Transcript
Speaker: ah What's going on, everybody? It's midnight here. One third of the game's over. but plastic podcast. Coming to you guys, I just wanted to make a special announcement here, which many of you already know about if you follow us in Discord and on Twitter.
Speaker: um Hodge put out a statement. Basically, the games over plastic podcast is going to be unfortunately ending. for the time being and probably forever, but who knows. um Unfortunately, real life has happened.
Speaker: And you know, there's been a lot of things going on. personal life situations, time situations. kids. parents.
Speaker: Fiancés. jobs, everything. It's just made it more and more difficult to stick to our schedule and hit these podcast windows. um Also, you know we've been doing it for like three years and you know the topics, I'm not saying that we're out of topics, but the best topics have already been done. And there's just a lot going on. So we've kind of all decided mutually um that it is it's been a good run, but it is best to step away.
Speaker: um Unfortunately, we were going to have Colin on next week. We were going to rank the PlayStations and we were going to have Maddie on very soon. So we had some cool episodes planned that now you guys will never get to hear, but that's okay.
Speaker: It's alright life will go on there's plenty of stuff to watch and do, and see, and all that stuff. so But I just want to thank all of you guys for your love, kindness, and support of our podcast. The people who listen to our podcast every week, the tens of you that did, we greatly appreciate it. All the comments, likes, shares, write -ins, etc. um You guys have been great. um
Speaker: We never had a huge audience, ah unfortunately, and that's fine. But we did have a dedicated ah small base that was very loving and supportful and awesome. um I do have a little special for you here. so We recorded this here. My cat, you know, my cat saying goodbye to the fourth chair. Of course, me, Sean Mason and Hodge are the three. But then the cat, you know.
Speaker: He's saying hello to everyone.
Speaker: um A special for you guys. So this is episode zero that you're going to hear after this if you choose to stick around. Basically, we recorded this. This was going to be our very first episode two and a half years ago, and we were going to be discussing the Xbox Direct that came out at that time, or the Xbox ah Developer Direct, whatever it was. um So you're going to hear us talk about that and introduce the brand new show. it's I don't remember how long it is, 15, 20 minutes or whatever. And then unfortunately, real life happened, and I think Sean had to go.
Speaker: handle a family matter. So we scrapped it. We delayed a week and then we decided we're just going to start over and rerecord. So this never came out. This is completely unreleased. content. um You're going to hear the mic quality is shitty. There's more of an echo because I didn't have foam up on the wall and stuff like that, right? and ah But yeah, and it's you can hear us talk about...
Speaker: games that were upcoming at that time, like Avowed, for example, um that have now come out. And by the way, Avowed is a good game. Suck it, all you haters. Okay, it's an 80. It's an 80 to an 81, okay?
Speaker: Stop the hate. It's better than Wolverine. all Alright, guys. Much love. from myself. Sean Mason and Hodge. We love you guys. If you want to, stick around and check out episode zero of the podcast, the very first thing we ever recorded.
Speaker: Goodbye!
Speaker: Yo, what's going on everybody? Welcome. to the very first ever episode of Games Over Plastic! a podcast for the agnostic. gamer.
Speaker: people who love games. not console warring stuff. My name is Midnight. I'm one of your hosts here. And I am joined today by my two amazing co -hosts here. The first of which... is the man who still gives us all hope for humanity.
Speaker: that not all is lost. The man, the myth, the legend. Sean Mason. How's it going? I'm doing well. Thank you for, you know. coming up with this idea and you know having a meet and The other co -host on, this is a fantastic opportunity. I'm really looking forward to it. Your praise is too much. It's not needed. I hope this is the only time you refer to me as that. It is not needed. It is there as much. There are much more.
Speaker: people out there who deserve that. All right, well fair enough fair enough And then last but not least, we also have the man who does everything. This man, he has too many skills. He's too powerful.
Speaker: this He does music. He's a graphics guru, video and everything. He's done podcasts. We have Hodge. What's up, man? I have everything except a functioning hip right now. My hip is not in feeling good, but thank you for those kind words. Oh, no. Your hip's messed up? Yeah. I don't know. I think I pulled something in the...
Speaker: Only if I step certain ways. like If I'm sitting, if I'm doing... Even if I'm like squatting, I'm fine, but... Take one step. I'm like, oh, that hurt. but it's okay i'm sitting down doing this podcast we'll be fine Dude, I can relate. Yesterday, my lower back hurt real bad for like no reason at all. I don't work out.
Speaker: I haven't worked out in years. like You know what I mean? it's just I think you get old and your body just starts to deteriorate. It's not fun. Well, especially if you don't work out yeah definitely but yeah but actually my spine in high school so i understand how how the back pain feels Oof. Not good. now But ah yeah, welcome everybody. We're very excited to be doing this. This is something we've been wanting to do for a long time.
Speaker: um you know we were just in discord and i was like you know i really want to do a podcast and my very first thought was that i really wanted to get sean mason sean and and hodge on here And that's what we're going to do. This is going to be a podcast that's not for console wars. We will cover console news. We will cover games. But this is going to be all platforms.
Speaker: It's gonna be a safe space. It's gonna be a great time. We're gonna talk. Xbox, PlayStation games, Nintendo, PC, maybe even mobile. If it's relevant and we're just going to have a good time.
Speaker: I want to go ahead and start here since this is episode one. i want to go ahead and start with just kind of introducing who we are to the audience you know ah The audience may not be clear.
Speaker: about who exactly everyone is. So let's go ahead and take a moment here to explain who we are and what our background is, what our history is with games. and Anything else that you want to add?
Speaker: So, Haj. Take it away. yeah i am hodge as we've already established but um yeah i'm a i'm a hodgepodge of weirdness which is fitting as if anyone knows if and i don't Doubt there's much crossover here, but I used to do a podcast called The Hodge Podcast. It was about country music.
Speaker: So I have a little bit of experience with... ah podcasting both gaming I grew up mostly on n NES and PS1. Those are my two. huge ones as a kid and then i went to ps2 and then i switched over to xbox after that i'm primarily Xbox, but I also have the PS5 and the Switch for when I need to play them.
Speaker: So I'm all about that. I love platformers, action adventure. I've gotten recently into JRPGs, but I was never huge on them other than Final Fantasy VII as a kid because... it's the goat but um Yeah, I just i love playing. I love the...
Speaker: cutesy action platformers like the Spiros, the... uh you know that kind of stuff i've anyone who knows me knows i've been talking about tinykin since it came out and it's amazing how much you play it but anyway yeah i play those kinds of games so Yeah, that's me.
Speaker: All right. All right. That's good. And then we have Sean. What's going on with you? What's your ah gaming background history and all that? So I've ah grown up always.
Speaker: Been a gamer my entire life. My dad got me into video games at an early, early age. Some of my earliest memories are watching. you know my dad and my sister play you know on the ps1 and the super nintendo i was born in 1996 um But despite that, I still grew up playing you know the and NES and the Super Nintendo and the PS1, even though you know by the time I had you know a real...
Speaker: you know feel for you know controllers and stuff you know the ps2 was already out um but you know Like Hodge, I love platformers, but my bread and butter is definitely JRPGs. Thanks to my dad. He um kind of raised me on that. Some of my earliest memories, like I said, are watching him play some of those.
Speaker: JRPGs like Final Fantasy 6 and Final Fantasy 7. Final Fantasy 7 is my favorite game of all time. final fantasies Final Fantasy is my favorite series of all time. But um like I'm a big JRPG guy. I'm i'm deep into... Um, really weed games so like As you'll see when we get to what we're playing, you'll see some of the weeb stuff that I like to...
Speaker: you know consume.
Speaker: Right on, right on. Okay. Good stuff. Yeah, i like that's one thing I liked about the cast that we've assembled here. We have a very wide mix of gaming tastes, you know.
Speaker: um You know, like Haji, you're big into like indie games and some smaller titles and stuff like that with some live service mixed in. Love them. Sean, like you mentioned, you like a lot of games, but, you know, JRPGs is a big focus for you and things like that. So that's good.
Speaker: um And then me, let me go ahead and transition. So my name is Midnight. I did YouTube for a while. For a couple years, I started in like 2010, 2011. I did it for like two years, mostly as a Call of Duty YouTuber.
Speaker: i was one of the cod bros you know just playing call of duty all day and um So I did a lot of Call of Duty YouTube stuff for a couple of years. And then that fell off. I did host a... Well, I did a not host, but I was on a podcast for like 10 or 12 episodes. It was a. a Call of Duty podcast called The Effortless Podcast. That was our little plan.
Speaker: So. But I don't really do much content creation these days, but I'm starting to dip my feet back into it, dip my toes back into it. Gaming -wise... You know, for a long time, I was kind of on the live service plantation, as as as you like to call it. I played a lot of Call of Duty and Smite. and those types of games, CSGO, and it took a lot of time. But these days, I'm kind of more on a single -player grind.
Speaker: I play a whole lot of... rpgs western rpgs some jrpgs So that's really what I'm into. I love the single player experience, but I do dabble a little bit into multiplayer and all that.
Speaker: So I like that we have a very nice mix here. And I think this is going to be. a good time. For sure. So yeah this is episode number one, as I mentioned. so Dear audience, just understand it's probably going to be a little bit crappy in the beginning here as we get used to everything. We're going to do our best, but definitely the show will get better.
Speaker: Every episode. No doubt. I guess we we can hop right into the news. um we do have a lot of news to cover this is probably going to be longer than some of our other episodes because there was some showcases you know we had the state of play from sony which we're going to go over we had the xbox developer direct what was it, three weeks ago or something like that, um that we are going to go on. We have some random news and then we're going to get into the regular segments.
Speaker: So let's go ahead and jump right into. the topics and the news, shall we? Let's do it. Of course. So i think I think we should go ahead and start with the Xbox Developer Direct. Now, this is at this point, it is a little bit old. The news is a little bit dated, and we understand that. But we still wanted to cover this, though, because there are some games that are are really nice and games that...
Speaker: we're excited about many of us are and it also this showcase from xbox that they did kind of defines and sets the tone for what their cadence and their releases is going to be for this year so i feel like it is relevant so we're going to briefly get into that um All of you, you guys did get a chance to check out the Developer Direct.
Speaker: Oh yeah. Yeah, of course. All right. What did you guys think of the developer direct overall? Sure. Yeah, for for me... um
Speaker: you know I'm not... This is the first time I've ever owned an Xbox myself, so I'm not really big into their history. um i have played you know I've gone back and played some of their games, and i I really wish I didn't miss out on a lot of them. For me, I love Obsidian, so Avowed really stole the show for me. I know a lot of people aren't that high on Avowed, but I...
Speaker: I think it looks sick. I think it looks really cool. um The art style reminds me of the Outer Worlds, and it's supposed to be like a you know a smaller, more contained RPG similar to the Outer Worlds. So that really got me excited. and um
Speaker: Yeah, so Avowed really stole the show for me. I know they had the Square Enix Visions of Mana game. It's funny. you know I just talked about how much I'm into JRPGs. The Visions, the Mana games, I really haven't played. uh that much uh growing up we didn't have them i remember i think i rented one once and i never played i didn't play the remake from a few years ago so that was interesting tool it was cool to see that xbox that game is coming to xbox So that was pretty cool. But yeah, um, about really. was the, you know, the bread and butter for me. that
Speaker: the cake of the show. Heck yeah. So let's go ahead and start with that. Let's go ahead. Why don't we go line by line? Xbox came out. They showed five different games here. And the very first one was, as Sean mentioned, Avowed. Avowed is a game that I personally... am very excited for. I'm a huge Obsidian fan.
Speaker: Being a Obsidian fan, always have been. One of my favorite developers, if you have like the Mount Rushmore. of gaming developers. Obsidian is on mine. They're one of my favorites. I've loved all their stuff like KOTOR 2 back in the day was amazing. I played a bit of Alpha Protocol.
Speaker: You know, obviously we got. a Fallout New Vegas. Nowadays, widely considered by many people to be the best Fallout. I absolutely love that game. Um, and you know all of their other stuff so i'm really excited about what ah Obsidian has to put out. Avowed was the first game that they showed.
Speaker: There has been some drama and some criticism. from some people online about this game because of the change in direction. ah where You know, when they first came out, they had that first trailer. It was kind of dark. It was kind of gritty.
Speaker: dude was doing hand signs and they kind of made it seem like it was going to be obsidian Skyrim, right? But then they decided. They decided they wanted to change directions.
Speaker: um and kind of stick to what they do best which is more of like almost a double a or 2 .5 a style and uh that turned off some people i know some people who are a little bit turned off and a little bit questioning about but me personally I don't doubt Obsidian. I never do. They've never let me down.
Speaker: I'm super excited. I thought it looked really good. I like the emphasis on choice and consequence. You know, they talked about how you can save people. You're either here to save us or to destroy us is what they say. So I think that's really cool. It's probably going to have replayability.
Speaker: Personally, one of my most anticipated games. of 2024. Hodge, what what did you think about Avowed? so yeah i as i said before i'm not i've just kind of recently gotten jrpgs let alone western rpgs i didn't get into those really actually the first rpg i played that wasn't a jrpg that told me like oh i actually do kind of like these is no joke dead island i loved that game
Speaker: and so that's what kind of got i never played skyrim i still have never played skyrim Same here. I've never played Skyrim either. yeah so this so that kind of when people are like oh you know it's like sky i'm like i don't care but i do love obsidian and i loved the out outer worlds i thought i didn't beat it because i i came out i don't know if something else came out at the same time where i kind of fell off of it but i loved it from what i played and so i and i've heard nothing but good things about new vegas so
Speaker: I was hyped going to Noval. I understand the kind of the criticism of. I've never been huge into the first person melee. gameplay so like playing with the sword first person i just it feels weird to me i don't know so but The game's gorgeous, so I don't know what people are complaining about with it. I thought it looked good. like I was hyped watching this. and and even i mean of Of course, being Game Pass, I'm going to play it no matter what. because have access to it but i thought it looked really cool and i'm i'm stoked for it
Speaker: Heck yeah. um So you've never played a Fallout New Vegas, Hodge? No, I've only played, I played some Fallout 3 and I fell off of it. for some reason i can't remember why and then i played fall of four which i loved but that one i also fell off because i got to a point in the game where i was too under leveled to do the mission and i didn't feel like grinding for like
Speaker: ah however many levels i needed to get to to so continue the mission so i was just like i guess that's it for me and so i just kind of fell off of it but yeah i i western rpgs have and starfield was one that i got super i loved that game i understand why people have criticisms of it and it's you know it's just kind of load screens from planet to planet i get that yeah but i love that game and so i'm excited to keep playing more western rpgs and avowed is one i'm definitely excited to try out
Speaker: Absolutely. Yeah, I'm really excited about Avowed. I thought i thought it looked really good with the spell effects and the combat and everything. They got yeah blood. They got a parry. It looks like it still needs more work, but... you know People, you got to understand that this is alpha footage that they showed. So it is so pretty early. I believe they said that they're targeting a fall release date for this one. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if this one gets delayed, if we're being honest.
Speaker: Yeah, hopefully not, but I wouldn't be surprised either. Yeah, i see it it seems like more of a 2025 game to me, especially considering it's the alpha footage. Yeah. Sorry, Sean, you already kind of went a little bit into Avowed, but anything else you want to throw on? for a valve before we move on?
Speaker: I mean I just kind of echo everything you guys are saying. um Other than I actually really enjoy the first person combat. At first, I didn't think I was going to like it. But then um one of the first real um Western RPGs I played was actually Fallout New Vegas. I missed three when it originally came out. um And I fell in love with New Vegas. and then
Speaker: The Outer Worlds, which was only in first person, you couldn't go into third person, really got me adapted to that. full on third person, even if I mean, i'm first person, even if you're in um using melee combat, and I've played that game so many times, I A hundred percent of it. I got the platinum trophy and I just.
Speaker: played it so much and i absolutely adored it so like i really can't wait for about Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I agree So let's move on to the next game. The next game that they showed at the Developer Direct was Hellblade 2 from Ninja Theory.
Speaker: studio out in ah Cambridge, UK, I believe. A lot of hype around this game. you know The graphics look absolutely insane. Hodge, why don't we go ahead and start with you? What were your thoughts? What was Hellblade 2 doing for you?
Speaker: Dude, I am blown away every time I look at this game. It again it was kind of annoying the fact that they'd keep showing these little you know chunks of the game and then it would just show the title and then no date. So the fact that they finally gave us a date made me very happy. But i I loved the first one. I played it on PS4 when it came out. I played it again on Xbox when it came out. ah
Speaker: I think 100 % on Xbox. I don't think I platinum did on PS4, but I loved this first game. And of course, not to, you know, we don't console we're here, but I love the fact that people are down on this game for some reason. It's like the first one was beloved. Why are we suddenly hating it? Is it because Xbox owns it? Like what's going on? I think it looks awesome. I loved it, especially as people always say, you got to play it with headphones on. It's insane to play it that way. You just hear the voices all around you, but.
Speaker: ah I mean, I'm also like we said, I'm an indie guy and I like a lot of walking sim games. What remains of the Finch gone home? I love, love, love those games. So if this is mostly a walking sim with a little combat, I'm OK with that because I love the story.
Speaker: ah behind games like that. So I am so stoked for this game. Absolutely, absolutely Sean. Hellblade 2. Yeah, I'm kind of on the opposite end of hodge. I'm not I don't I'm not hating on the game I never played the first one so like Again.
Speaker: I don't really have a history with this game. I think it's... it has it has almost like that death loop effect where it's being shown so many times where it's just like all right can we get to the game already can we can we already get to the game um I'm not huge into um like walking sims like Hodge said, and I am a little worried that they haven't shown.
Speaker: Like... They haven't really gone in -depth in the combat and... how the quest system in the game or anything like that. So I'm i'm a little... has it hesitant for this game. I'm hoping it really does well because um i know a lot of people who enjoyed the first game are really hyped for getting a sequel So, you know, I hope it does well. But again, I really don't have a history with the game, so I can't really speak on.
Speaker: all of it
Speaker: Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. So... For me on Hellblade 2... I'm not super hyped for it. I mean, I am excited. you know It is nice. I'm excited to see what Ninja Theory can do. you know Microsoft purchased them in 2018, I believe. A lot of hype around them.
Speaker: The first Hellblade, it just didn't 100 % do it for me. And the reason for it was the puzzles. There was just a lot of puzzles if you play that game. It felt like 80 % of the game was puzzles. And me personally, I'm not a giant puzzle person. It was cool the first time or two. You know, you got to line up the sigils. you know, to unlock the.
Speaker: The path forward, but. For me, I got a little bit frustrated with that. I love the graphics. I love the character. I love the audio design. You know you got the people whispering in your ears. like no don't do it you can't do it turn back that type of stuff is cool I am excited to try out.
Speaker: Hellblade 2, I will give it a shot. They're saying it's going to be six to eight hours long, which for me, I think that's perfect because this type of game, when it's kind of creepy and scary and you've got.
Speaker: people whispering in your ears i don't know if i want to do that for 30 hours you know what i mean Oh, yeah. i I love. games that are sub 10 hours i as someone who's as busy as me if i can get through a game in a week i'm so happy Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah, so Hellblade 2, I'm interested. I'm interested, but I'm not super excited. I'm kind of waiting to see. I hope it does well. I hope it's awesome. I will give it a shot, I'm sure, but ah we'll see what happens.
Speaker: All right, quickly. graph graphically there there's no game on par with that game also it looks insane It does look insane. Now Fable, Fable's close. Fable looks really good. but That's true. That does look great.
Speaker: I agree. ah Moving on, we got Square Enix. they They joined the show. They crashed the party. you know At first, they had just the fourth. And then there's like, oh, entering the chat, Square Enix. First time, I believe, that we've had a non -first party studio entering a developer direct. So that's cool. And that may set a precedent. Maybe, who knows, next time we're on there, maybe we'll see someone else show up. Maybe maybe Big Sega will come in. You never know. I love Sega.
Speaker: So Square Enix Visions of Mana. This really isn't my bag. I don't have a whole lot that I'm gonna be able to say about this. Let me go ahead and pass it right away to our resident JRPG expert.
Speaker: Sean. What was the Visions of Mana doing for you? So, uh, like I said earlier, I have no history with the mana series, but I'm actually really intrigued by this especially, you know, it's got it's coming to Xbox which is really cool to me because
Speaker: you know The history with Square Enix, recent history, has not been the greatest. and you know I just want games to be everywhere they can be so more people can play them. I am looking forward to giving the Mana series a try. Square Enix is my favorite. developer and publisher i absolutely love square enix games so anytime i can get a jrpg from square like i'm down to play it so i'm gonna definitely give this one to try i'm definitely gonna give it a sh try and it's making me interested to pick up the series some of the older games um i actually own some of the older games so
Speaker: just from i don't know various years of like maybe ps plus and you know, free games here and there so i'm definitely going to give it a try um i'm looking forward to it
Speaker: Yes, sir. How about you, Hodge? Yeah, I've honestly, I've heard of the Mana series, but I have never played them. ah This is one of those series that I... It just...
Speaker: went completely under the radar for me. I'm happy that Xbox is working on their relationship with Square because I would love to get Final Fantasy 16 or... Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth on Xbox, because I'd love to play them there. I would 100 % buy them again, even though I...
Speaker: haven't bought final fantasy 16 but i do have remake uh i would love to play them again on xbox so that'd be great but i'm i'm happy that their uh partnership is was at a level where they're like we're gonna throw you into our first party developer direct like that's a pretty cool sign that's like yo square enix they are here we're i mean obviously they have to they have to give them the big bucks for it because uh
Speaker: playstation dominates japan but it's it's really cool that xbox is trying to be like no no no you can play these games over with us too it's not only on playstation so it's it's cool to give xbox that uh that series.
Speaker: um One thing I do want to make note of of the Mana series is it's not your traditional JRPG in that... It is like an action -based real -time combat. So it's not turn -based. So even though it was one of the you know it was one of the early, early JRPGs that came out of this game, the series started in the early 90s, that it wasn't turn -based. It was real -time combat, which is that's really interesting.
Speaker: you know. I didn't know that Yeah. That's cool. All right. Yeah, i I'll probably check this game out. You know, I do dabble a bit. I like a little bit of JRPGs. I'm just not.
Speaker: as into it as Sean or some other people. But yeah, i I think it's cool. I think it's nice, like you guys said, that ah Microsoft and Square Enix are coming together. um for a long time there you know that relationship kind of fell out and Xbox is looking like the...
Speaker: the redheaded stepchild, if you will. um we weren't really getting much love over here on xbox but so it's good to see square eating show up This is a game I will keep my eye on. I might try it out we'll see.
Speaker: but yeah so that was visions of mana
