Hello, everybody, Welcome to Game Spot After Dark episode at two hundred and
forty three post summer game fests. It's done, we made it. Gamer
Christmas is over? Jake, how are you feeling. I'm feeling okay.
Can't speak for everyone though, Sure some sickness going around around, being exhausted.
Yes, it's just me and Jake here today. Other people are Yeah,
they're either sick or they're taking some well deserved time off, or or
they just don't like us, or they just don't like us. Yeah,
but you know what, it's okay. I'm I'm happy. It's just doing
me hanging out. Yeah, we haven't done one of these yet, just
the two of us. You've done with Kurt, you've done with Michael,
a couple with Michael. It's true. I've done a couple with Michael Ankerb,
I've went down with you. So yeah, man, I think we're
going to kind of talk a little bit about summer game fests, some of
the games we saw. First off, I should say go check out our
YouTube channel or the site if you want to go check out a bunch of
both written and previews, as well as videos. We shot a lot of
them. Somehow I ended up in seven of them, despite originally not planning
them being in any of them, which is very funny. You saved the
day multiple times. Happy to help, but it was cool. Yeah.
So first, before we get to what we saw, I want to go
through each of the big showcases. Okay, name the most exciting thing you
saw from summer game fests, from Keeley's show, the most the one thing
you saw. I was like, wow, pass you can't think of anything
just fun? No, uh, let's see. I like that Bean game.
I don't remember what it was called Killer Bean, Killer Bean. I
was gonna guess Killer Bean, but I was like, no way, it's
I'm gonna be honest. That was my pick. That's my highlight. Yeah,
And like I know a lot of people have been saying that that showcase
is pretty weak, and I agree. I'm not picking Killer Bean because it's
like, you know, like I think it looks fucking fun, you know,
Like I saw it and I was like, oh, it's a joke
game whatever, and then it kept going. I was like, it looks
really fun though, it looks like super fun. Yeah, that game interests
me. To be honest, I can't remember a whole lot of what was
shown. It's really tough. It's kind of for me to actually watch these
because usually I'm making thumbnails, so it means I'm like grabbing a bunch of
screenshots and then going over to photoshop and I'm like, and hear what happening?
They do? Remember seeing what was the best thumbnail you made during summer
game? Best? God, I don't even remember the thumbnails I made.
Oh god, I didn't even think I made the Cactually, actually, here's
the best thing. Was that Tim Robinson? Yes, that was the best
that I'm even wearing the shirt and you can't see it, we're not on
camera. Got a shirt for it too, but yeah, if you They
had like a skate thing that Stu of course found out about it. Stu
that boy loved skate, so he came back with the shirt and I'm like,
how'd you get that? And he's like, oh, I just went
up and I had to sign up for their play test thing. So I
went up, signed up, got got a got an M Corp T shirt.
Nice. I like it. When I was at the A area,
I saw they had a couple of skate themed decks and I was like,
ooh, someone was like pretty good. I kind of all one, but
they should have made one with like Tim Robinson's face on it that would have
and a heart beat. Yeah. No, that was That was the highlight
for me, I because we were breaking out thumbnails and I remember catching that
and I was like, Oh, we have to do this, and then
I checked Slack and people who hadn't watched it were very confused. We're very
confused as what's happening. And I was like, no, we have to
break this out. And I think it was one of I think the Killer
Bean actually was the best performing trait was, but that one did pretty well
too. Because I'm a simple man. I see Tim Robinson, you know,
I click, you know you click? Uh yeah, I agree.
I thought that showcase was okay. Yeah, to be honest, my thing
else stand out though for you, says from Kills. I mean it's kind
of like you said, where when you're working that show. And and also
it's just so many games at once, they all kind of blur together.
It's all hard to be like what what was even? Yeah, I'm like
really even trying to think, like what else? You know, like what
did he what did they end with? I mean they showed the Alan Wake
DLC, but it's announced it was out the day after, which I was
very upset about because I couldn't play it. Yeah, I can talk about
that later because I have now played it. They ended the showcase with Phantom
Blade zero. That's what it was, which that game looks cool. You
played some of it, did play some of it. I'll just I don't
have too much to say about other than it. I actually I think it's
pretty good. Yeah, what I played. I think that's like like that
final announcement kind of needs to be an announcement, you know, like of
something yeah new. And while like Phantom Blade zero looks cool, we've just
seen a lot of it, I feel like, because it gets showed up
in that Sony play thing, I know it's a known quantity at this point.
And also it's like it still doesn't even have a release day, like
it's I don't think it's coming out this year. So it's it's one of
those weird ones where it's like those like no offense to that game. It
is cool. I played it. It's great. I really enjoyed it.
But yeah, it's not gonna like it's not gonna get people excited. You
know, it's like you know, oh my god, moment, you know,
known quantity, like I think of Actually I don't know if it was
at the end, but I remember like when No Man's Sky was announced,
and you know, I know that game had a difficult launch and everything,
but that was announced at one of I think the game awards and it was
saved to the end and it was so it was so big and impressive and
you can't recapture that every single time, or like like, it doesn't need
to be a big Triple A game, it just needs to be like something
new and exciting. And like I think one of the best ones Akille's ever
had was that elden Ring trailer, like, you know, the the revealed
trail, the gameplayer reveal trailer, like and he knew, he knew he
had Oh yeah, he was so excited. So we got to give him
the pass because he he gave us the elden Ring trailer one year. You
know, he can't do that every year. I mean, yeah, you
know, it's a killies out the winds of you know, what what's happening
in the game. He can't determine that. It's also worth noting too,
write like before Call of duty would always appear or not always appear, but
usually it would appear stage. But now it's not because Ara Xbox bought out
Activision and now, as we found out, that was a big section in
Microsoft, like a whole forty thing. Speaking of Xbox, what was the
and out from Xbox for you? Okay, it's probably two that come to
mind, Okay, and there's probably more. I thought the Xbox Showcase was
really good. I thought it was good too, but I also had a
couple issues with it. I definitely had issues with it, not necessarily the
press conference itself, just more Xbox in general, Like it's just hard to
get excited, yeah, after all the layoffs. The showcase was very business
as usual in a way that you're like, this, ain't it? Yeah?
You know. For me, it was like I don't really want to
see your face Phil Spencer right now, like Matt Boody, Sarahbahn, like
it just it's not no, yeah, you know, and that's that's just
me. No, I feel the same way. It Like, I don't
know how they could have addressed that. I think the key would not to
be have them, like just not have them. I think that's what.
Yeah, I didn't necessarily need it to be this like, hey, let's
pause, let's pump the brakes and yeah, let's plain this thing or talk
about a moment of silence. More just like just get get them off the
stage, you know, like let the attention be the games. Yeah,
and maybe don't have them be the presence, because no one really, like
I said, it's happy with them right now. Yeah, what were the
actual games that got you excited? Just talking about? There's now three?
Okay, so Perfect Dark. Yes, really excited to see Perfect Dark.
I was very surprised. I was too when I did not think we'd see
Perfect Dark. I don't know, with the rumors and everything, it kind
of seemed like Perfect Dark was going to take a very long time. Still
might. But seeing that gameplay got me really excited because it felt real and
I like, it looks like an immersive sim. It looks like an immersive
sim. I like the style they're going for. I like the the art
design, and I like that sort of that future tech, like like glossy
tech style that they're going for. So that got me. The only things
I didn't like about it were one, I needed weird guns, because that's
a Perfect Dark I saw the pistol that was like, where's the laptop gun?
Where's the weird alien stuff? Also, what I feel about Joanna's character
design. I think it's the weakest of the three. Really. I just
don't like her hair. It's something it was about the hair was I was
just like, I was like too sticky to like business business scene. I
don't know, it just wasn't working for me. I was just like,
ah, this is I prefer the other two versions of her, but I
also appreciate that they're going each It's like every iteration of her is like wildly
different looking. So it's it's fine, I'll probably get used to it or
yeah later, I'm really curious see how that game shakes out, like I
I like, I know is the first game from the initiative, but it's
also helped with Crystal Dynamics, Like Crystal Amax Dynamics is obviously very talented.
I'm excited to kind of see what they do now that Marvel Avengers is out
of the way. Uh yeah, and I'm not They're not doing tomb Raider
or are they. I don't know. I think they are doing Tom Rader.
Oh they think they did, so I think they are supporting this game,
and then they all are doing tomb Raiders. But even seeing that gameplay,
you could see some like slight tune rader, like the way uh Joanna
Dark would like climb up pipes and jump to other things raidery. But then
I didn't think about until like a Ralph skill up pointed this out. Uh
was it was very you know immersive SIMMI and it and you know obviously Crystal
Lanmix. They've never made immers of sim. You know who has made Immerse
of sim? No, well that but no, I don't spon treal Yeah,
because they made Diao Sex And as it turns out, they're helping with
Fable Table And I'm like, okay, you now have two studios that embrace
their owns that are helping with Microsoft properties. But it feels like those studios
should almost be flipped. Yeah, which is funny, I guess on paper,
I get it, But I'm kind of curious to see, like what
the other brings to that style of game, because I will say the other
game that stood out to most Fable. Really, I actually was very well
whelmed by Fable. Okay, what was the reason you dug it? I
liked how it looked. I like the tone. Sure, I'm honestly just
really excited for a new Fable game. It's been so long. Uh,
I wish we saw more. I feel like we should have seen more at
this point. I think that's where I was at. It was like they
showed a little bit more gameplay, but overall it was very similar to the
last trailer they showed last year, and I get thought it was in the
same someone with audioa, the comedian it crowd. Oh wow, he's like
a giant. Maybe I just rad that from my memory. Yeah, it's
a very similar trailer and it's like I get it, like there's supposed to
be like, you know, the same style, but it was more just
like like if I don't want to see actual gameplay, like I want to,
I want to know. I think that was like the big thing that
helped me up was like we need like we need to play that game at
this point, like yeah, or they should have announced it what in twenty
two or whatever. That's kind of Xbox is. The whole thing I know
is they put they put themselves in a hole. I mean speaking of stated
A K three woof Yeah what ah CG trailer mostly CG. There was some
gameplay, but the gameplay didn't look like real gameplay. It was weird.
It was like, here's them shooting, but it was it was all like
snapping too, And I was like, is that what the gunplay is actually
gonna play? Like like that doesn't make sense to a game I'm excited for,
but like I I can't be excited based off of that. You know,
well, it's like you announced that game literally back when the Xbox uh
first got shown, like you know, like the so it's like one of
the I think next to hell Blade. It's one of the oldest like things
announced for the current gen Xbox and it's like went dark for all these years
bringing it back and then it's still just a CG trailer mostly and you're like,
dude, yeah, like come on, like, h yeah, no
dates on any of these right, No, no, no, no,
a lot of dates on lack of dates on stuff. Even some games that
are like coming out this year, there were no dates. Indiana Jones,
no date avowed, no date. No, they gave the date to that,
but not during the show. Oh not during the show. Yeah,
it was kind of awkward. Oh that's weird. Yeah, I think it
was hold on let me oh okay, because yeah, because during the show,
just at twenty twenty four, and I was like November twelve, Oh
okay. Yeah. It was like if the avowed release date was in an
Obsidian blog, it wasn't in the trailer. I don't know why. Maybe
they just like weird interesting. So that that has a release date, that's
good. I'm excited for that game. The last game I'm looking forward to
from that or that I really liked was Indiana Jones in The Great Circle.
Okay, I still I have the caveat I have to say every time I
wish they were making a new Wolfenstein game, but they aren't. But they
aren't. I love Indiana Jones, one of my like all time. You
know, like if I had to choose between just Raiders of the Lost Stark
or every single Star Wars thing, I would choose just Raiders of the Lost
Tark all right, without a doubt. Uh. And I really liked what
they showed, particularly like the villain had like a very uh the villain felt
like a Wolfenstein sort of machine games villain, Like he wasn't just like this
evil dude, he was like I mean not quirky, but like he was
like a weirdo, you know, like it wasn't just evil, he was
evil and a weirdo. And seeing all that playoff, I'm still like not
super sold on like this first person platforming puzzle design, but a lot of
Troy Baker's voice. Really, I actually thought his voice was pretty good.
I'm okay with the first person I know a lot of people are very unhappy
about it, apparently like it's about the first first person it's a huge contentious
thing, which is interesting. I didn't realize how how hardcore people were about
people generally are about first person. I mean, I remember the same thing
happen with Cyberpunks through a fit about that. I guess Indiana Jones, I
think I do remember seeing when the first gameplay dropped. Interesting though, speaking
of a vow though, they also announced that there's a third person mode in
that game, and that came after the showcase. You can't play that game
in third person? Yeah, I am too, But I mean, anyway,
like I'm super excited for Indiana Jones just because it's Indiana Jones. There
they are like little qualms I have with it. I'm a little concerned but
like, at the end of the day, I just hope it's a really
good Indiana Jones story because the movie was not. The most recent movie was
not. I haven't even seen it. I didn't even bother It wasn't terrible,
but it also wasn't it wasn't good either, And I think Machine Games,
like people have said it, but I feel like they have the chops
and the skill set and the background to make a very good Indiana Jones story.
So I'm super curious to see how that pans out. Yeah, I
would say, like for me, the Xbox Showcase was pretty good. I
don't think I was blown away as much as other people were, but I
thought it was good cool. Any standouts for you, Doom, Doom,
the Dark Age, Feloks Sick. I love Doom twenty sixteen. I love
Doom Eternal. Yeah, I'm excited that it's not back to Hell. I
mean, maybe it is back to Hell, but it's like they're picking like
a theme the Dark Ages. Somebody made a good comparison where it's like they're
going the Evil Dead formula where it's like you got the serious one, the
goofy one, and the medieval one. Yeah, and I was like,
yes, I completely agree. Also, I mean, like you know,
the Dooms always had like sort of like a demonic heavy metal influence and shits
fantasy heavy metal, like it just makes perfect sense. Yeah, some of
those like weird weapons like grinding up the skull and like spitting out the bone
shards that people. I'm just like, yeah, I am into this.
So that was a highlight for me. I already mentioned Perfect Dark and then
let's see so South of Midnight. So Midnight I was into until I saw
the game play the same. It was like, I don't know if I
want to play that kind of game. I will still play it because game
pass and all that stuff, and I think maybe that's that's the only thing
I can think of. So I'm going to say that might be it for
now. As far as the two most exciting ones rather everything, how do
you feel about Metal your Solid three Delta, Stinkyater Delta. There's been a
lot of talk about whether this is good, bad, indifferent. I don't
know, Like I'm it's doing a couple of the things that every remake does
that bothers the shit out of me. So it's not like to be fair,
It's like everyone does this, but like a big thing is like let's
just completely change the color, like yeah, palette and and it's why that's
like yellow orange tint is like part of that game. I think people think,
like I don't know if it's like people think like yeah, like the
PS two just had like a color filter and modern games don't have color filters.
That's not it was intentional. There's a point are like like that stuff
like a marvelization sort of like where like Marvel just doesn't like sometimes they do.
Marvel looks like they forgot to put the lot on, like Marvel color
is washed out garbage. But yeah, somebody on like Twitter did a like
photoshop repass where they made it try and match the like original green tent,
and I thought it just looked so much better. So that bothers me.
I mean, it looks like it'll probably play and feel pretty good, I
would say, but yeah, like I really do wonder I'll say this.
I think it looks better than the Silent Hill to remake. I think it
looks better than that one, and I think it'll be a good game.
But it's just one of those things where like it's so hard to not constantly
be comparing it to the original, and especially without Kajima's involvement, It's like,
yeah, like I think it would be an easier pill to swallow.
I Kajima was like, Yep, this is how I originally envisioned it,
but I couldn't wasn't able to do it, Like these are the changes I
wanted to make, because like, I think one of the few remakes that
I think nail it and I have. You can have criticisms for it,
but at least for me personally, I don't is the reson Evil remakes like
four in particular, and honestly, a lot of that has to do with
like the people who worked like you know, not everyone uh it was.
It's not the exact same development team, but a lot of those people have
like been around stuck since like the original Resident Evil, Like the director of
her four is like I've been around for like over two decades, and it's
like, okay, like they understand. These are people who understand that material
and know how to do it. And and I'm sure there are some people
who's working on Metal Gear who maybe worked on the original with Kajima, but
you know, yeah, you definitely need like you need some of that like
higher up kind of DNA to really like yeah, I don't know, it's
just like make it feel make you feel more like this is what they envisioned.
Like you said, it's like a weird perception thing. I don't know.
Yeah, it's a weird one. I'm looking forward to it. I'll
definitely play it. I mean, Medlicre Solid three Snaky as some of my
favorite games of all time. But like I know, like this sounds bad,
but but I feel like I don't want to say it's not out yet,
but I feel like I'm going to step away after finishing that and it
just feel kind of hollow. You know. That's my biggest concern, right
It's it's it's how I kind of feel about most remakes, like I said,
with the very rare exception of like Resumeable. Yeah, like even the
Demon Soul's remake I think is really good, even that you kind of step
away and you're just like, yeah, I feel like they kind of missed
it a little bit, you know. And it's it's just because it's like
those people, it's hard to put your finger on a lot of that it
is, which makes it like like I don't know, like I know remaking
games is cheaper than making a brand new game, but like I guess,
I guess it is. But but like in some sense I can get like
maybe not harder, but like I don't know, you really have to be
in the right You really have to position yourself properly. Yeah, you really
have to like sto know that you understand that source material and the thing is
too you know, like behind it. I'm sure the team that is doing
metal gear and I'm sure that the team that the Demon Souls understood the intent
do why they were doing it, but it just doesn't land because it's just
like that that X factor right where it's just like yeah, so yeah,
you've studied it, proved all these animations. It looks so much better,
but it's just like it's missing that thing you just can't put your finger on
sure, And like, yeah, to your point, like I think Resident
Evil does have that, you know, like yeah, like maybe not three
or maybe three. I don't know. I didn't play the original three,
but like with two and four and one fair, I didn't like the original
three. So yeah, that's my opinion. It's kind of weird. Maybe
not, but like especially playing two and four it's like this. It feels
like these two can exist separately, but they are like to get you know,
like I don't know well because four reasoning be four is like not trying
to be a one for one faithful. But that's why I think it almost
is better because it retains the spirit. It's like, we're not going to
put in the same one liners from four. We wrote a bunch of new
one liners are just as good or if not better in some ways. And
it's been like, oh, you guys understood the assignment, Where how do
you do that with a metal gear? When Kajima doesn't work there? When
Kogi produ you, you probably don't. So instead you just have to faithfully
regreet it exactly. And then that has the problem where it's like now you're
just going to be compared to it. Yeah, the one it's tricky.
Yeah, oh yeah. And then they showed like Call of Duty for forty
five minutes and it looks like call of Duty, and that's I'm kind of
excited to be fair. Of all the Call of Duty games. I like
Black Ops a lot, they I liked Cold War. I liked Cold War.
I didn't like the multiplayer, but care about the multiplayers not great.
I like the story and the single player it's it's I love that weird like
government espionage, conspiracy theory, nonsense like they were showing and the teaser like
Hillary Clinton and Osama bin Lad and You're like, this is gonna be so
dumb. I'm excited for this. I'm I mean, like, man,
I have so many opinions on the modern Call of Duty games, but like
I think generally the modern Warfare games have better multiplayer and the Black Ops games
have better stories. I think it's been this way for a while, however,
that there was that moment in Modern in the original Modern not the original
Modern Warfare, but where I was like, this could be as good as
Black Ops, and like it was really promising. Now it was promising.
It had some good moments. I think it's still fumbled, and then two
really fumbled and three was like that story was just embarrassing. It really was.
And to be fair, I know they had a very short amount of
time to put that game together. It was supposed to be DLC and Activision
was like, no, we got a really full game, blah blah blah.
So I know there was a lot behind the scenes that kind of affected
that, but seeing Modern or seeing Black Ops six, which is also funny
that they just went to their just back to numbers after taking a break from
numbers. Yeah, yeah, which is funny. But like seeing that,
I am excited for the campaign. I'm really interested in multiplayer just because of
that new weird like running tech or whatever where you can like omni directional movement
or whatever. Like that was so sleet. I think it's probably going to
end up being like a gimmick, Like I don't think it's going to legitimately
add much for a lot of people, but I think it might, and
I think if it does, I think it could be kind of interesting.
It's also funny how Call of Duty does this like every time where they're like,
we completely changed now that this new tech sticks around for two to three
games, then they throw it out, go back to the old one or
bring in a new one. This seems foundational, Like, I think this
is going to stick with it. I guess it depends how the players.
Definitely it's going to depend how players react to it. I feel like it's
going to be there's gonna be some growing pains, I think probably so the
old heads will complain yeah, we'll see. Yeah, I don't know.
I really didn't like how it was just tacked on at the end though,
Like I would have much preferred if, like, I don't know, in
a couple of weeks they did like a call of duty for it and just
gave it its own thing, like just because that's what they did with Starfield
last year, and maybe that's like their thing now. Yeah, but I
feel like Starfield definitely doesn't become Call of Duty every year because guess what,
they make a Call of Duty every year. That's kind of the concern where
it's like Starfield was, like, you know, even though Starfield came out
and you know, people didn't love it as much as everyone probably hoped,
it was still like a Bethesda, a single player Bethees the game that we
are getting a deep dive into, kind of like what they did with Fallout
four. If you remember in twenty fifteen where Todd Howard walked on stage and
talked about Fallout for twenty minutes and like broke down character customization this and it
was it was great and I was excited. This one felt like it was
there to prove to remind everyone they bought Call of Day yeah exactly. Now
it's like they have to prove it, they have to show it to us
and all so to like the people above Microsoft that they like spent all their
money on like no, no, no, no, we bought Call Duty
and look we gave it a forty five minute presentation, not the biggest gaming
event of the year, like they have to really like show like don't worry
guys. Yeah, but but like, yeah, I guess like to your
point, like I don't necessarily mind them doing a deep dive after. But
if it's gonna be Call of Duty every year now, I hope be so
like maybe do Fable next year or something. Yes, exactly, I think
that would be pretty stale and I would hope they would know that. But
yeah, I think that was Xbox Uh yeah, okay, last one will
be soft past. I didn't even watch it because, to be fair,
I was busy at an appointment and I was just watch it later. And
then everyone was like, don't bother. I can probably tell you everything in
that because there wasn't much. Sure opened with Star Wars cool, and then
it uh did like an ex defiant thing for a new season or whatever,
and then a Prince of Persia section where they talked about DLC for the Prince
of Persia side scrolling game, and then a new update for the other So
DLC that's actually kind of interesting, is it? Like I don't remember because
I like that game, don't remember? And then and then they gave a
six second teaser for the Prince of Persia's Sands of Time. Ruy Night saw
that with a twenty twenty six release date, which is just the most like
oh my god, like, just don't even show it. Assassin's Creed and
I will say, Assassin's Creed I think looks really good. Well, I'm
excited for this Assassin's Creed. Who's to say if it's like the same is
it every Assassin's Creed where I'm like excited for it and then I play five
hours of it and I'm like, yeah, I'm good, and I'm excited
for Star Wars. I know, just Jordan was a little lukewarm and his
impressions, but like, yeah, Jordan was lukewarm on Star Wars and he
said he would like Assassin's Creed, but he was He also admitted like he
already is assassin Creed stick go and he said it's not gonna like super change
the formula. So sure, I'm with you where I'm like, we'll see
how long I stick with this one. The ending probably not. I think
what did it for me was seeing the I forget her name, but the
Ninja character, like seeing her gameplay, how she can go away. Maybe
I don't remember seeing how she can go prone, how she can like put
it like it said some Sam Fisher, Ah, yeah, some splinter Cell
text, which which got me excited for that. And then also uh Jordan
mentioned it. But like they talk a little about how the seasons actually changed
again, and that to me is so damn cool, like yeah, like
you, oh, you can round the ice now because it frozen over or
whatever. Like there's so many questions like how long do seasons last? Can
you skip to different seasons? Is it store? Is it tied to the
story, is it like Like to me, there's so many like that is
a factor that I like don't have an answer to, which is exciting.
For Assassin's Creaks, I feel like a lot of times when they show off
an Assassin's Creed game, it's like it's like, Okay, it's like Assassin
Creed, except it's here. It's like Assassin's Creed, but it's here,
and maybe they'll add like new weapons, characters or whatever. But generally you
kind of know what to expect. I think in this case, you still
kind of know what to expect, but I'm curious to see, like if
that does any anything. Like the only other game that I can think that
kind of did that other than like farming games is like within like Forts of
Horizon, Like, yes, one of them had seasons or something for which
was kind of cool, but I think it changed in real time, so
you had to like wait, yeah, because I think that game came out
it was like it was like Winter as well. Animal Crossing does that?
You're right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah, that's so weird.
That's cool though, I'm excited. Yah, I'm curious to see how that
works. Well those are the big three, the three big showcases, but
we also got to see we got to play some games, see some games,
and you saw probably the biggest game of the show. You talking about
Monsterner, We talked about Dragon Age because I saw both. I saw both
of the you saw three of the biggest ones too. If you want to
include a metaphor, right, I did see metaphor Man I saw a lot
what do you want to start it with? Ooh, let's start with dragon
Age because I actually haven't because you can you can go hear my opinions on
Metaphor and Monster Hunter over on video, but I didn't get talk about Dragon
Age. Do dragon Age is a weird one because that one was shown at
Xbox right, and I feel like this had like maybe the game like that
had like the most approve coming in because they've been working on this game for
like ten years, you know, and their recent games have not been great.
No, Bira really has needed to win. I think a lot is
riding on this. So people were like, what do you got by aware
and that trailer seemed pretty universally hated by most people, Like people did not
like that reveal trailer at all. To be fair, I also didn't like
that reveal trailer very much. I don't think it really captured. It didn't
feel like the right tone for what I think of when I think of Dragon
Age, where it was it almost had this like borderlandsy like look at all
our wacky characters and how much fun we're having vibe, which I get what
they were going for, where it's like they want to focus on the party
members, but it didn't feel like dragon Age to me. And I actually
I recommend reading Gida Jackson's article about it on Aftermath because I think they summed
it up really well for me, where it's like it's not that, oh,
dragon Age was dark and now it's not dark anymore. It's more that
that trailer felt like all of the rough edges of dragon Age had been standed
off. Where dragon Age is a universe is very it's it's kind of like
a rough place to live in, and it's like a lot of like bad
shit happens, but like those moments of levity and fun with those characters are
kind of like contrast with each other, and and and is what makes that
so impactful. And this trailer was just like, aren't we all having a
great time? Even though like the subject matter of what that game story is
about is supposed to be like pretty serious, like the end of the world's
gonna happens. Point is trailer didn't work for me. I was like,
I don't know about this one. I then went and saw the gameplay,
which is like an hour long presentation. The demo they put out the game,
the twenty minute game play trailer they put out on Monday was a condensed
version of what I saw. Okay, I liked that a lot more tonally,
Like that felt more in line where it's like you're showing me the city.
You're showing me like it takes place literally at the opening of the game,
and you get to see kind of like this inciting incident where where like
a portal's opening of the veil and demons are coming out and people are being
killed, and I was like, Okay, this is like matching more the
tone of Dragon Age. So that alleviated some of my concerns and that I
was like, Okay, maybe it was just not a great marketing choice.
Yeah, trailer versus like the actual what you show me this game looks more
in line with what I'm expecting. I will say that the I saw have
a lot of questions and concerns, specifically what the actual structure of that game
is, because I think we've talked about this before, but I love the
characters of Dragon Age. Inquisition the last one. I hated playing that game
because like that game is just like MMO style fetch questy, like go collect
ten of these things and collect this and it's just it was like so grindy
and boring and dull, and it was like, I just want to get
to the story mission where like the good stuff is, and that game felt
so bloated by that, and that was a real big issue I had with
that game a lot. So I think that's where I am currently holding judgment
is until I get to know, like, what is this game actually like
outside of the opening, because guess what. The opening of Inquisition was also
fan tastic. Yeah I like that, and the rest of it I didn't,
And then the rest of it was like, oh my gosh, and
like, yeah, you gotta really like get through that bad stuff to then
then a story masso would happened. You're like, oh this is good again.
Okay, now I have to do more grinding, okay, like back
and forth. So the opening they showed looked great, looked polished, looked
expensive, really expensive. That is a good looking game. In a way,
I'm like, well, boy, you threw in a lot of time
and money at that. But now I'm like, this is the opening.
What's the rest of the game. We'll see and you get to see the
character creator though, and let me tell you, it is really impressive.
Yeah, that it seemed like a highlight based on people who saw it,
is just how it's super impressive. I mean I think Inquisitions at the time
it was really impressive, but that was all just in the face. This
is like you can also adjust the body, a bunch of other stuff.
You can pick your characters backstory. They brought that back again, so that
changes dialogue stuff as well. Like the customization looks really cool and that I
think is going to be really exciting, and that is a classic dragon Age
goodness that I'm that I'm here for. Yeah, I will say, like
I'm not a big dragon Age fan. Well to be sure, I haven't
played a lot of dragon Age. I played some Inquisition, did not like
it. I will say, uh, EA feels like a very different company
than it was back then and even part of into uh the last generation with
them, like Anthem. I feel like like e A, what was voted
worst company by like I don't know by by gamers like every year for a
long time, and like at the time, like I could have gotten on
board that, but I do think like the last couple of years, e
A has been like putting out some really solid single player focused games. I
mean you look back last year alone, that was Jedi Survivor Wildhearts. They've
been dipping into like some indies too, to give not indies, but like
smaller budget tails Consera. Obviously they still have like like they're sports games that
they like, you know, milk as much money out of his cross.
But but I don't care about those. So it's like when I see something
like Dragon Age, I want to believe that that this is a different EA
that's publishing a BioWare that has learned a lot of lessons that is going to
result in something good, very good. I didn't watch the I mean I
kind of watched the trailer. I didn't see game. I didn't watch the
game play. Didn't Okay, I haven't seen gotcha, gotcha? Okay,
that's it. I'm just basing this on the fact that, like, I
feel like EA is not as bad as it used to be, and I
feel like there might be like if this was five years ago, I'd be
like that game is going to suck. I think now I have I have
hope I do too. I am coming at it mostly optimistic. I think
I'm just I'm not ready. I need to reserve a little judgment until like
see it. But I'm with you where it's like, I do want to
believe that like buyer Wer has learned all their lessons. I think, you
know, my complaint about the questioning and stuff is not uncommon. I'm sure
they that feedback loud and clear, and I really hope they took it to
heart and everything they said. I think they they are. They seem like
they really understand. And the presentation I watched, they you know, we're
talking about how the you know, they were really listening to fans, and
they walked probably these little nobs for fans, and so I think fans of
Dragon Age, fans of those characters are going to be extremely happy with this
game. There's plenty of people who love Inquisition, like unequivocally, like absolutely,
so I feel like those people are going to be probably like over the
moon for this game. Where yeah, I think I'm just like I'm just
waiting. Once I know what the structure is, let's I me that confirmation,
then I'm like, okay, I'm good. But yeah, it was
the the trailer initially set me off. I was like, oh, I
don't know about this, but then the gameplay made me feel better. But
I feel bad because I also feel like, unfortunately that that trailer kind of
hate for it got a lot of a lot of hate for very stupid.
Some valid aka the reasons I didn't like it, and some not valid aka
other reasons people didn't like it, but more the problem is that that was
like the first impression, and first impressions kind of can like set a bad
tone, you know, like that was their chance. And even though maybe
like the gameplay trailer made me feel better, I feel a lot of people
saw that initial trailer and already was like, oh, okay, I don't
want to play this yeah, which is like a little so they're like starting
off in kind of a rough spot unfortunately, which is not great. But
I hope that they can bounce back and show more of that game and hopefully
be like no, no, no, no, like, don't worry,
it's like it is still the Dragon Age, you know, and love.
We'll have to see. My personal game of the show was a Monster Hunter
Wilds. I almost saw it. Turns out I could have stayed and seen
it if they had, but I did not. Uh whoh man, that
game is so freaking impressive looking like good lord, you know, I really
try and like not like be more reserved watching Especial because I didn't get to
play it. I was just watching a demo. But it was also like
that you watched the director play it though it wasn't like a pre recorded thing,
so I was watching, like, you know, them play it,
like they were just out there with the control. It was very clearly like
a functioning demo. Like there was like a little bug that even popped up
part way through. It didn't happen to my demo, but Stu said in
his demo like they died, which didn't happen in mind. But I mean,
it looks crazy impressive. There's so many little changes and big changes they've
made. But like the overall thing for me is that they're really just trying
to break down those barriers. Where before Master Hunter kind of had this like
everything was segmented off. Right. It's like you got the town, you
go to the town, you go to the quest board, you go to
the cat, you get your meal, you load into the quest with your
instance, you go find your monster. This is like the town and the
map are in the same place. There's no loading. You go from the
town right immediately in there, there's no quest board, or if there is
a quest board, you don't need to use it. You can just click
on a monster and then go hunt it and immediately you just start the quest
starts. The amount of monsters on screen at once was ridiculous. There are
monsters and herds now, and they behave differently depending on whether they were heard
or solo. So there's lots of tactics around wanting to like bait a monster
away from the herd and then using other monsters to try and attack them.
There's weather effects. There was like a lightning storm that happened effects cool.
They looked really sick in the demo. It was super impressive. I mean
it was it looked really good. I think like I didn't really start playing
Monster until Worlds, and then I played a lot of World and I played
a lot of Rise. But like, I think the one sticking point for
me, and I'm sure a lot of people kind of came in there was
just how that game is structured. It's like you load people into your lobby
or whatever, you go to the quest board. There's always some fumbling around,
especially early on, trying to figure out like, oh what am I
supposed to do? What am I supposed to go, like who are the
important NPCs that I need to talk to about getting like my food or whatever
before I go? But it just sounds like all that just feels a little
more seamless and like interconnected, which gets me really excited. I'm really curious
how multiplayer is going to work in that, Like if it's just kind of
like, hey, you dropwake, we can hunt different monsters at the same
time if we want, like I think maybe so. I mean I was
talking to the development team in an interview and I did ask, like,
hey, you can try and like make the story and the cot more seamless,
and they said that was a big focus for them. They even showed
like you can summon NPCs to help you fight if you don't have friends and
you just want to like so you can like have like an NPC party,
which is kind of neat, and they and that NPC party showed up like
part way through, so it's like you can do the thing where you're hunting
and you're like, hey, man, I need some help calling calling the
boys, calling the squad yeah something, yeah, very cool. So uh
oh man, I feel like I'm gonna play that for a real long time.
When it comes out, Yeah, I didn't see it, but just
listen you talk about it. I'm like, yeah, that's uh yeah,
Stu saw it before me and then was hyping it up. Well. It
was weird too, was they didn't tell anyone that Monster Hunter World would be
there, at least not initially, not officially, so like we walked in
and saw like a big post from like are people seeing it? And found
out people were seeing it, and then everyone who saw it was like,
yeah, that's like, he's like the best cyberpunk you know, if you
were like eighteen or whatever. And when it was like everyone was talking,
everyone's coming out, it didn't feel like it was necessarily that scale, probably
because SGF is much small than three. But like I felt like everyone I
talked to was like, you gotta see monsters there, and I was like,
and then I didn't. And unlike the somberpunk one, I'm pretty sure
this one wasn't all smoking mirrors. Yeah, yeah, it seems that way.
I mean, if it's kind of next year. They gave a not
a hard release date, but they did say twenty twenty five. Yeah,
it seems like that game is like pretty far along, like what it looked
like was like, that is a fully functioning video game. I'm playing right
now or they're playing right now. So yeah, that was super impressive.
The other big when I got to play with metaphor refend hisio that is kind
of this year. Really assume that game looks super cool. It wan's it
come out August? No them, No October October. It's like October eleventh
or twelfth. Yeah, that is from the core creative team that worked on
Persona five and guess what, it's Persona Fantasy. That's kind of what it
looks like. But I don't think are you still like catching monsters such essentially
to fight for you? But no, so there's these other things that you
kind of catch called ooh, I don't remember the name of them, so
I'm not even gonna say it. But you do have like a Persona equivalent,
and there are like a number of them that can be kind of changed
out and rotated. But to be fair, like it's not the emphasis the
way person It's not like you're fighting those monsters that then you like talk to
them and like collect them, So it's it's not that exact rhythm, uh,
the combat. It's turn based, but it's still it's not the exact
same, Like you don't have like the weaknesses all out attack phase a little
differently, but I mean, like the a lot of the core structure kind
of looks very similar. I even got to like see a part where you
walk around your little like base which is your ship, and I could pick
like who I wanted to hang out with, and it's like, hey,
if I hang out with this person my kurage, you'll go up a little
bit and like you know, it like had all those kind of elements to
it. But I mean, I just out that's a bad thing because it
guess what, Persona's great and a fantasy version of that sounds pretty dang good.
And let me tell you that game looks stylish. It it felt great,
so I am I'm all for it, man. Yeah, I mean
I'm excited to play that as well. Like s m T five, I
played a little bit of it wasn't quite for me, So I've been kind
of waiting for this, like next it's a little more hardcore, a little
more you gotta be really into just the combat aspect. Yeah, and I've
been waiting for like because obviously Persona six is gonna be a while, but
this seems like it'll definitely like scratch that edge. Yeah, yeah, I'm
excited for that. I got to play a couple of games really. The
big one is Stalker, which I did a preview on. It's true.
One game that I haven't been able to talk about though, that I really
want to talk about is a game called Replaced that I got to play.
Oh. I saw that at the walking around the show floor and I was
like, oh, so it's like a two point five pixel art cyberpunk game
that is like a part brawler, part exploration game. I guess. So
basically, I had, like my demo is divided into three chunks. I
had like a more focused prologue section. I had an exploration section where I
was in one of the cities in the game, just walking around talking to
people, picking up side quests, finding mini games and stuff, and then
I found some combat or and then the third one was the combat. The
combat feels really tight. It's it feels a lot like Arkham games, where
it's like a counter button. You got a lead pipe that you're bashing people
with, and then you got a gun. The gun is a one shot
kill, except you can't use your gun that often. It has to recharge
takes a while, so there's a lot of like dodging, rolling hitting Strategically,
you've got a heavy attack which can only attack certain enemies. But I
think like the real selling point is the art style just looks looks great,
and like seeing that sort of that pixel cyberpunk world I think fits perfectly.
There's also supposed to be like a pretty big emphasis on the story, so
I'm excited to see where that story goes or even kind of what's it about,
because I've been following it too much apart from a couple of trailers here
and there. But it looks it looks really unique. I will say some
of the writing felt kind of whatever, but you know, maybe that's just
because I didn't have the context to understand like what exactly why these characters were
saying what they were saying. But yeah, I think that game is finally
supposed to come out this year. It has been uh in development. I
think got announced years and years ago for a very long time. Yeah,
God, who's that? What's the developer for that? Hmmm? I mean
look at the developer? Yeah, Yeah, that's an interesting one for me
because again they showed it like forever yoh, And I remember like when they
showed it, there was like another game that was kind of similar to it
that I kept confusing it with. I think that game got canceled. But
yeah, man, that like because I think it like what they showed you
like on a train doing like a bunch of fights, and I remember,
I'm like, I'm remember the trailer vaguely. I remember the trailer and I
just remember it like being like, wow, looks amazing. It also like
looked so like I remember the combat looked in a way where I was like,
is that a cinematic or is that actually the combat? Like does it
does it have that like cinematic look to it? Like the combat does?
I mean, like like it's interesting because I could be wrong. I'm trying
to remember here, but like it almost feels like it's kind of like the
camera's kind of handheld as yes, camera like an angle, yeah, and
you're like rolling around and like like the camera wasn't fixed. Basically it felt
a little dynamic during the fights. It just it is very stylish, Like
I think, I like, listen, I don't know how the story is
going to go. I don't know how much exploration is actually going to add
to it in the end, but I think the combat's good and the art
style is really good and I'm looking forward to it. It is coming out
this year, second half twenty twenty four and developer is sad Cat Studios development
for a very long time, but I think that looks pretty promising. We
also both got to see Slitterhead. Yes, I'm still thinking about it.
Yeah, me too. When I was in the moment, I was like,
I don't know about this, but like as I started to get a
feel for the controls, and then afterward, I'm like, that's kind of
fun. Yeah. So that's the that's the game from the uh one of
the original Silent Hill creators, original sild Hill creators. Their name escapes me
at the moment. Apologies, uh, but they showed like a teaser trailer,
like a CG concept trailer I want to say, like a year or
two ago, and everyone's like, ooh, like a horror game from virginal
Silent Hill creator. And it's not a horror game really. It's like an
action combat game with like kind of horror body horror elements. But yeah,
I think it looks kind of sick and a little janky, but janky and
like al Ps two janky way. I'm like, I kind of dig it.
It's definitely janky, but I feel like there's enough neat ideas there to
like not look past the yankiness, but sort of just to like you can
see what they're you can really see what they're going for, like like I
mean, I think the big mechanic of the game is how you can like
swap between any character on the fly mid combat and basically, you know,
you get attacked by a slitterhead, you draw its attention with one NPC and
then you transfer to another one and get extra damage for hitting it from behind.
Yes, it's got a pretty intense perry system where you like have to
like match the direction the swing is coming and you have to tie up pretty
well. You saw me mess it up many times. Yeah, that seemed
like maybe the one thing that I was like, oh, maybe they should
make that a little more lenient because I feel like that might cause people some
headaches. But just the whole body switching thing where you're supposed to be doing
it pretty frequently in combat just seems so cool in the way you're like possessing
all these people and essentially throwing their bodies like at this monster to try and
kill it. I mean you can literally there was a power later where you
could make an enemy. You could turn one of your hosts into like a
time bomb that loads, and it's like, oh, you can get like
your arm cut off, and then like you temporarily can't use that personal so
you need to swap to another person. Like all these little weird systems that
just seem so gnarly and visceral, and I was like, oh man,
I'm I'm into this. This is doing something cool. I think one of
my favorite moments in the demo was when I had to get down from the
buildings and it's just like you just jump and then it's like time slows when
you're about to switch hosts, so like before you hit the ground, you
switch to someone else. I mean you just watch your host just plummet to
the ground and die, and all the NPC's run around like oh my god,
yeah they walked away. I was like, you know, I got
other places to go like that. That sort of tone I feel like is
you don't see a lot. Yeah, even in horror games, I feel
like usually they're a little more, uh, because you know, most games
you play is one character. That character is not supposed to die. The
game ends when a character dies, right, And this is just like kind
of casual, you know, Yeah, it's cool. I'm into that one.
I dig it. Another game I briefly I'll talk about very briefly because
think Kurt should talk about it more, because Kurt really liked this was Qutsugami
from capcrom that's coming out really soon. That was a weird one because I
think when they initially showed it, they just kind of showed an initial trailer
just sort of showed like the tone and the vibes, and you're like,
okay, it's kind of got like this sort of mythological Japanese vibe to it,
but people weren't really sure what the game was. They've shown the game
now and it has admittedly confused a lot of people. They're like, wait,
what is this game? And to be fair, I walked in being
like, so what is this game? It is a almost like wave based
tower defense strategy game. It's really weird. It's hard to pinpoint, and
apparently that's on purpose, Like I guess like the director wanted to make a
game that was almost like a new genre or like didn't fit conventional genre means.
So basically the levels I got to play where you play as this guy
I don't know. There's also no dialogue in the game apparently, or like
from what I saw, it's all just like vibes, and the cut scenes
are just like the characters doing these like weird motions and stuff. I really
dug that about it. But you play as a sort of like protector for
this this woman who you need to essentially get her to this spirit gate so
she can like cleanse it. And then you'll have these essentially little like pawns
who uh you can go up to and you you will like collect this energy
that is like a resource, and then you can use it to assign the
pawns different classes that can do different things. You know. There is sort
of like a like a like a worker class, and then there is a
kind of almost more like mage class, and then you can like tell them
where to go and kind of position them appropriately. And then when nightfall hits,
the enemies all come pouring out of the gate and you have to like
attack and defend. And then once that ends, daytime comes in that sort
of your like cycle to like use your resources to build up more stuff and
then you kind of go back and forth with that. It's totally not what
I expected, and I'll be honest, I had like a really hard time
picking it up at first. It's like what am I doing? But the
like Slitterhead, the more I thought about it, I was like, actually
really dug that that was weird and unique and interesting. I did also like
a boss fight and that was pretty fun. I also just thought like the
way everything is sort of like presented in that game is really cool. Like
in between levels, you have this like your your base camp where you can
kind of go around and you can like pet animals and you can go like
upgrade your resources. When you when you upgrade your stuff, you go inside
this tent where the woman is and she has like this like ceremonial kind of
like table setup, and you'll like click on different things and you're like,
Okay, I'm going to put down this talisman on this thing and that will
do this buff or I'm gonna like eat this food and that as like a
preparation for the ritual, and just the way it was like at the end
of the day, it's just you know, going through menu and clicking on
the things to apply your buff. But the way they presented it as like
physical objects that you're like setting up on this ritual table looks really cool and
was was neat. So yeah, I it it kind of reminded me a
lot of like mid two thousand's GameCube PS two era Capcom, where you know,
you have your big games like your resid Needles, but you also have
like you're kind of weird out there games like You're Beautiful, Joe's and your
O COMI So I was like, this kind of runds me of old Capcom
in a way that I think is really cool. I get the feeling a
lot of people are probably not gonna dig it because I think it is so
like out there and weird, but I really respect that they're doing something like
very different with this game, and I think I think it looks really neat.
I have no concept of what that like. I it's all the things
you explained, but I didn't watch any game player. You have to.
You have to see it and play it to really understand it, because yeah,
watching the trailer, I was like, I don't know what's going on,
and it wasn't until I actually like played it and sat down with it
that I was like, Okay, now I get what this game is,
but it yeah, it's I imagine that it's a very hard game to market.
Yeah, so best of luck to all CACOM because I do think that
game is cool, and I hope the people that that game will before find
it because I do think they got something kind of special there. Okay,
cool, Well, I should probably at least briefly talk about Stocker too.
Yeah, I did think at it. We do have a preview up where
you and I chatted about it before, but I got to play the first
forty minutes of Stoker too. Literally, they started me at the very beginning
of the game. I got an aerial shot of the zone, I saw
car driving, the car crashed. I assumed the role of the protagonist,
and from that moment on, the story was from what I could tell,
almost told entirely through first person. I got tossed into the zone and then
I immediately just started to explain. We kind of talked about it a bit
already, but like it feels stockery, you know, like I played a
little bit of the original and it's tough it's a little esoteric, but I
think in a way that people want it to be, you know, like
there's inventory management. I would say, like probably the biggest difference is that,
like the game looks ridiculous and it's so like it feels so much more
animations driven, like like when you access your inventory, your character pulls out
a back, but it reminds me of Metro, I guess, like Metro
or something like Red Dead, where like those animations like almost feel key to
how you experience that world and how you interact with it, like just even
from eating, like you know, because you have to eat eventually, Like
I opened up a tune can and started eating tuna with my knife. You
know. Presentation values seem really good. It seems very difficult. Died multiple
time times. I would say, if there's anything that maybe not concerned about,
but if there's anything to note, is it It seemed seems a little
rough what I played bug wise bug wise, Yeah, ran into a couple
of bugs, broke the game at one point, had to had the hard
reset, which was fun. You know, we play lots of previews,
a lot of times we find bugs, and a lot of times those bugs
get kind of they get taken care of before the game comes out. Uh.
The scale of Stalker. Like I opened the map, it seems like
a massive game and all the animations and the systems at play. I imagine
debugging a game like this is very hard and I'm curious to see, like
how buggy the final release will be. Uh, that is part of the
Stocker experience. Based based on the comments of our preview, Like, you
know, some bugs are just kind of part of it. Waters will come
in and fix it, right, Yeah. Yeah, the community is very
used to and I think they're fine. The weirder thing is going to be
people who are familiar with Stalker but have never played it, Yeah, and
are coming at it because it's like now it's it is more Triple A.
It's more polished looking. And to be fair, I don't think based on
what I played, I don't think this is an approachable game, Like I
don't. That's the thing. Yeah, I really wonder how many people are
going to bounce off of it. Yeah, Like I think, like I
think folks who get it will really need to buy into it. You have
to wrestle with those systems. You'll have to be willing to explore large swaths
of the map. You'll have to just expect to die randomly because you just
weren't paying attention to something, or you walked into electric field or whatever it
might be. And I like, I don't think it's gonna be very forgiving.
There was an auto save system that seemed pretty reasonable, like when it
did crash or when I did not craft, but when the game did break
and they had the reset, like there was an auto save a couple of
minutes before. But for me, that kind of makes me more like,
I just want to die randomly, you know. That's Yeah, That's how
I want to go out as a Stalker fan. That has me excited because
I think my biggest worry going into this was like, oh, I wonder
how much they're going to try and tone that stuff down to cater to a
wider audience. And I think there's like a balance they could have found,
and at least so far, it seems like what you've described, like,
yep, that sher does sound like a Stalker game. So for me,
it's like excellent, perfect, But I do think a lot of people are
probably going to play it yeah and be like, oh, this is maybe
a little more hardcore than I was expectating. Yeah, and I think,
I think, to be fair, it seems very intentional because when you like,
it seems like they've smoothed smoothed out a lot of the edges in terms
of like the story and how they tell that story, like like you're not
reading blocks of text, like when I was exploring, I had someone talking
in my ear the entire time. There were there was one cut scene.
I don't want to say they were cut scenes, because I saw one cut
scene. It was the opening cut scene where it was like it's like my
character's doing shit that I'm not controlling, but like things are happening, stories
being told, So it seems like there's less friction in that sense. But
yeah, gameplay wise, like like I was just in a firefight, my
gun jam and then I died. They were like I stepped on a grenade,
I stepped in an electric field, like a bloodsucker just showed up,
showed up and destroyed me, Like you know, it's just like uh,
and like you know, I I forgot, like I ate my tune at
one point, but then I didn't eat it or drink or something, and
I kept getting notifications like you gotta eat, man, you gotta eat,
you gotta do something. So so it definitely seems and like there's different injuries
right, Like there's bleeding, there's there's just help your health. So I
think, like, I think there's a lot for fans to chew on.
But I do think to your point, like I think, if you've never
played a Stalker game or you're not prepared for what that entails, it might
be rough. Might be rough. But I also think, uh, they're
coming out of time where I think people want this. Well, it's gonna
say people want this, but also I think more and more players are like
into that kind of thing now than before. Like soccer at the time was
like so niche and it was like really just for like the most hardcore of
PC players. And now I think we've had so many experiences that have gotten
people more comfortable with like being brutal and hardcore. I mean, you know,
just think of like you know, don't say it, say that series
Escape from Tarkov. Yeah, there you go. Games games like that,
Games that are are more comfortable with like letting players die. I think I
think it's just like, yeah, you know, people are more used to
it, where back then it was you're a little more coddled, and Stock
was like the exception, and now it feels like it's so I think it's
actually coming out a good time where people are more receptive to that kind of
thing. I agree, And I think I think like people are kind of
think of like the power fantasy games, where it's just like get as strong
as possible and then you start blowing things up. And and also I think
about like Metro games, which I would say, what I played if Stock
two is definitely more hardcore for lack of a better word, than Metro,
but like those games also treat the player in a somewhat similar way. Sure,
I would say, especially if you play on harder difficulties, which is
what I do in those games. So I kind of see how they could
connect. I suppose cool. But yeah, I'm very excited for it.
I supposed to come out this year as well. I think August fifth or
something or that is, no, September fifth, not August fith September fifth,
that's still soon though, Wow, yeah that's coming up, geez a
couple of months. Oh all right, Well that was everything we saw at
SGF already going a bit long, but if you'll indulge me, Jake,
No, I won't. You won't indulge me, No I will because I've
been playing it all right. Cool. Right before SGF happened, little game
called Destiny to the Final Shape came out. Let me tell you, man,
it's good. I'm back in it. I'll go back in it.
I if you've been listening to this podcast, you know my up and down
journey with Destiny. I've been. I've been a Destiny player since day one.
There were moments where I dropped off, where I was like, Hi,
I can't do this anymore. I'm back, can't do it. I'm
back now. I didn't play the last like six months, that last season
and the end of the Light update, partly because I was burnt out,
and partly because those bungee layoffs like really killed my interest in that game in
like a really major way, Like that really hurt me. But I was
just like, man, I don't I don't know about this, but I
was like, you know what, I'm gonna come back from the Final Shape.
It is the conclusion to the Light in Darkness saga, not the end
of Destiny, as they have teased. Now that they have more Destiny coming,
but it was like, you know, it's the conclusion to the big
story. It's there, it's their end game, for lack of a better
word, it's a good point to to wrap it up and maybe hop off
if I don't want to. And they put out the best fucking Destiny expansion
they've ever made. Is like holy shit, it is the best one,
like hands down, Like it's fuck. Like I'm just like you finally,
you finally nailed it, Like it took finish the story too. I finished
the story. I'm I'm I'm almost done with the raid. I'm on the
final encounter. But I like did all the story. I started the new
season, and it's just like I am. I am so happy that they
were able to nail the landing because like, how often does that happen.
We're like a thing that's been going on this long usually, just like Peter's
out and dies, and like Destiny has like had so many ups and downs,
Like Lightfall was like not good in my opinion, Like I okay,
I like a lot of the combat stuff in Lightfall, but I really did
not like the story, and I was like very concerned, like dude,
they're not gonna are they gonna nail this? Like I'm really nervous. They
nailed it, and I'm it's like so awesome. But also it's like,
dude, I was to give up on this, and now I'm like,
what are they doing next? Not like now I'm fully back on board in
a way that like is both exciting and also frustrates me. I picked a
good time to start playing Destiny. Kind of you picked a good time.
You know that it's the best it's ever been. I don't know how you
would have followed anything that happened in that story, to be fair, I've
played enough Destiny where I like kind of got the broad strokes of it.
I think I think knowing Cad and his whole arc helped a lot. Yes,
I think if I didn't know that Cad had died and it wouldn't,
I think I would have been very confused. Dude. It's it's crazy how
that Cad like without getting a specifics of the story. I don't know if
you felt this, but like the Caid thing was one of those things where
it's like, okay, nostalgia, baby, Oh it felt cheap as fuck
when they announced it, it felt it felt really cheap and it felt like,
God, they're doing the Star Wars thing where people can't die and people
come back. But it worked. It pulled it off really well in the
story, Like when it happened, are like, oh, there is a
purpose for this, and it all is in service to like the themes and
the arcs the other characters are going on, and it's like, wow,
you actually made that like make sense and work in a really and he ends
up being like one of the best parts of that game, like that expansion.
It's crazy Nathan. I mean, Nathan Fillion is always great, but
like his his acting is delivery and that is really good. I agree.
It is like hot tier because I'm trying to think of like the last time,
because he died at the beginning of Forsaken, right, yes, yeah,
and he wasn't even he didn't even voice. They couldn't even get him
back for a Forsaken. It was Nolan Nolan North. Oh, I didn't
even know that. No, yeah, they couldn't get in back. So
Nolan North played him in Forsaken. Oh, and to be fair, did
a good impression of him. I didn't even notice, but no, he
was Nathan Philly only played him in the original and the first the launch of
two, but he didn't play Forsaken Okay, but they brought him back for
this and again, yeah, nails it. I also think they really benefited
from having the the main single player campaign be very like character driven and very
just focused on like these core characters that you've been with, and having that
be the drive. I think in the relationship between them and the relationship between
them and like that stuff I was able to follow even though I don't understand.
It's, like, Okay, I get why, like, uh is
it I core or whatever? He was like frustrated, like she's not sure
if she's said or angry or whatever that she doesn't know how to feel about
it, and like the whole like themes of like moving on, I thought
fit really well for the final Yes and shape exactly the final shape because I
think we're Destiny Falters is when it gets like I like Destiny's lore, but
I think Bungee has always struggled to convey that stuff in a way that like
is like coherent at times, Like I think that's where Lightfall kind of fell
flat. Is like Lightfall was like really trying to get into like lore stuff
in a way that just like wasn't being told in a good way, and
that's where got really frustrating. And I think they really benefited by like just
being like you don't need that anymore, like you know what's happening, you
know the stakes, We're just going to focus on the characters. And it
worked. And then the raid, the raid rules, it's really good.
It was another thing where Lightfall's raid was I don't mind Root of Nightmares,
which is the raid from Lightfall. It looks beautiful, it's got some great
music, as it always does, but it's really easy. It's like not
very difficult, and and the hardcorees were super pissed about it, and you
know, like, to be honest, I get it because it's like that's
kind of the thing about raids, right, like they're supposed to be a
challenge, supposed to take you all day. It's supposed to take you all
day, right, And that was like that one was so easy, was
ridiculous, Like people were like two man soloing that thing like on contest mode
before it ended, Like that's how easy it was. It was like not
good, and so you know people were like, I like, I think
a lot of people we just kind of like, I don't think they're ever
going to make a raid as hard as last wish ever again which last wish
for contacts? Only two teams beat it in twenty four hours, which what
expansion that that was forsaken and that was that has previously been considered the best
Destiny's ever been was for second, it was like Forsakan was considered the best,
I'd say, which Queen is like a very close second best at least
for me for two particular, for two in particular, yes, for one
taken King it's got the best one, but yeah, but Forsakan has always
been considered the best. And everyone's like they're never going to make a raid
as like good and as long and as brutal and satisfying his last wish,
And they totally do with this one. Like one team beat it in twenty
four hours one and they barely got there too, Like it was like it
was crazy. I was I wasn't able to be their day one because we
were at SGF. To be fair, my team probably would have barely got
through the first encounter to the second. It just sounded so hard without spoiling
it, the fourth encounter is like a crazy puzzle that teams spent like six
seven hours just figuring out how it worked. Like that's how like, yes,
me too. I love that stuff, which is very Last Wish because
Last Wish also has an encounter that was like that too. It's cool.
It's really awesome seeing them like bring back that challenge that people just kind of
assumed like was never gonna happen again. So it's like they kind of nailed
it on all fronts. Really. It's like the story is great, the
environments great, music nailed, the raid's awesome. I'm going through all the
post content now and it's great. The seasonal stuff so far they've been doing.
The new episode is really fun, Like it's just like damn man,
and then all these quality of life stuff that they've like improved and fixed.
I'm like just crazy impressed. Like I really did not think they were gonna
pull it off, and I think it's awesome and do going back to those
layoffs. I think it fucking sucks that like one hundred people who were working
hard on that thing didn't get us see it to the end. It makes
me so proud of everyone at Bungeee, and it makes me so mad at
Bungee's leadership for letting those people go and and not letting them see it through
to the end because like like and you know, like, yeah, that
just sucks. There really some people had been there since the beginning to like
Michael Salvatory, the uh the the composer, one of the lead composer,
got let go and he worked on he was there with Halo, like he
was there with Mario o' donald working on the Halo stuff. And it's like
it was a really bittersweet because the soundtrack for the Last Ship was really good.
I'm just like, damn, this is the last one with him minute
too, like fuck, Like so yeah, it's it's it's it's a weird
bittersweet thing. But man, it's it's so cool. Like even even if
Destiny from Here completely ships the bed or what ever, like don't you know,
Like it's just like it's so awesome that they nailed it at the end
here yea in this moment, so like it's awesome. I gotta play more.
I want to do the raid really bad. We should run through it.
It's good. It's good time. I'm down. It's rough. That
fourth encomere, man, it's so much fun. Like when we all clicks,
you're like, oh, it feels so fucking smart. We did it.
Uh, all right, Well, anyway, I think we should get
out of here. That has been a long podcast, but to be fair,
we had a lot to talk about. Yeah, yeah, I mean
we didn't do one last week. So there you go. That's their long
bonus episode of after Dark post SGF edition. Thank everyone for uh listening to
another episode, and thank you if y'all tuned into any of our SGF coverage
live shows we did. Giant Bombs did all their stuff. There was a
lot we did. Go check some of that out if you're interested. And
I would say we're gonna get a nice break, but honestly we're not.
Olden Ring Baby comes out and what lesson a week or no, just over
a week something like that. I'm going on a trip for an undisclosed thing.
Uh, so I don't get a break at all. Yeah, but
yeah, man, it's gonna be it's gonna be crazy. We're gonna keep
keep a keep drinking out talking about these video games. So yeah, I'm
not gonna be here next week because I'll be gone, So you'll have to
contund with Jake, they don't burn this place down. Actually won't matter.
We're get a new studio, right, so yeah it's true. Yeah,
we're gonna get it. We're gonna get a new studio soon. And then
we're gonna do that live stream where we disassemble this table. Yes exactly.
Yeah, it should be a good time. Well, we'll we should,
we should do that. That would be fun. Anyway, everyone, thank
you for listening to Now there's a bit a game spot for Dark. I've
been John Luke, that is Jake. See y'all next week. Bye,
b b b b b bod