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2025 In Review
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Join Dave and Jake as they look back on 2025 (in gaming) in this week's episode!
Intro:
- Hyper Princess Pitch - Results (Beta Mix)
Outro:
- Clair Obscur Expedition 33 - Lumiere
Thoughts? Comments? Requests for new episodes? Feel free to email them in!
SoapstonePodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Weather Banter and Nostalgic Gaming
00:00:37
Speaker
How's it going everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. name is Jake and I am joined by my co-host as always Dave. How's it going today Dave? It's going so sleepy.
00:00:48
Speaker
The fact that it's cold out and that there's occasionally a cloud to obscure the sun. I'm like oh we're done. We're cooked. It's cold outside. um Some days it's like the sky box. It's like one of those older video games where they're like, we have to save on textures. So it's just going to be like one big stretched gray cloud texture across the entire thing. You're
Evolution of Game Controllers
00:01:10
Speaker
like, ah, it's overcast. I'm thinking like, um,
00:01:14
Speaker
007 Goldeneye, they had a bunch of levels like that where they're just like, okay, the sky is a color or is it nighttime? It's going to be black or very dark blue. Exactly.
00:01:26
Speaker
um Like people have to literally hold a modifier button in order to look up in this game. I don't think they're going to be doing it very often. So r one is not very comfortable for that.
00:01:38
Speaker
um Anyways, dual joysticks, dual thumbsticks is the future. It's also the present. I I know obviously there had to be a time where like the technology had not been invented yet because it just wasn't a thing. um But they either go back and like play a game where you have to literally split how you look between two separate things would feel so disorienting for anybody who's played games in the last 30 years. Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:09
Speaker
I think that like because pre single a lot a lot of people started a lot of the controllers start had a single joystick right like we went off from SNES and Dreamcast I think had a joystick at least one.
00:02:25
Speaker
I'm pretty sure one. Yeah, because it's one in the very center. Yeah. If I remember correctly, and sixty four had one PS. PS1 also had one. They had like the D pad on the left and one thumbstick. And then it was they they always had pad your shapes and then dual analog.
00:02:47
Speaker
I know that they I'm sure they had one that was without analog way, way, way back. That's the one I'm thinking of. Yeah. Zero analog. um But you're right Yes, dual shot Super early Playstation Because I feel like if you have anybody Close your eyes, imagine a Playstation or a PS2 controller It's going to be basically PS2 controller The only difference is whether it's black or grey Yes, yeah Exactly but anyways, they had the right idea um As far as Two sticks, if one sticks, good Two sticks, this is great When are we going to get three sticks? Ha ha ha
00:03:25
Speaker
um It's a great question, but I'm sure there is. that i know there are modable controllers. You could have something like that. um
Year in Gaming Reflections
00:03:32
Speaker
If people can beat, you know, Dark Souls on a banana or whatever, I'm sure someone could make three thumbsticks work. So.
00:03:40
Speaker
But speaking of Dark Souls on a but banana, it's been a heck of a year for video games. um Technically, a lot came out.
00:03:51
Speaker
I don't know if the two of us played a whole lot of games. I think I played a decent chunk this year as far as variety sake. um But we had a fair number of episodes, some of them on really big titles, things we've been looking forward to for, I don't know, what was the wait time for Silksong? Was that like 20 years, 30 years?
00:04:12
Speaker
700 roughly it was like 700 years yeah it was a generational game they tied to like a solar eclipse or something like that the Maya yeah starting with the the 2025 going all the way the the Awards but yeah we had twenty four episodes this year starting with the ah the preview for twenty twenty five going all the way through the the jefff awards um And there were some really standout episodes. I kind of wanted to just look back for some of these that that stood out.
00:04:45
Speaker
um Some of the games that I think were excellent this year.
Abiotic Factor Co-op Experience
00:04:51
Speaker
I mean, so we had our abiotic factor episode. Now we were playing this the previous year, but this was a three person co-op playthrough. um And it took a while to get through abiotic factor. That is true.
00:05:06
Speaker
what's the spark notes feeling for for that game where does abiotic factor fall in the survival game ranking for dave i mean right now it's the the top one before this it might have been like seven days or valheim as far as interest level and if we have a group getting together yeah i'd be fine just playing it um
00:05:31
Speaker
I wonder how this would do with like a larger party. It felt like we were already kind of rocking it. Am I rocking it? I mean, i would go and get like the two materials I wanted.
00:05:43
Speaker
Jake would find and organize everything. um Mango also had a system, but I would very much come in, take something and then leave. Right. CLDR, though, it is really fun as far as survival crafting co-op.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, i agree 100%. I think that this is also my top survival crafting game. like And there there are some, you know, that's ah that's a tough list. There are a lot of entries on that list.
00:06:13
Speaker
I do also, you know, really appreciate Valheim. I think that both of these have... um some of the same sort of DNA as far as design and that they'll have ah they'll have gates for progression.
00:06:28
Speaker
Melheim was very explicit about it. It's like gather together to fight the boss and then as a result of that, you'll unlock like the next tier of progression. Um, and a biotic factor is pretty similar in a lot of ways. It's like
Multiplayer Survival Game Dynamics
00:06:44
Speaker
there are ways you can like explore out, but you probably need to complete the actual quest objective that shows up, you know, on your screen in order to keep things moving forward.
00:06:56
Speaker
And I appreciated that because um my biggest conflict with playing multiplayer survival crafting games is like the difference in expectation and play style for how people play.
00:07:09
Speaker
And ah I've talked about this with, you know, special special guest friend of the show, Ian, who has the um we both kind of like no life a game.
00:07:20
Speaker
We want to just put a bunch of time into it. And in my case, for a biotic factor, I wanted to just farm, essentially, right? Like run through areas over and over and over again, gather a whole bunch of crafting materials.
00:07:36
Speaker
um But I don't want to hamper other people's experience of the game by being like, OK, now that you're here, I've already I'm level 5000 or whatever. Like, let's do the next thing. I can carry you through it. Right. Like, that's not fun either. Right.
00:07:52
Speaker
No, but I think in at least this instance, and for me in general, like I don't care about, oh I needed to go and collect the three pieces of a given rock or something else. That's not, it's like, it's fun when you discover new things and then you start getting new technology. Yeah. and Like what you can do with that, what's worth trying out versus what's not.
00:08:16
Speaker
um But as far as just getting the materials, Like it's already a solved thing of either it spawns here or I kill this enemy and it will spawn. Yeah. And it's just then the time going through it, I guess.
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. There's there's some tedium to it. I think there is a difference between this magically appeared and I can use it to make the next tier of gear. And ah I know that you went out and, you know, fought gatekeepers for this for several hours.
00:08:45
Speaker
um I could have done this myself. um I'm glad I don't have to write like there is a difference. um But yeah, I do. I am. i am a little bit curious how future playthroughs and things like that work for this game because so many people have played through it now. And, you know, we know how convenient some of the late game tech is. This is the trick with survival games. It's why you have to zero your expectations be on the same page when you, you know, start playing it with friends about how how you want to play it. But man,
00:09:18
Speaker
All of that meta commentary aside, Abiotic Factor is great. It really is. Oh, yeah. It's so well designed, and it's also just not... a zombie shooter, which and that's like half of those survival crafting games. So even Minecraft, technically you can get a bow. Technically there are a zombies, zombie shooter.
00:09:41
Speaker
I'm sorry. It can also be a zombie fisher. it should also be a zombie spawner if you would like it to be. um
Elden Ring Co-op Innovation
00:09:51
Speaker
We also went back to Elden Ring, which hot take pretty good game.
00:09:58
Speaker
Kind of love it kind of love it a lot. Mm-hmm Every time people were like playing it on discord. I'm like, hey, is your stream broken because I can't see you actively playing it They're like, okay aha No, it's ah it really is there was such an explosion in souls like games not just like specifically this year i would say maybe even more concentrated in prior prior years um but things coming off of that uh like dark souls dna and all of that being said i haven't played all of them right i haven't done the iron pineapple marathon of looking through so many of those just look legitimately
00:10:43
Speaker
I don't want to say bad, but like not a full-fledged thing or not interesting enough to check out or...
00:10:54
Speaker
yeah But yeah, there are a good handful. I think a lot of those types of games, and this isn't all of them, right? Some of them have unique ideas and reasons to play, innovations and mechanics, things like that. But a lot of them are trapped in the past in what was successful for Dark Souls. And Elden Ring was basically saying like,
00:11:15
Speaker
We're still going to include all of that, but we're going to like ramp it up to 11. Right. Like um and the reason this was we had our episode this year because of the seamless co-op, um the ability to rather than just having like limited summoning of another player to like fight a boss or in particular circumstances, you can just play the entire game with another player.
00:11:35
Speaker
um And it's just, I don't know. It's from soft is still the best at what they do is what the way i yeah put it. Right. And they're not they're not trapped in their own past. They're still pushing things forward while they keep all of that content.
00:11:53
Speaker
um so yeah i know i've harped on it a lot before but elden ring is a really good example of them kind of taking the culmination of their years of making games into again i think like the best version of dark souls which is it's dark souls but like imagine you had mobility as an option So you can change now the scale of the world. ah You can make things more difficult. You can do more platforming stuff.
00:12:25
Speaker
um And again, I know it sounds stupid to be like, you can jump twice. people are like, yeah. um But that's something that the games have had for a bit. Yeah.
00:12:40
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Well, I mean, if you have Torrent, you can ho hop, hop. Yeah. but No, that's true. Yeah. You're right. I forgot that Torrent had to double jump, but you're right. It's been a little bit. Yeah. And also, this is, again, still been the most um approachable Dark Souls type entry because so many people who i would never expect to pick up and play a game like this, especially when it has that notoriety. If all all FromSoft games are impossibly hard. ah Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of other people have been getting into it and having a good time, which is amazing. Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. And it's still very much the starter, right? It's like if...
00:13:20
Speaker
It's both the starter and i am not offended if it's the final entry in the list. Right. I'll send for DS two any day. However, like I understand that some of the older FromSoft games are really not for everyone.
00:13:36
Speaker
And as far as being like a full package and the best game. Elden Ring is still it like. ah So it's perfectly fine if you want to, like, you know, do this then go back to Animal Crossing or something like that. I don't I won't feel offended if people don't go back and play, especially like DS one, which is aged a lot.
00:14:00
Speaker
um Yeah. it But Elden Ring's great. I feel like any of the going back to checkout things are solely because you've heard a lot about it and you're curious to see how it holds up or why people liked it so much at that time. um And while I think Dark Souls 1 is an amazing game, I would never be like, you have to go back and play it.
00:14:22
Speaker
Right. I would say Elden Ring is a great game and definitely worth checking out. Yes. Yeah, exactly. um Moving forward though this one you suggested and we did end up having an episode on it after playing through it split fiction.
00:14:39
Speaker
Oh So good Yeah, what are your thoughts on split fiction?
Split Fiction Co-op Praise
00:14:43
Speaker
I didn't think it was this year. That's how long this year has been But it was it was really good so I think my expectation was very much as long as it's at least it takes two I'd be happy um There's certain parts of It Takes Two I like more.
00:15:01
Speaker
Yeah. um But they really had such a variety of levels and game designs and mechanics. um And it felt like a nice world tour of co-op, let's do a fun thing together. And you're never stuck on anything too, too long. Yeah.
00:15:21
Speaker
It's just really good variety. Oh, yeah. And I also think it's a great spectator game, too. hmm. Yeah, it's very visually engaging, gratifying. And even if something is not your cup of tea, it never sticks around that long because you are, you know, changing out abilities, powers. You drank your tea. Yeah. It's time for the next tea. Yeah, it's really just cup after cup of tea. Eventually, you're just like, no more. I really need to pee. But, um,
00:15:50
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, my only gripe with it was kind of like the, and we talked about it in the episode, but sort of like forcing a villain. Essentially, they felt like they had to have the mustache twirling bad guy. Yeah. But they also wanted things to be grounded in plausible real life thing, like motivations.
00:16:08
Speaker
And so they sort of ended up a little bit in the Assassin's Creed space of like, is this an evil corporation? A little bit. am i Is this an evil corporation? Yeah. but also maybe it's later maybe it's again my sense of time is insanely off yeah but i did appreciate that they had some commentary on ai and like the stealing of ideas and content yeah without mentioning ai at all the entire thing uh could have been a like allegory for ai um
00:16:45
Speaker
which I think is smart, right? Like everything's already been said sort of there. So ah reframing it without saying it, I think is maybe a better way to put it.
00:16:57
Speaker
um Because it's actually up to interpretation, you can play through the game and be like, I don't know, they didn't talk about AI at all. But if it's on your mind, then you'll probably put that together, it'll probably make that association.
00:17:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think good media should be able to make you make those connections yeah without needing to explicitly say ah war is bad. Right, yeah.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah, this one also kind of wins for being maybe the most video game-y video game, right? Like in the classical kind of arcade-y sense. um It's really just there to be fun.
00:17:35
Speaker
um And there is the story, right, for other characters, but... ay So much of it was just like the reason I say it's the most video game a video game is because there's like There's really just like 20 video games each one, you know 15 20 minutes long baked into this um ah So yeah, it thankfully, you know received a lot of support and it wasn't just us that we're recognizing it um but ah Really great and also awesome that only one person needed to own it um in order to to play it. You could have like a a guest copy on Steam that just allowed you to play as player two.
00:18:14
Speaker
um and And they've been consistent with that. Yeah. Starting with a way out, which I did see he was on sale for like three bucks. And i was like, should I ask Jake if we want to venture into that or leave it? oh Yeah, I'm always up for those those types of games. I this holiday season, just as an aside, i have been throwing games at people semi randomly.
00:18:40
Speaker
I still I still probably have to throw some throw some your way. I bought everybody a space game about a bunch of people a space game. I didn't think you would have any fun with it. And we only played it for like a couple sessions. So ultimately, it was kind of kind of glad I didn't grab that one for you. But then synthetic for Lando, who got into it surprisingly a lot that first night. So I might have to play more of that later.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, when I popped into discord, I heard you guys playing. I'm like, oh, they're locked in they' are locked in. It's difficult to play that game and not be locked in, though. Like you'll die. kind of Demands it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:17
Speaker
ah You stop paying attention. A three button press reload is something you can't be doing passively unless you're ultra instinct or something. Yeah.
00:19:30
Speaker
um But anyways, ah yeah, so we did Split Fiction. we
Tunic's Art and Mysteries
00:19:35
Speaker
jump ahead. We covered Tunic, finally, which Dave has been trying to get me to play Tunic.
00:19:40
Speaker
um Again, 700 years or whatever. Yeah, like... Again, to harp and back, I do remember when I first saw a trailer for this and it was like three to five years before it was released. I'm just like, I don't know what that is, but I really like the art design. It looks like a fun little Zelda-like thing. Yeah. And then i was right and I played it and I'm like, Jake, you got to check it. And he's like, I don't like puzzles. I'm like, that is fair. That is an honest assessment. That's ah subjective.
00:20:14
Speaker
But yeah, you you finally did check it out. And i i remember you enjoying it or at least not hating. I remember you looking up all of the lore afterwards and sending me like a very long message. Oh, yeah. yeah Yeah. so i I guess I am not.
00:20:30
Speaker
it It might not just be puzzles. It definitely is puzzles. I don't generally go for puzzle games just because they're puzzling games. Um, yeah. and i also don't play a ton of like adventure games and the classic sort of legend of zelda type space which is really what this is like tunic is pretty much that but the thing that really gripped me for tunic was like how much of the mystery of what was going on and what was happening behind the scenes and it was like This feels really close to like a kid's game, but there's like cracks in the walls that's showing you that something nefarious is happening.
00:21:11
Speaker
And you're like, to know, you know, you got to chase that down. um and It is really just made for psychopaths, like people who really can't let it go. i mean that in the best way. What Jake's referring to is you don't need to solve puzzles to beat the game ah for an ending and to complete the the strategy guide that you're filling out.
00:21:38
Speaker
ah For that, you do need to solve um the golden path puzzle, which... I don't think is impossible to figure out.
00:21:51
Speaker
um It probably is difficult to be like, how do I start with this? You're like, what does that mean? but you will eventually pick up clues and you can do it. um But there are so many little hidden things for like bonuses where it's like, oh, this is just like an empty room. And you're like oh, no, these leaves are in this specific pattern where...
00:22:14
Speaker
yeah and Yeah, people can get lost in the sauce on that. Yeah, it's a lot of pattern recognition. I'll be honest. I didn't do all of the golden path stuff. That's the stuff where I was like, I'm going to save some time. I'm just going to look this up. I mean, there's going to see where this all leads um because and this is I honestly blame Jonathan Blow for this. I blame Jonathan Blow for most things. But like this specifically, as i was like, this is the witness. This is pattern recognition. This is seeing things that are not explicitly there.
00:22:44
Speaker
um i can't do it. I can't do it um But yeah, the even if and if even if you don't get all of that going through the game, um shows you some of what's going on.
00:22:57
Speaker
And yeah, I can't say anything else without going into spoilers, so I won't. But um it is really compelling in that. I don't want to say like Eldritch necessarily because I think Eldritch is too much of like too much gets lumped in there. You know, it's not all Cthulhu, but mysterious ah happenings for sure.
00:23:21
Speaker
For Tunic. Excellent. Recommend it. Check it out. Yeah. It is definitely really good. um i don't know if you could recommend these next next ones, though. We had two episodes on the new Deltarune chapters, and I know you're very critical of everything that Toby Fox makes.
00:23:37
Speaker
It's just
Deltarune's Engaging Storytelling
00:23:38
Speaker
been shit ever since he Ever since they did the Spanish language translation of Undertale, I'm like, oh, it's going downhill from here. Uh-huh. Right. um But no, very much in line with my expectations. ah Chapters three and four were really fucking good. Yeah. um I feel like Deltarune has only been building upon itself. I don't think it's taken any steps back or any horrible sidesteps to veer off the path.
00:24:08
Speaker
I'm still engaged in the story because there's still a lot of mystery. Yeah. The characters are still well well written and I care what happens to them. hmm. um Basically, everything seems to be related to the Dreamer family and the Holiday family.
00:24:24
Speaker
and I'm like, but I want the deets. I want the final details. Yeah. yeah Yeah, I'm I'm stoked. I'm glad that the next chapters are coming out this year in 2026. Yeah, it's very exciting.
00:24:38
Speaker
um Also, they've doubled the number of episodes that Half-Life 2 released. So that's already pretty big accomplishment. Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like at this point for Deltarune, there's almost like not that much more to say, right? Like people have had the opportunity to play Undertale. They've had the opportunity to get on the Deltarune train. Unless you literally haven't heard of it, you probably they already have your mind made up as to whether you would play it or not.
00:25:08
Speaker
Unless you're just waiting for all the episodes to be out. I think there was like going to be seven, i want to say. Seven or eight or something like that. Somewhere between seven and nine. if i If I launched it, it would it would show me how many are left. but yeah Yeah. um But there's a lot of gameplay there already. And it is, i think you mentioned the characters. One thing that's notable for me is having...
00:25:33
Speaker
these episodes come out every one to two years kind of gives you this sort of like recurring glimpse into what's going on with these characters that you already know, which is definitely going to be like a different experience compared to playing it all at once, I think. um Yeah. But the other part of that, like with having the mystery of what else is going on and all that jazz with it being so spaced out,
00:26:02
Speaker
it gives a chance for the community to generate all their theories. Yes. To solve certain things. um And I feel like some of that has to play a part into the following games, I would imagine, or at least if I wanted to troll a little bit as Toby Fox, I think I would. Yes. Yeah.
00:26:24
Speaker
But yeah, it's it would feel so weird to have the full game released and then play all of it at once. Like you're binging a Netflix series.
00:26:34
Speaker
And then it would just feel like there's no weight to it because nothing has had a chance to to sit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and some of the seem that some of these chapters are also very different gameplay wise. We'll have like different mechanics or settings at the very least. If you do want to go through and play each of them, I would take a little bit of a break between each chapter. It doesn't have to be as long as they took to come out. Right. But, you know, give it a couple days, maybe give it a week um and then then start the next one. But a tremendous value. We we called this out for the um split fiction.
00:27:11
Speaker
you know, second player doesn't need to buy the game. Um, Delta Rune is very inexpensive for the amount of gameplay that you get out of it. And, um, I mean, you already know our opinions on Toby Fox's writing, um, and the most memeable community, um, I don't I don't particularly engage in the Undertale Deltarune community, but I know that they are crazy. there and There's a lot of content creators, a lot of excellent memes. um
00:27:45
Speaker
If you need another corner of the internet to be a part of, they, I think, would be happy to have to have you. so I think for a lot of games that I've played, i always do appreciate seeing the memes after the fact. To be like, me when this happened, I'm like, Leonardo DiCaprio points the screen. That was me. yeah It's just nice to...
00:28:10
Speaker
essentially have a little community of other people who got to have a similar experience, have some similar feels and vibes. Mm-hmm. Yeah, 100%. A lot of good visual gags, too. like Toby Fox is really good about having a serious story and then just like hitting you with a right hook of comedy that somehow lands even though you were in a very serious moment. I love that. like that is That is an art. It's a very difficult skill.
00:28:39
Speaker
um But timing is everything.
00:28:45
Speaker
ah The next one. that we covered. And this is very this is kind of funny because I think it's well after the game came out. But
Clair Obscure Expedition's Standout Design
00:28:53
Speaker
we had a Claire Obscure Expedition 33 game of the year for many people.
00:28:59
Speaker
I mean, yeah, yeah, that's fair. Yeah. I was actually watching a friend play through ah the the end of the game. And I got to like see the reactions to final fight and stuff afterwards and what choice they made. Yeah. Um,
00:29:19
Speaker
And I was trying to lead them to the the secret boss. And yeah just before they were going to get there, they stopped playing and I had record a podcast. So I'm looking forward to see their reaction to that, though.
00:29:35
Speaker
That's fair. Yeah. still an insanely gorgeous game amazing fucking story well written characters music's banging and also weirdly engaging as i said a million times i'm not a huge rpg person and typically when people hype something i'm like Yeah, okay, but I'm not one of those mainstream people. I like to play my own stuff that I like. Yeah.
00:30:00
Speaker
And I checked it out on Game Pass. was like, okay, it actually is really fucking good. Sorry, guys. Yeah, it's it's really good. I also played this on Game Pass, and eventually I anticipate I'm going to buy it for my library. I'm going to wait for a sale, but I'll buy it for my library on Steam so it sticks around.
00:30:16
Speaker
But um it's all been said, you know, you've probably heard about this game. People that didn't play a lot of games this year probably still heard about and maybe even played Expedition 33. But it's so freaking good. It's definitely like...
00:30:32
Speaker
I mean, it's definitely my game of the year, too. It's absolutely crazy how engaged I got with it. And I was also farming at points, which is entirely optional.
00:30:46
Speaker
My one advice, this is not spoilers. My one advice for people who um are going to play through the game is like do the main story before you just like grind for power.
00:30:59
Speaker
um Do not make your characters absolutely broken or you will just miss some of the absolute cinema moments in the finale. And you're not missing things if you take that route, if you do the main story first.
00:31:12
Speaker
There's plenty of content to go back to after the fact. Yes, and even more now. They've had their first free DLC. which I have not yet gone back to play.
00:31:23
Speaker
um I probably won't until I buy the game on Steam now that I've switched to gaming on Linux, to be honest, because I can't go back to it. um But ah yeah, just the meme, the absolute cinema meme is very much applicable to this entire game.
00:31:43
Speaker
And you mentioned the story. The reason I think the story is so engaging is because it has those questions, because it has the goal that people are pushing towards. And you're slowly getting pieces of information about the grander picture of what's going on.
00:31:57
Speaker
um Yeah. And it feels human. Yes. Versus play a lot of RPG type games in a more AAA space. And it just immediately goes into tropey thing of, This is the suspicious spouse or something else where it's like, I need you to grab this thing from over here. Uh-huh.
00:32:20
Speaker
It's not just a fetch quest. It's not just a hero's journey. By the time that you're making it towards the end of the game, you know why characters are making the decisions that they're making.
00:32:31
Speaker
um And yeah, so good. It's so, so good. oh good
00:32:39
Speaker
And then we get to Silksong. Oh boy. aha no notes. All all right. well Then we get to the end of notes. They are also going to have, i think, DLC within the next year. yeah Which I've already forgotten the name of.
00:32:57
Speaker
Something to deal with underwater. Yeah. Deep Steps. um But yeah, it was an amazing game. Sea of Sorrows. Sea of Sorrow. Yeah, that's what that one's called.
00:33:11
Speaker
Because again, Hollow Knight really kind of set the bar for this is a really insanely good Metroidvania. And then other things you're like, how do we do that?
00:33:21
Speaker
And share Team Cherry is like, we'll show you again in seven years. Yeah. yeah But the game is not a one-to-one copy. It is in the same universe.
00:33:33
Speaker
ah You play as a different character, have different options for weapons and abilities. you're still using ah a nail type thing for your weapon. um But yeah, so much of that game just felt good to play.
00:33:49
Speaker
especially when you get into the rhythm of how you're using your abilities and stuff in combat. Yeah. ah Combat can really be more of a dance than just slamming your head up against the wall.
00:34:01
Speaker
Yeah. Unless you're in bio water. Even then, I have seen some people get through that like they they are in the dance. um But yeah. And 100% I agree with all of that.
00:34:15
Speaker
It's in Hollow Knight, the original game, You could get good at a few key maneuvers. notably like nail bouncing or nail jumping.
00:34:27
Speaker
And you're like, I'm good. Basically, I've completed the game. ah They had to literally mix things up to get you out of that mindset of these few things working. Silksong is so much more punishing in so many ways that it forces you to use the tools um that that you're given.
00:34:47
Speaker
And they do a good job of giving you a lot of options um for how you want to approach fights, how what types of tactics you want to take, what types of tools and um can't remember the name of the the the stances you can change between, but there's a proper noun word for it.
00:35:07
Speaker
It's like a glyph or something like that. I know what you mean. is it like the crest of something? Yes, crest. Which is literally like change your fighting style.
00:35:18
Speaker
And it's so it's it's very brave. i don't mean that as like a joke. I do think that it's legitimately brave to be like, hey,
00:35:30
Speaker
Here's your default crest, and this is not the one from the previous game. Right. And a lot of if you bounce off the game before you get the fighting style of the night um and you really wanted the fighting style of the night,
00:35:45
Speaker
you might just not finish the game, right? Like, yeah, that's, that's a bold design decision. Gamers are not historically patient. And even people talked to amongst my friend group, who I consider reasonable people, um, a lot of times will essentially hit their patience limit way before having expended other options. As far as exploring what tools they have, it's just, um,
00:36:10
Speaker
I'm hitting this thing. Yeah. Kind of sucks justifiably. And I'm not really looking to force myself to get past this part. um But yeah, it is great that they have that variety.
00:36:26
Speaker
it kind of encourages you to get off the first one if you're not. into it yeah it's not the worst but it's definitely takes some getting used to if you were very much accustomed to hollow knight one yeah it's hornet style right like that's the reason they picked that starter one
Silksong's Challenging Design
00:36:42
Speaker
is it's like this is the style that hornet used in the boss fights and yeah it's not the same courage before it's this one yeah But yeah, every time I've talked to people about, oh, like, what did you run?
00:36:54
Speaker
i feel like everybody had a different answer. Yeah. Nobody else really chose the correct one, Reaper, which I did. It's still very popular. They all have their their their factions.
00:37:06
Speaker
Actually, I think Lando went Knight entirely. Yeah. I think Ian went more, is it like the engineer crest? Architect, yeah. Yeah. Where you essentially just the capitalism crisis keep refabricating weapons hu for your tools that you can use. Money to power.
00:37:26
Speaker
What did you end up going again? I forget. so i also i actually did like a world tour of various ones. I started with the Beast Crest and I tried to make it work. and I did progress a lot with it.
00:37:37
Speaker
I will say... I love you, Jake, and I will always watch you play games. I like to live vicariously in that way. um But watching you like mentally try and justify the Beast Crest for like two hours, I'm like, this is so painful for us both. It was pretty tough.
00:37:57
Speaker
um I really tried to make it work. um But I think I spent a lot of time on Wanderer and then eventually I switched to architect in the late game where I was just like, I'm just going to farm for money.
00:38:11
Speaker
It's like, see you guys, I have stacked a bunch of things together so I can get a ton of beads and um you are the victims for the next hour as I farm capitalism so that I can feed the architect.
00:38:24
Speaker
um Which sounds insane and probably is. But yeah, it's an excellent game. It was priced very efficiently. I think it was 30 40 See, that's so unbelievable that even I didn't believe it right now.
00:38:44
Speaker
Double check that. yeah Yep. 20 bucks at launch. 20 bucks, which was the price of the original Hollow Knight. Both absolute steals. Um... There's the thing that I actually love most about that. keep coming back to like consumer value. i keep bringing us back to consumer value is like On the far side of this, other companies, AAA developers, publishers specifically, I'll say the publishers, are pushing these like $70, $80, $90 bundle ah price tags per games.
00:39:18
Speaker
And they are not worth it. These companies have never made more money than they're making. Now you can make arguments about inflation as much as you want. It does not matter if more people are buying your game than ever have been.
00:39:33
Speaker
And it is a breath of fresh air to see the indie and double a space push back against that by being like, well, if people don't want to buy a $70 game, here's $20 one, here's a one.
00:39:49
Speaker
No one's going to argue against the quality of Silksong, whatever. And there are a lot of gripes out there about, you know, punishment, difficulty, whatever the crap. I'm there with the arguers, but it is an insane value to get Silksong for $20 in current year.
00:40:07
Speaker
Yeah. um Because like I think when Elden Ring came out, that was 60 and I did not bat nine im like That's, you know, it might have been a full game type price.
00:40:21
Speaker
Check real quick. ah You're right. It was 60. Yeah. yeah And then I think the DLC was like 30 bucks for Shadow of the Earth Tree. And again, that was like a lot of game content. i was like that totally justified the price.
00:40:34
Speaker
But now imagine a full game. for 20 bucks yeah like it is wild um so i think it's less greed driven in general and obviously team cherry cares very much about what they're making and putting out yeah which is why they didn't have any marketing or any messaging for seven years and they were really just polishing the heck out of that game yeah Yeah, and I mean, they i know they're still going to be very financially successful, even at the $20 market. Oh, yeah. But I just love to see a little bit of a pull on the side of consumers compared to just what could we charge for this, which is what you know a lot of big publishers are doing now. Yeah.
00:41:25
Speaker
and Can we could we add a battle pass for that? Can we have them spend money every couple months? Is that an option? i It would be very funny to evaluate the idea of a Hollow Knight battle pass, but probably not necessary. Yeah, if you want cool skins, you can probably mod the game or find a mod for it. AK-47. Mod for the original Hollow Knight. Always an option. Yeah.
00:41:52
Speaker
So much so that it's one of my ah it's one of my favorited gifts gifts on discord is the the knight drawing on the eyebrows and grabbing the AK 47. Oh, yeah. good to go so ah yeah Really good game. Glad it came out. People who have been i predicting it forever. And then I think at one point the subreddit was like sacrificing people um and that they were like banning members from the subreddit as sacrifices to like bring it forth to get the announcement of the game coming out. It was very funny. it was This is why religion is dangerous in concept and practice. But...
00:42:36
Speaker
It's just an incredible experience. And we we got to it, right? like we were We were here when Hollow Knight Silksong released. um yeah If I ever have kids, going to rub it on their faces for so much of the time. Be like, i i was around before Silksong. You guys, you guys get to experience Silksong every day.
00:42:56
Speaker
third that's just That's just what the world is now. It's ruled by bugs. and Exactly. Human-sized bugs.
Ultra Kill's Technical Gameplay
00:43:06
Speaker
But then we had Ultra Kill. That was our last ah big game coverage item, which is not it didn't like release this year as far as know it's still in early access. um It's supposed to have an update pretty soon.
00:43:19
Speaker
okay yeah. Like I think this month they're having the next layer done. Yeah. Um, and this one feels pretty recent. So I mean, if you guys are keeping up on our episodes, I don't know if we need to go into depth on it. But this is just an excellent a boomer shooter.
00:43:37
Speaker
um So much so that calling it a boomer shooter on its own doesn't really convey the depth of the mechanics and interactions that Ultra Kill has. um But if you like boomer shooters, you'll probably love it.
00:43:51
Speaker
yeah. Yeah, it it feels super good as far as the combat and movement. And a lot of times, like, there'll be certain interactions or things you can do to leverage something more, like, again, parrying your shotgun bullets to deal more damage and hit, like, a bigger AOE.
00:44:11
Speaker
yeah Super value through a lot of the game. Yeah. or you just might i don't know i like exploration i like a good game feel um and this design for it is very tight like they're not doing extra anything yeah like it is a skybox type thing um they add detail where they need it for the level itself um but i feel like it's i won't say bare minimum because that's not giving it enough credit yeah it's minimalist yeah it's more minimalist they're not going into exhaustive detail to be like this is a factory area yeah it's like yeah we get it um and they focus much more on the core mechanics um because they do feel really good yeah
00:45:03
Speaker
Yeah, and the mechanics are absolutely insane. You can play through this game and be like, oh, it's kind of neat that I found the synergy between these weapons or whatever. And then if you start to look up what people have discovered they can do,
00:45:16
Speaker
There is no end to it. um I looked up a speed run for this, a breakdown or a speed run ah for the top runner for like a challenge level at the end of the game. If you've completed every level on the highest difficulty, it like unlocks this insane challenge mode.
00:45:35
Speaker
um And the things that she does is are just insane, like absolutely technically insane and pathed out and precise. And I'm going to describe one interaction because I don't think I covered it in the episode. I think this is something I looked at later.
00:45:52
Speaker
But forgive me if I did. ah The rail coin. So you can flip a coin. there's ah There's a weapon which is like a pistol, a revolver, and it's alternate as you can throw a coin. And if you shoot the coin, the coin will ricochet and hit an enemy enemy's weak point.
00:46:10
Speaker
um But some other weapons can also shoot the coins and have the same effect. And one of them is the rail cannon, which is this like charging super high damage. Think of it kind of like a BFG-esque replacement. Doesn't do the same thing as BFG, but similar idea to have like some super weapon in your arsenal.
00:46:29
Speaker
You can shoot the coin. And the trick is the rail cannon doesn't deal weak point damage, but it does a lot of damage. So you can be like, okay, well, this is going to be a dedicated, it'll it'll hit the enemy at least, right?
00:46:42
Speaker
Maybe a little bit less value. The trick, keep saying the trick is, but it's very tricky. so the idea There's a lot of tricks to this trick. The enemies in front of you, you can use your movement when you throw a coin with a pistol out in order to determine where the coin will go. So if you hold forward, the coin will go further ahead.
00:47:04
Speaker
um You then switch to the rail cannon, you shoot through the enemy, hitting the coin, which you cannot see. This is ah ah you know just a skill shot.
00:47:15
Speaker
Now it'll bounce off and then hit the enemy again. And you've done double damage to the enemy with that ah cannon shot, with the rail cannon shot. Excellent.
00:47:26
Speaker
One more layer, throw another coin um before firing the shot. You throw one behind and then you pull back and you throw a close coin. So there's now a coin in front of the enemy. Now you fire and it makes a Z shape ah starting in reverse, basically, where it goes through the enemy, hits a coin back through the enemy towards the front, towards you, hits the second coin and then goes through the enemy again.
00:47:54
Speaker
And now you have destroyed whatever was on the screen like this enemy is gone. And that is insane. Insane. Because I've tried using the coin thing a little bit and even just switching guns, I feel like I do slowly and then also trying to like line up where one coin is, let alone having two active at the same time. Yeah. You really have to know the exact timings and inputs for that. So Fucking impressive. Yes, it it is ah absolutely crazy. And it's not necessary. That's not necessary to beat the game.
00:48:30
Speaker
It's just there are some really, really cool boss fights that for the people who have mastered the game will be completed instantly. That's basically basically what this boils down to.
00:48:46
Speaker
But yeah, Ultra Kill is the most hyped game, even when we were just talking about it. And I mentioned to, you know, the friend group, you know, I was going back and playing it some it inspired some people just go back and play the game.
00:48:58
Speaker
It's one of those. It's just very fun. It's kind of like when you it's been like two years and someone says full metal Aquinas brotherhood is really good. aha Like I should watch that again.
00:49:09
Speaker
I should watch that again. i need to rewatch Ghost in the Shell. I'm definitely overdue on that. hmm. Maybe Samurai Champloo. Yeah. You could probably convince friend of the show and special guest Shane to to watch through that with you. I don't think he needs excuses to watch Ghost in the Shell again.
00:49:29
Speaker
I think it was because I talked to him when we grabbed a beer the other week where I'm now that's subtly implanted in my mind. Yes. Yes. um But those were what we had episodes on.
00:49:43
Speaker
ah do you want to just Do you want to do a quick recap on what you've been playing this year beyond that?
Dave's Top Games of the Year
00:49:49
Speaker
And i'llll I'll follow up with what I put a bunch of time into and then a brief rapid fire go through for games I thought were notable beyond that um that I took a whack at.
00:50:02
Speaker
this year and i won't go into detail for each of them i recognize me monopolizing 15 minutes of yelling at the ends at people to play indie games they've never heard of is probably not the most engaging thing well it's really cool because you're this guy right and yeah i mean honestly i've been spending a lot of my time it's not going to reflect exactly to what it is on steam but dota 2 is still my main multiplayer type game experience a lot of time in that megabonk has become my replacement vampire survivors yeah so i've definitely spent less time on that than vampire survivors but but i do recommend it more yeah playing both they're different but they're both the elden ring compared to what we say dark souls 2 vampire survivors those are similar games both really good
00:50:55
Speaker
No, mark so I'm glaring at Jake at the moment. Thank you. Much better. Trying
00:51:04
Speaker
trying to think. Literally just had this open. Path of Exile 2, I think when that dropped, definitely spent a lot of time with. i apparently had 40-day streak.
00:51:18
Speaker
That's pretty good. 24% of my total playtime was this game this year. Dang, I didn't realize you played it that much. Yeah, January, February, March, April.
00:51:28
Speaker
And then I stopped, and then I opened it in December. Because I think they had a Druid's patch. i'm like, what does the Druid do? Gotcha, yeah. But yeah, if you like ARPGs, would argue it is the best one, though it may not be the one for you.
00:51:46
Speaker
There are lots of other good ARPGs as well. i like that intricacy. Grim Dawn. Titan Quest 2 is in early access now. yeah Even like original Titan Quest, old as fuck. Still fun.
00:52:00
Speaker
Yeah. But the trying to like socket things is a real motherfucker. um Last Epoch. Yeah. I know we also played within the past year or so. That one's also good.
00:52:11
Speaker
i need to go back to that at a point. But Path of Exile is if you love RPG stuff and you want new mechanics and content each season and you want to have your base decked out and have like a bunch of cosmetic because this is the only game you play and you can spend so much time into that.
00:52:31
Speaker
um You can look up specific builds, what things are more meta, what things have been changed by like a recent patch. Yeah. Because the end game is like you have...
00:52:44
Speaker
You're constantly doing three abilities maybe and trying to clear screens of enemies and bosses at near light speed and not dying. Right.
00:52:56
Speaker
But it is possible with a lot of things. It's just getting to that point. Right. But if you like to optimize or just like to look at gigantic skill trees with possibilities, it's really good.
00:53:11
Speaker
I think I've said something like this before, but I really so I don't I have not put that much time into Path of Exile. i put more. I haven't played the second, but I put a decent amount of time into the first. The constellation of skill trees does give me decision paralysis and in some ways pushes me away from the game. But I recognize and respect that it is perfect for a lot of people and it's perfect for the people who want that choice and that freedom.
00:53:37
Speaker
I'm in particular glad that it's been so successful because regardless of my engagement in this game or Diablo, I want something to really be like, I want a contender to be like punching Diablo down pretty much as much as possible because I don't want someone to auto win any genre. And there was the risk of that with like Diablo for which.
00:53:59
Speaker
I still enjoy. i i don't play it right now, but you know, I i had fun with it when it came out. I think it's a good game. That's where everybody was. I think. But yeah, then then my sentences kind of stop.
00:54:12
Speaker
I feel like I've said enough within those two that kind of encompasses the game. Yeah, exactly. And ah yeah, I haven't kept up with Diablo this year, and I am glad that Path of Exile is keeping things going, right? Like, so...
00:54:31
Speaker
Yeah. And going to something like last epoch is just another example of a completely fresh ARPG coming out. And again, if you already have something that's so established in the ecosystem, I'm sure it's very spooky to be like, and I will put forth my entry, and my version of this.
00:54:52
Speaker
Um, but last epoch I thought was really good as far as the designs and mechanics. Um, It's been a while since I've played it, so I don't have an up-to-date memory, but i think I played something necromancy and was having a good time.
00:55:07
Speaker
Oh, no, no. i was like a a darkness paladin. where like had some The void. Yeah, void was the ah damage type. Yeah. That was fun.
00:55:18
Speaker
Yeah, i had a lot of good I had a lot of fun with it. I also think that there's a good... variety in the ARPG space. Like when we're talking about Path of Exile, we're talking about Diablo, you might think, well, these games have had lots of seasons, they've had a lot of content, I feel like I'm going to be really behind on the opposite side of that things like, you know, Titan Quest, Grim Dawn,
00:55:40
Speaker
These are basically like single player co-op games for the most part. Like you're not really buying into a live service model with those. um I think that last epoch is somewhere in the middle. They do some live service things, but for the most part, they're not trying to keep up with a seasonal model like Diablo or Path of Exile do.
00:56:03
Speaker
Yeah, and at least for Path of Exile, you don't have to spend money at all. That's fair. yeah The game itself is free. Yeah. Right?
00:56:14
Speaker
um I think I spent some money to get a skin and get it couple days early, blah, blah, blah. Mm-hmm. I enjoyed it. I wanted to throw some money at it because I've been playing it for free forever. Yeah.
00:56:28
Speaker
I also bought some cosmetics at point. Maybe not the best decision, but I bought the braces. Anytime they release new content, it's just accessible to you as well.
00:56:39
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. And that's that's very fair. Diablo uses the expansion based model, so it's not all thrown together like that. And the base game also costs money. So. um Although I guess the newest expansion, i think Lord of Hatred, the one that's going to be coming out um for fighting Mephisto again, just can't keep that guy down. you know, good old Mephisto. I guess I get knocked on the previous expansion as well, which is nice. But um yeah, that is fair. My rapid fire for most games or my where I was spending time, I'm going to talk about him as much.
Jake's Game Explorations
00:57:17
Speaker
Helldivers 2.
00:57:18
Speaker
Great game. I have tons of issues with the developer at times, but it's just co-oper solo. Very fun. um At some point, I'll probably talk more about it because I am the person in our friend group who know life. So like most of my time is solo. i'm I'm actively nodding. for people who can't see me i i started pretty late compared to some other people who play it closer to launch and i've almost completed like unlocked all of the content in the game um which is a lot because they use the model of all of the battle passes in quote are you just pick which one you want to make progress on similar to like rival rivals of a3 yeah yeah um and i've almost finished all of them like it's a lot
00:58:08
Speaker
um Warframe, which I played earlier in the year. I also kind of and there's not too much to say there. And I'm going to wait until I play like the new expansion to talk more about it. Elden Ring, which we mentioned, Abiotic Factor, which we mentioned, and Monster Hunter Wilds, um which is kind of a surprise here because we had our episode on that last year.
00:58:27
Speaker
um But we had a chain of like land parties and things like that. And I just played a lot of Monster Hunter during that time, i guess, enough for it to show up as one of my most played games.
00:58:39
Speaker
um But it's good game. Go back to the episode for those. Um, and then this is where I've these are. These are my rapid fire ones. I'm just going to give a vibe for each of these Kingdom Come Deliverance to played it. Didn't beat it. Excellent game. I actually understand why some people it's like their game of the year. If you're going for that kind of classic, um not fantasy, but like realistic sort of medieval vibe, um a better game than the first. If you enjoyed the first ah two is even better.
00:59:17
Speaker
Schedule one ah co-op drug dealing game, which I played single player. I don't think they had co-op at the time. I played it like right at lunch and I actually play a lot of drug dealing simulator type games for some reason. I don't I didn't realize this until I started Italian.
00:59:33
Speaker
This is the best one. It's very funny. They basically just took all the good ideas from other games and one guy put it together and it's really good. He's continuing to develop it.
00:59:46
Speaker
he Yeah, he added cocaine recently. So look forward to that. ah Rivals of Aether 2. i We've never actually talked about this game.
00:59:57
Speaker
and I mean, in passing, I think we didn't want to have a dedicated episode because are we going to go into into later we say frames, hitboxes, mechanics? I guess we should have the character designs a little bit, but yeah there's not a story so much.
01:00:14
Speaker
Did we have an episode on Smash Ultimate? Maybe we probably did we? Yeah, probably. I'll have to I'll have to check the RSS feed. um But yeah, this one, obviously a lot of time because it's basically replaced. Smash Dave and I's post episode type game. It took me a month to two months to have Jake give it a shot.
01:00:37
Speaker
Yeah. And then he's like, OK, kind of I'm starting to see the appeal. Yeah. Mm hmm. And it is good, like from a platform. If you like platform fighters, you already know about this. And if you don't, I guess you could play Smash instead and then give this one a shot at some point if you find that you like platform fighters.
01:00:58
Speaker
um But yeah, it's a good game. Definitely worth supporting, like their model. ah Played Grounded solo because it crashed out for Dave. We gave it a shot.
01:01:12
Speaker
um And I read an opinion online recently. It was like in a PC Gamer article. Someone was like, ah Grounded is one of Obsidian's best recent games. And it's kind of crazy because it's not like anything else that they make.
01:01:28
Speaker
But it's actually like pretty true. Grounded is like an excellent survival crafter, not like to the same extent or type as like a biotic factor. It's different. But it's really good.
01:01:41
Speaker
um It's got the literally the honey, I shrunk the kids in the backyard vibe. That is the plot. So yeah, like they do a good job of theming. i remember the story being interesting.
01:01:54
Speaker
i remember enjoying some of the building. ah back when we played on I think a free weekend way back when yeah yeah it's pretty it's pretty good and the second game is in early access now haven't checked that one out escape from duck off this one's hilarious I recommend this if you have friends that play extraction shooters and are trying to get you to play extraction shooters buy escape from duck off which is a single player extraction shooter replays a duck one it's kind of great like in gameplay it's kind of great um they also have one thing that extraction shooters do not do which is if you die and then make it back to where you dropped your gear in your next life you can get your stuff back they do the dark souls type thing you can turn that off if you want to increase the difficulty but by default it's on
01:02:45
Speaker
Um, and it kind of just does. It has all of the tropes. It's very inspired by Escape from Tarkov. Um, and I put more time into it than i thought I would.
01:02:57
Speaker
Um, it's kind of great. Uh, but yeah, uh, back to the quicker things, the citizen sleeper, largely text-based, uh, Very atmospheric a game that I recommended. Halls of Torment into the survivor like ah type games. um I pretty much 100% of that pretty close to it, like maybe like 90% put a lot of time into it.
01:03:21
Speaker
um Ultra kill, which we talked about and Zato. I love the world and everything in it, which is a free visual novel I recommend a lot. um sub five hours long of reading but it is a good vibe and then night rain which i feel like we might talk about more in the future yeah i'm excited to have an episode on that ah we are still as the british would say a little early doors what does that mean for people who are not british it means like
01:03:57
Speaker
it's It's still early on, like you're showing up to the venue before the doors have opened. Okay, gotcha. type thing So we've beaten a couple of bosses, yeah but even I myself am still learning a lot as far as um how certain things can spawn and certain interactions, of mechanics and route optimization. Yeah.
01:04:18
Speaker
that Because like I've kind of always been like the third when I was playing with people so I would kind of follow them do what they did yeah and then not retain any of it and then be like I need you to res me again please yes I'm here to get carried you you show up with your juice box and you're like and you're packed lunch and ah on a stick over your shoulder I'm good to go no that was the way I felt my my first several games and still sometimes when we play to be honest
01:04:53
Speaker
but i mean you've you've improved a lot a lot a lot part of it is also just like i'm just doing a research now like i'm trying to figure things out um but compared to when the game launched which i believe was last year um or early this year i can't i'm not sure um i was waiting for a sale to pick it up i didn't own it until the holidays um They had three player mode, I think only at launch like with party and matchmaking. They added two player mode and or they added solo, I think first, and then they added two player mode specifically.
01:05:30
Speaker
um And there's that's pretty much where the game probably should have been. It's really nice to have the option to play with two people. um And it's also a really nice to have the option to play solo, although ah my impression of my solo runs has been it is hard mode like the game. Yeah, even
Night Rain's Evolving Gameplay
01:05:50
Speaker
with the modifiers and the things in your favor, like you get more runes, the bosses and enemies have less health.
01:05:56
Speaker
um It's harder. It's a lot harder than playing with. I think the biggest thing for that with the difficulty is like if I get knocked down, Jake can get me up. Jake gets knocked down. I can get him up. Yeah. If we're both knocked down, we're fucked. So that's where a third person comes in handy. But if you're by yourself, you get knocked down. Sucks to suck. You get one free res.
01:06:19
Speaker
And if you want to get another one, you have to buy it from a merchant. Yeah. And... While I think I'm half decent at these types of games, I would not trust myself to do an entire run and not to die. Yeah.
01:06:36
Speaker
And the classes are really built around. we're We're getting into the ah the the Night Rain episode, so I'll cut it short. But the classes are built around group play. um A lot of them have features that...
01:06:48
Speaker
benefit other people as well. Almost all of the ultimates are um they're called arts in this game, but I'm going to call them ultimates because they're always ultimates in anything.
01:06:58
Speaker
um They're all meant for group group play. So still encourage finding a finding friends to play through with this one.
01:07:10
Speaker
Uh, yeah. And the games I didn't get to was the Doom game, which I'm not going to get to at this point. Uh, Dark Ages, uh, cause I don't have game pass anymore. ah Hades two, which I do plan to get to.
01:07:22
Speaker
And, uh, soccer to heart of Chernobyl, which I was going to do before I dropped a game pass. And then I realized it left game pass like the previous week. So my save is just gone. And eventually I'll buy it on steam probably and play it there.
01:07:40
Speaker
but i did i did did put some time into it it was just a buggy mess and i knew they needed to fix it before i came back any final thoughts for the year of i'm glad it's gonna be a new year therefore entirely different um yeah i enjoyed um mean obviously the games that we had episodes on um looking forward to some of the things we mentioned that will hopefully be coming out in 2026 there's even like a new kirby air ride this year yeah which don't have a switch too so no thoughts but it's cool to see because that was a a big one for me growing up yeah i do think that the switch too we'll probably talk about it more in the future
01:08:33
Speaker
I consider an inevitability and that at some point it will happen. Like I will get a switch to it's just, it's on the same tracker. The PS five was, um, where it's like, prove yourself. Like I'm going to lean back and cross my arms and you show me what you can do. You show me the reason that I need this console. Um, And so far, PS5 hasn't done that. And neither is the Switch. And also the games that like were kind of exciting for the PS5. Those are coming to PC now. I waited long enough for the PC or the PS5 bar to fill that some of those things started moving down to PC. And I'm like, I don't know, guys. like The only thing I can think of is Astro Bot.
01:09:14
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:17
Speaker
It'd be very funny when that comes to PC. It's like love letter to PlayStation. Just comes to PC. Anyways, Xbox in a worse shape, but that's fine. We can talk about that more later in a future episode.
01:09:30
Speaker
Thank you guys for sticking with us through another year. Hopefully, um you know, you've got some good, good vibes through the holiday season. You had the opportunity to catch up with some of the games um that you enjoy. Spend some time with loved ones and, know,
01:09:46
Speaker
ah Had a good time and we're looking forward to some of the good experiences and things in the coming year for 2026. But as always, thank you guys for listening.
01:09:59
Speaker
And we'll see you in the next one. Have a good night.
01:10:05
Speaker
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