Transcript
neocharge: What's up, everybody, and welcome to Shapes of Gaming, the weekly conversational podcast all about video games that's unedited, unfiltered, and unhinged. I'm one of your hosts, Matt Stenson, NeoCharge on PSN, and joining me, as always, this beautiful bearded man, Bob Harriman, Leon Lionheartley on PSN. We are here for episode number 53, Bob.
neocharge: What's up, dude? How's it going?
Leon Lionheartly: Good morning, Vietnam. um are you all doing out there? No, man, it's it's going it's going busy.
neocharge: Oh my God.
Leon Lionheartly: But I can't complain, right? you know like i'd rather that I'd rather be busy than be bored up my ass.
neocharge: It's true. It's true. ah I was just talking to you, dude. dot I've had a let's just get it right into the life stuff. I've had a tornado of just tasks and responsibilities.
neocharge: Here, let me let me just list out what i'm what I'm currently doing at this time, right? I'm moving into a new place. I'm setting up a new place. I'm renting out ah multiple rooms in my old place.
neocharge: I'm moving everything from my old place to my new place.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: I'm getting maintenance done on my old place and new place. And I'm trying to play video games all at the same time. Dude, I did something I've never done before yesterday.
neocharge: i got First Light. i was super excited. Got up real early for that fucking stupid Dragon Quest event we're going talk about. And... I like ate dinner, right? And I was like, oh, I'm going to play first late.
neocharge: I popped it in. It downloaded. I sat down on the couch and I just fucking passed out.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Damn, dude.
neocharge: I just literally like crashed and I i woke up.
Leon Lionheartly: That's...
neocharge: It was like 1030 and first light was like the the title screen was up and I was like, what the fuck just happened? Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Dude, i I feel that, man. Like, I really do. I bet we've all been in there, folks. don't Don't lie to yourself. All right? I fell a asleep holding the controller playing Final Fantasy X on the PlayStation 2.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: All right? Yeah. But yeah, I'm right there with you, dude. um Work is ramping up ah nonstop right now. And it's a good thing in this economy. Lord knows we need, you know, any business is good business. But, ah you know, you you come home and you got to take care of for at least my perspective, right? I've only got one property to deal with, but that's still enough. And then you still got the house and the kids, and and then you got to help with the dinner because my wife's working nights. So I get a chance to play a little bit of video games, and then like 8.30, 8.45 hits, and it's like, fuck, got to go do this. And by the time I get home, I'm like, do I really want to fire up the PS5 again, or do I just say, fuck it, brush my teeth, and go to bed? Yeah.
neocharge: Right. Yeah. It's just, man, it's a season and it's just such a busy season. And once I get settled in and, you know, we're having a little PS ah or state of play party, it's going to awesome. We're going to make some beer brats.
neocharge: Everything's all set up. I put on the discord, I've been just like fucking around with my lights because it's fun and I love home automation. And I put that on the discord. I have like a trigger. I'm like set PlayStation and all the lights go PlayStation cover or colored. And I got like the PS one startup that it should sound familiar to everyone on this podcast. Cause that's literally how our, all our podcast starts.
neocharge: Uh, but yeah, I've been messing around with that, but dude, just setting up a new place, getting everything moved in. I, I mean, I'm still in the old place now I'm in the office now. It's kind of like my office. ah So yeah, busy, busy. I don't even have a beer right now. I'm drinking a fucking green smoothie.
neocharge: It's boring.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah No, no, it's not just any green smoothie.
neocharge: There's no alcohol in this, but
Leon Lionheartly: What kind of smoothie there, Matt?
neocharge: ah the green machine.
Leon Lionheartly: what kind of You said it was kale?
neocharge: Oh, yeah. it's It's got kale, apple, ah lemon. I don't know, man. My stomach's been in knots ever since I had that food poisoning.
neocharge: i I know it's from stress. So it's just...
Leon Lionheartly: What?
neocharge: I know. I know it's from stress. So, you know, I don't want to exacerbate it with alcohol. So I'm just trying to... Trying to take it easy on my stomach in this ah busy season. But hopefully I can put it all behind me. June is one of my favorite months. And that's primarily because of all the announcements. We got ah PlayStation State of Play. We got an Xbox event. We got Summer Game Fest. You got the Apple WWDC, the Worldwide Developers Conference. Like, I just love June. And May's been a bitch.
Leon Lionheartly: Dude, June, I love the... you I'm with you. and But then you get the WWDC, and I'm just... It's your thing, and I'm not ah dogging on that.
Leon Lionheartly: I just love how it falls in the same month as all of this video great video game news we're about to get hit with.
neocharge: Exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: So, you know, ah get rid of May, out with it, and let's get a good time rolls ah ah get the good time rolling in June.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um i'm I'm with you.
neocharge: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: um It's even worse when you're... like I'm on that transition period since school just got out, so we're starting up the the summer the summer events with the kids, and it's like... I don't know, but folks, if you're out there and you got kids, you know what I mean by this. It's relatable. is My grocery bill fucking skyrockets in the summer.
neocharge: what to well What kind of amounts are we talking about? If you want to share. If you don't, you don't have to.
Leon Lionheartly: No, no. I'm more than happy to share, dude.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um ah Because I plan for dinners and stuff, and I do everything through ordering.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Keep mind, there is a little bit of inflation because I tip well. Tip your people well, and they'll treat your food you'll treat your eggs and milk well. Right.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: This is probably, and I'm not joking, probably $200 week affair.
neocharge: Damn! $800 a month? Wow. Okay. All right.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah. it's It's no joke, man. But you got to do it. Put that money up front because you you want if you spend $10 at McDonald's and you get the nastiest, greasiest burger in the world, it's going to shorten your lifespan.
neocharge: Yep. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Go ahead and spend spend, even if you had to spend a couple extra bucks, get good ground beef.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Get the ingredients. Make it yourself because that is going to be the foundation for your for a good life.
neocharge: Yep. Eat your medicine, folks.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: that's ah That's what we do.
Leon Lionheartly: But i gotta I got a surprise for you.
neocharge: Oh! you did I'm sorry. You just flashed something that I am very... it And it wasn't his his chest. It is a beautiful 007 First Light Gold DualSense.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: Oh, that is... Okay, that's sexy.
Leon Lionheartly: Dude.
neocharge: it's It's got the black accents for the buttons.
Leon Lionheartly: and
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And the double low set a nice 007 logo on the touchpad. And then on the back here, um you i don't know if this will come over camera very well. Probably not, but I'll show you in person.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll bring it for the state of play. But on the back, it says first light.
neocharge: Oh, please do.
Leon Lionheartly: And then it says it says earn the number on the back.
neocharge: Yeah. earn in Yeah, yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yeah.
neocharge: So why I know that reference because on the title screen, oh, dude, I can't wait. I don't even know if i'm going to get to it tonight because we're recording this podcast. I got to get the podcast ready. Got to get it scheduled.
neocharge: And I got to do some, I got to clean a fucking room for the next tenant. I don't want any, but maybe tomorrow night. I don't know. I am dying to play this fucking game.
Leon Lionheartly: I will...
neocharge: I bought it. Like we went to a breakfast and everything.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: Dude, shout out to Urban Egg. We got corned beef hash. it's called they They call it Rocky Mountain hash. It's like corned beef ah on top of like hash browns, and you got that like bacon jalapeno chutney with some yeah with some ah over medium eggs, and then you substitute the toast for pancakes because we're fatties. okay I got a latte because I'm a...
neocharge: a fancy bitch, and then you got a black coffee. And that was that was a good breakfast, man.
Leon Lionheartly: of you
neocharge: And then after, we both went and picked up First Light. It was.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, no, that was a good breakfast. And I got to say, Bo, he amazes me more and more every day.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Sends up a picture of the plate and he goes, oh, I know exactly where you are. Not only do I know where you are, I know what meal you ordered.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: And not only that, I could tell that your eggs are over medium.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm sitting there looking around over my shoulder like, how the fuck did you know that, dude? ah But yeah, good times.
neocharge: Yeah. He's nuts. i do the a lot ah I do that with him a lot with food. I just take a picture and he's like, oh, that's where you're there. And I'm like, how the you are that is a gift, sir.
neocharge: That is a gift.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. We all have those gifts. yeah i
neocharge: Yes, we do.
Leon Lionheartly: Mine, if I will tell you, and it's becoming very handy. And this is the reason I bring it because it's food related. If you set the oven for for a timer, for a pizza, whatever it is, I will walk into that kitchen with like a minute left.
Leon Lionheartly: And I do not set a timer. I just have an internal clock that goes, ooh, I think chicken's done or whatever.
neocharge: Dang.
Leon Lionheartly: And just walk it and it's but' pull it out of the oven without fail.
neocharge: Yeah. Wow. Very cool. um Yeah. So we're here. We're recording episode 53. I got my fucking kale smoothie. It's actually pretty tasty. I got it from Garbanzo. They make smoothies now. Are you drinking anything? Are you kind of keeping it light too?
Leon Lionheartly: um oh No, I got a beer.
neocharge: Nice.
Leon Lionheartly: It's been one of them weeks. this is the
neocharge: Ooh, a stout?
Leon Lionheartly: ah hu This is the Sweet Baby Java.
neocharge: Oh, nice.
Leon Lionheartly: um ah The chocolate peanut butter coffee stout, which is like all of the things that I like in one drink.
neocharge: no
Leon Lionheartly: ah So please, dark chocolate.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Not just chocolate, but it's peanut butter dark chocolate.
neocharge: Very cool. Oh, yeah. i've I've had it. Sweet Baby. They got Sweet Baby Jesus and then Sweet Baby Java is like the coffee variant of it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: I've had Sweet Baby Jesus. I don't know if I've had Sweet Baby Java, but the liquor store down the street has it. that Dude, when I look at places to live, I look at ah two aspects of the vicinity of certain places, right? maybe Okay, maybe three. All right. How close is it to, one, a liquor store, two, a Best Buy, and three, a Chipotle?
Leon Lionheartly: I
neocharge: Those are the staples of my life, Bob.
Leon Lionheartly: i I respect it, dude. ah
neocharge: you know
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, no, this is a good one from Duclaw over here in Colorado.
neocharge: Yes, yes.
Leon Lionheartly: um I definitely like them. But you I like how you say that. either You look for those those things. And then there's I would agree with you. But then there's also a piece of me that knows that ah if you put me near a Chipotle with a good high and like liquor place where I can get good craft beer and a Best Buy, that generally means I'm somewhere in the city. And yes, I know I live in the city now.
neocharge: Yeah, you do.
Leon Lionheartly: But there's just some days that i Let me put it to you like this. Have you ever purposely sped up and taken the risk and looked at a driver in a car just to see if they fit the fucking stereotype? like Because you're like, why are you driving like that? And you go, oh, that makes sense. And then you just keep going.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: so Yeah,
neocharge: That's funny. Dude, I just took a drink and went down the wrong pipe.
Leon Lionheartly: I was going to say, that's what she said.
neocharge: Yep. ah yeah It was just water.
Leon Lionheartly: That's all right. He's going to have...
neocharge: it was just water, man.
Leon Lionheartly: you You need more kale in your diet. That's what I think it needs to happen.
neocharge: Dude, kale is underrated.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. That's okay. you can You can keep that one. Yeah.
neocharge: You got to get your greens, folks. You got to get your greens, especially when you get a little older. Your fiber is important. Your greens, your vitamin A, your vitamin K. Okay. This is not a health podcast, but we will talk about ah
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: healthy eating.
Leon Lionheartly: But why would I eat kale when there are greens like, I don't know, actual green beans and spinach and things of that nature that are objectively better? I'm sorry.
neocharge: Oh yeah. Baby spinach is better than kale. I like good broccoli, like good string green beans. I'll take green beans, toss them in a little olive oil or truffle oil and a little bit of salt, pepper, garlic, throw them in the oven convection, 15 minutes, roast them a little bit.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. All right.
Leon Lionheartly: Do that same thing with asparagus. And...
neocharge: I am not a fan of asparagus for some reason.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, really?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Really?
neocharge: I would, i do like the crunchy asparagus, but it's got to be torched. I'm not a fan of asparagus for some reason.
Leon Lionheartly: hu
neocharge: I'm not a picky eater. Honestly, there are just a few things that I don't necessarily like, but asparagus is one of them. It's crazy.
Leon Lionheartly: everybody gets one. That's what I say. And, uh, all right, asparagus.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll make sure. Yeah, no, I don't think I could. Asparagus is one of those foods that like, you're either going to like it. If not, there's really no way you can make it in any shape or fashion. That's going to change somebody's mind.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: Um,
neocharge: yeah Oh yeah. It's got a taste regardless of how it's cooked. It's got a very strong taste. and If you're not a fan of that taste, it's it's not going away with different preparation techniques.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah It's also got a strong odor on the backside, if you know what i mean, folks.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: and
neocharge: Yep. Your pee will smell like asparagus when you, when you eat it.
Leon Lionheartly: what's that ah What's that joke from Austin Powers where he's trying to pee as the fountain and then he just grabs a random plate of asparagus and starts munching on it?
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: but oh
neocharge: Yep. But yeah, ah so join our Discord. we're We're out there. We got a good community going. ah Go to shapesofgaming.com. Where can they find us, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: Oh,
Leon Lionheartly: ah
Leon Lionheartly: yeah Oh man, that's amazing.
neocharge: You like that?
Leon Lionheartly: That was good.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you almost got me. And then I had to double take, but, uh, well, you heard it already, folks.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: He sold it. I, you just go to shapes of gaming. I mean, you're going to find all of the information you need to come join the community and hang out with us. Uh, the, the podcast services are there. The social medias are there ran by our, uh, community manager.
Leon Lionheartly: We got to give him a title someday. Um, yeah.
neocharge: Yeah, we do.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, good old Alex Mies over there.
neocharge: Alex the Great.
Leon Lionheartly: like
neocharge: How about that? That's a good title.
Leon Lionheartly: Ooh. Yeah, there you go. See? Alex, who never finishes a game, ah but Platinum's Claire six times. mean... Anyway, love you, buddy.
neocharge: I give a shit for it all the time.
Leon Lionheartly: ah yeah know ah But yeah, no, you go over to there. there you'll You'll see all that cool stuff. Come join the Discord. um Matt and I are usually we're pretty much around i you know almost all the time.
Leon Lionheartly: Not always able to respond right away, but we're there. Come ask questions. Come show us cool shit, man. I love to see.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: like ah Shout out to Chip's ah Gaming and Repair.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: He's posting all kinds of cool stuff, and I'm just super jealous at his skill set.
neocharge: m
neocharge: Yeah, it's a place to share your cool shit, ah stuff you make, stuff you're playing, stuff you're watching.
Leon Lionheartly: Once again,
neocharge: just the Just a nerd kingdom, honestly. If you're nerdy, you'll love it. We have channels for everything. ah Go join us. We've got some new members, so welcome the new members and new listeners.
neocharge: We appreciate you joining the community and keeping the conversation going. That's what we like to do here. So, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: shapes of gaming.com. And, uh, if you're not subscribed the podcast free, all everything's free, of course, uh, subscribe to the podcast helps us leave a rating, leave a, leave a little review. If you want, I, we, we don't care though. We know your time is valuable and we just appreciate you listening to us because that also takes time.
neocharge: Uh, so we appreciate everyone listening. And you're not part of the community, um and Come on over and join us. It's nice and warm over here.
Leon Lionheartly: Come on down.
neocharge: ah water's fine.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah We do things a little bit differently around here.
neocharge: The water's fine. yeah. so yeah What's in the news, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: ah Yeah, moving right to it. Let's keep this training going. It's good. If you can't tell, folks, it's going to be shorter episode this week, but don't worry. i will say it before I will say this much.
neocharge: Quick in and out.
Leon Lionheartly: We got some big news coming up in June, so fully expect us to be at full force.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um So in the first first bit of news, I don't know if you saw, Matt, but ah um I'm going to need 26 points tomorrow because Mina went back up to a 93.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Damn. Damn!
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: I mean, I knew it was going to be good, but shit.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Sorry, I was looking at the page.
neocharge: It's the highest rated game of the year right now.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh. Yep.
neocharge: Excellent.
Leon Lionheartly: and And considering the year we're having? Yes. ah um
neocharge: Yeah, that's crazy. And first light just dropped too. And it's sitting at 88. So. I want to so
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. um Oh, that's right. who willll We'll get there because ah I got a little bit of time on the game and we'll talk.
neocharge: i want to hear
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, first, we're going to go right at the top, man. This hit Sunday. No, Monday. Sorry. um Monday because of the holiday. I'm all kinds of messed up here, if you can't tell. um At the World ah Championship, if you will, for Rocket League, there was a special announcement.
Leon Lionheartly: um This is coming... um I mean, came it was posted immediately, obviously, to social media, but ah the new Rocket League is coming. So there will be a new Rocket League 2, whatever they call it. um And it is going to be in the new Unreal 6 engine, which has officially now been announced.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: a
Leon Lionheartly: Nothing about ah anything about ah any other games that are going to be developed for it yet, but this is epic, so you never know. um I don't know about you, ready Matt, but ah this is kind of like a PS3 to PS4 situation where I'm just ready to get to the fuck off the train and on to the next one.
neocharge: Yep, that's true. I would agree.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, because Unreal 5 is... It's not that it's a bad engine, but go look at the developer stories, and it's not very developer-friendly, let's Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: It has its cracks.
Leon Lionheartly: let's say
neocharge: Let's just say that.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: And then from an end-user perspective, meaning us, the gamers, ah it's not... usually optimized and there's a lot of pitfalls and technical issues with it and we as gamers ah you know suffer from that so I know Silent Hill 2 remake had a bunch of issues with Unreal Engine 5 I know the Oblivion remake is kind of ah an Unreal Engine 5 layer on top of or no it's got the Unreal Engine 5 and then they layered their
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: remake stuff on top of it. It had some issues. So yeah, i I always, it's always cool to see new engine stuff and see tech demos and see what they can do and push the the technology, how much they can push it. So yeah, I'm excited for it. And then, so yeah, Rocket League's UE6 and we I'm sure we'll probably see more stuff too. So
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, definitely. But I don't know. Did you see the the the little announcement they gave for this? um
neocharge: for UECid Rocket League.
Leon Lionheartly: for the Yeah. Did you actually see the video for it?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: Yeah, it was a lot of real time. It was a lot of like real stuff. I thought it was like an engine and I'm like, no, that's that's real life.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, like go check it out, folks. You can see it on YouTube ah over there. um It's actually posted as well to the GamerFormer website. um That engine looks amazing. Like if you think Pragmata, or well, Pragmata is not Unreal 5, but if you think some of the current Unreal 5, like look at Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta, um despite its frame rate, it looked amazing. Silent Hill 2, same thing. They looked amazing. I can't wait to see what Unreal 6 can do.
neocharge: Yeah. UE4 to UE5 was a huge jump, especially optimizing the SSD technology and the load times and stuff like that. so And then Nanite for the tiny little polygons and All kinds of shit. So I love the technology behind video games and the engines are pretty crucial to that.
neocharge: A lot of the the most beautiful games are usually custom engines, though. Like the most beautiful games on PS5, I'd say ah would be Horizon ah Forbidden West, Death Stranding 2, and Resident Evil 9 looks pretty damn good, too.
neocharge: So...
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, I would agree.
neocharge: Those are all custom engines.
Leon Lionheartly: And Pragmata's on there too, which is funny because that's four games, but that's only two engines like at the end of the game.
neocharge: Oh yeah. Progmata. Yeah. Two engines. Yeah. RE engine and Decima pro.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep, which is yeah which is nuts, but you're right.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: i think if with the we've We've gotten a jump, but like let's Unreal 6 be the engine that can really optimize this high-fidelity stuff.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't care how much AEI you've got to shove into it, to be quite honest. I just want to be able to have stable frame rates on a $700 console. That's all I ask.
neocharge: the little The little engine that could. Let's call it that. ah
Leon Lionheartly: Ha ha ha ha ha.
neocharge: Dude, baseline nowadays should be an upscaled 4K, 60 frames. Baseline and on the PS5 Pro.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: Baseline. It's 2026, people. But well i don't I don't want to see anything under 60 frames. Nintendo? Yeah, no, we get it. Sorry.
neocharge: But you're... ah Yeah. Nothing and nothing under 60 frames. I... I appreciate the very the smoothness of 60. And the the crazy thing, Bob, is once you go 60, once you see 60 frames in motion, it's really hard to go back because 30 frames is like, it it looks fine when your eyes are adjusted. But then when you see 60 frames and you go back to 30, it's jarring.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, I agree. ah And it takes it takes some time for your your body to adjust. like You can do 30, but when you're always playing at 60 or you're pushing it, even if you've got to reduce the resolution down from whatever, it's it feels like you're doing that sudden stop from the interstate to a side street.
neocharge: Couple hours. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: like Let's be honest.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it takes a couple hours to adjust. It feels like so. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: um Baseline should be 60. Let's not. We don't need to get crazy and go 8K. Did you know that 8K resolution is on the box of PS5? PS5, not Pro.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Uh-huh.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh. On the original boxes. I think they removed it later, but yeah, it was on the original boxes and like, who has an AK TV?
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Yep. Dude, it's so overkill. Like, it's just... 4K the standard now, and anything after that is real hard to tell.
neocharge: Real hard to tell.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, absolutely.
neocharge: So...
Leon Lionheartly: I agree. Anything above 60, it's hard. um Even in frame rates, you know, let's just 60,
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: four k sixty
neocharge: The trifecta, right? or Or should I say the quad-fecta? 4K, 60, ray tracing, or path tracing, I should say. and HDR.
neocharge: HDR is kind of standard. Well, uh, Hades doesn't, Hades 2 doesn't have HDR. It does.
Leon Lionheartly: Correct.
neocharge: It also, it also doesn't have a 5.1 surround sound either. It's stereo.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep, that it is.
neocharge: So yeah, but it, yeah ah it doesn't need it. It's still amazing. So yeah, that's the last game I played was, was Hades 2. Uh, we'll, we'll, we'll talk about that.
neocharge: That's the only game I'll probably talk about in what we're playing, but yeah, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I can cover that too with you.
neocharge: It, Yeah, it's ah it's cool to see the new engine new ah news and announcements for the new engine. UE6 is on its way and can't wait to see more about it.
neocharge: so
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, absolutely, dude. um All right. Well, ah this next one's kind of, sorry, it's going to be a flat, but we're going to try to hype up as best as we can here. All right.
neocharge: and God, we got up so early for this. but and
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: I'm pretty sure I compromised my first first light playthrough for this fucking...
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: oh Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I'll let you get into it. Or we'll get into it. I'll let you see for a little bit. But um yeah, let's talk about this.
neocharge: We'll talk about Chad.
Leon Lionheartly: So ah the 26th, or rather 27th, the 40th anniversary of Dragon Quest. May 27th marks the day that the first Dragon Quest came, was released in Japan.
Leon Lionheartly: um So way back when I was a wee toddler, wee baby, if you will. i But no, it dropped.
neocharge: ah we I
Leon Lionheartly: yeah I had already had the i dude I came out with a controller in hand what's your excuse yeah ah but no we oh little like in ah the what it's in the fetal position with little game boy going ding ding ding little Matt Stanson
neocharge: i was playing in the womb.
neocharge: I was playing Tetris.
Leon Lionheartly: ah little Stanson I swear to call you down
neocharge: little stansin'. well stanson
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, you're a little angry about this. I get up early, so I wasn't too upset, but we got Dragon Quest ah announcements, and we got a whole whopping Dragon Quest Monsters, which is coming soon to all platforms, which is a spinoff series.
Leon Lionheartly: um Probably not your kind of game, if I'm being honest, but...
neocharge: How's it play? What's like the genre of it?
Leon Lionheartly: Of Monsters?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um This is a... um This is a... If I'm not mistaken, yeah, this is another RPG style.
neocharge: Oh, okay.
Leon Lionheartly: um But it's kind of like...
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: um
Leon Lionheartly: It's kind of like a, I'm trying to think of a good parallel. um I don't want to say Pokemon, um but it is kind of Pokemon related um where you are taking the monsters from like, you know, the monsters from drag quest, the slime, ah the chimera, the iron giant, a golem, so on, et cetera, et cetera. And you're, you kind of using them as your party members for battle.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: Okay, gotcha.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it is. it it They are good. um I know what I'm describing is like, oh, this is a Matt game. um Personally, I was never a fan of them. I think there were better rare variations out there. i personally But, you know, I'm not going to insult um or in talk bad on somebody's case. So if you find it cool, check it out. ah But we got Dragon Quest Monsters. um And then more importantly,
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, we got a update for Dragon Quest 12. I was really hoping we get another update trailer of Dragon Quest 12, the Flames of Fate. But it turns out due to recent and this and by recent, I mean, within the last couple of years of reshuffling of Square Enix's teams ah into S.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: six or seven divisions. um would They had to restart the Flames of Fates development from scratch. um And we now have Dragon Quest 12 Beyond Dreams.
Leon Lionheartly: um And it does not have a release date, not even a release window, just a we're sorry, um which kind of sucks because they brought Yuji Horii out for this ah ah of Dragon, you know, the creator.
neocharge: Yeah, the father, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um And ah it looks good, except for one glaring problem, Matt, and you know what that is.
neocharge: and The fucking protagonist's design.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: Looks like he's emo and listens to Michael's romance. It's not a wrong with my typical romance. We all listened to it in high school. But still, there's something very wrong with that character model.
neocharge: And also, why the fuck would you drop Flames of Fate? That was a cool-ass title. That's all we wanted to see. We just wanted to see new footage from Dragon Quest XII, Flames of Fate.
neocharge: But no, you
Leon Lionheartly: <unk> know
neocharge: completely changed up everything we didn't even know about. You could have, you could have said this was flames of fate and we wouldn't even have known.
Leon Lionheartly: That's the funny thing.
neocharge: Why?
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: like All we got was a title. Oh, and it was a cool title. It looked awesome. And it had an awesome name. And they're like, remember that title and that name we showed you that you knew nothing about?
neocharge: Well, we're going to go back to the drawing board and change it all and give you this emo fucking protagonist that looks like he cuts himself.
Leon Lionheartly: yeahre You're not wrong. That's what like the protagonist did. You can clean that up. all right The internet can bully people. But you had an awesome subtitle. We knew nothing. You could have came out with that. you That's the part that kills me. You could have just come out and like, oh, here's Flames of Fate.
neocharge: Exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: Unless you were part of the development team who spoke out online, which we're talking about Japanese business culture, ah the shit would have no nobody would have known the difference.
neocharge: you
neocharge: you who
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: You want to know what I and i think happened? I think so. They were talking about, there were rumors that Dragon Quest, a turn-based JRPG, always has been was going more dark. Not a problem with that. that That's awesome.
neocharge: They kind of scrapped that. And action-based. They were going to deviate from turn-based because everyone was doing it. Fucking Final Fantasy was doing it. Final Fantasy XVI, incredible game. I got my boy Clive literally on my desktop. Loved that game. However, we haven't had a true turn-based Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy X and our boy Tidus.
neocharge: I think that Claire Obscure Expedition 33 shook up the entire RPG and JRPG and JRPG market and proved to everyone that, hey, you can make good turn-based RPGs. Even though we had Persona and Metaphor and Chained Echoes and Sea of Stars, but Claire Obscure made such an impact that I think ah Square is going back to the drawing board with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy 17.
neocharge: I think we're going to get a turn-based Final Fantasy 17. So... Yeah, they did this with Dragon Quest because everyone was, oh, action-based RPG heavy, which that's okay. I like action-based JRPGs. I play the shit out of Tails. That's an action-based JRPG.
neocharge: ah But I think Clare Obscure really shook up the market. And I'm glad because I do like turn-based ah JRPGs. so But yeah, I don't understand why they they just scrapped all the cool shit and gave us boring shit.
neocharge: And the protagonist looks dumb. And they didn't even show us gameplay. They showed us rendered ah footage. So.
Leon Lionheartly: they They did. But I will say what I did see, ah well, two things. One, i did what I did see, I'm i'm okay with. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah, it looks cool.
Leon Lionheartly: it It looks really cool. ah that That scene of the field, and you see the little slimes kind of hopping around, kind of like from Dragon Quest XI.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Horace having reimagined, folks. I was i was like, cool. i I like where you're going with this, but you're right. ah The pretext... protagonist needs a little bit of work. You can get edgy. That's okay.
Leon Lionheartly: But let's get rid of the... like If you're going to do dark under the eye eyelids or the eyeball eyeballs, you either need to go the full gambit of emo goth or you just need to like back off because it looks like the dude hasn't slept in three weeks.
neocharge: Well, yeah, his face is like droopy too.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Like you can do circles under the eyes, but it it doesn't have to look like his face is melting. You know what I mean?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: Like, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah And I think if they, if, and here's the other part of that is, ah so the way dragon quest works, uh, um, is the subtitle kind of gives you a idea of what's going to happen within the game for the most part. Right. Um, they've got a little more on the nose. Um, but The point I'm making is beyond dreams. If he's supposed to be looking exhausted because of the dreams time, that's cool.
Leon Lionheartly: But make sure you like you've you've set a good forward face. um And this did not do it for me. um But ah that being said, I do think this beyond dreams, if they can do this like ah dream realm and combining of dream different worlds, and maybe because it's always, surprise folks, it's always the demon king.
neocharge: be cool.
Leon Lionheartly: If you haven't played a dragon, it's always the Demon King.
neocharge: e
Leon Lionheartly: If you haven't played a Dragon Quest game, it's always the Demon King.
neocharge: Always the Demon King.
Leon Lionheartly: If he can come back and he's invading the protagonist's dreams and using that, I could see some really cool themes here.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, know. I'm excited, but I can only be a little excited because all we got was a teaser and nothing else.
neocharge: Right, exactly. And this game, since they went back to the drawing, but this game is two, maybe three years out. we We'll see this game 2030, 2031. So I'm like, as okay, I'll wait, I guess. But like this is way out.
neocharge: They went back to the drawing board. It's completely redone. And they did say they're using art from Toriyama. So that's cool.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. No, that's definitely cool. And it's not to say that a game that restarts can't come out great. Look at Pragmata.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: They basically had to restart um from the beginning at one point.
neocharge: But something this far out, I just kind of lose excitement for it because I'm like, it's just, it's so fucking far in the future. Like why, why show us it?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: but Well, they they had to say something. Um, but they, you know, when you announce games too far out, it's kind of like, oh yeah. Yeah. Like, like Fizzint, right?
neocharge: I'm not, I'm excited for it, but I'm like, it's like the fucking PS6 2030 2032 game, you know? I'm not, my excitement kind of hits like the year something's going to release.
neocharge: So.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I'm with you. That's why I'm like excited, but I can't conceptualize what Intergalactic is going to be and what my hype level is going to be because you showed me...
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: What was that? No, that was a good trailer. Two and a half minute trailer.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: but
neocharge: I, e I think we're going to see some more June 2nd, my friend. And we're gonna report on it. So...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, we'll see.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: keep I would look forward to that one.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: ah For sure, dude.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Dude, a new Naughty Dog IP? Exciting.
Leon Lionheartly: Chef's kiss. um Well, speaking of RPGs there, Matt.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: Oh!
Leon Lionheartly: Hey!
neocharge: Segway!
Leon Lionheartly: Segway! So...
neocharge: Oh!
Leon Lionheartly: yeah this has been ah This came out a couple of days ago, but there was a key piece to this um of the original leaker as supposedly, from my understanding, um having the whip ah legally and ah such thrown down on them. um They revealed or leaked, if you will, and this came out of Japan ah that Persona 6 is due to be announced this year at Summer Game Fest. all I'm sorry. State of play. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Well, they said this year.
neocharge: oh june 2nd this year okay
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, they said this year. um but the release yeah But the release year is supposed to be 2027. Mm-hmm. twenty twenty seven
neocharge: gotcha we still have a september state of play too and the game awards this year so you could be in any of those events and the xbox events usually dude persona is sometimes at xbox events too
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. and And more importantly, um and more specifically, should I say, um pick the right words there, Bob, ah go at September of 2027. So a so a late fall or a nice fall game.
neocharge: Yeah. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: um I know you really haven't played many of the person any of the persona games. Am I right?
neocharge: I have not. I'm interested, though. It's just, a man, I gotta i got to pick a lane when it comes to JRPGs, and I got to stick with maybe two IPs. And Final Fantasy isn't going anywhere. It's one of my it's the favorite IPs of all time. And then, yeah, I can't drop my tails. so um And then was a Dragon Quest is kind of like, a there's a good one out.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: I'm excited for it. So those are kind of my three. I can't... ah I can't do anymore. I'm so... I just can't. I'm sorry, Persona. Nothing against you. It's just not gonna happen.
Leon Lionheartly: i read i I respect that, and I understand it, dude. And here's the real shame. You love Claire that much. We talked about it last year, but a lot of Persona was inspired for what they did with the Claire combat system.
neocharge: Yep. Yep. Yep.
neocharge: I know.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: I know. I own Persona 5 Royal, so... i I picked it up it on sale Best Buy for 20 bucks. i was like, oh yeah, as well get this. And it is still sealed sitting on my shelf. Or should I say in my fucking container right now because I'm waiting on my shelves to come so I can display my all my beautiful games again.
Leon Lionheartly: Those beautiful baby boys.
neocharge: It hurts me. Yes, it hurts me that they're all like packed up in the garage. Ugh.
Leon Lionheartly: ah but so You'll have them displayed soon enough.
neocharge: Yeah. Soon.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, Persona 6, that's the rumor.
neocharge: Soon.
Leon Lionheartly: um I know there's a conflict because P4 Revival hasn't hit, but if we're looking at ah if we look at this realistically, P4 Revival, then I would say excuse me probably is going to hit that February.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: ah that That late winter, very, very time of spring timeframe, and then we'll see P6.
neocharge: February, very March Right Yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. yeahp if If this is all true, of course, because we don't know anything that's going on with P6. Metaphor came out three years ago now, um and it's a solid solid fucking game, but they didn't go back they didn't go back to it.
Leon Lionheartly: are They haven't given us DLC. They didn't give us the Ultimate Edition, the Metaphor.
neocharge: It will
Leon Lionheartly: Kings edition. No, supposedly they're not from my understanding, but I, I mean, I'd go back to it.
neocharge: Yeah. dude the These games just require a lot of time. They're like 120-hour games. I mean, i think Persona 5... just base is like 80 hours to finish.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm hmm.
neocharge: I, I can't, I did two JRPGs and I picked up a new IP, ah on your recommendation on many people's recommendations, but we, we made the deal and I picked up the new IP Nino Cooney and I dropped like 110 hours into that.
neocharge: And I was like, I want to play tales of Vesperia now. And I dropped another 130 hours into that.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: So yeah, JRPGs are, I don't want to call it a time sink, but they do require a lot more time than most other types of games. So you gotta be real careful what you dive into.
neocharge: ah And I personally have to be real kind careful because i'm a completionist and I usually will want to complete everything. So yeah, they're dangerous for me. I gotta, I gotta keep to three lanes on fantasy tales and dragon quest.
Leon Lionheartly: I respect it.
neocharge: Sorry, Persona.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah You know, that's the funny because Persona's good, man, but Persona not is definitely not the series I'd recommend. We've talked about that, though.
neocharge: Hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: So I'll get i'll get you there someday.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah one
neocharge: One day.
Leon Lionheartly: One day I will.
neocharge: If it comes to PlayStation, because, I mean, dude, I haven't touched my Switch 2 in, like, three months.
Leon Lionheartly: oh
Leon Lionheartly: we'll we We'll chat. i' go get i Mark my words.
neocharge: Yep. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm going to get you to break open that Switch 2 one of these days.
neocharge: um
Leon Lionheartly: I don't care if I have to complete it.
neocharge: Oh, I might... i I probably will for Star Fox.
Leon Lionheartly: I was going say, ooh, probably.
neocharge: Maybe. Maybe.
Leon Lionheartly: Maybe.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: We'll see. But ah I'm going to get you. Even if I've got to do another Tales game, I will.
neocharge: Oh, now we're talking.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay. Yeah, because it's not fair to complete a game you know a game like Legend of the Goon and then still watch your buddy not make it not even two chapters into Death Stranding 2.
neocharge: a
neocharge: Yeah. whats what What's up with that, huh? i think I think you need to get on that. Just stop playing Claire Obscure and stop playing Silk Sock. I'm not going to call him out.
Leon Lionheartly: You know who you are. But
neocharge: You know you are.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah, man, no.
neocharge: We're going to have an intervention for him.
Leon Lionheartly: Persona 6. Oh, one... all one
neocharge: we're going to we're goingnna We're going to just have Death Stranding on the screen with a controller on the couch and be like, hey, buddy, welcome. We want to talk to you about something because we really care about it.
Leon Lionheartly: ah We'll get him Skyrim again.
neocharge: yeah ah ah You know who you are.
Leon Lionheartly: of yeah it oh but what are we talking about oh yeah persona ah persona six we don't know much there is some key art out there if you want to go look at it supposedly of the protagonist um very blonde haired blue-eyed looking individual so we'll see I'm gonna wait and I like to wait until official announcements but I'd like to give a tease because this is a good series
neocharge: Persona.
neocharge: the
neocharge: Cool.
neocharge: Yeah, it is. i've I've watched a little bit played. i'm I'm interested in it. Like I said, it's just, ah yeah, I got to stay in my lanes. Sorry. Sorry, Joker.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah yeah oh from five yeah i one of these days you'll see it uh you'll see really yeah
neocharge: Yeah. yeah Speaking of fucking Joker, I picked up Lego Batman.
Leon Lionheartly: really
neocharge: legacy Legacy of the Dark Knight. Yeah, um dude, I love fucking Lego games. And this is supposedly like so Lego Star Wars was, you know, Star Wars in Lego form. This is like Arkham Knight and Arkham City.
neocharge: in Lego form. It's not like a ah ah Batman game that's Lego-fied. It's an Arkham game that's Lego-fied. Like, that is exciting. I haven't even fucking started it because I went from Hades 2 to First Light. I haven't... And I'm not... i I haven't even started First Light.
neocharge: So, yeah. Let me get right on there fucking playing Persona when... Oh, yeah. Mina the fucking Hollower comes out tomorrow. I got a code for it because I backed it on Kickstarter. So...
Leon Lionheartly: I mean, if you if you don't have the time, i could probably use that code. Yeah.
neocharge: My backer code, man.
Leon Lionheartly: ah ah
neocharge: It's my backer code.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah i I totally respect it.
neocharge: ah
Leon Lionheartly: I'm not even thinking about Mina because of the time commitment.
neocharge: it's Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm like, I know what that's going to do to me, so I can't think about it. If I don't think about it, it doesn't exist. That's how this works.
neocharge: yeah Don't think about ah The Adventures of Elliot, A Millennium Tale, either.
Leon Lionheartly: Fuck you. Are you telling me, wait, Square Enix is making a Zelda-style game in the Octopath engine?
neocharge: know yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: What?
neocharge: Uh-huh.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: It was out in three weeks. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: uh, yeah, sure fuck.
neocharge: Cool. Oh.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, no, that's all. It's in the news, man. Um, there are some other smaller stuff that's kind of floating around, but, uh, we'll get to it. Like, uh, insider gaming had their showcase. Uh, feel free to go look at it. I reviewed, there wasn't anything that really caught my Um, but if you're interested, uh, it's on their website.
neocharge: and
Leon Lionheartly: I tried to pull up the list and my computer would like nearly crash, um, from their, whatever ever they got going on over there. So, um,
neocharge: Dude, some of these news sites, the gaming news sites, and even and when you're looking up something for a video game, just ads out the ass. Just caught like just ones that like go full screen, i can't stand it.
neocharge: You know, I stopped i stopped using yeah URL guides.
Leon Lionheartly: hi
neocharge: You know what I use? ah Of course, after I roll credits and I'm doing like trophy cleanup and I have completed the game, do you know what I use?
Leon Lionheartly: What's that?
neocharge: ChatGPT.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: I just straight up ask it. I'm like, hey, ah where's this Doom ah Dark Ages collectible? i In this level, and it just tells me. No ads, nothing.
neocharge: It's great.
Leon Lionheartly: You know, that is true, but I will tell you, if this site could be put into a, worked on a web format, I would absolutely um recommend it.
Leon Lionheartly: like Well, I still recommend it, but it'd be much more improved. The experience is for PowerPix.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Their trophy guides are top tier.
neocharge: Yep. I'll do the reader on iPad reader mode because that kind of like takes all the ads out. I do. If I go to a URL based guide, I will use power picks or PSN profiles and that's about it. So shout out to those guys. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you man. But no, that's that's another good website out there. But we're not talking about trophy honing unless we're talking about the games we're playing.
neocharge: not? I'm always trophy hunting. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: See, there you are.
neocharge: But I know that was a good segue though.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you, sir. um But I figured this evening, let's start we can talk about what the game you've been playing. I finished the Platinum.
neocharge: Yeah, I'll start.
Leon Lionheartly: You start it, and then we'll just go right into me as well.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah, ah I the last game I played while Monday, so almost five days if you're listening to this cast, ah Hades 2.
neocharge: I've ah I beat the I cleared it. Let's just say that cleared it right now. multiple times and uh you have to do it more times ah and you have to clear multiple sections and i've done it i'd say the clears if i am not mistaken i was told how many clears are required and i think i'm like 60 percent uh done with the clears yeah i and i was like oh i'm gonna clear everything till first light yeah that didn't happen yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Nope. He definitely won't.
neocharge: Yeah, but I've met some new individuals in the game that were surprising and ah hilarious. i ah Just the the character art in this game is incredible. It's basically...
neocharge: Hades 1 dialed up to 11. Every aspect of Hades 1. I don't know if you remember, we were playing Hades 1, and I was like, man, I bet, I hope Hades 2 has everything Hades 1 has. Well, it does.
neocharge: It fucking does. And it not only does, but it takes everything to 11. ah And it there's it's just there's so much shit to do. ah I've been really hitting my stride using the the cast and...
neocharge: like kind of tinkering with the other weapons, but I got a favorite. I got a favorite and it's the second one you get in the game, which I i clear easily with that. Regardless of build, I'll clear with it. And I got some variants of it, which is fun.
neocharge: So yeah, I'm having a blast with it. I, I got to put it down though. Cause I'm going to be playing first light. I fired up first light and agreed to the three fucking EULAs that were there for some fucking reason. There's three EULAs and it's like, Oh, you don't have to be online, but which is cool. It's like you don't have to be online to play the campaign, but you should. and I'm like, why? And then it took forever to connect, but it was launch day.
neocharge: And yeah, ah It said, earn the number. And that's as far as I got.
neocharge: I agreed to EULAs, got the title screen, and conked the fuck out.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: ah You know what? We've all been guilty of it, man. I get it. But you you want to enjoy First Light in ah in ah in a fully like energized, not fully energized, but you don't want to be half awake for that kind of a game.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: Yeah, I could have powered through, and I heard the the beginning is fucking insane and incredible, and just the tutorial mission alone is like the best ever, so I'm excited. And I could have like powered through it, like tired, but i was like, eh.
neocharge: No, I think I might shut my... ah Basically what happened.
Leon Lionheartly: and
neocharge: so It was after a big meal, too. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you got that itis.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. I had a food baby and I just crashed. Uh, but I'm very excited to get to it. So yeah, I do have to put Hades two down. i am bummed because this is exactly what I didn't want to do.
neocharge: And this is one of the reasons I waited, to start Hades two, but I was like, Oh, why is this game so long? Then I looked at the time and I was like, Oh, I'm 35 hours in. I spent 80 hours on Hades one to platinum it.
neocharge: That's fair. That's a fair time.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: So, I get it. But yeah, ah Hades 2 has been very, very fun. i can't wait to go back to it. i kind of do want to put it down for a little bit because I am just like like rushing to clear it. And I was like, I want to...
neocharge: I was even skipping some dialogue every once so while. I'm like, that's not cool. You can't skip dialogue and in Supergiant games. You can't do it. You got to listen to it because it's just fucking S tier recording.
neocharge: So yeah, putting Hadesu down and then playing First Light might, I might crack Mina. I might, man. Mina, I might!
Leon Lionheartly: Don't do it. Resist. Okay.
neocharge: I might. This game is, it's literally a Zeldavania Souls-like. Like, oh. And it's got a 93 on OpenCritic. Regardless of that, I backed it.
neocharge: Like, but I think I'm one of the like first thousand backers or something like that. Very early. And I've been excited for this game. And it's taken a while. It's going to be real hard not to fire that thing up. Because I literally have a code for it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, just put it in your library and then hide that. Like, God, yeah, God.
neocharge: in e
Leon Lionheartly: do You know... Yeah.
neocharge: I know. i know. I do. I'm i'm very excited for First. It's such a good problem to have, right? All these games. and i'm umm just dude i'm I'm super excited for Adventure of Elliot, right?
neocharge: ay But yeah, I'm very excited for First Light and very excited to to start it because I've been hearing nothing but good things about it. It's still sitting at 88 on OpenCritic, I believe.
neocharge: Let me verify.
Leon Lionheartly: um I believe that is the case.
neocharge: First Light.
Leon Lionheartly: ah First light is, yeah, 88.
neocharge: Good.
Leon Lionheartly: That's...
neocharge: Good.
Leon Lionheartly: ah that's
neocharge: Yeah, 99% critics recommend. But again, regardless of that, I had this when it was announced, been super excited. So can't wait to fire that up. all I probably won't get to it tonight. um Well, I will get to it tonight if you're listening to this on Friday.
neocharge: I'm going to be playing it tonight, Friday night.
Leon Lionheartly: you You might be able to... Yeah, no. don't Don't rush it. um
neocharge: Nah, I don't want to.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah Don't do like... ah You know what this is penance for? For can giving me the itch to go back to Hades 2. I thought I was done, man. ah It's your fault.
Leon Lionheartly: That's all I'm saying. yeah Because that's that's exactly what I spent the first...
neocharge: You're welcome. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't know, all the way up until Monday, pretty much ah playing all the way through ah for Hades 2, because I said, oh, you know what? I think I'm in a mood to play it after we recorded last week. I think I'll go play it. I got an itch to play for a couple of for an hour or two and do a couple of runs.
Leon Lionheartly: And then the then I got hit by the bug, man. I got hit by that that that bug to to chase the trophies. And the next thing you know, I'm like, oh, there's another one. Oh, I just need to do this. Oh, I just need to do this. I just and didn't realize what kind of time commitment it took um because I finally popped the platinum on it, um which is not something I was planning on doing.
neocharge: Congratulations, by the way. That's huge. It's a big one.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you. Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It's number 53. And it stay away.
neocharge: Nice.
Leon Lionheartly: Give Hades to you room to breathe. You think time commitment's bad.
neocharge: Damn.
Leon Lionheartly: ah You think the JRPGs are bad. It took me 90 hours.
neocharge: Dang. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: um ah Yeah, that's ah it it has a time commitment. um Ultimately, what I was worried about was half truth, which was I was going to go for if I went for the platinum, I was going to learn to to not love the game anymore. And then kind of like my take my overall experience on it and review, if you will, would sour.
Leon Lionheartly: In this case, it's not that I grew bored, or it's not that I learned to not love the game. I just eventually, by the end, I kind of felt like Frodo when I threw the ring into Mount Doom, and I'm like, it's over. It's finally over. ah Because you have to...
Leon Lionheartly: You have to clear both sides many, many, many, many times. um and some of the quest And some of the quest lines ah that you need in order to complete, like get trophies, require multiple play multiple playthroughs because you only get to move the momentum on that quest line one instance or one encounter.
neocharge: Wow.
Leon Lionheartly: And you're talking seven times, give or take, to complete this one quest.
neocharge: Dang. Yeah. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: um So it gets a little repetitive in that regard. And I also made a mistake.
neocharge: Hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: um that's I'll put it to you like this. It's not a spoiler if you played Hades 1 or anything like that. um Make sure you complete and clear one runs with all of the weapons.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: okay okay um At least one time.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Because that was my big mistake.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: I had three favorite weapons. And then I looked and I went, shit. I've got to do like...
neocharge: okay
Leon Lionheartly: so I was at the point where i was like, shit. One, two, three, counting the number of like clears I was going to have to do because it was the last trophy I was working on.
neocharge: OK. Good to know. OK.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, definitely. At the end of the day, Hades 2 is fucking amazing. Even if you don't want a platinum, go for the apple ah ah the the pro look epilogue. Thank you. um Go check it out.
Leon Lionheartly: Go see what the cool new dialogue you get. And only go for the platinum if you're crazy like me.
neocharge: Okay. Okay. Yeah, I did want to just at least beat it and do the clears required to get to the epilogue, but it didn't happen. Oh, well.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. but We can chat more because I can tell you the... I don't want i don't want to spoil it for anybody, but I can pretty much tell you how many runs you're going to have to do um per side in order to be able to do it.
neocharge: Okay.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah. um And then, of course, First Light. ah I...
neocharge: You fired it up and didn't crash.
Leon Lionheartly: It didn't. No. i got a couple hours in this ah last night. um I am... Let's say just a little, let's put it this way, just a little bit past the introductory phase of this game.
neocharge: you Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: Tutorial.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. um Well, kind of.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: you'll You'll understand one day when you get there.
neocharge: Gotcha.
Leon Lionheartly: ah ah Yeah.
neocharge: One day. One day, when you get one under son.
Leon Lionheartly: One day, my boy.
neocharge: in the distant future
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So I'm still pretty pretty early on in this, man. For all I know, you catch up to me, you beat my ass, and like get through it for a bo more than me, because ah this game, I am enjoying every aspect of this game in terms of...
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: a i You know how you say, Matt, that like you take ah a game and you'll enjoy it and take it in like a fine wine or a steak or whatever?
neocharge: gentlemen Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: This game is that game for me. um I do not want to rush it. ah The very... The very beginning of this game, the opening sequence, um was like, ooh, this is good. like This is a good action game. you know Think kind of like our charted Last of Us style third-person action game. And then you get through it. And at the very end, I'm not going to say, but there's ah the cutscene at the end. And then goes into a whole...
Leon Lionheartly: intro sequence, I'm like, holy shit, this is not just a Bond game. This is a fucking Bond movie. And it's a damn good one.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: Ooh. Okay. Okay. Very cool. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Really good. ah um And then, of course, after that, you get into the to a little, I did this tutorial section because this is the misnomer, I think is the best word ah way i'm going to put this, is that this is an origin story.
Leon Lionheartly: um I will say, I will tell it to you like this, just because I don't want to spoil anything. You are technically right, but you're also technically wrong. This is not an origin story.
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh,
neocharge: Uh-huh. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: uh-huh, uh-huh. I don't want to give away anything else, but if you're paying attention, this this is something different.
neocharge: Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: okay um want to point I want to point that out there.
neocharge: Okay. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: But at the end of the day, the music in this is amazing.
neocharge: Interesting. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: The audio design, there's no there are options for so many different audio variations like speakers, headphones. okay cool Are we using dynamic range? Are we using what kind of stereo, mono?
Leon Lionheartly: like All of that in there is is its
neocharge: Wide field, narrow field.
Leon Lionheartly: All of that is available.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: They give you the options, whether you're using in a soundbar, TV, speaker, headset. They give you all of those options in or in there and you need it. ah
neocharge: A 9.2 Dolby Atmos surround sound system is an option.
Leon Lionheartly: I didn't see it, but right and some games you have it, man.
neocharge: im like
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But I will say ah the one thing is, so there's two things that I'm not too keen on, but it could have been it just a me problem is one.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: um Visually, this game's amazing, but I can tell you, I think Pragmata looked better.
neocharge: Oh, dude, yeah. um the The trailers I saw for this game, it's it's like not top-tier visuals, right? It's not S-tier visuals. Let's just put it that way. still looks good, but it's no Pragmata or Resident Evil 9 Death Stranding 2, you know, it's not on that level.
neocharge: So, and that is kind of noticeable when you go from games like Pragmata or RE9.
Leon Lionheartly: It
neocharge: So, yeah. ah Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It's definitely not that um at that tier. So it kind of makes me a little crying side, but do do not underestimate the the visual the fidelity visual fidelity of this game because it is really good.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um like There's a whole...
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: um I visited... We talked about this a little bit. i I got to the scene that I was telling you about where the lighting, and it's a specific sequence. I'm not going to not going to like try to spoil this, but the way they do the lighting and everything else in that is...
Leon Lionheartly: It's not quite, but it's damn near. I got flashbacks of Alan Wake 2, and that's all going to say.
neocharge: Okay. Yeah, you mentioned that.
Leon Lionheartly: i would
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: I was like, holy shit, how did they do this? ah This is amazing. ah And then I also would like to say the other thing I'm not too... It's a little rough around the edges in terms of its ah controls or in terms of the environmental controls, like the jump, the hang from a wall ledge, the drops, things like that, the the ah the navigation.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Nah, it could be my old man gaming skills are finally catching up to me, but they weren't. would be I would look like at a door and it'd be like, go to open. And I kind of look at it and I'm like, oh cool.
Leon Lionheartly: Go to press X to open. And then all of a sudden it's gone. And I'm like, what the fuck? And then I'm kind of like, so it's...
neocharge: Maybe like a day one patch thing, you know?
Leon Lionheartly: butcher That's what I think. um And a it is critical and important to note because this is a...
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: kind of a blend of a stealth action hit man meets uncharted. So you kind of need it in those situations.
neocharge: Nice. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, And then you mentioned the online. I'll touch on this because you mentioned the online for single player. um I don't know if the servers were getting slammed that hard or if it was my internet last night.
neocharge: Probably.
Leon Lionheartly: um But I would get i would get ah unable to connect to IOI servers. And the game would literally pause. And then I'd say, go ahead and connect. Or I could say, don't connect. um I think the servers were probably getting slammed that hard, which makes sense because as we saw, this game sold one and a half million copies.
neocharge: Shouldn't affect a single-player game, though.
Leon Lionheartly: I agree. This is why I have to talk about it because it should not should not happen. It kind of sucks. But at the end of the day... This game, i don't want to I don't want to try to hype up too much. I don't want to oversell it, but this game is if you are a Bond fan um from the only the Craig era all the way to the to the head like me, that's Red Books, um there's something here for you. um If you know your Bond lore, um you're going to be constantly doing the um the yeah the the little meme where you're going, oh, there it is, the Leo meme, because you're going to see it bleed from every angle of this game.
neocharge: Okay. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: Excellent.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, definitely looking forward to hearing your thoughts. um I'm itching to get back into it ah because First Light is a phenomenal fucking game. And i don't want to say any more. I don't want to spoil anything for folks.
neocharge: yeah Yeah, it's it's fresh. It released yesterday. So...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. when they When the tutorial, and I'm ah i'm not joking, you alluded to it earlier. The tutorial is the best fucking tutorial I have played in a game, hands down.
neocharge: Dang.
Leon Lionheartly: That's like when you raise the bar on something mundane as a tutorial that tells you what kind of game you're playing with.
neocharge: Better than the Uncharted 2 train scene.
Leon Lionheartly: Hands down.
neocharge: Damn.
Leon Lionheartly: Hands down.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: You're going to be like, what the fuck?
neocharge: Better than Death Stranding 2.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: Wow.
Leon Lionheartly: i'm not I'm not even you joking. It's the way it's executed that makes you go, holy shit, why didn't Death Stranding 2? Why didn't Uncharted 2?
neocharge: oh
Leon Lionheartly: Why didn't Mass Effect?
neocharge: So it has some unique elements to it then.
Leon Lionheartly: It has unique elements that make you go, why aren't tutorials done this way? This makes sense.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: who
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And whoever came up with that game design deserves a fucking award. It is that good.
neocharge: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, cool. I'm glad you finally started it. You got the controller in hand. You're not using it, though. You're going to display that shit. So...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. you This is a game that you yeah play with the edge, folks.
neocharge: Yeah, you got an edge. Edge with Bond.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Edge with Mr. Bond.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. and there's And this is a... I didn't look at the trophy list, but I looked at what's in this game. This is a game that I'm like, oh, the campaign is what? 12, 15 hours or whatever they said, 20 hours or whatever that arbitrary number is.
Leon Lionheartly: And I look at and I go, cool, that's perfect.
neocharge: Perfect.
Leon Lionheartly: But did you see all of this other stuff? Because this is stuff I could spend all summer on.
neocharge: Oh, shit, really?
Leon Lionheartly: There's some cool shit in there, man.
neocharge: Okay, I haven't looked at the list. I just saw the platinum name, which is fucking awesome.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. I looked at the trophy list. I got a chuckle ah out of some of them. um i And the final thing I'll say about this is, at least for my...
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: and This is... you know I'm still early on, but um I got to remember whatever his name. The ah guy that plays... ah ah that plays him, Patrick Gibson, um because he did the mocap and he also is doing the voicing for this.
Leon Lionheartly: he just needs to sign a copy of this game and send it to the Bercouli family and say, here's my audition to be the next James Bond.
neocharge: ah
Leon Lionheartly: When you're talking about somebody who plays James Bond, it's kind of like somebody who plays captain yeah the the captain of the the Enterprise or being Doctor Who. You can be a very good actor or and or actress.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't want to be exclusive here. um
neocharge: Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: You can be very good and no yeah at it, but there's an untangible that has to be done. It's what made ah Sean Connery so iconic.
Leon Lionheartly: you know The ability for him to stand in in one of the movies and wear in a white tuxedo and start lighting a cigarette and look at his watch, and there's an explosion behind him, and he doesn't even fucking flinch. Or the way Pierce Brosnan would give a little bit of a kind of like a smirk when he says something smart-ass, and he knows that it got under somebody's skin.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Those untangibles and need you to be there, and ah this guy Gibson absolutely fucking does it every time.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: And I'm like, you are James Bond. You get this, you know what it's like. um So um definitely he's like all of a sudden a front runner.
neocharge: Nice.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm like, go just please go, go fucking apply. Cause you could do this in real life.
neocharge: Yeah, that's what I'm hearing. I'm hearing his performance is ah next level. And maybe he'll get nominated at the Game Awards for Best Performance.
Leon Lionheartly: ah He definitely needs a nomination at this point, in my opinion.
neocharge: Because he's not he's not ah mimicking any other Bond. He is creating his own, right? And that's that's really important to a supposedly trilogy.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: So...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Please give me more. Give me a second one. Give me a third one. I don't care. Give me 10 of these games.
neocharge: Yeah. Heck yeah. Dude, i'm so I'm so happy. It's good. And maybe I'll get past that fucking title screen one day.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: yet Oh, yeah. But yeah, we ah we got a big next week planned ahead of us. So we're going to have a ah guest on the show. Well, let's just say it's Caleb.
neocharge: Caleb's gonna be on the show because we're going do the state of the draft and we're going to do ah the state of play. It's going to be states of many things. State of the draft, state of play, state of our mental health.
Leon Lionheartly: I love it.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: The state of where my beer cup is holding at. Yeah, yeah I get it.
neocharge: Exactly. State of the taste of this beer. The state of Colorado. ah Yeah, we're going to do a state of play recap. ah It's going a big one, we we think. Because, yeah, that happens June 2nd at 3 p.m. MST, 5 p.m. EST, 2 p.m.
neocharge: PST, 4 p.m. CST. All the STs, or ET, or T, I don't even know.
Leon Lionheartly: okay
neocharge: Are we in savings time? Daily savings time?
Leon Lionheartly: ah spring forward. So yeah, I think i think i think we are.
neocharge: We are. Okay. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: because there's Yeah, because there's ah there's actually this is actually making progress. I know this is a meme for 20 years ago, but there's actual progress on to finally axe the daylight savings shit.
neocharge: business
neocharge: Oh, I hope dude, it wrecks my fucking sleep schedule. Every time I have actually thought about moving to Arizona because I hate daylight savings time so much. Seriously.
Leon Lionheartly: Which is saying something.
neocharge: flagsta Flagstaff, Arizona is a lot like Colorado Springs. I'm just saying, but I fucking love Colorado and I'm never going to do it. And so I'm not going to move again.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, no, no, no, no
neocharge: I think this is my last move. ah ja I'm going to be buried in this house. I don't give a fuck.
Leon Lionheartly: no.
neocharge: Controller in hand.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll grab the shovel. I'll grab the shovel.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. it's all zero escape. So you got to go through some rocks, but just put me under the tree. No, just cremate me and just sprinkle my ashes under the tree and then snort them for all I care.
Leon Lionheartly: ah ah I'll press X to pay respects.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Or have to pay respects.
neocharge: Yep. Yep. Oh man. So, Yeah. State of play, June 2nd. It's be a big one. They're going to start out with Wolverine. I think they're going to either end with... When we talked about it, they're going to end with Intergalactic or Referoth Reborn ah Part 3.
neocharge: Yeah. And then ah the week after, no, the fucking same week, we're getting Summer Game Fest.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: What a week. Holy shit. So this episode is going to be pretty short because we're ah we're probably going to double up on the the episodes because we're we're probably going to do the main episode the Wednesday.
neocharge: And that's going to be state of the draft, state of play, thoughts, and recap with Caleb. And then we'll probably do a summer game fest recap Friday and maybe release it that weekend.
neocharge: I don't know. We'll see. But there's ah there's a lot of events happening in June. We're going to cover them for you all. ah We're not going to do live reactions. Sorry. maybe Maybe next year.
neocharge: Maybe maybe a the Game Awards. you want You want live reactions? Come on over. Everyone's invited. and Let me know if you want to come over.
Leon Lionheartly: There you go.
neocharge: I'll give you my address.
Leon Lionheartly: come on Come on down. we'll even well I'll hand you a beer.
neocharge: Come on down.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll give you a beer too. As long as you're legal drinking age..........
neocharge: Yep. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You gotta be 21. Uh, no underage drinking. Uh, we got beer brats. I went to a local, uh, ranch based meat market. Uh, one of our favorites ranch foods direct. I got like 10 beer brats. So let's see one, two, uh, yeah, we can have four people cause I'm eating three of them. No, I'm kidding. Uh,
neocharge: But yeah, we're going to little watch party ah and we're going to have a podcast. So this is what we do. This is literally like what we do for fun. You think we do this podcast for like business? Nah, man. we We used to do this just not on mic. So now we're doing it on mic and we're usually drinking beer. But today got my fucking kale drink.
neocharge: Nah.
Leon Lionheartly: nerd
neocharge: ah So, yeah. ah Yeah, this has been a short episode. We appreciate you all listening. ah Join us for the the state of play. If not, they're in spirit.
neocharge: And we will ah cover it pretty quickly after. I think we're going to do a Wednesday episode. But, yeah, just keep an eye out on the feed. There's going to be many episodes coming your way with all of our thoughts and recaps on some Awesome news announcement. We got the Xbox event too, next week too. I think that's Sunday. So yeah, lots of shit happening. We're going to cover it for you all. Thank you so much for listening.
neocharge: Let us know what you're playing. If you're playing first light, let us know what you think of it. Hit us up on the discord and ah have fun. Keep ah gaming and keep the conversation going. Have a good rest of your day, night, morning, whatever the hell time it is.
Leon Lionheartly: Peace.
neocharge: Bye.
