Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Making Games Harder For Ourselves | Windbreaker Podcast
6k Plays2 months ago
On this week’s episode of Windbreaker, Yahtzee, Marty, and JM8 chat about our favorite emergent and self-imposed challenges in gaming history.
Second Wind is fully independent, employee-owned and fan-funded. Consider supporting us on Patreon for as little as $1/month at patreon.com/SecondWindGroup
Recommended
Transcript
Merchandise Announcements
00:00:00
Speaker
Summer's winding down, kids are heading back to school, and the universe is slowly dying. So what better time to treat yourself to some brand new second-win merch? Because while all of life's problems can't be solved by spending money, some of them can! The long-awaited Adventure Is Nigh plushies are finally available for pre-order, so it's time to build your own dungeon-crawling party with Mortimer, Sigmar, Grindrbin, and Dabarella. I mean, just look at that spoon. On the more wearable front, head down to the design mines with Jay and Ludo, show off the second-win pets, or explain to your confused loved ones what the hell this means. My man.
00:00:36
Speaker
All available in a variety of colors. Just look at that Good Blood shirt. So teal. So peaceful. And celebrate our first annual Patreon Voted Fully Ramblimatic with these Yahtzee Jedi and Sith pins for Knights of the Old Republic. Star Wars. It makes people on the internet angry. Head on over to sharkrobot dot.com slash second dash wind or click on the link in the description to get your hands on all the new goodies today.
00:01:02
Speaker
Hello,
Introduction to Woodbrickers Podcast
00:01:03
Speaker
everyone. Welcome to Woodbrickers podcast. I'm Yahtzee Croshaw. I'm joined by Jay and Marty, as always. Hello. I... Who, Marty, who is presently a dog, I notice. Thanks, Eric. You're always a pleasure to have you around. The National League literally said he's feeling under the weather so he won't be doing goofs. I feel like he purposely set a low bar to trick us. He said that to lure you into a false sense of security, apparently.
Exploring Battle Masters Challenges
00:01:29
Speaker
But getting back on topic, if we ever ah have a topic these days, ah in celebration of the release of our new occasional series, Battle Masters, this very morning, you might have seen about two hours ago,
00:01:43
Speaker
We thought we'd talk about self-imposed challenges in games, the way we like to make games harder for ourselves. Because Battle Masters is designed to be a series where we compete against each other at ah weird gaming challenges. In today's case, perhaps not so weird. It was just who can ring the bell in Dark Souls first. But of course, ah the twist there was that it was specifically a bell, not a specific bell.
00:02:09
Speaker
Yeah, and without without giving our hand for future episodes, we might be doing very familiar games, but having to play them in very unfamiliar ways. Yes, yes like we used to do with Uncivil War back when Stephanie Sterling was around.
00:02:24
Speaker
100%. Yeah, um so or we want to spoil it, right? Like, go watch the episode. Yeah. school as Well, well, I could just say, fuck you, Jay. Yeah, yeah, we can say that. Yeah, just in general, like across the board, it doesn't even have to be relating to the episode. Just I get that. Yeah, I apologize. And I apologize for disappointing everyone who assumed I place higher. But you know, I think 15 minutes is pretty respectable.
00:02:50
Speaker
and My run was like so like butter smooth when I was playing it. I didn't die once. I didn't lose any time. My my problem was just choosing too conservative a route. You would have got style points. Yeah.
00:03:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But I just got all the points by having. but Yeah. Yes. Yes. Well, there's only one first place, isn't there? I absolutely should have picked up a gold pine resin for the gargoyle fight. I really got bogged down there. I was using a dagger and I absolutely mixed them with pine resin.
00:03:23
Speaker
Anyway, ah ah go everyone go watch Battle Masters after the you're done watching this, obviously, because it's a lot of fun and we have a lot of fun making it and we've got more episodes coming soon. yeah I trust. ah But more broadly, we wanted to talk about self-imposed challenges in games. None too subtly, because I'm hoping some of the viewers might suggest a couple we hadn't thought of. We we could add to our big list of possibilities for going forward for Battle Masters.
Self-Imposed Challenges in Stealth Games
00:03:50
Speaker
But to to kick things off with the thumbnail, my personal favorite self-imposed challenge is to play Thief 2 with no quick saving and no saving in the middle of a mission. Like permadeath in a way. Sort of, yeah. Because Thief 2, of course, is a mission-based game where you sneak into like an open-ended house that you're trying to loot yeah and try to avoid getting caught by the guards and yeah try to complete a number of objectives. But I think what makes Thief really fun is that it's sort of an immersive sim.
00:04:19
Speaker
And even if you do get caught by the guards, there's a lot of things you can do to extricate yourself from your fuck up. And I think ah sort of putting yourself in that sort of do or die situation where you can't reload or save makes the game all the more fun. You have to think, ah think about what you're going to do if things get fucked up in a heartbeat. Are we going to start flash bombing dudes? Or are we just going to run away and hide in a cupboard somewhere?
00:04:46
Speaker
And so to be clear, you do this sort of on a level by level basis. It's not like I screwed up in a level and now I have to go back and replay everything beforehand. It's kind of like taking a challenge. The game is a very chapter based. It's like a, it's like Hitman in that respect. Yeah. You get a whole briefing video and things in between the levels. Do you reckon you could do a permadeath run? Like if you die, you're done and you're, you're kind of runs over.
00:05:13
Speaker
with your knowledge. like I don't know. Feels like ah a certain yourself unnecessary stress. You know, it's self-implosed challenge. like mean I mean, just, you know, just play mission by mission and then stitch together all your winning runs into a single video. If that's what you want to do, you're the battle. And no one need be the wiser.
00:05:37
Speaker
very i think This reminds me a lot of, um I'm usually not super into stealth games, um but I got really into Hitman when Hitman 3 came out a few years ago. And I think part of it was because the game is built in that way to like there is so much improvisation built into the mechanics and the level design and everything and even the the objective design that no matter how badly I screwed something up, there was sort of a way out, like a creative way out of a situation, um which I kind of love because yeah a stealth game where it just feels like everything is like, you need to do it this way and this way alone, like, yeah doesn't feel like it has that same creative freedom.
00:06:21
Speaker
There's other games that just have stealth as an element where it's just sort of a precursor to combat. Like the moment you fuck it up, you just have to take down the rest of the enemies in standard combat style. All the opposite, which is what I hate the most, which is you can get caught and then go hide in a cupboard, but then the enemies just go, oh, okay. And then walk back to the default positions. I hate that. If I see that in it like in stealth, I'm done. I'm okay.
00:06:45
Speaker
I like embracing my fuck ups like if I'm playing if I'm playing half life, and I'm just accidentally press the contact grenade button while I've got the assault rifle out, and it blows off in my face and I'm in the phone like 20 health, they usually just go right well, I'm gonna own this, I'm going to play conservatively for the extra challenge until I can get some health back.
00:07:06
Speaker
the enemies to have a reaction, right? Like if I walk into a room and alert them to my presence, I don't want them to just go back to their, you know, their cycle. I want them to be like, Oh, well, people are trying to get into this room. Let's lock these doors or like, let's yeah um change the environment in this way. And so they're kind of reacting.
00:07:24
Speaker
yeah i always loved about to the Arkham style predator mission, because a lot of games rips off the Arkham style predator mission, but they ah disregarded the most important ingredient, which was that the predator mission escalates the more people you take out. Yeah, enemies get more twitchy. They start like ah moving in pairs and uncovering each other's backs. And know if you and when they're really scared, they just start firing randomly into the air and start shooting on a hair trigger. And a lot of the various gargoyles, so you have fewer places to kind of watch out.
00:07:54
Speaker
and a lot of games have the predator mission where you just take out a guy and if everyone just goes, huh, there's one less of us weird and then back to the usual routine. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny replaying a lot of the older Metal Gear games. That's the same thing where it's like, well, I guess nothing's wrong. I'll just revert back to how I felt before. But nice. That sort of ah the the the gradual escalation also reminds me a little bit of um when I was really into like GTA with three and and GTA four, especially like the three trilogy and four just
00:08:25
Speaker
Hopping in there, summoning or putting in cheat codes to get a bunch of weapons or or vehicles, and then just seeing how long I can survive trying to accumulate six stars.
Creative Gameplay Modifications
00:08:34
Speaker
It's just a completely different game to be like, all right, I'm going to stand on top of this building and fire enough rockets to where they're sending like, you know, Comanche helicopters and and tanks rolling down the street to try to get me.
00:08:45
Speaker
I always always do them um in the sense of with GTA, I'd either do, you have to get to a certain location within this song's runtime. like to yeah super quick Or yeah you have to get somewhere, um, without going on a road. So you have to like always drive on the payments and then, or like go off on the hills and stuff. Um, dumb stuff, you know.
00:09:09
Speaker
The real challenge for me playing GTA one, like the original top down one was to try to play, try to drive like a normal, upstanding citizen without hitting anything or going off the road. Yeah. Yeah. already going on yeah It's funny. You can literally go to both sides of the spectrum. You could be like the world's worst criminal, or you can be like, can I get across this city stopping at traffic lights and like trying to make like left hand turns and staying in my lane? Yeah. Classic.
00:09:35
Speaker
I, uh, speaking of GTA, there's a, there's a, I believe it's a standup comedian who started streaming GTA four named Tom Walker. I'm putting a link to his channel in the chat who, uh, did this thing where he went in and turned up the traffic speed to like 10,000 times. And so just getting across the street is like a Herculean task of like, oh, these, good these, every other car is just a bullet waiting to just explode a second. It hits you. Um, have you guys ever like actually gone in and like,
00:10:05
Speaker
Mucked things up with like physics or anything like that in in like the back end of a game to try to like, like Oh, how, but how close can I come to actually breaking this thing? Not intentionally. Um, I know spoilers, but we were filming episode three about masters and.
00:10:21
Speaker
Mine's fucked. a little bit under hood on that for that um Not intentionally, no. i I tend to, all of the challenges I'd self-impose are usually mechanical ones that I can, you know, keep yeah hold myself tabs on. Yeah. It wasn't, it wasn't exactly a self-imposed challenge, but I do remember fondly ah but ah of deciding tokenly to play through Resident Evil 4 with the infinite rocket launcher.
00:10:49
Speaker
So fun, which in some cases makes the game a lot easier. And in other cases can make the game slightly more harder, easier to fuck up in Ashley. Ashley kind of, I'm assuming can die by blowback from the rocket launcher. All right. Well, yes. Cause uh, cause you can, I never, I never thought I'd hear that the sentence, Ashley can die from blowback.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah, she could actually blow back. I also killed her by accidentally slashing her with a knife because I was trying to open a barrel and she stepped in front of the barrel. So it wasn't my fault. It was her fault. I hate it. Was that original or remake Resident Evil 4? I think original, I want to say. Maybe it was remake. I played them both pretty close back to back and I feel like I killed her several times in both games because I'm bad at that.
00:11:33
Speaker
um I was I was thinking back to two ones i've I've seen or done recently and I just co co-commented this one But when Casey and I were replaying all the Half-Life games and we got to Half-Life episode 2 we decided which I'm sure we were not the first people to decide this that we wanted to carry ah The gnome as far as we could which is the rocket. So we got the garden gnome We named him David and we took him all the way to the rocket to get him to space, which I believe is a like achievement or something. Yeah. Yeah. That's not a self-imposed challenge. That's a very good achievement in that game. There's a similar one in there too, I think. Yeah. And in Half-Life, Alex, which is really hard to do because you actively have to pick pick them up.
00:12:12
Speaker
It was nuts. Some of the things we had to do in order to be like, we need to shoot David over this wall and then get to the other side of it before the thing closes behind us. like There were times where you had to keep reloading our save to figure out, like is it even possible? like Have we screwed ourselves? It's so fun, man. Also, his physics just go nuts inside of the car. When you're in the car, like he doesn't know where he is, so you kind of just have to like jam him down like near the wheel well and just like hope that he stays in as you're going across the map.
00:12:39
Speaker
I love the simpler challenge that just completely upends the way you play a game. You know, something like just keep keep this gnome with you. As always love about Taskmaster, you know. A simple challenge, but they just had one little twist that completely yeah makes it really fun to watch people fail out.
00:12:55
Speaker
Yeah. There's also, I mean, these games that kind of have ah this sort of choice like built into them. It's not even like you haven't go out of your way for this. And and two things I'm thinking of are um the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, the way that when you ah ah are getting your upgrades after shrines. You can choose whether you want a heart or whether you want stamina. And the more I've played those games, the more I've just started up and just going a pure stamina run to see at what point do I feel like I need hearts. Because you know once you have a ton of stamina wheels, like you your your options for what you can do in any given situation are are you know increased. like You can climb over things, you can glide distances, you can do all sorts of things that you can if it's just hearts. Yeah, but but but the fact that you're going to die quickly. Yeah. There are occasional games I've played with the not so much a self-imposed challenge, but more to prove a very cynical point. That's right. Every time they ask me to pick one of three stats to up when I level up or something, I just you go with the same one throughout the whole game just to prove that this ah RPG element is completely vestigial and pointless. Funny. Yeah.
00:14:05
Speaker
I remember doing that when I was playing the flashback free make was out on digital only. Yeah. Just put all the points into one of the stats. Cause honestly, I didn't really get what the stats did in the first place and none of it really made much of a difference to anything.
00:14:18
Speaker
Yeah, I like a game where those upgrades like feel kind of immediate and tangible. I'm wrapping up my thousand in year door ah replay and I feel like those level ups always kind of feel meaningful and I've been leaning just towards putting them in like badge points. um yeah because Yeah, because the numbers are so low.
00:14:36
Speaker
The numbers are so low, you start off with like three hit points, and enemy attacks do one hit point. that's That's a nice, easy to understand Fugeelum, I think. These opportunities, we had like 1,922 hit points, and every enemy attack does 312. Like you're sort of putting too many middlemen in there.
00:14:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I actually just watched a ah YouTube video by a guy named Daryl talks games who did this. ah It's sort of the psychology of damage numbers of like, do we get anything from seeing a character do 9999 damage compared to seeing like a crazy hit in Mario Paper Mario doing 10? Well, some some might argue that there is a sort of unconscious cathartic element when you see bigger numbers.
00:15:21
Speaker
Yeah. And there's like certain moments he he pointed like directly to, uh, the very end of final fantasy seven in your battle with Sephiroth. You could do like the ultimate attack against him and each slash does like 9,999. So it feels like this really like climb active. Holy shit thing. I'm finally doing it. right I've spoken about it in my videos of juxtaposition gratification and having building up the context of what numbers mean because in isolation, a 10 and a 999,000 don't mean anything, but within the context of what you've been doing for the last 20 hours, those numbers can mean
RPG Mechanics and Player Psychology
00:15:54
Speaker
drastically different things. Yeah. That's a good point. The higher the number, the more divisible it is, the which adds more flexibility to things. Sure.
00:16:04
Speaker
you can't do half points of damage in faith mario so you're kind of stuck with one kind of damage to the whole game but what if instead of like jumping with your shoes you had like dual daggers and each one did half a point of damage adds a little more flexibility there well yeah yeah What a warcraft has this problem. You're going to be hearing me talk about what a warcraft a lot over the next couple of weeks, guys. um My example after this is about wow as well, but specifically about numbers. um Every few expansions, what a warcraft has to do is they call them stat squishes because.
00:16:38
Speaker
As you build power, it gets to the point where the bosses need to have tens of millions of health because your character progressed so far that you are also doing millions of damage. And then they do it squish where the entire game takes this massive stat squish and boss health. It's kind of dumb when the standard enemy in like the sixth DLC could wipe the floor with the final boss fight of the original game. is Yeah. yeah this um this latest expansion actually did something uh really interesting usually you know you you build up your gear and you have the legendary swords and all of this box then you go into the new expansion and the first bear you kill is holding a sword that is better than the legendary weapon you had in the previous expansion but in this one they've kept the power so i was
00:17:26
Speaker
as powerful and doing as much damage in the new expansion up until I capped as I was previously. So they're trying to keep that power level in the same area, and um it felt really good. But um yeah, to stay on WoW just for a second, one of my self-imposed challenges is in dungeons in World of Warcraft, you have five players, you have three people doing damage, you have a healer and a tank. So the tank's role is to take all of the aggression and the the damage.
00:17:54
Speaker
And one of our things that we would do is when we would go and help our lower level friends is we would either not take a tank or not take a healer and see if we could do the dungeons just with just with that um and just use our skill to do that. And I find that incredibly fun and it's really rewarding um and another way to you know test yourself.
00:18:16
Speaker
What's up, big nerd, you are. Oh, yeah, definitely. To kind of think outside the box of like what the game's giving you. um Yeah, like ah yeah the Supergiant games do that in terms of like build your own challenge, not just on a difficult setting. but on meaning Bastion, Hades, Pyre. Yeah. And andy Transistor. They'll unlock things at a certain point where you can kind of add modifiers to a run. And ah it's a push and pull where something is more difficult. i have yeah Either enemies are more difficult or you have been debuffed. ah But in return, you usually get more XP or maybe a greater chance at certain rewards. And so, um you know, you're able to kind of choose
00:18:58
Speaker
how much you want to gamble on something. that If you think you're having a pretty easy time or you're like, oh man, my weapons feel really powerful, you could do the one to where enemies have you know twice as much HP, um but you get twice as much XP or whatever. so um I kind of like it when when those are built into the game that let me decide at a certain point if I want to do it as opposed to just changing what the difficulty is um wholesale.
00:19:21
Speaker
Well, I like silly creative challenges that people come up with. There's a whole like sub-genre on YouTube of people playing Dark Souls. and Like I've seen, like, who is it who does? ah They have to play new game. live I have to play the the full game, then new game plus, new and then new game plus plus for the original Dark Souls. In the first run, they can only use pyromancy. In the second run, they can only use sorcery. And in the third one, they can only use miracles. Oh, wow.
00:19:51
Speaker
Which is kind of nuts. I guess that's the kind of thing you have to do to keep yourself interested when you literally know everything there is to know about Dark Souls and it could no longer surprise you at all. The Golden Run is when you complete Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, Demon's Souls, Sekiro and Elden Ring in a row without being hit once in any way. Probably about it, added Elden Ring to that now. Without being hit!
00:20:17
Speaker
What happens when you get like 30 hours into something and you get it? Do you just restart? You start again. yeah You start again. Apparently you have very little else going on in your life. is there a different break like china drugs yeah I'll tell you one self-imposed challenge that I wanted to bring up ah because it's a special case and that's in ah Firewatch. And but the self-imposed challenge for this one is naturally in that it turns Firewatch into an actual fucking game.
00:20:44
Speaker
hu as opposed to a fucking walking sim. All you have to do is go into the options and unselect the thing that says ah that it always shows your position on the map. o And magically by doing that, it turns Firewatch into an orienteering game. That's actually kind of interesting.
00:21:04
Speaker
as well as a story. And it's a shame they don't offer that option from the beginning. It shows off that the game, the game does have like good level design and sort of site and horizon design um in that if you kind of turn around, like you can, like the the art in the game is obviously really striking. And so you can, similar to Breath of the Wild, you can look in a direction and kind of see points of interest and and orient yourself. you know You navigate by landmarks with the map. It's fun.
00:21:30
Speaker
They must have designed it from that perspective first so and then added the map. I know the the developers yeah were big fans of Miasmata. And if you guys remember that game, that was all, it was like a first person kind of like survival horror game out in the woods where it was all about orienteering. Like you had your map and ah you would have to be like, okay, I see a tower over there and a river over there. So I guess where I need to go is in between those two.
00:21:55
Speaker
But you could play through all of Firewatch, never realizing there's an option to turn off the map marker. I feel i feel like the game should have, um when you select a new game, it should have presented the option for you. Yeah. Are you here for the story or here for a challenge or whatever? Yeah. Yeah. It should be an accessibility feature to have the marker on the map. And they should have done a Celeste and just warned you at the beginning. This game is about orienteering. It's going to be difficult. Do you want a marker on the map?
00:22:19
Speaker
Um, yeah, it's funny how some of those, uh, some of those challenges, like you, you mentioned the souls one, some of them kind of get a life of their own. Like, uh, I think the one that stands out to me most is the news lock challenge in, uh, Pokemon through Pokemon games. So it is, you can only catch the first wild Pokemon you find in every area. So once, once you enter an area, the first wild Pokemon is the only one you can catch an ad to your team and you can't catch anymore. And if a Pokemon faints in battle, you can never use it again for the rest of the game. The Pokemon slaughter. Yeah. So it like really like seeing those challenges of people and like, this has been implemented since the, you know, in the original game. So, uh, seeing people kind of get through and have to deal with the hands that they're dealt. Like if they're hoping for a Pidgey and they get a rat at her or whatever, it's like, well, I got to deal with the fact that I got this fucking rat on my team and I don't have a cool bird.
00:23:13
Speaker
And the runs are so different because of that, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's chaotic. um Yeah, which those are cool. And then one, I've been I've been kind of ah toying with getting into just because I know the two games so well are um there's ah I'm sure we've all heard of randomizer
Unique Game Challenges and Randomizers
00:23:31
Speaker
runs for things. And it's how they do them a lot with ah um Nintendo games with Zelda games, with Metroid games. ah But one combines Super Metroid and A Link to the Past.
00:23:42
Speaker
So that, you have yeah, so that there are certain doors in a link to the past that you enter. And all of a sudden you end up in a certain place in Zebes in super Metroid, but all of the items across both games are completely mixed. So you're going to find certain super Metroid powerups in the.
00:23:58
Speaker
in the Link to the Past, and you'll find certain Link to the Past power-ups in Super Metroid. So you are ping-ponging between both games, and so you'll get like, oh shit, I found the bombs in Super Metroid, so now I can go back to Link to the Past and use the bombs ah on there. And so like the and the randomizer is kind of seeded in a way to where I believe each ah um What is possible? Yeah. It doesn't like lock you behind something that is impossible that you need. one item Yeah. Yeah. Which is, yeah, which is really cool. I've seen those done at GDQ and those are always really kind of incredible to me. Cause it makes me look at a game. I feel like I know really well and then be like, Oh no, I don't know you at all.
00:24:40
Speaker
Hmm. Same time, right? And just combining that is so fascinating. Yeah. Almost around with a Castlevania, Ari Rosario randomizer at one point. And, uh, I think I was playing it on stream and then about halfway through a random enemy just dropped the Clive Solish, which is the best sword in the game. And the rest of the game just sort of folded and then it wasn't really that fun. I guess that's the, that's my issue with randomizer runs. Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:09
Speaker
Um, there's, there's also ones that I feel like aren't, this is less challenges and more of like playing a game, uh, sort of experiencing something in a different way is that, uh, I know people have done calendar based persona runs to where most persona games start in like April. And so you play along with like the actual calendar of the year. So you start your play through in April and you play one in game day every day.
00:25:35
Speaker
You know, you're going to have certain times you're going to skip two weeks because I guess people with a very severely small amount of free time in the day. Yeah. Or if you're, this is like your fifth time doing it. Um, and then another one I'm actually close to finishing right now is, uh, there's a game called that came out at the end of July called, uh, Natsuman 20th century kid, which is, uh, a part of the summer vacation series, which is this old, like going back to, to.
00:26:02
Speaker
ps1 series of games that are a little bit like animal crossing but it's kind of like cozy games where you get on summer vacation just wandering around catching bugs ah fishing like doing random shit for the people in town kind of has like it has an indie feel but it's something that's been around for like 20 years ah but the latest one you have 30 days in august to complete it. And so it's like in-game days, but I've just been playing one game a day this month. And game day is like in game days is like sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes, you know, 25 minutes, but um it's just like a really nice, it's just been like a morning routine of mine and I'm about to wrap it up.
00:26:39
Speaker
Imagine a yeah our log game that came out that you had to play over a year because it would only release small batches of content every day. Yeah. Which is like almost the animal crossing thing too, right? They have like, you know, certain celebrations for Christmas diative because animal crossing is scummy.
00:26:54
Speaker
yeah that was inter crossing comingm dude It's a planned video of mine I've had for years. If animal crossing had monetization, it would be considered one of the scummiest games ever made. but the facts are like go yeah and But the fact that it doesn't like,
00:27:08
Speaker
I don't think starting playing people to encouraging players to play every day um for specific ones. Yeah. It was Animal Crossing that discovered that you can do that to sort of get people addicted. And then the Facebook games sort of took down run with it. You know what? It was a pandemic and it came out and it helped me get through it. So back off. Yeah.
00:27:30
Speaker
yeah um What about whatever the specific challenges can we think of? Because we did a whole bunch of these in Inside the War, which we could probably tap into for Battlemasters. Like one that I was fond of was ah playing the last level of Doom 2, but just seeing how long you can survive without firing a shot at anything. Because if you've ever played the last level of Doom 2, it continually spawns monsters for as long as you're there. Like, yeah eternally. Jesus. Yeah, I like Doom 1st. You can't hide forever.
00:28:02
Speaker
Yeah, it almost turns into like a game of tag where you're like trying not to get tagged by the enemies, but at a certain point you get you get overwhelmed. um Yeah, I like that. I like the idea that it takes. The core of a game and strips your main verb away from you. Yeah. Like if you took a like how far can you get in blank game without jumping? Like I died, you know, of a jump based game. I don't know if there's any of those as well. How long did you get through each Mario game without touching a coin.
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah, which they find a way people are made in Mario 64 without jumping or yeah like doing something and they're wild. Like, and that's what's so fascinating. And I hope, Jesus, we can tap into, um, with battle masses in the future, which is games where, uh, we have to find our own ways to to do stuff without those verbs. Like,
00:28:55
Speaker
Oh, yes. Like, for example, bla sixty four yeah. Yeah. So one of the things we did in the uncivil war was get through the first world of Sonic without killing anything, which is surprisingly hard because you just start going out of control and you're rolling in a ball and you're like, I hope there's nothing at the end of this, the end of this loop that I'm about to destroy. He just goes flying. He won't be told that hedgehog. He just won't be told because he's got toothed. That's the thing is you can't tell him what to do okay quick.
00:29:23
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I've always there's there's certain games I've played a ton that have those kind of things that I've just never never dug into like starting with the Metal Gear Solid 2, there's like the dog tags thing to where you can hold up like almost pretty much every enemy in the game has a unique set of dog tags that if you hold them up and kind of shake them down, you could take them from. ah And I kind of never think about I guess Metal Gear Solid 3 was the first game where i you actually are forced to think about the things you have killed because it directly you directly have to confront the number of enemies and animals you've killed in a certain boss fight.
00:29:59
Speaker
um But like before that, I'd never thought about that. And so when you get to when you get to there, you're like, oh, I guess there are ways to just play through this, um almost i guess similarly to what we were talking about with Thief of a completely kind of pacifist run, which um a I think my brain is just not necessarily wired. That's the preferred canon way of playing Thief.
00:30:23
Speaker
Like if you play hard play on hardest difficulty, you're instantly failed if you kill anyone. Yeah. youd see but do you that kind of perfect How do you guys feel about challenges? Let's say you're playing Devil May Cry or Bayonetta or something. um and you're in a room because they always lock you in a room and below your star meter or whatever, they have that challenge of like kill four of these enemies like within this timeframe or whatever. How do you feel about challenges like that? Like the game is trying to get you to do because they always turn me off. I'm like, Oh, I don't know. Like the specific challenge rooms in DMC or tell me cried to where it's like completely optional, but you get extra orbs if you complete this thing. Yeah, I don't know what it is about it. I just, it just puts me off. I'm like, I i wish these were things that they would reward me for, for naturally playing rather than putting them down. the yeah I do kind of prefer, I like having almost like background objectives that I don't realize I'm working towards. And if you get a 50 hit combo or whatever you get, then then i boom here's a thing and there's some more quiet play to the
00:31:23
Speaker
Yeah. like my ability ah It was also weird in one of the Devil May Cry games when we were streaming it, people were like, oh, don't even go into any of the bonus rooms in this one because they're geared towards New Game Plus. And I'm like, well, why are they even here? Like, why, you know, I guess someone to beat them. I guess like the equivalent of like those opening bosses and all the Souls games where it's like, well, 99 percent of you are going to get killed and then move on to the story. But if you're really crazy, you can beat whoever before you start to get it.
00:31:50
Speaker
I think Pacifist runs in games like Thief and Deus Ex kind of ah missing the point because in those games you can knock people out and it's functionally identical to killing them. I feel like the more interesting challenge would be to not knock people out or kill them. To just like ah like a complete shadow run.
00:32:11
Speaker
yeah I mean, it's just basically like a different verb that does the exact same thing. It like makes people somewhat no longer a threat and removes them from the terrain. Maybe it's like they woke up eventually if you did if you didn't kill them.
00:32:26
Speaker
ah the kind of going alongside not killing them ah eric mentioned i believe in the game feel like in the opening levels of Pikmin, you're like, I don't want any of these sweet little things to die. And then when you get later on, you're like, I will throw 100 of them at this thing. And as long as one survives, I will be happy. ah But like, I feel like that is like the equivalent of the kind of role playing we were talking about earlier, where Eric plays the game as like a cosmonaut who is like, well, I don't want any of these little critters to die. And I'm a good I'm a good leader of critters. So I'm going to reload any challenges if any of these die, which um seem like an absolute disaster. I do not think I can handle it.
00:33:14
Speaker
It's like playing Dead Rising 1 and trying to keep all the fucking NPCs alive. And you're like, well, this just isn't going to work. Like someone's going to have to die here. Yeah. Yeah. I never, um, you know, obviously games like, uh,
00:33:29
Speaker
XCOM and games like Fire Emblem have the sort of permadeath modes to where like Iron Man or whatever to where if a unit dies it is wiped from the game and like I get that mentality of certain people where it's like oh every move really means something but And i don't yeah i just don't I just don't know if I want to like devote a ton of time and then be like, well, I don't have this thing anymore. And if it's not a story reason, like we bring up Pyre a lot to where the story reasons for you lose your best units because you want to see them succeed narratively. You know, what makes for a fun narrative based self-imposed challenge is to try to not lose any soldiers in XCOM.
00:34:05
Speaker
yeah Because then you you end you tend to get really attached to your dudes in XCOM, because yeah just by the simple act of characterizing them with names and nationalities, they sort of lends them all the more attachment in the minds of players.
00:34:20
Speaker
i e I kind of need things to either be self-imposed and like I've done, um you know, like no def runs on certain styles of games and stuff like that. I even needed to be self-imposed or an accident. One of my fondest memories in games is finishing Bioshock 2 for the first time and getting the like the brass balls achievement, which is for not you like respawning once. So i know wow I beat the entire game without dying.
00:34:45
Speaker
And I was like, Holy shit. And it's like a cool memory for me because I was like, I wasn't even trying to do that. Um, and did it. And it was an accident that I got that achievement. Um, and that's felt amazing rather than, Oh, this game is giving me the option to try and do this thing. I've beat my head against the wall for ages. Oh, and I finally got it and probably yeah yeah anything, you know, huh? That's interesting. like jupi col there Some games.
00:35:11
Speaker
and especially in the age of the survival crafter, ah where the self-imposed challenge is sort of essential for me to play the game. That's how I always played Minecraft. I would have no interest in Minecraft if I didn't like give myself a task, like ah build a giant skull fortress with lava weeping out of the eyes. Yeah, some of the things in those kinds of games that can't grasp, be like I can't grasp onto to because I don't have that self, that challenge that the game has told me.
00:35:39
Speaker
Because that was the only way I could maintain interest in playing Minecraft, if I'm honest. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that's almost just like your fifteen months your brain is ah tuned differently if you're able to just go in and like treat something like a, you know, it's like the difference between a bucket of Legos and a set of Legos you buy at the store that you're like, I'm going to build.
00:35:59
Speaker
yeah we yeah um this This is a weird one that I've been thinking about because I'm just replaying a bunch of RPGs at the moment, but um in pretty much all party-based RPGs, i rotate my if if there's not XP share, I rotate my party out to keep everyone at a consistent level. like I don't like the sort of no child left behind. I have four characters I use and everyone else is on the bench at like level 15 at the end of the game. um So that kind of makes things a little bit harder because you have no.
00:36:33
Speaker
super OP character other than usually the main character who's at the highest level because they're in every battle. um Yeah, I think it's also part of it is because there's a fear that like there's a handful of games like Final Fantasy 6 is one of them where by the end of the game, you need to use all of your party members like Final Fantasy 6. I think the last dungeon you set all of your party members out in different groups.
00:36:56
Speaker
And so if you just haven't used any of them, you're going to be like, Oh, well, this team is going to be very weak, uh, in the final dungeon. So, uh, I always have a slight fear that some games can do that with me. though If you turn up there and half your party is and Garbo, do you just, does you just turn around? I think you can, if half your party is garble, that probably means the other half of your party is.
00:37:18
Speaker
overleveled for the challenge. So like they're able to sort of tank through things. I just do yeah ah pursue this sort of thing in the opposite sense. Say I play Pokemon, I will actively go and find EVs, get as many EVs as I can, and then evolve all of them. And then my party will be made up of EVs every single day. And is my goal. And I need to do that before I can defeat the Elite Four. yeah I'm playing, uh, when I played the persona four, I did a sort of self opposed challenge where I stuck with the starting four party members and never swapped them out. Not really as a silver post challenge, but because I couldn't be asked and kind of to prove a point, I suppose. Yeah.
00:37:58
Speaker
Were there, were you able, like, was there any point in the game where it's like, Ooh, this dungeon is clearly designed for me to use blank and I don't have them in my party. So I need to, no, not in persona four. I mean, whatever, like, uh, elemental powers you need, like the main character can just swap out there. Yeah, that's a good point. The main, the main character being like the wildcard or whatever can, can fill any gaps you need.
00:38:22
Speaker
And yes, I've seen Persona 4 main character only no party members runs. And I've seen Persona 4 stick with the initial persona and not do any persona crafting or changing runs as well. Oh my god. Yuzunami the whole way? Nuts. Yeah. Mad.
Engaging with Audience through Super Chats
00:38:39
Speaker
Shall we get a Super Chats? Everyone's bug up full of ideas. Super Chats. Also, Yahtzee, a couple of people mentioned, what you so you got something over your shoulder.
00:38:48
Speaker
Oh yes. Uh, this is my little plush Mortimer friend that I got from shark robot and then you'll be able to buy yourself from shark robot. He's got a knife. Yeah, it's, ah it's, ah it's magnetized little magnetized knife. When I got it, the magnet was, when I got it, the magnet it was like halfway up the blade and I had to sort of work it down to the hilt with my fingers. Just like a real knife.
00:39:13
Speaker
Yeah. So bear that in mind if you buy one, you know, what to tune in into hidden gems tonight. You might, you might see a couple more of these little, these little furry critters. What's that little Mortimer. I couldn't possibly do that to them. No, clear up the mess. Oh oh no. but You can use them as a, as a towel. Use them to dry yourself up.
00:39:37
Speaker
ah is anyway. Ah, he's $2 and says picks of ludo and toffee and discord for International Dog Day. I put one on Twitter today for International Dog Day. I'm not I will do that.
00:39:50
Speaker
it's into our show yeah know It's international dogs bomb day. it The other side it makes me uncomfortable tough is usually on the other side. I'll get ludo. defense you I rearrange the cushions. I was like that huming the office over the weekend. Incredible is ludo.
00:40:06
Speaker
International. Yes. Whoo hoo. She she was just asleep, so she's very tired. Oh, OK. Oh, Oh, they're cute. Dr. Theo, remember for seven months and tipcha. And then this gives another five dollars. it says I feel like Nintendo is missing out on some potential by not making Nuzlocke an official modifier for the games. Yeah. what is what Yeah. Pokemon is just sort of spinning its wheels, if you ask me. Yeah. But when is why? I mean, sales wise,
00:40:36
Speaker
is still making so much fun. Oh, quite. I mean, they don't have to innovate, do they? I think this is it. I think this we're about to hit the 30th anniversary in a few years. I think that's going to be it. Big innovation. Emorated. You see everything just hanging brain. It's the innovation that the game freak employees are going to unionize. And you just wait. You all just wait. Super switch. New Pokemon. Hachis machis.
00:41:03
Speaker
I didn't like last again. Make better Pokemon games, please. Korth87 gives 50 Danish krona and says, have you checked out Tactical Breach Wizards? It's Terry Pratchett meets XCOM and a fun mix of tactics, puzzles, and well-written humor worth a look. I'm actually planning to play that in Yasi Tries this week. oh It's by yeah Tom Francis, who brought us Gun Ponz. Wait, what are your puzzles this week?
00:41:26
Speaker
Oh, shit. Okay. I guess I'll just play it myself in my spare time. Oh, except I can't because I'm playing fucking. Oh, no. Fuck's sake. The guy who did gunpoint and heat signature. Correct. Yes. Yes. He interviewed me once Tom Francis back when he was a games journalist. yeah Now he's now he's a more successful indie developer. Fuck you, Tom Francis. Oh, my God.
00:41:52
Speaker
You did go full-time, so maybe that's your secret. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I'll do that at some point. Maybe that'll be my retirement. I'm just making the games until I'm like a hundred. Your retirement is, it's not retirement a full-time game dev retirement. that's It's the thing I find fun. Yeah. Yeah. I bought heat signature. I'm excited to play it. I really like gunpoint.
00:42:16
Speaker
Uh, three cores gives 51 PLNs and says pocket change for my fave podcast. Thanks for the entertainment and your hard work behind the scenes a second with best of luck with ongoing internal improvements and with new shows coming up. Thank you. Yeah. We got all sorts of bullshit to show you guys with archive last year with battle masters today. Um, yeah, good stuff.
00:42:39
Speaker
Yeah, and as a reminder, Battlemasters is not ah a set scheduled series. We are obviously keeping, we're going to keep doing them, but um they will be ready when they're ready. The top is getting really bad about something. Oh, no. Okay. What is it? ah Someone's nothing on my office today.
00:42:59
Speaker
With the five seconds. The problem is you didn't give toffee an International Dog Day present. Ludo can do a International Dog Day dance. I was gonna do it. Can you confirm or deny that Ludo was the one who actually played Dark Souls during your run? Because there's been some people who saw something. Yeah, that's why my commentary. What's up with Joss's camera? I guess it's probably Eric, you little scamp. ah Eric being in a scamper. That is that is gonna that is gonna just blast into some people.
00:43:29
Speaker
um so answer my Yeah, my kids just thought it was very important that they that I get this picture they drew for me. all the sights me um send a super chat next time I should probably put one of those on air lights on the outside of my office door. Not that they know what that means.
00:43:54
Speaker
Uh, yes, the book to her, the dunkle height gives 10 euros and says my stick class to heist there gives nine Reichsmark and says Fox D gives five monopoly dollar and says a superb owner gives three tool nips and says fill my ass up gives no money and pays with expure instead and says hi toffee.
00:44:13
Speaker
of the mouthful. You did great. I'm very proud of you. That was an asshole. The confusing thing is the next Super Chat is from actual FoxD. The real FoxD then gives $5 and says, playing a cozy game and trying to complete the main story in as few in-game days as possible. Can do it on slow speed, but in-game time is the score. Well, you that doesn't sound like a very cozy experience. No, it's funny because that seems like it's like but Not spitting in the face, but like going completely against what the game was set for. Like, I'm sure there's some people who've done that, like Stardew, right? Like pretty hardcore. good challenge rights That could be about i've seen most profitable season. Yeah. On YouTube, I've seen challenge runs along the lines of complete the entire ah objective list within the first year of Stardew Valley. Man. Yeah.
00:45:05
Speaker
But it almost feels like you'd have to like schedule out your time beforehand and be like, all right, by the end of this month, I need to do blank. And yeah, that'd be good for battle masters. Like you have 10 days to make as much money as possible. How you do it is entirely up to you. Yeah, it's not bad at all. I just said that. Man, Yahtzee, what a great idea. What would we do if we didn't interview? I know. I've so got so many good ideas. Man, remember when there used to be three people on this podcast? Whatever happened?
00:45:33
Speaker
did he did you know like you're you're fun You got a copy of the adventure land the toy Yeah, sure ah you know what I'm gonna I've got a textile opening case we get good ideas about the master challenges. I'm gonna put that in there Yeah yeah All right. B.S. Marsh gives two dollars and says Battle Masters was great. Jamaite's surprise was hilarious. ah Yes. An action figure from the hit George Clooney, Brad Bird film Tomorrowland. Yeah. i Yeah. There it is right there. Jack's Chamber of Trash. It's the fact they named one of the characters Dave and then another one of the main characters, David.
00:46:14
Speaker
like Yeah, well, that's just, you know, true to life. There's a lot of people called David. My brother's called David. He went to school ah with two other Dave's. so They were called Dave, David and David. I'm the same as James, but you know, I didn't name two out of the the five characters in my book, James. I mean, we do have several Jesse's or two Jesse's. jestic We have yeah multiple Jesse's.
00:46:42
Speaker
Yeah, the escapist, we had a Jesse writer as well. A a lot of Jesse's. Palash T is 199 and says, Hitman is based entirely on this topic. Yeah. Yeah. which i like What's a good challenge run for Hitman? I think it's just like, no suit changes. ah Silent Assassin. Yeah. Great win. Yeah.
00:47:06
Speaker
Yeah. No, so no, uh, no suit changes. And the neat thing about Hitman is that they, they'll fold in sort of like themed and different, almost in the same way that, uh, we'll talk about Animal Crossing, like every Christmas they bring back a certain challenge on a level to where it's like a museum or like a mansion, and the level gets Christmas
Seasonal Missions and Game Constraints
00:47:23
Speaker
themed. And one of the challenges is to beat pretty much the wet bandits from a um ah like There's like the two robbers in the basement robbing a bunch of shit who look like the wet bandits from the movie. um
00:47:37
Speaker
and I think that's a neat little, neat little seasonal challenge. I like that. yeah I just, I just remembered a YouTube challenge video for Hitman I once saw that was just, can I beat Hitman without breaking any laws? So all the assassinations, you they just have to leave banana skins next to ledges and pretend it was an accident. but this This is just inconveniently placed. This isn't, uh, this isn't against the law at all. Incredible.
00:48:03
Speaker
SPS Hero 2000 gives five euros as I prefer making things easy for myself except stealth games because I feel I am violating the spirit of stealth if I have to resort to open violence. Well, that's always in my attitude. But you know, is sneaking up behind someone and slitting their throats better than shooting them in a gunfight face to face? Yeah. Well, that'll be the topic of next week's next week. Yeah.
00:48:29
Speaker
yeah um Yeah, I think Undertale, even though I haven't played it, that kind of brings the challenge run to just the way you think about the game, right? If you're going to go pacifist or if you're going to go, was it genocide? Is that the other run where you kill everything? Yeah, like yeah almost turns ah turns specific runs of the game into those things, but through a narrative way.
00:48:54
Speaker
FoxD gives $10 and says, my favorite New Vegas challenge is that no vendors, no gambling run. You can only make money from non-repeating quests and can only spend it on things that can't be crafted. Weapon mods, implants. hi It seems weird to ban gambling in New Vegas, but who are we to judge? That's the fun part, right? yeah but How about you can only make money from gambling?
00:49:21
Speaker
And still characters just got a deep gambling addiction. And he's legacy Larry one and yeah. Do you make all your money in that by gambling? Yep. It's literally the only way. I hope you like saves coming.
00:49:35
Speaker
Oh, do I? Or just being scum if you're playing Leisure Shoot. yeah Oh, do I? Oh, quite. Suffering gives 10 euros and says, Loved Battlemasters can't wait for more. My sympathies for Casey and ah R.I.P. Jesse's Bump. On topic in stealth games, but I always feel the need to neutralize every guard and security system can't just pass them. Well, you want to feel safe. well Yeah, I'm trying to think if there's like specific
00:50:06
Speaker
the almost specific things like that, that turn into like compulsions that I have to do. I'm usually like, if I can get through something, it's good enough for me. But like, when I'm playing, when I'm playing a souls, like I feel like I have to kill every enemy at least once. Like I just run sprint pass them to the next checkpoints. Sure. Sure. Those kinds of runs are for like, if you need to make a boss run and you've already gotten there by killing everything, you're like, okay, if I just want to get to the boss, I'll just sprint pass anything. I think that's fair. Yeah.
00:50:36
Speaker
I feel like I'll always, if I'm like going through a dungeon or something and I know, oh, if I go through this door, this is going to advance the story, I will always see what is down the other, um, every other corridor. Um, and I kind of hate when games, when I think I'm going down the optional route and all of a sudden I enter a cut scene and I was going down the main story route and now I'm locked from going backwards and seeing what was in the other optional routes. Hate it.
00:51:03
Speaker
Hate it. Whitizism gives $5 and says, my favorite flavor of option optional challenge is when roguelikes have risk reward modifiers. I like adding an extra wrinkle if I get something extra for it. Yeah, I think I credited that to Supergiant, which I don't know if they were the first to do it. But um I know that's ah obviously a big thing in the genre now. People have their risk board. Yeah, yeah. It's a very standard game design principle.
00:51:32
Speaker
ah Sebastian Tenassi gives to Canadian Nollus and says, Skyrim roleplay, punch cat. Which is a reference going over my head, I'm afraid. Yeah, I don't know what punch cat is. That punch is just a thing. Just being a punchy cat. Just being a punchy cat. I can get down with it with just a cat who punches. I like that. I think you also might have skipped Margaret's. Did I? Oh, yes. Margaret Selmon.
00:52:00
Speaker
Uh, give side dollars and says, my idea of a self-imposed challenge was completing every side quest and mini game in tales of the abyss. Obscure quests in only 2000s RP JRPGs are insane. Yeah. Yeah. If you try to clear all the side quests off of certain games, that'll just drive you. Drive you insane here my idea for challenge. Play a JRPG without her switching to English language. Oh no. Oh no. Easy. Very, very select.
00:52:30
Speaker
Yeah, I could probably get through like chrono trigger or found in Japanese, but I don't think I can get through like persona or something. We should do a battle masters life. Our final episode of season one should be we'll do a blindfolded run of a game. See how far we can get. We should do it where it's like to play a co-op or one player is blindfolded and the other one's got a like cop over their mouth yes. yard That's it. There we go. Like portal to co-op or one player is blindfolded and the other one can't move.
00:53:00
Speaker
I love it. I write that shit down. Just like the three monkeys, they hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Okay. Portal two, go up one player blindfolded, the other can't move.
00:53:16
Speaker
That's brutal. Or even if it's just a game where someone's blindfolded and the other person has to guide them on where to go and what to do. And it's as far as we get, like that's If they like those i like one asymmetrical multiplayer games um have a thing like that to where you see everything and you need to like speak to the other player in order to get them to solve the thing. yeah You can see the maze from overhead and they're seeing it. sort keep talking nobody explain Yeah, yeah, that kind of thing.
00:53:47
Speaker
uh where was I late to the party you saw 99 says just finished watching battle masters and absolutely loved it congrats on the launch thanks late to the virus we're super happy with it we've never been this excited about something internally like yeah yeah you tweeted about it in your yard about um us watching it together yeah we all had a watch party because we wanted to see who won we didn't know up until then Well, you did, because they mailed you the fucking prize, didn't they? Yeah, yeah, but you know, you keep it quiet. But it is super entertaining. Like, i we all actively get in a massive group call with all the staff and like put our cameras on to each other's reactions. It's so fun. And we've all been so excited to yeah show it to the community. I'm glad people are live in it. I hope it's as fun for the community to watch as it is for us to make. Because I've i've heard it said if it seemed like ah the crew were having a lot of fun making a film,
00:54:41
Speaker
odds are good, the audience won't like it as much. And convverse like it seems like they will yeah and conversely, if it seems like ah the people making the film were having no fun at all, the end result would be a really popular film that everyone loves, like The Shining or Apocalypse Now. Now everyone dying on the river.
00:55:04
Speaker
ah Fox D gives two dollars and says wow stat squish the reverse stock split of games. the Yep. Big short. It's weird. And it doesn't feel good when it happens. But then you get over it really quickly. You forget. They booked the hair that uncle height gives five euros is as back when games came in only one language, it was quite the challenge to beat an RPG a relative gave you in Japanese. It was memory in hard mode.
00:55:31
Speaker
fair Yeah, that's that's something that I knew some people who um I mean most of the games are the big Japanese games are released kind of ah internationally day and date now um But I remember like persona 5 came out I think six months earlier in Japan than it did ah in the West and I knew some hardcore persona fans who like imported it beat it in Japanese and I'm like Literally, one of the first things in the game they say is like, oh, go in the train station and take the Shibuya exit or whatever. And that would be for me, literally impossible no if they weren't telling me to do that. Cause I'd be like, where am I? I guess it's like being actually lost in a foreign in a foreign country. So that's my know. I respect it. but and know Really?
00:56:12
Speaker
Uh, last demo says gives 50 somethings and says open world, no fast travel for me. I think it depends on the game. Yeah.
Game Economy and Exploration Limitations
00:56:20
Speaker
Um, I've just caused two. I always thought was fun with no fast travel because it's just fun to traverse that game. We were talking about that last week with Spider-Man as well, right? Yeah. Yeah. Spider-Man reading sunset overdrive. Yeah. I don't even know. Spider-Man had a fast travel mode. I think I would enjoy playing something like Skyrim with no fast travel because that would give you a more immersive narrative experience.
00:56:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. What was it recently? that Um, so like red dead, that doesn't have like traditional fast travel. It's almost like you set your horse to like autopilot and then you kind of like watch them go through. Like the fast traveling GTA was always kind of ah awkward to use as well. Yeah. Yeah. And then recently, um,
00:57:03
Speaker
Didn't Dragon's Dogma, like you could take like the carts from one city to another and you could choose whether it just passed the time or if you wanted to actually go along with the ride and see what was going on. That was a huge pain in the ass though. GTA and Red Dead Redemption traversal is sort of the core gameplay in there. And I feel like there was enough fun stuff to do, whereas I just didn't get feeling in Dragon's Dogma too that there was, once I'd seen seen the stuff once, I kind of didn't want to see it again.
00:57:30
Speaker
ah Hunter Road gives $10 and says, I'm a big fan of randomizers. There's something really satisfying about figuring out your way around a game map while using game knowledge and movement tech to get to places you're not supposed to. Yeah. There's ah there's some other cool ones that I've seen at GDQ that'll be ah like a co-op randomizer and not in that there they're in the same game, but like two players are playing a randomized Ocarina time and they're both in the same seed.
00:57:56
Speaker
So they both have the same game world, so they'll go off in different directions, and like one will try to beat the Deku Tree dungeon, and another one will make a beeline for Death Mountain, and they'll share information with each other and be like, oh, if you need the- Interesting. Yeah, if you need the Ocarina, it's in the bottom of this dungeon, or don't worry about going to Death Mountain, because nothing here is useful. Okay. Yeah. You gotta be real smart. You gotta know those games at the back of your hand, though. Yeah.
00:58:21
Speaker
Uh, Yella gives five pounds and says, really don't get why blizz stick with leveling between X packs. I level on gear is just as important. So why not tie power to gear and no stats squish needed? Oh, this is getting a bit technical for me. capabilities It's to give, uh, you know, all of the abilities they add in expansions, they want to give away to tie that to a level, um, to give you something to do. I gear level doesn't necessarily give you new powers and toys to play with. Um, so I get zoned out now.
00:58:51
Speaker
Yeah. Does each does each expansion raise the level cap? Yes. And they squished that as well. We went we went all the way to 120 and then they squished it down to 60 again. And now we're back on 80. Oh, funny. Oh, man.
00:59:07
Speaker
um just have a tail back can yeah I mean, it's what ostensibly a character. People have been playing for 20 years. I've been playing my character. I was thinking about this yesterday. I've been playing that character, my monk for 16 years. Man, they're old enough to conceptually make love in some countries. Jesus. I was going to say drive a car.
00:59:30
Speaker
We're going to get your monk a car. We're not going to get him. Well, if they were winningning if they were in England, as Jay is, they could have sex, but they couldn't drive a car. This is true. Yeah. Rough. So let's get him to America. we can beat I think it's 17 before you can get a provisional license in the UK. Yeah. No, you can get I think you can get your provisional at 16, but 17 is when you can legally do your testing. I got my yeah license when I was 17.
01:00:01
Speaker
Okay, uh, FoxD gives $5 and says, American Truck Simulator with the onboard sat-nav turned off, navigating only by road signs. Kudos to the devs for making this actually feasible. Yeah, sounds like fun. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying- Are there other open world games that you can just navigate based on, like,
01:00:20
Speaker
ah I wouldn't play Watch Dogs 2, the one that took place in San Francisco. I remember having times where I would just turn all the HUD and everything off and be like, okay, if the mission is in the Presidio, I know how to get through the Presidio.
01:00:37
Speaker
and kind of drag be like Yeah. Would they name them in the quests? Would they be like, it is in this building? Because usually they would rely on... Yeah, I would say like visit whatever like the Google or Facebook analogue is, their offices are located in the Presidio. And if you know the city, you kind of know the general direction that that park is in. I dig it. Yeah. Oldhunter77 gives $10 and says, Original Assassin's Creed, no HUD, makes the game truly immersive, challenging and fun. Even worth a design, delves style study, redesign, stroke, player communication.
01:01:07
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I do it out, not, it wasn't out of a want, but early days when I used to play games like souls or any other game, I would try and get those cinematic shots. Um, i really like and to do that, I'd have to turn the HUD off. And cause it's such a ball like to go in and turn them off all the time. I would just play these games with no HUD.
01:01:25
Speaker
yeah Dark Souls plays really well if you just remove all of the UI. And I mean, I even made an episode on, Hey, let's remove health bars and see what it does to games. Um, but I've commented on like huddlers games, like dead space or a Jurassic park trespasser. And that always feels like they're doing it just to be gimmicky. Yeah. yeah And they're not really hard to say it's just diegetic, right? Like it's on a spine and stuff. I like that. Um, I wish more games would do it, but being able to contextualize it. It's just such a ball ache.
01:01:55
Speaker
because i thought of Because I think of like games like Half-Life and my other favorite games, and and I've never played Half-Life and thought, wow, this game would be so much better if I didn't have an ammo counter in the corner of the screen. Yeah. I mean, a good HUD is something that you kind of forget about, right? Like it's there to assist you, but it's... it's Yeah. I mean, sort of ironically, Dead Space sort of draws attention to the HUD by making it diegetic. Yeah. Yeah. Counterintuitive. Anyway.
01:02:23
Speaker
ah john brooks gives 10 pounds and says in RPGs no looting or treasure hunting only getting money from quest stroke job payments and trade buying all better gear and for the Witcher games only use Witcher gearstroke potions from the books. Well, you'd have to need to be a bigger Witcher fan than me. I'm sure someone's like made a list of those of like what you can and can't use. I like only getting money from jobs in quests. That's funny. Yeah, like make it seem like you know, it's I guess more realistic. You have to earn your living as opposed to just randomly yeah pc run. It was yeah i wasn't always tenable to like sell vendor trash to ever to make money in Skyrim because vendors would only have a certain amount of gold on them. Yeah. So you could give them a few gli dragon bones and then they just wouldn't have any more gold to give you. So you just have to like go to the next town over. I like that. It was like buying the equipment for murdering someone and having to go to five different stores to raise suspicion.
01:03:19
Speaker
to
01:03:22
Speaker
Not that I've murdered anyone or thought about this to, uh, to an inordinate degree. Moving on, uh, Sonoffven gives $5 and says, Halo series LASO, legendary difficulty all skulls on. First games I played that had built in optional challenges that made the game much harder.
01:03:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's intense. Yeah, the skulls in Halo, that was almost like the equivalent of those ah modifiers we were talking about with with, I don't think they give you anything extra, but it's mostly mostly just to make the game more challenging and you have to find them in the levels and everything. That's intense. I don't think I could do that.
01:03:56
Speaker
ah yeah Do you guys care about achievements anymore? I remember really giving a shit about getting achievements when I was younger. and like did on the yeah yeah like When they were introduced on the 360 generation I did, I think once I started doing this for a living I stopped caring. No, as a narrative focused game enjoyer I just do exactly what's required of me to get to the story end and no more. um Okay, fair.
01:04:21
Speaker
ah Ember White gives $10 and says, Yati, we know you love a good sea shanty and story, but I'm surprised I've never heard you mention Moby Dick before. It is both holy and unholy with so much packing to unpack and furling to unfurl.
Literary Discussions and Creative Hobbies
01:04:32
Speaker
Yeah, I've never read Moby Dick for ah the main reason that every time I've heard anyone talk about it, they say it's one of the most boring books everve ever written.
01:04:41
Speaker
first ah but yeah A lot like Ulysses and that thing to where it's... you I mean, I remember reading a graphic novel version of Moby Dick once and even that I found rather of really fucking dull. The pictures of the whales couldn't save you from the how dry it was? Well, we don't get to the whale till the very end. That's the point. It's like following this one dude's hubristic search for revenge against nature.
01:05:06
Speaker
What a dick. I'm replaying the Dreamcast RPG Skies of Arcadia for an upcoming episode of the archive. And there's a character who's pretty much just ah is ah is a one-legged air pirate who is obsessed with finding the whale that killed his son. So that's pretty much no big dick. Who needs no big dick when you got 1999 JRPGs. Did you know old-timey whalers used to turn the foreskin into overcoats? ah We still do that in Wisconsin, actually. Yeah. Yeah, not just whales, anything.
01:05:36
Speaker
They take the whales for skins and turn them into overcoats. Yeah. Great. I'll just let you ah form a little mental image of that while I move on to the next super chat. Ember White gives $5 and says, Marty, your deadpan hooks are my favorite thing about the podcast and Jamaite, welcome to the show.
01:05:58
Speaker
You sent that in before you had to give me a foreskin, fun fact. So, you can amend that, don't worry. Another don't know for appreciating Yahtzee's foreskin doll. A fiver from foreskin. I have a lot of foreskin anecdotes. Did you know that the rings around Saturn are supposed to be the discarded foreskin of Jesus after his circumcision?
01:06:20
Speaker
And again, I'll leave you to contemplate that while I move on to the next Superjet. That one can't be true. I have never been, like, shocked into silence in my fucking life. Also, Alien Romulus is all about a space station that they have like 36 hours before it collides with the rings of a planet. And now I'm just thinking that at the end of Alien Romulus, it collides with a bunch of foreskin. Oh no, we're gonna collide with the foreskin. We've got to get out of our... Just give his foreskin no less.
01:06:48
Speaker
Whitticism gives $2 and says an extra $2 for Marty predicting my super chat. Oh, yeah, I think that was the one on the Hades modifiers. There you go. Folksday gives $5. There's Tiazzi's point about Minecraft. I had a Sims 4 game going during the pandemic that existed entirely content to a post your story forum. He taps into nobody, right? Man, he must have been excrementally bored.
01:07:16
Speaker
It was the pandy. We were all the pandy. The pandy. Well, I spent the pandy getting hand shandies. Oh no. I i spent the pandy doing this. read youtube wells about the paty work Reading the dandy. and of I don't know.
01:07:36
Speaker
ah Cameron Eads gives $10. I thought Twilight Princess was easy, so I tried it with only three hearts and two bottles as my first self-imposed challenge. Ganon is actually scary when he can drop you in three hits through his whole fight. Yeah, that's ter that's that's terrifying. It's funny to hear you say that. I mean, I've played a lot of Soulslike boss fights where the dude could do me in like one or two hits.
01:08:00
Speaker
Yeah. The game violence is super important. So I just play, I just play souls likes like I'm just supposed to avoid getting hit at all. I mean, I think you're meant to play it like that anyway. Yeah.
01:08:14
Speaker
so yeah really any So any points you put into health is kind of a waste of time if you take that approach. It depends how much you can get hit here. Maybe you're just in the shit or and you just going through the health and ring DLC with Jack has been such a humbling experience. He is so fucking good at that game. Oh, yeah. I think he's only got one. Yes. Well, we'll see. is pretty much all the tough bosses, except for the final boss of the DLC. But like he just one-shotted, I guess, well, I suppose is there's a boss named bail in the DLC who's very tough and very cool. And he just one-shotted him. Like yeah, yes on that point six then battlemas yeah who who won? Who won bar masters?
01:08:53
Speaker
It was you. I didn't realize that we just couldn't compliment our coworkers on this stream. Who halved Jack's time. Uh, you know what I'm talking about? Badmasses episode three. Who won that one? clearly was you yeah
01:09:07
Speaker
You don't know who won that one yet, but I know i know for sure I did not. is Oh my God. And I do badly. I'm quietly confident. Okay. Then I was quietly confident about my dog. So I was running cause you know, I didn't die at all, but you know, I underestimated how much other people would take it seriously. I know. Yeah. What a bunch of sweaties we work with. Oh, well, sounds like loser speak to me.
01:09:32
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Random. Uh, Jeremy Goeler gives title. It says, I saw Jamaite with a bird in the Battlemasters preview. And Thor second winded landed parrot enthusiast, Joey Kamman of DMC fame. That's a really and good goof.
01:09:47
Speaker
ah on our DMC streams a few weeks ago, a character shows up and, uh, the character is like a middle-aged black guy. And I went to look, we were like, Oh, whose voice is this guy? We went to look it up and it is the man that Eric is currently showing who is a white man surrounded by parrots. And I was just like, this is the man who voiced the character we just met. Uh, shout out to the birds though. Folks love birds. Big shout out to birds. Yeah. The one in the the thumbnail is my sister's, well,
01:10:16
Speaker
telling me my dad's, but my sister's budgie. It's not a parrot. Um, even though I call it a parrot called Georgie and it loves, if you let out, you would say, you would say parakeet, Marty, which is different than a parrot, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's not a parrot. A parrot mimics like this man has parrots on them. It's a different bird.
01:10:38
Speaker
It's a different type of burb. What's the name of the bird that you had in your head? Like the name of like Georgie. Oh, if you know that it's cage, it will always fly to the new person in the room and sit on the head. a and I had a budgie growing up. His name was Basil. That's a good name. It's a good bird name. Good anything new. Wouldn't have been as good if I used the American pronunciation though. ah all bay easel Basil. Basil.
01:11:08
Speaker
Basil. Well, you know, the first time I ever heard it pronounced Basil was awesome powers. What is it with Americans pronouncing herbs wrong? And they even pronounce the word herbs wrong. We got places to go. We got things
Humor and Cultural Differences
01:11:22
Speaker
to do. What is wrong with America pronouncing most things wrong? I know. It's infuriating. Deal with it. Fair night boys for life.
01:11:33
Speaker
I've always said Leisure Suit Larry, because I think that scans a lot better. Leisure Suit Larry, you consoles get caught up on that first syllable. Aluminum. Aluminium. Get the fuck out of here. Grasping at straws. It's almost like we assume it ends with IUM, like literally every other element that ends with IUM.
01:11:56
Speaker
Rubidium. um Larry fix gives one 99 and says I'm excited for crypt custodian same dev as islets. Yeah, that comes out this week. Javed is working on ah a bite size review of it and I've gotten a chance to play almost the entire thing. um the Thumbs up. Big thumbs up. No spoilers. big Rose Delta gives $5 and says challenge who can get to the moon first in assblasters. Ask your mate. So this is a game from dev heads that we created.
01:12:35
Speaker
yeah okay We get our screenshot and we pitch a game based on, you know, the screenshot. And this one was a gift that Tina left for us of a dude breakdance dancing with rocket, like jet fuel coming out his ass. So we made a game about like a weird, um, co-op walking game where
Gaming Challenges and Lifestyles
01:12:53
Speaker
you could blast stuff out your ass. So I think Ask Blaster would get to the moon first, right? That is, that's the end goal. Yeah.
01:13:00
Speaker
The end goal is for Asplaster to meet his family on the moon. Yeah. And you thought the four skins were the highlight of the discussion. Here we go. Anyway, Senu gives side dollars and says, not really a challenge run, but beating Arkham Batman, Arkham Asylum, City, or Knight in one sitting in an all-nighter is a lot of fun. Well, some of us have our responsible parents. I'll have, you know. I feel like Asylum, I feel like, is pretty doable. That that feels like a smallish game in my head, whereas Asylum and when they ah City and Knight feel like big old open world games. Are we talking like story end or 100% completion here?
01:13:37
Speaker
story and because 300 riddler trophies in one night you'd go mad that's too many that's how the riddler went crazy that's how he wins that's how he wins tell the riddler wins you do riddles and you go you go batshit I always thought one of the many problems with Suicide Squad was that the Riddler never seemed to have much to say on the subject of Batman turning evil. Because there was a dude whose entire motivation for three by four games was ah showing everyone what an asshole Batman was. And this was like this must have been all his Christmas has come at once. And he had nothing to say on the subject.
01:14:15
Speaker
Well, that's like his life goal is finally met. And so it's like, maybe he felt like he peaked and he didn't know what to do. So he decided to do more useless. Yeah. gra says But someone else to send riddles to apparently, uh, Fox D gives $2 and says sings. These are the Dave's I know, I know. Well, I don't know the tune to that. So Dave, the diver, we got Dave, the diver in the bottom corner.
01:14:44
Speaker
Well, referring to, like, the Daves we were talking about earlier, people called Dave and David. Oh, I completely forgot we were talking about Daves earlier. I erase everything from my mind, including things we forgot about last episode. Yeah. Rose Delta gives $2 and says, Starstruck vagabond, get sill, no saves coming. Now, it's not that hard to get sill, Rose Delta, especially if you get them like mid or late game.
01:15:12
Speaker
It's just, it's very easy to accidentally get someone else before you get Sill.
01:15:20
Speaker
Sill's the hardest crew member to get because you can only get them in star systems that don't have civilized planets. And if you're just sticking to delivering stuff, then you don't really have a reason to go to sectors with no civilized planets. yeah But if, but if you're the kind of person who likes, ah you know, surveying uncivilized worlds,
01:15:41
Speaker
then you're more likely to run into them. Yeah.
01:15:47
Speaker
Steve Wheeler gives five pounds and says my self challenge for breath of the wild, stealth kill as many enemies as possible. Many a fun hour spent staking out the goblin camps. Hell yeah. I like sneaking up behind those little boys and giving them a big old stabby. Yeah. but There's quite a lot of games where you could sneak up and stabby dudes. Stabby stabby.
01:16:09
Speaker
Environment kills for me. It's like if I can roll a boulder or or use the environment your grass on fire yeah that's what And pretend it was an accident and that you're actually mr. Bean. Yeah there you go <unk> around ah The merchant of life gives 10 pounds and there's dwarf fortress again I love to death but before the stream launch I could maybe play for 30 minutes before becoming lost or everyone dead definitely a certain kind of hard and There you go. That game just seems like a self-imposed challenge. Everyone who plays it seems full of praise for it. And yeah, it's basically just a life sim thing, isn't it? ah Yeah, I think it's it's when when you dig into it, it's it just becomes your life. Apparently. De-fortress.
01:16:57
Speaker
ah Robo knob the snob gives five euros and says just saying hi because I haven't donated in a while so ciao. Thank you. allnob thatnob legend I hadn't noticed that you haven't donated in a while. I had I went to therapy last week and I said I haven't seen Robo knob in a while and I hope they're all right.
01:17:16
Speaker
girlon get jaky um one up $5 and says in Bethesda games like Skyrim, Fallout 4 or Starfield, most character builds break the balance around level 30. So I tried to invent rules to fix it. Well, don't hold out on this girl don't get it. Donate more money and then tell us some of your, uh, your, uh, please send in more. That's interesting. That's interesting that you get to a certain point where it's like, I need to think I'm too strong for this game. I need something to hold me back.
01:17:50
Speaker
Nightbreeze gives $5. I love randomizers, but they're insane. My last Sekiro run spawned a demon of hatred on a tiny bridge, and in Dark Souls 3 I got Frieda and Nameless King together. Cheers. Yeah, those Dark Souls players have always got to find new ways to challenge themselves. I saw that. What if every enemy was replaced with Mana's father of the Abyss in Dark Souls? Oh god. On YouTube. You probably have to do a lot of running away, I assume.
01:18:17
Speaker
I don't even, what would you happen in like, well, like if you went down into sewers or like somewhere with like narrow hallways? Yeah, I see. You have to do a lot of rolling under people's crotches. The randomizers I've watched for Souls games have had, especially the Elden Ring ones. Every door you go in will take you ah to a random area. Um, but every boss that's in that area is the further you get away from the start point, things get harder and harder and harder. So the difficulty that the enemies, um, you know, how hard they hit and the health they have relative to your power and your weapons scales based on that distance you travel. Um, which really makes it less of, Oh no. Um, you know, uh, millennia has spawned ah in this tiny room and I'm just fucked. like It's undoable, right?
01:19:08
Speaker
<unk> That's a fun way doing it gay bear bro two gives ten dollars and says someone played final fantasy fourteen from two point zero to is I have never played Final Fantasy 14. I've got no context for that. and indy mouse I hope you hear this. Don't um I have a video plan on this. That game has the worst pacing of any game I've ever played. um Like it's it's it's garbage. But it gets good after 100 hours. so It's got it. Well, it took me 250 to complete the story before it allowed me to play any endgame stuff. So then it gets good.
01:19:53
Speaker
um master in chat what's up yeah and andy mo is in I noticed he was in for the Battlemasters, spring yeah I wasn't sure he was in for this.
01:20:06
Speaker
SPSCO2000 gives 10 euros and says, weren't Saturn's rings only first discovered after the telescope was invented? I remember reading that at first they were considered large moons because the quality of the telescopes were too low.
01:20:22
Speaker
I don't know. You're the foreskin expert. Tell us. I don't know. I can't even remember who it was that decided the foreskin was ah the the rings were the foreskin of Christ. I think it was like a even the Christian thing. Oh, nevermind. The prominent John Cleese. Probably like old timey, uh, Catholic church. Dr. Raul. Raul Reagan.
01:20:46
Speaker
Probably around the time Galileo was mapping out the universe, and the church was having to come up with more and more things to explain all the shit he was finding. Shouts to Copernicus. Copernicus? Yeah. He's great. He's Canicus. Polish. Arguably a top five pole. Never. Okay. SVS Guru 2000 gives five euros and says, Kerbal Space Program Challenge. First one to establish stable orbit and safe touchdown stroke splashdown after deorbiting.
01:21:14
Speaker
In fact, I would just blow up on launch. think I think it would just go be pretty boring. I feel like the challenge for us would need to be just can you can you leave the ground without exploding and killing everyone aboard? My answer would probably be no, I can't. Did you ever go into Kerbal? Did either of you ever get into Kerbal? No. I'm too intimidated by it. Every time I look up, I had friends at uni who used to play it while they should have been doing their work, Norbets. But I would look over and just see how complicated it was and I'd be like, I'm never playing that game. That looks too much for me.
01:21:45
Speaker
It's probably really accessible, I don't know, but it just looks too much.
01:21:53
Speaker
FoxD gives $2 and says, it's a kids in the hall reference, you children. Hey, that's, they're Canadian. We don't understand these Canadian references. I think that was the Dave's, the Dave's goof. We didn't know the Dave's goof.
01:22:08
Speaker
And then Bloom Dazenauts gives $2 and says, suggests n NES world champs and green demon in Mario 64. Oh, green demon's funny. Green demon is, it works in most levels in Mario 64, but you ah spawn, there's certain points where you can spawn a one-up mushroom.
01:22:27
Speaker
and the thing spawns and then tracks towards you and it moves a little bit faster than you do. And so usually it spawns and then it just kind of homes into you and you get it. And you need to spawn the mushroom and then run and collect all eight coins, ah eight red coins while the thing is chasing you and it moves faster than you. So you need to use like movement tricks and try to get it to like it jam behind things in the environment. So it's like being chased by something that just wants to love you. It's very funny.
01:22:54
Speaker
and The stupid speedruns like that um are my favorites, like Nipple was spent in Odyssey. You guys heard of Nipple percent? Is that like, yeah, first one to get to the shorts. So Mario's Nipple's out faster than that. I've seen someone play Sonic 3 with getting the magnetized shield and then get to a whole level being chased by a ring. Oh, that's great. I love that. I think they were think they were using slow motion. though It was too assisted. We're good games.
01:23:25
Speaker
Um, all right. Well, that's the end of the super chat, except for Gildan Yettich. Remember for nine months in tip jar, but he didn't leave a chat. Yeah. Strong silent type. But yes. Uh, thanks for watching stroke listing to the windbreaker podcast. Remember to check out battle masters. The first episode came out today. Don't know where the next one will be. We've got, we got a rule in place that we'll only put out one when we've got the next episode ready.
01:23:50
Speaker
yeah And we're working on a third episode. So once that's done, we'll put out the second episode. Yes. If you follow me.
Game Updates and Player Perspectives
01:24:00
Speaker
um Yes, I was that's crucial. I was joined by Jay and Marty. Yay.
01:24:08
Speaker
Uh, oh, one more. Dimitri gives 10 Canadian dollars and says, because of my refusal of incantations, greasy stance, breaks or physiques, I inadvertently played a challenge run in Elden Rig on my first play through. Have you three ever made games harder for yourselves? Uh, well, that ten the one this whole topic has been Dimitri. Thanks for showing up at the last.
01:24:30
Speaker
It is funny watching, like, ah Jack, Jack uses things and el I just usually don't use a lot yeah lot of items in those games. And so watching Jack play, I'm like, Oh, man, I should have really used some of these items. Like, this seems like this makes bosses just way easier. i me you Yeah. I'm one of those terrible hoarding, but I might need it later types.
01:24:52
Speaker
um Right, so what else do we have coming up this week? If you want stuff by me, I've got my usual fully ramblymatic episode coming out on Wednesday. It will be on the subject of Crime Scene Cleaner.
01:25:06
Speaker
which I had played the full version of since it came out on Steam. I've also got my usual stream on Wednesday. It won't be a traditional Yahtzee Tri stream because Jesse's away and he can't do his editing this week. So I'll be doing a different kind of stream. yeah I don't know why I'm being coy. I'm going to play the New York Times crossword with Marty and hopefully Jess Hoops if she can make it. There you go. That'll be fun.
01:25:35
Speaker
I've also got a semi-ramplematic dropping on Thursday. That one will be on the subject of when is it appropriate to make your game boring? Oh, that'll go. Everyone have a piece of a think on that. Oh, no. Straight up.
01:25:51
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, that's my stuff. Also av adventures and I on Saturday, which I am a part of as always, although I'm not actually doing anything to put out that video. I did all my work on that like literal years ago now, I think. So that's it for me. What else we got?
01:26:09
Speaker
while Yeah, in terms of other streams this week, we'll have hidden gems later this evening, 6 p.m. Central. Jess will not be joining the boys because Jess is currently moving houses and does not have internet yet, but ah Casey and Jesse will be playing Spark 3, Spark the Electric, Jester 3. Tune to know that. ah And then tomorrow, Jay, you and I at ah noon central, so at the same time as this podcast, we're going to see two hours of World of Warcraft, The War Within.
01:26:39
Speaker
You have been, you're going to show off your character from from the past 16 years. Yeah, i my dude, Lochi. Yeah, and I'm going to be able to talk to everyone why I love this game so much and why I'm still playing it after so many years. Yes, explain yourself. Explain yourself. And also to lead from that, my next design delve is also on Water Walk Raft. It will be a structured um ah structured version of that video just for you, Indie Mouse. I'm going to make a WoW video just for you.
01:27:09
Speaker
guys like me to fall asleep to kid love you I want to take to make sure you you take us to to pretty places. I want to go. I want to see pretty places. There is an area in the new expansion that is probably one of the prettiest places they've ever made. Oh yeah. Take me to the good vibes.
01:27:24
Speaker
Yeah. ah Yeah. And then, yeah, you have to try some Firelink on Wednesday. ah No Devil May Cry on Thursday, because like Yahtzee mentioned, a huge chunk of the crew, including Casey, will be at PAX West this weekend. So no streams on Thursday. And then, yeah, Friday, Jay, you guys have dev heads, correct? Yes, we got dev heads. We have a guest. I forgot who it is. oh a yeah have a discussion for it advance ah um Well, I guess it's not a Tim Shafer level name, is it? but Yeah. I mean, you'd remember if it was fucking Tim Shafer. It was Tim Shafer. Yeah. um But yeah, we got we got dev heads. I'm always super looking forward to that. So check out that on Friday. And then, um yeah, we've got anything on the weekend?
01:28:11
Speaker
Uh, no. start test av interest dis eventually i yeah And again, if you're in Seattle, uh, the crew will be jamming around, uh, Seattle for packs this weekend, uh, including a, uh, panel on Sunday evening that Jack and, uh, Jesse Galina will be hosting. So you have to see the crews. i They would love to chat with you.
01:28:31
Speaker
Hell yeah. And we've got one last super jet in in the last minute from Matt233, who gives 10 HK dollars. Hong Kong dollars? as him and so artist How's your impression on the monkey arts? Yes, I'm working on my Blacksmith Wukong review. It'll be out next week. Yeah, so I'm sure that'll bring in a huge amount of Chinese people who will probably all get very mad at me.
01:28:58
Speaker
I think you're doing great. Um, yeah, I hope everyone enjoyed indie games because indeed the indie games are over. yeahs around a dral a or bus for Yeah. five and then yeah again So it's back to souls, likes and fucking Ubisoft sandbox is with the foreseeable future. Ah, your favorite. Right. Well, I guess that's it for us. We'll see you all. I'll see you all on Wednesday. Everyone else will see you all when they see you all.
01:29:26
Speaker
um light but my ah Oh, oh, there's one last thing I was going to mention that I forgot to mention. I updated Starstruck Vagabond over the weekend. Nice. And it now includes a dyslexia friendly mode. There was Jay very, very kindly consulted on being a dyslexic person. huh so If you were having trouble with the pixely font in that game, hopefully now I can persuade you to shell out for my thing.
01:29:52
Speaker
Go do it. Love it. Check it out. So yes, that's that. OK, I'm done now. I'm done plugging stuff. Bye. Bye. The plush mortar as well. Plug. OK, that's it. See you team.