Transcript
neocharge: What's up everybody and welcome to Shapes of Gaming, the weekly conversational podcast all about video games that's unedited, unfiltered, and most importantly unhinged. That's for damn sure. I'm one of your hosts, Matt Stenson, NeoCharge on PSN, and joining me, as always, on the other side of the screen, episode number 57, the Retro Gaming Encyclopedia, Bob Harriman, Leon Lyon Hartley on PSN, my brother in arms. What's up, boot dude?
Leon Lionheartly: Cast crack.
neocharge: Yeah. Okay. I'll join you for the cast crack. and
Leon Lionheartly: Let's get this just going, man. Let's just fucking kick this right out.
neocharge: Let's fucking do it.
Leon Lionheartly: now No, it's...
neocharge: What are you drinking?
Leon Lionheartly: It's going good, man. i ah It has been a busy week. You ever have one of those weeks when you you sit down and like you wake up in the morning and all of a sudden you...
neocharge: Mm hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: like you like I'll say explain it like this. I woke up this morning getting ready for work, got the wife with me, we're brushing our teeth, and then all of a sudden i went, fuck, it's Thursday already.
Leon Lionheartly: It feels like Tuesday right now in my mind. And I'm so excited for the weekend. We got a lot of shit going on. um so
neocharge: yeah it is It's a busy weekend, yeah. ah Oh yeah, I do it all the time. Even on the fucking group chat. I was like, this is a crazy Wednesday. And someone was like, ah it's Thursday, Matt. I'm like, fuck!
Leon Lionheartly: yeah I mean, it could be worse. you could be the opposite situation where you're like, oh, you know, tomorrow's Friday and people are looking at you.
neocharge: It's true.
Leon Lionheartly: No, tomorrow is Wednesday.
neocharge: ah Shit.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Oh, I see you got a staple. You're drinking a staple of the cast. I'd say that the the cast, ah like, I don't know. I don't even know what to call it.
Leon Lionheartly: Unofficial hashtag sponsored.
neocharge: Yeah, the sponsored beer of the cast, the the cast staple, if we will. Powder run. Love it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I was looking through the fridge and just, I'm like, you know what? I've got one last power to run. It's not going to be a dad belt situation, hopefully, knock on wood. So let's well let's just go ahead and and enjoy this because it's summer.
neocharge: Oh, God, right?
Leon Lionheartly: you know Move over, ladies. It's a white gamer boy summer.
neocharge: Yes, it is. And dude, Powder Run drinks so smoothly. It's just like vanilla and it's just a light beer. It's almost like a vanilla sweet Pilsner, if you will. It's like a light beer for a good, it's good summer beer, I'd say.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, absolutely. I would agree with you on that one, man. It's it's very refreshing. And you know me. I don't like my... I i like all... be i'm I'm not going to say I like all beer, but you know I don't really hate beers unless you're Budweiser.
Leon Lionheartly: And ah I like the darker stuff.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: And this is still damn top tier, man.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Yeah. ah Yeah. I like most beers. IPAs, I mean, it's the IBUs, right? The Imperial Bitterness Units. Fun fact, if you go to a brewery and you see IBU with the number next to it, the higher that number of IBU, the more bitter your beer is going to be.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: i usually stick under 20 IBU. So... Yeah. IPAs, I can't do IPAs. That's the only type of beer I usually can do. A hazy or a juicy, like you getting into the fruits and stuff with the IPA with a lower IBU.
neocharge: I'll get down on it. But yeah, Powder Run is is a staple of the cast at this point.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Hell yeah, dude.
neocharge: And I love the name. And God, i I'm jonesing to get back up on the mountain. I want to do a Powder Run myself. And that's not a cocaine reference. That's a snowboarding reference.
Leon Lionheartly: Well, it depends on what part of the country. Maybe then if you're in Miami, that's a different story. But I agree with you.
neocharge: Why not move?
Leon Lionheartly: Why not both? ah You know, i will tell you, my friend, if and nobody knows, if you know Colorado weather, nobody knows what the fuck's going to happen. But we are supposedly going through a Super El Nino, which means this winter is going to be a...
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: a blast, if you will. um if you like your If you like your cold, ah snowy weather, um I fully expect us to get hit this year and maybe do some powder running ourselves.
neocharge: Oh.
neocharge: Ooh, dude, you you're going to join me on the mountain. That'd be amazing. I don't like snow. The only time i don't like driving it. I don't like being in it. I don't like the bitter cold. The only time I do like snow though, is when I got a snowboard strapped to my feet.
neocharge: That's when I like snow.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, what a baby. Come on now.
neocharge: right
Leon Lionheartly: You never pounded ah you never pounded and amusing quotes in the snow?
neocharge: ah I mean, but no, it too cold. are you going to do that?
Leon Lionheartly: One day I will teach you, Padawan. yeah
neocharge: That's just a recipe for frostbite in all the crevices, I'm just saying.
Leon Lionheartly: ah yeah You know, yeah there there's, just what do they call it, literal terms of blue balls? Yeah.
neocharge: ah Oh, man. I have done... i did a snow angel in just my underwear because I was like, yeah I wonder what it is in negative 16. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: who
neocharge: um That was fun. ah Very cold, but still fun. So yeah, ah I am drinking a ah darker one today.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, man. so what are you drinking?
neocharge: ah in my urban animal glass. I am drinking. We do beer trades here on this ah great cast with our community. And you and i we ah we traded a beer and you gave me a sweet baby Java from Duclaw.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh.
neocharge: And this is the chocolate peanut butter coffee porter. Like, holy shit. that's ah That's a lot of things I love. And let's so we're going to try it right now.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yeah, it goes through. You're going to hit ah you're goingnna hit all of the flavors. It's like a roller coaster.
neocharge: Oh my God. It's like a Reese's piece, like eating a Reese's peanut butter cup after drinking a coffee and then a beer.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, you get that coffee, and then it hits the chocolate notes, and then it finishes out in the peanut butter, and you're like, what the fuck just happened?
neocharge: Holy shit. That's delicious. Oh, oh Yeah. Yeah. It finishes with the peanut butter. Our robust chocolate peanut butter porter amped up to add new depth and complex.
neocharge: Jesus. Complexity to our sweet baby. Pop the top. Take a sip. And you'll wonder, where is this bean? Oh, my. ah
Leon Lionheartly: I love that. That is great. Yeah,
neocharge: Oh, that's awesome. Duclaw Brewing Ewing, New Jersey. So not a local one, but delicious all the same. So I'm a big fan. I'm big fan.
neocharge: So thank you. Thank you for that.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah happy to help.
neocharge: um
Leon Lionheartly: You know, I've still got a couple more in the fridge. Let me, um...
neocharge: What did I trade you for it?
Leon Lionheartly: Mmm...
neocharge: What did I give you? forget.
Leon Lionheartly: o
neocharge: What was it? for Oh, man. One ah one of the ones I drank. I think it might have been.
Leon Lionheartly: It was a bottle, I think.
neocharge: on oh yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: if um
neocharge: Was it the Breckenridge like cerveza?
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, that's it. Yep, yep, yep.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I remember now.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: no that And that was a good one. It was a really refreshing beer, too.
neocharge: Dude, beer trading is the best. If if you like throw a party or a little get together, everyone brings a six pack and you all trade and you get to sample many different types of beer. It's great. Love it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, absolutely. you can you can so You can mix your beers, folks. Just don't mix your beer with your liquor.
neocharge: Oh, yeah, exactly. Beer before liquor. You've never been sicker. Liquor before beer. You're in the clear.
Leon Lionheartly: You're always a queer?
neocharge: you' eyes yeah Jesus.
Leon Lionheartly: and ah Sorry.
neocharge: Unhinged.
Leon Lionheartly: Unhinged. I just got off of work like 30 minutes ago. My brain is fucking shot. Yeah.
neocharge: Hey, queer can mean ah many things, can't it? Aren't we like, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: It means, i mean ultimately, it just means different.
neocharge: Yeah. Then heck, call myself queer. I'm different and I'm proud of it.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah i
neocharge: I'm queer and proud, baby. I like Halo.
Leon Lionheartly: It's like another one of the...
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And now we got the the GTA. they're making They're putting it all in the water, making it gay.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Making gay frogs. with Everyone is being gay frogs.
Leon Lionheartly: It's the Ritual Network.
neocharge: It's a ritual network. I'll do it That's ah Alex Jones. Yeah, on'll the I'll do impression of him. Putting the chemicals in the water and making the fish all gay. oh i don't know what's going on.
Leon Lionheartly: ah ah Oh, man, that video was going to live in infamy.
neocharge: ah
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, how's life been, man? we've we've been We've been hanging out. been gaming. We've been playing. We're playing a game parallel, but how's life been?
Leon Lionheartly: and Not too bad, actually. and You know, got some big events, ah family side that start technically tomorrow. So Friday as this podcast goes live, but we went and saw the the the scary movie six ah on Saturday.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: And yeah that's just a movie you got to know what you're getting into. I fucking enjoyed it.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. You gotta go with a buddy. we We kept looking at each other, and we we were just, like, smirking and laughing, and it was just a fun time, man. It's stupid. It's funny. It's exactly what you'd expect from a scary movie with some surprises in there that were fucking, like, gut-laughingly funny.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, they they they they did what I want out of ah out of the next Grand Theft Auto, and they lampooned everything. Nobody was safe, and that's the way it should be, folks.
neocharge: Yep. Oh my God, dude. I've heard so much Grand Theft Auto today. It's all over the place. The fucking PlayStation app changed their goddamn color to be like GTA colored. And it has like the palm trees and everything. They've never done this, Bob.
neocharge: They didn't do it for The Last of Us. They didn't do it for Spider-Man. They didn't do it for, I don't even know if they're going to do it for Wolverine. When you boot up your PlayStation, it has like ah ah GTA boot.
neocharge: It's fucking nuts. And I hate it. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: We'll definitely get there. But, you know, it's like um the the news. ah Well, when we get there, when they when it broke, if you saw Destin Legare Twitter, was like, well, if you had any kind of news, you wanted to go under the radar, today would have been the day to drop it.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: yeah Yep. yep Well, cool, man. um You get the family stuff. We're going to see another movie Saturday. And tomorrow, today, if you're listening to this ah podcast, we are going to a Final Fantasy Orchestra, Distant Worlds in Denver.
neocharge: ah Bo Cheddar Orchestra Hall in South Denver. So, very excited for that.
Leon Lionheartly: Ooh, it's a new venue for me. I'm excited now. Really excited. I mean, I was excited before, but that just adds a cherry on top.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
neocharge: Have you ever been to any of a, have you ever been to an orchestra in Denver?
Leon Lionheartly: Uh, no, I've been to a lot of concerts in Denver.
neocharge: Oh, Oh yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Um,
neocharge: This, this, uh, orchestra halls. Awesome. And I've been, I've, I've done distant worlds twice. I've seen final fantasy seven remake and rebirth orchestra. I've seen Zelda orchestras.
neocharge: Uh, I've seen a few, I like orchestras. yeah You, you gotta get good seats in an orchestra because it's not as loud as a concert because they're, they're actual raw instruments.
neocharge: And,
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: You got to get pretty close and you got to get center and you get like, we got good fucking seats, dude. We got, there's something called the golden circle when you go to an orchestra and that's like where it sounds the best.
neocharge: We're fucking so front and center in the golden circle. So
Leon Lionheartly: you so you're you're You're speaking my language, my friend. i love it.
neocharge: the thing that, yeah, I've seen distant worlds twice.
Leon Lionheartly: and
neocharge: The thing that sold me on this one though, final fantasy 16 content.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, no, that's... you You just say follow Fantasy Orchestra and I'm going to show up. like Just shut up and and take my money, right?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: But you're right. 16's a fucking... The music and presentation, at the visuals in 16 were the the real fucking sellers. um and we I don't know if we've really talked about it on this ah cast because it came out before we started.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, the those are those are the hard, hard ah heavy carrying and did a lot of heavy lifting within 16.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yep. ah My favorite part was a side quest. I'm kidding. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: That was ah where it didn't shine the most, but Final Fantasy XVI was my game of the year, and it was just incredible. If you're a Final Fantasy fan, ah I mean, it deviates from your typical Final Fantasy formula, right?
neocharge: ah But man, just the callbacks to everything, like, I mean... from the marketing you you you're you're fighting fucking summons and it's awesome like it's everything if you've played your final fantasies you're like wouldn't it be cool if well 16 does it so yeah
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, they really they really do. And there's so there's something there. I could ramble on about that for a while because 16 is good and it is a great Final Fantasy game. But I've heard the the discourse online about whether it's a real Final Fantasy game or it's not.
neocharge: mm-hmm
Leon Lionheartly: Look, it is a Final Fantasy game in terms of its presentation and its music and its story and things of that nature. Now, I do agree that there is a piece of the element where you're like, ah maybe there's something here that's not really Final Fantasy.
Leon Lionheartly: um you're kind of You're kind of digging a little too close to something else, and I would totally respect that.
neocharge: Sure. Yeah.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: But at the end of the day, it's a fucking solid game, and I'm really sad we still do not have a PS5 Pro patch supporting PSSR.
neocharge: Dude, I saved my Final Fantasy hard, or my Final Fantasy difficulty playthrough for the PS5 Pro, just like I did for Rebirth, or a Brutal difficulty.
neocharge: Why? What the fuck? Like, 16 still does not even have a, like, pro patch. I mean, Rebirth got a pro patch, and a PSSR patch, and a PSSR 2.0 patch.
neocharge: What the fuck, Square? like why Why are you doing this to our boy Clive? Our boy Clive doesn't deserve it this.
Leon Lionheartly: Did not meet sales expectations.
neocharge: Yeah, yeah. Three million copies didn't mean... Get the fuck out of here. And it's probably like close to five now. So, yeah. If you haven't played Final Fantasy XVI, it's a lot more action-heavy.
neocharge: It's a lot like Devil May Cry and almost like a Platinum Games game, but it's incredible. Game of the year.
neocharge: Easily.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, go go back and check it out, man, because come on now, you can't let me have the platinum of Final Fantasy 16 and now you have it.
neocharge: So... Yeah.
neocharge: I know, I know, man. Uh, I'm still holding out. I'm still holding out for that pro patch. Cause, uh, I could play it in, in, uh, performance mode, but it, it's not, doesn't look great.
neocharge: Uh, especially when you've, when you're used to this, these, uh, PSSR games, but I would not play it in 30 and 30 looks a little better, but yeah, I'm just waiting on the patch, man, but I don't think it's coming. And I do, ah I do need to get back to it. Rebirth first before Revelation.
neocharge: Ooh.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, sir.
neocharge: Ooh.
Leon Lionheartly: Dude, I get it i've got I've got three Xenoblade games that I have to go through before Genesis.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Holy shit. You got it, dude. I think you to play the Darksiders games too because I think we might get that next year at some point.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. That's it as soon as like this year is a, like right now, the game, we'll get into it later when I'm playing is going to be the game I'm playing.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: And then I'm going to do nothing but fucking backlog and, and things like that until Halo. And then I'll go right back into backlog mode until the next thing, which is, oh we'll get it.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: it would It's really tough because you're looking at Animusha and Final Fantasy really close to each other.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: That's true. I don't know if I'm going to play that. them that They're gay low because of the colors on the... They're trying to make everyone gay. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I got a meme here somewhere for this.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. So, yeah, life's been busy for me, too. I have been gaming more than usual. We're getting like crazy weather here. We got some hail, but nothing. It was like pea sized and lasted five minutes. Everyone's like, everyone's going to die. We're going to get baseball sized hail and it's going to fucking shatter everything.
neocharge: It hailed maybe five minutes and it was pea-sized. It just like farted hail out and then bounced. And it it hasn't...
Leon Lionheartly: laughter
neocharge: remember that Remember the fucking bomb cyclone we were going to get that one year? They're like, everyone's going to die.
Leon Lionheartly: laughter
neocharge: It's going to be so cold. It's going to shatter your house. And then like a light breeze came through and you're like, all right, Colorado's like, I'm good. Now, granted, 25 minutes south of me in Fountain or 15 minutes south, I don't know.
neocharge: ah they They did get golf ball sized hail. So.
Leon Lionheartly: They did because I had a but a buddy, his wife, posted on social media. She was pissed. They got a ah new camper, if you will, and it got hit down there in Fountain.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm like...
neocharge: Yep. two Two quick hail stories. I have gotten hail damage on my car. I was downtown. ah Anything over a quarter-sized hail is going to damage a vehicle.
neocharge: So I did get hail damage on my older car. ah And then, yeah, they cut me a check and I fixed it. Then, but when I was under contract for my first house around this area, around the same zip code, ah it got hit with baseball-sized hail and destroyed the roof. The seller had to pay for it because we were in contract. I got a brand new roof.
neocharge: So I should have kept that motherfucker, but I sold...
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. So hail, hail is a thing here and it's because of the the mountain effect we have, like we're in the shadow of the mountain. So, uh, we get like really high spikes of temperature variances in our atmosphere and, uh, hail, hail happens in the summer weirdly. So hail happens when it's raining and the atmosphere is so cold that the rain freezes on its way down. science everyone.
neocharge: And, uh, depending on how much of the atmosphere is that temperature is how big of hail pieces you're going to get. So the, the biggest hail I've seen here personally have been in was quarter quarter size and it hit me and it hurt.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, I haven't been hit by anything that big. We've we've gotten yeah i mean we've gotten golf ball size.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: a couple of them you know drop here and there.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um That shit hurts when you get pelted, man.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Yep. So, thankfully, ah they were calling for, like, fucking orange-sized hail. And I was like, what the fuck?
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Like, that that shit will come through windows and stuff. And no, it was just, like, pea-sized little slush, five minutes of it. Call it a day.
Leon Lionheartly: and it was it was in and out yeah i i think it was it started when i was getting ready to leave my office i said you know what hold on i hear the weather i don't want to run to the car i waited 30 minutes did some more work and then it cleared
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Yeah, yeah. that's what That's what Colorado does. So, yeah. ah But we're here. We're safe. We're marked as safe in Colorado.
neocharge: And we're on episode 57. Man, we're almost to 60. We're getting there. And we built quite the community, community haven't we, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: i think Yeah, I think we're doing some good ah good work out there. What'd you say?
neocharge: I think so. We're spreading the good word that video games are awesome. You should play them. And most importantly, you should talk about them and have conversations about them, which we do on discord.
neocharge: And anytime we go out to eat or drink and on Mike right now, but, uh, those of you that are a part of the community, thank you so much for, being part of this adventure, if you will. We're on year two.
neocharge: We're always evolving. We're trying to get to video.
Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.
neocharge: It's probably never going to happen. Zencaster can't fucking keep up. I'll tell you that. It's not our us. it's ah It's not us. It's you, Zencaster. ah But yeah, if you're not part of this community, you should be. We got a Discord.
neocharge: We got all kinds of social media pages. We're all cool here. We all love video games and we all talk about them. ah But if you're not part of the community, Where can they go to be part of this community, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: One of these days I'm going to flip the script on you and get you to do this.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: No, but you you just go into that little browser of yours and you'll go shapesofgaming.com. That's going to take you to the little landing page where you've got everything that Matt just spoke about.
Leon Lionheartly: Our socials, Discord, where to hear us, hopefully one day see us, um all of that good stuff that is there. um Come say hi subscribe, leave us a nice comment, give us the heart, thumbs up, whatever emoji appropriate.
Leon Lionheartly: that you feel and come say hi. I'm usually browsing or if you will, creeping within the discord, ready to drop some knowledge of, if anybody has any questions, but you know, once again, come check us out at shapes of gaming.com.
neocharge: Yep, yep. Yeah, come join us. we have We kind of have community events if you're local. We've had listeners of the show and friends of the show now. became there He's like our good friend. ah they They come in, they they watch events with us, and so we kind of do live off events. We're trying to do the live reactions. We're working on it. It's a process, but yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Speaking of friends of the show, Nick, you know what next week is, right?
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: ah July fourth
Leon Lionheartly: Well, it'll be the the beginning of July. So we should have friend of the show, returning friend of the show for next week.
neocharge: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So we can, ah so we can go ahead and y'all just secede defeat and give me the crown now.
neocharge: Yep. o Dude, I said you pretty much have it in the bag and Star Fox. ah Yeah. ah Caleb Schiff, ah the guy you guys all love.
neocharge: know and love will be on our show once again for state of the draft. So look forward to that. He's excited. He's been asking us every day. like, Hey, can I be on the show? Can I be back on the show? we're like, Caleb, relax. Yes.
neocharge: It's going to be next.
Leon Lionheartly: down boy.
neocharge: It's going to be next episode now. Yeah, we're we're always excited to have Caleb. and And we're also in the works. ah Four of us. Me, you, Caleb, and Bo.
neocharge: We're going to do a 007 First Light. Spoiler cast. We're working on that. So or we're just trying to... Dude, coordinating four different schedules across two different states is sometimes challenging.
neocharge: Just saying. you know There's time variances. There's there's a lot ah going on. so Side note... If ah you really want to taste beer, because I just did this, chew it.
neocharge: Drink the beer and then chew it if you really want to taste the beer. ah Because I'm getting different notes when I chew the beer. I'm just over here chewing beer.
Leon Lionheartly: You're a weirdo.
neocharge: ah still
Leon Lionheartly: You're chewing your beer? What the hell?
neocharge: um Try it. Try it sometimes. You taste ah everything. But yes. So... so Let's get into the news. But yeah, we will have the draft episode next one, 58.
neocharge: And that will be going live July second No, July 5th.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: July 5th.
Leon Lionheartly: July 5th.
neocharge: Yes, yes. This one is, no. ah no Why is my schedule like that? What the fuck? July July 3rd. july third So we will be recording the first, releasing the third, and this one releases the 26th. So we're on schedule. We're still doing this thing. We love you all.
neocharge: Let's get into the news, Bob, because I'm ready to fucking rant.
Leon Lionheartly: All right.
neocharge: I'm
Leon Lionheartly: I can hear it. I can hear it.
neocharge: ready rant.
Leon Lionheartly: ah well
neocharge: Goddamn.
Leon Lionheartly: Let's get the... let's get the ah the the well I don't know. What's really sad anymore nowadays, but let's go ahead and do a little in memoriam. Let's yeah just get this out of the way, unfortunately. um a This is coming. Oh, I saw this over the weekend, too, which is really shocking because, you know, it's got to be big news in order for it to to be ah to be online. But Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemont has ah died in a plane crash on Saturday, which would have been the 21st 20th of June. um
Leon Lionheartly: So this was confirmed by the Associated Press, as people may may not know, because he actually ended up just sitting higher above, sitting kind of on the outside as his brother um ran through ah through his multiple brothers, should I say, ran through specifically Yves did with ah Ubisoft.
Leon Lionheartly: But um they founded this way back in 1986, dude.
neocharge: Wow.
Leon Lionheartly: Ubisoft is almost as ah old as I am.
neocharge: That's when I was born.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: ah So, holy shit.
Leon Lionheartly: um But yeah, he's he's but a a man who's definitely been at the helm or in at least one hand on the steering wheel of a very, not as much lately, but a very prominent ah you know developer and publisher of games. And without Ubisoft, we wouldn't have a lot of shit now.
neocharge: Dude, I love a lot Ubisoft games. One of my favorite IPs in a game i'm very excited about. The next game on my list coming out, Assassin's Creed, Black Flag.
neocharge: in my top five. So I'm a huge fan of Ubisoft. They kind of did lose their way a little bit, but I think they're circling back and they're like, okay, let's really like focus on making just good games and not a lot of them and and quality shit. So, and they're releasing Rayman Legends retold.
neocharge: So that's cool.
Leon Lionheartly: oh
neocharge: Yeah, yeah. So Ubisoft is an underrated developer for sure. And I hope they keep learning from their mistakes. And that's that's unfortunate this happened.
neocharge: ah I want my eulogy to be like, oh, yeah, I died in a plane crash. But yeah, that's cool.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, no, no, no. That's...
neocharge: I mean, it's not cool that he died, but it's a cool way to go, right? Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah. I can think of a couple of cooler ones like give me whorehouse heart attack, you know.
neocharge: if if
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: Yeah, that's true.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: well
Leon Lionheartly: But you're right.
neocharge: He died.
Leon Lionheartly: At least it'd be cooler as if you it'd be cooler as if you died in the plane crash as you were trying to save it.
neocharge: He died doing who he loved.
Leon Lionheartly: Like go out a hero.
neocharge: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Or like as it's like it's crashing, you jump out and you just die from jumping out of it.
neocharge: And you technically like skydive. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You do the 80s action hero move where you jump out at the last second and land in a bed of our puddle of water and survive. Yeah.
neocharge: ah Right. Yeah. And you land on your knee superhero landing. But yeah, this, uh, this is unfortunate. Uh, and he was a prominent, I mean, he wasn't the face of Ubisoft.
neocharge: His brother is Yves. Uh, but he, uh, yeah, it sucks when an industry, ah icon or someone involved in the industry dies.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: It sucks when anyone dies. Right. But yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, no, it's RIP and peace.
neocharge: RIP. RIP.
Leon Lionheartly: You are correct. He did spend the helm. He ended up becoming more specifically president and he was running CEO. Those kind of ah the, you know, the top guy charge titles of actual Guillemot Corporation.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: So you have that and then Ubisoft.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, RIP and peace, not bozo.
neocharge: No, not Bozo. Yeah. He founded an incredible company. It was behind the scenes running it all. And yeah, he gave us Assassin's Creed. ah What else? All kinds of shit. not Tom Clancy.
Leon Lionheartly: Tom Clancy is technically in that in that group.
neocharge: what yeah Splinter Cell.
Leon Lionheartly: Splintered.
neocharge: Yeah. yeah So.
Leon Lionheartly: Rayman, you mentioned, of course. but which Dude, I'm so excited for fucking Rayman Legends Retold.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. Rayman.
Leon Lionheartly: like The more I see him, I'm like, damn it!
neocharge: Me, too.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't need one of these games, but this is a pop-ass game.
neocharge: Me, too. ah Beyond Good and Evil. Ubisoft did.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh yeah, that's right. because yeah That kind of just fell into obscurity, huh?
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. then, yet so did you play the original Rayman? ah The Rayman Origins or Legends?
Leon Lionheartly: ah So I played Origins and Legends. i When you said original Rayman, I'm thinking you're talking...
neocharge: Cool. Right, right.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah, yeah. yeah
neocharge: Yeah, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: No, not that one.
neocharge: Okay, so you didn't play Legends?
Leon Lionheartly: No, I played Legends and I played Origins. But there's the if I'm not mistaken, there's a precursor to that one.
neocharge: Played Origins and Legends.
Leon Lionheartly: Like Rayman himself would be...
neocharge: Oh, there's many.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, before before that, I was thought you were talking about the OG one.
neocharge: Yeah, on the 64, yeah. ah
Leon Lionheartly: No, not that one.
neocharge: No, yeah, i I played on the 64, loved Origins. I played Origins on the 360. I'm one of the few platinum hoer holders for Legends that I played on the PS4 as well.
neocharge: So I'm excited to play Origins on the PS5 because it's included.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: So Legends Retold is 40 bucks and it includes Origins Remastered for PS5.
Leon Lionheartly: Really?
neocharge: Fucking awesome. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if it's a pre-order bonus or what, but I have it pre-ordered at Best Buy. And yeah, it says Origins Remastered Included.
neocharge: It's like, holy shit, guys. Thank you. So like 20 bucks each? Fuck yeah, that's a steal. Legends was incredible. Origins was incredible. So...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, and they're tough as nails, dude. But yeah, you go down.
neocharge: ahu
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, you're right, because you've still got Rabbids, which I don't play Rabbids, but I got attached to them thanks to the ah Mario Kingdom Battle ah games.
neocharge: ehe
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: um I don't know.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Did you ever play those?
neocharge: No, never got into them. I'm not big into the strategy stuff like the XCOM type games, but yeah, never got into them. And then Rabbids came out on the Wii or Wii U.
Leon Lionheartly: don't know.
neocharge: I don't know where they where they emerged, where they ah started, but they're kind of like minions. So, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, they are. But there's there's you can go out down there.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: But unfortunately, most of them are dormant and we probably won't see them anytime soon, unfortunately.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: But that's for Ubisoft.
neocharge: Right, right.
Leon Lionheartly: Excuse me. That is an Ubisoft challenge, not a death in the family challenge.
neocharge: Yep. Yeah, exactly. Far Cry. We can't forget Far Cry. It's a huge IP that they do ah as well. So and then oh yeah, that the quadruple A game.
neocharge: no yeah We can't forget that skull bones. They're their mirror IP.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, gosh, yeah.
neocharge: They literally stripped the combat from Black Flag and created a game and called it quadruple A and it fucking bombed.
Leon Lionheartly: Whoops. oh whoops
neocharge: Whoops.
neocharge: Oopsie. But yeah, ah Ubisoft is a big player in the game. They've been around a while and they have made some good watchdogs. Watchdogs. i I was a big fan of the premise and idea of watchdogs, but then I played it and was like, oh, nah.
Leon Lionheartly: So did you play the first one or the second one?
neocharge: First.
Leon Lionheartly: Really? Okay.
neocharge: Yeah, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: because i That's interesting because the first one's a lot of fun. I rather enjoyed it. just when when when Unfortunately, the sequel did not quite live up to the hype because the first Watch Dogs was like that that Uncharted. So it was like you could do so much and do the Uncharted 2 and then it just fucking tripped over its own feet.
neocharge: Yeah, it was a cool concept. I remember the first trailer we saw like one of the E3s when E3 was a thing. Crazy. ah It was a far cry. Pun intended.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: yeah It was a a far cry from the final product. And yeah, it was ah Prince of Persia. Prince of Persia Sands of Time GameCube. Incredible game.
neocharge: Love that.
Leon Lionheartly: in
neocharge: We were going to get a remake, but ah whoops. Whoopsie.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, not like that was on my draft or anything. Yeah.
neocharge: Right. Yeah. RIP for sure. And yeah, I'm excited for Rayman and dude, I'm beyond fucking excited for Assassin's Creed black flag. And I can't wait for a code name. Hexay to a Assassin's Creed based in 1500s Salem witch trials, where I assume like if you play the Assassin's Creed games, you're not going to be ah playing an assassin that hunts down the witches. You're probably going to be the fucking witch.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, we're going to get the Banisher of New Eden um game that we should have gotten.
neocharge: Hell yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Not saying that was a bad game, but damn it. That screamed this Assassin's Creed setting.
neocharge: That's... oh yeah Oh yeah. So did Watch Dogs. Watch Dogs was kind of like a modern day Assassin's Creed. And they should have just called it Assassin's Creed. And let's not forget the the my second favorite Assassin's Creed game of all time, which I hope they get remake as well, Assassin's Creed 2. Ezio Adetori.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, we'll see that. Maybe we'll see that someday. But once again, like you said, RIP.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: Speaking of RIP, Matt, there's your segue.
neocharge: Love it.
Leon Lionheartly: RIP to our wallets or anybody that was interested.
neocharge: Ugh.
Leon Lionheartly: i know I was one of them. um this We finally got the confirmation, folks. ah this I'm getting this from Video Amps Chronicle, but you can go everywhere. This was on Twitter for...
Leon Lionheartly: you know, 36 hours, it was discussed. um there's a lot of other, uh, folks out there that are probably looking at this deep dives analyzing, but steam machine has finally been revealed and pre-orders are live. They, I believe they actually closed to the reservation pre-orders today. um it was a timed window, uh, through the 20, uh, 25th, uh, I want to say 10 AM m mountain time, give or take. um But we got our prices. There are four different tiers available. um There is a 512, there is a 512 gigabyte storage, a 2 terabyte storage edition, um both of them with and without controllers. So the 512 model without a controller is going to be a grand total of
Leon Lionheartly: $1,049. If you want the controller, it's ah gone up to $1,128. And then we'll just skip right to the gi big hit in the gut. The two terabyte with a Steam controller is going to run you retail before tax and all the other cool things local areas apply. $1,428 USD.
Leon Lionheartly: Matt, before I kick it to you, i am fucking disappointed because i was a mark for this machine and I just got purchased out for it.
neocharge: That's, that's a ridiculous amount of money, honestly, with the power on par or less than a PS five base. Hmm.
neocharge: Hmm. And it doesn't have the controller. Come on guys. This system isn't for me. I've never been to steam. If PlayStation disappeared, I'd probably go to steam. That's where I'd go. Uh, but I have PlayStation and I bought my PS five pro for 99.
neocharge: ah with I mean, with the disk drive, and I got like 10 terabytes in it. did Did I pay ridiculous prices compared to now for my storage? Yeah.
neocharge: I just struck at the right time. so But two terabytes for like without a controller for $1,500? Dude, that's without tax.
neocharge: I mean, tax on $1,500 is a lot. That's another $150. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it is. Depending on your local areas and and your you know local sales tax, that's fucking stupid.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: you're You're almost as much as a brand new Sony OLED TV um if you know what you're doing. right like you're You're getting into that range now.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah, and I think it's ugly. just ah It's a box. Hey, I know the GameCube is a box. It's a cube, okay? But it's got style, all right?
neocharge: This thing ah just looks like a black box that you recovered from a plane crash.
Leon Lionheartly: i yeah I got a R.I.P.
neocharge: R.I.P.
Leon Lionheartly: I got i got hit r i be yeah
neocharge: R.I.P.
Leon Lionheartly: ah i got a pushback though, man.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: I like the industrial look of a fucking console. The PlayStation 2 is probably one of my favorite aesthetic consoles of all time.
neocharge: That has the lines, though, and the design and the the symmetry, though. I mean, or no, I think it's like asymmetric.
Leon Lionheartly: it's It was a rectangle. Yeah, it was a rectangle, but it was all black.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: There was only one piece of... up There was one light on it that showed you the power status. And then there was the little logo on the front that you could rotate, which apparently not a lot of people realized.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Oh,
Leon Lionheartly: And I didn't know that until I got older.
neocharge: So good.
Leon Lionheartly: And i was like, you didn't know I could do that? But that's jokes aside...
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I i like the these. And then if you really want, you can go get yourself a faceplate. I got buddied at 3D Prince. He could probably make you a few of these and you you can have your Ezio or your Mega Man or i don't know, whatever you want.
neocharge: It's pretty cool.
Leon Lionheartly: 6.7 on it. I don't care.
neocharge: Oh, Jesus. No. I do like the magnetic faceplate. That's cool. And I like how PS5 did the swappable faceplates, even though haven't done a lot with it. But ah favorite console design of all time.
neocharge: What is it, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: oh i eat
neocharge: For you. PS2?
Leon Lionheartly: That is a tough one, my friend. ah
neocharge: I got an easy answer. For me, at least.
Leon Lionheartly: all right yeah what do you get What do you got?
neocharge: PS4 base.
Leon Lionheartly: See, that's where I'm kind of split. not the ah
neocharge: Sexy.
Leon Lionheartly: It's sexy. But
neocharge: ah I should say PlayStation 4 because the PS4 was this slim.
Leon Lionheartly: Technically, yeah, you're right. It was the slim. i I could see that. But for me, there was something about that PlayStation 2 that I really liked.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: And I think i think you are you were... I agree with you on the like the lines that were cut into it almost. Yeah. Because they they didn't have to do that. But it it just it seemed right the way it was.
Leon Lionheartly: And then you could put the the controller ah ports were right underneath. And then the tray was to the right. Nothing was blocked like you have with modern systems where you're like, oh, where's the power button in the event you have to use that?
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: And then it's like, oh, that's sitting underneath a CD tray or this button's here. it It's beautiful. I love it. But I could see the PS4, man. i really enjoyed that one, too.
neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. I really like the ah look of the PS five, uh, p s five ah digital version too. That thing is sexy.
Leon Lionheartly: I like the Pro, personally, yeah if we're coming out of the PS5.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: There's something about the three lines down this that are slanted.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um
neocharge: That's true.
Leon Lionheartly: And ah i don't know. But you're right. It's so fucking ugly with the optical drive on it.
neocharge: I know. It looks like a big old bump. It's crazy, but we we both have them because, you know, we have discs in our fucking cases. Anyway.
Leon Lionheartly: We'll get there. oh But yeah, this...
neocharge: But what ah Steam Machine, I'm not going to buy it. I think it's a ridiculous price. ah i ah I don't know. I don't know what they're doing. I think they were kind of ah backed into a corner and were like, we've we've we've done all we can or we we've...
neocharge: put so much into this we've done all the r and d it's ready we gotta release it at a somewhat we're not gonna do a loss on the console because we don't really sell a lot of games and we're not gonna make it back in the software like playstation can so they're like oh here we gotta do it we gotta put it out here you go but man It's just ah a sign of the times and a sign of the industry right now and a sign of the, we're pretty much in a recession.
neocharge: We can we can safely say were we're in a recession and ai is mucking everything up and the companies, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: So fun fact, Apple's not part of that. Apple has been, they they contribute positively and negatively to the tech sector, of course, but they are not dumping all this money into AI, pumping up the cost of components. They are slow and steady, creating their own more private infrastructure with AI. And i think they've only dumped like a fraction of the the money that these other tech companies, uh,
neocharge: OpenAI, Microsoft, NVIDIA, all of them are just flooding the market, man. And just buying up all these components, making component prices expensive. and
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: Gaming is becoming in a luxury hobby.
Leon Lionheartly: yep And I can tell you right now, it's not going to get better. um This isn't necessarily related to gaming directly, but it's changed mentally. I did see a report, and I didn't get a chance to confirm it yet, but supposedly Micron, you know the big biggest supplier of ah of chips, secured v secured five years of supply at the highest level.
Leon Lionheartly: ah rate ever seen. So this shit's not getting better anytime soon.
neocharge: Wow. Okay. Yeah. And I mean, supposedly PS six is around the corner releasing 2027.
Leon Lionheartly: Um...
neocharge: can't,
neocharge: This is the first time I've ever said this, but I hope not. I think PS5 Pro has more legs on it. And i don't think we need higher fidelity.
neocharge: And if you go higher fidelity, then you're going to sacrifice frame rate. And I think we just need to stick with upscaled or maybe native 4K at 60 frames a second.
neocharge: Or, you know, 120, 1080.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: That's fine. But we don't need 8K. I know it was like 1080p, then, you know, ay Blu-ray, HD stuff, and then 4K, and then 8K, and then 16K. It's just like, come on guys, at at some point, you're going to have to sit like a foot from the fucking screen to tell the difference of 8K and 16K.
neocharge: So PS5 can do 8K output, but no one has an 8K TV.
Leon Lionheartly: Supposedly, yeah. But nobody... I ain't got an AKTV and I don't want one, I'm going to be honest.
neocharge: No.
Leon Lionheartly: No.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: now make Make what we have, the OLED, larger. That's all. ah just Just stretch that out and make it bigger.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: And that way you get that bigger, brighter screen. and um But you're you're right, man.
neocharge: Exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: This sucks. This really sucks because I have an entire Steam library just sitting there that I really don't play.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And to have the ability to take a small piece of device, no bigger than a literally a gave a GameCube, and put it at my TV...
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: plug in to my beautiful big TV and then play, you know, a granted I didn't end playing classic games on it, but the point is it would have been really nice and compatible. Maybe someday I can get my hands on this and and make it work. But, um,
Leon Lionheartly: It sucks. and And I don't know if you saw this, but ah their lead engineer on the GameCube, I hope I apologize if I butcher his name, Yuzhen Aldehat, did an interview with Eurogamer on this. um And he indicated, he didn't indicate what the original price was, but the ah this is based on, the price has been...
Leon Lionheartly: based on where component costs are now. So Steam is ah is actually, or rather, should I say a Valve, is selling these things at basically market value. like They're not going to gain a profit on it.
neocharge: Wow.
Leon Lionheartly: um And this has been a process for six months. And while they never confirmed the original base price, it's kind of been sleuthed out that the original base price for the Steam ah steam this steam yeah machine was going to be So a Pro six months ago
neocharge: Yeah. Six months. Holy shit, dude. And then, yeah, I don't know. Are we covering the Xbox stuff that was announced today?
Leon Lionheartly: um No, because I haven't gotten true confirmation on that. um I've been hearing more reports.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: So ah we'll get to that. I expect that's probably going to happen probably after July.
neocharge: Yeah. And we'll cover it when it happens.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, probably that's probably coming after sometime after next week's episode because the fiscal quarter should change on July first
neocharge: Yeah, that makes sense. but Yeah, this is, dude, this is a steep price for a console. If it was more powerful, I'd be like, okay, but it's like not, correct me if I'm wrong, is it less powerful than a PS5 or more powerful than a PS5, but less powerful than a PS5 Pro?
Leon Lionheartly: So we won't know until we get into the games truly what it's saying. All right, let me back up.
neocharge: Sure.
Leon Lionheartly: So if you're looking at just raw power, it's really kind of like on par with the base PS5, not at the pro level.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Because this was supposed to be an entry console that bridges the gap between PC and console.
neocharge: Mm hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: This is not designed to be a PS5 pro level machine.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: so
neocharge: Right. OK, so yeah, for that price, oh, man. And then no controller. i just don't i don't like the practices that we're seeing as commonplace, especially for another piece of news we're going to be talking about.
neocharge: But to not add a controller like out of the box, think of how many people are going to buy this. I'll get the cheapest edition. And they get it home and they can't fucking use it.
neocharge: Come on.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, that's...
neocharge: No, that's unacceptable.
Leon Lionheartly: And I could see that. And if you want the full experience, it's like, ah you could, you can. you would You don't want the controller because it's got that. And it's god-awful ugly. don't know if you've seen it, but it's fucking ugly.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But you can, like, I could take my PlayStation, one of my PlayStation controllers, I can take a PS4 controller, and you can connect Bluetooth because um the Steam Cube, Steam Cube, There you go.
neocharge: Oh, Bluetooth.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm going to keep coming up with new terms for it until I find something I like.
neocharge: Love it.
Leon Lionheartly: It's running SteamOS underneath. ah So that natively will handle driver sets for anything and everything.
neocharge: Right, but when you get it out of the box and nothing is paired to it, on on a PS5 it says, hey, plug in the controller. Does it say the same? Who knows?
neocharge: we We'll see.
Leon Lionheartly: Who knows? i That's a really good question. Good thinking in, man. My guess is they're going to make you because it has USB ports on the front. It would be, hey, plug in a keyboard and mouse. um You know what?
Leon Lionheartly: I think yeah Alex is planning on getting one. So I'm going to have to ask him on that experience and see and see what that's about.
neocharge: Okay, okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Because that's ah that's a really good point.
neocharge: Who wants to do that in their fucking living room? Plug in a keyboard mouse use the carpet to navigate. like Come on.
Leon Lionheartly: Use the carpet to navigate.
neocharge: Use the carpet navigate your mouth.
Leon Lionheartly: Like people don't have fucking coffee stands and shit. Yeah.
neocharge: ah I don't know. But like, how long is a typical keyboard cord? Not fucking six feet from your coffee table to your TV. It's probably three feet.
neocharge: So you're literally putting it on the floor.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: You probably have carpet in your living room and you're using your carpet to navigate. What the hell? Yeah, I don't know.
Leon Lionheartly: That's a good point. That it's ah that is an astute observation, my friend.
neocharge: Indeed.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh.
neocharge: That's my kind of tism for sure. Just like all the fucking specifics of this. But yeah, ah I'm not interested in it. I love to see Steam in the console space, but bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see how it works out for him.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Yes, we'll know soon enough. um All right. Well, speaking of stuff you're not interested in. um Now, I'm teasing. We still have to talk about this, folks.
Leon Lionheartly: We'd love to hear it. In fact, we'd love to hear your thoughts in on this one because ah as of yesterday well as of yesterday at midnight, which would have been essentially the 25th of June as we're recording,
neocharge: Bye-bye.
Leon Lionheartly: The pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 coming out November 19th went live. um I'm going to set these up for you, Matt. A couple of things to note if you haven't heard already. First off, you're listening to us and you still haven't heard about GTA 6 pre-orders. um Secondly,
Leon Lionheartly: It is going to be, and we all guessed it right here on the show and and within our local Circle Group, the base price is going to be $80.
neocharge: We sure did.
Leon Lionheartly: And there is a digital, well, we're going to say digital deluxe edition, if you will, that is going to be $100, which includes some additional shops and things inside. And we'll get into that later here in a little bit.
Leon Lionheartly: um Those are coming out with it. And more notoriously, um and we'll get into this as well as the speculation, because I have some thoughts. is the physical edition, and I'm using this in air quotes, is going to come as a, and I'm ripping direct quote, a code in a box um for a digital download code.
neocharge: who
Leon Lionheartly: So the memes are true. We're going there. But November 19th, Grand Theft Auto 6 is finally coming to us. And pre-orders are live. If you want, you can go check it out because it is a digital code in a box, even if you get the physical edition.
Leon Lionheartly: I wouldn't expect them to run out. But yeah, man, um I know you're not excited, but what what what are your overall thoughts on this?
neocharge: Listen. Okay, listen here. First of all, i I don't even know where to start. Where do I start? Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: How about this? i'll set I'll set this up for you, man.
neocharge: okay
Leon Lionheartly: All right, let's go. let let's Let's start with the code in the box, all right?
neocharge: Yeah, yeah. So this is this is even worse than the key card Nintendo does. This is even worse than the Doom game ah key.
neocharge: So let me explain.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: On key cards and the Doom game, you still get the cartridge or the disc. That is your license key. If you hold that... You can play the game, you're licensed to play it.
neocharge: So I was actually a big fan of how Doom did this. there's The game isn't on the disc. So that means when they print the entire game on the disc, it's not version one and you don't have to install the disc and then download the day one patch. You basically put the disc in, it reads the license that you own it, and then it downloads the latest version of the game. That's cool. And the key cards for Nintendo Switch do that as well.
neocharge: This ah makes it more convenient. I mean, is the game on the cartridge? No. But you own the physical license. Okay?
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: With a code in a box, I think Call of Duty did this too. That game is burned once you redeem that code. So you're buying a physical case, but then once you put in the code, you can't trade that in. You can't let someone borrow it.
neocharge: It's the dumbest fucking shit ever. Like key cards and the way Doom did it, I'm okay with that. You have the disc. You can give the disc to someone. They put it in their console.
neocharge: They technically own the license then, and it downloads the game, just like a disc. But this? No. It's going be locked to your account, and it's going to be a one-time code that gets burnt when you redeem it.
neocharge: And then that that fucking plastic case is useless. It's it's a piece of 10-cent art. So...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it really is.
neocharge: so It's so fucked and it's the dumbest thing. I don't even, i why do they even do physical? why Why would they even do physical? I don't understand.
neocharge: Like, it's the same fucking thing.
Leon Lionheartly: you could You could... So what I like is what you said about the disc being there because that's the physical access key.
neocharge: Yeah. It's your key. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Because I get... like Look, I get why they're not doing... Why they're shying away from the physical disc with the entire base game on it.
neocharge: Yes.
Leon Lionheartly: You...
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: ah So GTA 6 is going to be the largest video game release of all time. All right.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: There if is no way of getting around that. You take one GameStop or Best Buy employee that's not having a great time at work.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: They're making minimum wage. They don't give a fuck anymore. They're going to see GTA 6 inside of a case and that thing's walking away. And then it's going to break street date.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And then all of a sudden your your game's out there before you want it to be. Right.
neocharge: Yeah. But i I get it. I get why they're doing it for security reasons, for sure. And they can't, you know, if you have the code, someone steals the code, it's useless if they don't activate it on the server side, right?
neocharge: But why even sell a physical version of the game? said To have a tangible thing for parents to be like, oh, you won GTA, here you go Is it like, you you won't be able to trade it in Like, what is the point?
neocharge: I don't understand. Like, why not do digital only and then say, we're going to do a physical game with a disc a month later or something like that.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah,
neocharge: Like, what's the point of a code in a box?
Leon Lionheartly: I think
Leon Lionheartly: i I don't know, man. And I think that's actually part of it ah for for people. Now, I had this thought on the drive home because this was really bothering me. This was pissing me off because it makes no logical sense why you would do it.
Leon Lionheartly: We know the physical, well, I'm not going to say we know, but it's heavily implied physical releases like an actual disc is going to come later down the line. But
neocharge: oh yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: The reason, the only reason, and I'm not saying this is a good one, that we could see this happening is we know Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to move console sales on both the Xbox and the PlayStation side.
Leon Lionheartly: Now, granted, PlayStation is going to probably end up eating a lot of that.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: But here's here's the thing, Matt. If I walk into Best Buy, GameStop, whatever, and i i let's say I know I'm going to get GTA. I get GTA 6 and I pre-order the physical edition through PlayStation Direct or something.
Leon Lionheartly: Or not PlayStation Direct, but through GameStop, Best Buy, Walmart, Target. what What else am I going to do? Oh, by the way... I need a console that to play this. Hey, while I'm on the line, how much is it? Okay, cool. Reserve your console. You get it and reserve it, then buy it for the day that you pick up the game. You can walk into the store. People get that warm and fuzzy feeling. They're like, oh, yeah. Hey, that's right. And you you kind of correlate that memory together, right?
Leon Lionheartly: It's the only excuse I can think of. And that's a half-assed one.
neocharge: Yeah. It's no different than the fucking cardboard code cards that they sell.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, I agree.
neocharge: That's all it is. It's just with plastic. I get the art piece. I get it. But it's useless once you use the code. So I, ah yeah, I don't ah i don't understand it
Leon Lionheartly: um the That...
neocharge: and don't I don't get it. I was actually a big fan of how Doom did it, honestly. i I was kind of against it at first, but then when I went through the process, because when you get a disc-based game, and I get a lot of them, you have to put the disc in, it installs, it reads from the disc, so you are bottlenecked from the read-write speed of the optical drive to the hard drive write speed, or SSD write speed. You have to install it, but then you also have to wait for...
neocharge: a day one patch to download from the internet to and then you have to install that so it's a process it takes a while i'd say physical compared to digital is four times longer uh if i were 4x but then with doom you put the disk in it downloads the latest version from the web and that's it so or from the server i should say
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. No, that's that's exactly how you do it, man.
neocharge: yeah I'm a fan of the key card games.
Leon Lionheartly: I...
neocharge: Honestly, I, I, I like it. And as long as I can trade it in and that license stays with the disc and i have tangible value in it and I i get the cool case art that I'm, I'm cool with that.
neocharge: But I mean, you get the cool case art, but then you burn the code. You basically just turned an $80. Well, you get the experience, right? But you turn an $80 purchase. You locked it to your account forever And you have a cool 10 cent case with a piece paper.
neocharge: So,
Leon Lionheartly: oh man dude that's gonna be some people are going to get burned on resales from that shit uh hardcore
neocharge: yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Dude, to how many people how many people are not going to... I think it's predatory, too. How many people are not going to understand that once they redeem the code...
neocharge: like We understand. Most people, I'd say, understand when you redeem a code, it's burnt. But how many people are going to be like, oh, I'm going to buy the physical version so I can trade it in later and get another game?
Leon Lionheartly: yeah
neocharge: I wonder how many people are going to go into GameStop and try and trade in this code.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll take you one further. Then they're going to get mad because they don't understand the concept.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: People are stupid.
neocharge: Yeah. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: du i'm going to get I'm going to tell you, just the other day, just the other day I got the rant from my wife. because she were ah We were talking about the fuel station there, and I promise you're going to see where I'm going with this.
Leon Lionheartly: Apparently, somebody came into the main store and got really mad because they weren't able to finish pumping their gas because the fuel pumps got shut down. The reason the fuel pumps got shut down is this...
Leon Lionheartly: mother loving, I'm trying to be nice and not use bad words, thought, oh, I've been pumping gas for 40 years. I can light up a cigarette and ah while I'm pumping my gas.
neocharge: Oh, yeah, don't do that.
Leon Lionheartly: This is why rules exist, because the dumbest motherfucker in society is going to kill us all because they don't understand physics.
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: um But yes, you're right.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Bring this back.
neocharge: It's a safety.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. To bring this back, it's going to happen.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And somebody is going to get ripped off. And I feel really bad because some grandma is going to try to get Grand Theft Auto 6 for her sweet 16-year-old boy. And then all of a sudden, that kid is going to be pissed.
neocharge: Oh, yeah. see it aren't doesn't Isn't Rockstar going to implement an ID verification to play this game, too?
Leon Lionheartly: I fucking hope so, personally.
neocharge: Wasn't that a thing? yeah Yeah, me too. No, I hate it, and I hate the practice of it, and I i think it's a breach of privacy. Yeah. we should confirm that though first, but I thought rockstar said ID verification for this game.
neocharge: Of course you should verify your ID. Make sure you're 18 when you purchase it or whatever the parent decides you can parent. However the fuck you want. I don't care.
Leon Lionheartly: Ooh, yeah.
neocharge: I'm my problem.
Leon Lionheartly: So that is, so this is coming from the AI overlords. I hate AI, but sometimes it makes it easily. Um, it hasn't, so this may be hallucinating, but, uh, apparently Rockstar is planning on implementing a age verification system for GTA six, um,
neocharge: Yes, where you have to scan your face or you have to upload your ID.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, it's for the...
neocharge: So with AI, it should...
Leon Lionheartly: ah up upload its I apologize. I should specify. It's for the online, the upcoming online, GTA Online, that's going to be included with the GTA Plus subscription.
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: But anyways, continue.
neocharge: Gotcha. Yeah, gotcha. With AI, it always gives you the link that it cites, and you can just click that link, usually.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh.
neocharge: Yeah, so...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: I use AI. I'm a fan of AI. I do not like generative AI. Gen AI. There's a difference. We're not going to get into that on this fucking episode. Alright, so that was the code issue.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: Okay?
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: ah the The price. The price.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, let's start tackle that.
neocharge: Okay?
Leon Lionheartly: Let's look go there next.
neocharge: $80 for base. $100 for the I don't know, the upgraded edition. Then $130 for the god edition that thirty for the god edition that ah has a ton of cosmetics. Now, however, the $80 version and the $100 version, the $100 version has shops and parts of the map that are unlocked.
neocharge: So you're buying an $80 fucking game. You're not buying a game. You're buying an $80 code. Okay. And you are locked out of parts on the map and shops that should be included in the base game. They are pushing this $100. Let's might as well just say GTA ah six is a hundred bucks. And ah I honestly thought that's what they were going to do, but they're like, oh, here's 80. And dude, how how many times are they going to incentivize those $80 version purchasers?
neocharge: Hey, we're an extra 20 bucks. You can unlock all this cool shit. I think it's predatory. i think like There are tattoo shops ah behind a paywall. There are like specific car shops. There are legit shops that will be locked in an $80 version of this game.
neocharge: And I mean, the cosmetics, sure, whatever. But shops and gameplay elements that are locked... Not cool. That's crossing the line.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: i don't like it. It's predatory. And i I fucking hate it because this is going to be the model that publishers look at and they're like, Oh, look at all the money rockstar and take two are making.
neocharge: We can do that. Can't we? So, uh, it's just, it's going to just be just like fortnight and it's going to be a cancer on the industry and it's going to drive a lot of poor anti-consumer predatory,
neocharge: Factors for video games, and i hate it.
Leon Lionheartly: i I agree with you for them ah pretty much on all of that, man. i I'd say $80 for the base game makes sense.
Leon Lionheartly: That's where I was thinking it was going to go, but we knew they could go up to $100. So I think they're kind of doing something...
neocharge: Uh-huh.
Leon Lionheartly: They're getting a little too cutesy with this. with it's They're saying, oh, it's only certain shops that you just won't have access to the things that they sell. Well, then why don't you fucking include a digital deluxe upgrade that includes those cosmetics for you right out the gate so you don't have to go to the shop and then people feel like they're getting left out.
Leon Lionheartly: I think they're being cute with it because they really wanted to sell it for $100. And if you hit three digits, people all of a sudden, like their brain, the psychology behind it breaks and they can't they say, nope, hard pass.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: i I think that's really what happened here.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And and then ah to make matters worse, this is going to end up being... a microtransaction fucking game and you know it's coming and it's going to that's what's really gonna really grind my gears is uh is is the oh you paid 80 or 100 for the game here oh you're gonna play the gta gta online as a subscription totally understand it's a live true live service but they're gonna do the they're gonna do the ubisoft thing that or the thing that Ubisoft has done recently with Assassin's Creed games and there's going to be a UI that pops up when you log in and it says go to the GTA shop at the Rockstar store and you'll be able to get a bra bikini for Joseph in the game or whatever right it's going to fucking happen and it's going to be annoying I'm pissed that you're here speaking and then oh go ahead
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: Uh,
neocharge: Oh, so thankfully, I played Assassin's Creed Mirage and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the latest Assassin's Creed, not Shadows, but that stuff wasn't as prominent And it popped up once, and it and I basically said no, and it never showed me again, and it was buried under menu options in both games. So I appreciate that Ubisoft did that.
neocharge: But yeah, with with GTA, you go in a shop, and you see shit like locked. Honestly, I think when you go in the shop, it's going to like pop up in front of you. You're like, you want to unlock this whole shop? 20 bucks for the ultimate deluxe Jesus Christ edition. You can get this cool tattoo.
neocharge: For your digital guy. Come on.
Leon Lionheartly: just just wait to I hate saying this and putting it out under the universe but people that bought the $80 version going to see that pop up and it's going be like would you like to upgrade for $25 they're going to upsell it later
neocharge: Oh, yeah. They might tech. Yeah. shit Not only do they, with the deluxe edition or whatever, the $100 edition, they sign you up for GTA Plus. You get a free month of it.
neocharge: But they automatically put it on an auto renew.
Leon Lionheartly: No shit, really.
neocharge: That. Yeah, yeah. If you look at the fine print, it says get a free month of GTA Plus ah and then it will set auto renew. So how many people are going to cancel their sub or how many people are going to just It's so fucking deceiving and predatory.
Leon Lionheartly: wow
neocharge: And like, I bet you they raised GTA Plus to 10 bucks after GTA 6 releases. I'll give it a month to three months into it.
neocharge: They're like, oh, GTA Plus is now 10 bucks. Cause you know, it's a new game. It's a new experience. Cause
Leon Lionheartly: No, it's going to be two ah due to market ah conditions.
neocharge: yeah, market conditions.
Leon Lionheartly: Like that, you know,
neocharge: we just made We just made like $10 billion on all the sales of GTA 6, but god we need the money. We got to raise this GTA. I get the maintenance costs and everything like that, but yeah. ah Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: i if If I may, i did have a thought on this, and this is looking forward, man.
neocharge: Any...
Leon Lionheartly: And this is what's really kind of like, it's a splinter in my brain because I can't i can't not see this and I need somebody to help me walk off the wedge. We know Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to push consoles, right? So let me back up and so set the stage. In the current generation, on the PlayStation side, at the very least, we still have 10, 20 million people, between 10 and 20 million active users every month on a PlayStation 4.
Leon Lionheartly: PlayStation and Sony have actively been trying to get people to move over, right? But you can still play Grand Theft Auto V on a PlayStation 4. Remember this. They launched the same year, um almost together at the same time, really.
Leon Lionheartly: So you could do this.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. Crazy.
Leon Lionheartly: You're going to sell another probably, my guesstimation, 30 to...
neocharge: You're talking 5, right?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, 30. yeah
neocharge: GTA 5?
Leon Lionheartly: you can play it on a PlayStation 4, but I'm playing GTA 6 is probably going to sell.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm guessing no way to know this off the top my head, but I'm guessing this thing's going to probably sell at least a spike of 30 to 40 million consoles for the PlayStation 5. Um, um
neocharge: Yeah. I was going to say 30 million.
Leon Lionheartly: hey
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, these are new users who are going to buy a PlayStation 5, probably near the end, closer to the launch day. So almost Q4 of 2026. And then PlayStation is going to come out in Q2 of 2027 and say, by the way,
Leon Lionheartly: here's the p s six There's going to be nobody in the sun. If you think the the lack of appetite for a PlayStation 6 right now is bad, wait until you have to tell people you just spent $750, $800 on a game you really wanted.
Leon Lionheartly: And now all of a sudden there's a new edition that's going to come out in a new version. People are not going to fucking move, man.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You're going to end up with a worse case.
neocharge: No.
Leon Lionheartly: This is going to be worse than the PlayStation. I predict now this will make it cause the PlayStation 4 problem. to be much worse in the next generation because gta 6 is launching so late into the playstation this generation's life cycle
neocharge: Oh, yeah, for sure. ah Maybe when the PS6 releases, they can solve the they'll be able to solve their PS4 problem. They ain't solving a PS5 problem. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah yeah but but they know same people are going to be you keep trying to use the ps6 or ps5 into
neocharge: Yeah.
neocharge: yeah Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, ah as they should, the PS5 good legs on it, especially the Pro. But yeah.
neocharge: And yeah, I'm just, I'm not interested. And let's ah let's do one more factor of this. And this is more on the subjective side. Okay, Bob.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, okay. Yeah. I'm curious. I'm curious.
neocharge: On the subjective side.
Leon Lionheartly: Cause I didn't have any other angles to pull out. So what you got?
neocharge: I think this, so this game coming out without all this fanfare, whatever, there's a ton of games like it. Cool. Awesome. But the way that the industry, the gamers, the developers, everyone is putting this game on a pedestal.
neocharge: And in my personal opinion, I think this game is partially creatively void and devoid of creativity. One. All right. they are referencing a lot of what already exists. Okay.
neocharge: They're not, they story and narrative. Yes. Creative. Awesome. Uh, you know, plot points, stuff like that, but they're literally just creating. And now you could say Spider-Man did the same thing with New York. Yeah, but you're a fucking Spider-Man, you know, webbing around New York and fighting villains that have electricity coming out of their fingers. Okay.
neocharge: So one subjectively, I'm a big fan of fantasy and, fiction. I like like space magic and dragons and shit.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: I just, I wish that this game is boring to me. Okay? It's just a ah dude that is trying to get his bag in Florida.
neocharge: it's It's based in Florida in the US. Okay? Like, another game coming out. August fourth Beasts of reincarnation. You're a fucking samurai in post-apocalyptic Japan, 4,000 years in the future, fighting automatons with human souls in them, and you have a fucking mythical wolf companion.
neocharge: Or GTA. You're a dude in Florida trying to make it in life and saying, fuck you to the American dream. i don't know I don't know. I just, it's, it's, I gotta give it shit because it's placed so high on a pedestal. Like, people are like, oh my god, it's the greatest game of all time! Dude, I'm way more fucking excited, a hundred times more excited for Ocarina of Time remake.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes.
neocharge: Like, I'm a hundred times more excited for Beast of Reincarnation.
Leon Lionheartly: you you're you're you're hit You're almost there with me. like you're You're in the circle, if you will. ah But if you're...
neocharge: um a hundred times more excited for Halo.
Leon Lionheartly: But if you want to if if you want to really hit...
neocharge: Galo. Love that.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, Galo. If you want to hit the with the ring, ah it's going to be a ring when I'm done with you. ah
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: if you really want to hit the bullseye on this, Matt, here's my... I've played every... For Frame of Reference, folks, if you haven't listened, I have played every Grand Theft Auto. And when I say... If I ask somebody... And what I mean by this is I ask somebody, oh, you've played all the Grand Theft Auto games, right? and They will almost immediately say, yeah, I played three back on the ah PlayStation 2.
Leon Lionheartly: Fuck you.
neocharge: That's what I played.
Leon Lionheartly: I played Grand Theft Auto on the PlayStation 1.
neocharge: Oh, wow.
Leon Lionheartly: I played Grand Theft Auto London 1969, also known as GTA 2, top down.
neocharge: Yeah. Top down. Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: So I have played these games. I know Rockstar North pretty damn well. Rockstar, I'll tell you this. Do you know what Rockstar and subsequently it's its first company, you know what their first game, do you remember what their first one of their first big hit games was?
neocharge: Oh, it wasn't bully, was it? No.
Leon Lionheartly: No.
neocharge: Or was it?
Leon Lionheartly: So Rockstar was previously known as DMA Design, who have previously, they got their start with fucking lemmings, okay?
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Yeah, that's right. Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: A PC game. So I've been i've been doing this this thing for a long time. And my problem is i think they're not going to hit the writing on the wall with what you do with a GTA.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You lampoon the shit out of everything. You do a jackass or a scary movie. Nobody is safe.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: you It doesn't matter.
neocharge: You're getting it.
Leon Lionheartly: You make fun. Go
neocharge: They're getting too serious with it.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, you make fun of the rent you make fun of the rednecks, but you also make fun of the other side of that pond.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You make fun of the you make fun of the gays, quite frankly. You make fun of everybody, but in a like a ah jabbing in the in the ribs to to be inclusive, if you will, and say, look, yeah, no one's safe.
neocharge: No one's safe.
Leon Lionheartly: We're not being serious here. I think they're not going to do that, and that's my big problem. They're going to service...
neocharge: Ah...
Leon Lionheartly: and this is the second half of it, the my bullseye, it's only going to service, quite frankly, the tourists of this of the ah of this industry even more. The people who think they're gamers, but they really play GTA and i'm not or or college football, and I'm not trying to dog on you, but when youre talk but when I have a conversation with people who say play games, and I tell them, they'll ask me, well, what are you playing right now?
Leon Lionheartly: And I'll be like, well, I'm playing Alan Wake 2. I get question marks.
neocharge: Beautiful.
Leon Lionheartly: I get question marks. They don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. And I'm like, how do you not know Remedy?
neocharge: Their loss.
Leon Lionheartly: you know um this The influx of ah of ah of tours is about to begin, and that's really disheartening for me.
neocharge: And that's that's my point. There are other games that are going to be 10 times, and this is subjective, of course, right? There are other games that are going to be more creatively diverse, let's just say that, that aren't on even a fraction of a pedestal this game is on.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: I just, as a species, I think we should be more creative and more ah what do I want to say? Like scientific and more intrigued in like the unknown and the fantastical stuff, right?
neocharge: Not a fucking crime sim based in Florida, United States in the state of Florida. i just I just, I don't get it
Leon Lionheartly: thats I'll just go on vacation for ah for spring spring break if I want that experience.
neocharge: Exactly. i don't i don't doubt this is going to be the highest level of fidelity game we've ever seen. I don't doubt it's going to be an incredible quality. I don't doubt any of that. Rockstar is brilliant developer.
neocharge: I think Naughty Dog's a better developer, and I think... my there's But that's that's also subjective. And here's the thing, everyone. we don't We're not here to suck the balls of anyone in the industry, and you're going to hear our opinion on these particular titles and experiences. And you're not getting GTA, right?
Leon Lionheartly: you're you're you No, I'm not. And you're still here's the bigger part of this. you are you You're right there. So you know I'm going to let you finish because I have that continuation for you.
neocharge: Yeah. Right. But we're you're going to hear our opinions, and we're all about having the conversation on it. And we are going to share what we think. We're not saying this is a bad game, but I just...
neocharge: I don't like what they're doing with it. I don't like the delivery. If a PlayStation game did the same thing as this and did a launch like this, I would still give them shit.
neocharge: ah But I not only don't like the premise of the game, I don't like the non-fiction a setting of the game. I not only think that Rockstar smells their own farts because they're so pretentious. We haven't even got a new fucking trailer for the game and they're opening up pre-orders. We haven't even got a final gameplay trailer for it.
neocharge: I just think this is super overrated. I know, and I know it's an unpopular opinion, and I know people are rolling their eyes, listening, and I'm glad. Good. Tell me why you love GTA. Sell me the game. sell me Tell me why I should play it. Let's have a conversation on it. Go on Discord and be like, you're wrong, and this is why. Well, one, I'm not wrong, and neither are you. This is subjective. And two, let's have a conversation about it.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah you're ah You're right. I'll it this All right. i'll say it this way all right We know Grand Theft Auto from the era that i grew up with we grew up with and the ones that people really know.
Leon Lionheartly: So like if you look at GTA 3 and San Andreas and what to like you look at the golden eras of Grand Theft Auto, you look at it and you go, who were the who are the voices behind it? And you the Hauser brothers, Sam and Doug Hauser, are no longer at Rockstar North.
Leon Lionheartly: They're not there anymore. Neither are David Jones, Mike Daly. ah yeah What was his... ah What's that other dude's name? I have to look at it. Oh, Leslie Benzies. Those people are...
neocharge: Leslie Benzies, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Those guys are gone. And our industry from almost the very beginning, all before before Nintendo, you go back to the cabinets with Atari and and and the people that created some of those. And you can go look at at them. I'm not going to rant. And you go into the Miyamoto's and you look at the Kojima's and they look at the Neil Druckmann's.
Leon Lionheartly: And you look at these guys. These are the auteurs, if you will, of the industry.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: They're the pillars. I don't, ah they're the tastemakers.
neocharge: Tastemakers.
Leon Lionheartly: I don't know who it is over for Grand Theft Auto 6. And it's not because I'm not interested in the game. I really am. It's going to do a lot of things to the industry that i I'm curious about. But I want to know who it is. And right now, quite frankly, um ah what's his name? Strahl Zeldnick has done more talking about GTA 6 than Rockstar.
neocharge: Mm-hmm. And they they they're doing a lot of telling and not showing. And, dude, wouldn't it be crazy if all this hype and all this crazy putting on a pedestal is just riding on the coattails of GTA V and everything they did with that game, and this game comes out, it's just knit as fuck.
neocharge: Ha ha ha!
Leon Lionheartly: One, I'm going to laugh on so many levels because I'm not buying it.
neocharge: Oh, God.
Leon Lionheartly: Number two, odd that just means I'll get it on a fire sale ah but later.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And number three, please let its tank score because it's mid because ah my draft kind of rides on it right now.
neocharge: Hmm.
neocharge: yeah That's true.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: That's true. We never root for a game to fail. ah but I just want them to maybe fiscally learn their lesson on the creative prowess of the team and the predatory nature of how this game launched. Let's just say that. i wanted yeah I don't want to say I want it to fail. I just want that to happen.
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. I'll leave it off ah with this for you on the exit. You're right. If you take any other game, and I don't care, pick one. Pick the biggest game that's going to release you could think of, and you give us red flags such as no trailer with the pre-order.
Leon Lionheartly: code in a box, the lack of what they're saying, the online that's automatically tied. You start adding things up like this. These are red flags. And all of a sudden, you know the game is in severe trouble because there's financial pressure.
Leon Lionheartly: I want to know what makes Grand Theft Auto 6 so special that it gets to blow through all of those ah those red flags because we're on the hot, and you know, that hot crazy scale.
Leon Lionheartly: um Crazy right now, we're at 10.
neocharge: All
Leon Lionheartly: And I don't see the 10 in hotness. So we need I need to know what it is.
neocharge: right.
Leon Lionheartly: So if somebody's got it and that's special sauce and it can explain it to me in my brain um from an analytic analytical standpoint, I'm happy to to talk to you on that one.
neocharge: Yeah, and in in closing on this topic, because I just want to talk about GTA anymore, but we got talk about it. It's kind of a ship of thesis ah situation, an analogy. Like you said, all of the players that made GTA great before aren't really there.
neocharge: So, you know, you keep rebuilding the ship of thesis. It's not the ship of thesis anymore. And... Like, we've seen fractions of this game. ah Man, this could be the biggest gas gaming gaslighting ever.
Leon Lionheartly: I know, right? And we still, and and trust me, I still haven't forgotten about you, yeah Jeff Keighley.
neocharge: Fuck.
Leon Lionheartly: Like somebody's coming to take the gaslight crown from him you, brother.
neocharge: Uh-huh.
neocharge: Right, right. Yeah. Because, oh man, if this game scores like what it's projected to be, game Awards is going to be all a GTA fucking glaze fest. and I'll just be there for the announcements, not the awards. I'll still vote. I'll put in my voice, but...
neocharge: Yeah. We'll see how it does. November 19th. I don't give a shit, but I know a lot of people are excited. ah Let's have a conversation about it if you disagree with us, it's even more of a reason for you to reach out and tell us why. And if you're local, we'll have a beer and chat about it. And I'll tell you why Grand Theft Auto is mid.
neocharge: No.
Leon Lionheartly: Mid-threats auto, am I right?
neocharge: No, I...
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Right. No, it's and three was great. I didn't play four. I didn't play five, but I, I mean, I like the premise, but like you said, not all the big players are there anymore. Like red dead was great. Bully was awesome.
neocharge: I'd love to see a remaster or bully, but like, do they still have it or are they just kind of riding the coattails of a incredible previous game?
neocharge: Because,
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: everything's kind of pointing to they are trying to pull wool over people's eyes, get their money, and then maybe you release not-so-great game.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it's we'll see, man.
neocharge: We'll see. We'll see.
Leon Lionheartly: we'llll We'll chat more ah as time goes on.
neocharge: We will.
Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, no more GTA, no more news this week.
neocharge: We will. No more GTA. Exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: ah There are some other smaller stuff going around, but we like to cover the big things, the talking points that you all want to hear about here.
neocharge: Exactly.
Leon Lionheartly: um So what do you say? um I was thinking this. We'll go into what we're playing. I'm going to set this game up because we're both playing the same thing. And before I even give my thoughts on it, I'll say kick it over to you.
neocharge: I have one other game. I have one.
Leon Lionheartly: oh
neocharge: i'll I'll start because I have one other game and then we'll lead into the game. We're both playing.
Leon Lionheartly: All right. Sounds good.
neocharge: So there's two games I've played. Um, I did play star Fox for the switch too. So I beat it and we beat it.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh.
neocharge: I should say, shout out to burrito Supreme. He, he, he brought it over. We played it. We beat it in 45 minutes. I think, uh,
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah. So it's a game. It's a game that should it's meant to be replayable. ah And dude, super nostalgic. ah I was blown away with the presentation, the graphics. I think they nailed it.
neocharge: I think they nailed this remake. And i actually i want to pick it up. But when when the fuck am I going to play it? ah I wasn't too jarred with the character designs. I saw them in the trailer i was like, what the fuck?
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: Because I had just saw Fox McCloud in Super Mario Galaxy, the movie, which it's in the marketing. He's in there. and Dude, they nailed his fucking design. And then this...
neocharge: It was a deviation a little bit, ah but it's so fun and it it runs super well. The performance is top notch, flawless, honestly. Cut scenes, they dip the frame rate, but as long as you don't dip it while playing, that's fine.
neocharge: ah I'm very impressed with this game and I think it was underscored. And that's not just because I have it in draft. Uh, but I think it, it rose. It's said and at an 83 now. So it's, uh, climbing, it's creeping up to the, uh, great or fantastic, or I don't know the term that open credit gives, us but the orange color game, uh, I think at 85, it hits the next tier of excellence. I w I should say, i think it's excellent. So,
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: Yeah, it's awesome. I want to get it. ah Man, I might get it Black Friday. Maybe get it on like a sale. I know it's it won't dip more than under $2. I do want to support ah you know what Nintendo is doing with it.
neocharge: But it's just a time thing right now because we're playing the game we're about to talk about. I still want to finish Hades 2. I finished Hades 2. I beat Hades 2. I still want to. complete Hades 2, let's just say that. I still want to beat Lego Batman, and I i do want to potentially, maybe, probably not squeeze Mina in before Black felt Flag, but man, I'm kind of feeling I need a little break from video games after this, because I've i've been diving into...
neocharge: to this game we're about to talk about. But um before that, I just want add this game, Star Fox, 50 bucks and 60 bucks, 50 digital, 60 physical,
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, that's not bad.
neocharge: fifty digital sixty physical Eat your fucking heart out, GTA. I gotta fucking go get a Tails game for $20 on sale and spend 150 hours on it for $20. One time purchase. No bullshit subscription fee.
neocharge: Hades 2. What was it? 30 bucks or 30 bucks online? Spend 150 hours into that. Easy. No subscription. No microtransactions. No DLC. No code in a box. if Okay. I'm done. There are better games out there.
neocharge: Go buy those. Anyway, speaking of better games.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.
neocharge: Hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: um Better games. This is the big one we've been playing, folks. We've been talking about it. We're coming down. um Reason I wanted to set this up for you is um there's some cool little trivia that I thought I'd throw your way.
Leon Lionheartly: is This is The Adventures of Elliot, The Millennium Tales. This is a 2D HD 2D engine, uh, over from square Enix develop, you know, the, the fame dragon quest and final fantasy developers decided that they were going to make essentially a Zelda game in the HD 2D engine.
Leon Lionheartly: Um, and very similar, and we'll get into it in aesthetics of, uh, the link to the past style. So that top down, uh, or so angular, uh, perspective, um,
neocharge: Isometric. Hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, isometric. Thank you. That's what I was looking for. um i was looking into this, bat and this is what's really interesting and ah why I think ah you're going to be like, wait, I'll give you a reason because of this game to be more excited for another Square Enix game coming. Because this was confirmed to be internally developed by the Creative Unit 5.
Leon Lionheartly: over at Square Enix. As you know, they have different creative units. Creative Unit 5 did Dragon Quest 3 HD remaster, Dragon Quest 7 reimagined, Dragon Quest 1 and 2, obviously, Octopath Zero, Bravely Default, Triangle Strategy, and most importantly, they're the team behind Final Fantasy Resonance this year.
neocharge: that's dude playing this game is getting me more excited for resonance not control final fantasy still excited of for control but the reason it's 2d hd engine oh man oh yeah okay that's awesome
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. So... ah
Leon Lionheartly: Yes. So now you've got a taste, but to set, it but there you go, folks. And you are Elliot on a grand adventure. You are designed and dressed, um, in the very old school fashion to allude to the old red mage from the early final fantasy, uh, one through five, uh, era.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: So, um, Matt, I know you've been playing a lot of this. I know I'm further than you. Um, so I want to kick this over to you and, uh, hear your thoughts. So I don't accidentally step on anything that you may not know yet.
neocharge: Yeah, you're good. We're both playing on the PS5 Pro. um There's there's a couple settings. There's sliders for this game, and I have them all Macs on the PS5 Pro. Runs and looks beautiful. ah Like you said, made by Square Enix, and it is an isometric action-adventure game.
neocharge: Zelda like made by Square Enix. So ah I'm a big fan of Square Enix. I think they're some of the best storytellers out there. I've played pretty much every Zelda to date, especially the isometric ones to note. I'd say favorite isometric is Link to the Past, aer or ah Oracle of Ages and Seasons,
neocharge: I'm a big fan of these games and i'm a big fan of square Enix. And when you combine the creator of final fantasy with making a Zelda, like, all right, you son of a bitch, I'm in.
neocharge: So had this pre-ordered, been very excited for it. Uh, and we, I finally started it. We finally started it. So yeah. Uh, What can I say, man? The story is incredible.
neocharge: It hits on all fronts, engaging, intriguing, twists and turns, very cool character development. ah i Is it in the marketing of the main thing that you do throughout the game?
Leon Lionheartly: I think that's more implied. I think, i think no, it is.
neocharge: Okay. I mean, it's a millennium tales.
Leon Lionheartly: i do remember, it was in the description. it's It's in the description, ah quite frankly.
neocharge: So, okay, cool. Cool. Yeah, I don't want to spoil a lot, but you travel through time and you go through ages of this world and the things you do in the past can sometimes affect the future, you know, just like fucking time travel.
neocharge: ah So that's really cool. You have a battle system that has a counter and a combo meter ah that, man, how how high have you gotten that thing?
neocharge: What's the highest you've got? Have you gotten in the three figures?
Leon Lionheartly: a No, no, no, no, no.
neocharge: I've hit 85. Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, damn. I got up to like 56 or 57.
neocharge: yeah
Leon Lionheartly: And then I got hit by a a bullshit like environmental and I got I almost threw my controller.
neocharge: okay
neocharge: in
neocharge: Yep, yep. But it has a really cool engaging gameplay loop, and that's part of it, the ah combo meter. So when you when you hit kill enemies, it it counts, and then ah every five enemies, you get better drops, and then every 15 enemies, you get better drops, and then after 30,
neocharge: ah you get the best drops, and it drops more and more. So you're enticed and encouraged to not get hit and to be strategic. And ah the enemies are cool. they There's a lot of them. that's So let me just note one thing I wish was better. There's no Beastiary.
neocharge: Come on, guys. Give me a fucking Beastiary. Tell me what these enemies are, okay?
Leon Lionheartly: Especially from a game that like it tracks everything for you folks.
neocharge: Tell me.
Leon Lionheartly: ah your your Your cut scenes that you got to see so you can replay them, your documents, a everything else is tracked, but not the creatures you fight.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: right like oh man every game needs a fucking bcary so yeah three things no bcary and then enemy variety when you're going back in time through the ages it should probably be variants of the enemy maybe or different enemy types there's a lot of enemy factions they're called uh beast beast animals or something like that ah But they they kind of reuse enemies and they they reuse sections of the map and stuff like that. And then lastly, when you're going through the time and your're you're traveling ages, you know, You meet all kinds of different people, some with specific lineage.
neocharge: I wish that was tracked. And I wish there was like ah a, like Final Fantasy 16 did it very well. they They showed like who's related to who. And that would be cool seeing through time who's related.
Leon Lionheartly: If I may for you, there's no there's no like like lineage book, but I will tell you this because I had this problem ah at first.
neocharge: What, Octopath? Yeah.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: like I was like, the story seems kind of scattered. You meet really cool people, but you're not really trying to figure out how they all come together. Just give it time. That's all I'm going to say.
neocharge: Oh, okay. Yeah. I'd love like a family tree graphic or something. They have these, like it's a, it's your typical, 2d HD design where they have and beautiful portraits of the, the characters talking back and forth.
neocharge: Uh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: he
neocharge: Okay.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, it's it's a lot of that's going to become a lot clearer.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And you're gonna oh, shit, that means because this is true, that has to be true, which means this is true.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: And you're going to be it's it's going to spiral. You're almost there. Just give it a little bit of time. I'm i'm talking like another couple more hours from where you're at.
neocharge: okay Shit. Awesome. All right. That makes me excited. ah I think it's very well done. i think the presentation is great. You also have Magisite and you have, there's a lot of weapon types. Let's just say that. i that's That's another thing. They they give you like 80% of the weapon types five hours into a 30 hour game.
neocharge: Like, let's just, let's look at Ocarina of Time or any Zelda, really. You slowly, they slowly drip feed you the weapons. But they do encourage, this is kind of like a sandbox and they encourage build crafting and they encourage you to use the different weapon types and it's kind of, everything is at your disposal pretty early on.
neocharge: So all the weapon types are very, uh, versatile and they're cool. And there's a lot of them and there's upgrades to them and the upgrades to the weapons give you different abilities. So, uh, I love the combat.
neocharge: It's great. Uh, I love Elliot. He's an awesome main protagonist. Uh, he's but your typical hero and he really cares about everyone. Uh, and he is, you know, comes from nothing and becomes something. So yeah.
neocharge: Uh, but what stands this, what, what this game, the standout of this game, Bob, the fucking soundtrack.
Leon Lionheartly: There it is. You are 100% All right.
neocharge: I wanted to save the best for last.
Leon Lionheartly: yeah all right
neocharge: Every fucking, these, this game has dungeons. Shocker. It's got dungeons. It's Zelda like has dungeons and a lot of them. Uh, And dude, when I played the demo, the first dungeon I played, I like put down that, I think I talked about this on the last episode. I put down the controller and it was just like, holy shit.
neocharge: And I thought that was the pinnacle. i was like, yeah that man. No. Every fucking dungeon I've got into, I'm like, what the fuck? I think like a couple days ago, ah you were like, dude, this dungeon music slaps. And I'm like, I i literally just... I think I clipped that the the same exact dungeon we were thinking about. it And yeah, yeah.
neocharge: Like, dude, just... Horns, guitar, drums, synth. There's a fucking dungeon that... I don't play Persona, but I know Persona music. It sounds straight out of Persona 5.
Leon Lionheartly: So there's, I'll tell you this. This, the music in this game is so good. And this happens rarely. and this The last time this happened really was Doom and then before that Claire, where when I put the controller down, I'm still hearing the music in my head because I enjoyed it it.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: Yep.
Leon Lionheartly: It seeped into my subconscious because I wasn't realizing, like I knew it was good, but that's how you know it's really good. um Everything, the subtleties.
neocharge: And it just keep it it keeps hitting. It just keeps hitting. The more and more you explore the game, the overworld music, each age has its own theme. ah it's It's the same, but different of different variant of the main overworld theme.
neocharge: So yeah, man, I think this, this is sitting in like an 81.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: I think that's underscored and I have rolled credits. Let's just say that I have beaten the game. We'll just keep it there. And I'd say i'd give a 8.5, honestly.
neocharge: a eight point five honestly so
Leon Lionheartly: I could see that. um I would agree that this is this is sitting underscored. um there So you did get to a couple of things.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm like, all right, yeah, you're right. So the pacing on item collection is really... I'll just start with the negatives. It's really kind of like, ah by the time I get to the point where I can get some of the late game stuff, I've already gotten the bulk of everything.
Leon Lionheartly: um And those that happened...
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: 10 hours like prior 15 hours prior. So it's a little rough in that regard, um particularly because you can use items for unlocking different areas. ah Surprise like a Zelda game or a Metroid game or or what?
neocharge: right
Leon Lionheartly: Right. um So I was a little little sad in that regard. um But my but my biggest sticking point in this game and I'll get to the things I love about this game at the Undertale. The underlying things is the trophies.
neocharge: The tracking. Some of the best I've ever seen.
Leon Lionheartly: there But I have a big problem, Matt.
neocharge: Oh.
Leon Lionheartly: In the lord year of our Lord, in 2026, in a Zelda game that requires 25, 30 hours of dedication to get through, um because you're going to take you should take your time, why the fuck do we have missables?
Leon Lionheartly: It only happens with side quests, and the the game will tell you, hey, you are miss like this game this quest is going to go away soon. by I don't understand why that quest was about to go away because I personally don't see where it would cause a conflict in the story because that's typically where that happens. So why are we doing this in a game? Because if ah this trophy, and I did get it, so I'm good to finish out the platinum. If I missed this trophy, it would have been a platinum killer and it would have soured this game down to easily an eight. And I would' have been like, you know what? It scored appropriately.
Leon Lionheartly: My experience is different.
neocharge: Did I get it? Did I get the trophy?
Leon Lionheartly: ah you You should be good based on what I'm seeing.
neocharge: Okay, good, good.
Leon Lionheartly: ah You should be. you should there There's a couple that you're going to be like oh shit, it says it's going away soon, but if you just do them right away, you're good. um That being said, this game is pristine. This is a high game. This is an 85, almost 87 for my personal tastes.
Leon Lionheartly: The little things are what really drive this game through the over the ledge for me. um And it's little like callbacks. And if you know your Final Fantasy and you know your Square Enix properties, um so Dragon Quest and things of this, you start to see things that are like, that is almost that's too coincidental for it not to be by design. And I'll give you an example of this. Okay?
Leon Lionheartly: So Elliot, as a character, he's dressed as a red mage. Everybody knows who a red mage is. But if you look at the evolution of Final Fantasy, in Final Fantasy I, a red mage could use white magic, low-level white magic, black magic, and a couple of weapons. As time went on, red magic became its own thing with support magic, ah with support magic and red mages could use all weapons in the game.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: That's what Elliot is. He is a pinnacle of a Red Mage from Final Fantasy V where they really didn't have much magic in terms unless it was support magic like haste.
neocharge: Mm-hmm.
Leon Lionheartly: And you know what I'm alluding to, Matt.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah Things of that nature.
neocharge: Oh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: But they could use every weapon and use every type of armor. So they could use shields. They could use big heavy swords. They could use hammers. And that's what Elliot is in this game. He's a pinnacle red mage when you look at that. One of the shields, and I don't know if you saw this, one of the like the final shields, the name of it itself is a callback to other RPGs when you look at it and you'll know.
Leon Lionheartly: And I'm not going to say, because I don't want to spoil it for you, you're going be what the fuck?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: ah
neocharge: nice
Leon Lionheartly: And all of those little touches combined to show that this game was made with a ah high level of care of people who know...
neocharge: moving
Leon Lionheartly: who Not only are you drawing inspirations, but you truly show that you know where these inspirations are coming from. And that's what I really appreciate about about this game. It's down in the enemy designs. I don't want to try to give away too much um that's there. but ah And they did a really good job.
Leon Lionheartly: the The enemies, you say, they they could use more variety. i agree. But ah ah one thing is enemies are kind of in their own biomes, kind of like a Zelda. So, for example, you go to this area that's really hot.
neocharge: Sure. Sure. Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: You're going to find a specific type of enemy. You go to an area that's cold. You'll find a specific type of enemy there. And then they can blend this with Final Fantasy because the ages, you go down into the ages, folks, at the Crabillous Tribe, as you go further down the rabbit hole, if you will.
Leon Lionheartly: The enemies might be similar, but they are a lot tougher. They have more HP. They hit harder. like the progression of a real RPG. So it's awesome.
Leon Lionheartly: I love those little design ideas. That's the shit that gets me thinking at night. I sit up and I'm my bed and I'm like, I wonder, yeah, that's right. And then I see a video and I go, oh shit, that relates, that's a callback or Elliot's calling that back kind of thing.
neocharge: Thank
Leon Lionheartly: um So definitely highly recommend this. I'm going to be getting the platinum probably sometime. It'll be before we finish our next episode. um I don't have much. I only have a little bit of grinding left to go, um but highly recommend this game, um folks. It runs beautifully on the PlayStation 5. It's on everything else. Quite honestly, this game looks like it could probably run on a potato because it's just that well optimized.
neocharge: Yeah, incredibly well optimized. Two other mechanics I want to note. You have fairy as well. ah This is in the marketing.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: And then you can control. I think this is a really cool, unique mechanic. You can control the fairy with the right thumbstick. So you control Elliot with the left thumbstick. You control the fairy with the right thumbstick. And then you have abilities on the fairy as well. And she contributes to combat.
neocharge: too. So ah that is a cool mechanic. And then the Magisite mechanic is really cool as well. That's where the build crafting comes in. Each weapon, and there are many, there are a handful, let's just say that, ah each weapon has its own Magisite attributes and ah enhancements, passive abilities for that a weapon. like You know, for the sword you start out with, you can get a enhancement that gives you more, or a Magisite crystal that gives you more ah damage for every enemy you chain, right?
neocharge: And the Magisite's pretty cool. You pick up ah blank Magisite, just regular crystals, and then you use those little fragments to make actual damage crystals that then give you passive abilities on all of your weapons.
neocharge: So I really like that system. It's cool to build craft. There are some crazy, really cool elemental attributes for some of the late weapons that you get that I've been leveraging very much so, which, uh, yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.
neocharge: It's been very fun. I like the build crafting. And like you said, a lot of callbacks. I literally pointed out a character and I was like, this is this looks like this person and this person. And like they know what they're doing.
neocharge: And like you said, it it looks like it was made with a lot of love and care from fans of their IPs. Not only developers and people that are working on this game, but they're true fans of their prior works. And I love that.
neocharge: You can see the passion and... the creative design pouring through when you play it. and that's, that's what video games are all about, man. The, the experience and the art form and that, that smile you get when you see the name or you see something call back to some, to an experience you had before with some of their ah previous games.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: And like I said, dude, this game makes me want to play Octopath, but I'm not going Because I'm very excited to play Final Fantasy Resonance. ah
Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh.
neocharge: I can't dive into Octopath. I really do. I want to. I really want to. I'm a big fan of this engine. This isn't my first experience with the engine. I did play Dragon Quest III HD 2D.
neocharge: Just didn't hook me. Not that it's a bad game. It's far from a bad game. But it didn't hook me. This game did, though. It definitely did. And I love Square Enix.
neocharge: experimenting with new IPs and releasing new IPs. Uh, and I really hope this is the first of many. I really do. So it's amazing.
Leon Lionheartly: I agree.
neocharge: um'm I'm so glad we're playing it in parallel. We rarely do that.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay.
neocharge: And i mean, there were, there was a point where I was checking trophies and we were literally like percentage to percentage, like the same. And yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, and then I got a little ahead of you and you you spoiled something for yourself.
neocharge: Yeah. yeah
Leon Lionheartly: but of what i was It's funny, I was talking to...
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I'm not going to say what, for ah folks, but I was talking to Crystal last night when I was like, ha Matt, he he checked my trophies and he went, wait, what?
neocharge: No,
Leon Lionheartly: And I was like, yeah, that's why you don't snoop, you little fucker.
neocharge: I didn't spoil it. I said, wait, what from the experience I had in the game?
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, no, no. Oh, you checked my trophies about the um multiple... ah
neocharge: Oh, no. I didn't get that spoiled.
Leon Lionheartly: no
neocharge: I had that revealed in the game.
Leon Lionheartly: Oh, okay. So it came in the same text string for me, so i was like, okay.
neocharge: Yes. Yeah. No, we we were talking about that and I was literally at that part. And yeah, no, you, your trophies didn't spoil, I think. So yeah, I'm not going to know trophies spoil the shit out of stuff.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay, i I was worried about that, but I will save you I don't...
neocharge: And even then, even then, dude, it's, it's hidden.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: I wouldn't be able to see the context of it.
Leon Lionheartly: Not all games do that, though.
neocharge: Right. But this game does. ah Because after I roll credits, I check the trophies and there's a lot of hidden stuff. So.
Leon Lionheartly: Okay, that's that's that's fair.
neocharge: Yeah, no.
Leon Lionheartly: i
neocharge: Nope. Nothing's full for me.
Leon Lionheartly: I will say this. expect I expect great things from this team. Not only do they have a great track record with me so far, and games like Bravery Default and Triangle Strategy are on my list of things I want to try.
Leon Lionheartly: But this game ah rewards you if you're a fan of the creative studio. So if you have save files on your PlayStation 5 for these games, you get in-game rewards within like the first hour of fucking buying.
neocharge: good ones.
Leon Lionheartly: And they're good ones.
neocharge: High level fucking good ones. Like you showed me and I was like, holy shit. Like, I think I just got one of the things that you got with the pre-order. And I love it because, oh, you played the 2D HD games? Cool. The only one I fucking played is one that doesn't have a bonus.
neocharge: Cool. But i I respect it. I love that they're rewarding the fans of their previous titles. And and um I'm glad you got all that stuff. So i yeah there was a digital deluxe that you got a couple items that actually enhanced your ah gameplay.
neocharge: And I did. i threw them some more money. This game is like 50 bucks. And i wanted to throw him some more money to support and say, hey, I love this. I want more.
neocharge: And that's that's how you do it. That's how you you give this the the developer your voice. And you you vote with your wallet. Unfortunately, that's money talks. Unfortunately, you buy the game to support it. And then you that's That's how they know.
neocharge: The sales of the game. <unk>re You're not going to...
Leon Lionheartly: Yep.
neocharge: like ah A game could sell very few copies and everyone could love it and you're not going to get a sequel. A game could sell many, many copies. The developer or publisher will be like, cool, we made good money on this.
neocharge: Let's make a sequel. That's what greenlights a sequel. Sales. So...
Leon Lionheartly: Yep. And of course, with the Square Enix, it can make GTA numbers and they still wouldn't be satisfied.
neocharge: ye
neocharge: Yeah, exactly. Like, oh, Elliot didn't sell 30 million copies. It's a failure. um many How many copies did this game sell? That's a good question, right?
Leon Lionheartly: i don't think we've gotten I don't think we've gotten numbers yet for it. um
neocharge: Got it.
Leon Lionheartly: ah But I'll look at Adventures of Elliot.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: I'll look at it now.
neocharge: Cool. It's just refreshing. i love when ah big developers do this and they say, hey, here's a new IP and we're going to try this out. Please support us. Well, I will because it's right up my alley.
Leon Lionheartly: ah All right. So this is, a cro yeah, we haven't got anything. We probably won't get anything until a, um until the next, like a fiscal report from Square Enix, just because this was so multi-platform.
neocharge: Right.
Leon Lionheartly: um But according game analytic, ah it did generate over $2.7 million dollars in revenue on steam alone.
neocharge: Hell yeah. Good. That's awesome. That's 2.7.
Leon Lionheartly: and and
neocharge: two poison
Leon Lionheartly: and it's And it's launch in Japan ah the first week it sold 50,000 copies.
neocharge: Damn.
Leon Lionheartly: So it's got a good it's got it's got a good a good ah a good set of win win behind those sales, if you will.
neocharge: Awesome. Good.
Leon Lionheartly: um So yeah, I appreciate this game.
neocharge: Yeah. Good legs on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, we're both going to platinum. and I think I'm going to go for the platinum as well. I looked at the trophies after I beat it, and that's my role.
neocharge: I don't like the trophies until roll credits, as people like to say.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: And i i I think it's doable, but you're way ahead of me. ah What's next for you after this game, Bob?
Leon Lionheartly: Hmm. See, I don't know, man.
neocharge: Good question, right?
Leon Lionheartly: That is a great question. I really need to yeah start burning some rubber on Xenoblade, so to speak. um But I have a backlog. um So I've still got, you never know, I've i've still got Ghost from last year.
Leon Lionheartly: um I've got Ninja Gaiden 4. I have another 2D game made by the same team, HD, the Dragon Quest 1 and 2. There's still Darksiders that's in there.
Leon Lionheartly: There's Arca. like there's a There's a few things that are on my list. So We'll get there when the time comes.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: um And that's going game day decision.
neocharge: Yep.
neocharge: Yeah. i I want to dive into Mina. I really do. But I don't know if I want to do that to myself. I might take a little break. I don't know. ah Leading up to a Black Flag, because I know I'm going to go balls deep into Edward. I mean, Black Flag.
neocharge: And I'm going to just dive into that game, pun intended. ah So I don't really know. I do want to I'll probably, I'll platinum Elliot and then I'll see how I feel.
neocharge: And if there's enough time to play Mina, because i I really, really do want to play Mina and it's just sitting and I want to play more Hades. I kind of put down Hades for a bit and then go back and put it down for a bit and go back.
neocharge: And of course I want to play Lego Batman, but man, I think I want to maybe take a break, but yeah, fun plans for the weekend. We're going to see Jackass.
Leon Lionheartly: Yes, we are going to go see Jackass. and It opened 94% on Rotten Tomatoes today.
neocharge: Oh, shit. Damn. A jackass?
Leon Lionheartly: It's only...
neocharge: That's fucking awesome.
Leon Lionheartly: and Yeah, it's only like 20 reviews when I first saw it. But that's like the first 20 reviews in in your Open Critics score getting a 97. It's just...
neocharge: you
Leon Lionheartly: Or 94. Unless something happens, that's a good baseline.
neocharge: Wow. For a jackass movie. Dang. Yeah. I love jackass. I grew up with it in high school. kind of did some of the stunts, not going lie. And I was a skate skater throughout high school. I was their target fan base and I can't wait for this next one. So we're going to go see that Saturday. Maybe grab a bite before we're going to the orchestra tomorrow or today, i should say. Uh, and then Sunday, man, Sunday, I might take it easy, chill, maybe either finish Elliot or i don't know, go for a bike ride or something.
neocharge: We'll see.
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: It's a,
Leon Lionheartly: well Well, you know what?
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: We'll report back on that one, but that's, I like that. ah Definitely look forward to Jackass though, man.
neocharge: Yeah.
Leon Lionheartly: oh
neocharge: yeah Yeah. It's going to be a good time. We got tickets. I'm excited. So yeah. ah that's been episode 57, right? We're on 57. And,
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.
neocharge: and
Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. Let's get the hell out of here and go finish Elliott. What do you say?
