Hello everybody. Welcome back to Desk George, your favorite board game design and
creation podcast, as always brought to you. Bye you eving. I'm Riley,
not here, just a figment of your imagination along with I'm Kyle.
I'm having a weird hallucination because I felt all of that. That's crazy.
I'm Graham. I thought the shrimp women were gonna be the weirdest thing in
this episode, and I was wrong. So I'm really sorry. Side,
how dare you apologize? Let's start this episode. Let's start this episode because
because Riley, Riley is still here from us, um stuffing one hundred copies
of Fear Within to go out everybody. If you're watching this episode, um,
they're all stuffed. There will be shipping out with over the course of
the next month. Yeah, over the course the next month. And so
Riley is like, I have a hot ten minutes from the time that your
podcast starts, Uh, be here. So we wanted to be here for
the intro. That was That was it. So I mean I understand why
you were pushing me because he was literally hiding under your desk, like sweaty
and like the desk forgive me. I I walked right into that one.
Oh man, thank you for being a good sport about that grab. Yes,
I just wanted to join say hello and let you guys know that the
best PlayStation of game of all time is, of course Glover for the PlayStation
well, the PlayStation one. Yes, God, nobody believes we're not.
Unfortunately we're not talking about the PSX, the PlayStation extreme. We were talking
about the PlayStation three. Oh, which is why it doesn't matter, because
it didn't have Glover on. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, that's
a fair point. I can see why our brand integrity is so high.
It's very I look forward to seeing my little big planet ranks. A little
big planet. I like a little big planet. Phenomenal game's I didn't play
it enough, so unfortunately on the one hundred twenty seven list, they're all
bunched together in one like I guess like I didn't play it enough, So
it's somewhere nebulously in the middle, the bottom. I mean, unless we're
gonna talk about Jananga ratings, I don't understand how we're gonna get more engagement
through pure hatred. That's true. That's true. Number one twenty eight,
that's true. Yanga rating twenty eight on h on a one twenty seven list
of PS three three sixty games. All right, books, we all enjoy
your podcast. Thank you for letting me stay boggy, my friend, stay
boggy, my friend. All right, folks, UM give me just two
seconds here? Oh there we go. Um wow, now you're coming in
loud and strong. Yeah yeah, I was gonna say I had to keep
the microphone off of that. Riley could hear. We're back. Thank you
for that prolonged intro. It's been nine years since Riley's last episode. Um,
but yeah, we're going to continue on with our PlayStation rankings. Graham
has ranked one hundred and twenty seven um not counting an anga um games from
games for the PS three era, and I am going to try to surprise
him, stump him with numbers. You all seem to really like this episode
for I'm checking our metrics. This was one of the most widely watched episodes
on YouTube of ours. That's awesome, it's great. Uh so we're just
we're gonna just kind of jump right back into it now that Riley's gone.
I just thank you again grab for being a good sport about that. Literally
he's under the team was under the table the entire conversation I'm listening to us.
I would have wanted it. It's for him to be under the table.
Yeah, and it was. He was. He truly was. Um
let's just start off nice Crisp and Queen with a number fifty. Who was
number five of PlayStation games from one twenty seven? Uh? My number fifty?
Uh is the tomb Raider remake. UM. I so so you like,
I charted a lot I do, I do, I do not,
which is hilarious to me because you haven't played the second one in this era
and everybody loved it. Um. I beat the first one, was fine
with it. Um tried to play the second one because it was getting ten
out of tens, ten out of tens, ten out of tens, losing
their minds. Yeah. And I played a little bit of the original tomb
Raider like everybody else did, where you struggle with the controls and you get
devoured by animals. UM. And I liked quite a bit of what the
new tomb Raider remake was trying to do. UM. It was trying to
give a realistic protagonist. UM. It was trying to be kind of gre
I mean overly, so um my favorite beats or when it was a horror
game, and I know it was initially pitched to be that less of an
action game. Yeah, there's bits where you're going through crouch to these like
bone ridden underground tunnels with your flaming torch. That's my that's my brand.
Is this like want to be Indiana Jones stuff? I absolutely adore it.
Um. I loved. The reason it's a fifty though, is because I
loved it up to the point in which you started murdering hundreds of people.
I loved how hard it was on the intro. I loved how you were
struggling. I loved like, what a big deal it was the first time
you killed somebody, and then immediately it like didn't matter anymore. You were
just wrecking people. So yeah, yeah, what is your experience with this,
because there's two maybe three now, so this is an interesting thing.
So I came up in an age where you either had the N sixty four
or you had the PlayStation. So I didn't get my PlayStation until a little
bit later actually, and there was my parents were very strict. A love
my parents dearly, but we were we were limited on the amount of games
that were like we were not allowed to have a lot of games that had
like human on human violence, and so we were not allowed to have two
rater. So I didn't play a two rater until this game. Oh yeah,
which is interesting. And I it's interesting that, like, as you're
giving your like review of it, right, I'm sitting here thinking about my
experience with it, and I'm like, well, crap, I think you're
honestly because I had forgotten the game existed. Sure, And as you're talking
about it, and I remember thinking two things. One, I loved the
atmosphere, especially like you said in the beginning of the game, where it
is this like weird island and you're not sure what's going on and it might
be cursed. There's like an eternal empress, like you're like, what is
going what is happening? Right? And as I'm recalling my experiences of that
game, the moments I can remember are the moments that felt like a horror
game. Yeah, um, now I do. Now Here's the thing.
I loved the gun play. I thought the gun play was great. Um,
But as I'm thinking about it, I can't recall what the gun play
blade if there's a gun blade and tumb rater I missed. Is that how
we saved the franchise? We just give Laura Croft a gun blade? This
is uh yeah, this is Hell Drivers all over again. When you thought
I was talking about completely different game, yes, straight out, you're talking
about Final Fantasy eight. I mean the squall Laura Croft crossover is not one
I was ever prepared for it. Um whatever, I'm so cool. I'm
gonna be busy. Eric gorning in the corner, I mean the ultimate Aero
Gorner, the ultimate Eric. But no, like I loved the gun play,
but again, there's other than one level which I distinctly remember, which
was like this like anti town like slum looking thing populated almost entirely by pirates.
That was just like I had a blast because it was just but that
felt like a horror game too, just a horror game cranked up to eleven
because I'm like, everyone's there, I have no good angles and they're coming
from the walls. Like that was cool, but like, yeah, I
think the horror parts were the parts of that game that stuck out the most.
And again, and I missed a lot of the other like Loura Croft
nostalgia, So I think a lot of it, like trying to go back
to it now, I'm like, like I've tried. Yeah. And I
also didn't have a PlayStation. I played that at other people's houses. I
played Tumwriter on PC okay and was like it was hard, really hard to
control. And I was not particularly good at real time video games at that
time. I had to slowly train myself, Like first person shooters were terrifying
to me as a kid. Any kind of RTS I really had to struggle
through. Like I played turn based solely for years and years and years with
a little bit of the like pause, pause and play like Balder's Gate.
So so yeah, I for me, I think the legacy of tomb Raider
was the bizarre, gross, weird, sexy nineties stuff where she became this
like pin up icon because all of a sudden, h you know, it
was like pandering and weird and sexist um and an attempt to like reclaim this
character because all this is ripped off from Indiana Jones and then tomb Raider became
the thing, and then Uncharted was like unabashedly ripping off tomb Raider. But
then they remake came out after Uncharted, and everyone's like, what's this Uncharted
rip off? Like, yeah, it's a weird, bizarre cycle. It's
a weird cycle. I was saying, it's so strange because like, yeah,
Laura Craft was super sexy. But maybe it was because I was at
an age where I didn't really understand that aspect of it. I remembering,
like, the girl's awesome, she's two guns and she shoots t rexes.
I remember her in like pixelated bikinis on magazine covers, like over it.
It was. It was everywhere. I'm shocked you don't remember this because yeah,
I was vers and gross. I was very young at the time,
like I mean, but again I was just like and again I was ten.
I didn't I don't think I get like, was my first crush our
Mining Granger. I think from the Harry Potter movies. I think it might
have been the movies. Did you not watch Power Rangers or no? That
had human on human violence? We were not allowed to watch powers? Yeah
yeah, And then again by the time I loved Kemberlake. Is that Pink
Ranger? Oh hell yeah, yeah, there's a gym miss she was awesome.
Yeah, you know, listen apparently she's still a babe by the way.
I've seen her around. She's on Twitter and stuff and grams. Like
I said, we we hang out every so often. Oh yeah, she
hits me up occass does she do the Oh no, that's the Green Ranger
that has the sword that's also a flute. Oh yeah, but doesn't rest
in peace unfortunately. Yeah. Oh man that. Speaking of Greed reboots,
there was a Power Rangers Greedy reboot that I watched. Did you ever watch
that one? It was like ten minutes and it is the Greedy one.
Yeah, the Greedy reboot. Well, of course I watched it. It
was great. I loved it. It was like, oh my god.
And it was directed by the guy that did the Bad Blood music video by
Taylor Swift, which I think is what a weird, weird timeline we lived
in. More recently than that, on Netflix, there's like a I don't
know, ninety minute seventy minute Mighty morphin quote unquote movie that has the Return.
It came out this year, I want to say, and it's in
tone with the original show, so it's not gritty. It's like the original.
But the Yellow Ranger tragically died in a car wreck when she was like
twenty years old, and so the tone of this is incorporating that into the
lore where she gets like destroyed by a robot repulsa, and then they spend
forty minutes dealing with the death of this real care and now her spoilers because
that's so important. Her daughter like reclaims the mantle. Um. So it's
it's so bizarre because it's in the tone of mighty morphins. So it's like
four or five year olds. But then they're talking about the death of this
like real woman and then fighting a robot rita Repulsa is free. So it's
weird. What the one tomb raider so tomb raider, so tomb raider tomb
raider? What a what a weird rabbit ale was gone on? All right,
Well that was a good one for fifty were starting off like that was
a good one. I'm the quick time event with the wolves I remember was
like gave men anxiety to that first one. I remember the the incredibly violent
death sequences and her death noises were like deeply unsettling and like sexual, you
know, in a really weird way. There's a lot of stuff where she's
getting like tree branches shoved through her eyeballs and three branch one. I repressed
that. Ah No, just stare at the shrimp woman I have on my
background your mind. Thank you shrimp woman for being this. Also Manny in
the background here, that's uh for those of you who don't know, that's
Manny Fresh. That is our That is our Manian background mannekin mascot for a
just man shrimp man. Um okay, uh number thirteen thirteen Gee Gali whiz.
All right, So we're zooming up at the top here. Yes,
uh and um this is uh like the rebranded remake, although I liked the
original very much. Um. Again, this was one of those weird indie
titles that it kind of changed the name and kind of got some notoriety.
Um. All of a sudden, people were saying, oh, maybe license
games can be good. Did you ever play the Chronicles of Riddick, either
the original or the remake? Assault on Darkthina. I know what both of
them are, and I like that. I don't know if I'm in a
minority here. I actually enjoyed the movies. I did too. I everyone
likes the original and it's very gritty and low. And then Chronicles of Riddick
is way more interesting than it has an any right to be. It's a
dopey, schlock sci fi film that deeply cares about its lore. Um a
previous episodes, you and I talked about like what is you know, what
is something missing the mark and I've talked about unified tone but also like a
good like mash up like an Evil Dead two where it's like horror but also
like ridiculous is perfection done correctly right? So good specifically Evil Dead too.
It's my example here because it unches to have these disparate tones and then do
it so well. And Chronicles of Riddick should be stupid, and on paper
it is, but it nails so much of its world of it's setting.
And it's also before Vin Diesel completely went off the deep end. So it's
just like you're just abused by the fact that he's so emotionally invested in this.
Yeah, yeah, I love Chronicles a Ritic as a movie. It's
one of my absolute favorite, like I don't know, like B movies or
like Middle of the Road, because again it's a huge budget for how dopey
it is, Like, it's it's absolutely more interesting than has any right to
be it does it says, it says something interesting. I don't know.
I just remember I like, we would repeat you keep what you kill like
over and over and now I love a good an ironic quote in yea of
a of a bi hockey sci fi movie. All right, but the game
though, the chronicles, Yeah, so, um it's a first person stealth
action game that's exceptional, and it's weird that it's exceptional. Um. It
got picked up by this UM this like smaller company, a smaller European company
UM, and was beloved by critics at the time, and it really kind
of broke through because this company they didn't want to do a licensed game,
and so they just completely knocked it out of the park. So of its
era in terms of first person uh action stealth, it's it is fabulous and
absolutely stands the test of time. UM. I guess the lessons like the
game designed, lessons that I want to learn, maybe connect back to our
like our IP like what I pieced, we want to work with. Um
they very much didn't want to do this. This is in the era where
you had terrible movie tie in games. Although yeah, every single one unanimously
right, Yes, exactly across the board. I remember if it like it
had a movie time, you just ignored it at like EB games, which
is a reference. I'm sure that dates myself a little bit. But I
mean, you know you've already talked about how you were you know, too
young to watch Power Rangers. I guess, but um, but you like
dB games. I didn't there we were allowed. Maybe I got playing on
Gameboy games, game Boy Color games for me BE games. Okay, So
I I love the remake. I think the remake edit a lot that's assault
on darkathina Um. But this this game, I think exemplifies what can be
done with a licensed title, and arguably the best licensed title of all time,
really really special, really deserves it's thirteen. Wow. Okay, I
see you now, I'm this is the other thing too. I'm like kind
of like because so, for those of you not in the NOE, Graham
bought me for my birthday this year, games based on ips I want to
design on and so I have a list of games that I'm gonna be playing
the summer now that I've got time, and I'm like, oh man,
I'm like, it's chronically the ridic on Steam, Like can I get that
I'm light, I'm gonna have to look because I love a good stealth shooter.
That's why I liked Um Data Sex so much. The remake of Data
Sex. I liked that. I liked the stealth elements of that, and
I found myself coming back to like, try those levels again in nonlinear ways,
and I kept coming back to gold Man, this is really fun.
So the original Dao Sex is one of my favorite games of all time,
and I think the First Human Revolution was the first remain Yes, uh,
it's it's It definitely had stuff that I loved. I mean, I love
immersive sims um They're amazing. This while like do it however you want stuff
like That's what drove me to finish Um Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines because it's straight
up Dao Sex in the Vampire the Masquerade universe, in the world of Darkness.
There were huge portions of the game that were physically painful to play that
I absolutely hated, and it was very buggy and the combat was terrible.
But in the hub places where I'm walking around and doing stuff and using my
vampire powers, like it's Dao Sex, I was over the moon. So
it was so fun. Did you play Out of Curiosity? Did you play
the unofficial fan patch or the official fan patch? There's one on yes,
Okay, okay, I was gonna say I that that is a very lengthy
conversation. But essentially there's these two different camps that have like that aggressively hate
each other and have different patching philosophies. The rabbit hole goes deep, and
one of them has some reclaimed content that I would recommend not playing because they
just add a bunch of quests that just aren't very good. Um. But
yes, in the modern era, some of these patches are exceptional and they
can really really make the game playable in a really exciting way. Because there
was one that I didn't even know they hated each other. I didn't even
know there were two camps. I just thought there was because there's one that
literally everyone that I've ever talked to, Um, if you get it through,
like Greater than Games or goog whatever, was like, Yo, this
is it. This is the quality of life thing that is there anyway,
Just yeah, that was curious. Yeah, it's called an unofficial patch.
And so if you want to play Vampire Master Gary Bloodlines, which I recommend
do the unofficial patch, but don't do the like um uh, the the
unofficial content stuff. Okay, I thought I thought it was all really bad
and one quest was didn't even work. It was completely bugged. It's a
bomber. So we have done your your thirteen, we have done your fifty.
According to my random number general, we're going to number twenty two.
Twenty two. Okay, so we're a standing up with the top here,
which is cool, Like, thank you Google Random number generator. Um so
you you have said let me let me not not quote you out of at
a time here, but you never really got in on open world games.
Uh no, I like open world games. Um no, no, I
like open world games. I don't was it a different genre because trying to
think my favorite games of all time have been open world ones, like the
follow up games, the Winterer games. I this is in specific in reference
to be saying that I door Assassin's Creed Odyssey and you were like, oh,
I don't know about the Assassin's Creed up the world stuff. Yes that
that I just I don't know. There's a certain and maybe it's me being
burnt out. But like the RPG, stapling to like other games, right,
Like when I think of Assassin's Creed, it doesn't feel like an RPG.
It feels like a platformer with light RPG elements. And that's what I
liked the most about it was that creative you subverticality as a platformer um or
like Borderlands for example, Like I remember loving the first two Borderlands and then
every subsequent John I'm like, good God, it's just it's it like you
didn't you didn't like the prequel. I hated the prequel. That's hilarious.
I don't understand. I'm the only person in existence that thinks the Borderland prequel
is the best one. Wow. Yeah, that is a hot take.
Like I think, I think the classes, you're creative. I love that
you're on the moon. It's colorful. I think the writing is better.
And you get to double jump and butt slam, you have more do it
more in the air, and there was so much. It really changed everything.
I enjoyed the first Borderlands. It wasn't great. The second one added
everything and really complicated it. But like it's kept a lot of it stuff
the same, And for me, the prequel really has changed enough stuff that
I thought was really interesting, interesting, but every single person I've ever talked
to hate the prequel. Yeah, and I don't understand because I think it's
definitively the best one. I think, maybe for me because a lot of
the changes I think you reacted positively to, like I felt fiddly to me,
like okay, whereas Borderlands for me felt like a really streamlined experience m
where I was like, cool, this is like I know exactly where I'm
going, like pedal to the metal. We've got it. It's right.
And then I was like, man, all this other stuff can maybe it
gets in the way. I would have to replay it. It's been like
two three years since I've tried the prequel. But no, so my open
world, I guess, not open world so much. But is the stapling
of open world RPG mechanics two games I think is probably a little bit more
accurate. I think I think we'll see what is your number twenty two?
I'm sorry grant here my hot take, because the problem is with the open
world genre is it really became oversaturated over several generations, and it wasn't until
kind of Breadth of the Wild in which a lot of it got paired down
again because you know, I like things like Robot Dinosaur Hunter, uh whatever,
it's called Horizon zero don just like s gibberish words. But it suffers
from the kind of laundry list thing where you have icons. You're actually playing
a game, you're looking at your mini map. You're not interacting at the
world, You're just checking off boxes. It's a skinner box if dopamine.
So that is one thing that needs to be taken aside. But my number
one rule, what separates the cream from the from the crop in terms of
what makes a good open world game is that navigation has to be fun.
This is why the Arkham games are so good. Okay, this is why
anything with a gimmick of movement where you're like skating on things is great.
Um if movement is fun, you have a great open world game. That's
the number one rule. Yeah, that is why. Um My, my
twenty two is prototype two. Play the prototype game. I've played the first
one. It was a demo I think at the mall or like a Walmart,
which is my experience with it. Was like you know, when like
you'd go shopping and like your mom would leave you and be like all right,
cool, I'll be here at the demo game. Absolutely, yeah,
I think that that was my experien Prototype. I remember it was the first
one, not the second one. But I was like, wow, this
is really good. I was like, I should get to have no money.
So in the GameCube era, there was a game called Hulk Ultimate Destruction,
Yes, which was an amazing, amazing open world game. UM,
and that same company went on to make Prototype. Um. There were two.
There were a couple different of these open world superhero games that got made
from that era. UM Infamous, which was very good and it was a
PS three exclusive. But you just kind of had lightning powers, good lightning
or bad lightning, and you did again you like, uh, would would
skate around on power lines and things. Um. But Prototype you were a
gross body horror person. Uh. And you would like shoot weird blood spikes
and you would explode and you would like zip around. In the first one,
Um, you're not even an anti hero. You're really just like not
a great dude. And in the second one they were like, maybe we
should reel that back a little bit. Um, you are gifted the powers
of the first guy by the first guy. He's the villain of the second
game. Yeah, and your character is more sympathetic. And then they did
what every good sequel should do, which is like more creative, weird,
interesting blood powers. Yeah, because when you're running up a skyscraper and leaping
off of you know, four hundred feet down to elbow drop on a on
a tank, that's just wild and fun and good. It took everything that
you wanted from the first one. But or like, you know, I
don't really like this guy, this like hoodie moron. And then you were
like, yeah, let's just make the hoodie more on the villain of the
second one and then give yourself like just gives a modicum of sympathetic backstory.
And that was the second one. I think it really defined this like ten
to twenties range or twenty to thirty range wherever I am of like, you
know what, I really liked these games. They didn't change my life.
You said you've completely forgotten about the tomb Raider game. Yeah, anything from
like twenty ish. It's starting to starting to fade a little bit for me.
But I think about and be like, you know what if I don't
remember anything from this game, I'll pick it up again and play through it
again. So absolutely slam dunk awesome, ridiculous, m rated body horror,
superhero open world game simulator. I love it. I also like to point
out I think you have succinctly summarized my every single person loves Mario because a
good open world game has great movement, right, And and thinking back on
my time with Infamous, which is a game I did own and did play
my favorite parts skating on the electric lines. Correct, I have logged,
like I want to say, one hundred and fifty two hundred hours into Saints
Row three of all, like Saints Row, I like four as well because
that one is I think four is the straight up superhero one. Yeah,
you have like superpowers ye because you're like in the matrix or something. Yeah
yeah, yeah, like three and four And the fact that you can control
your body type and have a lot of customization, Like it's quietly kind of
revolutionary, even though it's the walking dick joke of a game, but it's
oddly inclusive, Like shout out to Saints Row for letting me play different body
types and like basically make my super trans superhero like like big boned lady.
Like it's awesome, It's it's great, but literally the thing that I keep
coming back to. In that game, I don't even do the missions anymore.
I have the cars customized and the driving in that game I loved,
and I moved around that city and just would drive around breaking up random gang
operations. That's literally what I have done for the last fifty hours of my
playthroughs on that game. And I'm like, holy crap. That's why I
keep coming back to. It's a great movement. So gold star for amazing
Yeah, amazing game design, amasing game design insight because I'm thinking about the
now going, oh my god, every open world game that I love or
every open world game that I hated has come down to its movement. Yeah.
I Broth of the Wild. It ripped out all this stuff that I
didn't want to do. You don't really have a mini map in the same
way you tag stuff and then you climb things like shout of Colossus and you
have a glider. To the point in which my muscle memory has like there's
so many games where I like, where's my glider? I keep hitting the
button. Now, I like Breath of the Wild screwed me up for a
long time because I kept expecting to have a glider ye far Cry three in
the wingsuit. Uh huh made it for me. Man, Okay, I
that feels like a whole episode we should do just on movement in games because
that. Oh man, I have ideas. Now. That was awesome,
right number ninety three. Before I get so far off topic that I will
literally I will literally go way way way up now. So I haven't played
a lot of Call of Duty in my life. Oh boy, okay,
all right, I'm ready this This was one of them. Okay. Um,
I mean I play Call of Duty. In terms of its design,
it's a direct line from counter Strike. Um, it's the same system,
very similar MCCA annex um. Uh, you kind of had these different branches
of first person both PC and then console people splitting off. Um Uh.
Anybody who didn't have a PS three or an Xbox in this era, um,
you didn't know about what a phenomenon cod was and you were better for
it. Uh. It completely absorbed all light. It was a little black
hole of of of gam Gamerton. Uh. You know we talked about like
the Trump administration coming directly from gamer Gate, because you know that's where all
these these people came from. I think they were like even deeper down like
gold Farming for wow, and like Call of Duty you know, uh fan
sites and whatnot. Uh. Colle of Duty Black Ops is my ninety three
Um. I played through it. Uh, did a little bit of online
stuff, had a couple of friends were way into it. Um. It
was fine. Um. I you know, I feel like an old man
when I'm like, why aren't we in World War Two? Uh? Because
I liked the first one where you got to play like Russian snipers and Stalin
Grad like I was so rad um. And then the modern warfare two changed
everything and everyone's like, oh my god, you get nuked. It so
gritty. Um. And then everyone's not paying attention and then they got kind
of interesting again and kind of weird. Um. Yeah, so this is
right at this point where I was like, if somebody, if I have
a roommate of mine, owned it, I would play it when no one
was home. Like that was my level of interact with Call of Duty in
this era because I didn't go out of my way to play it. What
is your relationship with Call of Duty? I M love. I loved Blackhawks.
I actually did, um, although I will say I think the gritty
one was modern warfare, the first modern warfare, because that one was the
one that brought the nukes into start and I hated it. You don't I
talk about the I talking about the cut scene where like the guy you're on
the ground and the and the villain comes up and he goes and you watch
a nuclear bomb go off, and yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
There is that one. I forgot about the cut scene. So here's the
other and then there's so there's there's the bomb, and then they're killing the
people in the report and then there's hit hit after to pay respects. These
are the press press after Paris. Was that the that was the modern war
for four or modern Yeah? But because Kevin Kevin Costner's son, not Kevin
costs on um who is Kevin Spacey? Was Kevin Spacey's kid? Kevin died.
Shout out to Kevin Spacey. Um, No, I I loved after
play respects his favorite meme. It is a great meme though my experience,
I loved Black Ops. I played a crab ton of Black Ops when I
was a kid. It was not It's not my favorite call of duty.
Modern Warfare two probably still my favorite, always will be my favorite. Um,
because Modern Warfare two hails from my favorite school of game design, which
is with every if everything is broken, nothing is broken. And you're talking
about the multiplayer now yes, absolutely absolutely, yeah, Like, oh my
god, I remember I love Modern Warfare two. I've had this conversation.
I love Modern Warfare two for the same reasons I love Rezarkanaum, because everything
in that game feels absolutely busted if you're on the receiving end of it,
and everything of Modern Warfare two felt busted if you're in the serie black Ops.
I liked. It's not my favorite. I think it goes Modern Warfare
two. And then you talking about the World War two when we're a sniper
in stalin Grad World at War it's my second one. Baby, Oh no
talking about Duty one? Call of Duty one? Is that like a prune
juice thing? You sippen? I haven't played Call of Duty one? Um?
Maybe I should? Should I play Call Duty one? Does that work
playing? Yes? Okay? Yes? Wow? That was emphatic. Well,
most of the campaign are like four hours long. Um, they're still
like expensive? What they are? I mean, this is like a twenty
year old game, and it's usually twenty dollars, which is insane, and
it only ever goes on sale for like fifty percent off, even at the
best of times. So maybe you acquire it on the internet somehow. Yeah,
I don't know the I I've really liked Call of Duty one because it
was an era When it came out in like two thousand and three, I
had only played a couple first person shooters um and uh uh. There were
multiple campaigns and main characters, and it told these stories and then you shot
Nazis, so like the whole the whole sequence of being in Stalingrad, uh
was heart wrenching because you're like a Russian sniper and you're in these like destroyed
buildings. It looked like fallout. It was insane. So it was I
vividly remember my my biggest memory the World War Two, because it was World
War was the return to World War Two for me anyway with that franchise was
my friend getting snowed in at my house. Oh, which when you're a
high schooler is like it was the coolest thing in the world. It was
so we could sled all day and then at night we played it and I
remember we cranked up the Invasion of Stalin grad to Max's difficulty and literally Resino,
the voice of Sergeant Resina burned into my brain. But oh man,
what a story. Yeah all right, maybe I'll go back and play the
first one that sounds cool. I'm a sucker for the one. I'm a
sucker for the World War two ones as well. Like I was all excited
when they came back to World War Two, and then that was not very
good. But they had World War Two loot boxes, which I'm like,
this just feels wrong. This feels like disrespectful of the greatest generation. Tom
Brokaw charging hands outstretched, clutching and to Mac the loop box out of your
head, go back to the History channel, shouts America's greatest journalists. I
just it just felt just just I mean, there's a lot of jingoism.
I think it gets like tied up with it, but there's something who just
it just like all of your loading screen characters are on D Day and then
like the Normandy Beach and like a loop bump sales down, Like I'm sorry,
what in the late stage capitalist hellscape where we're looking at like it's just
it's just the whole thing just was like I've said, there going what what
are we even doing here anymore? Like, I don't know if I've said
this to you, but this is one of my one of my catch phrases.
The answer to nine out of ten questions is money. Yeah, you're
not wrong. That's first I've never heard that. Just just my God,
Like just I there's a number of times in in in life, but in
our late stage capitalism blah blahlah blah, where people are like, why is
is happening? From everything from like the darkness to the grit to the stupidity
to everything in between, people say why why? Why why screaming up at
the sky for any of these reasons that at at ten times the answer could
me money. Why are there loop boxes in my World War two game?
Like it sounds terrific and disrespectful, and it is like, what's the real
answer? Do you actually want an answer? Yeah, I just there is
money. I also would like to put out I think colossal stupidity because like
you could have just made it a menu. It didn't have to crash down
on D Day, Like, oh, just what the heck, dude,
what the heck? Oh man, thank you for taking me on this this
journey Graham, You're very welcome. I appreciate it, actually, I really
do. This has been fun. I did not like when you pitch when
do you pitch this idea? I was like, this is a weird idea,
and I kind of like it. And I was like, I thought
I was gonna like it. I don't think I was gonna love it as
much as I have loved it. This has been awesome. And our booming
YouTube audience shout out to our booming YouTube audience. Thanks every buddy, Actually,
hey shout. According to YouTube Analytics, we are up sixty seven percent
on viewership over the past ninety days. All Right, like Riley was like,
you know what, maybe I just will never come back. No,
the desk must stay under desks and pop out at least the rain Bog Week,
Bog Week, every year during Bog Week, always um seventy five Graham.
All right, so we're creeping up, slowly moving up. So this
is a game from a series that I adore, even games that weren't so
good, because there was a series that I was always a little too good
at, and I've played from the very beginning. My seventy five is soul
Caliber four. Nice. I love soul Caliber, and I love soul Edge
from the PSX so Edge was awesome, And I love fighting games. Fighting
games are something that if you had friends who played video games, you played
fighting games. Um. And oftentimes, like like you, I didn't have
a system at home for a long time. UM, I would go to
friends houses and I would get my butt handed to me at Mortal Kombat or
street Fighter or whatever. Later finding my love for a street Fighter too turbo
um. But once I was playing soul Edge and soul Caliber, and especially
soul Caliber two, I found I was ridiculously good at it. Um.
Fighting games. UM. I'm sure there's a lot smarter and more obsessed people
that could talk about it. But for me, it's about timing. It's
about distance, um, and about managing these these uh these these aspects of
real time. Yeah, um, so what is your reach? Well with
a soul Caliber character, it was immediately easy to tell, um with their
animations, it was immediately easy to tell how far their their range was and
how fast those were going. With things of when you were the like hand
to hand people you didn't always know like who had the long reacher, who
was fast, or who had the really sweet sweeping move. It was soul
Caliber with a little bit three dimensional and I had already kind of cut my
teeth on tech End and realized, oh, it's left hand, right hand,
left foot, right foot, which I loved in the way that it
broke down the PlayStation controller. Uh, Soul Caliber was very similar, and
so it's sense of space always really appealed to me, and the my little
nerd brain loved the different weapon ideas of like a staff versus a katana versus
a big axe versus a Chinese broad sword. That was rat and I'm I'm
shocked that more fighting games didn't do that. Soul Californ wasn't great, but
I played it a ton and was very, very very good at it.
I think if you couldn't tell from my eyes popping out of my skull,
I love Soul Caliber. Sol Caliber is probably my favorite fighting game of all
time. Do you have of the series? Do you have a favorite soul
Caliber two? Because that was one that came out on GameCube. That's my
favorite one. That is also my favorite close like it washes all the other
ones for me, like it is not close for for once. I completely
agree with you, not that I think that you're ever wrong. I think
that our our perspectives are so different. Yeah, a lot of things right,
I will, I think exceptionable and when you talk about like like pacing,
um, like a moveset, distance, timing, right, all the
stuff that makes it. I think what made soul Caliber for me so special
was there was a true sense of mastery with that game of mastering a character,
like the way that League of Legends players talk about like oh I'm Maine,
this champion, Like I'm like, oh I'm Maine Raphael, or like
like like my go to three were always it was a Raphael because I just
his reach was cool. He that's sick up and down thing you're killing m
My brother and I will do to each other like over the phone sometimes um.
And then Nightmare who if so free and going evil so hard to use
this dessert. I just remember hitting a rotate and do an upward strike at
that just chunked someone for half their hit points and the amount of sarahtonin that
I felt as half their life force left their body. I'm like, oh,
oh is this yeah? Nightmare Wood is one of the characters that I
was so good with I had to stop using because I would play with my
friends and it was so demoralizing. I was like, I'll try somebody else.
Yeah. I loved Nightmare Sweet and Kissandra, who I love. I
loved her blitz style. I loved her up close and personal. I was
like that whole game man. But like all of the characters were cool.
That's the crazy part. Like all of them felt like the cool character.
Everybody from Ashnaw with that big A was ash Roth Aster Roth. That's his
name, almost called an asher Roth, and I'm like, that's a white
college rap boy rapper. Um, it's like the heart over his chat Yeah
with Axe. And then like Yoshi Mitsu, who was like that samurai dude
who was like part robot and we never knew. Yeah, what a crate?
What a game? Link was in the GameCube version, which was awesome
and was amazing too, so good, just that whole game was so good.
It started the the weird uh um guest character thing for Soul Call,
because eventually you had like, uh, like Garrett, uh it's in Soul
Caliber. Yeah. Um. Spawn was in the Xbox version. I remember
Spawn was the Xbox exclusive character. And then who was it? It was
somebody from Techen wasn't it or I like tech In and I don't care.
I didn't. Yeah, Like, I'm like, that's the lamest cross every
one. I'm like Xbox Spawn, which felt like nightmare on coke, and
I was like yeah yeah. And then Link felt great. Link You like
you were like, oh my god, like, yeah, pretty rad.
And then you had the solo mode which was amazing. Oh my god,
the dungeon solo mode where you would just fight progressively harder opponents with like new
rule sets. I did that solo all the time. The different weapon loadouts.
Yeah. I cared about the stories of the characters. You know,
put a gun to my head and asked me another fighting character's story. I
don't know. I can tell you all about Rafael's adopted child, though I
don't know. I love before he becomes a vampire in three. Oh my
god, he became a vampire in three? Correct? Oh did I just
blow your mind? Yeah? I assume you knew. No, I didn't
play three. Um we I liked Rafael even though he's like kind of twirpy
and annoys and I guess like somewhere behind behind closed doors, they were like,
all right, we gotta give him the edge lord treatment, how do
we make Rafael cool? And they made him a fricking vampire, which,
like it was it smelled of desperation to me, but maybe it was.
I don't think he needed a whole lot of help to be an edge lord,
even more than he already was. No, he was just annoying.
He was just like, yeah, like you know, you know he hung
out at the hot topic on the weekends once he was a vampire almost certainly.
But oh even before I was like, do you you have you have
some you're playing my chemical romance these fights. I do love my chemical romance
though, but yeah, I love so calidar. Oh man, oh man.
All right, uh Graham, we got two more, all right.
Unlike the rest of this list, I have hand curated these two because we're
gonna go. So you told us your number two last week. Don't tell
them. Don't tell the audience. Now they'll have They need to go back
and relisten. They need to find it for themselves. Um, but what
is your number three? What is the number three game? On a right?
Um? Gosh, how do I even intro this game? Um?
This might be the first like truly indie game I ever played. Um,
it completely rocked my world. UM. I wonder if the kind of discourses
come around to slap this game misdesigned by two people, um and was so
defined by its music. I remember walking into a house party and hearing this
game, hearing the music from this game playing, and then walking up to
the host and being like, you've played Hotline Miami and they're like, I
love Hotline Miami, man, and I'm like, I a door Hotline Miami.
Um. No Home Miami is so unique and fascinated and beautiful and I
love its story. There would be no Devolver if not for Hotline Miami.
It's single handedly launched it. UM made by these just like two weird dudes.
UM. There's plenty of awesome interviews. Go watch them online. They
just like look like these awesome like seeing punk weirdos, and they're delightful,
and so much of the attitude was dripping off you know. It's it's it's
not usual that something can say I'm going to rip off something so distinctly and
then you create its own thing. They were like, we really like drive
and violent video games. We want to make something and they made this hard
boiled, weird, psychedelic nowir U, and then they just went around SoundCloud
and found artists they like and contacted them and said, can we use the
music of the game. And now a bunch of these people have like big
careers, and they were like eighteen year old kids making music and posting them
online. So I love that part of it too. I don't like the
second one nearly as much. I think it overshot it. And I think
that every aspect of this game is perfect. Um it's execution, its weapons,
it's control, its tone. I had never really been an adrenaline driven
sort of gamer prior to this, and this game completely showed me what this
aspect of gaming was. Um, it's amazing, it's unique, it's perfect.
There are many pretenders and I think it's but I mean it's This is
in my like top ten games of all times, so Hotlin Miami, absolutely
exceptional. But I will always love this game and I will always pick it
up and play it. Yeah, I no notes I had the same experience.
I discovered it as an undergraduate. Oh no, actually I bought it
for someone I would later stop being friends with, which is crazy, which
is crazy. I don't know why that like that that sticks in my craw
but now you can't hang out with people who like Hotlin. It's a it's
a red flag. But I bought I mean, but I bought it for
him, and I was like, I'm never gonna play it because I associated
with this person for so long. It wasn't until grad school that I picked
it up UM, and I was like, I don't know. It was
like on sale. It was on like a Hubble bundle, and I was
like, you know, I haven't played a video game at UM. Grad
school was very stressful time in my life. Loved it, UM great time,
but like stressful. And so when I finally picked up that game,
I just remember being absolutely freaking gobsmacked, Like everything about it was just I
was like getting punched in the face. It was awesome. Like I was
like, oh my god. I was like, what just happened? This?
You could do that in a game? And I was like, holy
what the on the and then the and then this. I'm like it felt
like a kid being in the in like a playground, like in the toy
box right right. Like I was like, I loved I loved hot Live
made like it was a adrenaline fueled LSD ridden fever dream of a game and
I loved every second of it. I remember writing a screenplay for it.
It was a communication school for television, radio and film, and being like,
I just want to do the opening scene where Jacket is sitting there in
his living room talking to and they're like like killing and yeah, You're like,
what is this like? It could be anything. It could be internal,
it could be you know, a dream, it could be metaphorical.
Who are these people like? I went out and wrote that a screenplay for
that scene because I'm like, I want to film this with my friends,
and we never did, but I was like, because we had other stuff
we had to do, because man, I just remember feeling there's no way
you could get this to film properly. I don't think we'll ever see a
Hotline Miami movie that does the story any justice or the game any justice.
But it's called Drive. It's it's the movie, just the movie Drive that
it ripped off. I don't even think Drive was. The feelings I got
from Drive were just I don't know, there's nothing. I'll leave it with
this. There's nothing quite like Hotline Miami. I agree, Yeah, there
truly is not. If you are not um put off by gore or flashing
lights, um, do yourselves favored and pick this one, or aggressive electronic
Music's laps. It's so good though, it's like, oh my god,
it's like the kind of techno mus you go beat the breaks, it beats
you with your own hub caps, Like it's just great. What a great
soundtrack. It's amazing. It's absolutely incredible. Did a little little, little,
little little little lea. It's like, oh my god, dude,
it's just so good. As my I think, I think the best review
or the best analysis of this game is that it has driven you to beyond
words and you're just making noises. But before that you were up. I
did the thing with the bad Yeah, it's just a five Miami. That's
yeah, that's all I Miami baby, that's it. It reduces us to
Gruz's grown men, to tiny, tiny, tiny noise fits um and last
certain on the scram what is your number one? All right? So in
the previous episode, I gave the hint that this is the entire reason I
bought a PS three. I hadn't bought a PS three. I was a
struggling student. I didn't have the money. But then the previews for this
game started to come out, and I'm trying to think about how I can
even lead you into it without giving it away completely. It's open world,
Okay. It's made by a giant, extremely famous company that only comes up
with one game every so often. It is not its most famous title,
but maybe number two. It's historical game. Is it an Assassins Creed game?
No, it is not an assassins Creed game. We've already done my
high Assassins Creed from this era. Okay, hang it one more hint.
It's set in America at a burgeoning time of East and West of civilization,
encroaching upon a h oh is it? Is it red dead Redemption? It
is red Dead? Redemption makes a ton of sense. Um. Prior to
this game, Um, you had Gun, which was a launch title for
this this era, which is okay, Um, you do scalp people in
it and get your health back by drinking whiskey. So it's not really particularly
what you might consider classy. Um, but I kind of liked Gun for
its very limited scope. You could play it on the BS two. Dude,
Like that's how like quote unquote next genet was, um, but I
remember vividly uh as as one gets older, the kind of cycle of hype
and hope about video game releases and big companies like it really starts to wear
down on you. And so I had not been this excited about a game
since I was a kid, in which the idea of seeing a commercial for
something on TV to me incorrectly said, Oh, the company has faith and
faith in this thing, like they they're excited about it as well. They
want me to find out about it. Rock Star came up with a series
of trailers and gameplay things showed about all the ways, all the design work
that was being put into it. I watched every single one absolutely religiously in
the newsroom where I was working at the newspaper, and they would they would
post it, I'd watch it, I'd watch it, I'd watch it.
And I had never been so convinced that something was going to be great.
And so I like saved the money and then went out and then got the
PS three and Red Dead Rims at the same time, sat down played it.
And the fact that it nailed so much of it did, and the
fact that it's so unique and interesting I think goes to the performance of its
protagonist. That the writing is actually good and interesting. It's a five act
Western. I'm not going to be talking about spoilers here because I would never
want to spoil this game for anybody, but I will say if you ever
go back and play Red Dead Redemption, the game is not over until the
credits roll. There's some shocking stuff that happens where you haven't seen the credits
yet and it's so devastating. And then when you finally get to this like
cathartic moment, the journey of what you've done really feels epic in a way
that only the greatest Westerns have and do. The performance of John Marston,
the protagonist is unique because it was a guy who had struggled to go to
La, hadn't really done so got cast and that was kind of his last
project before he then got married and went home to the Midwest and started a
family. There are other really interesting documentaries about this guy. There's a reason
why John Marston feels so special as a performance and a characters because he is
doesn't feel like a video game character. He doesn't feel like you know,
Troy Baker or somebody like. He feels like a person. And um Rock
Start had tried to tell mature stories. Um, and is it's kind of
not their thing. Yeah, they don't know how to balance tone and red
dead redemption. The first one, didn't really like the second one spoilers,
uh stuck the landing so beautifully. It's like one of the best examples of
a triple A experience that I can really ever imagine. I again, ten
out of ten no nos. Like. So, I grew up watching westerns.
My grandfather, Um, so like guns, smoke or were talking about
Oh oh both yes, Um, both my grandparents loved westerns. My grandfather
I grew up like exposed to that, and I don't think I ever truly
got it until I played Reddette. I played Red Dead Redemption, but I
was like, oh, oh this this this feeling of loss and melancholy but
also of triumph. This is why you watch westerns, particularly in my mind.
So I have since become a big fan of westerns. Shocker. But
the thing that I have always liked and enjoyed about westerns is a lot of
Westerns feel like stories about cycles, whether those are cycles of violence or cycles
of progress, cycles of corruption, cycles of redemption, but cycles and red
dead redemption is it pulls off the greatest trick. I think of delivering an
incredible ending to a story that feels earned, that does not feel rushed,
that feels like it gives each and every one of its characters the nuance and
payoff they deserve, regardless of how minor a player in the story those characters
are. But much like every great movie with an ambiguous ending leaves me questioning
about what will become of everyone that remains when the story is over, because
of what kind of cycle they have found themselves in. Um, I think
it's the story is exceptional. Um. I was gonna ask you if you
have watched Finding John Marston, the mini documentary the Polygon did. Was gonna
say, but but no, that was exactly what I was referenceding. I
know, as soon as you started talking about I was like, Graham watched
it. Um, but I think you are absolutely right to point out the
spectacular voice work because it and it feels so natural in many ways, Because
I think in a lot of ways, the guy who plays John Marston kind
of is John Marston exactly. He's not playing a character. John Marston feels
like a person because he is a real person. Yeah, he's the guy
who played him. It's such a unique performance in video games and storytelling,
and yeah, it's just and if I'm smiling and laughing, if you're watching
us doing this on YouTube or if you're listening to it, um, he's
such a delight like to watch if you're interested in storytelling or in acting in
general, like I am, and I know Graham, I know you are
too. Then then if you're interested, like we are, watched the fine
in John Marston. I'll plug someone else's stuff like right now, but it
is. Polygon did an exceptional little mini documentary on this guy and his life
and like the importance of his family, the importance of like where he grew
up, and like how he treats people, and you're like, holy dude,
if you are like you are two six shooters and a bad hangover away
from being John Marston, Like it really is. I don't know. It
goes beyond method acting. It transcends it to just be somebody who inhabits a
role, and whose role I think inhabits a part of their life. And
like, what a what a wild time? My I have not played a
whole lot of red dead redemption too, so I will reserve judgment on it
until I get a little more under my legs. Um, but I will,
I will say, um see you already broached some of this. But
let me ask you, in like a broad sense, why why do you
like Red Dead Redemption? One? Well, John Marson, I think is
it? And like, so that's and I think that's unfair because I think
Arthur Morgan's an interesting protagonist. No he's not. Oh, I think he
is. Um, this is this is the other thing. I have never
beaten Red Dead Redemption. I have played a lot of Red Dead Redemption,
but I've never beaten it. You haven't seen the credits role I have because
I have watched the game played through multiple times. I've treated it like a
Western movie, and I literally am like, you know what, I don't
ever have to beat this. I don't ever have to pick this control up
and play this ever again, because what an experience to have had it.
That's where I'm going to disagree with you. Really. I like the attitude
that you have about a lot of these games, and I think that early
on, when Let's plays, we're new, I didn't understand it very quickly.
I realized that there was all kinds of reasons for interact with them for
find individuals that do it for very simply. You know, if you don't
have the money and you can't buy every Triple A release, but you don't
want to be out of it, but you want to be around the water
cooler as it were, or the playground and understand what's going on with the
game and be able to talk about it like that's so vital. Plus,
the Internet is about making communities, so that's that's part of it. I
think that my favorite games, especially in this top ten, are only because
I personally experienced them and the memories that I have being part of it,
the choices that I made, the points in which I was so struck that
I had to put the controller down and think about it. Red Dead Redemption
did that for me many times. And I feel like watching it like a
Western does a disservice to that. Really. See, I don't know,
I disagree. I think I was. You haven't played it so well.
I have. I have played it. I've I've probably logged. I want
to say, like six seven hours in Red Dead. Um, that's not
nearly enough. Yeah, And I'm sure I'm gonna hear that from people too
who listen to this episode and who watched this episode? But I, I
don't know. I really enjoyed getting a chance to just for once. And
this is so crazy because my number one argument for games and the importance of
games and games his art is there's no other medium that makes you an active
participant in the story that you are telling, right, Um, But I
just I don't know role playing games, imagination game. When I when I
say games, I'm not just strictly talking about video games. I think board
games are art. I think RPG's are art. I think absolutely so when
I say games, I am not limiting it to to one spectrum. But
I just I don't know. I liked being able to take to just take
it in. I don't know, And maybe I'm missing something I could be
um in my my very limited time. But like I just I don't know.
I've never I'm not a huge let's play guy. I've never a whole
game played through except for Reddead, and I don't know what it is.
So I too, and oh I watched bits of Fire. I've never watched
the Well no, I have watched fark right too. I guess you're right,
I guess, but never as many more that you have never in your
Reddead was all in one set. I'm like, there, there was like
a I think it was on TV. They edited together Red Dead one and
then put it together and this like thing and then put it up on somewhere.
Do you remember this? I think so. Yeah. The jaw popping
was because you just unlocked a core memory that I I think tech TV did
it. I guess it was G four at that point. Um, and
it was edited together by somebody with a real name, like yeah, I
want to say it was like David Fincher or somebody like yeah, it was.
It was like some some Hollywood dude. It was like, this is
so good, I can cut it together and make a movie. And they
were correct, And there I disagree. I think that they experience that you
have the personal connections with these people and the choices you make, and how
it messes with you. You've you've already talked about why it's so wonderful to
be an experiential experience in which you are taking part actively in it. I
turn it into a movie, you're ripping out a core experience. It's really
just like interest, you know, it's it's it's all of a sudden it
gets turned into an animatronic ride. You see these characters as you drift past,
but you don't actually get to interact with them in any kind of meaningful
way. It's playing at a real emotion, but unless you were there and
involved getting that ego death, that lack of body and sense of self,
then it's just not the same thing. Well, and that it might prompt
a replay for me, or it might prompt a new anew of it for
me, because like I said, I'm not opposed to it, I don't
think, but man, I don't know. I just I had such a
weird experience, not a yeah, transformative experience. Just watching it was kind
of an interesting moment. So I don't disagree. I think it's a phenomenal
choice for your number one game though. That is. Yeah, it's just
awesome. That's just it's probably the last Triple A game that I truly loved.
UM at the stage in my in my gaming, I'm going back and
playing things that I don't remember very well or missed from like the UM early
nineties and all the way up through uh kind of when I started playing console
games, UM and UH, any kind of modern things that I missed her
made by one or two people or a small team like this is what interests
me in terms of design. Um and I just don't play a lot of
these games anymore. Yeah, no, I don't know. I don't own
an Xbox One. I don't know ow a PS five. Sometimes I play
them at other people's houses. Um uh, but they don't do anything for
me. I've played both Knew God of Wars. They didn't really do anything
for me. Yeah, um I I I'm looking for something to surprise me
in cha allunge me and Red Dead Redemption did that for me. And uh,
there's a reason why it's here, representing this generation generation I think.
I don't think it's a I don't think it's h hyperbole to say it is
one of the greatest artistic statements of that generation. Yeah, and if not
the greatest, didn't maybe go but I mean only right. It's not quite
hot Line Miami. We just might have played more Hotline Miami than you've played
the Red Interdemption. If you played more Red Interdemption, you might have gone.
Maybe. I don't. I don't know if I would. I just
think, imagine though, what if we Frankenstein together? The hot Line Miami
soundtrack and put it right, it would be perfect, perfect creation. It
would be insane. I mean I I often I believe people complain about music
in games. When people talk about that, they're like, oh, I
can't believe that that's in a loube. I I will frequently turn the music
off on game and then put in my own music or listen to it.
And one of my defaults is the like retro wave thumping stuff. So I
can very easily imagine play Red Dead. Although Red Dead's music is fucking yeah,
it's luti, it's beautifredible, a send up of all of the best
Western stuff. There's some subtle stuff in it too. We've already been talking
about it for so long. But like there's like contextual music that comes in
and I again, it's this experiential thing. There's so many moments that I
feel like in Red Dead that you had to be there. I have a
vivid memory of the first time I was going over a hill after finally getting
New Mexico and I'm like, what is this, you know? And like
this whole new land. You're going over these new hills and dunes and you
see that the the animals are different, the plants are different, and the
music links in and then all of a sudden there's a like one little true
and I lost my mind because there hadn't been a trumpet in all of the
soundtrack to that point, and you would just gone all around these areas,
you know, explored, and then you were in Mexico and you were like,
what is it gonna be? And it was the sound that hit me
so hard emotionally. So that's all. I love it. I love it.
I love it now. I'm just I'm sitting going like yeah, because
I'm like I remember watching and be like oh and then the game them the
music and the oh ah, yeah there we go. We got there,
We got there. The musical cues too for some of the characters I think
are really interesting. Um and foreshadows some stuff which I think is also kind
of cool as well. Um, whoever the who's the composer on that game?
God? I want to high five them so bad, like you,
you did a great job. Just run off. It's there, it is.
There's my number one. That is that's beautiful number one. Um Graham.
Any final thoughts about this list about your one twenty seven, any insights
other than just absolutely blowing my mind about open world games that you would like
to share with all of us. Um from you, Yeah, your your
experience here. It was really fascinating to really kind of delve into the different
sections of these games and what they meant. Um, this really was the
last generation of Triple A games that I played earnestly, where I was going
and buying used games for cheap and playing them through and everyone I knew owned
these consoles, so there was a sense of community here. Yeah. I
have tried to reclaim and other forms, and it's always been quite different.
Um. The people who I know who own consoles are few and far between,
and most of the friends that I have are from cons or the internet.
Um, this really was kind of like a college personal experience where people
I knew were doing these games and then talking about him and he'd you'd go
out for drinks, you'd hang out and this This was a sense of community.
So that is I think. Even though as I look over the list,
God, I want to say, like over seventy percent of them are
not very good or games that I would never play ever again. UM,
plenty of which are amazing, like the top twenty or so basically like Hell
Divers down. What I what I have always said about video games is that
I want to play them with people. Couch co op is always the ideal.
There's just something really really special. My favorite memories of all video games
of my entire life are sitting on a couch with my buddy and you know,
we're playing Halo two and killing each other. Instead of killing the people,
there was a long hallway and we found ghosts and we jumped in them,
and instead of playing, we played a game where one person would run
and grab the ghost and you'd run each other down. Yeah, and then
you'd respond and you'd do it again, and we played that forever, over
an hour. I think that's why I lost interest with this stuff. Eventually,
I did playing everything I could get my hands on since I was a
kid. I think that's why I went to board games. More seriously,
why I realized that role playing games were really what I wanted, this creative
expression, this shared experience with other people collaborating. So as a result,
like this is an era and one that is fairly distant the past for me,
because I've found the things that feel closer to my heart, which is
board games is role playing games, which is a community with people that I
love and making things with those people. You know it. Hearing you talk
about it, it makes me realize why I haven't gone back and finished read
that or any of the games that I had on my console for as long
as I did. Whereas I was like I, by the time that I
was able to do it, the community of video gamers that were around me
were gone, and I think I really wanted to share that experience with someone
there, Like, um, your your ghost thing reminds me of in Saint
Row, we used to have a thing where we would do cop card shousting.
You would eat together, you would steal a cop card and you'd get
on one into the street and you'd ram it at each other full speed,
and whoever was ejected from their window lost perfect in the Perfect game, the
perfect game, or like or playing Battlefront two, so wears the battle Front
two in my dorm room in college and not telling anybody that I had spent
over a thousand hours a battle Front two at least, like I had every
metal unlocked in Legendary and no one knew until I basically soloed an entire map.
We lost anyway, but they were like, holy, what the how
did you in what universe? And I was like, oh, I played
this game like like a ton and then us just playing that at nauseum or
like but you still lost? I don't know, I did it stucked.
It was awful. I put the team on my back and still lost.
It's my shoulders still hurt from that. If I ever rub then that's because
they're still sore from college um or like playing Halo multiplayer split screen after prom,
like the first problem I was ever brought to. It was a sophomore
in high school. Was like I brought a bunch of my friends who were
juniors, like, dude, you're you're cool, You're gonna coming to prom.
I was like, all right, I don't know what any of that
means, but okay, and literally Halo after the guy. Yeah, the
the guys were like, yo, do you want to play Halo? At
this point, I had never played Halo before. Sure, yeah, and
it was awesome. It was it was so BROI it was like it was
I only played Halo with like other people's friends. My friends never played Halo,
and I was terrible. I was terrible a multiplayer because everyone knew how
to play it, and it was always these bro yes dudes just like wrecking
me. Yeah, yeah, I just but it's all those experiences that I'm
like, you know, I think you're right. I think that's why that's
why I've stopped playing games for the most part, um, with a few
exceptions. And I think that's why I've gravitated to board games is because you
can't do that without a community. UM. And the community is what makes
those experiences I'm worth playing. UM. I think that's a good sentiment to
end our episode on before the weird question, unless because you you told me
you're gonna ask you a weird question, I'm I'm excited. UM. Before
that, however, a huge hearty thank you to everybody who backed Fear within
UM. Like I said at speaking of the episode, Riley was here,
Um, all of the hundred or so copies. I think it's like Gallamine
we're gonna create. You have an every every single Lord of the Rings Gollamine
underneath your feet. I do Gimli a lot. You You move very slowly
and yes, and can ruffly tell your life friends that you love them.
Yeah. Actually that's that feels very accurate. Trust me, don't tell me
I need a box. I can't say I love may call this a mine
a mine. That's my favorite Gimblei line because he's such a moron and I
make it swarmed. I love, I love Ghimbli. So somebody, somebody,
because somebody's trying to explain Himbo energy to me and they're like, it's
that look at Ghimli gim Ghimbli. I haven't heard that one, and that's
good. And I was like, he's he's he's a little more toxic than
than than Himbo's tend to be. But I'll give it to him. He's
taught. Oh, I don't think he's toxic at all. I think he's
just he's a grumpy idiot and he doesn't get wrong's wrong until like way at
the end. I love him. He's he's bob buddy. Um, but
no sinsily, thank you everybody who backs froth in Um. Like I said,
like Riley said, we're gonna be chipping this out over the next month,
so some of you are actually gonna get early. Um, we can't
promise that everyone is going to get it early because we're gonna be shipping out,
you know, in waves. We're gonna be doing the best we can
to get that out. But um, sincerely, thank you to everybody who
backed it, everybody who is a part of it, everybody who made ten
thousand razors sharp slugs m So again, huge thank you to all of you.
You were all amazing. We love you and we really appreciate you.
Second game in the Tank for Destined Works, I can formally announce we've got
two projects. But by the way, my first level one game is called
in the Tank? Is it really? Yeah? You You play a colony
of algae slowly becoming trying to become a sentient and trying to stave up death.
Amazing. Before every round the character has to begin narration within the tank
and then they describe something that's changed in the tank. Fantastic. Um,
I'll have to I need to download that. That I download that that version
of Level one. I'll probably just I'll probably just like reproduce it and put
it on it or something. Do it all right, let me know when,
But sincerely thank you for everybody. This is our second project as Deskin
Works, and I can formally announced we've got two more projects next year.
Um. So if you're are a fan of our work and you like it.
M we've got two more coming next year. You get after the rain
over at IPR. You could of course get digital copies of all the stuff
on it. Shout iou, including for within the digital copies. If you
are a digital backer, you've got your copy like two three months ago.
Um so because we that layout was done. So but any case, um,
yeah, I think it's time for a word question, gam Are you
ready? Absolutely? Are you ready? Yes? And also no simultaneously,
but it doesn't matter glad anyway. All right, So, if you're watching
on YouTube, perhaps you've noticed that behind me is a Airy era specific image
of a woman on a seaside beach with the human head, a nice hat
a paracel on the body of a shrimp. So to that end, one
morning, one morning, when Kyle at woke from troubled dreams, he found
himself transfer formed in his bed into a horrible blank You've been turned into a
monsterosity like this, Kyle. Uh, you have the body of some kind
of food, but you still have your head. Okay, what is the
worst thing you can imagine? The body? Probably? Um, I was
gonna say food, but technically that works. Yeah, it is right,
because like I was thinking about like the best one, like if I was
a giant lobster. I feel like that's just a strict upgrade. Big Why
I said worst fun idea of waking up from troubled dreams and finding yourself transformed
in your bed is you look down at your body and your body is some
kind of food. I think it's I think it's got to be a snail.
I think because you would track slime everywhere, which would stink just from
a just a general like cleanliness perspective, as somebody who's I do. But
I am slow and like airborne chemicals can kill me, like salt kills me.
Like I die too literally everything like I can't imagine. I don't know,
Like maybe that's maybe that's good. Maybe then your existence is cut short.
You know, Yeah, I almost want to be an eternal lobster overlord.
But you know, I think it's it's got to be snail, I
think. So that's not the weird question. Yes, was a good thing,
Yeah, no, snail, snail still my pick. I'm going my
gun on this one. U. S Cargo makes me want to be s
car gone um, and that's that's gonna be it. Well, you would
be very quickly, very quickly, I think I'm going to answer banana,
because I would slowly appeel myself, uh and my I would be the suggestion
of limbs. So I would be taunted by having these peel like tentacles that
I would attempt to to, you know, turn the door knob with it
would fail utterly, and I think the horror, the sorrow would overcome may
because of what I was being taunted by, um, a banana with a
human head. You have watched Community, right the I like the first three
or four seasons, Okay, just all I could think about is the after
credits thing was it's Abed and Troy, the two characters, and they're sitting
in the top for those of year and yeah thank you where they're just they're
sitting to these two characters, they're best friends. They're sitting and they're aft
after Halloween party. One of them is dressed like Batman and one of the
other ones dressed like young Michael Jackson, and they're both talking in the Batman
voice, like do you ever I love candy corn a kind of safety cones?
Do you do you ever think about it? Like if you woke up
as a candy corn. You'd eat yourself. I wouldn't even think about it.
And there's just like a long pause, like I'm glad I have someone
to talk to you about this. Just that's all I can think about.
When you're like, oh about your bananas, It's like I would I'd eat
myself. I wouldn't even think about it. I wouldn' even question it.
Start I'm afraid you were gonna go pickle Rick, because I realized with this
question, Oh no, no, no, no, no no, I
was not gonna go pay I think I've had enough pickle Rick. I think
to last a lifetime, as I imagine the Dan Harmin connections. So yeah,
yeah, I'm more of a community. I'll be a community stand probably
forever. But in any case, guys, that has been the end of
our amazing PlayStation run. Graham, thank you again for for ranking one hundred
and twenty seven PlayStation game. It was my pleasure and it was it was
my pleasure of well to listen to and to go on that journey with you.
If you have all liked this again, you can follow us on all
of your podcast websites. All that Jazz get a copy of fear within after
the rain and then uh, you know, when Graham puts in the tank
on h dot Io will let you know, and then you can you can
support your sentient algae masters. Oh yeah, so I think that's gonna be
it for our episode. So until then, zippity zap zao, stay buggy,
especially if you're at desk. Goodbye, everybody,