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A More Casual News Show
11 Plays5 months ago
Hi all, we are back with another episode. This time around I tried out a more casual approach. Let us know what you think! Do you want more structure? Any segments to return? Miss the riddle? Let us know on Patreon.com/SlightlyEMP
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Transcript
Introduction and Opening Jokes
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Gaming Block Podcast after that four minutes of nonsense. I'm your host, Andrew, and I'm once again joined by one and a half of the bad boys of video games, Jacob Ward. Rogers Dead in Miami, found by ah found by the police. Oh, I just looked at your name. yeah a crashed smelly cunt now that's not you might think there's an explicit in that it's pronounced smelacant so I don't want you getting confused smelacant it's like um it's like Dickinson you know it's not dick and son because that's just wrong it's like dicks and cider yeah cider
00:00:53
Speaker
I, um, I did the hoof arted joke the other day. Let me tell you, killed with the children because they have the sense of humor of children. And I did as well. So probably killed me. and Probably. If I said, hello, sir, my name is Mr. Arted. That's hoof arted. You'd be like, you'd be like, I don't know which one. right Exactly. yeah um You kind of kind of looked like Rich Evans there for a second. I don't know if that's where you're going for, but the way you did that laugh in the way you were not emoting.
00:01:34
Speaker
I haven't watched... spoiler alert i Oh, I can't read. you it's that The bitrate on Zencaster goes to like four. I could see your one love. Well, that's good. um i couldn't What did that, for the people just listening to audio, he held up a Taco Bell packet. What did it say on there? It said, wait, where is it? There it is. Spoiler alert. Ah, spoiler alert.
Deep Dive into Stellar Blade
00:02:02
Speaker
Spoiler alert. um This is a video game podcast, believe it or not. Let's show them. Rock them if you got them. Speaking of tits, Jake, I've been playing Stellar Blade.
00:02:15
Speaker
Yeah, I saw it. Yeah, ah the new game just came out yesterday, and I'm about already six hours in, which I guess means I like it. um No spoilers, but this game's weird. ah Did you play the demo? It's not my to-do list. Okay, okay, so you're you're thinking about playing and all that. um It's a weird game because I played the demo and I remember playing it, which wasn't all in Go, but the first thing I remember was like, oh, this feels weird. It feels slow because all the advertising and all the kind of vibes I'm getting from it, I keep getting near Automata. That's just over and over again. Can someone come out and say something about it's better than his game? Yeah, he says that about a lot of things.
00:03:06
Speaker
But I kept expecting him here. He definitely did not. He did not say anything about that game. um But it's weird because I played the demo, but I didn't play all of the demo. I played just kind of the small intro scene and no spoilers, but it's pretty like cinematic and stuff like that. I was like, okay, I'm sold. So I stopped playing. But then playing this game, I played the first three or four hours last night and I was starting to get a headache because I wanted to play it like near, but it's not near at all. It's actually, and I ah hate saying this, but it's really more like Dark Souls, which is weird. Whoa, it's the Dark Souls of near games. That's not what I was expecting, but like the combat, it's a lot of like one on one. You got to be kind of tactical about it.
00:03:57
Speaker
You know what I mean? Because Neeratomata is more arcadey and more fast and flashy. That's what I thought this game was going to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I tried playing Stellar Blade like that and I died so many times at the beginning because it's not like that. That explains the the Dark Souls memes I've been seeing from it where it shows like her going down the ladder and she does that pose where she slides down. Yeah, yeah, the guy in Dark Souls like two or three or whatever has the pointy hat That means great No, but I mean so with that aside because i I think that was a me thing that was an Expectations thing and I was expecting one thing and when you're expecting Something that's quick and arcadey and it's a complete opposite I was just like and then the beginning of the game like the first four hours is super linear, which is fine. I
00:04:51
Speaker
But again, I was kind of expecting more open, which it does eventually open up. um But you're talking about flashing things like that, and I will say this game does ooze style. And it's really weird because, again, I think the marketing kind of does a disservice to this game because obviously they were just kind of marketing, hey, look, we got a beautiful lady, you know? yeah Like, oh, look how gorgeous she is and stuff like that, which is true. and one polygon for her kids
00:05:22
Speaker
Exactly. And they jiggle obnoxiously and her butt jiggles obnoxiously. Like, I like attractive characters. Don't get me wrong. You got full circle. We really have. Remember we couldn't do it because of moral reasons and now we're back because no one cares anymore. Like three people care. Yeah. I saw some of the reviews were giving this game like a seven or a six. I was like, I know why you gave it a seven or a six. It's because you don't want to give a game like this an eight or a nine. Which I don't know if it is. This is the lollipop chainsaw remake comes out someday eventually. What is that coming up?
00:06:02
Speaker
I thought it was supposed to come out like a year or two ago. I thought it was too. That's one of the last Xbox games I got. Never played it. I know, it's still on my bucket list. It's one of those things where it's like I got to plug in the 360 to play it because it's not backwards compatible. My 360 is plugged in, it's ready to go. I don't think I have a controller for my Xbox, so I think they all broke or died. Yeah, that's the problem. My best controller for my 360 is my Halo 4 one, which I love. But for whatever reason, the A button's really mushy on it. And I torn that controller apart and put it back together and cannot tell you why it does it's like that. It just is.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah, Microsoft, man. um Anyways, going back to Stellar Blade, i there's something else that I noticed. This game is very cyberpunk, but not in the way of 2077. It reminds me of like an Alita battle angel cyberpunk, that the way the world is and the way the people are and the way that it's designed, there are some missions that I've done in this game, like side missions, where I'm like, this is straight out of Alita. So having that kind of resonate in it has been really cool because I've always wanted an Alita game. And again, it's weird because you wouldn't think it's like that at the beginning. I feel like the game does such a disservice with this opening because the opening feels like near automata, which is kind of cyberpunk, but not really at all. It's more dystopian Android future, yeah which is game.
00:07:33
Speaker
pretends to be for a second and then it goes like completely dark souls where it's linear and you're just fighting monster after monster after monster after monster and it's just you but then you get to the hub with the city and then you get to those like part of sunshine there was actually a battle where I was like I feel like I'm finding PD piranha I told Susan that. I was like, Susan, you know Mario Sunshine, right? She's like, yeah. I was like, I don't know why. In this game where I'm playing as this like Android, whatever, shooting missiles and doing sword combos, fighting this alien blood thirsty thing, I feel like I'm feeding, I'm fighting PD Piranha right now.
00:08:12
Speaker
Did you have to jump on someone's giant belly and water spew out? I didn't, but he was kind of designed like him and he was like, bruh, bruh. And then he was kind of like doing the thing where he got stunned for a second. I was like, this is just like, we just, we have no original ideas. Did he kidnap Princess Peach and or Zelda depending on your choice? He shot a laser out of his mouth. That is cool. the the game is really cool I like and I think for you and Roger both if you know God rest his soul wherever he is right now to being such dark soul fans and blood board fans and you know you guys like that style of game which I don't mind that style I actually never
00:08:50
Speaker
beaten a game like that before though, like Bloodborne, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Liza P, ah Lords of the Fall, any of those games, I've never beaten them because it always just like, it's never enough for me, but I feel like with the cyberpunk aesthetic of this game, I think it's going to carry me through to the end because I'm really, I really am. No, I never got past two hours of cyberpunk and I tried and multiple times. That gave a chance again someday. the Edge Renters was terrific. It it really made me want to explore more of that world.
00:09:29
Speaker
Yeah, not to derail too much. But my problem with Cyberpunk 2077 was it leaned into the cyberpunk sex too much. Like it was all sex. And I was like, there's so much more to cyberpunk than that. And I feel like this game, ironically enough, with its main character and how sexualized she is sometimes because some of the outfits are lingerie, basically, it kind of has that like, dystopian sex future with them, but then also the just everything fucking sucks. See, that's that's the difference. There's a difference between sex and sex appeal. Yeah, it's like you can have a game where it's like just straight up fucking or you could have a game where it's just like good looking people with skimpy outfits.
00:10:13
Speaker
Exactly. And even with- Like Batman Arkham Knight. Bringing it back. And so far, six hours in, like, again, do they have giant breasts? Yes. Does she have a big bottom? Yes. But there hasn't been any explicit sexualization of it, you know? like there hasn't been anything in the game that's like, oh, damn, or, you know, like, oh, let me just show my it's nothing like that. It's literally just we wanted an attractive character, which the man is attractive enough to I mean, he's not like shirtless. or i say
00:10:52
Speaker
it's it's It's a big double standard because we have people that complain about like skimpy outfits and like Mortal Kombat, but the men are wearing just as much if not less clothing in those same games. I'm still trying to Platinum Street Fighter VI and whenever Ryu comes on, I'm like, this is the most sexualized man I've ever seen. His muscles literally like pulse when he's fighting. Yeah, it's a double standard, but and like oh every superhero movie, it's like all the guys, they have a shirtless scene. There's no love interest with a shirtless scene in these movies, unless it's like a kick ass or something. I don't know, maybe, but... No, but... I see plenty of Thor's in Ant-Man's.
00:11:37
Speaker
ah But yeah, my initial review of Stellar Blade is really good. I really recommend it. um It's fun. And it took a while to get there. And I hate saying the, you know, get through the beginning part, but get through the beginning part ah because it has a lot of very neat things. And it does have a lot of near inspiration. Like you can tell that there's a bunch of the in the way that it like does this collectibles and stuff, too. It feels like it kind of feels like dead space also in that sense, so like a way that it for when you get the lump of fruit. it doesn't so It does take inspiration from Uncharted 4 as well. I don't know what the trend
Final Fantasy Rebirth & Spider-Man 2 Critique
00:12:13
Speaker
in video games is. We haven't done this podcast in five months, by the way. So happy happy five month anniversary. We're back. I've never actually gone, but I've beaten many games since then. One of them being Final Fantasy Rebirth, which I won't get too much into because I know you haven't played it and you probably will play it eventually. Someday. Yeah, someday. But ah if first off,
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, um, it's a 10 out of 10. First off, uh, best open world game I've ever played. And this is a month after I've beaten it. This isn't like my initial, like, Oh, I'm coming right off of it. This is, uh, I've thought about it for a while. This might be the best fucking video game I've ever played in my life. Yeah. And that's not making X. I mean, I could see that making an X is very good, but as like a person who loves JRPGs and a person who is okay with open worlds, but gets really tired of them really fast. yeah This has the best action. This has the best side quests and open world shit to do I've ever played in a video game. None of it feels like busy work, like in Zelda or Assassin's Creed or whatever. Every single thing feels like it has a purpose. Even if it gets like, and this in the second that it gets slightly repetitive, it's over. So... Yeah, no, Rebirth, 10 out of 10. It's a shame that Call of Duty sells more than that, but whatever, it is what it is. We live in the mirror. Dude, that dog side quest is great because they what they did, and I'm not a huge Final Fantasy VII fan, as I say looking up at the poster I have hung up on my wall. um I've only beaten the original like twice. There are other games that I'm like much more
00:14:02
Speaker
like have much more affinity towards like, you know, Persona 4 or something like that. But it's just, it really is the way that they've expanded these characters. I love Barrett. They do Barrett so good in this game. They feel like actual people, not just characters of what they were on the PS1. um So, and I know remake kind of was getting there, but they still kind of felt, I don't know about you, because we both beat remake. The characters felt pretty, yeah yeah and what's hilarious too is that this game retroactively, it's the opposite of the Star Wars sequels. They have a plan. yeah There's a reason why cloud is so emotionless.
00:14:45
Speaker
emotionless in the first game and they they bring it up. They say like, when Jesse died, why did you not cry? Why did you not care? You just kind of stood there. So it's really good. it's I think I thought that was kind of funny. I don't know if you if it was like a side thing you could have missed or if you you probably saw it.
00:15:06
Speaker
It's asking about like ingredients in the new game and he lists the ingredients that she lists for the pizza. And then Barrett's like, oh wait, we'll make a love potion. And he sees that. It's little things like that. Yeah. Where it's like all the things that you thought or like you thought, I mean, that's like a metaphorical you like, I thought whatever people thought were weird in the first game. Like, oh, this feels random. This feels out of place. This feels kind of monotonous. Why'd they throw this in there? Everything except for the ghost on the train. I don't know why they did that. ah and Maybe it'll come back eventually. Everything feels like there's a reason why they did it. There's a reason why it felt weird. There's a reason why they didn't show ah what's what's his name. Wedge. Die. There's a reason why they did all because it all comes back and rebirth. They explain everything. And then, of course, at the end, you're like, what the fuck happened? Because it's part two of a three part series.
00:15:58
Speaker
um But it's fairs up and he does the one we get angel again. He does. I actually read I read an interview about um talking about the endings and they're like, why did you have a Sephiroth fight at the end of remake? And then, you know, why do you have something at the end of Rebirth and stuff? And they were saying, like, Well, because you're playing a 50 hour game, how do you end the game? We don't want to just end the game with you ending at the highway and then up game over. It's like we wanted to actually be like an ending to a game. And to be fair, there's still a lot of things like game is game.
00:16:37
Speaker
You know, minor, minor, minor spoilers, but I don't think you're expecting say anything. But we don't see, like, the one winged angel, you know? We don't see him use his um final, ah what you know, he's blowing up the whole universe and shit like that. ah We don't see Knights of the Round and stuff, so there are still those big moments they're saving for the end. um but But yeah, there's my rebirth gush. ah You beat Spider-Man 2? I did. How was it? that was that was ah That was a decent game. Right? It fell a little short, but it was good. Yeah, I wish we would have talked a little bit more sooner. you know tired It's tired at this point, but you know busy life.
00:17:22
Speaker
um But i can still I still remember how I feel about that game. And I remember beating Spider-Man 2 and thinking to myself, that was good. This is the worst one. and I don't know if you feel that way, but I liked one and Miles more than two. Yeah, I think it was Miles' suit at the end that really kind of spoiled the game for me. You think so? Yeah, it was a terrible suit. I mean, it was a really bad suit, but the rest of the game, that ruined it. It retroactively made it just one so much worse. No, I thought it was pretty fun. I like what they did with the, you know, Venom and Craven and all that. I just felt like, again, every time they try to do a Venom story in a modern adaptation, it just feels really rushed. because Because the best way to do it in like,
00:18:14
Speaker
It would take balls and also- I know what you're going to say. making And I agree. Yeah. Making sure Avi Arad had nothing to do with it. But you set up the black suit in one game and or movie. Don't do Venom in the same movie. Like have him go through the whole arc. Make that be an arc. in the, it's it's an arc, it's a movie's worth of arc, just for him going to get like, you know, his life leading up to getting it, getting it and then going through the motions and, you know, how does that have two movies with the black suit? Yeah, why not? No, exactly. And that was my and why it's bad because because it was years he wore the suit in the comics before he took it off.
00:18:55
Speaker
That was my biggest problem with two was a the tonal discrepancies because Peter gets a black suit and they're trying to do the thing wherere like, Oh, he's becoming a dickhead and all this stuff. But then you do a side quest and he's like, hu Hi, old lady, how may I help you? And you're like, You can't yeah take the side quest away, make Miles do all the side quests at this point. yeah and we don't do that because You can, but there are still some Peter specific ones that only he can do. yeah um And then yeah, it was like the game. I really liked the game until Craven died. Spoilers.
00:19:28
Speaker
When Craven died, I was like, oh, he's dead. And then we had the Venom thing. And honestly, the moment right after that was really awesome. And we're going to spoil the shit out of Spider-Man 2. So if you don't want to hear this, skip ahead five minutes, whatever. armyive I think the symbiotes was kind of dumb. So that's what I was going to say. it was like I liked controlling Venom. I thought that was a really cool moment. It's the closest thing to an incredible Hulk game that we've gotten in like two decades. Right? It was so cool. It was awesome, but then it turned, and I get it, it's a video game, and they kind of did this in the first one when the Sinister Six was taking it over and the whole city was in chaos, but it really kind of turned into, it's fine, but they did it again. And it turned into a cartoon, and it was like, oh, now there's venoms everywhere. I was like, this is dumb. And it could be a callback to Web of Shadows, because that's what that game did, is it was like,
00:20:24
Speaker
It was another situation where Venom was the main baddie and he was spreading symbiotes all over the city, which it's, I don't like that, but he's creating like infinite symbiotes. is that right either In the comics, I know he's done it in the past with like the Life Foundation symbiotes and Carnage, of course, but that was like five over the course of like years. He's like, hey, I've just now been him, what's up? Here you go, everywhere. like Generally, like the lore of symbiote is like there's the one, and then it can replicate into another one. And I guess the the the thing with the Life Foundation once too is they were clones. I don't think he really had much of a hand in making those. like He did Carnage, where that would just kind of happen naturally.
00:21:13
Speaker
But I don't know. It's a very video game-y thing. And I get it. like you want to You made this big hulking symbiote character, and you're only going to fight him like two times. You're going to want to make an NPC that fights like him to reuse that, ah like make get the most out of that. I guess, yeah. I hated the Hulk symbiote. Those were the worst. Every time I hit him up, I would use my ultimate on them. It just made it trivial, but still. Of course. I don't know. I didn't. There's just a lot of things. Like I liked having the tech wheel in the first game and how you can kind of like combine them and like really do combos with them. Yeah. And then they replace that. I didn't like the new things at all. Um, the new gadgets and stuff like that. I thought I liked the symbiote moves. I thought those were fun. The symbiote moves were kind of cool. Especially when you want the ability to like take off the limits on like how many you have enemies they would attack at one time.
00:22:09
Speaker
like the grab one where like you start with three and then you unlock the ability just grab every one that's in front of you. it It feels like it feels like they just tried too much because they're trying to do they had so much from the first game and then they had miles and then they wanted to add even more and it just became a fucking mess. I knew as soon as I saw venom in the trailer was like really we're doing venom in the second game like uh-huh but And I agree, too. Like, if the game would have ended right when Craven died, and maybe you play that one at like that moment as Venom, and then it shows him, like, on the rooftop, and he's like, there's a new Spider-Man in town, and then it cuts the credits, and then you start the next game where Peter is that character. You don't have the weird conflicting thing. It's like, he is Black Suit now. yeah and it's like he's And then you just play as Miles.
00:22:57
Speaker
That would take falls. That would be so much better, but they they're not gonna do that because they're not gonna do that. I think that it was a missed opportunity to make Spider-Man Venom, or Peter, and then have Miles have to deal with that. yeah get They want to retroactively have the Harry story and I liked their relationship. I think it's great. But again, it's like really rushed and like forced compared to like everything. you got It's like, okay, all the flashback sequences are kind of whatever. And then they want to do anti-venom as well on top of venom, which is a whole nother can of worms.
00:23:35
Speaker
um Yeah, and and but that the weird thing is they make it anti-venom like not a symbiote It's like a regular suit almost but he has symbiote powers still Because he's like taking off a mask as as if it's a mask still and I'm like, what are you doing? Yeah retract it. It's part of your body is it aip I don't even know can he just flop it off on the ground in a big ooze pile. dont I don't know. I don't know. Well, we still have it in the next game. Probably not. No, probably not. It's really odd. It's a stupid Nike suit. And he also has weird lenses as well when he had the venom instead of just, you know, eyes. yeah it was ah It was a lot of weird things. And it's something to wear.
00:24:21
Speaker
You know, this is this is a much bigger discussion, but recently playing the Sony exclusives, it feels tired. They struck gold with The Last of Us, and then they made everything The Last of Us, which honestly was fine. God of War, there's no arguing that that's a fantastic game. Actually, they made everything Uncharted 4. Technically, yes, but that came out after The Last of Us. Uncharted 3. you know, Horizon, and they tried Days Gone, it's very interesting success and things like that. But now they're at the point where it is like, if you're going to do Spider-Man 2 this way, you can't have it super grounded and serious in those moments with Peter and Harry and all that stuff. And then New York looks like Ratchet and Clank. it It doesn't work. It was very much a
00:25:18
Speaker
Spider-Man 3 scenario where it felt like there was just too many plot threads going on and then Venom is there. Yeah, and Venom's here. I think it would have been I like the Craven stuff and I like the Harry stuff and I think they could have just chosen one of either of those and had a decent game. Exactly. I think you could have done Craven in this game and then like had Harry there, but have his stuff get more fleshed out in the next game and then do Venom and all that with it. like yeah It's two games worth of like story there. Or just do something smaller too, because like they did do like Kingpin and the Sinister Six. And then they just killed the Sinister Six off screen in this game. They're dead. 100%. We're not going to get Vulture or Scorpion or like you know Electro. No one. they're they're We had our time with him and they're gone now.
00:26:15
Speaker
Now we get the tinkerer. Which again, it's kind of cool that they would do that because they're building up Craven. But then Craven was like, I don't know, kind of nothing. Yeah. So I don't know. I think I like the way he died, but it was just like, that wasn't the end of the game. It wasn't the ultimate goal of the game. again possibly like like Focusing more on the symbiote than him the like it was like they would show him being a threat and then it would just like Show the symbiote being an even bigger deal. Like it was just he was never the point of focus at all Unfortunately, cuz yeah if the game went ended where
00:26:55
Speaker
symbiote decapitates him that would have been such a fucking boom and then you know three is going to be serious like you ended two here now we're gonna do the third game you know it's gonna be fucking real shit you know like and that's a decapitating people spiderman if it was spider-man as venom like up to that scene instead of it just being hairy all of a sudden yeah no it know it would have been fantastic and i just yeah that was another thing too we're like i just didn't they really, really, really wanted me to care about Harry. yeah Really did. And I just kind of didn't. I was like, I get it. I care because I know Spider-Man. That's the thing, it's like, but i don't I don't look at this Harry and think of the one from like the Miami show or whatever. written i'm just I'm just like, this is just,
00:27:48
Speaker
a guy that Peter keeps saying how we're such great friends. We're perfectly great friends. It's basically how Harry was portrayed in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Yeah, exactly. That's my great friend Harry. Who? The villain? And I just didn't care at all. um The Mysterio stuff I thought was really cool. I enjoyed that. Yeah. It's weird that it was made side-clinic because it's very like integral to Miles kind of story in this. And that's why it's like, if you would have taken, I feel like Miles is sidelined completely in this game. Like- But yeah, it is, it's funny because he has, I feel more to do with the overworld than Peter, and then Peter has more to do with the story than Miles. Like that's how they split their content. Which is, if they would have just restrained themselves from Venom, which they can't, they can't. But if they would have done the black suit, and you do it. It's so easy. It just has a huge ass hard on for Venom. Whenever they get like a wind or a chance to throw him into something, they're going to do it. Like they would have put him in Amazing Spider-Man 3 100% if they had made that movie. Well, if they still do, who knows? That's true. I wouldn't do Venom at this point. They would have got a Venom.
00:29:02
Speaker
um like
00:29:06
Speaker
Spider-Man 2 sold over 10 million units. So it's sold a shitload. and he did good I think i mean we're gonna get more ports. There's been that leak of like a Venom DLC or spin-off or something like that. So I know he's not done in this universe. Didn't it show like a little bit of him at the end or something still alive? I can't remember. No, they didn't. It was it was just like my Peter got that stupid suit from Harry and then Miles kind of swung off into the sunset as like the de facto Spider-Man of this world now because Peter's gonna take a break to focus on his life. Yeah, yeah. like much And I'm like, that's not very great responsibility of you, Peter. That was something too, where the whole like, Peter and his like, love life and shit, I just didn't care. Well, the thing is, this is this is so tired. They want Miles to be the de facto Spider-Man. You got to kill Peter. Yeah. But they they're scared too. They're scared. If you have Peter leave for any reason that like,
00:30:01
Speaker
It hurts Peter's character because Peter would never stop being Spider-Man. He has, but it was usually during times of crisis and there wasn't another Spider-Man for him to rely on. yeah yeah But, you know, that's you also usually during his formative years of like trying to figure out who he is. And now he is a... um I have that raindrop song playing in my head right now. I see him eating the hot dog in my mind. right now What's some shit about that scene I found out? Apparently there's no hot dog in the bun. It's just bread. It looks like it's just bread. because because he's I don't know if he still is or always has been.
00:30:40
Speaker
um But I guess he's a vegetarian. So he's a hot dog in it when he's carrying it. And then when he gets to the close-up shot, he they take the the dog out. and He takes a bite of the bun. Good for him. yeah Love that. Love that. I was like, oh, that's neat. That's neat little detail. Did you know, and then we're getting really derailed, but uh, uh, where that, that scene where he's jumping off the roof to try to get his powers back yeah and then he falls and hits the car and he's like, just seeing the focus. he He lands on a Ford focus. It's hilarious. Oh, it's funny. Only that scene is like a joke about how he almost didn't come back as Spider-Man too. I guess it was supposed to be Jake Gyllenhaal they had all lined up. And then, cause he heard himself during Seabiscuit.
00:31:26
Speaker
And then they're like oh he like, Oh, no, I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. I get through it for horses awful. buts Yeah. Um, anyways, going back to the game. It's just, again, i I know it's a lot of negative things happening. It's still a good game. Like I would give it a good seven and a half or eight, like really thinking about it and reflecting on it, but that that's it. You know, it is like I'm saying, I said said, it felt short. It was a long game. But very long because of how condensed the content was, it was too short. And I didn't care for, I hate that they they always feel like, okay, we're making a sequel. Let's make the map bigger. It's like, my favorite, one of my favorite game series, which you know, is Yakuza. Yeah. And Yakuza was able until like, I think fours when they started doing different areas. But
00:32:17
Speaker
Yakuza's able to use the same map over and over and over again, but you expand the map. You let new buildings open up. You look go to the top, go to the bottom. Like, you make it a more rich world. you don't You don't just add more empty buildings so you can swing around. I'm still doing the same thing, but now I'm over a house instead of a tower. It's still the same shit. And that's what the Arkham games did, I believe. wasn't it Between city and night, they reused the same world, but they just added more detail and depth to it. It made it more traversable with the Batmobile. You know, those are, those are on my bucket list. I actually have not ever played those games, which is
Gaming Industry Trends and Speculation
00:32:52
Speaker
terrible. I know it's pretty good. I played the asylum. Yeah. I love asylum a lot. That sounds great, but I've only dabbled with city and I've never played night.
00:33:02
Speaker
But that was just something that was so annoying. and I remember we talked about it, and I think you even made a comment like, well, what do they do with New York? And it's like, well, first off, it's not an accurate New York at all. The streets are more narrow, which I get to swing and stuff like that. And then like there's just city blocks gone. like They cut them out. If you make it more one-to-one and just add more to it, like I feel like that would be better than just being like, the map's bigger. Because it just screams like, you know, casual gamer. yeah It's like Ubisoft. I feel like Spider-Man 2, like the movie game, is a more accurate New York. Yeah, no, it's, yeah or like the amazing Spider-Man, I remember, like it was pretty accurate. Because that's kind of what makes me sad, is you can't swing over to the Statue of Liberty in this game, or the last one. No. You can in that, in the original Spider-Man 2, but like you'd have to like hitch a ride on a helicopter. It was really, it was like really difficult to do, but you could do it.
00:34:00
Speaker
Yeah, like and there's one thing where you actually go to it, but I thought it'd be awesome if like you could like go in the subways and shit like that or you know go into certain buildings like Grand Central Station or like the mall at the World Trade Center and stuff that you know, like really open it up and have some more depth in there, yeah but now it's like this same game that With that mall fight with Rhino and Miles Morales, but we never really had any more like grand interior set pieces in Spider-Man 2 No, and that's a that's a bigger problem with And we're kind of bouncing around a lot here, but like game development as a whole, yeah like they can't do that because they don't know how to spend money. Right. It's actually quite hilarious because I was reading something yeah going back to final fantasy seven rebirth. There's this whole thing of like, Oh, it's not selling well and shit. Like that blah, blah, blah. I was doing terrible. Uh, cause we looked at like the platinum analytics or something and there's only like a million players or something. And I was like, first off, there's more than a million people that bought the game.
00:34:58
Speaker
Second off, it's not gonna do as good as remake. And third off, the highest selling foreign fantasy game is like 10 million. So this isn't a Call of Duty franchise. It never has been, never will be. We had the same controversy with 16. Square wants it to be a Call of Duty seller. yeah It never has been, and it never will be a Call of Duty seller. um i If I had to guess, Rebirth is probably around like two, two and a half million units sold right now. But if you notice, Jake, Remake came out in 20, 20. Yep. Rebirth came out in 2024 and they're saying that the third game is going to come out in 2027.
00:35:36
Speaker
The Last of Us 2 came out. Who knows when? Who the fuck knows when the next games come out? And honestly, Insomniac is like probably the worst one to make an example of because they actually make a lot of games pretty quick. They've made the Ratchet games and Spider-Man games and Miles and stuff pretty fast. But even then, the assets and stuff that they're reusing, you can tell that there's a problem because they can't They can't do more with it. They can add more to it. It was but when it help like a portal thing for Spider-Man 2, like borrowed from Ratchet and Clank, PS5. Yeah, when they're doing the swing, which I thought was awesome. Those fights. yeah and yeah that That was my like most standout moment was the Black Cat, Marvel's fight with a oh yeah the Doctor Strange portals.
00:36:21
Speaker
And like she do like you do the combo moves flying through the portals and stuff. That was the best part of the game. They should have made that the whole like second story. um But it's just a thing of like with these Sony games, they're so fucking obsessed. with the good character models and the the big scenes and all that shit, that they push everything else to the side. They're like, oh, you know, make Queens and Brooklyn, I guess, because we need a bigger map. yeah It's funny, it's so much more detailed than the rest of the city because yeah it gets' a lot of cinematic set pieces there, but yeah.
00:37:00
Speaker
It's just really frustrating because you can still have the cinematic moments, but they don't understand how to do it the way that Square does it or the way that Yakuza does it, you know, where those games are hella cinematic and they're doing it for a fraction of the cost and they're doing it faster and better. It didn't the leak also say we're getting like the Spider-Man 3 like pretty soon too. Uh, I can't remember. The Wolverine is coming first. I know that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, which apparently that had a thing come out where I guess they're like targeting a hard R, um, like for the, like the violence level in it. That'd be cool. That's, that's something that's sold in a stellar blade. Someone's arm got cut off. He saw like the bone and the blood dripping. I was like sold. Yeah. According to the leak. Uh, so we'll have a venom, either DLC or game in 2025.
00:37:55
Speaker
Wolverine and a Ratchet and Clank game in 2020, no, no, Wolverine 2026, Spider-Man 3, 28, and then Ratchet and Clank in 29. And that's if they stick to their plan, if if nothing changes with their release schedule. I'd be surprised if, sp I mean, obviously something's going to change. They can't play not that far. um I'd be surprised if Ratchet came out after Spider-Man 3, because I feel like Wolverine is already kind of in spirit of Spider-Man. It's another Marvel property. So you're going to do like, four in a row, three in a row. That's a lot, you know? Yeah. And they get that X apparently is an X-Men game as well. That's like in the works possibly. Um, that's, it was in the leak. It wasn't anything it's been officially announced. Uh, but it was, I don't know if they're, I don't think they're doing an Avengers game. I think it was an X-Men, like after Wolverine to be an X-Men game. So probably like 2032 or something like that. The last Avengers game went really well, missing out on that market. I liked the new one, the Suicide Squad one.
00:38:56
Speaker
Yeah, that one did great too, right? Apparently, like I was looking up the metrics for Steam. I guess it fluctuates between like three to 400 players a day on it, which is not a lot for a live service game. Oh, no, it's fucking terrible. And the Joker DLC they released this month did nothing. It did not adjust their numbers at all for a player count. i'm I'm going to be honest, I will be shocked if Rocksteady survives this. but actually shocked because their last game had the whole, like, Arkham Knight was fine, from what I heard, like, haven't played it, but I know they had the whole PC port fiasco, but then it took them, like, eight years to make this game. Apparently, it's it's because there was, there was a lot of behind the scenes shit that caused that to happen. Yeah. um There was, it was like, I think
00:39:46
Speaker
it initially started its life as like a bat another Arkham game early on and then they decided to change it to um the Suicide Squad game, but because of like the shifting market with all the movies and stuff and how that was so affecting and like what they were trying to go with the image of the Suicide Squad, between the David Ayer and the James Gunn releases, a lot had to change artistically with that. And then a year of what came out, the the founders of Rocksteady left,
00:40:20
Speaker
Uh-huh. Um, no one knows why. no Like they, they've never officially stated why exactly it was they left. And they've been pretty tight lipped as far as like saying whether it was for negative reasons or they felt they didn't weren't needed anymore at that point or what, but. I can tell you this, something founders founders don't leave before their last game comes out unless it's something negative. Especially if they're going to make another AAA game studio immediately after they leave. Exactly. you don't You don't leave unless A, you're retiring, which they didn't. Or B, you fucking hate what's happening, so you leave. mean yeah and they like And they're not even like your defacto producers. they're They're like... integral to like the direction and the yeah production of the game. And it's exactly what you're saying. The art director and the other one was the game director. like They were like in it.
00:41:12
Speaker
you know Yeah. And from what you're saying, from whatever source you got this from, um it sounds like, yeah, when I saw Suicide Squad, it was like a committee made this. A committee was trend chasing. They're like, we got to have life service, got to have battle paths. You got to have the quirky, funny Suicide Squad. It's got to be multiplayer. It's got to have seasons, microtransactions, which, ah honestly, that last point doesn't even really fucking matter with all the other shit. And it's like, there's no soul in this game at all. You can tell this was a bison. It came out it was it was just too little too late for the communities that actually enjoyed those games because everyone's tired of them now It's like a tight single-player experience for that kind of a game and this is not what was offered Honestly, I think everyone's always wanted a tight single-player experience out of all this life service shit to this day and there's been Dozens if not hundreds of these games have have come out like five of them have actually been successful. That's it destiny
00:42:13
Speaker
fucking Halo failed. Yeah, infinite failed. He was was like, live service in name only there was there was no live service to that game. But that they still had the seasons they still had the evolving content like that. but Yeah, they had the battle pass is like which was like once every six months the new battle pass would come out. Yeah, yeah. But like, even then it's just like, it doesn't It doesn't work. And i I'm sure Sony right now is panicking. You can already tell they canceled the Last of Us game. Because they're seeing that it doesn't work. Well, and they canceled that Spider-Man game too. Yeah. They shook down the pitch, I guess. They didn't really cancel it. we were We were about to trend chase like the rest of the fucking eyes world. I still stand by that Spider-Man game would have been a hit.
00:43:02
Speaker
Like I think it would have been, because because it wasn't, it's not going to be a temple release like Suicide Squad if they put that out. That was like a side thing. Like they were like, oh, we could put this out a year after Spider-Man 2 to keep this engine and world relevant. And we could just reuse assets and sure play as Venom, fight in the sinister six. whoah bla bla it's like yeah That sounds fun. Play with your friends like in the Spider-Man. I mean, I guess that that's a good segue to a game that we both have been playing a lot of is there was Helldivers too. Yeah. Very successful. baby yeah as a hell of a game. And that's a game where it's it took a long time to make, but that's because they had a very small studio, which they only recently purchased, yeah that went from a top-down 2D game to so much more. And you can see where this game originally was not like this, and they said,
00:43:53
Speaker
change it to half seasons, have an evolving world, have battle passes, but they did everything right. They kept it small, and they focused on making the game fun first. yeah they They weren't like, we need to have fucking a million different skins, because I'm sure I don't know about Suicide Squad, I'm sure they have a whole bunch of skins in the battle pass. Oh, on release, there was like a billion skins. Yeah, because they're trying to chase the Fortnite market, which even then Fortnite is appealing to little children. Yeah. Any adult who plays Fortnite likes it because they're a streamer who gets money from the children watching them. Or or they're an adult who's like, oh, shit, Goku. All right. Yeah. I mean, i mean they they they get us once in a while with the tie ins and stuff like that. yeah And Fortnite is fun to play with friends once every six months. Yeah. But even then, it's just fun every night. Exactly. Every goddamn night. That's because they don't focus on
00:44:53
Speaker
the Helldivers isn't about getting XP or getting medals to level up the battle pass. For me, in my experience, I've played a lot less than you and Roger. um I've played like 30-something hours, and the the whole 30 hours, the medals have just been like a nice little additive. Like, oh, look at that. I have 100 medals. I didn't even know that. I'm in lots of shape. I don't feel like I'm ever striving to get anything more than like my upgrades. As far as cosmetics, I'm just like, yeah. Yeah, after i've got I've got a lot that I like already. And I'm just like, all right, I'll just get more because I have something to spin metals on.
00:45:28
Speaker
Yeah, because like the base stuff that they give you is already it's fine enough and it kind of also works with the whole way that the game is set up of you are this nameless soldier and you're gonna go fight for freedom or whatever. It's like, okay, I don't really care what I look like because the point of the game isn't to be unique. It's not to stand out like in the other games where you want to show off your fancy skin so then other people go buy that skin too. Yeah. The point is do the fucking objective. yeah Play the game ah you're covered in blood and guts eventually so you can't even see your armor at that point This is like one of the first multiplayer games that I've played where people want to go press square on the objective, right? I feel like most games like in destiny people don't want to do that You don't you want to play the like fun shooting part? No one wants to go capture the actual flag to when it came out was like a nightmare to try to get people to run the objective and
00:46:22
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, because they were just running around and do whatever the fuck they wanted because again and incentivize worded for it Yeah, yeah, and it's just a stupid way and it's so money-focused and you can tell ah the people that on fuck who makes hell divers i was monoal no monoli Arrowhead and ahead yeah you're right is the airhead studios. yeah You can tell they cared about just making a fun game and and then Everything the battle pass and the exhibition stuff. That was probably Sony after the bomb saying, hey, do this. And it worked. And it's interesting how fast contents come out. Like we've had three battle passes and the game's been out like what, like a little over a month.
00:47:05
Speaker
No, it's been more than a month. I think it came out in February. So it's been about two months. like Within a month, we already had two though. It was like, whoa, this is like too fast. yeah talk about well one a month you know Every time I log on, there's hundreds of thousands of people playing, yeah like two, three hundred thousand people. It's still close to like half a million. Yeah, which is great because you know, the new factions are coming. We know that the luminates, which were were in the first game are coming. So whenever that happens, it's going to bring everyone back and is a huge fucking thing. I wonder if they're going to bring the cyborgs back because I feel like that's the whole, like, I think they're going to decide works first because that's what this whole automaton push on cyberstand is for. Because cyberstand is where we like had enslaved the cyborgs. That was their home world. And they were in the minds at cyberstand.
00:47:51
Speaker
And that was their initial push in this new like, uh, invasion that they had. So I think once we like complete whatever objective there is here, then the cyborgs are going to join the fray. I fuck, I fucking love that you even know that because like hell divers one was a big Vita game. Yeah. And I, I knew about it because I was as and slightly still am, but obsessed with the Vita and I had like every big game on there and I played hell divers one a little bit on the Vita, but not much. And I was like, Oh yeah, it's, it's the top down shooter. It's fine. It's kind of cool that you put a turd down and then if your teammate walks in front of it, they die. yeah There's friendly fire in the first game. So like, Oh, that's kind of cool. And then when hell divers shoes coming out in the original, than the I remember back at during summer's game fest when they showed it, I was like, Oh, this is awesome. And everyone was like, what the fuck is this? They're just like, as a and then even when it was coming out, I was like, Hey guys, hell divers too. And you're like, huh?
00:48:48
Speaker
like yeah It's like, I pre-ordered it two months ago. Like, this game's going to be us. And then thankfully, it was awesome. And then, yeah, it's just taken off and gotten so many more fans and things like that. So Sony really got a big W with A, buying that studio, and then B, producing that game correctly, which I think that's something, talking about PlayStation specifically, even though with Jim Ryan, now that he's gone, rest in peace, um we heard about how they have like 10 live service games in development. It still shows, even though they're chasing that trend, that they are very specific with what the game's going to be and how it's going to be. They're not afraid to cancel the Last of Us live service game, which you would think would be the biggest one. I mean, they worked on it for like four years or something like that. They worked on it forever and they said, no, not good enough. And then with this one... no
00:49:41
Speaker
Yeah, which is hilarious because Destiny 2 has been, from what I've seen on that side, a fucking dumpster fire. It's like for the last couple of years. Yeah, which I think both those games are still pretty popular. So like, you know, take, yeah, maybe not so well, but still making money. I think that they did themselves a big disservice and going back and not keeping that one character dead after that big old like story where he died, the Nathan Fillion character. Well, I think Destiny, I mean, we're not even going to get this. Destiny 2 has a lot of problems. I think the way that they've done story and how the story goes away is a fucking really stupid thing to do because people like me are never going to get into it because I'm like, I know there's content that's gone. It's just gone. I can't play those missions. The nature, I guess, of it. They just don't want to keep the servers up for that information for that long. It's so dumb. Games like, I don't know, I've been playing a lot of content since 2014. At the end of the day,
00:50:39
Speaker
out of 20, 30 years, it's not gonna be like, you know, when you dust it off, the old Nintendo, Pop Mario 3, and it's all there. You're gonna pop that game in today, and none of it's gonna be there. Sure, but there are games like Final Fantasy XIV, where the the concept from 10 years ago is still there. reborn Rebirth, of course, not the original Final Fantasy XIV. They fucking took that out back and shot it. But Sense of Realm Reborn in 2014, I'm playing through it, and it is the exact same missions from the beginning. And you can play that whole game straight through, A, solo, and B, as the content was released. They have their seasonals and shit, which I get, but taking away the core story and replacing it, that's just so dumb. You go to- you're never gonna get new people, ever.
00:51:28
Speaker
And they've already talked about how, like, they're gonna make a Destiny 3, which is hilarious, because one of the reasons that they didn't like Activision was because Activision made them make Destiny 2. And now they're realizing, oh, shit, maybe that wasn't a bad idea. To be fair, it's been, like, what, almost a decade of Destiny 2? It's been a long time. And you can tell, too, that when you play that game, that is an early PS4 game. Yeah. Like, that is not a PS5 game. It doesn't look like it. It doesn't feel like it. It would have been, like, 2016 or 17 when it came out. I mean, because I know Destiny 1 was a PS3 game. And I was working with Walmart when it came out. So that was in 2016. 2017. August 28, 2017. So it's not even that early a PS4 game. No, mid it's about midlife. That's probably reusing a lot of assets from the first Destiny, so they could just pump it out a lot faster than it would have been if they made it from scratch. Oh, probably.
00:52:26
Speaker
um But yeah, it's just, I don't know, man, it's, I think that whole mantra of games and whole, and it's not even just multiplayer games, so did you hear about the crew? I heard something about it. So the crew was a Ubisoft game that was online, but also was single player, and they shut it down. But even if you bought, like it's been out yeah, it's felt like, yeah, that was a PS4 early Xbox One game. They shut down the servers, even if you bought the disc, you cannot play it. It's gone. Completely dead. Same with digital. It's going to be how it is with Destiny. It's just going to be gone. Yeah. And I think people realize there's a reason the crew failed was because, A, there's better racing games, but B, I never bought the crew because I knew it was always online and I knew there was going to be a day that this happened, especially with Ubisoft. And sure enough, it happened.
00:53:25
Speaker
And it's like, that's why I was hesitant about buying games like steep, because I'm like, you're going to shut it off. You're gonna shut fucking, what's that one pirate game that just came out? that School and Bones. Did it come out? Oh yeah, it came out. It came out. It's on sale for $30 already. I don't know if you've seen the memes where it's like Ubisoft and it's like, you know, if ah buying isn't owning, then pirateing isn't stealing. ah my dad i And then this is like an upset Ubisoft, man. Ubisoft is the most amazing company because A, they, they,
00:54:00
Speaker
rallied around and they had a great they started becoming the developer in like 2015 2016 Especially when they're getting the buyout when that one company was trying to buy them out They had the great rally around the flag and like no we're for gamers. We love games and all that stuff We make dance it was it was after like the division two Yeah, where they just completely were like beginning of like Xbox one ps4. They were like that was yeah like top of their game and Yeah, like even with like, they're putting out small stuff like trials and big stuff like Assassin's Creed. There's like, yeah all of it was great. They had the Rayman games back and stuff like that. They had the ah Ubisoft Creates. They were making actual games and then I don't know what happened. I'm sorry, a Fortnite. They chased live service and they made everything into Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed. Tom Clancy died.
00:54:57
Speaker
And here we are. Ubisoft is arguably the worst of them. They haven't brought back Splinter Cell. Out of all these franchises that they like persisted make, Splinter Cell never came back. Well they have. It's coming back as a VR game. i See, it's not a real game. It's going to be like an experience. Because that's the thing with with VR. There are real games, but 90% of them are like what I would consider an arcade game. It's a substance. And I'm going to say this with the asterisk of, I have not played it yet, but I do own it. That Assassin's Creed VR game that came out, critical ravings. Yeah.
00:55:38
Speaker
like people saying the best VR game. It's not an experience. It's broken up differently because you play as Ezio, the Native American one, and then ah Cassandra from Odyssey. So there are like, it's it's not like a fluid story. it plays all ti
00:55:57
Speaker
Um, but people from the reviews I've watched and from like YouTubers and stuff like that, that game is the best VR game that people have played, like one of the best. And it's not like just a beat saber or something like that. It's an actual video game. So when it comes to Ubisoft and the VR games and Splinter Cell, I actually have faith that it's going to be a deadass good game. That being said, I still want Splinter Cell on my TV to play. Yeah. Especially after the Hitman games, which are so good! And... Metal Gear 5. Yeah, like... There's obviously a market for it. What are you doing? Yeah, Konami, what are you doing?
00:56:34
Speaker
And the answer is Splinter Cell can't be made into a multiplayer life service game, so we're not gonna make it. That's the answer. The best we get is that whatever fucking mobile game and they're like, hey, look, it's it's Sam from Splinter Cell. Whoa. like what I think that game died too. I think they shut that down. I don't even know what it was anymore. it's no he would There was like a Chibi Sam in it and I was like, okay, cool. That's the only Splinter Cell news we've gotten in a decade. Yeah, I mean, I threw us a bone. I said a little bit, but I do think they are the worst AAA developer now. Honestly, they treat Splinter Cell like Microsoft treats Conker, which, to be fair, I don't know what people want them to do with Conker. Like, I think it Conker is kind of a one and done idea. ah But it already had a sequel. Bad Fur Day was a sequel.
00:57:26
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. Yeah, two tails. And then they had the remake slash sequel kind of weird kind of thing. yeah and then And then they had a spark or what what was it? Project Spark. And they had the DLC in that, which I thought the first DLC was fine. And then they never finished it. They were just like, oh, we're working with the game's dead. No more. Okay. um The remake on the original Xbox, that was the first, like, that's where Tetsuya Nomura got the idea for the Final Fantasy 7 remake. He's like, wait a minute, this is a remake and a sequel at the same time? He's been making that game since then, that's why it's so big now. 15 years later, I got it, guys. He didn't pitch it until it was, like, a 300 plus hour game. It's hilarious because you're joking about that, but actually, in their views, he said, we've been making this game since, like, 2010.
00:58:18
Speaker
why mean it's I believe it it's because they like made that tech demo for PS3 and then with no intention of making that and then people were like, oh my God. And they're like, wait, people want that? Oh, well, let's finish this project we're doing and maybe we'll come back to that. but They could of ti them there keep talking about six now. And it's like, I saw something where they're like, if we remake six, it'll A, be the biggest game that's ever happened and B, take 15 years to complete. And I was like, that's fair. It is a very big game. All I, all I ask is, is for a, uh, path traveler style remake of the first six of final fantasies. That's, that's all I want that. Or honestly, they did with dragon crest, dragon quest one. That's beautiful of the game. I don't know. Um, the 3d remakes for final fantasy three and four are awesome. If they did that for once to port those.
00:59:17
Speaker
I read that, or I watched a video that the team that made three and four, they were going to do five and six, but then they made, what is it called? ah They made their own game after. It was kind of like their proving ground and then they went and made their own. Was it a sequel to four? We made like a 3D sequel to three or four. No, it was a sequel to four. time by Well, you're talking about the after years. Yeah. Yeah, I they might have made that too, but they made like their own original game after there's a style of a 3d game It was like in that same engine. Yeah, cool. I haven't played I've been Platinum those were on the DS, right? Didn't that like initially what they're made for? They're on Steam still. Yeah, I have them on iPhone
00:59:59
Speaker
we' on and please Honestly, it's probably better to play them on the Delta emulator than it is to play the native iPhone releases in those games. I bet you it is. I honestly bet you it is. um I've been still going through my journey. I i completed and platinumed Final Fantasy 2, which a lot of Final Fantasy card cores regard as the worst Final Fantasy game, which it probably is, but that's not saying like how bad it is. Final Fantasy 2? 2, really?
01:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, because I want to platter them through all of them. And I've done one and two now, and now I'm on to three, which I like three. I'm only like two hours in, but um I like it so far. But two was interesting. We got one, four and six in the States, right? Before yep they released them all. Okay. Yep. Yeah, those were our one on the NES. And then they were actually porting three. But then the SNES came out. So they went to four instead. Another situation where they had gone and just never released it. And then they skipped out on ah so far without beating four and only playing through half of six. And I'm gonna play through half of it too, but five is my favorite SNES one so far, um which oddly enough, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has a lot of nods to five in it, which I fucking loved. I texted you guys something about it. And of course you guys who have not played five were like, huh? But I was fucking over the moon by it. I was happy for you.
01:01:28
Speaker
um but But yeah, Tool was fine. It's an interesting game. It did a lot of weird mechanics, and I think it's beneficial that I'm, I'll admit it, I'm using a guide for all these, because I'm getting the platinum, which means I need 100% it, and you have to do, fight all the enemies, so I'm like, I'm not gonna fucking miss something. You have to open all the chests too, so I'm like, I'm just doing a spoiler free, 100% guide, so all the things that might've been annoying, like, because there's a password system in that game where you have to learn keywords, and then like, say them to other people. I just read the guide of what to say. So I never struggled with that. I could see how it could be really annoying, though. You call me cheating for just looking up the passcodes on the locks in Resident Evil 2. I think it's a little different. I think it's a little different. Because eventually I will get there. It's not hard. It would just be annoying in Final Fantasy 2 to keep doing it over and over and over again. As part of the game, Resident Evil 2 was finding the piece of paper
01:02:26
Speaker
um No, but I thought it was fine. It was an OK game. ah and Not really memorable, but I think what I'm going to do as this obsessed fan now is what I did with the Yakuza games. I'm going to platinum through them on PlayStation all. I want to do all 15. I know him' on the beater I know I'm not going to platinum 14 and 14. I've been playing through slowly. I just want to get through the story on there and then 11. I don't know. I'm going to for 11. Hopefully by then they'll do an offline version of 11 and re-release it. They've talked about doing that. They did it with Dragon Quest. Uh, so that would be awesome. But it's been long enough. Yeah, no, definitely. that Yeah, definitely. Um, I want to replay them. Oh,
01:03:13
Speaker
you release it raw oh please. That'd be great. Um, have you ever seen the combat for 11? I don't think I've even seen 11. Oh, you would love it. i You would love it. There's a stamina system in 11. I hate that. As an MMO? Oh, it's great. You know how- It's like putting a stamina system in Zelda. Oh, wait! They fucking did. you You know how people called Final Fantasy XIV the worst fucking game ever until A Realm Reborn? Yeah. The original XIV was just 11, 2.0.
01:03:50
Speaker
But it was acceptable 2003 when it came out. You're playing on your tiny little box in the living room, my little PS2 modem with your mom, who was very rich, who could pay for your online. We got all the AOL minutes. I couldn't even i couldn't even get anyone in my family to pay for a Club Ping one for me, let alone anything like that. Right? Yeah, no, no way. ah but But yeah, that's fine thiss my plan of attack right now. and I'm like somebody like hit him. I just feel like I need to play some life or I have a more consistent schedule and then I can just like, oh, this is game time now. Well, that's the thing is like it's been wildly inconsistent. ah I platinum one in a heartbeat to took me six months.
01:04:37
Speaker
and three yeah And three, I've played, but well the and n NES ones, they're like to 100% them on these Pixelry Masters, they're like 12 hours max. I'll tell you, if you want if you want a good Christmas gift idea for this Christmas for me, for my birthday, I don't know, it says Spider-Man. A physical copy of the Pixelry Masters would be pretty up there. Oh, where you going? There take look
01:05:07
Speaker
There we go. or yeah There it is. You're playing on a Switch. There it is. I'm not. um I was actually not going to get this, but then I thought in 15 years, is this something I'd like to have physically? And my answer was yes. So I got it for Switch. Is it like a limited thing? Or do you have to buy it straight from them? No, I got this on Amazon. Oh, OK. Yeah, it's a bit expensive. um like a hundred dollars It's like Yeah, it's like 80 bucks i was after tax and all that stuff. um But that's i was like that's what put me off initially from it is it's like what charging like 10 to $15 a game for games that have been out for ah longer than us. Sure. But I feel like with and know this sounds stupid, but like they read it on the music and the graphics do look amazing. And with those
01:06:03
Speaker
with those games, that's most of the game. And then there's just a lot of quality of life things like the speed up of the battles and you can sprint everywhere. Again, it's like little things, but for me, it's worth it. And they didn't charge like 40 bucks for two of them like they did on the PSP. ah So I was like,
01:06:26
Speaker
I'm already here. I've bought these fucking games three times now. I bought them all on Steam. I bought the collection of PlayStation and I have it on Switch now. So I'm in too deep. But that was my that was my justification. You said you never played any of them, any of the pixel games. I tripled one, one time and I didn't know what to do. I just went to the desert and went in the castle, got lost and died. and If you want my anger honest recommendation, my honest one would be try one because it's the most simple. It is a little confusing. Look up a guide. it's That's what they expected you to do back then anyways, was to buy a guide. Also, I don't think the physical for PS4 exists anymore.
01:07:12
Speaker
It might not. I think it was an Asian exclusive. Was it? I think so. I think this was a European exclusive. I don't think this came out in America. I looked up a on Google Shopping because I was having trouble finding it. The only listing I could find for a physical PS4 one is $1,950 on eBay. I want to do that. oh Yeah, this said that like the subtitles are English and Thai. I don't think it was an American release. and Like I said, the fiscal release for for my birthday would be pretty cool. I'll look for it. I'll look around. that's one of the thanks du there I feel like we get shafted a lot in the States is with fiscal releases. Especially for a game show. But um I recommend play one, try it at least. You don't have to beat it, but try it. I probably have everybody playing through it. Do I?
01:08:07
Speaker
get the four crystals kill the bad guy yeah ah ze it yeah i mean it is it's the it's the most bare bones classic thing in the world the RPG archetype um and then uh Two and three are different and cool in their own retrospects, but just jumping to four, five, and six, the SNES ones, you're going to have such a better time. That's kind of why they skipped to those ones, right? I don't know why we didn't get five, but... No, the only reason they skipped them was translation. It just took so long. Because three, there is a copy of it somewhere that's almost fully done.
01:08:45
Speaker
but the s andnes had released at that point but so they're like censoring them too so there was like rewrites that were happening with ho Yeah, ah but they just decided to go with four since the Super Nintendo had come out and they didn't. It's really interesting, actually, because listening to the interviews, they're like, we didn't know. We didn't know that there's going to be a new console and we also didn't know what it was going to be like. And we didn't know that people were going to abandon the old console. So we're like, oh, it like Nintendo wasn't going to make another console because then yeah the Genesis forced their hand because everyone was like, well, see, this is so much better than the Super Nintendo come out. It's like, is it?
01:09:23
Speaker
And then with five, it was just, it was just a time thing again of like, choose one or the other five or six. And they're like, Oh, go ah six, I guess. Um, but yeah, yeah, you should, you should play through those in some way. And then I'm on, I think we probably made out better way getting six. Uh, probably. I mean, as much as I like five, six is. probably the but but it's the best to I think it was probably one of the most important releases in the Final Fantasy franchise in the West probably and I don't think like I don't know if it's seven would have had that install base initially if it didn't have
01:10:03
Speaker
Six. well lead up to it Well, it's actually interesting because when six came out, it wasn't super hot when it came out in America, or three. When 553 came out, it kind of had like mediocre sales. But it's not working. And people were like, it's okay. It was actually after save seven came out that they went back to three. okay And then they're like, oh, this is a good game. But at that point, people just wanted 3D games. So six has never really had its time to shine. ever I don't know. It's weird because like all ah all you know of like Final Fantasy, like just growing up like early YouTube was the opening sequence and music from Six has always been like, and just the title music as well from Six or slash three um was like the Final Fantasy thing for the longest time. And I think that just is a case of- It's funny enough, I never really saw much of Final Fantasy 7 except for Aerith getting stabbed.
YouTube & Rooster Teeth Retrospective
01:10:56
Speaker
well yeah i mean That's whatever it's like the only thing I know of that game going into the remake. um It's funny about Final Fantasy 3 and you're saying that I've noticed that like the early people on YouTube, they kind of dictated their opinions as facts when really it was just these super hardcore nerds that happened to get there first. Because because general opinion, it' so much general general opinion does not agree with the angry video game nerd or the nostalgia critic or any of these people who say, oh, these things suck. And then you realize, oh, wait, people don't agree with this. The angry video game nerd is usually not
01:11:33
Speaker
picking on mainstream topics. No. So that's that he he gets a pass. because he has like make he He goes over the top, but it's like stuff that deserves over the top criticism sometimes. You don't feel too bad about it. I was about to say, too, with those two that I mentioned, they are playing characters, too, which they understand, but their viewers did not. I don't know what Nostalgia Critic is, though. I think he plays up. I think they're genuinely his opinions in those videos, though. I agree. I agree. I don't like the Nostalgia Critic at all. I don't like it. I watch his videos. Yeah. But then the more I watch them... My favorite era of YouTube was when
01:12:18
Speaker
Everyone had a let's play channel that wasn't a let's players for a while. So you just got to hear them like chat and talk and be real for a bit. And, um, Oney, uh, he had an Oney plays if we just shit on the nostalgia all the time. It's so funny. Uh, like I will say, I don't know if they still do any plays or not, but it's just fun every now and then going back to like, uh, order series that they did of games and just yeah listening to their conversations. No, definitely. Definitely. Uh, this is kind of gaming related, but, um, Rooster Teeth is officially dead. Yeah. i keep seeing that's weird they I keep seeing them post on like TikTok and shit. And it's like not really endearing stuff at all. It's just like, well bye. We did it. We've been but like, we'll miss you. And I'm like, okay. If there was one video I saw that started kind of like melancholy and I was like, it started like, it showed like blood gold and then Ruby and all that. I'm like, Oh man, there's all this stuff. And then it was just like.
01:13:17
Speaker
it was then it just got like kind of Fortnite stupid music like I was gonna say it was heading with this it's kind of indicative and I don't I don't know the financials all that but I know that they got shut down by the parent company and stuff so you know whether they're doing well or not if they were independent would they be shutting down I don't know if they would actually be but It's kind of indicative of their problem of like, even with this whole goodbye thing, the videos I've liked have been the goodbye video, but I skipped an hour 20 ahead to so see Jeff talk for 10 minutes. yeah um And then they released a new one or like one of their last ones where they brought Bernie Mac, Gus and Jeff and they play Bernie Mac. um
01:14:01
Speaker
Matt's my bad, not Mac. um And they played Blood Gulch, and they're just playing Halo. That was it. And I was like, I like this. But then what you're saying with all the like, hey, the cast of characters, I don't fucking know. And even when I was watching them, the so the point that I stopped watching was that they're just getting these random fucking people, because they were acting like it wasn't the personalities where where you're keeping up the name more so than the people. Yeah. Or like, I watched, you know, Funhouse is a part of it. And, you know, they're shutting down too, because Rooster Teeth owns Funhouse. And I saw Funhouse say their goodbye. And I was like, I know Adam, which he's gone, of course, because he was a part of the whole Ryan situation, stuff like that. yeah And like, Bruce left and, um you know, like Spool left a long time ago. But they had like 15 people in the goodbye shot. And I knew two of them.
01:14:53
Speaker
ah Elise and um her husband, who have been there since the beginning, and that was it. And I was like, okay, this is sad that the name's dying. These companies died a long time ago. Let's Play died a long time. I mean, they at least still had, like, Michael and Jack in them in there. and It's like if they said Smosh was dying, it might be Smosh still a thing. I mean, it is now, I guess, because they're back. Anthony and Ian are back. They make videos. I mean, even classic smart before they like left, it was still was like whatever at that point.
01:15:25
Speaker
that's like with time' just like oh It's like Ray William Johnson. he He was the first one to realize this isn't going to work because he tried to have the the cast of hosts and stuff like that. Like, I don't know if you. involved I'm not. um I don't know if you watched equals three, but like when he was going out, like the last 20 or 30 episodes, if you look at the archives are different people. And he stopped because he realized this doesn't work. He was the show, not the show. It was him. I remember when they started doing that and then I was just kind of like lost interest of the channel. Yeah. Cause it wasn't, it wasn't about watching the funny videos. It was about Ray reacting to the videos. That was the funny part. Like doing cash point O without Tosh.
01:16:10
Speaker
Exactly. So, you know, re Rooster Teeth, you will be missed. I don't know about you. I enjoyed my Matar TX's a couple of times. I had fun. um It's kind of like ah the death of Monty, it was kind of like a pivotal turning point of that company. Not saying his death was the reason it started being bad. just like that was It was around that time when Rooster Teeth would like started to change. to where I feel like they were There were like three points that killed Rooster Teeth. Well, four actually. There are four. The first one was Monte dying because that was a huge thing, especially like if you read the behind the scenes stuff of what started happening, people immediately started changing the way they're doing things and immediately started changing direction because he was kind of like the driving force of it. And the second he was gone, people were filling that power.
01:16:57
Speaker
It was Monty leaving. I really feel like it was Ray leaving yeah because he was the first achievement hunter to leave. And then they they tried to replace him, but it didn't work at all. And that's when they started getting a lot of
Video Game Adaptations in Media
01:17:10
Speaker
people in there. They're like, we gotta do some. Ray Twit died. Bernie leaving. And I think when Bernie left and sold the company, that was the writing on the wall of like, he knew. And he even wrote something where like, this When they announced that Roosty was starting down, he was like, this is sad, not surprising. Like, I knew it was gonna shut down. And then it was the whole Ryan and Adam thing, that whole controversy, that that's not why they shut down, but it was like the straw that broke the camel's back of like, this is it, you know? People didn't watch anyways, now people kind of hate you and not watching. um Yeah, so rest in peace, we hardly knew you. Actually, we knew you a lot, very pivotal to our childhoods, but um you know, I'm sure they'll, I feel like
01:17:57
Speaker
I ah can't say for like the no name faces, but like, you know, Michael, Jeff, Jack, Gavin, I mean, Gavin's already got us. up gavin's got somo guy's like i still I feel like they're big enough to where any of them could start just streaming and they'll be fine. You know, heck just hop on a stream with Ray. Like, I'm sure he'd be like down to like chat with someone from there. I don't know if he cut ties with everyone, but No, no, no, no, no. he like I pop into Ray's streams once in a while, and he still talks to them. so and yeah he's friends I think he's they're all genuinely still friends, yeah except for Ryan. they don't yeah to Which understandably, I understand why you would not. A, he was the new guy, and B, he turned out to be a pretty bad guy. um But yeah, so. I used to think about a lot of Ray's streams. I see like clips of recently. there's just like There's always just some random like Vtuber girl that's in there with him.
01:18:53
Speaker
Mm hmm. It's chilly. Your name or TV is Yeah. ah But it's it's just really funny because like every clip, the only thing I know her for in those dreams is to egg him on to do the classic achievement hunter stuff. And when he does it, she gets happy. I love that. I love that. He made the Tower of Pimps and she's like freaked out. I saw that clip too. Yeah, I love this arc that I mean, honestly, Ray did it. the but It's very smart guy. in I'm so happy for his success because he's so genuine too.
01:19:27
Speaker
There's, there's no other person. There's no other internet personality that I've seen that deserves it more than Ray. I'm like, yeah, he just, he just seems like a cool dude. He wants to play games and he's not like, it doesn't seem like he's driven by money or anything. It seems like a cool guy. Um, but, but yeah. Um, any other games you've been playing recently or, uh, I watched the fallout show. How was that? That was very, very good. As someone who is a Fallout fan and name only, whereas I love that world and lore, but never really got into the games at all. yeah it's It's really good. Yeah. I think it does a great job of staying faithful to the look and the lore of the world. So nothing in it, like they said it's canon to the games too. Yeah.
01:20:23
Speaker
They also said it wasn't going to make any of the optional endings definitive, but they kind of did with having the Brotherhood of Steel in it. There's like, I guess now narrow down Fallout 4's endings to just a few that could be canon. yeah Yeah. Other than that, like my only complaints was there's not a lot of creatures. So you get like the ghouls, you get the Gulpurs, and you get one irradiated bear. And that's like it for creatures. Gotcha. So you don't get death claws. Oh, there was ah some radroaches at one point. Well, the good thing is there's nothing like it's wildly, yeah it's wildly popular and it's already got renewed for season two. So I'm sure they have a bigger budget now. So they, cause it's all practical, isn't it? Like, isn't most of it like the, the power i ah to my knowledge is all practical. Cause it looks great. Like it's, I don't know how they did it, but it looks like perfect. And I wish they would do stuff like that more.
01:21:17
Speaker
Um, and they did the Google wall practically, of you know, other than his nose. who they did Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. those But, uh, he's, he's looking nose off. yeah i mean Honestly, props to him. Like he'd be great. Uh, but no, I, uh, his art was like. the most interesting out of all of them. I thought it was going to be solely like Lucy's show. And it's not. It's it's all three of your main characters, Maximus, Lucy, and the ghoul. They all have their own like stories and
01:21:50
Speaker
plot lines and everything kind of like they don't ah lean towards one or well, they kind of lean towards the goal a little bit more in this ah the backstory department and everything. Because he's and a survivor from when the bombs dropped 200 years ago. So he's been around for all of it. Yeah. And they flashback to his life like leading up to the Great War. And that's some of the more interesting stuff because they don't really ever explore a lot of the pre-war stuff and fall out in the games or anything like that. I know him for like for a second. Because you you go into the vault when the bombs are dropping. But you kind of have that just a tiny tiny bit like naming the baby and all that stuff. because then yeah job Yeah. But it was. his name I don't remember. It's Sean.
01:22:42
Speaker
I beat that game and I'm fine. I think that's my problem, too, is that I, like you, was always a Fallout fan in name. I tried three. I don't know if it just hit me at the wrong time. And I think it was, too, like I played Fallout 3 when I was playing like Mass Effect and shit. yeah And I was like, oh, I like Mass Effect and Persona and Final Fantasy a lot more than Fallout. So I would have played games like that. I don't like Western RPGs. I didn't i don't really like Skyrim or anything like that. yeah So I couldn't get into New Vegas. I couldn't get into 3. But then Fallout 4 was like arcadey enough to where I stuck with it. And it was nice that your dialogue options were voice acted in that game too. Yeah. there There were a lot of quality of life things. And I get that it was kind of like milked down a little bit. But I i kind of like that that it was. um But after beating 4, I was like, OK.
01:23:36
Speaker
I played it, didn't love it, I guess this just isn't really for me. ah so when ah you can go ahead no i was go The one thing about this show that's interesting is that since Bethesda has taken over Fallout, all of the games that they have made have been on the East Coast. And Obsidian was all West Coast, including for New Vegas. This show is West Coast-based. Oh, really? So it's it's in and around the wasteland. it's It's very much in the world of Fallout 2 and New Vegas. Like, that's the kind of area that it plays around in. And that's, I think, where a lot of, like, you know, that's that's where it gets me, like, this is actual people that care about the franchise. They're not just like, oh, well,
01:24:24
Speaker
Fall of 76 was in Washington, and so we're going to be in Washington. Yeah, we want to sell more copies of Fall of 76, so put it there. Yeah, yeah no totally. I will say the Brotherhood of Steel having their airship on the West Coast is a little interesting. They would have had to move everything over. And maybe they did. And I've seen a lot of memes where it's like them putting Liberty Prime in season two. It just shows. Liberty Prime walking all the way across the United States to be in season two. And it's that like high speed ah walking through the forest and Skyrim footage.
01:25:02
Speaker
yeah but
01:25:07
Speaker
they really really to bed ah I was going to say that, you know, talking about game development too is because that, that final fantasy interview really stuck with me where they're like, you know, we build our assets to produce games and we keep our team to where we can make the next final fantasy seven game in three years. And it's like, That's so important because what we're experiencing right now is not normal. Waiting five, six, seven years for a sequel is unheard of in video games. One thing I think too is COVID was a cause and an excuse for a lot of this. ah I think it's a big excuse because we see games that were developed
01:25:52
Speaker
on pace and fine through COVID. Rebirth being an example, most of that game was through COVID. yeah And they were able to make it in four years. Exactly. And it's like, we had to get special access to go get it day of. That's because I worked there at Target. That was the only reason we had to get there early. It was great, actually. It worked out very well for us. But like, these, because Fallout now, it's so unfortunate, you know, they had the ah next gen remasters come out in time with it. So I guess that's something. And they do have 76 too, which I saw, I saw something but saying. Everything else went on sale for real cheap when the show came out. the The next gen update for Fallout 4 was unfortunately a little behind the show coming out. Yeah, yeah. but But I think there's still enough momentum from the show to bring people back to that.
01:26:41
Speaker
it's it's like cyberpunk had the benefit of coming out with its DLC around the time that was got a drudger's whatever edge runners yeah um and when i came up it was big for the yeah and and the game was able to It was able to release just in time for them to get that big boost in sales. And now there's revisionist history of, I seriously have seen people say Cyberpunk's always been good, which just makes me fucking die on the inside lap. though There were people even at the time that were defending that game. Well, I think if you had like the highest end PC in the world, it was good. But that was it.
01:27:19
Speaker
um Go play the Xbox One version. I dare you. I dare you. but Make my day. ah But it's just really unfortunate, because even with like this Fallout thing, I hope you like 76, because the next Fallout game's fucking coming out never. Never. Yeah. They said fives after Elvish Roll 6. It's really ridiculous. It's ridiculous for these companies to pour so much resource into a game like so Starfield for it to come out mediocre.
01:27:50
Speaker
And you would hope that they'll learn by now that but bigger doesn't mean better. Bigger doesn't mean more sales. Unless you're Rockstar. Because Red Dead 2 sold a fucking shitload and it is bigger and longer and more. But every other game. that's like And that's the only game they made since GTA 5, which was over a decade ago. And I'd argue, i don't I don't know the exact numbers. I know GTA 5, it's their money maker, money printer, never stops. But like with Red Dead 2, if they would have released their bullies and LA noirs and all those other games, would they have made
01:28:30
Speaker
a comparable amount of revenue as they did with our Red Dead 2, but us as gamers got 10 different awesome experiences instead of one, which if you don't like Red Dead 2 like me, you're just shit out of luck. You don't play Rockstar games anymore. Yeah. Because you got the one. Well, that's the thing is just that that was kind of like the beginning of the live service era was with GTA Online. Yeah, it was definitely. And it's like, it sucks as someone who Again, I was never a huge fan of Bethesda games, but I would always try them. And maybe I liked Fallout 4 a little more than I did, ah you know, Fallout New Vegas, or Skyrim was cool. I didn't really like Oblivion. They came out enough to where I was like, okay, I can try the next one. The last game was Fallout 4, which came out five, six years ago. No, Fallout 4 wasn't. No, it wasn't 2013. Fallout 4 came out like 2014 or something. I remember it was close to launch of the last generation.
01:29:27
Speaker
2015. 2015? So Fallout 4 came out 2015, and I was like, oh, I kind of like that game. nine Eight years later, here's Starfield. I didn't like it. Oh, it sucks. Wait longer for a Bethesda game. Maybe the next one. And 10 years after Fallout 4, maybe I will like the next game. One thing that got me really invested in the show, too, was that it got really in depth to the, like, how fucked up, like, the hierarchy in the Fallout world is. Cause it goes really in depth to the like vault experiments and vault techs. Oh yeah. his Stuff leading up to the war and Robco and and, you know, they mentioned the enclave. They don't show them yet, but I'm sure they'll show up in the next one. Um, but especially in the past, you get to see like Mr. House from new Vegas. He said like a board meeting at vault tech before the bombs drop. Um, and the vault you started, I'm not going to spoil it cause you're probably gonna watch it. Um,
01:30:27
Speaker
Probably one of the most lore-wise important vaults out of all of them. Yeah. Now, that was the cool thing about playing the game is when you explore the vault, you realize like, oh, these are all different experiments. Every single one. These were not just for people to be safe in. No, because that's the thing with the Vault 31 is where you start. No, Vault 33, sorry, where you started in that show. There's like no experiment. Other than cousins having sex with each other, I guess. Um, there's an offhand comment, but there's no, there's no experiment. There's no experiment there like own experiment. And then it turns out there's a reason why that's just like, kind of, uh, this own contained, like very posh society. Um, but they, they go into like the overseers and everything. Um, and you know, brotherhood still gets pretty fleshed out and
01:31:25
Speaker
there's like they even bringing the NCR at one point, which is really cool. Not the way you think they would, but it's it's way they're still there. We'll get it. I mean, you saw how long it took us to watch The Last of Us. I will eventually say, okay, we're going to do it, and then it will take us two more months after that. It's like six episodes, I think, or something like that. I do love that. I love these miniseries, dude. That's what I liked about The Last of Us was, even though it took us forever, it was only like nine episodes or something. So it's like, keep doing that, please. And that's another show that they're making a sequel to that too. Last of Us 2 has all this casting and stuff. so
01:31:59
Speaker
I like that we're in an era where video games, they figured it it out. The miniseries on TV, that's what we need to do. so Movies are too short. Our whole show is way too much. Or you end up like Halo and you're just like, what the fuck am I watching? but i sort I tried to watch season two and I was like, it's even harder to watch than season one. People like it more. I don't understand why. You know the one meme where it's like showing the horse and it's like super well-drawn or whatever, but then I'm like... That's what it's been with like, it'll show like, Edgerunners, Last of Us, ah Fallout, and like the stupid face Halo. yeah It's like, how did Microsoft...
01:32:44
Speaker
Fuck this up so hard. How? i mean like It's weird because they can fall out. Kind of. But I bet you they didn't fucking touch fall out because when they bopped with us, that they said, we're not touching them. We're letting them do their thing. So really, they didn't do fall out. I mean, that's technically what they did with Halo, is they didn't touch. Oh, Halo. There's a difference. They didn't acquire Halo. but It wasn't an acquisition. that was You don't say, we're not going to mess with it when you created it. It's like, no, there's no one else. Technically, they acquired it from Bungie. They got it with divorce. and But then they always owned the IP? Like, always? No, not not really. They they had, ah they I think, because it was originally a Mac game.
01:33:35
Speaker
Halo was Bungie. So they, when they, um, and then they made a deal to make it exclusive. I think they bought Bungie and then, or put them in a con, it was weird. Cause it's, it's like, I always thought they owned them. And then eventually they were just like, Oh no, we're separated now. Like why would, it's just a binding contract or something. would you partnership man Yeah. then Or maybe the deal was that like, Bungie got free from, from the shackles of Microsoft, but they get Halo or something like that. I don't know. But Bungie didn't want anything to do with Halo anymore and they were under contract for like a few more games. So they're like, all right. That was one thing that was funny is Halo 3 or DST was supposed to be DLC for Halo 3, but buy it again then they realized that wouldn't like get them out of their contract fast enough. So they decided to make it a physical like own separate game.
01:34:23
Speaker
yeah just I love one more game closer to getting out of their contract. I love ODST too. It's one of the best ones. we Yeah. I don't know. Anyways, we got a Hail and Rave tangent there. We're talking about Fallout. That's good, man. We haven't mentioned Star well no i mentioned star Wars. they get I just think what the foot like it really is a great show for people who are like gamers too, because There's one scene where they fight in a radiant bear, and the guy's the power armor, and he's trying to shoot it, and he gets his gun swatted away, and he's just like, oh, shit. Oh, shit. He starts running away. He's like, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. And the bear's chasing him. I'm like, that's the thing. You're like, that's what I would do. I've done that. That's funny. I love that. I love that we are at the point, too, I think, where, you know,
01:35:19
Speaker
They make the Fallout show and Todd Howard's on set. They make the Last of Us show and Neil Druckmann is on set. It wasn't like before where they're like, okay, we're going to make the Doom movie. Not a single person who was on the Doom game is here. We just kind of know what the game's about. oh Aliens or something. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like it's a little more respected now. I guess the sad thing for Halo is there's really nobody like that for Halo anymore. Like no one's left or been fired or gone their separate ways. Um, I don't like, like Marty O'Donnell. They won't let him anywhere near it. And he was one of the biggest like voices for the story of those games. Um, who was unfortunate.
Microsoft's Future in Gaming
01:36:00
Speaker
ah gosh Jason was Jason Jones. I was talking about the guy that came back at the end of yeah so with boyking his name.
01:36:10
Speaker
Like, he was, he he was, I don't know. it luridous I can't remember. ah He was the biggest voice in Halo story. like He's the one who steered the entire direction of Halo 2. And that's why the game was like as deep into the lore as it is. and I think that's what they wanted him to do with Halo Infinite when they brought him back. And then he just never got the chance because it was too late at that point. yeah but He and you could be that guy for the show, but I don't know. He was interested in doing that at this point.
01:36:43
Speaker
Not to get too deep into the weeds about Halo, but I think I've said this before and I'll say it again. Well, two things. A, it should go multiply. I think, oh I don't know if you've seen it, but like Sea of Thieves has been a top seller on the pre-orders for PlayStation for like months. It's obvious that it's a resounding success and Microsoft has said it is a success and more games are coming. I think their success on PlayStation and Nintendo is about to be the death of the console for Xbox because they realize we make so much more money doing it this way. The second thing, Microsoft's internal like revenue quarterly reports came out. Their gaming division went up five percent, but that's because they acquired Activision Blizzard.
01:37:25
Speaker
yeah With that Activision Blizzard, their gaming division was down 5%. So ah either they keep buying until the end of time, which the numbers don't actually add up because they're not counting the $72 billion dollars they spent on it. yeah um So really, gaming's in the red as far as you could be if you count that. um but But third, for Halo specifically, I think we're at the point where you just reboot it. it's And the problem with what they were going with, it was kind of a Star Wars situation. Like the the the story was done. And then they're like, okay, now how can we make the Master Chief fight another aliens again? The same aliens? Oh, people didn't like that. I knew aliens, but it's also the same ones. We're gonna like, but oh, people didn't like that either. It's the old aliens, but it's a new faction of those aliens. People like that one. Their game sucks.
01:38:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. stupid no No, I get that, but it's like at this point it is you, you just reboot it. Honestly, I would love to see them do like a remake of Halo 1 a la like Resident Evil, just kind of like start over from the beginning, not like ah the remaster what they did, but like just a straight up from the ground up remake, which is kind of sacrilege to say in the Halo community to like touch the Bungie era stuff at all. But I think at this point, that game... The problem is is, I don't know if I trust them to not fuck it up. Because maybe you can't fuck it up if you do it again. Because they already fucked up the first remaster. But the good thing is, if they do fuck it up, you have those original games. Yeah.
01:39:18
Speaker
but it's it's just if As far as like the franchise goes, and like it continuing to thrive and live, you can't fuck up the next one. like the Infinite was already like a pretty big uh-oh. The only thing that got them through it was the goodwill of them keeping Master Chief Collection updated and fixing decade-old problems in it. That was pretty great. And opening the floodgates, but no pun intended, on the old like archived data that was like, yeah, we release content and like just giving that to moderators to do what they will. That was amazing. I know that was cool. I know I just mentioned it, but Microsoft's most successful game has been Sea of Thieves in recent years. Yeah. and And I honestly, it is a good game. But
01:40:05
Speaker
where's badjo I don't have any data on this, but if I was a betting man, which I kind of am, I bet you see that these is one of the only Microsoft games that's made money in the past decade. Halo infinite without a doubt lost money, without a doubt. Starfield without a doubt lost money, especially with the game. taylor It was was successful if it would make money at the point of how much they invested in it. No, it would have, it wouldn't literally need to be a live service game that was successful. Yeah, but it's it's it's it's a tired conversation. I feel like people really flipped real quick between the whole two weeks or the one week where that leak came out about games coming to PlayStation and people are like Xbox is dead. It's over. Here's all the reasons why this is what we've been waiting for to. Oh, Xbox is back better than ever. There's good Phil Spencer like there's going to be a new console, all this blah, blah, blah. I'm like,
01:41:01
Speaker
Why are we just discounting all of this? They've never, they haven't done it. They had one off year that they were good in 2007. Yeah. And that's it. That was it. Even the original Xbox was not as good as the game for PlayStation 2. To be fair, it would be kind of embarrassing to have a brand called Xbox and not have a box to put the X on.
01:41:30
Speaker
xc cloud X You can't get rid of the name at this point because it's that's brand recognition you'd lose if you did. Well, they call it, well, they splash Microsoft Studios now. It's not called Xbox Studios anymore, so they're already kind of there. You can do that, but but the name of the system and on the you know on the box is Xbox. No, I get it. I get it. And I i could see them. yeah I think you could do both. You could still have your ah box and also have your games multi-platform. There would be less reason for people to buy your box. but For sure. And they're already using much. No. I look at my Sirius X every day and I'm like, what a dust collector. I think the best thing they ever invested in that was the backwards compatibility. That is the like most...
01:42:20
Speaker
The greatest thing you could have done for a community that is still behind the Xbox. is to look at the old Xbox games on one platform. I was going to say that actually is because I bet you that's the only reason why Sony's done what is done with PlayStation Plus. And i I love that they're still doing that. And that's the thing too. It's like, I want to play Fallout New Vegas. I can just play it natively on the Series X. I have to stream the PS3 version on PS5 and I have to buy a subscription to play it that way. I can't just or buy in the game and then stream it. Or, you know. Bust out of your little PS3. Yeah. that what ah What a great way to play that. or any Sure, I can play that PC. But if I want to play it on my console, it's got to be the Xbox. Yeah. No, totally. Totally. No, I agree. But yeah. I'm surprised they haven't done like a modern port of New Vegas. It's it's kind of odd. It's an obsidian game. They did three, didn't they? Or did they not? Am I mistaken?
01:43:20
Speaker
No. The only game they ported is Skyrim. You're right, yeah. That's the only game that they've ever, like, Oblivion has ever been ported. They're so big about porting Skyrim, and like, Fallout is, I think, just as big of a franchise for their, like, under their belt. No. No. If you look at Hyacinth and Bethesda game, I'm gonna look it up, actually, because I'm curious about Skyrim. Well, it's not fair, because Skyrim keeps releasing. You're gonna get inflated numbers here.
Miscellaneous Gaming Discussions
01:43:49
Speaker
But even with that... I'd say you could re-release Fallout 3 or New Vegas and get a fake return on that. ah If I look up Skyrim sales... um So I think this is the official, like, original one. I'm on game rants, so... Oh no!
01:44:15
Speaker
Um, I can't, this has 30 million. This is from 2016. Uh, maybe it's official, but then if you look up Skyrim sales on Wikipedia, 62 million copies sold as of June. So we're talking like rock star numbers after all the re-releases, which is. great Yeah, this this as of June 2023, Skyrim has sold 60 million copies, which is fucking insane. The highest selling Fallout game, I think is Fallout 4 at 12 million. Which is still massive, but it's nowhere close. Skyrim was a phenomenon. Like, like, Modern Warfare 3, 30 million copies sold phenomenon. Like, they're all by far biggest selling game.
01:45:04
Speaker
hear about skyro But even at 12 million, yeah, you would think like. But the take the thing is Fallout has had games come out. Yeah. and is It is considered, I would consider a franchise, whereas Skyrim is an entry in a franchise that is basically dead. Oh yeah, Elder Scrolls Online. No one cared about that. Which actually is the second highest selling game is Elder Scrolls Online. It's like 20 million. Yeah, but it's... I guess it has its players. Yeah. But the thing is, Fall of 76, it had a pretty shit launch, but people love it now, and people are playing it. I guess people love it now. I saw Vinny went back and played it, and he was like, yep, this is 76. And he was like, I still don't like it.
01:45:56
Speaker
Cause I guess there's a whole like card level up system or something. I hate the cards. Can we stop it with the cards? Stop putting cards in games unless you're making a card game. Well, if it is a card game.
01:46:08
Speaker
I hate it. That's what I hated about the Midnight Suns game. It was like, oh, this is a great game, except it's cards everywhere. Yeah, it's Paper Mario, Color Splash cards. Yeah. don't i don't It's not fun, and you're not creative, you're not funny, stupid, and lazy. good Build my dick. No. Leave that for the deck building. Honestly, I will say, anytime I see like cards come on screen as a gameplay mechanic in any video game, it has immediately killed my interest in playing my game. Yeah. No, no, seriously, like it has for me too. And I, and I understand that there is a small population of gamers that they are obsessed with it. They love it. That is like their thing. They see the cards. They're like best game. This is a very small amount of gamers that are like that. It is not the general. I feel like that one game, which was like a card game escape room, kind of like mental, uh,
01:47:01
Speaker
like puzzle game was like the most interesting one I'd seen in a while, but other than that, I'm like, eh. Like that one kind of made that concept work for me. Cause you're like, it's more than just the card game going on at that. Like you're also trying to like solve puzzles and clues and but and all that kind of shit while the the card gives more of a facade to keep the game going. No, definitely. Definitely. So, but yeah. um Follow the show. Sounds good. Right. I know what you're talking about. I don't know the name of it. I can't remember the name of it. I definitely watch Fallout. I recommend it. It was by one of my best watches this year. I probably won't watch anything until Deadpool and Wolverine. Yeah, I'm excited about that. student training what do What do you think is going to be the next game that you like actually like really play through? Fallout 5.
01:47:56
Speaker
I'm not gonna touch the third game until 2030. No, do you have like a game that's like coming up, like hasn't released or like just one on your back burner? They're like, ah, it's, it's, this is the next one. Honestly, as far as games coming out this year, I don't fucking know. Um, but I've, uh, been playing a little bit of a follow-up set, uh, I keep on say 76 new Vegas. Um, and I need to go back and finish Arkham city. ah Cause I started playing that and's still fresh enough in my brain where I don't feel like I need to restart the game. Um, That's the worst, is when you take that big break. I stopped playing Persona 3 reload because of Rebirth, and then I put 100 hours into Rebirth. And then I went back to Persona 3, and I was just like, hey, where am I? Which, there's a calendar system of that, so I kind of inherently knew where I was. But then it was just like, I don't remember the last thing I was doing. I'm trying to platinum this game. I don't remember the relationships I was focusing on. What's happened? You know what I mean? It's just like, ugh. One of the best lost fakes of video games
01:48:56
Speaker
And I only remember Pokemon doing this. It was the recap. It was the recaps in Fire Red Leaf Green, where you like, it would have actual, like, I don't know how it determined how it would record your gameplay. But it was, i don know you recorded your gameplay from snippets of your last gameplay session and it would kind of be like, oh, okay, I'm right here. And make sure this would have like a journal, which was okay. Yeah, which ironically, Pokemon, you don't really need that because it's kind of a, linear game, but it was nice regardless. I liked it. It was a cool concept. That was always the thing with the remakes that they did. They would always throw in like a new concept that would be kind of controversial for a mainline entry, or they'd be like, they would like playing with ideas and stuff in the remakes. That's a smart idea.
01:49:43
Speaker
And they, they did implement that into gen four, but it was like a journal, like a text-based system, not, there wasn't any like footage of your gameplay, which I'm assuming it's because it was taxing and probably would have taken forever to load on the DS. Cause it took forever to save on the DS. So it did remember. That's probably why it took so long to save. Honestly, it's fine. Cause it was trying to like write that journal, write the journal. Yeah. Remember, I mean, it's your journal when you save. So. I think it was the 3DS games where it saved like in a heartbeat. Oh, yeah, dude, when X and Y came out and it saved so fast, I was like, Oh, I'll never forget. next doors I'll never forget. When that happened, I was so used to the long save. I was like, nah, that's not right. And I'd say like five times in a row. No, it was it was genuinely shocking. Yeah, because it had been like,
01:50:36
Speaker
Our whole lives. It's our whole lives. It's time to save. Gen 1 to Gen 2 to Gen 3, it was very minute how long the differences in saving in those games. Gen 4 and 5 was awful. It had to be something with how the DS hardware, the cartridges, their memory, whatever they used in that was probably just shit. Probably. But even then, when X and Y came out, I'm pretty sure it was faster than the original games. And I didn't think those games took too long to save.
01:51:15
Speaker
No. um but ah but But you're saying Fallout's probably going to be your next game? Yeah, probably. i'll probably but Because I kind of want to play through New Vegas, finally. And it's got me in the mood with watching through Fallout, especially with the ending of the Fallout show, which I won't spoil. It really makes me want to play New Vegas. My face probably just got so bright there for a second. i just check um Yeah, no, that sounds good. I think um for me, I've been telling Susan, I'm like, I'm just juggling eight games. I'm one trophy away from platinuming. What is it called? a PGA Tour 2K23. And the last platinum is, or the last trophy is I need to get to level 25. So it's just a grind. I'm like level 20. So I'm kind of right there. But that much golf for a person that kind of hurts um But I'm about to platinum that I'm still one. I need to win two more fights in a tournament It's a platinum Street Fighter six But I have to wait for the turn this actually happened and I suck at Street Fighter six So we'll see if that app if and when that happens I'm held Ivers to I'm four trophies away
01:52:21
Speaker
So I've been like, I need, I need you and Roger to just get off your asses and play with me together. Cause like 15 minutes ago, so probably perfect. Um, so I'm trying to do that. I went back to final fantasy 16 and that was actually the one where I went back and I was like, I don't remember what I'm doing. I don't remember how to play this game. I don't remember anything, but I'm 58% of the way through the game. So I'm not restarting. Uh, No, im but I think Stellar Blade right now, i I was, like I said at the beginning of this podcast was, I started that game and I was like, I don't know about this, but then the gameplay that I did today, I probably played like four hours today, I really liked it.
Podcasting Format and Equipment Changes
01:53:02
Speaker
really really liked it so i think i'm gonna stick with that and it really is just the combat is so good and the music it's so weird because it has vocals in it like all of it and it's all korean that's cool it gets a little annoying after the fourth hour but it's good it's good music i turned it down eventually i was like this is too much but um Yeah, I'd say Stellar Blade. And then that Thousand Year Door remake is probably the next big game coming out the month. Oh yeah, I guess that is. I'm probably going to get that. Like that's... Anecdotally, I saw it. It's very disappointing. Locked at 30.
01:53:42
Speaker
Yes, yes, I am. That's why I'm doing this. What was that from? That was from the game board. He showed up, please wrap upside. Obviously, I'm saying, what are we going to play? That's kind of an indication that we're wrapping up. I was joking. It was a joke. What was I saying? I was saying something. Oh, it's locked at 30 FPS.
01:54:08
Speaker
The original. like that's already from f wasn't Nope. Original was 60. It's weird. That's going to make button timing a little awkward. Yeah. So anyways, as Jake was indicating by the sign, it is time to go. And if you noticed, this wasn't like a normal show and I didn't want to start off the show by saying this is a normal show. I just wanted to kind of flow with it and see what would happen. Now, this doesn't mean that every episode is going to be like this. I do want to still report in the news sometimes do game with this stuff. But I also kind of just like having a conversation because it's natural. It flows well. And I think it's a little more exciting to a little more fun. So Jake.
01:54:45
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining me. Hopefully we can not wait five more months after this, but who the fuck knows what's going to happen. Right. And hopefully my job would do this full time. There we go. You know what? Get on, I saw on Zencaster. So whenever we, uh, migrated to Zencaster, just then casters things alone over 2000 downloads. So pretty good. Nice. theyre all They're all me on different devices. For being wildly inconsistent as we are, it's not bad at all. um But thank you for joining me. and yeah Hopefully, we get some of the other kids back next time, Ida and Roger and whoever else wants to do it, honestly, i'm always open. ah Hopefully, I sound good too. First time using this new mic. I've been excited to use this and then we just haven't done it. I swear, every time we do this, it's been long enough for you to say I have a new mic I want to try out.
01:55:34
Speaker
No, surely not. I used the old mic quite a while, and it was really starting to kick the crapper. But this is no official elgato whatever shit. It's got the little arm. It bends around. So anyways, thank you so much. Thank you for listening. We have a Patreon still, believe it or not, patreon dot.com slash slightly if you'd like to donate to us. ah Jake needs cat food for his cockroach. So senator ke i have I have lizards over here. yeah Susan, almost had a heart attack. We went out for a walk, saw a lizard. And mind you, the lizard ran past me first. I had no reaction because it's a fucking lizard. I don't care about lizards. They're they're insignificant to my life. Right behind me, the loudest screech, and i i she jumped because of the lizard.
01:56:25
Speaker
And I'm like, and we've had one in our apartment and she's, she yelled like cold blue or whatever and was screaming. I'm like, it's a lizard. It was a snake. I understand. It was a bee. Maybe theites will take over our society. I'm going to watch the amazing spider man. She's just going to cry the whole time. i want to turn People in the lizards. Yeah. Anyways, patreon dot.com so slightlyly m pe and then I'll obviously share this with your friends and stuff like that. We do greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much. What the fuck happened to Dr. Connors and Spider-Man 2, by the way? I don't remember. We'll catch you in the next episode. Goodbye. bye