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Episode 5
7 Plays2 months ago
Playstation Showcase, Id @ Xbox, Avowed, Dragon Ball Daima, Severance, Rings of Power
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Transcript
Sony's State of Play Impressions
00:00:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Alright everyone, welcome back to Detroit Game Series. It's me Shamir and I'm here with Arjun. It's been a really hectic two weeks in gaming, at least to me. A lot news for us to catch up with. So yeah, Arjun, do you want to start? Yeah, there's been quite a bit going on, honestly.
00:00:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
A lot of news, especially today, and specifically when we're recording on February 25th. But I kind want to start with the state of play. This was a pretty meaty, juicy, big for Sony fans, 40 minutes long with a lot of game announcements.
00:00:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I kind of want to dive into this a bit first, because I think some people had some high expectations for what the state of play could have been. And I think it overall, like, I just want to start by giving grade to this before I do a deep dive. And I want to give this, I think to, for me specifically, I feel like it spoke to me a bit and it's somewhere between a B minus and a B. I kind of like, it sits there.
00:00:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
And kind of want ask you too, first of all, what's your overall impressions? And maybe we can deep dive into the games a bit here. So, like, what do you think so would you rank this? Yeah, I think this is, you know, a lot of times we're agreeing a lot of times, but this is probably something we're going to disagree more strongly on because I was pretty disappointed by the state of play, so there'll be a lot for us to talk about. So later! hate it a little bit, but I originally was thinking, this is probably me being little...
00:01:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
I wasn't even thinking like a D, but honestly, I'd probably give it like a C or C minus. So, I mean, there was some good in there, but I just feel like with the moment of where gaming is at and also since this is the beginning of the year and just following up from like, you know, the pretty epic showcase that was Microsoft and the fact that we have Switch 2, you know, around on the horizon I just felt like I needed more. And I know I'm going to get that later, but it just wasn't enough for me. no, fair. That's absolutely fair.
00:01:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
Again, these games spoke to me in a way that I haven't seen a showcase really speak to me. There's normally like one or two games and I'm like, okay, I like this, but I'm not super excited. And again, from what I've said in the past, games are exciting me more than actual hardware. So I want to start off with a couple of games. There's some really big things that were announced here, some new games, some existing games.
00:02:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
games with new trailers. So let me start with that first. I was kind of shocked. Like they started off, I think with Shinobi Art of Vengeance, which is coming out this year in August. Looks great to me. The art style, I love it. I love the how they kind of had this mashup with the music. I've never played any of the older Shinobi games. I think Shinobi 3 is probably the most popular I think people most talk
Remaster vs Sequel Debate
00:02:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
about.
00:02:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
But to me, this platformer side-scrolling kind of game is really up my alley now, especially because I've been playing games portably. And I think this was great that, again, these IP are being revived by Sega. So it's just like it's nice to see that something's finally coming to fruition. I know they announced like five or six games last year.
00:02:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
But what do you think about Shinobi 3? Yeah, I guess I just don't really know anything about Shinobi, so it's hard for me to get hyped. It looks good, honestly. The trailer looks great. I can't really knock on the game. I'm just not a big Shinobi person, so I can't get hyped from it when it comes to that perspective.
00:03:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
And to me, I just feel like it was kind of an awkward timing for me because there's just been such a big moment with Ninja Gaiden. And you know I'm a massive Ninja Gaiden fan, so...
00:03:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
I will admit I'm probably pretty biased with this, so I'm like, alright, we just got Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, which was a banger, Ninja Gaiden 4 coming out later in the year, and they even had that side-scrolling Ninja Gaiden, so I'm sure there's probably people who have played the older Ninja Gaiden and the Shinobi, and they'll be able to point out the differences between them, but I've just...
00:03:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'll be honest, I really don't know. you know, I'll see this is one of those games to me like it looks good. You know, I'll wait to see what the review score is like. And if it's if it's good, I'll try it out. I think I was reading that it's a team that made treats to rage for. Yeah.
00:03:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I mean, that game was good. People loved that game. And I know me and you played that a little bit. I didn't get to beat it. So I think it's going to be an objectively good game. I just didn't feel the hype for it as much. Yeah, that's fair. I think, like, you know, what some people have or maybe I'm just saying, is the year of the Ninja, right, with Ninja Gating coming out. And I think maybe there'll be some competition between the two games that are coming out that are very similar in nature. But I think overall I'm excited to see...
00:04:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
where they take this franchise and if it sells well, could they spawn more sequels? It would be nice to see some of these revivals aren't just a one-shot entry into bringing it back into the modern or contemporary side of things. So I think, again, overall, I'm looking forward to that.
GTA V's Enduring Success
00:04:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
But let's talk about a game that might be really up your alley that you might be you've been waiting for quite a while i think you've been waiting for days gone remastered oh my god you know me so i think it's a banger i remember when i was texting you about this and then you were saying oh yeah days gone bro you're excited was like man don't know if you're joking with me or not but like i feel like when i saw that like if there was some hype i was getting from this i was like oh my god sony this is like the exact amalgamation of my complaints. Like, if you don't have anything going on, you're just padding things out with these remasters, which were like, you know, if we're going to call it how it is, like on Xbox, you would be getting that for free. You would getting the upscaling. You would have it on Game Pass, honestly. But outside of that, like, you wouldn't even have to pay a $10 fee.
00:05:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
I will give it to Sony. Like, I am happy that they are still trying to make Days Gone a thing, in a way, at least to try to make some money off of it. And I am happy that it's only a $10, you know, upgrade fee. And at least there's a new mode there. So it doesn't seem like the $10 will be worthless. I think for people who really enjoyed Days Gone, that's going to be huge.
00:05:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I mean, honestly, like it just feels a little tone deaf to me as well. Like we've been talking about how they canceled. you know, that studios games, they never gave them a shot for days gone too. And it's like now after so many years, you're just going to like release a remastered and it's not just a remastered. Like there's a new mode too. It's just, it's like, what are you doing with this franchise? Like, how do you want me to feel about days gone? Yeah. It's interesting you say this because they're definitely doing this one of those things where like, Hey, this was low hanging fruit. We want to make some money. Apparently it's charting the, the, the charts for PSN. So like, this is like one of the highest pre-ordered games down in the last couple of weeks.
00:06:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Which is really weird. Yeah, that means there's... Well, you know our barber, he was actually telling me that he was playing Days Gone and he was playing like the old version. And don't know, we got into a little bit of argument because he was dead set that the new Days Gone is like a full remake. No, not. And was like, dude, it's not a remake. It's a remaster. And he was like, no.
00:06:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
He was like, I went on the PSN store and it was a full price game. So it's remake. See, this is how you trick people, right? And this is smart marketing by Sony because I think this is asinine. I think...
00:06:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
The $10 charge. At first, I thought the same thing. I said, hey, maybe this is fair. You're adding some new content. Most of the content upgrades you're getting are already there on PC. The only thing that's literally new is that one new arcade mode, which you're really going to turn me $10 for this stupid arcade mode. Yeah, they probably didn't put in that much effort.
00:07:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
And the thing is, didn't we get that God of War Valhalla? you know, that expansion for free. For free. Yeah. So I'm like, you're telling me you can't just add this, which, and okay, again, it's not even, dude, it's all the PC updates, which really now they're porting over just VRR support. I don't even think they're upscaling the game that much more on the PlayStation. So it's just, you're right. It is tone deaf and it's almost like, how do you want me to feel about this?
00:07:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm kind of hoping, fingers crossed, with me as someone who's trying to make his own creative projects happen, I think there was a lot of promising things in Days Gone. And obviously it has some massive cult following. And I think it actually did pretty good numbers. And I would be curious if Days Gone Remastered, well,
Sony's Chinese Market Strategy
00:07:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
Days Gone in the first place is...
00:07:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
doing pretty good numbers and it's already doing a lot of pre-orders games not even out yet I wonder if Sony would reconsider and I wonder if they would allow like a days gone to now yeah it's very possible because think about it this is all coming out at the most funniest time you know throughout their software development life cycle You literally cancel, they rebranded their name too, right? Did they? Or maybe it's Ben, but they, I forgot. Can you chat? So they canceled their current game, which was a stupid live service thing.
00:08:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
If a lot of people end up pre-writing those, and maybe it doesn't hit a million sales, maybe, but if it hit like half a million, maybe you consider letting them do another Days Gone game. Like, I just don't understand. So, it was a curious move, but, you know, I'm overall happy at the move. Like, I get frustrated, like, this is what Sony does.
00:08:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it makes the money, makes people happy, and at least it's bringing more attention to Days Gone. But especially this far into the generation, like, man, can we really get past these, like, remasters? Like, when it's in the first year or two, like, it doesn't seem as egregious, you know? Because it's new console, people...
00:08:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
like, maybe didn't buy the new console yet, and they're kind of, like, you know, strapping the sides, but, like, at this point, it's like, come on, we're so far in the cycle. Yeah, that too. Like, you're basically telling me, again, these games, which all released at the end of the PS4 life cycle, hey, we don't have a whole lot for PS5.
00:09:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
Consider this a PS5 game now, which it natively really isn't, and it pisses me off. And it's like, you know... I don't know. The more I think about this, I'm just like, you're going remaster a five-year-old game, but you can't remaster Resistance, Killzone, or fucking Bloodborne.
00:09:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's the 10-year anniversary. People have been clamoring for Bloodborne. Even if it was just a remaster, I think people would be happy, even if they're not getting a remake. Because that's a 10-year one. That was the beginning of the PS4 generation, you know?
00:09:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
Uncharted 4 has also got essentially a remaster. Even Uncharted 1 through 3 got a remaster for PS4. It then got not upscaled to PS5, but it's playable on the PS5. So I think that one is the one that's, you know, with me, like Bloodborne is a top 10 game, so I love Bloodborne. I agree, but again, 10 years. So to me, that's more understandable. But you're remastering Horizon Zero Dawn.
00:09:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
You're mastering Days Gone, but you can't do Killzone, Resistance, Infamous. You can't do games that are trapped. I feel like Killzone 3 would be a good one to go to. Even Killzone 2, I mean, for the time, the graphics were pretty good on that Great, yeah.
00:10:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
And Infamous, there's lineage there. Like, you made a game on the PS4, granted... fine, they didn't go on to PS5 to make another game, but you can't port those over? Why do I have to stream this through the cloud to play this? It's pretty curious. I know the next thing on your list was... I know you're a big fan of Digimon, right? Yes, absolutely.
00:10:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
So remind me again, is this something that was already announced or is this the first thing was announced? this is a new Digimon. It's in the story... franchise, I guess you want to call there's a Digimon story game called Cyber
Impact of Game Trailers
00:10:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Sleuth that came out there re-released in 2016 on the Switch. And then prior to that, maybe on the Vita or something like that.
00:10:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it's kind of well regarded within the Digimon community as one of the better story Digimon games. And we haven't seen one since. So it's been over 10 years. So what exactly is a Digimon story? It's literally like there's, it's focused on a narrative, but this is like, I think a traditional turn-based RPG, but there's an actual just story. So they, they put the story moniker on it. It's weird. Cause you read and you go Digimon, start with them.
00:11:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
So that's one thing I'm curious about because I used to watch Digimon a lot when I was a kid and I kind of fell off of that, you know, and, I know they've been trying to make Digimon more of a thing now, especially when you look at how popular Pokemon's been.
00:11:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I haven't been getting that same nostalgia hit yet. So I'm curious to see how this one pans out. The fact that it was on the showcase, that gets you a lot of eyes, a lot of attention. It's really big. In fact, a lot of people think have been talking about it since the State of Play.
00:11:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
if you notice in the trailer they all the og digimon so they're they cannot move past the fact that their first and second generation of digimon have always been their best oh yeah they can't move past that i mean i think i saw the third generation and that was probably the last one that was like the the high-tech cell phone yeah i remember that that a good one i actually kind like that one yeah that was interesting but we're probably in the minority I know, but I just thought it was like, at the time, especially because I feel like that was the turn of the century, like, oh, probably like early 2000s. I was like, man, this is totally going with the whole like early 2000s, like new to the internet vibe, you know, you know, like, because we had movies like Matrix and all those type of things.
00:12:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so, you know, that nostalgia is kind of there, but I'm just kind of curious because I feel like, I don't at least for me, it's been kind of on a back burner for a while. I mean, again, you look at the trailer, have Omnimon as usual, like,
00:12:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
He's in every goddamn new movie and show and they can't get away from it because he's the most popular Digimon fusion ever. And that's a fusion of the two original Digimon, Agumon and I'm already forgetting now. Don't ask me. I just, yeah, I remember it was blue wolf, but I don't remember what it was. So it's like, I feel like they would call it that.
00:12:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
But, you know, again, I am excited for this because it's not going to be breaking any boundaries in terms of like, how they're fleshing out this franchise. It's more of, it's nice to see a new entry after so long.
00:12:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's probably something I will pick up. I really enjoyed CyberSleuth. didn't beat it. I played maybe like 10 hours of it. Okay. That's a solid amount. Yeah, I really did enjoy it. And I feel like if they've learned anything from that since, and the fact that,
00:13:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, the past five years, they've released new Digimon movies. They've released a new Digimon show. They've remade the original show. So they see there's an appetite for this. And I'm kind of digging that too. Like, again, it's another way to bring back something back from the past and just say, Hey, we want to expand it. Kind of like Dragon Ball Z and being Dragon Ball Diamond. And I know we'll talk about it a later, but it's just funny to kind of see that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
And mean, I guess I can kind of see why you like this show because there's probably a lot of things that kind of like fit your niche, right? Like, Sonic Racing, that was a thing. Borderlands 4, I know you really love Sonic 1. I want to talk about that. And that actually looked pretty good. Oh my god, can we talk? First of all, let me say this.
00:13:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
This trailer was way better than the initial trailer revealed two months ago or three months ago. It was shorter, it looked more cleaned, and it looked, just from a Fidelity perspective, it looked better. So they've been doing work on it, obviously. But the fact that it's getting its own dedicated state of play in the spring, that was kind of shocking to me. Yeah.
00:14:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
I feel like that's what Sony kind of does. Like when they realize like, Hey, like things are kind of light. They like double down on what they think is going to be like the thing for the year. And like Sony does a good job of making games that are multi-platform feel like they're exclusives. Yeah. And like Microsoft, even if it's a game that starts off as a timed exclusive, it doesn't feel the same as like, you know, Sony. And I don't know if it's a marketing strategy or just because like they have such a huge console base, but You know, like Borderlands, for instance, I'm sure there's plenty of people who are going to just think, oh, this is a Sony game, right? Yeah. And I mean, that's, I mean, I know Microsoft just went on record saying that they're going to say where all their games are being announced. Right. Are released, right?
00:14:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
And Sony still throughout the showcase would not say it's coming out on Xbox even if it was simultaneous releases. And I think for me, that is kind of annoying because it's like we are in tune enough with the industry that we know, okay, this game sounds like it's going to go multiplayer. And then I just have to do the extra step of Google it.
00:15:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
But for other people, they're not going to do that. They're not going to notice. And it's just like, I get Sony's strategy and I can't knock them because it's working. But I don't know. I just find it a little annoying. It's annoying. I mean, you brought example earlier about your barber going into the PSN store and saying, oh, this is a full-on remake for Days Gone. Like, some of these people...
00:15:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
aren't going to research to know what other platforms is going to be available on or what type of initiative. And especially like if you know it's coming to, know, that platform later, but you know, Sony's just being quiet. Yeah. Purposefully you, you have to make your own assumptions about And I think that's,
00:15:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
A detriment for the consumer, not the banker. So I also find this interesting because, you know, not so long ago, Embracer just sold off Gearbox, who's the developers and publishers of Borderlands, to take two. And now we can maybe infer a couple of things here. One is we got a release date for Borderlands. So it's September 23rd, which tells us that Grand Theft Auto will be slightly after that potentially.
00:16:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
It could still slip. I feel like it's going to have to hit October and November. I think October and November makes the most sense. think it's taking the spot that Call of Duty normally takes. And if Microsoft actually has a Call of Duty and it's loaded for this year, Microsoft always takes that pivotal spot. agree. Well, I should say Activision always takes that pivotal spot.
00:16:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I wonder what's going to happen if... I mean, Grand Theft Auto can honestly release whenever that wants. It's not going to make any difference. There's been so much pent-up desire for that. But it is going to... I feel like you have to be mindful of your game's release, right? Yeah.
00:16:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think, like, so, you know, you look at Take-Two's perspective. I don't think this is going to devour or hurt Borderlands in any way. So if you release them two to three months apart, I think it's absolutely fine. I think you have different consumer bases for both types of games.
00:16:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
also think Activision has been releasing Call of Duty now in October, late October, the last couple of years. So I think they're going to keep to that schedule. I feel like with games getting cannibalized by other releases, I think if you space them out by at least a month... Yeah, you're good. I think Call of Duty will okay, but I think it will absolutely outsold Grand Theft Auto. I mean, you look at last year, Harry Potter outsold Call of Duty. I think that two years Or two years, but they outsold, which was crazy, but a game has already done it, so...
00:17:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think no matter who wants to release their games whenever... Especially this far into the cycle, if we were early on in the generation cycle, there wasn't that many PS5s and Xboxes out then, maybe I'd say, who knows, but 75 million PlayStations, 30-something million Xboxes, 100 million consoles out there, and you know...
00:17:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
there's probably going to be at least like a 20, 30% attach rate. Yeah. I also think like they probably won't release day and date on PC. So going to get most of the sales on console. So since you already have a big install base, you're going to be okay regardless. I also think like maybe Sony ratchets it up with some marketing of their own. Do I think it'll have a state of play? actually don't think they'll do a state of play.
00:17:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think like, I feel like Rockstar would not want to do that with Grand Theft Auto because they'll feel like it's beneath them. Like, they're going to say, like, Grand Theft Auto was so big, like, we make the PlayStation and Xbox profitable, you know? Like, I mean, that's kind of a hyperbolic thing, but, you know, it's like, it's not just, like, a system seller, like, for an individual system, it's, like, just, like,
00:18:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, for the whole industry. Like we are going to carry the whole industry on our back. It's true. And like they have big cojones and they should, they should be walking around with it. And like, again, they're releasing.
00:18:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now you have mafia in the summer, you got borderlands in September and you still, they're saying to their investors fall, you have been thought they're making, they're making good money. Yeah. You know, I have to give take, take you like props for that because I think the CEOs went on record about kind of the business strategy and stuff like that. And he's basically just said, we're going to cook.
00:18:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, we're just going to work on our games, and however long it takes is however long it takes. And I respect that a lot. Well, let me ask you this, because this was interesting. They just released this number, because they do every quarter, I think.
00:18:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
Grand Theft Auto V, first of all, has now hit a new milestone. It's sold 200 million copies. No way! When did it hit over 100 million? When did that happen? That's a long time ago, apparently. So are people just buying it two to three times? I literally am legitimately confused with...
00:19:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
country or what content is buying this game right it's not like it's crazy cheap yeah know it's not it's like it's still like decently expensive they just announced new enhancements coming to grand theft auto 5 on pc things that were already on the console now going to pc using direct storage ssd and they said the original version of the still be played but they highly recommend now upgrading to this new patch for free by the the patch is fucking free on pc that's how it should be but that's how it should be I mean, it just makes you wonder if like Grand Theft Auto is such an event like every time and they just find a way to outdo themselves. Like, where's the ceiling for this?
00:19:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
At what point are we like Grand Theft Auto could no longer grow anymore? So let me ask you this now, now that we're getting so close to six, do you think six will ever outsell five?
00:20:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, I'd have to think about it more because I think one of the reasons why 5 sold so well is because it was so cross-generational, right? They didn't originally release on PS3, and then it released on the PS4, and then feel like people just bought it again on the PS5 to play on the PC. and on PC, yeah.
00:20:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
And PC. So I feel like that in a way really like made the numbers go up. I don't know if it will sell bigger, you know, 200 million is a lot. You know, I guess it all depends on what is their plans for like the support afterwards. Yeah. I think there's actually a pot as crazy as it is to say, I think there's a possibility, you know,
00:20:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
I know. I've been thinking about this for a bit. You're right. The cross-gen factor made a big play because there was a lot of countries that still were on the PS3 360 before they could upgrade. And they just like, okay, we can still play this game. And they didn't have a need to upgrade. Yeah.
00:20:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think that's going to hurt. I feel like the whole, I think you're probably right because like at a certain point we're getting diminishing returns with these consoles in general, you know, like the PS6 is not going to be as big of a leap I feel versus the PS5.
00:21:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then that's probably not going to be as massive of a leap compared to PS7, you know, unless like AI is going to just radically change everything, you know? And so at that point, like, You know, to me, if I bought Grand Theft Auto V on the PS3 and then I saw... And I remember seeing that trailer for all the enhancements on the PS4 and I was like, oh my god.
00:21:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, I have to get this. And so I feel like that incentivizes a lot of people to buy it again. But I find it hard to believe that could happen with the PS6 and then even the PS7, you know.
00:21:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
We'll have to see, but like... You know, when I look at the series... Like, I remember when... the Xbox One X came out, you know, compared to the original Xbox One. I was like, man, this actually feels like a pretty decent generational leap, even though it was a half generation, right?
00:21:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
And for me, like, I don't feel the same way about the PS5 Pro. I don't either. You know? And so if already, like, technology is stagnating from a hardware perspective, like, just halfway in, you know? Yeah.
00:22:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
I agree. mean, I look at it, too. It's like, will they re-release GTA 6 for PS6 and then Xbox? Sure. Oh, yeah. But they also did something which was really nice that I don't think was at launch for Grand Theft Auto V when they re-released it was they added a first-person mode, I think. So it was cool caveat. Like,
00:22:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
I remember that, yeah. They're like, you know, here's a way to play the game. actually thought that was really cool. Yeah, it actually really was. know, one thing I never even thought about until now, could it release on the Switch 2?
00:22:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
I have a feeling it will. Not on launch, but I think it will. I actually think it will. So that could actually make it sell better. Yeah, I think it will sell better because it will release on the Switch.
00:22:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think so. And they're not going to put the resources to release GTA 5 now on the Switch. I just don't think they'll do on Switch, too. But I think this one eventually will come on the Switch, too. And I think this will propel it. Okay, so, like, yeah, I'll say this. Honestly, like, GTA Online has been so big, you know, for so long. And I feel like, you know, there's certain games that I feel like just work well in the streamer economy. And I feel like Grand Theft Auto is one of them, so...
00:23:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
More than 200 million sales. That's crazy. That's just insane for me to wrap my head around. It's been what, 12 years now? So it took 12 years to get there. Is it like best selling game of all time? I think it is now, basically. Unless you're like counting like Tetris or something like that. but I think Tetris is probably number one.
00:23:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
Hold on, actually, let me double check. But while you pull that up, you know, other things I wanted to talk about from the showcase, I guess for me, like,
00:23:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
After seeing... Number two, Minecraft is number one. Minecraft is number one? What? How many is it? 300. Wow. Okay, well, there's all that money to Microsoft. Yeah, and then Grant thought it was number two, so... 210, actually.
00:23:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Wow. I love how, like, you know, for Grand Theft Auto, like, 10 million sales is just, like, is nothing. that's as of February 7, 2025. So, yeah. Still selling wild. Insane. Because I imagine, like, people are actually probably buying it, you know, in anticipation of Grand Theft Auto. Yeah. Well, that's actually what's probably happening.
00:24:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
I just bought GTA V a year ago because of anticipation of 6 because I never played it. I never played it. I just watched people play it. And so was like, okay, it's time to get now. my gosh. This game is going to hit 250 million. This game is going to be Minecraft. Yeah, 100%.
00:24:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
There's a million on Minecraft. It's really mind-blowing. That's really insane. But anyways, as I was saying, I guess for me, like when it came to the PlayStation showcase, like I really was waiting on some of the PlayStation studio games, you know?
00:24:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think that was kind of my disappointment overall, because I really want to see Ghost of Yotai. That was like a big one for me. And then, or Wolverine that was another big one for me and especially with kind of the state of where Sony's at like Sony has just been absolutely killing the game for so long and like now I feel like they're still killing the game but like I kind of have a little bit more question marks and like we've talked about like some of the doubts or questions we have about their strategy or like some of their failures when came to live service and it's not often that like
00:25:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
Sony has a bit of a bad rep and like Concord, you know, like how often do we talk about like Sony's failures? Right. And so for me, I was like, you know, now is a great time to just kind of change that narrative completely. Like,
00:25:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
show us some gameplay for Ghost of Yotak. And like, no one is going to be talking about Concord, you know? And so for me, like that was a disappointment because I really wanted to see that. I don't really care for Death Stranding 2, but I know a lot of people do it. still wanted to see it. Yeah. So I was like hoping, okay, at least we'll get to see a little bit more about that.
00:25:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And think there was some news about like, you know, maybe some new game that was coming out, you know, from the studios teams. So that kind of was disappointing to me.
00:25:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
We did get to see Saros or Syros, I don't know how you pronounce it. And I think like that game is going to do well. I think Housemarque are like exceptional developers. But for me, maybe I'm just old, but I just don't jive as much with, you know, that whole genre, you know, Returnal to me was good, but like nothing is the same as Hades. Like think a lot of people have like tried to copy Hades and I think like Returnal was like its own niche and I like that for like a roguelite, but like, you know, for me, Hades was like the one roguelite where I was like, okay, this is actually like an interesting genre just because of like how different those builds were.
00:26:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
So although I think Seros is going to be good, like I would much rather personally have like a story driven IP, like Killzone or Resistance, as opposed to like, like Seros, like I hope it's story driven. I hope there's a good story, but I just feel like that's hard to do in a roguelite.
00:26:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, Hades did it very well, but that was such a niche thing to do with that genre. Returnal was kind of fascinating, kind of in this alien vibe. The main character wasn't inspiring in any way.
00:26:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
If I reflect back on the story... three or four years later it's not i'd say that's the weird part is i was like looking up this up online whether on twitter and youtube but there's lot of media pundits and even influencers are saying oh i feel like the best ps5 game is actually return on and i'm like is it though i'm like it's hard for me to say i mean are we talking about ps5 only because if it's ps5 only then what is the competition you literally have the final fantasies which are on you know a To me, they're going to be multi-platform pretty soon. Dark Souls remake. And they're not really PlayStation Studios. Then you have Dark Souls remake. Or Demon's Souls remake. Then you Spider-Man 2. yeah, Demon's Souls, sorry. And then you have Ratchet & Clank, which is long-running series. And personally, don't think it's the best in the series. It's good, but I think that was... What is that? Rift... Not Rift of Time.
00:27:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, the second PS3 game. I forget what it was. There were so many, dude. There were so many. It was something in time. I forget what it was. Yeah, yeah. But I think that was the best one. And so...
00:27:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
then there's Spider-Man 2. Me, I would argue that Spider-Man 2 was the best because I was personally kind of disappointed with Spider-Man and I felt like they really delivered on Spider-Man 2.
00:27:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I can see why people would argue it's fraternal, you know? Yeah, I can see why people argue. But again, I look at it and I go, the big thing... Like, the game sold maybe 3 million units and I think they had... Which is good for a new IP. It is.
00:28:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
The thing is, it was a very difficult game and I'm not saying I suck at games, but like... It was hard. Could I have played it and beat it? Sure. It would have taken me a full year to do it because... And then here's what I'm gathering from Sorrows. They've already released some information based on the trailer is it's not really like permadeath and you lose everything. It's you die and you come back stronger by being able to upgrade certain weapons that you're using. And those are permanent upgrades after dying. So they're trying to like really speak to a more casual audience, I think by making that change. And, but they're keeping the same system. I hope that makes it like more approachable, but also like, you know, still intense for the people who want to be intense. Yeah, like my kind of issue with roguelike is I feel like, you know, and I'm sorry for the roguelike fans out there. But like, I feel like you're taking essentially what would be two hour game and you're padding it out. Yeah, of course. Seven hours, because instead of restarting in the checkpoint, I have to start all over, start all over. And then like,
00:28:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
the tension of the game is just, I don't have to restart. I don't want restart, but it's like, you can make a permadeath mode like they did in Doom and kind of have that same tension. So, so like, to me, like, I feel like that part of it is artificial.
00:29:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think like the reason the hooks are good and fascinating is because, you know, almost like gambling, you know, there's like that, like freshness and newness to each run where like, you don't really know what you're going get. And it's of like luck of the draw.
00:29:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
And that's why I think Katie's did it well, because like, With that one, like luck of the draw, even if like felt like you were having like a garbage run, like there was plenty of times was playing Hades and I thought I was like having a garbage run and I was so annoyed. Oh, I have to get all the way back to this point and I'm just bored and button mashing.
00:29:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
And all a sudden I'd be like, oh my God, like this build is amazing. And then I would actually, I remember my last builds that were successful were totally different than expected. And so to me, that was amazing. And when it came to Returnal though, very quickly I found which gun I wanted.
00:29:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so for me, I was just waiting until I finally got the gun wanted. Yeah, and then you went all in. Yeah, and so for me, like, there was still that, like, newness and that freshness, you know, which each run to a certain extent, but it more felt like, okay, like, this is kind of a slog until I get to that point, but it's fun because it's a bullet hell slog, you know?
00:30:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, like, it's still, mechanic-wise, was still great. The boss fights were cool, but you just, you were exploiting the game a little bit. and it's like, I would rather have you, like, you know me, like I'm big into stories, I'm big into characters, like I would rather have you put that effort into like the narrative and the story and like,
00:30:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
Again, I think that's why Hades did it well. It's because we already know the myth of Hades and trying to get out of the underworld and all those type of things. actually fascinating. It was just the perfect fit. The more you talk to people, the more layers you got to the story. It seemed like normal.
00:30:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
In that world, it didn't seem like some sort of weird twist like Deathloop or something like that. So that's why, you know, I, you know, for me personally, like I think Saros is probably going to like open critic score. You can quote me on this. Probably going to be like an 87. And I think 87 is very good. Cause I think, I think Returnal probably got 84.
00:31:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
If I'm remembering, I think it was an 84, 85. And I think, so I think it's going to be a successful game. I think people going to love it. I think it's going to look absolutely amazing because Returnal already looked great. Yeah, it looked great. But for me... They'll take Avenger PS5 Pro time. Yeah.
00:31:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
But for me, like, I was not as hyped for it. Like, For me, even though I'm not the biggest fan of Ghost of Shishima, I still really enjoyed it, and I'm more looking forward Ghost of Yotai. That's surprising you're that. You know I talk a lot of smack about Ghost of Shishima, but to me that's more because the game isn't a 10 out of 10, and I kind of say that as a rebuttal to why I don't feel like it's a 10 out of 10.
00:31:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
But the game is still objectively a very good game. No, I agree. Look, I'm looking at this from a couple of different angles. One is, by the time Saros launches, it'll have been five years, I think, since Returnal launched, which is crazy because... That's insane. Yeah, again, the game itself, Returnal, wasn't a big game terms of scope, right?
00:32:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
And yeah, you're changing up the story, and that takes time, but five years still? You're building off an already- Yeah, I wonder what it's going to be like, because, man, the action... A fraternal was amazing. I can't see them really refining or reinventing the actual gunplay because it felt so good already. And then they were like, hey, we're going to show off gameplay this year. So I was kind of shocked they said that, which is...
00:32:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
So the question then becomes where? Are you going to have showcase finally, Sony? Are you going to do a state of play again around E3-ish kind of timeline? If you do, great. But this time I'm going to be able to tell whether this game speaks to me because now that I know how Returnal feels, because I've played it with you specifically, I'll be able to tell whether this game is going to be something up my alley just based on pure gameplay.
00:32:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I don't know. I'm confused because... I think this is a good example of a wait and see. And it's so ironic because that Xbox. Xbox always released these CG trailers and then you would see it and be like,
00:33:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay? Yeah. I don't know how to feel about this. I don't know. I feel that about this. And that's how I feel about Seraphs because, like, you know, knowing the pedigree of that studio, knowing the pedigree of Sony in general, like, I feel like it's going to be a hit. Yeah, I think so. But it's just, like, it's hard for me to get hyped, you know? Yeah. And the other thing is, for sure, I'm a little biased, but Indians represent, you know, name. know, that's nice. That's I mean, Mancater's name is named after me, Arjun, you know? Yeah, that's true, you know? Yay, June! I mean...
00:33:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
I can't think of a blockbuster game that has an Indian protagonist. Yeah, I really either. think this first one. It has to be. Well, so Raul Coley has played, like, characters in Gears of War 4.
00:33:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
He was, like, don't know. How did they not notice him? Yeah, was, like, a Muslim character something. And then he was in that one show written by Mike Flanagan that came out a couple years ago where he was, like, the main protagonist. He was, like, a cop.
00:33:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
So he was on an island. I forget what that show was called. So there's, like, different forms of art that he's been part of, but, like, It's not super prominent, but this is the first where like, damn, like this kind of almost fits him really well. He's got that rugged look in the, in the trailer. He's got the big beard.
00:34:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
He comes back and he's like, I'm coming back again, you know? So it's like, okay, I really liked that. so yeah, I, I will see. It's a wait and see for me. I just want to see the game play. Yeah. Anything else from the state of play that you want to talk about or that you were hyped about? Yeah, for sure. So there is some stuff that really spoke to me again. I think this state of play, and just in general, I think what's coming back is action games, right? We talked about Ninja Gaiden 4. That's true, yeah. But, like, dude, they're so... Hell is Us, this is their second time showing this game. It kind of looks like a mix of, like, Star Wars Jedi, Survivor, and, like...
00:34:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
what else like some i forgot what i mean i was kind of getting death training vibes for a little bit because i think the guy was in like a trench coat for a second he's in a trench and then i was like so you get the desk like is this that's right but if you see if you watch the first trailer a couple months ago that was released it looks just like jedi survivor survivor and fallen order so was like wow okay so they got that got lives of the overture which is you have to have the base game but it's a dlc to that and then you have You have Lost Soul Aside, which I want to talk about second, but before that, you have... Where's the game? You have Animusha that's coming back. Big action game, yeah. Another action game. And then you We're talking Ties of Annihilation. Yeah, Ties of... Yeah, Ties Annihilation. Did they just announce this game here? Yeah. Yeah, this might have been the first announcement.
00:35:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay. So, like, again, it's like we're kind of moving away now from the Dark Souls, like, genre, and we're going back action-heavy. And I'm actually really happy for that because, again, unpopular opinion, like...
00:35:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
i to me i like liza p and bloodborne more than i liked elden ring yeah but i will you know say that that's a very subjective you know you know interpretation on my account i think most people in general are always going to say elden ring is better and i think objectively like that's the magna opus like i feel like in that genre like elden ring hit everything and like at that point, like, if you're just gonna do more Souls-like, like, at a certain point, it's like, what's the point? Yeah, the point? Like, we've already, it's already been played out, and I, like, the reason why I like action games a little more now is because there's stories to them to tell.
00:36:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
So they might not be the best, but, like, at least I'm getting something Yeah, for me, it's kind of, like, nostalgia. It's like a warm cookie, you know? Like, I miss those action, those fun action games, you know? Like, you don't have to, like,
00:36:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
spend so much time in them. You know, it's just like... You know, like, I'm playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. Or Black 2, whatever it's called. Don't say Sigma. That's gonna piss off a lot. Sorry, Black 2.
00:36:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
And there's like a... It's a very simple story, but like, I like seeing the cutscenes. I like that there's something there to it. It's not Elderly. You know, the story is garbage. Yeah, it's garbage. But like, it reminds me of that warm...
00:36:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
cookie that that fond memory and so like there's a couple things want to talk about some these games so like ties of annihilation first time showing it off and then what do they do they don't just show us a trailer they gave us 11 minutes of gameplay after the state of play like i thought that was great i looked at the gameplay afterwards yeah and it looks really good i'm like okay fine so that was a great way to show that game off you got lost soul aside right so that so you know that game i really didn't know much about it and I mean, I always get confused with these games because they say it's like one developer.
00:37:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I look at the game, I'm like, what are you talking about? is Final Fantasy I guess I never realized.
00:37:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's taken inspiration. I don't know how many of these opinions I have that probably go against the grain. I think you really like Final Fantasy XV. I think that's what I'm getting from. I really did like Final Fantasy XV.
00:37:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
And to me, this is kind of a mixture Final Fantasy XV and Devil May Cry. Yeah, it really is. Oh, I feel that. So they had an interview after the State of Play for this game specifically, and it's been in development for more than 10 years.
00:37:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
It started with one person who honestly had a concept for the game. He wasn't even really thinking it would be coming in. He had a concept of a plan? Yes, basically. And someone from Sony reached out to him saying, hey, do you think we could do some sort of collaboration? He's like, sure, but I don't even anticipate this becoming a game. I don't have the resources. I myself can't even make it.
00:37:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it evolved from conversation with Sony to being like, let's cross collaborate to then being part of the China hero project five years later, which means he got funding from Sony and resources from Sony to help develop. And then what Sony did was instead of just helping him make the game, he had people join them and they helped upskill their talents to say, this is how you actually produce a game.
00:38:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
So then they added voice acting, they added a story and they said, and you can kind of look at the interview if you guys check it online. the main developer says, like, we're so happy that we learned how to actually make because it was so frustrating beforehand. We didn't know what do. So love that, you know, and, like, you know, that's one thing I feel like Xbox does as well and, like, Sony is doing in this example as well, like, you know, like, helping build something more from the ground up, know, and, like, in a way, this is kind of an indie game, right? It's an independent developer. It really is.
00:38:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
Sony took them under the umbrella and really that idea is golden, you know, and like they were able to really expand on that. So, you know, to me, like I actually hope Lost Soul Aside is a hit.
00:38:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
I do too. Because I feel like if we see successes like that, like it will kind of help, you know, kind of shape the gaming industry in a positive way, right? We're like, we want to reward creativity like this. Yeah. So it's so, it's so funny too, because,
00:39:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
They basically said, like, Sony came to them said, hey, well, you now have this game, but, like, we want to flesh out these battles more. We want to make them slightly more complex or less complex or slightly more harder or whatever. And on top of all that, now you can infer a couple things from here. It's coming out, I May 30th.
00:39:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
30th i want to say they're releasing it simultaneously on pc and playstation 5 which is no coincidence this is originating from china they know most of those players are playing on pc and as we can look at wukong that sold most 70 percent of this is such a smart way for like playstation to pivot into the chinese market because you know i'm i'm sure i don't know the numbers but i'm sure a lot of ps5s were sold in china for wukong you know and now like And right now, there's a big movement for Chinese nationalism when it comes to media.
00:39:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think I was hearing that Misao 2 hit like $2 billion. $2 billion. And I haven't even seen the movie yet. Because it's only in China, basically. think they've made some money in other overseas markets, but that's just the power of the Chinese market. Yeah, that's insane.
00:40:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And before, like you used to try and get like, you know, essentially like it was almost like imperialism in a way, like all these Western nations trying to use China as its own market, you know? And like, you know, China's really pushed back against that. And I think kudos for them, right? Because then you're just basically a wallet for them, you know?
00:40:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I like this approach better where it's like you're helping develop things from the ground up in that market. And now everyone gets to kind of benefit from that because like,
00:40:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
for people in America or Europe or like outside of China, you get to experience, you know, something that's different, you know? That's what we want. We're feeling so burned out. And for people from China, they're going to be like, heck yeah, we're making awesome games. Yeah. So I think, I think this game will probably sell better on PC than it does PlayStation just because of the Chinese audience.
00:40:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
But will this sell 10 million plus like Wukong did? Because I think Wukong now hit 25 million or something. I mean, Wukong was crazy. Wukong sold so, so much. I don't really know how this new way of music,
00:40:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
all these new Chinese games are going to do because that's one of them. I think on our last podcast were talking about Wu Chang and that game looked pretty good to me as well. Stellar Blade was maybe a Korean developer. Stellar Blade Korea, yeah. I think Tides of Annihilation, is that one Korea as well? I don't know if it's Korea or China.
00:41:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
Maybe I'll look that up. So again, hey, look, to all the people in China that are listening to maybe you're not, maybe you are, you know, show up, support, you know, for your homies, maybe. And if this does great, guess what? Maybe we can get more Final Fantasy-like types of games. I hate to say this is that type of game, but there's so many similarities. No, Tides of Annihilation is also an indie team in China. Yeah, all right. So yeah, like,
00:41:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Again, these games speak to me. That's I gave this slightly higher grade. So there was that. And then there was... So for me, I get your point, but because I don't really know these games, it kind of felt a little more generic to me because I'm like, okay, this is Final Fantasy. I can see where the inspirations are derived from.
00:41:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
And until I really get to see reviews or sit down with the game, I don't know. Yeah, that's fair. There's lot of promising things that I see there, but it's just... it's really hard for me to comment. it could be another stellar, but it's really not that big of a game. It's just like a, it feels like a concept of a game and you're like, eh, it's not as good as I thought it was going to be. Yeah.
00:42:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
and like, for instance, like I remember when I was looking up stuff for lies of P like I was like, Oh man, this game looks good to me, but I think it's probably not going to be great because I was like, you know, I don't know the studio. And I feel like I've seen so many of these things. Like there was like,
00:42:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
what was it? It was like almost like a, like a British or like European, like a kind of like Gothic, souls like that came out like a couple of years ago that my cousin was really into. And, you know, that got like decent reviews, you know? And so like, I just felt like it was another one of those, like, okay, like another thing to pad out in the genre.
00:42:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
And Lies of P is one of my favorite games in a long, long time. So I don't know how things are going to turn out, but I will say Sony does a pretty good job of curation. Most of the games they put their stamp on end up being at least 80+. Yeah, I'm going to be a little cautious and skeptical because when they show this trailer for Lost All Side,
00:43:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
you could tell the story elements look kind of not so good, like high quality. I'm like, okay, probably going to fail in that aspect. But if the gameplay is still good, I don't even know if this is a semi open world, if this is an open world, if this is a linear game. It could be a completely linear game again, like stellar blade. And like a 12, 10 hour game and we're like, Oh great. This wasn't anything, you know, but not to say that it's a downgrade quality. It's just like, maybe I, my expectations were a lot higher when it's really not, maybe it isn't really a final fantasy aspect. Cause final fantasy is a, Oh, it's an action RPG, you know?
00:43:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
And also speaking of Liza P, Liza P. Overture, I think that interesting. That looked really Yeah, I mean, to me, reminded me of Final Fantasy XIII with the music. It was just like really spot on. And actually, I did not really care for Liza P even when it came out. Even the way I played it with you a little bit.
00:43:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
Seeing this trailer got me so hyped. was like, wow, think I want to It does kind of feel like a different vibe. I mean, for me, one of the things I think is really underrepresented actually all of media, but in particular video games is kind what am I looking for?
00:44:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
I blanked on the term. Kind of like that old British vibe. I'm totally forgetting the word. It was like The Order 1886. Oh, I'm It's not gothic. It's not gothic.
00:44:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
But like that vibe, you know, like I feel like that is highly missing, you know, and so that's why I really like Lies of Pooh, you know, because, you know, it kind of had that. It's not medieval, but you're talking about like... It probably says a lot that we don't remember it. Victorian. Victorian. That's the word I was looking for. Yeah.
00:44:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
And just like that new game that's coming out from that Xbox team.
00:44:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
I also forgot their names. I'm like... did some coffee. No, the people who made Wasteland. Oh, my God. Exile, yeah.
00:44:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
was hoping you would fill in the gap. Sorry, mean, was like, what are you talking about? Exile, like, I'm happy that we're starting see more of that Victorian vibe because, like, I think that's one thing that's really underrepresented. Yeah, no, for sure. That's definitely a place that should be represented a little more.
00:45:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
So we got, like, Sherlock Holmes and like that back in the and I guess it's just not popular anymore. Yeah, isn't. And it's funny you say that because they just made a Sherlock game where they announced one, like, a couple years ago, and I haven't seen it since.
00:45:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, knows what's going on with that? So to me, like, that's why really like Lies of P. But you're right. Like, this is kind of pivoting away from that a little bit. And, like, I don't know how to put words to, like, that Final Fantasy vibe, you know? But, like... It was there with the music, and the way they...
00:45:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
film the trailer because it wasn't like moment-to-moment gameplay but it was like the attacks it looks so fine yeah the animations it was like oh okay wow i just couldn't get over the fact that wonder what the gameplay is going to be like because you know it looked more action heavy than it did like souls like like it was really weird yeah i'm not sure i mean i thought the souls like action in that game was awesome i think it's like one of you know top three in the genre so I think that's going be a hit. I wonder how much going charge for that, honestly. Yeah, that'd be interesting. I like it's probably going to be $29.99, but we'll see. wouldn't surprised if was $40 because they now know that the game sold so well. But yeah, I hope it's like a $30 expansion.
00:46:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
But yeah, there's two more games really want to talk about really quickly here. One was they showed more of Animusha, Way of the Sword, as well announcing a remaster of Animusha 2. I've never played any the Anemushi games, I'll be honest with you. I don't think I'm going to get the second remaster game.
00:46:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
It just doesn't look appealing to me. But Way of the Sword, the one thing I liked what they showed this time, it looked better than the first reveal, was the environments play part in the Yeah, actually interact with the environments. You know one thing I didn't realize, and I think I read an article about this later, you know, the main character in Oemusha, he's actually a famous Japanese actor.
00:46:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, so the newest one is being modeled after very famous late actor that no longer obviously is here. But that was interesting. That's kind of cool. Yeah, he was known for a lot of his samurai and inspired movies for Back in the So that kind of adds a layer of authenticity. Yeah, I actually like that. And I saw his picture and then the model, almost one for one. It's kind of insane.
00:46:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
So if I was part of his family, I'd damn, that was grandpa or that's dad or whoever. I mean, I feel like for probably people who have been PlayStation diehards since PS2, oh my, they're probably so happy. To see something like this and that fidelity, Yes, that's the main thing. I mean, it looks awesome. Again, for this, like,
00:47:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think it had a cult following. Yeah, it's just not something I grew up with, again. So it's one of those things where I'm like, all right, let's go. We'll see. Yeah, I'm excited because, again, with the new Capcom engine or the Resident Evil engine, whatever they call it now these days,
00:47:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
If they truly flush this game out, I still don't know if it's going to be... Because the interview that came out after the fact said we're not trying to make it overly complex and difficult game, which I like. So it's not going to be like probably Sekiro or some of those more difficult games like Wukong.
00:47:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
But if they padded out a bit to make it like a 15-hour game, I'd be happy with that. Again, I don't need it to be super linear, but like give me a good story. allow me to explore a couple of different places. I think Ninja Gaiden did a good job in this aspect, but they're kind of pretty big maps.
00:47:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're linear, but you can still kind of explore. You get a little bit more of, not open world, but it feels a little more fleshed out. It's just a hallway. I was actually just looking this up.
00:48:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
So Monster Hunter is also Capcom, right? And then... Onimusha's Capcom team. Man, Capcom has been on roar lately. They're on a tear, man. They're bringing back everything. They're like, let's just spice this up. And I feel like their engine really is just... So good. It's flexible. And then, like, every game kind of has this, like, distinctive, like, high-fidelity look to it, you know? Yeah, the RE engine is what it's called. Yeah.
00:48:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because they first started by remaking the Resident Evil games, and they named it after that. And they actually just showed off last year that their new evolution to their... Engine. So they're not calling it RE Next Gen or REX or something? I feel like that right there is the best example of what a successful engine can do for a company. Because if, like, you know, you're firing on all cylinders and you have an engine that really works with the type of games you're making, like, I look at how many bangers they're releasing. Yeah. One after one after one, like,
00:48:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
Could you... I mean, I'm not saying Sega hasn't been releasing good games because they have, but can you imagine if they... Because I feel like Sega games don't always have that same level of graphical fidelity. They're just more gameplay-focused.
00:49:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
Could you imagine that? Oh, man. Oh, my God. If Sega came back the same Can imagine a Sonic that looked that good? my God. Don't get me started. You know, that's the funny part because with Capcom, it benefits them more to use their own engine because they don't have to pay a licensing fee. That's true, yeah. So they're getting all 100% of the proceeds, basically. Well...
00:49:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
besides the fact that they're releasing different platform. But they don't have to pay Unreal, or they don't to pay Epic, all these other people like, hey, use your engine. So it just benefited them so well. And now they're taking so much time to develop the games, and they're giving it a lot love and care. So Dragon's Dogma, even though it took a while to make the second part, I mean, it sold well. Three million plus copies. That's amazing for them. And I mean, their games were really well. Man, Capcom is really doing well. I feel like they've been one of the stories of this generation, you know?
00:49:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
And speaking of Capcom, so they did show another trailer for Monster Hunter Wilds, and the game is out this Friday on the 28th. The reviews are already out. think has like maybe an 89 and open credits. Which is amazing, you know. Which is great. Apparently this game is a little more streamlined in the sense that the story is a lot shorter than the last one, so about 15 hours, which I like.
00:50:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
and they made some improvements. I might actually try my first Monster Hunter game ever, just because of the fact that it's... last one? I tried, and I couldn't get into it. tried it, too. I couldn't get into because it was on Game Pass, and I was like, all right. I had some friends who played it, and they were like,
00:50:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
oh man, it's the best game ever, you've got to get into it. And then I played like an hour and I was like, I don't know. I feel like I can't invest this much time into it. If I'm already having trouble with the base game, which is supposed to be very easy, there's a difficulty spike when you start playing the multiplayer missions. They're so hard, especially even Iceborne when it released. People that are really good at the game said that even Iceborne's story gave them problems. So I can't play a game like that where if the combat doesn't already speak to me, I'm not going to spend...
00:50:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
a bunch of my energy trying to be good yeah that's a game where i mean you said it best to me like if you don't like a game don't play it anymore you know and that's that's so i hope that maybe this is little different so i might actually give this a shot and then uh finally just to just to talk about because this was hilarious it was leaked uh the delta trailer again the trailer was actually badass in my opinion it's out in august as well it looks fantastic But the fucking trailer was leaked that we get in advance.
00:51:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, don't know. I'm really excited for this game. They announced a collector's edition. It looks cool. I'm not getting it. But I will. I hope. Actually, I kind of hope this game comes out the Switch, too. This looks like a perfect game. That a good game for that, yeah.
00:51:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know? I guess, you know, for me, the only Metal Gear Solid I really got into, I got into 4. I really liked that one. I really liked that I the Peace Walker. I think that on the PSD. Yeah, PSD. I really liked that one.
00:51:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
I couldn't get into Metal Gear Solid 5. I don't know if it was like the flashback thing. You know, it just like was there was like this guy on fire and, you know, and then all of sudden I'm in a desert and don't know. I just couldn't get into it. Yeah. For whatever reason. And so to me, like I know everyone really loves Metal Gear Solid 3. Yeah.
00:51:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know. I feel like I'm so busy with other games that it's not high up on my priority list, but that's one of the most successful games and most loved games. So I think that's going to sell really well. I think, and maybe we've talked about this before in past, I can't remember, but they're adding...
00:52:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
a new mode. So if you play it third person behind the back, the game is supposedly easier. That's what the developers have said. And I think I'm going to play that way because playing Metal Gear Solid 3 in the top-down view, they'll have that option as well, was a lot harder back in the day. And I just don't think I'm going to play it that way. But they have also admitted that they had to adjust the difficulty because it's easier now with the third-person view.
00:52:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I will probably get it just for the fact that it's more modernized now. And the story looks so janky and fun. Well, let me ask you this. Do you like stealth games? Kind of. Again, 4 really spoke to me. Metal Gear Solid 4 really spoke But then games like Arcanes, what was the... Dishonored. Dishonored really didn't, you know? Yeah, I don't like stealth games, you know?
00:52:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
I feel like when I'm playing them, I have this anxiety that I'm going to be found. And then it's like more anxiety provoking for me. And I rather just run in there and kill everyone. And actually, I think the reason I like Metal Gear Solid 4 is because I found a grenade launcher, and I just got a bunch of grenades, and I just played that game like it was an action game, and I was like, oh man, this is a super epic hard action game, because am slaughtering everybody when I'm not supposed to. Yeah, which is funny you say that, because I think that's why like that game. It wasn't the stealth aspect.
00:53:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I could probably, like, played more successfully, like, as a stealth game. But after I just got a ton of bullets and a ton of guns, I was like, let's go. I don't even care how hard these bosses are. I don't care how hard everyone is. They're about to die from, like, 50 grenades. Yeah, that's exactly how I beat the game, which I didn't play it the way was intended. But I think that's why you don't like 5 and I don't either, because they doubled have to do more stealth, yeah. You have to double down the stealth. And they also made it open world. So it's like, you combine the two, it's more frustrating because it's bigger, it's slower now. exactly.
00:53:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
And just, like, yeah it's kind of hard to just like grind and get a bunch of weapons and then just like blast through it like maybe people do that but yeah i mean that's just kind not my genre yeah i agree so so yeah that's that's all i have to say about state of play but there's definitely more things to talk about here so the one big thing i wanted to talk about was avowed because blasted through that game so We live in Michigan, so the weather was terrible. And I think we got one of the worst winter storms we've had in years. was like six to eight inches. Oh, man. It was insane. And so I was stuck at home. the weekend off. I didn't have to work, so was bored. And I was like, you know what?
00:54:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
screw it, I spent the extra 20 bucks, I got early access. Oh my god. And honestly, like, I got nothing for the early access, you know. told you. And honestly, in some ways, I feel like getting early access was detrimental because, you know, one of the criticisms I had with the game, and I remember I told you about this, you know, in the middle of it, was that for me, I don't really like grinding and, you know, I don't like having to level up in RPGs to be able to, you know, blast through them.
00:54:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
And in that game, like, no matter how skilled you are, if your gear was, like, on a much lower level, not even your level, like, your actual gear was on a much lower level, those enemies were, like, impossible.
00:55:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I remember there was one boss, and I just could not beat him, and then I got pissed. And I was like, I'm going to beat this guy. Even though it was like every one of my hits was doing like less than 1% damage. It was insane. It took me probably like 45 minutes of just whittling away at this guy just to kill him.
00:55:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it probably took me like three hours to beat him. I did the same thing in Black Myth Wukong. There was the second, I think it was like the second hub world. It was like this yellow, it was actually a really good design. It was like this yellow monk that was a rodent.
00:55:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I was supposed to do some of the side mission content to get a weapon to stop him. And I was like, no, I'm going to beat him. And my wife literally watched me try and fight this guy for six hours. I refused.
00:55:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
I refused to like, you know, grind or, you know, do the side mission to beat him. And I finally beat him and I felt so great. So I did the same thing with Avowed. I tried really hard. I finally beat this guy, him out.
00:56:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then, I mean, now, like, I say all this because I think they got that feedback really quickly from the early access people, and then they already updated it. And so now, like, even though you get a penalty, if you are under gear, it's not as severe.
00:56:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
So you don't have to, like, the enemy's not going feel like a bullet smudge as much. I was also playing on, like, a hard difficulty. I think was playing on the hardest difficulty, which is also why it probably kind of felt like a bullet smudge. Yeah. What was the Bethesda game that just came out a year ago?
00:56:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
Are you talking about Starfield? Yeah, didn't you run into the same issue where at the very end, because you blasted through it, like the dogfight, you literally couldn't do it? Oh my god, that was so hard too. I remember you came over and saw me because I refused to upgrade my ship.
00:56:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I did the bare minimum and I showed up to this place. Oh my God, I was getting decimated. I tried so hard and I was so stubborn. I actually gave in on that one. I actually left and I did a side mission and I got a ship.
00:56:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it only took me like an hour. And I came back and I wrecked them. And I felt great. But that one, I could not beat with that ship. It was impossible. Yeah, that was like... But it just makes me laugh because every time you play RPG, you're like, all right, let me go through this really head-on and strong, you know, steadfast. And then you're like, wow, this game is gatekeeping me from being able to it. hate to gatekeep it. know, I remember Final Fantasy XV. I refused to do any of the side rushes.
00:57:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
I got to the very end of the game, and then it wasn't the final boss. It was random, I think it was like Cerebus side boss. The three-headed thing. That thing was impossible. Yeah, was impossible. Oh, my God. And I couldn't beat him. I had to turn the difficulty back. So, you know what's funny? I actually kind of cheated. I don't know if I actually cheated, cheated, but I got a ring in the game, and I don't know if it was a bonus, but as soon as I saw the Cerebus, you just activate it, and it gets shot into void and automatically dies. What?
00:57:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
And was like, how did I get this weapon? And I think it was a pre-order bonus. so was like, oh, this was so easy. I'm like, what is shit we're talking about? That was the hardest boss in the game, bro. And you're right. It's part of the main story because it puts it right before the final boss. was annoying.
00:57:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
But when it activated it. It was hardest in the final boss. And that was the, I felt, I felt terrible. I was so ashamed of myself. I carry the guilt to this day. could not beat that thing. It was impossible. was super under level. I think like I was 15 levels lower than where I was supposed to be.
00:58:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
like because there was like level range like be like level 50 to like 65 online on the guys was like level 35 it was like impossible for me i feel like i was like maybe 40 and i'm like again i'm like what does it say like let me try it and when i actually like instant like oh this was easy and then the final boss he wasn't even that hard but yeah i don't know why do that but i do that for all the rpgs but Anyways, going back to Avowed, I kind of wanted to give my thoughts about the game because I have been hyped about the game for a long time. was like a long time coming. Which was the next Skyrim.
00:58:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
No, absolutely not. You know? And I mean, the one thing I will give Obsidian credit for is they were very vocal about it. They said like, hey, we were trying to make Skyrim. That was, you know,
00:58:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
that had some multiplayer features and then we pivoted away from it. You know, they even came out and said in a recent interview, like the art style we had in the beginning in that trailer was actually what we were going for at the time. And then they changed, you know, and that happens.
00:59:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so, no, it's absolutely not Skyrim. And I think most of the flack you're seeing online for it is because people are comparing it to Skyrim. And like, I really thought about this game and like, what is it that's different in this game compared to Skyrim that people are not really vibing with, right?
00:59:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think when we talk about choice and consequence, we're actually kind of grouping that in with another feature of RPGs that I would call world reactivity. And so, you know, I think a lot of people will say like, oh yeah, I can make this choice and it has that consequence, right? But, you know, I feel like when it comes to the, like an obsidian game, like when they're talking about choice and consequence, they mean from a narrative perspective, you know, like there's certain pivotal points in each of the sections in Avowed And they actually are kind of hard decisions you have to make.
00:59:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they will all sum up in the end to create a pretty different world state. And depending on the choices you've made, like I think they said that there's 10 endings, but I feel like there's more than that.
01:00:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like I feel like really there's a lot of different endings. And I would say some of them don't seem so different from each other. But the difference between like certain ones are like night and day. Like they're drastically different. And like if you were to make a sequel to Avowed, like,
01:00:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
those two would look completely different, you know? So, like, it would look like a completely different game. So the choice and consequence is there for the main mission, you know, definitely. And I think, you know, I mean, it follows with Obsidian's Pedigree that some of these decisions are hard, you know?
01:00:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't think they're as difficult as the Outer Worlds because remember when I was making some of the decisions for Outer Worlds, I like, man, don't really know what to pick because was like, oh my God, this is impossible. And for this one, I was like, I kind of know where I'm leaning, you know? So it didn't give me as much of that internal angst.
01:00:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
So overall, I don't think the decisions were as good, but they were still pretty pivotal decisions. And I'm really happy with where the story ended. I think the big problem was the reactivity. Like people are expecting reactivity. And I feel like And I feel like Avowd in some ways has suffered some consequences like after Baldur's Gate 3. Because Baldur's Gate 3 like set a new peak and level for the reactivity, the standard. That's what I'm looking for.
01:01:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
They set a new standard for what we expect in terms of reactivity in our games, right? And so like the clips you'll see online is like, oh, if I steal this item, no one cares. If I shoot an arrow at this person, no one cares. If I burn my companion's house, no one cares.
01:01:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's like, so then what is the purpose of like the choices I make? And I would argue that's more the reactivity of the world and more simulation. It's like trying to simulate like what the world is going to be like, no matter what you do, your, your companions going stick with you until the very end, you know?
01:01:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then, and that's just the future of about, you know, that's like, that was their creative choice and what they went for. I mean, I would say that's a valid criticism, but for me, don't really care for that. I remember when Red Red Net Hugh came out, I was telling my wife about it, and was like, the horse's schlong will change size based off the temperature. And she was just like,
01:02:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
why do you care and i was do you understand where the gaming industry is headed if this is the type of stuff we're seeing in the world but how do you think about this is making things so like lifelike and then it's like okay but doesn't really matter at the of the and for some people like it's important because like they want to really feel immersed in that world and they want to feel like it's their world right and that's why they play the game. And I'm not knocking that. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It's just like, that's what attracted me to the game. Like I'm more interested in like the world, the Lord, know, characters, the interactions, the plot, like that's what I play for.
01:02:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
And for me, I think about delivered on most of those things. will say that the companions are not that interesting, you know, like, uh, their backstories, not that great. And I think they're fairly one dimensional. So I think that's a criticism of the game.
01:02:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
overall, like, the thing that surprised me the most, the parts of Avowed that I think are the best are the parts of Avowed that I thought were going to be trash. And that was the graphics and the gameplay.
01:03:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
And really, for me, like, gameplay was king in that game. Like, I had so much fun being a wizard. Like, I had so much fun just, like, blasting my... Combat looks really fun. The fact that you can combo so many different weapons. Oh, yeah. And then, like, mean, to me, like, the way... Where Avowed really progressed action RPGs is the combat. Because...
01:03:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know to me i was like man this is like what i would expect the first person fable to be like yeah you know and it's like switching between like your melee weapons your magic weapons your wand was oh man i feel like harry potter right and then like your guns was so fluid so good the way the stamina was used was great and the gameplay styles were you know pretty different so really i was amazed at how good the gameplay felt how like punchy and weighty like the blows were and that was one thing everybody was hating on and i really think they polished that up in the few extra months that they had so that was surprising to me the graphics were surprisingly good they added a 60 fps mode right did you play what did you they had a 60 fps mode so so so i don't know if i mentioned this in the podcast but i just pulled myself with a new 77 inch oled tv
01:04:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
And from Samsung, would you help me get with your advice? And... And so that was awesome. And now I have VRR, which is amazing. And I don't feel like I'm a peasant. So I played on the 40 hertz mode. And then I used VRR. And I felt like that was a really good balance. So what's the native resolution at 40 FPS? Is it like 1440p? Is it 4K? I had no idea. I mean, it was upscaling fairly well. It didn't seem like everything was glossy. It felt like it was decently sharp.
01:04:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
The character models aren't the best. But I feel like that's because Baldur's Gate 3 has set the standard so high that the character models just don't always... you know, past that, you know, I think like the main characters look pretty good, but it's not as good as Mulder's victory. there was some, I don't know, like I really want to see like the digital foundry video on this. I didn't get to watch that actually because,
01:05:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
Maybe this is just the way I played, and don't know if everyone else had this experience, but man, I went crazy with the spells. And I had the biggest area effect spells, and I had a really short cooldown, so I would blast three area effect spells every five seconds while blasting my wand.
01:05:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
And the game wouldn't like have frame drops necessarily, but at a certain point, like my input and actions were slowed. So like, it was almost like, like my character was like moving in molasses and like all of my actions were still happening, but like the, the wand like bursts of energy were like coming out kind of slow and, but it wasn't like choppy per se, but I felt like it was just kind of slowing down the frame rate to like 15.
01:05:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
but then just like kind of like smoothly buttering And I'm sure Digital Foundry will do a way better analysis than me, right, on that. It did kind of impact, you know, how I was playing, you know.
01:06:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
It was kind of annoying, but at the same time, there's so much stuff going on with the particle effects. It was insane. Like, so I was probably pushing that to the extreme. Yeah, it sounds like you got to live your dream as playing as Voldemort some, like,
01:06:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
It really didn't feel like you were playing Hogwarts. I had a book in one hand and a wand in the other. I was just blasting them with spells and just calling fire and ice and thunder. I had a blast with the actual gameplay.
01:06:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
I personally think the story ended up in a really interesting place. When I first started playing Avowed, there was four hub worlds. The story was pretty much trash for the first hub world. For the second one, it was still trash, but it was getting more interesting.
01:06:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
And by the time we got to the fourth one, I was like, okay, now this is kind of interesting. And I was just thinking to myself, I was like, if I was a writer, would I have done something differently? Because like where we end up is pretty fascinating. And it's like, why wasn't this fascinating to me from the start?
01:07:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I don't want to go into spoiler details. So can't like, you know, go too much into that. Maybe later when more people are played we'll talk about it in the podcast. I think it was fairly predictable, you know, and I think that's one of the criticisms people had.
01:07:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, you just played Dragon Age, so I'm now kind of curious comparison-wise. Not gameplay, but just story-wise. Writing, how is it compared? So I have a lot of thoughts, and I know they're unpopular opinions because right now everyone hates both of them. actually think people overall, the sentiment is better for a while. People just hate Dragon Age with a passion, and I was just looking them up on OpenCritic, and that's kind of my barometer when I go by.
01:07:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're pretty similar. I think they're like 80 and 81, so they're both 8s out of 10s. Okay. So when it comes to the writing, like Obsidian is very clearly a video game game, you know, like in the sense that like they're not trying to be like, you know, I feel like sometimes Sony games will try be like almost be like a better version of Hollywood, right? Like they're just like so film-like and movie-like.
01:08:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like Obsidian is not trying to do that in this game, at least to me. Like it's clearly a video game. And like the same type of video game tropes that we would see in like, the Xbox 360 generation is what I'm seeing here.
01:08:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like characters will have a bunch of exposition, which sometimes is, you know, obvious, but they're still saying it and they're over describing things. It almost feels like something you're, sometimes you're reading things from like a glossary because they're just having like such an info dump on you.
01:08:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
The characters interactions don't always feel like natural in the same way, like human interactions feel natural because like, you know, there's more like emotional range in our experiences. There's like kind of nuances in the way we talk to each other.
01:08:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so there was all of those things, you know, were kind of, you could argue their downsides. But for me, I just realized that this is a video game. It's not trying to be anything other than a video game. It didn't really bother me, you know?
01:08:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
But like, overall, I thought the video, the writing was, it was fine. You know, I think like the writing got the job done. It wasn't like anything insane, you know, but it wasn't like a bunch of lows, right? I just felt like it was consistently okay, right?
01:09:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
And that might sound like a knock, but I think if, you know, I think that's fine, you know, for the type of game allowed, it was trying to be like consistently okay. Okay. Like if you're having eight out of 10, you know, writing overall, like that's fine. You're getting the job done. And like in that game, like the writing is really just a device for you to really think about like the ideological things at play. And really what they're grappling with is like, I remember the director was talking about this.
01:09:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
You have your, more like grounded, like kind of political, like drama. And then you're really having this super, supernatural, like kind of focusing on souls. And like, what does it mean if like, you know, we're really looking at my kind of souls and their relationship to magic and corruption of the soul and gods and things like that. And so I, and like animancy, which is like kind of using the science of souls.
01:09:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I thought that was really fascinating. And And there was like parts, this is slight spoilers, slight spoilers. But one of the cool things I remember seeing in the game that I thought was cool, right?
01:10:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
There was like a part where people are using animancy, which is like manipulating souls to kind of do something interesting with the undead, right? And I was like, okay, that's kind of an interesting thing I never thought about.
01:10:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
So those things were good. Now, how would I compare to Dragon Age, right? Because that's what you would ask me. I think Dragon Age has more highs and lows. You know, like, if Obsidian, like, the writing is more often like an 8, like a 7 or an 8, like, there's parts of Dragon Age where I think the writing is like a 9 or a 10. Like, I really thought the writing was great.
01:10:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then there's also times where I think the writing Dragon Age is like a 2 or a 3. That's of also insane. like, you're really, like, going from these, like, drastic highs and lows. So like the companions to me in Dragon Age were better.
01:10:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, like I didn't like the Kunari, the dragon lady. And you know, I think some of the other, what was that? It's just an angel. Partly. And I think like the assassin wasn't the greatest either. But like other characters were great. Like pretty much everyone loves the necromancer.
01:11:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
That was great. You know, the griffon warden, most people really liked that character as well. I really liked Harding, you know, which was the dwarf female. Like I thought she was a great character.
01:11:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
I romanced Bella, which was like the elf girl. I know. My wife was like, what are you doing? But so I thought the companions were actually pretty good. You know, even though that narrative was also kind of predictable, there was actually a couple of choices that happened later on. And I was like, I actually didn't see that coming.
01:11:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
Maybe it's because I underestimated Dragon Age so much. And some of the later developments, was like, well, that's kind of interesting. Okay. All right, Dragon Age. And so,
01:11:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
And one thing in particular that happens later on, I'm like, oh, man, this is epic, you know. But then because there's these moments where the writing is just like the most trash writing you've ever seen, it's like.
01:11:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now that I really think about it, like you try and make your characters like lifelike, like in interactions that we have. If that works, then you're like, oh my God, you're elevating your game. But if you're trying to make something lifelike, but then all sudden the next scene, it feels like HR is in every moment. Because really, that's how would describe some of those moments.
01:12:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
And the reason I say that is because there's no tension. No one is getting mad at each other. And that's why these characters feel like robots. Then it's just so much more jarring because you're just like, okay, I had an experience that felt more lifelike here.
01:12:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now I have something where it's like, clearly these people have no tension like do they even have emotions it's just it's too jarring you know so it's hard to say like can't really say which one is better like i think avowed uses its writing to accomplish its tasks better you know because like the writing doesn't necessarily become an impediment to what it's trying to accomplish for me for dragon age even though i thought the writing was overall better in dragon age you know the fact that the choice and consequence was really not there, and there was no tension when it came to the companion interactions and things like that, I feel like the writing was more of a hindrance when it came to Dragon Age. So then in that sense, I think for the artistic goals of both of the teams, think Obsidian probably did a better job.
01:13:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's fair. It's a fair criticism. I mean, the game for me, unfortunately, I want to play it, but I feel like if it was the game of the month and everyone was talking about it, I would have dropped everything I was playing right now just to try it.
01:13:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I think going to wait a bit. I mean, again, 80 is a very respectable number and open credit. That means people are still thinking there's something worth playing there. And it's more than just polished. Like, it's more than just gameplay mechanics. Like, to me, I played Hellblade Senua 2 or whatever...
01:13:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
There was like something there, but the story really just didn't hit a beat for me. They're both 81s on open credit. Which is kind of crazy. But I get your point. I know what you mean. But with Avowed, I think there's something here to play. I'm just going to prioritize little lower now on my list. So to me, Avowed is just, it's a fun time. You know, like it's not trying to be more than what it is. Like it's just, it's really just trying to be a fun time. And I feel like nowadays you have games that are really trying to push the envelope, you know,
01:14:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
like Baldur's Gate, I would say Kingdom Come Delivered tried to push the envelope in its own way. I would say Cyberpunk did. They failed at first, but then they succeeded later. So they're really trying to push the RPG forward. I feel like Obsidian is just trying to make warm, comfy game that you have fun with. And for them, they just want to make essentially a bunch of double-A games.
01:14:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
They want to be able to make multiple games, and they're happy with that. And I guess this kind of goes into my next point, you know, with the state of the industry, like, can you really blame them? You know, like, you know, if you see, like, for instance, Bioware taking the type of swings that they did with Dragon Age. Remember, we talked about that so much. Like, I'm still kind of a Bioware fanboy, and I hope the best for them. But like you said, know, a lot of people are like, man, Bioware, you've let us down so many times. You know, like, come on now, you know. Yeah, man.
01:14:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
And that's so valid, right? Because they really have burnt so many tries now. And it's because they're taking these huge swings, you know? Like, now you have to wait another five, six years, you know? And then who knows if the next game is going to be that good.
01:15:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now look at Obsidian, you know? Like, let's say was actually satisfied about, you know, for me, what I was hoping to get, I got. not as good as I really hoped it would be. I was expecting more of like an 85 or a 90 type game, and I agree it's more of an 80.
01:15:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it got the job done. the thing is, even if you're upset and you're like, oh my god, Vowt is the worst game ever, the writers all suck in Obsidian and fire everyone, they're literally making another game later this year. Yeah, so I mean, I think you summarized it well. So...
01:15:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's like Obsidian kind of is coming out saying, we know only how to hit fastballs. Like, it's like baseball teams. Like, we don't know how to hit curveballs. We don't know these really slow balls. We can hit fastballs. And they've been so consistent where they've output now, like, what, five games last six years? And they just want to be consistent, like, you know? Well, we know what to expect now. And I feel like if they ever release a game that ends up being better than expectations, because we now know where to set them.
01:15:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
We'll be holy shit, they delivered and more. So I think... Well, I feel like, you know, if... I don't know if this is pushing back, but I feel like that kind of happened to them because I would say Pentimate and Grounded over-delivered for them.
01:16:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think most people think that those games are better than they expected. And so I think they basically expected Avow to be like... skyrim or better like i think interesting take and i think like people expected about to be really good you know they expected to be like 90s because they're like obsidian is great they have microsoft money we're taking obsidian to the next level and obsidian was like we don't necessarily want to go to the next level you think we need to be at we just want to make like cool games and keep making them well i also feel like that people have a lot of nostalgia and they look at fallout new vegas as this game that was like
01:16:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
oh my god the pinnacle of Fallout but in reality it's like it was a great game but it wasn't as good as people think didn't people hate Fallout New Vegas yeah when it first came out swear the year it came out I'm pretty sure everyone was saying Fallout 3 is the best and New Vegas sucks yes and now everyone loves New Vegas they look at it so favorably and like oh my god so also that I think okay Pentiment and Grounded Over Delivered then you're looking at now this old game more favorably than it once was, and you go, yeah, now about expectations are up here.
01:17:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
In reality, it's at the same level polish and output that all the other games were. So in my opinion, if Outer Worlds comes out and they over-deliver on that, it'll be a pleasant surprise. I don't expect it to be. I expect it to be another 80.
01:17:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
I actually think, we'll go record for this one, I think Outer Worlds 2 is going to score higher. I think people don't have as many expectations for it. I think because it's a sequel, they already know what works and they can expand on things. And I think they're going to take some the learnings from Avowed, especially the polish. Because for me, what didn't like about Outer Worlds, it too janky for me. couldn't beat it.
01:17:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I didn't feel like... The map design wasn't great to me. I felt like it was pretty vertical and I was just going for a long period of time and then my frame rate wouldn't be great and then I would run into some people and the combat wasn't the best. So that's why I couldn't beat the game. But the chosen consequence to me were better than about.
01:17:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I feel like they're going to take the good learnings from about and then translate that into the skeleton of Out of Worlds 2. And I think it's probably going score like an 84, 85. It's hard to tell because if these games were being developed in parallel, you don't have that much more time to take the good you're hearing from the game. True, that's so true.
01:18:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
And that's another thing I've been wondering about because I don't know what the team setup looks like for them. Was it A team and B team? Was it A team and A team? But to me, it's kind of like when I look at the Final Fantasy teams, you know, like if you have a team now where like you made Final Fantasy 14 and now they made Final Fantasy 16 and now they're doing their own niche,
01:18:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
you got that 17, right. Doing, you know, that trilogy and like, you know, they're all kind of growing in their own ways. And there's almost like kind of like an internal competition, but like in a fun way, you know, I feel like I'm kind of seeing that with Obsidian and, you know, I mean, I don't know if you've been seeing it on the corners of the internet, but I kind of wonder about, you know, all the backlash for DEI, you know, obviously like, you know, the director is, you know, female, but like to me, I think she's a great director, you know, and like, she's totally like, she's,
01:19:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
really into pillars, you know, and you can tell like, they didn't just like throw her there because they had like to fill some sort of checklist. Like she's really into pillars. You just want the talent. want the right people. And so to me, I'm like, all right, we already know, I think it's Joshua, right? Yeah, sorry.
01:19:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. So he's the guy who made, yeah, Pentiman. And so to me, he's probably seems like kind of like their big guy, you know? But now if they're like internally growing other side teams and now if we're getting an avowed team and they're making avowed one and two or something like in the Pillars universe, now we have the Outer Worlds team making stuff.
01:19:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know which house short is working on. Yeah, don't know. Like, you know, and then essentially you always have like three teams that are all making like their own, if you want to call them double A projects, you know. that do seem fairly polished. I think that's awesome. Yeah, find it interesting. This is one of their biggest... You could almost say Obsidian was their best pickup.
01:19:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think so, yeah. If I have to compare to Sony, it's like Insomniac. Insomniac's output has been so insane, and they were so cheap to get at the time. And Insomniac has gotten better with time too because I love Ratchet & Clank but like you know to me there's been a quality jump between like the Ratchet & Clank games and the PS2 and then the PS3 and the PS4 and the Well it really came to head when they remade Ratchet & Clank for the PS4 and they really showed what they were capable of.
01:20:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
And prior to that, they were making VR games. And I feel like when they actually went into other genres, like the entire studio group, after they had their learnings from Resistance, after they had their, you know,
01:20:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then Spider-Man, you know, I feel like all of that has just helped them create like a certain standard, you know, for their studio. And, you know, to me for Obsidian, like kind of see the same thing, you know, and if really we're saying Avowed is the worst game and whatever it is, like, oh, it's the death of Obsidian and it's an 81 on open credit. And this is what you're saying is like your failure for a team that's made games and has been delivering for years. They've developed so many different, again, games in different genres.
01:20:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
So again, Grounded, Pentamint, avowed now outer worlds like they're all different games and so i was actually you know i think you said this in joking the other day when we were talking about it but i actually thought some more about it and i don't know if it's actually a joke like we were there was an interview that they had with ign like the team of avowed and they asked are you going to make fallout new vegas 2 oh yeah ryan always has to ask it they kind of swiveled away from the question a little bit but you know i think it was the studio head was like you know there's a game in the back catalog for xbox
01:21:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
for Microsoft that I'm interested in. And you joke that, oh, what if it's Banjo-Kazooie? And I was like, I was like, look, I would normally think that was ridiculous because they make RPGs, but they made Grounded.
01:21:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right? Well, because everyone keeps saying, oh, it makes more sense for Double Fine to make Banjo-Kazooie. But it's like, you know what? Obsidian could actually make a great... Double Fine would make a great Banjo, but I almost wonder if they don't want to do it because they're like, okay, the hype is there, the intention is there, and I feel like They're kind of those like hippie indie, like, you know what mean? Like that type of vibe. And I don't know if they really want to try and make those like really polished like games that like, you know, deliver on like an old franchise, like perfect dark, you know, like, you know, people going to have banjo at like such a high pedigree. I kind of feel like, you know, you know, double find is like, I would rather just do our own thing. Because so many people have pointed that out to them and,
01:22:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, or they said like, don't you do a Psychonauts 3? And they're like, yeah, we're just kind of doing our own thing. it was going happen. It would have happened by now. And then if they were going to like find like a, a third party team to do it, they would have went to Toys for Bob's, you know?
01:22:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it sounds to me that Toys for Bob is going to be busy, you know, probably doing something with fire or crash. So, And they're not even under the Microsoft umbrella anymore. So I don't think they're going to go there.
01:22:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
What other big platform teams are there? Yeah. You know, there really is not that many, you know. So at this point, like, I think you kind of consider going to someone outside of your general wheelhouse.
01:22:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
And, you know, if they gave Fable to Playground. Yeah. you know, giving Banjo to, you know, Obsidian. And like, I mean, they, Obsidian delivered with South Park. You know, I would have never thought South Park's Stick of Truth would be good. Insane, because then you have someone like Ubisoft that takes over says, oh, we can, we already have the formula from them. Let's make a sequel.
01:23:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it doesn't deliver. Like, what was it? Fractured the Hole. Fractured Hole, which is still hilarious. It's a hilarious name, but like, you already have something to build on and they still couldn't deliver stick of truth was so freaking good and i remember i played the whole game and like i bought it because i love south park i wasn't expecting a good game and i remember and i played the whole game and i was like this is a whole game that made this game because like you normally when i think of these like tv show or movie titles like i think they're gonna trash like you know right then all a sudden was like subsidiary like what you know it's funny it's been on my list for so long i think i'm gonna play it this year i keep forgetting about what south park stick yeah but it is one of the
01:23:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
funniest games ever i miss games like that like it is not trying to be more than what it is and it's like it's a turn-based game it's so weird it's such a weird but it's like a good amount of strategy i've seen some gameplay like isn't that one part where like in a strip club with like strip fat strippers or something oh i don't even remember it's not weird and then you're killing these guys. Honestly, I feel like that's a game that I would play again just for shits and giggles, just for fun because like with that type of graphic, those type of graphics, that doesn't like go bad, you know, with time because it looks just like the video game. The team show. They released that game. This was right around the time I think PS4 and Xbox One was coming out.
01:24:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so the show itself then had a whole episode about the console wars. And it was like this whole tie in. Oh my God. Yeah. I remember that. That was an hilarious episode too. And so I say that because I mean, I really don't know where Obsidian is going to go next, but I mean, they've already said like they're happy with their sales and they said that early on. So like everyone's raging online, but the end day, like if they're happy and they're making more games and you know, there are ways to me that about is a disappointment, but overall, like I'm happy. Yeah. I don't think,
01:24:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think they're going be untouched. I think Microsoft won't do anything to them. And that's where I want kind of pivot this conversation because there's been some news as of today and as recently about things we just learned about the industry. One is that Fable's been delayed now, which is unfortunate because I was really looking forward it. was so looking forward to that.
01:25:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now, I mean, Grand Theft Auto, you know? But I don't know what Sony is releasing in the second half either. So in terms of the big three exclusive ones, big three platformers. I don't know what exclusives we're going to get. Yeah, so it's interesting because they announced this delay. They say 2026. They don't have a specific window, but they show pre-alpha gameplay. So it's like kind of crazy to me that Microsoft last year was like, yeah, 2025, and you're still pre-alpha? Pre-alpha in 2025? Yeah. I thought the same thing, and I was like, how is this pre-alpha?
01:25:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it looks good. know, I will say like, I thought it looked great, but I thought the animations needed a little work, you know, which makes sense for pre-alpha. I mean, the game, to me, almost looked like it was a little bit more than a year out. Like, because normally, because, like, normally you take the best of what you have, you know? And for a game that is, to me, seemed like the scope of Fable, you know, like...
01:26:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
I just expected, like, if you think you have a year out, like, you need, like, six to nine months of just polishing. Like, your game should pretty much be done. Well, wait a minute. When was the last time they showed the Fabled show? Was that last summer? Last yeah, in the Summer Showcase. Bro, so you're telling me in June of last they're like,
01:26:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, we're going to hit 25. And then eight months later, you're optimistic. Yeah, that was way too optimistic. But this goes right back up to Phil, in my opinion. I don't give a fuck if you're the CEO or if you're the head of X-Fax Studios.
01:26:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
You have to look at that and be like, tell me a realistic date. Don't be like, you know, let's stop with 2025. So I think what's happening if I'm doing, you know, the number crunching in my head I don't feel like they tack on the six months you need for polish or the three or six months you need polish. Because if you think about like, they were like, oh, Avowed is ready to go at the end of last year, right? Content complete. Content complete. And then like all of sudden it's coming out now. And when you look at like the developers,
01:27:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
They actually did a lot of work in the last four months. We rehauled our balancing. Audio. Audio. All sorts of shit. And they rehauled the graphics and the combat. And the performance. They added a new performance mode.
01:27:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now it's where it's at. And they're still releasing tons of patches. Tons of bug fixes. And now I would say after all three major big patches that came out, the game is in a good state. And Microsoft was like, oh yeah, we're good. We're just playing this out, you know, because it's too stacked. I'm like, what? Like all of these games sound like they need like three to six months more polish.
01:27:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
And like even with Starfield, like with Starfield, they basically had to throw the whole kitchen sink to make sure it's not buggy. And I play Starfield. I didn't think was buggy, but like just to show like that should be the standard. That should not be the exception. That should be the rule. Like, Stalker 2. Like, Stalker 2 is an aside because they're in a war, you know, so I can't even believe the game released in the state it did.
01:27:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I can understand why they had to release it when they did because the studio head was basically saying, like, honestly, like, we are in war and we just needed something. Like, we really need to get this game out. But all of these games, essentially, like, they need to cook for, like, three to six more months.
01:28:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, but see this is the problem. Like with Fable, made no sense to announce it last year and that window. Even what they showed was so bare minimum because what we had saw was basically almost what we had saw years prior.
01:28:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
And this wasn't a pitch to get more developers to help them. They're well past the stage. They're prototyping. They're basically just trying to keep us happy. Yeah, and they should have shown it this summer.
01:28:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
But people would have said, oh, another year of no fable. It's in dire state. And they probably didn't want all that like talk to be all that negative talk about fable. But it's like, that's where they fucked up in my opinion. look, don't get me wrong. Sony does the same thing. They announced Wolverine in 2020. Way too early. And it's 2025. And we don't even know what the fuck is going So I get it. But like, now that I say that, like, you know, I have less confidence, not that fable is going to be bad.
01:28:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think fable is going to be terrific. But I'm just like, fingers crossed. Release this game when it's ready. Do not release it early. And especially if you're getting good sentiment, like, hey, there's a lot of divisive opinions on the last couple of games that Microsoft has released.
01:29:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
But if we're trying to go to objective measures like OpenCritic, pretty much all of the recent releases have scored well. I know how we feel about Hellblade, right? But still, 81, about 81. I think Indiana Jones was like 86 or 87.
01:29:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
stalker two was a little bit lower but mean they're in a war you know and like give them a lot of grace i give them a lot of grace for that and honestly after the most recent patch from what i'm reading online like the game is actually running in a much better state the ai is a lot better so you know microsoft like they're actually getting a lot better consistency right and so like now i don't feel as afraid of like a redfall you know and so it's like And if you have all these Activision and Bethesda games, you know, releasing, you know, on Xbox Game Pass, just let them cook. Let them cook. Even if it's like late 2026, 2027, I'm fine with that. It's funny because they have now an overabundance of games and they still don't know handle So like,
01:30:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
we don't know to space these games apart, when to announce them and when to show them. It's like, bro, how is it always so difficult for Microsoft to get this shit right? And actually that brings up a good point because, you know, the ID at Xbox, you know, showcase, I was looking at that showcase and I was like, man, some of these games are certified bangers, you know? And I feel like if this was PlayStation, like they would literally just like rest on one game for three months, you know? Like we were looking at Jump Ship and I was like, you know,
01:30:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
Jump Ship looks like a game that you could just market heavily and, like, make it, like, your summer event, you know? Or that Mecha Break game. You know, like, where is how many people playing on it and seeing, you know? And, like, I feel like if, you know, Sony was, like, the one who's really marketing that, like, it would be, like, their game for, like, you know, for the two months. And I guess maybe this is a good pom for Microsoft to have, but, like,
01:30:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
Microsoft doesn't really even need to like advertise them because they have so many other things to advertise. There's so many now that games are going to lost in the weeds again. So you just talked about it. It's a great example, but Sony at the state of play announced Lost Soul Aside, which they're now going to heavily market in the next three months. And they're like, we don't, that's why they didn't show Ghost of Yotai.
01:31:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
They didn't show Death Stranding. They're just going focus on that. And then that's going to help them like, you know, make good money on that, you know? And like with Microsoft, like they'll just kind of, they'll like, if Microsoft had Lost Souls aside, they would probably treat it in the same way they're treating Ruchang. Yeah. Which is like, we're really into Ruchang. I'm really into Ruchang because like, oh man, this seems like pretty high quality. But we're only getting like,
01:31:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
a little bit of buzz here there, we're getting a little bit of trailer here and there. If Sony had Wu-Chang, it would be front and center. And they would be like, we don't want to even talk to you about Ghost of Utah. We're going to act like nothing else exists.
01:31:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
So all of your attention will be on this day. And it's actually funny. Microsoft has another good example of this. And I think this is where they might fuck it up. But they've done so far a great job of showing it off is Ninja Gaiden 4. So I actually rewatched.
01:32:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
So after the state of play was done, they released, uh, team Ninja released their own videos, like 11 minutes. And I watched the whole thing and was like, Holy shit. I'm now that I'm comparing it to Ninja get up black too.
01:32:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
Four looks so amazing. And I'm just like, they need to market this, this whole year and like put everything else aside. That's the thing. And like, that's what Sony and Nintendo are so good at. Like they make their releases feel like events and they like, kind of like,
01:32:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, stop the noise on everything else. And they like make all of the critical attention go on one thing. Like, look, I understand that like you had so many other things that are like, you know, coming out in the first six months, but like, uh, about just kind just dropped. Yeah. It just kind of showed up, you know?
01:32:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
And like, I had a blast with that game, but like, it didn't feel like an event in the same way And if Sony is making an event out of a game that we even know anything about. We don't know anything really about the studios making Lost Souls of Cider, Tides of Annihilation, but people are still getting hyped about it. Sony finds a way to really make it an event. Even showing off Onimusha or showing off Borderlands 4.
01:33:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
I just feel like Sony really does a great job at marketing. That's really been their strategy. I think, like you said, Microsoft is getting much better at this. The way that they've been treating South of Midnight, they've been doing a much better job. But we'll see. And I just feel like some of those other games, they go under the radar as a result. I remember I was looking back at exclusives that came out for the last generation for Xbox, and I was looking at what games really did well and over-performed.
01:33:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
I just remembered, I was like, oh yeah, Microsoft had Deep Rock Galactic. Deep Rock Galactic did great numbers and it was out for a while, but I feel like people didn't have that association, like, oh, this like an Xbox game. Yeah, that association. Or like Gears Tactics, that game reviewed well. It was like an 83 on open credit and it was like, you got lost in the wind. I love Gears of War.
01:33:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
I barely saw any marketing for Gears Tactics and still to this day, I haven't played it. And I, it's my list. Gears Tactics is fun. And I'm going to play it, but like me, I, I was the biggest Gears War fan. Man, you would love Gears Tactics. You really would love Gears Tactics. And I'm going to play Oh, then like, think about this.
01:34:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, everyone is like, oh, you know, we didn't really get anything from like, you know, Gears or, you know, like, in the beginning, in the first year of, the Xbox series, we didn't really have anything.
01:34:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
Why is it that Ghost of Shishima makes that other Ghost of Iki Island and it feels like an event? And then Gears makes Gears Hivebusters and that doesn't really get the same traction.
01:34:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, not even just Iki Island or whatever it was called. They announced a multiplayer mode which came out later and everyone's oh fuck! They really know how to get people talking. And so now in hindsight, there's actually a lot of Warhammer 40k Dark Tag. I just feel like that game actually was pretty solid. It reviewed pretty well. played it. It actually felt fun. played it. It felt fun, but it just didn't have that same staying power and attention. And I feel like a part of it is how to properly generate and manage the buzz around a game before release and keep it going after it comes out. That's a hard thing to do.
01:35:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
But... It's the way you get it across to whether it's people that stream online or whatever way you market it to be like, guys, we want you to talk about it because your fan base will talk about it. friends will talk about Your families will talk about it.
01:35:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, dude. the Nintendo, the Pokemon Presents that was just announced a couple days ago for the 27th, it's a yearly thing that happens every 27th of February. I was reading online how people were like, yeah, my wife just told me that there was a Pokemon Presents. She has no idea what the hell a Pokemon Presents is. And like to see people... Word of mouth spreading. Yeah, word mouth spreading. It's like, hey.
01:35:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I was just thinking about this, like last year, crazy to think that this was already last year. Wow, where did the year go? Pal World... Right. Right. You know, that came out of nowhere and that was like an Xbox launch exclusive. Right.
01:35:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
And man, look at like, I imagine that did some numbers for Xbox and game pass. And you kind of have to me on paper, what could be like a breakout success like that, like mecha break, you know? Yeah.
01:36:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I really had to go out of my way to realize that, Oh man, Mecha break is a console launch exclusive on Xbox. I didn't even realize that. I didn't realize that at all.
01:36:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, it's strange. I think it's a good problem to have. It's just that if you don't fix that, there's going games like Gears Tactics that just get lost in the wind. Exactly. And then your long-term fans that don't play not only will they not touch it then the developers say we'll never take a chance again on this because it didn't sell well yeah and like i don't know what the numbers are but like i hope age of mythology is doing well you know like we told you know if i was five or ten years younger i'd be all over that like right now it's hard for me to get into an rts but like that's a solid game you know uh but it just gets kind of forgotten yeah
01:36:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, so it's interesting, speaking of the bad news and things happening in the industry, another thing we learned today was that WB Games has closed down a couple of studios, and one of them being Monolith, which was utterly shocking.
01:37:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
Just to kind preface this, there was a report that came out by Bloomberg about a week ago that said Monolith was working on Wonder Woman game for last three years. They'd already spent $100 million as part of their budget, and nothing came to fruition, essentially,
01:37:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
They didn't like where it was going. was incorporating their patented or nemesis system. And I think the director may have left just recently or something like that. And so there was also reports from Bloomberg saying, we might not only see this game, but even if it comes out, it might not have the nemesis system by the time it comes out. So it was interesting to hear that. And then all of a sudden, a week later, Warner Brothers says, we're closing. You know, I'm really happy you finally brought this up because I've actually been wanting to talk to you for a while. And I feel like we keep getting lost on pandemics. Yeah.
01:37:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
But man, I was not expecting that. That was a gut punch. And I remember back in the days how hyped we were at the idea of Microsoft buying the studio, you know, and like, oh my God, what happens if they have all of that, you know, all of those great developers. And man, these are good studios, Very good.
01:38:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I really need a Jason Schreier report to like find out what happened there. Like what went wrong? Well, now you know he's going to probably dig even deeper now there's more to the story because... Who was unhappy with it? Was it Warner Brothers? Was it the actual leader of the studio? Was it administration? What happened it? It's got to be Warner Brothers. It's got to be David Sasloff or whatever the hell his name is, the CEO of Warner Brothers. Because here's where I look at it. There was rumors last year that Warner Brothers were shopping around all their studios because they said, hey, this is too expensive to make video games.
01:38:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
It costs hundreds of millions of billions of dollars. And then all of a sudden they said, oh, you know what? We're not going sell anymore. We're going to double down. And you know what? It was obvious in my opinion, what I think happened was they shopped around and was like, we might be interested.
01:38:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
And cause there was rumors that Microsoft wanted purchase rock study and they go, wait a minute. The only reason why your developers are valuables because your IP, oh, you're not licensing or selling your IP with it too. Then we don't give a fly. You have to pivot to like something else. Like there's no guarantee that like, even if it's a good game, like what if it just doesn't Attract a fan base. Yeah, exactly. And if you have to license out the IP, people are going to say, just like Disney is right, we have to pay you a massive cut and hope that the game sells well.
01:39:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know? Just like how Disney is taking And feel like at that point, Microsoft is probably going to be like, if I am just leaning on the strength of your IP name, why don't I just cut you a deal and put on Game Pass? Yeah, I'll just put it Game Pass instead. Which they tried to do, actually, with Suicide Squad Kill, Justice League when it first came out. They almost had a deal like $200 million a year just to get that game. Oh my god, can you imagine? They're probably happy they didn't do that. But if I look at it from the... You should with the M.O.R. We're good. I mean, they paid lot for Gotham Knights, right? They did. They did. What's funnier, though, is that there's other reports. NetEase has now been pulling back on all its international studios.
01:39:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
And one big thing is, this is the craziest thing. They already announced they like 50 million people play Marvel Rivals, which is now a huge game. But guess what? They're like, the reason why they wanted to potentially close the game down before it even launched is because they didn't pay the fees to Disney for licensing.
01:39:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
And you know what? They're probably still not making much money because there's barely any microtransactions. And they're like, fuck, this game is popular? But it's not making goddamn money. But you know, Disney is asking for an insane amount of money for that. Yes, exactly. Absolutely. So when I look at Warner Brothers... And like that game, mean, seems like it's a pretty good game by all means, but like...
01:40:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's kind of similar to Overwatch, and I feel like if it wasn't for the Marvel characters... Yeah, then it wouldn't be. And that's what NetEase actually said. The report from, I think, Bloomberg as well again said they were considering just making the game without the Marvel IP.
01:40:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
It would not have done as well as done. There's just no way. And it's funny because my friends have played Marvel's Rivals, and they love it. They're like, this is fucking the shit. Because if you get to play Overwatch, but now you're playing with the most beloved characters, that's dope. It's dope.
01:40:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
And, you know, again, I look at... from this angle with Warner Brothers, it's like, you now know for sure, 100% Rocksteady is on its last leg. You just lost your co-creator and your, sorry, your two co-owners of the studio who formed the studio 20-some years ago. They left. They're gone now. Suicide Squad did not work out for you. Yeah. They're now getting a chance to probably make another Batman game, but if that fucking fails, if that doesn't sell 10 plus million...
01:41:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
But that's the unfair thing too because like they, you know, even if it's a success, like it has to be a huge success, you know, because like, you know, they want to see that money, you know, like it's not enough for just that studio to stay afloat. Like they need to see the big return or else they're going to, they're going to make their calculations. They're going Well, if we're not making $100 million profit on this game, it might not be worth taking a swing in the future because what if it's a negative $100 million in the future? That's exactly it because, again, you think about it this way. The reason they're doing Batman most likely, because that's what the rumors are from Bloomberg again, is that they're trying to have this synergy with their movies now. And they go, look, we're making a Batman part two with Matt Reeves.
01:41:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
We're making a Batman Brave and the Bold film. And all of this kind just jives. The reason why they probably also canceled Wonder Woman is because the last movie was horrible. They were considering making a flash game. People aren't paying as much attention to Wonder Woman right now. And like,
01:41:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
With the reboot, who knows what Wonder Woman is going to be like in two, three years. Yeah, we don't know. And the Flash movie, they considered making a Flash game while the Flash movie was being released with Ezra Miller.
01:42:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
And because it flopped so hard, they decided to cancel that. That's what everyone's been asking for. And I feel like they have opportunities to pivot a little bit, but they're not going take risks anymore. Batman's been tried and true that sold 30 million units between three games which actually isn't a lot when you think about it it's one of the best superhero games and only sold 30 million between three games it's kind of not as much as I thought but it's sad to see this because they're talented developers and I hope they end up somewhere else but that is so sad to see and like I mean this is the thing like I feel like everyone is out for blood when it comes to like you know games underperforming or like oh we expect these games to like reach like you know this threshold but like
01:42:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
man, like, like I was saying in the last, you know, uh, podcast, uh, podcast, sometimes I'm just happy. Like these studios are still alive and making games because there's no guarantee in this world right now. Like, you know who I would have never thought 10 years ago, like, you know, this many people will be cut. And like, I, I feel like what feels unfair to me is like, okay, if Rocksteady got cut, it would be big gut punch for everybody, right? Because Arkham, but they'd be like, alright, you know, Suicide Squad, okay, I can see that. But Monolith, Monolith, I really love the Lord the Rings games. That's what I'm saying. And, like, I feel like Warner Brothers has been trying to make Lord the Rings a thing ever since the original trilogy. And they made money on the Hobbit movies, but I think everyone says they really weren't as good.
01:43:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't think the animated movie did that great, you know. You know how Rings of Power is, and you... we've talked a lot about how you feel about rings of power. And so it just never felt like there was anything super exciting that was happening with that franchise, you know, which is a shame because like, I freaking love Lord of the Rings. It's like my favorite thing.
01:43:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then you had shadow of Mordor, you know, and then it's like, and I saw millions of copies. And then it's like, Oh my God. And it has the action of Batman and it has the nemesis system, which is so unique in a game.
01:44:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's like, that's so dope, you know? And it's like, you know, that studio that had like such a high pedigree, like they haven't released a bad game. Yeah. Well, and I guess I understand wonder woman didn't work out, but it's like, give them a chance. Like, like, look, it's like my have the mighty fallen. It's like you had two studios who were so renowned and then they didn't output something in five to 10 years.
01:44:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now they're former show them. So one is closed down, I'm telling you Rocksteady, no matter what, how the next Batman game is, I think they're going shut. I really wish Microsoft had them out. I really do They could have been used for something. So, because look, think about it this way. If Rocksteady was already pivoting to make a different game, they didn't even want to make Suicide Squad. They're like, we just want to make a brand new game that isn't based on a DC IP.
01:44:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
If you had just bought them out and said, Microsoft would have been fine with them making a double A game and just throwing it on Game Pass. Microsoft would have been fine with, you don't need a triple A game that's costing you $200 million.
01:44:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
And if they had that freedom, I don't think the owners of the studio would have left. They'd have said, oh, we actually have our freedom. I'm just like, Obsidian is like, we can still make what we want, Pentiment, etc. You would have probably gotten that for Rocksteady. I don't know if the expectations would have been super high. Would they have paid a lot for them? Maybe.
01:45:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I think they would have split them up enough to be like, you have a small team here that can make something. You can have the big A team make something. I just feel like this is just Warner Brothers. Think about Harry Potter. They are remaking Harry Potter. And I think it was the CEO, he was saying, hey, have people forgotten? Lord the Rings is our franchise. And Harry Potter is our franchise. And I think now they're seeing what Disney is doing with Star Wars. And they're just trying to save.
01:45:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
They were just trying to make it. David came out and said, we're doubling down on Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, and DC properties.
01:45:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I'm kind of surprised because Mortal Kombat is good. It's been good for the last several years. They're making another movie. It's coming out this fall. Fine. Harry Potter makes sense. I mean, Hogwarts Legacy was a really good game. And it makes sense for them to pivot into that and make that the big trilogy. I totally get why would lean into that. You should just keep making a sequel to that game. It's clear there's an appetite.
01:46:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
Game of Thrones, weird. Who's going to make their Game of Thrones games? Well, that's what's confusing to me. It's like you had 10 plus years to capitalize on this fucking series, and now you want to do it after? After Game of Thrones is done. Why didn't you start development of a game for Game of Thrones in the middle of Thrones? Yeah, that's exactly. And the writer for Game of Thrones really helped on Elden Ring. Yeah, so you could have easily had it. This literally knows his stuff. Why didn't you have the actual writer help you make a good game? And now...
01:46:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now, which is even weirder, Monolith, again, great developers. You couldn't have them just pivot to Game of Thrones instead. And, you know, like, all of these, like, okay, they came up with, like, five story ideas for, like, different, you know, spin-offs for Game Thrones and, like, the universe.
01:46:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
Why don't you take any of those and make it a game? Yeah. Why is it so difficult? This is what I'm confused about. You've been sitting on these ideas for years. And then you, like, greenlight these games. like spinoff shows and then you cancel them, you know? Well, so here's the funny part.
01:47:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now, this is where there's a lot of disconnect in Warner Brothers because the DCU specifically, so you have two CEOs. You have James Gunn and then I'm already forgetting the other guy, but they're actually doing something right.
01:47:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're looking at all their properties. They're like, some of this is going to be a movie. Some of them is going to be an animated show. Some of them are going to be live action shows. and some of them are gonna just be games. And they go, whatever makes the most sense for the medium.
01:47:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they go, if someone comes to us with a shitty script, we're not greenlighting it. And I actually think- Thank God. But I think that's perfect because they're taking a look at everything very critically. But I think from a very high standpoint, their actual see of Warner Brothers is like, he has no idea what he's doing. And he's more from the discovery side. And that's why this kind of makes sense that he literally knows nothing. I mean, that's why like, kind of have to do cross media because the thing is if you're in the same media, like people gonna have those associations. They're gonna compare, you know?
01:47:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
and they're like okay game of thrones we're constantly gonna compare house of the dragon to it yeah uh and so and a lot of times really hard for prequels or sequels to like the most beloved franchise you know to stack up but when you go across you know uh media then you don't have to fight those associations as much like how many people are taking the story of shadow of mordor and war of more and then they're like oh yeah like this story the writing is not as good as the original trilogy. So I hate it. They never say that. No, they're like, I can appreciate the nemesis, you know, system. I can appreciate the differences in it. Right. And again, sit on their own. Exactly. And then they stand on their own better. So like, think about Harry Potter. Like,
01:48:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
Hogwarts Legacy did good for a reason. And it adds more to the lore. I would argue that if Hogwarts Legacy was just a TV show or a movie, it would not have done as well. Like Fantastic Beasts. And so that's why you want to do something cross-media.
01:48:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, I 100% agree. And it's funny because James Gunn just had an interview yesterday and he dropped some really important updates. He's like, we're canceling two or three of the movies we greenlit because the draft's no longer good. It was not Clayface. It was called... buster or something forget what he said but he also mentioned that he's now talking to rocksteady and he's talking to nether realms about certain games that are that they want to make and so the fact that he's driving that i didn't realize he had an input in the video game side yeah now he's he has full like complete kind of almost control about what types of games they get to make but i like that he's driving that because maybe and we're gonna get a great not now we might not get a mortal comic game we might get a
01:49:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know fucking Game Thrones fighting I don't fucking know but what I'm saying need things to be different enough you know like even like the the new Batman movie you know like it was different enough than the Batman before you know like if it's too similar then you know people are just not gonna be happy they're gonna compare too much look at look at what happened to Star Wars you know and like people are so burnt about you know Star Wars in general what are the parts of Star Wars that have been really successful it's like the parts that feel like they're carving out their own niche like the to me the strongest thing are the video games yeah it's the video games really done the best you know and like the tv shows that have done the best like you know there is mandalorian right and then andor people like andor and andor has like a similar thread with like rebellion and things like that but like the vibe of that is so different than like jedis running around and chopping people up right and so like that's the thing like and i feel like a lot of these like higher ups don't
01:50:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
always get that. And it's hard because like, you don't always know what's going to be, that's going to like, you know, fill a niche and, you know, you don't know what's going to catch on with the audience. But like, I really do want to see more cross media stuff. And I, this is just a massive hit to me and I'm just so disappointed, you know, and you know, I really don't know what they're going to make in the future.
01:50:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I just hope like at some point we get something that's Game of Thrones, you know, or at some point we get something that's Lord the Rings, especially Lord of the Rings. I want to see that. But I just kind of feel like it's going to be more cuts. And the only, feel like the only success story we're going to see out of there is, is probably Hogwarts. Like, yeah, I think that's really the only success.
01:50:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's funny because it's coming from a studio that had never developed a game before. So it's like, wow, what a weird turn of events for, for all these studios. So, Yeah, I think I kind of want to pivot a little more to some shows we've been watching because I think we've been talking a lot about games.
01:51:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, actually, before we do that, going to talk really quickly about this, the Pokemon Presents, because I mentioned this just before. So there's a Pokemon Presents on February 27th. It's pretty annual now. It happens every year. It's been going on for the last five or six years.
01:51:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I just to talk about this specifically because this has been an odd year for Pokemon in the sense that 2024 was the first gap year we've had since 2018 or 2019. where a game wasn't released.
01:51:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so I think they really are taking a little more seriously about polishing their games. We're supposed to get information about Pokemon Legends Z8 this year, and hopefully we'll see some gameplay. We don't know if it's a cross-gen game yet or not. We'll probably find that out shortly.
01:51:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
And supposedly there's some rumors that they're going to announce a new multiplayer game called... It's codenamed Synapse, so it'll be interesting to see what they show there. They're also having a Pokemon short, like a movie, being released on the 27th.
01:52:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's about Dragonite, and it's a... from the creators of Suzume, Your Name. I saw that. I was like, what in the world? was like, what is going on? I remember when there was that, uh, that Netflix Pokemon show, like, I was like, this is a great idea. You know, this is just like a feel good, like totally different vibe for Pokemon.
01:52:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
Man, Pokemon is expanding in so many ways. I never expected. And it's just insane to me, you know, like even like, we all know Pokemon Go, but even like the clocks that Nintendo has or Pokemon sleeves. It's like, man, these guys. It's a whole nother beast. And I can understand why they treat it with such special care that it gets a separate direct every year.
01:52:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it's funny because this anime short looks interesting. It's about this girl who's on a Rise Dragonite that's like a post carrier Like it delivers like, don't know, like mail or something. But it's like, it's a weird journey that this girl this Dragonite, they're experiencing, they're like,
01:53:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
seeing different Pokemon on their adventure. They're trying to get from location to location. we know when that's coming out? It's coming out the 27th on YouTube. Wait, on YouTube? Yeah. The 27th like... In two days.
01:53:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Two days? we're going to have to watch that. Yeah, on the day of the direct. Suzy Me was good. That was stuff. That's why I'm excited. man. And you've got to tell the animations look great, the music sounds great. Do they already have a trailer for it?
01:53:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, they have a trailer, right? Oh, got to see that. I just saw the poster for it. I saw an image pop up on my feed, and I was oh, man. No way. They already have a trailer. Check it out. I actually thought was fake news at first. Really? Yeah, I can believe that. I was like, wait, no way. This is fake news. When they announced it, I'm no, I don't know how long it's going to be. It could be a 10-minute thing. It could be a 30-minute thing. It's hard to say.
01:53:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I'm excited. So that's going to drop on the day of Pokemon Presents. And it's weird that they're doing this now. Does this mean that there's going to be more collaborations in the future? I think so. Again, with the concierge stuff that they did the year prior, I think, in my opinion, I think they're going announce a new Pokemon movie. That's just my gut feeling. would make sense.
01:53:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
You think we're going to get another Detective Pikachu? I actually, I have numbers. I really want to see a sequel to that. I actually enjoyed that. I really enjoyed I feel like the choice to put Ryan, it was Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling. Ryan Reynolds.
01:54:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
That was a smart choice. He was very funny as Pikachu. I think the live action Pokemon looked good. Not great, but it was interesting. Story was fun.
01:54:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like it was like, Hey, it wasn't anything amazing, but it was fun. It was fun. And, They can build on it because, again, Pokemon is... Okay, by the way, I don't know anyone knows this, Pokemon TCG is blowing up, right? You have this mobile app... I forgot about that. Oh, my God, they're making so much money off of that. So much money off the TCG mobile app, which just launched three, four months ago.
01:54:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's almost as successful as the actual physical card game. Which is still amazingly successful. Yeah. It's getting more and more successful as time goes on. It's blown up in last several months. If anyone doesn't know, there's a new set that just came called Prismatic Evolutions. It's so hard to find now.
01:54:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Dude, within seconds of it dropping online or being in stores, people are fighting each other. Like, I've seen videos of people at Costco and Samsung being the shit out of each other. Oh, gosh. And these are people in their 40s and 50s.
01:55:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's insane. So what I'm wondering, well, I'm actually wondering two things. But the first thing I'm wondering, why have they not made a Pokemon world like a Nintendo? I know. Why have they not made a Pokemon theme park at Universal?
01:55:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
I know. This is so baffling. It just seems like such a common sense plan. Yeah. I would love to see that as part of Universal. Not like a separate amusement park, but just make it a whole section.
01:55:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, people would visit that all the time. Yeah, I mean, and like think about how much love there is just for like Mario and like all of those things. And like Pokemon is so loved. And you know how much variety you can have?
01:55:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
You can have like a Rayquaza, like roller coaster. I don't even know Pokemon that one. I can already
Pokemon's Cultural Domination
01:55:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
think a million things. You can have like a freaking Chansey, like PlayStation, and meals and stuff. There's so many things you can do. Well, already know that their merchandise...
01:55:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
merchandise sales sell so much and make so much revenue for them that you could just sell that at the amusement park. Here's the plushies. Here's the shirts. Yeah, you don't have anything. You get exclusive cards at the Universal Park. You can literally just take a run-down amusement park and throw a bunch of Pokemon signs everywhere. People love it.
01:56:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean, think about it this When Pokemon Go was still very popular, they were doing these events in Chicago and probably New York too and other places where they're like, hey, come here this one day everyone would show up and pay 80 bucks to come to a public park, by the way, be like,
01:56:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
oh, guess what, we can find great Pokemon here that you normally can't find in our neighborhood. So if you can do that with Pokemon you can definitely do that for an amusement And the thing is, a lot of this gamer culture has gotten really mainstream. I would say Marvel has become surprisingly mainstream, but I never expected Pokemon to go as mainstream as it has. I'm always sending you these links, but they had that pop-up bar in Detroit on Bagley. Yeah, that's funny.
01:56:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
It was all Pokemon stuff. We took you there, right? Yeah, the drinks. The drinks were so good, too. Yeah, that was a blast. The decor was good. And then I know we didn't get a chance to go to it, but they had like a...
01:56:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think it was like some sort of anime meetup or anime rave or whatever. It was like a Pokemon thing. I was like, oh my gosh, this is so mainstream. It's so nice to know that the one game I started with as a child is so synonymous now with gaming culture and anime that I can talk to an adult that I've never known before. I'm like, yeah, course I know Pokemon. Everyone's going to know Pokemon. Yeah.
01:57:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
I guess with me, like, I never played the Pokemon card game growing up. I was so into Yu-Gi-Oh! And to me, actually thought, like, Pokemon cards, ugh.
01:57:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
I was like, those are, like, wannabe Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. You know, that was like, you know, because Yu-Gi-Oh! was so big in my school. It was more hardcore, yeah. everybody was playing Yu-Gi-Oh! But not everyone was playing Pokemon. And so I was like, I'm going hold on my Yu-Gi-Oh! cards for life. Like, Yu-Gi-Oh! is amazing. And it's like,
01:57:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
what happened yugioh i know like pokemon has just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger yeah it's it's so funny because the dichotomy it's like yugioh fell off a cliff pokemon skyrocketed and it's so funny like it's so synonymous that i kid you not i use this trick with every girl i've ever dated if i mentioned that i just love pokemon oh my god yeah and pikachu is always the first thing that comes to every girl i've ever talked to and it gives me like brownie points because i'm like oh That's yeah. Well, that means you're a nice, sincere guy, you know? Like, Pokemon, you're just a complete jerk. Yeah, exactly. So I feel like, you know, again, I like saying that people know about it, regardless of age, culture, whatever.
01:58:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so I think, personally, there's Pokemon Direct, I think we're going lot of mobile updates for Pokemon Unite, Masters EX, all this crap. I personally hope that they give us, rather than a spinoff to a multiplayer game, hope they tease Gen So question for you, do you think Niantic is getting kind of sick of Pokemon? Because weren't they announcing that other game that's not a Pokemon game? So they did, and it completely failed. I think they did a hot Harry Potter AR game, and they did one other one. They both failed completely.
01:58:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
Did they have another game that was on the horizon, or no? Yeah, I think they did. But bigger news, because brought this up, Niantic is now considering selling their entire gaming division to Saudi Arabia.
01:59:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
What? Yes, this just came out. And that would include Pokemon Go? I thought that was also fake news. No, it's not. And it's very troublesome because all the GPS and data, location data that they've collected on that the whole world will go to Saudi Arabia. Like, it's just not. like, what does that mean? Like if they sell the gaming division of Saudi Arabia, does that mean those developers still making the games? Is it just like a, a change of ownership or is it really like, we want to make these games anymore. We're out of here. Yeah, I don't, I really don't That's kind of a huge shakeup. Cause like,
01:59:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's a huge moneymaker. Well, it's weird because you're right. It's such a huge moneymaker that year over year, it must just be printing money with little maintenance unless they really think that the maintenance is so much now that they're like, we can't handle because it keeps growing and expanding.
01:59:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
Or maybe it's the juice is no longer worth the squeeze. That is very telling to me because I thought for sure that was just printing money without you having to do it. It's like Apex Legends where they're like, we don't want people to maintain this game anymore, but it prints money.
01:59:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know what I'm saying? It's like, what the? So I'm kind of confused that they're even considering that. I mean, I try to put myself in their shoes and I just feel like if I was working on the same type of project for like 20 years, like would get kind of sick of it. You know, like, I feel like even if you're the biggest Pokemon fanboy, like after 20 years of just Pokemon, you might want to try something different. But like, here's the thing.
02:00:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
Niantic hasn't been in that space a long time. So Pokemon Go started, five years ago, six maybe. And maybe where I can see it their investment was so low. Oh, but Niantic is different than, oh, that's game free. That's game free. Yeah.
02:00:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
So with Niantic, let's say they spent 20 million making Pokemon Go. Now they're valuing it at 3.5 billion. So they can, they're probably saying we'll take all the money we can get, you know, and they set, it sets the owners up for life in my opinion, which is why I think that's why they're Did Niantic make the other, like, Pokemon things, like Pokemon Sleep and all that type of stuff? No, they didn't. They didn't? I don't think so. I think those were in-house by Pokemon Company in Game I see.
02:00:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it's interesting because Niantic came out of nowhere. was just a weird partnership. Well, did you see Game Freak ever getting sick of making Pokemon? Yes. So they basically already, I don't know if you know this, Game Freak announced a new game last year. So that's what I was getting mixed up with. That's the game was thinking about. Yeah. And that game looked totally different than Pokemon. Yeah. So they've actually announced two new games. One was a new RPG that looked kid-friendly.
02:01:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
They actually had gameplay of it, and I have no idea what happened to that game, and I don't know it's ever coming out. The second one, they showed artwork of a new, like, it looked like a Samurai game. Yeah, that's what was thinking.
02:01:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're basically like, we want to start exploring different things because we've been so stuck to this one. Yeah, like, that's a lot of Pokemon. I mean, just think about how many Pokemon designs they've made. They've made so many Pokemon. And it's such a huge international effort because they need so many people to help them design new Pokemon.
02:01:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, what, is this going go on for 30 years? Like, I get you're milking it, but, like, at a certain point, you can't keep doing this. Yeah, how Pokemon are you going to end up with? Like, 5,000? And you keep retelling the same story over and over again. Like, it's not... I'm saying? Yeah, it's like the same classic story from generation to generation. So I just think, overall, I'm excited for the direct just to see gameplay of PLZA.
02:02:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
I hope we get a tease for Gen 10. I don't think we will, but it would nice to see that too. didn't realize we're already on Gen 10. Yeah, Gen 10 should be coming out next year. And then, lastly, I just wanted to fucking remake some old Pokemon games. Why can't I still play the old games on my Switch? What the fuck is going on?
02:02:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
I mean... I tried to get into Black and White, you know, and I couldn't. So I, and I know you love Black White, you know, so I actually hope they remake Black and White, just like they like remade Diamond and Peron, all of those. You know, I'm super biased. Like I am as old school as it gets and I freaking love the first three. You know, I love FireRed and LeafGreet. know, those are like my, some of my favorite games of all time, you know.
02:02:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
And there is actually not many games that I will continue to replay. Now that I think about it, actually, the two games that I have replayed, endlessly are like Halo 3 and Pokemon Fire Red.
02:02:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
I have played so much Pokemon Fire Red. You know what's funny? The best Pokemon games aren't the original games. It's the remakes. Fire Red and Leap Green are remakes of Red and Blue. You got Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which are remakes of Ruby and Sapphire. You know, can you play those? You can play those on the Switch, can you? No, you can only count the That's so annoying because I love Rubians. Well, Emerald, right? And I love that so much. So, oh man, I would, I miss that because I never had a DS. Yeah, exactly. And then HeartGold and SoulSilver are considered the best version of Gold and Silver. And they're also DS. And they're also DS.
02:03:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's so, so, dude, if you go on eBay right now, A used copy of HeartGold and SoulSilver, $300. Used! Without the case? Why did you sell yours? I know. I was a stupid kid that had no money, you know. So I'm so pissed that, again, this is not Nintendo's fault. It's the Pokemon community getting this.
02:03:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
please just i will buy every single copy 70 bucks each i don't give a just release it port it over emulate it so i can start playing i don't want to pay 300 for a used copy of a game it's ridiculous so again i just want to see an announcement some and i was just thinking about it like know they made like let's go like uh pikachu oh yeah that's another remake of yellow essentially a remake of that you know yeah but man like To me, that wasn't the same as Firewood in the screen. I know it's super biased, I would love to see a 3D, high-def version of that. I mean, if they're not going to do that because that's boring for them, even if they just remade the second or the third I would love for them to remake them. You know
Dragon Ball's Creative Evolution
02:04:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
what I was just actually thinking while you were talking? I would love to have a remake of Pokemon Stadium.
02:04:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh my god, that's what I was thinking too. Why have they not made that? They made new Pokemon Stadium. Why don't they make a Pokemon Stadium come back? So here's the thing. What if they announced it at the... What if they announced it at the... So that's the rumor. The rumor is people think that this codename Synapse could be like a Pokemon Battle Revolution slash Stadium type of game, which I'd be happy, don't get me wrong, but I want to see more than Stadium. I want to see Pokemon Colosseum and Gale of Darkness.
02:04:47
Shameer Mehdikhan
Those were the two GameCube games that came out that were RPGs that while they weren't critically received well, they were so... Oh, people love them, yeah. I love them. So I would actually want see... newer sequels to them or remakes of them in some sense too. Or just give them on NSO, please let me play them.
02:05:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
That way too. So that's all I have to say about Pokemon. I feel like you could talk about Pokemon for all of them. You love Pokemon. I'm hyped two more days. Yeah, there's a couple of shows just want to really quickly talk about here since we're on the topic and we've talked about this a little earlier.
02:05:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
One, just want to start Dragon Ball Diamond. I actually, did not watch all of it, but I did catch up a little bit. While was waiting for my haircut, I was kind of fast forwarding through the last couple episodes. Okay, so what have you seen or want to start it?
02:05:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I know he's Super... Spoilers. I know he goes Super Saiyan 4 and then he becomes an adult and then he's Super Saiyan 4. Okay. I don't think they showed him fighting as an adult in Super Saiyan 4 yet. Not yet. That's next episode, right? Next episode is the last episode and we'll see what happens. I don't know if they're going fuse. They kept teasing the fusion bug. Yeah, they have a bug, right? And they're not fusing. So will they fuse as well or will Goku just beat him as a Super Saiyan 4? Also... This canon.
02:05:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Why the fuck does he never gotten Super Saiyan 4? I mean, I'm imagining, like, and I think I read an article about this, and they were saying that, you know, like, Super Saiyan God is, like, God key, so, like, this is demon key.
02:06:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. Like, he can only use it in the demon realm. So that could make sense. But then, like, technically, like, you know, after they see Beerus, like, why doesn't anyone make a concept? Yeah, the comment.
02:06:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, yeah, maybe you should use your demon key. you what I'm saying? Like, that's I'm saying. Again, the way they should portray this was Neva, which is the Namekian that resides in the demon world, kind of unlocks Super Saiyan 4 for him.
02:06:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then they do the classic thing, he's like, hey, here's Super Saiyan 1, here's 2, here's 3. What he did with Buu, he goes, here's one more, here's a bonus. And I'm like, okay, that was sick. But... just how do you mention this going forward? don't even they're going bring back super. And how is that fusion going work? Because like, is Vegeta also going to get a super saiyan four to have a two super saiyan four fusion? Or like, is he going to be like a four? So Diana definitely feels like a complete remake of GT. They basically copied one for one GT. If they're going to do it, they would have to give Vegeta super saiyan four. Then they fuse to make Gogeta super saiyan four, which there's not enough time. You only have 23 minutes left in this lesson. Yeah. That's not going happen again.
02:06:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
So in my opinion, going to be one of two things. Goku is going to distract him long enough so that Piccolo, they just found out that if you hit someone in the back of the head three times. Which is like a weird way of feeding a villain, you know? It doesn't seem as fulfilling.
02:07:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's how Akira has always been with a lot of his portrayals of different things. He's always done stupid gags where it's always been I feel like with Daima, he wasn't going for the vibe of Dragon Ball Z. And now that we're at the end, I kind of wish this was the fourth arc of Dragon Ball I do too. To me, it's a tonal difference. It's a little more funny and humorous and more gaggy than it is serious and epic. Because that's how Dragon Ball Z felt. There real tension.
02:07:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
How are we going to beat this person? Yeah. You know? Well, so it's funny that I have some more to say about this because I don't know, as you're scrubbing through episodes, you just see Vegeta adult go super saiyan three. Yeah. So that was cool. The way he fought looked beautiful, but he obviously runs out of stamina and he can't, you know, pull up.
02:08:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
So there was interview that just came out from Akira's producers or editors yesterday, literally yesterday goes, Hey, did you know that Akira wanted to end the show after the cell saga? oh, okay, those were always rumors, but they finally confirmed it. And they go, yeah, Akira had this weird problem where he would just basically say, he would get so bored and tired of his writing, he'd be like, oh yeah, instead of having the climactic battle at the very end, he'd go, he would throw it in right away at the beginning. That's why he had Goku versus Cell, because he was bored.
02:08:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
Then he threw in, out of left field, Gohan, which he was never planning to do. Then he got so bored of Gohan, he's like, I want to switch over to something else. And so he wasn't ever planning to end it the way it ended with Gohan killing.
02:08:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's so funny. And then on top of that, he's like, I was done. basically confirmed that Kir was done with the show. The editors had to convince him to keep going on. So when he did the whole boo saga, he was bored out his mind. He's like, I never plan for this shit.
02:08:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
So he just kept throwing shit left and right. And that's, you notice that because I think in a weird way, like that's kind of why the show worked because it was so unpredictable. It was like,
02:08:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
Why is he a chocolate? Yeah, yeah. Why is he chocolate? Why is... Okay, you get a fusion, Gotenks, Super Saiyan 3. This bitch gets defeated. He said he's fat? He said he's fat.
02:09:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
Then he gets defeated. Then you give Gohan a new form. Now that I realized that he was just throwing things at the wall at that point. And it's so funny that, like, To me, that was a vibe. It totally worked. It really was. It really worked in that realm of shit.
02:09:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then he makes Gohan, ultimate Gohan, who then gets defeated immediately. Only for a fusion to come born out of that. And then that gets gone. That's gone out nowhere. Like, what is it? So it makes, it puts a lot more into perspective where he was just like, guys, I never thought that. But you know, sometimes in an ironic way, like that's how you get your best ideas. Cause like, You know, like some of the stories I've been working on, like I tried so hard to make like my spy thriller work. And I was like, man, I'm always rewriting this.
02:09:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it just like never feels like it hits the mark. And then all of sudden was make a YA. I'm kind bored, you know? And then like, you know, one of like my writing pals was like, you know, just lean into the weirdness. So weird story, just lean into it. So I was like, screw it.
02:10:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's like, oh, are they kind acting like bleach characters? All right, let's do it. You know? And then like at another point, I was like, wouldn't it be funny if this character was a what was a squirrel and was like i'll make the character a squirrel and so like i was just coming up with these like wacky ideas and just throwing on the wall and like you know seeing what sticks and like that is what kept it engaging for me and like for me like because i was having fun like now when i'm editing the story like I feel like when you do that, then you need a good editor, you know, because then I'm like, oh my God, like how am I making all these disparate ideas like fit together? Right. Because that just feels like a bunch of like Jenga pieces or like, you know, puzzle pieces all together.
02:10:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
But the upside to like doing something like that is like, to me, that project actually seemed a lot more fun than like some the other ones. Cause like, wasn't so serious, you know? Yeah, exactly. No, I agree. So like, there is this weird, um, weird,
02:10:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
element to it that element of surprise is like, what can pretty some of the greatest work that you've ever done? never know. And I think like the fact that Akira is gone now and that he's now given us, he's made canon Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta, Super Saiyan 4 Goku,
02:11:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, man, if anything, it was like this. I love it. Like, I thought Diamond was so slow when it started. And I'm like, what is this really? I care about it? I wasn't even hyped when it came out. And the fact that, fine, the last three episodes have been this good, it feels more like a movie to me rather than a series villain. Exactly, But I will take it. I'll take whatever is. mean, kind of feel like at this point was fan service. It's fan service. I feel like this really was, you know, cleaning up some plot holes and elaborating on some things and things like that. And then it was fan service.
02:11:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, and I'll, look... if this is the last thing we were going get from him, he obviously didn't have the, he didn't say let's have a 60 episode arc of making Dragon Ball Z like the craziest thing ever. He's like, Diamond's like, well, give them what they want. It's been years.
02:11:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
Let's just do it. I mean, I do wonder about what the future of Dragon Ball is going to be like at this point, you know, but at the same point, like Dragon Ball has been such an influential work for such a long period of time. Like I'm satisfied, you know, like it's meant so much to so many different people. And like,
02:12:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, like to me, super was overall a disappointment, but there was parts of it that were promising, you know? And like, I did end up liking Jared, you know, and like kind of how that went down. And I think some of the newer arcs, like people are saying are a lot better. And then think like they were ending in a place that was like getting really fascinating with like all these crazy warriors and stuff like that.
02:12:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I imagine a lot of the future of Dragon Ball, like, is there probably just going to make these into, like, the TV show, right? But that's the question. Like, that was the obvious choice, but now with Akira gone and you're passing this on to the protege, like, can he do it? Sure, but they had so much, like, influence from Akira. So even in the new manga chapters that haven't been animated,
02:12:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
It was still Akira coming up with the outline, and then he's like, okay, to his project, flesh it out. But he didn't come up with the ideas first. It was always Akira. He's like, I gave you the skeleton, the framework. You've got to run with it.
02:12:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
So if they want to do it, they're going to have be very careful because it has fit with the I mean, it's kind of the same thing with everything. It's like how closely do you stick with the old work? So at what point do you kind of try and reinvent some stuff? I mean, I would kind of argue that we've gotten so much from Akira, and may he rest in peace. At this point, I'm okay with the next chapter.
02:13:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
I am too. I'm okay with like, you know, if the next person comes and obviously they're not Akira and they can never be Akira, they're like just trying to do their own thing. I'd be okay with that. And I know like, this is something I think me and you have a difference in opinions of pretty strong one, but like Lincoln park, you know, like, I know you don't like that new album, I know you don't like that new album, but I really enjoyed the new album. And because to me, I'm like, no one is going to be Chester Bennington. You know, like the fact that like we're making some Lincoln park music, but it's like a new generation or like a new, like, you know, vibe, I'm cool with that, you know, because I can have that, like, divide, you know? Yeah, the idea itself. And so, like, you know, whatever Dragon Ball happens, like, I would hope that, like, they actually go through with Super because I really do want to see some of that stuff animated, you know, because I'm not a big manga reader.
02:14:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
But after that, like, you know, I mean, I'm kind of open to them doing things differently. Well, see, here's the weird part, and I'll say this. I think where they might benefit from it is, The last two arcs in the manga were so good. It felt like the old Dragon Ball Z, Cell Saga, Boo Saga stuff to me.
02:14:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
That I'm, again, even though Akira came up with character designs and the skeletal framework, it was this protege that actually fleshed out the story and said, let's bring it back to the roots of what this once was. And also, like, I mean, there has been some crazy power creep. I feel like Akira can sometimes be bad with that crazy power creep. agree. And I think, if you put that aside, if you can give me a...
02:14:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
well-maintained art that like builds tension so that it doesn't just it doesn't go from zero to 103 episodes like Daima did. Dude, that's what's more engaging about like there's so much more that can be done. It can be so much more serious, you know, we've seen it.
02:14:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I just feel like maybe this could be a good thing, not his death, just the the fact that he's pet the torch is now I get what you mean because like I feel like with other media that's like so beloved you know like if that creator is still around or it's a different studio or this like that then like it's really hard to like create that separation in your mind right like I think of Halo right like and because Bungie just doesn't make Halo anymore and then it's 343 like it's really hard in your mind to like get you know you know kind of a catharsis and moving on and you know kind of a resolution you know
02:15:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
And for this, like, I think after you pass through, like, just the shock and, like, the surprise and, you know, worrying about the future of your franchise and after you process all those emotions, you're like, you know, I'm okay with, like, the next chapter, know?
02:15:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
And for some people, for some things, it's, like, more jarring than others. Like, with Linkin Park, like, with Chester's suicide, you know, that was so jarring. Like, took, like, eight, nine years for people to start healing. And even now, like people are still healing. And so with Dragon Ball, with like Akira's like death, like that's so shocking, you know, but after people have kind of like moved through their stages of grief, right? Like then I think like the idea of something new, right? Is like more palatable.
02:16:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, no, I think that's a fair assessment. I'm like, again, I'm excited. just hope they say, they don't say that this is it. We're done forever. be a shame. I just can't see that. You know, Dragon Ball is such a like iconic like thing for Japan. You know, like...
02:16:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
I just, you know... Well, so if you scrub through episode, you saw him powering up Adult Super Saiyan 4, right? you heard Goku screaming, right? Dude, the actor is 88 years old.
02:16:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
Can you fucking believe that she's still able to do something like that? Like, that's also iconic. The fact that the actor is still doing that. So yeah, I'm just excited in general. I think the series will end on a bang now.
02:16:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's going to suck because we have no idea when it's going to come back again. In fact, look, they did announce, basically confirmed that Daima was in production for five years. Wow. And it's only 20 episodes. Man, these shows take forever to make. I did not realize how long they take.
02:16:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
But think about it. To put a lot of love and care, compared to the very first 20, 30 episodes of Super, which were ass, right? Oh, man. Some of those, like if you freeze some of those frames, they're so bad. So, again, I'm mad and I'm not. I'm glad they took their time to think about what they wanted to do and they gave us this.
02:17:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Five years ridiculous. It's becoming like the video games industry at this point. So I just, I don't know. I can't complain. I'm bitching about because I want my cake and I want to eat it too. It's like I want it now, but whatever. So there was that. Besides that, I do want to talk really quickly about two other shows.
02:17:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
First of all, Rings of Power. I'm happy you started with that one. Because let's get the bad out of the way. You finally finished it. I finally finished it. You actually saw the final episode. There
Rings of Power Analysis
02:17:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
was one badass episode.
02:17:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
moment in this show. I'm not lying. I want to talk about it. But at this point, know, if you were going to watch it, you would have watched it by now. Yeah. First of all, this show was ass. Like, second season, by far. Season one was amazing, season two, complete ass.
02:17:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
But the reason give this some points, like, I give season two, like, objectively, like, a four out of ten. That's better, didn't you tell it was a two the other It was, it was two, but because of one line that gave it two points, like, legit.
02:18:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And this was when, finally, Keller Brimbor realizes he's being tricked, okay? And he's like, wait a minute, this mouse keeps going back and forth, something is going on, something's wrong here, and he finally realizes, like,
02:18:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
he was being tricked by Sauron. And Sauron comes up to him and Calabrummer's like, the rings aren't meant for you. And he's like, what you talking about? And turns around, he stabs him with a spear and he goes, am the creator.
02:18:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
I am the master. And Calabrummer stabbed, lifted up goes, no, he's you're powerless. You are Sauron, Lord of the Rings. And the way he said it was so badass because they put everything into perspective. He's like, you are a Lord, but you're no more than that. You think that under Moragath's like shadow,
02:18:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
you are now meant to be something bigger and you're trying treat yourself someone so different and you're trying to be better than Morgoth. In reality, you're no different than he is. And you're just the Lord of the Rings and the Rings really aren't as meaningful as you think they are.
02:18:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like they're not going to change the world, even though they're doing some good thing. So I thought that one was so badass. He's like, you're powerless, Sauron, Lord of the Rings. And again, it's little cringe when it's like,
02:19:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's the title of the goddamn movie in show. guess I never really paid that much attention to that line, but see what you're coming from, yeah. Yeah, so that brought up because was like, wow, what an epic moment. So I guess maybe for me, and I know we've talked about it, I really thought season two was forgettable, and I enjoyed season one more, but...
02:19:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
maybe I overhyped him, but I really did think the actor did a great job with Sauron. And I felt like, man, like the act, like, you know, I felt like the actor for some of the other characters, maybe weren't the best. Maybe it was reflection of the lines or things like that. But man, I really felt like that.
02:19:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
don't know who he was, but he just portrayed Sauron so well. And I was like, man, he's a good villain. Well, I had to Google a lot because I had to understand who in Lord of the Rings, the films, like in the third age were related to these characters in the second age. And was like,
02:19:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
okay, so Aragorn is basically the descendant of this dude and this dude. They're the people in the beginning of Lord of the Rings. Right, right. And Alaron obviously took care of Aragorn.
02:20:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
And he's now here. And then he kisses Gladriel. So I guess he was only doing that. drove people insane. I was like... So if you know what happens in the books and stuff like that, that really drove people insane because... She's married.
02:20:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
She's married. And so... Maybe he only did it to give her the... I mean, I understand why they did it in the show, but like, A lot of those creative decisions they made, they don't... was almost fan service. Yeah, and they don't really fit... I wouldn't even say was fan service, because fan service and how we think of anime fan service, but I don't think the fans are happy to see that. Because the Lord of the Rings fans, what they want is 100% authenticity to the original vision of Tolkien. Because Tolkien basically said, like,
02:20:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
Don't change anything that I do, you know? And I get like, you know, the problem with this is like with Amazon, they are kind of constrained because they can't, they pretty much can only use like the lore that comes from like, I believe the trilogy and not from the similar area and like the similar area is like all of this stuff is going from.
02:21:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
So they do kind of have to make up a lot of stuff. So I understand that challenge, but overall, like, I'm just not feeling it, you know? Like, most of the characters I didn't really care for. I didn't really care where the stories were going.
02:21:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Most of the character arcs, I couldn't even tell you where they ended. Yeah, literally. For the first season, like, I really loved the relationship between Elrond and that dwarf. Yeah.
02:21:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
And that was one the best parts of the first season. And that wasn't expanded on. So it's like the strengths that you have from the first season are gone. The only thing... Well, yeah, he goes to the dwarf and says, I need you. And he says, he'll show And it's like, bro, you had literally no relationship the second season and you expect him to show up.
02:21:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
And you don't even know what he's dealing with. You didn't even ask him what his father is going through. So for all those reasons, like, man, this sucks. But for me, like, the reason I liked, you know, season two, the only part I liked about it was just Sauron because...
02:22:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
I was tricked. Like, in the first season, like, I was able to kind guesstimate that, like, that was Sauron. I wasn't. You know, at a certain point. And I think maybe that's because I was watching so much commentary and stuff like that and reaction videos.
02:22:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then I was like, I kind of saw that coming. But I could totally see how you wouldn't see that coming. Yeah, I didn't see that. That's was, like, such a shock. But I was actually tricked because I thought the writers were going for the perspective that Sauron actually considered, like, going good. And then he went bad. And then It was only in this season that I realized, oh, my God, San is playing everybody, including the reader, like the watcher, right?
02:22:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
In that, like, he gives you what you want. But in doing so, he gets power over you. And I'm like, that is such a interesting villain concept, right? And it's so manipulative. Because, how many villains do you know will, like, basically say, it's like the devil.
02:22:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's this is what you want? Take it. But in taking this, I will own you. And it's not obvious how he'll own you. And so I just feel like that is an interesting concept for a villain. It's an interesting concept. They started off great. The first episode where they continue a story. So they show him becoming like that black blob.
02:23:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then he meets the people of the Southland. And then he travels with the old guy that kind of convinces them like, hey, you could be a good person. I don't even know who you He goes with them on a ship and he goes, The guy's like, oh, I think he didn't even have a son, so he's treating him like his own son or something like that.
02:23:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then as the ship bursts with a bunch of water, he's like, oh, you're going to save me, He's like, nah, he's like, fuck that. He's like, get out here. And I thought that was great. I thought it was so good because I was like, oh, man, in the first season, you were playing with the moral ambiguity of Sauron. It's like, are we doing a redemption for Sauron, who is all bad? And feel like that was making everyone...
02:23:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
head explodes because like all Lord the Rings fans are like, how can you try humanize and make Sauron good? And I thought that was a great place to start. Be like, nope, psych, he's tricking you because everyone wants to see a redemption story for a bad guy, but nope, he's not giving a redemption story for a bad guy.
02:24:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
He knows that that's what people want, right? Because they want to root for the other dog, but really he just wants to own everything. Well, that goes back to your point of he tricked the old guy because the old guy always wanted son or someone to, he could...
02:24:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
like teach and he goes, I'll give you that psych. And then I'm going steal your, your medallion and lie to people to say I was like, this is why I think like writing for that show is inconsistent because like now it puts into perspective that like what Galadriel always wanted was to redeem somebody.
02:24:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
Right. But like if the show was really taking that writing to the next level, like we wouldn't have to think about why does Gladwell want to redeem someone? We would know from her backstory where she failed to redeem somebody. Right.
02:24:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
And maybe that's connected to her brother. Maybe it's not. like that would be better connected, you know. And so now, like, I can, like, for instance, like, I can see that Celebrimbor wants to be really successful with what he makes, and that's how Sauron owned him.
02:24:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
But how did Sauron own Gladry? Like, what is it that's inherent to her nature that makes her need to redeem others? It's not clear, know? It's not clear all. And so that's where, like, the writing suffers. It's a good idea, you know?
02:25:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
But it's not executed as well as it could be. Yeah. Again, interesting stuff. It's weird to me that she meets Sauron in episode seven or eight right after the war. Essentially, Adar is basically dead. He's betrayed.
02:25:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then she's like, this is all part your plan, Sauron. And Sauron's like, you're giving me too much credit. It's like breaking the fourth wall. He's like, this bitch thinks I'm that smart. It's like, not really. It just happened to work out this way. he's literally telling the audience to the same thing. He's like, Pedro, not everything is part of my fucking plan. Like that. I thought it was actually really dumb for them to, to kind of show.
02:25:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
It just didn't really make sense because that, you want him to seem like he is master minute. Yeah. You know, I get your point. I guess I didn't catch that when I saw that, but that does seem at odds with what you're trying to sell about Sauron and his villainy. So, you know, to me, that's why, like, I'm disappointed in the show. Like, I'm not angry at the show.
02:26:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm disappointed because it's like, man, I really was like, man, Sauron is a cool villain. And, you know, it's like in the trilogy, you're like – Sauron is evil but you don't really know his evil because you just see the effects of his evil but you don't really see him as a person and how he got to those effects but in this show like showing the difference between someone who just wants to like destroy which is like Morgoth versus Sauron like someone who wants to control and enslave right and like that is something that's so interesting to toy with and it was building up to a good point and you had like
02:26:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
the perfect actor for it. And, you know, I just feel like the other parts of the show just did not come together. And like, If every other part of the show is like dragging the show down, like one part is not going enough. And it's not going to be enough. Like the orcs are like, I like to call them the Uruks because that's their native down wherever they go. The orcs, why did they all of sudden just betray Adar? It's not even clear me. It's not like. Because all of a sudden, and this is what it means, like the audience needs to know the rules and how they're established. And if all of sudden, like, you know,
02:27:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Sauron is so powerful he can just command the orcs now but he couldn't command them before. Then people are going to be like... And he still kills some of the orcs that betrayed Adar. So it's like, okay, fine.
02:27:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
Whatever. And the thing is, what they're trying to get across is the power of Sauron is the more time he spends with you, the more he gets to know your mind. And then that's how he gets to manipulate everything around you. When that actually plays out in screen, it's not...
02:27:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
always as interesting as it could because then sometimes it feels like a bit of an ass pool. It did. know, where it's just like, oh, you've spent enough time with these characters, now you are the god. So, well, so like the orcs come in, they see him kill Celebrimbor and they're like, is you? Are you Sauron? And he's like, I go by many names. What's your name? So he's trying to be empathetic and kind of be the father figure that Adar wasn't because Adar was like now sacrificing all the kids, right?
02:28:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, I guess they bought into that. And then was like, like that amount of encounter was enough for him to like, just know their mind. Yeah. Yeah. And so like those things, like then when those things happen, like it feels like it's breaking the rules of that story. And then it just seems unfair, you know? Yeah, it did seem unfair. And I'll give two other moments. I did like one was when a dark puts the ring of power on,
02:28:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
And he actually starts turning into his old elf self. That was cool. And then he goes, you know what? This isn't for me. It isn't consuming him. And he actually takes it back off and goes, this is for you, Gladio. I can use your help. You know, one of the things, now that you're bringing that up, I like that too. And it made me think of one of the things I didn't like about the show were like some characters just like automatically know it's really bad.
02:28:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
And other characters just like automatically think it's really good. It's like very black and white. And like, you know, you would think that for the, for that type of show, like it's a thoughtful universe, right?
02:28:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
Those people are thoughtful, like there should be more moral ambiguity, you know? And like, they had flashes of that, like when they had that really old elf and, you know, they were saying, Hey, what should we do with the ring? Should we go into the ocean? What should we do? You know? And then,
02:29:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, there's more and more ambiguity. Like, I don't know how much we should use this versus how much we shouldn't. But then in this season, know, like later on, there's like people who are like, you know, like the dwarf.
02:29:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
Absolutely. I know this is bad. And it's like, okay, like everyone is either hundred percent gay or a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of, it's funny that say that. I, I'll,
02:29:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
don't know. I had another moment I liked actually, finally, because it was getting annoying was that when the Dwarf's father put the ring on, yeah, he's obsessed. And they're showing now that, again, way Cal Brumor was tricked, but fine. You want say deceit, whatever it did to the rings for the Dwarfs, but I think they were just more susceptible, right?
02:29:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
He finally finds that fire breathing demon, right? And I think it was cool that dad's finally like takes the ring puts in and he's like, okay, like I have to do this. And the funniest is he's like old ass elf. He jumps in the air. was like the most epic thing ever. And he's like, and he hit, and he clashed swords. And then like all the crumbles, right?
02:30:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
was like, okay, that was actually epic. That was so That was actually epic. So my point is like, if a show shows you no flashes of good or brilliance, then like you've already written off that show like very early, right? Then like you don't get as invested in it. Yeah.
02:30:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I think the things that hurt the most are the things that are disappointed because you feel more invested. And they have, like, some things that are fascinating. know, like, I'd argue with the Halo TV show, you know, another contentious thing. But, like, to me, there were some flashes in that show where, like, man, this is kind of really cool. You know, like, I remember in the first season, like, when essentially, who is that brute who, I forget his name. He essentially – oh, Atriox. He's basically Atriox.
02:30:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
And the chief tries to fight him, and then he hammers away and steals the artifact. was like, oh, man, it's kind cool. Negolers are exploding people. There's some promising stuff here. I was like, all right, it's kind of weird that they took the helmet off. But, hey, they're doubling down on this.
02:31:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
This could be kind of cool, depending on where they take it. And so then there was like those flashes where it was getting interesting. Right. But then I felt like the writers just like went back to like the same generic, you know, stuff where it's like the, the, the really like tried and true, like generic military sci-fi shooter where like military brass is evil, you know, soldiers should be able to do what they need to do, know, all of that. And it's like, to me, like that's kind of the elements of Halo 4 and like,
02:31:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
people don't really like that as much or Halo 5. Like, you know, this is not like a, like, even though it's a military sci-fi, you know, type of, you know, game, like what they really like, you know, I don't know you've heard of like Space Odysseys, you that's what I would argue like one, two, and three are just like Halo one, two, and three, just like Star Wars, right?
02:31:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so people want like a character that's larger than life, you know, they want to be in environments that are larger in life, like they don't want to have like essentially watching, you know, Jack Reacher, you know, but in like 2,500, you know? Because like we've seen a lot of those elements. And then if you do those elements that we've seen in every other military shooter, but then you do a poorly, you then any flashes of interest in your brilliance you had are just gone. Which is why when I saw that moment with the Dwarf Father, it was cool, but then I'm like, it doesn't amount to anything.
02:32:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
The only thing that I liked is that when they showed the fire-breathing demon, wasn't that the demon that Gandalf kills in the... Yeah, yeah, that's Balrogger. Oh, Balrogger, okay. So was like, okay, that's interesting. It was basically... Yeah, it was living in the mountains underneath him the whole time with all the mithril. Like, they find the mithril, I guess,
02:32:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
But they're like, this thing has been here forever. So I think in the books, I'm not like the biggest like Lord the Rings scholar, you know. But Balrog is there. He does do all that stuff to the Misty Mountains. But I think their spin on the Mithril and, you know, digging for the Mithril, like is kind of their own creative twist. Because I think the books just leave it vague. And they just say that like they dug deep enough.
02:33:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
and then there was Calamity or something like that. Okay, interesting. maybe they added that. But yeah, no, it's not like they were like, oh, it'd be cool for us to throw Balrog in here. You know, for a tie-in.
02:33:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's a thing. Balrog was in that moment. Okay, interesting. As far as I know. So that's, okay, fine. They kind kept to that. But then I think Gandalf's story was so stupid in this season.
02:33:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm actually disappointed that it's actually Gandalf because I was actually hoping it was a blue wizard, you know? And I was like looking to the blue wizards and I was like, oh, that's a totally interesting year. And I was like, nope, it's Gandalf. Well, they did the stupid Hodor thing. So with Hodor, hold the door, hold the door, Hodor. Okay.
02:33:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know what they do for fucking Gandalf? The black lady walks up is like, thank you, Gandalf. Gandalf. And then he gets it. Gandalf. Yeah, and then he literally gets in the house. He goes, oh, I guess this is my staff. And he goes, so what's my name? And the other guy, the other. Tom Bombadil. Yeah, he goes, you should know your name. It comes with blah, blah, blah. He goes, I guess they're going to call Gandalf. I'm like, wait, how'd get Gandalf from Grandal? Grandal, yeah. You know what I'm saying? At least if he said, I guess name is Grandal. But no, he said Gandalf. Yeah, definitely Hodor did it better.
02:34:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah hodor did it better hodor was pretty iconic yeah at least like it went from he literally said the word hodor and you could see why hold the door became hodor you know and then you could when you see grandalf and gandalf you're just like really yeah it's like so i feel like they made that shit up i feel like 100 they made that part up and then the whole thing about the dark mage coming in he's yeah yeah i'm just here to help my brother and then he's like no fuck you i'm just kidding i'm gonna try help sarah yeah of course obviously like i mean the thing is like that can be like a place for them to really like have some creativity because there were wizards that came in and they were supposed to help and then know the blue wizards just went to the east and we don't really know what happened and all it says is like they tried and they really amount to money Did they die? Did they live? And the story keeps it super vague, you know, because the way Tolkien read it, like, wrote it, like, he didn't write it as if, like, he was the, like, he was, like,
02:35:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
the creator of everything, he wrote it like a historian. Like he wrote it as if like, like he was researching Middle Earth and he was writing down the tales of Middle Earth. So just like you would write down like, you know, in the 1700s, like this happened in America.
02:35:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
But we don't know. Why he write that way? I mean, that's why he was so genius. Because like by doing that and creating his own language, it like created this like whole nother dimension of realism because it was like the actual author is not acting like an author he's acting like a historian and so and then like to do that you have to commit like the man created languages you know like he really almost treated it as if it was like a study yeah that's why like i said i'm not a lord of the ring scholar because i feel like you know to really understand all of that like you have to be like a lord of the ring scholar because
02:35:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
He created a friggin' mythology, you know? I think it's cool. I think the world itself is amazing. I don't know if I'm gonna like season three because it's about creating the wondering now. Yeah. And at that point, Sauron will probably have a lot of power. we'll see. I mean, I think everyone was hating on the show after the first season, but for me, like, I thought there was enough there in the first season that I was entertained and interested. I was, yeah. And I was like, I want to see where this develops.
02:36:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now that the second season is here, I'm like, eh. Yeah, we'll see. And like, I guess I'm just comparing it to like the halo TV show. Like after the first season, was like, I kind of want to see where this goes. And then I saw the second season and I would say like 90% of it. I was like, okay, yeah, I don't, I don't know if I really want to see where this goes. And then for me, I actually liked the last episode of the halo, like the second season. And I thought it ended in an interesting place, like spoilers, but they end up on the halo, you know?
02:36:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so I mean, who knows? Netflix might be picking that back up. We'll see. But, I mean, for Lord of the Rings specifically, I think they said they were to filming this year.
02:37:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
So we'll see where they get with it. I think overall, like, disappointed for sure. I actually really enjoyed season one. I liked...
Severance's Narrative Style
02:37:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
Glad Y'erl was way more involved in season one. And I know people didn't like her as much, but I personally did. And I just liked the twist ending to reveal Sauron. So to me, I just like season one better. But yeah, that's kind of most of what I have to say about season two. Just not really into it. And then the last thing just wanted to talk about was Severance.
02:37:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
which are you caught up i'm not caught up no the last episode i saw was still the the ice okay you know so yeah i mean again some things happen in the last episode it's interesting when you watch it but i think overall like i'm just enjoying the show because of the acting i think more so than the story i don't really care so much about story it's just the way they all interact with each other it's it's so good like it's weird to say it but like irving dylan Helena and Mark, they have a chemistry. Not only they have chemistry, but when they go from any to Audi and Audi to any, they're so distinct.
02:37:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're, they're almost acting like two different roles in one show. it's just like, they're able to really stretch themselves to do a lot. So I think that's just captivating for me and it's kept me coming back to the show. So yes, I'm interested in the story. I want to know what the fuck is going on at Lumen and I want to understand what the refinement actually means.
02:38:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
But overall, I don't even care about Mark's wife. I literally don't give a shit. It's just like, every time they interact... To see how they interact. Yeah, it's like, okay, they have this retreat, and then they almost kill the daughter of the CEO. It's really funny that that happened. And then she... Spurs!
02:38:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
And herself, who's an outie at that time, has sex with Andy Mark. It's like even funnier. Because she's starting to become obsessed with him. Yeah. I mean, for Severance, really, just feel like the outsider on this. Because every single person I've talked to, and apparently, I'm surprised, but everyone I know is really watching Severance. And they all love it. And I feel like I'm the only one who's like, I don't really like season two. I'm not feeling it. Because for me, I'm like,
02:39:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
what is driving the story forward, right? And like, why am I coming back to watch? I'm thinking too much like writer. And so two things. I mean, this is something that I do all the time and I've gotten some advice not to do this, but like I artificially like leave my reveals for much later in the story. So like there's tension and people keep coming. So like there's a payoff and then they'll finally like get the reveal.
02:39:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
But at this point, how many hours have I been watching Severance? And how much have I really learned about the world of Severance? And I'm just like, if I'm watching this to like learn about the mystery of Severance and like why the world is the way the world and why things are happening the way it is, it's like,
02:39:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
I need more, you know, like just feel like it's dragging and I need more reviews. And the people I'm talking to, the reason they like the show is like, it's almost like they're describing like a, like a detective type show. And people like watching detective shows cause you're like figuring it out as it goes. Well, you're figuring out with the character.
02:39:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah and so I think Severance does an amazing job of that like making you put yourself in the shoes of the character and you're like learning it just like a detective thriller is but for me like I kind of saw the twist coming you know from the moment you're sitting at the table so at that point I was like to me this pacing is kind of slow because I felt like season one ended up in a really good point and then I've done this as well sometimes and I know a lot of shows do it it's like season two happens and you're like expecting something cataclysmic to happen because you're like oh my god season one ended in such a huge way like i can't even imagine the ramification of the world and then it's like nothing's changed yeah and then it's like you're back to square run and i understand that like you're trying to drive home a point of the theme that like this is an office and nothing changes and people can relate to that but i'm just kind of like
02:40:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
I've already seen that, you know, like, and I just didn't vibe with that as much. And so I'm just waiting for like the plot to move forward because for me, like after four episodes of season two, I'm like, what's really happened, you know, other For me, it's not about, again, I go back to the plot and I think whatever they unveil about what Lumen is truly doing, it's to be something really simple.
02:41:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's going something where everyone overthought everything. And I'm like, the reason why they didn't want to reveal it, because if they did, they would end in one season. and That's so true. It's more of the experience and the journey, not the destination. I guess for me, I'm kind of waiting on the destination more. This is a total personal peeve of mine.
02:41:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't think this is an objectively bad thing. But I just feel like a lot of people, like when they're creating these like office environments, they kind of go through the same cliches, which is like the Yeah. It's always the 1980s. It's always the 1980s. Like Call of Duty Black Ops. There's a weird obsession. And I understand why, but like control, like Call of Duty Black Ops. And I understand like that's the motif. And like, especially when it's like, it's really touching that like CA, like thriller type of mindset, but like,
02:41:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
I've seen that so much, you know, and it's like, I'm like, if you created a severed floor and it's such an interesting concept, like why does it have to look that way? And like, from like a mental health perspective, like if the people in a severed floor are only going to live in a severed floor and only are going to know that, why is there a bunch of white everywhere? Like, and why, you mean? Like, I feel like it's like artistic expression is supposed to an analogy of like how we feel in our jobs. But like,
02:42:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
from a practical standpoint, like that would really affect their mental health. And like, why would you want to affect their mental health if they're stuck there? Like the walls don't have to all be white.
02:42:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's doing something for the viewer, but it's like the world. Like, why would you do that? Because that's the only thing they'll know. you could like literally make it look like a Google headquarters. Yeah. Yeah. I make them. Yeah. I agree. And it's not going to affect their workflow. If anything, it's going to make their workflow better, but it's not going to like help us make the artistic vision of the show and like sell it, you know?
02:42:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
And like, look, I feel like I'm in the wrong on this choice because like clearly like the ambiance and like the, the scene selection and the artistic style is super successful and it's iconic.
02:43:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's like, you know, without even really like doing much effort, we can just like, think of the icon you know like the cinematography like images and it's like in your head like you know what that floor looks like you know what the hallways look like and so they've done their job really successfully right yeah the way they shoot a of the scenes is so subtle they sometimes have double meaning so like when they were shooting like there's a scene with any mark and any helena in the office and they were obscuring mark but they weren't helena because mark is starting to reintegrate so it's kind of like this weird subtle way of
02:43:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
he's no longer himself. And then she's back to her in his self. So she, you can see a clear, clear view of her or when she's in the bathroom decisions. Yeah. Yeah. when she comes into the bathroom and Mark had just had sex with her and now she's back to her in his self, but she's talking, you see then her, image casted through the mirror. So it's almost like the Audi version of her. And they're both looking at Mark and he's right in the middle.
02:44:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
And he's confused. Cause he's like, just fucked your Audi. And I'm now talking to you. I'm, too scared to like he's I'm confused so it was so it's really funny way they do it and I guess with me too like sometimes I skip through the show a little bit because it's like the episodes are so slow and I'm just like oh god can we move forward and if I skip through like 20 or 30% of the episode I don't really lose much no no you're not definitely not and I think that also kind of shows you about the pacing of the show because like if I like the episode that happened in the snow I could have literally skipped
02:44:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like 80% of that. And literally nothing would have happened. And so I guess what I'm trying to get at the word I would look at is like consequential, like not everything that's happening in the show. Yeah. Consequential. That's fair.
02:44:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
And like, like even though the white woman, I forgot her name, like the older lady who's like obsessed with him. Yeah. She like keeps wanting to like be a part of like, and like, and like literally she just made up her mind on what she wanted to do right in the beginning.
02:45:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
how much would the show lose? Like, I understand that there is like a benefit to her, like being wishy-washy and wanting to join and not join. Right. That's actually like adding to the story. But with the amount of screen time you spent, you know, like how much does it really happen? Because it doesn't really feel consequence. Like I already know this woman is weird. You know, like I'm not really like learning anything. I'll give you that. It's, that's a fair criticism. The way I, the way I was going to say something, but now like kind forgetting, but yeah,
02:45:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
What was I Was it a good thing about the show? Yeah, it was, but now I'm forgetting. Was it the acting? Because know you love the acting. No, it was to the point you were making.
02:45:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay, I can't remember. But I think overall, where I'm at with the show... Look, oh, I think I know what I was going to say. So you made a point about the pacing, though. But you said what's happening is somewhat seems inconsequential.
02:45:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
For me, I felt almost the same way with Lord of the Rings, like with Rings of Power, to the point where the pacing was so bad. I'm like, why am I not enjoying this show, but I'm enjoying Severance? Like, I was trying to really compare. And it's hard to say something like Apple. So I would say, like, it's the tension, you know, because, like, in Severance, there's a lot of tension. Because you're just like,
02:46:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
what is going on and you care about the characters you're invested. Right. So there's tension. Cause like, you don't know what's going to happen to the character. So there's the unpredictability aspect. You don't know what's happening in the world. So it's unpredictable.
02:46:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
So like you, you're feeling glued because there's tension, you know, but like, In rings of power, there's not a lot of tension, you know? I think that's what like did it because we just, you know, gave you the statistic the other day, but Severance just surpassed, Ted Lasso as the most we've shown on Apple TV. And I think if they could like harp on anything and they were like, what do we need to do to get people to watch the show? And they did, and they have the tension, right? But like you said, the things they, the decisions are inconsequential. They can live with that.
02:46:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. Right. Like to me, like the fact that like there's parts of the show that inconsequential, like, and it's, know, to me, I'm like, let's just get to the point where like the things that happen the show have like a huge impact. Like if Audi,
02:47:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
in any mark are now reintegrated or whatever. Like, when is that going to have consequences on it? You know, but like for, for this show, it's working.
02:47:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I guess I really have to analyze and think more why it's working because in a way it's almost feeding into the tension. Like they've done it in such a way that even though things are feeling inconsequential to me,
02:47:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
it's adding to the tension of, oh my God, what's going to happen? It's almost like Game of Thrones where sometimes things will feel inconsequential, but it's kind of adding off. And I would just say you need to have a payoff eventually. There's got to be a payoff. In the first season, there was a good payoff. So if you don't have a good payoff at the end of season two, people are going to be like, did anything change really from the beginning of the season to the end of the season? think they're going to ramp up because season one had the same problem. It didn't ramp up until the last three... episodes and in the end that payoff was so great because when they do have the overtime contingency happen staring picture's like wait that's my wife and she's like wait you're any mark that's like she's a lot it's like that was so well done it's so well and i think they're gonna have a moment like this but what i would say to that is there's this moment of tension specifically in the last episode so i can't remember if you've seen this one or not but i think it's in the last episode
02:48:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
He starts to continue to reintegrate while he's back in Lumen. He's like, what's going on? And he starts to cough. He ends up having, well, fuck, you didn't watch the episode. Okay. Ends up having sex again, but this time with any Helena.
02:48:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay. In the office. After that, his nose starts bleeding again. He's what the fuck? So he goes to the nurse's office with the Asian girl, the intern. Okay. You find out she's an intern, by the way.
02:48:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
She's not Milicek's boss. She's a fucking intern and she has a fellowship. And then she's like taking care of him. She's like, Hey, your blood pressure is kind of high. It was weird. Has anything been going on? no, know you're talking about. And then all sudden, again, the scenes start flashing. And then he goes, wait, where am I? And then it's flashing between two scenes, him being with a rugby, the, the African American lady that's been experimenting on him.
02:49:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then him with at Lumen with the girl that has the fellowship. And he's like, he's like, I can't now perceive where I'm at. And so then they cut away immediately. And you don't know what happened. If now, if the Asian girl knows he's been reintegrating or not.
02:49:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's how did you get back home? So that tension again, where what's going happen the next time you're at Lumen? I feel like the show is really good at like the tension. Yeah. Like what's going to happen. And like, and you know, I think,
02:49:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
even the things that are feeling like they're inconsequential, like in the Bratis Corp, they are still feeling consequential because it's just kind of adding to the tension. Well, sorry. And one other thing to add to that, as soon as that happens, he, again, he's, he's back at home. He's how did I get here?
02:49:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
He goes to a diner to go eat and guess who visits him? Audi Helena. And he's like, that's never happened. And then it's like, is she visiting him because he had this weird breakdown work and she knows, or is she just obsessed with him? Like we like, and it leaves it vague enough that it's like, Oh shit. So kind of speaking about severance and I don't know if they've answered this before, but when I was talking to, you know,
02:50:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, our barber. Oh, has he seen Severance? Yeah, he loves Severance. What? And he was telling me that, you know, one thing that he noticed was when, who's the guy who, Irving? think it was Irving, right?
02:50:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
The gay one. Yeah, like Irving realized... Okay. like really early on that like there was something wrong with Helena. Yeah. The way she described her story. And, but he's like, he was always suspicious. He was like, just based off of how he, she described this, like, you know, the story, like how did he figure out that Helena was actually as important as she was?
02:50:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
Cause he was like, if Helena wasn't as important as she was, and he just started drowning her, then wouldn't Milchak just say, just drown her. Right. He wouldn't intervene.
02:50:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
So like, Irving would only do something that drastic only if he knew that she was as important as she was, you know? And you can make the argument that, well, only that someone that important could show up as an innie when they're really an outie.
02:51:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
But he was convinced that when you take that with that phone call that he was making, like, you know, that there's probably higher forces at play and that probably the outie, Irving, has been connected to bigger players.
02:51:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. So here's the funny thing. Now, since you missed the last episode, they delve a little further into that. Irving ends up having dinner with Audi Burt. You know, the guy that he started to follow with.
02:51:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And when he goes there, something happens. Two things. One is someone breaks into his house, to Irving's house. They find out he has a suitcase full of fucking shit. They open it up and he's been keeping notes on everyone at Lumen.
02:51:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they're like, how does his Audi have these notes? So that's weird. That's strange. You might, you must be talking to someone else that has connects. Second of all, he's talking to Bert at his house. He meets Bert's partner, gay partner.
02:51:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're all talking and all sudden they're having wine. And his partner's like, don't you remember when you were at Lumen 20 years ago? And Irving's like, 20 years ago. He goes, you told me you joined 12 years ago. That's when the severance procedure first took place 20 years ago. And Bert's like, oh no, no, no. Like he's just drunk. Don't listen to him.
02:52:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's like, okay. So two things are going on once here. Irving knows more than he's letting on to believe on the outside world. And Bert's also probably been lying too. And I don't think Bert was ever severed. Yeah. So it's really interesting. It's interesting. I mean, now that I'm really, we've been talking about it. I feel like the hook with severance is it's, it's basically a detective show without a detective.
02:52:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
And like you're in the middle of the investigation and everyone is kind of figuring things out because it's a very suspicious place to be. And you're figuring it out alongside with them, but there is no detective. I kind of like that though.
02:52:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
And that's kind of unique. You know, there's not a lot of things that I can think of that are like that, you know? And so it's like, filling a niche that we all like, which is like the detective show, but in like a way that's different because you don't have like a Jack Reacher or like somebody else, you know, like, or, you know, like Sherlock Holmes leading the way.
02:53:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so then there's more tension because if you know, like Sherlock Holmes was on the case, you know, it's going get sorted out eventually. Maybe, but you know what? One, guess, form of medium or art that did it right was Batman. The latest one, even though, you know, he's a quote unquote detective, the whole thing is kind of a deranged directive.
02:53:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, not just that. The whole movie, the recent one, he's basically, you're playing along with the Riddler and you're going from riddle to riddle. He's still like, I don't understand what's happening. And he actually doesn't solve it because Falcone dies.
Detective Show Popularity
02:53:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
But you're in it with Batman trying to figure it out. That one actually did it really well. mean, that's why people love detective shows because look at how important Criminal Minds is. People love that stuff. To really feel like you're in the center of it trying to figure it out alongside everyone because the hook is like, can you figure it out before that? And they breadcrumb it so that you can't actually figure it out before them. Because when they finally think they figure it out, like Batman, he goes, oh, radical.
02:53:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
rat with wings that's penguin that's not me wait a minute but another rat with wings like a falcon uh falcone oh shit you know it's like oh it's like oh but they gave you they breadcrimmed you enough to make you think that you knew but you really weren't ever gonna figure it out until the end so i think like the batman actually did it really well just like severance is kind of doing it you know if that makes sense yeah like you're right it's like they're putting in the middle of the investigation Yeah.
02:54:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, I got to catch up on that, you know? And I think I'm going wait for a few more episodes to drop and then I'll binge them. think it's fair. Yeah. I don't think there's any rush, but every new episode comes on Thursday. So just keep that. All right. Well, I think this is a good one and we'll catch everyone in two weeks. You know, please let us know if you have any thoughts about anything, you know, we'd love to hear from you guys. What are you watching? You know, what do you think about some of our hot takes or, you know,
02:54:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
you guys have played about and if you agree with me. So I'll catch everyone later. See ya.