's all I really ever use it for. But it but boy, they could use some some real work to be done. Come to think of it. I'm sorry. The launcher apocalypse could happen where the Epic Games launcher is the only thing left and people will suddenly be become they will suddenly quit. Yeah, somebody will develop their own. into Someone would develop their own just so that way they won't have to use Epic Games Launcher.

Speaker: I learned how to code so I didn't have to use Epic Game Launcher in a game apocalypse. Let's go. Hey, if that's what it takes, that's what it takes. Ubisoft has announced its latest round of layoffs as well. They shut down...

Speaker: The Finnish studio Redlinks, which was best known for the Trials series. Additionally, they have conducted significant layoffs at Ubisoft Singapore, which most recently developed Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resync.

Speaker: So more layoffs at Ubisoft, which means more game of the year contending developers ah getting going into the indie studio scene. So at this point, I have to ask the ugly question of the room. How many staff does Ubisoft even have left at this point? I don't know. Like, that's been that's ah genuinely a good question.

Speaker: Because I like do not know. Are they going to start programming AI so they have people to lay off? a I don't know. That does sound like something the French would do.

Speaker: I know that's me opening the door, ah the can of worms on AI employees, but I genuinely feel like at this point, the only way Ubisoft can lay off anyone else is they literally have to make personas to fire.

Speaker: Yeah. ah The re remaining year one DLC fighters for Marvel Togon Fighting Souls were revealed at Evo Europe or Evo France. ah So starting off, the one that we knew about already, Phoenix Cyclops releases on November 2nd.

Speaker: ah The following three characters all released in 2027. Thor, Jane Foster Thor releases in winter ven on and Venom and the Klyntar stage release in spring and Jubilee releases in summer as the next characters from Marvel took on fighting souls.

Speaker: ah Roger Jr. was added to Tekken 8 or is coming to Tekken 8 very soon and got another his gameplay trailer and we also got our first look at Yujiro Hanma in Tekken 8 and from the from Baki?

Speaker: No, not from Baki. Or is it Baki from one of those fighting? One of those fighting. and so It sounds like I think it sounds like Baki. I might be wrong. It is Baki. Yeah. OK, I was like, is it Baki? It is Baki. Yeah. Use your own hardball that.

Speaker: The villain muscular man, man that fucking has. Yeah, he's we got our first look at him in Tekken. And oh, my God. Fucking veins on veins on veins.

Speaker: oh So all of those were revealed at ah the Evo France. Charlie Cox has officially confirmed that he will be in another video game. This time in unannounced Sega game. He has lent his voice to. We do not know what the game is yet, ah but ah Charlie Cox doing more in the video game scene. Good for him. ah He previously was Gustav in expedition 33 and most popular for his role as daredevil in the Marvel cinematic universe.

Speaker: In the heist of all time news, two entire pallets of RTX 5090s have gone missing from a Brazilian airport. $495,000 worth of graphics cards are now presumably at large.

Speaker: so Okay, okay. we finally we we We're getting to one that I could rip on like heavily. So, wait, wait. These bandits managed to steal something that is major... These are AI heavy.

Speaker: What the f... Like, bruh. Did they have to steal a whole ship's worth? Or given the economy of this, did they steal like two of them? was two whole pallets. Two whole pallets of this shit.

Speaker: It's lot. It's a lot of graphic stars and they're going to go power the AI data centers that are off grid. You know, that's probably what they're going to go do So what you're saying to me is, is things are about to get quite graphic.

Speaker: I hate that joke, but it i but you know, it's so... God damn it. Oh my God. Here's my card. I have two pallets of them.

Speaker: ah Damn. That's good. ah Also, speaking of thieves, ah Who was it? um PSA, the grading service. They were robbed as well. ah But I believe it was like only one whole palette of like graded cards ah throughout like all the TCGs was stolen as well.

Speaker: ah So ah people are not happy about that because ah people wanted their cards back. And now some of them aren't getting it. Some of them being one of one signed cards that went missing on that palette.

Speaker: ah is That was like $2 million heist from what was stolen, I believe. ah Let me get the exact numbers ah here.

Speaker: But real quick, while you're pulling up the number, I'm sorry, we need more grading services for cards. PSA. shouldn't be borderline a monopoly. it yeah yeah I mean, well, there isn't. It doesn't have a a full monopoly. It is like the one that a lot of people use. It was nearly one million dollars worth of rare cards, and it was stolen from a FedEx truck in Santa Ana.

Speaker: It's always FedEx and it's always Santa Ana. So that was also in the world of ah stolen thiefing news.

Speaker: um In Steam news, Valve has pushed a new update to its Steam client beta, introducing big changes to how achievements work and how they're displayed. Developers can now create sets of achievements customized to their game, like mastering specific character class or finishing a single player campaign. Sets also distinguish base game achievements from separate DLC and seasonal sets.

Speaker: ah So sort of it's sort of kind of like what PlayStation and I believe Xbox have had with like DLC achievements being in like a separate list. Steam now has that as well as that it's just getting added on to the main list.

Speaker: And lastly, in PlayStation news, shortly after the PlayStation 5 homebrew community found a way to jailbreak the console, Sony released a new PS5 update that is basically resetting the progress that was made.

Speaker: So so now at this point, Sony has to waste their has to use their time fighting the gamers that they pissed off with their digital only move.

Speaker: Yeah, pretty much. And jailbreakers now have to find play state. If they want to jailbreak a PlayStation, they now have to find PlayStations that have not been given this update, though. If you don't mind me hijacking for just one sec, I want to genuinely ask something about some or about the recent Sony news. Yeah. so So let me get this straight.

Speaker: Recently, there was the boycott where PlayStation players went dark, correct? Yes, that boycott that they did was, ah according to numbers, not effective.

Speaker: Well, here's my first issue. you ready? The first issue is, I'm sorry, why did why did they need to announce that it was going to be a week long? Like, if you're going to protest, you're not supposed to give an end date appointment. You're supposed to say, we're going to strike, we're going to protest until things improve.

Speaker: They said they're just going to fuck off for a week, which literally assured Sony they're coming back. Yeah, absolutely. And the next issue is, is we have to deal with this is rampant across all boards. I'm not going to just say it's Sony, but the fanboys that are to die hard for their own console to they want to protect multi billion dollar Senpai.

Speaker: So they're going to double down and triple down on their purchases or do whatever they can to suck off these companies. Yeah. Yeah, it's a very tricky state with everything currently because i think what we should use as, i don't know, people is just like common sense. Realize that what they're doing is bad but like I mean, it comes up to the individual gamers at the end. of like, look, I use PlayStation for a majority of my gaming.

Speaker: It's just kind of how it's always kind of how I, how I've been. ah Like, look, I vocally do not support Sony and PlayStation decision to remove a physical media, but like, I still like video games too much that I'm not going to stop playing video games on the PlayStation.

Speaker: That's kind of just my console of choice. Yeah. Plus, ultimately, here's a problem. Let's say feasibly all the companies decide at one point they're going to ditch physical. Let's just go down this philosophical. The used game market is going to die.

Speaker: It's going to go. It's going to have a few years left while the rest of the used games get out of the market. And unless people trade those in there's a finite curve. Now, the used game market referring to like modern used games like the PS4 upward used game market or like are you just referring to like everything but from like the NES onward?

Speaker: Well, because right now, feasibly, anything that you would find at like, oh, let's say, for example, a disc replay, because GameStop GameStop doesn't go beyond a certain point. Like they might have a few things under the counter if you ask. But that is so far and few between. There's stores like Media Reload that also go off that.

Speaker: But here's the thing. These companies are not going to be remaking these games. So once they're sold, if they don't recycle back into the market through trading in desperation or bullshit,

Speaker: feasibly the market will eventually dry up to the point where there's going to be a lot more. I don't want to say turds in the store. There's, there's things that we'll just never sell or a lot more of these filler games that are just good ah ah amongst like gems.

Speaker: Like, I'm going to say a game name, and I genuinely want to hear a reaction to see if even you knew about it. Dalmatians 3. Dalmatians 3.

Speaker: Yes, Dalmatians 3, which itself isn't really a game. It has, like, minigames and, like, one-hour cartoon, which... Luckily for me, after going through it, my PlayStation sounded like it was going to explode. and the disc... What the fuck? Yeah, I was genuinely fearing for my life while playing through this very casual... I would assume this game was made for children. it's just called Dalmatians... Not like 101 Dalmatians 3, just 3.

Speaker: Yes, it's called Dalmatians 3. What the f- Hold on, I gotta look this up. What is- What?

Speaker: elevations three ps2 here we go yes what is this images oh wait that is that is just cruella deville reskinned what exactly that is just cruella deville with white and red hair those are death this is what do you mean why am i am why am i am who got away with this They got away with this? They allowed

Speaker: oh it? How? How did they get away with this? i believe i I need more information about this now. What do you mean? Three small Dalmatians lived with an old lady in a little town. One day they heard about the the neighbor bought hearts made of gingerbread at the market.

Speaker: What even is this description? This summary makes no sense. What you mean? Who the fuck is Feltchen? Huh? And the best part, the best part, the animation is so, oh God.

Speaker: Like, you just have to watch this cancer yourself. I cannot give it a description that would give it that would give it to criminal action. This is German. This whole game is German.

Speaker: ah Like all is German sound. Oh, my God, this is. I'm looking at this, like the cover art of this game joe directly rips off Disney. And then looking at this game, it's actually nothing to do with like the Disney stuff at all. The animation is like very like, like it very much like matches like that old style, like like the movie, why is it going to Dalmatians? Like it's like old in that sense.

Speaker: But like, this is... So real quick, real quick, if you're holding on to a brand new factory sealed, it could go for 35 bucks to 39 bucks.

Speaker: It should be worth more. What the actual fuck? What is this menu? What is this menu? What the I am? Oh, God. Okay. Well.

Speaker: of new games that I've learned about that that. That is definitely a game of all time. I'll tell you that. don't know why I'm so, I am like physically shaken by that. What the fuck?

Speaker: Yeah. is some of the lore that I've been holding on to waiting for a moment to release it. Well, you've released it out to the world that i don't know if we're ready for it. but I don't know if we're ready for the repercussions of this now.

Speaker: And the best part is now that you've seen the graphics and everything multiple times while playing that game, the PlayStation 2 would rev up so much that it sounded like my system was about to legit catch fire and blow Good old Jet Fighter PlayStation 2.

Speaker: Oh, lovely. doesn't look like it should need that much to roam.

Speaker: Oh, like how bad do you have to code that to make it like how? Oh, God, i think my console was legit shaking as it was going through the panes. Yeah, it was getting ready to take off. That's what it was doing. Oh, my God. ah hu it was ready to take me down with it. It's like, you know, I've suffered multiple things with you, but if I'm going down with this, I'm taking you with me. Yeah, honestly, honestly.

Speaker: Okay, well then, ah that was it for the the gaming headlines. Moving on to our ongoing game news, starting off with the MMORPG news. October 28th, that is when the new typing minigame of the Gold Saucer in Final Fantasy XIV will be released in collaboration with Final Fantasy VII R. will be available until the release of 8.0, so you'll have about ah two months to ah take advantage of it and get the new Baron outfit, Tifa outfit, mounts that are tied with it, minions that are tied with it, and Famer kits and everything else in between.

Speaker: In Fortnite Epic Games news, Nikki from Obsession is now in Fortnite as part of Fortnite nightmares. In TCG news, Mega Evolution Delta Rains for Pokemon releases November 8th.

Speaker: In the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, Magnificent Maestros releases November 13th and Glorious Victors on December 4th. And if you haven't heard, there is a massive 34-card ban list that was released over ah two weekends ago at the first day of release, day of... that you're listening to this episode.

Speaker: ah Like, 34 cards ban Big changes were made. Uh, branded got nerfed. Albion got banned. Uh, dark magician got heavily nerfed.

Speaker: Call from the grave. It got banned. Droll and lock burn is now at one. Like a lot of big changes happened to the game for modern format.

Speaker: Like a lot of like big sets did get hit. So definitely be sure to check out the bad list to see ah what changed. If anything, correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't Trishula get banned? Yeah, Trishula got banned as well. It did.

Speaker: They finally hit it after what? A decade? Yeah. bless yeah is I think it was like limited. i want to say it was limited for a good amount time, but I honestly don't remember. So I have a quick story about Yu-Gi-Oh! and Banlist. I'm sorry. go for it. So I had a friend who knew that the Dark Arm Dragon ban was coming. And what he did at a Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament was he managed to trade the Dark Arm Dragon away because not everyone quote unquote knew that was coming. He traded it away on the last day before the ban right at the end of the event. I'm like,

Speaker: my brother in christ what did he get for it he got cash money i think he ended up he he's just how much was the card worth then back at that point i know he made about 350 i i stopped hearing after 300 i'm like wait this card about to die tomorrow and you made triple digits wow that's diabolical oh my god Yeah, we also traded it at the end of the event. you agree there he They use it to do they win? Did they get far like where did they place?

Speaker: They place top three. They place top three. Sell that card for an extra three fifty. And then the next day, the person that bought it basically can never use it again. That's diabolical.

Speaker: Oh my God. but ah Well, that's that. ah Imagine you the Gathering. Star Trek releases November 20th.

Speaker: Noctis the Sunken Realm on February 5th. Kamigawa Titan Breach on June 4th. And Zalthier on October 1st. In Lorcanum, Hyperia City is out now. And in the Digimon TCG, the S-Dex, starter Dex for Elysian, Yukinomon, and Rubius Dramon, released on December 4th, and Ignition of X on December 11th.

Speaker: And that is the week in review. Any final thoughts on any of the stories there at AllZen? See, at this rate, when it comes to it, I'm curious at what the Star Trek pack is going to do for magic.

Speaker: Spock. Like, I know it's Spock, but is it going to be the Star Wars or Star Trek characters? i almost said Star Wars. But careful, you're going anger a whole different audience of nerds there.

Speaker: I'm no no, I almost slipped right there. I can already sense the lightsabers and pitchforks coming out. Yeah. But any is it going to be Spock and cast and like a shitload of artifacts doing artifact things?

Speaker: I don't actually know. i genuinely also don't know enough about Star Trek to even like give a theory. Because right now there's only so much that you can do with the cast of characters given. know that will probably be like getting characters across all the generations of Star Trek.

Speaker: But i get as for like utility wise, i don't know what will'll what we'll have. e Because right now I'm going to assume a handful of characters are going to be legendary in reflect of the fact that commander is becoming the main the main format. Yeah, no, it definitely it definitely is. I mean, I don't I like playing commander despite me only i ever playing one game of commander. I like it.

Speaker: ah But it is that like you definitely do see that a lot more. See, I'm gonna say it. Commander has opened so many cans of worms for me. Like I made a sliver deck, I made a life gain deck.

Speaker: I'm going to have to make a Star Trek deck. Going to have you for shits and giggles. are you are you ah are you a Are you a Star Trek fan? Like, are you a big Star start Trek fan? Like, where do you fall in that in in that line? Like, I'm a neutral when it comes to it, but I want to make a Star Trek deck for the meme, especially because I think I could put together some, depending on how it goes, I could put together some of the other meme form meme lineups together to really just make Star Trek be kind of a weird deck.

Speaker: I want Spock to summon an infinite amount squirrels. Can we make that happen? I mean, viably. Spock going to be green? Actually, i don't even know what colors. do we actually Have we had any previews yet for Star Trek?

Speaker: That's actually a good question. let me I'm going to see if there's been a preview.

Speaker: and It looks like there has been. Yeah. Captain James T. Kirk. Catherine Janeway is going to potentially. Here we go. Cart image gallery.

Speaker: ah I want I want I want to Jean-Luc Picard is white.

Speaker: That's both a true statement and to the Magic the Gathering start statement. um Oh, God. No, no. The fact of its mana cost, they are too white. but there's ah There's coffee in that nebula. That's a sorcery.

Speaker: thats ah i like i just like that's what that. That's a fun name for the of the card. Wait a sec. Whenever you cast a creature or spacecraft card, create a 1-1 red officer token.

Speaker: Okay, now I'm already starting to see ways that you could feasibly make a squirrel token army off a Star Trek deck. Okay, I finally threw all the white cards. Ah, Spock is blue.

Speaker: That makes too much sense. Yeah, is he? Yeah, legendary creature. but is Mr. Spock, science officer. If you would draw a card, draw two cards instead. Oh, wow.

Speaker: Actually, I don't know how good that is. I don't know enough... Magic, I know how good that is. Feasibly, there are a lot of effects that do target and make you draw a singular card because they're specifically saying draw a card. Yeah.

Speaker: You have to be weary about that because if you do an effect that, oh, let's say, for example, wipes the entire hand and makes you draw seven, you just draw seven. You don't draw. So it is.

Speaker: It is limited. It does give an option for those people that like the draw one effect. But also that's a loaded gun because you could accidentally overload your hand and have to discard because you don't have the mana compensate. Do you think that you could pair Spock with like a burn deck then where you're like burning your burn? Yeah, burn? No, draw deck. ah A deck out deck where you're like, your goal ends up trying to be the deck the other put people out where it's like you could flip that effect to other players. Yeah.

Speaker: with a combo because right now here's the thing there are ways believe it or not that you could give the commander to someone else and i know there's a lot of effects that target other players to make them draw cards feasibly as long as you don't care about giving up your commander you can make someone deck out there are ways oh There's Khan. I found Khan. I know Khan.

Speaker: When he enters, you may sacrifice another creature or artifact. If you do draw two cards, you may cast this card from exile.

Speaker: Who's in the red? Do I recognize? Ah, there's Kirk. He's a red card.

Speaker: Good to know. who Who's in green? Do I recognize anybody in the green? is where where's ah Who was the character that LeVar Burton played?

Speaker: Oh, God. Now I'm brain farting on... I feel bad. I'm brain farting on the name. I could picture them, but I just can't picture their name. but Did they make it into the Magic of the Gathering set? I don't know.

Speaker: Oh, maybe. Here we go. I'm in the multicolored. Maybe he was multicolored. But then again, like I said, I know shit about Star Trek. Like, I know the basic stuff.

Speaker: That's about it. i I probably know less than you. i know the meme about yelling Khan. Yeah, I know that, too. I think if don't know that, I feel like you're not like the pop culture. ah I don't know. I feel like that's just like iconic at this point. Like if you don't know that, then it's like, OK, you really need to like just because like I've never seen a Star Trek at all ever.

Speaker: But I know that. If anything, I catch myself yelling Khan every time I have to stay late at work. That's a fitting scenario to do that.

Speaker: ah All right. Well, before we dive, adult before we just dive deeper into that and lose track of everything, I think what we we will do is dive into the games coming out within the next two weeks.

Speaker: Here's what should be on your radar from October 26th to November six From AAA titles, indie hits, hidden gems, and hot pieces of garbage, here are the games coming out that should be on your radar. There is a lot of games coming out, folks. We are in, like I said, we're in peak season, and we are nearing the end of the peak season, so we still got, I think, one more episode where going to lose my breath. We'll...

Speaker: talking about all these games. But here we go. On the 26th, Fangtopia releases for the PS5, Switch 2, and PC. Hunter's Moon comes to the PS5, and Rekha comes to the PC. On the 27th, Dogman Bark in Action comes to the core systems and Switch. Emberville comes to early access on PC.

Speaker: Minecraft gets its Switch 2 release. Remothered Red Nun's Legacy comes to the core systems and Switch 2. Village in the Shade comes to the PS4, 5, and Switch. Virtue and a Sledgehammer comes to the PC.

Speaker: On the 28th, Broke Wizards comes to PC, and Sulphur releases on everything. On the 29th, Anomalith releases on PS5, Switch 2, and PC. Atmosphar comes to PC Early Access. Kroc 2, Kingdom of the Gobos comes to everything but Switch 2.

Speaker: Daunchy Days comes to PC. Hello, Kimmy Partyland comes with a Switch 1 and Switch 2. Joe and Mac Retro Collection comes out on everything. Monster Hunter Outlanders comes to iOS devices. Phantom Blade Zero comes to the PS5 and PC. Saints Row the Third Remastered comes to mobile devices. The Wolf Among Us Remastered comes out on everything.

Speaker: Titanium Court comes to PS5, Switch 1 and 2 and mobile devices. Tom the Post Girl comes to PC. No releases on the 30th on the second. Grab house comes to early access on the series X and PC on the third food devils comes to PC Godzilla destroy all monsters. Melee remastered comes to the core systems and switch to we we know what morpho will be doing on that day.

Speaker: a Kick comes to the PC. Let's Sing 2027 comes to the PS5 and Switch 1 and 2. And Let's Sing ABBA comes to the Switch 2. Loftia comes to the PC. The Slormancer comes to the PS5. Young Sons comes to the Series series X and PC.

Speaker: On the 4th, Lightyear Frontier comes the Series and PC. The Sound System comes to Early Access on PC. Theos, the city of myth comes to PC void breaker comes to the core systems world of Warcraft forever releases on PC on the fifth chivalware comes to the switch to a PC crime light comes to the PS5 switch to a PC escape Academy to back to school comes to the core systems.

Speaker: Far Away comes to PC. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Encore Edition comes to the Switch 2. Payday, Ace's High comes to the Quest and PC. Stellar Blade Complete Edition comes the Switch 2. The Swarm Manager comes to the Switch. Where the Seeds Fall comes to the PS5 Switch 2 and PC. Wielders of the Essence comes to PC and The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time releases on the Switch 2.

Speaker: And those are all the games coming out in the next two weeks. Oh, bugger. So real quick, you listed this one off a while ago. Did you know that South Park actually predicted Hello Kitty Party Land? No, they they predicted Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

Speaker: Oh, I thought they predicted Party Land. And again, all Hello Kitty games are practically the same. No, it was ah Hello Kitty Highland Adventure that Butters played. I don't mean to wonder what I played Hello Kitty Highland Adventure. That game never existed back when the joke was made. And when the real game was actually released ah like a year or two ago now, that was a big thing that was brought i was like, wait, it's real.

Speaker: I'm just going to say we need to get Butters on game predictions, OK? I think we do. that it's that and the Simpsons those are the two ah big predictors of things oh god if we get butters in the Simpsons are we going to break time or are we going to break space that's why that's why we gotta keep Matt Groening and Seth and the creators of South Park away as well ah for each other because otherwise just like it'll everything will collide and break. Also, quick thing. Peak is now out on consoles.

Speaker: ah That is now out on consoles and sledding games. Halloween update is out now as well. Adding the day night cycle to the game. So ah those ah those also came out that you should be aware of.

Speaker: As for the games that are coming out very soon, um as for big releases or games that I'm interested in, Phantom Blade Zero is one that I'm keeping my eye on. It's looking to be a really cool action game ah that I do want to play.

Speaker: ah Obviously, Wolf Among Us Remastered. People are excited about this. This is the lead up. The remaster is now leading up to the Wolf Among Us 2, which comes out next year, I believe, or it was later this year, but I believe it's set for next year, ah which is exciting.

Speaker: ah Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered. Bringing this up, as I said, Morpho, we talked about this game a bit on length and Morpho was on. um So if you want to hear more about that, to to go back to that episode. But this is a remaster of a Godzilla fighting game.

Speaker: ah Godzilla and a bunch of his monster buddies clash in the city. ah So definitely go check that out if you're into that. Obviously a big release, World of Warcraft forever. Basically an expanded version of WoW Classic ah up to level 60. This is like, i was for the old school old World of Warcraft ahead, this is like the game that's going to take over your life.

Speaker: ah just despite how much I despise Blizzard and will not touch this game myself, I understand what it means for a lot of people. So go nuts, have fun, I guess.

Speaker: um And obviously the biggest game of these two weeks, Ocarina of Time, the remake, remaster, whatever you want to call it, Link can jump.

Speaker: I mean, you said yourself this was your favorite game of all times that. Yeah, at this rate, this is almost going to make me end up getting a Nintendo bitch, too. ah And this and this game, I believe, is getting a bundle as well with the switch to see those that are interested.

Speaker: See, at this rate, though, the problem that I'm running into with the bundle is it's practically sold out everywhere. yeah like like basically when they announced the bundle, like you had to be on the ball to get it. Like now it's like you just got to hope you're lucky at this point.

Speaker: So I definitely just might be picking up a switch to if you didn't pick up a switch to yet to play this one game.

Speaker: Like, yeah, at this rate, I held off on a Switch 2 for so long. The remake might actually break me. I might, I might submit and get, and I might switch to this console. Hey, And you know what? It's fair. like i like I think now as well, with what the Switch 2 has put out for exclusives, I think now is like realistically a good time to invest in the Switch 2.

Speaker: Now that we have a lot more games exclusive to it, a lot more Switch 2 versions of games out, um so that way performance is better and whatnot and with a bunch of other games coming out on the horizon next year Pokemon wins and waves the new open world Kirby game um that I can't remember the title of because it was like just so very new that we we were showed it at the end of the last Nintendo Direct um probably still no word on whether or not we're getting a new Smash Brothers or like what the hell is going on with Smash Ultimate

Speaker: and whatnot, but like, we're getting a lot more things. So definitely, I think now is the time for like the switch to, it for those who, want who wanted it, but have held off.

Speaker: Like right now we about to hit some form of prime season. That too. Yeah. like switch two is starting to kick up and they're starting to pull back from the switch one Eventually. I think they're going to like, give us a few last things on switch one, but I think it's almost time for switch two to like take the center stage.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, no, definitely. Like you're starting to see that a lot more is that there's a lot less, Switch 1 exclusives and very few games that are getting both the Switch 1 and 2 release.

Speaker: So definitely time for the Switch 2. um I think with that, it's now time for us to dive into our main focus this week. ah Here's what we're talking about this week in the Game Lounge.

Speaker: Conversations of past and future games, the state of the gaming industry, how big decisions affect gamers, and anything else that's important to us. Here's what's going down this week in the Game Lounge. And our first topic of the day.

Speaker: Gotcha games. You love them, you hate them, they got your waifus, your husbandos, and they are an entryway to addiction gambling.

Speaker: ahhu But Zed, let's start with you. ah What was the first gacha game that introduced you to the genre? Oh, the first one that popped my gacha cherry would have to be Genshin Impact.

Speaker: Like, I didn't start it originally when it first came out. I had a few friends who kept saying, hey, you're going to love this game. you're going to love it. It's great. You should get in it now. Now's a great time. They're giving you a lot of things.

Speaker: And I was like, nah, nah, now's not the time. nowh Two years after Genshin Impact came, I finally loaded it in and started my adventure.

Speaker: And my wallet has never hated me more. Yeah. How much how much do you think you spent initially on Genshin?

Speaker: Actually, real quick, I could get you an accurate number. Funnily enough, it I have the receipt books here. oh Oh, shit. So real quick, real quick. I'm going to give you a breakdown of got our Zenless versus Genshin Impact just because I want to show a point.

Speaker: Yeah. So Genshin Impact, I spent a whopping $67 and 59 cents. That's actually not that bad. That's actually like that is the most reasonable number I have heard for a gotcha game ever.

Speaker: e and then that's basically like you bought like maybe like a du ah like a deluxe edition of a $40 game see at this rate yeah what I end up doing typically with these games I always buy like the weekly freemium you know like the weekly currency where it's like hey you get 90 insert currency here that could go for polls a day for X amount of days for five bucks But I am embarrassed to say Genshin Impact is my tame side.

Speaker: Zenless Zone Zero, i I was at Sugar Daddy. oh God. You know what? Before you reveal it. Yeah. I do want to ask what got you what led you to play Zenless Zone Zero first? Like, how did you get so the pipeline from Genshin to Zenless Zone Zero? what How did it look like? what What was it that got you into ZZZ?

Speaker: So I'm going to say it. Genshin Impact versus Zenless. What got me into Zenless? I saw the main character and my dick became Diamond.

Speaker: Like I zoned in on the main guy, like wise from Zenless zone zero pulled my attention and I wanted to know more about his character. And now here I am ah with multiple husbandos and multiple waifus in this game that I wish to pull for. And my wallet is screaming. Oh my God.

Speaker: Okay, so how long have you, how how long is, did you, so you played like ZZZ on launch then, like right when the game came out? No, I didn't play it right on launch. I played it, i started it a few months after launch and then I put it aside for now and, or put it aside then and now I am back into it where I'm playing it almost every, no, I am playing it every day. How how long was the break for it that you took?

Speaker: I took a year long hiatus because this was around. We're going to get into this in a minute, but this was around when I broke off Genshin Impact. Like, yeah, I do stream Genshin Impact like once or twice in the in the past year.

Speaker: But I more did it because we we have a story that we kind of just left in limbo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But You know, I'm going to make this into a fun game before I reveal the amount of money I spent in Zenless. Yeah, this is like this is like it's one of those moments where like we're building up the anticipation to find out here.

Speaker: So everyone real quick, if you're watching at this point, click pause, type the amount that you think I spent in the comments. I'm going to be Hey, you can leave comments on Spotify folks. You can do that. Spotify, Apple. I don't know about Apple podcasts, but Spotify, you can leave comments on this podcast. So, Hey, you want to take part? Now's your chance.

Speaker: I'm going to be scrolling the comments to see who can get within five bucks. They will get a like for me if they get it. Cool.

Speaker: But all right, drum roll, please. i all up So after compiling all my receipts and all my accounting ledgers, I have spent a whopping $567.13. That's... Okay, thought it would be lot worse. no, anything...

Speaker: that's x okay i thought it would be a lot worse oh no if anything It's a mix of weekly passes plus battle passes.

Speaker: I bought a ton of the premium currency to try to speed along a few characters and ah buy some of the other in-game assets and skins. Uh-huh.

Speaker: arguably it's not as bad as some cases where I've seen, where I've heard a case where somebody spent over two grand on their zero. Like that's, I thought, I thought we would be seeing like maybe close to four digits on this. Oh no. What really kept me together is so to answer before anyone asks, how did I keep to get these specific numbers? i keep an accounting ledger for all of my games for how much I spend in game, how much I spent on the game.

Speaker: And if there's a live service subscription, That's smart. but that that That's that's ah this is just gaming economics 101 right now. Like I have a whole accounting ledger where multiple pages are just devoted to specific games.

Speaker: The Zenless Zone Zero pages are starting to dominate the book, though. Yeah, yeah you the make sense. That definitely makes sense. that yeah i I think if I had a book like that, my FF 14 page would be the one that would be like out of the going, like out of the book.

Speaker: See, I think that would become the book and the book would be Lord of the Rings size thick. you You can you're going to be able to drop your accounting ledger from a very short height and potentially take out a city block.

Speaker: Yeah. Do you find that keeping this like ledger and account like helps you like keep in check of like spending habits within ZZZ and other gacha games of like whether you want to or not? Or is it just like nice to have so you know how much you spend?

Speaker: Well, at this rate, the reason why i do the accounting ledger is so I could not only keep track of my spending is because I also set myself like I actually set myself a budget for my entertainment fund. Wow. Actually responsible adulting. Let's go.

Speaker: And I compare, this is about to sound completely OCD nerdy, but I legit go back over previous quarters and previous months to see how much of a percent of my budget I'm going into the entertainment. How close did I get to the goal? Did I go over? What's the difference? And how can I navigate or manipulate the statistics to get either within the goal or lessen the load?

Speaker: wow Statistically, overall, i Not not to not to brag, but statistically overall, I have about a 33 to 50 percent saving rate year to year.

Speaker: Holy shit. That's actually really great. Oh, my God. but how How long have you been keeping like this? ledger Like how long have you been like doing this for?

Speaker: I have been doing this ledger style for over 10 years now. Wow. This is how ingrained into, I don't want to say it's ingrained into my coding. Yeah.

Speaker: I'm heavy into I like data, which, yes, the Olympics kind of disproves that because I was just a little scrambling. It's like, yeah, it's like the the Olympics version of you is just like absolute chaos and madness and randomness. And this right here is like, no, it's actually like very calculated and concise with all this shit. It's it's a very flip of a coin, different side of you. Because right now, here's the thing. You ready?

Speaker: Right off rip, I knew odds are I wasn't going to win those Olympics. Odds are I wasn't going to win. but one thing I was going to win was I was going to be memorable. Yes, you definitely were.

Speaker: By being a little shit. Plus, it was more fun being a gremlin. And now um now we get to flip the switch and everyone gets whiplash because y'all are going to hear all the countless ways that I am a data fiend. Yeah. So doing this for ten what was like the what was like the like so 10 years ago, what was the reason of starting it all that? Like what was like the the point of like, oh, I should start this.

Speaker: Because right now, years ago, years ago, i started to notice, hey, you get paid X amount per hour and you're spending way too much over what you're like. I wanted to do more things, but I couldn't because i suffered the gotcha, like the gotcha main character syndrome of being a broke bitch. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: So it was also around that time where I was in colleague and I was doing accounting courses on the side. So funnily enough, I started to use this as practice to get ready for my exams.

Speaker: Oh.

Speaker: I'm not going to say the college name, but I am going to say um that college needs to have their entire um planning division redone because they made me do a calculus and an economy or a calculus class for a business admin degree. And I'm like,

Speaker: Why? i't yeah I don't think that's... I mean, yeah I know shit about like that side, so I can't say whether or not it's it's needed or not because it's out of my field, out of my depth.

Speaker: but so so So essentially practicing for these exams is basically what started this now 10-year-long... accounting book yeah if anything going over going over my ledgers and data i'm gonna spit out the number because at this point actually no i want to play a game oh boy if you could take a guess how much money do you think i saved over these 10 years oh that's a good one okay you know what let's say five thousand dollars are you ready for the number yeah

Speaker: I saved a whopping $36,813.12. wow, that's very effective. Goddamn. Eee,

Speaker: okay wow that's very effective godam e e ah that's That's impressive. that's ah You know what? i I'm going to say this. For us talking about gacha games right now, I wasn't expecting to go down an accounted route of money saving and whatnot, but that actually like it coincides so well with gacha games because of every like negative...

Speaker: stereotype thing that we hear about gacha games with well it leading to which i mean it's not like they're stereotypes they like it it has for people who do not have like self-control it does lead to a gambling addiction So real quick, the reason why I'm also going so heavy into the accounting and money management is because just like money, gotcha games are all about the numbers, baby. yeah They are all about the stats. They're all about the money. How efficient can you be? How effective are you?

Speaker: because at the end of the day, that gambling breaks down to statistics, which how lucky do you feel versus how lucky can you be? Eventually, yeah, you get the 90 poll. You're going to get the guaranteed S rank. But statistically, what are the astronomical odds of pulling the character you want at the time you need? Yeah.

Speaker: And that's the thing that that's the thing that it breaks down to is The worst part is then you also have to do accounting in forms of resources, money.

Speaker: And how much time are you willing to put into a character? do you think they're going to go good in your build? Yeah, it comes down to the gameplay loop itself as well, which now brings me to the next question. What exactly is the ZZZ gameplay loop?

Speaker: Because I don't really know it. Like, I know that with Genshin, it's like... open worldy style, like basically anime Breath of the Wild type game where you can switch characters to do elemental combos.

Speaker: And Star Rail is an RPG where you're using those elements of combos with your party builds to do damage in a turn based setting. What is Triple Z's gameplay loop? So Triple Z's gameplay loop is it's almost I would take It's partially Genshin Impact because you do traverse the map. You do traverse the world a bit. It's finite in how much you can traverse. Genshin Impact, you could climb a statue's butt.

Speaker: Yeah. Zenless Zone Zero, you can go to multiple zones across the map. like There's the Video Store, there's the Outskirts, there's the Weifee Peninsula, there's Linwe, or Leewe, Linwe, I mispronounce this this one always, but there's multiple places that you can go to explore and go to see, and there's collectibles you can do.

Speaker: As for the daily rota, at least the daily rotation that I've been doing is I do the in-game dailies for the premium currency. And then I go to combat simulation for a material to rank up my characters or get them ranked up, which I'm still in chapter, or like I'm still in season one of the story. I need to catch up. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay.

Speaker: but I'm saving the story for when I go live on stream so everyone can see the organic reaction versus me going, let's watch a cut scene. Oh shit. This happened that I already saw. Gotcha.

Speaker: And gameplay wise. So aside from that traversal, what about like the actual like core gameplay of the game So when it comes to it, let's break it down for the combat simulations. For example, you you set up a squad of three and your assist Bangboo, which is like a little assistant which gives your party buffs.

Speaker: Now you go in there, it's real turn, it's real time combat. Okay. And let's say for example, for the combat simulation, you pick multiple of multiple enemies through picking cards. These will give you resources based on the enemy type.

Speaker: They will either give you money, EXP items or items for characters. you You want to take advantage of this daily because this is your only, this is your bread and butter to make sure that you can get things going.

Speaker: But you also need to plan which character you want to give the most love because you only get 240 battery a day. And that's your energy to use for these things. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: You do get other things, like you do get a special battery item which recharges your energy by 60, but you also, if you let your meter hit full and you just sit on it, you get backup battery, which for each backup battery, you get one additional energy.

Speaker: You can have up to 2,400 charges, which if you get that 2,400 charge, my God, that is a blowjob from the heavens.

Speaker: because you could max out a character if done right. Okay. Okay. But... Overall, the dailies, for example, though, are open the video store, which you pick tapes, you pick the promoter, you pick the promoter. It gets you currency per or in-game money, the Denny's per hour, which can be used for characters. You want to open that as close to 4 a.m. as possible my time because it earns base X amount per hour and

Speaker: And you get Y amount of customers per that time frame. Oh, so it's really like a really time. They really want you to s sink more time into the the game or you like get it, get in early. So that way it's all of that stuff to keep you hooked.

Speaker: Cause right now, right now off what I'm seeing, I'm at the point where I could easily earn between 10,000 and 20,000 Denny's just by clicking open the shop. Uh-huh. But if I wake up, I'll say six o'clock.

Speaker: That is less than 12 hours. I'm getting like 6,000 because I'm earning like 500 an hour. It's almost pointless to open the shop if it's not for the fact that you do get 100 points for your daily for the daily meter to get free free polys.

Speaker: Okay. So when it comes to that, that are doing dailies, what When is, like, in your opinion, when do you think is, like, a time to step away from a gotcha, like, after, for when you when you play it for so long? Like, what when when do you feel is, like, the good time to step away?

Speaker: so I'm going to answer the question, but holy crap, I do have a slight story. Yeah, go for it. You may have noticed in the previous bit, I did mention that me and Genshin Impact are not seeing each other anymore, really. yeah were Now, let me break it down.

Speaker: The problem with Genshin... is I joined in late, so I was already behind and I didn't have a lot of characters to build. And once you start running out of things to do in the game is where the game starts to get kind of boring.

Speaker: and When the gotcha pulls start to become more like, oh, well, haha, I failed the pull. I got this character that I already have a million of. They're going to give me one more additional pull. That additional pull became a slap to the face. Like it stopped being fun.

Speaker: The fact that I'm so statistically charged heavily is double edged sword. Like I could calculate things, but I'm also calculating my failure rate.

Speaker: Like a lot of people think, oh, you're calculating your successes. That's great. No, Genshin Impact made me calculate the failures. Genshin Impact made me realize that statistically there's a chance that I could just never pull this character that I want and the banner ends and outside of my control, I can't get it The game, the game stopped being fun because the grind started being you're racing against the clock. Yeah, it could be the same set for Zenless, but with Zenless, at least I feel like I'm more caught up. I'm not dealing with 200 characters and 90% of the roster I'm never going to be able to touch because statistically reruns are not likely to ever occur.

Speaker: Like one character, for example, I want it was Tanari. And the problem is, is every time the banners would come, Tanari never came. And then there's other characters that ran along that line. Oh, I want this character. They look interesting. They look nice.

Speaker: The banner never came and the overlords never give you an option to pull for it, except for the standard banner in some cases where you're pulling against the heavy pool of almost everything that used to be a banner but isn't anymore.

Speaker: Yeah. I calculated my odds of success less than 10% after the fact that we had to go through multiple other percentage checks to get there.

Speaker: Because A, i needed I needed to win, I needed to get a five star. B, I needed it to fail the 50-50. C, I needed it to not be one of the many items that it could be and not a character. D, I needed it to be the specific character.

Speaker: So we're a lot of that's a lot of factors going in just to pull a single character. We're dealing with statistics on top of statistics here. Yeah. And once you break down the true percentages, I had less than a goddamn percent to get the character that I want it.

Speaker: And there's only so much in the world that you could do for the freemium for the free option of the premium currency. You're going to run that out eventually.

Speaker: I'm sorry, freemium players, good on you. But yeah, statistically, by the time you're able to get it the free way to get some of these options, it's already too late. The banner's over or...

Speaker: They've been demoted to standard, which means you get to fight those odds. Ooh. Do you feel like there's a big piece of FOMO involved in this with every banner character that gets added?

Speaker: oh easily, because here's the problem. There is a chance that the banner will only run once and you might not see it for a whole year. You might never see it because the problem is, is they don't run off. I'm sorry. i know there's some form of logic they have, but some characters get like 16 reruns while other characters get their run and that's it.

Speaker: They're gone. You now just see them as a blank spot on your roster, flipping you the bird. If you're a perfectionist, don't get into gotcha games. Yeah.

Speaker: Because the character roster has the blank slots just flipping you the bird. You get to stare at that failure every time you pull that up.

Speaker: Like Zenless Zone Zero, it's not as bad because it's only like two or three pages long. But like i got you the longer a gotcha game goes on for the bigger that list becomes.

Speaker: But with Genshin there, I'm almost ready to say like you could just write a small book with all these character names alone. And they're adding more.

Speaker: Like. It's to the point where statistically you're never going to see any of these characters because there's so many others that need reruns.

Speaker: Why worry? Yeah. No, definitely. ah When it comes to like the daily time sink into some of these, when does that start to affect like your like start to hit like a wall and start getting burnout from that?

Speaker: Like what's the pattern that you find with yourself with some of that? If anything, i always try to limit myself unless I'm streaming it. I try to limit myself to a two to three hour time.

Speaker: But when it starts to feel like a job, I try to pull back like Genshin Impact started to feel like a job. Like at one point I would spend 10 to 12 hours in the game and then I turn around and question, what the hell did I do?

Speaker: That also ties back to another reason why I pulled back, because it's like, OK, you managed to do another game mechanic that I need to bring up that's also annoying.

Speaker: the weeklies. Yeah. only get Yeah. Weeklies compared to dailies where dailies are much smaller tasks that can don't get that can take like an hour or two weeklies eat more into that.

Speaker: Well, the problem with weeklies also is you get three instances of weekly. You get three shots at your weekly. And these characters that you're going to deal with need items that you could get from the daily combat situations and items that you need to get from the weeklies.

Speaker: And you're only getting like one instance of that item per run in the weekly and you need nine of them.

Speaker: To put things in retrospect, to get a character to max, you need to convert. You need to put three weeks of doing a weekly for one character. That's 21 goddamn days.

Speaker: Because the game sets the limit at a hard three. There's not like with with battery and your daily. You can manipulate that. That is manipulatable. weeklies you can't do dick against like you have to do it three times a week just three if you do it anymore you could practice with the bosses but you get nothing you loser good day

Speaker: Like Zenless zone, for example, and I know I'm going to get yelled at this if I'm wrong, but at one point you could do more than three, but it would cost 60 energy per instance.

Speaker: But the reason why they took that out is because it people manipulated the batteries and people manipulated the energy to the point where they could max out their roster within a week.

Speaker: ah The problem that we run into is I feel like they dialed it back too far by going just three instances. I'd say give it five or six instances because let's be honest here, everyone's going to probably log on at least once a day and they're going to take a day off more than likely where they just log in and then log out.

Speaker: But that's one of the problems that also drained me out of Genshin because there were so many characters and so few instances of weekly that I'm going to be spending the next year just to get the characters that I want and max them out.

Speaker: Yeah. And that's at the mercy of the banner RNGesus that I mentioned previously. Like, yeah, definitely.

Speaker: I kept here. Here's the problem. I kept buying the print, you know, that we that daily thing that I mentioned, the 90 premium. Yeah. Yeah. Because you you as you said yourself, you're more of a freemium player when it comes to this stuff.

Speaker: But here's the problem. I would never pull banners and I would just keep getting more and more of the premium currency. i had the problem of I have money, but nothing I want to spend it on.

Speaker: Like, I think, yeah, no, my video where I ranted about Genshin Impact is still up on my YouTube. i have to go check. Well, that's good. Because right now, right now at this rate, I'm just going to say, holy shit.

Speaker: Genshin Impact finally reached a point where I burned myself out.

Speaker: With Zenless, I feel like I'm hitting more of a healthy balance, even though I spent more money. but I'm still within my FOXO budget. Yeah.

Speaker: Okay. Is there any advice you would give to people that might be struggling with, like, a healthy balance with a gacha game? See, at this rate, when it comes to it, the main thing is...

Speaker: I'm just going to say you don't want to ever do too much, but on the same note, if you feel like you're making no progress, make yourself like I bought a weekly to do list that has Monday through Saturday and Sunday on each page.

Speaker: And I write myself two or three items that I want to get done that day. If I can't get it done that day, I just move it over to the next day and that's first priority. But I also set myself a little timer so that way I know i'm I've been here too long.

Speaker: I need to go. I think that's like a healthier way to balance it. I mean, the most thing that I can compare like gacha games to is MMOs in a little sense because MMOs ah do tend to have like a similar...

Speaker: like thing with dailies and weeklies of for content to keep players engaged and whatnot when they've done like everything else.

Speaker: And like, obviously, I find myself doing that a lot with FF 14, especially in the state where I'm in, where I'm basically every day. It's like, yeah, but I maybe spent like an hour on it at most to do one PvP match and then a couple of allied society stuff.

Speaker: ah And then log off. Like, if anything, I'm tempted just to send you the picture of the to do list. And by tempted, I mean, I'm sending it. All right, let's take a look. Oh, wow. That is OK. Yeah. So it's like you have. I mean.

Speaker: That's not too bad of a list. Like, obviously, like being organized, you're very much organized for like ah for a gacha player that's. play that that does it like I feel like have a lot more people followed that then it wouldn't be as much of like a time sink of their day in it that it can usually be yeah because as a guy who's who has played a couple of gacha games and is got crippling addicted to them and have had to step back from them because it's just I just

Speaker: know that's the kind of person I am with these is I get addicted and want to do a lot of things with it but that requires spending a lot of real money it's easier for me to just step away and not deal with that but ah real quick well one of the last questions i want to ask you is another game that you're playing or you've been trying to get into is Arcanite's Endfield Yee.

Speaker: ah How has that differed from the other gacha games you've played? so far So far, I'm just starting out in Arcanite Enfield. like I'm going to say it feels more fresh, it feels more new.

Speaker: But ultimately, I feel like I'm going to run out of characters that I'm going to be chasing for a bit, like instantaneously, because if I remember right, the game is eventually just going to give me Perlica, which off rip is one of the characters why I'm being pulled. You're going to notice. I'm sorry. When it comes to gotcha games, there's at least one character that's got to catch my fox. Oh, And Perlica has been promoted to wife.

Speaker: Okay. So is it like after that you when you get those characters that you want to pull, does it like the not like deter you, but does it lessen like the the amount of time sink you want to put into said games?

Speaker: Well, here's the thing. It does and it doesn't, because ultimately I want to make these characters first and see how they do in combat. Yeah. But you can only combat scenario so many times before it starts to go, OK, you've maxed out this character. You've seen them be successful.

Speaker: Other than the story, what like other than progressing the story, there's not much. left Like, yeah, there's side quests Ahoy, but the the curve does start to become more finite once you get the character. What's more of a deterrent is the banner issue where you never get the character. Eventually, you're only going to get so many disappointments before you finally just say, fuck it and kick the bucket.

Speaker: Yeah. Like, when it comes to it, Ark Knight, I'm also going to be more laid back because this is going to be a stream only game. Like, I'm not really going to time sink unless I feel I need to for resources.

Speaker: And even then, I'm only going to give it like an hour or two a day. Is there anything else you want to add on gotcha games before we switch to our second topic of the day? So overall, the main thing that I would like to touch back on for the new player is don't beat yourself up because the statistics don't work in your favor. Don't beat yourself up because you had a rough run. you didn't parry. You didn't dodge. Correct.

Speaker: We're not always going to be on our A game. It's statistically impossible. At the end of the day, just do a little bit each day, even if it's just logging in and just, oh, go into the coffee shop and get in the coffee for the daily.

Speaker: You gotta prioritize life. You gotta prioritize what's more important. The game's gonna be there always. Go enjoy.

Speaker: Hey! Yeah, you! You've been gaming for six hours straight with no hydration station. You're starting to look like a ghoul from Fallout 4. Go drink some water.

Speaker: Yeah, that's it. That's the whole message. Drink water, you gremlin. Yeah. Okay. ah With that, it's time for us to do a quick dive into our second topic of the day.

Speaker: ah Looking at our clock, we don't have a lot of time to talk about it, but our second topic is... It's the forbidden word here in the game, as you know. It's Fortnite.

Speaker: We are properly talking about it. we don't have a lot of time to talk about, but we're going talk about it. So, Zed, you've been playing Fortnite quite a bit. What is it that got you into When did you start playing it? like so Originally, when it first came... Like, I'm going to say, when it first came out, I did the Save the World. I did the Battle Royales for a bit.

Speaker: I put it down when it originally came out, shortly after. But I started picking it up again in spring because... so my My eventual boyfriend, which was eventually my ex, loves playing the game, and I got back into it to surprise him.

Speaker: my ultimate goal My ultimate goal was I was going to surprise him. like I went out of my way to do that. like So Discord wouldn't rat on me. I played it on PlayStation 5. I got PSN online. Okay. Okay.

Speaker: I played for a few months to practice. I was going to surprise him in August when I was going to kidnap him for the Renfest event. And I was going to show him like, hey, by the way, look what I can do. You get dropped out in Twisted Towers like the best of Like the thing of the matter is, is when me and him got together, I planned a whole ass romantic weekend around Renfest. Mm hmm.

Speaker: But ah sadly, things did fall apart. But Fortnite Fortnite became my autistic obsession. Gotcha. Then shortly after I started seeing character skins that I wanted to get and the dopamine rushes from like there's a lot of dopamine and there's a lot of hype.

Speaker: It's hard not to get sucked into the game and into the game loop. And modes like Horde mode, for example, I'm not giving up. Like until Halloween, I'm playing that almost like once a day. Okay.

Speaker: what What exactly is this Horde mode? I don't know. my ah like When it comes to Fortnite, I really just know the Battle Royale and then, you know, the but what's now called Save the World, which is what the zombie, which the original game was, if I'm correct. So...

Speaker: Horde mode, I'm almost ready to say Horde mode is a roguelike PvE where you find your, you have infinite ammo on almost all, yeah almost all the things like healing items and whatnot don't have infinite. Yeah. But you find vending machines that you have to use the monster parts that you could find in blue chests or by killing enough enemies and having them drop.

Speaker: You can find things like Gatling gun and orbital strike cannon. Yeah. That orbital strike cannon is the only exception that I've seen that has one use because you call the wrath of God. Yes. But overall, the storm surrounds you in a particular area and monster spawners pop up and you have to survive in that.

Speaker: And eventually you fight the caretaker, which is the mid boss, and then you fight the final peel, which is a radiant version of the banana mascot. OK.

Speaker: Now, I'm going to say in my last run, i had all the effects going. Like every couple of times I fired a damage instance, it would fire a fireball. It would cause a rift in the sky to drop an item to cause massive damage. It would cause explosions.

Speaker: And it would do, you know, general or periodic damage or damage over time. Like... I it dealt over hundreds of thousand points of damage because I got the Gatling gun and the effect that if you kill enough, the gun will just reload by chance.

Speaker: Okay. Like, I think I held down the fire button without reloading for five straight minutes. that's ah That's a good amount of fire rate right there.

Speaker: But yeah, overall, horde mode is a Halloween exclusive, which means it's going to go away in less than a couple of weeks. Okay.

Speaker: um So with Fortnite being the massive conglomerate, it is withal with all like essentially being the everyone is here meme and all that stuff. What is your favorite skin that you like to that that you have in the game?

Speaker: So this is going to be a close tie. I have particularly two skins. There's Katrin Glitch and Meow Skulls. Okay. And those are both original to Fortnite.

Speaker: Yee. Okay. But the funny thing is at first, so I went to Best Buy and I know this story is going to go somewhere. Trust me. I went to Best Buy and I found a Meow Skulls pop figure sitting on the shelf and I bought it.

Speaker: I drove home and Meow Skulls was in the Fortnite shop. um I didn't know what was coming out because the shop updates at 8 p.m. my time. Oh, so it was a nice little surprise then.

Speaker: I think... See, it was a surprise, but the fact that I bought the Meow Skulls vinyl, the the vinyl figure, and I came home to that, I'm like, wow, first I bring Meow Skulls home, then Fortnite lets me take her home.

Speaker: Benefits. Like, that's the... That's the problem, though, with the Fortnite shop. It it goes off. You don't know what's going to come in the shop. You don't know when it's going to come and you don't know how long it's going to stay in most cases.

Speaker: Gotcha. So even in Fortnite, I find a way to bring gambling. ah Yeah, it's more but it's more of like a just like a. An unfortunate waiting period between all those times with Fortnite and less of like actual odds of pulling the right thing.

Speaker: But then again, Fortnite is my least offending game where I spent only $20.12. Yeah, that's really not bad. That's actually like probably one of the most reasonable things Fortnite I've ever heard.

Speaker: yeah People go on their budgets. ham on their budget well go hammer those V-Bucks, man. God. um I don't really know if there's much else to add to Fortnite since you're more of a since you prefer the horn mode. ah What are your thoughts on the Battle Royale mode? Do you have any?

Speaker: So when it comes to Battle Royale, there are quite a few dynamic changes or quite a few changes between are you playing solo, trio, duo or quads? but if you're If you're playing solo, your entire play style, I'm sorry, the play style for solo is entirely different because you only got yourself. No one to pick you up.

Speaker: No one to save you. No, the reboot van is useless. There's no point for it in this mode. the The fact is you end up you end up paying more attention to your environment when you're alone than you do with people around.

Speaker: Yeah. And when it comes to quads, four player is where the sweats come out. You get if you go through with four people, you're guaranteed to get the sweats.

Speaker: duo Duo is kind of weird in its own right because yeah you want to find somebody that you could vibe with, somebody that you could kind of have good game chemistry with. I don't want to treat it like a game wife, but on the same note, you almost want to make sure that you're not both going after the same type of gun. Okay. Okay.

Speaker: Trio is just random, like full random generator. If you get a party like somewhere, the game started, we all went to a location and both party members just yeeted to the opposite ends of the map.

Speaker: Like it all comes down to that. And the next issue was is, oh God, the meta in this game. Just there's a meta, believe it or not.

Speaker: Yeah. What does the Fortnite meta look like? So right now there's a few things that I would list as problematic. Just a few. We have the key blade, because if you get the mythic one, it's second ability where it summons lightning. It summons it all around you. And with that rank of key blade, you could actually down an entire squad if you do it right.

Speaker: oh The key blade decimates with the deer. If you equip the deer sprite, which raises your physical up to about, I believe it's 30% when you max out that sprite mix with the key blade, you could send people to Jesus before they realize there was a Jesus.

Speaker: Oh, you are express shipping their ass back to the bus. Like ah right off rip, that's the first problem. that's The second is the Mega Man Gun, which has an AOE.

Speaker: If you fully charge it and you hit a player's zone, you're dealing about 149 damage that I saw. Just to hit their basic area.

Speaker: Like. Most guns tend to be to whom it concerns. The Mega Man gun just says, fuck you and this area in particular. Huh? And you don't even need to charge it for it to do basic, a good basic damage about between five and 10 shots is enough to down a player, which again, the small shots do have somewhat of an AOE. So you just have to be somewhere in their area to start pinging them for damage.

Speaker: The gun you could kind of turn your brain off to. And yeah, I'm going to get that sometime. They nerfed it some. They didn't nerf it enough. I'm sorry.

Speaker: Like, the worst part is if you combo the Mega Man gun with the tail sprite, tails just flies you up. Like they fly you up and you could fire with a gun, which you can't do if you're gliding down.

Speaker: Tails adds a whole new mechanic to battling, where if you're fighting someone, use Tails to fly up. Mega Man gun down. Odds are, if you are on it and if you're using a controller, you are sending people to Jesus.

Speaker: Do you feel like Fortnite kind of just does too much at times with all of this shit? I'm going to be frank with you. With the recent add-on of, I believe it was Obsession. With that recent add-on, I feel like at this point, we are we are grasping at straws here to try to keep things, so I don't want to say relevant, but on the same note, that's almost like the correct thing to say.

Speaker: Like, my main problem is at this point is... We have too much on this island at this point. Do you think yeah another question to expand on this? do you think Fortnite is maybe overstayed its welcome in the game? Like, do you think Fortnite should maybe just start slowing things down at this point?

Speaker: Well, I feel like here's the thing. I feel like Fortnite needs to stop grabbing so many new IPs and bringing it in to put things in retrospect. The Sprite lobby, for example, or the Sprite area of your inventory takes long to load like it. For me, it took between one and three minutes just to be able to load that page. Yikes.

Speaker: And there's so many characters at this point, and each character gets their gimmick items. Each character gets their gets their setups. And with that in mind, the game is getting... Like, I want to say they need to slow down on bringing in new IPs, and they just need to extend on what's there.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's that's a valid as valid. That's fair. Do you think that Fortnite will ever crash and burn like a lot of other games have before it?

Speaker: Or do you think it will somehow be the live service game that will last outlast the ball? Well, feasibly speaking, I do believe that Fortnite will always be at risk of eventual, like an eventual collapse.

Speaker: Because the problem is, is at one point it comes to the next question. It's not going to collapse on its own. It's not going to collapse. It's either going to collapse because it got too many IPs, too much, too many chefs in the kitchen.

Speaker: Or here's another problem that's an ugly one to talk about. the next generations might just not pick it up. Yeah, that is true. Statistically, if we go off the fact the game is only alive as long as there's enough players to keep it alive.

Speaker: If the next generations don't pick it up and the older generations are eventually going to retire or move on from it, what is the player burnout ratio versus the player renewal ratio?

Speaker: And how many of those people that leave come back? Yeah, no. And that's a very good point to bring up, ah especially with like, even though like Fortnite is still kind of very new, quote unquote, like it didn't really like what like what did it come out? Twenty eight, twenty seventeen, twenty seventeen. So next year is it's ten year.

Speaker: So there's probably they're probably going to go hard on that. But then like after that, what's next? like like Do you decide to end it and just do do things slower after 10 years? Or like what like what's the plan after that that Epic's going to have? like That's definitely going to be a thing to look at, especially with like keeping things up at this point. It's going to come down to that player layer new player retention and old player burnout.

Speaker: Like feasibly, they are currently doing what they normally do. They add game modes. They take away game modes. Battle Royale is going to be the one that sticks.

Speaker: Game modes like Horde mode are going to leave and come back next Halloween. We have Red vs. Blue. We have the other thing is they're bringing in like they did a Mecha Chameleon collab. That was a thing. Yeah.

Speaker: And then like arguably I could see where they're coming from so for some of these modes. But in some of these cases, I feel like they're just a runoff. They're just a one off. Like we get one. Haha, this is funny. And then it's gone. Like, yeah, OK.

Speaker: Like, I don't see the Mecha Chameleon one really hitting if it comes back. That's the other problem that Fortnite could run into is people will suffer event burnout. Like Battle Royale or not Battle Royale. Horde mode comes once a year.

Speaker: It comes around Halloween. Yeah. So statistically, they're not likely to burn out of that because it's ah it a it it trumps it it's a it's a good game mode. They bring it back so yearly around this time is good. People like it.

Speaker: Why? Right. Why break that cycle? But the thing Fortnite needs to be weary of and be careful about is they need to be careful not to be the game with 10,000 events so that everyone needs to have their own calendar just for when events are going to go live. Yeah.

Speaker: No, I think Fortnite, I think with Fortnite, it's going to be stop trying to grab IPs to make this relevant and start focusing on the game modes when things start to get like ah you Like you can play with the meta when things get like over too overpowered with how things are right now.

Speaker: Plus, at this rate, there's a ton of weapons that need to be nerfed and a ton of weapons that need to be buffed. Focus more of the quality of the game and not the quantity of skins. I think is the the a good way to put it like I'm just gonna say a very hot take we didn't need the obsession we we didn't need it I mean I could I could list off a lot of things Fortnite didn't need but then we'd be here for another two hours oh Accidental 24 hour podcast. Let's go. 24 hour podcast listing least legit. Just every franchise that's been with Fortnite. Like that's what it would be.

Speaker: ah Yeah. ah You know, one last line. One last line, though. Yeah. what Any you final thoughts with Fortnite that you want to add before you head on into the bonus level here?

Speaker: So I'm going to go completely wacky off the wall here. See, I want to give a plus one to Santa here because at least Santa stops at three hoes.

Speaker: Yes, he does. Yes, he does. Unlike Fortnite, which has too many. ah With that, it's now time for us to dive into the last topic of last ah segment of the day and jump on right into the bonus level. crazy lists, great deals, and recapping gaming history. It's all here in the bonus level. And starting with the bonus level, we've got Game Clash. This is our small 8-level 8-entry tournament that has a specific topic every time. And because, Zen, you have both husbandos and waifus that you like, I grabbed the four... the i What I believe, according to what the internet told me, are the four more most popular husbandos and waifus from Zenless Zone Zero, and we've got them in a little tournament. here yeah you get to decide the winners of each matchup are you ready yeah i is ready all right match one of the triple z wife who's in husbandos asaba haramusa versus hugo vlad

Speaker: See, at this rate, I'd have to go Hugo Vlad. if I remember right there, the vampire daddy. All right. Match two, Von Lichen versus Astrid Yao. I'm sorry. I'm going to say something that people aren't going expect, but people are keep saying I would go Lichen. I'm actually going to go Yao just because Lichen doesn't really hit.

Speaker: Like, he does hit in places, but he just doesn't hit enough, you know? and Okay, okay. Match three, Zhiyan versus Miyabi. Oh, gotta go Zhiyan 24-7. I gotta go Zhiyan. I gotta to go with the waifu for laifu. And that's for Jane Doe versus lighter.

Speaker: See, I'm going to say light lighter has benefits, but on the same note, I want uppies from Jane Doe. Like Jane Doe is Jane Doe is mommy. Okay. Like she could take me on a leash anywhere. All right. Semifinals, Hugo versus Gao.

Speaker: See, at this rate, at the end of this one, I'm going to have to go with Yao. Okay. And Zhu Yan versus Jane. Jane Doe takes the cake. All right. Grand finals. Yao versus Jane.

Speaker: I'm sorry. Everyone sees this one coming, given how much glaze i gave and I've given Jane. Jane's got her tail wrapped around me quite firm. it goes to It goes to Jane. All right. Jane Doe takes it. That is who wins the Waifu Husbando battle.

Speaker: ah All right. Moving on to this week in gaming history. Here's what happened in the past from October 26th to November 8th. Starting with some major events. October 26th, 2020.

Speaker: Sony releases the PlayStation 2 in the US. It features 294.912 megahertz processor, single analog dual shot controller, two memory cards, slots, two USB ports. The system also plays PlayStation 1 games and supports the DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, CD-ROM, DTS, and Dolby Digital Media.

Speaker: It's 12 by 3.5 by 7 inches, weighs about five pounds and is priced at $300. On the 30th, 2002, Nintendo releases a dial-up modem and a network adapter for the GameCube priced each at 35 And on the 1st in 2002, Microsoft and Sanger released a limited edition, 999 of them produced Panzer Dragoon Orta Xbox system in Japan. It included a white case, white controller, Panzer Dragoon Orta, which is the video game, and a special necklace. The price was about $325 USD and all the units sold on the opening day. I wonder if there are still any around that are like in the like the market circuit. how much they are going for.

Speaker: That would be interesting to know. As for game birthdays on the 26, basically all the launch titles of the PlayStation 2 turn 26, including but not limited to Dynasty Warriors 2, Street Fighter EX 3 and Wild Wild Racing.

Speaker: ah the twice seventh te six turned seventeen On the turns On the turns On the 31st, Death Junior 2, The Root of Evil, turns 20.

Speaker: On the 1st of November, Pokemon Ranger turns 20. On the 2nd, Need for Speed Underground 2 turns 22. On the 4th, Crash Bandicoot Warped turns 28. the 6th, Halo 4 turns 14. On the 7th, Tony Hawk's Project turns And on the eighth Guitar Hero turns what do you want Oh, Guitar Hero is legal to drink now. Yeah, a Guitar Hero can legally drink now.

Speaker: On a note. Oh, God, at this rate, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This entire section dated me. Now I feel like a fossil. Yeah, yeah, I bet you do. I'm listening off all these. i'm like, oh, wait a minute. You're older than all of these. You were ah you witnessed all of these come out.

Speaker: i Like my birth came like short months after the original Game Boy came out. God. Moving on to Tony's game poll. This is our seasonal poll that we have ah every time. It's a different question every season. Zen, what sport should Mario play next that he has not played?

Speaker: I'm going to. Sorry to cut you off. I'm going to take this to a weird angle. I'm going to take this to a weird angle because Mario has never done this. Mario needs to go into wrestling. He needs to do it.

Speaker: Just make a wrestling tournament. ah That is a good one. That's a good one. All right. ah Your deals of the week. Starting off with your epic free games on October 22nd to 29th. You can get home a unique horror adventure and scare ritual. And from the 29th to 5th. Sorry, we're closed is free on the epic game store.

Speaker: um always again as always check your consoles or Steam for the sales because so much goes on sale that it's hard to keep track of your achievement of the week is in Final Fantasy Resonance is to obtain a chocobo and the game of the week Because, yeah, no shit, it's game of the week. It's the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time remake.

Speaker: And lastly, our guest game recommendations. Zen, if there was a game old or new that you would recommend to the audience right now, what game would that be? See, arguably, if you don't mind, I want to give just two quick ones. I promise they'll be quick.

Speaker: So the first game, if anyone hasn't played this yet, I'm shunning you as a gamer. Chrono Trigger. Oh, man, getting shunned. I still need to play it. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm going to shun you, especially because you could get it on a cheap on Steam. I know, too. I plan on playing it soon, but i it's it's there's it's a long list.

Speaker: And then another game where I know I'm going to get flagged about this from a couple of friends because I'm a simulation addict, but ah Retro Rewind. where you get to run a video store, you get to set it up. It also has some, it does tip the scale just a bit on, cause there's a video game black market and everything that you could, you could spend money to get stuff. It has releases.

Speaker: if If you liked blockbuster and you want to try to make a blockbuster experience, you get, you get your opportunity here. Yeah. That one I have played. I have played retro rewind. It's a good time. It's a fun time.

Speaker: e all right well with that that does it for another episode right here in the game lounge then thank you for coming on today thank you for having me where can we find you on the internet oh see at this rate you could find me at twitch at www.twitch.tv slash delta or you could also find me at youtube for delta zen let's see i also have ah my socials on my twitch yeah

Speaker: In case y'all want to come to my Twitter for random. I don't like promoting the Twitter because I'm either I'm either active and posting like 30 posts or it's a drought and you get nothing.

Speaker: Fair. Very fair. Well, thank you for. Oh, sorry. Thank you.

Speaker: And of course, you can find me at Tony's Game Lounge everywhere. That's Tony's Game Lounge on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube, and wherever else that I might have. Those are the main ones, though. ah Highlights of this podcast will be available on YouTube and TikTok every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after an episode releases.

Speaker: ah Be sure to like and share those on whichever of those two platforms that you enjoy a lot. Zen, thank you once again for coming on. yeah Thank you for having me. Also, also be sure to like, subscribe or you get Dalmatians three in your Christmas stuff. Like this podcast or Dalmatians three will find you and you don't want that.

Speaker: ah Be sure to like, share and follow this podcast on whatever platform you're listening to this on. New episodes will be out in two weeks from now as we are slowly nearing our season finale.

Speaker: ah Until then, have yourselves a good one and we we'll see you right back here next time in the Game Lounge. Bye. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Tony's Game Lounge. New episodes release every two weeks. Make sure to follow, like, and share the podcast on your streaming service and follow us on Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and X.