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Is Marvel Rivals Set to be The Next Big Hero Shooter? | Firelink Podcast
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This week on Firelink, Nick, KC and Jesse discuss Marvel Rivals after spending some time with it. Will it be the next big thing?
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This video is brought to you by Game Maker. The free, fast, and easy to use 2D game engine that helps power modern classics like Undertale, Hotline Miami, and Hyper Light Drifter. Starter templates, official asset bundles, and a wealth of tutorials are available to help bring your ideas to life. And you can export and share your game for free on all non-console platforms. But you don't have to take my word for it, I'm just some jerk. We have an actual bonafide Game Maker-er on hand. Oh shit, that's me. Yes, I've been using GameMaker for a long time. It's probably the most powerful and easiest to use engine for making 2D games out there, suitable for both amateurs and hardcore coders, and with all the Steam and console integration stuff for when you're ready to start monetizing your hobbies. I used it to make my recently released game, Starstruck Vagabond, which has already delighted thousands of sci-fi cosy game aficionados, thanks to GameMaker being so bloody great. Head on over to the GameMaker link in the description to begin your game development journey today.
Podcast Opening and Hosts
00:01:04
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Firelink, episode number 30. My name is Nick Lander, the editor in chief of Second Wind, joined by Casey and replacing Marty tonight because he's off lying on a boat somewhere with the with the with a tennis or a a volleyball somewhere. Jessica Lena joining us today. Hey. We have a fun episode lined up for you today, as Marty would say.
Olympic Esports and FPS Exclusion
00:01:31
Speaker
They will be talking about humble games hit with layoffs. The IOC, c which I had a name for earlier that I will not repeat for the creation of the Olympic esports games. So esports are officially an Olympic game now.
00:01:47
Speaker
We didn't draw some though. Interesting though, they left out FPS games, which I feel like that is sports is interesting Yeah, I want to talk about that
Unionization in Gaming Industry
00:01:56
Speaker
here. Bethesda, Bethesda formed the first wall to wall workers games union and actually even earlier today, Blizzard also formed a union. of 500 plus people. So is there a union wave in video games starting?
Marvel Rivals: New Hero Shooter
00:02:09
Speaker
I guess we'll find out before the corporation's union bust. And then our main topic tonight is on Marvel's rival marvel rivals. I keep thinking as Marvel's rivals because that sounds better than Marvel rivals. There are several other games called Marvel's, et cetera. So that it makes sense that you would make that mistake because I think Spider-Man does that. This is stupid. There's too many Marvel things.
00:02:29
Speaker
Anyways, this is the new free to play hero shooter ah that's basically Overwatch, but Marvel characters. And so that we we all got some time with it because the closed beta has started this week as of yesterday. And we have our thoughts on that one, whether or not it's going to be the next big free to play game, because and there are a lot of a lot of those vying for your time right now between the first descendant, Marvel's rivals. Concord is not free to play, but it's another hero shooter buying for your for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So let's let's talk
Hosts' Personal Updates
00:03:00
Speaker
about there. But, you know, let's kick things off with ah how are you guys doing? as How's your guys been? We've been something Wednesday. Mine's been ah a lot. So I feel that i I think this has been one of those weeks. Right. Where like it's I'm surprised it's only Wednesday. It very much feels like a Friday to me.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I had a meeting this morning at 8 30 and I was like, what why, why, why do we, this Wednesday is not, Oh God, it's only Wednesday. I also have to fly to Salt Lake city for a wedding tomorrow. So I'm hoping all the airplanes have their shit figured out with their computers or, um, you know, my family that's going yeah follow me you're not you're not fine on Delta, are you? but Yeah. but but you are final delta Yeah, because that they're the ones who like for days afterwards have continued to have issues. So Eric, why did you remove Nick's beard? Why? oh not What the hell is that? Oh, my God.
00:03:57
Speaker
o That is no. I'm not away. Oh, God. I'm sorry, I really took. wow I hate everything about that. I haven't seen myself clean shaven and over a decade. i'll be I mean, I don't think that's what you look like clean shaven. I don't think you know, that that's it's kind of square there. I'm kind of round right
Market Saturation and Gaming Layoffs
00:04:19
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now.
00:04:22
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let's face in a door a few times Let's put that filter in the, in the do not use pile. sorry Fuck you, Eric. That's going to show up in discord later. and what the look going um The worst. We're talking. You just got your own way. Reaction gift. Oh, man. No. OK. My week sucks that they made my week worse. So, you know, they'll be.
00:04:51
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, yeah otherwise, uh, the week's been, I mean, it's been busy, but pretty okay. Overall. Um, I like, we're, we don't really dabble into politics at all here, but there's been like a lot of stuff happening there. And that has actually taken a lot of energy out of me. So I think that's probably what has felt, what has like fueled, I think some of the the exhaustion because like Twitter is almost especially, uh, especially that again i leave Twitter. but yeah How about you Jesse? Oh man, okay Well aside from getting like a different sick at the end of last week and is still with me right now Mostly good, but it has been also a very busy week. Like I don't know why everything's happening in the last two days But yeah, I have had more projects meetings and things going on then then like in the whole thing But you know, I got to play some games. So that was nice.
00:05:48
Speaker
It's always nice when you can play video games. It is a line I of work. Yeah. And a little bit of free time, too. Yeah, it is. It is. It is a good day when you find actually fun. That's on the play video games. Yeah, people can open out with that. Yeah, people still come up to me like friends at a bar or whatever. Like you just get to play video games. You're living and I was like, yeah, that's that's all I do. I mean, sort of. They're not doing wrong. Yeah, wrong.
Marvel Rivals Gameplay Review
00:06:17
Speaker
It just doesn't feel like that's what we do. Yeah. Well, I only feel like that when I'm streaming them. and That's the only time I feel like I get to say I get to play games for Olivia. The rest of it is doing business management stuff. Yeah. thanks for me Because you guys are reviewing games all the time and I'm not. I mean, yes, that is true. And yes, we get paid for the work we do after. Well, now that we're full time, it doesn't feel that
Gaming Industry Updates and Indie Future
00:06:41
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way anymore. But back when we were freelancing, it's like I put like 30 hours in this game. I'm not getting paid for this. Yeah. No, you're not. This is what I'm making.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, freelancing was very much like, well, you know, let's make less than minimum wage for this. OK. Listen, when I started covering games and running my own sites, I was writing like 100 news stories a month and not making anything. So. That wasn't fun. Actually, it was it was more than that because like ah because I was running my own sites, these like ad agencies would be like, hey, like we want to we're going to come support you and give you money. So like there was one called Crave Online at the time. Really? Yeah. I don't know what they're called. I don't know what they're called now, but they're like, whatever, whatever network runs like game revolution, if that site's still around, I think they changed all their branding.
00:07:32
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I don't know what they're called these days, but they used to be like, ah they used to like be like a men's network kind of thing. And so they like brought in my site and were like, I made one good paycheck and I finally like, I like random my parents of like two grand and I was like, I made it. I'm here. I did it. And then like the next paycheck was like $100, like a fuck. Oh, no, they got you. Yeah, they got me. So I'll
Challenges of Olympic Esports
00:07:53
Speaker
separate you guys with a gaming memory. No, I never know. Gaming memory is just Kickstarter funded that we never had. We never had a ad provider for that besides Google AdSense until enthusiasts gaming bought that from me. I'm still salty that I don't own my documentaries.
00:08:08
Speaker
Yeah, that's where things salty over. Yes, very much so. But on the subject of things being bought up. that kind of leads us a lot to them Yeah. the next topic. So yeah. Humble Games, the publisher of literally a bunch of indie games that we've covered
Impact of Unionization in Gaming
00:08:24
Speaker
and have enjoyed, like, uh, uh, I always forget the name of the game you just covered. You just reviewed. Oh, oh yeah. Oh, both path of the teal lotus. Yeah, that's not out on the channel yet, but it's coming. But they also reviewed sick or they also made a public signal is temtem just a just a big number of really high quality indie games like they had a really good curation list and out of the blue. They all find out everybody that works there was laid off.
00:08:52
Speaker
By a lot of the news sites reporting, IGN did it. IGN didn't do it. It was as if Davis, if Davis is the parent company of humble, humble games, IGN, a bunch of other sites. They're the same outfit that bought just bought all of gamer network sites, which was Eurogamer. ah vg twenty four seven on all those different sites And that they now own prior to that, Humble was already
Marvel Rivals' Challenges and Potential
00:09:16
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like a sister organization to IGA because they've they've both been under Ziff Davis. Like this wasn't this wasn't specifically because of that merger. Like they didn't just get under that umbrella. Like they've been there for a while, which makes this yeah kind of especially odd.
00:09:29
Speaker
Um, yeah, it's odd. and Unfortunately, like if you do look at a lot of the games that humble has published, like most of them have gone to game pass and I wouldn't say. I would say a small, ah a small minority of them have a lot of reviews on Steam. You know, the really big hits like Psygnalois and Temtem and stuff like that. I would say a good chunk of the releases probably haven't performed as well as they'd want. um You know, eric Eric showing the games on screen here. Like, I feel like we've reviewed ah like the most of those.
00:10:01
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of these we have totally. a few Yeah. So ah as far as creation goes like humble games was fantastic publisher really, really love them. But yeah, I mean they like they all found out through just out of the blue that they're all they're all let go and then humble games published a statement on Twitter if Eric can pull that up in a second here, but it was a very do nothing, say nothing statement where it just or they're like, we're restructuring and is like, what does that mean when you've laid off everybody? And it turns out ah they hired a third party source to come work.
00:10:40
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whatever is left of humble games to make sure, I guess, that these clients are paid out or whatever is going on there, we don't know. And then it turns out that that whole statement was apparently written by A.I., which
Game Maker Sponsorship Reminder
00:10:52
Speaker
is like, ah how is fucking corporate solo shit that you get? That's and kind of the epitome. Yeah, it is with people's livelihoods and then you use ah don't even have the balls to own it. Tough to fake ah care about it on the internet. I saw some folks in shower asking ah if humble bundle was also discontinued. I think ah it was mentioned that that's unaffected by this. Yeah, I'm not sure games choose different things. so Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:21
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yeah so Yeah, I don't think im so that I guess we'll continue to do a thing.
Hosts' Gaming Experiences
00:11:25
Speaker
Yeah. ah But like this, is this does suck because ah like for several weeks we've been championing kind of the persistence of Indies and like how even in spite of like a lot of AAA bloat and like a lot of the corporateness and ah mass appeal kind of ideas going into those games and making them super bland that Indies were still kind of shining and finding a light. But like this kind of a blow to like a very notable curator of quality indie games. So that
00:11:57
Speaker
I'm wondering, like it's it's are other kind of smaller labels going to maybe pick up the torch for some of this stuff? Or or or have we just lost that eye that might have existed in that in that label and in order to find this stuff and get it out to the public? We we talked about, I think near the start of the year when all these layoffs were coming, i said I said one of my fears. ah was that the indie like these boutique indie publishers were going to be the first to take really big hits pretty soon just because there's so many of them as you know we've talked what two weeks ago about how there's just so many games right now and there's no way for them all to succeed uh one of my fears that we have been talking about kind of throughout the year as a lot of you know layouts have been happening and all that is a lot of these boutique indie publishers that popped up over the last
00:12:43
Speaker
three to five years are going to be the ones that are going to be hardest hit pretty soon, just because there's too many games. And a lot of these issues. Yeah, like the the oversaturation is a problem. And at that point, it won't matter. what the quality is because people there will just won't be enough players and and money in this economy, especially to like kind of cover all of that. yeah but like the how Is this the only way to solve that issue? like do Do these companies have to die for that? like Is this is just just a culling? Is that what we're looking at? had Humble games, I don't know. like yeah I mean, you have Ziff Davis backing them.
00:13:24
Speaker
ah you know I don't know why the the entire publisher got called instead of just maybe lowering the output of games they publish. I don't, you know, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to me. And we'll probably never know why they were, why they were shut down. And that's, that's frustrating. um I mean, it's, it's probably just a bottom line thing. They were like, we want it to make X money and it doesn't. So. we're going to fire all these people. Like it it's probably as cold as that, as cold as writing, telling AI to write a goodbye letter that says we empathize with you. Like, and yeah but like, but like now, like at this point, because they they've they've have, they only just now started to not be as proud. You know what I mean? Like this, I feel like there's so many factors that we just don't.
00:14:05
Speaker
No. like Has there been like a change of banishment? Was there someone who was in Humble Bundle's corner prior to now, and now that has like changed over? like Well, not Humble Bundle, not Humble Bundle. I'm sorry, Humble Games. Don't forget that like a lot of that Game Pass money is dried up too. And that's going to affect a lot of those indie publishers. That's a really good point, actually. You know, if they're getting those deals from PS Plus or Game Pass, you know some of them are going to struggle. and And those deals were coming far and fast, so it was a good time for ah these smaller publishers to line up, because, you know, if you can get that big Game Pass deal, then looking at the. Yeah, looking at the video that Eric is ah showing of like, you know, humble stuff, almost all that stuff was on Game Pass at some point. Yeah, they were pretty much relying on it. That's the that's the bad part is you can't I don't think you can rely on Game Pass anymore.
00:14:55
Speaker
Dang. Yeah. I have bad news. I am. I am not a mind reader, so I don't know why they did it. real shame but i would guess if i like legitimately have to guess why i would say they probably looked at like big hitter indies that's like wow hey have you heard of five nights of freddy's that made money and that was an indy if we started indie publisher we'll make the next one of those and like that's the investor pitch that they got they accepted it under those terms and when they did not produce a hit that big when they didn't have pal world or hell divers to or whatever it's massive they're like well it's not making enough money
00:15:33
Speaker
What, what is like the biggest game from their catalog? Like, cause they, they have a lot of good, like good games, but I can't think of any one in particular that was kind of like a breakout hit from that. Right. Like I'm very aware of signal is probably more than any of the other ones, but like, that's still a little niche. Yeah. But even that wasn't like a, you know, a sensation, right? I would put, I would put temtem up there. and But it like it didn't become the hit that they wanted it to because like they basically. Sure. Killed all the MMO stuff because it didn't hold the player base to maintain it. Here, I think I hear your dog in the background. A hot doggy. He muted. OK, so, yeah, I mean, yeah, it's really sad what happened to humble games and, you know, I'm like not to wait. I'm sorry. Slay the spire humble. They they like helped with it after.
00:16:27
Speaker
It wasn't published for them originally. Gotcha. All right. Yeah. So that otherwise would get a break. Yeah, that definitely would have been. But I guess not. Yeah. OK. Yeah. That was also 2019. So like that many years ago. And that's the biggest one. Yeah, i I would. I'm not a betting man, but if I was, I would put money on. That's the reason. Yeah. That makes sense. So I mean, not that they are shut down. That doesn't make sense. But I still think that's a bad. ah absolutely Well, Games shut down ah the International Olympic Committee has approved the creation of the Olympic eSports games. Casey, I feel like you've read about this more than I have. So I'm going to let you take the wheel on this one because my my takeaway is like they.
00:17:15
Speaker
picked out FPS games, which is like the star craft going to be in there. Tell me, tell me, tell me more about this. Tell me what games are actually going to be in this. and Yeah. Like there's not a ton of information about like the logistics just yet, just that the committee has agreed to basically set this up, like going forward. um i'm not and I'm not entirely sure how soon. I think ah one big factor is that this is going to be hosted or funded, we should say, but by Saudi Arabia. And that is that is a thing that has been kind of appending. We know that the Saudi Arabian ah you know government or people or whatnot or businesses have been looking to make
00:17:51
Speaker
you you know, their footprint in gaming for a long time now, that was part of the reason why Embracer kind of had its fallout. um And so it looks like this is the avenue that they've gone with, like maybe this was pending. And like, that's why they even backed out of whatever deal they were going to do. But like, there's going to be Saudi funded, which means that they're going to have, you know, their foothold in it. um But the IOC, the National Olympic Committee, you managed to leave voted like, yes, let's do this, make this a thing, because ah For what I'm guessing, is like there is money to be made. right like At the end of the day, and yeah at the end of the day like these sports commissions and whatever, like they are businesses and they they use the popularity of sports to make money. um And while that is you know the backbone and truth, I'm kind of excited for the idea of video games kind of getting a national spotlight in this way.
00:18:36
Speaker
um They did say that they'd be using um a number of categories, including fighting games, real-time strategy games. ah um but I don't have the thing up in front of me, ah but it specifically did mention that it would not be using first-person shooters. And I'm just curious what you guys think could be the reason. politics in what way though like like gun violence like that sort of thing like i well look at the like look at the popular shooters on the market right now how diverse there and Saudi Arabia doesn't really like that
00:19:17
Speaker
Oh, you know what? That's a good point. can I mean, look, let's not beat her on the bush. It's the Middle East like, you know, there's that know that it's also that that most of your enemies are indeed. Right. Yeah, like that. Yeah. Always painted its the enemy. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, definite bone to pick in that regard. And honestly, fair. Yeah. i Yeah. and You know, not that I know a ton about so Saudi Arabia, really, but, you know, obviously I know. The bad shit, and I just don't really I don't really like that Saudi Arabia is leading this over. Other countries like who else? I mean, like, who else would bankroll this? I don't know. like I like it's weird it's weird that they're doing it now because esports in general has been struggling so much.
00:20:13
Speaker
that Yeah. It is kind of a late to the party type thing. But on the flip side. The Olympic committee lends that air of, uh, legitimacy that I feel like e-sports as a concept in general have been chasing. So like this might like with their backing, this might get a lot of the other sponsors and stuff that you need to prop up a sports organization in like in the door. Like yeah ESPN has dabbled, I think a little bit in some of their off channels in terms of like covering some of this stuff. Are they still doing that? Are they still covering these word stuff? I haven't seen it in a while. And I think that speaks to the fact that it's kind of fallen by the wayside a bit.
00:20:53
Speaker
But um I don't know, like Evo just passed. I missed a lot of the big tournaments, but I i was watching like a compilation of like some of the the final rounds. so And it is so hype. Like as as a legitimate spectator sport type situation, fighting games stand a real chance of like being like a massive breakout thing for like people to galvanize around. Cause like there are representatives from every single country. Like it's super easy to follow. And like the the matches and the rivalries and stuff, like they really have quality like background stories that lead up to like amazing kind of hype moments at the end, like constantly like the fighting game scene is just a joy to be a part of and watch. yeah So like i'm I'm very excited for that sort of thing to get get going. i mean south South Korea. I mean, Phil's entire stadiums for Starcraft, you know, 50,000 people stadiums to watch these things. So I mean, there's there's an audience for it. I just don't know, like,
00:21:49
Speaker
Is the Olympic, is the Olympic Committee a hip enough to yeah to to these kind of events and like, how are you know, are they going to be right? Yeah, I mean, because you want to hit, you know, see Olympic Games like obviously like, you know, not every Olympic sport has the same kind of viewership as other Olympic sport. There's there's a like there's curling, which is a very niche thing to watch during the Olympics. I love watching curling. It's the weirdest kind of cool. i love this line i like esma of this But it's not like viewed as much as, you know, that the stuff like, well, I need like the more extreme sports.
00:22:29
Speaker
That's true. so I saw this point brought up and I i apologize to ah the the streamer who I saw online bring this point up, but I thought it was a very good point and I wish I could give her credit, but I have forgotten her names and I apologize. um But ah basically she was talking about the fact that like video games are very different than sports and that these are owned by companies. and as opposed to a sport, which is a concept. Like, sure, there's an NBA, which is a league, but the sport itself, anyone can just go out and play like the sport itself has rules. And so the Olympics just adopts the rule set and then they have their games like with companies kind of holding the reins to probably some of the titles.
00:23:14
Speaker
um I mean, what or or will they like? Will this be a situation where the Olympics goes out and makes games that are specifically tailored to the Olympic events or are they going to select the most popular games from, you know, particular companies say like this will be an Olympic game. And and then how does that work? Would that company have to give them like an Olympic build or? are you I mean, I imagine it's going to be interesting because like. you know, they're going to have to pull together a team USA for Starcraft, which is interesting. Pull the best players from each of these teams. They're going to get mollywapped. You know what? It's actually fucking interesting. I kind of want to see the trials for that.
00:23:55
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I think that's like a reality. what do you Yeah, I'd watch that. twenty a typical Yeah. ah Our idea, Internet, we pitched it first. You have to give it to us. Thanks. Yeah. Now, I'm very interested to see how it shapes up. There's some people in chess and like, oh, you know, video games are an Olympic sport. Olympics are team sports. Video games are team sports. Not physical sports, but they're, I guess, to your thumbs, they are. But mentally and physically like just games in the Olympics don't don't require full physical for hours to be good at.
00:24:27
Speaker
oh I also a aside from I go ahead. No, I'm sorry. You can you can do you. OK. I was aside from the ah vision 2030 and the government Saudi Arabia and everything, all that backing the just the Olympic thing but that it's not like. part of the summer or winter games. Like when I heard it was like an Olympic thing, I was like, Oh, will it be in the summer or Olympics and then or the or the winter and that it's its own thing that doesn't really that that feels like. Like it's not really the Olympics like they're like, it's more like the track and field championships.
00:25:08
Speaker
Is that I heard that? Yeah, no. Like, okay, is that exactly. Is that the Olympics that do that or that's just? No, I don't think it's the Olympics that do that. But it's like this track stuff. Right. Yeah. It's like track and field things, which is actually because outside of the Olympics. Yes. At some point you would need to do the do competing in order to get to the Olympics. I assume, yes, there would be some sort of just track and field thing. Yeah. But that's just like games are now. Right. Like their their own ice like silo tournaments throughs again. Oh, crap. Yep. Looks like we sure did buffering a little bit. And and we're back. We did it. Oh, good. Hey, it's not part of the summer. Oh, go ahead.
00:25:49
Speaker
Oh, go ahead. You're saying it's not part of the summer. Yeah. If it's not part of the summer, wimper winter olympicslymp it seems in the the whimper Olympics, Olympics, uh, it, it feels kind of half-assed. They're like, Oh yeah. Video games. We'll just do a thing. We don't know. We don't know. Well, it's during the 2020 they're hosting it in Saudi Arabia in 2025. I don't know. Right, which is not going to be the winter or summer Olympics. But is are we not due for a spring or fall Olympics? Like, no, we don't do spring or fall Olympics. I'm saying like we could we could put it in the spring to start a whole new. Yes. And then we'll just wait for our our fourth pillar somewhere down the line. The VR Olympics.
00:26:34
Speaker
Oh, no, I'll be the fourth pillar. just I don't. it It just doesn't feel like it's going to have the the backing or clout or anything that like of being the Olympics because it's not part of the Olympics. But I mean that, but that's why the winter and summer are separate, right? Because they incorporate a bunch of events that don't actually tie well together. Like I, I don't think you could get, you could make a broadcast work where you go from Simone Biles doing gymnastics to, to shroud sit yeah sit on his computer. Like I feel like you do need to separate those a bit. Yeah, I think, I think for this to work, at least to get the attention it needs, it needs to be on its own because
00:27:18
Speaker
It's not going to overtake the sport, the regular sport Olympics. Well, but that's, I don't think it'll overtake it, but I think that would be a way to one, give it a bit of legitimacy and two, to introduce people who might not be into it. it Like anyone who wants to watch the video game Olympics has to know about it and then set aside that time. There are people who might not know about it, but would but would find it interesting if it then came after Simone Biles does a thing and then, oh, look, here's some Splatoon. It's like, wow, this is wild. Like, and you could find someone that would find enjoyment in that.
00:27:54
Speaker
I feel like the average person would be like, what the fuck is this? I mean, I think there there is some credence to the backdoor pilot, which is what Jesse is suggesting. Right. It's like, let's yeah let's sneak. but But I think that does a disservice to this idea where you're like, all right, this isn't going to be as popular. We need to fit it in with the stuff that is popular in order to get eyes on it. ah Like I get why the inclination would be to do that. But honestly, like they got to go for it. Like if. I think the fact that the Olympic committee, like the official Olympics, whatever are involved at all, I feel like that does layer, uh, lend it an air of legitimacy. And I guess the people, uh, the built-in audience of gamers are going to take notice, but I think it might be a big enough deal that the folks who are like, wait, they made video games, Olympic sport might be morbidly curious enough to check it out at some point. And I just hope they check it out during the fighting game segment. Cause then, then they're going to get out.
00:28:51
Speaker
He says, yo, Nick, you are the average person. You're right. And I probably wouldn't watch Splatoon after watching ah Winter Olympic hockey. You know what? That's a shame. Yeah. Well, 200 people that will be watching it are the people at Bethesda Game Studios that have unionized. Oh, yeah, that's part of the union. They have to watch it. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of their bylaws. One of their bylaws. Yeah. So, yes, more than 200 developers from a story on the verge, more than 200 developers at Bethesda Game Studios, studios behind it, franchise like the Elder Scrolls online or the Elder Scrolls and Fallout have unionized with the Communication Workers of America.
00:29:33
Speaker
ah These workers include artists, engineers, programmers, and designers. They sign union authorization cards and were indicated that they wanted union representation via an online portal according to the CWA press release. Microsoft has recognized the union. The CWA says the company has ah like already recognized unions formed by Activision QA workers and ZeniMax Studios QA workers. So yeah, Microsoft is kind of intro kind of some of the dialogue I saw is that like Microsoft kind of has to recognize these things, considering the like post merger. Yeah, the pressure they're under to make sure these workers are taken care of. And so this is a good time for them to do that. um And then obviously the even bigger news that dropped today was that Blizzard workers have unionized ah more than 500 of them. And so it's a big deal. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:28
Speaker
Jason Schreier put out a tweet, and basically saying like, once these bigger companies like Bethesda and ah Blizzard and all that. And most of these are under Microsoft. I keep that in mind. Blizzard's under Microsoft now, too. and Once they get the the ball rolling on this stuff, people are going to be, you know, envious of it and want their own unions and see that it can be done. ah So the question now really becomes like, is this is this going to turn into a snowball effect for for the games industry to finally unionize or is it just
00:31:01
Speaker
you know, a lucky few under Microsoft because of that pressure that they're under from you know the FTC and everything.
00:31:10
Speaker
i i want I want it to be true. because this is Like unions are not you you know an end all, be all solution, but it does give you a bargaining chip when you are kind of ah beholden to you know corporate whims, right? And we've only seen a lot of that stuff just get worse because of how that power is unchecked. And the union is a stopgap for that if it's done correctly. So bravo to those teams. I do want to see more of it. and i And you're absolutely right, Microsoft being under that microscope by the FTC, ah them even even the fact that a game pass went up in price very recently, they immediately even had a statement going, hey, this is what we were talking about. Remember, we we were mad about the emerging, they just rose to prices, whatever. So like they they are checking them six ways from Sunday. So everybody under that company, if you can, go ahead and get unionized. But I think this, and um i don't I don't want to get in trouble to say this, but I think this could spread because Microsoft is not the only one on
00:32:10
Speaker
the basically in the microscope for this, they made a deal with Ubisoft in order to get that deal over the over the um finish line. Ubisoft owns the rights to some of their stuff overseas. I don't think it would be too dissimilar for some groups under Ubisoft to start doing this without massive repercussions to to them as well because they will also feel like they can't kind of step out of line because they have this deal with Microsoft. so and I don't know if anyone out there is, uh, thinking about this. I think now is the time to get it done. Just, just for the sake of the future of this industry. Like I really liked this initiative. Yeah. mean i yeah Even if it, even if it wasn't starting at Microsoft, I feel like with all the layoffs and like the uncertainty, like somebody was some big company was going to kick it off. Like the next one I expect to see is maybe riot. Um,
00:33:05
Speaker
just um They've canceled like three of their big projects. They canceled they just canceled that platforming fighting game. They just restructured, well, they didn't cancel it, but they restructured almost completely that MMO they've been working on forever. And then obviously we so they're finally bringing their games to consoles and everything like that. So there was ah there was another project they canceled. Oh, they they killed Riot Forge, the indie the in the initiative that they were doing. So lots lots of changes at that company. Who had Sony just got hit with a bunch of layoffs, too? Like they had a pretty successful game launch and then still had layoffs. Sony had a bunch. There was like a high profile one. Yeah. Well, they shut down. They shut down a studio several deep deviation games. They shut that down recently.
00:33:56
Speaker
I mostly remember because they were working on in so many labs. I really don't remember literally. There's been so many. It was what I say again. I think it's a lot of to you what they do that was closer. Yeah, places in London. Studio is one that was closed. But they they canceled a bunch of other projects too and and had a bunch of people fired. um Besides from just that one too, right? Because that's where the well, they they laid off with the metal. all Well, they they canceled a bunch of live service projects, but in February, they laid off 900 people from the PlayStation division. So, yeah, I mean, like last year we did there over 10,000 layoffs in the industry. And like we had already surpassed that this year, like three months ago.
00:34:41
Speaker
for the entire year. And we're not even asking pretty for you pretty bad. Yeah. I think, I think we're over like, I think we're over the worst of it, but you know, yeah after the summer has been pretty slow. So, um, you know, waiting to see where the, where the chips fall for, uh, stuff like capcom and all that, even though they have monster hunter and all that coming, uh, Square Enix. Yeah, we we haven't heard a bunch of news like that from ah Japanese studios. Besides Sony. Besides Sony. Yeah. So the moral of the story is unionize.
00:35:22
Speaker
it's going to be It's going to be interesting. Like the the AAA industry is going to lead the way for that. I'm still of the mind that most indie developers don't want to ah because it'll limit the work that they can do contract wise and everything. That's what I've heard from a lot of people. Not that it's a, again, I always get, people always get mad at me when I bring that up. And it's like, I'm not against unionization. I'm saying like, there's a lot of things that like, indie developers are worried about with unionization. Yeah. And probably wouldn't work for everyone, but yeah, in this, in these specific scenarios where, you know, there.
00:35:55
Speaker
There are dev teams, especially ones with like tenure who work for like much larger companies and can very easily just, you know on a balance sheet, be slipped under the radar and and forgotten about. I think those are the ones who who stand to gain the most. um So like yeah, I was bringing up Sony because I think they'd they'd be a good ah avenue for this sort of thing as well. And then like that that ah those optics of Microsoft and Sony having a bunch of their, you know, and we studios. Oh, have we? Oh, yes. They're blocking our message. Those union busters. Yeah, they're union busting again. We are back again.
00:36:42
Speaker
So, yeah, the the point I was getting at is, you know, if we get to see the headlines of all these Microsoft Studios and then as well, all these Sony Studios getting a bunch of unions under the belt, I do think that could have a ripple effect. so i um I'm a little excited tentatively to keep hearing news like this. Yeah. ah So, yeah, I'm i'm hopeful. I'll i'll be the Mr. Optimist on this one. I'll join you in the optimist camp. I'm excited and I wanted to keep going.
00:37:12
Speaker
I don't have much else to say. I think it's great. Well, there was even there was even some solidarity from the Screen Actors Guild, I want to say, or the the writers Guild of America. ah Yes, that's all regarding like voice actors, AI, AI. Yep. Yeah. The never ending fight against dumb AI bullshit. Yeah. Shit. They were essentially saying that if video game voice actors didn't get uh, permissions, not permissions, but like, uh, assurances. Yeah. Yeah. Protections and stuff that they wouldn't be replaced by AI that the actors and writers and stuff would just go back on strike. So like they're from even other industries are saying like, yo, we got your back. And I think that's awesome. Like I would love to see more of that as well.
00:37:59
Speaker
Well, speaking of those Marvel actors that got their protections on place against AI, Marvel rivals. Which doesn't translate those actors. So, yeah, Marvel Marvel Rivals, if you haven't heard about this one, this is our main topic. And this is the new game from NetEase. It's a free to play. It's literally an Overwatch clone. That's the only way I can describe this game after playing it. Also, because I just ironically got into Overwatch 2 because I really liked Concord and i I got into Overwatch 2 and I finally clicked for me. I'm really bad timing because I have a lot of shit to do and I don't need to be addicted to that.
00:38:36
Speaker
and So yeah, you know, it's essentially it's literally Overwatch. Some of the key differences are it's got some destructible environments, which add some yeah gameplay elements to it. ah It's also quite a bit faster paced, I would say.
00:38:54
Speaker
Uh, me, I don't know. It's hard. It's hard for me to say. Like, I've i've not spent a ton of time in Overwatch lately. ah but like I will say it's faster paced. Yeah. So, uh, but no good. Yes. Overall, like, you know, we're in the closed beta. I would say it's it's quite polished. It's pretty fun. I don't think it's very balanced yet. ah And, you know, legitimately like if If you would put like if this wasn't for third person and you put this and overwatch side by side, I would not be able to tell you much of a difference. I think I think that's a fair assessment difference. is There is there are some characters who feel like legit just palette swaps of some overwatch mainstays like they definitely have like different rules and stuff, but they functionally kind of are the same character. Like I took a liking to
00:39:50
Speaker
Um, what's called a Star Lord? And he's just Tracer. like He's got the dual pistols. He's got the dual pistols. Like he moves really quick around the battlefield. Like he can not teleport, but he can jump really far to different locations. Like yeah the Punisher is Bastion. Yes. He literally pops out on a turret. But but they've they've even they've spread certain characters among across multiple characters, too. Like I want to say the Hulk. is D.Va in that when he's in Hulk form, that's his mech. You kill the Hulk and he goes back to Bruce Banner and then you're running around trying to kill Bruce Banner and that's baby D.Va when she's out of mech. But then you have Penny Parker who is in a literal mech the whole time. yeah And she has a lot of moves and functionality that is just reminiscent of D.Va. Like her look is basically D.Va. If you put them side by side, they look the same. Yeah. Yeah, I would say. um
00:40:44
Speaker
you know I played probably about 15 matches last night. i just First of all, the matchmaking is quick as shit. You literally click review and you go to a match right away and there's like very little wait time, which surprised me because like Overwatch has a ton of players, but I feel like I sometimes have to wait like three minutes to get into a match. um It's cause all the extra stuff that like, well, there's no, the big, the big difference with this is that there are no, like, there's no class locking, which yeah is already a problem. That came later in Overwatch, which I think has negatively impacted the feel of that game. And especially the quickness of matchmaking, like that it didn't launch like that. Like you you used to be able to just play with anyone. And then I think as the meta progressed,
00:41:26
Speaker
they just started molding more and more of the game to just fit that play style. And I think it has made it worse. Like I think the big... The big potential for Marvel Rivals is that it feels more like, you know, just fun Overwatch, where it wasn't so obsessed with the meta and balance. Because like you said, yeah, some of the characters are very OP. Some kind of feel a little useless right now. So I do hope they address some of that stuff, because Black Panther was not getting it done out in the streets. I mean, I used that. I used it in my first match, and I couldn't ask for that. I can't kill them. Nobody else knew what they were doing.
00:41:58
Speaker
yeah Yeah. So yeah. So some cat like storm, I don't know how to play a storm whatsoever. Like I've i've gone against storms who could only kill with the ult, but other than that, like she's just in the air and is doing next to nothing. Yeah. Yeah. I think one of my, my key issues, like, I don't know. I don't know where I feel on the class locking thing. Cause like, it's kind of annoying when you do play a mesh and you don't have healers and everybody's going for damage, but I guess, you know, unless you're playing with a, Yeah, I think I think class locking works for like randoms if you're not playing with like if you're playing with people, you know, and you know that, hey, we don't need a healer because we'll just kick ass anyway, then fine. But I think strategy. I think one of my issues with the game as it is right now is like there is just so much going on on the screen. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that is Overwatch, though. I don't. I've never. But I feel like it's still readable. This is because like the heroes aren't like all
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah. Since it's a lot of its range, not everybody's like clashing together in a pile where this is like a lot of melee stuff and a lot of, yeah. Yeah. Cause like Iron Man will sit there and fucking shoot me from out of nowhere. What's the thing? He says a full, full blast. And then I'm just dead. I'm like, where did it come from? i've Had like legitimate. I'm glad you said that because I've had legitimate like I got killed and went how did I die? And then it shows you how you were killed. It does have a real and I didn't even see myself. Like I was looking for me. But it's just like, well, that's ah the clips over. So I guess I died in that somehow. Yeah. And like so many of the heroes like have like these.
00:43:38
Speaker
like dash abilities to like run through you and everything like that. And it's just, it is hard to track. I'm sure like I got used to it after a while, but you add in the destructible buildings and all that along with all the particle effects and everything else going on. It's just a really hard to read game at some points. Absolutely. It's true. Like you you mentioned you mentioned like the melee stuff. I do feel ah a much larger percentage of characters like their basic attack is just a bunch of like punches and kicks versus like, you know, guns and projectiles. And that is a little problematic. Like Overwatch in like I don't I don't think there are very many characters in Overwatch at all who use their hands. I think there's like one maybe. And even that character don't face them. Right.
00:44:22
Speaker
Yeah, and and they'll even they have like, you know, small projectiles, too. But it is a bunch of characters that just they have to end up and punch you. You know what? You know what character pisses me off the most in that game? My rivals know Spider-Man. Oh, yes, Spider-Man. Oh, he's freaking flying around. Venom drives me nuts, too, because of his little shield ability. Like he'll almost be dead. And then he clicks. You click E and he's like, ha you can just shoot the shit out of me and I can't do anything about it. And that's why Venom was one of my three favorites, because that's exactly what every every game I played had at least one venom in it. But I think I think like with how fast these heroes move and how many are like airborne, the maps like aren't wide enough. They're like very narrow streets for most of the most of the time. And I felt like on most of the maps I played, you got bottlenecked really easily. I yeah, I agree with
00:45:19
Speaker
that that is what's happening but i disagree because i think that's a great thing i live because you play a punisher don't you Okay, look, just because I have three games written down and Punisher is one of them. as thousand I got I got 20 kills and zero deaths with him on one man. I'm like, yeah, this is fun. Getting that turco is so fun. You just sit there and just blast away. It's like old. um Was it Monta? Not Monta. I forget who it was. ah Taka. Taka. Taka. Yeah. I think that's a great thing. where you just sit down and fire. It's all I want out of a game. So yeah but like the fact that it was cramped made melee because magic was the third person that I actually really liked. And she has to be up in your face and having that ability to kind of dart in and out of things to get some cover to jump out to surprise people made the maps way more interesting. versus I know you really you're good at shooters and you really like shooters and having those big open maps
00:46:18
Speaker
For someone like me, just means if I ever leave cover, I'm dead. But because of the cramped space and because of mobility, I actually got to like get behind enemy lines sometimes, go out in the middle and start a fight, join a fight, and usually die, but not nearly as much. Yeah, I don't know. Like it's like there there's a lot of interior spaces that are just because of the way that the heroes move. They jump and they, you know, webs and fling and fly around like these indoor spaces they put you in just don't make sense.
00:46:52
Speaker
Okay, with those like Venoms web ability, but even out in the world like being out in the big space, it's still kind of jank like there is like oh I'll probably land here and then like I threw myself off the level several times. I've like managed to like face plan into something, but it's like the tips of my toes were below the ledge. So it was like no and I just fell. It's like I know you can't really aim properly. Do you know him and Spiderman? I can climb on walls. Yeah. Yeah. and I found out like i fuck got stuck and I just got murdered and I like didn't even know you could do this, but okay. Like I kind of admire how how they they stuck to what the heroes can do. They're like, if this is this character's power, we're going to put it in the game. And yes, Spider-Man feels very broken. Like he he can just web swing.
00:47:44
Speaker
yeah Like, he can cover so much of the map if you know what you're doing, but because the maps don't really feel like they're tailored to that, he kind of just ends up, ah like, just getting stuck on geometry. And and it's it's kind of funny, but it's it's janky enough that it's fun. Yeah, i that is fun. Yeah, that's the key takeaway for me, is, like, I enjoyed it. Like, I had a good time with it. Yeah, I played more matches than I thought I would when I was, like, trying it out, because it is fun. Like, I do... And I really like some characters that i like, I don't know who ah Luna, ah what is her name? Luna Frost, Luna Snow. I don't know who she is, but she was really fun to play.
00:48:24
Speaker
yeah So like like I like the idea of being introduced to more of the Marvel universe because of that. And like even like the the stage that they're set on, like that game looks fantastic. Like the art style oh is like very um it's like kind really high fidelity. Yeah. Like ah cell shading. So like it doesn't look like like the normal way we would say, oh, this looks like a comic book. It looks. It looks tactile in a way. like it like everyone is Everyone looks like they are right on like a like a laminated page. And like the aesthetic of like even the select screen is just really stylized and awesome. like They pop out of like their character cards, and you can even rotate them a little bit to like kind of see them look a little 3D-ish, even though they look like they're 2D characters on a page.
00:49:10
Speaker
um And that translates directly into them in the field. So like um in all the menus, they look sick as hell. And then like that just they just get planted in the game world and continue to like maintain that same aesthetic. like It was really impressive to see. Yeah. Yeah. It's like note here about that. Yes. Yeah. Let laminated laminated art styles. An interesting way to put it because he is that it's not cell shaded and it's not like realistic. It's like a mix of between the two. And it's interesting. Yeah. Reminds me of Joe Mater's kind of color palette and art style. I can way finders a little bit. And the dark starters games is kind of what I think. and Yeah, it's it's got that edge. Like everything is a little angry and sharp. Yes, which I love. I love an angry sharp design. So I guess the you know, the main question kind of posed by this topic and why I brought it up is like, is this this is the next big hero shooter or does this does this game have legs? I feel like that's a tricky question, right? Because it's it's.
00:50:12
Speaker
like there are so many more factors outside of just the quality of this thing. And like the the potential is there, like it's a little janky, but like it is very highly produced. They definitely put a lot of time and energy into this. um And they they copied a lot of the right elements from, you know, games like Overwatch. So like it's It has what it takes mechanically and materially, but like what else is out there? Like Concord is right around the corner, right? Like, well, that sucks some of the oxygen out of the room. Will well the player counts for this on the steam on the beta is yesterday. We're up to 50,000 where Concord was 2000.
00:50:50
Speaker
ah I mean, well, yeah, it's Marvel, right? So, like, it's definitely gonna get yeah you to get attention for sure. still This is still a closed beta, too, where you have to get keys, so it's not open yet. It's not an open beta. The open beta will be when we really see the numbers, and I think this thing will pop off to 150,000 pretty easily. ah Yeah, it's got the level of quality, and, like, with this with this license, yeah, I guess it might be ah it might be a bit of a slam dunk at this point. um um I don't think any of that is live yet, but how do you suspect they'll monetize like just costing? is It's net ease. Yeah. I mean, yeah, you're going to buy it. You're going to get a lot of cosmetic costumes. ah Actually, I don't know. $20 skins. Yeah. They have. They put out. the I typed in Marvel skins. I don't want to do that. Marvel rivals monetization. I don't know if they really talked about it yet.
00:51:41
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't see really any trace of it in the. Yeah, the closed beta itself. I'm sure whatever it is, some part of it's going to be upsetting and they are going to keep that a secret until it launches and all the reviews are already out. Yeah, wouldn wouldn't what if that is the thing that knocks it off its course? Like, what if it could have a mediocre rise? And then they're like, oh, well, our monetization scheme is so egregious that everyone just jumpship. Well, listen, lesson Marvel Snap, the you pay like 55 bucks for gold.
00:52:17
Speaker
to get fake digital cards. i You put Disney and NetEase together for monetization. Something. Yeah, this is not going to be a cheap, cheap thing. I mean, I think it'll follow that model of cosmetics and battle passes. I mean, you can already see like it's got the overwatch character skin select kind of thing. Yeah, so. Yeah, those skins, though, some of those kids are really good, too. Yeah, they got some fat skins in there already. I mean, look at how many variation marvel casting variations, variations that they have to go through like this thing. Yeah, and they can just make me monetize the hell. Yeah, definitely.
00:52:55
Speaker
what What I don't want is like new characters to be paywalled. I feel like that is when it it'll start to get a bit more dicey. Like I'd be fine with all the costume stuff. Like I might even bite for some of like my favorites. But like if if I get really into the meta and then there's a new character and I got to shell out money for it, I'm going to be a little pissed. Yeah, I mean, at ah I don't think they'll do that. I don't what what game recently has locked a character behind a paywall. They have to pay for Overwatch 2 was doing that. I mean, here's the versus week. Yeah. Multiverses is also doing that. Yeah. Oh, well, that's Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Sucks. I don't know. They all suck. all They all suck. right One of the few rivals to Warner Bros. Disney is behind this game. They don't a better moral compass. i Yeah, I guess I guess I pay so little attention to what goes on with a lot of those games. I don't know.
00:53:50
Speaker
All I know, all I know is like I was buying the Marvel Snap Battle Pass for way too long. And then I've recently stopped like, no. Yeah. and For your question, of do do you think it could it could be the next thing? i As Casey was saying, like, I mean, it's got the license behind it. It's got ah gorgeous visuals behind it. It is pretty fun. I do think ah If the monetization could really be a major problem because looking at now, there is a surprising number of playable characters. I was shocked at how many people were playable in a closed beta. There's a lot is cool. That's great. And the ones that I played actually felt like they played differently. They didn't feel like clones of each other. And I really liked that. If I booted that game for day one and I had access to five of those people,
00:54:41
Speaker
I would immediately be like, I don't know about this. like tim To be honest, like i not and I don't want to pay for those things. I would actually prefer if not all the characters are locked, so I at least had some progression to work towards. That would be fine. like I miss that. I miss that in games, having progressed. Actually, I don't want to pay. I don't want to do progression for skins. I want to do progression for things that unlock like Call of Duty. Call of Duty still locks weapons behind progression. It gives me some reason to come back and keep playing to get to that gun I want.
00:55:12
Speaker
I feel like that's a real, that's a very old school yeah it is system though, right? Like I don't know if that works as well when, especially when the game is just multiplayer focus. Like if it was single player, sure. Like that gives you progression and like more stuff to experiment with on your own. But like if, if you don't have the same toys as everyone else in a multiplayer arena, I feel like that, that gets a little dicey. It doesn't exactly work for hero shooters. I'm aware of that. Yeah, but I don't know. Yeah, the progression just being tired to cosmetics is something that does not care about cosmetics. And I just I'm just there for the game. So many games have like a very little reason for me to come back and play other than unless I have friends that I enjoy playing it with. They'll put like ranked modes and stuff in there, right? and that That's that's what kept me around for Overwatch. Like I never bought much of anything in that game. But like I I tried to like to get good in Overwatch back when I played.
00:56:08
Speaker
It was fun. um im I'm excited for this like this might might get me back. I think so. Yeah, I don't have like Destiny 2 was my shooter for so like Destiny in general was my shooter go to for like a long time and I haven't really had one since. So I miss it. Like Overwatch was a good time. I miss it. That's what I feel about Concord and it's just getting shit on for no good reason. It's fucking good. I believe you. I still didn't get to try it. It's yeah. I know it is this weekend. It's open. debate It was last weekend.
00:56:42
Speaker
What? I just totally glossed over that. I wanted to try. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it didn't work for Jay still. So, I mean, a bunch of people are like pointing out the player count numbers, but I feel like it didn't work for most people that wanted to play. People can't play it, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Like they, you know, out of all the hero shooters I played, like I had a good time with that one, but I posted a tweet about, uh, like hero shooters in general all kind of follow the same game modes, same structure. And I just wish like, put me in a big battlefield with these heroes and let just let us have fun. Like make it a sandbox game with all this random shit going on. That does sound fun. That'd be interesting. Yeah. yeah he la in the Small arenas and push, push and pull thing. Like great. Like put me in a battlefield conquest with these kinds of heroes and I'll be able to good time.
00:57:30
Speaker
I mean, some magical vehicles to blow people up with, you know, do something, do something interesting with these games other than just all being the same thing. Marvel's Halo. That what you're looking for. Listen, like if my old rivals like gave me a big battlefield map on Wakanda and I could just, you know, snap away. No, that sounds fun. That sounds fun. That's so cool. Yeah. Put me in coach. I'll make it. I don't know how to make games, but I'll make it. But yeah, no, I'm i'm like, I'm really annoyed that Concord is just not looking like it's going to have a good life. And I'm like, Sony, figure it out because you have a mechanically really good feeling game here ah that nobody's excited about because you're not marketing it well at all.
00:58:15
Speaker
And yeah, yeah, yeah. That's going to be. Well, they have another open beta before it goes live. Do you know? Because that goes out in a month. Oh, well, thats yeah mean I would hope it just launches soon. Yeah, they need to add it. They either need to. Oh, God, I don't know. it's It's one of those. It's a dark horse kind of game because I was like, how divers to to be successful needs to be on PS plus. And I was completely wrong about that. um And so like maybe maybe Concord, like once it's out and more people get their hands on it, like it'll it'll catch on. But we'll see. But I mean, mark you know.
00:58:51
Speaker
a Marvel a Marvel hero shooter like so that's going to do as long as it plays good. Do we know when this is aiming to launch? Is it like is this around the corner as well? I don't think we have a full date on it yet. OK, so Concord might have a good head start on it then. Yeah, like if this is down the road some, it it may be able to break through. Even out of people just anticipating this, they might be like, oh, I miss some of the Rockwells. Let me play Concord in the meantime. weird Weirdly enough, I feel like Concord would do better on X than it would PlayStation.
00:59:27
Speaker
Yeah, like PlayStation is not usually the home for like multiplayer games, especially shooters. Like I've I've always known that in the back of my head. and And that's something that they've been trying to fix, which I guess is Admiral. But I don't think the audience wants these sorts of games. Because we're about to find out. Maybe there may be a taste of change, but yeah, it it like we'll see. It reminds me of how much I enjoyed that stupid Shadowrun FPS game from years ago. it wasn't bring out once in a one That was a good game. I like that game. It was. It was way ahead of its time. It was. Yeah. That was a hero shooter before we had hero shooters. You're absolutely right. Holy crap. It was a hero shooter. It was. Yeah. Wow. I never thought of it that way, but yeah.
01:00:13
Speaker
And after like the initial week, anytime I lost that game, I could not find a match. Really? What? I played it for a long time. it was It was so empty when I played. It was a good game. Well, before we transition to what we've been up to this week, now don't forget that this podcast is brought to you by GameMaker. It's our sponsor for this week on a bunch of our content that you've been seeing. Of course, it's ah free to use and they don't take any, they don't take any of your money when you make games, as Jesse has made a Star Shark Vagabond with it and has made money and given us his money. So, you know, that's it good stuff for everybody.
01:00:54
Speaker
So go check out GameMaker. Click on that link in our description that helps us out. And if you're, you know, looking to make games, it's a good place to start. Like I am. Yeah, I've i've heard. I don't know how to do pixel art, but I'll figure it out. i can go and i i can't I can't even draw a stick figure. I'm not. I'm never figuring out pixel art. Go for Thomas was alone style graphics. sure Like this character is square. This is a triangle. Uh, also got a couple of super chats. Uh, king dead 42. Send in $5 says big players in their fields do set the standard. This is referring to, uh, our unionization talk. Uh, big players in their fields do set the standard good or bad for employee treatment and compensation. So I think unionizing here is a good thing. Agreed. Yep.
01:01:39
Speaker
no
01:01:43
Speaker
They definitely do set the standard as we know. Hmm. We also have a chat from James Morgan ah for it with down 99 says, Nick, how painful was the surgery to remove the hat? I went I went and got a haircut today because I have to leave for Salt Lake City for a wedding tomorrow. And I'm not going to wear the hat at the wedding. No, I'm a groomsman in the wedding. I don't think I'll be wearing a hat. ah correct But like this was the most like thorough like thorough haircut and that I've ever gotten. You were you were like a good twenty dollar tip for it. What is a thorough hair? Yeah, what is you usually usually I just do like two on the size and like a three or so on top. And then I was like, I said that today and she like she got mad at me. She's like, no, like don't say three on top or I will just shave your head if that's what you want. And I was like, no, please don't.
01:02:36
Speaker
so then you ah she's like cutting my she's like cutting my head and you're cutting my head cutting my hair put shit out of my head ah and she's like like grabbing my head and like holding me steady and like moving me and I'm just like this what is happening ah i'm sick jack yeah she did a good job with it Yep, I'm happy with it. ah So yeah you guys have but yeah you've been in my podcast. Like I don't wear hats after I have a haircut. If I if i don't have a hat on, it's because I just got a haircut. And if I do have a hat on, it's because I don't want to deal with it.
01:03:09
Speaker
which Which I guess is most of the time each with time. Exactly. And also I'm wearing earbuds today instead of my headphones because like the headphone band hurts my head after a while. So that's why I wear a hat. Yeah. Mine puts a dent in my hair. Yeah. yeah one One day I'll do something about that. Jack. I mean, Jack, Jack doesn't have hair and he he still wears earbuds, but like he could wear a head with that. But then I want to see. Yeah, he doesn't want. The thing on his head because he's bald like it's a choice because of his baldness Do you think it just like leaves an indent up there? That would be hilarious. It's like a tan line All right ah Okay, so getting into what we've been up to this week Jesse let's let's start with you since you're the you're the guest today even you've been playing some ah I want to talk about you've been playing divinity original sin 2 which I have
01:04:07
Speaker
Uh, I got a, I got a steam deck and I was like, well, I gotta play things on here. So I was, you know, playing a few different things and basically just before bed, I'll just lay down. This takes forever to fall asleep. Wait, hold on. Playing this with a controller. Divinity. Yeah. Yeah. On the steam deck, right? Yeah. I don't want to hear about this anymore. Well, too bad. I'm going to talk about it because it's great. So I've been playing different games and I was like, well, let me do like a nice, you know, like long form RPG and like, ah you know, just play for, you know, 30 minutes an hour or whatever before I go to bed. It's been great. I actually rebooted my file from like two or three years ago.
01:04:47
Speaker
I was in like the last act and I was like, this game is so fun. What's happening? I've forgotten everything that's happened at this point. So I restarted and was like realized I was like, I didn't do the character creator because the game, every single character in that game is so fascinating. Like when you read their stories and decide which one you want to pick and who you want to party with, I wanted all of them like they were all incredibly interesting. Um, but I had to make my own character because I could make a lizard man skeleton. So of course I had to make a lizard person skeleton. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Cause if you could be a skeleton, I'll be a skeleton. And if you could be a lizard person, I'll be a lizard person and I could be both. So there was no way I had did anything else.
01:05:31
Speaker
And like, yeah, it's such a fun game. Like it's great story. And and I want to get back into it because I started Baldur's Gate three and it just didn't capture me because it's so close to how five years. It also has all the annoyances that five. He has. And it just reminded me of how much fun original sin two was. And so I've been really enjoying that. Did you should play the original of any original sin? I have a beat in it, but I have original divinity original. Yeah, it's called original. Put it on your titles. Yeah, I played it. ah My partner and I went like I think we did like 40 hours co-op in it or something. And it's it's a really fun game. I also like the original secondary question. Have you watched my documentary on divinity original sin? I did. I think I've seen it twice. OK, that's even better. Casey, have you watched it?
01:06:28
Speaker
Yes, I do not remember it, though. Well, how rude. I mean, I've never played that game and i've I've never been a big fan of this particular genre. I tried eight three one story is so good. He fucking made games out of his car because he had to give everything up to keep making them. And now he's at the Game Awards and it's beautiful. No, yeah, it's a it's a good documentary. I just. Well, Angel Nick says I did not watch it. Get him out of the cheddar. Get him out. I don't want him here. thank you
01:06:58
Speaker
I just I want a game that I like. That's all. No, you need to play. You need to watch my video tomorrow about FOMO.
01:07:11
Speaker
yeah You know, are you going to finish it this time, Jesse, or? Probably, yes, it's just where where you are in the game. I restarted, so I'm still in ah Fort Joy. Oh, OK. Well, enjoy the next 40 hours there. ah Yeah, it's a long first chapter. Yeah. How many? How many hours do you get in as you're like getting ready to go to bed? Because I find when I'm ready to get in the bed, I I'm immediately unconscious. Like I couldn't I would not be able to last, especially a game like this. I had like so much like dialogue and stuff like you have to sit and think as opposed to like doing stuff with your hands. so Like, are you are you spending like a legitimate amount of time in bed playing this? ah It depends on how quickly my sleeping pill kicks in. and
01:07:56
Speaker
is that I'm like, Oh, well, my eyes are growing crooked. So I guess I got to stop now. Yeah, it really depends and realize there's like, you know, in a fight. I do that with Marvel Snap and I probably have pissed off so many people because I fall asleep in between rounds and then you have to wait around the end before it surrenders me. Oh, dang.
01:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, that's unfortunate. You probably sit there watching that timer. You're like, you asshole. Play your cards and I'm sitting there. that's I'm so jealous that you could fall asleep quickly. Like that does not compute to me. um I mean, I don't leave myself much much choice. Like I only drag myself into bed when I can't function anymore. Oh, like that just that doesn't like ah being tired enough to sleep is a rare state of existence for me.
Lifestyle Reflections and Gaming Impact
01:08:50
Speaker
That's how I used to be. Hmm. Until I like that's how I used to be when I before I started doing like I had a full time job doing games, media is like my entire existence was like, I have to do this or I'm going to fail a life. So I was like working every hour of the day on only getting emitter. That's that's definitely part of it ah that as added to my anxiety and sleep problems. But I've had it my whole life. So it's it's not simply from that.
'Bow: Path of the Teal Lotus' Review
01:09:19
Speaker
Uh, okay. See, uh, you had been playing bow path of the teal Lotus, which, uh, you don't want to talk too much about because your review is coming out soon. We're going to, we're going to have a bite size drop in the very near future. Uh, but, um, it is very It is very much just like the last one of those that I've played in that it's hand-drawn, it's 2D, it's a Metroidvania, it's very challenging, ah but it is worthy of your time. like it It does not feel like a derivative of any of the stuff that is clearly taken inspiration inspiration from. like I'll say that much. um and you can You can hear more of the details
01:10:01
Speaker
as to how it manages to kind of stand out, um, in that by size. But like it's, it's a good time. I'll tell you that much. And a lot of people have been saying it looks like nine souls, but it's not a soul's a game. It's a platformer first. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's definitely a platformer. Um, but I mean, to clarify, like, So is Hollow Knight and so is ah Nine Souls. like They have platforming in them. It's just they also have um you know the other elements like exploration and combat.
01:10:33
Speaker
Bow also has these things. It's just the that pie chart of like the graph range on like how much is in there is what differs for all these things. So like Bow's platforming is like real red up here, whereas Nine Souls is combat is real red down here. And like, it's a push and pull type of thing. So like you do get all the elements, but they definitely had a focus and it's better for that.
'Aero GPX' Demo Impressions
01:11:01
Speaker
ah But outside of that, um I also picked up Aero GPX. The demo has been out for like a long time. It follows the game forever. um It's pretty much F0X, as if it were made today. And ah it's not done yet. ah But there's a lot in the demo. There's like ah a full six or so tracks. There's like 10 different machines to choose from that have like different stats and whatnot. And the mechanics of of this thing feel a lot like F-Zero, but with extra tweaks that give you some more options and like really cool options. Like you can do weird shit. Like you can crash, like if you crash into a railing, for example, you can like spin out on the railing and then like force it to boost you. So it's like you kind of, you turn your crash into like a grind.
01:11:47
Speaker
um it has thing called yeah it's really It's really sick even when you see it. That's a thing called the drill dive, where like when you get airborne, you know you control your machine like a plane and like you can go up and down like with you know pitch and yaw and all that jazz. But you can spin the machine and it basically just drills straight down towards the track and you get like a crazy speed boost once you land because you've kind of like taken your aerial momentum and turned it into like terminal velocity as you get back onto the track. Um, so like it's really, it feels really, really good. It looks really good. It's got great music. Um, I cannot wait for this game to launch. I like this, this, this is what I've been waiting for Nintendo to do that. They have refused to do with F zero instead. They gave us F zero 99 and I was super
Indie Curation Series Promotion
01:12:32
Speaker
pissed. I was so pissed that they released that SDS, uh, battle Royale version that game, and it could have just made something like this.
01:12:40
Speaker
ah So yeah, keep put that on your wish list if if you're not aware of it because ah when when that launches I'm gonna be all up in that
01:12:49
Speaker
And yeah, if you aren't already following us on TikTok or Instagram at Second Wind Group, we've started a indie curation series with KC hosting where basically we're just using it as a way to highlight very quick game or very yeah tongue twist. We are highlighting games very quickly that we think you would be interested in following. What's on your head, Casey? What is that? he Eric just made me Captain Falcon. for This is great. I don't know where you got this. This is amazing. That's pretty good. The helmet's so shiny. Turn to the side. I want to see that. That's your Halloween costume right there. I could i could pull off Captain Falcon suit, I think. Yeah. You actually have to like run up to somebody in the street and just fucking punch them. fucking the pledge of
'Prince of Persia: The Last Crown' Review
01:13:41
Speaker
All right. that's great Well, you've been playing some Metroidvanias. I have also been playing Metroidvanias. I finally picked up and really got sucked into Prince of Persia, the last crown. Yeah, that's a good time. Yeah, I tried loading it up a couple of times and just kind of didn't click for me. And then after playing. What was that game? I was at 2D Metroid, 2D Souls game, Moon Scars. I played that a couple weeks ago. Oh yeah, you mentioned that, yes. Yeah. I was like, all right, maybe I'll get into Prince of Persian now. and then the I didn't realize I had a guided mode because like the the main thing I just hate with Metroidvanias is just getting completely lost. Getting lost, yeah. so and And this guided mode like doesn't tell you exactly where to go, it just gives you kind of... areas to head towards. um But like yeah, i've I've fallen in love with this game. like the The map design is just so good. It reminds me of so much of like a Souls game going through it, where like you think you're at a dead end, and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, there's a checkpoint to get back to this area. And it all loops together, and it's all, oh, it's just good. like You never feel like you're constrained to an area for any any sort of period of time.
01:14:51
Speaker
Like that that is kind of the fundamental logic of the Souls series. Like it does act on Metroidvania logic. Yeah. In terms of its map design, like. I feel like I feel like Metroidvania is the all game. Yeah. Jumbo says it's called exploration. I know that I like 3D exploration. I get I get I get annoyingly annoyed by 2D exploration when I just have to keep running back and forth. Fuck off.
01:15:20
Speaker
Yeah. But the other the other part of the game that I really came to love is the combat. Like it's really smooth. The abilities that you unlock are really fun. And like, honestly, like when I was watching the trailers of the game, so I'm not huge on platformers, but when I was watching the trailers of the game, I was like, this looks like a lot. but some of those platforming sections. But then when if you when you actually get in and it, like the the controls are so smooth and easy to pick up that even those really hard that those really hard looking sections, which are are a couple that are kind of ridiculous. One I could think of as like, there's that I'm sure you've got through it because you beat the game, right? No, I did not. I've not beaten this game all yet. You haven't beat the game. Well, and later on, there's like this this stupid spikes section where you're doing it's like
01:16:07
Speaker
You do a loopy loops on the on the on these poles and you got to like find it perfectly to get down and then dash and then jump up and then use your double jump. Oh my God, it was German nuts. Luckily, it's fun. Luckily, there's a but if you die, you have to keep doing it over and over again, even because like how to get good.
01:16:30
Speaker
There's an accessibility option that just teleports you through it. And I've started using that for sections that have been in the way the fuck out of me. And it's great. ah but i didn't like i beat I beat it first. I beat the section, but then I didn't want to keep redoing it. ah So anyways, the story, the story has also been really surprisingly good. I'm i'm like at the last I'm at the last. Probably two chapters of the game, pretty close to finishing it. i don't And this had really nice twists and turns. I really like the characters. And then, I don't know if you i don't know if you got into like the ship section yet.
01:17:02
Speaker
No, I didn't. I didn't spend a ton of time. on and I had to move on. You got to play it. I do. It's on my list, but so so many things are on that list.
Exploring New MMOs
01:17:12
Speaker
That game has just such good music. The environment design is fantastic. And then there's some sections in that game. They're like, this is cool shit. Yeah, it cool came out early in the year. Got a lot of praise, but like has not sold well, like it. Stupid. It should have sold better. It's it's good. i don't I think the issue was that it was exclusive to, like, you play online. It actually comes to Steam in like a week or two. Right. I think that should help. Like it will be an entirely different story, I think, once it hits Steam. Yeah. Yeah. But also, I think that pick it up. I huge recommend.
01:17:51
Speaker
ah Yeah. And then ah I guess I put Marvel Rebels on there. There was another game I was playing. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I forgot to put it on here. So ah just human on the podcast much. I don't know how much you listen to Firelink, but I've been like dabbling in MMOs trying to find an MMO that I could get into. yeah And I think I think I might have finally found one. Oh, as as an active MMO, just like her. I definitely want to hear what this is and why. Yeah, so ah I guess it's just a season of betas, but the open beta for Amazon Games thrown or not. It's published by Amazon Games in the West, ah but it's made by Nexon. No, I don't know. game But it's called Throne and Liberty.
01:18:38
Speaker
And it's a big, big fantasy MMO. Is this like set during the Revolutionary War or something? No, no, it was like a complete fantasy world. Because like that just sounds like America versus Britain. Yeah. but I've had I've had this game on my radar pretty much since this is announced earlier, just because the world looks so cool to explore. And I'm really happy to say like I had a really good time with this beta and it's definitely going to be an MMO that I think I jump into when it does come out. Because I like I wanted I really wanted to like New World, but New World is so grindy with its survival crafting kind of stuff that I just didn't get with it. This doesn't really have any of that. This feels like you're basically playing
01:19:21
Speaker
uh, more of a Western type, like traditional RPG with, uh, kind of, kind of point and click action and MMO combat. I would, I would consider it like the closest thing I can kind of compare it to is like dragon age combat. Where you have, you know, you have your basic attack, but then you also have abilities and everything, but it plays on like cooldowns. Yeah. Yeah. But it plays, uh, like it's third person perspective and. The world is completely open. ah And the the mission design is, you know, the mission design is like typical MMO stuff, but also like once the game is out, ah there's going to be like big, big MMO battles like fighting over territory and stuff like that. Like player versus player? Yeah, player versus player. That's interesting. Like like siege type battles and all that.
01:20:12
Speaker
I mean, it is called Throne and Liberty, but the game is also beautiful. Like if you want like an open world to explore, like this game has it. And I only I didn't even get that far in the beta. I explored like maybe three of the regions. And I was I was sold like I was just like, this is a world I want to be in and I want to play in and the combat. I had a lot of fun with. And see soft as a thanks, Eric. So yeah, it's a I can't can't say much about the story. Like it it's surprisingly like cinematic for an MMO. Like it it really feels like a more traditional third person action adventure game than it does an MMO as you're playing it. Hmm. But, you know, I didn't get into. That's a plus. Yeah, that. Yeah. That it doesn't play like an MMO is ah way more interesting. Mm hmm.
01:21:03
Speaker
One of the images Eric was cycling through was like a teddy bear king. And that just did not that did not fit with. Oh, yes. No, no, no. What is that? The game is the game is very zany. Like you have this. Well, fuck it. What was the character? You have like a companion that follows you around. And I can't remember what the character's name was, but it's something like really dumb and basic. Almost like if you have if you tried the first ascendant, like one of the main psychics, her name is literally bunny. Yeah, because yeah she has rabbit ears. Yeah. at this This image that Eric has up definitely looks like it should be something in like the HD Doke upon rather than whatever game you're talking about. Yeah, it's very, very strange. Yeah. So, yeah, I'll be all, you know, i i I'm going to definitely play more of it. I'm sure I'll stream it on second Wednesday. People can see it when it comes out. Actually, it's out next month, September. I guess not next month, but a month after next month.
01:22:03
Speaker
So and it's free to play. So definitely definitely check that one out. I guess we are still getting some some free to play bangers out in the east streets.
'Anger Foot' Gameplay and Art Style
01:22:12
Speaker
Are you convinced me? I might give this a try when it comes out. Yeah. Well, if you don't like it, then you can go back to anger foot, which you keep playing. That is true. Everybody's playing on our team, I guess. It's a good game. It's really good.
01:22:33
Speaker
Like that's a good talk. No, it's really good. Like it's a bit. It has that same sort of like. ah Like quick veracity and like tenacity of like a splat former, but I'm not huge on splat formers. And so to have that. That adrenaline fueled like, oh, I got to do this. Ooh. And then it also has the level of strategy. You the mix of like a little bit of gun play, um memorizing where people are and then how each shoe changes, how you can play a level. Yeah, it's just it's really good. It's really. Do you ever get around to playing neon white, Jesse? No, I haven't. OK, if you like this, you would probably like neon white. OK, cool.
01:23:19
Speaker
that That's what I've only played a little bit of anger foot But because like the levels are timed and like they want you to be precise with like your headshots to get through and everything Then go try a neon white because you'll put you will like that Oh, no, it has neon white has precise headshotting. Well, no, but like it's just That this this like you definitely want to hit him in the head to get through as quick as you can. But Nyanwai doesn't have precise headshots. It's like like ah like a time trial version of of of FPS. Like that's what this sort of genre is. Like Yahtzee played one the other day to mullet magic. Oh, yeah.
01:23:53
Speaker
That's what I like about Angerfoot more than, and i I have played Mullet Mad Jack, and ah from what I'm hearing about Neon White, is that Angerfoot is more forgiving. Like any shot, when you shoot an enemy, anywhere you hit them. That's the hit. You may get like, oh, extra points for a headshot and you're trying to get like an extra star because it's killed this many people with a headshot. But like it's very forgiving. And I like that a lot more because I I am bad at aiming and I don't want to be like penalized for that. I come down to my level game. This is where I need you. You know, I mean, I got I know I'm not really great at precision platform where that I got through neon white with no problem.
01:24:40
Speaker
I mean, like I, I, I like, I understand the aesthetic that that game is going for. It is an active, uh, uh, put off for me. No, anger foot. Yeah. I don' do not like the look of anger foot, but the game does seem really fun. Like I, I especially liked, um, how. it When it asks you to do like a secondary objective, um that in and of itself is sort of like a meta game where you figure out, oh, like when Jesse found out um one of the levels that he first finished at like three and a half minutes was like, oh, finish this in 25 seconds. We were like, how the F do you do that? And we found yeah like immediately found just by knowing that you could do it in that that fast. Jesse found like a skip through half the level.
01:25:24
Speaker
by like, boost kicking like across his big cavern or whatever. And it was like, oh, shit. Yeah, that's how you do it. And that was just really cool to see like that level of. ah extra play that they kind of baked into each level. So I think that's cool, but that game is ugly shit to me. The thing that drives me, the thing that drives me through the wall, the wall of that game, the bullet hole that I played is just when they kill you, they start dancing and I hate it. That's funny. Oh, it's funny. I just hate it. It reminds me of like getting tea bag and Halo. And I'm like, I just, I'm just going to come back here and get you.
01:26:00
Speaker
It is a very weird art, like the thing that reminds me most of is that ah what was that other weird FPS you you reviewed, Jesse? It had like the Sesame Street style. Oh, my friendly neighborhood. Yeah, my friendly neighborhood. That's what reminds me of the most horror joint. Yeah, like a ah a grosser version of that. Yeah. Yeah.
01:26:24
Speaker
and I could see that. Yeah. I also, I also like made the mistake of trying to play anger for the controller. That's a dumb move. Can't do it. Oh, I played it with a controller. Yeah, I can do that. Just get get good, Nick. Yeah. I'd be a button boy. Yes. Is belong on computers. I used to be good at consoles. I can't go back. You have a gun in your hand. Sometimes, but you always have a foot on your foot. And that's the main thing. A foot person shooter. Foot. but That's not what it is. They should use that in their marketing.
Media Consumption Updates
01:27:01
Speaker
yeah I guess ah before we wrap up, anything you guys been watching? I know Chad is once again yelling at me to watch Oppenheimer. I think, I i think, did I say last week, Casey, I would watch it over the weekend. I don't think you said that, but you should have said that and you should have done it. I think I did say it and I think I lied anyway, so it's fine. I don't even know what I did this past weekend. What the fuck did I do? You got a haircut. No, that was today. The whole weekend. Oh, that was today. It was a really good haircut. It took till just now to get it done. I don't know what I did this weekend, but I know I started the Wheel of Time season two Monday after I started it like when it was even a second season. Right. Yeah, I completely forgot about that show. I ah only heard bad things about that. And I was like, Oh, they must have canceled it. Then like the first year and get that off the screen. got Damn.
01:27:58
Speaker
Gary, was that like old and old and beardless? That was wild. You got some hair. It is just real white. Oh. It's like you are balding, it seems. I mean, yeah, like hair you can see my hairline going back in real life too. I don't need to see that. I met in the filter. When you turn 30, that's what I'm going to look like. So fun that's not what 30 looks like. i yeah i'm here to hear that That's how I'm going to feel. I already feel like that, but yeah, I started season two wheel time again.
01:28:34
Speaker
I just guess I just wanted a fantasy show to watch. What the fuck is that? Baby, baby. Yeah. Now you're a baby. We child. I don't like it. My turn is gone. Casey, go ahead. No, I kind of like times for a season like it. Yeah. It's characters are a little ah goofy over the course of the thing, but um I felt like it was okay. Like it was like it's like a strong seven in terms of like a fantasy show. But you know, that's not my, that's not my main bag in general. So I was surprised that even at that level, I still found it entertaining. But yeah, I've had zero interest in following up after the the season ended. So like I,
01:29:17
Speaker
I think I remember hearing that there was a season two, but I just never went back to see it. And I probably won't. I'll be honest. Yeah, I've never I've never read the book. So like all the people that are like, ah it's it's terrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. Like I have no idea what I'm missing or what's different. So season two's writing is so far, I think, better than season one. Season one, like kind of almost felt like MTV, like Shannara Chronicles level of right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like that's like the new Teen Wolf or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And season two is ah much more coherent and I'm only two episodes in, but that's how I feel about it so far. Like I'm more engaged with it. It had interesting concepts.
01:30:01
Speaker
Yeah, the ah visual effects in season two are also much better, like right away. So including the fight scenes, which like I remember for season one, like the camera was so all over the fucking place when they got in like fights that you couldn't see anything. And they they definitely improved that for season two for George Lucas. Tell us about that Eragon or where the fuck is that Amazon or that Apple show, Apple? You just said you're going to stop spending money on shows. It better not be for that Eragon show. Yeah, they're going to. They're they are not getting that done.
01:30:30
Speaker
It's not doing well I never want to see that movie again. I never want to see that movie again and I never want to play that stupid video game again.
Video Game Adaptations and Cancellations
01:30:40
Speaker
There's an Ergon video game. Yeah, and it's really bad ah Oh, my gosh, you should play for hidden gems. I would love to. Where is it on Steam? I don't know. It's two game or something. It was on it. It was on Xbox 360 if I. Oh, damn. Yeah, because I owned it at one point like an idiot in a job based on the movie. Yeah, that's the problem. It was based on. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I found the Nintendo DS version. Yeah. What the hell was that like? There's it was and Xbox 360, PS2, Xbox, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable and Game Boy Advance, which means there's like three or four different versions of this game with this title. You know what? Next time we have Bingo Casey and Marty loses because I'm going to rig it so that he loses. He's he's like in South America. He can't watch this there. He doesn't know what I just said and he won't listen to it later because I know him. We're going to make him play that Aragon game. I want to I really want him to suffer.
01:31:41
Speaker
Oh, but it's a hack and slash game. That sounds so. No, it's it's a hack and shit game is what it is. Yeah. Oh, no. I don't want to play that. It got mixed or average reviews. It's so bad. Look at that. Was that that's the D.S. That looks way better. This looks like Secret of Mana or something like. Yeah, that's probably the Game Boy Advance version. Wait, is it based RPG? Oh, no. This looks thrown together. Yeah, it really does. I don't know. I don't have my glasses on. So it looks better than it probably is.
01:32:20
Speaker
Oh, not a fan. That's that's probably going to be a bad time if we if you end up. what am i call it Oh, yeah. I guess we we'd never discussed it on the pocket podcast because it happened last week. But John or John brought up to hurt my feelings that the Halo show got canceled. Oh, yeah. i Yeah, I do. And we're seeing that. It actually doesn't hurt my feelings. I fully expected it to get canceled. My more surprise is that am or not. Amlin and Xbox want to keep it going. So they're trying to shop it around. I guarantee you, it's going to end up on Netflix. That's where the game shows that go to die. Yeah, they kind of take everything unless you're arcane.
01:33:02
Speaker
Nick, I have some really good news. They're shopping and around ah because what what a lot of companies have been doing is like they're canceling shows and then giving Netflix the right to air it. But like it's no certainty that Netflix is going to pick it up and continue to produce more. Like this is Xbox saying we want to make more. Will Netflix let us make more? Like that's what this deal would be. Yeah. Yeah. They want to, they, okay. Amblin and the X Pugs want to make, still want to make season three for some reason, like just reboot that, just cancel whatever this wasn't rebooted as like Halo, the better show. That's, that's probably a good idea in honesty. Cause the fact that that was locked to Paramount was a detriment in general. Cause anyone who probably yeah would have looked at it for the novelty was not going to subscribe to the fourth six my best streaming thing. Paramount is the dad network.
01:33:51
Speaker
Dazzle play halo. Yeah, dude. What is the demographic? He played halo. He got so addicted. He had to quit. His name was felt spar. What did he watch the show? like No, he didn't. Well, there you go. Well, I bought him a halo book once. I don't think you ever read it. jese all says he are Just news for me, though, I do. Guess what is available on my abandon where dot com? The Eragon game. The Eragon game. Can I scream this? Who? I'll play it. Who made that game in order to abandon it? Who made it? Let me, let me look. God. Let me look it up. And which platform? Yeah, there's probably like several developers because of how many. Which platform are we going to play it on?
01:34:49
Speaker
Oh, the computer like that's the that's I'm assuming this was the PC release of the major PC. Yeah. What? It was it was really trying to make Aragorn a thing. No, no, Aragorn is Lord of the Rings. You tell me Aragon is the book. You're saying the same word. No, Aragon and Aragorn are two different very different things. You don't you dare put Aragorn in the land of it. It was developed by Stormfront Studios. What did they make? Well, they have made. They released The Lord of the Rings, a two towers game, and then they made this. Oh, no. time happened. They probably had like a week. They also made the Spiderwick Chronicle games. Oh, shit. It did come out. It did come out on PC. I never knew that. Yeah, these guys made a lot of bad. These guys made a lot of bad games. so
01:35:50
Speaker
two Two towers was fun, right? People like that one. Yeah.
01:35:57
Speaker
Oh, they made a demon stone. Oh, no, they did not make two towers. I don't know what else they made. I don't know any of these games. they No, they made ah two towers or at least they had some handed it. It is listed on their Wiki page. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they might have been like a secondary studio that did work on it versus like the official people that made it. Well, Aragon was released ah in 2006 and then they closed in 2008, so we know what closed them. Sorry, gone they made the spider with Chronicles game after. Yeah, that was their last spider with Chronicles also got a TV show that nobody like seems that what the air. Oh, that's yeah, that's on Netflix, isn't it? No, it's on. I don't know where that
Streaming Service Changes
01:36:38
Speaker
is. I don't know. It's on a Roku channel. I've only ever heard that term spider with Chronicles because it's a TV show. Well, I have zero interest in finding out more about it. but I think my book series has been watching it and likes it. I think good, good for her.
01:36:54
Speaker
I think I might be thinking of something. Whatever. The Roku channel is also the one that put out the Weird Al movie. So they're good. And they did do that. Yeah, they did. Which is if you haven't seen weird is stupendous. I don't know why I thought that was a TV show for the longest time, but I need to see that. I want to watch that movie. It's going to cool original. Roku has originals. You know, there's so many. there's so many ah Oh, yeah, that's right. When I remember. So we brought up ah last week that Braveheart has a sequel that nobody believed me about. What? I also don't believe you. It's call it's called 2. No, it it's called Robert the Bruce and the guy that played Robert the Bruce in Braveheart is the same actor in this in this movie. It's like ah it's an actual sequel to Braveheart.
01:37:44
Speaker
but it came out like recently. Yeah, not too long ago, 2019. But I also, it came out on a ah streaming service that I have never heard of, or now it's on a streaming service that I've never heard of. What's the streaming service? Is it Nozy? It's Exudio. and oh Oh shit. Wow. OK. I was like, I don't know. I've heard. That's scary. That's how foreign. Yeah. That's where all the but so all the bad things get relegated to. As well. yeah didn We got to we got to do something about this. There's too. There's too many. ah Yeah. It's probably why we say it was that a Hogwarts spell. It is. Yes. It's on Zumo play.
01:38:34
Speaker
It's like, you know, a bunch of other services I've never heard of. Well, it'll do.
01:38:42
Speaker
And um it's on Redbox, where Redbox doesn't exist anymore. So what? I've got one right down the street for me. No, not anymore. You don't. I shake they should. on they They shut down all the boxes when I saw it like literally two days ago. Yeah, it might. That box might be there. You can't get anything out of it now. It's shut down. They shut down. Yeah. Oh, my God. Weeks ago. Whoa. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's freaking wild. I used to be so excited about red boxes like, oh, I can rent video games from there. And then I became a games journalist and never had to go to one.
01:39:18
Speaker
Okay, well, we went on many tangents there, but Casey, have you been watching anything? um I don't think so. I i don't think I've been watching anything at all recently. I'm trying to wreck my brain now. Nope. Nothing's coming to mind. Good job. um i've been I've been catching up on Evo fights. That's what I've been watching. No. I was hoping I was hoping you were going to say I went outside this week and touch grass, but no, I mean, yeah, I've been doing that. that That's that's in general part of my ah routine is having to go outside take to get exercise. Oh, I thought you meant part of your changes is going outside and touching the grass. Fuck grass, and what I'm talking about. Me and grass got beef. I mean, saying I'm trying to turn my yard into a clover yard, clover yard. You're that's planting clovers in it.
01:40:12
Speaker
Well, I'm not planting clovers in it. They're just showing up in my yard and I'm letting them take it over. Oh, you so you're just ignoring your yard is what you're saying. Well, no, I get clover yards better for dogs. I mean, I don't own a dog. Well, maybe you should. what Wait, what makes a clover yard better for a dog? I'm curious. It's harder for them to tear it up. Well, that makes it sound like it's better for the person. Like that's not better for the dog. The dog's not getting what he wants done. Yeah. Maybe the dogs, it's bad for dogs. Like I can't tear this grass up. I'm mad. Like that's, I mean, if he wrote, I mean, they dug a hole to China in my yard. So Eric,
01:40:53
Speaker
eric get this grass away from me. They're very heat resistant. Jesse, what you been watching anything? I caught up on the latest season of BattleBots because BattleBots is the greatest show ever made. That is a great show. And we got HBO Go and that's where it's currently streaming. So it's truly I will gush about it all day. So I'll stop. You brought HBO Go back from the dead. Oh, sorry, Max, whatever it's called. I don't know. To be fair, I like was very confused the other night because my TV, my bedroom still has the HBO Go app on it. And I tried to go to that and it just sat there loading forever. And I was like, why?
01:41:33
Speaker
And then, i oh, yeah, that's right. You're on Max. Yeah. It's like that was two names ago, actually. It's but yeah three names ago, I think. Right. Oh, was it shoot. Yeah. With HBO, go make up your mind HBO and Max. Yeah, they are. Because now they're going back to HBO shows. Oh, God. All right. So I've been checking that out. And then it was a little while ago, but I haven't been able to talk about it. I wish we watched um The Brothers Son on Netflix. Hmm. that they can't. Yeah. Yeah. That shows great. They canceled it too. They canceled. It's great. ah and Boy, does it have one of the most disappointing endings.
01:42:15
Speaker
like I didn't like me the first half is great when they around when they crash at John Cho's house it starts to get like where are we going with this then there's like some funny bits and some ri but like the villains are built up to be So and like you sympathize with them so much that you're like if they like the your protagonists are just not good people. Like there's no denying it. And then they try and paint it as like, oh, but they're the good gangsters. It's cool. And it's like, no, you have you have put way too much effort into showing me exactly why this structure and these people are not good. And then you try and paint it as it's great. And they also disagree. Yeah, yeah I disagree. I disagree. I think they yeah it it it is a ah what do you call it?
01:43:12
Speaker
a bait and switch where like, yes, you're following the, the sun family and they're your protagonists, but they're the good gangsters, right? You root for these gangsters and whoever's their enemy you're dealing with, but you find out the enemy is actually sort of the good virtuous ones. Right. And that your, your heroes are the bad guys. And I think, I think it doubles down on that as it, it makes you feel like, Oh wow. Yes. I am in bed with murderers. Yeah. It's like, and And that's very interesting. But then the way the season ends, it's like world it's very spoiled. Yeah, I won't say how it ends, but it's very unsatisfying like that. And it it loses all goodwill and enjoyment out of it. Like, oh, I don't want to see a season to like one. the the The plot gets real wonky towards the end. And like I did not like the last couple of episodes and how it wraps stuff up.
01:44:10
Speaker
as well. So like yeah it just really loses it. Like and that's such a shame because it's such a strong start and such a hollywood dynamic between characters and like character for the show characters that the moment they're introduced, you know what they're about and you want to see more of them like blood boots and people like that. where You're just like, I don't know who this is, but like, tell me more. What a yeah. What a yeah. That show has great characters. Yeah. It's a fun time. I liked all the way through. What other shows do you like, Casey? I could let you know I've been canceled. Damn it. ah I mean, most of the stuff that I have liked and got canceled has been moved to Netflix. Like scavengers rain is on there now. um And I think that's like nominated for a bunch of awards even. And like it's embarrassing that that's one of the many things that have been like, you know, taken off the air.
01:45:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's clearly really good. Yeah, Max, Max, not my dog, but Max's streaming service has hurt my soul in many ways recently because they canceled warrior, the bastards, and they also can. That's on Netflix now, too. Yeah, they also canceled Tokyo Vice after I just got into it. Tokyo. Where's that on? That's on that was on Mac, you said? Yeah, it's on HBO Max. That's the one. as Yeah, I talked about that a couple of months ago. It's the one where an American journalist gets involved in like the the Yakuza. It's really good. Oh, really, really good guest characters. Yeah, definitely watch it.
01:45:39
Speaker
And just reminded me, I did actually see the first episode of a show called Hara Geary. but ah That's a Netflix show. It's like a like a Japanese crime drama. ah Detective in Japan ah has to deal with like a new crop up of like Yakuza murders. And the Yakuza are coming to him saying like, we think it's your brother who who used to work for us is an assassin and has fled to the UK. So go get them. Otherwise we're
Japanese Crime Drama 'Hara Geary'
01:46:09
Speaker
going to. you and us are going to have a problem. ah so So the whole time he thought his brother was dead and I didn't inform him like, no, he just left the country. So go, go get your brother for us. And like, it's real complicated situation because you find out that. um
01:46:22
Speaker
He, as a cop, kind of helped his brother get away with some crimes before he thought that he had died. And like that's that's like kind of his crutch to bear in terms of him being a good cop versus being a good brother. I thought that was a really cool setup. But the first episode was kind of slow. like It was doing a lot of setup. um and um Yeah, it hasn't like hooked me yet, but I'm going to continue watching as soon as I get a minute, but because I haven't been able to sit down and watch for a while now. ah But I'm intrigued. I'm hoping that it will end up being pretty good. Yeah, that also brings up the acolyte, which I think Casey, you haven't watched any of that yet. No, I've not started that yet. No, Jesse. None of it. Yeah, i I like I like the way it wrapped up. I ended up really coming to enjoy the show. I still don't think it's I don't think it's like particularly written very well. but and
01:47:14
Speaker
I don't know, Star Wars. At this point, I'm just like, if I if I had fun watching it, then that's good enough for me right now, because really every once in a blue moon are going to get something that's as well written out of Star Wars like Andor. So, you know, if I'm entertained by it, then that's my level, my bar of quality for Disney right now is that one, I don't feel cynical watching it and to entertain me.
Star Wars Content and Audience
01:47:34
Speaker
I've been seeing some discourse around the idea that most Star Wars content is written for children. and that a lot of adults getting up in arms about like the quality of writing and stuff is misplaced because like you're not the target demographic. I don't know how true that is. I'm not that deep in terms of like the the most recent Star Wars shows. and But i I feel like there there could be some credence to that. because like
01:48:04
Speaker
Some of the movies for sure were written for children. have don our Jar Jar Binks is for children. yeah I'm sorry. I didn't know that wasn't public knowledge. Like those are always aimed at kids. Like if adults can enjoy them too, but like. I wouldn't I wouldn't say it's movies. I wouldn't say indoors and the kids. And that was an outlier. Yeah. That one I think has been stated as like, oh, this this doesn't feel like Star Wars at all. Yeah. But like with plot structure, with characters, with like archetypes, with development, which how all of that. Yes, they're very much aimed for a younger audience.
01:48:42
Speaker
I mean, this is a whole nother podcast episode, but like, sure. I put i put ah I put off watching like the animated series because I thought they were but children for a lot of it. Like there's a lot of filler episodes of both Rebels and Clone Wars. But I mean, there are those those shows get dark for kids and they're its like they're just better. way out of Yeah, they're way better. written Yeah. Yeah. He's swinging back around to Redbox for one second here. I would like you to take a guess at without looking it up because I saw you go right to your mouse. Casey i had nothing to do sweat with what do you think Red Boxes parent company's name was. Blue box. Red Tube is that a port site? That was the joke. It was not Red Tube.
01:49:35
Speaker
ah Jesse, what's your guess? OK, so the red tube is not my guess. oh I rims in circle. How about but no opposite blue circle? How about chicken soup for the soul entertainment? Huh? Chicken soup for the soul still exists. Not anymore. They fell for chapter one.
01:49:59
Speaker
Is that you know, some sort of isn't that sort of like religious organization? Yeah, I've heard of them before. Yeah, I've heard of them before. Yeah. They had a whole series of books called Chicken Soup for the Soul. And it was basically like just scriptures and like stories about God being good to people. And it was chicken soup for your soul. Deep in that religion, Lord, I got to look this up. Wow. What? All right. Well, I thought nobody would know that. And everybody in Chad's like, you'd fucking know that no Nick is a heathen. yeah yeah Yeah. They didn't teach me that in catechism. All right. Uh, we got one more super chat
Praise for New Trigun Series
01:50:47
Speaker
that came in. Uh, he made shield son of two dollars as Casey. What's your opinion of the new trigon series?
01:50:54
Speaker
Oh, uh, the tri-gun reboot. It's amazing. Oh, yeah. i I remember talking about that a while back. That was probably back in Escape His Days, uh, but... Yeah, the the reboot series has like brand new animation style. It tells a like ah ah kind of a remixed story versus the original anime. And it's fantastic. like i think i even I even watched the original show just to like put them back to back on what they changed. And the original show still holds up. It's still a good time. But the new one is better, in my opinion. And like you don't see that all the time, especially with like anime reboots and annotations. It's fantastic. Check it out if you're interested at all.
01:51:32
Speaker
I haven't seen the original. That makes me. I i should watch. yeah The original is great. It's a classic. The new one is better, in my opinion. Mm hmm. Show me wumbly, wumbly and chat. He's like, I ordered from a cult. or coffeeing red fox Yes, you did. All right. Well, I think that's going to wrap us up for tonight. It's eight o'clock. Now, of course, thanks for tuning in to Firelink, whether you're on YouTube or the audio services that we use of Spotify podcast. You know, it turns out I don't think I very I don't think we are on Apple podcast yet. So you need to sort that out as I was looking towards Lancaster. Yes. Let's see what else is coming up this week. Tomorrow, I will be back finally with a new episode of Unpacked covering a kind of FOMO in the industry. Pretty, pretty short topic. just because i did that
01:52:29
Speaker
Kind of a hard one to cover because it's like. Most people online feel that, but most people in like the real world probably don't. So it's like one of those. Are you two online topics? Yeah, you probably are. And then, of course, ah Friday, a new design Dell from GM8 is coming. Nice. And I won't tell you what the topics covering it. who Why not? okay have For him doing that. He's know got a new thumbnail. He's got a new thumbnail design though that we're all happy with. Excited to see it. I've seen already. Yeah. Uh, Casey, what do you have coming up? Uh, yeah, we are not doing devil may cry tomorrow because Marty is away, but Jesse and will and Jess are all going to take that slot. I mean, I'm there too. We're going to take that slot and we're going to play earth defense four, six, uh, tomorrow, which comes out tomorrow. So it's going to be a fun time. Come hang out with the crew should be, uh, should be fun.
01:53:26
Speaker
Outside of that, um the wedding streams are still going strong. ah My son and my fiancé last week started Stardew Valley and they have not stopped playing it since. Like it's becoming a problem in this house. But you'll you' get to kind of catch up with them and see what their farm is all about. ah What they've accomplished on their farm since last week. um when we stream on Friday at 7 PM. Um, and then outside of that, uh, some Sunday on Sunday, as usual on my personal channel, send me gears nine on Twitch. Um, that should be back on schedule as well. Cause I had to take last week off for some stuff, but, um, also
01:54:06
Speaker
by size on the way for, like we mentioned earlier, Bo path of the teal Lotus. And, uh, if Nick mentioned it earlier as well, we've got a new short curated series that I'm heading up. Uh, so like check the YouTube shorts, check tick tock follow second wind over there. If you have a tick tock, if you don't have a tick tock, make one of our Instagram, and horse either one, I'm over there giving you guys hot tips on the cool Indies to take a look at. There's two out right now. A new one's coming soon ish. Also, there's a lot of other shorts, not just that show. Like, we have a lot of funny-ass clips that are popping out all over the place. So take take some time and get acquainted with the rest of the catalog from second wind. You know, I was feeling kind of down in the dumps last night, so you know what what i which short I went back and watched that made me feel immediate joy? Which is which is that? The one where I programmed these nuts sound bite into Kofi, and your face is just pure confusion.
01:55:04
Speaker
You have no idea how distressing that was. No, I do. I was in chat laughing at you. Jesse, what what do you got coming up? This is Rexxicon Jesse on Twitch and Twitter blues guy and everything that exists on YouTube and whatnot. ah Mainly just doing stuff behind the scenes. which some of it you should check out. Adventure is my latest episode for season one that comes out on Saturday at noon, I think central 11 central 10 a.m. Central memory times. Yeah, I was I was in the ballpark. It's that we don't have Saturday morning cartoons anymore. So this is our replacement. and So ah that's mostly that and check out our stuff that just second wind does. That's really cool.
01:55:53
Speaker
All right. And one other one other weird out of pocket stream for Friday is ah Jay and Jesse will be back from four to six p.m. playing Beyond Good and Evil, the remastered version, because I will not be here. I will be in Salt Lake City for a wedding. So I won't be doing Call of Duty this week. And when I do come back, Tina will be joining me for Call of Duty. So that'll be cool. Cool. And she worked on the series. so That's even more cool. That is very cool, actually. Yes. Should be all the inside baseball. Yes. Well, thanks, everybody, for tuning in and hope you enjoy this episode of Firework, and we will see you back here next Wednesday at the same time in place with Marty hosting again. Maybe if he makes it back. Maybe maybe I won't make it back. I don't know. I'm taking I'm taking Delta. Probably more screwed. Well, I'm taking Delta. I'm probably more screwed than he is.
01:56:45
Speaker
Bye. Bye.
01:56:57
Speaker
you