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Epiosde 14 - Battlefield 6 beta, 3DS pokemon games, AC Shadows, Fantastic Four, Wednesday Season 2
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Epiosde 14 - Battlefield 6 beta, 3DS pokemon games, AC Shadows, Fantastic Four, Wednesday Season 2, halo infinite update, Chief of War, Contrabound and Bioshock cancellations, Bungie's Future
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Transcript
00:00:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
What's going on, everybody? It's Detroit Gamesters here with episode 14. Me and Arjun are hanging out. I know it's been a while since our last podcast. I think it's been just about three weeks. Just about, yeah.
00:00:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, so we were thinking if it would be worth it to squeeze one in last week. We just kind of didn't feel like we had a lot of material. You know, I think now that we're actually podcasting, I'm starting to realize that in the summers, I really don't game that much, you know?
00:00:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
Which I never realized because I felt like I gamed a lot over the year. But like in hindsight, I felt like in February, March, April, like for each of these shows, i would have at least like two games and I like significantly played or beat.
00:00:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now I look back at how much I gained the last couple of weeks. I'm like, oh, dude, I didn't beat a single game. I just played a couple hours here and there. so he Yeah. I don't know. It's just, but it's all about growing up, right? It's like you and you realize you have pockets of times during the year where you play a lot and summer just happens to be good weather. So yeah, i think we're spending more time outside. Especially since, so you know, we're like Detroit Gamesters, right? Like I feel like for us, like, or I feel like most people in the Midwest, they're going to game a lot in the wintertime, right? And then the summer, like they just have life or vacation or this or that, you know? And like, you know, the amount of daylight you get makes a huge difference because when I come home from work and it's already dark,
00:01:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
kind of like, eh, screw it. You know, i'm just going to turn on my Xbox and, you know, hibernate. But when I come home and it's like light until 10 o'clock, I'm like, oh I know, to go to the pool. I want to go for a walk, you know, go for a run. So. Gym.
00:01:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. Stuff like that. And spend time with family, you know. Yeah. And you've been gone too, right? You went over to Georgia. Yeah, went to Georgia to visit a friend. So it's. been a week and a half so and then coming back just hectic with work so it's always full swing and i think it was probably hotter in michigan than georgia because man yeah was brutal out here it was like 100 degrees it was hotter yeah that's how crazy i was in georgia for a week pure luck but it was raining 78 85 degrees perfect weather eighty five degrees perfect weather I don't know. I really enjoyed it. Way better than Michigan. Yeah, I don't know. I guess this is just my stereotype, but I always just pictured like Georgia, Atlanta, like, oh, it's in the south. Like, it's going be like boiling hot in the summer. It is.
00:02:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
And yeah, maybe it was just like an off week for you. it was an off week. They kept, my friends kept joking that I brought the rain with me. And I'm like, they said just before I came, was consistently 100 to 110. Oh, that's death. For two months. That's so death.
00:02:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, and I think for Michigan too, I don't know. It's just so temperamental. It's so random. Like there's been times where I've went like pretty significantly far, like overseas, like Hawaii or, you know, like some of those like tropical places.
00:02:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I'll pull up my weather app. i'll be like, what in the world? Why is Michigan like boiling hot? But so anyway, warming right. Well, that that should be the whole planet, right? now But I guess that kind of catches up a little bit about what we've been up to. But, you know, we can get started with the show.
00:02:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
So usually we like to start off with what we've been playing and I think probably you haven't really gamed much, right? Yeah, I literally on the game. So I guess it might be like a lot of like my experiences because I've still been able to play a little here and there.
00:03:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
I will say this though. I feel so good beating Ninja Gaiden Black 2 that I shouldn't pick up another game for a while. That's how broken I was from that game. Wait, remind me, did you beat it?
00:03:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
By the time we had our last podcast? I did. Oh, man. i but I did. But I felt so broken that i'm like, I need like a month to recharge anyways. So I guess this kind of fits into this, but did you look at any of the coverage that I think it was IGN and GameSpot had said? I've only seen a couple minutes of the preview coverage for Ninja Gaiden 4, but I think a lot it has a lot of positive preview impressions.
00:03:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
lot of people were really liking it. I mean, I think I walked away from it with kind of a mixed bag. Like, I feel like it's one of those things where, like, as a fanboy, I get these, like, crazy expectations and the hype builds up.
00:03:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I feel like this was good news overall, but it was also kind of, like, realistic news, right? Because I kind of had this feeling that, like, oh, yeah, they're just going to, like, revolutionize Ninja Gaiden and just, like, make it epic.
00:04:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
And from what I'm hearing from like some of these previews, like it's really good. The gameplay feels really nice. And it seems to be a good blend of both Platinum games, like kind of really crazy action heavy, like a lot of things going on at once, kind of action. Plus, you know, some of the quirks, you know, with the Ninja Gaiden series. So that's awesome.
00:04:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then you kind of remember that some of the quirks of the Ninja Gaiden series are like Kind of weird, you know? So I think it was the GameSpot review, but they were talking about how the traversal sometimes isn't the smoothest, which I do feel like is kind of true. It's always not. And the the camera looks way better, at least from the gameplay footage. Like, i haven't played it, so I don't know for sure. But it still doesn't look necessarily as smooth as, like, some of the other, like, most recent third-person action games.
00:04:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
But what the what I heard a lot of those previewers say was, hey, if you take too much of this away, it's going to lose that. essence of being to Gaiden, right? So it's like kind of striking that fair balance. So, you know, I'm pretty hyped on the game, but I think it's more like a realistic hype if that makes sense. Like, I think if had to guess like an open credit score, I feel like it's gonna be like 84. Yeah, it feels like 82, 84. Like that's where I'm at. And I think there might be a bit of a backlash because don't know why people didn't realize this initially, but I was just like, you know, bored and reading YouTube comments.
00:05:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
And people were like, oh wait, Ryu is not the main character, won the world. And I'm like, yeah, they kind of like said that early on, but I can see that rubbed people the wrong way, right? Well, the the preview showed, i think a lot of people had the preview with Ryu playing in the demo for this like preview coverage, which again, I'm pretty sure they're doing that just for a marketing thing, so that the game is not to probably be in there as often.
00:05:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
The other thing is, like I hope the camera has been somewhat fixed because between this and me playing and really old getting it That was so clunky and bad. I'm like, they need to at least like that might give it its quirk, but they have to fix that. Yeah. i mean, it definitely looks better. You know, it reminds me of Devil May Cry gameplay. Like it legitimately looks like it looked like DMC5 and I'm like, okay, I can get with that because I've played that before.
00:06:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like I like that. But now does there, is that being there's a lot of depth? These, it's just literally platform to platform and then you fight and then you get a gates you like Ninja Gaiden always has. And then you go to the next section. You know, I kind of had a similar vibe when I was watching it, like with the combos and the action and everything.
00:06:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then if I'm remembering greppler correctly and do you on like you got to play as multiple yep characters, right? So I was like, oh, I feel like they're kind of going for that vibe.
00:06:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I feel like DMC5, that's a really high bar because that game got really hectic, but man, that camera kept up. Yeah, it really did. And so I felt like that was one of the best examples of like ah ah the good use of camera in a hectic game. Yeah, I agree. And i'm I'm curious to know because like,
00:06:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think the combat director of DMC5 ended up being the combat director for Final Fantasy XVI. So I'm going to be curious to see how this gameplay maybe lines up with those two games. Also, just a comparison with Final Fantasy XVI. You played it, I haven't yet.
00:07:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it was pretty combo heavy, hectic. Yeah, yeah, it was pretty good. I think that was actually one of the strongest parts of Final Fantasy XVI. I mean, I personally liked the action overall in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth like way better.
00:07:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
because it was a little slower, so the camera movement just felt like a little better. But honestly, it kept up. You know, I can say it worked out. I mean, it was running pretty solid 60. Wasn't there camera issues on FF16 that you complained about? I can't remember.
00:07:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, I think the one thing I complained about, which I don't know why no one else, like, why I didn't bother them, but maybe I'm just weird and it really bothered me. Like, the, what is it, the LOD or whatever, like the distance draw is really terrible.
00:07:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
So when you're on, when you're on these open fields, like, you'll see these birds in the background, and they're going to fight, and they're literally moving at two frames per second. Oh, man, the Pokemon effect. And it felt so bad. And I was like, how is this? Kind of the top-tier graphics, and everyone is going on and on about, oh, these graphics are amazing.
00:08:04
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, okay, maybe I'm just like way too close to this TV, but come on, guys. like This looks really bad. That's so funny, because that sounds like exactly the front Pokemon bio. ah you you know everything in the background was like running two frames per second yeah there's exactly what i like everyone about that but everything like close up was fine but like again like like 98 99% of the game was fine like you know i but i was kind of cherry picking but like really just thats a big problem after you see it once it just really like sticks out to you yeah i so that that is a problem that is something to it's not net picking that's a big issue but uh but yeah i i'm actually think i'm more and more excited going into it and
00:08:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
I guess it's nice to know that, hey, it's already August, so that's not that far away, right? That's October, so that's just two months away, and then we're going to be locked and loaded. hey Can you do this? Borderlands 4 comes out next month. No way. Indigated 4 comes out two months from now. I feel like we were just in June, and we were just like watching all the coverage of all the different shows, and now those games are actually coming up like real fast. so I'm sure Metroid will be coming out real soon.
00:09:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
When's Ghost coming out? ghosts is coming in october oh my god october is gonna be busy bro i'm gonna hybridate again no one's gonna see me it's so funny man i mean honestly like for those that don't know the fall weather in michigan is actually still pretty nice so it's like great to still get out all feels like summer nowadays honestly like september and like even early october so so i guess that kind of ties into another point because i know we just said ghosts and that reminded me of kind of my impressions assassin's green shadow so Probably that's the game I've played the most.
00:09:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
you been in? No, not even close. Maybe I put in like three more hours or something like that. But i don't know if I'm going to get back into it, honestly. Like for me, the first hour was pretty interesting. Like you got to alternate between the two characters and I felt like the combat flow was pretty different.
00:09:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
But now I kind of feel like It's kind of like the stereotypical thing to say, but I kind of do feel like it's a ghost of Shishima wannabe. And it's like this... And we're only talking about the first ghost game. Yeah, the first ghost thing, and it's like they're pigeonholing me or like forcing me to do things I really don't want to do. like I'm developed, like, there's this random kid, and you know there's all the these interactions, which just killing the pacing of the story, and random of side characters going in, and it's just like not interesting conversations, and then
00:10:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know, just like uh, if I remember in ghost, they made you like go to a place and they had, you wrote a haiku, which honestly I didn't really like, but you know, it was pretty optional. And then they, there was like this one scene where I went to talk, see like a animal. And then all of a sudden I started drawing the animal and I was like, yeah, this kind of feels too similar, you know, and not in a good way.
00:10:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Uh, so that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. But, uh, I think the gameplay is really good. Personally, I'm having more fun with like the Assassin's Creed shadows combat than I ever did with Ghost of Shishimo.
00:10:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
So that's kind of a pro going in Assassin's Creed's, you know, side, but yeah, overall, I think it's, it's kind of slowing down for me. And now the world just kind of opened up and I have like multiple targets I have to chase after. And, you know, maybe I just haven't played an Assassin's Creed game in long, like, like it's been a while. Right.
00:11:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because there's all this like weird stuff, like almost like base building and, And it just feels like too much. Like, you know, maybe I miss an oldie, but I just miss all the Assassin's Creed games where, like, it's, like, very clear. Like, go from X to Y to Z, and there's a great story along the way, you know?
00:11:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
And i just I just feel that Ubisoft bloat, and it's just it's really killing my drive to blast through the game, even though I really like the combat. The setting is really cool. I think the graphics are pretty good, but I just don't want to have to go through this bloated world, you know, and doing stuff I don't want to do.
00:11:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's fair. I mean, you know, there's rumors right now that I think Assassin's Creed 4 is being remade. So that's kind of maybe to the older design that they cater to. So I don't know. I like Assassin's Creed Shadow the way it looks. I haven't touched it. And I know it's coming out on the Switch, too. And maybe I'll pick it up then. Because I think that would be a fun game to play portably. I know it looks great on the PlayStation 5 Pro. I know a lot of people have been saying it looks really enhanced.
00:12:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
But yeah, it's one of those things that really isn't a priority for me. It looks interesting, though. Yeah. I also want to see how Ghost of Yotai ends up being. Yeah, I think Ghost of Yotai is going to blow it the water, honestly. i mean, I still, I think we talked about it last time, like, yeah, maybe it's just me, but I didn't love the gameplay of the first one, and I kind of feel like I'm not going to love the gameplay of the second one. Like, it's it's good, but it's just not something I fell in love with.
00:12:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
But everything else about the game seems like a really good package. So we'll see if I get back into Assassin's Creed Shadows. I guess the one game I wanted to talk about the most because I feel like the whole internet is talking about it is the Battlefield Beta. Yeah. Open Beta. Yeah, the Open Beta. So I hopped on a little bit yesterday, and I wanted to play again today, which is a good sign, but I'm an idiot, and I didn't realize it was just the weekend. So I was so disappointed when could play it again. I hate how they do these two-day stretches for like two weeks only at a time.
00:13:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's the dumbest thing. If you're going to an Open Beta, especially right before the game releases, Just let it go for a month. I know. That'd be so nice, right? You're going to stress this in the servers anyways. Yeah, but I think it kind of builds up like word of mouth and hype. And then it's like that feeling of loss. you know Because like now that I got a taste, you know I just like, oh, i want the whole package. you know But I guess I can tell you some of my thoughts of Battlefield. And this is going to be- Wait, before you do that, just for people to know, it broke a steam record at least for the beta it had five hundred k 560, I think. 560k concurrent players that and that outdid Call of Modern War. Which is really impressive, honestly. that I did not expect that. That's the 18 highest concurrent game. Oh, that's impressive.
00:13:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, yeah, I guess I have some mixed feelings about you know the Battlefield beta. And this is coming from someone who has never been like a massive Battlefield fan. I don't think I was able to really get into...
00:14:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
like 1 and 4 and 5 and 3. 4 happened to be the most popular of all of Honestly, I think the one I got the most into is like really old school, like Bad Company 2. Yeah, lot of people love that.
00:14:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
That was honestly my favorite one. And so, you know, the graphics are good. They're not as great as I anticipated, yeah you know, because I already felt like the bar was set up so high from like Battlefield 1 and 5 that now I'm playing 6 and I'm like, I kind of want to to see something I haven't seen before, like whether that's particle effects or something, you know, it's really grounded, you know, the sound design is just impeccable. So those things, I definitely feel like a leap forward. what about the disrupt destruction? Destruction, least the maps I played, it wasn't like crazy with the destruction because they're really tight quarters, but it was pretty good, you know.
00:14:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't think there was anything graphically that blew me away. Like I had that like next gen moment, like, oh my God, how is this possible, right? But at the same time, there wasn't anything where I was like, oh yeah, this is really bad, right? This is disappointing. So I think it it did just enough, you know?
00:15:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I don't think it blew me away from the graphics standpoint. Gameplay, I like the class system that's back now, which is like, really, we just went in a circle. And I think the gameplay is tight and responsive, but, you know, and i I was playing before I was keeping track of all the discourse online, and I didn't think any ah ah other people would note this. I thought maybe it was just like my weird take, but the time to kill really felt off for me when I started playing. Is it short or long? It's really short.
00:15:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I actually liked it because I play more Call Duty, right? And so I feel to me, to me, I really like Halo and Call of Duty because Call of Duty is really quick. So when I want that quick kill, that's the fix. And then Halo to me is a little more tactical, right? And then, so Battlefield always just existed in kind of the medium space. And personally, I was just never good at it.
00:16:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I just stayed away from Battlefield games. But this, the time to kill felt just like Call Duty. And it was kind of shocking. And it felt to me that the assault rifle, especially for the assault class, the time to kill was so quick. And the bullet magazine count was really small.
00:16:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I was just like killing people in like six shots. and I said what in the world yeah did see people complaining that like magazine count was just like very low. is said it iss hard to like So it just kind of impacted the flow of the game a little bit where I felt like I was killing people faster than I expected and reloading faster than I expected.
00:16:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
But that was fine to me because Battlefield is also kind of tactical. So you know it's not like I want to try and run in and kill 80 people at the same time. right so So that was fine. So overall, like I really did like the beta.
00:16:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
It was kind of like an 8 out of 10 experience to me. and i think Pretty good for beta. Yeah, yeah. and i think And it was pretty pretty good performance and everything. It was interesting. When I loaded in it told me there was like 16,000 people ahead of me or something like that. And then it instantly loaded like 10 seconds later. So i was like, okay, that's weird.
00:17:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think the the the beta wasn't a disaster though. That means they had a lot of server capacity. Yeah. But I think I have a few takeaways, both positive and negative. Right.
00:17:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I think the positive part of the story for me is wow, like, this, it's amazing that, like, a franchise that people had totally abandoned just a few years ago, and everyone was like, yeah, Battlefield is gone forever.
00:17:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, it's kind of cool again, right? And everyone's talking about it, and it hasn't been that long since the last Battlefield, right? It's not that it hasn't been long since the last Battlefield. It's like, it's been... A while since the last one was enjoyed online. True, true.
00:17:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
But the reason I say this is because it's been a long time since people have enjoyed a Battlefield game, like across the board, but it hasn't been that long since a Battlefield game has come out.
00:17:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
So to me, it's fascinating how... people have almost forgotten. Blinked it out of existence. It's like blinked it out of existence. and It's like just X'd it out and moved on. And I was like, what? Like I thought there would be more baggage from like Battlefield 2022. But it's almost like that entire year just got forgotten. And I was like, what?
00:18:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think this kind of talks about internet culture where it's like so one way or the other, like everyone was ready to hang CD Projekt Red. And they hated Cyberpunk and going on and on. And I played it and I was like, guys, this isn't that bad on launch, right? yeah And then Edge Runners came out. No, whatever. The Phantom Liberty came out. And then everyone loved it so much. And I had a similar reaction where I'm like, guys, like the original one that came out was like an 8 out of 9, 10 for me. And like this expansion is like a 9 out of 10. But people talk about it like it's a 2 out of 10 to a 10 out of 10, you know? yeah and And so it's interesting to me that Battlefield now, it's like I feel like a lot of people are like,
00:18:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
this is 10 out of 10. This is going to kill call of duty. and This is going to take over everything. And I'm like, Whoa, you know, but I feel like this just kind of demonstrates like the whole brand name and loyalty, like people clearly like, so what it tells me is battle. It's still a staple, a household staple.
00:19:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
so you don't just forget something like that
00:19:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
what Battlefield 4 used to be. That's all we wanted now. That's kind how you know, because the numbers speaking. Which is a great lesson for developers. Like you don't have to just constantly reinvent everything, you know? Like sometimes just give people what they want and brand recognition goes long way. Like, you know, we talk all the time about give us kills them back, give us resistance back, you know? Let's wait for that next Halo game, you know, that people really love across the board. Like there's so many shooters, right? And like even Doom, right? Like people...
00:19:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
We're not really talking about Doom for a long time. Now, Doom is a thing, right? People have always just hoped and prayed for Half-Life, but I feel like a lot of people have forgotten Half-Life, right, on the internet.
00:19:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then when 3, if 3 comes out, right, like it's going to be super popular, right? Or like Team Fortress, like if they ever came out with a 3, that would sound like crazy, right? So it's just nice to actually see an old franchise, like,
00:20:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
resurrect and people love it across the board whether to me it seems like it's people of all ages right it's like not just our age group yeah just as a tangential quick one but like i think we'll see the same with borderlands 4 it's been seven years since borderlands 3 came out and i think with a horrible movie in between i think 4 will also sell well and have big numbers too oh that's gonna be so funny if people just blink the movie out of existence yeah like i feel like that's the same thing we have been they're just like we're gonna forget the bad thing we just wanted something good from this franchise so no it's good to see that i mean i really wanted to play battlefield
00:20:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
bow hill beta and ni just int get to But just remember everyone, do not pre-order. I know this looks great, like said, can't sustain it. And honestly, they are they are going to have a bunch of skins and stuff. So Call of Duty is doing something really asinine, in my opinion, with these really out-of-pocket skins and for both guns and the players. And I think something doesn't fit that universe, that world.
00:21:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they said they're going to do something for Battlefield, but it said it should fit within the universe. So I just... they don't go wacky with the whole thing know because I don't know it's actually the point I wanted to talk about right well actually before forget your point they did say they were gonna make it like military-ish skin they're not gonna go too crazy yeah so then i'm like okay with that but I think overall again um i will check out the game if they have one more beta just before it launches and if not i will wait for people to play it yeah so right now i'm not convinced if i'm gonna buy it um for me it's a value proposition and i'm surprised i don't see a lot of people talking about this like i think right now it's really just like cool to like you know crap on call of duty and honestly call of duty doesn't serve it you know that's fine you know and they can handle it but at the same time like people were really gassing up call of duty black ops 6 last year right that's like i didn't forget about how much we like black ops 6 but when you look at it from like a value proposition standpoint like
00:21:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
Isn't Battlefield 6 just a multiplayer component? so this This one will have a single player, actually. It does have a single player. This one will, yeah. Have they shown any of the... The trailer that came out a week ago, it was first a single player campaign trailer and then a multiplayer trailer. So yeah, I was surprised.
00:22:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
I didn't realize that. So if that's the case, then... I might buy. Yeah, because that's fine. i might buy because I was under the impression if it was just like that portal mode and just multiplayer and now I'm paying what, $70 and Call of Duty gives me a great campaign, multiplayer, you know, i also get zombies, I get all of that together in a polished pack package. Like, yeah that's a huge value proposition. Which is like, that's again the one thing that offs
00:22:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
zombie story and multiplayer it also has battle royale warzone so if battlefield only has competitive maybe battle royale which is is an uncertain thing at this point in time and a single player it's still going to have a hard time competing so i don't know if i'll outdo call a duty but yeah yeah and and the thing is i i honestly don't think this is going to massively like hurt call of duty because in a way i feel like Talking about both of them, the more you talk about it, the more attention they both get, right? Because I think so much attention has been taken from the wave of Battle Royales and now, like, the new wave of, like, shooters, right? Or, like, Splitgate or things like that.
00:23:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
That a lot of times, like, I feel like sometimes Battlefield and Call Duty gets relegated to, like, the past, right? This is what people used to play back in the day, right? And so I think it's good. Like, I think the fact that, like, now there's more competition will inherently bring in more attention. and I think both will really gain from it.
00:23:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I don't think Black Ops 7 was going to do as good as Black Ops 6, regardless, right? Because I just feel like 6, you know, it just came in as such a polished package. yeah And I guess it's maybe too early to see, right? Because we don't know anything about 7. But the rumors made it seem like They worked a long time on 6 and maybe not as much on 7. here's the problem.
00:24:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
We're three months away from Battlefield being released. Call of Duty Black Ops 6 came out last October. How have they not revealed Black Ops 7 yet? So all these they gave us that crappy trailer. Did they give a trailer for 7?
00:24:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, yeah, that really dumb trailer. wasn't even an actual trailer. It was just a reveal trailer. We got, like, no gameplay. So I don't know what they're really waiting for. Well, I'll say this. This is where Battlefield has a one-up on Call of Duty right now.
00:24:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
Their beta has already been out. Beta. They've got great numbers, and it's two months away. and I actually think Battlefield might actually have a one-up now on Call of Duty just for this year. yeah Not to say that it's going better game. It might just sell better.
00:24:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
So... That brings up a really good point, right? Because if we're going by sales numbers, I actually think there's a good chance Battlefield 6 may outsell Black Ops 7 depending on how good it reviews and how people how much people love it but Microsoft is not going to talk about the sales figures of Black Ops 7 they're only going to talk about the Game Pass users and how many people are playing online but so then will be one of those things where we'll be like okay we're going off NPD but like at the same time like how many people do we subtract because they can play on Game Pass so it might not be about total player account now
00:25:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
Revenue made for the given year. Oh, if you're talking revenue made, Call of Duty is going beat it. That's you what you would think. That's what I think. That's what you think. But now, I'll be curious to see at the end of this year, at the beginning of the first quarter or the end of first quarter next year, who's at number one? Because Call Duty always for like a full year at the top.
00:25:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think sales figures... will be higher on Black Ops. There's a chance it'll be higher, but I think Total Remi will be higher on Black Ops because people, and I hate microtransactions too, people complain, but people buy so much stuff on Call of Duty. Like the people we know who play Call of Duty, how much have they spent on it? How many skins, how much crap do they have? yeah They got Gundam, You make so much fun of how ridiculous this stuff gets until we see like a skin that we think is just the coolest thing ever and then
00:26:10
Shameer Mehdikhan
know like You have to give it to Activision. like They have turned the milking of a franchise into like a science. They're so good at it. like Yesterday, i was watching a clip of Call of Black Cup 6 where you can buy a skin where it's basically a roller coaster on the gun.
00:26:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's just like this crazy animation of like things coming out of the gun and all this stuff. I'm like, it's so absurd. like You don't need this. But people will buy it. Just the novelty of it, right? like People will totally get it. so So we'll see. Now I guess catching up on some other things.
00:26:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I did play a bit of Donkey Kong Bonanza. Maybe like an hour or two more. i beat like one of the bosses. Honestly, maybe I'm just bad at the game, but the boss is kind hard. Like I kind struggled. Everyone's been saying that the boss is easy. Everyone's been saying it's so easy. And I was like, what am I doing wrong, guys? Like I think I just, the controls are...
00:27:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
like i don't have instant muscle memory with the controls yet like the same way i do with mario so i think a part of it is just me like accidentally pressing the wrong buttons right but it's okay like i just you know i think it it reviewed really well it's a really fun game i i just don't see myself hooked to it in the same way right and as other games and i think for me like I really blasted through Tears of the Kingdom because there was so much like novelty and just like constant dopamine hits because I was like, oh man, like the sky's the limit. There's so much I can do, right?
00:27:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then with Mario, I think it was just inherently cool with Odyssey to just, like, throw your hat onto other, like, creatures and play as them. But I think I'm running into the same problem I've had with other Mario games where, like, sometimes I just don't feel that drive to play the next level, right?
00:27:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because there's, like, not, like, an instant rush of, oh, my God, this is so different, right? Like, going from, like... Wonder, right, to this, right? In Super Mario Wonder, like, every single level you play, there's, like, a whole new mechanism, right? And that's just, like, so cool and always makes me want to play next, but with Donkey Kong and Bonanza, like, even though I can, like, destroy all this stuff and, like, beat the enemies in multiple ways, like, it it just doesn't hit me with that same, like, oh my god, what is going to happen around this corner? Like, what new ability am I going to get, right?
00:28:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's, like, a really solid game, but It just hasn't hooked me in the same way like Wonder did. And then like, Tears of the Kingdom, right? so there So think I slowly work through it.
00:28:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay. Yeah, i haven't started it yet. That'll be my goal for the next couple weeks is to start it. Because i think and know I think I mentioned our last episode, I started playing Mario and Luigi Brothership, not Brothership, Superstar Saga.
00:28:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
And again, what I'm starting to realize two hours two to three hours in is that the controls are super cumbersome. And I get that when people play the game back when it was released, it maybe made sense. But with the game now being streamlined on the Switch, it's like I want to try the newer games to see how much easier it is.
00:29:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
and The controls are pretty clunky. So i think at this point I'm going to switch over to Donkey Kong, try to knock that out. It's about a 15 to 20 hour game. Oh really, I didn't realize it was that short. So I thought it would be a little longer.
00:29:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Which honestly I'm okay with 15 to 18 hours. yeah That's kind of the sweet spot for me. Exactly. so So there's that, and then I know this is a game that I love talking about, but you probably don't like talking about it as much, Halo Infinite.
00:29:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
and So honestly, and I was just thinking about it, i was like, man, I kind of wish Halo Infinite would just come out on the PlayStation so people would actually pay attention to it. Because my God, after all the updates they've done, Halo Infinite is in such a good state right now, it's amazing.
00:29:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
And this newest update is probably the biggest update they've ever released. Is this the Halo 3 stuff or no? no they're like way beyond that. So they don't even have like the whole Halo 3 playlist anymore.
00:29:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
But they have like legacy playlist now They just have so much content. It's insane. Like I think probably they have over 100 maps and they have every game mode you could ever imagine pretty much in the game now, wow including Firefight and it's all pretty polished. The customization is a little better now because now you can actually, such a basic thing that, you know, it's amazing how long it took them, but now you can customize each weapon model with all of the different like colors and skins and everything. So, which I mean, it took forever, but it's like a nice little wrinkle. Well, but again, the reason why they did that before it was piecemeal and it took a while because the goal was to level up to a taint, like,
00:30:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
to grow and progress towards getting certain parts, and but then it took too long. Now they're like, here you go. So like now the customization actually, to me, feels like it's in a nobody pretty good place. like There's still obviously work to be done, but i don't think they'll ever do it because the player base is so small that really they have to charge these crazy prices on the shop, right?
00:30:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they're milking people like crazy and the shot prices in Halo and Final Fantasy are like the worst I've ever seen. It's it's truly horrendous. Predatory maybe. So, but i'm putting all that aside, like the new content in this update is surprisingly really good. So what they, what they're doing, you can tell it's like a few people working on this game, right?
00:31:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
So instead of making new guns, right? They're like, honestly, I think it's forged. It's so flexible. they They take the original model of a gun, right? So they took the shock rifle, right? That shot the electric electricity beams.
00:31:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then they modeled stuff on top of it to make it look like a covenant carbine. And then they basically changed the rate of fire, like some things here and there, tweaked the audio a little bit And you have basically like a new gun.
00:31:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, if you... like the only thing that makes it feel like the old gun is the reload animation is the same but other than that you know and i feel like it's a good way of giving us new content without actually doing much so that's pretty cool they have a the falcon back which is pretty nice because it's almost like a warthog in the sky and you get like four or five people in there but really i think what blew me away is just how many maps and modes there are it's just it's absurd so i've been actually having a blast playing this halo infinite update as long as you can match me with people and
00:32:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
play and hopefully the the gap and ga between who's currently playing versus people still coming on isn't huge. So I was like, reading that so I was following like mint blitz and, you know, honestly, he got me back into it because his YouTube video popped in and I watched it i was like, oh man, they actually had a good amount of this update. i think you need to unsubscribe.
00:32:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
No, man, I love the guy. So, but you know, it's really sad because like, I don't get this information from Xbox and Halo. Like it's because I've watched a lot of mint blitz videos in the past that I realized, oh, this update is epic.
00:32:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
Bro, he's literally been carrying Halo on his back for so long. i it's It's amazing. But yeah, like he really convinced me to to download it. And I've been kind of like keeping track of some things here and there. Like, oh, I got this new shotgun, this and that.
00:33:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
But nothing really made me decide to jump in. But this latest update, i was like, OK, now I'm going redownload. And I'm happy I did. Honestly, I'm still probably going to play a little bit here and there. so And I mean, I had more fun playing it than Battlefield. But maybe that's just because I'm a Halo addict. Yeah, you're a Halo addict.
00:33:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then I guess the last game I wanted to talk about was Ultra Sun and Moon. So I've been playing it, you know, and I just been playing it somehow. like And yeah, it's actually been kind of nice. Like, I guess I kind of forgot what that old school Pokemon game feel was like. Right. And it's like.
00:33:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
and it really evokes a lot of those old memories uh from you know ruby and sapphire things like that but again maybe i've just like not been paying attention to the pokemon scene but it's it's really it kind of feels like a middle step right like it it feels like a bit like the switch games and it's like kind of 3d but it still feels like the 2d games right like when you're fighting the trainers and like sometimes you have the illusion of being able to skip trainer but you really don't yeah so it was a half step right like it was transitioning this came out on the 3ds so yeah it it was an interesting time when that game came out it was okay in my opinion i think the the last great pokemon game that was still 2d or 2.5d was pokemon black and white you know was black and white similar in like
00:34:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
How it was 2.5D to Ultra Sun and Moon, or was it... It's no, no, it's more closer to like X and Y and and the other... i never played X and Y. Yeah, those are... I pretty much missed all the games.
00:34:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, I played up to Diamond and Pearl, then I played nothing until the Switch. Oh, wow. So I missed a big chunk. You're missing out on probably some of the best Pokemon games, because like... black and white were the most streamlined super like quality of life changes and it's difficult and the story was great so like that was like the complete package and i think that was like the last great pokemon you know and that was what black and white and black and white too yeah and then what was after that x and y x and y was before those so really i didn't realize that gen 5 is x and y gen 6 i thought i thought x and y were before sun and moon because wasn't it on the 3ds it wasn't black and white on the ds oh yeah you're right yeah you're right that's x and y came after okay but that actually so that was technically the last like 2.5
00:35:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, I see. And then sun and Moon was kind of that mid-step. It was like the mid-step. And then after that, they were on the Switch. Yeah, and then they became an open world. Would you want more games that are like that mid-step?
00:35:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
No, I'd rather stick to the old, like Black and White and X and Y were like the perfect middle ground, in my opinion. I don't like the mid-step of then going fully 3D and then having these areas where you just, like it really defeats the purpose or like and this i don't know i have a nostalgia for older pokemon games so that's probably biasing me there a bit, but I like the old pixel art more than the 3D stuff.
00:36:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. I think for me, it was more thinking, i like this better than what I got on the Switch, right? and of course, I love how the original stuff was, but I don't know if you can make the main all the mainline games like that because a lot of people would probably just complain oh this looks are old this is yeah updated you know it'd be a smaller scope game yeah so that's kind of the challenge right like because i think about zelda right like if it's cool if you get like a couple of what was it echoes and yeah in links awakening and stuff like that but if every game was like that and not tears of the kingdom people would probably be like, all right, you know, yeah like I want something. I agree with that.
00:36:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
I agree, which I think that's why i think Pokemon has to go the route of doing multiple releases. One should be like old school Pokemon and one should be continue innovating. Like the 3D stuff. Like the 3D. Yeah. Like I think they have to do both.
00:36:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now they have that with Legends and their next their current generation Pokemon. But I think Legends still is a little too open world and 3D. And have they announced what the non-Legends game is going to be No.
00:37:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I just know it's coming. Yeah. We, the supposedly gen 10 is coming next year. Wow. They haven't officially confirmed it, but now I wouldn't be shocked if somehow instead of gen 10 extra go, you know what?
00:37:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
We're remaking gen five, you know, which is black and white. That would be interesting, but I hope they don't make it like they made shining pearl and brilliant diamond. They just didn't do so well. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
Interesting. So, you know, I think you're the The Pokemon guy. i like Pokemon, but I think you like Pokemon more than I do. So what do you think is more worth playing for me? Ultra Sun and Moon or x and I think you'll actually enjoy x and Y a little more, to be quite honest, and black and white because just again, okay, so here's the thing.
00:37:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
You will like Sun and Moon only because it's based off Hawaii. That's actually kind of what made me download it because you know I love Hawaii. yeah So I was like, oh, it's so cool. It's like Pokemon to Hawaii. I got to play it. Yes, I'll actually say this. You should just stick with it at this point. Just enjoy it.
00:38:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
What did you think of the Ultra Beast? Like, i kind of I kind of want to play it because of the Ultra Beast and the Hawaii thing. So that's another thing. That was the one great aspect of the game. Like, I thought it was a downgrade in terms of story and characters, but then the Ultra Beast was such a great idea, like, that made up for it.
00:38:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
But then I didn't realize it could get worse, and then when the Switch games came out, it got worse. Wait, so were the Ultra Beast in Sun and Moon? Yes, the Ultra Beast are in Sun and Moon. Okay. yeah so that's why it's so odd because when you start off this's like this really happy go thing where you're on on islands and hopping around and then all of a sudden they do ultra beast you know what is okay yeah because i was having a similar vibe i was like you know a lot of pokemon games are really like chill but like this game felt really chill i was like i don't even know where the next gym is yeah you but so it's like a little weird but see this is the again the balance they've they've struggled with which is almost every pokemon game has been very dark and to some degree
00:39:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
there's like ah ah organization that wants to take over the world do stuff with pomon enslave them but when the switch games came i was just kids and school bullying other people like come on like it it got degraded so bad to the point where like i'm trying to remember like who were the even the big bads in like sword and shield and scarlet i remember scarlet violet it was a school although there was the there was the one whole time thingy which was i guess kind of random and interesting but sword and shield was what's his name
00:39:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
and okay so you' leon the champion and you have that researcher and then that guy, that not the dean. Oh yeah, because aren't they trying to bring back the eternatas or whatever? eternatas. I felt like that was just like a side part of it. It was side part. He was really just the chairman of the champion.
00:39:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I know you really like black and white, so like I can't really compare because haven't played that, but I just really loved Ruby and Sapphire. like I mean, my favorites are definitely Fire Red, right? But I just love like the story of, you know, what is it, Kyogre and Ground Down and just how how that influences the land and the water and how epic it was and how like it was misguided what the bad guys wanted. But like, you could also kind of get the sense like, hey, if you're like really in the water, you're like, screw all this land, you know? Well, they also, yeah, yeah, which is funny, but they also wanted to like reshape the world because like, you know, they saw
00:40:27
Shameer Mehdikhan
like things but wrong with the world that could have been better and i think Black and White, their story is very similar to Ruby and Saffir. so I feel like I would like that. Yeah. But if if they're just going to remake Black and White, I think I should just wait. Because that's that's the next one, right? That they'll remake. That's kind of the trend they were going on. But I think they also realized they did they got bashed so hard with Shining and Brilliant Pearl and Diamond that, again, i don't know what their plan is. I don't know if they just...
00:40:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
But they may have gotten bashed, but did it sell well? and It did. It did sell well. It sold like 14 million units. Oh my god, that's so much money. Which is ridiculous. That's so much money. A game that only like two years of development time.
00:41:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
That's crazy. That's probably almost a million dollars. Yeah, yeah. See, this is the problem. So, i don't know. I digress. I know we went off on a tangent. I know. Well, we i feel like... You can type about Pokemon forever. can type about Halo forever.
00:41:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
But anyways, yeah, I'm playing some more of that. So I think probably the game I'm going to play the most will probably be Ultra Sun. That's good. You know, from now until, you know, next time around.
00:41:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
I guess other things to talk about. Maybe we can jump into some of the breaking news, right? Although it's not super breaking because it's been some time. I think the one that I wanted to talk about, really there's two, but the one I really was surprised about out of everything in the last three weeks was the Switch 1 price increase.
00:41:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
I did not see that coming at all. And oh my gosh, like, I guess this is a thing now. Like Oculus started it and now Switch just jumped on it too. Well, Xbox did it as well.
00:42:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
And Xbox did it. But man, the Switch is just so shocking because it's been... eight years and they never dropped the price ever and now they increased it and somehow playstation has not increased the price of the ps5 which in america which really shocks me but they did do in other regions right oh yeah they did in a bunch of other regions okay yeah i think it's only a matter of time because of switch they're doing it basically to combat tariffs yeah on the switch too and they're like we're going to increase the price of every single thing else besides this
00:42:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
besides the switch too because they know people are gonna con continue by the search one and they kind of makes up a little bit for the margin, right? But I also- And people are upset about the price of the Swift 1, then it's like, go buy a Switch 2. Yeah, and that's the way to entice people to get the Switch 2.
00:42:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I think it's like it makes sense. like I understand why they're doing it. I totally get why they're doing it. It's just, wow. Did not expect that. That would have never been in my cards for 2025. It's definitely a double dip, because like oh you bought the switch one we just made more money off of you oh wait you don't want that because it's too gets us switch to the same price it's like they big double dipped on it everyone's so hard there but again market conditions you know like and not to get too much into politics, you know, because trying to get at it like a kind of an objective lens. But I feel like I haven't noticed like a massive change in prices of things I bought, like maybe here and there.
00:43:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
And everyone has been talking about like inflation the last couple of years and how it's killing us. And I feel like now people don't focus on that as much. But it's kind of ironic to me that like of all the sectors where I'm actually noticing the pain, it's gaming. yeah Like ah gaming is the one where everything's getting hurt. It's not like my egg prices of the things I'm buying. Or my avocados or my bananas. Right, which I'm sure is it's going up to, you know, not to downplay that. But it's just, it's so shocking with gaming because I haven't really seen like, oh, massive change in 2021, 2023, 2025. mean, I know there was, but my
00:43:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
i mean i know there was but my God, this year it just feels like gaming has gotten really expensive. so Think about like now why Sony had been chasing live service. In this climate, it almost makes more sense to create one game that can sustain for five or ten years where people like just spend on occasion.
00:44:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because, dude, gaming is such an expensive hobby. now It's always been expensive for the last several decades, but people had more money to spend. Now it's like, dude, people can't afford two games in a year. People can't afford three games in a year. Yeah, I mean, it's getting nuts, right? And like,
00:44:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
even that day me and you were at the GameStop and I was like listening to like parents who are like buying their kids switch twos and I'm just like oh my god like you're shelling out like $530 when I was a kid if I asked my dad for that he'd smack me like what's wrong with you had to like save forever to buy Xbox one and that was like 200 bucks yeah you know 30 bucks if that you which again not so not i spoke one and met like Xbox OG, you know, because I feel like when I bought that, that was probably like 200 bucks. and Yeah.
00:45:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
It was a couple of years after it came out. Which makes sense. Yeah. Which I mean, I did the same with my family because like we had to split the cost between like three to four people just to get one console. Like it was insane.
00:45:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. It's crazy, man. now so So I wanted to to get that one out of the way. I guess kind of some fun stories real quick. I thought the whole story about, you know, those Pokemon cards and the McDonald's boxes was hilarious.
00:45:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
I can't believe people were just buying a ton of, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, they just buying bunch of these, like, kits, right? Just get the cards built. And they were, like, throwing the food away. Yeah, it was just crazy. But, you know, it also tells you, like, this is most likely not kids doing this. This most likely scalpers that are then taking it and trying to sell it online.
00:45:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think, personally, i don't think it's a bunch of kids just going out and buying it. Bro, at what point do we say, enough is enough? It's never enough. At what point do we say, like, guys, chill on these Pokemon cards? I've been thinking that for a while now, which is why I stopped buying cards for the last, like, six months. I'm like, enough is enough, but I don't think other people see it that way right now. Like, we're literally throwing away food just to get the plastic card. and if they if they haven't already they need to because again i told you right a couple months ago i camped out for 17 hours just to get like i'm not doing that again that's over but people are still doing it so i don't know man i don't know when it ever ends at this point and look there was a period of just before the pandemic when people weren't doing
00:46:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
pokemon had fallen off a cliff pokemon car right not everything else the not the other merchandise but now i just picked up because of the pandemic and i think it trading cards in general now people think they can make a quick but but in reality you're probably losing more money than you're actually yeah i feel like it's kind of the new bitcoin yeah right and it's and it's crazy to me that people i know who are not into pokemon cards will like strike up a conversation with me randomly like we're talking about stuff and like pokemon cards come up and they like know about how expensive they are and how everyone's buying them i'm like when did this become like common knowledge it's so funny that you said because it's almost like bartering at this point it's like it's like gold or something it's like
00:47:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
dude if you give me a created cardt i'll give you like all these things i have like, wow, okay, when did that become a currency? Yeah, so I guess with some of those things away, we can talk about some of what I thought were in the more you know important pieces of news in the last couple of weeks. So some of these game cancellations. So I guess two in particular, Contraband and Bioshock.
00:47:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
So out of those two, Arjun, which one kind of hit you hardest or surprised you most? I think both in different ways. Like I'll start with Bioshock because basically Bloomberg confirmed that Bioshock 1 was being remade by Take-Two.
00:47:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I forgot the studio's name that creating it. so it's not the original studio nor is it does zachlavin that kind of involved in this project but i guess it was canceled and then on top of that bioshock 4 is being made and they're having a complete narrative overhaul so the director of the game has been let go and another very high executive that was part of the studio left or is taken over in a smaller capacity or something like that so i just thought it it was interesting because like you would think a Biotrack 1 would be fairly easy, especially seeing all the remakes we've been getting now. But maybe they were trying to do it with a proprietary engine. And maybe, honestly, like I feel like Biotrack 1 is so unique that like it shouldn't be remade, in my opinion.
00:48:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
like The way that game looked at the time, I feel like it shouldn't be touched. But you know that's just me kind of kind of thinking out loud, but with Biotrack 4, like, you also have three really great games. Like, what's the point of continuing that series? Like, I don't know if it needed a fourth game.
00:48:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now, Take-Two's, the CEO, was saying, like, hey, like, we're committing, like, they never confirmed Biotrack 4 was actually in development, and then he came out last week saying, we're committed to getting something new out in this series. so it was very interesting to be here so i don't know what that really means like are they really far along and this is goingnna be a quick thing like a sixmon to one- year thing turnaround i don't know or maybe gets into development hell for a couple more years and then with contraband also interesting because it was the just cause developer that's been working on this for the last four or five years and then all of a sudden for it to just kind of go on pause or basically what they said on their website is we're trying to now ideate about what to do next and it didn't sound like it it was canceled but then again bloomberg confirmed that it basically was yeah that's what i found really weird about the wording right it really kind of sounded like
00:49:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
you you know, big daddy Xbox don't want to pay no more because they don't like our check-ins. So we need someone else to pay for us. So we're going to pause until then. Yeah, which I could see them picking it up. Maybe with a different publisher. I don't know.
00:49:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. I mean, again, it's just one of those things where it's like, it's been four years. Like now you're going to pause the development, you know? Like something that obviously didn't go right for them to have said, we can't continue with what we have. But do we know what contraband actually was?
00:50:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
From what i remember, it was some sort of like heist, action, adventure, like multiplayer type game, you know. Like Crackdown something? think it was supposed to be more kind of like that GTA V online mode, you know, with some of the heists with that.
00:50:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
But honestly, I don't really know much more than that. mean, if you take GTA V online and you mix that with Just Cause... That sounds really cool, right? Yeah, it sounds really. so, but man, four to five years, that sucks.
00:50:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
it so It sounds like the same thing with Perfect Dark, like four to five years. Yeah, I mean, I shouldn't be surprised. Like, I think this is one where I was just waiting for the cancellation. I was like, it's been so long.
00:50:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
We've got nothing. They're going cancel it, right? So I wasn't surprised. But I think for me, the fact that Microsoft is basing these out kind of makes me think that you were right. and I know you love hearing that.
00:51:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
Microsoft's still cutting, man. They're still cutting, you know? not done yet. And it's not done yet. And I would not be surprised if within the next six months, another studio goes. yeah And I wouldn't be surprised if it's Ninja Theory, even though I like Ninja Theory. i And I don't want them to go.
00:51:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because there really isn't anyone that's focusing on, like, mental health and video games. And I just, you know, obviously that's going to speak to me. But, yeah, I think someone else is going to get six months. What's the studio that made Psychonauts again?
00:51:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
double fine i could see double fine you're waiting for i mean their next game is coming out so they might just wait until it gets released that's the thing that's such a microsoft it's like you know if you haven't heard from a game in a while there's a fear to get canceled if the game just came out then there's a fear you're never saved you're never saved again i think this is because the way the market okay i'm not go to just la the market the economy microsoft is contributing to the fact that the economy in the market is the way it is, they're just taking a hard pivot now.
00:52:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
and like like They're literally like, we have to be lean, we have to save a lot of money, this stuff is costing too much regardless of how much they've saved up and they're treasure chest so or their trove they're just saying like we just have to save for the future. i mean I don't agree with it but obviously Microsoft is Microsoft and they probably know better than me.
00:52:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know I just think you can't treat creative projects the same way you treat AI and you know like Office. Or Office 365. And it seems to me that like that's kind of how they're dealing with it right but I mean, again, the creative process is a little different that it takes the years to come up with a plot, a story, an idea of a game that could like either be a complete bust or just, you know, yeah skyrocket. And again, i think we talked about this, but like, I think in the professional world, if you have a good product, like you should expect good results. Right.
00:52:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
But i think in the creative world, you can have a good product, but if the audience is not interested because they're distracted with something else, the market's super saturated, the timing is off, right?
00:53:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
The marketing itself is not great for the product, then yeah you can have something that just falls, right? Flat. and it could be a terrific game yeah you really see that I feel like with like Office and you know. Yeah it's a product that's just used for every day for productivity and people get it. It's not like people getting hyped over Co-Pilot yeah Plus you know. Or maybe they are but don't know. think most people are just like okay how does this, this is just something I'm going to use to do my work and move on with my life. yeah you know It's just like the big Microsoft fanboys.
00:53:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
Which you now when I think about it, like just again to compare, Hazelight Studios for EA. They came in, this guy again, Joseph Farris, indie movie producer, director, comes in, makes three games, four games, whatever it is. They all are like a massive hit.
00:53:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
but But can you imagine if like you were like, hey, we didn't like the numbers for a Way Out. And yeah, we're cutting you. Or we're cutting half your team. right How going to make it It Takes Two? yeah right But they will do that. They'll give them a skeleton crew and figure it out.
00:54:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, like you didn't perform enough on ah a way out. So now you have to make a better game with half the people. And guess what? The next game will do even worse, and then then they're gone. so so So, well, I guess that's kind of the the, I guess one more thing with Microsoft, because I kind of want to talk about Microsoft and then we can talk about Sony because I think there's some interesting stuff to talk about Sony.
00:54:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
So Game Pass apparently made $5 billion dollars in revenue, which I think like, it just sounds like a massive figure, but I don't think it's as massive as people are thinking are because yeah, that's a lot of revenue, right, for Game Pass. But if you think about it, like Sony has like 120 million subscribers or something like that, right, on PlayStation between PS4 and PS5.
00:54:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
They're bringing in like a ton of revenue. Like I think I looked it up and it's obviously all of PlayStation, but they're bringing like maybe 20 or 30 or something like that. So I feel like... PlayStation Plus is still probably bringing in more revenue than Game Pass.
00:55:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
like see And it's to be expected because like it's so much bigger, but like that's not the only source of revenue for PlayStation, right? And for Xbox, like that's pretty much the majority of their their stuff because their consoles are selling terribly. right So it's like Sony is kind of like really double winning there because their console sales are up. Because probably people who buy the Xbox are now switching over PS5.
00:55:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they're making a ton of people on their subscribers. right Because if now you just dont have a higher install base, you're naturally going to get more subscribers. While Microsoft has to like fight tooth and nail to get subscribers with these amazing deals. right so You know, I think not to rain on Xbox's parade too much because really that's a great accomplishment. I'm loving the growth there. And I think it's, I do think a big part of it's Call Duty.
00:55:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
Well, do we know the year over year growth for Game Pass? Too much. okay I think like, I don't remember off the top of my head. I should have looked it up. But the year on year growth is pretty good. i thinks eight or 11% or something like that. so And that's even though console sales, I think dropped like 22%, something along those lines.
00:56:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
So, I mean, there's good growth at Microsoft. Like there's no denying that, you know, but it's just like, I don't want to get like too hyped up on the growth, right? Because you know,
00:56:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
The $5 billion is amazing for the console base that Microsoft has, but their competitor has so many people yeah on the PlayStation Plus platform. I mean, you got to also think about it this way. I look at it from another angle.
00:56:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
This is probably what saved Phil Spencer's job and why he got promoted to CEO. They probably looked at it and go, okay, we're failing in one space, which is the hardware business, but you found another way to create a growth sector for the same division that's game pass and they go, wait a minute, we can also monetize this?
00:57:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh my god. So I think that's really the reason Alinem kept his job, but he got promoted. So in my opinion, he probably looks like a godsend internally into the company. But if you're looking straight numbers, more and more, I know Microsoft says we're going to keep making consoles, but man, the money is not in their consoles right now. It's dropping hard, 20 something, 15 or 20% drops in a year. That's rough.
00:57:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
But maybe like if the numbers can keep going. So now again, we know most of the Game Pass subscribers are on console rather than PC. But if they're still seeing year-over-year growth with that small... I think it's PC growth. You think it's PC? That'll be interesting, man. I would love to know the split, man. I would really love to know. never tell. They never say it, dude. It's so annoying. But then again, think about it this way.
00:57:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
If it's really PC growth, that's... contributing to the better numbers potentially who cares if the console doesn't sell as well they'll do another generation I think that's why you like Microsoft doesn't care you know they're like oh we're making money we're good let's keep going business as usual again which is why Phil Spencer has a job so my opinion he looks like a hero yeah so their shareholders yeah so I guess good for them Anything else about Xbox you want to about? You want switch gears? in those Oh, I guess I'm sorry. I blew past it. I didn't get to finish talking about the Bioshock remake stuff. So let's just finish up that conversation real quick and then we'll talk about PlayStation.
00:58:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, I'm a huge Bioshock fanboy. I think I made a list of my favorite games of all time. I want to say number three was Bioshock. If you have three or four. So really, that's high up there.
00:58:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so I get your point about how Bioshock was just so well done and like I would be afraid of like a remake ruining that, but honestly, I just want other people to experience Bioshock, so I'm totally for a remake.
00:58:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
I would not think it would be hard to make, so I don't know where the struggle is. yeah I think the struggle, the gameplay and the story are already so good, I don't see what you need to change about the game, right? Really, I think it came out almost perfect.
00:59:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think it holds even in today's day and age. And with Bioshock 4, I'm happy that the franchise is still alive, right? So I don't want it completely gone.
00:59:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
But Bioshock is one of those things where like it kind of did leave in a good place, right? So like I think of Witcher and Witcher 3, like it ended in a good place. Do I want Witcher 4? Absolutely. But am I kind of worried about where you're going go? Right?
00:59:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. And at least with Witcher 4, it seems like a lot of that studio is intact, right? But like Bioshock 4, like those Bioshock people are gone, right? And Ken Belivine is too busy making Judas, so does he really have a lot of time to help supervise those things to him?
00:59:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. so I don't know what they would do if they would do more like Infinite 2 because we had a Bioshock 1 and 2 that was underwater and then we never really got a sequel to Infinite.
00:59:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
Didn't really need one. you know but So and I think this is the news this is news that hit me hard. But again, i don't think I'm entirely surprised because I feel like the Bioshock universe and whatever they're doing with the think were trying to make a movie or TV Yeah, I'm plan. I think all of that stuff is just like lost in the ether and like obviously people have moved on Judas, right? And so I'm really excited for Judas. Now Judas comes out and just was like a huge failure, then I'm going to be like, God, please bring back Mashak. But I think Judas will deliver.
01:00:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think Judas will. I look back at the gameplay not too long ago, like a month ago, and I'm like, okay there's something here i don't know if this was all pre-rendered or fake or not but like it looks good but we haven't heard from that for a year over a year and i feel like judas kind of like jump like we went from underwater which is really cool to like high up in the sky like where else can you go like you're gonna be in a volcano like on earth there's like not a lot of other interesting unique biomes you can do exactly and you know Bioshock was kind of based off System Shock, if I'm remembering correctly. And I think that was in a spaceship.
01:01:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. Never played it. So Judas kind of feels like the natural progression, right? Where this is what that team should have done all along. Yeah, 100%. Okay, now moving on to PlayStation stuff.
01:01:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
So a couple of news stories with that. Which one do you want to talk about, Arjun? We can maybe just first talk about, again, this is more of like a quote, but I think... their senior vice president of finance was talking recently about how they want to be yeah measured more as a platform going forward. And think again, a lot of outlets ran with this quote here, but I think they were talking about not just video games, but entertainment in general. So like games, media, shows, movies, music, like it was like a whole hodgepodge of things they were talking about.
01:01:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
So people misconstrued it, I think a little bit said, oh, they want to go multi-platform it now and now release all their games on a lot of systems. I think they will do that. We're seeing the writing on the wall, but I think they're going to continue their staggered approach video game releases so i think more or less they want to get ip out into multiple platforms in a home so and it comes to making cartoon shows or movies or other content, like God of War, which is now being released on Amazon in a year or two.
01:02:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
We've had Uncharted that was that became a movie, live action movie and stuff. I think they're going to continue down that path. That only started like a couple of years ago. Like really, like they really started that initiative and especially last one was HBO. I think they're not going to stop that this time.
01:02:22
Shameer Mehdikhan
they never thought about that in the past and i think this is just and ah another another way to get consumers to look at their products. Yeah. So I think I was one of the people who jumped straight to the conclusion that they were thinking more multi-platform.
01:02:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think in hindsight, there's two things that made me jump to that conclusion. One, because when I hear that terminology, it makes me think of the exact same words Microsoft uses, right? And because they say platform and that's what they mean, right? Like, don't just buy our game path, don't just buy our platform, like, don't just us buy our console sales and things like that.
01:02:56
Shameer Mehdikhan
which I do think they may have mentioned at some point, like let's focus less on the console sales and talk about the platform. So I think that was a part of it. And I also just think kind of the timing, like, you know, Helldivers 2 is now just coming out on Xbox, which is really the first time of PlayStation game has won other than Death Stranding. And that was more really third party, right? Yeah.
01:03:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I think when you take those two, like, you know, and then the fact that there's been some L's with the, you know, the online stuff that, you know, free to play type of games, right? Like, then or live service.
01:03:34
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think putting all that together, I think that I can understand why a lot of people jump into that conclusion. So, I just think it's interesting that like, Sony is trying to get their shareholders to see a different picture of their business, even though from the outside, it looks like their console business is doing amazing. And so it,
01:03:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
It makes you wonder like, Hey, if, if they do have all these subscribers, like I was talking about with PS plus, all these console sales, why do they feel the need to kind of let their shareholders know, Hey, we're kind of changing the strategy a bit, you know, maybe that life service stuff really did hit them hard in their books. Right. And like, we're just not seeing that, you know, but yeah I think they're signaling it before they.
01:04:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
i don't think they want to I don't know. i don't know if it's a reason to say we're not trying to scare our our audience or our consumer base because it's only a good thing if you're if you're spreading out to multiple media. Yeah, right. Like
01:04:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's just interesting timing though because it like I think and maybe I just like used to a lot of Western companies but like when I hear stuff like that it kind of sounds like yeah you know like hey everything is fine you know we're just pivoting right and then like that's what I've like come to get used to with like a lot of these companies like Tesla is always like everything is fine guys we're making a robot yeah yeah and then it doesn't work and you're kind of like okay is is everything actually fine why are making a robot i agree with that so there's some skepticism that should be there but i think maybe what they're doing too this is what i think it is consumers are probably wait minute always buy your products specifically your console to play this game but
01:05:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
if you're telling me now i can instead of playing the game i can watch a show on a completely different platform that's not associated with you what's going on now why are you doing that I always buy your product to play and watch that story so I think that they're trying to not scare their current consumer babies maybe that's what they're doing they're signaling yeah I get that and you know I was just toying with this idea today actually in anticipation for this so hypothetical I'm gonna give you two hypothetical situations and I want you to give me your thoughts okay So let's say all PlayStation exclusives came out on Xbox and PlayStation at the same time.
01:05:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Do you think that will actually significantly impact PlayStation sales? Like right now we're talking about. Yeah, like say starting now, going forward, all PlayStation exclusives come out on Xbox, if not immediately within three six months.
01:06:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
Do you think now all of a sudden people will stop buying the PS5 and start buying the Xbox? Yeah. Right? I thought about that. And i was like, oh my God.
01:06:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
i think even if Ghost and all of these games came out at the same time, I don't see a massive shift of people by X-Men. Like maybe they'll like have a million people. Maybe, you know, go, but- don't even think that.
01:06:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
people with gaps I'm no longer a loyal fan, but wait, I still want to play the game. Oh, wait, I can still play it first on PlayStation. Like, I don't think they lose a whole lot of people. But what if it was day and day on both?
01:06:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think people would be upset, but they would still play the game. Right? I think people would be very upset online. Everyone would freak out. People talk about how Xbox is winning. and But I don't think it would actually hurt PlayStation's console sales that much.
01:06:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
Because the people I talk to who are who have PlayStations or who even have both, right? There's such a strong dominance of PlayStation right now that, you know, I think people can objectively say Game Pass is amazing. And I think a lot of overall, most people will agree, but like just, you know, how cool PlayStation is, like how well known it is across the board.
01:07:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like it's hard to pull people away completely from PlayStation, right? Like people just end up buying both. yeah So, so I thought that was interesting. Now, let me ask you this. This is the second scenario.
01:07:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
If every PlayStation game came out day and day Steam and PlayStation, would people buy less PlayStations? I actually think they would. I actually do think people would buy less PlayStations if every game came out on Steam on the same day. Because there's a lot of Steam, there's a lot of PC players that also buy PS5.
01:07:52
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I think even if the games are both on PS5 and Xbox, you might have a little loss, but not that much. Yeah, I think you're right. If it day-to-day PC versus PlayStation, look, there's still like a massive consumer base that only does console because not only is it more affordable,
01:08:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
things are streamlined. like I don't have to go on my PC to change settings and do all this stuff. But like yeah, I think like a third of their consumer base would be lost or something if they did the D&D on PC and PlayStation. I think it'd be a bigger impact for sure.
01:08:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
So I just thought that was interesting. But on the flip side, you're also going to make a lot of sales on Steam. So I just think the numbers on that are interesting, right? You are you're probably publishing but you're not making a full 100% profit. Drew because Steam is taking so much unless you try and make an individual PlayStation Studio store. Yeah, which I don't know. Which you know how that is.
01:08:39
Shameer Mehdikhan
I just thought that was kind of fascinating. Let's see a couple of other Sony news things. Oh, yeah, so Sony is integrating Bungie into PlayStation Studios. So again, their V the senior vp also mentioned that this is a slow but ongoing process.
01:08:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it basically tells me and and signifies at this point why they didn't officially confirm it that Bungie did not make sales with their latest Destiny expansion. yeah They did not hit any milestones that they were hoping to hit.
01:09:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
And this was like an agreement initially upon merging with them or acquiring them that said, if you can't meet these milestones, we're going do whatever we need to do. And dude, they spent almost $4 billion. dollars This is like at my literally insane. It's kind of a really bad mess. And I feel like Again, maybe I'm totally wrong, but as someone who played Destiny, right? Not like a crazy amount.
01:09:30
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think they wanted... What do you mean played crazy amount, Destiny? Get out here. Okay, I did play it quite a lot, but didn't beat the last couple of expansions. But I think after Halo, that was my second most online. I played game online. So, okay, i have played quite a lot.
01:09:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
I feel like they were trying to tee up the finale of Destiny 2. two to the release of Marathon. So people would kind of, you know, transition into Marathon yeah and, hey, look, there's some, still some updates for Destiny, so you can still double dip, right?
01:09:57
Shameer Mehdikhan
But now that Marathon is being pushed back, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if we got pushed back again, right? I think we're just in this weird place where there's people who want more Bungie games and they don't really have much to play because there's not that much Destiny content.
01:10:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
So you're just kind of having people probably trickle out and potentially Exploring other shooters, which is not what you want when you've created such a devoted fan base. Yeah, for like a debt like decade decades. I'd say I mean, it's crazy because you probably bought them not only first Destiny IP, but you were like we want them to help advise our teams internally on how to make live service.
01:10:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
They did have some decision making for like Naughty Dog's live service games. and then now they're falling apart and it's like you you will never see your return on investment and didn't they specifically say hey we're not worried about Activision Blizzard yeah Bungie will give us more yeah all of Activision Blizzard it's like what the heck and then on top of it like they made the agreement like they're going to act as an independent studio and still be multi-ploper guess what going forward None of their games will probably be in multiplayer.
01:11:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, yeah. I mean, Sony is just eating them up completely. And I think for me, as someone who's really just loved Bungie from the start, right, probably my favorite developer, if not top three,
01:11:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
It's just so ironic because, you know, Bungie was frustrated at Microsoft because they wanted independence. And so it was like the grass is greener on the other side. Screw you, with Microsoft. We're leaving. You know, let's just do Halo Reach and Halo 3 ODST. So we finish our contract and move on.
01:11:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
So then they go on to Activision. And then what happened with Activision? Like Destiny 1. Like that game didn't come out exactly how you expected. The story got rewritten a lot. You know, it's unclear how much of that was Activision or how much of it was really just the the upper echelon of Bungie just being kind of unrealistic.
01:11:50
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then Tencent. And then, yeah, Tencent. And then like finally, like Sony comes in, which is like, you know, we always wanted Halo, the Halo killer. And now we bought the people who made Halo.
01:12:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
And they're going to have independence, which is what Bungie always wanted. And now it's like they're back to where they started, but in a worse scenario. And they're they're truly stripped of their independence. And it's like, it wasn't Microsoft who stripped you of your independence. It was like your desire to get away from Microsoft to get independence that ultimately led to led to your demise, yeah right? Which is so ironic. It's so ironic. but And and i'm honestly like and if it hasn't already happened i think most of those executives in Bungie will probably be gone in the next couple of years. i i think it's going to be a former shell of itself.
01:12:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
And even if they, again, keep a team to maintain destiny that game is slowly fading at this point like the last expansion i heard did not do well at all in terms of i yeah and it's like i think at this point they need to focus on a new game if marathon doesn't hit fine but then now work on another game for the next three to four years and get something out they've been what's called a lot of games have been being worked on in conceptual stages there they need to get out something different then I think if you're going to do Marathon, fine, right? But I think if you're making this a PlayStation Studios game, like, bring that quality in the type i game the game I get, like, similar to Uncharted, similar to God of War, like, give me an epic.
01:13:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
first-person shooter campaign, right? Yeah, i would love to see that. Come on. With like the level of quality writing, the level of production and cutscenes as God of War and all those things, like that would be epic.
01:13:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
That would be epic. So why not just give Bungie the ability to make Killzone resistance now or SOCOM? Like wouldn't make more sense for them to now just... Don't even do that, dude. You're going to make me...
01:13:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
Explode on happiness. I can't do that. I can't do that. I'm here. That's what I would think. Because now that think about it, like, okay, the only reason you would start integrating them as an internal studio now is not only of a mismanagement, but you're going to say you're going to work on IP that we want you to work on. Because obviously nothing has been working.
01:14:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
I actually think there's a possibility where they get to pick and choose something from the internal portfolio. You made me too excited. I got i got a cool down, bro. Dude, if Bungie got to make Killzone 4...
01:14:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
oh Oh my god, that so sick. Or a new Sokhan game. ah Although, I don't know if Killzone would be the best fit for Bungie because it's pretty tactical, but man, or if they got if they jumped on Resistance. Resistance would be... Oh man, Bungie would make a killer Resistance game. They would make an amazing... If they rebooted Resistance 1 as a Bungie game,
01:14:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
and that could that could be a game they get easily into esparts they can make a great story and then say here's competitive multiplayer with some battle royale that like we can reinvent this franchise like i could see them or even so po and what if they just made like an epic first person should like i kind of feel like that's a genre people aren't like paying attention to like i feel like you always have to like supplement these like um person shooter campaigns with like multiplayer modes. And then because of that, like at least what i'm seeing now is like neither of them are like a super quality product, right? Like back in 360 area, both of them could have been like 10 out of 10, right? but like
01:15:08
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now I feel like we get a little bit of both. Why don't you just make like an epic game like God of War and it's just a single player first person shooter. Yeah. but Like cyberpunk. They could do that and make it like a semi open world or open world and it's like it's like days gone or it's like it's a Halo Infinite story. Yeah. be agree Which I felt like was where Halo headed.
01:15:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
heading right like give us like a fully fleshed out like open world shooter game but instead of like me running around with a sword it's me running around with a gun yeah right but it's like the same character arcs everything zoom out the third person for cut scenes if you wanted or you can just keep it like one frame of view perspective that would be sick yeah that would be really good and they have they have a lot of opportunities now because again man we've known they've been failing at the at the whole first person shooter like initiative and venture that they've been going through at sony for so long like now's the time and like look again here's another one that comes back battlefield 6 if they can revitalize themselves so that's what i meant like to start it off with you know if that's my hope you know
01:16:13
Shameer Mehdikhan
And if Battlefield came back that strong, that quickly, right? You know, it's not over for anybody, right? And like all all EA did was like, look, we have the DNA. We have the blueprint. We just need to bring it back.
01:16:24
Shameer Mehdikhan
You have a blueprint with Killzone and SOCOM specifically that fit current trends. And with Resistance, again, if you go the single player route, you have a blueprint there too. You guys know how to produce single player green. Bungie is great with like,
01:16:37
Shameer Mehdikhan
there are weapons that are kind of unique yeah and then they tie into physics and stuff like that. yeah That's resistance guns, right? Like, oh, that'd be so good. so But we'll see. Maybe we should send out some emails or leave some Twitter messages, right? Okay, let's see. i think that covers a lot of the the Sony stuff. I guess there is a couple of small things that we thought were kind of interesting.
01:16:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
Mafia is out. I know we talked about that. Yeah, we were... kind of excited for it but we wanted to see how the reviews panned out you know i think it reviewed a little lower than i expected i don't think it's low enough that i would never buy it you know i think it's like what like a 78 or 79 on open credit but you know at the same time don't know if that value proposition is worth it for me you know like i mean that's the game i'll wait for either game pass or like a 10 or 20 yeah i feel like i would wait for game pass or like if it was 30 or 40 bucks i would buy it you know yeah i think
01:17:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
when Black Friday comes around, they're gonna have those buy two, get one free game. you know Maybe i'll you know I'll get it for that, but yeah, I thought it would review better. i don't know, what did what did people say on the reviews? Like what were some of the things that they noticed?
01:17:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
forgot I forgot, think they they said stuff about how the game just really wasn't innovative. It's a very, just straight to the point, like, shoot like you know third person shooter there's not a whole lot a lot of ducking cover kind of they played it safe a little too much yeah a little too much there's no innovation there in the space and the story isn't like amazing either so they they needed to either hit it out of the park with the story or the gameplay they didn't know either yeah so i guess uh a couple last news stories and then maybe we can switch to some of the stuff we've been watching rod ferguson is leaving blizzard where i feel like this guy just
01:18:21
Shameer Mehdikhan
is always bouncing around. And I think they interviewed him and then they said like, Hey, why are you bouncing around? And he's like, I just like taking games to the finish line, you know, like kind of seems like he's a really good project manager. Yeah.
01:18:35
Shameer Mehdikhan
When things are a mess and the scope is way crazy and it seems like something's going is shut down, he comes in is like, let's be realistic. Let's get this done. And here's the timeframe. He's good on that. probably like And again, I'm not going to say he's not good at innovating, but there's some people that are just so good like at getting you to the finish line that if he realized that's a skillset, that's fine. I feel like that's why him and Cliff Blazinski worked so well together on Gavey 4. I feel like in the creative world, you need a good...
01:19:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
creative, like, you know, a you know, inventor, and then you need a good project manager, right to actually get that project alive. Yeah, someone that has to like, hey, we got to get cut some scope, reduce this, we have to add it here, we need to prioritize this. Like, that's probably him.
01:19:18
Shameer Mehdikhan
And honestly, his role at Blizzard wasn't he of the VP or something? He was really high up there, or head or something, whatever it was. So like, he made a lot of money being there for a couple of years, he helped on Diablo four, specifically.
01:19:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now wherever he ends up being or going to i really wonder where he's gonna go because i feel like with his resume he's he's gonna have to be like a studio head or like a vb like he's gonna be at the upper echelon and so is he gonna make his own studio or is he going to some other studio that's struggling right now i think he's gonna find a struggling student that's what he wants but i'm wondering what if he goes to bungee oh i could totally see him go to bungee that would that would be so funny they'll like he'll be one of those people that someone will put a a feeler out for and they'll like would you be interested working for bungee we're kind of struggling like absolutely bring me in man why can't he just go to perfect art yeah i know like you're probably but why can't we clone him and make three of him and then they just go to everything
01:20:20
Shameer Mehdikhan
so so So I thought that was kind of cool. And I think when you were making the list for the show, wanted to talk about you wanted to bring up some points somewhat related to him, right? and So I think just recently there were some people, again, some sleuths on the internet that are very keen and noticed that there was a couple of LinkedIn accounts where people noticed that Some developers had mentioned they were working on Gears of War, E-Day, and State of Decay 3 for multiple platforms, including Xbox, PC, and PlayStation 5. So I found that interesting. I'm not super surprised that because we already got we're getting Gears 1 on PlayStation. yeah
01:20:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
But State of Decay, a little bit. surprised i don't know maybe again that has been in development health for so long they're like we just need to see the return on this. I think I kind of thought the opposite. Like I was thinking, okay, State of Decay, you want as big of an audience as possible, right? Like kind of like grounded too, right? Like if we can just get more people playing, the more likely it'll be successful.
01:21:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I thought E-Day would be exclusive for at least a year. Like I thought E-Day was something where you would want to keep that in your back pocket for a while, right? And build up hype and then release it like a year later. Right.
01:21:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
Cause you know, I, I don't see the sales getting any better or any worse if it comes out on PlayStation at the same time. So to me it's like you're still gonna make like a hundred million whether you release it on PS5 in 2026 or 2027, right?
01:21:40
Shameer Mehdikhan
So like, just like Forza Horizon 5, like it did not matter who when you released that game, that sold so well for five years. Right? And I think it already made like $200 million dollars or something yeah crazy on the PlayStation 5. So like to me it's like,
01:21:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
If you know there's a game that's that strong, like you shouldn't feel as rushed to make it back-to-back. Indiana Jones was still you know maybe questionable because it's a new franchise, right?
01:22:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
Gears is going to sell very well, yeah right? But maybe maybe it it could be a time exclusive. Maybe they do a six-month waiting period or something. maybe and What if they just have the PlayStation... version already and they're like nah nah nah we're gonna chill yeah mean could see it if you guys wait maybe that's probably what happened with indiana jones to be fair i mean they only released it four months after it was really yeah i mean for it can't be that easy to port yeah it's not it takes little more time it has to be pretty far along yeah exactly so again just found that interesting so i mean maybe i'll find it like yours for the first time on playstation won't that be something
01:22:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
Now i guess we can finish up talking about some of the stuff we watched. I think out of all of them, the one i wanted to talk to you the most was probably Fantastic Four because we haven't had a chance to talk about that yet. So, uh,
01:22:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
What did think of the movie? mean, I thought it was interesting. a lot of these movies that are being remade don't hit the same way when I first watched the original films like years prior. So is the casting good?
01:23:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, it's like not bad. story is a lot more interesting. I think they did it right. Like they had Silver Surfer. Again, spoilers for people haven't watched it. They had Silver Surfer in this film, which they did have in the original Fantastic Four movie in the sequel, but they just didn't do it as well. They Galactus in here, which I thought was a little weird because when they first introduced galacactus he seems like this huge powerful being and when he gets dropped off into new york or wherever they're at he looks a lot smaller in size which was really weird and then overall like pedro pascal dude this guy and every single show movie now but like he did okay like i think it's good i think like people go to pedro because he's reliable he's reliable like and i'm not gonna try and sound like a pedro hater you know but like
01:23:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
when you book Leonardo DiCaprio, like, you know, you're getting like the revenue, you know, like, you know, something that's just, wow, 10 out of 10, but I don't think he has the most range, you know, and you know, and then when you book like Leonardo DiCaprio, like, I think he has amazing range, but like, sometimes it's just not going to work. Yeah.
01:24:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
But I feel like with Liam, with Pedro Pascal, whatever you give him, like he's going to make it work. Yeah. So if it's really good writing, like he's really gonna shine with it. If it's really crappy writing, he'll still make it work. yeah You know, so like, I think he's just like an easy get for Hollywood right now. Right.
01:24:25
Shameer Mehdikhan
And you know, people like him a lot across the board. There's not a lot of drama with him. I think he's just, and I don't mean this in a bad way. I think he's the safe, reliable and good option. Right.
01:24:36
Shameer Mehdikhan
And every once in a while he really hits it really good. Like I think, his performance in Last of Us was terrific, right? yeah But then I think about his performance in Wonder Woman too. And it's like, i know you didn't have a lot to go with, but it's like, maybe you should have taken that role. you know Yeah, so I agree with that. I think like, how does this like,
01:24:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
this is kind of somewhat removed from but umcu like ah it tries to be a standalone and then like i have an idea of where it potentially might go because obviously did you see the post-credit scene i did i'm trying to remember what it was was dr doom yeah yeah who is obviously going to be this the main villain of avengers doomsday so it's interesting to know that for those that haven't read the comic their baby because they have a kid in this movie is an allpower being that has infinite powers basically because that's what black does basically meant was like hey this baby could supersede me or be my successor and i need this baby so it's like okay this is you're introducing a brand new set of heroes for the first time in one film and you're like here's this baby that's all powerful and now you're tying it into this whole like it's little too quick they're again jumping the gun you know no build up so i think for me like i had mixed feelings about fantastic four like i think some of the good that i had if to me it was like
01:25:55
Shameer Mehdikhan
one of the more recent marvel movies i could follow along with like i get your point about like it was like a really quick build up but i think when i compare it to some of the other stuff marvel has done with all their like multi-universal and loki and we're just just too much right and at least here you were able to focus in on family and something we all can relate to and understand so i think that was smart you know I think the tool they used to skip telling us the Fantastic Four origin story was really nice. was so clever having that TV show, whatever. show That was a really nice way of doing all that. So that was good.
01:26:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think for me where the story, the the movie really fell flat, you know, you build up Galactus so much and he is like, he's like a threat level of Thanos if not more. And it's like,
01:26:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
it kind of felt like you couldn't completely fail because you had a Galactus, right? And so, you know, you're going to get at least an eight, right? But at the same time, why did you use him now? Why couldn't you have just kept him for the moment where like, oh, this is perfect, you know? Yeah.
01:27:05
Shameer Mehdikhan
I agree with that. And like, again, there were some really shining moments in this film where like when they go to meet Galactus for the first time and then they get near that black hole and they get the silver server. Oh, I thought that was so good. With a time dilation. Like that was sick.
01:27:16
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, I felt the tension in that scene. Yeah, like that was like really good. Like you thought the silver server was going to F them up, right? Like, okay, this is... but then the other thing is like again this movie was whatever um means to end because when I compare a bunch of like mark of superhero films, I keep going back and I just hate to do this, but like I go back to The Dark Knight and it's like, it was its own separate thing. Or I'm looking at the new Batman film, right? With Matt Reeves too. It's like, they're putting a lot of thought into their writing and like the world and they're doing some world building. And like, you know, like it's not supposed to lead to anything. It's just like this riveting story.
01:27:49
Shameer Mehdikhan
Here's just like, hey, we just got to get to the next step. Like here's the fantastic where they're a bridge to our next part of our story. Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. So, And I think I can bring in like some of my experience, like when I'm writing, you know, I think, you know, a lot of times when I'm writing, it's either I'm trying to get from like point A to B, right?
01:28:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I'm like, okay, I just have to get there, right? And so I come up with this whole story and characters that can get me there, but I'm actually not loving the journey between and B, right? Like it's it is a means to an end, right?
01:28:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
As opposed to I start off by saying, oh man, this is epic. Yeah. and then writing backwards from, oh, this is such an epic place to be and an epic setting. And now let's make this work. Right.
01:28:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so I think like they knew that they had to set up the future and course correct so much. And they had to juggle that with like, let's just enjoy fantastic four.
01:28:44
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I think they, they made it work, but it's not like they did it like, you know, like a slam dunk. Yeah, it wasn't, and I list the experience a little bit, in my opinion. Yeah. Because you're just waiting for it to like, like, where's the conclusion? How does it tie into the next, the world overall?
01:28:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
And again, they found a decent balance. I'm not, like I said, they didn't have, they shoehorn a bunch of other heroes and stuff, but then Jesse Doctor at the end, was like, really? And i don't know if you felt the same way that I did.
01:29:09
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I never watched the second Fantastic Four movie, so I'm just kind of comparing it from the nostalgia lenses of my first movie, but I feel i like I liked the Human Torch and Thing better in the original.
01:29:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
And in this one, I didn't really care for their side stories. Yeah. which weren't even fleshed out, like the thing, like this girl, and then he just like said hi and left. I was like, there's there was supposed to be a side story here. And it just got axed.
01:29:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then like with the human torch, like, it was so obvious where this story was going. yeah There was it was I was just waiting for it to get there. yeah Right. then So the only people that had a really good story were, you know, you know, The couple, right? Like Mr. and Mrs. is Fantastic, right?
01:29:54
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so they really focused on that and they stayed in the moment and they really built that up and it was well done, right? But then the whole experience gets diluted when it's like you're giving me a half measure in other parts, right?
01:30:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
I agree with that. Like, again, that's why I'm like... right two hours felt like this probably should have been a show rather than a movie in my opinion yeah or yeah and it's just like couldn't you have just cut out like some of the scenes with the thing and stuff like that like if you know like if you're gonna go all the way they make it like a full measure right like agree with that too again and that's see they try to build it in with the whole story plot line they're like yeah well sometimes when you have to like after they find out galactus is a third like sometimes you just have to be with your family and then they show the thing and it goes oh, kind of like the girl, like she could be my family.
01:30:38
Shameer Mehdikhan
Like, and then it just, yeah, and that was it, right? That was such a weird detour, right? And then that they also played on that whole Johnny thing with, oh he's kind of in love with Silver Surfer. And then instead he just kind of learns their language he's like i know everything about you and that's Yeah.
01:30:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's like they were kind of showing him as a stupid guy who actually has a lot of brilliance. Yeah. But no, he was just like a poorly written character because like if he instead of like making what he's like talking to Mr. Fantastic, obviously this guy is busy. Yeah.
01:31:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
like And you're actually smart enough to decipher this language. You should be smart enough to be like, hey, I have this cool idea to decipher the language. Why can't you just start the conversation there? If you're smart enough to decipher all this, you're smart enough to have the social awareness of what you should say in that moment. yeah Especially when you have such good great social awareness everywhere else in the movie it's odd right it's odd it's it's ollie ring yeah so i think my overall like sentiment on the movie it's not like i want to give it like a seven out of ten i'll give it a seven too yeah like it was it better than what was it the was the last two that just came out marvel movies yeah it was the captain falcon captain america thing oh it was better than oh yeah it was better than that one and then there was another one are you thinking about deadpool or
01:31:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
thunder like roughly the same for me. like So nothing that's just like really whining. Now, I haven't seen it yet. I swear I'm going to watch this soon. Superman.
01:32:02
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah But what do you like better? Superman or Fantastic Four?
01:32:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
I like Superman better. Okay. And I think people are estimating that Superman's going to sell better too. Yeah, it looks like it is already. It's like that 500 million worldwide or Fantastic Four. I know it has like a little bit of a lead, but I think even when you average that out, think, yeah. I mean, I'll say this, like not to keep you in suspense, but I'd give Superman like between a seven and a half and an eight. Like I would lean towards the eight.
01:32:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
So it's a little better, but not substantially better. Yeah, a little better, just not substantially better. But they can they have places to build on that for that movie. compared to and fantastic four which is just like pre-written it's already we know what it's going towards yeah yeah good point uh okay a couple other things to to kind of round things out for stuff we've seen so i watched wednesday season two i know you haven't seen it you can probably skip it honestly i think i jane gave it six out of ten and i probably agree with them like oh god it was not great
01:33:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
Netflix keeps doing this part one, part two thing. And I just don't think it's a good idea because a lot of stories, unless you see them all together, are not going to understand like, you know, the story can just be terrible, but that's because it's building up to a moment that's going to have a big payoff. yeah But then when you have that artificial divide, that like tension and buildup gets artificially destroyed and you kind of have to build up another ramp up. It's just a weird model.
01:33:28
Shameer Mehdikhan
yeah, Which means, does that mean that the story has been written in a way Yeah, and it kind of like, and i I think that Infinity War in a way kind of started things where it's like, you know, Infinity War ended with such an epic thing, right?
01:33:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
And because of that, like the next movie was all about the ramifications of that thing that happened, right? And so I think a lot of what I see in Netflix is, hey, let's wait for the moment where in the character arc,
01:33:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
in the story arc, we're in Act 2, and usually in Act 2, there's like the rising action, the falling action, and then there's like the the point where all hope is lost, right? Which is when Infinity War ended, right? where Point of where all hope is lost.
01:34:14
Shameer Mehdikhan
And now that's what everyone's doing. You know, like all of these season one, season twos, if you think about it, they always end at that same point. Squid Games ended at the same point. All hope is lost. Wednesday ends at the same point. And then instead of now having the little bit that remains in season, uh, in, act two and then now all of act three, then they just extend out act three as if it's the beginning of another act. So it's just, it's just weird, right? It's just like a different model. And I felt like personally it worked for infinity war, but it doesn't always work for everything else.
01:34:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Cause then both have to really, like really be strong yeah they both have to be strong and we talked about yeah yeah squid games season two is so weak yeah and ended on such a weird exactly right and then season three was actually pretty decent it goes like it was like don't and so that's the thing right and and so almost you really need to have both being very strong right yeah so so i think that was one thing and then wednesday i just feel like it really didn't involve a show and like in the first show ah first season it was like the nuance of the show and that the novelty was kind of interesting and it was weird
01:35:23
Shameer Mehdikhan
and But this one, I just feel like, okay, Wednesday's weird. I know that already. You know, what's new? Not really. It's just the same old. And then it does, to me, at least get a little old where, like, Wednesday's just always so much smarter than everybody else and all the adults. And there are some moments where, like, people outdo her, outsmart her, but, like, she really does not show any character growth.
01:35:48
Shameer Mehdikhan
And it's just, like... Like, I feel like, and I hate to say this, it's one of those shows where, like, hey... like very empowered female character that just always like every single time she shows up on someone else like yeah it's like a feel great moment but like we don't need that every time yeah after a while it gets kind of tiring you know and it's like you know it's like similarly like when you have that male action hero who's just always destroying everything you know it's like okay yeah this is like a power fantasy it's so cathartic to like see someone destroy everything where i'm not a woman but like i'm sure you know
01:36:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
being in a world where you're always like feeling oppressed, feeling marginalized, feeling like you're not heard. Now, if you're seeing someone in a position of power who is in all these scenarios, you're rooting for her and it's cathartic, right? So I get that.
01:36:32
Shameer Mehdikhan
But after a while, I just want to move past that cathartic experience, right? Like I want a character arc. I just want, I'm just craving something more. Right, right which like kind of goes back to my point about like the Dark Knight trilogy.
01:36:45
Shameer Mehdikhan
We saw Batman lose his loved one. Like this person dies. He sees a bunch of people die. as Some millions die. He struggles. He breaks his back. He comes back. like Like you see him go through all these different, you know. And it was still, i mean, Batman, it's a power fantasy. Like who doesn't want to be Batman? But you still see all those layers of change. Or like I think of like Kratos and God of War.
01:37:06
Shameer Mehdikhan
Huge power fantasy. But then you really see him adopting different roles. Okay, now I'm the destroyer. Now I'm a father. Now I'm a uniter. And like, what about my internal guilt, right? Like there's more substance there, right?
01:37:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
And so like, I kind of wanted to see that evolution in Wednesday. And I kind of feel like what I'm getting is like a Harry Potter spin.
01:37:29
Shameer Mehdikhan
I don't know if knew, there's like four houses. yeah never buy And so it's like kind of like the inverse Harry Potter. And So I don't know. We'll see what the rest of the season is like. You know, me and the wife like watching it together. So we'll watch it. But if I was on my own, I probably wouldn't watch the season.
01:37:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
Fair enough. I may skip until season part two comes out. Yeah. And then a couple last shows that I've been watching. i finished watching Stick. I think the last episode came between our last episode and now.
01:37:59
Shameer Mehdikhan
And i thought it was pretty good. Honestly, I think the the season finale was great. I mean, was kind of went along the path that I thought it would go along. But it was it was pretty funny overall. You know, was a feel-good show. So...
01:38:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'd give that an 8 out of 10. Yeah, ah would recommend it. Really, i think I still think Apple TV is killing it. Yeah. And then the other show I started watching on Apple TV and it's because I'm obsessed with Hawaii. Chief of War. Chief of War.
01:38:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
And I don't know, man. I feel like I've seen way too much of Jason Momoa's butt. Like, it's just always there. Like, bare naked? Yeah, man. He's basically wearing a thong and I'm just like, oh, yeah, that's that's just him. He's so muscular, right? But it's like,
01:38:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, I've just seen so much of his cheeks. Like, it's too much. He's really gay, bro. but And like, I just like, yeah, okay. Now, I mean, it's like, he's, he's sick in his role, right? Like he's, he looks like a beast, right? And like the action scenes are intense, right? And they're so visceral and bloody.
01:39:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
But yeah, like, so that's one by one of my reactions to the show. But, you know, I'm liking the show. It got bad reviews. Yeah, saw them.
01:39:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah. And I think a part of that is it just feels really, like, dense to jump into. And, you know, because, like, I'm kind of interested in Hawaiian history, like, i kind of get a sense of, like, the unification. And i don't know if you ever knew this, but you know Kamehameha? Yeah, it's Hawaiian. Yeah, it's the King Kamehameha in the United, like, Hawaii. So, so...
01:39:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
you know Because of that and because I visited Hawaii a couple of times, like it's not just like completely overwhelming, but it can be a lot because they're talking about this island and that island, but then like when they're bouncing between the islands, they look the same to me.
01:39:46
Shameer Mehdikhan
So that's kind of hard to follow. And like the whole show is in Hawaiian for the most part, which I love the authenticity but it also makes it hard to follow along, right?
01:39:58
Shameer Mehdikhan
So that's kind of another barrier. So I think that's what's just making it kind of hard to get through the show because it's just feeling like kind of slow and like really exposition heavy.
01:40:11
Shameer Mehdikhan
but the uh production quality is just superb it looks amazing oh oh just a side tangent speaking of king kamehameha you know muten roshi master roshi his house is on an island in dragon ball's east so if you didn't know maybe they make a parallel where it's like hawaiian like he lives on a small island i never thought of tree and yeah so yeah i never thought of that so but uh I'm excited to see where the story goes because I've actually been like looking up some of the history is the unification of why is pretty interesting, right? Like it's a very like, you know, bloody, you know, a lot of war. So it's supposed to kind of have like that Game of Thrones vibe.
01:40:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
But yeah, we'll see. I think Apple has been really big on the one episode a week thing. So it's hard for me to judge what the season will be like because I've got to wait forever for it. But we'll probably keep watching that one.
01:41:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
Okay, that's fair. The one I i started watching, it's called Beyond the Bar. It's a K-drama, but it's like pretty good show so far. I've only seen two episodes and I think they're on episode four now. They're also doing a once or twice a week release.
01:41:19
Shameer Mehdikhan
Very similar to Suits, at least at the beginning. And again, with K-dramas, you know, there's a lot of like things that are just not realistic that happened so i'm like waiting for the ball to drop on this show to drop in quality but so far it's been good because it reminds of suits in the sense that you have the guy that's an experienced lawyer and then you have the protege the guy that like just comes in out of nowhere and just like figures things out and they get like the most impossible cases and then they resolve it in the most unrealistic ways but it's if there's something entertaining about it right this literally seems the same way like they took
01:41:53
Shameer Mehdikhan
what suits did but just transitioned it a little bit into like the korean culture that has like a korean flavor it has a korean flavor to it and it's like interesting yeah yeah and i'm like really enjoying it so far how'd you find out about the show so when i was in georgia my best one of my best friends his wife loves kdrama and she's like hey i'm i've been watching the show she's like you want to watch an episode i'm like dang this show is fascinating i'm like and then i'm like have you watched it she's like yeah and like that's why i started watching this i'm like oh no wonder so i don't know what's it on right now netflix oh nice And the one of the characters from Squid Games is one of the main characters in the show.
01:42:26
Shameer Mehdikhan
love and You're selling me on the show. Do you think the wife will like it? Yeah, oh I think she'll love it. Oh okay, maybe we'll check it. Honestly, it's been a while since I've seen a good Korean show. I think the last one I saw, which you know, I don't think it was perfect, but it was definitely enjoyable, was what is it, Bloodhounds?
01:42:41
Shameer Mehdikhan
Bloodhounds, yeah. That was fun. That was so fun. That was a fun show. So maybe I'll check it out, you know. I think for me, like one of the barrier of entries for like Suits is just how many seasons there are yeah You know, it's just a lot. And even though I never finished watching all of Suits, I just cannot motivate myself to get through all of those seasons.
01:43:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
if, I mean, I'm imagining what this is just one season. It's just one season. And like the first two episodes already hit really hard. They get to it pretty quickly. They go from here's this law firm to we're getting first years after graduating from law school to we hit two really hard cases.
01:43:15
Shameer Mehdikhan
And honestly, they hit really hard. It's like personal things you would see in your life. Like I'll give you like a quick, like a term, I won't spoil a whole lot, but like a guy that's like, infertile that wants to have kids, but there's something that So it's like very relatable stuff. Very relatable stuff. The other one is, what was the other case?
01:43:33
Shameer Mehdikhan
I'm already forgetting, but was another relatable one. And then they also talk about the lawyer's like personal lives. So like relationships and stuff. And you're like, oh man, like the way it hits. again The acting is just probably terrific, right? Yeah, it's like, exactly. So I'm like, man, this is, that's why I want to. kick dr i'll show I think I'll check it out. Yeah, you should check it out. And Juby will love it, I think.
01:43:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
Yeah, because I don't know if there's any other shows that are on my radar. i mean, this is not a show that's on my radar, but I was just going to mention it to you because I just heard about this today and I was like blown away that this is a thing.
01:44:03
Shameer Mehdikhan
Do you know there's an anime version of the Disney villains? And it's like a side project and it's coming out on Disney Plus soon. It's called Twisted Wonderland. And so I know the people on the podcast can't see, if but I'm going to show...
01:44:17
Shameer Mehdikhan
arjun a picture but look at this dude like look at look at the picture of all the characters wow yeah it's like super anime these are like you know the famous disney villains that's so interesting yeah like uh maleficent ursula scar so literally anime villains okay so is this gonna be a show is this gonna be yeah it's gonna be a show on disney and it's just like what like but that's the thing like man a lot these eastern shows they're just like blowing up right and i feel like people are noticing you know and so disney's on that like they're you know star wars visions have seen the anime i saw the first season okay second season wasn't so because they went from traditional japanese anime to more uh western animations so like yeah i think that's why i didn't end up watching that right but now they're making a
01:45:07
Shameer Mehdikhan
third season where they're going i think back to anime and they're making a side spin-off from one of the season one episodes and making it its own show and it was one of the anime like babies oh that'd be so good I was like dang so now I think they've recognized again like there's a place to stay like anime has a place in Western culture anime and I just feel like korean dramas korean dramas everyone loves those things like you know sure there's gonna be house soon yeah oh yeah don't know want to watch korean house like i'm telling you there's probably lot of shows we've slept on like korean shows that we slept on that again we used to watch lot of gangster films but i think the kdramas i think there's some decent ones that it's just there's so many of them and like back in the day like my parents used have korean foreign exchange students so i could like go talk to them like hey there's all this stuff i'm seeing but
01:45:51
Shameer Mehdikhan
what will i like yeah and they were able to tell me right but like i don't have that connect anymore so i guess you know we do know some korean people maybe i can ask know i just think like every time i go on netflix there's just so much yes i don't even know like where to begin well let's see that's the thing i'm recommending beyond the bar because i watched it if i hadn't watched it we would have never known so true you know and i got recommended that show from someone else so it's like yeah hard but yeah that's that's all I got so cool so I think that covers most of the stuff we wanted to talk about so I guess in closing is there anything you're looking forward to for the rest of August don't know if there's any big games coming oh yeah the games games coming because Xbox will be there they're going to showcase the ROG Xbox LAX and Xbox LAX maybe give us a release date they'll probably have a release date and right now the leak or the rumor is they'll come out mid-October yeah
01:46:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, that's really close. Yeah. Supposedly, if it does come out, it might come out with Silksong. So Hollow Knight, Silksong. But yeah, that's about all I'm looking forward to the rest of August. I think getting back now into the fall season, like I really want to just get to Donkey Kong and start watching some more shows. I started, up oh, I did forget to mention this. I started watching Star Wars and Orr.
01:47:01
Shameer Mehdikhan
Oh, yeah. How far are you? I think you're on like episode two or three. I'm on four now. Oh, you're making progress? Yeah, like, again, i don't see what hype is.
01:47:12
Shameer Mehdikhan
to get later in the show but I don't I think people are saying that like it's later in the show and really like season two is like when people like really found love okay so so ah okay keep me posted I guess I forgot to bring this up I didn't feel like it I really need to spend much time on it but I played Wu Kong uh not not Wu Chang Wu Chang Fallen Feathers and uh Yeah, I was disappointed. I thought it was clunky. And and I kept dying in like the dumbest way. Not for the combat, but I kept falling. Because the checkpoint was right next to the ladder. And I would just spawn fall.
01:47:43
Shameer Mehdikhan
And then if you die enough times, like a like a demon comes and kills you. And I could probably kill the demon, but I was next to this ladder. So like I couldn't maneuver. So I kept falling off to the ladder. And I was just like, OK, I'm dead. I'm dead. And it just felt kind of clunky to me.
01:48:00
Shameer Mehdikhan
You know, even though it graphically looked good, like, when you're actually playing it, like, it didn't feel that modern to me. So, I was kind disappointed from that. So, and I think, like, those are, that was one of the big Game Pass games I was looking forward to. Yeah, that was So, really, I don't think there's any big game in August I'm looking forward to. So, it's probably not going be until, like, October when I feel like lot of the games I'm looking forward are coming not going get Borderlands 4 in release date September 23rd? I mean, if Borderlands 4 scores over 85 off in credit, then I will very likely buy it.
01:48:31
Shameer Mehdikhan
I think it probably will too. So I forget about that. That one just feels so far away, but I guess it's pretty close by. All right. That's it for now, everybody. Take care. Peace. See you next time.
01:48:42
Shameer Mehdikhan
Peace. Bye-bye.