Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our video game show here
at gig Verse. I'm your house, Dolmas Night with me the hell Diver,
Kirklam Patzer. How's it going with my friend? It's going very well
good. I feel like it's been a hot minute since I've been here.
We got a lot of catch up on it's been a very long time.
We had several weeks of like this, Xbox News and you were Away and
a Lotti do. It's been a long time, so I'm excited to catch
up on what you've been playing. Tell you about some of the games I've
been playing. There was Nintendo Direct. We'll talk about a couple of things
from there, Elden Rings, the DLC finally got an announcement, So we
have a lot of exciting topics today. Just a couple of quick shout outs.
Make sure you know join the discord chat with us about games and Marvel
Snap and stuff like that. Leave a review. Join our Patreon to get
episodes early and ad free, and next week's episode we are going to be
doing or should be next week, could be the week after, but soon
enough you will get an X Men Legend, three Dreams, Slash fantasy Fantasy
draft roster sort of thing. As the x Men TV shows coming out,
This is the cast that we wanted to do for a while, and I
like to do some content that lines up with stuff going on in the main
feed as well. So we're all in on Marvel Ultimate Alliance three. When
that came out, we did all sorts of draft rosters, covering all the
trailers, reviews for the game streams, we did all sorts of content,
and so I kind of want to do even though this is a bit different
because this is not a video game release, still excited to do this cast
because x Men Legends it is one of those series very much like Ultimate Alliance.
I was kind of just back in the early two thousands but finally came
back. Hopefully we get an x Men game as well. And then also
we are reviewing the Halo TV show on a weekly basis, so that's relevant
here for the gig for audience, go check that out. Me, Me,
Kirkland, and Taylor over there. Your lights are flickering, My lights
are flickering. There's something very weird. So hopefully our internet we don't live
in the same city, no freaky, Hopefully nothing too weird goes on here,
Christ it was just my mom and then I realized it was my lights
and everything, and then you see it's your lights too. That's I think
it was mine, or maybe I was just looking at your camera and thinking
it was me and some illusion. But hopefully we're good here fingers crossed.
Uh, but yeah, I think that's I think that's it for the shout
outs. So let's uh, let's carry you right into it. Kirk,
when we were talking on discord, you know what we can talk about this
week on side quest, and you dropped a couple of bombshells. One that
you've been playing the light as great as big as in the world hell Divers,
but more selfishly, the one that's a bigger deal for me is you
just casually mentioned you've been playing Inscription. So tell me, tell me about
Inscription. Why'd you pick this up? Where are the game? How is
that going so far? This is one that I can't remember is probably what
over a year ago now, two years ago when you first told me about
Inscription. You're like your your first experience on it, and it just sounded
like a very interesting game to me, and I like, I think at
the time I just like wish list it, like I just keep my eye
on it. And then that's one that's just on the PlayStation like plus Extra
something like it's in the catalog there. So I was just kind of scrolling
through my my PlayStation like games that I have on there, and I'm like,
I need like a like a filler game because this is like, you
know, I'll talk about Hell Divers, but yeah, in the early days
of Hell Divers, it was so hard to get in the game, like
it was just the service capacity. So I'd like try that for a little
bit, and then I'm like, I just I want another game to play
while I'm kind of waiting for this. And I was scrolling through and I
saw Inscription staring at me, and I saw our No sorry, I think
it started with Oh my gosh, what's it called. It's a weird name.
It's an other indie game. Yeah, it's another one that you told
me about, Subliminal, Subliminal, preliminal, So yeah, yeah, that
one, there you go. So I was like looking at that, and
then I'm like, oh, no, I should do Inscription first, cause
I know that you're you've been telling me about to get on that one for
a while now and booted it up and right away just like was very very
like I knew it was a card game, but I didn't really know what
it was beyond that, and it is. It is a game that is
very much kind of in its own in its own sphere. I feel like
it's I've played similar types of games, mostly because of like the card building
aspect to it, but just like the whole narration of it, and like
the way that you progress through the story is so interesting to me. It
just kind of just kind of hooks you in, It kind of sinks its
claws into you, and very very unique with the way that it tells its
story. And I think something that I mean, one of the most important
things in games is just being fun to play, and I think this one
is very much in that sphere where it can be very challenging, but it's
I think it's simple enough to get going and luckily the rules of the game
isn't too complicated, and yeah, it lets you break the game too,
which is always fun. But it works like narratively with that game since it's
you know, not against other players, right, Yeah, no, absolutely,
And I think it gives you tools like pretty early on to use,
and it like it doesn't really hold your hand though of being like, I
mean, there's kind of like a tutorial type sphere I guess to it,
but uh I I just I don't know. I I'm really really loving what
it is. I'm I haven't played like too much of it, like a
couple hours in I got absolutely wrecked by the Angler and then uh yeah,
so I struggled there, but I'm on like my second attempt, I guess
of that little run of it, and yeah, no, very very interesting.
You get to the Angler. It's like kind of like Jaws, like
man, those boss battles, like like it like it's a card game,
but like it's got horror elements to it, like very game like escape room
elements, Like it's a weird amalgam of of genres there for sure percent And
no, but like I'm so glad that I finally got in there because you've
described it to me multiple times and until you actually play it yourself, like
you really have no idea what the game is like. And but yeah,
no, I'm I'm really really love it. I'm you know, now they've
kind of fixed hell Divers. That's kind of been taking up my time right
now, but I'm definitely going to take another attempt at uh the Angler,
and like, like I said, like it is challenging, but I feel
like like I like the first time that I took on the Prospector, I
believe like I got mrked pretty hard. But right after that, like I
kind of knew what what strategy to you is going forward. Like I feel
like when I make mistakes, it's very obvious at least for me to to
kind of know not to do that again, and knowing when you want a
squirrel card or like pulling from a different deck, like yeah, just like
really not mechanic for a card game. I really yeah, yeah, absolutely,
so very very glad that I finally jumped in there to at least talk
to you about it. And I like, I feel like I'm still very
very early on from it, but I am really really liking just the initial
great first impression. Maybe I'll say that game that's good, how's the uh,
how's the the cabin, like the more escape room element of it going,
Yeah, and that's like that one I think was a surprising aspect to
it, Like you probably told me that you do that, but like I
just kind of didn't think of it at the time when I was playing it,
Like I just kind of assume that you're at that table, then you
get up and walk around. I I do like it because it's it's something
like break up the overall gameplay. I think my favorite part of it is
the actual like card yeah, like that that type of gameplay, But I
think it breaks up like the general gameplay and gives it a little bit extra.
I think just because I am so early on, like there is probably
still quite a few things that I have yet to discover with it. A
lot of it you can do, like there are certain sequences of of you
know, solving things as you would expect for those kind of puzzle escape room
sort of things, but a lot of it too you can just kind of
figure out out of order. There are things that you don't even really need
to solve to like move on, I'll say, in the least spoilery way.
So yeah, it's it's it's a weird part of the game. But
even just like the first time when he's like, go get that thing for
me and you just like get out of your chair, It's like, YEHOA,
what the hell is this game? Just like, oh yeah, min
when that first happened, when you get the candle and then you bring it
over and he blows it out and like, yeah, you don't really know
what that means at the time. Well, I guess he says, like
you have another chance, otherwise you're just gonna kill you essentially, Like it
just gets so ominous so quickly, and I'm like, oh wow, like
this this game has consequence that's very interesting. And uh, just the way
that the I guess the antagonist or whatever you would call it, Like just
the way that he looks at you, like while you're walking around and all
you see is the eyes, just like stearing he's very fine, very freaky.
And I think it's probably the second time that he kind of prompts you
to get up. He like he says something like don't touch my stuff,
and like from that point I was so hesitant to actually like engage with anything.
I'm like, is he just gonna kill me? Yeah? What is
going on in my house? Sorry for that, but uh yeah, Like
I so, I like didn't interact with things for a little bit there,
and then afterwards I was like, Okay, I must be able to interact
with some things. Here because he keeps saying to like go grab something or
maybe it was the oh, I forget the name of it, but it's
like a weasel type creature, but they have a different name with it.
Yeah, the stout. He kept prompting me to go find another card,
and I was like, I don't know if I can do that. That's
like this guy's gonna murder me. But yeah, I know. I like
the way that it has other puzzles in it, more so than just the
actual card mechanics. Like there's one sort of puzzle thing that I believe you
get another card for. It's in like if you exit your chair, you
go left and then on like the far right, there's like a little I
guess dresser type thing and it has like a little puzzle aspect to it.
But like I never fully understood how to do the puzzle, but I did.
I did beat them all. I just kind of like piece it together.
I'm like, okay, I think I need like yeah exactly, And
I like, I'm just curious how much more there is because the cabin feels
small for at least for the things that I've interacted with. I don't know
if expands for it I don't know if that's like a spoiler story type thing,
but yeah, I it's freaking me out. As we're talking about inscription
for the other thing too, is just like I guess, the overall like
death mechanic of it, and it's it never really hits you with a game
over or anything like that. It like it actually has kind of a story
thing to it where you get your death card, which is really interesting and
you can you can make a unique card out of it that way. It
can be really cool fucking op too, which is so much fun when you
just get a death card that is insane and can just like, yeah,
you a run on its own sometimes when they're so good. So that that
was really really cool of just kind of that discovery how you get a unique
card on each death and it like, as you said, it could be
very overpowered depending on how you you construct it, so that that's really really
cool. And uh, I guess just doing like different strategies because it is
a card builder, like you do go along on your path and you you
strategically pick which cards you want, and there's been some that I've like,
oh, this seems cool and I just never get use out of it,
and it's like, man, I just wasted my whole pick for this one,
and then of course I fail on that run. But that's what makes
it so fun, Like it's it's not it's not the discouraging when you fail.
It's more so like you're you're learning from each run that you go along.
Yeah, definitely with some of like the ways the card game connects with
the escape room element of it too, Like there are certain runs where you
might not even be trying to win the game, you're just trying to like
do a specific interaction or learn something right when you're trying to just get information.
So I think it works well in that way too. But yeah,
I mean I'm not gonna spoil what happens in the game. But yeah,
once you beat the game, you get you unlock like the roguelike mode right
as well, which adds like so many new cards, so many like starting
decks and other mechanics, Like tons of new mechanics in there too, So
definitely worth going through. I think if you're on PC, I think you
can just like do some like button prompt to like skip to that that if
you I guess if you don't, I don't think you can do it on
console though, but if you wanted to just go right to that roguelike mode.
But I think absolutely play through the whole game because it goes yeah,
it goes places. But yeah, I'm so glad you're you're playing, and
I hope to get some I hope this is one that you you know,
sometimes you pick up a game like, oh, it's true, I haven't
played in a few ones, but I hope inscriptions when you stick to and
if you do get stuck at any point you want to hint, feel free
to ask and don't like bang your head against the wall. I had to
do that when I was playing the game. I had to ask Dante for
a tip or two because there was at one point I was stuck on some
really specific thing. But it's like I kind of solved it but didn't.
So yeah, if you ever do run into any walls like that, good
to know. Yeah, hit me up for sure. Whenever I play a
game like this, I'm always just like so impressed with certain like game developers
on just how their mind works, on like the way that they craft things
like this and how it like it all kind of it's different game mechanics,
but they all kind of interact with each other, like how it is like
an escape room type setting, but the card building and battling through cards is
such a part of me core mechanic of the game. Like he's a Vancouver
resident too. Oh really yeah, really cool. Love the art style too,
of course, and the music is very ominous in the game, And
as you said, like when you start those boss battles and specifically for the
Angler, just the big bell type atmospheric thing that goes on to suite and
the masks, like when it's almost like you're doing like a D and D
campaign, but this like it's like a life or death campaign where this DM
is like about to murder if you fail. And I just love how the
way that he tells the story. You come across like a merchant or something,
or you'll put on different masks, Like it's just a really again,
like a really unique way to tell a story. And I really like how
as you're going along on the map, it's it's not overwhelming. It's not
like there's like six different paths to go through, like you're going straight.
Maybe maybe that happens later on, but like it's mostly just like a left
or right fork on the road type of thing, and you can kind of
strategize how you want to go through it. But I mean, I imagine
it's you can beat it either either direction. Like it's not like it changes
the ending depending on which path you go, but it gives you some choice
in that manner. And it's also just like a nice little break amongst the
card battles. So like the battles, they don't take too long most of
the time, at least for the ones that I've done. And yeah,
no, I I like the little items that you can get up to three
items and uh if if you don't use your items, you get the pack
rat that comes and gives you the pack graded every once in a while.
Yeah. No, it's just it's really sweet. I'm really really digging it,
and I've really come to like just really love these card games. I
feel like I I'd never played too many of them. Of course, Marvel
Snaps is a big part of my life now Loopiro that was another one I
had played. Of course, Midnight Suns, Dabbling Nuts, and now this
one, but like, like what is it? Sligh the Spire I think
is another big card game. Monster Trains another Monsterlatros, This game that just
came out that everyone in the world's raving about. It's like the newest Indie
Darling kind of thing. Oh okay, yeah, and but yeah, I
know, I I just I'm really glad that I'm kind of diving into the
genre because they're they're really fun, you know. I love Gwent when I
was playing Witcher three and translates over to these other card games. Mm hmm.
Yeah. No, I can't wait to get updates from you on that
that game, because it's it's something else. I'm very excited for Pony Island
two. I haven't played the first one yet, but he has new games
coming out later this year or next year or something, so I can't wait
for that. I was gonna ask you too, like roughly, like how
long do you think like the story is, like, I know you can
get stuck at some parts, but is it like a eight hour story?
Four hour story? It'll be It'll vary for me. It was thirty hours
to beat it? Oh wow, how or maybe maybe it's twenty it was
twenties, high twenties or thirty. I played almost the entire game like with
Clinton on screen share, and we were like talking through every time. We
could pick a card. We were like discussing ideas, so that took a
lot longer. But because I mentioned that too, like that one thing I
asked Dante about, there was a one point where like I did solve a
puzzle, but I just kind of solved it at the wrong time, and
then I ended up like playing a lot more than I needed to to get
past this thing until I realized that, oh, I just need to do
that thing again that I did before that I thought I'd crossed off my list,
you know. So that also added a lot of time to it.
So yeah, my time was like way over. If you went on how
long to beat, I'm sure would be like half that, But because of
the way I played it in particular, yeah it took a lot longer.
But yeah, even now that the roguelike mode is in there, I'm still
just jumping in every one once in a while to do a run or two,
and then what I do then I'm like it hooked again, And that's
like all I play for like a week, and there's so much to do
and unlocking the rogue like mode, there's because it gets fucking hard to do
something unlocks. You have to like check a bunch of challenges essentially, So
it's like every battle's a totem battle, or you start with like your scale
down at like one point to like you know, you have to like works
so hard, and then it's also the randomness and then yeah, all this
stuff, so it gets pretty intense as well. So yeah, even once
you beat that story, if you want to go check out that mode,
you're gonna have a absolutely a lot more time with the game. Does it
have like the escape room mechanic and the roguelike mode or is it mostly just
the card No, it's really just, uh, you can still there.
Actually you can still like get out of your chair and walk around and do
stuff and unlock certain things. It's different than some of them are similar like
other little like I think there is still puzzles on that dresser if I remember
correctly, So there are there is still like a bit of a metagame element,
and you're actually there is story to it as well. You're unlocking like
story things through certain spots. But it's I'd say it's more of like a
it's smaller scale and it's more about the gameplay and the mechanics and unlocking and
trying challenges than the meta game stuff. But I think it's cool that there
is kind of like this other story that's in there, and it fits within
the story of the main game too. It's even the kind of hinted at
in the main game never fully never fully like explained, So it's it's cool.
I think it's well done, and I haven't even finished it yet because
there's still so much to do in there. So yeah, very exciting.
But yeah, I held that was the other one that you mentioned this,
so what's taking your main time? So yeah, tell me about this.
I'm guessing you had a couple of friends who were playing it and that's wicked.
So this one, like Travis Snell, he drafted it in the video
game draft this year, and I think like even just when we were going
through the games, like I watched the trailer, it's like, Okay,
that looks kind of interesting, but probably not a game I'll pick up.
And I think it was last weekend I was hanging out with Buddy Patron Tyler
shots as Tyler, and he was telling me all about this game and how
just fucking insane it is and it's basically just Starship Troopers the video game,
which I absolutely love that movie so much, so it's just like just listing
off how crazy it was, and like it's it's a cheaper game too,
like I think it's I think it was like fifty bucks on PlayStation, forty
bucks on on Steam, just PlayStation and PC. Unfortunately, it would be
great to you know, just have more members, I guess on Xbox,
but maybe it would be worse because the servers would just be totally bottling it.
Yeah, like maybe later on, but yeah, but no, he
was telling me about this game and that like coinciding with I don't know what
their marketing budget was for this game, but I swear I've seen this trailer
in front of so many things and just every day to play or showcase.
The Sony was pumping pumping it out. For sure, they did a fantastic
job as marketing, because everybody is just talking about this, like just even
like scrolling Instagram, like I'm just seeing so many posts for it, and
yeah, so many people right now or like a few days ago, like
it's huge, which is it's massive, which is very very impressive, but
of course comes with that the server issues because I apparently you probably like you
might know more about this than me. But apparently the first game wasn't like
a first person shooter either, like it was. It was kind of I
think it was like a twin stick shooter, like a top down okay sort
of thing, I believe, Yeah, But like I think that peaked with
like ten thousand people or something like. It was just such a less popular
game, whereas this one obviously is just super like the number one game in
the world right now. It seems that it's just insane. So I picked
up the game, and every single time that I loaded it up it it
would have that server capacity issue where I, like, I couldn't even do
the tutorial. The first time I played it, I was waiting there for
like half an hour, which was a big bummer when you when you just
buy a game and you literally can't even play it. But since then,
like they have had patches which has changed it. So like it used to
be, if you're just AFK and your ship like you, you would just
never never DC or anything like. It would just keep you in there,
which is obviously just bumming down the server. So they change that now,
so there's it'll kick you if you're a FKA. After a little bit of
time and just a couple other things where now like the last few times I've
played, I haven't even seen the servers in the last few days too,
so that helps, which is like I mean, like, it sucks whenever
there's issues like that, especially when it's only an online game. But I
kind of understand considering just kind of where the success of the first game was,
like, this one just hits like a liath compared to that. Obviously
they weren't really prepared for it and just give it some time. But uh
now, I like I can't say definitely, the servers are a lot more
manageable, and there is even like matchmaking issues where if you hit quick play
to join other people's games, like it would just take forever and you would
never really get in. I never had like a full squad every single time
I play, Like only one person would join my game, which can be
very difficult if you're doing like a more challenging mission. But to the game
itself, I am just absolutely in love with this, Like it reminds me
a lot of Earth Defense Force. I was telling you about that game.
If you long to go on side quest and you're just like I get like,
if you've seen Starship Troopers, just like the ridiculous campiness of that world.
Like it pretty much is the exact same game. And I don't even
think they like really beat around the bush like Earth that you're defending is called
super Earth. It's all about just like being super patriotic and just killing the
bugs. And it's just Super Earth against the bugs, and and that's the
way it is. So like in terms of a story, there's not much
of it, Like it really is just about the gameplay. You make your
hell Diver, which there is some customization to it, like you can choose
your armor. I usually take a lighter armor, which obviously isn't as beefy,
but you're just a lot faster to run around in the world in you
can kind of switch out your weapons, so you can take two different weapons
and then based on they're called stratagems, which is like a big key mechanic
of the game. You can take I believe four of them, and some
of them can be like airstrike, some of them can be like a century
gun that you can you can place that will automatically just kill things. You
can drop like a heavy weapon like a machine gun or a bazooka, and
the way that you do that is like on PlayStation, you hold like L
one and then there's a sequence of keys that you have to hit to like
call them down. So like for example, one of them is like up,
down, left, right, right up, and like yeah exactly,
and like it gets intense because like there's just bugs all around you and you
have to like like do this like quick little sequence of buttons otherwise like you
don't get your drop, and if you fuck it up, you have like
redo it. There's like three giant bugs coming at you. Like it's it's
really intense, and it's a fun little mini game like in the middle of
the already just chaotic third person shooter of this game is so I really like
that mechanic, and it really is like tied down to those straps, Like
I feel like if you're not just using them on cool down like or off
cool down, I guess like it's you're definitely limiting your gameplay. And when
you're doing the more challenging met levels, like you you really got to be
on top of those and depending on if you're like I mentioned the bug enemy,
there's also an automaton enemy, so it's it's basically like Terminator, where
there's just these like robots that shoot at you. You would want to take
like different strategems based on kind of what you're fighting because the bugs don't shoot
you, but the robots do. So maybe you'll take one that is like
a shield for example, like like it'll be like a little dome that you
can kind of hide into to defend from some fire. So there definitely is
strategy in that and kind of basing your your your teams, like everybody could
kind of take different strategems based on what you need, so that that,
like the whole strategem aspect is a big, big mechanic that you kind of
have to get used to. It took me a little while just to I
felt like in the early days, like I wasn't really using them all that
often because I would just be focusing on the shooting. But yeah, like
you really got to be balancing all thats just maximizing. There's certain enemies that
just won't even go down by like regular fire, like you do have to
be hitting them with airstrikes or whatnot. And yeah, so like just the
overall gameplay I think is just so fun and just so addicting because it's just
satisfying seeing bugs explode and like it it really they really I think encapsulate just
like the danger of these planets so well, like you really feel like anything
can kill you at any time, and like you really have to be checking
over your shoulder when you're doing these objectives because when you load in on the
mission, you basically choose like a sector of space to go to, and
then you choose a planet, and then you choose like a spot on the
planet. And it is a community driven game, meaning that like everyone is
kind of working towards I guess, like taking over these planets. So when
you go to one sect, yeah, exactly, like one sector, it'll
be like sixty percent controlled by Super Earth for example, or maybe some other
ones are like zero percent controlled by Super Earth. So like you just you're
doing missions and everyone's kind of chipping away at the percentage to eventually take over.
And I mean, like when I first jumped into the game, like
I got it like a week after it came out, it seemed like most
of the space was kind of already like taken over for Super Earth. So
I'm curious just how they're gonna be adding new new planets like I've already seen
a couple of new sectors that have opened up, so I think they're like
it seems like they're adding maybe like I don't know if it's a weekly basis
or whatever, but the devs will just like drop in, like ooh,
a bunch of bots just attack this new sector or something. Yeah, kind
of like I don't know, artificially kind of create more chaos and then bring
people to certain areas and the other places will get overrun in the meantime,
right something like that. Yeah, Like I assume something like that would happen
because they have like like a community goal, I guess, so, like
right now, the big one is like the defense of a planet, So
like the automatons are like attacking a planet, so maybe that is what it
happens, like they they eventually fight back and you have to do some more
defensive missions. But so yeah, cool man, because I just feel like
you really need a huge ass community of people playing the game for that kind
of thing to work, and hopefully this game can sustain its success. And
I mean, obviously people are gonna fall off in the first few weeks and
months, so that always happens with games. But hopefully it can keep like
a solid roster of people playing, because that is like a really cool metagame
element to the game and kind of serves as like you don't need a single
player narrative sort of element to your game because the narrative is more like the
community fighting against this force. And it's cool when the community is actually on
the scale that you need for that to feel realistic. That's just such a
cool thing that you can't you can't ask for more as a developer when like
your game just blows up this much and it's about that kind of thing,
it just seems really cool because yeah, like if it's not a popular game,
like Super Earth is never cleared, right, they'll have to change the
numbers. But it seems like they have to add more YEA rather than take
them away to make it balanced, which is what they would want. I'm
sure. Yeah, absolutely, I'm I'm very very impressed with with just how
it feels too, Like it really feels like a clean game. The mechanics.
There's never any moments where I just feel like I Am getting fucked by
the game, like like like you know, like a big part of it,
as as I said, cycling through the stratagems is just like managing your
gear because for the weapons, there's no like like a certain amount of bullets
for example, that your gun have, Like you have seven clips, and
if you shoot two bullets and you reload, like you just lose a clip,
so like you actually have to strategic do that. But I I like
it in theory. I feel like I haven't seen enough games do it to
formulate a full opinion. But how does that feel in this game? I
really like it because it feels a lot more dangerous. Like an Earth Defense
Force, you just have unlimited AMMO, like you like you'll you'll reload,
but you just have unlimited AMMO, whereas this one, like, yeah,
like if I have half a clip, I feel like maybe it's a call
of duty thing, just growing up from other first and shooters. If I
don't have a full clip, I'm just like reloading like before combat, whereas
I kind of had to get over in that in this and something else that's
really intense is like you don't automatically reload, so when you run out of
AMMO and you're like shooting the if you're shooting your gun. Sometimes in games
you'll just like automatically reload like that doesn't happen. So like I was getting
fucked over so many times with that because I would just like shred through a
clip and then I'm like shooting my empty clip as like three bugs are coming
at me, and I'm like, oh shit, now just turn around,
like gun it. And do they have something cool with the haptic feedback controller
for that? Yeah? It like it has like an audio effect for sure,
and depending on what weapon you're using, like it has the different haptic
feedback, nothing so much to the extent like death loop for example, when
you jam your gun, like it like actually jams and like you can't pull
the trigger. I feel like that's kind of peak of the haptic feedback for
me. And yeah, I don't act it's always gonna be like the first
few months of a console's release. That's when like the coolest controller thing,
yeah happened, and people just settle into whatever whatever is most comfortable and familiar.
I don't even necessarily love the haptic feedback, but in the game like
this, I think it's just so much more immersive and it just really feels
like a dangerous world because if I have like a massive heavy machine gun or
something there's a giant bug coming at me. Like there's a lot of recoil
on that gun too, so you're just like kind of spraying. You're trying
to do controlled shots, but like it's just there's bugs flying all around you.
You're getting just swarmed. You call in like an airstrike right on your
position. There's one instance where me and Tyler were doing a mission, just
the two of us, and I was like, like he was down.
So whenever an ally goes down, I think you get like maybe twenty resupplies
for the mission. So every time someone dies, like you call in,
like like you have to do the button sequence to call them back in,
so you toss the little marker and then they hell dive again, so like
another pod comes down. So I like did that, and I was getting
cornered in like just just like a corner of like a rock. Like I
was just getting cornered by these bugs. Like there's no way for me to
get out of them. They're completely taking me over, and I'm just like
shooting my guns. I run out of VMO, I switch to my second
shoot it all. I'm completely out of AM Like I can reload, but
I'm just completely out I don't have time to reload, so I just like
pull out a grenade and just like self sacrifice just explode. And it's just
like so thematic in that sense where it's like, man, like I am
that soldier that just fought to the last last breath and it like, yeah,
it sucks I die, but I was just laughing so hard because it's
just so like thematic, Like it really feels like an action and like they
have that all over the marketing. I feel like I keep seeing posts.
It's like this game truly feels like an action movie, but like it actually
does in periods like that. And is there a thematic like when you die
in that situation, like do you just respawn or like are you a new
person? Like how does that? Yeah? Like I like to think that
you are a new person because you you drop in, like when when someone
calls you back in, like you drop onto the planet from the little pod,
like how you start the mission. So that's kind of how I think
of it in that sense. It's just like there's com and like even when
you are hell diving, like depending on what your crui size is, like
you all drop together, but you can see like in the background, just
like other pods, Like I don't think they're actually people, but they're just
kind of building that scale. I guess that it really feels like all these
hell divers and like when you choose a planet to go to, like you'll
like hyper jump to them, you'll FTL travel to the planet and you're just
kind of hovering in orbit and there's just tons of different like destroyers or whatever
they're called, like all just ready to drop, and it just feels like
you are on this galactic war scale. And uh So, yeah, like
the just the the immersiveness of the game, I think they did a really
good job with and yeah, just it feels so dangerous. Every time you're
on the planet. You just feel like you always got to be looking over
your shoulder because there is times when maybe you're not in combat right away,
but you're just kind of constantly scanning. You're looking at your mini map,
looking for like little red blips that pop up. And there is one instance
where we were doing one of the objectives and you just kind of turning on
like an antenna. So it takes some time and we're just kind of chilling
there and I turn around and there was just like twenty bugs that were creeping
up on us. It's just like, oh, oh my god, to
your left everybody, like you just like get right into the action. And
yeah, it's really really fun. Obviously it's more fun to play with friends
because then you can kind of like strategize and work together. And those challenging
levels, like there's a lot of different difficulties of it. You choose your
mission, but then you choose what difficulty you do the mission on. I've
only ever done like the level four. So it goes like trivial, which
is the easiest, easy, medium, and then yeah, challenging, and
then it goes hard, and then there's like hardest impossible, like true hell
dive I think is like the hardest difficulty. I couldn't even imagine what that's
like. Yeah, that's kind of like diablow, Like there's just so many
difficulty levels as you get stronger and stronger, no, absolutely, and like
there is a leveling system, so that's where you would unlock more strategems and
different equipment and stuff like that. So on those harder difficulties, you probably
need everyone kind of max level to be able to to take those on.
And when you do missions, you get XP as well as like the in
game currency, and with the currency, you can there's like these medals that's
like a type of currency that you can kind of customize, like get different
gear and stuff. It's almost unlocks how like the Call of Duty game pass
or battle pass whatever it works or whatever it's called. How that works,
where you get these tokens and then you spend them and then you kind of
just like expand and the more tokens you spend, the more things that you
can unlock. It's not a battle pass where you like pay into it,
but that's just I mean, I'm pretty sure you can buy the in game
currency, as a lot of games have these days, but like it doesn't
really change the gameplay, I don't think, other than I guess if you
get different armors and such, but there's a different currency that you just spend
on the stratagems themselves, and it's just, I don't know, it's kind
of cool going through that and kind of customizing your character and kind of making
your own play style. And I've I've found, I don't know, I've
bounced around with a couple of different strategems, but I definitely have my core
that I really love using. Friendly fire is very much a thing in this
game, so it could be absolutely care Like there was one time where there
was like a like a bug nest or something that we were taking out and
I just like toss like a thermal air strike in it as like one of
my allies just like jumped into the pit just fucking got murdered, like instantly.
I'm like, oh ooh, sorry about that. I like redeploying real
quick. Yeah, sorry about that guy. But I've died many times to
allies just just from like air strikes, right, Like it's just so chaotic
that definitely friendly fire will happen at times. But yeah, it just it's
another thing that makes the game feel like truly dangerous. So I'm loving it.
I'm absolutely loving this game. I'm definitely on the hype train for it,
and I'm really happy that they've kind of fixed the server issues because,
like I said, ever since they've had that patch, I haven't had to
wait at all. There was some times where like I would want to play,
Like I think it was like Thursday after work or something. I'm like
I just want to do like a hell dive, and I boot it up
and I'm just kind of sitting there watching it. It's like, well,
I guess I'm not playing tonight. It sucks whenever that happens. But I
understand hard to make a game, dude. Yeah, I mean I can't
even imagine for like, okay, a middle sized studio, but like you
have the first party like PlayStation budget and marketing, like trying to estimate how
many players you're gonna have that launch and how much money you should put into
like servers and stuff like. God, that must be so stressful and impossible.
It seems like no matter what your game is, like half the time
studios just are off, whether they're under or over whatever it is. So
that's like a good problem to have, really, and in the grand scheme
of things, so pretty stuff to estimate that sort of thing though, right,
Like you definitely have pre orders for the game, but like that's that's
by no. Yeah, I guess that's really like your only metric. I
feel like that you could actually go off of in terms of uh, servers,
But even then, like I don't I don't know how many people are
pre ordering games these days. I really only do it if there's some incentive.
I'm sure there was for hell Divers. But yeah, obviously their estimates
were way under, but sounds like they're fixing it up quick. This is
the type of game though that I don't think it was super popular on day
one, right, Like, I think it was just word of kind of
the hype building a couple of weeks after release. Yeah, sure, but
I highly recommend this game. I think it's a fantastic shooter and it almost
fits that like Left four Dead type feel, where like you just go in
you're just shooting mobs with with friends and just trying to survive. But the
third person works. I like just found out literally yesterday that you can actually
go first person like while you're aiming, which makes it feel a lot more
immersive. I don't love it. I usually keep it in third person mode
just because, yeah, like if you're aiming, like on PlayStation, if
you hit R three, like, you'll go to first person mode, which
which is pretty cool, especially for taking out like longer ranged enemies, but
or sorry, just enemies in the distance. But in terms of like gameplay,
it's it's pretty basic. There is like a dive that you definitely need
to use, especially on the harder difficulties because certain bugs just can like actually
one shot you, Like there's a charger which like it's basically the charger from
Left four Dead, Like it'll just run at you. It's super tanky,
and if it hits you, like you are just getting tossed, Like you
won't necessarily die one hit, but like you'll actually just get sent flying and
it's hilarious, so you'll like want to dive out of the way in that
sense. And their back is kind of the weak spot. So maybe one
character is like luring it and then everyone else is kind of like chaining it.
So there is some major strategy that you kind of need to use,
definitely more so on the harder difficulties. But yeah, it's it's fantastic.
I highly recommend it if you have a PS five or or Steam that can
run it. It's not the most like taxing game. I don't think on
systems, but I got it on PlayStation. I knew my computer wouldn't be
able to run it, especially in those chaotic moments. Yeah, bugs everywhere,
Yeah that makes sense. I'm sure my laptop, if it could run,
it would be just screaming the whole way through. So yeah, maybe
someday. Cool that was awesome. I'm glad to glad you've been playing and
enjoying. Yeah, let's let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Okay, we are back. Girly of you working through ballers Gate still
is that's still on your uh shame. I have not played since we went
to Disney, so it's been a little bit of a hiatus there. Where
we are currently is like we're still in the first act. I don't know
how long it is, but we're definitely just trying to explore the world.
But we kind of got ourselves into a situation where we got to an area
by like just kind of like one character could teleport, so then therefore everyone
just kind of like leapt for it, and we just went into this little
boggy area found like a witch lady and instantly regretted it because we just got
absolutely murked in that boss battle. And that's usually like how our sessions end.
I feel like we go down a rabbit hole and then and then it's
just like we get so like stuck in a situation. It's like let's load
an older say, but like let's do that next time. I've kind of
demoralized here, but yeah, I know. So, I mean we keep
talking that we want to jump back into it, but recently our schedules just
happened aligned and Avatar came out, so we've been watching that, so that's
kind of taken up our time. But no, I'm excited to go back
in that, and that's a game again that I'm just so glad that like
Shay is liking it because I feel like it's it's very motiv motivational, I
think, to go on that journey because it is a daunting game, Like
it's just so large scale, and like if you're not having fun playing,
it can be detrimental. But we're both just really digging it. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I think the at least on Xbox, like, it's
been a lot more stable recently, so I think they've all those patches Because
you know, I was talking about all the crashes I was getting in the
game. I haven't had one in a while, and I can actually like
boot the game up from quick Resume and it will run normally, whereas before
I'd always have to like close it even if it didn't crash, it would
just be so laggy. So that's been good. I'm like on the bridge
walking into Balder's Gate. So I'm like at the city now, so that's
pretty exciting. But I've been playing some other stuff on the side, but
still just slowly making my way through that. This is like a week's old
update at this point, but I wanted to share with you. But remember,
I think it was the last time we're on sie Quest, I was
telling you about Kirby in an amazing mirror and I was having a great time
playing through that. Well. I finished that game like weeks and weeks ago,
but great game once again. I was praising it in that episode,
but like such a weird structure, but like such a cool curb game,
like easily one of my favorite Kirby games now. But one thing that just
made me so happy in that games At some point, one of the bosses
in the game is Masterhand from Smash, which and I was looking at it
and it's like it came out a couple of years after Melee, and it's
like, how Laboratory's the same studio that made the first two Smash games,
right, so it all makes sense there. But yeah, like playing against
Masterhand and then Crazy Hand comes in there doing all the moves from Smash and
then the coolest thing is when you kill Masterhand or Crazy Hand, you can
suck them up copy them. And then the copyability you get is smash smash
ability, smash mode whatever it's called. And so you just have like five
or six of Kirby's like super Smash Bros Attacks specifically, which you know,
for me, who's such a nerd about Smash Bros and move sets and all
these characters just such a cool thing. Like I once I first got that
mode, I was I just used it for like the next two hours.
Like I didn't switch once, even if there was like some wall I couldn't
get through. I'm like, I just I'm only using this mode. It
makes me so happy. So yeah, big shout to that game once again,
Sound Nintendo Switch Online, so everyone should go play that. Such a
great Kirby game that I'm glad I've finally played. But here's the bigger game.
I wanted to show it out today, So Kirkling. Now, last
year there's a game that came out and you know itice all the trailers and
everything else was like this looks so great, but it's like ninety dollars,
you know, like when we get all these taxes and stuff like games are
fucking expensive these days, and it just didn't seem like it was always always
like on that store page, like I was right on the purchase button so
many times I had it on my wish list. Every time it goes on
sale like thirty forty percent off, I'm like, oh, it is now
the time. Now the time I held off, And I'm glad I did,
because it just kind of shadow dropped on game Pass the other day,
and that is Dead Island too. Dead Island two is on game Pass now,
and yeah, they didn't even announce it in a big way, which
I'm like, this is like a recent game. It's like a fairly big
deal, so I don't know why they didn't announce it in a bigger way.
But I've been playing through it and I'm I mean, I'm glad I
waited just because then I don't have to like buy it outright. But holy
shit, it is like exactly what I wanted, just you know, like
a mindless zombie slaying game, similar to like Hell, I was just so
many zombies everywhere, just crashing and burning. It's so much fun. It's
just like it's a popcorn flick sort of game, just mindless smashing enemies and
zombies and stuff. But I'm like, I'm very impressed by it, Like
it's a really well made game. It's it's the tone and stuff is like
not I'm not really into that, it's really stupid, but it's like kind
of intentional. But the gameplay is just so fricking fun. I've just been
absolutely loving this game so much. It's got two things that are like very
underrated, low key elements of games that I love. But I I just
love exploring houses in games, like especially open world games, when you allow
me to go into all the houses and that, you know, it's such
a big reason why I love Elder Scrolls or follow Out like the Bethesda Open
world game because especially with Elder Scrolls are like every single building that's like Aneath
those of those games. You can go in every single building, and I
just love looking around at the furniture, the decorations, whether I'm looting or
I'm just like exploring. And that was why if you go back to the
Red Fall review for me and Dante, like I was like, my favorite
part of Red Fall is just going into houses and looking around. So even
though the game's like not great. I still just love looking at houses and
looking like the artists on these games who like do the set dressing and put
all the props around, Like I just I appreciate those artists in these games
who go through all the effort, and especially in Dead Island, where the
game like looks amazing. It's actually like running at a good frame rate,
which a lot of games haven't been recently on New Xbox games, looks really
good. You're going through just like Hollywood Hills, all these like huge mansions
with beautiful pools and glass windows and all this stuff, and just walking through
these houses and so many of them you can go through. It's not an
open world game, but the areas are fairly open ish and you can go
into a lot of different buildings that are kind off the critical path, like
I love that. And then it also has another one of my just favorite
things and games. We talked about it in the Death of review, talked
about it on The Dark Mesaiah Retro talked about it in the Weird West review.
A fucking good ass kick, just a physics jankie kick kicking zombies through
windows off of balconies, and then it has kicks on kicks where you can
do like a flying kick where you're doing like a jump and drop kick,
and like smashing zombies off buildings. So it has like those two things that
I just absolutely love in any game. But then it just has like a
fun combat system, tons of variety and stuff. So man, I'm so
glad this game dropped on game Pass and I'm finally playing it because it's just,
uh, it's just like exactly what I want out of games a lot
of the time, Like I don't there's so many combat systems that I don't
know what it is. There's so many reasons, you know, like Shadow
of Mortar for whatever reason, like that game never really felt great to me,
or like Witcher three when I tried that, I'm like, nah,
this combat doesn't feel good. And I think a big thing for me is
having the feedback of your hits on enemy on enemies. I think that's like
a huge element no matter what the combat system is. That's such a big
thing for me, Like when you get a good headshot and it feels great,
or like in Melee, if you're playing Marth and you get like that
perfect tipper and it has like that sound effect and it just feels great,
and this game like that, that's what that's what it's all about. Like
the combat, there's a little bit of depth. For the most part,
it's just like the satisfaction of ripping zombies up is like the it seems like
the most the core design element of this game was making it feel good to
just destroy these zombies, and it's succeeding in that way. I remember that,
like in all the trailers, they had some marketing term or they called
it like the flesh system, which stood for something which was essentially just like
the amount of detail they went in terms of how you can rip these zombies
up. So apolygic for the graphicness here, but just like you know,
depending on what weapon you're using, if it's something that is like a blunt
weapon versus something that's like a blade or like a crowbar, something that would
like rip open things. Yeah, but just like ripping off like chunks of
meat from these zombies, or like sometimes you'll just hack at their arm until
like it's literally hanging on by like a thread in like a very realistic way,
or just like punching holes in the side of them, or you can
just like smash their legs out a bunch and then their legs will just break
off, and then they're just like crawling at you, ripping off their arms,
and then they can't attack and they smash you with their head. But
yeah, just like ripping out there like fucking organs and stuff, like I
know it's really gross stuff, but it's just like so satisfying just hours in
already I've played like four or five hours of this game, and just like
it's just continually satisfying. How how satisfying it just just rip these zombies apart.
And there's different types. There's one called the shamblers, which are just
really they're just like flesh and bone, like there's barely anything on them,
so them just like one clean swipe in their arms will just go flying off
or something like. It's just all built around that. So having an absolutely
great time with this game. I forget, did you play Dead Island back
in the day? Like I never played Dead Island at all. No,
the first one was one of the ones that always eluded me, Like I
wanted to try it, but I just never got access to it. And
my my big zombie game, like I played the Dead Risings back in the
day, right, and then Dead by Daylight would be like peak zombie.
I guess experience for me. Well, leffot deads in that category. Yeah,
maybe that's a side quest in and of itself. Just great zombie games,
Project Zomboid, Yeah, you got to product Zomboid exactly. There's a
lot of ones, but Dead by Daylight was like peak for me because of
what you're kind of elaborate, like elaborating on there is It wasn't called the
flush system, but just feeling satisfaction from your hits. And then that one
like if you have a blunt weapon and you you actually like headshot, like
sometimes their heads will just explode and it's just just so good. Or if
you have a blade, like it'll be more of a slicer and you can
just like it's like quicker and you can just you're just chopping them up.
Like it wasn't as detailed as what you're laying out there where their organs are
start coming out or their their bodies are hanging on by a thread. But
I just think that's a better version of that and I already liked that system,
and that one had kicks as well. You can kind of do a
rough sprinting drop kick, which is very satisfying. To have it so good,
you must have that in zombie games, the kicks project zomboids, got
it, Oh yeah, you need to yeah kick them into like fire,
like this game's all about. There's just like a big water spill on the
ground, so you like throw a car battery in there and electrifize everyone.
Oh yeah, or you know, patches of oil all over the place you
can light on fire, or like big toxic swamp or pools filled with like
toxic water and things like that, and kicking the zombies into that is obviously
like a big part of the satisfaction. So it's got that part nailed down
for sure. Getting creative with your kills is like such a big like zombie
game thing where it's like just yeah, like yeah, just getting creative killing
things is probably uh morally questionable, but the fact that there's zombies makes it
okay. So it's it's fun when you get those combo effects. There's another
thing too, where sometimes if you get I don't even know what triggers it,
but you'll get like a special kill on a zombie that like triggers some
slow mo. Of course, when these zombies when you destroy them, like
they'll bust open with things you can pick up, like collectibles, or they'll
drop like candy bars that you can heal with. But one combo that I've
gotten a few times is like smashing some zombie slow mo. They're like flying
through the air. They drop like an energy drink, and I grab the
energy drink mid air and there's like this whole animation of drinking. It just
like gives you health. But it's just it's so cheesy, but it's so
satisfying every time you do it. Even if I don't need the healing,
I still like try and do it just for the cool humbo element of it,
so it feels great in that way. Another low key thing that I
really enjoy this was something that was great in Breath the Wild was like the
weapon durability system, which I know is people are on different sides of that,
whether they're like or not. I am a fan of that system in
that game. But one thing I really like too is in that game,
if you like use your last weapon strike before it breaks on an enemy,
will like smash into a million pieces into the enemy and deal bonus damage,
which is like a satisfying way to like, yes, your weapon broken,
you're losing a weapon, but you're getting like bonus damage out of It's kind
of like a nice system. And this game has a similar thing to it
as well, where it just feels good when you break a weapon on an
enemy, and the weapon variety is great, Like there's all sorts of just
you know, like lead pipes and crowbars and all those basic things. But
then you get all sorts of different swords and knives that have different feels to
him, and they all, like I said, like kind of destroy zombies
in different ways. I got like some fucking wolverine clause that I equipped with
like electricity, so I'm just ripping open enemies as like a wolf electrified wolverine,
just huge like fire axes and stuff. It's all it's all melee weapons,
which I like, I'm sure I knew that from the trailers, but
I kind of forgot about it. But yeah, there's no guns, so
it's all about melee combat system and it's where you know, a lot of
people were like, oh man, I'm not not excited for Indiana Jones game
because it's like a first person melee combat game. I don't think that works.
But then I like to those people that say, go play some Dead
Island too, because like it can be a really satisfying system and there's an
element to it where there's not too much information because you can't see behind you
and whatnot, but it works really well. You have like a very like
quick dash which helps you like dodge but also just get around the battlefield a
bit more, and that feels really great, Like it's just super quick.
When I was playing this game, Kirkland just was listening to some music on
the side Spotify, and Murder on the Dance Floor came on, like this
sult burn song and it was like it was perfect for this game, just
like this tongue in cheek like cheesy zombie slashing thing. It was. It
was the perfect song to come on while I was going through Beverly Hills.
It was. It was amazing. I I think there's a couple of critiques
I have for sure, Like I think one thing that's kind of weird with
this game is it's like this is a co op game as well. At
some point you unlock co op and I've only played on my own so far,
but there's part of it where it's seens where I'm seeing like, man,
there's no way you fail to do this area now, like they want
you to either replay the levels or I don't know, if this would be
something like a co op you would more do. But there is a weird
difficulty curve where there's like, you know, a critical path, and on
the critical path, all the zombies will be like around your level, so
it's manageable, you can do it, but then there's like things off on
the side where it'll just be zombies that have like a skull on their head,
which means they're just like way above your level. And this happens like
a lot you'll bump into these, so it's like, I don't know,
am I supposed to come back to this area later? Am I supposed to
replay this level in like a new game plus sort of way. It just
seems like why is this area even here or accessible if I can't go there,
And the way they're making it inaccessible is by just putting like a high
level zombie there who just literally one shots to you. Like I haven't not
been one shot by these by these zombies. So that's like a weird part
of it where I just want to take my time and explore every last nook,
and but it's kind of like disincentivizing me to do that, so that's
kind of weird. And then a lot of like this door opens from the
other side, you know, you see that all times and games are unlocking
shortcuts and whatnot. But I just and this is a stupid point, because
like every game would be better as an immersive sim or more immersive sim elements,
but I just wish this game had a bit more of that element of
like exploring or like I don't know, like the combat feels really great,
I wish there was the movement. The movement feels pretty good, but you
can't really like get around things in different orders. Like it's very linear in
the way you're supposed to go through a certain house or something, and so
I don't know, there's all sorts of locked doors or lock things I haven't
been able to get through, and then a lot of them are just like,
oh, I just walk through this place and then I can escape through
here quicker on the way out. So it was something I wish there was
a bit more freedom in how you can explore. And there's certain things it's
like, oh, I clearly could jump over this, but there's like an
invisible wall here because I'm not supposed to go that way, even though like
I could just walk around this block slightly and get to that same spot.
So it feels weird in the way they're like arbitrarily gating me off from certain
things. But maybe when I beat the game and I see what the replayability
element of it is, like whether it's a new game plus or you can
just go back to those previous areas and do side quests and whatnot. I'm
not sure how that will work, but I feel like that's something I wish
it had a bit more of, But honestly, I don't know if it
really matters, Like it's these are just like minor nitpicks. And then I
also just feel like there'sn't really a consequence of dying in this game, and
I think that's because it even as a single player game, it feels like
a co op game, and the way that you just like quickly respawn nearby
enemies like still have their same amount of health, and it's like you didn't
really lose anything, So it's it's and even if you're in like a boss
fights like you don't have to restart the boss fight from scratch, which,
once again like I want this, but it just feels like it doesn't really
matter if you die in this game, And so I wonder if, like
in co op, if it's like you're more saving your teammates by like picking
them up, you know, like go over there and hit X whatever.
I don't know how that system really works exactly, but it's a bit janky
the way it works on single player. But you know, the most important
thing here is like the minutes to minute gameplay of ripping up zombies in that
part is like an absolute ten and oh ten and lives up to the hype
that from all the trains and stuff. So yeah, I really really enjoying
this game. I highly recommend. I don't know if it's on PC game
Pass, but definitely on console game Pass. Definitely definitely worth checking out.
I guess. Another my thing is like the co op unlocks after like an
hour into the games. That's I hate when games do that, Like,
come on, let me play with my friends right from the start if I
want to, because me and Taylor and Traps were talking about maybe jumping in,
but it's kind of awkwards, then okay, we all have to play
for like an hour an hour and a half on our own before we unlock
that ability, so it's just kind of jank in that way. So they
said it's on game Pass though, because I just feel like it'll be more
i mean accessible for people that want to do co op, even though you
are kind of forced to play an hour by yourself, but just being accessible
in that sense, because I mean most games that have co op are more
fun with co op, yeah, like with friends, So I think it'll
work for them too. I know for me personally, like with how much
I'm enjoying it right now, I know they're like a DLC came out at
some point, like I'll probably buy the DLC, which is like twenty bucks,
maybe thirty bucks or something, since I didn't have to pay for the
game proper, which maybe that that's the price I would have paid for the
game when it went on sale to a certain extent. But it's like,
I don't know, I'm probably gonna buy this DLC just get access to a
couple more levels, and I'm sure they have new weapons and zombie types when
you unlock that certain stuff too. But yeah, no, really really enjoying
that game, so shout outs to that. Let's move on to Well,
it's gonna be a short segment, but there was a Nintendo Direct. It
was a partner direct, so it wasn't like Nintendo showing off any first party
stuff. It was just like third third party games coming to the platform.
Just have a couple of highlights from here. We're not gonna break down this
whole thing because honestly I watched it, and there's a couple of cool things,
like a couple three DS games that obviously that store is closed and now
they have like ports to Switch, which is cool. There was a new
monkey Ball game which looks awesome, has like a battle rayal mode if you're
into that, Like it looks really fun. But the two big things for
sure were they finally got like confirmation that Grounded and Pentiment are coming to Switch,
which we kind of saw coming and knew were happening from Xbox and these
confirmations, but there they go. The first crop of Xbox games on other
platforms are officially here. Pentment I think is out now, and then Grounded
is coming on April sixteenth. And then they also confirmed along with this that
those games are coming to PS four and PS five as well. I guess
Pentiment maybe already out there, and then Grounded is gonna be at the same
release date. And then along with that this has been from the direct but
then Xbox confirmed that, yeah, see if Thieves and High five Rush are
those other games, and those are only coming to PS five, So I
guess they're just higher fidelity, weren't working on the old Gen and weren't working
on the Switch. I'm sure when the Switch to Switch sequel comes out later
this year next year that those games will get ported to that as well.
But there you go. Those are the four Xbox games which were highly rumored.
Those are gonna be the ones. They are officially here. But yeah,
I'm curious that Kirkland has a I mean, I guess these games are
on PC. You could have played them already, but any interest in these
now that they're elsewhere and maybe a bit more easily accessible. Pentiment and Grounded,
specifically Grounded for sure has been one that I've just been interested in.
It seemed like that was the one that you and Taylor are playing right where
It's it's like, honey, yeah, we kids, we played it a
while ago in early access. I'm trying to remember if we played when it
went at one point. Oh, but yeah, that was that was my
game the year twenty twenty two. I fucking love that game. It's great,
It's awesome. I mean just yeah, getting getting access to a great
game, I think is never a bad thing. And Pentiment has been one
that I feel like I just keep hearing you talk about it, and I'm
just interested in it for that sense. So definitely going to be keeping an
eye on that one. And I feel like I'm mostly probably due to my
hardware just focusing more on PlayStation gaming these days. My PCs it's getting near
the end of its life. It's it's still cooking. But uh yeah as
well it's cooking. I don't think you want that for computer. It's it's
not dead, I guess, is what I what I should have said.
But yeah, I like I like that fact. Just just have games accessible
to everything, you know. I was just talking about Hell Divers. I
wish it was on Xbox just to be able to play with other like Xbox
members. But yeah, one thing I'm looking up right now is I mean
Xbox is big and trying to incentivize cross play and it looks like, yeah,
it looks like Grounded will of cross play with PlayStation and Switch as well,
so all those are connected, which is great because that is a really
fun co op game. You know, it's funny when they when they even
when there's rumors of Grounded coming to Switch, I'm like, you know,
it's not It's not like a Horizon Zero now. It's not like the highest
quality in terms of visual capability, but there's some lighting and some visuals in
Grounded that are fucking fantastic and amazing and better than anything I've ever seen on
a Switch. And when I was watching this trailer for the Switch, yeah,
it looks like they fucking went like lowest possible PC settings on this thing.
Some of like the backgrounds, particularly when you look out and see like
the other yards in the background, it's like you can count the polygons on
it, and the lighting seems like a way down grade. Like one of
the most beautiful things in any game ever is Grounded. When like morning,
when it's like sunrise, the sun's like just rising over the houses. It's
kind of like that orange, bright yellow. You can see the dew on
the grass. Like lighting up is absolutely beautiful. Now the character models are
like lower and so it doesn't seem like that's taken much of a hit for
Switch, which is great, but yeah, it seems like in general they've
had to make some cuts here there to make the Switch version work. So
hopefully it runs well. I have to imagine it's locked on thirty frames,
but hopefully that works nicely locked in with other consoles on the cross play there.
I do really want that game in a mobile setting because I feel like
there's a lot of parts grounded where there's so many different things you can do
in that game, but a lot of it is like maybe pretty grindy of
just like getting certain resources, and so I feel like it would be good
to have on the Switch in that way, just play while you're watching TV
or something, just grind away on something, and then when I want to
do something that's more intensive and play on Xbox on the big screen, when
I'm going to do a certain quest or something, and I'm guessing it has
crossed progression too, so hopfully I can bring my save over. But yeah,
hopefully that stuff all works. And yeah, people should check that game
out because it's just amazing and since it even went one point. Oh,
it's got two huge updates or maybe one huge update where people can make custom
maps. They highlighted this in the switch trailer as well. So custom maps,
custom levels I've done, like jumping puzzle maps, and there's like puzzle,
there's different kind of challenge room maps that people have made. It's all
sorts of cool stuff there that hopefully that I'm sure works well with the cross
platform too, or even Switch Day one. You'll have a bunch of things
you could just download right away because people have made them on PC or Xbox
and whatnot. And yeah, so hopefully people go check that out. It's
a great game Pentiment as well. Pentment doesn't seem like they would need to
make any sort of cuts here there to make it work on a Switch.
It's a pretty like visual novel for the most point and click adventure sort of
games. So hopefully that works well. And then yeah, it's cool to
see see if Thieves and High Fire Rush coming. Those are coming March and
April for all these games, Pentment, like I said, already out So
I don't know, did you have any thoughts on that in general? Since
you missed some of that news discussions the last few weeks of Xbox bringing some
of their first party games to these rival platforms, any any hot takes or
takes on that at all, Nothing really hot take wise. I guess that's
like I feel like any idea that I would have something you guys probably already
discussed, like just the fact that maybe sales are down so they need to
make it more accessible to just other areas. Like I don't see it really
as a negative because you're just getting the post like the potential of great games
to more gamers, and at the end of the day, I feel like
that is not a bad thing, even if even if you're in some weird
sphere that like Xbox games should only be enjoyed by Xbox like owners. I
think just if you're making great games, make them accessible, and it's it's
a win across the board for the players will be getting their hands on something
that they'll enjoy, and obviously the people will be making more profits that way.
So I see it as just a great idea In general. You can
always make the arguments that it's like, hey, well, what's incentivizing people
to get the Xbox for for something like that. I still think game pass
is a great boost that Xbox has. So yeah, I overall, I
think my general thoughts are just positive across the board for that stuff. Yeah
yeah, I mean I'm ever since we've been talking without this for weeks now,
I'm a big fan of it. I think it's great I have more
games for more people, and especially for Grounded and see if these these community
driven games co op is a big feature of them, that'll just mean that
those games can exist for a lot longer and hopefully get continue to updates like
Selfishly for me and Grounded, like I hope this means that Grounded keeps getting
more updates and more features added, because I'll just play that game forever.
Anytime they do a new update, I redownload it, or if I still
have it room for my Xbox, then I just boot it up again and
play for a few hours. It's just one of I haven't even beat the
main story that game. I gets such a huge freaking game, so I
am very happy to have that stuff too. And then the last thing I
want to showed out from this direct was Unicorn Overlord is a game which I
still fucking hate that title, and every time I have to say it,
I just feel I feel angry. I don't know what I feel. I
don't like it. But this this was announced, I want to say,
in like the Fall Nintendo to that happened when I forget when it was Tember
October or something like that. It's coming out very soon, early March here.
But with this new showcase of it. They said that there is a
demo available and I downloaded that and I've played about an hour and a half
maybe two hours of it. I don't even know how to describe the seeing
exactly. It's definitely a strategy game, kind of top down. The setting
of it. It feels in the aesthetic and everything. It feels very much
inspired by Fire Emblem as its core as its core inspiration. But the gameplay
isn't a tactics grid based game. There is an element where there's an overworld
and you're moving units around a map, but there isn't a grid element to
it. However, there is still a grid in the game. There's like
you're building little troops of characters, so you have like a little six six
square grid and that's where you're like picking which units are in this I don't
know what's the word, like a little legion of characters. I'm sure there's
a word for that. I can't think troupe. Whatever it was, Yeah,
something like that little clan going on there. And so you can pick
the positioning and it matters what the position is. But then the battles still
aren't like a tactics based thing, but their positioning does matter. So there
is elements of that, but it's taking a different approach to it. The
combat itself is actually like an auto battler. So you set up your characters
in your units, you pick which one like where they're going on the map,
and they bump into an enemy. You can choose any items or whatever,
and you can choose for them to fight, and then the battle happens
on its own, where the characters will have like a set speed stat I
guess, and that determines their priority in terms of who attacks first, if
they have like certain units will have maybe like an attack action point and then
like a passive point. So the passive point might be something like a heel
or like maybe a guard sort of move, and so those things just go
off in their own order, and so you can watch them. Eventually you
get to a point where you can skip the battles but then when you skip
the battles like it's still it still happen, Like it still pauses the game
for that to happen. And that's where this is a bit also differs from
a fire emblem, where the way you're going over across the world map,
where there's like, oh there's forest here, there's like a certain fortress here,
a city you're trying to defend, and so you're moving trying to capture
these points. That all happens in kind of like a real time way.
Enemies moving, your unit's moving. You can pause it to make decisions if
you like need all that time. But then like the things slowly the characters
slowly move around on the world map and then they bump into each other sort
of thing. But yeah, then like the battles, like pause the game.
Then these battles happen kind of one at a time. So I don't
know, I'm describing it poorly, but that's because it's like a very weird
It's very weird, but like works really well. I don't I can't even
think of a game to really compare it to in terms of the way the
combat works and the way these bigger battles work, but it does feel it
does feel like it has a pretty grand scale to it, of like moving
slowly through these large environments where there's like, oh, there's a river over
here, the big forest over here, the units slowly moving around these bigger
scale. Battles can happen when you get up to more units in each of
those little those little troops. But yeah, it still does feel very like
Fire definitely feels like the biggest inspiration for it in terms of the art style,
in terms of the story, just being like Kingdom A is waging war
against Kingdom B, and then Kingdom sees somehow in between these two kingdoms.
You know, it's like it's very generic in the way it starts up.
But then then again, I would have said the same thing about Triangle Strategy
and the way that opens up. But then by the end of that game,
that's like one of my favorite game stories, Like I think it really
nailed that Game of Thrones the element to it, And so maybe with more
time in the tank and getting to know these characters and kingdoms, maybe the
same thing would happen for this game, although I'm not quite there yet,
but yeah, once again, that Fireblom inspiration is definitely there in terms of
some of the art style stuff. And there are certain animations in this game
Kirkland that are like almost identical to like battle animations from like the Game Boy
Advance era, specifically of Firebloom. Of course that was like sprite pixel art,
and this is not as like drawn drawn models and whatnot, but there
are certain things like the way this horse unit like runs up and then like
turns around and slashes, so it's like identical to the GBA sprite. This
one little girls like a spear, the way she like swings her spear and
like kind of falls off balance once again identical to like an attack animation from
GBA. So I guarantee that's like an inspiration for these developers, even if
it's not a grid tactics game in that same way. And then even two,
like for Fire Emblem, for years, it was like you had your
three or four starting units, and one of them was always like a really
overpowered horse unit who was like way higher level and could just like trivialize it.
And if you're a Fire and Bloom fan, you know that, like
you don't really want to use that unit because they usually scale very poorly and
so you want to give your xpder like more Lackey units, and if you
can position correctly, you can get all that XP. And this has that
same thing. Or you start with three or four units, they're all kind
of weak, but then you have like one really overpowered horse unit. So
once again, that inspiration is definitely there. But yeah, like a really
interesting game. The art style is fantastic. I think it looks beautiful,
The animations look fantastic, and then when you're in that kind of top down
world a battle element to it, it looks so similar to like a Triangle
strategy or or an Octpath traveler. It's not pixelar, but it has that
same sort of vibe to it where it's like smaller diorama sort of setting and
the lighting and whatnot. So yeah, I feel like I'm describing this game
in a poor way just because it's hard to describe. But I think if
you watch a trailer or two, watch a gameplay preview, I mean,
check out the demo. It's a free demo on Switch, so you can
go check it out there. It's a really weird and interesting game. I'm
I'm on the fence if I want to pick it up. Just because once
again, it's like an eighty bucks ninety almost one hundred when you get the
taxes in there, So it's expensive, but ABS have to playing some of
the demo, and like there's still more of this demo I can play after
like an hour and a half, two hours. It's a long demo.
It's on the wish list, and so I think when it goes on sale
to a certain degrees when I'll pick it up and check it out. But
yeah, it's it's really cool and weird and interesting and unique. I like
the auto battler part of it. I think that's an interesting element to throw
on top of this because there's still in terms of how you're planning and positioning
them units and giving them equipment and I'm sure leveling them up and stuff.
I haven't leveled up many characters in this demo. But yeah, really cool
and weird game that I'm surprised works as well as it does, considering that
it's seems to be pulling from a lot of different genres all at once.
Yeah. I obviously just like could tell the fire Embum inspirations from the aesthetic
and everything, but my main question was going to be just how the gameplay
actually is, and the fact that it's an auto battler is pretty interesting,
and obviously it's a completely different type of strategy that you kind of have to
bring in, but strategy nonetheless. M yeah, it was hard to Like,
I in the second or third battle, like one of my units died,
and it doesn't seem like they die permanently. I don't know if that's
always a thing or just in the demo or just in the early tutorial levels.
Not too sure, but yeah, like even in like a couple hours
in, like there was still just tutorialization every five seconds. Like there's tons,
tons to learn in this game. It is definitely overwhelming. I'm curious
if it does have that triangle strategy like character growth part of it that I
really liked about that game, in terms of everyone having their say and these
big decisions that happened in the story. I thought that was such a cool
part of that game. So I don't know how this is gonna. I
don't have its equivalent sort of system to it, but yeah, really really
cool game. Seems like there is some sort of open worldly like exploration element
to it, So it seems like the world map is much more fleshed out
than like a fire Amblumware a Triangle strategy has done, or even Final Fantasy
Tactics like it seems like it's much more of like a one continuous world that
you're exploring. So I don't know how that'll work in the grand scheme of
things, but yeah, really interesting game. Then the last, once again,
that's Unicorn Overlord. Don't forget the title, don't forget the name.
But I'm excited to hear other people who pick this up and check it out.
I want to just hear other people's opinions on it and hear how it
develops and grows as you get deeper in the game, because, like I
said, it's a lot all at once, and if a game keeps kind
of unfolding this cool new mechanics, I think it could be an all time
great Like it definitely seems capable of that, Like beautiful visuals, great music,
voice acting seems solid in there. It's got it all. Really cool
game. Yes, yeah, there's nothing else from the direct from you,
right, so we can move on to our Yeah, we can move on.
Yeah, our last last topic here is this has been heavily rumored.
Eldon Ring DLC. Is it happening people I've seen on Reddit and stuff like
ooh, Eldon Ring got a new update on Steam and then it's like a
huge update and there's like files for DLC and stuff, and people are freaking
out. But it finally got confirmed along with the trailer Eldon Ring Shadow of
the urd Tree is going to be. It seems like maybe the one and
only DLC that this game is gonna get rather than I know, our Souls
three had like kind of two separate packs. I think you might have bought
them at once and then they just came out separately. Not sure it works.
I forget. I think Bloodborne was just one DLC pack, but I
think this might be just one huge, big DLC for Eldon Ring and then
they're moving on to the next project here. But it's coming out June twenty
first, which that was the first thing that surprised me, because I feel
like with every other from game, like I was looking into it that Bloodbourne's
DLC came out out like six months after the game came out. Dark Souls
had one come out six months and then like one a year later. By
the time this comes out, it's gonna be two and a half years after
the release of Elder Ring, which is insane. Makes me wonder if I
mean, one, I'm sure the scale is a lot bigger. I mean,
it's an open world game. Those other games aren't, so naturally,
if you're adding new content, it's probably gonna be a lot bigger. But
like, also it makes me think that maybe they hadn't planned or worked on
this at all until the game came out, and then they started working on
it, whereas I'm sure with that blood Over one that came out six months
later, like they started something before the game it self released. So I
know you haven't played on Ring, but what did you What do you think
of this trailer any Did it grab you anyway and make you want to pick
up the game? What'd you think? Yeah, it's a it's a beautifully
terrifying trailer. They from Software has some of the most unique and terrifying creatures
and games. The imagery is absolutely insane, and just just the whole aesthetic
of Elder Ring in general is beautiful, but in this one with the I'm
assuming that's the urd tree in the background, like just such an incredible design
and like it really just feels like such a massive world and for like the
objects in it, but also just the creatures in it, Like there's some
massive creatures in here. And I've never played the game. I played some
from software games, I can imagine what the gameplays somewhat like, but just
like the inclusion of a of a horse, like that's that's that's a big
mechanic shift from some of the other games. But yeah, it looks insane
obviously, Like it's like a forty dollars DLC, right, A lot of
people are fifty. It's yeah, pretty pretty beefy there. So I mean,
like from software, I feel like is seen very positively in the gaming
realm, so I would expect and hope that it definitely lives up to the
price point even more so, and if this is like the one DLC,
I think it's even has higher expectations to deliver for that reason and be basically
like a point five game almost on like a Miles Morales type scale, where
you could like base have a whole game just about it. But this is
really exciting because obviously I know a lot of people that have played the shit
out of elden Ring. A lot of people have just done like every single
character that you could do play through the game. So they're definitely scratching at
the bit. As you said, like two and a half years. In
my mind, I thought it had only been like a year and a bit,
so it's it's pretty crazy time, is weird. Yeah, No,
I loved elder Ring. You go back check out our I think we had
three like dedicated episodes to elden Ring and then talking about it else those times,
two with other people in the game of the Year stuff. Game up
a lot in the year of twenty twenty two. Oh my god, years
are heard remember at this point. But yeah, I'm definitely gonna be picking
this up. It's fifty three dollars. It's expensive for a DLC, but
I have faith that they're gonna nail it. They've taken the time. They
said it's the map size because it's a new separate map they've said distinctly,
so I don't know how it'll be integrated. But they definitely had things like
that happened with the other I mean, I've only played I guess Dark Soul's
three Deals. See, I haven't played the DLC for the other from games
that I've played, but they said it's about the size of Limb Grave,
which is like the opening area in elden Ring. That's a very big area,
especially when you factor in the underground elements. But then also like if
they just take that area and it's even more densely packed than Limb Grave,
then yeah, that's room for a lot of content there. And just based
on what we saw in the trailer, like tons of different areas distinct visuals
within that, so it seems like they're going all out too in terms of
what's going on here. And then yeah, I mean the big thing for
me is just seeing all these weird enemy types. Some of them are so
freaky and dangly. I think Millennia the Blade of Michel or whatever she's in
there, is like a big boss or something new version of her. There's
that big one that's like a barbic you don't even know you described it was
like a big fire. He's like a big fire cage like campfire essentially,
like a huge though that looks really cool. Excited to fight him. So
you know, with any from game, like I never really replay these games
and I and even with elden Ring, it's such a answer game. I
haven't even done everything in it. But when I rolled credits on it at
like eighty hours, like, I was good to put the game down,
and I haven't booted it up since then either, So this is really exciting
for me. I'm definitely gonna pick this up, jump back in there.
I hope I can continue my current character and hopefully the balance will be quite
right. If it's not, I don't really want to replay like a ton
of the game, but I guess I would replace some of that if I
needed, like a lower level character. I'm sure they'll nail that, but
hopefully, hopefully the balance there is pretty good. But yeah, I'm excited
to check this out. I don't even like, I don't even really know
what the hell's going on with the story in that game, So I don't
know if I could be a good one to break down what's going on here
with the characters and the lines of dialogue that I said, that's you know,
that's another podcast that can help you with that stuff. I mean,
I'm sure when the game comes out, I'll bring on some experts like we
did with Cooper and Dante came on to break down some of the spoiler stuff
with me, and they know a lot more about these games and all the
what's going on with the lower I'm more of a surface level guy when it
comes to it all. But I'm sure Travis will be picking this up too,
so we'll definitely be talking about it on side quest here. But I'm
excited for it. That one buddy, Uh Brennan, I used to work
with Massive Massive Souls fan like like plays those games, like I feel like
every year he's booting up Dark Souls three, making up a new character,
like play the shit out of elden Ring tuned into the review for sure.
He like your guys's takes, and he was telling me he's like, man
with the Souls games, even Bloodborne, He's like, it always comes down
to aliens. And I'm like, that is so strange as being someone on
like the outside that's never really like fully dove into these games. But I
guess that's just a reoccurring thing. It all comes back to Space Monsters,
where these games don't really give that feel at all. But uh, it's
interesting. There's definitely a fascination of like the cosmos and the stars and the
sky, and so I think naturally it's like something they're coming down. Yeah,
you're coming down, And yeah, I think blood Born in particular gets
like really on the nose of some of that alien stuff. I'm sure there's
a lot more that goes beyond my head, but yeah, even in Elden
Ring there was some meteors that crashed down and things happened out of that.
So yeah, I'm curious to you how they integrate this into the main game.
So they I was reading an interview or two, and they were very
distinct about, like, this is a new separate area that you teleport too,
it is not part of the main map in any way. And then
for some reason they just like reiterated that like five times. I don't know
why they wanted to make it so clear that it doesn't exist like on the
same connected map. So whatever it is, I'm excited to uh to see
and check that out. And yeah, just to see those fucking weirdo enemies
and new abilities and new weapons. I'm sure all that will be in there,
so a lot of fun secrets to check out. So yeah, there
you go. There's a Eleanering Shadow of the Urgery coming out June twenty first,
and yeah, I wonder I'm just thinking about this right now, but
like in terms of game awards, stuff like is that deal se gonna be
so expansive that it's like a Game of the Year contender or to be like
best Ongoing Game or best Uh what was the one? What was the cyber
because remember Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty was like in it was an ongoing game. I
think the game, yeah, which was a weird thing for people. So
I guarantee Eleanoring will break into that category two with this. I'm sure a
couple more game awards, even though it's already got quite a few under it's
belt there. That'll be cool to see if it deserves that. Hey,
yeah, definitely. Oh. Also I want to mention this. I found
this strange that if this game has like a collector's edition, that this DLC
has like a collector's edition that you can pre order and stuff like I can't
remember, I can't remember a DLC get any of that. Like maybe maybe
Cyberpunk did it. I could see that happening. But like if there was
like a big remaster for a game then that you know, that could like
the Last of Us Part two remaster whatever. I'm sure those game with like
a new statue and figuring and topeg and whatever. But I can't think of
a time where a game is DLC has gotten a Collector's edition, so I
think that's cool. But obviously for a game like this, like that's gonna
I'm sure that's already sold out, it More and best Buy all those places.
Yeah, there you go. Thank you everyone for listening. I think
that's all for today, and uh yeah, we'll be back next week for
some X Men stuff or if if that gets booted, then we'll have some
other fun topics for you. So what whatever it is, it'll be some
fun stuff. So thank you every for listening. We'll see you again next
time. Bye bye, boehm