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The State of Play(Station) 2024
11 Plays7 months ago
Join Dave and Jake as they talk about how to take people's questions, proposing at video game shows, changes to the Australian ratings board for games with loot boxes, the dangers of horror in VR games, what's going on with PlayStation, and even more in this week's episode!
Congratulations to Coffee Stain Studios for Satisfactory finally going gold!
Intro:
- Satisfactory - Trailer (Satisfactory Reveal Trailer E3 2018 Music)
Outro:
- Satisfactory OST - Pygmalion Effect
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Transcript
Introduction and Weather Banter
00:00:32
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake, and I am joined by my co-host is always Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave? It's going 71 degrees and cloudy. That's good. How about you, Jake? Over to you, Jake. Over to me. What if what if I just also follow up with the weather? Right? like It's like, ah it's ah it's 74. It's clear. Over to you, Dave.
Mic Priority and Political Grandstanding
00:00:57
Speaker
um every time we uh pass what i'm just going to loosely call mic priority we're like over uh-huh i'll play uh plain land and i rescinded my time i take your question ah i think it was was it komi i'm pretty sure it was like in a house investigative committee or something like that but people were asking really dumb things or they were trying to just do like political grandstanding yeah and the guy was just like I take your question and like I have never, I had never even heard of that expression before, but it's the, well, it obviously you could say it as a douchebag too, right? Depending on the context, just saying, I take your question may not be the thing to say, but it's also an absolute power move. Yeah. Cause you just, you give them nothing to go off. Literally nothing. Yeah. It's literally to just the the verbal equivalent of RX. I have received what you have said.
00:01:57
Speaker
If this was a handshake, I look down at your hand and then look back up and meet your eyes. there like yeah I like stuff like that because I think it's, I guess, cool and edgy and... I guess something that I would like the ability to do, but rarely have the opportunity to slash. I don't think actually would. Yeah, right. I'm not confrontational, really. I usually like wait till I get home and then complain about somebody or something that happened. And then I'm like, yeah, fucked up. And then I move on. um
Confrontation Styles and Handling Conversations
00:02:36
Speaker
I mean, that's fair. I also don't think like, hopefully for most of our listeners, like you, we don't have those types of confrontations day to day where I'm just like, I need to be in a situation where I'm like,
00:02:49
Speaker
Shut up. Like you don't need to respond to questions like that. um The one that I think we mentioned before, well, I stole from watching a lot of wubby streams is didn't ask. Didn't ask. Yeah. I've heard like someone just didn't ask. Didn't ask. Yeah. It's incredibly.
00:03:14
Speaker
I'm going to say like riling, right? If you're trying to interact with somebody else and maybe you're like, admittedly, again, if you're the one saying didn't ask, you got to make sure that you're not the douchebag in the situation, right? Cause it's really easy to be. Um, but it's again, such a power move, a disengage. I think if.
00:03:37
Speaker
For the average person, I think the best opportunity to pull it off is if you're going to vote because they're always going to have representatives from either party like, Hey, maybe you haven't been following anything. We have like a pamphlet with like some bullet points. Do you want to talk to us about a voting for our candidate? Usually like didn't ask.
00:03:55
Speaker
Yeah. It's tough to find a tough place to use it because it literally is rude. That's the the common thing. 100% rude. So it's it's finding a place in life where it's justifiable to be rude and they exist. It's just.
00:04:11
Speaker
They probably don't come up too often, right? like I think if somebody is kind of coming up to you without consent, like someone just like start showing up next to you at a bar and just starts talking at you didn't ask. yeah well Yeah. Obviously, there's much more polite direct ways to handle that, but that would be a situation.
00:04:36
Speaker
right maybe you open with something slightly more polite be like hey i'm having just having a drink by myself here don't need it but if they can't take the hint when yeah you hit them with the da a Yeah, I feel like it's it's a rule of threes. Because at least like if I'm out with the dog, I'll usually do like a very light a leash pull, like just pull the leash taut to be like, hey, let's move in this direction or get away from that. And then I will use words to be like, hey, or no. And then it escalates further.
00:05:13
Speaker
to either i'm shouting or i'm now pulling the leash aggressively going hey uh because it's like the third or fourth time you mentioned like the three strikes and what i'm imagining is the first one is you polite again back to the bar example right the first one you're like hey i'm just having a drink here by myself thanks but no thanks and the second one is didn't ask And then the third one is you hit the button prompt to like reveal your hidden knife and like tackle them to the ground. Tell them requiescent pache as all of reality fades out around you and they get their final monologue.
00:05:51
Speaker
didn't think he's going the assassin's creed rad i'll be honest
00:05:56
Speaker
Yeah, but that that doesn't happen that often for me. So, no. um I guess in this context, it's good that I don't have the most approachable face. um I sometimes have the resting bitch face or just very like flat expression, just kind of doing my own thing, minding my business. Right. Tending to my garden, tending to my flock.
00:06:22
Speaker
Right Dave's got like the full robe on cultists surrounding him humming I'm here to harvest ah This is a random thing, but the Cult of the Lamb, um see,
Humorous Proposals at Events
00:06:41
Speaker
it was random. The Cult of the Lamb had a, it was either a showcase or a demonstration, something like that. They had some sort of event going on. And apparently like two people, well not, two couples ended up ah proposing and accepting ah proposals at this like Cult of the Lamb showcase, which is,
00:07:02
Speaker
Very funny. And like so it was announced on Twitter and stuff like that. They had like a recap or whatever. And they said, like, join together an unholy matrimony. You're like, oh, that's cute. That's very cute. I mean, I guess it meant something to them. Like maybe they were playing it together.
00:07:23
Speaker
But man, I can't imagine proposing for a video game thing unless it was like the second Elden Ring DLC dropped and Godwin was in it. And my significant other was as s stoked as I was. I'm like, we should get married. Thousand year journey. Right. um ah the The one that you wouldn't believe, if that was unbelievable, is like the same thing happened for one proposal for Call of Duty. That one.
00:07:53
Speaker
I don't get. I want them to get divorced. Yeah, I do not wish them well. This is a cursed marriage. On this, NBA
00:08:07
Speaker
Uh-huh. So you mentioned NBA 2K27. I actually have also have a thing for that. Apparently, there was a release. I don't know if it was literally NBA, um but it was a sports game. It might have been.
Gaming Regulations and Proposals in Unusual Settings
00:08:22
Speaker
might've been soccer or volleyball or something. But anyways, sports game got rated M in Australia, not because of swearing or violence or anything like that, but just because they changed the way that their rating system works so that if it has loot boxes,
00:08:40
Speaker
or some sort sort of, some sort of gambling and put that in air quotes. It has to be rated for adults so that it can't be marketed less yeah yeah exactly to kids. I'm like, Oh, on one hand, like I want to, I want to continue to hate the Australian ratings board because they like take blood out of left for dead and like remove the ability to top off limbs. But I also really like the idea that it's like, oh, you put loot boxes in. Sorry, this is this is adults only now. Yeah, I do like that angle of it because I don't think it should be a thing in general, let alone just marketed at kids who are dumb as fuck. They are so susceptible to anything. Yeah. um
00:09:28
Speaker
Which is why if you ever get the opportunity, lied to a kid, let it be a little simple white lie and they will hold it in their heart for years. Yeah. My favorite is just come up with a different explanation every time for why this guy is blue. They're like, Oh yeah, that's just the color of God's love. There you go. So that's why this guy's white. God doesn't love any, doesn't know how it fades out. We shouldn't be out at night.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah.
PlayStation State of Play Highlights
00:10:00
Speaker
I think that's the end of my random assignments. We've reached the the terminal point. All the video game proposals. Uh-huh. I think that's about it. That's it. I think that's everything for video games. There's nothing else. Nothing to happened recently in the video gaming space. Not that I know of. um Unless you could think of something. Let me Google quick. Oh my God, PlayStation State of Play. Oh.
00:10:28
Speaker
Sorry, did you not hear the? I don't think the keyboards even to come out. This is a prop. This isn't even a real keyboard. This is a plug in. This is just all an Eric Andre skit.
00:10:43
Speaker
um But yeah, state of play happened. a State of PlayStation. What? If anything. was worth talking about from the state of play from your perspective. So I missed the initial live show, ah which is good because now I just get to kind of pick the highlights of here's a game trailer. He's a game trailer without all the bullshit and stuff in between the chaff. Oh, yeah, yeah ah basically a lot of these things are not for me, but
00:11:15
Speaker
ah There were some things that did spark my interest. The first one was a Midnight Walk, which I think the entire game is done with claymation. Yeah. or Very heavily clay inspired. ah Looks super cool. I'm curious about it, but it is on PS5 and PlayStation VR, both of which I do not have.
00:11:40
Speaker
Yeah, I think it would be cool for the aesthetic that they're doing to do it in first person in VR. But I also feel like VR is a much smaller subset of the player base. I think that's fair. It is kind of it is very niche, right? Like I'm not sure exactly what they're aiming for. But sometimes when you try to like publish a game, you're like,
00:12:04
Speaker
nobody plays RTS games, just make a first person shooter or something like that. And for them, they're like, let's aim through three loops with this shot. We're gonna try to clear all of these. Cause like, I'm on the same page. I don't have PS VR. I don't have a PS five. I'm not likely to have a PS five anytime soon. um And like, I have a different VR headset, but if it doesn't count for like generic platforms, and I think Steam is probably like one of the more accessible VR platforms.
00:12:35
Speaker
Um, then I'm just less likely to see it. Like I know PlayStation needs these things, right? Cause it's kind of struggling a little bit, not as much as X-Box, but it's struggling a little bit right now. Um, but the other, what some of the other hoops they, they go through here is like, you're right. It looks like it's all made and like rendered from claymation. Um, which having played VR that.
00:13:01
Speaker
kind of already makes me a little uneasy because like if the frame rate feels kind of low as like stop motion animation and stuff like that, it's going to make me throw up instantly. That's my fear. Yeah, I showed Jake a stop motion video once and he just started puking. It was gross. So gross. No control. Well, no, it's it's a frame rate problem.
00:13:25
Speaker
Basically your brain does not interpret things in a way. and It kind of just makes you nauseous. Yeah. For people who haven't experienced VR, like if you play a PC game and it's like 60 frames and you're used to that, that's fine.
00:13:41
Speaker
144 frames excellent, but like if you get dips and stuff like that while stuff is happening in the game it doesn't Have it. Maybe you notice it, but it doesn't have a massive massive impact in VR It can literally make you ill if the frame rate looks off um So That would be one concern and the the last one is it also kind of looked like a horror game Was that the vibe you were getting?
00:14:06
Speaker
I don't think it's a horror game. I would say it looked closer to the line of God, I'm blanking on people's names. ah Who's the Tim Burton? It seemed partially like a Tim Burton ah type of design. Like there could be some much more terrifying elements in it, ah which I think they showed in the trailer. But for a lot of it, it just seemed kind of spooky vibes, yeah but not necessarily like this is a horror game.
Game Trailer Critiques
00:14:37
Speaker
I suppose that's fair. I think for me, like the boundary
00:14:41
Speaker
is lower for a VR game. It's very easy to become very scary in VR, even if um it wouldn't be in other mediums, right? You can have Elmo magically, instantly appear, and I would piss myself. Uh-huh. I tried once to play Subnautica in VR, and I did not make it out of the safe shell.
00:15:07
Speaker
um both for technical issues and because the very idea that I would encounter a Reaper Leviathan psychologically was too great of a risk for me to continue to play the game.
00:15:23
Speaker
I mean, what did you think of the game trailer itself? Did that look interesting to you? It looks really cool. I like the um the art style. I think it's some of the creds like those art house games, games like that are really going for a specific style. um My brains go into like Cuphead, right? Where it's like, we're going to draw everything.
00:15:45
Speaker
clay anime everything is I don't know whether that's more or less effort than drawing everything I hope less I guess but like it's very unique and that's that's a good that's an important thing to have because if it has a really unique theme and then the gameplay is good but not like great you can still get a following But if you look generic and your gameplay is good and not great, and no one is going to play your game. Yeah. Which a lot of AAA things tend to fall into that pattern of rounded edges. Um, yeah. Which I mean, I, there are other things on the list. I think do fall under that. The main one being, um, arc age chronicles. Yeah.
00:16:36
Speaker
I am going to look up a refresher on this in real time if you want to describe okay what the gist is for Archeage. So my notes here are third person combat with exclamation marks and question marks but um and also multiplayer dot dot dot. Gotcha. So I think with the success of a lot of these Souls like titles, we're seeing more and more third person action games entirely fine with that.
00:17:02
Speaker
um But it didn't look super interesting. It looked kind of generic. Maybe they'll showcase some more specific things or more niche things in subsequent trailers. um But it just looked kind of normal.
00:17:21
Speaker
and And the fact they're also like, oh, um you can play online with friends. I'm like, OK. So it's like a run around beat them up thing. i I don't know. Yeah, I looked it up. And now I remember that I did see this. I just that's where the thought ended. I didn't pay it anymore. much So it's very like a fantasy magic system. It kind of looks like a almost like old Dragon Age or Witcher.
00:17:50
Speaker
type game um like aesthetically that's what it looks like people in leather with swords and magic and stuff like that right which It sounds weird the way I said it, but you know what I mean. um Just make sure the leather's there. Jerkin, leather jerkin. There you go.
00:18:08
Speaker
um But yeah, it looks like it's made by like a South Korean developer. And I do not want to infuse too much meaning in that, but I have played a lot of, in my older older days, um like Korean MMOs and stuff like that.
00:18:27
Speaker
And that is, that's the sphere they got to break out of is like kind of doing the same thing, having a grindy game, not being as story focused or engaging.
00:18:41
Speaker
um And i'm I'm hoping, I mean, there's no indication that I think this is an MMO if they're advertising and it has multiplayer. I hope it's not an MMO, right? But like, I do hope as well. Actually,
00:18:56
Speaker
Going back and looking at the trailer, it did seem like there were some people running around an area and I did see a mount. Okay. So maybe it is. I don't know, but I don't, I don't want to prejudge it too much, but I don't know. I enjoy fantasy. Don't get me wrong, but the name like arch arc age Chronicles is perhaps the most generic name the game could have.
00:19:26
Speaker
Other than like hero battle, right? Like that's two hero battles. the So there's another one on here um called Hell is Us. Again, coming out for PS5. I don't know if it's for anything else. right um So again, looks very similar to the Arche Age Chronicles, ah but the aesthetic as far as the different areas looks really cool and unique.
00:19:56
Speaker
um The moment-to-moment gameplay for action just felt kind of third-persony, but again, maybe subsequent trailers are gonna show more um But yeah, I thought those two were very similar, except Hell is Us has good aesthetics. Right. And I was kind of curious about what the overall story or narrative is going to be because they made it seem kind of post apocalyptic, mysterious. I was like, OK, well, can maybe see more about that?
00:20:29
Speaker
i have to I have to read you just the opening line from the description for this game because it's on Steam um as well. plan release steam end gear ah If war is the closest we got to hell on earth, it's because earth harbors the worst demons, humankind.
00:20:47
Speaker
So anyway, this game's not going to have good writing.
00:20:54
Speaker
I mean, it could be interesting, but yeah, it does seem like it might be a little on the nose for we're polluting the planet. We keep fighting each other with endless war. I agree. um We humans suck, but I feel like that in and of itself has been done so many times. Yeah.
00:21:17
Speaker
It sounds very generic, I'm not gonna lie, I've continued
Buzzwords in Game Descriptions
00:21:20
Speaker
to read this. The About the Game is just Hell is Us as a third-person action-adventure game that combines intense melee combat with the thrill of exploration. Explore a send me open world not even open world semi-open world to find answers to your questions and face mysterious creatures all along your journey.
00:21:37
Speaker
That sounds like a pitch. Yo dude, I wasn't in until you said mysterious creatures were going to be there. I'm back. That's it. All I got to know is there's something I actually get to fight in this game. Something in the semi-open world.
00:21:50
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I don't know. It's I'm so black pilled for any type of game description because everything just is buzzwords. At least my brain will take everything as buzzwords. There's ways that you can like you can mitigate that, right? Like there's ways to have an interesting game description. And usually it's like being somewhat creative with it, not like.
00:22:14
Speaker
trying to explain your game to a person who doesn't know what a video game is, right? That's the that's the vibe I'm getting from this. Like, give me give me a forward. Mm hmm. Give me like on the seventh day, Rowan knew that he could never return home for the sins he has committed. Like, what since did Rowan do? It asked a question and now there's a level of intrigue.
00:22:39
Speaker
um Maybe Rowan's not even the main character, you know? Maybe he's the antagonist.
00:22:48
Speaker
Point being, though, um both of those looked fairly generic. It's just Hell is Us just has one one slight bump in my eyes. Mm hmm.
Innovation in Action Games
00:22:58
Speaker
Yeah. We'll see. It has plenty of room to to prove itself, as a lot of games do. But um first impressions matter. We've said that before. And aesthetic is important, but it's not everything. And especially if you're making a third person action game, you need to do pretty well these days.
00:23:18
Speaker
Yes, getting a little saturated. A little bit. A little bit, a little bit. Well, good thing there's no more third-person action games on our list. No. No, it's it's all that. um It's almost all that, actually. hu The problem is third-person action game also. Anything that's not a first-person shooter is almost a third-person action game at this point, I guess. That's like an RTS.
00:23:48
Speaker
um Here's one that's not.
Sonic DLC and Keanu Reeves
00:23:51
Speaker
here's ah Here's your right turn pivot for something from my list. Sonic X-Shadows? X-Shadow? It's probably X-Shadow. I probably mistyped that. Generations DLC. Keanu Reeves. Keanu Reeves? Not a third-person action game. No. Disgusting. No. Sonic 3D probably a third-person action game.
00:24:18
Speaker
I will say, i is it a DLC for Sonic Generations or is it just a new title entirely? like Yeah, it's DLC. Okay. My understanding is it is DLC where they have content for Shadow, but they're also updating Shadow's voice to be Keanu Reeves as part of the DLC. I think that it is cool.
00:24:39
Speaker
because itd be I mean, I guess it wouldn't be super jarring if he had a different voice in the movie, but like if you're trying to create the Sonic universe, it makes sense to have that carry over. Yeah. Yeah. And before they do a Sonic and Knuckles and Idris Elba gets a text like, come to the studio. Right.
00:25:00
Speaker
It's kind of funny, there was um in the ah a Discord that we shared recently, there was a a post, but apparently Jim Carrey had um said that he didn't want to do acting anymore, but he would come back if there was the perfect role, like written in gold, like an angel handed it to him, and then he would come back and actually do a movie.
00:25:26
Speaker
And then two years later, he reprised his role as Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog movie. and
00:25:35
Speaker
Sonic's just got, it's got the guys, you know, it's got it's got the actors. I think he was probably just offered a lot of money. Yeah. Like, hey, Dr. Robotnik kind of a key figure in our storyline here. And um you're that guy. We don't want to just change it up to be like, what happened to you? Oh, the experiment went wrong. I look different anyway. Uh-huh. Yeah.
00:26:01
Speaker
It is very funny because it's like I haven't seen the Sonic movies. I probably should at some point because I think this is serious too her for that and the Mario movie. Yeah. um I don't want to see Minecraft. No, I know.
00:26:19
Speaker
Not really. Um, but I am curious, maybe like a bad movie weekend or something like that. Just watch all the the Sonic movies or something. Maybe they're excellent. That'd be very funny. You show up to them. Are you pissed off if you are told it's going to be a bad movie weekend, but like good movies are shown? No. Okay. Cause I'm really going there for like spending time with friends and like making commentary over the movie. Right. Right.
00:26:49
Speaker
So if it was like Inception or something and people are just like we're trying to understand what's going on here or Tenant or whatever, one of those incomprehensible time movies, um not the one, but good movie would be good.
00:27:04
Speaker
um So, yeah, that's ah that's Keanu Reeves in Sonic. So that's that's pretty cool. Good. Good to know that he's not just a sad man with a sandwich anymore. um Another thing to do after John Wick. And by the way, they're doing a John Wick spinoff now.
John Wick Spinoff Speculations
00:27:22
Speaker
Really? Yep. Is it with Keanu Reeves, you know, or is it somebody he's going to be in it for like. Probably five minutes. So probably some interaction with that main character, but.
00:27:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's been very successful. It's basically like carried the kind of pulpy action movie genre on its shoulders. I feel as someone I can claim this authoritatively as someone who like never watches movies like I think I saw John Wick one and two. And then I just got to watch three and four, dude.
00:27:56
Speaker
I'm just waiting for, I'm just, it's the same thing as like the Final Fantasy reboot. I'm just i'm just waiting for them all to come out. There's going to be 10, it's going to be like John Wick Fast Five before I watch it. John Wick Five, I'm all out of wax. Uh-huh, uh-huh. But no, they're not doing more than four if they're shorting a spin-off.
00:28:19
Speaker
But yeah, I do recommend those um if you just want fun action that's campy and it knows that. I've seen the weapon selection scenes from John Wick a lot like on YouTube because they're just very entertaining. It's like it's. I don't know if this is you or not. Maybe I'm speaking to someone else out there, but like, do you like reload sounds in games?
00:28:42
Speaker
That's where I am. Yeah, I really like that, right? It's like it's it's almost it's just guy asmr You don't have to be a guy for this for guy asmr at all. It's just Cool when people reload weapons in cool ways with cool sounds That's the kind of movie it is. Yeah, it's just if you've been Playing a lot of first-person shooters and you have like a special gun animation um Or you just jumping around a lot What was it when I was playing?
00:29:09
Speaker
I want to say Witcher or Wither. I don't think either of those is right. Oh, my God. i Dusk. When I was playing Dusk, which is a very low, graphically intensive first person shooter closer to something like Doom, ah original Doom, um they have gone animations for reloading all the time.
00:29:33
Speaker
And like, I don't think you actually need to reload. It just spins the gun in a fun way. on yeah But each weapon has a different one. So it's like a fun extra thing to do while you're like, oh, I'm just trying to get a faster time in this level or more points.
00:29:50
Speaker
yeah As I'm describing it, I'm like, if my parents were hearing this, you're like, just putting the thumb up, like, I'm happy you're happy, son. It's not crazy. I'm going to back you up on this heavily, Dave. Different episode. Now we're just talking about reload animations on board there.
00:30:06
Speaker
um So I literally got a mod for Cyberpunk 2077 because the first time you equip a weapon in that game, there's a special animation. There'll be like a a sword unsheathing and or like you look at the gun or you like cycle it or something like that for Malorian Arms.
00:30:27
Speaker
um And a lot of them look really awesome, like really cool. It's just pure style. That's all it is. And you see it literally one time. So the mods like, oh, we just make it so you can bind that to a button.
00:30:44
Speaker
You can just hold the button to do that. So it's just like, oh, you want to be really cool when you like take your katana out. And before you finish off the last guy, you just like have this cool, unchieving animation like. It does technically it only adds inefficiency to the game because it's time that you're not shooting the enemies, but it adds style and in Cyberpunk, that's awesome.
00:31:06
Speaker
um And it's just really cool. It's really freaking cool. If that story did not make you think that Jake is neurotic about it, I have another one to share. What was the a left for dead, quote unquote, spiritual successor? i Oh, back for blood. Back for blood. Yeah. um We started playing that with a couple of people. And Jake, I've noticed you tell me if if I'm wrong here.
00:31:38
Speaker
If you get pulled into playing games with people versus like it being of your your own idea of your own volition. Right. You look for things to complain about. I mean, depends on the game, probably. But if I didn't want to play it, then yeah. But the one I remember for with Back for Blood is you harped on the the shotguns not being impactful enough, and it felt like there should be more kickback or impact on the thing.
00:32:06
Speaker
um And I made fun of you then. But I understand that more now because again, like played a lot of Souls games. um One of the reasons I like that is the slow impactfulness of them using like a heavy weapon. Yeah. But then I'll watch a lot of trailers for some other games in a similar space as far as that third person action. And it just feels like It's just like moving their health bar down. Yeah, we are really connecting. Yeah, there's not a ah kinetic aspect to it. And that feels weird because I want a more immersive experience at this point in time. Yeah. Yeah, there's always to have that actually tied in.
00:32:51
Speaker
in the same way that every fuck every fucking person who has a gun in a game will shoot at a wall to be like, oh, is it going to have bullet holes? How many bullet holes can I have before it starts these spawning bullet holes? Can I put my name on the wall? Yeah. Yeah. It's just that like you understand some of the physics and stuff about games. You're like, oh, like how far does it go? How much detail do they put in? But when you notice something that is exceptionally detailed, you do not expect it to be like water physics or. Yeah.
00:33:21
Speaker
Footprints in the snow, then you're like, oh, damn, that's cool. Yeah. I read Dead Redemption. I remember specifically when I was showing Jake some black myth Wukong gameplay, I was in a snowy area and I was running around and I had like my my staff and the staff when I connected with the snow also created an imprint in the snow. Yeah. Which again, a very minor thing, but it makes it feel more alive.
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's super immersive. It's really cool. like And it doesn't have to be immersive to be cool, I guess. But like animations and playing around with stuff like that, it's...
00:34:03
Speaker
I don't know. i I really like it. If you notice it and you're just like, oh, someone from a strict perspective, it might not be immersive for you to say like, oh my gosh, this is interacting with the snow and someone put a lot of effort into getting the physics right for this. That's actually kind of taking you out of the game, but it's helping you appreciate the art. If that makes sense, yeah right? It's clear someone put the effort into it.
00:34:27
Speaker
Um, and that's worth it. Like that's, that's super cool. Yeah. I, I like pretty things.
00:34:37
Speaker
Speaking of. Yeah.
Ghost of Tsushima Sequel Discussion
00:34:42
Speaker
Um, ghosts of. Not Tsushima. What is Yotei? Yotei, Yoshi, Yoshi. Yoshi, Yoshi's ghost. Um, ghost of, I think it's Yotei. I don't know. It's Y O T E I. I would say Yotei.
00:35:03
Speaker
um It looks beautiful, obviously, because Ghost of Tsushima was always a very beautiful game as far as like these epic landscapes and the way everything was fucking just gorgeous. It seems like they're doing more of that. I assume they're going to add.
00:35:23
Speaker
My notes here are it looks like the same game, but they probably change the hot springs, I bet. Yeah. Because in with the the hot springs, um your character would strip down naked, you'd see their butt, and then they kind of just walk into.
00:35:39
Speaker
Hello puppy yeahd they'd walk into the hot spring. Yeah, but but this game a protagonist is female so No lady, but Okay, can of worms is all i'm saying. We don't have the budget for that I would expect them to censor it just because of Society, um, and then people will complain regardless of if they do it or not I think they should exactly have the same amount of butt
00:36:06
Speaker
I think just for fairness. Yeah, just for fairness. That's it. but Not nothing in the front, nothing like that. Like the camera can turn around once everything's covered. It's fine. Same amount of butt. It'll hold up in court.
00:36:19
Speaker
Right? um Balanced. Equal butts, your honor. Equal butts. So I think, I didn't actually look this up because I am confident that this is probably PlayStation only. um It'll probably come to PC eventually, just like Ghost of Tsushima did.
00:36:40
Speaker
um And I have a feeling it's gonna be PS5 because they really got to find a way to sell PS5 and Especially the pro right just make it PS5 pro only that's what they'll do but um I don't know exactly what they're planning to change for this game, but like Ghost of Tsushima was excellent like That was like Ubisoft wishes they could make an open world game as actually fun as Ghost of Tsushima was. Yeah, ah it just had so much. I know when whenever we talk about open world games and like the the pitfalls, it's
00:37:22
Speaker
Oh, you have an enemy camp here. You have an enemy camp there. And in between, it's kind of just vapid. I mean, solutions to that are make it a tighter world um or in the case of the Ghost of Tsushima, make it fucking gorgeous and also have like a good diversity between the camps and the challenges and other things. Yeah. At no point in that game was I like, oh, it's it's this again kind of bored. Yeah, like it always clearly.
00:37:53
Speaker
copied Ubisoft's homework as well right like with the camps with the the duels kind of like in front of the camps not that Ubisoft usually does that but like oh are you stealth are you going in and trying to eliminate everybody I love like the skill tree that just increases the number of people you could consecutively kill in a duel um before it would break into an all-out fight. If I win, it's you three dead. Yes, exactly, right? It's just... No, no, no. I have the skill. You need to send one more person to die to my blade before all rushing. um Literally that. this is This is a joke, but that's also what the skill is in the game.
00:38:30
Speaker
um And I don't know like I don't I don't want to see this become something like Ubisoft where they're not innovating at all um So I do hope that there there is some there. I mean it's all legitimately they are going to Upgrade or add some options to gameplay mm-hmm like in there they had a I don't know the terms of what the type of weapon Katana Kunai would chain. But basically it was like a chain weapon with a blade on either end that was used. They also showed a flintlock rifle. And this takes place, I think, a good bit after it goes to Tsushima. yeah So they could do some more modern weaponry.
00:39:19
Speaker
And I imagine the story will be fine. Yeah. I mean, that was that was my impression of like the Ghost of Tsushima story is I really was like, I hope that this was based on real anything. And then I looked it up and it wasn't. I was like, it's fine. It's it's ah it's basically a Japanese Western. Like that's the way to think about it is it is a Japanese.
00:39:44
Speaker
samurai western sort of sort of sort of jazz but It was enough of a vehicle to get through the game and that's what I'm hoping for this one I'm probably not gonna play it till it comes to PC for the aforementioned reasons. Yeah, but I would um Or if I just had a PlayStation, you know, I'd probably play in that situation too because again, it was really good and it's rare that you um It's so easy to miss in the open world space now like there's the first person to release an open world game I don't know if I was like Mario 64 or whatever no it wasn't but
00:40:22
Speaker
like they had they didn't have the same standards people had to meet now and now it's like there have been six far cry games plus spin-offs there've been assassins create they've been all of these other things sky rim obviously horizon breath of the wild exactly like this is There are there's a lot of competition, if you like, open world games. So I hope that this one can land, but I have more hope for it than Far Cry 7. So I wasn't going to compare it to Far Cry 7. I was going to compare it to the the new Assassin's Creed that I think is very much inspired by he said in air quotes because he feels like they're probably stealing ideas from Ghost of Tsushima. Gotcha.
00:41:07
Speaker
So depending on when they release, I mean, I saw it in some of the comments, they're like, Assassin's Creed is so fucked. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah, you got to be careful with some of that stuff because. I mean, Assassin's Creed still sells a lot, but I would like to believe people could recognize that. I likely the successor to Ghost of Tsushima is probably a way better game. Also kind of a ah bold move for them to name it Ghost of Yotei instead of like.
00:41:36
Speaker
Ghosts of Tsushima 2 or something else that would kind of keep that Canonicity because I think to the lay person you're like, huh, it's kind of weird that both these games start with ghosts of right It's not super obvious. It's a continuation necessarily know that they're connected. Yeah It's not meant to be a sequel. I guess that's another way reason to get away with it But there's a reason that publishers continue to turn out sequels. It's because like brand recognition Far Cry. Assassin's Creed. Exactly. Exactly. Music in Far Cry 5 though. Really good. Really good. I had a bunch of stuff on my list, Dave. Now I gotta be selective about it.
00:42:18
Speaker
So starting with the worst, no, I'm just kidding. I wanted to mention this cause I just thought it was very funny. So Stellar Blade is getting near DLC and the official Twitter account after Stellar Blade posted a message saying like, uh, the DLC has been announced, please stay tuned near near at near game responds with, we will gladly say yes to anything for money. And I love that response.
00:42:46
Speaker
That is the funniest thing you could say. It's like, hey, I don't care about your game. So you want to use our IP? Yeah. hey Cool. You should. It's just it's so incredibly honest that you just don't expect, you know, an official brand thing to say that. But it's it's incredibly smart. So self-aware. It's just funny, like contract signs. Yeah, whatever. It's getting paid.
00:43:12
Speaker
It's not that people doubt them, right? It's like, no, no, they're doing it. They're doing it because they really care. They really like stellar, but no, no, they actually do want the money. It's just, they're telling us. So there's so many more boring ways that you could respond to that, but that's the best way and I found it. Um, the other one I wanted mentioned horizon, you mentioned this earlier, actually horizon zero dawn came up in conversation.
Horizon Zero Dawn Remaster Debate
00:43:34
Speaker
That's getting remastered first question. The original game came out in 2017. That's not the question.
00:43:41
Speaker
has enough time passed since Horizon Zero Dawn launched that it deserves a remaster. No. OK. That's actually. I'm I'm going to I'm putting up my finger because I need to make a goddamn point. That's that's the motherfucking dead space. 2009. And then it's it's remaster came out a year ago. Yeah. I thought Horizon was fine.
00:44:07
Speaker
Like, it is a very good clean game. The gameplay is nice. The story is good. But like, it didn't it didn't sit with me forever. I don't think about it in quiet moments. It's just a game that I played.
00:44:21
Speaker
um
00:44:23
Speaker
And I don't know why it's getting all of this attention because they're also making like a Lego version of Horizon Zero Dawn. Yeah, I think that's a separate game. I don't know if that's is that actually Zero Dawn?
00:44:38
Speaker
Because Zero Dawn is like the entry in this the franchise. think for like It is a LEGO Horizon game. Yeah, yeah that's fair. um Yeah, i I haven't gone back and like played this game. Maybe it's just like, oh man, why does it just look like original Lara Croft and all of this? But I doubt it. Horizon was a very pretty game. And I think it was pushing the bounds, really, of like what the PS4 could comfortably get away with.
00:45:06
Speaker
um And again, they have to sell PS5, so fair. But yeah, I don't know. i Seeing this one remastered, it feels weird when pretty games get remastered, I think. Yeah, it's also like this is a current gen game. So like all the stuff that they're doing for Resident Evil, I think is really cool because if you were curious about that series,
00:45:34
Speaker
you don't necessarily want to go back and play the original that's like janky as fuck and has loading doors all the time and all blah, blah, blah, blah, versus, hey, here's the modernized version of it. And it's a lot more accessible for current day, yeah right? Whereas they're just going to make it shinier? like What are they actually changing? right So it feels weird to have a remaster just on the, oh, let's get more money version.
00:46:03
Speaker
who but the remaster on ps5 i think the minimum should be 10 years i think like regardless of other factors sometimes there's other factors i think 10 years before for like a remaster and they're not there but you mentioned something i want to piggyback on um which is like this is a current gen game yes and it is available in the complete edition you could get for ps4 and prior to I think today, maybe maybe it was yesterday as of recording, ah the complete edition was 20 bucks, which honestly, like not bad. I but enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn. It's worth 20 bucks. Definitely worth 20 bucks. They doubled it to 40 bucks. They didn't announce this or anything. They just went to the store and they're like, all right, it's 40 bucks now um because they realized, I think this is me projecting, but I think this is true.
00:46:53
Speaker
um ah that the remaster coming out and probably costing at least 40 bucks ah is not going to hold up if like the version with all of the DLC and everything that was released for the base game was 20 bucks. Yeah. Again, I don't know what they're trying to market as far as remaster content and why you should get it, but Hasn't hit 10 years. I can't imagine what they're going to change. Yeah. There are other things that you could remaster, but... Exactly. This doesn't seem like it. Like Legacy of Cain. Any day. Any day now. So Legacy of Cain Soul Reaver 1 and 2 getting remastered. I actually sent this over to a special guest, Ian.
00:47:45
Speaker
um couple For Ian's sake I will correct you to say it is Soul Reaver legacy of game Do they change it at some point right like it was it for a later game that they go back and forth? Or am I crazy? I never played. I only played the first one. I like an IDOS I don't want to say demo disc but Something in that family. This was old IDOS days i I have to look this up because this is the sort of thing that is necessary because I thought it was very funny. so all right i was correct i'm i'm i'm but I'm partially correct. I want to say Jake also has his finger up and he's about to make a point. ah so this I was criticizing the Ghost ghost franchise. ah This is a naming scheme that makes sense. Blood Omen Legacy of Kane.
00:48:37
Speaker
Legacy of Kayn, Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, Legacy of Kayn Defiance.
00:48:49
Speaker
I lied. That doesn't make any sense. There's no world where that makes sense. All right. So I was, I was wrong and I must eat my come up. I have to do a naked lap around my apartment. Well, the thing is you were also right because they went through all permutations of what their game could have been named and you picked one of those.
00:49:11
Speaker
These are our ideas guy. His name is Yoda. Uh-huh. Literally. But yeah, this has apparently been a remaster that's a long time coming. And it literally was like leaked. And then like the leaks turned out to be fake years back. And so people have been anticipating it for like forever. And it's actually coming out. From what I've heard, it's kind of a difficult game to get into because this is one of those earlier third-person action games, as all games are, as you know. um
00:49:44
Speaker
But we'll see if they have any accessibility options or maybe they're just like, no, this is normies need not apply when this launches. I feel like they can't change two too, too much as far as like how things are laid out. I expect it to look a lot better. Hopefully, yeah. Hopefully the handle is better.
00:50:08
Speaker
um But yeah, I think it's just making a more modernized version of an old title.
00:50:16
Speaker
When you said that, hopefully it looks better, I just thought of the alternate reality where they're like, we remastered this game and they release it with the same graphics, but they change the gameplay. They've optimized for the most hated release they could have. Make sure to hold down the right trigger to aim down sight. and Right. Yeah, hopefully not for this one.
00:50:40
Speaker
I imagine it'll be all right. Yeah. The other one on here that I wanted to mention that I will not get around to probably is Monster Hunter Wilds. Yeah.
00:50:52
Speaker
I think it looks really good from the trailer and like they have like a seven minute like gameplay thing and like what class you should pick and here's some of the monsters you might encounter. Like the whole thing was done really well. They even have like pop up tents where you can be like, oh, I need to change my loadout, but I don't want to go all the way back to ah the starting spawn. Um, but it can also be destroyed by monsters. Interesting. interesting they They seem to have a lot of cool things in there, but I think if you like Monster Hunter, this is the next Monster Hunter. That's fair. like They're going to add more monsters. um A lot of the weapon types will be the same. They might add one or two. um But if you like the Monster Hunter gameplay, I think it's largely going to be the same. But they might tie in some ability options from the Switch game.
00:51:46
Speaker
Right. It's like dawn. Yeah. must one rise Yeah. Um, yeah, it feels wrong talking about monster hunter too extensively without Rachel or dice. Yeah. But my understanding is this is for the casual, the few casual monster hunter play. Um, monster hunter world was like a massive entry. It was like, Hey,
00:52:14
Speaker
You do not literally have to have played all of our previous games to start enjoying Monster Hunter. But the games since then have basically kind of returned to that hardcore following a little bit. I guess the handheld games would be the way to describe it because it used to like always be a handheld game. um And from what I hear, Monster Hunter Rise is closer to Worlds and that it's like a little bit higher effort. um It's not just a handheld game. You mean Wilds? Yes, Wilds is what I would say. Monster after Wilds. What was Worlds?
00:52:53
Speaker
Worlds is the one that we played on PS4 and PC. they did Rise is the one that was on Switch and had the bugs you could tether to. Right. Interesting. ah Yeah, I meant to be comparing this one. Wilds. Wilds in Worlds. In Worlds, yes. um Also,
00:53:17
Speaker
We should have learned this from Outer Worlds and Outer Wilds. Don't do this to me. Please. um But I am kind of curious. i I couldn't really get into the DLC even for Monster Hunter Worlds. Iceborne, I think it was, or Bloodborne or something like that.
00:53:36
Speaker
um Frostmourne, that was it, yeah. But I am kind of curious to see what's come along since then. And there are times I'm literally like, I should be using the charge blade, you know, in whatever game I'm playing. So we'll see. We'll see. But I'm not committing to it. Yeah. I'm definitely not buying it on two consoles this time. Yes.
00:54:06
Speaker
um is one of those things where like I really did enjoy playing with people, um but at a point for the grind caught up to me, because I'm not good at grinding at stuff. My brain will be like, stop, do something else.
00:54:21
Speaker
For me, it was, it was the high rank stuff. I think I did some high rank hunt and then it started to get more obnoxious. It's like, okay, you would need to start to grind for like gyms and stuff like that. And I'm like, what are you talking? I just want to, I just want to kill the dragon. You have to keep killing this monster and hope that it drops a gem. Yeah. Yeah.
00:54:42
Speaker
and Grinding in Monster Hunter is like not particularly interesting to me And it takes a long time less if you're efficient, but like I wasn't and So it takes a long time right yeah and that's a dangerous gameplay space to put in where it's like casuals have less of a good time with your game compared to other people and But eventually the end game got to that. Not really a judgment though. That's the way monster hunter is. So I'm not asking them to be something else. It's not them. It's me. My end game was, um, getting different outfits for my palico and finding a couple of outfits for Poogie the pig or Pookie. Uh-huh. Yeah, that was really good.
Monster Hunter and Palworld Discussions
00:55:28
Speaker
but Yeah, it has a lot of heartwarming charm for it. Like any other thing that has to do with like food looks so good in a Monster. on Oh, my gosh. Yeah. The animations for those cooking stuff. It's just like every time just getting fatter in real life because I'm continuing to just eat food at my desk.
00:55:48
Speaker
um Yeah, I gotta mention this. Palworld came out on PS5. Did you play Palworld when it launched? Good call. I played Palworld when it launched. And it was very funny because back um back when it launched, as everyone expected, there was a lot of discussion around like, how is Nintendo gonna nuke this studio off of the planet, and right? um And they didn't.
00:56:19
Speaker
In fact, they basically sent out a message being like, please stop telling us that our world exists. We acknowledge that. But they did mention, I think, in the message, they're like, we have received a lot of reports of potential infringement, not in a way that's like necessarily accusing them, but basically saying like, we know what everyone's saying. um And all of this time has passed.
00:56:47
Speaker
since it launched, I think like a year almost, something like that. I think it was sometime in Q1, so maybe not a full year. And and Nintendo was like, hey, we are gonna sue you actually, but it's not for copyright, it's for a patent, which is very different. Because people thought that it was the similarity to Pokemon, which would have been like a copyright suit.
00:57:16
Speaker
But it makes sense from ah an outsider's opinion. Exactly. But instead, it's closer to a patent. And I actually like I read up on this a little bit, which is my way of saying I read an article and.
00:57:28
Speaker
um For a patent, this is a lot closer to they literally must have described a state of how this mechanic works basically in a game and said, like, OK, we're going to patent that. So it's like, throw a.
00:57:46
Speaker
capturing ball at a target that is low health in order to capture it and make it part of the player's party or something like that, right? um And we don't know the exact patents that they're trying to claim here. um And the last we heard, Palwhittle didn't either. um But it's very, very specific. It has to be very, very specific compared to copyright. And it's also risky.
00:58:15
Speaker
Because if Nintendo loses on any of these, then the patent goes away. Oh. So like what people will do when there's like contests like this with patents, especially with games, is they'll literally go back to old school D and&D.
00:58:31
Speaker
And they'll be like, well, in this game, you could role play as a magic using character and attack a monster. And we used RNG or something like that. And then just be like, and your patent doesn't exist anymore because D and&D. So so weird.
00:58:48
Speaker
um
00:58:51
Speaker
I mean, on one hand, so this is just me explaining patents. I like the idea of making sure that if you do have something that is unique that nobody else can infringe upon it. um But at the same time, we reuse stuff all the time. Yeah.
00:59:10
Speaker
um whether it be tropes and movies, where it be like um certain things in music. How many things in music have you heard? Where they sample something from like the 80s or whenever um stuff gets passed around, it changes, it gets augmented um and it can become a new and beautiful thing. And other times it's just people copying it and it being trash. Yes. Yeah. So, yeah, there needs to be a middle ground there. But
00:59:43
Speaker
I don't know. It feels weird to be like, nobody else can have this mechanic. Yeah. in games It's out. it It feels less ethical than a copyright claim, right? Cause if they were like, Hey, pal world ripped off our Pokemon designs, everyone would have been like,
01:00:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, they did. And then they would have to argue in the the gray space in between about whether designs were changed enough to not be or whatever. But if you're like, hey, I own monster capturing mechanics and you can just never use these in any game because we were the first person to come up with it, that's the death of an idea.
01:00:24
Speaker
right yeah it's like that's really lame and it's not like are the pal spheres ripoffs of pokeballs absolutely they are and the game is not really any better or worse for having included them right um It could be a cube, right? It could be a laser beam that you have to use from your capture gun. And literally if it was different and that's the patent, um it'll be very funny, right? Like it could have just been interpreted differently. But it is, it's super dangerous, especially with a company as powerful as Nintendo and as litigious as Nintendo. um There's a very valid question people should ask, which is,
01:01:11
Speaker
Would Nintendo be suing power world if they were not wildly successful, right? If it wasn't seemingly competing against, um, Pokemon, I think it was legends of Arceus, Arceus Arceus. Yeah. Like.
01:01:30
Speaker
They're different games. They play, they, um, appeal to different people. So should one company that's massive, whole like hold all of that weight and legal power over another company, who's going to have to spend millions of dollars to try to figure out if they can survive in court, right?
01:01:53
Speaker
Yeah. I, I remember like early days for like, Oh, it's America can just, anybody can sue anybody. Yeah. that's You look into like stuff for lawyers and it's just insanely expensive to have any type of legal dispute. Exactly. Yeah. Insane.
01:02:10
Speaker
Yeah, so we'll
Nintendo's Patent Dispute with Palworld
01:02:12
Speaker
see. Gonna track it. um This will probably resolve in five years. That's usually how long these things take. um But I am really curious to see what patents they deploy here. And I'll be honest, I'm rooting for Nintendo to lose a couple of patents over it. I want to see them get like gut punched a little bit. Not that I like the company that made Palworld.
01:02:34
Speaker
But I just want to intend to have better online and then I'll be happy again. Exactly. That's what pal world needs to say. Improve your smash online connectivity. We will cease to exist as a company. Easy exchange. That's what I want. But that's it. That's all PlayStation has going for it that matters. Yeah.
01:02:59
Speaker
If you guys have ideas for what you would like PlayStation to come out with, maybe a game that you love, but it's not available on PlayStation. But you say like, you know what, if this came out on a PS5 Pro and it was remastered, I don't care that it came out two years ago, I would buy that PS5 Pro. Send in those games. Tell us what they are. Substone podcast at gmail dot.com or join the discussion on Facebook.
01:03:23
Speaker
not to be remastered by another social company until 10 years from this point, facebook dot.com slash soapstone podcast. And as always, we'll see you in the next one. Have a good night.