Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to Seriously Irrelevant, the first episode of a frenetic and unstructured gaming podcast that is still very much in development. We're not even in beta yet, we might get delayed, but we hope you, the listener, add what is necessary to our unfertilized egg of a show.
Speaker: Please welcome Beta Boy himself, Brendan Connolly. What's going on, Brendan? Hey, thanks for having me. Coming to you live from Asheville, North Carolina in my bedroom office. Yeah, as we all do. I don't actually have a bedroom. I just have an office, and that's where I sleep and work and all those things.
Speaker: But yeah, talk to me about Trashville. How's things going on down there? It's pretty good. Well, except for my drainage system. When I was telling you a little bit earlier, I had a clog in my bathroom, and I had to get my hands dirty a little bit. Turns out my fiance has been dropping a lot of hair in the drain. Oof. Yeah.
Speaker: Pretty wild. Not even a minute in, we're dropping the fiance. I just want everyone to know. With the accent, too. Spoken for. Don't be sniffing around here. Don't like that word. Really refuse to use it. Fiance. Oh, okay. See, because you also said fiance. Fiance, yeah. I'm from Delaware, I say fiance. Probably wrong on multiple levels. I say Pokemon.
Speaker: How do you say it? I think, I say Pokemon. I don't know. No, I actually say Pokemon. Just dead in the middle of nothingness, just like my heart. But yeah, don't really care for fiance or the French. So I actually got a quick story about Pokemon. My grandmother on my dad's side, super Irish from Ireland, she actually spoke Gaelic.
Speaker: And when she first heard us, we were like, you know, kids in sixth grade or fifth grade for me talking about Pokemon. She thought that we were going around saying a bad word. Cause apparently in Gaelic, Pokemon hone means kissing. So my grandmother thought all the kids were going around telling each other to kiss their asses. We were just talking about little Pokemon. No, you can, you can kick my, or oops, kiss my Ash.
Speaker: Well, dude, so we're here to talk about gaming. So I'm happy you brought up Pokemon. I don't want to kiss your ass. You also said something about you left a solid piece of shit in your saying. I don't know how much we're really interested in hearing about that, but I don't want to forget that before maybe we move on to more pertinent topics. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I could, I could go into that a little bit.
Speaker: We'll get two graphics. Of all the house chores and all the house things, I hate plumbing the most, because I have a thing with smells. So I've pulled some funky stuff out of drains before, and I don't like it. But yeah, most of it's hair. But some of it, I swear, looks like meat. It's probably not meat, but it looks like it could be meat. That is weird stuff. But yeah, this time, I had to go in,
Speaker: Water wasn't draining, so I go down, pull off the U -joint under the sink, a bunch of crap falls out of it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, disgusting. And the thing that I didn't used to know is that when you pull off a U -joint on a sink or something, you have to plug the pipe coming out of the wall, because otherwise it's just spewing gases from the sewer system. So I'm down there and I'm like, okay, I plug up the hole,
Speaker: but the clog is still going on. Like I put everything back together, clog's still there. So I have to take it all apart again. And I'm like, okay, I got to take the pipe off the wall. So I do that. Try not to breathe in the fumes, reach in, pull out this big wad of hair and meet maybe, and then put it all back together. Clog's still there. So, you know, not sexy. I'm going to have to call a plumber. My fiance is going to have to watch that happen. You know, watch the plumber emasculate me, but it's worth it.
Speaker: I think she's probably seen that before and probably very intimate. Yeah. There's just a lot of guys coming to my house doing things that I can't do. Oh, I've heard that. I've heard there are a lot of guys coming to your house. Maybe for her as well. I didn't actually know that, that there were fumes coming out. Why don't you have to plug the sink then? Make it make sense.
Speaker: Uh, also meat. Could you make it into a, oh my gosh, stop. You're going to be sick. Like actually when you, when you breathe in smells, you don't like through your hands instantly. Yeah. They're sweating. They're sweating now. Actually just thinking about it. Uh, yeah. Does your mouth, do you get that like pinch? Uh, yeah. Like it, like it hurts in your.
Speaker: Yeah, like there's like saliva spilling out so fast your body can't keep up. Yeah, which is weird because I don't want it in my mouth but that's where I taste it. Yeah, I mean I feel like Michael Scott would have had a field day with that sentence there. Well dude, I'm happy to be here with you today. Same. It's been a long time coming and now it's oddly quiet because the
Speaker: Heating just stopped. So it's like that, you know, that den cuts out and then you're like, oh no, my neighbors can get everybody around. My tenants. What are your gaming credentials? Because I'm not so sure they exist for one of us in the room.
Speaker: This guy, I actually meant to check before we started on the Platinum count. It's pretty, it's pretty healthy. I think... 57. How do you know that? Do you background on me? It's the first of many, many things I will be right about on the show.
Speaker: But yeah, yeah, so I guess that's, that's probably the, you know, that's the easiest credential to just lay out there is the 57 Platinum's granted a few of those, I got to say are kind of duplicates, you know, like walking dead on PS3, PS4, stuff like that. But I think there's only a handful. I think I'd say at least more than 40 free and clear. Only, only a handful and you'd go from 57. Okay. All right. Maybe it's more like 50 ply. I gotta, I gotta do the analysis again.
Speaker: Listen, now I'm on the back. What was your first, what was your first platinum trophy? That's a great question. I don't actually know the answer to that off the top of my head. I'd have to like go down.
Speaker: scroll. I don't, I don't dislike either the Xbox app or the PlayStation app, but the organization of the PlayStation app I feel is up to. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. It's like, even I go in and I'm like, I know what these icons mean, but it's still hard to jump around. It's really hard to jump around and it seems distinctly Sony. I think it's distinctly Eastern as well. Oh,
Speaker: Like I think there's almost like a different UI language and that's part of like the distinct difference between the app experience. You've never used the Xbox app. I don't think maybe you did a few months ago when I asked you to check. Oh, you're right. Actually. Yeah. One time. But yeah, I was going to ask that for someone who's used it more frequently, like.
Speaker: Is there stuff that jumps out to you? Does the Xbox app have a store function the way that Sony's app does? No. And that's what I wish it did because I haven't turned my PS5 on since July when I planned on Rift Apart.
Speaker: Then I took like a little break if you remember I took a little break I like watched Silicon Valley and Succession for a few weeks before starfield and then I played starfield wrapping starfield up Now haven't turned my PlayStation on since I also had like a power outage in that time period So like that's something so many devices do as well, which is they're like, oh the power went out You didn't shut us off correctly. So we're gonna
Speaker: They get real upset. And it's like, I don't, did you not plan for this? Does the power not go off in Japan? Yeah, and then you have to like defrag the hard drive basically. Yeah, so maybe it'll never turn back on, we'll see. Also getting a little off topic, but dude.
Speaker: my DualSense analog sticks, oxidize, turn into slime. Yeah, it's the same stuff I find in my drain. Yeah, you can make it into a snack. Yeah, no, it doesn't have a store function in the Xbox app. I wish it did, because I bought a couple games in my bed without turning my PS5 on the other night, and I'm just happy that they're in mine.
Speaker: Yeah, thank goodness you might have to turn the PS5 on for the first time in six months.
Speaker: Who needs it? I'll just buy games for it. I don't need to turn it on. Well, I'm glad that you think 57 Platinum is gamer cred, because it's not. But I'm glad that you think that. I'm pretty confident in saying I'm a student of the game. Still learning. Still got a lot to learn. I don't know if I've played a lot of touch point games for people, but I haven't really been around that long.
Speaker: So I think big ones that jump out from like the 90s are probably like Zelda, what is it? Ocarina or Ocarina? I don't actually know. Ocarina of time. I feel like we add a bit of Delaware. I don't know if that's accurate. Ocarina.
Speaker: I've seen videos of that. Um, I think there's like a remastered version for the three. You're talking about my favorite game right now. And I gotta say you're, you're being, I know. And I've told you about it before. I don't want to, um, because I also, there's the live action Zelda movie and they have some like bomb ass taking over. I think the same guy who did to did Morbius or did you do both? Um,
Speaker: Oh, that's right. That's right. It's the Maze Runner guy. I don't know if he's the same guy as the Morbius guy. I'm not looking it up. The Morbius guy might be a producer or something. We have the internet at our fingertips, but we are refusing to. I think it's better that way. But somebody, you know, I heard somebody say something like Zelda's so special and important. You'd think they could get anyone to direct it.
Speaker: It couldn't get me. I wanna give two shits about Zelda and I still don't. I bought both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. I haven't played Tears of the Kingdom or opened it out of its shrink wrap yet. I don't know if I've even taken Breath of the Wild out of its shrink wrap yet, but I have played it before. And it's so directionless and impossibly childish that I just don't care. Favorite game of all time?
Speaker: Oh, it's Ocarina time. Easy. Oh, yeah. Easy money. You already said that. You already said. Oh my God. Mine's fee for 14. I'm gonna jump out the window right now. No, seriously, if I had to pick, it might be Symphony of the Night. That's a strong one. I think that's pretty safe. That's a safe pick, I think. I really, out of recent games, really like God of War. I know you hate that choice.
Speaker: Really like cyberpunk. Resident Evil 5 was a pretty amazing co -op experience with you. Not sure it counts really as best game of all time. No, it's fun. But now I wouldn't call it, it wouldn't hit my top five. It's really fun. No, it wouldn't hit my top five. It was just a really enjoyable experience. It's tough to, tough to segment those things sometimes. It's tough to crack that top five.
Speaker: You have such a good time that it's special to you. With certain games like Resident Evil 5, it's tough to replicate, and it's a completely different experience if you're playing by yourself versus with someone. I wouldn't say the game is unplayable solo, but it feels more like a chore.
Speaker: I guess and like I'm a completionist so like I've pretty much completed Resident Evil 5 this was on the 360 I think I think I got pretty much everything except for like a couple achievements but like a lot of it yeah it was just solo play and it was it felt more obligatory versus playing with someone it's actually a blast
Speaker: Flashback DLC with Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. I think I played that with my brother, actually, who I originally played the game through with. This was like years later. And then I think he and I also tried like the Escape DLC, which takes place during the game. And that one was that one was hard. We never actually beat that one.
Speaker: You didn't play any of the DLC.
Speaker: So yeah, the DLCs were pretty neat. I did versus mode like once or twice, but I just, I don't know. It's not, Resident Evil 5 is not really a game that's super fun in a versus format, I feel like. But maybe the mercenaries modes have never really been my thing either. So it just, you know, wasn't really the mode for me.
Speaker: I mean, no one probably ever in history will ever care what I think, but how many people should they listen to this? Do you think turned it off when I threw a resident even hot around? It's just so early. It has a top to your game. I just really had a good time. Thank you. That was a blast for me too.
Speaker: That's really what it's about. I have a lot of recency bias, too, I feel. Like, when I was playing Rift Apart, I was like, this is incredible. I haven't thought about it since, really. Well, I think that's why Cyberpunk is a different case. Because I know you talked about Cyberpunk really gluingly while you were playing it. And it has come up multiple times since then, like when you reflect on games that you love.
Speaker: Yeah, it's frustrating that it's similar to Starfield actually in that the conversation around both of those games really frustrates me because I think at its core Cyberpunk is an incredible experience in so many different ways. It's truly a next gen experience. The animations, the graphics, the acting, like the absolute like,
Speaker: Just pure presentation of it is pretty incredible. And then people are like, well, it launched terrible. It sucks. Sorry. Forget it. And it's like, okay, games are not this ephemeral thing.
Speaker: They're like living documents we patch them and they change and not so much single -player games always But in cyberpunk's case very much so and so it's like it's frustrating that you kind of can't I'm not saying rewrite history, but it's like take it from what it is now like I didn't play it at launch and
Speaker: I had a few bugs. I sang videos like cars dropping out of the sky and falling through the ground and stuff like that. My game crashed a couple of times. I played 150 hours. None of that really bothers me. And then since then, the entire like character building and skill trees and all that, that's all been changed. And it actually makes me think of
Speaker: an infamous rapper that everyone hates these days, Kanye West. I don't know, were you ever - He was big in high school and college. I think that's when - I feel like you probably called him Kanye. Yeah, from Delaware. In 2016, he released The Life of Pablo.
Speaker: And like two weeks after it came out, he released like an updated version that changed some of the production and mixing and mastering and stuff like that. And people were like, is that allowed? And I was like, I just thought it is interesting. Like art piece at release versus art piece now patches to a game. We'll get into it a little bit more later. I don't want to jump the gun, but
Speaker: live service games are somewhat ephemeral. Like I played war zone a lot in 2020 COVID times. All time memories is doing that. Um, never able to be achieved again in terms of like, we can't go back to that map with those guns, with those players in that it just, it has completely changed the meta of the game has changed the,
Speaker: Well yeah, I think all the guns have been updated. The matter changed throughout as it was updated throughout, even when we were playing it, right? Dude, the big gun that was good was called the Growl, G -R -A -U. Oh, thanks. Just so you know how to spell it for future, you know? Oh yeah. I know you're a big M4 guy, standard issue since the 70s. Yeah, yeah, I mean, if we're gonna have a new standard issue weapon, it's gotta be better in every way. Hasn't been done.
Speaker: And has it been done? Has it been done? Yeah, so anyway, the star field conversation also bothers me. We don't need to get into that. We don't need to fire me up so early on in our history here. But the more I play that game, the more I am aware that game is probably a seven out of 10. And I think that's fair, but it does crush me because I really wanted it to be received better than others.
Speaker: than other, you know what I mean? Like I wanted people to like that game. I really liked it, but I know playing other games that like the industry has moved on from. But yeah, it's starfield definitely had a, it had a big splash, but it seems like it had a quick splash.
Speaker: Like real. Yeah, like big, big drop, small splash zone. Yeah, like really fast. I mean, I'm thinking about Fallout 4. I mean, Fallout 76, probably because of all the negative press that 76 was getting, had like a long tail of people like talking about it and referring to it. Obviously it's still being supported, but yeah, like even Fallout 4 I felt like just stuck around in the zeitgeist longer. And maybe I'm not really in
Speaker: the circles that talk about Starfield a lot. I'm sure there are some people that Starfield is still vibrant and very much a part of their lives. It's a game that's designed to kind of be that way. The only things I haven't done in Starfield, I have not moved on to New Game Plus because
Speaker: Inspired by beta boy here. I do strive to get achievements and things I Just want to cross the final thing off. It's like a really tedious achievement. I have to connect The achievement calls for five cargo links, but cargo links have to be connected in groups of two So that's when stuff like that happens. It makes you wonder who at Bethesda was responsible for creating that achievement
Speaker: because it was a chat GPT because they just pulled it out of their ass. It doesn't make any sense. It's impossible to do five, you have to do six. What is a cargo link? Is that like a link between two outposts? Okay. It's an outpost things, correct, yeah. Excuse me, so say you have like on this side of the planet there's iron and nickel and on the other side of the planet there's titanium and tungsten.
Speaker: Then you can have them send back and forth to each other. You could do it all within the same system too. So say a planet, this planet has platinum and the other planet has helium. And you want the helium planet to be your main base. So you have the platinum planet send it all to the helium planet. So anyway, I just have to do that and then I'll do new game plus. And then the DLC I really hope comes out next fall.
Speaker: latest I don't want to I don't want to wait for that like I'd I want to play that cuz I think it's gonna get into the Varun the Andresia character like faction which I thought they were gonna be a faction in the game they never really were
Speaker: So I think, I hope that Shattered Space explores that because it seems like Shattered Space, the name sort of implies that to me. As someone who played it, you're so Sony pony that you don't even know what I'm talking about. I don't know. I still, I still contend that the most hardcore Bethesda fans might be in the PlayStation ecosystem. That is an interesting thing. I don't know why you think that because Bethesda's had a long,
Speaker: Dude, you bring up 76 is this thing that actually matters and it doesn't. But Bethesda has a long history of like, I'm pretty sure Oblivion was released early, exclusively for Xbox. I think Morrowind was the same. I don't know if that ever came to PS2. I think that was an Xbox only game. And...
Speaker: Skyrim didn't run well on PS3, which is so funny because I didn't, I had a PS3 and it never gave me primes. Like I didn't have one problem playing Skyrim on the PS3. The one bug I had was like a known bug for everyone, which was that bug where you went into Markarth and everyone wanted to fight you instantly, even though you didn't do anything. You didn't do anything wrong. Yeah.
Speaker: But Markarth was the Dwemer City. So it was like one of my favorite cities in the game. So for the longest time, I was so disappointed because I was like, I can't go there. I'm going to get killed. Oh, okay. When I played that, when I played Skyrim on PS3, it was beyond the final batch. So it was, the game was in its final form. I was, no, I was playing. Okay.
Speaker: That Christmas. Yeah. So that was like six, seven weeks after release. So yeah, great. Amazing times playing on a standard deaf TV. Yikes. Probably could play even read and text. Can you imagine? Yikes. Huh. It was actually a big TV and it was a flat screen as well. Those things were like furnaces.
Speaker: No, no. It may have not been, it may have, no, it was standard def, because it was, it didn't use HDMI at all. And dude, the power button on it broke. There was no remote. The power button on it broke. So when you turn it on, I had to hit the volume up button. Yeah, there was a lot of funny things about it. I don't know where we got this TV and it was like a thousand pounds.
Speaker: Like my grandpa used to have like a, it was a massive like SD TV like that. And it was, it made so much heat. I remember like it would just warm up the whole living room. You didn't even need to have a fire going. It like, and it would like, you would be in front of the TV playing a game. It would give off heat. And I remember wondering a few times like, am I getting irradiated? Or like, why is this thing so freaking hot?
Speaker: Dude, maybe I should look into that for my grandfather. He's perpetually cold. Yeah, maybe that's why. I want a TV that keeps me warm. It would, I don't know. It might help. Dude, his house is like unbearably. Like we can't even sit in there. We're like dying. I'm wearing polos in there in January.
Speaker: But yeah, dude, Starfield's good. I just have to be on completing the final mission with, I guess, no spoilers, but I don't really care. But complete the final mission, do the cargo length thing, and then by the time the DLC rolls around, I will get the final 100G achievement along with all the DLC achievements of being level 100. Whatever I watch, these videos of these guys online being like, here's the best mod.
Speaker: They're always like in the hundreds their level like over level 100 and I'm like how like I don't I Don't play very efficiently. I don't think I don't think I don't think You don't play efficiently at all. I know that but But I definitely don't either but anyway
Speaker: Let's get into it here. Let's get into a real topic. I don't really know. Who cares to learn more about you? Do you? Not me. I haven't really said anything about myself. You didn't really say anything either. Although you dropped fiance so early. Yeah, I'm just gonna play it close to the chest. I'm gonna drop, well, it depends on. I think it's close to the vest.
Speaker: if you're a woman or not? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think it is funny because... Oh, of course, yeah. Yeah, it's like draft fiancé. Are you defined by rating? I don't know. Wait, should I say the name? No, I mean, that's the thing. My thinking with a relationship is when you get to a certain point in a relationship, you do...
Speaker: incorporate that person into your own self -concept. So like yeah my I see myself in relation to the world but like that's always moderated by my relation to her because we are kind of a unit. So yeah it is like yeah my yeah my me being her fiance is like just as much a part of me as
Speaker: me, I don't know, I was about to say like being a dog owner or something. I mean, she would love that. She loves the dogs. But yeah, it's like, you know, just as much as me being a son or a brother or any other relation like that, that's really key to who I am. Not to get too deep.
Speaker: I didn't really get what you were saying when you started, but I like specifically asked my tenants in their footsteps. Did you hear that?
Speaker: Oh, okay, good. Anyway, that's really interesting. You started talking and I was like, this guy's a freaking beta boy. But then when you said the son brother thing, that makes a lot of sense. We can talk about how insane it is to think dogs are acceptable. Oh, careful dude, you might get eviscerated on the internet. At different times. There's a lot of dog love out there.
Speaker: I'm not too worried about the internet because no one's harder on me than me. I do like that saying, but I don't think either one of us have been subjected to like YouTube comments. Yeah.
Speaker: No, the internet will eat us alive, for sure. I just love that saying. I get it in performance reviews all the time. Every performance review of my life, no one's harder on - I don't know either. Than Dylan. I don't know if I ever introduced myself. Welcome to the show. I don't think I did. Welcome to the show. My name is Dylan.
Speaker: Anyway, let's get into it. 20 or 30 minutes in. Good time to introduce yourself as any. What are we calling this? An inquiry? A news? A question? It's on our mind. We're gonna get into it now. With Jim Ryan leaving PlayStation soon, he will exit before realizing his goal of developing 10 live service games, something PlayStation has never done before.
Speaker: Much has been made of this strategy, particularly by single -player gamers who don't want Sony Studios to stop producing the narrative -driven experiences that have been the first party's bread and butter for at least a generation.
Speaker: However, the idea remains to subsidize those types of experiences, those third -person narrative -driven experiences, by hitting the jackpot on at least one live service game. The formula of what makes that successful, though, has proved elusive, not only for Sony, but for the industry at large. Why, then, has Sony not considered developing more MMOs, which could provide a similar level of player engagement over a sustained period of time?
Speaker: I think this is a really interesting question. You brought this up to me. And I quickly said, beta boy, there is the Horizon MMO. Don't you know? If there's an idea around to do something, Sony slaps the Horizon IP down on the table and says,
Speaker: Here you go. Do something with this, buddy. But you said that's not good enough. Why don't they do more? And then it became the conversation of like, well, what is the difference between a live service game and an MMO? Because I think they have more similarities than not. You, I think, disagree with that.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, talk to me. Where's your head at here? Because, um, like I said, there is the horizon MMO. So, um, I'll let you get into it, but I am going to check is Sony developing any other MMOs that we might not be aware of. And then, you know, when is the horizon MMO coming out? Yeah. Yeah. I gotta, I, I am curious about the horizon MMO that,
Speaker: MMOs to me are a lot of times interesting, and they seem like something I would really, really like. But the few times that I've tried to get into MMOs, they just haven't really hit in the way I'm looking for. And I think the difference between a live service game and an MMO, I think part of it's right there in the name, is that MMOs by definition are multiplayer focused.
Speaker: I've heard that ESO, Elder Scrolls Online, you can play that on your own, and I guess you're just gonna deal with the annoyance of seeing people bunny -hopping around you every so often, but you can sort of enjoy that as a solo experience. I've heard this a lot like playing long -form Skyrim, but maybe a bit more structured in some ways.
Speaker: Something like WoW is really contingent on the multiplayer experience. I would expect that Final Fantasy XIV, very similar, Guild Wars, you know, anything that's in the MMO area, to play it as a solo player, you're probably missing out on something significant.
Speaker: Whereas live service, I think oftentimes has multiplayer experiences or multiplayer components, because I think that tends to drive engagement, but it's not necessary. And in fact, what they tend to rely on to drive engagement is more the constant feed of content.
Speaker: Whereas an MMO will tend to create an environment and a world for people to be in together. And then that's the driving. It's being in that world. Live service, you've got to have the content constantly streaming. We talked about this a little bit, but Fallout 76, to me, is an interesting blend of those two things. It's very much a live service game, but it has some drastically trimmed down MMO components.
Speaker: massively multiplayer. I think you can only have like 32 people live on a map, so it's like multiplayer, but only if you want. You can very much enjoy that as a single -player experience as well. So I guess that's kind of where I
Speaker: see the differences between MMOs and live service, but like both of those things live and die by the community and by people continuing to engage with them long -term. So it's like, yeah, how do we get people to engage with them long -term? And those are kind of the two big ones. Yeah. I think that that's, that's probably why I find them so similar. Um, I said, you know, I said earlier today, like splitting hairs, those two, um,
Speaker: The more we talk about it, the less I think that's the case. But in doing some light reading, it seems like the cost of creating an MMO is very, very high.
Speaker: seem to think that's the same for her live service games. I don't see how that's any different. Um, the thing with live service games that always pops out is like the skins. It's like the little cosmetic items that everyone just buys. Um, I don't know if you ever played it. I think I thought we played a couple rounds together of fall guys. No, I never actually played fall guys.
Speaker: Fall Guys was actually fun for that moment. I think it's sort of fallen off a cliff for a long time now. It's been done, haha, yet. Yeah, exactly. But no, it was great in terms of what it was. But the only thing, there was no progression. It was just cosmetics. If you want something and you want to spend a little money,
Speaker: I've never understood why that appeals to people so much. It's literally like, hey, peer pressure exists, we're gonna monetize that. It's like, guys, I'm not in middle school anymore. I want new clothes, because I want a certain look, for sure, but I don't find that to be peer pressure. I find that to be like, oh, I want that look. Whereas growing up as a kid, you were like, he's cooler than me. I covet my neighbor's wife.
Speaker: so I'm gonna buy his wife. You know what I mean? So it's different now as an adult. Now I know buying people's wives is like something. Yeah, it's definitely frowned upon. But back then, I didn't know that. So do you get what I'm saying? It's almost like to fit in or to feel like they're part of the moment, people spend $20 on a skin.
Speaker: I don't feel that pressure or need, but that just churns cash because I can't imagine that asset is worth.
Speaker: anything to create. You throw a few artists at it and they just churn out skins. Maybe I'm belittling the effort that it takes to do that. I remember a story about, I think it might have been in Warzone or one of the Call of Duty games where they had a bonus skin that was some kind of camouflage or something, but because of
Speaker: the way it looked, it actually messed with the entire game's meta because it genuinely made people difficult to, like, see against the environment. And so players were getting really upset. They were like, hey, this skin that people can... I think they could buy it or they could win it from, like, a raffle or, like, buying Mountain Dew or something. And people were getting real upset. They were like, you gotta take this out of the game. This is, like, literally paying to win. It's the equivalent of using, like, an overpowered weapon because I can't see you.
Speaker: Yeah, that's been common for years. People have said that about different skins. The one that always jumps to mind is like the all black suit. I think it was in both Fortnite and Warzone. It's like, guys, they're called ninja suits for a reason. Ninjas aren't meant to be freaking seen.
Speaker: So do MMOs have that? You've played 76. Did you ever play any other MMO? I did not, personally. I've never played it. No, but I do know World of Warcraft, definitely. Every time there was a new expansion or they would have tons of promotions for mounts and stuff. I actually remember the package was always...
Speaker: armor mount familiar or like a pet that would follow you around because I think when like Diablo 3 came out it was like hey if you pre -order Diablo 3 you can get this stuff in WoW or like vice versa or something you would get you know like WoW stuff in Diablo 3 for having a WoW account but when you were talking about the cosmetics the thing that struck me is I think this may have started with Team Fortress 2
Speaker: I - Did you play Steam Fortress 2? I didn't, but my buddy - I have the orange box, so we could fire it up anytime. Yeah, buddy. The servers have been down a long time. Wait, are they? That's just me. Yeah, the servers have been down.
Speaker: Not on PC. They're dead. It's live. Oh, right. It's live on PC. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. No, but I, I, my buddy in college, like he played TF2 and Halo nonstop and he constantly would tell me about the, the hats with TF2 is it was always hats and like the hat economy and how it worked and it just
Speaker: The hat stuff always seemed really interesting, the way they implemented it. It was very low cost of entry to get these hats. There was also a secondary market component that Valve leaned into. And engagement for TF2 is then non -stop. And I think they got it cut, so TF2 churns money for Valve too. But it doesn't feel predatory the way other games do.
Speaker: I stumbled across this reel on like YouTube or something is counter strike go or whatever. Is that valve? Yeah. Yeah. I thought so. There's a skin on there. I don't think it's called the Lotus skin. It might be. Maybe I'm mixing that up with the magic, the gathering, but it was this like very colorful, like flower weapon skin and it's, it literally sells for like 40 grand.
Speaker: Oh, I have heard about stuff like that. Yeah, like Crazy Rare. Digital Skins. Yeah. Cell for Buku money. What's the difference? Like that's a multiplayer shooter. Yeah. Is CSGO a live service game? I hadn't thought of it that way. Maybe live service elements.
Speaker: Because yeah, I guess it would be elements. Sorry, go ahead. They don't do battle passes or any of that stuff, I think. Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker: This reminds me, and maybe I'm just dumb, which is totally fine. The student of the game, still learning, boys. Brandon's a beta. Jeff Keely, the Game Awards, what is the definition of an indie game? What is the definition of a live service game? Do we even know? Yeah, it is becoming kind of muddled now. Like, yeah, he used to be able to just point to something. Name 10. Name 10. Okay, name five.
Speaker: Fallout 76, I would actually say - That's a terrible one to pick, but okay. It's easy. I would say Assassin's Creed Valhalla and probably Odyssey would be live service games. Dude, are you kidding me? Yeah. You didn't pick the two most obvious ones. You want me to say Destiny. I was gonna say Destiny, Fortnite, maybe Warzone, Genshin Impact.
Speaker: I was actually wondering about Warzone. That's definitely not an MMO. Yeah, live service, battle passes and all that. Is that what makes something a live service game? Like battle passes? I think it might. That's a dead giveaway, I would say now. It's like all... Yeah, like seasonal content. Yeah, like all games that have battle passes or seasonal content are live service, but not all live service games necessarily have that stuff.
Speaker: Which is why - Games as a service, gas. Yeah, and I guess that's true. Maybe there's a difference between a game as a service and a live service game. I don't know if there is. No, there can't be. That's too much. No, I'm not saying it's too much. I'm saying those are synonymous. But that's why I was saying Assassin's Creed Valhalla, because that, for two years,
Speaker: they were releasing largely cosmetics. Some DLC came out with story, some of it was paid, some of it was free, but really the monetization scheme there was cosmetics straight up. And it went further than just cosmetics. A lot of those armors and weapons and stuff actually had functionality in the game that made the game easier to play. So there was definitely live service components there too.
Speaker: And it's - This was what game? Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Same thing with Odyssey 2 before it. Like they really focused on kind of the storefront there. And you could say like they're no longer being serviced, those games, but all those cosmetics and everything are still available for purchase. So without, I mean you can get out your credit card account and all that. How much money have you spent on Assassin's Creed Valhalla? On Valhalla?
Speaker: I think, let me see, I think probably $140 US. I thought you said one of the DLCs alone was like. Was 40, yeah. Yeah, it was 40, but you said, I thought there were like five of those. No, so if I'm remembering correctly, I bought the game, the base game was 60. I think I got the addition that came with like the season pass, which covered. But was it, did the PS5 version not?
Speaker: I had it on PS4 and I think that game was one of those ones where you could upgrade to the PS5 version for free if you had the PS4 version because I don't remember there being a barrier with that.
Speaker: So yeah, I had the game, PS4, Season Pass, which gave you like the two big DLCs, Paris and - Which was 30? Paris and Ireland, that was like 30 or 40. So that gets me to 100. And then Dawn of Ragnarok on its own was like 30 or 40. So I think, yeah, I think 140 for the whole package. And I didn't buy any like cosmetics or anything. Interesting, yeah, no.
Speaker: It's tough because it's like I played the game for two years Right, right. That's that's sort of where I was gonna say next was like games are considered to have a very short Sort of monetizable window. Yeah It might even be less than a year, I don't know what these publishers Like what their metrics are but it's like
Speaker: Especially for games that don't sell as well. I feel like they get slashed. Yes. Yeah. And I feel like the price probably gets slashed quicker depending on how much money it costs to make. More expensive ones take longer to go slashed. But like Callisto Protocol was free less than a year. Free on PlayStation Plus less than a year after it came out.
Speaker: I think it was like 10 months, right? So, I mean, that game we know was bloated and 120 plus million for what? Although I haven't played, I am looking for, I'm not complaining about rolling the dice. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's the last great PlayStation monthly game. There's never going to be another one. I want you to know that deep down the last, and I said the last great one and it's Callisto protocol. It's never going to be another one.
Speaker: Dude, this month is terrible. Yeah, it's trash. I don't know, I could see us getting like, I could see the base PlayStation Plus getting Miles Morales next year or something. I hope, because that's like the one Sony game. I did not get Spider -Man for free. I think I have Spider -Man for free. I don't think you did. You said that earlier today. I'd have to check my library. I feel like I remember seeing it in there, but it's probably the PS4 version, if it's anything.
Speaker: What you said to me today really sticks out. You were like, why spend $40 on The Last of Us Part I when you already own the PS4 version, you could've spent the $40 on something else. Now you say that, even though you said it hours ago, now I'm thinking about it, I'm like, I wish I spent that $40 elsewhere. I'm gonna enjoy that. I really, I can't stress enough. You said this to me months ago. You were like, I find it so cool how you're open to playing old games. I really am, but,
Speaker: I've been really loving the beauty and the realism and just the next level experiences that come with the current gen, true current gen experiences.
Speaker: Yeah, it feels like a treat. Special, dude. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like you're playing money. Yeah. I remember when I... Money on a screen. That's how I felt when I first played Horizon. The first Horizon. Because you know how I play games. Like I don't often play new games. Like maybe I'll play one or two
Speaker: new games in a particular year, even if I buy them day one. That's its own conversation. But I remember when I played Horizon on PS4 and I was... I don't even think it was the year it came out. The DLC hadn't come out yet. That was still a ways off. So it was probably within the first couple of years and I was like absolutely floored by it. It was...
Speaker: I think I might have been coming off of Skyrim somewhat recently or some other big game and I was like holy cow, I didn't know that we were here yet when it came to visuals in an open world, particularly nature. Like the thing I remember from Horizon, I don't know if saying where it takes place would be a spoiler so I won't, but like there's mountains in it.
Speaker: Dude, you could say where it takes place. Well, anyway, I won't. But there's mountains in it, and the mountains have snow on them. And I remember being in some part of the game, like the forest, and you could see the mountains in the distance as the sun rose. And the red light from the sun hit the mountain, the snow on the mountains, in what I consider an absolutely realistic way. When I've seen sunrises hit snow on mountains, I was like, oh my gosh, they nailed that effect.
Speaker: but they nailed it dynamically in an open world environment. That's nuts. Just so impressive. So I'm excited to play the second one because I know that'll be a real treat.
Speaker: Yeah, so let's wrap up with that. What are you playing and what are you playing next if you're not playing anything? Like what's on your dock? So I'm definitely playing Kingdom Hearts, Dream Drop Distance, HD Remake on the 2 .8 final chapter prologue collection. Try not to throw up.
Speaker: This is actually a game that's been on my list for a while now, because I do love Kingdom Hearts. I've loved Kingdom Hearts since high school, I think? Yeah, I think high school is when I played the first Kingdom Hearts. And I was just so impressed, because up to that point, Zelda was my only experience of sword fighting action games, and I was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker: There's so much more complexity in this game. But yeah, Dream Drop Distance has been on my list for a while because that was a 3DS game. I never played on the 3DS and then the HD remakes came out. And this is like the last story like Kingdom Hearts game for me to play before Kingdom Hearts 3, which, you know, of course is like the
Speaker: the mecca's the wrong word, but like mecca for Kingdom Hearts, the digital mecca for Kingdom Hearts fans is, you know, that game. Like everything that happened on like every different video game system culminates in that. So I don't know when I'll play that game, but I'm looking forward to it. So that's what I'm playing right now. Next game, I don't know. I've batted around a lot of different things. I could do an open world again, like Horizon 2.
Speaker: But I could also do like Final Fantasy 5. That would be a nice bite -sized holiday thing. Dude, is it called Horizon 2 or is it Horizon Forbidden West? So actually, yeah, it's just called Horizon Forbidden West, but the logo, like the title of it, has Roman numeral 2 in it, which is interesting. Yeah, that's confusing. Yeah.
Speaker: But I think that's sort of what they did with the witcher Yeah, it's called witcher wild hunt but it's got it always has like three it's got the slash the wolf Yeah, but yeah, so I guess other than that i've been dabbling in vr again ps vr one. I don't have vr two. So What was I playing the other night? Oh, I did like they they had like these two free spiderman experiences I basically downloaded all the vr stuff
Speaker: for PSVR, one that looked kind of interesting. And I'm just kind of like going through checking out there is a Kingdom Hearts VR experience. You'll be pleased to know. I don't think it's, I haven't done it yet. I don't think it's robust. I think you're like sitting in a room talking to Donald or something, but yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Might be canon.
Speaker: Might be canon, might have to look into it. Well, it does sound good. We should talk about Horizon if you're playing that. I don't know, I don't know if I feel like playing that after Starfield. I feel like playing something a little tighter. I'm looking at Dead Space, I'm looking at Alan Wake. I'm looking at Wolfenstein. Okay. I'm looking at, did I say Dead Space? Yeah.
Speaker: maybe looking at something turn -based. So funny when my oldest brother bought Baldur's Gate 3, he was like, this is for nerds. He's like, yeah, dude. He was like, I should have called you. He's like, yeah, man. I don't know. He was like, I have to take turns. Oh, yeah. He's like, yeah, dude. Also at all times, favorite memory.
Speaker: Oh dude, you bought Divinity. Oh, you can co -op in that, I'll buy that. Not even 10 minutes in, you're like, I give up. Yeah, actually. Broke my heart. So I don't wanna sidetrack you, but the tenants right now, they're staying downstairs. So we rent our lower level.
Speaker: And the tenants, they actually were telling us that they really liked the large TV we have down there. It's like a big ass Samsung TV. And they were excited because they play Baldur's Gate split screen. And so they were like, yes, the last Airbnb we stayed at had like a 40 inch TV. So this one's great because we can play Baldur's Gate split screen. And they're really excited about that. And my fiance heard that. And so she was asking me about Baldur's Gate, maybe as a game that we could get together.
Speaker: I shut that down real quick. I was like, that's too much game for me. And like, no offense, but that's, that's going to be a lot of game for us. We're still working on it takes two. So I was like, we did it. I like it takes two a lot, but it did lead to some disagreements. I'll say that. You have to, yeah. Patience and communication are like the words of the day.
Speaker: So you would never play that divinity style game or Baldur's Gate? I'm not saying I wouldn't. I just, especially after just doing the beginning of divinity, I recognize it like, I don't know why you thought that was so overwhelming. You spent 10 minutes making your character and then that was it. And you were like, whoa, whoa. That's the thing. Cause I'm the kind of person that like, when I start a game,
Speaker: First thing I do is go through all the menus. Like, I want to figure out how the whole thing works and then get into it. But Divinity and I assume Baldur's Gate, there's just such dense, the games were such dense and diverse mechanics. It's almost kind of overwhelming to me because I'm like, I'd probably have to read through like a car manual's worth of information to like fully understand this game or even understand to the point that I'm comfortable like,
Speaker: Let's fuck around and find out. I don't know. It's, I don't, maybe I'm overthinking it too much. Maybe with the game you just need to kind of like let it happen. I don't know. You don't let anything happen. No, everything's gotta be controlled. I think that's like completionism disease you have where it's like. It probably is that. It's like paralyzing to you. Yeah, with that game. But something like Starfield is exciting to me. So like why are those different?
Speaker: I know we were supposed to be wrapping up. I think, uh, I think Starfield is a, uh, puddle. Compared to Baldur's Gate. Yeah. Okay. I see in Baldur's Gate is like Starfield is shallow and wide. Baldur's Gate is also medium wide, but very deep. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. And it's the depth almost that kind of scares me.
Speaker: That's something that's interesting about Starfield is I think there's a lot of like content systems. Like the tech tree really opens up things you can do with your ship, what types of ship you can have and all sorts of stuff like that. But as far as like synergies across things, I haven't really found that yet. We're like, oh, I'm really good at crafting.
Speaker: And that's it. Like I'm good at crafting. Okay. I can get, uh, I can improve my weapon. Doesn't like, it doesn't seem to stack with other things that my character is good at. That's disappointing because I always felt like it's sort of disappointing. I don't want to misspeak because I could be totally wrong, but that's my general feel is that like every lane in star field is that it's that that's a bit.
Speaker: Yeah. Because I think of I think of Skyrim and I like I remember in Skyrim you could be really great with like heavy weapons or like two -handed weapons but that's not really gonna that's only gonna serve you if you find two -handed weapons unless you build up your like crafting tree or your smithing tree because then you can make your own two -handed badass weapons but hey you also need to build up your enchanting tree
Speaker: so you can enchant those weapons and take it to the next level. There's so much interconnectedness there that different things, you gotta bring it all together. Yeah, or at least it's very fun to bring them together. Which, playing Divinity, I played Divinity II for about 40 hours with a buddy, ended up not working out to finish Act Two. The game or the friendship.
Speaker: Uh, it was close to both now. I'm just kidding. Friendship's fine. It is now at least. Um, it was really annoying bro. I, um, co -op games run that risk with me where I get annoyed with someone. Um, it's almost like doing this pod with you. I think divinity demands a lot too. It's.
Speaker: Yeah, it is tough, because it's very, especially, there were times where I made mistakes, and I just know that if I was playing on a PC, I wouldn't have made that mistake. Oh, really? Like with precision? I was just pressing the wrong button accidentally. That's interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, but anyway, I'm looking at a tighter experience. I really enjoyed control, so I'm thinking about Allen Week. Allen Week 2 seems to be getting rave reviews.
Speaker: until column already existed. Um, so we'll see if I, cause I was, that was a game where I was like, I want to buy that. Cause the, the idea of like an atmospheric experiential game like that, very appealing to me. And currently it's cold outside. So like turn, turn the lights off and be where you are. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Um, but I could probably do that with dead space or by a shock or
Speaker: any of those things. Anyway, fantastic first show. Nailed it. Thanks for being here, buddy. Thank you. Thanks for putting this together.
Speaker: Dude, I really like, I was so, that was nice. I had a good time. Yeah, it's good. Found a nice flow. We should do this again. Same time next week? Yeah, I think so. I don't think you never have plans. You always like, dude, you do this thing where you make up plans. You don't have to do that. Just be honest with me. I just, sometimes like, I don't know. Shit happens sometimes. But no, this is really good.
Speaker: This was great. So, see you later. Alright, see ya.
