Hello everybody, Welcome to twenty twenty four. I hope you all had a
lovely holiday break and now you're celebrating. You're kicking in the new year by
listening to a podcast that's been described as a podcast. Oh that's my own
voice there, Oh it's the sound. Sorry. The person who just did
that was Jacob Decker. Hello, I'm monitoring chat, so talk to your
shit. I'll see it. I'm Johny Scypeky, your host this week for
episode two hundred and twenty three Games Spot after Dark. Yeah, I know,
it feels like we just did two hundred. We're already like almost there
at like halfway to two fifty. It does feel like we just did two
hundred, but it feels like we've done like sixty episodes since two hundred.
To be fair, I don't know why. Because we had that Kelly was
on and Mike we have people switching out. It felt like that was a
good episode. It was. It was a fun episode. It was a
good episode. Yeah, a lot's happened. I hope everyone enjoyed the trivia
episode because that was so much fun. That was a ton of fun.
Shout out to Jacob McCourt our excellent one of our excellent Discord moderators for the
game spot Discord and just follow all around awesome guy who yeah, hosted a
little video game trivia we did. That was our last episode. If you
haven't checked that out, please do. It's a fun time. Yeah,
it's so it's just me this week because guess what. Everyone didn't want to
come back. Everyone. Yeah, they said, nah, I'm good,
I don't want to do that anymore. No. Yeah, everyone's just still
out for the week, uh, traveling, taking time off. So it's
just me and Jake. Yeah, we're gonna keep it light and casual.
I think we're gonna kind of just chat about, uh what we did over
break, what games we played, and then maybe just kind of look at
what's coming up with twenty twenty four because it's it's gonna be a weird year
because last year so crazy. Last year was insane, This year was NonStop.
This this still seems like a big year. It just doesn't seem like,
well in a more normal way. Yeah, I guess so, you
know, I wonder if people I'm I'm bracing for the inevitable, like takes
Everyone's like, daw just your sucks compared to last year, because I'm like,
dude, last year was stupid. I don't think that, you know,
yeah, I think it's gonna be a while before that happens again.
So uh, hopefully everyone's got their expectations in check. We get to that,
Jake, you and me were playing More Lethal Company last night, and
oh god, it's so funny, dude. That is like I've heard multiple
people say this to me and I have also said it, where like,
I think that is like the hardest game has ever made me laugh, and
like a very long multiple times too, Like the first time when we played,
I think it was you me Matt, and we laughed pretty hard.
But I was like, Okay, this could be a fluke once I get
used to this. But I feel like every time I play there is at
least one or two things that happened that just absolutely kill me. It doesn't
get old. And I think why it doesn't get old is the game is
is got enough layers to it where you just you're throwing like one new person
into the mix and the dynamic completely changes. Like that was the first time
it was like you, me, Matt Paget and my buddy's stud and like
that combo was excellent because you know, like the amount of times Matt would
just run off on his own and not tell anyone. Yeah, I think
my favorite was, like was very early in the match or in the uh
you and me were going ahead, Matt's just gone. All of a sudden,
we like just landed. We're like, well, Man's gone, what
the heck? Stu goes back to check for him, comes back like five
minutes later, and it's like, I can't find Matt. Pretty sure he's
dead. Well he's dead. So we're just assuming Matt died because that's pretty
common. And then and then like I end up getting killed by like this
weird face hugger thing, which is horrifying, by the way, because when
it gets funny grabs you, you're muffled too, and you're talking. You're
like help, help, but it's all muff you can't hear they can't hear
you, really, and so you're just like screaming into like the void like
desperately, like God, I hope they noticed. And like Jake shows up
and he's like, oh Jesus, something's on jumping. We got nothing to
we have no way to save you, so we just watched you die and
then the bug fell off and I thought it would die after run away,
but it just looked at me and I was like, oh, it's gonna
jump on me. And then it jumped on me. And as I'm suffocating,
I just to your Matt say like, hey, what are you guys
doing? And I'm like, there he is. He's a lot up like
when I died. I was like, oh cool, I'll be able to
talk to Matt now. And then it's like you're spectating, Matt Paget.
I was like, you, son of a bitch, You're not even dead.
That game, yeah, is just incredible. There some great moments I
still I think, like Overbreak. I was playing with Matt and I was
telling him. I was like, it was like, are there any weapons
that I'm like, Oh, yes, if you pick up like signs or
shovels, you can swing those, you can attack people who're playing with Kelly
and Matt and I separate for a little bit and I see one of those
signs and I'm like, hey, Matt, pick up that sign you can
swing, and then he swings it at me and kills me instantly, and
then Kelly turns the corner and it's just Matt standing over my body, blood
everywhere with just a sign. It's like, oh my god. Yeah,
yeah, that's a game where I want to I want to go around and
play with everyone we know. I want to play with Kurt sometime, Kurt
Rob. Oh yeah. Rob Rob posted a clip the other day that was
it was like Peter and Kurt playing together. I was like, damn.
I played with Dan and he of course found a whoopie cushion and then just
kept stomping on the whoopie cushion the entire time. Yeah, you found it.
You found a little like blowhorn. I found an air horn, so
I just walk it. For some reason, to my ears, it sounded
like Matt Paget screaming. So I heard it like in the distance, and
I thought it was Matt screaming. And then you just come over like fucking
Christ. It's got a good mix of like just really stupid ship too,
Like you can get a toilet for your spaceship and all it does is flush,
But it's funny. It's very funny. Uh. For some reason,
the game kept uh uh telling Stuart he was the laziest employee every round,
even though most of the time. He was the one who would like find
the motion bodies back. You'd be like carrying bodies back and they're like this
fucking lazy piece of ship, which I can only assume either it's a bug
and it's really funny, or that's the game like just kind of fucking with
you. I like to think it's just picking on someone, right, It's
like, oh, I'm just going to keep doing it to this person,
so they Yeah, that would seem appropriate for that game. The air horn
explodes, Bob Jones. Is the air horn explodes? Oh? I wish
we'd that happen. Is it just if you if you use it too much?
Does it explode? Uh? We're using the airhorn to try and like
get the the clerk to show up. Yeah, because we were like ringing
that bell. Like, Yeah, game's very good. I want to play
more. I'm excited to see what they add to it, what they do.
I feel like it's really access. There's still some jank to it,
but some of it's good though. Some of it's Yeah, some of that
kind of helps. Asmophobia was weird because I was gonna say, yeah,
the jank is good in that, but it almost looks it looks wrong based
on the art style, but with this the jank I feel like kind of
adds to this Janos a little more deliberate, where Fasmophobia it feels a little
more wrong. But I also am of the opinion that any attempts to correct
Fastmophobia's junk has been for the worst. Yeah, Like, I'm just like,
no, no, no, keep that game as janky as possible,
Like I love that about it. So I kind of feel the same way
about uh Lethal Company, although they might want to add some accessibility stuff for
motion sickness because apparently, Yeah, it made like Lucy really sick. Lucy's
sick. It gave Jeff Backolar from Giant Bomb. It gave him the first
ever like motion sickness he's ever had. Really bad. I was like,
christ, Okay, So maybe they could add a couple of like an FOV
slider and a crossair or something to fix that. But I think that'd be
nice. That'd be nice. Yeah. Man, that wasn't the only game
that came out in December, which was kind of wild. Usually December is
pretty dead, but we had that. We had The finals also also very
good. I feel like my opinions on it are the same as everyone's opinions,
which is, Wow, this is a good game. Shame about the
AI narrators because I'm not into that, and also I don't think they're very
good. They're just not interesting. Well, very bizarre, I thought.
I think in a previous episode, I was like, well, I could
see why you'd want to use AI narrators if you're trying to read out players'
names in the game. But we didn't hear you that at all. Oh,
it's just I assumed it all sounds canned like they I've heard the same
thing so many times, and I'm like, I feel like you could have
just hired people. Yeah, they're not justifying the use of AI in the
way that I think we were like assuming they were going to do, which
just makes the whole thing, like, why are you even doing this?
Is so bizarre. Yeah, but we already kind of talked about in the
previous episode. But I mean, yeah, the actual game itself is like
so much fun. Yeah, it's very good. It's well designed, it's
very clever. Uh, like their thing. I think I was playing with
you when we kind of figured this out, but we were getting really annoyed
because people would just lay the the the the objective with smoke smoke bombs or
gas bombs, and those would stay forever. They would do so much damage.
Yeah, how do we get through this? And then I figured out,
as as a healer, I can just heal you as you walk in.
Yeah, and so I can take Okay, that makes sense. That's
kind of cool. But yeah, that's where that game really starts the shans
when you figure that out, Like we found out, We're like, oh,
well, you could just if they're above in at the top of a
building with the the vaults whatever you call it, any thing you're trying to
put in the to cash out. I'm like, we could just I could
put see four underneath it and just blow the floor. Yeah. And so
there was like one where we just blew the floor like three or four times.
It just went down, down, down, down down, and then
I think like the final on the whole building eventually just collapsed. We're like
underneath the rubble like trying to like get the thing, and right before the
last second, like that kind of stuff. So cool. A destruction in
multiplayer games just never gets sold. Watching a building collapse is so cool.
It probably doesn't get old because I feel like Battlefield did it for a while
and now they don't even really do it anymore. And I think this is
this feels like a true evolution of level we'll never forget. But in the
same way that like the evolution of Battlefield, like that was one thing,
but then also like Siege the way you could like systematically destroy things to kind
of poke advantages. Like it feels like this is the evolution of those two
ideas taken further, and it has almost a like this is gonna be kind
of a weird comparison, but like Breath of the Wild Tears of the Kingdom
almost like sure freedom to it where it's like, oh, you can really
come up with some like weird strategies that feels like very satisfying when you figure
out like oh, yeah, like we can like try and like straight up
move the checkpoint, you know, using like explosives or doing this or that,
or yeah, avoiding the gas grenades. I also, I forguy who
pointed out I think it was maybe Matt or you, but how the game
actually solves one of the biggest problems with Bad Company two, because that was
the last Battlefield that had like true like everything could be destroyed building. And
the problem with it, as cool as it was at the time, was
every like halfway through the match, every building would be completely destroyed. Oh
yeah, and then the second half of the match is just there's no cover
and it's it kind of sucks. It wasn't great. This game avoids that
really well. By the map is very large, but you're centralized to like
one building, and then it never goes back to the same spot, so
it kind of rotates around the map in a really clever way. So by
the time maybe that one cash out is done, the entire area is destroyed,
but then you move on to the other area and you really rarely,
if ever go back to that previous area, so it kind of avoids that
problem. I think it's smart because when we first started playing it was like,
man, these maps are huge for just three teams of three, But
then when you realize what they're doing, it's like, okay, this makes
sense. And I think too, the movement in that game feels really good
and there's a lot of cool movement tools you can use that I feel like
really really add to it, and you kind of need those bigger maps do
it. Like for instance, the zipline, being able to zipline your team
around jump ad and stuff, and like how you know, like I would
angle jump pads on the slopes of buildings so I'd launch more forward instead of
or you put it in a window so that when they try and like get
in, they just immediately fly out, which is super funny. So there's
just so many like really clever interactions that can happen in that game, but
I think make it really good. There's some there's some apart from the AI,
there's some, like there's a lot of small things that kind of bug
me about it, Like I don't know, like the character designs on it
now. Character designs are pretty bland and lack personality. I don't like the
menus, But after going through Call of Duty, I mean, it's so
much better than that, so I guess I can't complain kind of bog standard.
Yeah, free to play style. I think it's like just how contestants
and store in terms not like in game store, but store where you purchase,
uh like equipment for your classes. The fact that that's separate confused me
for a very long time. Yeah, no, when you because the big
thing you want to unlock is like the alternate weapons for the classes because they're
pretty. It changes the way it plays pretty. You'll unlock it, but
then you have to then go back out and then go into the characters like
menus and then change it. So yes, I one hundred percent agree that
could be cleaned out because that is like kind of annoying. U. There
should just be a thing that's like, would you like to immediately apply this
to your character? And like, yes I would, because the weapons are
are all feel great and do change up pretty significantly. Yeah, Like I
really didn't like the heavy at first, same with you because that they still
don't. But you told me to try that other gun. You get the
other gun. You get the trench gun, which is so weird because he's
just like a World War two gun. They have a they have a special
skin for it where it's like a Roulett wheel. Yeah, it's just like
cruly dumb, but I'm not paying but it's cool. But that gun feels
great. So I was like, oh, I actually really like this class
now and was kind of getting more into them. So yeah, it's it's
a game that the more you put into it, the more it gives back
in terms of that stuff but yeah, I mean, I think my issues
with it, like you said, kind of, it's almost less an issue
with the game and more just like my general issues with like free to play
style game. It's all the skins are so surrounding intensive in a way that
every game is now. Like it was like, yeah, it's like sixteen
dollars like this one gun skin. I was like, I'm not paying that.
Yeah, that's ridiculous, Like what are you talking about? But I'm
just an old I'm an old person now who's just yelling at Clouds. It's
free to play games, so you know, consider that it is free to
play, and you do get a lot out of it from free to play,
and to be fair, it doesn't shove that stuff down to your throat
and that some other games do, so I do give them credit for that.
Yeah, I feel like I have all the duties, way worse about
it, and you have to pay sixty dollars for that game. And Fortnite
too is pretty bad. Like people are dancing. They spend like a minute
before everyone's dancing skins and stuff, and it's like, oh man, I'm
just the lame Fortnite guy. Speaking of menus, I don't like the Fortnite
menu. I hate it. It's it's it's up there with the Call of
Duty menu for just being like this like wah of like icons and menus they're
trying to do. They're trying to do the Roblox thing where they're appealing to
all the different modes, but all the custom creator modes look like like really
like shitty YouTube thumbnails. So I'm looking at it and I'm like, am
I on YouTube? Like? What is happening? Is going through? There
was like mister Beast like doing a Mister BEA's face and a mister B's thumb,
and I'm like, what is going on? I thought I was on
Fortnite and I clicked on it and then it showed a video and I was
like, all right, I don't follow. That's bizarre. It was super
strange. Yeah, for Fortnite's weird. But we played some of the Lego
play some of the Lego Survival, which just kind of cool. Yeah,
it's cool. I forget if we talked about it on the podcast before,
So sorry you did Pete myself? Yeah, I think maybe if I did.
So. My initial feelings were, this is cool. The Lego stuff's
fun, the like crafting survival mechanics feel a little basic. Still feel that
way, but uh, I think it's one of those things where it's like,
if you play with the right people, you can have a good time.
We were playing with the other stew and uh that that boy is just
a ball of enthusiasm and he's just like, oh my god, there's a
rainbow over there. We got to go. Then let's go check out the
skate and let's do that. And you're just like, I'm having a great
time playing with you, and it's wonderful. We built a little watchtower above
our village and it was it was wonderful. It was lovely time. So
I do like that game, and I would like to see them continue to
support and evolve it, and I'll probably want to play more when they do,
yeah, because I think it's got a good foundation. Yeah, I
do too. I feel the same because I didn't play as much as you
guys did, but what I did play was charming. I think my problem
with a lot of those games is if there's not something thrusting me forward,
Like if it's just if I'm in a situation where it's like, okay,
why am I building to build? Then it's like, Okay, I need
I need something more to latch onto a story or a goal. Yeah,
and and Lego kind of had that with the leveling up your settlement village,
which I thought was a cool idea, But it's also one of those things
when I'm playing with three or four people, I'm not really focused on that
because I assume someone else is more focused on it, so I'm not really
paying attention to how that works or anything. So new things just pop up
and I'm like, cool, but I'm not really paying attention to it.
I I really love the Forest and the four two Sons of the Forest because
I feel like those games, at least for me, were very good at
giving me an objective. It's like, Okay, I'm building because I want
to save my son. I am building because I want to see what's down
here. I'm crafting these things because I want answers to these questions they have.
Even a like Valheim Valheim much looser, is still like defeat the four
ancient gods of whatever, and you like have an immediate goal. So that's
that's like, yeah, it's epic. I'm I'm sure if they continue to
support it, there will be more of that down the road. Yeah,
And and the Lego part of it I think is a compelling aspect, like
the way it like took me a minute to realize it, but like,
oh, when you when you build one of the pre built like things they
have, you do it in like little stages like a Lego set, And
I was like, oh, that's actually pretty cool. Yeah, like I
and watching all the pieces like little sound it makes, and like, ah,
that's pretty good. So I do think they got something there. Yeah.
Anything else you checked out over holiday? Oh? I put Pokemon Pokemon.
I caught some. I caught some shiniese. I've been wanted for a
long time. A shiny evolved into an archaladn, which is a new uh
a new steel dragon type Pokemon. Okay, pretty cool. Uh. I
finally caught a shiny fee bass, which evolves into a shiny melodic uh Gen
three classic. It's it's a shiny I've been hunting for on and off for
a very long time, so I finally got that. Uh. And then
a shiny hydrapple, which is the new grass dragon uh oh. And it's
normally I think in a red apple or a green apple, but when you
catch the shiny it's in like a gold apple. That's kind of cool.
Yeah. I played some Pokemon, did some battling. Other than that,
I saw a lot of movies. Oh yeah, yeah, any good ones.
I saw The Holdovers, which was very good. I saw Poor Things,
which was also very very good. I saw, Uh, what else
did I see? Oh? I saw Iron Claw. Know nothing about wrestling,
don't really care about wrestle in general, but that was very good.
I don't know, isn't what's his name in it? Zach Efron, which
I didn't know until halfway through movie. Looks like a slab of meat in
that movie. Yeah, incredible. I don't know. I imagine he bulked
up a lot for that role, but I think he also had like a
prosthetic chin to make him look sure. I mean, he looks so different.
Yeah. I didn't realize it was him until halfway through, and then
I was I saw there was like a certain shot of him, and I'm
like, I feel like I've seen him before. And then I think it
was like a GQ thumbnail whereas it kind of looks like Zach Effron from that
GQ thumbnail. And then the credits throwing them was zach Efron. Yeah,
oh that's funny. But Jeremy Allen White is in that, which is why
I was pretty interested. But it's very good. Uh. And then I
saw Ferrari as well, which I was Okay, I don't know. I
don't want to talk too much about movies on a video game podcast podcast or
talk about video games. I did play two other video games over the holiday
break, can I guess? Sure? Star Wars Jedi Survivor. I did
it because is it because he looked at the head? Yeah? Wow?
Yeah, I played Stars Jedi Survivor. I picked that up on sale because
that was one of the games that I didn't play when it came out because
of the bugs. And I think it was also just like way too busy.
But I like the first one, so I was like, oh,
I'll probably like this, and I'm not sure how I feel about it actually
right now, I got I was pretty bored by it. Yeah, I'm
told I didn't get far enough, which is fair, but I am not
compelled to keep playing. I think that game has a really bad opening.
I think the the opening heist on Corussant like in theory, sounds cool.
I think it's it's kind of dull. There's not really much of like where
is this going? What's the drive in the story? Like you do the
heist, it goes wrong, and he's like, I gotta settle down on
this planet here for a second, the ship repaired and they're like oh okay,
like and then it's like I'm meeting this person. You're like okay,
and they're like, here's this location, and then I'm like okay. Like
I assume I'm putting in my head what I think the story will be,
but like it only just now. Did like the like villain really like kick
in? Is that is that the moment where people say it gets good?
I don't know. I don't know what the moment people say it get good
is. But I did like the first that Dungeony kind of like area the
It was the forest Array and I met the I met who is the villain,
and I was like, okay, this is the plot is now happening.
But it took a real long time to get there, and I wasn't
super I think they're really expecting you to be very compelled by Calcastus's as a
character, which I like cal fine, but you can't really carrying by himself
can't carry things by himself as much. They're they're kind of starting to do
the thing where you're like getting the old crew from the first game back together,
and I do think like that is where a lot of the dynamics worked
better. It's like those characters bouncing off of each other. So I'm like,
Okay, maybe like now it's going to start getting you know, a
little bit stronger there. I heard, I've heard there's a point in that
story where things get really good, Okay, and that's why I'm curious about
that. Yeah, that's why I want to push through. But I started
to play a little bit over the break, I think because I saw you
online playing it and I was like, oh, I should go back to
it because I got it when it came out, but it was too bugging
for me to play more. And I started it up and I was like,
eh, I can't do this right now. And then yeah, I
mean like so I'm not ready to give it up quite yet, but I
am kind of like, man, I really do need this to like pick
up a little bit more because the story is not super compelling, and then
the gameplay is just sort of fine. It's one of those things where I
don't think this is a bad game, and I think everything is like technically
well polished and well made, but for whatever reason, I feel bored playing
with it. And the only the other game I thought of that I felt
this way was that last Tomb Raider Shadow the Raider. Yeah, I remember
playing that and being like, Wow, this game looks great, checks all
the box, it checks all the boxes. But I'm so bored and I
just gave up with that game halfway through. And these games are also very
similar in structure, like they're both you know, platform puzzle combat kind of
encounters. Like this game is very uh like Last Gen in its presentation,
I feel like that was such a I don't know, it's like it still
comes from that like uncharted school of like game design that was so popular back
in the days, but feels like it has been kind of waning in popularity
over the years, and I don't know if they're doing enough to add anything
new to it, because it's like I'm just sitting there being like I've played
games like this before and this isn't doing anything particular to excite me. There's
like that hub area in this one that it seems like pretty open. There's
a lot of side quests like you can go anywhere and explore, and I
remember just looking that and feeling exhausted in like a bad way, and I
was like, I kind of don't want to do that. And also at
that point, the story still wasn't like grab me something like do I really
want to do this? Not really? So I I don't know. I
don't know. They'll keep playing it. It's gotta hook me pretty quick because
I guess what The games are coming out real soon. That was that was
the big new one. I try to play the other thing I played Sham
Kurt's not here because I'd love to talk about this with him. But I
finally played Resident Evil Code Veronica. It's the only Actually that's not true.
Uh. It is one of two mainline Resident Evils that I haven't played.
What's the one? The other one is Zero? I haven't played Zeroach is
the other not good one. Yeah, so I played it. Set it
up. I played the original Dreamcast version, so I didn't play the Director's
cut cod Veronica X, which I know adds some new stuff. It's like
more Wesker scenes. And you didn't you didn't get locked? No, I
had a guide up to like make sure, make sure. Playing with my
brother and I had him on guide duty, and it was sort of like,
don't tell me anything, just like make just make sure. I'm we're
not at the point where we're gonna score something. He had never played either,
so we're just following your guide. So we were able to get We
never got screwed out of anything, thankfully by doing that. Although that game
was design, it sure does if you don't have a guide. Oh boy,
that I'm like, damn, that would definitely have fucked us over multiple
times. I apologies to anyone who really likes Code Veronica. I did not
like that game at all. How long did it take you? Too long?
It was like three play threes. I think it took like nine hours.
You did three playthroughs? Well, we did like three hour chunks.
Oh oh, I see, I thought you? Sorry? Sorry ye no,
no no, we played over three sessions. And you know, I
should do one play through because in one game you'll switch between Claire and Chris.
It's not like he'll do one and then you'll do a whole other one.
And we need a remake of it. I would like to see a
remake, although It's like it's kind of the same problem with five I have,
or like the bones of it in some ways are so fundamentally broken that
I'm like, you gotta throw some of that shit out. Yeah. Steve
is like a hilariously awful, awful character. He's he's got the worst voice
acting. He sounds like a ten year old child, and he's also got
this like weird, creepy obsession with Claire, like he's like super in love
with her, and the every the game frames it as like romantic, like
it plays the romantic music, but she's like sleeping and he like tries to
kiss her and you're like no, no, no, no, no,
no, no no, that's creepy. No, Like what do you the
game's like, isn't this romantic? Like oh, he loves her? And
you're like, no, this is terrible, stop it, Steve, So
you gotta completely reduce Steve and then like the villain. This is where my
brother described it this way, and I think it's so app This is like
the original Sin where all of resid evils like bullshit comes from, like just
like their obsession with like when when did it came out? In between two
and three? Yeah, it was like two thousand is when it came back,
because that makes sense because yeah, I haven't played it, but like
I've just played the main line ones and then like okay, it was originally
going to be three and then they decided to make the and three was gonna
be the spinoff, and then they kind of like flipped them, flipped them
around, which is weird and interesting. But but I also calling a Ronica
spinoff isn't correct because it is like mainline it's important, which is weird because
like, yeah, it's like this is where like they're weird obsession with monsters
that are more just like goop than like interesting. That of allah, like
five and six kind of of devolved into this is where like Wesker's like returns
and he's like, oh, isn't Wester so badass and cool? And You're
like, I mean he's like cheesy and the like you guys think he's cooler
than I think he actually is cool, and and I think that's the problem
is that like you can tell they're taking it very seriously and I'm just like,
guys, this is really dumb. Yeah, it was really dumb.
Like there's a there's a plot twist that happens that I will not spoil for
anyone who hasn't played it and wants to. But there's a plot twists involve
in the main characters that is so just awfully just outdated in every way and
bad, and you're just like, yikes, yikes, yikes, wow,
like like one of those things that you're like, yeah, I mean that
seems like something someone would have done in the two thousands, but also like,
good lord, oh you can't do that anymore interesting. You'd have to
we changed that. And then on top of that, I think the actual
design of the game just isn't as good as the other Resident Evils. I
think it it it runs a different team. I don't know, I'm not
I assume part of the two team worked on it, but I think the
two team maybe was going to four. I'm not entirely sure, but I
think it starts off promising because it it it. I actually like the opening
area in the prison, and I was like, oh, this is like
pretty well designed, and you're going back and forth. It hits a point
though, where suddenly it starts like expecting you to like okay. So I
think a good Resident Evil perfectly balances that ability to where it feels like you
are exploring an area and naturally coming across where to go next, even though
the game is probably actually guiding your hand, but it does it in such
an invisible way you don't realize it. So like Resionable to Remake per example
of that, where I think that game is like wawless and like it it
never feels like it's holding your hand, but you always feel like you don't
get stuck. You always know where to go, you know how to navigate,
you know how to navigate it. There's always a new thing. It's
I think it's so expertly crafted. This game has multiple moments where it just
kind of is like you're supposed to go all the way back over there,
but doesn't really guide that in a way that is like so you just find
yourself getting stuck where you're like were supposed to go, and then you're like,
ah, like that happened Tony multiple times in a way that it hasn't
happened in other residu eval games recent and pass like that never happened to me
when I played O G one and two on the PlayStation. So uh yeah,
I just think like that stuff is kind of weaker kind of drags out
a little long. So yeah, I'm glad I played it so that I
can finally Are you going to try to do zero? Now? And try
to do zero? Although it's GameCube, they also have a remaster on PC.
Yeah, I am going to eventually play that one. I'm not going
to play it right now because I'm I kind of want to a break after
playing Coronica. But I am glad I did finally play it, so I
can now say I played Code Veronica and it sucked, and it sucked again.
Apologies to all of you who like Code Veronica. I know there's a
lot of Code Ronica defenders. I'm happy for you all. I've heard a
lot of people say very positive things about it, and I have no concept
of what that game is other than that it's a Resident Evil game, because
I was into Resident Evil when that came out, and now I don't want
to go through the trouble to play it, and now I definitely don't want
to go through the Yeah, I think you're probably good. I would like
to see them do a remake because I think that'd be cool, like it'd
be an interesting challenge. But I, at least for me where I kind
of look at it and I'm just like, I don't, at least for
me, the things you would have, you'd have to change so much of
it that like, would you be more interested in seeing a remake of that
than five? Ooh, because I feel like we are kind of bad that
point in Resident Evil remakes where it's like, I know a lot of people
really want to remake Code Ronica, and that's probably what I'm leaning more towards,
just because I never played it. But like, after hearing you talk
about it, I'm like, yeah, but after like four, how am
I supposed to get excited for a five remake or a Code Ronic career?
Yeah? They got three choices, right, They either do Code Veronica,
they do five, or they just remake one again. Actually they might do
I don't know if I want that. That would probably be the one I'd
be most interested in. I'd be most curious. I would say, think
I'd be less excited just because the original one remake is so it's so good,
But like I get it, people don't like the the tank controls still.
I think I've said it before, but I would actually if you were
to redo one doing VR, I think that'd be pretty cool. I think
that'd be incredible. I don't think they'll do that though, because boy,
did people really not care about VR right now. They put out that for
remake and VR and they just kind of dumped it. I was on the
bus today as I U when I head into the office, someone was playing
VR. No, someone wasn't playing VR. But I was like reading and
I looked over and they had just purchased a PlayStation VR like they were in
and they just confirmed it and then they would checked the seed on their on
their email and VR to order confirmation. Well, I hope that person plays
Resident Evil. Honestly, if I looked over it and like caught them sooner,
I would have been like, just you know, there's not that many
games, there's there's not going to be much to do, ye think about
it. But I caught I caught him after he had he had liked.
And it's unsure how much Sony's gonna support that thing. It's a shame that
none of those all that stuff is the Resident Evil VR experiences are locked to
PlayStation consoles. Yeah, it sucks. They're locked to separate consoles and they're
just in general locked on PlayStation because apparently like Metaquest three is pretty good and
and I didn't know this, but I was watching skill ups like best of
your video and he was talking about how, uh Valve added like a native
Steamlink app where you can wireless play games on the meta Quest three. So
he was playing Half Life Alex on it. I was like, that actually
sounds really awesome, and I'm kind of amazed that that's a meta Like did
let them do that? Because I feel like they're usually very like locked down
on it. But Dan Reker started playing Half Life Alex the same way and
said it's great, like makes me, it makes me really one of that
that's awesome. So because I have the meta Quest too, I kind of
hate that thing. Yeah, I kind of regret getting it. I prefer
the first one. The first one was more comfortable. It was a lot
down. Yeah, but but my my family was really into it. So
I gave it to them and bought the two and I used the two and
I was like, this gives me a headache within minutes. Oh No,
I like my two, but I do kind of feel like, ah,
I should just waited for the three. No, because it seems like you
can do more yeah. But yeah, well, uh, you've also been
playing Balder's Gay More. Let's true, I have it here. I don't
know if you want to talk about it much because we've talked so much about
it. Yeah, to be fair, I much new just other than that,
I'm currently in act three and uh, that game gets It's like it
culminates into some thing. It culminates, but also like just also it gets
like even bigger in a way that like most games like this is like the
games have like a there's like a very classic video game like style. It's
the diamond the diamond structure. Yeah, where it's like you start out at
the beginning and it gets bigger in the middle, and then it kind of
like shapes everything back into the end and this game like kind does it,
but it gets even bigger at the end. Yeah, because like I feel
like the first act there's a lot to do. The second act it like
narrows in a little bit and then it Yeah, it's almost like a hour
glass game design. I don't even know if that makes sense, but our
class game design they go Larryan, But yeah, that third act is like
overwhelming. Yeah, like I think we spent like thirty minutes, just like
talking to everyone in like a tavern. And because Georgia has played ahead of
me, she like knows stuff, so I'd be like, all right,
we're done with this tavern. She's like, no, we miss like five
things. I'm gonna go and show you all of them. And I was
like, what this game? How you? Definitely I think, well,
at least for me, I think if I played it that way where I
had to see everything, I'd have a very tough time in enjoying that game.
But I very much was like, Okay, this is what my character
is, is what my character's doing, and this is what I'm interested in
doing, and like followed a set path. Yeah yeah, I'm not trying
to like grind everything. It's more just like okay, I want to like
make sure I go to every area to see what's up, especially Baldersgate proper,
Like that city's kind of small, but it's not because there is so
much, Like there's so many people to talk through, so many quests to
do, so many shops to check out, so many threads to follow,
like quest. It's it's it's wild. Actually, it's so good though,
it's very it's very impressive I'm enjoying it quite a bit. But yeah,
I think we've talked plenty about boulders Gate for now. I think we have
so yeah, twenty twenty four has begun, has begun, and there are,
like we said, not as many games, but still a lot.
So I think we put up a list of kind of the big games,
and I don't necessarily want to like go through all of them, But were
there any kind of on this list that you sort of wanted to maybe just
talk about excite excited for? Because there's two I'm really excited for. Okay,
I'm excited for Persona three reload. I am so excited. Never played
the original, but I've played four, Golden five, five Royal, I've
done the five spin offs. Well, I haven't finished. I'm very curious
how they modernize some of that stuff because the original Persona three, I love
that game, but it is definitely very dated because it was like the first
time they made that game Persona games like that, So I think a lot
of things I got wrong or just like hadn't figured out yet that like you
get to five and it's like so much, so much better mechanically. I
think what I want to do is I want to do three reload and then
I think I want to play through Persona three as with the female route,
oh because portable, because I'm super curious about that, And like it's weird
to say that I'm bummed that that route's not in the reloads since I never
played the original, I don't even know I'm missing. What's that I'm bummed.
Yeah, but like, I mean, I get why people are bummed,
but like, I'm bummed too. But I'm like, I don't even
really know what I'm missing because I haven't played it at all. But I'm
super excited to play Persona three. I mean hearing you and Michael talk about
it over the years, my love for five and four. Yeah, so
I'm super excited for that. The other game I'm really excited for when I
have a released it for is Stalker two. Yeah, suppose that kind of
it for me, though, I want to play Yakuza, but I need
to finish like a Dragon the original first. You were replaying that, Are
you close? I'm I'm at the point where I have a bunch of money
that I need to get to. Okay, I'm like right about to get
to that point. Three fourths I think, yeah, I think I'm almost
done, so I want to make sure I finished that before I do.
But part of me also, a friend of mine gifted me all of the
Yakuza games on steams. I'm like, maybe I might play through all of
them first. I might do zero at least. I guess it just depends.
I'm going to wait to see what other people say about Infinite Wealth,
like how important that other stuff is. So that's why I like, I'm
not super excited for it. I mean, I'm excited to play it eventually,
but I'm not like I need to play it now. But yeah,
that reload I'm super excited for. And Stalker too, Like I cannot wait
for Stock. I think that game is going to be a knockout. Yeah.
I think that's a game that, uh, a lot of people have
just sort of not like forgotten about, but like it's just kind of been
under the radar for a little bit. It's like a Balder's Gate three where
it's like we know it's going to be good, but like they've been cooking
on it. You know, a lot of stuff has happened with the war
obviously, but I think hopefully it will come out here and good. Yeah,
i'd really like to because that first Stalker is very special and also very
bad. So I would like to see like what a what a like more
polished? This sequel to that game could be Yeah, as far as let
me let me put slide that list my way here, let me let me
let me see here what else we got? Uh Okay, I mean,
yeah, there's other games coming out this year I'm excited for, but like,
yeah, I'm looking at the really I'm very excited for Final Fantasy seven
Rebirth. That will be great and then but I also have much to say
about it right now the other girl, Yeah, it's probably gonna be pretty
good. That'll be good. I'm excited to play that one. I'm kind
of with you, though, I mean, I think the big thing for
me is like Destiny to the Final Shape, and that's just sort of like,
okay, here it is the ending of the other thing and then you're
give enough destiny. Honestly, it might joke, but like that might be
my point where I hop off. We'll see, we'll see how it goes.
But yeah, I think the last year of Destiny has kind of soured
my enjoyment of playing that game quite a bit. I like it's done the
same for a lot of people. It's a real shame, some of it
the game itself, some of that external stuff, like all the layoffs and
the way that's been handled. It was just like, I don't feel like
playing this game, but I do want to see that that expansion through,
and I hope it's a good one because I think that team deserves to get
their recognition because like, damn man, like they stuck with that shit for
like ten years, Like that is impressive and like that, No, Destiny
is kind of a punching bag in games. But I do think that game,
the fact that it's was one of the first live services, it is
stuck around this long and there have been for as many faults in that game.
They also put out some incredible stuff in that game, and I do
think so i'd like to see them end on a strong note. Yeah,
yeah, I would too, even though I won't play it because I'm way
too far behind. But it's fine. Uh, it's your last chance to
do a Day one raid experience. See, it's your final chance. Potentially
maybe maybe I'll try it, depending on what else is coming out around that
time. I think that's the thing I've except for. It's the raid.
Like me and my raid buddies are all like, dude, this is it.
It's gonna be like the thing one, the big older jacket. Maybe
I've I've never bought a jacket. What is it? You have to complete
the raid within twenty four hours and then you get like a key to buy
a jacket that's like two hundred dollars or something. Yes, I think the
jacket. I think the jacket. You don't have to beat it within the
first twenty four I think you just have to be in like the first month.
Okay. The emblem is what you get for beating in the first twenty
four. I see. But I got close with the last jacket. But
I've just I've never found the designs. It's never been because they're expen They're
like yeah, and I'm just like, ah no, it's got to check
all the boxes. Yeah, it's gotta look good. It's gotta white good
enough for me to get it for me personally. So maybe the last one
will be cool and I'll get it. Who knows. They also saw rings
raid rings. I've never bought those. That's that's like, that's like a
it's like a class ring. Yeah, it's like a class ring. It's
like I'm not the worst somehow. I didn't think there was much worse than
that, but uh is oh man, I want to know how many people
actually buy those? So is there like a Destiny Con, a Bungee Con.
There used to be there was a Guardian Con, but I think they
only did it a couple of times. I bet you'd find people with those
doings. Oh, probably. Yeah. I'm surprised David and Maudi never bought
one. Oh, I could see him doing it. That man's got Destiny
bed sheets. I've seen them. You bought them, and I've seen them
when I went to his apartment and I was like, wow, you really
bought them. Good for you. Damn. He didn't even play Destiny anymore,
right, kinda slowed down a lot. He's kind of in the same
boat as me right now where he plays Waiting early. But I think he's
he's sort of kind of like on a down down swing with that game at
the moment. Yeah. So yeah, that's kind of it for games at
the moment. I mean, there's definitely a lot of games that look exciting
and cool. I'm curious about Dragon's Dogma because I never played the first I
want to play Dragons Dogma. I'm curious about Grand Blue Fantasy Relink for some
god forsaken reason. Michael Michael brain Rot, I want to play. I
mean, I think we can say that we have the last of those part
two remastered. That's all I can say, though, you know, let's
see what else? Yeah, I mean, yeah, just like stuff.
I'm like, oh, you know, yeah, I can't wait to check
out. I'll check out that new Prince of Persia. I am more than
squad kill. I'm morbidly curious about it. I don't think, I onlyk
I'm gonna like it. It's gonna be good. But if if there's a
like, if like there's a code sure floating around, floating around Mike Ben,
spend money on it, I don't know. I don't know. Let
me do that. Uh yeah, that's kind of it. And then I
thought a holiday silk song on this list, But we all know that it's
never coming out. Yeah that's happening. We talked about it at lunch.
But I think the thing I'm most excited to see next year is the Switch
Too or whatever. It's got to be this year, right, I feel
like all the leaks are coming to a head, and like it sounds like
they're going to make an announcement this year. Yeah, the very I think.
I think the leak that went around the other day was that the switch
to is supposed to be an iteration on the switch. It's not going to
be like some new which is good. I like the switch a ton.
I think that's okay. Yeah, I think I think the switch is too
good of a concept to not try and build off. Yeah, especially because
I feel like with with the Steam Deck and with all this tech, I
feel you could make the next switch not be a powerhouse because it's a Nintendo,
but I think it can kind of maybe solve a lot of those issues
that the hardware has now. You know, like Pokemon, for example,
does not run well. I mean that's probably for more reasons just the hardware,
but there's I feel like, you know, when you get a switch
part of a game, it's held back a lot, and I imagine that'll
continue to be the case no matter what they do, because obviously you can't
put all that power in a small machine. But that being said, I
think just getting some better running switch games would be great. Yeah, you
know, that's a good point about the portable PCs because that kind of exploded
last year. Yeah, like I feel like there was a new portable PC
coming out like every time. It's kind of crazy like that market. But
I still play my Switch more than anything. Yeah, switching Steam Deck.
I think I still haven't really been beaten. But that is kind of interesting,
is like that market is very different now, So it's both a good
and a bad thing where I think because it's more open, I think there's
almost like more opportunities for Nintendo to like add better hardware, but also like
the that allure of like the initial allure when this Witch came out was not
just Nintendo games, but also like when's this game get? Important to the
when's this game get is coming to the swim? Are these games that you
got excited about? And like, I feel like that also carried a lot
of momentum for the first couple of years in the switches. Why that's not
going to really quite be there the same because uh, you're like, well,
therese all these portable PCs now that do that, and so like that
doesn't quite feel as special anymore. So I think I'm curious what other tricks
they will have, Yeah, and make it interesting. And I said,
like, I'm excited for the Switch too, but to be honest, it's
not really even the switch to hardware, and so that I'm excited for.
I'm curious see what game software it launches with, because I feel like,
man, the Switch had such an incredible launch here with Zelda and Mario Odyssey,
just we can just name those. I mean there was other stuff,
but those alone were amazing. And I think like we're getting to a point
where where the last three D Mario game was twenty seventeen, not counting Bowser's
Fury or whatever. Uh, So I think like we're due for a new
Mario. I wouldn't be surprised if something like that would be a launch title.
I mean historically Mario sells consoles. Uh, Metroid Prime, like that
got announced in what twenty sixteen? That feels gonna be like that it's gonna
come out. That seems one. That seems like the perfect launch title too
for the Switch, because like, obviously Metroid is not as big, but
Metroid has such a die hard fan base they will go out and buy those
consolets so they can play the new I mean that's why I'd get it.
You know. I also think like that thing is almost like it's become like
myth, like the Metrod Prime four, Like everyone knows about it just because
of its like legendary status is game it's been like missing forever, So I
think a lot of people are gonna like be curious about it for that reason
alone. Yeah, I mean, do the Switch has I mean maybe the
best THENT library of like consistency, like the the amount of games that consistently
come out on our Switch every year that are good, that are like Nintendo
Switch exclusives is kind of insane. Yeah. I did the Best Switch Games
of the Year. I did that video, and like you know, with
Xbox, it's like, oh, these games are also on PC with PlayStations,
Like some of these games are on PC. Some of them, like
just Balder's Gate, you know, it's kind of on everything but not really.
But with the Switch, it's like we like had more games than could
fit on the list. So I had to make an honorable mention section so
I could talk about Fire Emblem Engage, which didn't make the list, and
that game is you know, not my favorite Fire and Bloom, but that
game is still good. And then Zeno Blade Chronicles the fucking DLC it was
also really good, and like Pigmin four did make the list, but Pigman
four was so good. It's just like every year it's just banger after banger,
and I think what we've seen for next year, like what we've got
Princess Peaches something or another. We've Showtime, Princess Showtime. We've got Mario
Vers, Donkey Kong, Yeah, and Paper Mario Thousand Year Door. Like
all those games I think seem pretty good. I'm excited to play all of
them, but they also feel like I don't want to say low effort games,
but they feel like games that probably take less resources so they can like
pivot a lot of those studios too. This is this is all speculation.
I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, but that's how I see
it in my head. Yeah, I think, no matter what it's like,
I'm gonna buy whatever the successor with switches, just I can't. It's
the only way I can play those Nintendo games. And Nintendo I think has
really proven that they are just able to like consistently put out like quality games
on a regular basis. It's like, even if I just play Nintendo games
on my switch, I still feel like that justifies the purchase of the thing
with what I get out of it. So I think too, like the
fact that you know, for as long as I've been playing Nintendo games,
their first party stuff has been split between two consoles, right, there's the
home cons there's a handheld, and with the Switch, everything is coming to
that one platform. So I think like you're just getting a much more rapid
cadence of Like that's true, like banger after banger. Yeah, yeah,
but i'd yeah, I'll be curious to see what little Nintendo frail as they
add to it. Yeah, hopefully the joy cons are better. Maybe let
me customize the home screen a little. Yeah, I could use some fun
back in my Nintendo console. You know, give me some fun, give
me a fun you, I give me some music, have some music over
the shot. For God's sakes, that's all I need. I see some
fun. Yeah, because that is the one thing about the Switch I'm just
like. Eh. Also, the store is really slow these days on the
store. Yeah, I mean, I I struggle to think of any digital
storefront on any console that is not awful to be honest, I think the
Switch is maybe the worst because it is the slowest, But like, I
think they're all kind of really bad. Sure, thank god the Xbox One.
You try and search a game and it like it's just like movie movie
movie. Yeah, icmpact your coon. I was trying to find cocoon and
I just couldn't. I just kept searching it and wasn't getting anything. You
just don't care. Well, all right, that has been what we've been
playing. That has been what we're looking forward to in twenty twenty four,
and I think it's going to be this episode of Games spot after Dark.
Hell yeah, keeping a short and brief, but yeah, it's just been
me and Jake this week. Is everyone still recovering? People should be back
next week though I won't, but Jake won't be actually taking that's my vacation
time, yep. So we'll have other people back next week for the podcast.
Also, I think some of our regular stuff should start picking back up.
I believe spot On we'll be baack starting next week as well, because
Lucy and Tam will be back. We're gonna the game's already coming, as
we've said, so, like I think we don't stop coming, they'll stop
coming. So, like I mean, we're gonna be getting out previews and
reviews soon for a lot of that stuff where we're cooking up plans for for
the for the year. Hopefully some cool stuff happens. So yeah, thank
you everyone for for sticking with us for all these years and for continuing to
stick around for twenty twenty four. And I've been John Luke, This is
Jake, and we'll see you all next time. And Kurt's got a video
going up soon then oh, everyone should watch Shoot sometime this week. Damn,
you're right. Ah, sorry, Kurt, I forgot about that.
That's good. We're good. Go we'll go watch it all right. Bye on da