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S2 Ep85: 2019: Year in Review
67 Plays6 years ago
Join Dave and Jake for the final episode of the year as they share their thoughts on this year's releases and what they've meant for the gaming industry!
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Thoughts? Comments? Requests for new episodes? Feel free to email them in!
SoapstonePodcast@gmail.com
Like our podcast? Like our podcast! We'll post when new episodes are uploaded!
https://www.facebook.com/SoapstonePodcast/
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Transcript
00:00:13
Speaker
the the
Holiday Experiences: Halloween vs Christmas
00:00:40
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake. I'm joined by my co-host, as always, Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave? What's going on? I'm filled with the spirit of Halloween still, even two holidays past. And I'm going to ride that high instant new year. Yeah. You have good Christmas festivities and cheer and whatnot as the season demands.
00:01:08
Speaker
I'm legally obligated to say. Yes. Yeah. No, it was fine. I got to spend it with friends and hang out, which is always good. As far as formal Christmas stuff, I didn't do any of that. Didn't really travel. We'll see family. So I'm fine with that. Plus is all around. Yeah. Pretty good. Pretty good. That's good. How about you? Similar deal. Went out, visited family.
00:01:32
Speaker
And oh very similar very similar deal. Yeah, plus is all around and it was all around. No, it was good. Um, it's always a fun time. Um, and it was, it was, uh, pretty, pretty rare for the most part, uh, avoided all talk of politics for two days, which is crazy. And I'm going to file an under Christmas miracle actually. So I'll take it proved.
Fruit Cobbler and Political Humor
00:01:58
Speaker
So, to our listeners, hope that your Christmas was also good. And without politics? Yeah, and without politics.
00:02:07
Speaker
Because I like peach cobbler and blueberry cobbler fairly equally. Pretty much any type of fruit cooked based baked good I'm down for. But I wouldn't want to have to force re-switch to blueberry cobbler because just the term peach might, you know, turn some heads and start some.
00:02:31
Speaker
It's an unconventional main for sure this season, but if you were to decide pretty much any kind of cobbler, that's what I was waiting for. That was going to be my trigger for a trap card, which I would then flip over and be like, ah, you're into shoemakers. Gotcha. But now you specified dessert specifically.
00:02:48
Speaker
I would love to see your mental state tables if I can activate this joke. A real story.
Jake's Pranks and Humor
00:02:58
Speaker
So I've got one of the friends I was hanging out with yesterday, Eve, for some holiday which isn't Halloween or Thanksgiving.
00:03:09
Speaker
Ravnica, I think is the name of it. Ravnica? Yeah. You know, one of the guilds. The guilds of Ravnica. So I got them a game on Steam as a Christmas thing. Yeah, I said the same. And I put in a dumb joke in the gift comment. Right.
00:03:29
Speaker
But I still had it in my head, and the thing was scheduled to be delivered at 5 p.m. So when we were hanging out, I worked that same joke into natural conversation while drinking. So they thought it was a spur-of-the-moment joke. But I hope to God, if you're listening to this, I hope you're catching up on this because you didn't make a comment yesterday, when they read the gift comment where I did the exact same joke, they're like, what the fuck?
00:03:57
Speaker
Because that's the type of neurotic person I am. Yeah, that is pretty great. You can do a lot of nonsense with scheduled gifts. I can't remember who it was. It might have been for you.
00:04:12
Speaker
I think ultimately it was abandoned, but we were theorizing a plot, if you will, to schedule a gift for someone at LAN party for something, a game that could not be played at LAN party, like a single player experience.
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I got you. Right. It's the most single player. You have to be single and it's single player game. Uh, no, but no scheduling gifts can be fun. Although it doesn't always pop up like reliable also when I want it to. Was this something in the past or is this something you're theoretically planning for this land targeting me? I'm not even sure it was this dimension, Dave. It might've been like an alternate set of people we were planning this with, but, um,
00:05:00
Speaker
If it was for you, then look out for that. Maybe that's happening, who knows. We'll just, it'll be rescheduled.
Year in Review: Gaming Highlights
00:05:08
Speaker
Wouldn't it be just easier to have like an episode on Hentai games and then have the reason to play? Yeah, that's never gonna happen. I can't tick enough explicit boxes like when I upload the episode to ever justify an episode like that. Also, I have no idea what you're talking about.
00:05:28
Speaker
Um, speaking of, uh, H games or holiday games, uh, we would like to spend some time reviewing, uh, I know, right. Uh, reviewing, uh, some of the games that were scheduled to come out and came out this year. Um, some were delayed off the list into, uh, next year. So we're not going to go over those now. Um, like I think iceborne was originally scheduled to come out this year and got pushed back to like February or March.
00:05:56
Speaker
No, it's going to be early January or January because it's going to be out around line party. Yeah. But definitely 2020, which at the time of this recording is not the current year. Oh, shit. Also, if you listen to this episode on time, it will still not be. It'll still be 2019 if you listen immediately when it comes out, but.
00:06:20
Speaker
I didn't have to think about what actual day today is. I know, yeah. So Thursday and then plus a couple. Yeah, it'll still be 2019. But we try to do this, you know, once a year toward the end, look back on the year, see how it all went, what our favorite games were, what was fun, what was less fun, what we might revisit. And we have prepared a list to do so.
00:06:46
Speaker
do you have any uh do you have any sound effects for like uh unfurling a giant ream of paper yeah i was gonna like have some papers you know like uh jostling a little bit just jake just fucks up my mail i put on the table for some reason right i just grabbed it out of your mailbox on the way in so i could
Slay the Spire's Impact on Gaming
00:07:04
Speaker
generate some sound effects on the fly um
00:07:07
Speaker
I don't want to lose any of my valued opportunities from whatever fucking credit card company. I have a great offer for me. I've been signing you up for so many credit cards, Dave. Thank you. I usually steal your mail on the way out, not on the way in. A little change of protocol this time.
00:07:26
Speaker
I don't even know where you get mail. I assume like the main office. There's a mailbox right outside. Oh, okay. I have no situational awareness. This is pretty much for me to say. I know, which is why it concerns me when you drive. I just trust that everyone else is a defensive driver and that's how we get through this. God. Speaking of defensive driving, kicking off in January, Slay the Spire came out this year.
00:07:52
Speaker
which i would say is like as far as games on our list it's probably one of the most talked about between friends that actually that we actually talk to and hang around with and play games with like slay the spiders other friends fuck you guys theoretical friends yeah
00:08:09
Speaker
Just to clarify, is this the proper release of the game because it's been in beta for a while? Exactly. It's been in early access for many moons, but it is fully matured and ripened and has been picked off of the game development vine and compressed through the reviews of critics.
00:08:28
Speaker
Is that their feet? Depending on their critics. But no, it's been a super solid game and it's been nice to see it evolve. I think it started out with just the two characters, the ironclad and some poison guy. Yep, that's pretty much the game.
00:08:45
Speaker
But it was really cool to have the difference in those two play styles. Because one was very aggressive and based around strength. The other one was like discard hand, draw hand again. Not these, try again. And then you're just playing all these combos. And this is really one of the, there's been a lot of games recently that have built off of the deck building style. They've thrown it into a bunch of different types, kinds of games. I've seen RPGs, I've seen board games, a bunch of different things.
00:09:15
Speaker
but Slay the Spire was the first I ever called it really like kicked off this like hey we could be the new zombies you know whatever genre throw cards in your in your game
00:09:26
Speaker
Yeah, they do a good job of it. Some of the other ones I've seen that have come out or scheduled to come out either look a bit lackluster in the way of art direction or uninspired as far as hard mechanics. Like I can come up with a really shit one quite easily because I could copy the idea, but not have any original thoughts and be like, this one deals damage. This one prevents damage. Right. And then let's slowly build off that. Yeah. Get like the keywords together.
00:09:56
Speaker
It's probably a testament to how impactful Slay the Spire actually has been. One, for being an actually good early access game, so that kind of, on its own, sort of redeemed the ball. Rust was an amazing early access game. And now it's not an amazing early access game, right?
00:10:14
Speaker
I don't know, I can't speak to the current state of Rust. My apologies to the creators of Rust who always listen to our episode. Sorry, it's all of our hardcore Rust fans. But slay the spire spun off like you mentioned so many.
00:10:30
Speaker
so many derivatives of the style. It's like, okay, what can we do in Roguelikes? What can we do with deck builders? And some of them have been a little bit better, but as far as the polish of the original, Slay the Spire has been remarkably successful.
00:10:49
Speaker
Yeah, I will still occasionally do runs to see how many relics I can get and have a successful
Mixed Feelings on Kingdom Hearts 3
00:10:56
Speaker
build by the end of it and not die. Yeah. But a lot of times around like floor two, like health's kind of a limited resource and then I'm dead. Yeah. As is the case with Roguelikes. Get broken or be broken. That should be the tagline for Roguelikes in general.
00:11:13
Speaker
I'm broke. You can't even play the games. Next up on the list here, I have less to say about, but it came out in January as well. Kingdom Hearts 3, which came out for PlayStation 4. Finally, I guess a lot of people would say.
00:11:29
Speaker
Was it everything you hoped and dreamed? Because you followed KH series, right? I thought I did. And then I played this game and I realized a lot of things happened in other games that I didn't play. So you played like one and two and you're like, I'd play the third. Right. I'd play the third, basically. I think I played Chain of Memories, but like not everything. And I'll be honest, I never beat the game. So what was the tap out point for you?
00:11:54
Speaker
I think I just I kind of just lost interest and when I realized how far behind I was on the story and how everything had shifted and it was still like There's a lot of issues with the storytelling that I was willing to what right I was willing to look past it as a kid because you're just like Final Fantasy and Disney characters together and I was kind of like just Disney characters together plus like core characters not from Final Fantasy and I
Resident Evil Remakes and Capcom's Strategy
00:12:20
Speaker
I mean, I just lost interest. I was like, there's so many other things I could be playing right now. Um, and so I didn't, so maybe someday I'll, I'll revisit it, but, uh, I recommend it to fans of the series diehard fans only. Um, yeah, I heard a lot of, I know a lot of people who were excited for this game and my friend group, but none of them were like, yeah, it's the fucking tits. Yeah. I was kind of like,
00:12:50
Speaker
Yeah, it came out, but it wasn't what they had hoped for, for how much buildup it had. Yeah. I mean, technologically it's still exactly a Kingdom Hearts game. It is very pretty. It has a lot going for it, but it's almost too safe and it's almost too.
00:13:09
Speaker
kind of casual and the storytelling still haphazard and it's just, it doesn't have anything to draw me in anymore. So I guess I'm probably done with the series as far as main interest, which is a little sad to say, but you know what, maybe I'll revisit it and it'll be amazing someday. Maybe.
00:13:27
Speaker
You won't go back. Probably not. Another game that's mentioned only because I didn't play it was a Resident 2 remake. Resident Evil 2? Yeah. Well, that also came out. But then there was Resident 2, the homemaking. I've upgraded my apartment to a condo. I'm going to go check the mail.
00:13:48
Speaker
Apparently Sims 3 is actually still regarded by many people as more content rich than Sims 4 as a little aside. Weird. Yeah, it's been years and years and years and years. But I read like a full article on why Sims 3 is still preferred by the community.
00:14:03
Speaker
I don't know too much about the community, but I know lots of people who don't consider themselves gamers. They're kind of like video games, but man, I fucking love Sims. Yeah. And they know the ins and outs because that's what they had on their home PC. Yeah. And there's like a growing up or family game. Yeah. Where it's like, this is my town.
00:14:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's, uh, we haven't done an episode on the Sims yet, but you know, maybe we'll get back there someday whenever. Probably not. I won't subject Dave to that. Uh, I honestly have not played, uh, that much of the series at all. Yeah. It's, it's just different, um, to. Wasn't asking you about this on a previous episode or off when you were describing woohoo.
00:14:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. How like messed up the characters were. It was off. I think we weren't, we weren't hot mic'd at the time, but, um, yeah, we were talking about how absurd the animations actually were, uh, like beneath the covers. It's just like skeleton horror and stuff. There was no actual events happening that you would need to censor except for the horror aspect. Um, we don't want to scare the kids actually.
00:15:11
Speaker
Speaking of the horror aspect, Resident Evil 2, the remake did come out and I'm not very familiar with it, but I just wanted to mention that it's really cool that they are doing more than just remastering their games. So people who never played the original games get like a much more kind of complete, fresh, modernized experience instead of just a graphical makeover. I think that's really cool. And whenever you're considering doing a remaster or a remake,
00:15:40
Speaker
Like like put in the effort people will appreciate it because the original came out It was obviously a very highly regarded being first of a genre, etc But imagine going back to those days of those controls and how everything handled and you're like, that's my life Yeah, no shit sucks. I love Metal Gear Solid 3 so much. I'm never gonna go back and play it on ps2 Yeah, but else I'm really desperate because they made some weird choices at the time
00:16:09
Speaker
But it's still like a solid game, solid story. Yeah. It's just, it's nice that they're making more accessible. I think they're doing Resident Evil 3 as well. Yeah, they seem to be going through the series. Did they do Resident Evil 1?
00:16:21
Speaker
I think so, didn't they? Wasn't the biohazard the one that came out pretty recently? I want to give you a big shrug. Yeah, there's going to be a big shrug. A listener will probably get comments correcting us on a lot of this, but yeah. They probably haven't listened to this one. Yeah, nobody listens to this.
00:16:41
Speaker
Anyways, keep on keeping on Capcom. Be better than Konami. It's not hard and keep doing good work. Don't shoot all over your IP, that's it. Yeah, that's your baseline. Also, keep putting more references to your other games in your other games as you do. Oh yeah, meta references are pretty great.
00:17:03
Speaker
We'll make another Mega Man game, but I'll put a Mega Buster in every fucking game we have. Every game is a Mega Man game if you believe hard enough. Even Dead Rising. Especially Dead Rising. Dead Rising more so than most actually. Yeah, there's a lot of Mega Man cosmetics and things in there.
00:17:22
Speaker
Yeah, I wasn't joking. He lives on through our dreams and memories. You could also get him as a, um, as a patent monster hunter, right? What? Yeah. As an alternative to the cat. You could have a Mega Man. No, there might've been like, uh, a specific cosmetic. Yeah. It didn't like functionally change anything, but they gave you a little Mega Man. Mega Man, Mega Man. I don't think I have that. And that's going to bother me.
00:17:52
Speaker
They'll probably redo the events where you can attain them. Capcom usually does. They're pretty good on that. I'd like to grind that up for when I start playing again for Iceborne. Yeah.
00:18:03
Speaker
That's going to be so cute. Yeah, I know, right? Fuck yeah. All right, we've got to get to February.
Gaming Disappointments and Surprises
00:18:08
Speaker
We'll get through here. February, first up this year was at Astroneer, which we both own. I know you put like a little tiny bit of time into it. I played for five minutes. Five minutes, yeah. I played it with largely all the way through where we completed it with our friend Ian. And it was pretty good. I enjoyed it. It was...
00:18:29
Speaker
Can we actually call you in a friend of the show? Right. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Guest of the show. Yeah. He's the only one right now, but, um, no, it was a, it was a fun experience. Um, something I might not necessarily revisit and it took a little while to beat. I think it put 40 hours or so into it. Yeah. Uh, but a lot of that's cause it's got that survival crafty, um, aesthetic. But if you want that in space, recommend it. It's a very solid look it up.
00:18:58
Speaker
Another thing we have here is Metro Exodus, which I wanted to play and I thought I would have gotten it to it this year But I didn't I didn't even buy it And I feel like maybe that's because the reviews were a little bit lukewarm On launch and some of the hype died down immediately, but the series has been pretty good So I'll probably find myself revisiting that when it's on sale
00:19:21
Speaker
I don't follow Metro. That is my contribution for this segment. That's fair. Do you follow Bioware games or perhaps the release of Anthem? Nope. That also came out and everybody hated it, I think. That was supposed to be their next big thing outside of like Halo, right? Yeah. Well, not Bioware specifically, but it's supposed to be a big blockbuster shooter game. Yeah. That just seemed kind of eh?
00:19:51
Speaker
from all trailers and reviews I was seeing.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yeah, it was supposed to be the Destiny Halo kind of spiritual successor in a lot of ways, or at least they were hoping to get some of that market share. And they dumped a lot of money into it and pretty much not exactly dead on arrival, but close enough to it that you can look up tons of articles about everything wrong with the game, including like crazy five minute, 10 minute load times or whatever to actually get playing.
00:20:21
Speaker
Just lots of lots of crap. I'm not gonna go into specifics kind of loot and shot their load Yeah, so much so that the last news I heard on it is that they're basically doing a major rework of like the core game to try to salvage I think some of the money they dropped into it, but Bioware continues to crush my dreams so
00:20:44
Speaker
That's what else have they done that I would know. So the late stage Dragon Age has been a lot harder. A lot harder to sell. Full T-pose slash shrug. Yeah. So Bioware has done, they've had Dragon Age, they've done Mass Effect, they've done Knights of the Old Republic slash the Old Republic, depending on the studio.
00:21:08
Speaker
And honestly, it's just that I miss their single player, good, well-written RPGs that are super immersive. And other people just surpassed them recently. They just don't do it anymore. They're focused too much on online.
00:21:24
Speaker
It sucks to suck. But what about the next thing on the list? Does that also suck?
Deltarune and Toby Fox's Influence
00:21:33
Speaker
Oh my god. It is Deltarune. If you guys remember back in February, Toby Fox is saying, hey, I'm gonna release a little something tomorrow. A little bit of a, was it a game test? Or like a character creator test? Yeah, we didn't even know really what it was gonna be.
00:21:50
Speaker
Um, it was character creator. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. And I had like a couple of questions and I was like, okay. I was just waiting for anything until we found anything. He was going to do related to undertale. I'm very excited about no surprise for anybody, but then it was a fucking game. Yeah. Called Delta rune. And I think it was.
00:22:10
Speaker
Six hours, maybe less. Yeah, it was pretty short. I think I might've been in like three hours or so. I didn't do all of the side content though. And you really fucking didn't. And you really, you really should, if you're like hugely into the Undertale series. Cause I mean, you would, if you're usually into the Undertale series. This is your chapter one though. Delta ruin is the first part.
00:22:29
Speaker
That's the other big thing is obviously Undertale was a standalone game. Um, but Delta rune has just raised so many questions as far as where is this going? How connected is it to original Undertale? Cause you see a lot of character overlap, but it seems like shifted timeline and some other things. But also the big change here is you have actual kind of RPG combat and they just did a lot with that and having a team. And it was a really.
00:23:01
Speaker
fun experiment if we would call it that, but super stoked for anything else coming out with that because holy shit.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's it's uh It's it's always nice to get like that that teaser i'm hoping that it doesn't take too long before we get more news on the continuation of the series but um, it's very rare to just This was just you can just download it like you can just search up delta rune and grab the game Yeah, the chapter was originally like a twitter link and she's like, hey download this That's it
00:23:31
Speaker
But it's much lengthier than what you would expect from a demo and has plenty of content. So, I mean, if you have any interest in the series, we recommended it back when we did an episode on it. And I feel like it's still recommendable now. Yeah, I definitely stand by that.
00:23:48
Speaker
So yeah, consider picking that up for the price of zero dollars. And we look forward to it. I will buy that one for you. What Toby Fox does in the future. That finishes out January for us. And then also February. And February. Yeah, which killed them both.
Game Recommendations: Devil May Cry 5 and Sekiro
00:24:05
Speaker
Knocked them dead. And into March, Devil May Cry 5 came out, which- It looks very pretty. It is very pretty. I considered buying it on sale. It has some cool music, some cool moves.
00:24:17
Speaker
Nice move. Yeah, it's a return to the series really after DMC And it's just it's just too much fun. It's like The way that I didn't really have fun with Kingdom Hearts like Devil May Cry is like no You're just gonna play the game like it's gonna pull you in you're gonna enjoy yourself. It'll be great And I heavily recommend this one
00:24:41
Speaker
I will consider getting it on sale then. Thank you for your recommendation. Yeah. This is just me recommending games to Dave 2018. Jake and I just meet and be like, all right, what did we get on that winter sale? Yeah. I mean, there's the, there's the list. There is the list. Also on the list is a Sekiro shadows die twice. Yeah. That was a good fucking game. That was a pretty good game. That was, um, that was a good game.
00:25:07
Speaker
Typically if it becomes an episode, we care about enough to make it an episode.
00:25:12
Speaker
Especially if it becomes an episode like within a month of its release. That's a sign that uncharacteristic for sure. Yeah. We barely ever do that. In fact, if you, if you looked over the games we released this year or the episodes we released, very few of those games came out this year because there's just so much in the backlog. But sometimes you have something that like cuts in line a little bit. And that's Sekiro. Did you start playing like the day it came out? Pretty much. Yeah. It was like the day or the day after.
00:25:42
Speaker
It's just, it's fun to jump into like a FromSoft game because I love the combat and how everything plays out. But also I like the exploration and the slowly learning about the world and the characters, which is very enjoyable and immersive and handles super nice. And I remember one, the final boss that I had trouble with, I beat so much quicker than you, but you beat a boss earlier, the giant monkey. Yeah.
00:26:11
Speaker
Way faster like scarily. So yeah, it's like under through attempt check. Oh, I got it. I did it. I was like, I check off like 20 Is the days start to pass that's how some of those boss fights were though There was literally days on the final boss where I was like, okay today's attempt is unsuccessful dear diary We'll come back tomorrow
00:26:35
Speaker
But it just did such a good job of making me give a fuck about everything that was happening enjoying like the parry timing and the executions and Let's be honest. I didn't really use stealth too much. Yeah, but everything about it was just super solid and I Don't know if they're gonna continue on this right cuz like I hope they keep making games I don't know if it was Sekiro too
00:27:01
Speaker
Well, aren't they doing, uh, elder side? Yeah. I know what you're talking about though. They had a trailer for it, right? It is elder something. I absolutely can't remember because I was like, Bethesda is going to sue them now. Um, but my question is, with this coming out in 2019, um, for all these trailers for E3 game awards for ghost of Sushi Sushima, I wonder how differing that gameplay is going to be.
00:27:29
Speaker
Because it now has something that's going to be immediately compared to. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. No, it's, it's hard to answer. Cause I don't know about that other game. Well, uh, not that hang around, um, Sekiro too much, but what did you think about Neo or what you saw about Neo?
00:27:45
Speaker
So like what I understood was Neo was it had some, it usually bounced around mixed to mostly positive on Steam because it had some mechanics that kind of like held it back. And Sekiro like doesn't have that. It feels very, very smooth. It feels very, very true to its, its gameplay.
00:28:03
Speaker
And one thing I wanted to mention, not to circlejerk from Soft forever, but the choice to cut multiplayer entirely, to cut online entirely, is incredibly bold after you've literally set up the Souls-like franchise around it.
00:28:19
Speaker
Um, and it was completely the right choice. Like Sekiro is a harder game for it. They let it, it let them focus on like exactly what one player going through this game will experience. Um, and do you feel it like all the way through? It feels better for it. Also fucking grappling hooks. Am I right? Yeah, grabbing hooks
Game Transitions: Risk of Rain 2 and Beyond
00:28:40
Speaker
pretty good. More games pick up grappling hooks. Speaking of grappling hooks.
00:28:47
Speaker
Risk of Rain 2? Does that have grappling hooks? I don't remember. Maybe. If you guys remember Risk of Rain 1, the platforming, side-scrolling, you shoot things, you get money, you spend money to get other items to make your shooting things better. And that is just a rinse and repeat throughout levels. You can find the end gate and trigger that, which will give you like a 90 second boss fight.
00:29:15
Speaker
But the game gets progressively harder the longer you're playing. Yes. And you see like a little bar at the top going like easy, medium, hard, very hard. Yeah. And at point it just becomes laughter because it's bullshit. If you get stunned, you're kind of fucked. Yeah, just absurdity.
00:29:32
Speaker
So risk of rain two is the natural extension of that with a 3d third person view that you can play much more easily with friends. Yeah. And we did sunk some time into this. Um, it's very fun, but still built off that same game loop. Yeah.
00:29:48
Speaker
which at a point becomes a little bit tiring. Yeah, I think so. But I love getting a lot of speed upgrades and jumps. So I'm just jumping around the map trying to have the most efficiency. I'm like, where's the next thing I can buy upgrades? Yeah, exactly. Next level, let's go. Just speed around that nonsense. It's good to see more actual progression and the iteration between the games. Going from 2D to 3D, I mean, other games have made the jump, right? Mario has.
00:30:19
Speaker
It's done all right. That's all right. Yeah, they haven't they haven't taken them out back yet But yeah, it's it's a great entry in the series and hopefully they'll continue to build upon that add a little more depth and I'll look forward to it It was a fun time Which is great music by Chris somebody
00:30:38
Speaker
Yeah, it's not Hanson, but it's close to it. It's like Aaron Hoffer, Aaron Dell, Aaron Hoff, Hasselhoff. Google it. Risk of Rain 2 soundtrack. Look for it. Coming off that into April, I have on this list Superland, which I'm not going to talk about much.
00:30:57
Speaker
Um, but you get it. I own it. Yeah. Um, I'm hoping you can play it. I have not played it yet. Okay. But it is on the list of games that I want to play and possibly run an episode on if it turns out to be good. Cause it looks very promising. So I recently just watched the video about how ingenious my puzzle mechanics are for that. So I might need to give that a second look.
00:31:17
Speaker
Yeah, supposed to be pretty cheap. We'll let you guys know if we recommend it or not. Should we revisit it? Also in April, Mordhau came out, which I didn't buy. Did you pick it up or? No, definitely not. Yeah. But I could see myself playing it with people if we went squad deep. Like, I think it'd be a great land party game. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because it's just medieval warfare. And you just go in as a character and you have to take an objective or get a certain number of kills. But you have.
00:31:47
Speaker
swords, maces, javelins, mounts, siege weaponry. It just seems like a whole bunch of Mimi bullshit that I should try out because I think I would enjoy it.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah, it kind of looks like a multiplayer mountain blade just combat simulator. The blade's as big as a mountain, you said. Mount and blade. Tell me more about these black cops. Speaking of that, May had a couple, and by a couple, I mean exactly one release that I put on this list. I kind of like sat up to look at the list and I saw there's only one thing. Outer Wilds came out.
00:32:27
Speaker
Which I'll probably talk about more later, but I really really like this game I'm gonna need to play this game to Jake and talk I'll talk about it more later in the episode probably You want to kick us off for June?
Quirky Game Releases and Comparisons
00:32:41
Speaker
So in June a devolver released their devolver bootleg Which is a bunch of their games, but bootleg variations. Yeah Most people saw this probably in their like III presentation, right? They launched it at the same time, I think
00:32:55
Speaker
It was a cute idea. I did not check it out. Yeah. Cause I'm lazy and a piece of shit. Right. That's fair. Um, also this month we had like a bunch of, bunch of releases. Uh, there was, they are billions, which was an early access game for a long time. Um, just kind of zombie defense slash city Sam. Uh, I put some time into it. Not a lot. Um, I'm hoping to revisit it once they, uh, it's fully fleshed out and give it some time, but.
00:33:23
Speaker
what style of game is it because as soon as you say like zombie defense and base building like factorial question mark right it's it's kind of like that it's a little less on the logistics it's more on the base building and it's kind of like there's a there's a death timer essentially
00:33:39
Speaker
where eventually you'll just be completely swarmed and all of your defenses will be tested. And if you fail, then you probably lose, like you'll lose part of your city and when catastrophic failure happens, your townspeople will turn, you'll lose everything. Um, but, uh, I don't know, it has, it has some interesting premises to it, um, between the city, city Sam slash base builder and zombie defense genres. And sometimes those are cool. Yeah.
00:34:08
Speaker
but I'll have to revisit it to see if it's made some traction since early access.
00:34:15
Speaker
I'll wait for you to nag me about it before I pursue it any further. Cause if you're really excited about it, I'm more inclined to check something out. Cause I trust your opinion unless it's something I know you enjoy as far as like factorial. It's like a genre we don't play. I just have no interest in efficiency in games.
00:34:40
Speaker
Yeah, required less of that, but we'll see how it comes out. Also, My Friend Pedro, also by Devolver Digital. Yes, they are kind of on a rampage. And this game looked hilarious. I think it was one of the most visually catching games that was shown at E3 when it came out.
00:34:58
Speaker
Yeah, it seems like you're going through level, doing a bunch of crazy over the top, John Woo bullshit. Yeah. Uh-huh. But that's kind of what they wanted to capture in the game experience. Yeah. So you'll have like two guns, you're shooting bullets that ricochet off of things and other fun things for just the giggles.
00:35:15
Speaker
Yeah, it almost looks like it's got some of that like room by room, clear, quickly mechanic, like a hotline Miami does, but a lot more visual, um, grandeur and just hilariousness to it. Like just spinning on a skateboard, shooting people in front of you and behind you, it looks absurd and, uh, pretty hilarious. I might come back and visit it, but it wasn't immediately high on my list. We've also got blood stained.
00:35:43
Speaker
And with it also put blasphemous because these are two Metroidvanias, a bloodstain being more inspired by Castlevania Symphony of the Night. And I got to say, I enjoyed a lot of it so much, but at the same time.
00:36:00
Speaker
It feels kind of eh. I didn't grow up on old Castlevania. So the combat in this one feels very limiting to me for the other types of games I like to play that are platformy. Cause I just went with the great sword, put all the stats in that and then just slap things to death. So maybe it went a boring route, but they still did a really good job as far as the Metroidvania, how levels are laid out and finding certain things.
00:36:29
Speaker
Just at a point, I was like, you just tap. You know, there's, there's a lot of other games came out. I feel that entirely. You have a high bar to like set as far as platformers to really maintain my interest while playing. So like if I make it all the way through a platformer, it means something, um, because I stop when I stop having fun. So you have to make sure you got to get that pacing down. So did you check out blast? I did not yet. So I'm, I'm curious what your impressions were.
00:36:59
Speaker
So I enjoyed that more of the two. It's more like Dark Souls inspired, very Spanish Catholic vibes, but it handles nicely. I really liked a lot of the animations. Music was good. World building exploration was good. The last boss got a little bit hokey and that's kind of where I tapped.
00:37:20
Speaker
Um, so you got to the end of the game, but you didn't finish the boss. Yeah, you're waiting for me. I was like, yes, but both are really worth a checkout, but they're very different stylistically. And maybe one would appeal to you more than the other. Yeah. Yeah. Follow your heart. Um, unless your heart tells you to check out July's, uh, release, we only have one on our list for this, but Wolfenstein young blood is like.
00:37:49
Speaker
There was a trailer for it, that's all I can say. I wanted it, they had really good music. I think it was either Carpenter Brute or Perchabator. Was the actual... Why don't you do that? I'm going to be like, alright, I don't listen. That's good music, yeah.
00:38:03
Speaker
Apparently so I haven't played the game to start but it it's it's big thing is this is co-op all the way through is the goal But they made a lot of like questionable design decisions from what I heard as far as like respawning enemies revisiting areas scaling enemies just a bunch of things that are not fun to deal with in a first-person shooter and I don't know
00:38:28
Speaker
I like the old Wolfenstein's maybe that makes me like a more of a hipster, but I So for me when they rebranded Wolfenstein, they did the more up-to-date one from a couple years ago If I'm more like doom, yeah 2016. Mm-hmm where they're like, hey this is the thing that we're shooting Nazis. Yeah, anything they built off of that is kind of like a nod tongue-in-cheek because you're there for the experience of having fun running on shooting and
00:38:53
Speaker
And it means Nazis. So you can't really go wrong with making them more villainous because they're Nazis. So everything they did in the first Wolfenstein, I thought was really good. Yeah. They kind of like went crazy with this one. And they're like, OK, now you're playing the daughters of BJ Blaskowitz. And they've got like crisis suits or more or less like all this like science fiction stuff that has always been tangential. Like it's on the Nazi side for what they're doing in Wolfenstein.
00:39:23
Speaker
but never like this is now the core gameplay is your crisis suits like maximum armor or something like that um i don't know it's it's easy to make some missteps there while they're trying to add things mechanically but you got to be careful about corrupting that core that core game feel yeah these old shooters
00:39:42
Speaker
Yeah, you miss 100% of the shots. Going into August, there was a game we both played actually, which was remnant colon from the ashes. That saved my colon from the ashes.
00:39:59
Speaker
Yeah, this is our again, uh, had some dark souls ties Uh for how it was Laid out but this was dark souls with guns. Yeah So a lot of it is just Having weapons that you can upgrade There are some melee weapons, but they're yeah used less so but specific builds and things Yeah, but the big draw was that we could play with people so it'd usually be like you me or you me ian
00:40:26
Speaker
I think it was was it three or four to tap that around? I think it was three three. Yeah, good play once So it's fun to like go through and do those bosses as a group Like I enjoyed fighting the dragon for as many times as I got some on fire needed to be rezzed but it was
00:40:44
Speaker
For overall design, kind of generic for what I like. Right. But for what they did with it, it was still a really kick-ass job. Yeah. Don't let my personal bias take away from that. But it was a good experience. But again, I feel like we didn't do the final boss because we're like, this seems kind of hokey. Yeah. I think like I either completed the final boss or I made an attempt and then I just watched it on YouTube or something.
00:41:12
Speaker
But this is one of those those games that burned out a little bit for me Not because I played a ton and then I was like, I just am exhausted But some of the things I thought would have more longevity as far as like the payoffs and the game really didn't A lot of guns started to feel kind of samey. I didn't feel like there was enough upgrades. There wasn't enough choices Some of the choices were made up and didn't matter I think is what they say and yeah, it just
00:41:39
Speaker
by the end of it, I was I was done. Right. So it didn't have some of the stating staying power of like from soft games they were trying to to sort of emulate, I think, in some ways.
Exploring Game World Building: Remnant and More
00:41:50
Speaker
Yeah, but they did add a kind of rogue like elements where if you teleport to an area,
00:41:57
Speaker
You'd essentially be like at a portion of the area and you have to go and explore that. But when you come back, it might be a little bit different, but it was cool initially, but then later on it felt a little more samey. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It's like having randomly generated worlds is cool, but you have to make sure that you're not losing that core narrative and pacing feel that like a tailored experience can have. And a lot of roguelikes do.
00:42:24
Speaker
You make sacrifices when you say a lot of our content is going to be generated when people run through the same hallway, but backwards or something like that, right? Like you, you feel it, you see it and it takes you out of the game. But, uh, if you want more of our thoughts there, you can listen to our episode on that one. Um, cause we talked about remnant from the ashes.
00:42:43
Speaker
Yes. Remember saying, like, take the dark soul steam and just add guns to it. And that was the intro. Yeah. And I stand by it. Cause I listened to it again and I laughed. Yeah. No, that was for future me. It was pretty good. It was a good idea. Um, next thing that came out in August was gris, which is a game that is another kind of artsy sort of platformer. Yeah. Platformer storytelling, um, style game. I haven't played it, so I can't really speak to it, but I'll probably play it on my own time.
00:43:12
Speaker
Is currently on sale on the winter sale, right? Maybe it'll still be in a few days when you guys see this I don't know how long the winter sales running on steam, but probably through the end of the year. I would expect I Might go a couple days into January, but not much
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah. Um, September rolled around. It's nothing like going into September. It's like a long time. It's a, it's a long winter is coming. Uh, September saw borderlands three release, which I played with a group of friends. How'd you look at it compared to one and two?
00:43:47
Speaker
Um, two is still my favorite, I believe. Um, and all of them sort of just get too long for me. I just realized that I get tired of playing borderlands like midway through playing borderlands. I'm shooting, I'm shooting, I'm shooting. Yeah. Um, and it's a little bit unfortunate, but that, and there was, there was launch issues, but hopefully those all get wrapped up by the time people actually play the game.
00:44:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'd give it a probably a seven. Let's say it's a good game. It's not a great game and expect some, some flaws. Um, but they can just never live up to handsome Jack. He's just too good of a pregnant protagonist or antagonist, depending on which game he played. Um, so live and learn.
00:44:31
Speaker
I also don't play borderlines. I'm just gonna sit here and look cute. That's what you're here for, Dave. Keep smiling. Another game you probably can't talk that much about. Legend of Zola Link's Awakening for the sweat train.
00:44:45
Speaker
The one we had a fucking episode. This was a solid game. Like I said, in the episode did not play the original growing up. I only played this, but this one is super fucking cute. Yeah. And that was my whole draw. But I really enjoyed playing it and going and doing some like old school L O Z. Um, cause it's not something I've really had in a while. Cause I don't seek.
00:45:11
Speaker
Old basic RPGs out right? Yeah, who does who has the time for that, but it was a really nice throwback for me Yeah, it was a good experience. I I had like initial Hesitancy kind of for the same Same reasoning. I was like it's an old-school RPG. I know there's gonna be things I just like here Yeah, but they've literally rounded out the edges and figuratively rounded out the edges And it's it's a it's a great adventure game
00:45:41
Speaker
Uh, next up the official launch non beta version of magic the gathering arena, which I know you've put time into because like I see the stream icon sometimes pop up and I'm like, ah, arena. So yeah, I, I've been playing a lot of magic for many years, but I'm trying to whittle down my physical collection.
00:46:03
Speaker
And now apparently that reduces the value. You're just shaving off the current. This card feels kind of light. Don't worry about it, it's tournament legal. But no, it's fun because it's still just magic. And as far as an online magic game, it's...
00:46:22
Speaker
Comprehensive and works. Oh, yeah. There have been a lot of times where I think it was magic gathering online Had a fucked ton of issues. Oh my gosh. Yeah, not something that has no faults, but it is free and
00:46:36
Speaker
As far as like progression and stuff, you get packs and rewards from doing quests. You can get packs in-game without spending actual money, which is nice. And there's options for like tournaments and stuff as well. But usually I play pubs, get upset, and then challenge my friend Stevie to play one on one.
00:46:54
Speaker
Right. Yeah. So we can try our whole deck ideas against each other, which is more palatable because I can say fuck you to him personally. Yeah. Instead of typing or picking one of the pre-made menu options of like good game. Good game. Good game. Good game.
00:47:11
Speaker
Yeah, no, I uh, I haven't played a lot of this just got through the tutorial basically but the The thing I would highlight about it is like how polished the experience is like I played the magic 2013 game It looked good, but you know it had you gave that to me on steam a while back But like had a bunch of limitations things like that. It wasn't fully fleshed out like this. This is a game that uh,
00:47:36
Speaker
Offers rewards that are significantly more competitive than what Hearthstone does It has all the intricacy of magic which a lot of people want and it's fun to watch It looks really good when people are like playing these cards out and like effects are activating and stuff Visually the artists just like made it work And I don't know it's it's actually really good. It's actually really good That's magic. Yeah, I'm enjoying it
00:48:04
Speaker
Uh, next up on our list, I have, um, industry, which is kind of like a factorial like game. Um, I think that I recommend this at this point. If you are into that kind of game, it's usually really cheap, um, and involves more, uh, space stuff, but I don't want to get into too many details on that one. Um, the next was kind words, which was a experiment. I think we talked a little bit about already in one of the episodes, possibly, um,
00:48:32
Speaker
I know you talked to me about it, at least offline at some point. Yeah. This is how you playing kind words. I'm like, you need me to like message you and say like, you look pretty today. Right. And I value you as a friend. I only play this like a little bit over the course of two days, but I still like the idea. Um, it's kind of an emotional support platform, which is risky when people are not therapists. But, um, there's a lot of, it's basically sharing notes.
00:48:59
Speaker
And responding to notes and trying to comfort people and just be encouraging while listening to chill music. Um, and it's really not a game. So it's interesting. It's on, it's on steam. I applaud them for trying something. But, um, if you are more interested in that, you can look it up. Yeah. I feel about October.
00:49:25
Speaker
Yeah, I see that your eyes are watering a little bit you doing right I Just don't remembering my dogs from when I grew up. Yeah, how they're not around anymore. It's pretty sad No, they have good lives. Um, so definitely to shadow keep hmm
00:49:43
Speaker
This is their other expansion. There you go. Next game. I mean, they definitely added some stuff. I enjoyed playing the content. It definitely re-sparks. I'm playing more Destiny 2 as a group and as a clan. And that's been fun. But as far as a standalone expansion, nothing's super crazy in my book. I enjoyed it.
00:50:07
Speaker
I think most people critically have agreed with that. It received lukewarm praise where it's like, this is an expansion. It doesn't have a lot of content. Could have had more content. They kind of have been rationing the content through seasons now. And to their credit, more people are playing now from our clan. So great that it's active. I know you've been more active in raids as we guilt you into attending. Hey, I'm pretty sure I did complete.
00:50:41
Speaker
You've done a good job there.
RPG Analysis: The Outer Worlds and Fallout Comparisons
00:50:43
Speaker
And yeah, it's just, it's the same core experience, uh, expounded upon at another game was the outer worlds, which I was really hyped for actually took time off for obsidian's kind of fall out in space type game. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,
00:50:56
Speaker
I recommend it. I wish it was a bit bigger. I wish there was a bit more content at the end of it. I kind of just wish there was more. It's kind of where I get to the end of the game and I was like, where's the DLC? But this is one of those games. And it doesn't have anything on the scale of something like Fallout 4 to keep you in for a very long time.
00:51:17
Speaker
But in the end I still recommend it and it runs on unreal instead of game Brio Which Bethesda uses so it doesn't crash all the time. Holy crap. Yeah But That was basically my month October was games for games for me while you you camped out in preparation for the next game in November and
00:51:42
Speaker
The Death Stranding finally came out many years after waiting.
Death Stranding's Unique Experience
00:51:48
Speaker
I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but just to reiterate, my headset has two customizable shields, and it is Kojima's logo for his company, Kojima Productions.
00:51:59
Speaker
And when I email the people to get this custom design and like here's this JPEG make it happen Yeah, the one guy emailing back and said like hey Really hyped for death straining. Hope it doesn't suck. Yeah, and I was like, yeah
00:52:14
Speaker
Oh, now that's come out. I still I like it. But pretty much everything you've seen as far as reviews, criticism, good things, bad things. They're all true. Interesting. Bold statement to say it's all all correct.
00:52:31
Speaker
I mean, I guess it depends where which side of the coin you land on Um, it's definitely a slog at points throughout most points But I enjoy the slow pacing. Yeah of the game. I like a lot of what's trying to do mechanically it's just when he's trying to do story stuff i'm like
00:52:53
Speaker
It's full like put it in this separate bubble of Kojima what the fuck right along for the ride But I'm not gonna be heavily invested and be like yeah This is what this game's about right some deep shit, which I think is what he was striving for Mm-hmm. He wanted more like emotional takeaways and connections
00:53:12
Speaker
Yeah. But I do like that aspect of it that you can, similar to Dark Souls, you can have your game world impact somebody else's game world. If I build a bridge, somebody could theoretically use that bridge to get over a difficult to navigate terrain and give me upvotes. And then I get notified of that. Which is all we really want. Karma at the end of the day. It's cool to see that interaction. I like shit like that.
00:53:39
Speaker
I haven't played the game, but I thought that based off what you said and what some reviewers had said, the things people hate about the game is the slog, the monotony, the traveling from point to point. And the things people love about the game is the bridges, the community, everything like that. And it strikes me that you have to have the slog or the bridges are meaningless. You have to have the things people dislike or they find monotonous.
00:54:08
Speaker
to make the payoff of working with people actually meaningful.
00:54:11
Speaker
Yeah. I think the biggest weakness of the game is it's a long game. There are a lot of missions, but a lot of the missions are doing fairly similar shit. Take things from point A to point B. Maybe there'd be a caveat of, Hey, there's rain that is going to fuck up your shit over time. Yeah. Maybe there's Raiders you have to deal with. Um, but all the solutions they add to those things are cool, but it takes time to get to, and then you just kind of do the same thing over and over.
00:54:41
Speaker
Yeah, I get that. I mean, that's similar to previous game in some ways, like a Metal Gear Solid 5 actually had the sandbox and the sandbox had so much that was fun that people lived in that for a long time. Like there was still like core gameplay. This is largely, you know, where you're going to live. Um, but it was just super, super engaging for a lot of people.
00:55:03
Speaker
Yeah, because you could, you had a million ways to approach a given problem. So like, how would you contrast that to it? Death stranding, I guess does, does it feel like more constrained?
00:55:16
Speaker
So when you start out, you have just, you carry things on your back and you can distribute weight. That's pretty much your only thing. Um, you try and go on easier to walk terrains. You don't trip and damage your stuff, but as you go on, um, you're able to move more easily through things and your opportunities expand, which happens in Metal Gear Solid five as well. Yeah. But.
00:55:46
Speaker
Yeah, like at no point in Metal Gear Solid 5, do you feel like you're regressing? Right. But in Death Stranding, I feel like you might be given a challenge. It's like, hey, here's some bullshit you're gonna have to deal with. Right. Gotcha. Type thing. You're like, oof. You get an emotional oof when you see the challenge. Yeah. I get that.
00:56:06
Speaker
It's, it's interesting. I'm going to probably, I'll pick it up more when it's on sale, I think. And I have like maybe a lull and play through it. Cause it definitely has some experiences I want to go through. Um, but as a lengthy game, it's harder for me to time block it. Um, it's just so much like the cut scenes are like, I see the PTSD a little bit. It's like when the cut scene is like 13 minutes long and we're like, all right, now go do this thing. I'm like, what?
00:56:35
Speaker
Uh, yeah, but uh, it's very unique. It's probably the highest praise I can give it. Oh, yeah. I think if, if nothing else, everyone would agree it's unique. Yes. We will expect that, uh, Kojima's games will continue to be unique. If nothing else.
00:56:51
Speaker
Did you see on YouTube, apparently Grimes posted video advertising the special edition release where you get like a suitcase that has the gamut and some other stuff. Huh? I didn't see that. It's kind of funny. It was a paid advertisement. Yeah. But apparently Grimes super dicks the game. That's funny. Another game came out in November. I beat just recently,
Jedi: Fallen Order and Nostalgia in Gaming
00:57:18
Speaker
actually. It was Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order.
00:57:21
Speaker
How have you been liking that? Uh, I quite enjoy it. Um, pretty much front to back. Uh, not perfect. A couple of quests and like backtracking to complete side, rejectives, things like that felt a little bit unnecessary. Um, some of the puzzles were like,
00:57:38
Speaker
Hey, uh, they're physics puzzles, but not like 100% lock in this first step. And then the second step it's like fuzzy. You're like, get the ball in the hole was basically the puzzle. Uh, and I hate that more than anything. I was just, I wanted to glare at the developers while I was doing that. Um, but overall feels good to be a Jedi. I really feel like spiderman.
00:58:04
Speaker
I love that. How close would you say it is to Dark Souls? Because a lot of what I was hearing about is the direct comparison of it's the Dark Souls of the Star Wars games. Like mechanically, there's a few things they lift from Dark Souls. The bonfires are essentially the same. Enemies respawn. If you are killed by an enemy, then they'll hold your experience to your next skill point.
00:58:29
Speaker
And you have to hit them or damage them and you're immediately given it's interesting actually you give a full health restore a full force restore You are basically restored the full as soon as you hit them So it's almost an anti Dark Souls mechanic when you actually break it down
00:58:47
Speaker
Because if there's an enemy you have to like go through this long slog of fighting stormtroopers And there's like a big guy at the end and the big guy kills you You still have to go through that long slog of all those stormtroopers again But as soon as you get to the big guy and hit him you get a full refresh Almost like you just rested to the bonfire
00:59:04
Speaker
So it's not a punishing mechanic. It's actually an enhancement mechanic where it makes it easier as soon as you get back to that guy. So I think in that way people, that's not the same as Dark Souls at all, right? You have to kill the enemy in Dark Souls. But there's the parrying mechanic where you're kind of breaking through people's guard. It's actually very similar to Sekiro in that.
00:59:30
Speaker
Uh, although Sekiro does it better and it feels less grainy. Right. Yeah. It feels a bit less grainy, but, um, as far as the Jedi feel, uh, it's awesome. Uh, I recommend it. I'd say if you're a Star Wars fan, bump it up a full letter grade from like a great to, um, like excellent. Um, and if you're not, then it's, it's probably great.
00:59:57
Speaker
If your Star Wars fan, it's probably better than the most recent movie. Yeah. That's a timeless joke, by the way. That'll never age. The most recent movie will always be that. That just hit me. Man, I hope not, but probably. What do we got down in December? Yeah, that's like the end of the year. That's like this month, actually. Should we slow it down? Yeah. We got to buy some time here at the hour mark.
01:00:24
Speaker
So halo chief, halo chief Jesus, halo reach the master chief collection. Yeah. I put an exception tag on this one because technically this isn't a PC only release. Like it's not something that released originally this year. Um, it's, you know, a bunch of remasters or whatever coming out on PC this year. But for people who didn't have an Xbox, like I didn't and don't know what the games after two were like, uh, this is, this is going to be a chance to catch up.
01:00:55
Speaker
I will say, um, it was three and then reach there were two separate. Yeah. Three reach four or five, something like that. So I played up through, I think part of reach as far as multiplayer stuff. And I really just miss that era. Cause I played a fuck ton of Halo two multiplayer online with people on Xbox live.
01:01:18
Speaker
Like arena shooters in general, they just barely exist now. Games like that. And also at Halo was very distinct that I had a very slow pacing compared to some other stuff. Yeah. You didn't see how many guys shoot them in the back. Very quick paced. Um, but I, I miss those days. It might just be nostalgia, but I'm considering getting it trying to get some other people on board so we can do. I mean, everybody has an Xbox controller anyway, for a lot of third person games on PC.
01:01:46
Speaker
I mean, these, you can play keyboard and mouse, like they're really, they're full PC releases. No, I'd rather not. Interesting. I guess it depends, uh, how ported it is. I mean, if they screw up the, I would have to check some reviews. I'm not sure right now, but if they screw up the keyboard and mouse controls for a game that's being remastered, basically from the PC, that would eviscerate them. Like they would never live that down.
01:02:13
Speaker
Maybe I could just try and do Halo 2 on keyboard and mouse and play people. Yeah. It probably is going to be a lot different. It would definitely help my accuracy. I can tell you that. Yeah. I have the old like Xbox 360 controller, so I don't even have like all the sensitivity improvements of like better controllers and things. I just, that's what I, that's what I say every time, you know, I make a mistake and I die. I'm just like, ah, that's crappy controller.
01:02:37
Speaker
I used to set my sensitivity to 10 every time we'd play because I feel that somebody could run by me and run around me in circles and I'd be turning with sensitivity 3 and I would never catch up to them. I'm like, let's put this on max and then go from there. The last time I tried to play a Halo game with a controller, I think it was at a friend's house or something. Not a friend's house, I don't know. Someone's house. I broke into someone's house.
01:03:01
Speaker
And I was like, oh, there's an Xbox here. Let's see how old Halo is. I like literally could not beat the first level with like trash enemies and things. I was just like, ah, grunts. I don't, like, how do you counter that? They take cover and sometimes they run around the side. I just can't use like a controller and an FPS. Absolute trash. Did you do 2016 with controller or keyboard and mouse? Keyboard and mouse, yeah.
01:03:30
Speaker
I'm so bad, so bad with controllers. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing. I couldn't even. But yeah, I'm in a similar boat, looking forward to it.
Year-End Reflections and Game of the Year Discussion
01:03:41
Speaker
And then another one I have on here is MechWarrior's Five Mercenaries, because I'm a fan of the MechWarrior series.
01:03:47
Speaker
And by that, I mean I played MechWarrior 3 and it was awesome and I have nostalgia for it. So I pretend that I'm a fan of everything. It's kind of unfortunate this is the last game on our list because I don't have that much to say about it and it doesn't really seem like it's that good. It's another bargain bin type game where I'm going to wait for it to go on sale. I'm going to pick it up. I'm going to blackmail one of my friends slash associates to pick it up at the same time.
01:04:15
Speaker
And then play the campaign and co-op but other than that not a lot to say about it. It looks all right But not not super hot super hot super hot So, how do you feel about the year we just went through some of the major releases through like everything What did you learn this year in video games?
01:04:38
Speaker
From stuffs has still got it. They do Toby Fox is still got it and can still get it. You know what I mean? Any anytime he hits you up for the DMS He could he could probably post racist propaganda I'd be like I still love each other he's earned that much credit points
01:05:00
Speaker
Yeah. The developers and game publishers that I already like and follow. I'm glad to see they're still doing things that I like and can appreciate. Yeah. Um, a lot of these titles that we covered that I don't really follow as far as game wise, it's cause it's not my thing. It's kind of what I expected. Like I was not expecting great things from kingdom hearts three because I've never really followed kingdom hearts. And every time I've seen a criticism of it, I've been like, that's something I would not enjoy in that game franchise.
01:05:30
Speaker
Um...
01:05:33
Speaker
That's how I feel coming off of this. A lot of the things I was most hyped for with the exception of Sekiro that were major releases, very few of them really came through for me to the full extent I was hyped. It almost feels like the passing of the torch back to indie games this year in a lot of ways. A lot of the games I had a lot of fun with and I put a lot of time into were the non-AAA titles.
01:06:01
Speaker
But there's also the difference of the bar there because you can come out of literally nowhere and be like, I have this thing and I'm not going to judge you as harsh aches. I don't know who the fuck you are. Right. But if you have this long history of setting these standards and mile markers saying like, this is what we're going to deliver, we're going to build on this and make it better. And then you kind of give me the same thing the other guy did. I'll be like, really? Yeah. Yeah.
01:06:29
Speaker
I don't know. I think that's true to an extent, but also if I was given the option of playing Kingdom Hearts 3 more, or the Outer Wilds more, I'd actually just replay the Outer Wilds. And I've already beaten that game. I just, I don't know. I think indie games kind of have to prove themselves more to get out the door than AAA games and to show up on the radar of people actually paying attention. You have to be excellent as Slay the Spire to emerge from all the
01:06:57
Speaker
I'm going to assume the heap of bodies that is early access, right? Just push them to the side, gasp for air at the top, and revel in it. Good news does travel fast. So if you have somebody checking out something, it's new.
01:07:12
Speaker
Um, just like if I was playing a game that was like nobody else had fucking heard of it. I'd be like, Hey, Jake, have you heard about this? I'm really enjoying it. Maybe check it out. Yeah. You talked to three other people and they talk to three other people and it grows, but it grows because it's good. It's not like one person has a shitty opinion. They're like, you should really check this out because their friends aren't going to agree with them. Yeah. But those stand out titles.
01:07:36
Speaker
Like I don't want them to make more stuff. I just want them to keep making that better. Right. And so they're like, I need to make something separate. Right. If, if every, if every developer could do it from soft did incorporate some of the core mechanics and then be adventurous, test it and then put it in the final product. If you could, then we would have some really good games on the horizon. Zero done. Elden ring, by the way. Elden ring. You're right. Yeah.
01:08:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's how they're getting around it. That's, there's probably going to be Elder Ring and then Bethesda like assassinated one of their top men. Yeah. Elden's an interesting word.
01:08:20
Speaker
That being said, so spoiler alert, the game awards usually hosted by Spike Sekiro won their game of the year. Would you agree with that choice for this year? And if you could not agree with that choice, what would you pick? I mean, out of our list here, 100% yes. Yeah. Cause the only other thing that really
01:08:50
Speaker
Below is my noggin is Delta rune. And that's a very subjective thing. Uh-huh. Uh, it's because I follow Toby Fox and that undertale game series now. Um,
01:09:02
Speaker
but it doesn't have mass appeal. Whereas everything about Sekiro is a good, standalone game. You can recommend that to anybody. It's like, hey. I don't know if I could, though. Not literally anybody. Yeah. But it has a certain difficulty to it. Like, hey, looking for a fun samurai game that is actually in-depth and has all this shit. You couldn't recommend it to anybody who doesn't like difficult games, because there's no difficulty mode. There's no way to make it easier.
01:09:30
Speaker
But something I like about it is because I like when it gets hard. Pause for effect.
01:09:40
Speaker
Because when I beat it, this is making it better. Yeah. When I actually beat the game, I felt accomplished. Yeah. Like I remember going through the final boss and I was like, okay, I have to practice phase one. Yeah. And then whatever, however many other phases that were after that. It's like three phases to that phase.
01:10:01
Speaker
But I got to the point where I was like, all right rinse repeat you died you fucked up go back do it again Yeah, he does this move. Hey does this move and I got good at phase one and I don't burn through phase one I'm like, all right time to learn in a phase two Yeah, you enter that zen moment where you're like learning mode activate. What's your move set? Teach me
01:10:20
Speaker
But then once I became patient and took the time and then was using the mechanics and I saw his, uh, stamina bar getting low and like, Oh my God, we're going to do it. Don't fuck up. Don't fuck up. Don't fuck out. And then I fucked up. Um, by like pushing past those moments, because it's like the breakthrough moments in puzzle games, you have to aha. Yeah. And you see yourself making that progress because you can upgrade your weapon over time. Yeah. And you can upgrade your health, be that I defeating bosses.
01:10:47
Speaker
Right. There's ways to farm up, you know, get stronger tangible. Yeah. But you have to defeat bosses to progress. Yes. So at a point you can't be like, man, I'm struggling here. Maybe I can grind up. No, you can grant consumables and like styles, the perks, the skill points. But that's about it. The skill points. Yes. Forgot about that.
01:11:10
Speaker
But those usually are not game changers for bosses. There's no replacement for understanding. Knowledge is always the most powerful weapon. Like the bull was like a stopgap boss for me. Yeah. Cause he would charge at me and I'd be like half my health's gone. And then it's just learning that I'm getting better at it and then throwing occasional sparklers in. Yeah. But it becomes learning the moveset.
01:11:36
Speaker
I think it's it's definitely it's such a good game. I think it's so It's definitely in my top two for the year like it's really Really hard to go against it and I've spent several nights because I knew we were gonna have this episode like and I was like Restless nights where I had drink caffeine right before I tried to go to sleep I
01:12:02
Speaker
and uh i was like would i be okay you know would i regret just you know throwing my lot in with sakura i don't think so but but uh what's the other contender for you i i agree with everything about sakura but i'm gonna go with uh because i'm a nerd and a hipster uh the outer wilds not worlds but the outer wilds
01:12:27
Speaker
Which was an epic store exclusive for like a year. So a lot of people dislike that But I just I think it does so much for the exploration genre that With so many constraints on it that I love it Like I just I can't not I listen to the music and I like have emotional flack flashbacks like I'm playing Undertale well, it's like
01:12:53
Speaker
For the same reason like it does not have mass market appeal. I can't recommend it to everyone the game doesn't have progression in the sense of anything other than figuring things out and
01:13:06
Speaker
and I can't talk that much about it without like spoiling like way too much but As a straight like exploration game. I don't think I've played a better one Like I put this one better than subnautica Unless you really want the survival experience because this is not that it is anti that I Might need to
01:13:33
Speaker
Google it at least once yeah, if if you watch a a Speed run of the game you could probably get it done in like sub 10 minutes or something. It's It's it can be pretty fast, but the time I spent on it was like probably 30 hours or something. Oh
01:13:51
Speaker
Sounds like you suck at this game. There's a lot of reasons why that's all true for this game, but without going into it as an exploratory game, if you like getting questioned, like seeing questions in a game and intrinsically hunting them down and having interesting things to investigate, like freaking Outer Wilds. I hope we see many more like it. Yeah.
01:14:21
Speaker
But if that didn't come out, then I would have picked second. I will have to Google that and I will recommend our soap pebbles new term for the three people who listen to the system to Google that as well. Yeah. Before next episode. Before the next episode.
01:14:40
Speaker
No reason, I'm just picking arbitrary stuff. Alright, well, I hope you guys had a great year, good holidays, as I said earlier, and you had fun with the games, maybe picked up some games we recommended. Or maybe you could recommend some games to us that we're not even aware of.
01:14:57
Speaker
Yeah, should you want to do that you could do so our minds Clap clap clap three claps You can reach us directly at soapstone podcast at gmail.com Or you could join the discussion on facebook at facebook.com slash soapstone podcast Let us know what your favorite games this year were and we will critique them and laugh at you Yeah, that sounds like what I would do What are you dumb?
01:15:25
Speaker
Well, we'll hope to see you guys in the next year. We'll continue to release episodes as that is what we do here. As always, we'll see you in the next one. Have a good one.
01:16:24
Speaker
you