You know what time it is, Gates Wad after dark. It's coming to
y'all live from Los Angeles for Summer Game Fest. Apparently they gave us the
keys to the to our LA studio here at the Phantom Office. Well,
no, they didn't give you the keys, oh they did. They didn't
give me the key specifically, y'all got keys, but I didn't because I
don't even know if I work here. But you know what, we're gonna
do this thing. Well, Kurt also didn't get Kurt. Yeah, so
I don't feel so definitely works here. Although the more I talked to him
today, I'm gonn even see it's not a real person, No, because
it was Kurt wasn't even man the myth, the legends. Literally, whatever
he tells you, keep your head on a swivel. I can't trust that,
dude. But yes, we're here covering Summer Game Fest. We just
got off of covering the SGF official stream, and we saw some things that
may have leaked as well afterwards, which well we'll get to you'll talk about.
We'll talk about certain people in here are enjoyers of a I said thing,
But yeah, you did you ever see it coming? I saw it.
I saw it coming. Anyway, I'm your house for this week,
Michael Higham, and this is a very special episode. We got real swat
episode because I am joined by Jacob Decker. Hello, Hello, Jean Luke
psype, and finally, my good friend Jess Howard is in the building on
Thank God. I'm so happy that you're on here, Jess. I feel
like be here. Yeah, I feel like we've we've been needing to or
we've been wanting to clap for a minute. Yeah, and finally I knows.
Yeah. Yeah. So I think the first time I came in contact
with you, you were doing a story for I feel what you're doing.
But it was about PERSONA four. Oh it was for Uppercut. Yeah,
okay, so it was for Uppercut. Yeah, and it was about problematic
phase I think or some sh Yeah, it was. It was about like
in PERSONA five. How the whole theme of it is is like adult adolescence
is like adults who who kind of abuse their power, especially over the younger
generation. And then it kind of makes it weird that you can have sex
with a teacher and those are allowed to say that. Oh I don't know,
I'm just kidding. That you can have relations with, you know,
a teacher and a doctor and like older women when the whole like first arc
is about Predator. But anyway, yeah, yeah, well yeah great that
those are the pretenses in which we we we met each other. But yeah,
I think it's wild to like have seen your trajectory through games media and
then you landing at GameSpot. I'm just like hell, yeah, yeah,
it's good to be here. So yeah, Justice in the building covering SGF
alongside all of us here and if y'all were covering or watching our coverage,
we had pre and post shows for the SGF stream. You all saw Kurt,
Tam and Lucy. They're on business right now. So now the kids
can play. Yeah yeah, so but yeah, a stream we're gonna talk
about Are we gonna talk about games we've been playing when we've been There's one
game I do want to talk about that John Luke and I have been playing
that We talk about last yea and even last week. You asked me and
like, so, what have you been playing there? Anything on the tackground?
I was like nah, And I was like wait a second, no,
there is I do that all the time. We're like, oh,
I'll be like, I mean, I can't wait to talk abound on the
podcast immediately forget it. Yeah, and then the second the podcast as I'm
like, fuck, yeah, I should have talked about that. Okay,
I'm hyped up now. So I guess we can talk about video games per
minute and then we'll probably like do a highlights roundup of Yeah, what's thet
to us? Yeah, and we'll save the best for last. Totally shit
that. I feel like you should should just say the leak now it happened,
because okay, yeah, I think we should get out of this number
one. Also, you know, strike while the iron's hot, isn't that
the phrase? Sure? I mean I don't know, I've rother wrench in
the fire, throw a wrench in the fire. Will we tell you the
PR team through a wrench in the fire accidentally revealed it. Yeah. So
Persona three Reload is the remake and it's it's real. Yeah bam, because
they shooting they have themselves in the more fucking head yo, that's fucking yeah.
Persona three is wild. So I think I feel like I've said this
many times, is when I finished Persona three, like it's it's a very
special game. To me, it's what I say, Jake, Persona five
rolls my favorite game of all time. Persona three is my favorite Persona so
and it's weird because that totally makes sense. Don't don't know, don't eat
into this, don't Persona is like metal Gear. We're like depending on like
the mood I'm in, like my favorite game change, it's like, oh,
you know, like and I feel real depressed Persona three. Yeah,
yeah, I feel I felt feeling bold. Yeah, like I want to
I want to fight the system and fight God. Yeah, Persona five maybe
if I if I'm murder you. I think that's what's so cool about Persona
three getting this remake though, is because I mean I reviewed it for game
Spot earlier this year, and I think that one of the things I said
in my review because it was my first time playing it, is narratively like
it might be the best Persona game I've played, because I think that it's
just really strong and the emotional beats that it hits, and like even some
of the side characters like I'm like the dying man and oh my gosh,
like it just like yeah, yeah, especially like coming from the perspective of
a new mom when I did that storyline because the last like his tenth thing.
Well, I'm not gonna spoil stuf actually he has, right, but
like, oh my gosh, Yeah, there's just some really good emotional beats
in that game. And like Persona five, I get what you mean by
being your favorite game because it has it's like polished, and it has a
cool style, and it has it just has the modern trimmings right, and
it has these characters that feel very much like people you know, where I
feel like three is a little bit more abstract, but I feel like if
it gets that treatment, like it could be the best of both worlds.
Could Yeah. I do have a question though, because you were talking about
person I mean earlier before we even saw the leaked announcement. You're talking about
just Persona three in general talking about it, and you're saying that that one
is much darker. Yeah. Do you think, like, based on that
trailer that this looks as dark because I feel like that's on A five style
is a little more. Yeah, there's a there's an upbeat feature the way
you think, So from what it's hard to say at this point, to
me, it felt like they were keeping with the tone of there is a
lot of silly shit in Persona three. Yeah it's three. Yeah, Yeah,
definitely. It still has a lot of levity and a lot of the
darker emotional stuff comes from just like some of the story beats and the the
arcs of the characters go through. And if this remake is true to that,
then it will strike the same tone. I believe. Yeah that that
trailer leaked shortly after the SGF stream. Yeah, and shit was brazy.
Man, Like, I've been thinking about this ship. I've been thinking about
a three remake for so long, and I would I would walk around I
said this on the PlayStation stream, but I would pace around my apartment and
just like daydream of what a reveal trailer would look like, what a what
a three remake would look like. In the five style, especially when Dancing
and Moonlight came out, it was like they made they made, made the
environments, you made the assets, built the game around it, which is
probably what they did. Yeah, that was like the Blueprinter it could have
been. Yeah. So the lead trailer started with I Gus on the beach,
which is one of the scenes in Moonlight and dancing in Moonlight. That's
one of the songs. It's her. Oh yes, it's not dancing in
this game in three reload, but but it's it looks like the same assets
from its Moonlight. That's great because those character models are one they're lovely.
Yeah, and they're great, And I I want to watch the trailer back
again. I want to do I'll do like a trailer breakdown or some shit.
Yeah, but I yeah, I have a lot of feelings. I
wish it was kind of like a little bit more of a surprise to me.
Sure, yeah, that's it is what it is? Yeah, yeah,
well because it's like I mean, so today was like the Big League
where we saw footage. But I feel like it's one of those things that's
been talked about for months now at this point like yeah, that that's too
And as as time has gone on, the more I'm like, I I
wouldn't be surprised, like like if it came out of nowhere, like that's
what's up, but it was less less surprised. It's more like what's what
are the what is it going to look like? Yeah, I was gonna
say, I still have a lot of questions because I think, like you
know, they it seems from the trailer that we're not going to get that
female protagonists real bummer because I think just like her writing and her social links
are like much much better, much better than they were. But you know,
they might rewrite a lot of this stuff. Like that's the thing.
I'm like, I hope they rewrite stuff. I hope they like change up
the pacing because like Tartar's needs an overhaul, Tartar's needs an overhall. I
was talking about it with Kurt where it's just like, yeah, like it
was the first time they did all of the calendar years school system that you
know, Persona to have started with three. Yeah, so like the original
three, especially Portable, kind of like improved it. But the original three,
like some of the pacing was like kind of whack, like like like
you if you if you play that game right like the final month, you
have nothing to do. Yeah, you're just like skipping days. And there's
definitely yea world about it. So like there's a lot of ways they could
like improve upon it. I'm also curious if they would add like the Answer
storyline, which is like the Answer which is it was like blog that they
added for which is It's interesting. It's like I like I like some of
the story beats they do. Also, the music is fantastic, fantastic,
yeah, because that's where Hartful cry. Yeah, playing it is kind of
a slog and I'm not like the biggest fan of the actual like playing through
the answer, but I do like some of the like story beats that they
put in it, and it yeah, and it adds. It's like a
nice capper, Like it's a nice conclusion I think, because like not to
get into it, but like some of three ends in a way where it
ends in a good way, but like it definitely like leaves you with a
couple of like quest class you might want to have answers answer the answers,
so it's there to answer your question. So I'm kind of curious if they
integrate that how yeah, how they're gonna in any way or if not.
If they don't, I also think it could be fine because again I do
think three on its own, Three on its own, I guess. So
maybe we're at a point again where it's it's kind of the Final Fantasy seven
remake thing where yeah, I guess there's like a new embargo on the spoilers
that everyone's going to kind of follow an institute. Yeah, all themselves,
because I mean this game has been out for many, many, many years.
But but yeah, it's a I'm I'm I'm tripping about it. No,
I'm cool because continue. But there was another leak too that really well
it was it was that other Persona game that was Tactica Persona five Tactica.
Oh, I think the trailer I didn't want live feed right now. This
happened at the same time. I didn't watch the trailer for it, but
I imagine it is a Persona five Tactics. It was like a farm sort
of. Yeah, but it's got like a cheap because there's an indie game
coming out called Demon School and it's like a tactics basically Persona game where you
play, and so I'm like, oh, that's interesting that that's happening right
now. I mean, even like three Houses kind of felt like it was
starting to like borrow. Certain like the time management aspect of it makes a
lot of sense. Yeah, but the thing like collecting the demons and stuff,
what are they called them, person of the Forsona stuff. I think
collecting those and like using them on in a Tactics game I think could be
a pretty cool idea. Yeah, yeah, I mean those characters. Again,
I feel like watched the trailer, so I don't know, like how
heavy into the story it seems. But three is definitely going to be the
highlight of you know, whenever they choose to officially show that. But yeah,
I don't know. I uh. I feel like a sense of relief
now that it is like confirmed that is actually a thing, rather than in
my mind just like thinking about the ship every day. And I played myself
earlier during Summer games Fest because they had a trailer for Summer game Fest.
Summer game Fest. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sees one game, really
the one game. Don't don't be greedy, they should lie as a pee.
And it opens with like a butterfly. Oh yeah, just like Persona's
whole thing, and so I was like, what's happening And I was like,
Oh, it's just the Pinocchio thing, which I'm also exciting four,
but I was like lies of Persona. I got myself, Oh my god.
But yeah, a lot of questions I think for P three reload,
Like you said, I feel like they would have to rewrite a lot of
stuff because some of it is outdated in like tone, especially with you know,
June pay and some of the social links, and also I would just
like to see more stuff, you know as well. It's just like new
things, like you know, yeah, so go wild ooh boy. They
said that trailer, the lead trailer says early twenty twenty four. Yeah,
yeah, I hope I'm alive by then We're still around and say by then
what or what by then or like at that time? Oh my god.
So but yeah, that was that was leaked, but like that was not
part of official f f GC what the fuck SGF stream? Yeah, but
I mean, since we're still talking about the stream and ship, Yeah,
what does anything anyone want to bring up? Because I do want to talk
about seven rebirths. I was gonna say that's the big right now? Well
yeah, why not? Okay, sure, I mean I was pretty excited
for Ellen Wake. I think seeing more act actual gameplay and like, I
know, I think I heard them say at one point that it was going
to be more horror focused, like more survival horror, but actually seeing the
game play and being like, oh, this is heavily inspired by those Resident
Evil remakes too, in particular, which I'm totally okay with, you know,
like I'd be super curious what Remedy does with that gameplay style. Like
everyone's talking about the story because that's mostly what we've seen, and to be
fair, that's what I'm most excited about, but actually seeing that gameplay and
like I think that perspective in particular will be a lot of fun with like
you know, whipping out the flash flight to reveal the weak spots or whatever
and pop them. But yeah, that that looks pretty clean. It was
good. It's such like a natural evolution for them too. I mean,
because like playing I mean I've only played three of their games. I played
Alan Wake and then American Nightmare and Control, and it's like they're so horror
adjacent, like the supernatural kind of horror and all of those is so prominent.
So like it just makes sense, like this is a very natural evolution,
and I feel like they're going to nail it. Yeah, I mean
traditional horror or like the psychological horror element too, Like because for me,
Control was even Max Payne and when we talked about this when Kurt was on
the other week, that there's there's always been an a horror tinge to all
the REMEDIESE games. Yeah. Yeah, but it's never been at the forefront
necessarily, but even the first Alan Wake. Yeah, I think they straight
up has called like a scary action game, like they did not want to
call it horror. To me, it is, I like, especially like
if you're someone who's terrified of like just the woods, yeah, and like
the unknown like that games that games pretty scary. Yeah, So I hope
it's a little goofy though, you know it, because I'm sure it will
be. But I'm excited Sam Lake's facing it. What I'm excited to see,
like the interesting weird things. Yeah, they decided to do because yeah,
I think that's the stuff with Alan in the what's it called the other
world that he's in. I've heard there's a name for it. There is
I can't remember. I want to say the depths, but I was going
to say the outside down. It's not that anyway, Like I think that's
where some of like the real weird, trippy cool stuff will be. Yeah.
I mean I feel like, well we saw it at the during the
PlayStation stuff, but it was nice to see Sam Lake on stage kind of
showing explaining that game a little bit more. Someone in the chat said the
Dark Place, the Dark play. Okay, that's alway too U. Seven
rebirth was probably it was the Yeah, I know, I know you're Yeah,
I mean, we are all very very happy. And I've thought a
lot about as I've replayed seven the original, I thought a lot about because
seven remake kind of it takes itself quite seriously. There's a lot of goofy
shit that happens between Midgar like after Midgar in the original. Seven. Yeah,
there's a lot of goofy shit that helped. Yeah, they're thinking about
how they're gonna incorporate fucking Hojo chill on a beach, yeah, shit like
that. And yeah, because i mean, based off of what we saw,
it looks like this will take us at least to like Coastedal Salt,
right, because I saw you saw Jenen and you see like the ship and
stuff, right, and that Genova fight on the ship and that ship is
going to Coastal sal Yeah, so like yeah, and like that that is
even that is that's probably that would probably cover maybe like I'm only a third
of whatever what's happening, because also the god and I would think that it
would actually they're probably just like withholding more stuff because there's no way they could
even end there. There's so much after that game or like after that part
in the game. Yeah, it's a massive game. So that was the
thing that capped off the SGF presentation was the gameplay reveal for or a non
gameplay reveal because we have we have seen it in the past, but it
was like an extended gameplay trailer for seven Rebirth Final Fantasy seven Rebirth, and
yeah, it's if you played Remake, you understand the links at which they
are changing that original story, and so for Rebirth, it's another fucking chapter
where they're just going to do even more wild shit because like Remake ends,
and it feels like seven can be whatever it wants to be now it's not
beholden to it what it was on the original release. So I think the
wildest thing to me was the very last scene of the trailer where so like
Tifa is running up the stairs to seffer Off and stuff like that. So,
I mean, because that's all that happens in like every version of seven
when they tell that story, but seff Roth says, I killed you.
How is she still alive? Timeline? So it's like, and it's a
weird question because that's one of those things like when you play seven, you're
like people is like stabbed like just through her body, Like how is she
still alive in the present, and so like, I don't know if we're
going to have this reality where like maybe Tifa died in that moment and there's
like an I don't know, there's gonna be something weird going. Well,
I'm beginning as well where we showed like Midguard destroyed and it shows like Tifa's
body carted away, and it's like, are we getting into some like multiple
timeline that's like Whispers and ship and yeah, and Zach showing up in seven
remakes? Also, I mean there's very heavily implied that, like Eric clearly
kind of seemed to know, yeah, what was like certain events in like
seven remake. So the implication being like she is someone who is like looping
time or is like seen as happening before kind of you know, it seems
like based off of the first and I'm sorry there's kind of light spoilers for
people who haven't played like remake yet, but like sorry, but it seems
like both Seffroth and Erith have like a record or like are aware of there
being multiple universes, yes, based off what they say, So there could
be something with like the Ancients that they're related to. Yeah, and maybe
that gives them the ability to see this stuff. But yeah, I mean
to me, the most interesting part for sure was just like that final line
with Sefroth being like Tifa should be dead. I killed her, Like what
who is this new person? And I was like, I am I am
all for like that kind of nonsense as long as like it's told in a
way that is like easy enough to follow. I think like that's the part
where I get because like a Kingdom heart situation on your hands, I don't
know, I don't quite want that is someone who played a lot of Kingdom
Hearts. Boy, did I not know what was happening at all? Yeah?
Three, that's not that's not like slander. Again, well maybe it
is slander, it's Kingdom hards, but I think the tone of remake veered
a little close to king especially towards the end with whispers and shit. I'm
like, oh, we're getting to some kh level. Like I said,
I'm into it. Yeah, you just need to kind of like if they
if they can channel that energy in the right direction. Yes, that's shit.
I mean I'm here for I love I love that stuff, and I'm
all for like if they want to bring up references to the other like Extended
seven stuff like Advent Children and you know dir Cerberus, which I know they
kind of did with the US a little bit like yeah, and like when
wildly deep into Dirgy Cerberus stuff. Yeah, and it's like again, I
guess the like remake does too with the underground stuff. Yeah, I'm cool
with that as long as like they still contextualize in a way that for like
the average person. Sure for me the dummy like Jake, and then I'm
like, okay, cool, at least I like can follow along with this,
you know. So shit, Yeah, it is like interesting having those
because I know a lot of people who like their first time touching Final Fantasy
seven was with remake. That was me. That was like, have you
played the original at all? I went back and played it. After I
played as much of the original as like, I made it to the where
I finished, I played like, yeah, five five hours, five hours,
and I was like, cool, I guess I'm revisiting. Yes,
in four years, I played the whole thing, and it was like it
was interesting thing going back and like looking at remake because like a lot of
this stuff, especially at the ending, like I was like like went over
my head. Yeah, I was just like okay, cool, Like everyone's
like losing their mind about you know, these reveals, and I was just
like us first, well, I had so many conversations with like friends and
I was like, so like what did you get out of that? Like
how did you like does everything and like they would ask me to explain.
There was one of my friends was like, who the hell was that cat
when everything was blowing up? Because because Kate said, is just like chilling,
I don't have no fucking idea. Yeah, I'm like, oh the
song of the Hedgehog characters showed up, Like yeah, there was like also
there also having now played seven fuck Kates if sucks, I don't remember about
he yeah problematic? Well no, no, no, like more just like
just like like the trail, the trail. Yeah. Yeah, he's not
the best. Although it's interesting that in remake they like actually like contextualize his
character more than they did in the original, which like it is setting him
up to be a more interesting character already he is in the remake, which
is the thing I like the most about remake is that I feel like they
took like the the like templates of the characters and like really just like drew
them out, and like I was like man, like I like I enjoyed
playing seven when I like did go back and play it, but yeah,
I was like the characters I really fell in love with where the remake versions
like I want them to keep doing that, and so like Final Fantasy seven
is one of the first games I ever remember playing, like I was four
years old, and like my mom, like my family bought it right after
it came out, and my mom would like put choke about racing on automatic,
and I would like sit there and pretend that I was doing stuff like
that, and like I watched her play it, I watched my dad play
it. I tried playing it. It went over my head, but I
just thought the whole thing was cool anyway, and like, so I don't
know it's it just like it means so much to me, and it is
what was I even gonna say, though I was gonna say something related to
that. Oh my gosh, I do Oh my god. Somebody actually said
where was Vincent? I also agree where was Vincent? I wanted to want
that refuel to happen as I play. I don't want. Yeah, that's
that's valid. It was cool that you know, we're going to get to
actually play as a like Red thirteen and yeah. So I was like,
all right, good, Like they're expanding the cast. I'm so mad because
I had something to say that was irrelevant to that, but I just got
wrapped up and let us know. You did also say like there's gonna be
so many ridiculous moments in there too, and I like, oh my god,
I hope they keep them all in. What's the moment with uh?
Is there like a scene where like a guy gets hit by like a truck
or something in the middle of Oh is it during the parade? Oh?
Yeah, gets hit by the truck whenever they're stealing the tiny bronco. That
scene is so funny in the original game, but it only like the way
they did it like makes perfect sense in the context of it being like you
know, turn based games. So like, I'm very curious how you translate
that joke into like real time, like I hope they do. I hope
they find a way to make that work short because it's so slapstick and over
the top. So it's like, but no, I remember what I was
gonna say. But just as a kid, like you're so like, obviously
that game is technologically limited, narratively limited because it came out in ninety seven.
Yeah, but like, as a kid with an imagination, I was
taking these characters, you feel like stealing them in Like that's where I mean.
If I go back and play now, I'm just like, oh,
man, like Tifa doesn't have as much personality as like the personality I created
for the localization is like not up to yeah, like today's standards. But
I mean like, as a kid, I saw Tifa and I was just
like, this is the best person I've ever seen in my entire life.
She's so cool. I want to be her and also marry her. But
yeah, so I mean, like that's the coolest thing for me going back
and playing like Remake and then in the future Rebirth is it's like it adds
all those context of these characters that I gave context to in my mind.
It's like yeah, it's like it's like it's giving back what you like,
what you originally took exactly. Yeah, validating You're like, yeah, that
was one of the things going into the first remake of in twenty twenty,
I thought about, like I have, and we've seen them in multiple other
Final Fantasy seven things, but I like, you develop your own version of
those characters, because like nothing is spoken. I'm like, well, damn,
they're gonna have new voice actors, you know, like maybe they're not
gonna line up. But I feel like remake just it was. It was
what I thought of, was what I wanted it to be. But yeah,
rebirth, Like, I think the one thing I want to mention is
because after Macgon, that's when seven opens up into the overworld map and I
was like, Okay, well, how are they going to do that?
Because part of that part of that is exploring the rest of that world,
and we have to see on the trail in the trailer rdan Chokebos, the
whole party. It's beautiful, it's vast. So I love the recreation of
the open world aspect of seven and seeing June on then the scale of that
place is was massive, Like even in the PlayStation version, you get the
sense that this is a massive place. Has like the CGI and FMV cut
into to show you the whole place. I'm like, yo, this place
is massive. There's things happening. This is a real living city. So
to see that the how that's been recreated in terms of scale, and it's
very visually striking. And I can't wait to participate in the parade. Oh
my god. Yeah, dress up as one of the soldiers and march with
them. I hope they have the marching mini games too. I don't know
how they're gonna do it, but they're like, oh, we need like
the finale, like the finishing move and Cloud does his little ice spinning and
oh my god, it's so so good. That shows so goofy. It's
so fun, so goofy like, and I have hope that they'll keep it
because they totally embrace that stuff with Wall Street and like, oh yeah,
remake like they kept it goofy as hell, and I'm like, okay,
cool. So like we will see the dolphin, we will see the parade.
We will see like Cloud dressed as a sailor, or like Cloud chilling
in the hot tub with like the two buff guys. Yeah yeah, hell
yeah, that's so excited. Final Fantasy baby yea. Oh man, but
yeah, is there anything else from SGF you want to know? Jake?
Sorry, we we had we Bower just now, So I mean I'm excited
to seven yeah, rebirth as well. I think I'm actually going to replay
remake ahead of it. Yea. I will say, after seeing that trailer
and seeing a lot of the marketing for sixteen, I definitely feel like that
edgy or darker what I've seen of sixteen is definitely more of my speed.
Okay, because like I remember when seven came out and I the remake and
I really enjoyed it. But like I remember talking to John Luke and like
my opinion on that game would change all the time, like something They'd be
like, yeah, I really like this game, and some days I'd be
like, oh I didn't like that they did this or this kind of bugged
me. So I don't know, I'm so excited I'm going to replay remake
again because I mean I did that Combat's really good. I like those characters
as well, And yeah, there's a lot of promise for this and I'm
excited that people are getting it too. We did talk about though, that's
kind of weird that we saw that like weeks before sixteen. I don't oh,
yeah, Like I think that made it surprising but maybe not in like
like a surprising way. I guess I don't know, Like it's just like,
oh, I guess they're doing I guess they're showing it. Yeah,
I guess it's like it's supposed to come out soon ish, so it makes
sense. But also give a release date early. It's a window early.
Okay, I'm fucking Persona three remake and f seven rebirths. Oh, there
was like two other games that are back to back too, Like there was
one that Oh, Spider Man too is like a couple of days after Alan.
Wait, I think they're both in October, and I think like Assassin's
Creed around that time or something. Yeah, there's been a fucking crazy year
for videos. Yeah, that's what I was excited to come Summer Games Fest
obviously hang out with everyone, you know, like I love the energy.
But I was like, man, that means I won't be able to play
Diablo for a while, I won't be able to play Street Fight. Well,
John Luke found ways to still play, Like, I mean, I
brought my switch to play Zelda, but I'm still like, I'm not going
to play Zelda while I'm here, Like I've been playing Zelda while I'm home
where it's just all weekend, I just play Zelda. So like it's weird
because usually around this time of the year, it's like no releases. I'm
just catching up playing games that I maybe missed, their games that I've been
wanting to play for a while. They're replaying old stuff. But now it's
just like this has been a crazy year, yeah already. I mean oh
no, I mean like last year, I remember we got pretty close to
like Game of a Year time and I was like, oh, man,
like there's a whole bunch of these little games that like I really should get
through. But luckily there's nothing that like stands out to me right now.
So I'm gonna play through a bunch of them. So I play through like
Pentiment and God, I don't even know, just a bunch of like like
smaller games, like I'd probably like six or seven games throughout like November and
decem like leading up to that. And now I'm like I need to do
this now because because it's just like it's been non stop like bang or after
bang or what's that like Lady Guga clip where it's like like hotel no sleep,
like like wake up, do it? Again, Like that's basically how
this year is felt, is like just constant stream of games and they're all
good and I want to play them all yeah. Yeah, And so yeah,
I think we have a better idea of what the second half of the
year looks like now, Yeah, because I think that was a big question
before, before this, before SGFA, a couple of weeks ago, We're
like, what's coming. Like the first half has been incredible, honestly,
Uh, Steve Watts wrote up a thing on the site and should check that
out about how this is like probably like the best first half of a year
for games that we've ever had, and I was like, ah, this
usually it's October November when we get the fuck Bangers, you know what I'm
saying. But now it's like, wow, we actually got everything we needed
sort of, but it's like still excited about everything coming out in October November.
So it also just makes me think of like last year we went to
Game of the Year and like we all pretty much had like a solid idea
of like what our top was, and we had like this big consensus like
everybody played and loved elden Ring basically, so like we went into that and
it was pretty easy to have these conversations. Now I'm like, I don't
know, Like he's gonna be It's gonna be an interesting year. There's so
many like so many of us love like Diablo and Street Fighter and Zelda and
like Metroid Prime Remastered came out this year and like that was amazing. So
I don't Chronicles three Future Redeems. Yeah, I can't forget about that.
Yeah, there's just been so many good games, like in Golem, Like,
yeah, Lucy James is here at SGF, but she is not on
this podcast. Unfortunately. I think you still need to, you know,
get requests, request her, like hit her up at mentioned her Dollom spoiler
cast. It could still happen with the power of the players. With your
help, we can have a Gollumb spoiler cast. So yeah, we didn't
We didn't tell you how to do that. Just do it. Yeah,
Yeah, it's good. It's good. That's gonna be Gollum is gonna be
Dope's home. See where it lands on our list? What was I?
What was I? What was I gonna say? Shit? Anything else?
In SGF? Maybe I don't know shit moral combat we have moral combat?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I really like m K eleven. Oh I
do doo. Yeah, yeah, I think story wise, I think m
K eleven is fucking dope. Yeah, so them doing like a prequel kind
of like Timeline, they could do whatever they want with. Yeah, they
could do whatever they want with Moral Kombat. So I like the tone that
they're striking with this one, where it's just not like evil or it's not
like it's not like dark and ripping. Well there's still ripping spines out and
crack goals and shit, but like a lot of the stages look colorful.
They're being very playful. I'm really glad they're they're keeping up the poppy colors
of eleven. I really did not like the way X looked. X was
like real, like moody, like lord like trying to be all like and
I was like, it's fine, and then like eleven was just like saturated
colors, and this they're like even more saturated. Yeah. Yeah, it
looks good, really good. Honestly, like it looks it looks very nice.
What do y'all think of the cameo system. I mean, I've played
a lot of Tag Fighters, but yeah, it's kind of seems kind of
interesting. It seems like a thing like how can we add, well,
can we add to this combat system that we haven't done yet, And it's
like fucking cameos, right, Yeah, especially because like eleven felt like so
tight, Yeah, and that I was like, oh man, like I
don't really know where you where do you go for there? You go from
there as far as like the fundamental immortal combat. So it's so it's a
solid way to like add something new to it. Yeah, Yeah, it's
interesting. Yeah, it seems like you can you can call in cameo fighters
as like as an assist during there, and if the way you it up
is you can extend combos integrate some of the moves. Yeah, so I
think I think that can add a lot of depth and like oh, I
meane this character, but if I choose whoever for cambos, I can do
this specific combo string or I can like do some wild shit. So Tam
kind of talked about it on the Post show that like it sort of like
it just extends to creativity, especially for like think of like the E Sports
scene where like eleven was like it was like almost too tight, or it's
like that game got it felt very calculating, it got dialed in real quick,
and then it's like all right, like everyone just knows how to play
this game, and this is what you do and this is how you win.
Like this just kind of opens up the floor to like a lot more
creativity and like it's like the whole idea of like duel typing and Pokemon.
Right, Like you open that door and it says, oh, this changes
every exactly. Whoa, Yeah, Jake knows all about that. We're talking
Pokemon. I was a team building this morning. I have still I'm still
playing. Holy shit, you know, Jake is a sicko when it comes
to down. How did you feel about the Pokemon with Guns? I didn't.
I didn't watch that trailer. I thought that game already came out,
because I feel like people have been talking about that forever. Yesterday on Instagram.
I'm like, what if this looks looks yeah, yeah, I have
very little interest. Yeah sure, yeah dude, it's it's like let's play
bait, like that's the whole thing just looks like yeah, it seems like
someone from like two thousand and nine came up with that idea, you know,
like it just feels all old and dated and it's very like edgy kind
of I don't know, has like that edgy humor vibe to it. Yeah,
like cute things with guns and violence, and like they're gonna cuss and
stuff, and it's like, all right, the Pokemon cuss or the po
they're not Pokemon. I don't know if I'm just saying I'm just saying shit,
the legally distinct evy, Oh my god. So yeah, that's's a
bunch of other stuff from summer game fests, Oh Yakuza, like sorry,
like a dragon dragon, like a dragon guide in the man name the Man
who Races, the Man Who Races, Man who Sold the World. Yeah,
there you go. That's that's the one cool gameplay ship that they're showing.
It's it's back to action brawler for Cure You because this is like his
between story from six to like a dragon that came out. Like they've kind
of integrated some of the feel or flavor of Judgment's combat, which I think
Judgment's combat is sick, but that's cool. Yeah, you guys, A
fucking Cure You has like some kind of Spider Man type shit where he can
like grapple items from the world, pull it towards him. Yeah, yeah,
and start swinging that shit around like what the fuck it came with the
new hair. It's yeah, honestly, every game would be better if you
had a grappling hook. So yeah, what if you use that shit for
just swinging around the city. I need to get you want to get to
the top of Millennium Tower. Motherfucker. That should be sick. No,
but I'm super excited about that. That's coming out in November also, so
I'm talking about talking about lining up some bangers right there. That's like one
thing I noticed with the showcase too. I don't think that there were any
games that had like this like super far out release window. Everything was basically
within the year, within a year. Yeah, the actual event happening,
which is Prince of Persia looked pretty good. That was that was the first
game that showed us. Yeah, it was crazy. I that that Prince
of Persia remake that kind of vanished off the face theater that they said,
and they've changed developers rebooted it basically. Well I think that's still in development,
but but I think they know that that got rebooted, like yeah,
like I think it got passed from it was gould be soft. I think
originally anyway, it was one of the branches. Yeah, and then it
is now it's back in Ubisoft Montreal's hand, and they were like, we're
in early development stages, and I was like, early development stages, y'all
posted a trailer with like a release date. Must have been like a scrap
sort of I think completely started over. But the one that was real today
that kicked off the whole all of HGF was what what's it called? It's
a side scrolling something of something, thank you something something I don't know.
Crown Crown, Yes, Crown Prince of Persia, Crown of Dawn. Was
it that or and I don't know if that's is it really? I don't
know. There's so much shit happening. They're going back to that, like
Jordan Meckner two D kind Yeah, that's really cool because esthetic which the Lost
Crown, the Lost Crown. There it is. I don't know where I
was thinking, Dawn. I don't know that's that sounded right, but yeah,
it's it's it's really it looks incredible, like having a three D like
two D side scrolling combat some of the some of the stuff that they were
showing with the combat in that game, and the traversal looks like, looks
pretty sick if it feels like, hey, we're gonna make you something that's
two D but give it a lot of depth and flavor. It looks like
visual style looks impressive. It's cool seeing that kind of stuff from You'd be
soft too, especially like after that period where they were just kind of releasing
those open world games with towers, Like, oh, I know we've talked
about so much at this point, but like seeing that kind of got me
excited for like, h yes, you could be working on but yeah,
I've seems pretty solid excited for that. God, there was an oh,
Sonic, I'm kind of Sonic World Stars super Stars Sonic Superstarstars. Yeah,
that's right. We see these trailers and we're like, that's sick. I
made the nails too, so I like pull the logos out of all of
this, so I read it. I just did go, oh, yeah,
I know, I did like our recap piece of like the biggest games,
and I'm just like, God, what did I write an hour ago?
I don't know. That's like, when when would you would you pay
attention like to every single little thing that's like one in one year and out
the others. It's like fun, I forgot you totally what we saw.
But uh but yeah, that was the first of many things that will we'll
be covering here at Game Spot for Sgfah. We're gonna start getting hands on
with games in the next couple of days. Yeah, so if you want
to know more about a lot of the games that were shown, I think
we're going to have you know, previews, coverage, We're gonna be doing
videos and shit. So if you want to learn more, you know where
you know, were a goal. I was gonna say, the fucking stick
it here, It's stick it in game spot it. Oh my god,
if you out there, that's my guy. Oh I do want to quickly
shout out the Devolver direct. The only thing I cared about from that is
me and Kurt, the two people on the planet. They're doing a remaster
shouts and the damn yeah chilling. Yeah. I was like fin was like
watching the TV and then like, uh Garcia Hotspur like just shows up like
in like real life and he's like shooting like these dudes in like an office,
and I was like what. I was just like my brain like couldn't
understand what I'm like, I'm like, is that Garcia Hotspur from shouts and
damn? And then like Kurt like saw it and then he looked at me
like what they had a fever dream? What was going on? Which I'm
like a sequel. I went I checked Slack to make sure ben Jenka knew.
Okay, oh he was on it. I think he knew before we
did. Yeah, we're we're the three three three sicks three ordering our copies
now. Now that's cool. I like that game and also like that game
is not possible to really get anymore. Yeah, it's one of those that
I've been lost the time. So yeah, like it's not backwards, not
ball or anything like that. So it's like, all right, cool,
like I'm glad you know, uh they're bringing it back. Grasshopper Joint,
Yeah, Grasshopper Joint. It's it's a weird one because like I know,
like Suda actually doesn't really like that game because like it was one of it
was one of those it wasn't it that ya wanted an action game? And
then yeah, like it's like fuck it, I'll guess I'll do it,
like to be fair, like I've you know, read like his original like
pitch idea of what that game was, and like it sounds really cool.
It's super not the day. It's very pretty much a completely different game.
So like I I definitely like feel for him about that, But at the
same time, i'd like shot was the damn for what it is. So
like I'm I'm glad. Yeah, that's that's that's wild all right. I
mean video games that we've been playing. I guess we can start talking about
you. We can talk about, Yeah, what's what's your grass? We
get to the Outlast Trials Oh, which came out like a few weeks ago.
I feel like I kind of th under the race. Yeah, because
Zelda, it like came out after Zelda, y'all think about again after like
then it was Diopplo and like all these other big games. So but it
is early access, so I don't think they were like hitting them marketing campaigns
all that hard on this. It'll hopefully get like a second win. Yeah
maybe as Trials early access. It is an early access co op horror game
that's structured very similarly. Maybe not structured, but it plays very similarly to
other Outlast games, and that you're being hunted and you hide and you don't
really have any offensive capabilities, so it's a lot of stealth, but you've
got three other people with you ideally, and then there's puzzles to solve,
and a lot of the puzzles are very solike, like you have to get
keys, and to get these keys you have to like pull them out of
neck holes and stomachs and like that's what it is, though, you know,
uh, and and like you're always trying to do something really like gory
and disgusting, and like I don't want to spoil it because there's some shocking
moments that I think playing by yourself might be a little too much, but
because you're in a group, it's like, oh, it's funny, we're
sawing this dude's legs off now. And like also I think that I think
that game has like a sense of like sulf aware humor about it that makes
it like it doesn't it doesn't feel like you're just playing this like weird edgy,
dark edgy thing like it's it's it feels a bit campy. It feels
more campy. It's a little campy, and like it's multiplayer like co op,
and in between missions. You're in this I don't know, I guess
like prison sort of. Yeah, you're in this like facility basically like in
the nineteen fifties, the government dragged a bunch of homeless people and said like,
hey, we're gonna like put these like lab rat experiments and they call
it therapy, and so you're like like level up your therapy points, which
is really fun. When you join, even if you're with friends, you
can see other players running around and their dumb little outfits that they get and
customize your cell. You can customize your cell. You can put posters up
in it. Yeah, wrestle. It sounds like the type of game that
is going to be like big on Twitch, Like that's going to be like
there's a lot of nudity, so I don't know, a lot of yeah,
well so yeah, it has a lot of dog dong. Yeah yeah.
Yeah. It's it's quite good though, because I think, like I
imagine this took a lot of fine tuning because I could very easily see how
outlasts could suck and co opera. But it works pretty well. Uh.
It's a lot of fun running from these things with friends because like you can
very much like something's chasing us. Split up, it's going to follow one
of you, one of you safe, so the safe one can go back
hit those objectives while you're trying to I don't know, like open door,
slam the door behind you. Some doors have locks that you can turn around
and interact within your character, like slowly locks it. So it's like tense
and they can just kick the door open if you're not quick enough, and
they'll grab you and throw you and stuff. It's like it sounds like there's
like a level of unpredictability with YEA in each level is yeah, we're talking
about how you can replay the same level, but it'll take you in different
parts of it, like kind of. So there's the main trial. I
think there's like four main trials that are like the longer story ones, but
then there's side ones that will unlock different areas of that trial and give you
different objectives with different things chasing after you, hunting you, whatever. But
I'm really impressed, really excited to see what they do with it. I
think it strikes a pretty good balance so far of being like like it definitely
borrows a lot from like live service games and that like you're meant to replay
these levels. You're you're grinding out like different equipment and different perks and stuff,
but it doesn't feel like you're just meant to sit down and replay these
levels a bunch. Yeah, but yeah, I'm having a good time.
It's a lot of fun figuring out like how to get through these levels as
best you can, and it grades you at the end. And normally I
don't care about that stuff all that much, but it is fun when like
you're with four people and you finish and you're comparing grades and like, looking
over, I got an A plus and like it's like I got a D
because I just got like stabbed twenty two, I got drugs plus a neck
hole digging. Not to ran too much about it, but one of the
cool things that that that that I find pretty entertaining is that there is one
enemy who will run around and basically just poison you. And if you get
poisoned, you start seeing things that other people don't see, and it comes
in the form of like this other creature. And it's cool because one person
could be tripping balls next to you and you're trying to find and you're trying
to find antidote form. So so if I find antidote, it's John Luke,
I have it. I have it. I'll run over to him and
like this awkward like hold it out and he gets to take it from me,
and all my characters just like shaking their head like freaking out, like
it's so weird looking. Yeah, like long for a Gotham Knights where Scarecrow
like is just doing stuff like that. Kind of Yeah, yeah, I
I really dig it. It's like it's just I think like they've they've tapped
into like that that co op kind of like survival aspect that I feel like
I've never quite seen a game managed to pull off. Or it's like really
difficult, right, like so I you know, would like to see more
of it and kind of yeah, like uh, I don't know, just
like it's it's terrifying, but it's also just like really goofy and and silly
and like has those like immersive or like emergent moments where you're just like fucking
around and having a good time kind of like like fastmophobia. I feel like
that's a lot of that too. Yeah, it's scary, but also it's
like you're with friends and it's like kind of goofy and silly, like you
know in like fastm phobia, like like you'll get killed by a ghost and
you'd be like, oh my god, that horrifying, and then like the
attension will immediately get broken because someone's like bodies like ragged alls yea or something
like this has moments like that where like I'll be like not quite as janky,
not quite as JANKI plish pretty polish. It looks very good, but
moments like I'll be like running from a dude and like he'll be like chasing
me, and I'll like turn around the corner and you can hide in trash
cans and like I would, I saw like Jake like like a little gopher
ahead just like pop out of trash see me and then immediately just be like
nope, or like it's so funny, or like just like like run into
a locker, like a double locker, and like I remember like running in
one, like and I just like turned and like Matt Patchett was just like
hiding there the whole time. I was like, ohay, Matt clod for
one time, I think I think one time I ran into a locker and
then like then you were hiding in and then the guy like found it because
of me, and you like opened it up, and I was like,
take Jake, like, don't Oh my god. That's well, that's cute.
I think it's quite good. It's one I'm definitely going to keep an
eye on. I'm excited to see how they expand on it. But yeah,
I mean it is early access, so it is not feature complete,
and you know that may turn people off, but I will say, like
for an early access game, it feels very polished. The production value seem
very high, Like it feels pretty cinematic considering you are goofing around with friends.
Like a lot of times when you enter a level, they'll introduce the
villain and they'll be a scene that'll be super well lit and you'll see him
through glass kind of like BioShock style and stuff, and they'll do something.
They'll like torture something or whatever. They'll yell shit, and it's like it's
cool, it's creepy, it's chilling, and then it kind of lets you
loose in. Yeah, it's well. It sounds very much too, like
like it has its own identity, which is really good too. Because he
started talking About'm like, oh, is it like a dead by daylight thing?
And then the more you talk about like, oh, it's like kind
of doing its own thing though, so that's unable. Yeah, that's that's
good. Yeah, And I really love the aesthetic of it because it's each
level is like based on a kind of horror location, like oh, here's
like an orphanage. Here's like a station. But because it's a like lab
experiment, it is like a fake set of an orphanage that they like put
together that you can like see the seams of you know, you're like,
oh, like this brick wall has like a seamony because it's a fake wall.
Yeah, like stuff like that. But also like they've clearly just been
like throwing like other experience other like lab rates like at it. So there's
all these just bodies in blood everywhere, and like it's just like, well,
those people died, all right, send the next people in and like,
yeah, you're the next person. Then it's cool. Mark Delaney has
an interview on gayspa dot com with the Outlash trial debts, and we talk
a little bit about the development process, plans that they have for the future,
things like that. So definitely check that out. Mark is also a
big, big horror person. Also, he's written like twenty articles about Alan
Wake till he has literally almost I was like, I don't know if it's
gonna be like sassy. I don't meet it in a sassy way. I
mean it's a compliment, but I almost wanted to like message and be like,
I think that you've written more books than than Alan Wake, because yeah,
he's no like he's on that coverage though, Like if you want some
Alan Wake like theories, interviews like whatever, like Mark is your person is
on it. Yeah, so yeah, anything you've been playing chess that you
want to talk about the real quick. Diablo four is like, I mean
Zelda, so like that's kind of been I was playing Zelda for a while
and then I started Diablo four, and it's been hard because both of them
are so good. I like flip back and forth and I'm like, oh
no, like I really want to do more like digging around in the depths
and Zelda, but also like my Rogue is getting pretty good, so I
kind of want to because I went with Rogue and I'm really loving it so
far. I literally almost bought Diablo on PCs. I could play on my
steam deck. Yeah, Tan Saity set it up on the steam deck and
it runs really well. Ever, like there's there's a there's a guy on
me dot com on how to do that or how to run Diablo four on
your steam deck. All right, well, you know, I'm definitely gonna
pep that. Yeah, that's what I found Rogue to be my least favorite
class. Timson about using Rogue too, and I'm just like, what are
you doing, Sorcer? Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, but yeah
four is it like still it's it's out there. A lot of people are.
I feel like a lot of people who never touched the Diablo before are
really into it. And I just think, like it's a very satisfying grind
it. Yeah, it gets you in and out real fast too, and
it's a great story also, surprisingly, So yeah, I haven't gotten too
far in story stuff because it's like it's different and that it has like what
like three paths and you can kind of like choose where you go. It
seems a little bit more I think, well, the acts you can take
them on in whatever order. Yes, Yeah, that's what it's. There's
like the three different acts and you can kind of choose and so like I'm
doing what I'm up north. That might be one. I think it's actually
two is what we're doing. But yeah, it's it's really I mean the
way that I described it is. Somebody was like, oh, how is
it? And I was like, it's like a very good Diablo game.
And I like Diablo. So it's great because it feels like that it is
very Diablo. Yeah, it feels very familiar. Someone who played a lot
of two back in the day. Sam, I'm like, oh wow,
yeah, this is the muscle memory is right, you right back, right
back at it. So that's cool. Any else, anything from Zelda you
want to mention? God, I don't know what can be said. I
feel like so much has been said about this is your time now if you
want to say something, I mean, it's incredible, Like I I absolutely
love it. I finally I did like all of the towers. I've only
put forty hours into it, so I feel like I'm less I know only
only but like I looked at my time, like the day that I don't
remember who posted it, but somebody was like it might have for some reason.
I want to say it was like Callie did Callie season. You can
check your time. Yeah. She was like, today is the day you
can like check your time. And I checked it and I was at like
thirty five hours or something, and I was yeah, and then I yeah
or more, and then I was looking at everybody else's and everybody was like,
oh, I hit seventy. I'm like, I was like, holy
shit, how are y'all doing this? And then I was like, well,
I have a kid, ye say no kid. Yeah, I rolled
credits in Zelda. Obviously I'm not gonna say what happens, but I was
like, very very impressed, Like for many reasons, the big one being
is I don't know how. I'm surprised my switch didn't just melt in the
dock as I you were talking about doing that. Yeah, that was really
impressive. The way they use music in the last couple of hours is very
good. Like finish it, Like I know, this is a game that's
very easy to like get lost, get lost in, and like, oh,
I'm gonna keep putting off the ending to the point where it's like I
guess I'm just not going to finish it, or like some people are like
I don't want it to end, and that's kind of how I was,
but I was like, I gotta finish it before Summer game Fest because I
don't want to like, I don't know, be trying. I don't know.
I was just like, I gotta do it, and yeah, very
very impressive, ending that I am excited to talk with people about, Oh,
well, you want to plan a spoiler cast. Yeah, yeah,
that that will do well and Golem. We'll do it after Golem. Yeah,
I don't know it goes first, but I'm not on the goal.
We can only have one spoiler cast at a time, so yeah, Tears
of the Kingdom will be next year. We'll get to Persona three the year
after. It's fine, well, we'll put a poll on Twitter on the
official game spot a coup. Yeah, you can decide whether we use have
a spoiler cast for Golem or Tears of the Kingdom. The people choose closed
in a one hundred and fifty hours. Though I put in the Elden ring
that you don't know how much I put in the Helden ring on card.
I put it off for a long time though I definitely didn't need to wait
that long, and even got to the point where I was doing like the
final stuff and it was a breeze. Like I heard a lot of people
are having trouble with that final area, and I was like, Okay,
well, I gotta make sure I'm extra prepared beyond like just doing all the
shrines and doing all that the roots and stuff like that. And I and
I just plowed through that last last bit. But that being said, like
those final moments still hit really hard and build up to them is it is
quite good? That sounds that sounds lovely. But that sounds like what what
I would imagine as an ideal like ending to a game. It sounds like
it's hitting the notes that I would want. That's that's Oh man, how
about you? What have you been playing? What have I've been playing?
Oh? On that note, I cannot talk about what I've been playing,
so but I will say, pay attention to GameSpot dot com in the coming
weeks for coverage. I will be able to talk about like the game,
yes or maybe it's not. You know, that's how these things go.
You know you know what I'm saying. But yeah, I can't talk about
what I've been playing. Uh quite yet. There's something on spot, there's
something on a switch. I've been playing it self, Wow. I brought
my switch and I was like, wait, what am I gonna play?
Oh? Yeah, that's right. I got fucking how many more? I
got one hundred more shrines to go through, but yeah, one hundred and
fifty in this one? Is there one hundred and fifty It's like Pokemon one
hundred fifty two shrines and then one hundred and twenty light roots. Okay,
yeah, so I haven't. I haven't exploded the depths very much. I
don't. I don't, like like Jake, I think I'm gonna get to
a point where it's like I need I want to, I need to finish
this at some point. I don't feel the need to one hundred percent,
which I think is a good thing. Yeah. I mean the thing too
is I would say, don't force yourself to finish it, like do it
when you're ready to, because I, at least for me personally, Like
with Breath of Wild I was like, when I beat this game, I'm
gonna go back and do all the other shrines, and I just said,
you don't. So Tears of the Kingdom, I made a point to like
do everything I wanted to do before finishing the game because I was worried I
wouldn't see a lot of it. But but I think with this in particular,
like don't don't force yourself to do everything first if you're you interest or
you start to get bored. I was very into it, but like you'll
know the times right in and go finish it wise words from Jacob Decking right
there, you know when the when the time's right. It's kind of like
a weird balance that I've never thought before with games like that, where it's
like because I mean I that was how I was with Breath of the Wild,
where I like it took me forever to actually beat the game, even
though I had it like unlocked, like I'd done the Four Divine b stuff
like that, because I was like, well, if I do this,
like I don't know if I'm going to come back to it and like do
those things. So it took me forever. And then with Elden Ring it
was kind of the opposite where I feel like I like did all of the
story and all the bosses, and I felt like I did the Hallig Tree
and like Millennia and stuff because that was all really cool. But then I
just beat the game and I didn't really go back to do all the extra
stuff that normally I maybe would, So I don't know. It's kind of
like a weird balance of like revisiting a game versus doing it all and like
what works for you and what works for that game. Yeah. The thing
about Zeldo is like all that side stuff isn't just it's not just filler content.
It's like all I need to do is because it's a checklist, there's
generally fascinating stuff. I haven't even like been I haven't even done anything in
Terrytown. I'm just I'm starting to do the newspaper quests, okay, Farrito.
Yeah, you're telling me you've done what three shrines now or not trines?
Michael? How fifty hours? You got three? You can fast travel?
Oh no, you did three? He did three? Three of the
Dungeons the World event or Yeah, and you haven't upgraded any of here.
I haven't upgraded in my arm yeah, which is which is not surprising considering
how you unlock that stuff, But it also is surprising because that's kind of
important. You were asking me, You're like, so do I ever get
like better armor? And I was like, that's not you. It's like
in the depths or something, and I was like what, like yeah,
and he's like where every armor, said, I find it's all three three,
your two whatever, And I was like, oh, okay, that's
that's that's what you would have googled how to get better armor gamespat dot com.
Yeah, and I found one of the many guys that we have on
the site. But yeah, so I'm starting to starting to do that stuff
because like I have, I have Hella hearts. I made it a point
like, oh this game is kind of brutal, so I'm gonna like get
Hella hearts so I don't die and I don't get one shotted, I'm get
like two shotted, and I already I have my second line of hearts.
Like why are these bosses doing so much damage to me? Like I have
the best armors nine defense exactly, like I think I finished with like sixty
or something defense to put that in them out of you're fucking raw dogging it
with. Yeah, whack ass armor and ship just go and shirtless and listen
it. I don't got no skill issues, that's for damn sure. Yeah,
but yeah, both sell this boilercasts. That's just good. I don't
have some I'm putting it into On Monday, somebody asked us if there are
any games that we're going to be trying in the next few days that we
can talk about, but I don't know if that's them. I get a
little oh yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, I don't think we can
unfortunately. Yeah, I will say, I mean, if you watch the
showcase, the Summer Game Fest showcase, that's you said it earlier. But
that's a pretty good yeah, indication indication of what we might be seeing.
Not not everything on the showcase is like playable or whatever, but and not
everything in that showcase. We'll even but but yeah, it's uh yeah,
yeah, Well, I mean you don't know soon. Yeah, you'll know
tomorrow and the day after and the day after that, because we're gonna be
We're gonna be, like I said at the top of the show, we
have We're gonna have a ton of coverage on video and written form, on
our YouTube page, YouTube dot com, slash game spot, and on the
site. We're gonna be on the ground. We'll be doing some things.
So I'll probably talk about it all on the podcast next week as well.
Yeah, next week. Yeah, tune into when you tune in next week.
You can hear all about our experiences. But I guess to cap things
off, how does it feel to be at the big show again? You
know, we don't. We haven't had E three a long time, but
this though, we're both because we've we were talking about this earlier about how
it's cool to be back in La. However, I've never actually gotten to
like be experience La. No. No, no, like be in the
crowd for like a press conference. I was like, oh man, I've
never actually got to, like, you know, sit down the crowd.
I was like, I'd love to do that for one one year. This
would have been a great year because they had fucking Nicholas kid my HOOLI,
Oh my god. I said it. During the stream, Nick Cage talks
like how Jake does an impression of Nick Cage. Yes, I feel he's
fully wrapped around until like a parody of himself. The way he talks now,
he's too self aware, he's too self aware. I love it.
I'm sorry, Jake, I know I'm putting being put on the spot.
Yeah. Yeah. The hard part is knowing what to say, Like I
don't know what should I say? How much you love Nick Cage. What's
your favorite Nick Cage movie? Uh, you want me to talk like Nicholas
Cage? No, no, no, I don't know if you want to.
I love The wicker Man, but it's probably face off, face off
the boy JT. But in The wicker Man he says what's in the bag
shark or something that's really good. I've never been in a game before.
He's gonna be in Dead by Daylight apparently, which I liked it. By
day I've played a lot of Dead by Daylight. It's not what I'd want
to see Nicholas Cage. There's so many good opportunities, and like I guess
Dead by Daylight will be kind of interesting. But like even talking to Dan
Rycord earlier, we were saying, like it'd be cool he was in Mortal
Kombat or something. Question for the table. If you could put Nicholas Cage
in any game, what came would it be? I would make him in
Pac That real good? Oh my god, hey Joker, what about y'all?
Uh Shitkay's good? Really good? Dan was like Dan was saying,
like, you should have a fatality where someone rips his face off and it's
John Travolta and yeah, a friendship well dead by daylight. I keep thinking
of like him getting put on the meat hook. It's such a wild you.
I wish he was. I was hoping he was going to be one
of the villains killer. Oh. He would have leaned into that really hard,
gone up. God, I don't know brain y'all. Can rack y'all's
brain think I want him in Super Smash Bros. Yeah, i'd be my
main have to be. I want him insh. No one says that.
I think i'd want him in like a like a like a Grand Theft Autotype
game or something. I could see him in Rocket City, right, Well,
not that, but you know he's better than that, slightly but better
than I don't know, like something like a Sleeping Dogs but like the Stars
Pay or something like an open world act. Yeah, and you're doing like
kung fu on people, but you're a cage. Yeah. There. I
basically it was like formulating it in my head. I was like, yeah,
you could put in the world and he's like game and it's like it
takes place in Asia. Oh oh that he could be. He could be
a party member and eight oh yeah, there you go, Nick Cage.
I feel like Cosky Bond and Nick Cage would have a good report either that
or at the very least one of the people you call up on the phone.
Yeah, like the summons, that's right, hell yeah, oh hey,
you have to beat him up in a side story and then becomes a
summon, yeah, a mini game, or you're helping him with his career.
I don't know, and it's like you gotta help a run club Sunshine,
like you know, you're an agent and people call like like, does
does Nick Cage want to be in this movie being your options or yes?
Or yes? Oh that's the secret too. As a career, you never
say no, just do it all. Oh wow, yes a Cage management
hits him. Yeah, okay. I think I would like to see a
David Cage quantic dream game as the character where you get to like pick what
he says and stuff. But it had to be the same quality as a
David Cage game where it would be like kind of ass like yeah or you
know, like but like he would because those lines that writing, if he
read, would be incredible, like for the people who are listening and not
watching, you shouldn't know that. As soon as Jake said that, Michael
took off his glasses. But you know, likes like some of the funniest
shit is like when you intentionally fail the cut scenes. Yeahs, like we
get to a five hundred percent facial animations mode. Oh yeah, that's fucking
gold. Okay, I'm behind this idea. I'm not gonna rely. I
don't want this. So when the chat also said put Nick Cage on the
next hit man, oh that's too Yeah yeah, I feel like I'm no
surprise that hasn't happened. Yeah yeah, yeah, because they got Sean's amazing
I because I was an add I did the I did the Sean Bean one
and it's like a limited time event. So I recorded my run of me
killing him, and I have saved on a hard drive him never delete this
because I can't do it again. Like the people who have pt still on
their play stations. Also, have you see another Nick Cage is the next
far Cry villain? Yeah yeah, that could work. I just I think
with far Cry is that like those games are kind of boring. I don't
know, like christ like, like because Jean Carlo Esposito was a really good
idea when he was like, oh yeah, he's the villa, like that's
credible effect. Yeah, And it actually came down to the game. It
was like, oh, he's not really like that interesting in that game I
didn't play. I think they do a thing that a lot of people do
is they get h they get John Carlos, and then they are just like
who has like incredible basis? They have that man's got incredible range, and
then every time he gets put in a roll, they're like, hey,
can you do the breaking bad thing? Yeah? It's just because yeah,
yeah, and I'm like, oh, like come on, like he can
do more than that. So like like I feel like they just kind of
was like like, yeah, do do the thing most like the thing I
feel like, yeah, I feel like that would be the issue if Nick
Cage was a villain and a farcright game is they just be like just just
yell all the time, like go go crazy, do do your thing.
And I and I love that as much as anyone, but yea, yeah,
it couldn't. I could not. That's always one of those things with
like whenever you have a celebrity do like voice acting or a game or something
like that, it's like there's sometimes when it super works and then other times
when it's like okay, so they're like, clearly they liked them for this
role, and now they're doing this role in this game, and it's like,
yeah, it didn't necessarily add yeah to what the premise of it.
So yeah, well, I mean more we asked for it, Maybe we'll
get Nick Cage and more games. I don't know. He seemed enthused.
Oh yeah, oh yeah he was. He was definitely on some enjoy your
gaming type shit. Yeah, he was like, yeah game. Who wouldn't
be happy to be a gamer? Yeah? All right, I guess.
But anyway, Yeah, SGF is popping off before about Jess, how's it
feel to be in the mix this time? It's surreal, you're telling earlier.
We like we've been to packs before. Yeah, we've done some of
the smaller shows, but this one feels like, you know, it's it's
it's the fact that we three. So now that you're finally in the mix,
Like, how do you feel them? Like, yeah, like I
said, it's surreal, it's yeah. I mean the last time that I
did anything was twenty nineteen Packs East, and I was kind of doing this
as a hobby. I did not I was like working retail and figuring out
what I wanted to kind of do for a living. And now it is
four years later and I'm doing this and it's it's very very wild. Yeah,
you know, being it's like you constantly have those moments like just so
people like listening like understand, I also am just like constantly shocked to the
maze by like my co workers and stuff. It's like, oh wow,
like I am here. Yeah, Like I mean we're just sharing an office
with like giant bomb. I like look behind me and it's like, oh
wow, Like that's someone who I watch do things ten years ago and I
like look up to That is wild. It's a lot of those moments.
Hell yeah, it's very cool, very surreal. I will say, you've
definitely earned your place here y Yeah, you know, because I follow you
for a long time. I followed I've read a lot of your stuff on
upricut. Shout the upcut though you're just like hyping me up so much in
the show. Thank you. Yeah, But I feel like uppercut was like
a place where people can kind of break out of their show. Yeah,
getting some experience, but also right about things that you just don't see on
bigger sites. So big big ups to you and the team that you worked
with it was and give you some props for that. Well, but yeah,
I mean it's it's amazing. How do you feel like, like,
how do you guys feel like after being away for so long? And oh
yeah, I am so happy to be back in person with like an event
happening where people go to Yeah, I couldn't do another like virtual one again.
I think that would that would that I would. Yeah, so you
usually check out. Yeah, I was talking about it last night with some
people. It's just how it's like, like without the sort of social aspect
of it. A huge part of this career, this sort of this this
part of the industry is just gone, and I'd argue it's the most important
part, you know, sure I would agree with that. Yeah, yeah,
I'm this is like, this is these are the moments I live for,
and I like. I like this at least from what I've seen so
far. I like the scale, uh in contrast to E three because Ethan
feels like so fucking big. It was big and fucking loud. Yeah,
oh my god, is blown out. Nonst the full room is fucking fifty
degrees and then you go outside it's ninety degrees in LA. That's been the
silver lining of this. Actually the weather in LA right now, great,
yeah, some good weather. Oh yeah, last year was like ninety five
or getting getting burnt out there. But yeah, yeah, I think that
the scale of the show where it's now announced SGF, So it's not like
they're renting out the LA Convention Center and they got two hundred feet banners hanging
from every hotel. So it's a lot a little bit more intimate at least
on the work side of things, it's a little bit more manageable, it
seems. Yeah. So it's a good balance between having a good time and
joining what you're doing and like actually doing the work that you want to do.
So I am I can't speak for everyone, but I'm I'm hyperie,
you know what I'm saying. Yeah, but uh yeah, I guess any
last thoughts before we close this thing out. I think I'm good SGF.
Baby, we out here doing our thing, you know what I'm saying.
Twitch Out TV Slash Game Spot every Thursday, three pm Pacific time. Game
Spat after Dark, y'all's favorite video game podcast in the world. We start
a little late today because you know, we're we're we are in LA and
like I said, be previous Devolver there, we had to wait for them.
Yeah yeah yeah, so shout out. So don't want to compete with
them, you know. Yeah yeah. So if you want to know everything
that is happening at SGF, all the games that we are previewing playing before
they are released, make sure you stick with GameSpot dot com and our YouTube
channel YouTube dot com slash game Spot for all your courage. Needs no shows
this week because we uh we because we're here, so we don't have spot
on. We don't have Kurt Locker. No, no, no, no
hud. So there is hud. There is hud. There is this week
this week. So but yeah, I mean there's a ton of stuff,
like I said, to to follow for us and we will be back again
next week to talk about our experiences as well anything else. Oh plugs,
Jake, where can people find you? You find me at Jacob Deck.
But more importantly to bet see James, tell her it's time for that golem.
And it didn't come from us, It didn't come from us, But
tell her it's time for that golem. Spoiler cast. Yeah, he's get
on it. We're gonna keep this going for as long as possible. Yeah,
she has. She hasn't been on in a while. Until she comes
on show again, she will find out her new obligations to the Lord of
Rings call them Joel. Look, Psyche, Where can the folks find you?
Hey? You find me at Hell? Yeah? Yeah, that's all
right. And Jess, you can find me on Twitter at a while,
Jess at you yeah. Oh, and tune in tomorrow night for the Giant
Bomb stuff. A lot of people are gonna be coming through there. I
think all of us are on there at some point, at some point,
a lot of cool people. Yeah, Yeah, it's gonna be wild.
So Jeff Gruve is heading up the Giant Bomb Couch. That thing is coming
back, and it's going to be Friday, Saturday Sunday starting at six pm,
I believe, and then running on till about midnight. Everyone across the
industry, a lot of people that we know, a lot of developers that
you may be familiar with, some you know, some people you you may
not know, and we'll get to know through the Giant Bomb Couch. And
a lot of big names are also gonna be rolling through. So that is
at Giant Bomb dot com, Giant Boom dot com, slash Chat, or
Twitch dot tv slash Giant Bomb. Yeah, you're gonna see a lot of
dope stuff and that's there's a lot of work that goes into that, So
shout out to the Giant Bomb team. Oh yeah, I'm excited to be
on the couch, but I'm just we're gonna be chilling. It's gonna be
happening here in the office and be chilling with all the great people here in
Los Angeles, California for Summer game Fest. You can find me in all
of my bullshit at Michael Pheam on Twitter and at GameSpot dot com, your
favorite video game, the number one video game website in the world. And
with that we out a be