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Do you remember the 28th of September?
3 Plays3 minutes ago
Join Dave and Jake as they talk about the whacky games they've been playing, give first impressions for Silk Song, Konami's comeback, game development, Hades 2 release, what a crazy year this has been for games, and even more in this week's episode!
Intro:
- MEGABONK OST - Wednesday morning Bonk it's 9am
Outro:
- MEGABONK OST - ALL MY FRIENDS ARE BONKING
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Transcript
Opening Banter and Rights Jokes
00:00:25
Speaker
How's it going everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake I am joined by my co-host as always Dave. How's it going tonight Dave? It's going. That's the dream.
00:00:37
Speaker
The dream is alive. Always moving forward. For now. we're We're still dreaming. Don't wake me up. um Before you go It's true.
00:00:49
Speaker
yeah We can't get the rights to that though so we'll use something else for the intro probably. um Although you have the edit, so if you're feeling particularly dangerous, there you go.
00:00:59
Speaker
Completely copyrighted the full nineteen eighty song. ahha but just You just cut off some stuff from like the end of the podcast to accommodate for the fact it's an entire song in the intro.
00:01:11
Speaker
um That's fair.
Silksong Discussion and Game Comparisons
00:01:14
Speaker
ah What do you want to talk about? Cold open. That's my segue into. I got a I have a such a silksong itch.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah. You need to relieve the pressure, even though we're not talking. it this is not the silksong episode. No, no, this is definitely not. Yeah. And I'm not going to say anything. that would be spoiler or anything. It's just I've been playing it more, very much enjoying my time with it.
00:01:40
Speaker
It is a ah very lovely game. I'm looking forward to beating it and then going back and playing it again. That is fair. I mean, that's that's pretty high praise. I think increasingly There are not many games on the docket that I go and go back and play twice, even Hollow Knight one, which I really enjoyed. i never went back and played twice, but I'm not Lando who ah speed runs that game, I think, or at least did for a time.
00:02:08
Speaker
Yeah, as as some of the achievements you can get on the Steam, you can try and beat the game in a certain number of hours and other stuff and play it without dying. I don't like those challenges because going to get frustrated early and how bad I am at trying to stay within those boundaries. But...
00:02:26
Speaker
And I'm not going to going to beat it and then start another one, but similar to Elden Ring, I see myself going back to it and just experiencing it again. Now you can get all the NPC side quests because you know that if you progress too quickly, then that bug will die and things like that.
00:02:44
Speaker
Yeah, and so something where I can just ah you know play again with all the tabs open. Where are the secrets at? I don't want to have to... explore around for everything right my game time drastically drops yeah it's like a four hour game ah if you already know where everything is that that does check out I mean that that is also um from what I've heard it's more difficult than Hollow Knight in general um so you know cutting down overall time to complete the game is also a personal accomplishment so yeah it's not bad I will say that that is true it is it is definitely more difficult
00:03:23
Speaker
Mm hmm. Which I think is reasonable. But yeah, I mean, we can we can talk about it more in a dedicated episode. I put a little bit of time into it. I'm looking forward to ah putting more time into the game.
00:03:37
Speaker
um It seems like it's done pretty well in the reviews overall and in the friend group.
00:03:44
Speaker
Which are pretty much the reviews. ah yeah All of our friends are reviewers for IGN Polygon, etc. Uh-huh. ah Run the gamut. um That's entirely fair.
Far Cry 4 Gameplay and Mechanics
00:03:56
Speaker
I have been playing a much less newsworthy game recently in Far Cry 4, which is not... as interesting to talk about as Zilksog is because it's also like, even in the Far Cry franchise, it's not one of the ones that's like shining diamond. Like you went through like Far Cry 2, which is like malaria in South Africa, but like grass catches on fire. That's the thing everybody knows about that game.
00:04:26
Speaker
um to Far Cry 3, which was like on an island. And the story was pretty mediocre, but it led to the spinoff Blood Dragon.
00:04:38
Speaker
which is excellent. And that's the only one I've played, actually. this It, ah man, it's painful to say this. It might just be like the best written VAR, which is incredibly dumb um to say because it's basically a parody. ah They literally are just take the gloves off and have fun with it.
00:04:59
Speaker
And it's kind of dumb, but that 80s action trope fighting dinosaurs that are made metal. They made it interesting. Yeah. It's just fun.
00:05:11
Speaker
um And then four, which is the one I'm playing now, is like your mountainous area, wingsuit, fighting as rebels against a guy.
00:05:23
Speaker
um It's fine, but it was nothing really to write home about. And then I've already played five. which is the one where it's like, fight Christians in Dakota.
00:05:35
Speaker
I am exaggerating like 10%, but that was basically the premise for five. um And that was but that's actually overall my favorite game in the series, although.
00:05:49
Speaker
So what brought you back to four? I realized that there's not that many games in it the series that I haven't completed. So um if I can get through four, Which is like, it's fun, but it's fun in the ways that like... Also, for the people who don't pay attention, Far Cry is a Ubisoft game.
00:06:08
Speaker
And Ubisoft also makes Assassin's Creed. and that yeah And that means that... that If you have played one of these, you can just you can pick up all of that skill set and just hot drop it into a different one.
00:06:24
Speaker
ah The thing that was really funny was like Far Cry 3 is where they started to add. They added the skill tree. But in that game, it was in the form of like magical tattoos that you would get on your body. And it's like, oh, I guess magic's real and it's making your character better and stuff like that.
00:06:39
Speaker
And they're that's neat. um For Far Cry 4, you just have the skill tree. There's no magic. You're just better in ways that the previous person had to have magic tattoos.
00:06:51
Speaker
But you're just putting skill points into skill trees. And we didn't want to you know, do anything with the assets on the body and have to render that in cut scenes. and Exactly. Ubisoft is like the most copy and paste fucking...
00:07:05
Speaker
studio. i'm You guys can't see me nodding, but I'm doing the ah Richard, is it Richard Nicholson? Jack Nicholson. Jack Nicholson nod over here at the grin. He's like, uh-huh.
00:07:18
Speaker
Because I remember one particular controversy for the Far Cry series, which was Far Cry Primal, um which is the one that took place. It was like Caveman Far Cry.
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah, they've done everything. Um... they The world map, someone like analyzed it and realized that it was like the the exact same map from Far Cry 3, but they just like changed the topography slightly, but like rivers were where rivers were and lakes were where lakes were, and they literally used the same map um for the game. so Efficient development.
00:07:56
Speaker
but True. And honestly, like if I was playing through, unless I played them back to back, I wouldn't be like, this is the same map. Uh-huh. But I mean, even if you did, you might not have noticed because Far Cry is such like, it's a brain dead
Unique Features in Far Cry 4
00:08:13
Speaker
gameplay cycle. Yeah. That is fun. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy it Well, so Dave's hemming and hawing for the listeners.
00:08:23
Speaker
But the thing that I enjoy about Far Cry, it's like, here's an enemy outpost. There are guards patrolling. Find a way to clear the outpost out. And you can use stealth. You can go loud. You can use all your berserk darts, all your tools and weapons and things like that.
00:08:36
Speaker
And that's just fun. And that's basically the part of the the only part of the game that is particularly worth it.
00:08:48
Speaker
um In my mind, there are some set piece missions and things like that. But then why not play Metal Gear Solid V? So that's the thing. I also enjoyed that in MGS V, right? um And I mean...
00:09:02
Speaker
I guess part of it, there there is like a, I would say Far Cry is more casual than MGS5. MGS5 gives you a lot of tools, but it's also a slower paced game generally.
00:09:13
Speaker
Whereas like Far Cry, if you sneak up on someone for Far Cry 4 in particular, if you feel like 10 feet away from somebody, you get the takedown prompt button.
00:09:24
Speaker
Like 10 feet away. Like you will... scurry like your freaking Naruto running over to him and stab him with a machete which you can chain into other takedowns on other enemies.
00:09:38
Speaker
Um... And as cool as a snake is, he doesn't do that as far as I remember. So are you familiar with the the lizard meme?
00:09:50
Speaker
hmm. But I've seen it like shorts or something. I don't think so. But it's basically a lizard that's hitting a button and that says lizard and he just keeps hitting it repeatedly. OK.
00:10:02
Speaker
And it gets used for a lot of like, yes, I want that. They just brain dead just keeps hitting the thing. ah It's like instaki insta-kill, insta-kill, insta-kill. Yes. Yeah, and that is part of it. I am playing on hard, so like I do need to be somewhat tactical, and they introduced some interesting... so this is how they This is how they get you, is they change a few things that sort of mixes up the sandbox that you're already familiar with,
00:10:28
Speaker
Because it's a Far Cry game, right? So in this one, they introduce like hunter type enemies, which use like bow and arrows, and they won't show up on your radar, your magical I detect enemies through walls, like radar that basically tells you where everybody is.
00:10:45
Speaker
um And they will communicate with each other through like ah bird whistles. And so it's like they actually introduced to this new kind of element where you could be like doing an infiltration and then you hear like a bird sound and you're like, wait a minute.
00:11:04
Speaker
Like, did I just get detected from somewhere? um And they won't like normally alert all the other enemies um unless the enemies see them like fighting you.
00:11:15
Speaker
But they're using like silent bows. So if you can find them, you can kind of like hunt them down first. um It kind of, i don't know, it adds some like spy versus spy, almost asymmetrical nature to the game that previously didn't really exist.
00:11:32
Speaker
um So, but again, this is if five this is like a 2% change in a game that has so went so much of the same gameplay. play um But to finish answering your question I'm playing four because if I play four then I only need to play six which is the latest one with Giancarlo Esposito as the villain um ah Proprietor of Los Pollos Hermanos Gus from ah Breaking Bad He's also i think the dentist in Payday in the Payday Zoo Absolutely
00:12:07
Speaker
um Excellent actor. Love him. ah No, he's he's amazing. and I love like when you see him at like conventions and like sometimes he'll do like the face for like the pictures and stuff. But like if you're with him, he's like, hey, guys, he's just a normal guy.
00:12:23
Speaker
And then just like turns it on. You're like, OK, he's that character. Uh-huh. He does such a good job with that. Yeah. Anyone who's willing to like burn their reputation to work on Payday deal DLC is just outstanding in my book. so um Also a pretty good short look at look up the Payday to dentist video once you're done listening to this.
00:12:44
Speaker
Otherwise, it's going to throw the entire vibe off. But um once I finish that, I can go back and play Far Cry 1. one which I'm hoping is short because that is an old game and it was basically a shooter with open areas.
00:13:02
Speaker
And then I have played everything in the series as far as the mainline entries. There was also Far Cry New Dawn, which was like, it was kind of the Blood Dragon for five, but it's not like good like Blood Dragon was.
00:13:15
Speaker
And I know that. Yeah. Oh, the other thing they changed for four is ah it's like entirely co-opable. You just like play through the game and do all the outposts and stuff um with a friend, which is cool.
00:13:30
Speaker
Like i I like that, right? I'm ah generally a fan of co-op games, but it's sort of like if co-op was added to a series that you've played a lot and you have always played by yourself and it's just like,
00:13:45
Speaker
I don't know if I would make this jump, right? Like, i don't know if I would try to get somebody in to play Far Cry with me. don't know. Like, I've always enjoyed when you have that as an option.
00:13:59
Speaker
Because, like, let's say you have a friend over it and they're curious to see, like... you play this cool new game that came out you're like, I want to just have you literally just sitting on the couch, not playing. Right. And you don't want to just sit and take the controller from me. And then you can just both explore and dick around together.
00:14:14
Speaker
That is true. That is true. But I do think like there are, we know there are a lot of good co-op games. um Notably, the Lord of the Rings Return of the King for PlayStation 2, right? Like we all went there.
00:14:28
Speaker
It's the first one we think of. Dave's shaking his head like it's not true. um But on the other hand, it's not like, man, I'm playing Skyrim and I want to play Skyrim with one other person, right? You kind of have these separate hemispheres in the brain almost in my part, in my mind.
00:14:49
Speaker
um where it could be fun, but I already have confirmed fun with these other co-op games that were intended to be played that way, I guess. But yeah, like it would be weird if something like Hollow Knight game was multiplayer.
00:15:06
Speaker
Yeah. I'd be like, I'm exploring and appreciating stuff and you're just here now. Yeah. You're just describing Shovel Knight. It's the same game. Yeah. So, yeah. But yeah, there things that definitely lend themselves ah more to it.
00:15:21
Speaker
But I'd say if it's a game, I cared less about like the plots or if it's something that I already played through at least. Yeah. Dying Light's a great example. They also just had like a Dying Light the Beast.
00:15:34
Speaker
I did see that. I can't imagine it's anything remotely interesting. Yeah. But again, if you can play the first one for cheap with a friend, it's just it's fun to dropkick zombies. And that's really it.
00:15:50
Speaker
Yeah. But I mean, and maybe that is one of the other reasons that they should continue to maintain multiplayer for Far Cry, because like nobody cares about the story missions. Like, I think two was the only one I played where it was like, there's a lot going on and I'm invested in until five years.
00:16:11
Speaker
um And the overall story, but five betrayed me in ways that I can't talk about without spoiling the entire game. um But it's in the back pocket.
00:16:25
Speaker
if ah if If Dave is ever completely out sick and i I'm good to just monologue, I'll explain everything about how I think that Far Cry 5 could have been a good critique on cults, but ultimately was not.
00:16:42
Speaker
Add my personal grievances and cowardice with their writers. But yeah, not this episode.
Silent Hill F and Konami's Resurgence
00:16:53
Speaker
We'll save that one. So yeah, I've been playing far cry for I guess that's that's where that was it it almost seems like Jake's been playing far cry for more than I've been playing silks on No, I just I have thoughts on the series because it is kind of a guilty pleasure um I Play bad games sometimes and I don't think all of the far cries are bad games, but there were elements there are elements of bad games in far cry you're You're willing to forgive certain things in games to just play them for the sake of playing them.
00:17:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Whereas it's fun. I'm too much of like an ornery old man where if there's something that I am truly getting frustrated by or do not like, I'll just be like, I don't have to do this. so I can do something else.
00:17:42
Speaker
So I do not explore as much with a lot of games for that reason. Yeah, and these are the games that are like even exploration is very rote, right?
00:17:53
Speaker
There's literally you can buy maps with the in-game currency that you just get from looting condoms and porn off of a dead guys bodies. um That's not an exaggeration. Those are actually just items you can loot and sell.
00:18:05
Speaker
um i I don't know who designed the sell these items. They're trash items that you should just it's vendor trash for Far Cry 4. But ah yeah, that's that's kind of kind of what what they have there. um But man, I can't even remember the point I was trying to make. How do i even start that sentence? i distracted myself with how weird some of that. Oh, that was the game or is the first one in the series where you can end the game. And I think
00:18:37
Speaker
10 minutes if at the very very beginning the very first time you can like actually do anything as the playable character the enemy, ah the actual main antagonist of the game, you're like having dinner with him or lunch with him or whatever.
00:18:54
Speaker
And he steps out to take a call and he's like, stay there. I'll be back. And like you hear sounds of someone being tortured in his ah his house. And the game wants you to leave. Right. This is your ah is is your opportunity to go investigate, see what's going on, leave his house.
00:19:11
Speaker
But if you stay there for 10 minutes, I think it is, he comes back and he's like, oh, thank you for being patient. I'm so sorry it took so long. And yada, yadda yada, yada. Some things happen that are like very li vaguely plot related.
00:19:26
Speaker
But he's just like, I'm glad you came. And, you know, here's like we can deliver your mother's ashes, which which is what you're there to do is the main quest objective. And then it goes to credits and the game's done.
00:19:38
Speaker
It's just like very funny. that they gave you a shortcut to skip the entire game. And for some people, maybe that's how they want to engage with Far Cry. But I would say maybe you shouldn't have bought it in that case.
00:19:53
Speaker
I do think it's funny if someone's like, oh I'm going to start this game. Like maybe they're like renting it and they're like, oh, I'm going to go go pee real quick. And then they come back and it's credits and they're like, yo, what? ye There are stories of people that literally experienced that.
00:20:10
Speaker
um Which is just very funny. um Anyways, yeah, now i'm now I'm actually done talking about Far Cry. In other news, apparently, Silent Hill F, what's the F stand for?
00:20:27
Speaker
Femden. I honestly don't know. um Fatal Frame. for pan no that's not okay it's a fapanese game okay
00:20:42
Speaker
yeah it did just come out um some streamers were playing it with uh early access no releases it looks good as far as like very up-to-date and polished yeah um I just watched somebody play through with no commentary. So I'm a little bit fuzzy on the actual plot and overall stuff.
00:21:06
Speaker
um Seems interesting. It didn't seem to blow me out of the water again. i had like a very much bird's eye view, loosely paying attention, skipping through to some interesting cut scenes.
00:21:19
Speaker
Yeah. um I do like some of the themes they hit on and how they approach it. Hmm. But,
00:21:28
Speaker
I don't know. I just don't think I was in the right headspace to fully appreciate it Yeah, it's kind of like ah second monitor stuff or something. I am curious how this one does um because I'm actually less interested in what this means for Silent Hill as I am interested in what this means for Konami, right? Because I want to see if they can continue to turn things around. Yeah.
00:21:58
Speaker
Because it's Konami right Konami makes sound hell. It's not as a Capcom. I I don't think it's Konami, but I couldn't tell you who it is. It's probably wrong. OK, well, if it's not Konami, I care.
00:22:15
Speaker
no, it's published by Konami. Yeah. yeah Thank goodness. So it's developed by Bards Entertainment, um which is a studio that doesn't even have a blue link on Wikipedia, guys.
00:22:27
Speaker
Um, get on that. ah People out there that edit Wikipedia, they released a mainline, silent hill game. They deserve a blue link.
00:22:39
Speaker
Um, but it it is published by Konami. So like, this is part of, I think what Konami is trying to do is a resurgence, right? Um, kind of like getting back into uh, the mainstream,
00:22:58
Speaker
I guess.
00:23:01
Speaker
Is that fair say? This not a bad way to do it. um mean They obviously have the Metal Gear Solid Delta, o which I heard did pretty well.
00:23:13
Speaker
Yeah. I think it was well-received, um which good for them. Again, I'm glad if somebody can experience MGS3 because that's just... Some of the earlier MGS games are just...
00:23:27
Speaker
You're getting the the pure ah experience of just, what the fuck is this? Yeah. No, you're solid. don't worry about it. Yeah. um These are the Kojima days. Yeah. free Free flowing ideas.
00:23:41
Speaker
It was fresh and weird. um So I'm glad they're doing that at least. And Silent Hill obviously has had its resurgence with the remake as well with a Silent Hill 2.
00:23:54
Speaker
And then they just had this new title, Silent Hill F. yeah which again i would like silent hills to do well because one that one i don't think a western audience in general uh does as well with and japanese horror a lot of the themes just don't seem to translate as much um
00:24:22
Speaker
But I like a lot of Japanese horror stuff because, yeah, um a lot more of it will be psychological and some other stuff. And it will also go into ah different areas and territories that America does not seem to a lot. Yeah.
00:24:38
Speaker
A lot of it's very like very rounded edges. Yeah. ah For some the the mainstream audience. Uh huh. So I would like to see it do well at the very least. And also I want them to do more interesting horror games because like, well, I'm not somebody who's ever going to actively follow and play Silent Hill or Resident Evil.
00:25:00
Speaker
I'm curious to see stuff about them because they're always very well done and interesting. And I like to be like a fly on the wall for that genre.
00:25:12
Speaker
I also think like this is this is the type of game where you you said you watch like a ah playthrough of it. um It's kind of that type of game that I would enjoy the same thing. I might not like see the appeal necessarily to play it myself, but it could be interesting to watch it.
00:25:29
Speaker
um And I definitely agree with what you're saying as far as like I find Japanese horror to be. It's not that. american companies can't do good horror and they do it's just there's also a lot of uh just gore or jump scare type horror where it's like oh this is supposed to be scary and then japan is like uzamaki uh-huh they're like ah post post world war two
00:26:00
Speaker
There are psychological horrors that we are going to visit upon the world and they have. um And sometimes that's more than just like being afraid.
00:26:11
Speaker
It's more like. They have this, um, at like silent hill too is the one everyone talks about, but it's like horror with a purpose, right? It's like, this is actually related to some overriding plot.
00:26:24
Speaker
It's actually having to do with like the, what the protagonist has done and their comeuppance for that. um in a way that I would say final destination probably doesn't, doesn't pull off.
Game Development Challenges and CEO Influence
00:26:39
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like a lot of, ah again, American horror has been more like slasher stuff for a while. That's what it is. Um, or like trying to like Hey, we want to have something gross and icky and like, how can we weave that in?
00:26:55
Speaker
Um, and I think, ah With some A24 stuff, it's been getting... I say it like I watch all of these horror movies. I don't.
00:27:06
Speaker
now Again, loosely follow stuff. It's the other podcast. We're critics. But like i I followed some stuff on like Jordan Peele's movies. yeah And that seems to have more of an overarching...
00:27:19
Speaker
Like we want to have ah message yeah with this or there is like an actual theme behind it. And then it's like, hey, we're going to implement it through this. Also, ah let me know when Jordan Peele has a movie that comes out that's more than one word in the title.
00:27:36
Speaker
Well, get out is two words. it's Oh, shit. You're right. Yeah. But I was thinking like. Us, them, him. Nope.
00:27:47
Speaker
ah Weirdly, get out's the only one I can think of. um Now, to be fair, they it was a there's an apostrophe in the middle. It's just the it's ah a slang expression. Get out. You know, it's like, get out. Get out of here.
00:28:04
Speaker
I actually really like that as an example of the exception to what I was saying in my critique. um Because that is... definitely in the realm of psychological horror.
00:28:17
Speaker
It, you know, plays on identity, but also, you know, obviously racism and, um, all of these other themes that, uh, in you, and you'll, you'll engage with it more deeply than just, this is a, this is a summer movie, uh, meant for teenagers to to watch in movie theaters.
00:28:38
Speaker
Like, and that's it. Again, This is me just throwing spaghetti at the wall. Yeah. But from the like the one trailer I've seen, there's like the woman in the yard.
00:28:51
Speaker
hmm. That's the name of the movie. Right. And like there's people in a house and they see like a lady out in the yard and it's probably like a ghost or some entity in this like, yeah, I'm sure they're going to make it suspenseful and scary. But like, I do not foresee it being like, oh And here's this deep meaning behind it or yeah this intellectual tie. And she's like, that was scary.
00:29:17
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Let's move on. Now, I'm just thinking of other like examples for like US s horror movies. Because one that was kind of interesting, I can't remember if it was... like you honestly cannot remember whether the title was Insidious or Brightburn.
00:29:33
Speaker
But the super ah Superman, bright brown if he was a kid, but he was evil. um I think it's Brightburn. Yeah, I think you're right. It's Brightburn. um But it's like it's dumb, right?
00:29:45
Speaker
It's like all of the actual thinking as far as I'm not saying the actors did a bad job or anything like that. But as far as like what thinking you need to do, it's all just summarized in like a single line. It's like Superman as a kid, if he was evil. Yeah.
00:30:03
Speaker
And you're like, OK, all right, I guess we can fill out a movie with this. And I think like using children in horror in general is always, don't want to say easy, but like, they're terrifying.
00:30:16
Speaker
I think it's very, it's easier to make the jump of like, Oh, this is immediately unsettling. Yeah. Um, is when it's with, there's some type of like kid involvement. Same thing with like dolls or like children's play things.
00:30:32
Speaker
Yeah. um Because it's associated so much with like childhood innocence. Yeah. Again, if you like play any type of ah children's nursery rhyme slowly, cool. You have your trailer for some,
00:30:46
Speaker
a horror movie that's all you have to do ring around the they're singing it so slow oh fuck uh-huh speed up speed up please but yeah it's just like it's just an easy avenue to be like oh this is unsettling yeah yeah you you describing that mean that i mean obviously the the go-to type of character for that is i guess she wasn't necessarily a kid but um Sadako from the ring, but ah for for the US, I went to fear the game fear where Alma is ah sometimes the antagonist, sometimes not the antagonist, but it's very much like,
00:31:29
Speaker
I can't remember. I think that game was made in the US, but the at the very least, it's not made in Japan. And that's the important thing. Non-Japan. And so it's very straightforward. You're just like, oh, psychic ghost girl is killing everybody.
00:31:42
Speaker
Cool. ah Like but the most they do with that is some jump scares. And then eventually she gets more involved in the plot. But like, yeah. And it gets weird in ways that I don't really want to talk about on the podcast. But fear three, huh?
00:31:58
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, yeah. Fear gets, fear gets pretty weird. Actually, I think it was even before three. Um, I think it's fear to Perseus mandate or something like that.
00:32:11
Speaker
Um, anyways. Yeah. Uh, look it up. I'm not going to talk about it in the podcast. Just look at the plot for fear. Um, I want to use that as like a tie-in that lead into talking about some other games. Sure. Where in general, I think when you're going to make a game, it's usually kind of like focus on ah key area or key areas.
00:32:36
Speaker
ah With Hollow Knight Silksong, it's everything's perfect.
00:32:41
Speaker
Spoilers for our episode, but all right. Yeah. So like Borderlands four just came out. Yeah. And the the big news thing about that is it having performance issues and Randy pitch for being a bitch.
00:32:54
Speaker
That is his last name. Randy bitch for.
00:32:58
Speaker
But like, I don't think that's ever going to be a game series where it's like, Hey, the storyline and the plot are like the big sellers here, you know? Yeah. Uh huh. And again, that's fine if that's not what they're going for and it's not the audience is expecting.
00:33:12
Speaker
Yeah. Um, But yeah, it is weird when games aren't that plot focused, but then they try and make the plot. Oh, yeah. Like, hey, you guys shouldn't care about this thing. And you're like, what are you doing now? like You made no effort at any of these points to then be like, hey, we have to have this very intense single player campaign campaign. campaign and you're like, who cares about it, though? You know? Yeah.
00:33:41
Speaker
Yeah. You kind of have to know. You have to know. i mean, part of this is um part of this is a skill and understanding your skill set when you're making the game, because I think once you're far enough along in development, um if you have set up everything to be serious, you can't be like, OK, well, we have play testers playing the game and they actually just think that this is absurd and they're not paying any attention to the story.
00:34:07
Speaker
So we need to, like, repackage that. Right. That's not really something you can do. um So if you're not good at that, you're going to have some bad times. But like I think the the the most popular Borderlands game, um we were talking about it in Discord not that long ago.
00:34:23
Speaker
I think a lot of people agree with this. It's two. Yeah, they put up two. um And so much of that was because of Handsome Jack, but also because the gameplay was very really solid. And it felt a lot better to play on Borderlands 1.
00:34:37
Speaker
um They opened up skill trees. They had like interesting characters and stuff like that. But also just Handsome Jack is just was such a good antagonist that like the weight of his gravitational field literally just caused him to continually be referenced in Borderlands for like the next two games.
00:34:56
Speaker
Yeah. Like. If you recall, Borderlands, I think the pre-sequel, one of the playable characters is literally just a doppelganger for Handsome Jack. That's just some guy that's like grafted to look like him or something like that. He's a body double um to like i foil assassins or something like that.
00:35:16
Speaker
I don't recall exactly. I didn't play that one. But man, if that's not a sign that you have jumped over the shark and just suspended yourself in the air above the shark. um Yeah, i I don't see them writing another super interesting character.
00:35:32
Speaker
um I played through three with a friend the show and special guest ah Dice and it felt, I don't know, like it felt a little bit too much of like we're trying to lean into like modern references.
00:35:49
Speaker
Oh, yeah. They try to make it topical. They make it pop culture. Yeah. And I don't know if it's just the timing of it, but it didn't that it still felt like as Borderlands one approach to like humor and just being like a little bit.
00:36:08
Speaker
I don't want to say spork comedy. Yeah. Um, I got you. It just doesn't, the LOL XD random stuff doesn't hit the same as much anymore.
00:36:18
Speaker
Um, it also, i didn't think three really built on anything too much. Yeah. and It just felt like guns. The guns have mods.
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah. Sometimes it can have more they're interesting. Sometimes you're mad. Um, Yeah, it's just nothing really stuck with me from that game. Yeah. um But four, as far as I'm aware, is a more open world.
00:36:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I've heard. And you can I think it's designed to be played with people. Right. Which I mean is true of all of them to a certain extent. Right. But even going back to Borderlands one, they've literally had the issue of people are interacting with different and NPCs and the global audio is cutting itself off as more voice lines cut off other voice lines and people turn in quests and stuff like that. and it's like pick a lane either, either have NPCs that are worth talking to and listening to, or just don't put people in a multiplayer experience where they can just pop off because no one was paying attention to what those NPCs were saying.
00:37:26
Speaker
Um, Have you caught anything for Borderlands 4? I own it, but I've not installed it, nor have I launched it. I don't think I installed it. At the very least, I haven't launched it.
00:37:38
Speaker
um But it's not because I bought it. I don't i wouldn't have done that. Not that I'm boycotting it or anything. It's just I got a graphics card some some time ago, and it happened to come with an activation key.
00:37:49
Speaker
Yeah. But yes, everything I've heard is that ah similar to what you were saying. It's had a lot of performance issues. Literally, like people running it on top of the line systems were seeing hitching.
00:38:02
Speaker
um And Randy pitch for Pitchford was on X like um giving tech support advice for people whose games were struggling. He's like, oh go in and like turn this setting down and do all this stuff.
00:38:16
Speaker
It's like absolutely insane unhinged behavior for a CEO to do. yeah um and as I will say there is technology to auto detect to be like hey this is going to run the best for your settings. Yeah every game has it. It's a literal thing that has it's in technology now we have access to it.
00:38:37
Speaker
um
00:38:40
Speaker
But I mean it's not to make it a political thing but it's kind of similar to like Donald Trump like tweeting in on something like so minuscule where it's like bro what is your job i feel like you should be focused on other stuff it's the over-involved ceo problem yeah yeah it's we're getting closer to cyberpunk where uh ceos all have or sorry companies all have face ceos and they are seen as the representation of the company.
00:39:12
Speaker
It's like, oh, you're you're talking about Xbox? Oh, you mean Phil phil Spencer. When you say Xbox, you mean Phil Spencer, right? Like yeah the Mr. Xbox. Because like they're essentially like the public face for the company. Exactly. So you'd expect them to be like, hello, how are you?
00:39:28
Speaker
We're sorry that this thing happened. but but but Whatever that is, that's their job as the public. They're the interface to the audience. So why would you have them going and being like,
00:39:40
Speaker
I'm going to do some tweets. They're going to like a nuke PR yeah and blame the customers for this and that. Be like, Oh, it can't be our technology or our programming. I mean, part of it is like at a certain point, CEOs are all rock stars in their own minds anyways.
00:39:57
Speaker
So like who's going to tell them no, all right? If you work at any company, any position in Gearbox, are you going to knock on Randy Pitchford's door and be like, I don't know, boss. It seems like some of these tweets are but kind of unhinged.
00:40:13
Speaker
um No, you're not going to do that. It's the CEO. And he has the power to influence the perception of the entire company. But again, it's because he's a cyberpunk face character for a megacorporation, or in this case, Gearbox, which I do not think is a megacorporation.
00:40:29
Speaker
um But yeah, it's... a taking a step back from the personal aspect with Randy Pitchford, I do want them to fix the game. I want that. I want it to be a lot more efficient.
00:40:41
Speaker
Um, I have a very good system and from what I've read, it does not guarantee good performance for this game. And so I would be afraid to try to induce anyone else to play this.
00:40:54
Speaker
Um, because i don't want to recommend a game or try to get people to buy and play a game that has bad performance.
Indie vs Major Studios Success
00:41:00
Speaker
Um, What I don't know is why this keeps happening with like major game releases from major studios.
00:41:09
Speaker
And it's like, hey, day one launch. Hey, we're having all of these issues. Mm hmm. have you guys heard of like testing? Yeah. Like any degree of I know they do.
00:41:21
Speaker
um But like it's happened for Cyberpunk. It's happened for I mean, No Man's Sky was a little bit of a different thing. Yeah, I had those issues too. It also had performance issues. Just a lot of other ones. It was the smallest concern for them at that point.
00:41:36
Speaker
But like.
00:41:39
Speaker
I'm not sure if the assumption is like it's fine. People buy it anyway and like we'll deal with it later. Yeah. Type thing. But. I mean, if I'm going to the store as let's say.
00:41:54
Speaker
a parent or like a new gamer or like I'm like a first time experience person. Mm hmm. I'm excited to like play this new game on this new um PC that I built with my dad type thing. Yeah. And then like I can't get it to run and I paid $80 for it.
00:42:13
Speaker
Mm hmm. Like what the fuck? That is insane. Like. Again, this is something you're paying for that you now own. Yeah. and that Like buying.
00:42:26
Speaker
A movie or something, and you're like, oh, it is has issues like, going have to wait for the ah the patch, the patch. yeah They'll burn you another DVD. Don't worry. Send that out for Yeah.
00:42:40
Speaker
Like I understand there can be day one issues and like patching for stuff. Yeah. But games should not be released in states where it is not playable for like a majority of people.
00:42:55
Speaker
Yeah. No, it's a it's a serious issue, especially like, well, I shouldn't say, especially if it's a fun game, but if you have a fun game and then it's going to crash or hitch up or something like that, um, every time that happens, you've reduced people's enjoyment here by at least one.
00:43:11
Speaker
It's like, Oh, I'm having a great time. I'm having a good time. I'm having a good time. I'm having an okay time. Um, um, But yeah, I mean, I think the pragmatic answer is in the development lifecycle of games. A lot of times they're probably focusing on implementing features, finishing areas, finishing quests, NPCs, music, audio, mastering, graphical effects, all that stuff.
00:43:33
Speaker
And whenever they run into these issues, they're like, tech debt will fix that, tech debt will fix that. And then fixing that is actually the tail end of development.
Hades 2 Release and Supergiant Games' Legacy
00:43:45
Speaker
Where they're like, okay, now we'll start unwinding the spaghetti to make it all work. but And if anybody's had ah one giant noodle for dinner, you know that's a real motherfucking thing.
00:43:59
Speaker
But i mean, a lot of these games, and I think there was a delay. I can't recall exactly. I think there was a delay for Borderlands 4 launch. um They... probably were working on a lot of these issues before launch but they just didn't give them enough time and at a certain point leadership's gonna be like ship it we can't wait any longer we can't delay anymore we'll fix it with a day one patch everyone we're staying late right like we're gonna uh you can you can take vacation after these security they or these uh hot fixes go out or whatever
00:44:34
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, game development is hell. So I don't expect it's any better than my theory. Yeah. very least It's a it's a sad state of things, especially when, again, there are other like indie studios that are just knocking it out of the fucking park. Name one, name one indie studio, Dave, that released something that's knocking it out of the park.
00:44:58
Speaker
Team Cherry. Supergiant. We're going, no, no, we're going back to something. Yeah, Supergiant. what have What have they done recently?
00:45:10
Speaker
Hades 2 has finally reached 1.0.
00:45:13
Speaker
Which I think is a miss it not being 2.0, but whatever. That's true. Yeah. So think. That would have confused people, though. I think they had like three or four major installments and then 1.0, um, from when they started the beta.
00:45:33
Speaker
It seemed like it went quick. I don't know if that's just my perception. It didn't feel too long. mean, there are definitely some time gaps in there. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I've enjoyed everything I've played to up in to this point. I'm probably at least a patch behind as far as content.
00:45:51
Speaker
Um, So is it story complete now? Like go through to credits like you could in Hades one. Yeah, I think everything they have story wise.
00:46:02
Speaker
Awesome. um All types of gear and progression and other stuff should now be fully fleshed out. Nice. Not to say that they might have some other patches or some balancing things later on.
00:46:15
Speaker
But yeah, I think if you're somebody who's like, I'm going to wait until the 1.0 is out. Now you can play the game. awesome i did look this up i fact checked you in real time and this patch the 1.0 patch adds the game's true ending 50 achievements and numerous tweaks to gameplay which for me will just be gameplay because i wasn't i i didn't play beforehand yeah i i will say again if you're somebody who likes hades liked hades one i'd be very surprised if you didn't like hades too right um
00:46:51
Speaker
A lot of the weapons do feel different, but I'm not sure I feel about that. I like, I like the weapons. And he's one. I did too. And it took me some getting used to for Hades too.
00:47:05
Speaker
Cause it is similar where you do have your like, this is my attack. This is my special. Right. You're cast. But yeah, the cast thing now largely by default is like, you're putting an area around you.
00:47:20
Speaker
And also you have mana throughout. So your attack, your special and your cast, you can charge it up to use that mana to have it do essentially like a better effect.
00:47:34
Speaker
And you can do stuff around that. We're like, um you can take this upgrade, but it's going to cap your mana a little bit. Gotcha. And a lot of times I'm not using.
00:47:46
Speaker
like the charged up abilities because I'm lazy. I'm just like, give me one button that I can match the fuck out of and I'll watch and hit that button. um Yeah, you can do a lot of interesting build variety stuff with that.
00:48:00
Speaker
But yeah, everything I've played so far has been really good. I've heard great things from everybody else who I've talked to who's played it. So if you're a fan of that stuff, really do recommend checking it out. Awesome.
00:48:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i'm this was on my list, but I was waiting for it to fully come out. um Because I did a similar thing for Hades 1, where I played it up to the Hydra, which was the only boss that was in when I was playing it back then. And it was very difficult.
00:48:28
Speaker
um But I was like, this is enjoyable. I like this. I will now wait for it to be done. And then Hades one launched fully and I put like 70 hours into it. Like it was a, it was a long time.
00:48:43
Speaker
I, I know people put put a lot more in 70 hours also. I'm not going to claim that I know life that like a lot of people do, especially like with the flame and the fire, the harder difficulty modifiers and stuff like that.
00:48:55
Speaker
Um, But I put my time into it, got through to the ending, and I was like, that was excellent. So I'm looking forward to this. Again, this is the, um as far as I know, the first actual sequel that Supergiant has done.
00:49:12
Speaker
um So apparently, I mean, based off of the quality of what they released in the past and their willingness to just completely... do a new thing because they have so many times they clearly still had some gas to cook for uh hades 2 so yeah um
2023 Major Game Releases Review
00:49:29
Speaker
and if you're somebody who's unfamiliar with uh super giant stuff they really do excel at making unique interesting characters that have good fleshed out dialogue oh it's so good it's and you're like how much i'm like we're talking balder's gate three levels of dialogue my guy um
00:49:49
Speaker
There's a lot in there. So if you're somebody who likes to get immersed, and they do a great job of that. The art assets and the sound is all really good as well.
00:50:00
Speaker
You didn't tell me it released today, the day we were recording. Oh, it's out. It's out. Yeah. Oh, that's fair. um I did have some reviews. I didn't want to interrupt earlier with OpenCritic, what people were saying, because we were talking about, like, what what was Konami getting for these games? ah Critical top ah critics, top critic review or top critic average, 86 for MGS Delta Snake Eater, 90% critics recommend.
00:50:32
Speaker
So really good. 90% player ratings. Really good. Silent Hill F, 87 top critic average. 89 critics recommend and not enough player ratings to count yet.
00:50:43
Speaker
So also pretty good. Konami is doing pretty good in the reviews. Hades 2 though, 92% top critic average, 98% critics recommend, and 90% player rating, which is, you don't listen to players anyways. Like nobody really likes listening to gamers.
00:51:04
Speaker
But yeah, 98% critics recommend is actually Insane. Yeah, it's it's kind of not so high. Yeah. But again, part of that is the attention the detail of those areas I just mentioned.
00:51:17
Speaker
um And also, because it is a roguelike, it has a really good replayability factor where you can be unlocking new powers, new passes, new other stuff. um Meeting new characters and doing their quest stuff along the game.
00:51:33
Speaker
And um yeah, it's just... it's one of those things where it's hard to do just one run. Cause I'm like, i do want to progress some of the plants growing. I do want to, you know, do someone else. And and like, I want to try another thing And then it's like, I've done three or four runs.
00:51:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:51:52
Speaker
Is this true? Like, I'm looking at the ah they have an open critic, the 2025 Hall of Fame, and it apparently is true. OK, this has been a spicy year for video games um because I always think I'm like, I think back, I'm like, oh, there wasn't really too much release this year. But we had Claire Obscure Expedition 33.
00:52:13
Speaker
Really big one, right? um I think that and Silksonger are going to be like the the big contenders for the year. I do agree with you, but like, let me, let me list out some of these.
00:52:24
Speaker
So Claire Obscure, ah Hades two, which we, you might've remembered. Uh, we talked about that somewhat recently. Um, hollow night, silk song, um, split fiction came out this year as well.
00:52:38
Speaker
Oh yeah. Um, death stranding too, which I'll be honest. I'm just going to wait till it's like five bucks. Um, monster hunter wilds, which I also loved.
00:52:48
Speaker
And I should have changed my inflection there because I was the last one I was going list. um But that's ah actually pretty good year for some some highly rated games. um Dang.
00:53:03
Speaker
yeah That's not all. That's just the ones that... Yeah. I mean, there's other things that were highly rated I didn't mention. the The highest rated thing here with Sujinku.
00:53:15
Speaker
i don't know what that is. It's created by Rice Games. I got nothing on Sujenko. Not really sure there. But what's that for? PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC.
00:53:30
Speaker
Okay, well, whatever. ah Didn't talk about that one, but um ah Donkey Kong Bonanza. Also, yeah, really high up on this. In Blueprints, which I know.
00:53:42
Speaker
um We have some friends that played and loved that a lot.
00:53:47
Speaker
But yeah, not a bad year. Yeah, forgot about Bonanza, damn. know I think Bonanza is going to essentially be like the next Mario Odyssey as far as Nintendo games.
00:54:01
Speaker
Yeah. I've heard only good things about it. Oh, yeah. And they pulled that all off while changing Donkey Kong style back to his old one. um So very impressive.
00:54:14
Speaker
On Open Critic, it is 99% critics recommend with a 100% player rating. That's kind of crazy. You don't listen to players. but That is that highly rated with Seth Rogen voicing Donkey Kong. yeah He didn't though, actually. No, he didn't. Just the movie.
00:54:33
Speaker
just Excellent, excellent. Yeah. yeah no not a bad Not a bad year. And I can't remember what else is coming out this year ah to be completely honest.
00:54:46
Speaker
And that's fine because there's been enough. We can't make the game awards too complicated. ah Dial it back a little bit, guys. Save some for 2026. I'm sure there are some other sleepers that have come out already this year or still coming out and I won't be aware of them until...
00:55:07
Speaker
later someone's like did you ever check this up i'm like no what's that but yeah it is always nice when you're like oh i don't even know who it's gonna be at the game awards right that is nice yeah versus like it's elden ring elden there was nothing else this year yeah i do when we talk about silk song we'll have to talk about like that the the aoe it made i know we talked maybe briefly about it in a previous episode But regardless of what its critical opinion is come the end of the year, it is kind of crazy that...
Upcoming Game Releases and Industry Impact
00:55:43
Speaker
I don't know if you would call it just pure indie. Yeah, it's an indie game. I don't think Team Cherry's that big.
00:55:48
Speaker
Um... That it just displaced everything else around it because it was so wish listed. Yeah. we're like We don't want to release remotely near that. day Yeah. And you really shouldn't. it's It's very risky. I've been reading about games that have struggled recently.
00:56:05
Speaker
um Obviously, Splitgate, which I talked about a little bit. And the CEO was like, we are probably going to have to lay people off. And there might not be a way to make this like very viable for us. And their concurrent player count is...
00:56:19
Speaker
I think around 100 people usually. That's like a peak for a day. That's very sad. um And there was a city of heroes like MMO that was started development. They announced it back in 2016. It's called Ship of Heroes.
00:56:35
Speaker
And that came out and it's peak player count like recently was something like eight players. That's not a sustainable player count for an MMO. Definitely not. that was It was $45 plus a $15 subscription also. So they didn't even launch it into a free-to-play model.
00:56:53
Speaker
ah Wish them the best, you know? hopeful Hopefully. Thoughts and prayers, my guy. Thoughts and prayers. um But yeah, I mean, and really just relates to what we've been talking about this whole episode. Make your game not suck.
00:57:08
Speaker
Step one. ah You can uncollapse that to all of the ideas that actually comprise not making your game suck. But I'm not going to do that now. um And then don't release right next to Silksong.
00:57:20
Speaker
i have That's that. I will say um it's been nice when like these banger titles have been coming out and then I see people who have not played the first Hollow Knight.
00:57:35
Speaker
ah They're checking out and like wanting to get into it and enjoying it or other games as well where it's like I haven't really checked the genre but like again heard Expedition 33 is kind of a banger.
00:57:46
Speaker
Yeah. um And I'm one of those people. Yeah. I came into it very late. It was very pleasantly surprised. ah So it's it's cool to see
00:57:57
Speaker
A.O.E. is not the right word, but it's cool to see it. That's what I used. Accusatory. Accusing me of not using the right term. um It's just nice to see it have like a ah bigger splash. And it's not just, oh, it's this a FromSoft game. It's going to be me and Jake and Ian playing it type thing. It's like, oh, this is this is hitting everybody. Yeah. So I like to see more people play games that I like as well.
00:58:25
Speaker
Mm hmm.
00:58:28
Speaker
I have a list here and we can we can wrap pretty soon here. So these are the other games that I wasn't thinking of that are coming out this year. um So Battlefield six. I've actually heard some good things. I have not really been interested in Battlefield since Bad Company, ah but it looks really nice. Apparently people are really enjoying it.
00:58:47
Speaker
Cool. Ghost of Yote. ah That's the other one. That's October. Yeah, I believe that's correct. Yeah. and Early impressions and things like that I believe are coming out ah reviews and whatnot and I think it's doing pretty well um Outer Worlds 2 this one is for me not Dave But I want to see this succeed because Obsidian occasionally just releases an absolute banger um I'm pretty sure Kirby Air Riders already came out. I don't feel like that's a new game. It's on this list ah Little Nightmares 3
00:59:23
Speaker
And I'm going to name these two Digimon story time stranger. Really looking forward to that. That's great. Thank you. Um, from sources around the web on this, on this Google results, but then here's part of the conspiracy Mina, the hollower.
00:59:40
Speaker
I have never heard of this game before, but I assume it has something to do with hollow night.
00:59:48
Speaker
Yep. It's a team. Jerry's other game, but no, it is a,
00:59:56
Speaker
I forget type of game, but it's like a a pixel art style game. It's supposed to be very tight controls, very indie. I've heard only good things about it. um I'm glad you knew about this one off the top of your head. that's Dang, Dave's more informed by far than I am Donkey played it once. Okay, that's fair that's fair. That's where a lot of my exposure is.
01:00:17
Speaker
yeah Also, Air Riders is a new... It's a new Kirby. I wasn't sure if you're doing that for the name or I assumed it was actually new. It sounds like a name they would have already used at this point, but it does make sense that it's new.
01:00:33
Speaker
Well, Kirby Air Ride was ah the one for GameCube. That feels like it justifies my belief that this might have already been a thing. There are only two letters different.
01:00:47
Speaker
um But Kirby, Kirby, Kirby, it is a name you should know.
01:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, I'm looking forward to trying that on somebody else's console before I commit to it. and Because I think it's Switch 2 only. Oh, yeah. that I'm probably not going to pick it up for very long time.
01:01:07
Speaker
They got to sell me on it. They really got to they got to be like, these are the games you specifically want on the Switch. Although, I would like to play the Zelda games on Switch 2. I just also don't want to play the Zelda games right now. The old ones. The ones I've already played. The open world ones I do need to play the one that I'm literally borrowing from Dave.
01:01:25
Speaker
That one counts. That's the actual Zelda game, by the way. The other ones are technically link games, but yeah, that's gaming. Our mid-year checkup. Not really.
01:01:37
Speaker
It's September. It's almost the end of September. Check the episode title. But um thank you guys for listening. Always pleasure to have you guys here listening to us talk about video games. Occasionally a little bit of politics, but we didn't even get that much into politics. This was mostly video games.
01:01:58
Speaker
Thank you for listening. And as always, we'll see you in the next one. Have a good one. I love you. Bye.