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S1 Ep19: The Breadstone
74 Plays7 years ago
Join Dave and Jake as they talk over each other and discuss games they've been playing recently!
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Not with me, not all. Me quick, quick all. Quick, quick, not all. Quick, quick, not all.
00:00:59
Speaker
Not with, not with, not with.
Introduction and Banter
00:01:15
Speaker
How's it going, everybody? Welcome to another episode of The Soulstone. My name is Jake. I am joined by my co-host, as always, Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave?
00:01:26
Speaker
It's good. Sorry for interrupting. I thought it'd be way, way funnier, but it was actually terrible. Yeah, I was kind of curious why you were messaging me on Discord while talking here. Let's just close that so you can't harass anymore. The illusion's gone. It was really impressive, though. You were saying that at such frequency and then posting the messages in Discord as well. It's a skill. Good gift, even. So what
Game Discussions Overview
00:01:52
Speaker
game are we talking about tonight, Dave?
00:01:55
Speaker
I don't know. What are you in the mood for? What are you feeling? Game wise? Specify game wise. Yes. I was like, I already had some pizza, so I feel like I can't be in the mood for pizza anymore. That's not how that works. I can't be in the mood for pizza.
00:02:16
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, like, I don't have a specific game that's worth talking about, I think. It's all basically garbage. That's not true, but... Wait a shit on the whole podcast. Yes. Honestly, anyone who just discusses games, they're wasting their time. Okay.
Hot Lava: Gameplay and Mechanics
00:02:36
Speaker
No, but I think I think we could probably talk about you know, what we've been playing recently and we're looking forward to playing I know recently I saw you were actually streaming Don't advertise that to people some of that some of that hot lava. Yeah, it is you can yeah, just just to be sure I mean Dave saying I shouldn't advertise for him, but it is I
00:03:00
Speaker
Twitch.tv slash PewDiePie.com. I have no idea what that would resolve to because the top level domain would be PewDiePie. It's like everything else would be a subdomain since it ends in .com.
00:03:18
Speaker
I think. I'll read the slash. Anyways, it doesn't matter. Hot lava though. You talked about it a little bit. It's a good game. It is... I was about to say free to play, but I meant to say indie. It's kind of... That's how we draw them in. We told them the game is free even though it costs money.
00:03:36
Speaker
I think it's either like 15 or 20 on Steam, but it is a really fun platformer, very nostalgic of playing the lava game when you were a kid, where you just try to jump from thing to thing, uh, drove your parents crazy and knocked over a shit ton of furniture. Yeah. But, oh my god, I like it. I actually injured myself playing that once because I was really dumb and I, uh,
00:03:59
Speaker
I was like fish tank fish tank should be able to support the average weight of a young young Teenage child or whatever. I was probably like tennis tennis and Sean Connery But yeah, that was bad. So don't do that the game though looks a lot more fun than like skin in your knee Decent graphics. It's got that kind of like
00:04:22
Speaker
Was it like cell cell shaded? I know it's it's definitely not like Breath of the Wild style but the graphics are decent for how low-budget I assume it is but the characters you play as are essentially a little opposable action figures from like Late 80s early 90s. Yeah, and you can unlock different cosmetics for them You're like, oh my guy has nunchucks or like a briefcase on his back or a boombox or dynamite or like a little throwing star
00:04:51
Speaker
I like the idea that you play as the action figures instead of the heroes because that's all we really wanted as kids. You see the action figure for the show that you watch on cartoons on Saturday and you're just like, I want to be that action figure.
00:05:12
Speaker
It's kind of a combination of you wanting to, you know, not touch the floor because it's lava. Right. Yeah. But also like when you play with like little action figures, like the tech tech skateboards as a kid, you kind of move them around and pretend it was a certain scenario. So like, it's like a mishmash of that. So it's kind of like, kind of like the same setup as like army men where it's just like, you take a toy and then you just imagine it as real. Yeah.
00:05:36
Speaker
No, I like that setup. It's really fun the music for it's surprisingly compelling the level Layout you're usually in a thing you start out in the school Mm-hmm, and you're just going through like the hallway the cafeteria gymnasium And there's fun interactions Yeah, and I keep going through the same level trying to beat my own time you find shortcuts, which like how the fuck did they? Does it have like a time trial or ghost mode type thing where you see the oh?
00:06:04
Speaker
The your high score kind of ahead of you. I think it's an option I got rid of it because I was doing it around the same pace each time. Mm-hmm. So I would just Constantly get confused like where am I? But they have different challenges per level like
00:06:20
Speaker
Did you beat the level? Did you beat it within 12 minutes? Did you touch the level? That counts as a death actually. Oh. You die in the game. You die in the game. They have some other little unlockables and stuff. But it's just fun. Mainly I do it to try and beat my friends' high scores. Yeah. So it's got like the leaderboard thing? Does it like you steam? Yeah, I think it's just local.
00:06:45
Speaker
It's friends plus, cause I've seen some other people who I don't know. Interesting. Oh, so it's probably like. Your local friends and then people who are probably close to you in the leaderboard. Gotcha. I guess. Yeah. I've seen a
Persona Series: RPG Mechanics and Streaming Issues
00:06:56
Speaker
couple of games kind of like do that. Or it's like, it tries to keep you from being completely like shut down. So it shows like the next five people above you and five people below you or something like that. And then off to the side, you're like, yeah, I'm doing pretty good. I'm like midway through this. And then you realize you're like 900,000th from the top and you're like, yeah.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yeah, you look up the Mortal Kombat tower, you're like, oh, shit. Why are people good? That sounds interesting, though. It's kind of how's the how's the actual acrobatics traversal feel compared to like some other games that are sort of like I say, like,
00:07:31
Speaker
I can't count Assassin's Creed because it's not really that like dishonored. I was going to say, the closest would probably mirror's edge. Okay. Because you have that first person you're running around jumping on stuff. You can grab onto ledges, bars, swing off stuff, jump on trampolines. Okay.
00:07:46
Speaker
And you also do get a bit of air control. So one of the mechanics they teach you early is if you're on a flat surface and there's a wall, but then behind that wall is another flat surface, you can kind of jump past the wall and then turn to land back on the. OK, so you can you can kind of like switch direction a bit. A little bit. That's cool. Yeah, I'm actually I'm more interested in it with the comparison to Mirror's Edge, because that's just the fluidity of the movement in that game was
00:08:16
Speaker
So nice. It is not that good, though. I guess it's fair to say up front. It has similar notes, I'll say. It's four mirrors out of five inch. Yeah. But I was, like I said, streaming the other night and some random person joined and was like, hey, what do you think of the game? I was just, you know, touting when I am now. I'm like, I like it for this reasons. And then they're like, oh, actually might check it out. I was like,
00:08:43
Speaker
Cool. I mean, I don't get anything out of it. I'm glad that somebody else is going to share in the enjoyment of something that I enjoy, hopefully. So you just sent off a message to the developer being like, I demand royalties. I'm spreading it away. Thank you for your game. I mean, if I'm going to get money from anybody, it should be Ninja Theory for that. Send you a cosplay. That's true. Oh man. Yeah. I'll just bring up a picture of that so you guys can see it right now.
00:09:10
Speaker
It's a really good looking cosplay. I think you can all agree. Can you hear the picture? It's pretty legit. No, it was really cool though. Shout out to Jenny for helping with a lot of that. And then a chat world for doing some of the more intense costuming pieces. Yeah. As I am not that talented or patient. No, I think he was probably one of the best looking Senua.
00:09:32
Speaker
cosplayers at magfest so I was I was the only one you can't see Jake's face but you know what he was doing just assume that regardless of what tone of voice I use it's always sarcasm my favorite grandson yeah right that was it was really cool though
00:09:54
Speaker
So yeah, how a lot of sounds like sounds like fun I might pick that up if it goes on sale. I think it's early access right for if she goes on sale, honestly Yeah, I think you'd like it personally. I mean if it is Kind of like a mirror's edge light. I think that could be a pretty good experience a little more traversal and things not like opposed to That kind of game Definitely. It's interesting though. Like I got to give him props just for
00:10:23
Speaker
the genre i guess because it doesn't really exist i mean it's like roughly a racing game but not really time trial stuff does kind of exist but it's not usually in that format right and you can time trial literally any game it's called speedrunning like undertale what's that clock doing
00:10:44
Speaker
Yeah, actually, I think if I ever made a game or something like that, I would have to add a speed running clock, even if it was the least applicable to the genre imaginable. Like you make like a hundred hour RPG or something like that. And you're just like, all right. And if I look in options, there's like language and graphics and there's a checkbox for speed running, speed running. Oh, that's always nice to have them.
00:11:12
Speaker
Have you done anything that would be time trial based or you've actually had to monitor the time outside of
00:11:20
Speaker
Um, probably yeah. Uh, probably, probably just racing games. It's been a while for me. I think the grand threesville or I don't use, I don't usually do simulation racing, uh, like grand frismo. I do play actual racing. Yeah. Yes. I on the, on the street with my car that is overdue her maintenance. No, uh, I do play nude for speed. I played the, um, almost definitely not the last one now. I've never really been following the series much.
00:11:47
Speaker
but I used to play it back in the day and I had like one of those, um, the old like cereal style joystick connection, uh, wheel and pedals. Oh wow. And I had that like as a kid and I was like, this is freaking awesome. It was like my CD ROM and like need for speed. It wasn't hot pursuit. It was, um, like it was like most wanted or something. It was really old. I think it came out like early 2000s.
00:12:14
Speaker
And I think like we just like donated the racing wheel or something and then later years later I was like man, you know now I have my computer and stuff It'd be really cool if I could like play with the racing wheel and I look up and they're all like really expensive Actually, like why don't we donate?
00:12:31
Speaker
But yeah, I think the last one I played was the new kind of Need for Speed, Most Wanted I believe, or Hot Pursuit. Which was fun, but other than that I usually don't play.
00:12:45
Speaker
time things that much. It's actually stressful for me. Yeah, I understand that sentiment a lot. It's like a lot of people that I've talked to actually have like a similar sensation where, say like Majora's Mask or something, where the entire game is timed, as soon as they realize that it's timed before realizing the timed component actually doesn't impact your progression that much.
00:13:10
Speaker
Um, they actually stopped playing the game and I was in the same boat. Like as a kid, I tried it, saw it was timed and was like, Nope, I'm out. And it's actually just really good game. So basically what we're saying is, um,
00:13:27
Speaker
Hot lava is probably as good as... Oh, that's what we're talking about. Comfortable, same tier, definitely. Yeah, I don't hit those games up very often. More recently, I've been playing things like RPGs, playing a lot of Persona, which is actually necessary if you want to beat the game, because I'm like 85 hours in. I'm intensive.
00:13:56
Speaker
It's a commitment. More so or less so than Witcher 3? That's actually tough. So, I think Witcher 3 probably... I actually don't know. So what I was gonna say was, I think Witcher 3, if you go for completion, might be longer. But I don't know how you define completion for Persona, where it's just like, you can spend kind of an infinite amount of time
00:14:24
Speaker
Fighting things and like random encounter not random. So I guess all unlockables in the game It's I don't know if it has anything like side quests or anything comparable to that. It kind of it's it's like I this is my go-to is a Pokemon dating simulator not where you date the Pokemon But you date and then incidentally there's Pokemon Machoke though more like Machoke me daddy How do I cut that joke it was real bad I'll definitely remember to go back and cut that I think
00:14:55
Speaker
It's it's it's not that but it is like it's kind of like It's not a linear game, but it is based off time. So it's like you go day by day You have your choice of whatever you want to do in the day And then you kind of like build relationships with the dating some part of it And you have like a bunch of activities and the actual combat uses your personas, you know your Pokemon
00:15:19
Speaker
But there's a tie-in to the personas and the relationships it builds? Yes. So like previous entries in the series, they have a tarot card system where each kind of main character you can build a relationship with has one of the tarot symbols like empress, emperor, you know, death, something like that. And each of the personas also has a card type.
00:15:45
Speaker
So if you have a really good relationship with a person who corresponds, their tarot card corresponds to that personas tarot card, you get like a bonus. So they'll like, if you craft them, like if you fused two personas together and make a new one, and you have a high affinity with that type, it'll like level up a bunch. And it is pretty cool, like, as you develop these relationships, they give you in-game bonuses for things.
00:16:13
Speaker
And it just kind of progresses over time. It just becomes this like, I've described it as like another turn type situation where it's like with civ, you're like, all right, I'm going to play one more turn. I'm going to expand the empire. And then on the next turn, everything gets thrown at you. So you're saying it's addictive in that regard where you want to keep making that extra little bit of progression. Exactly. Oh, it won't take me that long. Yeah. Like this Stardew Valley or something like that, or it's like,
00:16:39
Speaker
that game probably has it worse because it saves at the end of the day and then so if you want to quit you have to start quit at the start of a new day which explicitly goes against your kind of directive when you're playing it but I don't know I've woken up on a Monday before yeah and it's time to quit
00:16:56
Speaker
But yeah, Persona is really fun. Is the combat RPG-esque still? Yeah, it's... It's turn-based Final Fantasy type. It is turn-based. I don't think there's necessarily a speed stat. It seems like it's based off of... You can have a party of up to four people and you can be up against a variable amount of enemies just like Final Fantasy.
00:17:22
Speaker
usually people go in the same order but it's not like your whole team and then their whole team unless you like get the jump on them in which case then your whole team gets to go before anyone there does it's called an ambush it's kind of useful but they don't do the they don't do like the Final Fantasy thing where you just like run around and
00:17:41
Speaker
The overworld doesn't have the random encounters. They don't yeah, they don't have random encounters. They have enemies in the overworld and They'll have like a 3d model. Well, they don't have 3d models, but They have a different model until you actually go into combat and then they have this like shadow Transformation thing and they turn into whatever you're actually fighting so You can kind of like run around in the world and avoid enemies or encounter them an opt-in if you want to yes, yeah
00:18:11
Speaker
and like have the advantage of sneaking up on them. There's like this stealth kind of mechanic where you can like be in cover and move from cover to cover. And if you're in stealth, you are literally undetectable. So that's useful. But yeah, I mean, we'll, we'll see where the game goes. I know that, uh, so the company that made it is, is Atlas. They actually had a, um, I was like reading an article about it.
00:18:38
Speaker
And apparently people were like streaming the game and they said like right up front, they're like, Hey, if you stream beyond this one point in the game, like a day or something like that on the calendar, then we're going to like issue, take down notices and stuff.
00:18:53
Speaker
And I'm like, what, though? Because I mean, even if your game has a big twist, that's weird. Like, you know, it's almost like the Streisand kind of effect where by trying to hide it, you make it more obvious. I am not a witch. Yeah, exactly. OK. We won't talk about that at all. Says the obvious witch.
00:19:15
Speaker
Did they ever justify the reasons for that? They just didn't want it spoiled, I assume? Yeah, they didn't want it spoiled. But, I mean, I don't see why you would expect your game to get different preferential treatment when it comes to streamers and spoilers and things. There's lots of games which are, I'd say, more story-heavy than Persona, but they have full playthroughs. All of them. Some people don't want to play the whole thing, you just want to
00:19:41
Speaker
Watch it like I started playing Witcher 3 recently and at some point I do care about what happened in Witcher 1 and 2 Yeah, but I have the patience to go back and play that shit not worth it So it seems easier for someone like me to go and watch somebody else do it Yeah without commentary as like a second monitor thing. I'm like, okay cool. Yeah, you definitely like experience it like that or
00:20:02
Speaker
the Witcher you could, you know, read the journals, which detail kind of some of the stuff that's happening in the past. But yeah,
The Witcher 3: World-building and Reception
00:20:08
Speaker
I mean, even if your game has a big twist, that's no excuse to expect preferential treatment over what everybody else does. So it's just this weird, it's really weird, right?
00:20:17
Speaker
I expect that more from an indie dev who's like, this means something. Yeah, exactly. It's a guy that means different things to different people. I'm playing the game because it's fun. Yeah, you can't force an experience. Yeah. But you mentioned the Witcher, so I know you were playing it for a while. Have you played it any recently? I've been distracted because somebody started up a Minecraft server again.
00:20:38
Speaker
Minecraft episode impromptu here in the middle combo breaker. We'll definitely get into that at some point. But I have really been enjoying Witcher 3. I wish I had picked it up earlier because of how much filleting you've done for over the years. Here's the thing, though, even though I've like sung its praises and like languages I don't even know out of like respect for the game, I did not actually know you would like it.
00:21:08
Speaker
I didn't expect that because I know you don't usually like open world games.
00:21:13
Speaker
Yeah, those can definitely be hit or miss. I did enjoy Metal Gear Solid 5. That's true. Because I enjoyed Metal Gear series. There's a couple of other ones which are still decent, but at a point it's like kind of repetitive. Yeah. We've talked about this before, but it kind of has to... If you have such an open area and you're not directing a player where to go, you need to have content in areas so it's not a fucking wasteland. Yeah.
00:21:41
Speaker
But the more you do that, the easier it is to be like, well, we're going to kind of copy paste something like these. Oh, there's a bandit camp and some other shit here. But for the Witcher, they've done a really good job of flushing things out. And maybe you do have like these minor, really dumb side quests. Yeah. But the character who's given you that side quest has personality. There's tie-ins to the world and it's not just
00:22:06
Speaker
My cat's stuck in the tree. It's really interesting. It's kind of the opposite. And I don't want to like cut ties with Bethesda here because I'm still, you know, I'm still hoping. But it's the opposite of what Bethesda has done with Radiant quests, where it's just like talk to a person, they'll say a generic line.
00:22:25
Speaker
That could be applied to many situations. Yeah, like have one different noun and it'll be like and it's in Bruma, you know, whatever and then it's just an auto-generated like random quest that doesn't really matter And you're like, yeah, I can do a loading screen for this. Yeah, exactly, right. I will pay like those those can have their place and I think that's fine in a game but
00:22:50
Speaker
I mean, who honestly, if given the option between playing a fleshed out quest with characters that are interesting, that have their own motivations, versus something random the game engine came up with? Like, why would you pick the random one? Unless the game's just better.
00:23:06
Speaker
I don't think it is. And also, we're shitting on Bethesda. Witcher 3 is a lot better as far as graphical interaction. There's still some things that will happen in between cutscenes or me just walking around where I'm like, that was a little goofy. But that's really my only issue with the game. The horse bugs. I don't know if you've gotten any, but... Not as much, but I know that's a full meme I've seen a lot on. I know Skyrim and the horse had that as well.
00:23:33
Speaker
Yeah, horses are hard to do. But like the combat's been really solid. And like the main quests and even like the secondary quests, fucking great. Yeah. Like I know I was telling you about in Velen, kind of that first area, you're in the swamp and you're interacting with different people and you're like, I don't know what's going on or how many of these people interact.
00:23:58
Speaker
But then I went through like three different quests and they all tied back together and I was like, holy shit. Yeah. And all the side characters, even like the kids, I don't like kids in general. Right. Yeah. I mean, they're the worst obviously. Maybe if I had like a cousin or like a nephew or niece, I'd be like, oh, like you're cool. Yeah. I can tolerate kids, but I don't like them because they're young. I don't know anything yet. Right. I'm glad that you don't like young kids.
00:24:20
Speaker
Yeah, for the record. But they gave the kids good lines for kids. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because you, as the main character, Geralt, you're talking to these bunch of orphans, you're like, where are your parents? And he's like, there's a war going on, don't you know? Dead parents, therefore orphans. I was like, holy shit, that's a good line for a kid. Yeah. It wasn't just like, gee, hey, mister. Yeah.
00:24:48
Speaker
If it wasn't dumb stuff, all the characters are really fleshed out. Yeah. And I like that personable human dialogue. That's something that that game does really well is putting the characters into the world. It's easy to just have a copy-paste kid. You're just like, innocent person doesn't know anything. But in The Witcher, the world's brutal. It's violent. It's aggressive. There's nothing polite about it.
00:25:17
Speaker
and it's just like this necessity to survive you wouldn't have just like oh some guy stole my sweet roll you know or something like that kids like that's not the scale of the problems they're dealing with yeah even as kids so i think putting in that little effort making them vulgar or like sarcastic or something like that um helps tie everything else together oh yeah
00:25:44
Speaker
Also the sarcasm is fucking heavy-handed in that game, but it's done in a really nice way.
00:25:51
Speaker
I also appreciate it due to my own heritage, but... Right. As a sarcastic person. My parents were sarcastic, their parents were sarcastic. The Witcher was, I mean, it's still a contender for me for just the best open world game out there, like ever. I know a lot of people would compare or they might put Breath of the Wild ahead of that. That's an easy choice for me because I've never played that game. Or Super Mario.
00:26:21
Speaker
Odyssey. Right. I haven't played that one either. I don't know if that, is that considered an open world? Because it's, is it? And it's like multiple worlds, isn't it? I've seen literally like trailers. I would say to some degree it is because it seems to play more like that compared to previous Mario titles.
00:26:43
Speaker
I guess that's fair. Like Super Mario 64. Super Mario 64. Much more linear for sure. But yeah, I mean Witcher 3. Very solid. I actually took a break through the middle of the game.
00:27:00
Speaker
when after playing, I think I had like a time off or something. I played it for like a week and I played it like another week, like after work. I was like, I think I've put in like a hundred hours. I'm going to take a small break. I took like a couple of weeks and then it came back to the game and put like another 20 or 30 hours in it to actually finish, finish it off. And it's one of those games where eventually I'm just like,
00:27:28
Speaker
I can't 100% this one. I can't do every side quest. There comes a point where I need to concede and push the main quest. And it wasn't because any of the side content was bad. It was just like...
00:27:40
Speaker
I have to do other things in my life. It's hard to do all of it. And the main stuff is good enough where it doesn't need to be padded out with secondary things. Yeah. But it is cool. You can have it as an option. So it's not just you going through the main quest, but you can't talk to a stranger. There's like generic NPC lines. And we're like, Hey, uh, there's this monster out back. Like I'll pay you to kill it. It's really fucking our shit up. Yeah. Cool. I gotcha.
00:28:09
Speaker
I think one of the, without turning this whole thing into a Witcher podcast, one of the things I appreciated about it was the, you mentioned like, oh, the monster at bat, go kill it. There's almost always in the Witcher games, an investigation phase is probably the way I'd put it for the monster, where Geralt's like gathers the descriptions of various people about what they think like the monster is, what looks like what it does, looks for signs, tracks of the monster.
00:28:37
Speaker
and basically tries to ascertain exactly what type of monster it is. And the lower difficulties are normal if you're proficient with the game. You don't have to do extra preparation.
00:28:50
Speaker
but if you've got all your research in you know exactly what the monster is you can like look through your potions you can look through your oils and basically set yourself an offensive kit just to kill this thing and like on the higher difficulties it's it's almost necessary
00:29:07
Speaker
and super rewarding because when you can just like go into that fight and you put all of this effort in and it all actually pays off that's something like an MMO quest where it's just like go kill a bunch of things or go kill this big guy or whatever it's like it doesn't have the same level of impact
00:29:24
Speaker
I'd say it's more like an MMO at the higher difficulties again. More like an MMO boss where you actually have mechanics to deal with and you're not just DPSing and hoping for the best. Sometimes multiple phases. Monsters will retreat back to their lair and then you've got other problems maybe to contend with. Whole setup's great.
00:29:45
Speaker
I
Monster Hunter: Platforms and Gameplay
00:29:46
Speaker
will say though, I am the guy who just has a sword, will eat mid-combat, and just charge in and wail on it until I die or it dies. Sometimes it works. Basically, this was... I think the Witcher came out for PC to tide people over for Monster Hunter. And then many years after, Monster Hunter came out, and now Monster Hunter's gonna come out for PC eventually.
00:30:10
Speaker
I was actually going to mention that at some point anyway. Yeah. Do you transition off of the game about Monster Hunting? Do the game about Monster Hunting. Yeah. Because you and I both picked it up for PS4 and played together with some friends. Yeah. And I'd say a good amount of time on that. Are you also going to pick it up for PC? I probably will. It depends on the crowd and how dedicated people are. Yeah. There's some people there who I just love playing co-op games with.
00:30:38
Speaker
Not to say the people who played it on PS4. Fucking hate you guys. Not to say the other people weren't good friends, but it's more, I have more friends that play on PC. So I feel like there's a good chance we could probably like roll squad deep.
00:30:55
Speaker
for people pretty consistently. Yeah, I think it'd be good. Also, so much of that game is skill or knowledge that I feel like I could get through the content to catch where I'm at in PS4 much quicker.
00:31:15
Speaker
I say that and I'm gonna struggle with pink rathian for like a month Pink rathians podcast it's but yeah, I mean I can't I can't go into monster hunter topic either too too too hard, but I
00:31:32
Speaker
Let's go through all of it from monsters. I want to hate each one. I know. No, but spear. That's the key. Lance, shield, call it a day. It's not flashy. It's not exciting. It's not fun. It's effective. It's not effective. Is that what you went with at the end of the day? Yeah. Because I know you're switching weapon classes around a bit.
00:31:54
Speaker
Yeah, a lot more early I was like trying about trying a bunch of things and some there's some really flashy weapons in that game that operate in like completely unique awesome ways like I think the the switch switch sword or switch axe it's like yeah like starts out as like a sword and you like build some energy oh there's a charge sword is what I'm thinking of build some energy like
00:32:19
Speaker
Actually take that energy from the attacks that you've dealt like imbue your sword with that energy charge it up a couple times and do like a massive transformation attack where it just like cause causes like a small nuclear explosion basically of lightning and you're like and Like ridiculously hard to use all of this move set and difficulty. I didn't play that Basic one with like a couple attacks and I knew the moves But I like that they both exist
00:32:49
Speaker
I just transitioned from my Elder Scrolls V of just being a stealth archer. Yeah. For being bad at stealth. You're like, Bo and Gilly Mantle. Yeah, it's... Stealth archer. Each weapon class is really rewarding to play. I just found Bo is kind of where I felt most comfortable. You can see it in a bit of range. Yeah. And just keep shooting, rolling out.
00:33:17
Speaker
And I like you have the palico helper too. Yeah, who can set up Different utility things for oh, here's the thing to heal you or here's a trap to stun the monster. Yeah rather interactions it's it's another game where it's kind of like a series of progression and unlocks as you know, many games are and I Think it really pays off. It's got that. I'm gonna beat this monster. Yeah, I'm gonna get that loot I'm gonna farm this guy. I'm gonna get that armor. I
00:33:45
Speaker
which makes it really fun.
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah, the bow is probably also a better call for Pink Rathian, because, man, that guy was a punch. Range. Range is a beautiful thing. What if it hovers here and you're kind of just sitting below it and then there's like a tail attack that hits you with like a billion damage and poison? What if you just didn't have that happen and you just sat to the side? Which is why I went to the lance. Lance has a counter ability where it's just like counter stance and then whatever the next attack is,
00:34:17
Speaker
completely nullify it and take no damage, which works unless it's part of a combo, in which case the second attack might kill you, but it's fun times. There's a decent chance we'll pick it up for PC I guess, the TLDR at the end.
00:34:38
Speaker
It's hard to justify like me spending the same amount of money again. For the same reason you release. So it's $60 and then $60 again. Release this time I'm not also paying for the online. That's true. That is true. Yeah, I got like, I just bought one of those like year keys somewhere. I actually mentally took a note when I messaged you on PlayStation Network the other day.
00:35:02
Speaker
to be like, edit the podcast. And I was like, Oh, I should, I should cancel that. Yeah. So actually went on to my PS4 and like cancel subscription. Yeah. Cause too many times you forget you have it. And then like the month or the end of the year rolls up. It's like, Hey, we've taken your money again. I'm like, what? Oh.
00:35:20
Speaker
Yeah. I bought a key from a distributor online or something because it was pretty decent sale discount for a year. I actually don't know if I canceled the original subscription or not, but I like that model where you can put in a key and it gives you that much time and then you don't have to remember to cancel it because I have enough subscriptions.
00:35:47
Speaker
Like
Managing Subscriptions and Overwatch Updates
00:35:48
Speaker
I said, I've got like everything, and I forget to cancel everything. Netflix has to be one. Netflix, Crunchyroll. Yep. There's actually probably more. I mean, the gym membership, which, you know, obviously every day, every day, that gets used. I would be squeezing Jake's muscles right now, but my hand can't fit around his arms. Yeah, that one's not true. So I had Netflix, Crunchyroll. Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime was a given.
00:36:17
Speaker
an extension of that, the HBO channel for Prime, for a couple shows, Westworld and Game of Thrones. Don't bring up Westworld. Literally a couple. Don't bring up Westworld. Yeah, but not that kind of bug. I don't have time to talk about the whole thing. Not that kind of bug. Let's see what else we've got. Great show, though. I've got subscriptions for D&D things. So I've got like... Roll 20. Roll 20 is one of them, yep. The other one was D&D Beyond.
00:36:46
Speaker
Which is like wizard site for that. Trying to think if I have anything else. I almost definitely do, but I can't remember. Yeah, rent is a monthly subscription. The consequences for not paying that one are more significant for sure.
00:37:06
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I guess it all just adds up and like half those services I don't even use, obviously the gym don't use that. So yeah, I don't know. I should probably audit my subscriptions. Consolidate a few maybe. Yeah. It's like, I don't know when I last watched something on Crunchyroll. Nothing has been really new or good outside of Megalobox, in my opinion.
00:37:33
Speaker
Attack on Titan started a new season, I think. I haven't checked that yet. I watched the first episode of the new season today. It's weird. Is it weird? The art style feels a little bit different. I hate change. I don't want to spoil anything, but the tone of it feels a little bit different than I remember it being.
00:37:54
Speaker
You're probably good not to spoil it with no heads up for me or anyone listening to this. If you want to afterwards I can mention a weird thing to you. It may contain attacks. It may contain titans.
00:38:09
Speaker
Okay, so titans, titanfall, mechs, diva mech. Did you see the new diva skin? That's true. I was recently alerted to the existence of the skin. Surfin? Surfin diva? Surfin, yeah.
00:38:27
Speaker
Naturally, I'm probably gonna have to gonna have to ensure that the SEO Can get this because she plays a lot of diva. So I like how you really stepped it down from life. Yes senior senior officer No, fratner is a fratner. It's a significant. Oh that person lives with me. Oh Yeah, I'm gonna figure out how to say that word fraternization fraternization
00:38:51
Speaker
You should just do that so we can have a chat. That's great. So anyways, yeah, that's skin. For the summer games, which will be coming out probably the week that you guys listened to this, if you listened to it the week that it came out.
00:39:05
Speaker
assuming that Sunday is the start of the week. Yes. So in about a week's time. Yeah. But you're not a big diva player yourself, are you? No, I played her a little bit. I mean, I can see that she's like necessary in a lot of high level games because of like the skill set she provides, but I don't really play her that much. Um,
00:39:29
Speaker
I think when it came to tanks, I usually played more like Zarya, played less mobile, more kind of like death volley or adaptive, but that was, that's like old styles area. I don't know if my skills have translated with a recent meta.
00:39:45
Speaker
Has her skill set changed? It hasn't at all, but everything else around the game has kind of changed around her. On average, characters are way more mobile now, which means she's still really good. Any match where you've got her and Reinhardt, you've got a defensive core and really good ultimate, but yeah, there's a lot of really mobile heroes. Genji's been around, Tracer's been around, but introduction of Moira is very elusive.
00:40:15
Speaker
David Billy all slide in stuff. Yeah, just like But any other new mobile heroes, yeah, I mean there's the one right There's wrecking ball also known as Hammond also known as Hamtaro Hamtaro is my favorite. Yeah Not the character of the anime
00:40:38
Speaker
and uh yeah never actually watch that it's bad don't it's bad yeah um yeah and and he's interesting like Hammond is I think gonna be in an interesting place he's he's alive now he's off the PTR so you just go play him um a tank
00:40:56
Speaker
has a grappling hook, can hook onto things, roll around, has some of the most ridiculous mobility in the game. Like, he may just be the fastest hero on certain maps. Yeah, because you can kind of like grapple around the corner, build the momentum, and stay in ball form and just kind of charge through. Yeah. And you're like, well, our line of defense is broken. Yeah, exactly. And as far as shooting people for the back, pressure team kind of pushes through.
00:41:20
Speaker
and he's got like some rollouts which is like when you're going from spawn to the point or from the spawn to a specific location where he can like kind of go outside the map and like pendulum with his grappling hook and momentum and come back in on the map
00:41:36
Speaker
Which I think is really strong and that that skill set is going to be really good. It'll be interesting to see if he gets picked up in the higher tiers because he's kind of like, he doesn't actually provide anything defensive for his team. So he's the second tank that does that. The first is Roadhog, who does see a lot of play, but he can self-sustain. He can like pull people out of position. Yeah, I feel like... Pull position.
00:42:04
Speaker
When I see a lot of Dota 2 pro plays, certain characters are sort of just picked for, hey, I'm not really team beneficial, but I'm good at picking off one guy. And sometimes if you can get that one person out, you just then have a numbers advantage and you can kind of play out that. That's going to be the trick with Hammond, because basically at the top tier, he is going to fill the same role as Winston.
00:42:27
Speaker
and that he's supposed to dive in, cause problems, and get a kill or something, drop on the back line. The question will be, can he fulfill this role without any type of shielding for his team? Is that going to be too offensively focused?
00:42:44
Speaker
He can't heal himself like Roadhog can, and he doesn't directly defend his team at all. He's going to have to rely on just basically being hyper aggressive and causing chaos, and we'll see if that's enough I guess. I think everything else about the hero is really good though.
00:43:03
Speaker
I mean, you'll find out in like a couple of weeks when he gets his first nerf. Yeah. If he gets nerfed before being enabled in competitive, that'll be the sign. It's a little too strong, but that's usually how Blizzard does it now. They'll roll out a hero and then have like kind of minimum cooldowns, maximum damage, and tone it down a little bit after the fact. Because the opposite's actually really...
00:43:29
Speaker
uninteresting is if you have a character that's released and out the gate they're too weak. I mean, Dota 2 does the same thing. Like, what recent character has been buffed after being released initially? I think almost everybody gets nerfed. Yeah, I don't think you want to start out with somebody who sucks and then nobody's really gonna pick them up.
00:43:50
Speaker
And you're like, hey, but we fixed that thing, and they're fun to play now. They're like, I don't know. Yeah, exactly. It takes all the hype out of it, I think. If a new character is out of the game, people are excited to play them. And then it's like, eh, it kind of just sucks.
00:44:03
Speaker
And Blizzard's done that in the past, kind of with Sombra and Ana. Both kind of came out the gate and, you know, people tried to play them, maybe they were good in some comps and it wasn't until later revisions that they really found their place. Yeah, even Doomfist was actually nerfed. Cause he had like, people were complaining he could hit people too easily and the hitbox was like too tall, too wide.
00:44:31
Speaker
And Doomfist has never been competitively super viable at the highest tiers. Yeah, but you still have to balance your pubs somewhat. He was actually, I say this, he was picked literally once in the last match. The Overwatch League? Yeah, between Philly and London. And Philly picked him.
00:44:54
Speaker
I mean, they were destroyed Interesting. Yes, but he got a couple kills like the life he was picked and then things started to go downhill But overall it was already downhill. So we'll see if he's better now The trick's gonna be with Hammond. There's so many characters added to the game that have stuns and
00:45:15
Speaker
Like we were reaching maybe not quite MOBA level of stuns, but we're slowly getting there. Are you saying like McCree's Flashbang Grenade, Junkrat's Trap, Maze Freeze? Yeah, Maze Freeze is hard stun once that executes. But a lot more have been kind of like added to the game. Lucio has a boop. That's not a stun. It is a displacement though. There's a lot of displacement and stun going on right now. Brigitte was added if she...
00:45:46
Speaker
Hit me, you know, obviously shield bashes you that's a stun It's just and then the introduction of wrecking ball. He was literally like all displacement. He was gonna roll into people all day It's it's gonna be really interesting Oh sombra's the other one She's she's been buffed a couple times kind of recently and then recently was reworked that went live so she has permanent invisibility and
00:46:11
Speaker
and her translocator can stay up all the time. And I think the hack hasn't been changed, but if you hack somebody, they can't use their abilities. So certain characters are very susceptible to this. There's another question is gonna be like,
00:46:26
Speaker
If Hammond is ever at risk of being good, are people gonna start picking up the new Sombra? Because... You can turn him into almost nothing, just like free ult charge basically, by hacking him. Because all of his defensive abilities, all of his escape, everything like that are tied to his actives.
00:46:48
Speaker
no i know his left click is obviously the Rudy Tutti McShooty yes but what is his right click again so i don't actually his right click um i don't even know if he has a right click
00:47:02
Speaker
Okay, that sounds like Sauer would really be a... Actually, I'm trying to remember his exact key bindings, but basically he shoots his chain guns, he fires out the grappling hook, which might be his right click. He's got shift, which turns him into the ball, which automatically happens if you use your grappling hook.
00:47:21
Speaker
He's got his E which gives him his shields. So that's his proximity shields where he gets 100 base shields and then 100 more shields for every nearby enemy. So really benefits jumping in the middle there, dropping your shields theoretically. Like the possibility to
00:47:41
Speaker
like have Zarya use a grab and they just roll in and use that and gain like 800 health is absurd like his base health is 600 yeah so that's like something that's a lot it's almost like a personal Lucio ult yes yeah exactly um in fact it's really similar to that but without the immediate decay um that just decays over time
00:48:03
Speaker
But yeah, you hack him, he's going to have a pretty bad time because he's gigantic and people should have no problems hitting him. I know I will because sometimes my accuracy is garbage.
00:48:18
Speaker
I think you've been decent from where I've played you. I've been all right recently, but I have my days. I feel that. There are days I miss as Junkrat. I'm just left clicking at the sun, hoping for the best. Yeah. Sometimes that grenade on the ground, people don't see it, you know? It bounces into a corner. They get knocked into the corner. That's all it takes.
00:48:40
Speaker
But yeah, he's definitely an interesting hero. And I can't blame them of not being original in their design for this. I mean, yeah, you could literally pick a hero from a MOBA and be like, oh, but the Sonic the Hedgehog hero exists in every game. But as far as a first-person shooter, it's a weird concept to throw in there, I think.
00:49:06
Speaker
Yeah, but I'm liking the diversity they've put into the game. You have people who can fly, you have people who can blink teleport, you have old western style people, you have cyber ninjas. It's kind of across the board, depending on a lot of those niches.
00:49:29
Speaker
Matt, when he listens to this, he's really going to appreciate that call back, too.
Podcast Wrap-up
00:49:33
Speaker
Yeah. I'm putting these in here for you, Matt. Call me. Well, actually, he should email us at... Yeah, he should email us at soapstonepodcast at gmail.com.
00:49:47
Speaker
I don't know, should we just end the episode off that? I wasn't planning to, I just wanted to pepper in the email that a few people use. Yeah, well, I mean, it's there now, so you can't take that back. Thank you everyone for joining us for another episode of Soapstone. It's not that long. This one's probably slightly shorter, but...
00:50:07
Speaker
If we talk about the length every time, they're going to think we have a problem. We're cognizant of, let's just say we're cognizant of the difference between the length of our podcast and other podcasts. It's something to keep an eye on. I have a lot of respect and all for Joe Rogan and the length of his podcast. Oh man. But we should definitely make sure that we save some time for our sponsor. So thank you again, everyone, for listening to the end and have a good night.
00:50:38
Speaker
We'd like to thank our sponsor for this episode, Guinevere's Canned Bread. Can we bread? Yes, we can. Bread. Try their flavors now available in pumpernickel, sourdough, and toast.