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Side Quest: Game of Some Years
131 Plays1 month ago
Ben and Jess talk about their favorite plays from this year.
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
Give us a review, they help people find this show! Unless you hated it, in which case, don't.
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Transcript
00:00:16
Speaker
Hello. Hello. Hello.
Introduction and Side Quest Announcement
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello. And welcome to Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast. I'm Ben and I am Jess. And ah this week ah we're doing a Quest Quest side quest. Quest Quest side quest. QQSQ as they call it.
00:00:41
Speaker
You know, ah the the the year is ending, the day is done. ah How's that song go? Day is done. Gone the sun. yeah Are you thinking of its closing time? Is that the song you're thinking
Thanksgiving Mishap: Bugles vs. Olives
00:00:54
Speaker
of? Yeah, I was thinking of closing time, which is what they play on a bugle. ah the The delicious snack. I got a question. I got a question for you, Jess. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
00:01:08
Speaker
I was so I forget exactly the context. I think I was this I was with my family. I think this took place during Thanksgiving. And ah where we had a bag of bugles the the the the snack treat, which some enjoy. um And we were all saying like, Oh, bugles. ah Oh, wait, no, it wasn't bugles. It was olives. That was it. And it was Thanksgiving. And there there was a big thing of black olives on the table. And it was, why do we have those out? ah Because they're just like canned olives. They're not good olives. And my sister was like, Oh, it's you know, because it's some it's fun to put those on your fingers. I was hoping that was where this was going because I was thinking those are both snacks made for putting it on your fingers and I hope that yeah, this is yeah the context they've been connected. Yeah, that's that's that's how that connected in my mind and but then the thing is is that as adults we were all like oh
00:02:09
Speaker
can't really put these on our fingers. I tried and I mostly succeeded, but it was it was it was fairly tenuous. Have you so I guess my question is, have you either recently put an olive or a bugle on your fingers?
00:02:24
Speaker
A bugle yes and olive no. I feel like olives are messier to do it with. Yeah. Plus I'm all eating fine olives. I'm not doing canned. I'm going, I might go into the salad bar at a nice grocery store and scooping up some very fancy olives. If I'm gonna- You wanna get a delicious smoked kalamata olive and stick that on your finger and it will be like an incredible perfume.
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah. And all of mine are stuffed with the finest cheeses. So there's really no room for a finger in there. I mean, these are very fancy olives. You said olive mine. Is that intentionally a pun or just a spooner ism? I would say close to a spooner. is I wish that was an intentional pun, but it was not. you know ben I've ever told you about my friend in college whose mom worked for the clothing company Bugle Boy. Now Bugle Boy is not really a going concern anymore.
00:03:26
Speaker
Yeah, there's, I've got, I've got a bunch of follow-up questions, but I think my main one is what is bugle boy. I am unfamiliar with that brand. It was a 1990s brand you might find in like
1990s Fashion Nostalgia: Bugle Boy
00:03:40
Speaker
low range. clothing stores like say a goodies clothing or something like that. that It was like outlet mall fair sort of things, and good place to get khakis or buttonups kind of like a low rent Tommy Hill figure vibe and things like that. um The important takeaway from this is this was a this is a popular brand here in the United States back in the 90s.
00:04:04
Speaker
My friends, yeah I'm seeing some t shirts that are I mean, I could see like a 20 year old today where these bugle boy t shirts because they're very like kind of um ah Oh, what's the word? ah Like, you know, it's just that 90s like the purple and beyond colors. yeah is I'm like, this is what I, this has looped around to looking very cool again. Like, so you're saying, yeah, bad bugle boy. I could see a 21 year old with like a mullet wearing this and everyone being like, wow, you look so fucking cool. Uh, you know, I say as a out of touch 38 year old, but this looks like the shit that the kids are wearing kids. It's just like adventure games. Kids can't get enough.
00:04:58
Speaker
but The important part of the story. I don't think you need to know about the brand to appreciate this. yeah My friend whose mom worked at Bugle Boy swore that the actual name of the brand was Bugle Boy. that that was That it was being widely mispronounced by the public at large. And despite it being spelled like the horn, like the boogie-woogie Bugle Boy, it was in fact Bugle Boy.
00:05:25
Speaker
yeah really like believe this in his heart of hearts. This is not a bet. No, no, Jess. Google boy. How many stories do you have about people who intensely believe in mispronouncing things? Because it feels to me like you have two that I could think of this one and your was your mother-in-law saying cinnamon uh coast punch now so encrossed touch touch cinnamon crost touch yeah and like chicka fill and and so like do you have I mean that's an alarming number like having two stories like that do you have a third
00:06:06
Speaker
I have a third. I'd have to think about it. You know, I feel like those are my favorites, like Boogleboy. I think, like, can you imagine saying, like, Boogleboy even sounds hard to say, like, that's not an easy thing to make your your mouth do. No. um But I mean, that's how it is sometimes. I mean, that's just been how it is sometimes.
00:06:27
Speaker
Uh, yeah, that's how it is.
New Podcast Format Inspired by Listeners
00:06:29
Speaker
All right. So today on this quest quest side quest on this quest quest side quest. Uh, so, uh, we're doing game of some year. Uh, now I was actually, I was chatting, uh, with, uh, a friend of mine. Uh, my, my friend Ryan, who is a listener, he's, uh, the host of the, the yum, yum podcast. And, and he, he said to me, said, you know,
00:06:55
Speaker
I like, uh, and, uh, now I have to kind of, I'm going to have to scroll back, but essentially like, i've I'm not going to do that. You know and what? I'm not going to look back on our chat, but essentially he was interested in like being like, well, like.
00:07:10
Speaker
You know, ah i he said he'd be interested in us kind of talking about this topic. And then I was like, that would be fun. And then also it's like getting towards the end of the year. And it'd be fun to do kind of just like a ah fun mess around podcast and see how people feel about that. And if you enjoy it, then great.
00:07:30
Speaker
This is the format from now on. Yeah. If you enjoy it. and um I mean, first of all, the big takeaways here are all it takes is one listener to give us a request for a show and we will do it the next chance. We're in front of microphones. It's like just whatever you ask for. Should, should we call this a quest, quest side quest or request quest?
00:07:51
Speaker
Oh, I like request quest. yeah If you have a request quest, send us an email at quest quest podcast at gmail.com ah request quest.
00:08:08
Speaker
Or I guess if you're Ryan and we're already having a ah lengthy a chat and that goes back years, you could also just ask me a question. Yeah, you can also yeah, or yeah, if you see us out in public, you know, if you're at one of our meet and greets or something like that, and you just want to come up to us. but Anyway, so this is game of some year because here here's the thing. um I get speaking for myself.
Discussing Memorable Games of the Year
00:08:30
Speaker
i i I purchase a fair amount of games. I'm, ah you know, I purchased tons of games. I purchase a lot of games. But you know, in all honesty, I like I don't buy generally new games. ah And certainly I don't put a ton of time in ah everything new that's out out there. And so, like,
00:08:56
Speaker
Uh, the idea of doing like a game of the year, it would be limited to like, honestly, like five or six games. Uh, now if UFO fifties on your list, you can just fill the whole list with UFO 50 games. Yeah. Oh, I wonder if it's on my list. yeah You'll find out. Uh, now this is important too. So as part of this request quest or quest quest side quest, uh, we'll edit this to reflect which one of those we've chosen.
00:09:25
Speaker
Um, it is important to note your, our goal is to go back and talk about some of the games that we've played over the past year, new or old, just games that, that we enjoyed and wanted to talk a little bit about that we've played in the last 12 months. Um, I, in the spirit of transparency and cooperation shared my list with Ben and Ben adamantly refused to reveal any of his choices. So and this isn't and i this isn't asymmetric podcast in that regard.
00:09:51
Speaker
all All of my choices are aggressive towards Jess too. They're they're all they're all angry. They're all just to get under my skin. He knows the games. They're going to just make me so mad.
00:10:03
Speaker
i And also, so we're, we, we each have five and we're going to trade back and forth. And, uh, so, uh, Jess, I, you know, I didn't commit yours to it. I remember one of the ones put down, but I don't remember the other four. Uh, so, so how about you go first?
00:10:23
Speaker
Okay.
Review: King's Quest Fan Game
00:10:24
Speaker
I go first ratio. I do five of these five games that we played this year that, uh, they left an impression. Um, yeah and the first one I want to talk about is, uh, it takes two to tangle a King's quest fan game, but the amazingly talented. Acral 15. Now I streamed this one. Uh, Ben, I believe you were around for some of those streams. I watched some of this, but what, what is this game? What what what is this?
00:10:51
Speaker
This game is a Kings Quest fan game that was in the works for a full decade. I believe it started out as a fanfic that evolved into a full fledged fan game. And it's fantastic. It is a story ah with two protagonists. It stars Edgar, who originally appeared in Kings Quest IV and eventually becomes Rosella's boyfriend.
00:11:15
Speaker
and Kasima, who is, of course, Alexander's love interest in King's Quest VI after previously appearing in King's Quest V. And this game follows them on a journey that sort of weaves together interesting bits of King's Quest lore. It gives us a look into these characters that have largely been on the side and haven't had a lot of chance for character development in the past.
00:11:38
Speaker
It is a fantastic fan game. I think what I love most about it is, is while it's like deeply steeped in King's Quest lore, um, it also kind of does its own thing. The puzzle design. Deeply steeped. Deeply steeped. It's deeply steeped. It's not deep. It's not deep. It's deeply steeped. Deeply steeped.
00:12:01
Speaker
But no, I mean, well, it's definitely plugged into King's Quest lore. The story that's telling, I feel like, is maybe a little bit more mature in the themes that grapples with in terms of of love and the kind of adventure it's it's telling. The puzzles are are quite clever and really move away from maybe some of the, I don't know, moon logic you see in some of the King's Quest games. or how maybe How long how long i did it take you? What do you say about how long is that game?
00:12:32
Speaker
I think for me, it took I'm one to think eight or nine hours to finish. I mean, it's a full length game. It's it' a full length fan game. Yeah. And I mean, it is.
00:12:44
Speaker
really impressive. I mean, the art is gorgeous. It has an animated style that's reminiscent of King's Quest 7. For those of you who like that style, it's one that I feel like I can just absolutely recommend to anyone who enjoyed the King's Quest series. I think you can jump into this and really find a work that has a lot of what you love about King's Quest, but also its own personality that makes it makes it kind of special.
00:13:10
Speaker
and you you can find that I'm on on the website right now. It's at Acryl, which is spelled A-K-R-I-L, 15.com slash KQ9. So this is King's Quest 9.
00:13:25
Speaker
colon, it takes two you to tangle like, you know, don't go and say that to Activision, though whatever you are, Microsoft who owns King's Quest now, my chance we own it, we have a portfolio we've been assembling things quest. Well, I of course, I'm a major investor. ah And so, you know, I do own about 12% of Microsoft. And fortunately, the 12% of Microsoft I own is ah the the Sierra and infocom ah back that is 12% of Microsoft's Yeah, that's that's 12 and also from the the Activision. Just just pitfall.
00:14:06
Speaker
You know, I knew exactly what you were about to say. When you said Activision, I knew that you were going to say pitfall. My brain ran through how many titles are in the Activision catalog. Who knows? Uh, but I knew it was like, he's going to say pitfall. and that's pitfall it weren I mean, pitfall is a good game. or so
00:14:30
Speaker
Oh man, I could go for some scorpion jumping right now. Those those scorpions are so fucking hard to jump over. a tough score I mean a real scorpion is much easier to jump over. Those things aren't that big. So anything else on ah it takes two to tangle ah King's quest?
00:14:49
Speaker
go play this. I mean, there's very little chance we'll talk about another fan game through the remainder of this podcast. So if you're going to play one fan game this year, go play. It takes two to tangle. All right. Uh, so here's my first
Spotlight: Crimson Diamond
00:15:03
Speaker
one. Uh, uh, number one on my list and and mine's not in any particular order. Uh, but, uh, Crimson diamond, which did come out this year.
00:15:13
Speaker
did out this year, Crimson Diamond. That's an adventure game. And I also want to note that ah the the the games on this list, we said i i at least two adventure games. So we can have more.
00:15:28
Speaker
but but you know we we might talk about you know some other let's say that's what makes this compilations of yeah a quest quest side quest is i mean normally we would never talk about non-adventure game on quest quest and it's never happened yet never happened yet but this is a quest quest side quest by request Uh, and I'll, I'll say also no one ever emailed, uh, many episodes ago, I said, please email us if there's a good Frogger other than Frogger and no one answered it. So I feel, but like, I don't think that's a, that no one listened. I think it's that everyone agrees there is no such thing as another good Frogger nailed it in one. Yeah.
00:16:14
Speaker
Anyway, so Crimson Diamond. Crimson Diamond, which you could find ah ah on itch and steam and probably, I don't know if it's on GOG, but it's, it's you know, it's around. Take a look. ah It is a 16 color ah Laura Boehm up ah to steal the the the joke from ah Rock Paper Shotgun.
00:16:38
Speaker
um And it uses ah the the the text parser from that that era. And like so first off, I've always loved that short run of, uh, it like 16 color adventure games at a quote unquote higher resolution at the the three 20. Uh, like, so if, if you're unfamiliar, that would be a game like quest for glory two or Laura bow one, or, you know, just look up one of those. I think.
00:17:18
Speaker
that ah particular higher resolution 16 color look. There's something very distinct about it. And this isn't limited ah to Sierra games, because I think it looks really good on loom. And the first Monkey Island, ah like and ah ah uh, Indiana Jones last, last crusade, like, and then also like non Sierra or Lucas arts, uh, or Lucas film games. Like I, I just think that that high resolution 16 color, there were a lot of artists that really found a way to make it look really, really cool. And so it's like, uh,
00:18:06
Speaker
using that 17th color. Yeah, using they cheated. They use 17, sometimes 18 colors. But anyway, ah so we are supposed to talk about that. yeah That's the sort of thing that will get us shut down. If we start revealing the secrets of the extended EGA palette.
00:18:21
Speaker
So so ah Crimson Diamond is a ah ah mystery game ah where you're in a remote ah mansion in the the like in the north of Canada.
00:18:41
Speaker
i a diamond ah was found ah deep and like and inside a fish and a bunch of people want to to come and ah like investigate this and there's a murderer and there's all sorts of shifty people afoot and no one in this house is is It's quite who they seem or or perhaps they are perhaps they're telling you the truth the entire time and just seem very suspicious ah and
00:19:14
Speaker
I, I think it it is just exceptional. I think that it it looks, I think that it looks, um, like wonderful. i As I said, I really love that, that, that particular aesthetic. Um, I'm not a fan. I don't have any nostalgia for a text parser. I know some people do. I don't, I don't have any nostalgia for it, but I think that the, like,
00:19:42
Speaker
It has a very, uh, flexible parser and, uh, like you could tell, uh, like it was very like tested, uh, uh, like it has a very, like, uh, uh, a parser that, that feels like, uh, it has a ton of variation on like what words someone will use and stuff like that.
00:20:05
Speaker
And then, yeah, it has a really interesting story. All of the characters have their own unique voice. i And which is tough to do. And, i like, the investigation stuff is all really cool. And what's wonderful about it. And I think I talked about this, I think last week, ah talking about ah and locomotive um is Is that, uh, like the, uh, like the, the mystery stuff, there's stuff that you can miss.
00:20:46
Speaker
Um, and it, it kind of compels me, like there's a, there's a whole chunk of an investigation that I just totally pissed. Yeah. I mean, I didn't feel cheated out of it. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't feel like I was cheated out of the game. It actually like just made me think like, all right, well, I gotta go back and and play this and do a better job investigating like this part. Um, yeah, it's wonderful. I think, I think, uh, it is.
00:21:13
Speaker
definitely, like, there are so many great ah indie adventure games ah coming out. And and um ah this, this, this, say you know, really catches attention by being ah like such a very specific style of throwback. And it's also just, just really, extremely well done. um And so yeah, that's, that's one of my games of the year.
00:21:42
Speaker
You know, that's one that I haven't played yet. I'm really looking forward to it. I tried not to watch too much of your stream because I didn't want to spoil it for myself. But I did watch a good bit of ah Julia Minamata, the creator of yeah of Crimson Diamond. I watched a good bit of her development streams along the way. So it's been fun watching her you know pixel by pixel assemble some of these scenes and watch this game come together you know over the past year plus and then see it you know actually finally hit release and be so well received i mean i think this one has gotten it's safe to say universal praise right i mean it's gotten in a ton of like it's for for such an odd duck of a game Like a tribute to a type of thing. I didn't think anyone outside of big nerds ah we're were really into i guess and a ton of attention, like a ton of very positive attention. So it was just very, very nice to to to to hear and see that there's ah an audience ah for it.
00:22:48
Speaker
So yeah, Jess, number two, I'm going to play this one soon. Now, ah number two, number two on my list, I am going to again, this is game of some year, not game of the year. I'm going to dip out of 2024 and go all the way back to 2014.
00:23:06
Speaker
and talk about a game that I played earlier this year that that I really enjoyed, one that I think really got slept on when it came out in 2014. I want to talk about ah Telltale Games' ah Game of Thrones season when they did their adaptation of Game of Thrones. I don't think this was slept on. I think that it was stepped on.
00:23:28
Speaker
just yeah I remember it had a negative reputation. Yes. I mean, that's right. i mean you played it And you see, I think this is part of a bigger problem and maybe someday we'll get a chance to explore this in more detail in some sort of broader telltale episode.
Exploring Telltale's Game of Thrones Adaptation
00:23:43
Speaker
But I think by the time you get to these later.
00:23:46
Speaker
Telltale releases like as that run is kind of working its way toward the end. um Reviewers. Really didn't give a lot of these later games a fair shake they were tired of the formula they felt like.
00:24:01
Speaker
Telltale was just redoing Walking Dead over and over again. Some of these later games, I think got dismissed by critics as more of the same. And while that's true at some level, I think some players felt that way too. I see. Absolutely. i you recall like Yes. Absolutely. I'm not. This isn't like a game journals, uh, screen. I hate all game journalists, of course.
00:24:23
Speaker
Obviously, yeah yeah, no, this isn't that but I do think that I mean, they went back to the well a few too many times with varying degrees of success. I think the Game of Thrones game actually has a little bit of juice. It's worth checking out. It's an interesting story in that it goes like parallel. It goes the you know, we're immediate time will it's in Yeah, absolutely. It is, it's running parallel to the TV series. they you're You're part of House Forrester, a heretofore, undiscussed minor house in Westeros. And you are, you're running alongside some of the big characters and big storylines that are happening on the TV show. So you're going to get Jon Snow popping up, you're going to get your Daenerys, you're going to get your Tyrion, you're going to get several other big name actors.
00:25:17
Speaker
ah coming in with varying degrees of effort ah to perform their characters. um John Snow seems like he maybe took a few bear drills before he headed up to the wall, but it's a good game. I mean, if you love Game of Thrones, which I did, um it is A fun attempt to tell a story within a world that has been very deeply explored already without breaking canon in the process. And I think of those later telltale releases, it's one that I would say definitely worth checking out. I would put, uh, I would put the two seasons of Batman up there too. Those are definitely ones've been overlooked. they great
00:25:59
Speaker
This is actually ah reminding me, and also i I'm going to do i took a I took a look. This is no longer for sale. and Of course not. No, you would have to steal this somehow, which I don't endorse.
00:26:13
Speaker
but um i Did we play this year or did we play late last year? Uh, the expanse, uh, telltale. Oh, I think that was 23 that came out. So we actually, we played it. I, we played that one that came out. Um, okay. Because I remember, I think we were playing as it released. If I call correctly, those were excellent. Those weren't, they were great.
00:26:42
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's one that didn't get to have attention. yeah I think that it was a license maybe that a year or two earlier would have been better. But yeah, the the Expanse, if you're familiar with the novels or the television series there, it was a fantastic telltale game. it was I think those were super underrated.
00:27:01
Speaker
yeah it was small in a good way it's not telling ah how do you save the universe sort of story necessarily it's telling ah a very you know sort of ah more personal adventure that gives you a chance to really get to know an interesting cast of characters and i would say the game of thrones game uh is in many ways uh quite similar you get the big cameos from the big name so most of it is about learning the ins and outs of this minor house that's, you know, sort of trying to carve out its own way in this broader, giant, you know, world transforming war that's going on around them. This, as I like to call it game of thrones. How how interesting. I'm trying to, let's see. Okay. So also. So the game of thrones telltale game, I I'm trying to figure this out now game of thrones. All right. So it came out in 2014.
00:27:52
Speaker
And I'm also trying to map on No, I was trying to see if like this also, like, people might have also been a little tired with it because it was also like around when people started to turn on the show. But no, the that was season four. And people were were definitely all Oh, yeah, like they're still on the hook. Yeah. At this point, yeah, things hadn't gone south for them yet. Yeah, the the Game of Thrones turn comes like in those like last the the post book seasons, right? Then were you a Game of Thrones guy? No, I ah i read of the books up like up to I didn't read the
00:28:42
Speaker
The one that came out like I don't know six or seven years ago I like before the the series before the series started I like as a nerd read the books up to whatever the red red one was um not the red wedding but like just the one I remember a red cover.
00:29:00
Speaker
um So I think that's four, four of them. There are five books, i four to five between four and five. Oh yeah. I haven't read the fifth book. Um, anyway, I read those and, uh, I really enjoyed them. And then I watched, uh, the first season and was like, eh, I read this. Then I didn't watch it. And then I was done. Like I was just kind of like,
00:29:26
Speaker
I read these. I don't need this. ah And, um you know, it was just one of those things sometimes. i Like so was it it wasn't even like a hot hostility towards it. Like I saw the appeal. It was though it is funny. It was shocking to me how popular it was. Yes, it felt like some real nerd shit that I'm surprised normies got into.
00:29:55
Speaker
i and I also think that they didn't even like, I wonder like if they knew because I remember when the first season, like I remember seeing ads for the first season and being like, wow, they're, they're, uh, adapting like this, like nerd book series I read like.
00:30:10
Speaker
Oh, like, oh, Sean, Sean, be that. Oh, it's like he's pretty good. Like, it's like, but I mean, you know, whatever. Like, this is this is just for for dorks. And then like, no jokes on me, like every like apparently there was something for everybody. And that was nudity twists, which is, I think, what really yeah people I would never have watched the show if it weren't for the movie.
00:30:39
Speaker
I'd heard about it. I was like, that's not for me. And someone said, there's gratuitous nudity. And I said, sign me up. I would watch it if it had gratuitous to witty to Diddy, which is to say to duty, which is to say like people would like skateboard around and like, like you know, the duty.
00:30:59
Speaker
Well, no, I mean I like I don't I already have seen that movie and it was excellent. Um ah Just ah and you know, here's the thing read it read it to me Remy the rat did not have very much, dude He was a pretty much a street shooter. I would say yeah, he's the one you can trust. He's a rat you can trust Yeah, he was one of those rats. He could trust. He's a stable rat.
00:31:21
Speaker
So you know what, Jess, I'll go up now with with mine. I'll ah ah meet your telltale with my telltale, which is to say, Tales of Monkey
Revisiting Tales of Monkey Island
00:31:33
Speaker
Island. I'll i'll put that up there as one of my my favorite games I've played this year. Oh. And and i you know this is this is really interesting to me. I really enjoyed my time with Tales of ah Monkey Island because it lived forever in my head as ah that telltale monkey island game I didn't like very much. ah ah Yes, like it was. a and And I don't think this is a ah entirely ah ah ah unique experience. I played the first two episodes. I didn't even finish the second episode and I was like,
00:32:14
Speaker
Oh, well, and and that was that. um And I was I was just kind of disappointed and like there there are some real bummer things that kind of hamstring that like entirely related to that they had to fit it on to we wear um we wear we wear Paul we wear we wear.
00:32:40
Speaker
Uh, like they had to do all sorts of like, uh, you, you could see it reuses assets constantly. So, and also just to provide some background. So this is, uh, uh, a tell a telltale episodic, uh, adventure game, uh, that, uh, like set in the world of the monkey Island games, uh, came out notably before returned to monkey Island. Um,
00:33:07
Speaker
And it is also, it's not in the walking dead style. It is like salmon max. It's, it's like more of a straightforward, uh, point and click adventure. Uh, uh, but like episodic and, uh, the, a little bit of the, the challenge of it is, is that you could tell that they really wanted.
00:33:32
Speaker
to to make a ah ah make it really monkey islandy, which is to say like have a big kind of open world aspect to to each episode, but also like, you know, fit that within, you know, like the three megabytes that a WiiWare game could be or whatever.
00:33:49
Speaker
Yeah, um it's hard to do full voice in three megabats, but that was what the we were asked for and they found a way to do it. But uh, but yeah, so it's like those first two episodes. First off, they they they weren't as weak as I i remembered them. they They're not.
00:34:07
Speaker
They're not the best hours of t telltale, but they're fine. But then as it goes, it gets really clever and there's some very fun and interesting puzzles. And this one, and you could still buy this. This is still available for sale, thankfully. It feels ripe for a remaster.
00:34:27
Speaker
like yes please just time it's ready skunk copy games if you're able to get you know the the monkey island it's like Sam and Max you know I i think uh Steve Purcell might be a little easier to work with than the Disney corporation but what do I know so I've heard uh I mean and he works there he works for Pixar uh but um But yeah, it would be great if they they remastered it, especially because the the latter episodes all have horrible glitches that make it very like they it like it will crash. Then you just have to kind of search online. It's like crash at this point kills a monkey island. and But you had to find a forum entry from like 2012. Yeah, two thousand twelve yeah but explains it. Yes. But ah but yeah, I mean, and also I like
00:35:20
Speaker
I don't know. There's some stuff in it that I think is a little better than return to Monkey Island. I think, uh, I think also that, uh, Dominic Armato, uh, the, the voice of Kyber three-point puts in just a tremendous performance. I think he is just dynamite in it. And yeah um he's always dynamite. He's always good. It's not just, I'm what a nice little treat to have like,
00:35:49
Speaker
to to to that there was like this franchise it's you know when people say it's like there's an adventure game out and they'll be like just like secret of Monkey Island a game that came out a long time ago ah and like ah you know obviously I've played secret and revenge and curse dozens and of times ah and in return I enjoyed ah ah I think I'd do a replay of that to to see how i I feel about it. I'm low key angry about return still. So I definitely agree. Yeah. Yeah. and i need I think I need to give that one a second chance now that I know where it went and where it's heading and et cetera. I came out of that just fighting map.
00:36:38
Speaker
but Not for any of the reasons everyone else was, but for my own personal reasons. It's very Ron Gilberty. He just does that shit. Ron Gilbert did me. he Yeah, you got you got Gilbert. it If you didn't expect him to to be himself, you know, let me tell you the story of the scorpion, and the frog.
00:36:54
Speaker
gift You gotta jump over that scorpion. It's harder than it looks. You need out for hours. You think Frogger could jump over little babies? You think Frogger could jump over the scorpion from Pitfall? Well, Frogger can't even jump over... Are there scorpions in Frogger? Probably not. Probably it's a snake. It's a snake. Frogger can't jump over a snake.
00:37:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. That's a really good for the name of the frog. Oh, now this is or am I the Frogger because I'm controlling the frog. And I'm not going to look this up. no Is the Frogger the frogs name? Is there a Frogger Junior at some point? Did that happen or did I just imagine the existence of Frogger Junior? I don't think there's a Frogger Junior. Can we develop a game called Frogger Junior?
00:37:47
Speaker
Could we? Yes. ah Copyright us trademark. I'm going to mail a letter to you with. I'm also mailing. I'm mailing a letter also right now. Yeah, which is just to make you feel good because I always feel nice to get mail as as my podcast at gmail dot.com. All right. What's ah your next game, Jess? Well, Ben, I'm going to piggyback off of you ah because you're talking piggybacking. We're piggybacking. you As always, you know even though we haven't discussed these ahead of time, it's just our natural synergy that makes this work. very dynamic It's very Everybody keeps saying your podcast is so dynamic. yeah and Piggybacking off of Tales of Mikey Island.
00:38:36
Speaker
I want to mention, uh, tell us what the border lands too. Tell us the border lands too. Oh my God. At some point, man, we have to do a whole episode about tells the border lands too, because that is the absolute worst thing imaginable in a lot of ways, but that's not why I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about a wonderful telltale game.
00:38:57
Speaker
I'm here to talk about ah the remastered edition of Sam and Max The Devil's Playhouse. The third season of Telltale's Sam and Max series ah rebooted. I'm not really sorry, rebooted, remastered by Skincapit Games. Is this Skincapit or do they call themselves Skincape?
00:39:19
Speaker
I don't mean, that's the joke in the, in the game itself concafe is the evil, uh, space gorilla, but Sam and Max call him skunk ape. Well, well, Jake Rodkin follows you on blue sky, which therefore means he's a podcast listener. And absolutely. Uh, and Jake thoughts about, uh, the walking dead, but, uh, but, uh, yeah, so we know that you're listening right now, Jake, and we appreciate it.
00:39:48
Speaker
Uh, so if, if you could, uh, send us an email and just write, don't write the pronunciation, just write, okay, pronounce it's pronouncce that It's just like it's spelled. Yeah. um But no, this I mean, I loved all the remasters. All the remasters are are excellent. They all look I think those games originally look good. And now with all the the the magic of ah today's computers, they look that's right. Everything's ray traced. You can see every hair on Sam's furry head. It's beautiful. But no, I mean, these are all
00:40:28
Speaker
already good looking games. You go in, you tweak some of the lighting, you give a few, you know, quality of life updates. This one is particularly good though. It was a great looking game when it came out. The remaster really makes it shine. And also what I love about this one, I loved all three seasons of these telltale games. I missed them completely when they came out. I've played all three of these in the last couple of years, but this third season, the devil's play house, it's an is It's amazing and it's so weird. Like the first two are very much like standard Sam and Max sorts of adventures in a good way. I love Sam and Max, but this one gets weird and supernatural and time traveling and just bizarre at some fundamental levels. And one of the things I think that's most interesting about it is
00:41:18
Speaker
During some of the chapters, they really split up Sam and Max. Like you have an episode that you largely play as Sam an episode. You largely play as Max. This is fascinating to me because this is generally a non like, you know, now like generally in the other games and even in hit the road, like Max is just kind of there. Like, yeah, he does.
00:41:38
Speaker
Sidekick. I mean, he is there maybe sometimes as a hit system. He's there a lot of times as comic relief. But when you separate Sam and Max, I didn't realize it until I played this game, but they are such like a duo in every sense that I don't know if I've ever recalled them being not on screen together. It really like I think drives home just what interesting characters they are. I mean, clearly, after you play a game where you've been Sam the entire game, you are desperately missing having Max around because you realize like, man, this duo is supposed to be a duo. And I think challenging just some of the building blocks the series is built on makes that third chapter really fascinating along with just like an absolutely banana storyline. ah No pun intended. very funny copy but just a fun game a wonderful game you know and we've talked before I believe about imagining this alternate timeline where maybe you know the walking dead isn't the huge sensational hit that it is and tell tell makes more of these more traditional adventure games so
00:42:45
Speaker
Uh, where it's still inventory driven. It's still puzzle driven as much as I love those narrative games. I mean, I already talked about game of thrones, which is very much one of these walking dead style narrative games. I feel like by the time they were on that third season of salmon max, man, they're more traditional dancers. They're just clicking. They're firing on all sick on all, uh, all firing on all cylinders. That's what they're firing on.
00:43:08
Speaker
Like I'm sure that, you know, like I wouldn't be surprised if, if like over, you know, they, they looked at the sales of walking dead and looked at the sales of salmon max season three and went.
00:43:23
Speaker
All right. Uh, but you know, it is a shame. Like I, you know, kind of wish, and I'm sure people there kind of wish too, because I bet they got tired of it too. Maybe I don't know. Uh, but, uh, they've caught probably got very literally tired because they were leasing like, you know, two chapters of some game every month.
00:43:41
Speaker
wrote You know, all year long, but, but like, it's like, you know, if they alternated or it's like, yeah yeah, some of them were in one style. Like it just all the eggs went in, in that basket. And then everyone got tired of that basket. And then.
00:43:56
Speaker
Uh, and, and now we can play game of thrones. Um, that's what happens. All right. Uh, your eggs in one basket. So, uh, my next game staying on adventure games, uh, is a, uh, this is another game I streamed, uh, earlier this year.
Indie Game Review: Talking Animals and Fantasy
00:44:12
Speaker
It is a beyond the edge of Elles guard.
00:44:16
Speaker
beyond the edge of Owl's Guard. You know, ah so this is ah an indie adventure game um and ah i i I think it's just beautiful. I think it it looks, just has, ah it is in the 256 color like kind of vintage ah style that a lot of throwback games are in.
00:44:42
Speaker
um And i i like it just wonderful. And it has really great animation. And it is ah kind of a ah yeah a light fantasy game where your animals, like I think you're it's been a minute since I've played it.
00:45:08
Speaker
Uh, but like, you know, deer and owls as mentioned, and like various other talk, like it's a talking animals fantasy, uh, game. If you ever played, uh, inherit the earth, uh, uh, the adventure game, uh, from the nineties, it is obviously, uh, inspired by that. I would say this is actually a much better game, uh, than inherit the earth. Uh, it.
00:45:37
Speaker
Like, you know, um the the the the production value on ah indie adventure games has just gotten like just so great. ah Absolutely. And yeah, I mean, just the animation on this one really is gorgeous. I mean, its sp I mean, it's a great looking game in general, but yeah, and the animation is slick.
00:46:00
Speaker
the yeah like it's it's it's just ah playing it it it it looks really wonderful ah it it's you know sometimes you want to play an earnest little fantasy adventure, uh, where you're wandering around some fantasy woods, solving some fantasy problems. That's exactly what this is. Like, you know, in within the, like, uh, you know, we, we've talked a lot about this as it's, it's like, uh, so many adventure games.
00:46:41
Speaker
Like kind of the default is comedy. And this is, you know, this is kind of jokey as jokey moments. And it, it like, uh, has like comic moments and silly, silly sound effects, if I recall correctly, uh, and, and stuff like that. But ultimately it's more of like, kind of like a fantasy, uh, game, uh, with, with a chuckle here and there, uh,
00:47:05
Speaker
And, uh, you know, like i it's, it's, it's nice to play something like that without any of the, like that kind of, um, detached irony ah of it. Like it's, it's nice to just kind of play like just a nice little fantasy game, uh, for, for a bit, uh, like a nice little fantasy adventure, point and click adventure game. It doesn't like, you know, uh, uh, try to but like act like it's too cool to be what it is. ah No. And if I could get, I mean, if I could give it one criticism, it's that personally, I only jumped in in your final stream of it. And it turns out if you only tune in for like the last 45 minutes, it is very hard to understand. I really recommend everyone play this game from the beginning. and Don't somehow skip to the end and try to understand it. ah Yeah, I recommend anything.
00:48:03
Speaker
I would recommend playing this in the linear style. um start like one of those game This is this is one of those games where I would say it's best enjoyed if you start at the beginning, then you work your way to about the middle. And okay once you've made the middle, you go straight to the end. And once you've completed the game, then then you got you you finished it.
00:48:27
Speaker
So I was speed running it. I was like, I'm just going to start right at the end, but you can't speed run narrative. Uh, that's something I've really learned as a result of beyond, uh, the edge of Al's guard, uh, was, uh, yeah, you gotta be there for the, beginning this, I loved watching you stream this one though. It was a gorgeous game. It's one that, uh, again, sort of tuned in late to made me really curious to see the rest of it. And, uh, no, it is, uh, it's definitely charming. Yeah. All right. What do you, what do you have next?
00:48:58
Speaker
Oh my goodness. I think I am for I think I'm a number four number four. um This is one I've talked about briefly on on the podcast before but I'm afraid I have no choice but to Jess. Yeah. I've got my finger over booing.
00:49:19
Speaker
Okay, the boo birds are Are you know? They're talons. Yeah, they're they're circling vber search It's like you're in a desert and you see vultures There there are boo birds up in the air. They're circling. Okay, Ben get that finger ready. All right World of Warcraft the war with them
00:49:45
Speaker
You know, it could be worse. It could have been overwatch. It could have been. It literally could have been. um No. So, so we dodged a bullet there, but let me say ah but I've talked about this before um this year on a Lark for a Larf. I decided to return to the world of Warcraft for the first time in 18 years, not long after the war within, uh, expansion pack launched. Uh, this is the, as we record this, the latest and greatest, uh, world of war craft, uh, expansion pack. I started out with a level one character, uh, a warlock named Mookle Winran and, uh, leveled her all the way up to the max, uh, 80 level 80. How long did it take you to get to level 80?
00:50:33
Speaker
okay I think less than a month. I mean, this is you like how many hours of play? Oh, how many hours of play? oh That's a good question. I think I probably hit level 80. in less than 40 hours. So, I mean, and what's about time like leveling up to max would have been like a month long process, you know, you would have really had to like, put in the time to grind that stuff out. And that's actually part of what I wanted to talk about is what I find fascinating about World of Warcraft today. Now, of course, disclaimer, I've had to quit at cold turkey again, because the addiction to cold, and I had to
00:51:10
Speaker
You know, unsubscribe, delete off the hard drive, do everything I could to cut myself off from this because it's still a horribly addictive MMO. But what was fascinating to me about is our turn to it was how solo player friendly it is here in the year 2024. I played all the way from level one to 80. I don't say this is like a weird flex without making a single friend.
00:51:38
Speaker
Um, I never had to like, yeah, I mean, that's, that's our dream, right? That's why we play multiplayer games yeah is so we don't have to interact subscription for a multi-player game that you play entirely by yourself. That's right. That's the way to do it. That's the way to do it. But no, I think what was interesting about it was like, when I left the game way back 18 years ago or whatever, right?
00:52:02
Speaker
You know, once you reached end game, you were locked into a very like serious hardcore crime. If you want to advance any further, now you are grouping up with like groups of 40 people and trying to coordinate raid schedules and you're practicing and people will yell at you if you don't do well in a boss encounter and all of this sort of stuff. There was, there was no version of once you hit max level of doing anything solo. and knew Max level. Nice guy.
00:52:31
Speaker
max level. um But now... the solo content is there in a way that like you can run dungeon solo with like AI party members. You can do dungeon delves that take you in these little like mini dungeons with but with an AI partner. You can even do lots of... I mean, they've had random group finder stuff in the game for ages, but all of that's been smoothed out to a point that I was literally as a player who never joined a guild, never really partnered up with anyone or anything like that. I was able to see all the final content. I was able to run the final raids. I was able to beat the final boss. I completed the storyline of the expansion. Was, was this like kind of the joy of it for you? Is that like, you know, like after all these years, like you get to go back and it's like, Oh, finally I'm able to like see this boss.
00:53:27
Speaker
Absolutely. Like I went back to the old world bosses, like the the parts of the game that were around 18 years ago, that i never got to see that now with a level 80 character, you can just run through and solo what used to be the hardest game and one shot it. And that was fascinating. Like that always because when I play games, this is why I love adventure games. I'm playing to experience narrative and characters and things like that, like the mechanics and all that are usually secondary to me. And that was always frustrating. It's like I can play World of Warcraft for hundreds of hours back in the day and never see the true end game content because I'll never be that person who can devote their life to, you know, to rating in that way. Now the game is set up in a way that, yeah, even casual players can make it to the end game content. And to me, I think that's fascinating. Again, that was also the problem. It meant that I had this entire World of Warcraft at my fingertips.
00:54:21
Speaker
And I had to escape that before it destroyed my life. And I did. So that's good too. ah But yeah, the the war within, it's good stuff. I mean, I got back in it and I i could just feel it wrapping its tendrils around my brain and got out while I could.
00:54:39
Speaker
Uh, well, wonderful. Here's, uh, my next one. Uh, this is, this is a VR game. Oh, wow. I played a fair amount of, uh, this, this summer. Uh, and, uh, it's, it's, you know, like I'm, I, when I wrote this down, I was like, man, this game's good. Maybe I should start playing it again.
00:54:59
Speaker
ah It's this game called Underdogs. Oh, I haven't even heard of this one. Underdogs is a ah ah ah VR mech fighter. ah That's like kind of a roguelike.
00:55:17
Speaker
um And, and the, the, the gameplay is primarily just these, excuse me, uh, just these, uh, arena fights. Um, but, uh, the, like number one, it has just brook like, it just has great style, which is always a problem with a lot of VR games is that, uh, they, they, they don't have very good
00:55:48
Speaker
ah like they just don't look that good. ah Like this has a very, um, like, you know, there's, uh, like a ah limited amount and of, uh, uh, like complexity you can do to the graphics because, uh, they should work at base on, uh, a quest to which like is essentially like kind of like a cell phone, uh, innards.
00:56:18
Speaker
Um, and, and so like this has style to, uh, like the 3d graphics. It also feels really good. Like, as I said, so you're in, uh, like it's a mech fighter. You're in these arenas. You move around, not by like pushing forward on, uh, like a stick, but instead, uh, you, uh, swing your actual arms in front of you and pull yourself forward.
00:56:47
Speaker
oh like you're an ape andrew walking across a room so ah like and I believe if this is actually the same ah movement I haven't played it as the popular VR game Gorilla tag I think also has that I think ape movement is a or a gorilla movement in that case um ah is is ah maybe it helps people with ah i ah motion sickness, I don't know. Anyway, but it is very satisfying. um You can like it has, as I said, ah like kind of a roguelike or maybe I didn't say it has a roguelike component to it.
00:57:33
Speaker
And so you build up like ah your mech weapons and you can customize it and stuff like that. It just feels and looks good. And it's also exhausting.
00:57:46
Speaker
Well, you know, it feels like mech combat is like the perfect genre for VR. Like, I mean, at some level, it just feels like a natural fit to me. And I'm looking at some of the some of the screenshots now because you have me curious. Would you say it's fair to call this almost like a so a cell shaded kind of line i like kind of a cell?
00:58:08
Speaker
Shaded like kind of ah Yeah, like like kind of like cartoon look that looks kind of reminiscent ah to me of like the the the Animation for like ah like boondocks when they they had that ah like and like that I don't know I don't know what like what to compare this to I'm not sure it looks really neat though ah But yeah, it's great. It has wonderful Underdogs just has wonderful style as great feeling. It's a lot of fun. Um, I yeah, that's one of and actually, oh, this came out this year. I thought this came out late last year, but this came out ah January 25th, 2024. So very early, ah but wow this year's there you go.
00:58:56
Speaker
Perfect. Well, there you go. Now that one's, that one's interesting to me. Um, I'm afraid of VR. I don't know if we've established that here on the podcast before, but, uh, I get tummy aches, but I love knowing more about this, uh, this wonderful technology. I love VR. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going anywhere, but I love it someday, someday. Uh, anyway, whats what's your last one you got there, Jess? My final pick. Um,
00:59:24
Speaker
This is probably not a surprise to anyone who's familiar with my my Twitch channel, ah but my number one pick, what's that? Galaga. It's Galaga. Galaga wins again, folks. The the space shooter, Galaga. Here's the thing, Ben, I don't know if you've ever gotten a double ship in Galaga.
00:59:44
Speaker
But there may be no better feeling than this in video games. I didn't actually know you could do that, but I was not much a Galaga player. you know You're kidding. Didn't know that. Didn't know that you could save the others. That's like the whole point of Galaga. I know.
00:59:57
Speaker
i yeah I wasn't, I wasn't really a Gallagher boy. I would play Frogger. I would play Pacman. Gallagher. I was always like, I don't know. Too spicy. Yeah. Yeah. No. I mean, also you weren't alive when it came out. Whereas unbelievably I was like, I would, I was there years ago.
01:00:16
Speaker
yeah I was at the arcade on release day. It was just like a sack of quarters. It's like I've heard the hot new Namco game is coming out today and I'm ready to play some Calico. A little four-year-old Jess was there, ready to go. What's number one? My game of the year. This is my game of the year. I've been doing this as a countdown. You didn't know this the whole time, been counting down. It's Kidname Ice Boy.
01:00:38
Speaker
Oh, wow. I am getting my crazy coveted. No last name. Yes. No. like And nobody knows who this person is. um This this this mystery developer Grayson drops out of nowhere and gives us the long awaited prequel to Codename Iceman. That's right. It's Kidname Ice Boy, which you can find on itch. If you on theer son itch, Kidname Ice Boy, it is a free game that you can get on itch.
01:01:08
Speaker
And then we stream this together. We did. And you, I think would agree when I say, this is a fantastic game, right? It's ah so well, well, well, to describe it. It's it's very good. but But what is it? Why? Kidney mice boy, they they't know those words make any sense to me.
01:01:28
Speaker
Okay, we all know Codename Iceman. we We all know and love what is widely considered one of the worst adventure games Sierra ever released. It is a techno thriller set in the near future where you are a naval officer who somehow is tasked with palating an experimental sub and blowing up an oil rig and stopping a war against the Soviet Union and protecting the world's oil supply and maybe liberating Tunisia. There's a lot going on here, but what it's known for is just being a cruel game. it has
01:02:09
Speaker
a mostly broken submarine simulator that takes up like a third of the game. That is more than a third. Yeah. Well, if you played it straight through, it probably ought to be a third, but because you have to reload and retry and keep at it, it ends up being the bulk of the game. Right. It's driven at various times throughout the game with just cruel RNGs, like everything is ah just toss up. Even if you have a walkthrough and they're doing everything exactly as described in the walkthrough, there's also a good chance that the game will still just say, yeah, turns out that didn't happen, that still your missiles just don't hit or randomly ah your your submarine got sunk. It's awful. Codename Assman is
01:02:53
Speaker
is a game that I mean it is it is mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically exhausting to play through it a Jim Wells classic. The amount of finicky controls and bad RNG just like completely like because I remember before I played it, I knew that it had a reputation for being one of the worst, if not the worst, like Sierra adventure games. But, uh, I was like, well, it's how bad can a bad adventure game be? Because it's like, well, it's an adventure game. I'll just follow the walkthrough. If it's yeah very esoteric and like puzzles, that doesn't matter if I just have the the walkthrough in front of me.
01:03:37
Speaker
But I was not prepared for it to be like a constant battle where the game is constantly killing you ah ah for either like RNG reasons or like impossible to understand controls reasons.
01:03:54
Speaker
Yeah, when we've played through this, it's taken like four and five different walkthroughs even to get through it. And even then, you're still just a victim to the RNG. So obviously, this is a game that demands a prequel.
01:04:09
Speaker
And that prequel is Kidname Iceboy, where we join a very young JW, the protagonist, Johnny Westland of Codename Iceman, when he has been a mere lad attending the Navy's brand new
Satirical Prequel: Kidname Iceboy
01:04:25
Speaker
submarine camp. So he is a young child, a patriotic young child, who finds himself aboard a submarine as part of a camp experience and stumbles upon a nefarious plot that's up to him ah to save the day and to most importantly protect the United States from all threats external and internal.
01:04:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's very funny. It's very, very funny. um It leans into the ultra patriotism of the of the Cold War era. It's set during the Nixon administration. It has a lot of fun with maybe America's greatest President, Richard Nixon, it, it really, it really takes advantage of this era that it's set in. And ends up being just something that I love and I love that people know I love this if they've played stair quest. It is ultimately a love letter to something that doesn't deserve a love letter to be written to it, which I find to be a fascinating concept when you're nostalgic for something that is completely undeserving of your nostalgia.
01:05:39
Speaker
I think that's a fascinating start point. I mean, you know, we talked earlier about, uh, it takes two to tangle the King's quest fan game. This comes from a clear place of love. This comes from an effort to like add to what was there in a series that, uh, that the creator and millions of fans, uh, absolutely adored the code name. As man is the prequel nobody asked for, but that almost makes it.
01:06:05
Speaker
better at some level. It is the prequel you could have never expected. And as a, as a result, it's just like this, this wild series of surprises. It's fun stuff. I mean, I really, I think I had more fun playing this game.
01:06:24
Speaker
than I did maybe any other adventure game I touched this year. And that's that's saying a lot. i mean And I'm not just trying to pump up this mysterious Grayson character who made this. um this is This is me just literally saying it's like, I don't know if I've smiled as much, laughed as hard, had as much fun as when I played Kidname Iceboy this year. So if you only play one fan game this year, make it Kidname Iceboy.
01:06:52
Speaker
Uh, and that's found on itch kidney ice boy. Uh, all right. My last one.
Favorite Game of the Year: UFO 50
01:06:58
Speaker
Uh, this has been heavily alluded to my game of the year is a UFO 50. Uh, it's UFO 50. It's incredible. Um, it is, I was a, I was a hater. Now I was a skeptic.
01:07:12
Speaker
You know, that's my most popular video on YouTube. UFO 50 with a skeptic. ah I became a believer by the end of this. This is a fantastic piece of work. Ben, tell us all about UFO. So if you're unfamiliar, UFO 50 is ah a game that is a compilation of 50 games.
01:07:33
Speaker
ah that are largely full games. ah And, but they're not mini games. They're not like little warrior wares. They're, they're, they're, they're full fledged games. And i what what they are is they're games for a fictional console or ah like short series of consoles um called the the LX and ah the first game like ah they it comes to you in chronological order the first game came out in 1982 and the last game came out in 1989 and
01:08:20
Speaker
What's really wonderful about this game or this collection of games is that not only is there a lot of fun to be had playing them and the the games are kind of an assortment of types of games that you'd probably find on an n NES or like a Sega Master System or something from that era like ah like kind of Metroidvania type large puzzle platformers or like action shmups, some strategy stuff. There's an adventure game. Um, but what's really great is that, uh, very so strong, uh, uh, amount of thought was put towards making it feel like all 50 of these are part of a cohesive whole.
01:09:10
Speaker
Um, is that like, you see ideas show up in earlier games, start to be toyed with and refined as other games, like, as they make more later on, uh, you, you see, there's a lot of, uh, like re-usage of sprites, uh, in it too, um, of it's like, Oh, this sprite first shows up in this game. And then it like shows up three games later is this other thing.
01:09:37
Speaker
Uh, it, I, yeah I think like what, what really makes it speak to me is like something that that's really special is that there, there are a lot of, I even already have on steam, like a, like a collection of like n NES type games that, that like, uh, indies, like I have something like, I think it's called like retro game jam or something like that. And that's good. It was a lot of fun.
01:10:05
Speaker
But like the, the, the fact that there is a level of cohesion across this and, and a UFO 50, if you're, if you're familiar with it, it also has like kind of this Easter egg hunt aspect to it where you can unlock, uh, like kind of this backstory, uh, uh, thing that, uh, like fills in this whole back narrative.
01:10:29
Speaker
But even if you don't, and I wasn't really interested in the Easter egg hunt thing, is that you could still piece together the narrative and evolution of a game studio and of a console just by playing the games and just kind of seeing what their little preoccupations are. Um, and, and for that, that's why it's so special to me is that it, um, like it's more than just a collection of games. Yes.
01:10:59
Speaker
Correct. Yeah. Now that's fascinating to me too. And I think that, you know, I came in and played it with you a bit and we sort of jumped around to games. It felt like fun and we're good multiplayer options and things like that. And there are a lot of those. um But, you know, I feel like that's the part I missed out on was getting this sense of how it evolved over time. And that's fascinating to me. I think that, I mean, the logistics of putting together a collection of 50 games alone is well i was there waiting since yeah you between them, you know, but then on top of it, the notion of like, telling a story through about a studio through games is kind of some next level stuff. And the fact that they pulled that off is is absolutely fascinating. So so yeah, I, I really I couldn't recommend it enough. I think it's just really ah wonderful. And so
01:11:53
Speaker
That, that was my game of the year. Fuck you, Grayson. I would never give you anything like that. Anyway. So those that, that is, uh, our games of some year. Oh, and we actually both had mostly games from this year, but on time I don't know. Honestly, we could just, I think each cut like one and we would have actually had a game of the year. Where's the fun in that? Where I ask you, Ben, is the fun in that.
01:12:17
Speaker
ah But is there anything you're looking forward to now, of course, i'm I am going to note taking a look at a little timer here that the original intention of doing this episode was it would be like something short and fun. And now this is as long as our average episode and less fun. ah Yeah, not fun at all. But
01:12:40
Speaker
But yes, is there anything you're looking forward to in the the the far off year 2025? I'm looking forward to everything that outlook is good. All right. Everything looks great for 2025. I can only see things on the way up. ah You know, I'm really excited for Rosewater. ah Rosewater, the Western adventure ah by our good friend, Gr under Slav, Francisco Gonzalez, looks out of this world to me. i'm I'm really excited for this one. I love a good Western adventure game. And I know this one is a labor of love that has been underway for a while. And I think 2025 is I don't know if that's officially locked in, but it feels like that's a strong. Let me let me take a look. i'm I'm excited to see that too because I've been you've been watching ah ah that the development and it just looks really cool and they similar like we were talking about this with Crimson Diamond. I believe ah Francisco occasionally ah will will stream. It says Q1 2025. So soon oh sorry soon. I think he does ah dev streams on on Twitch as well. He does. Yeah, I think Wednesday afternoons pretty often, but that's what I'm really excited for. I can't wait to see this and come out and take it for a spin. How about you better? There ain't game screenshots. This looks cool. It looks fantastic, right? I mean, it looks fantastic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Has like a very, has it like I, I'm very intrigued. It seems lately.
01:14:12
Speaker
that i like a lot of the ah indie developers of adventure games ah are are kind of moving past kind of a fixed in place 1992 spot and like some are still there and they still look good like obviously locomotive which we talked about like that that looks great um But like you know looking at ah Rosewater, and I believe Lamplight, yeah, Lamplight City was was sort of in this ah style too, ah his previous game. like ah you're We're you're seeing games that aren't necessarily in the, you know that perpetual 1992 style. um Anyway, I'm looking for Civilization VII. Oh, I've heard of this series.
01:15:07
Speaker
is You know, it's, it's, it's just, okay. I, so I'm not, I'm not following close ah attention ah to, um, this is if February of next year. Wow. i've got I'm not, I'm not, uh, like I, I know like it looks like they're, they're mixing up something. Like you change nations midway through the game or something. I don't know. I'm not, I don't, I don't usually track it. The thing is, is that I'm, I, uh,
01:15:38
Speaker
I generally just like Civ. I know like some people ah get very super finicky about civilization, but you know my general ah feeling of civilization is like ah that people hate the current version until the next one comes out. That's right. And Civ six is getting ready to enter into a golden era. Yeah. Like seven comes out. Like once seven comes out, we're going to get like this crop of people who are all like, man, it was, uh, they really had it with Civ six. Like, I can't believe they've ruined everything that Civ seven garbage, uh, pile of shit because, uh,
01:16:21
Speaker
Like I saw this happen in real time for Civ five. Any, any of you shaking your head at home, shaking your head, you're listening and you're like, Oh, Ben, that's smug son of a bitch. He's saying this about, he's saying this about Civ, but he's wrong.
01:16:37
Speaker
No, I remember, I remember everyone was very mean, very nasty to Civ V. They all hated Civ V. They didn't like the one unit per tile. They didn't like any of the the changes Civ V brought. Then Civ VI comes out and Jess, would you believe everyone loves Civ V? So, listen, I'm looking, I'm watching.
01:17:03
Speaker
watching for eyes on you. I know you're all going to do it and you're shaking your head. No, I hate civ six so much. I hate real love it. I hate it. And and and the second like ah what what day hold on I had it up in front of me. ah they February 11 2025. You're going to type into the the steam review negative not as good as civ six.
01:17:32
Speaker
You're going to write six. I love six six. I will come out and say it. I mean, I'm the opposite. I always like just what whatever the newest one is. That's the one I like because it's got it's the prettiest and I just care about being and pretty. I will say I love the the animations of the leaders and so six like of of all the things to like focus in on.
01:17:52
Speaker
I think that the leaders, especially Cleopatra, who I think her animations of like, when her, you know, her civilization is on the brink of collapse, or when she's oh yeah' just so bad, so expressive, and all the characters are expressed. It's, it's a fun game. I've logged my fair share of hours with that. Ben, do you have a civilization that your civilization? It's always whatever the most like, I like I love the the first, I think,
01:18:22
Speaker
like uh you know my first sieve was three uh-huh uh which i enjoyed at the time but even like it's not a very good sieve that's like probably the weakest sieve i guess i was asking that like is there like a civilization uh people uh who do i usually as yeah i'm sorry yeah oh sorry um You know, uh, I, I'll hit rent. I think, uh, Australia, John Curtin, he has a pretty, okay ah I gotta, I gotta, like, I'm going to have to take a look because it's actually been a little, a little bit since I've played, uh, uh, Civ seven. I did. Doesn't, uh, Korea have, uh, uh, a science.
01:19:09
Speaker
Oh, I think they might. Or is that five of my mix? I can't remember. So long. But ah like, I think I would play as it's it's been a minute, I would have to. There is also I was having a problem with Civ six on my computer for a brief moment, but I think that's that's all fixed. um But but yeah.
01:19:34
Speaker
um you know, 25 will be a great year, though, you'll have a chance to build civilizations while civilization collapses around you. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, that's that's it's it's about much like owls guard, ah incredible fantasy. Um, is there anything else that ah you're looking forward to next year?
01:19:55
Speaker
I mean, there's lots of stuff, especially, you know, the game awards just aired recently as we recorded this. I was pretty excited to see the announcement of Outer Worlds, too. Maybe that was something that already been talked about for a while. But for me, it was sort of a pleasant surprise that it was even in development. I believe it's next year. I believe they said that's a twenty twenty fiver. Wow. So that'll be fun. I like the first outer worlds. I didn't quite finish it. I got pretty far and got distracted by something. But it was it was pretty charming. I'd i'd love to see a second pass that because I think that There's probably a lot of constructive feedback on the things that people didn't love about it that they could, the obsidian could probably really pull off a good sequel. It was fine. That was my, it was my, I didn't get too far right there. I played it and I was like, you know what?
01:20:40
Speaker
This is perfectly okay. Yeah. Like, I think the sequel has a potential to really take it a little further than that and go past, you know, perfectly. Okay. My like wasn't the kind of the appeal of it. Like it's like, uh, Oh, you know, we might get a, like a new Vegas type game. Was that like what we, we always, you know, just kind of what it was. Yeah. It's fine.
01:21:05
Speaker
uh it's hard to get a new vegas game because new vegas is fantastic new vegas was nearly on my list i replayed it this year and uh it it was almost on the list to that so yeah new vegas you just don't get a new new vegas i'm actually uh on the obsidian front i'm actually looking forward to unavowed because I like the pillars of a tourney game. Unavowed is Obsidian's other big release next year and it is a ah I don't know. They, they, they push back because people are like, Oh, it's going to be like Skyrim. And they're like, no, no, no, no. So I think it's like maybe a, a medium, like there's open world and closed world. Maybe it's like a medium world. I don't know. I'm not, I'm not maybe way dragon agent shoes right now it i like, I, this isn't, it's, it's just the idea of the, like, I like the pillars of attorney games, uh, which were there kind of throwback, uh, isometric.
01:22:05
Speaker
uh, like pure RPGs, like in the style of Baldur's gate one and two. I enjoyed those on about is a 3d game that has, uh, you know, kind of a Bethesda, uh, aesthetic, um, that, uh, uh, is setting that in that world. And I'm like, all right, great. Well, I liked those games, so it will be nice to go back there.
01:22:31
Speaker
It's fantasy, but they also have guns. Yes, that's pretty cool. Oh, fantasy guns. i like well they're They're rifles. They're like all because it's like, Blunderbusses. Yeah, like it's it's kind of in like the fantasy, like old timey clock. I think it's 100 years ahead of that. So it's still in. It's in late fantasy times, I think.
01:22:55
Speaker
Gotcha. Yeah, more close to the present day. Yeah, which makes it all the more terrifying. um ah yeah ah But anyway, yeah, I like listen, I don't really I don't I don't check what the weather is tomorrow. I don't check what the previews are for next year. I don't know what's coming out other than Civ seven because I just always I buy them at release and earns like oh my god, this is terrible. And I'm like, wow, this is the greatest game I've ever played my entire life.
01:23:23
Speaker
Well, you know what I'm looking forward to next year, Ben? What? Another year of podcasting with you. Quest, Quest. We'll be back for 2025. And boy, are things going to heat up. Oh, yeah. We've got all sorts of things in store.
01:23:39
Speaker
All kinds of exciting episodes planned. yeah yeah we We've locked down a six episode long interview series with Ken Williams. That was tough. um Got KW. You got KW. It was hard to do. But yeah, I mean, we've got that. ah And then once we're done with that, we'll probably just end the podcast because I think we will have covered everything there's to talk about. Yeah. So we've got six more podcasts. All right. Well,
01:24:07
Speaker
ah like ah Thank you everybody for for joining us for request quest side quest quest quest. You can send us an email at quest quest podcast at gmail dot.com. You can watch both of us on Twitch on PS underscore Garrick and I'm decaf Jedi ah and please rate and review us. It helps people find this show.
01:24:37
Speaker
Uh, is there anything else I missed?
Gratitude to Hypothetical Sponsors
01:24:41
Speaker
Uh, thanks to all our sponsors in case we get a sponsor before this episode gets uploaded. oh Yeah. Yeah. In cases before this get gets uploaded, we'd like to thank all of our sponsors, including.
01:24:52
Speaker
so so
01:24:55
Speaker
Oh, I was I was leaving. Yeah, I was leaving open. no not well I was going ahead. I was given so and i like I'm aspirationally imagining the Citibank and then just the abstract concept of dog food. I was like, well, food. Yeah, just like the dog food council ah for feeding
Teaser: Incorrect Scoring in Sierra Games
01:25:10
Speaker
dogs. Yeah, I hope that they'll get in here and you know, make our dreams come to life. Yeah, I'm i'm hoping for them too. But Until then, ah join us next week when we discover that ah the scoring in all of the old Sierra adventure games was incorrect and we painstakingly go over several scoring systems.