Hey, everyone, Welcome to Games About After Dark, episode two hundred and
thirty one. I'm your host is a week and John leag Zacke joined by
Kay Tecker. Hello, I've got the squeaky chair and Michael IM what to
do? Baby? It's a motherfucking boy. I do not have the sinky
chair. I don't have the squeaky chair, So I am good this week.
Still got no ass cheeks though, so my booty probably gonna hurt by
the end of this podcast. Yeah, same, okay, damn, maybe
we can move and order you a special get me a BBL. If I
could expect a BBL, that'd be crazy. Let's go a BBL. What
Brazilian butt lift in plants for your booty cheeks? Oh okay? I like
no, lie, the the the larger conversation about bbls, and like the
wider social acceptance of a BBL. I have seriously considered it, like the
ad that aren't they like surprisingly dangerous? Like yes, Like aren't they like
more dangerous than you'd think they'd be? Yes, Like yeah, yeah,
I've heard horror stories about it because I mean you you mess around, like
around that area like you're back in your tailbone and like if something goes off
there, it sucks up a whole bunch of other ship. But like the
operations themselves, because you a lot of people get them done in uh,
I'm blowing up their spot right now, but people get go It's it's like
the same thing where people go to Turkey to get their hair. The hairt
an cheaper, yeah, and they're like there there's a legit industry for it,
like they've stumbled upon this phenomenon that they can hang their hats on.
Like people come here specific for as uh. Bbls and the Dominican Republic are
kind of the same thing. People people go to DR to get bbls and
like, you know, it's it's like anything else. There are people who
can do it really well, and then they are like cheaper options that run
the risk. So it's like anything else, you know what I'm saying.
Pro tip there, if you want to hit up Dr get a BBR I
might do that. I've been meeting to go to Dr moys Is. Hit
me up, We'll get a BBL and all expensive ex I don't know what
the government it's a tax benefit. I don't know. I'm on camera all
the time. You got you should just do it and then submit, like
your your receipt what's it called your uh what the receipt of work to like
just a bunch of different Yeah, like what's it called, god damn statement
of work? I guess Yeah, that's not the word I'm thinking of,
but yes, statement of Yeah, just like tamble approve it. Yeah,
yeah, just built a bunch of different places. It's okay on it game
spot after BBLS, let's go a Yeah, it's another week in video games.
Yeah, it's another week on this earth. It's a bitch of an
earth. Yeah. I don't know if you did. You guys want to
talk about kind of the big thing that happened this week, which was the
shutting down of uh digital media legend Roosteroster Teeth. Man, that happened.
That's crazy. That was wild. Yeah, I mean I I like grew
up watching Rooster Teeth like a lot, like especially like I think I came
in around like season four of like Red Versus Blue and was like, dude,
this is like what it's like that Halo Halo two. Halo two it
a Halo two And I was like, yo, like it's like a movie,
but it's in a video game. That's crazy, and like not only
was I like a big fan of it, but like it inspired me to
be like, yo, I could do that, I could make my mon
I mean just real shit with some friends in high school. I plan I
did the same. Uh but you know, like yeah, I mean,
like you know, they had that and then they kind of like grew out
from there until like im Media Empire. You know, they had the podcast
and they don't all the skits and the Achievement Hunter and all that stuff,
Like they kind of pioneered let's plays. Yeah, I feel like they don't
get enough credit for that, but like they like they didn't like invent the
concept, but like they they were kind of like they're the kind of perfected
it and perfected it. Yeah, and uh Ruby shu yeah Ruby Ruby as
well. Uh you know, I was really into those first couple of seasons.
Fell off after that, but yeah, man, I haven't been in
a Rooster Teeth in a long time, just because like it's like content changes,
people leave, Like the things you're into aren't aren't there anymore, and
that's okay, It's it's just different. And plus, once you start doing
that kind of job as well, it's like the it feels like, now
I'm familiar with this lot, how this, how these things get made,
and actually doing this stuff. So one hundred percent the entertainment that I consume
now it doesn't necessarily have to do because I'm involved with when you're involved with
that kind of stuff, just you know, I'm just I'm not going to
spend my free time engaging with that kind of stuff anymore. So it's like
not necessarily anyone's faults, it's just you kind of grow out of it totally.
Still you still have like that reverence in that Oh yeah, yeah,
I mean that that is especially that's like my exact relationship with Giant Bomb.
I can tell you the exact moment I stopped actively watching Giant Bomb. This
is the second I got a chop at game Spot because of like, dude,
I do this ship nine to five, yeah, sometimes more. I
used to sten to podcasts all the day every time, and then I started
a game Spot and I was like, I'm hearing about all this ship before
I listened to the podcast, so I'm not really getting getting my news from
it. But yeah, but you know, yeah, they've been they've been
tracking a long but I mean they they've been they've changed hands a few times,
kind of got bought out and stuff. I didn't even realize they were
owned by w B. Yeah, they got they got owned by w B
because I think Discovery got them originally. Yeah, and then like when that
merger happened and yeah, WB announced there shutting them down. Was it like
shut down effective immediately or are they still clear? Uh? It kind of
it wasn't fully clear about that. It sounds like they're maybe trying to still
pitch around like the podcast network to some people because because it's they said they
tried to sell them but they like no one was buying and then, which
is like crazy, right, You're like damn Okay. They said they're still
trying to do some of the podcast stuff, and I think it's something they
are about like properties, like oh, someone going to try and buy Ruby
and like keep that going like who knows. But yeah, it seems it
seems like it's got over. You know, there's I know, I don't
know anyone personally there, but I know like policing Tam like knew some people
there and yeah, yeah, I was just a lot of like I feel
like Colfredo's I would consider off right old friend. I know Blizz Bear who's
was there joined a little over a year ago. I watched his streams because
I thought he's like super entertaining. Then when when he got a joined Rooster
Teeth, I was like, Yo, that's that's a big that's a big
deal. I met him at Pax East last year actually, and I was
like, Yo, congrats on the success. It's really dope to see you
with RT. Like, there's a lot still a lot of people I recognize,
we're still with rooster Teeth. And so to see like a new generation,
like like Black Crystal, I really like her too. It's like seeing
new generation collide with some of the older folks there like Jack Batillo, And
I was like, okay, cool, Like they're they have a new generation.
Things are still going along. It's they can bring people, they can
bring new energy, they can bring new ideas, and that's just how these
kinds of things evolve, right absolutely. Yeah. And then from that,
it's it always feels like from the outside looking in, uh, they they
seem successful because they're putting out good stuff still. They still have a lot
of audience engagement and things like that. But you know, when you're owned
by a media company. There they look at different things, especially Warner Bros.
Oh yeah, it is like their definition of their definition of success is
very different from what like an online media company, digital media company exactly success.
So yeah, that's similar, I mean on a much smaller scale.
But the same same thing with fan Byte happened. Where fan Byte is owned
by ten Cent and fan Byte was growing, it wasn't at the place it
needed to be. But that's never how these things work. They never oh,
next year, we were making mad money. Like no, that's not
how that shit works. But for Tencent, who's a publisher of you know
how many games making millions upon billions, they look at something like fan bite
and like yeah, and then so it's like, well, let's on a
spreadsheet. I guess we'll shut this down. And that's kind of its long
story short. That is kind of what happened with fan Byte. So yeah,
I have my fan bite. It seems to be happening acrossing with the
Rooster Teeth a lot of places. I do think it's like it's really hard
when you bank so much on like personality based content to like keep that going
after a lot of the original people have moved on changed hands like hundred So
I love seeing Like I hate to say it, I selling an old name,
but like the younger generation come up and do this, it's like it
doesn't always get that same response and it can be tough to kind of build
that, which which sad to see, you know. Yeah, I mean
that's just that's just how these things go. But like I also like I
didn't really I mean, I just followed the Red Versus Blue for I think
until Halo three when I was a kid, and like I honestly did not
know there was more to Rooster Teeth until much later. Dude, Oh,
because I just watched Red vers books. I thought it was like, there's
really nothing like that, but I thought there were skits were like hell yeah,
similar live action stuff. I was like, dude, this shit's hilarious.
Like oh, I wanted to work there so bad, and that was
like definitely like one of the places. Oh ya, I like work there,
like specifically because they did a lot of like live action and video stuff.
I'm like I could, like I know how to hold camera like put
me in. Yeah, it's just it's sad to see these, uh these
I don't know brands, but like just these these companies that are these yeah,
I guess I'll say brands that you kind of grow up sometimes engaging with
or just like being in the in the orbit of yeah, right, because
like clabbing with kind of funny on a bunch of stuff across paths with a
lot of rooster teeth people, and they all seem really cool when when you
interact with them, when I'm on a kind of funny content with them whatever,
they seem like really really cool people and like influential too. It's just
like you said, with less plays like they you might not know it outright,
but in the early days they were influential. Yeah, So yeah,
it's act to see. I will. I mean, there's there's still a
lot of great personalities there, but there's so much and I'm sure they'll find
success in other capacities. But I think what folks might not realize is how
much of that how much of that work is done behind the scenes by people
you never see on camera. Yes, and those are the people who probably
are going to struggle more when it comes to finding new work in this space.
That that is uh I was talking about literally talking about that here later
it's like, you know, because people are even being like, oh,
like the podcast might still go on, but like someone was saying, like,
hey, like a lot of the people behind the scenes of the podcast
are saying they got fired or got let go or you know, like it's
just like, yeah, you don't you don't realize how many people actually like
are involved in a production. And I mean this podcast alone, what thirty
people work on this? Yeah they don't. Everyone behind us making sure we're
doing our things. Yeah, a lot of mouths hold the camera like right,
they're perfect, thank you. Yeah, actual, no, no,
we're a little things are a little different out here. We just turn off,
flip a button and we do shit. Yeah, we're a lot more
of a skeleton crew out here. But yeah, it's productions are way more
involved than people I always assume they are. Yeah, even if it's just
like two or three other people who help with production, two or three other
people that like don't know what to do and like you said, don't have
that like social clout to just be like oh, yeah, you know,
it's harder to leverage. Yeah, you can't leverage it that way, like
yeah, so damn uh Yeah, pouring out for rooster teeth Man twenty one
years. It's a long time. Uh well, all right, let's get
off the depressing news. I guess yeah, some some video games. Michael,
you have been playing the hot video game of the week. Ooh,
the hottest video game of Now when you say one of the hottest, yo,
when you say hot, oh my god, what are we talking about
it? Listen? He's thinking of two things. I'm thinking of many things.
Oh my girl, Yana, Oh my god, the way she's animated
when she's never okay, anyways, Unicorn overlord, I can. I talked
about it for a preview. I did the preview for game Spot. I
did not review this game, but I have been playing it and the reviewing
bar goes up so I can talk about it in full. I haven't finished
the game because that game was very long. It's very intense. But man,
there's this is vanilla ware. So you no, it's got baddies,
Oh my god, No matter what your taste is, if it's got you
covered. I have the I have the art book for I got sent the
art book corn and has all the character art. The pages stick together for
now. They don't see about it later. Dog the character designs in this
game are crazy. I talk about it in my preview, but now I
got to see so much more of the cast, and it's these are some
they got. They got like big buff ladies holding axes who are seven feet
tall. Yeah, got hot witches and burly men with big armor. And
then y'all thought twigs and angel twigs, and y'all thought Ballis Gate three was
horny. Let me tell you, let me tell you about it. You
know, corn Overlord. Uh well, the character designs are horned, horned
up, but you can't you can't get domed up. And from what I've
seen, I have seen Balder's Gate three though, oh boy, as she's
crazy. But Unicorn Overlord is a very very good game. It's been getting
a lot of praise across the board, and I tend to agree with a
lot of the reviews out there. It's a very thoughtful strategy tactics RPG game.
As I've talked about before, it's kind of a half real time strategy,
half auto battler. So if you know what ogre battle is from back
in the day, it is very much that. And it's been a very
long time since there's been an Ogre battle style game. And what I mean
by that is that you have squads and you fill them with individual units.
In this game, you could have up to six in a single unit,
and then you send them off to battle and the depending on how you construct
your uh, your that that unit. Whether it's like I have a white
mage in the back to heal my fighters in the front, and I have
a tank in the front who will soak damage, and then you can set
up their skills to activate under circuit certain circumstances within that battle. So you
send them off to fight and then it all just goes So it all plays
out in sequence. You don't even touch it. You don't touch any button.
You just I set up my my squat to work this way. Let's
see if they can they could take on this other enemy. So it's they
take turns based on like a bunch of stats, they do damage, they
target certain enemy types based on how you set them up. So there's so
much planning. This game is all about planning how you use your units.
So it's not like it's not like a fire emblem or an XCOM where you
have a grid base. How do you plan them? Like is it like
okay, this this unit I want to kind of be like focusing on this
area or is it position based? Is it like like here's the moves they
can use? Like I guess I'm I never played Ogre back, so I
don't really know, Like, see what does that entail? What is like
setting up your your crew entail? Yeah, so when you go into battle,
you can think of it as like an RTS where Okay, we have
an enemies over on this area and then my starting base is here. So
before you even start, you need to assign assign individuals into a squad.
So in the menus, you basically choose like, Okay, I'm going to
build a unit around this cavalry guy who can move faster on the battlefield,
and so I'm going to have him in the back. So you have like
a grit so you have a unit of six front line and a back line,
and then you can choose which individuals you put on it within that party
and how you position them so then they are like one, they're one entity
on the battlefield and then you command them to like move there. So that's
where the real time strategy part comes into play, where you like command them
to move to but then like the actual battles. Yes, once they clash
with the unit, then the game pauses and says, okay, we're going
to go into battle a confirm to like do this that, and then that's
when those two units engage. It goes into like a different cut scene,
and then that's when it all all the logic based stuff plays out. So
that's when you actually have combat. So yeah, that's that's how they mix
them. So and you have different objectives such as take this uh this,
take this hill, or capture this base whatever, or just eliminate all the
different units. There are limitations in terms of like how you how much,
how many units you can put on the field, which ones you can use,
But that's part of the fun is just digging really deep into the menus
and the systems. It's a very menu heavy game, so you need to
be into that kind of stuff. But yeah, it's a I'm I'm enjoying
it because it's a very it's a it's a nice change of pace. In
my preview, i called it like a fresh take on strategy RPGs, which
is which I agree with because I wrote it. But but it's really weird
to call it that. I feel that I feel that way. But it's
really weird to call that because it's here is a basis of something that came
out in the nineties that was never touched on again in any like significant capacity
since then. So in a way we're doing something new by reaching way back
to something so old. Yeah that probably not many people have even played or
realized or thought about. So it's yeah. Mechanically, gameplay wise, it
is a ton of fun. It is. It's takes a lot of effort,
it is. You have to be in the mood for this sort of
thing. I'll say, just because it takes so much mental energy. It's
on Switch. I'm playing on Switch. Yeah, I'm playing Field good Switch.
It's a very good switch game. Yeah, it runs, runs really
well. Low times aren't crazy, but it's definitely something I can easily pick
up and play rather than sit at my PS five in my living room.
Yeah. I don't want I don't want Blessed to walk in and be like,
oh, you got a whole squad of which is with their titties out.
I mean hell yeah, Like is that tactically the best option? I
don't know. She could duplicate herself and then you cast two magic spells.
You know what I'm saying. Dudes will walk into my living room and be
like, hell yeah, by dudes, I mean blessed and or me.
So yeah, it's it's it's really fun. The story wise, it's fairly
straightforward, kind of fantasy stuff, kind of touching on elements that you see
in fire Emblem games as not as poppy or I mean some of the older
firearms are fucking dark. But I mean since three Houses, they feel like
and with engage, I feel like Fireblom has taken a little bit more of
a more of a colorful take on even though like bad shit happens in those
games, more colorful take on the fantasy genre. But this one is very
much like I Am taking back my kingdom from your bitch ass darker and hornier,
darker, hornier. Yeah, is there any like because we're talking about
Firembloom before, is there? I mean, like I don't know, like
when you're not battling, is there like a social element to it? Like
are you talking to your party members improving relationships? Whatever? Yeah? There
are there are like key characters because you gotta have like multiple other units who
are nameless I guess. But there's like core characters within your unit who are
characters who there's no perma death either, but these are like core characters who
are involved in the story, and you have bond conversations, so there's still
so the same as support conversations in other firearm games. This game has it
too, so you get a little bit more backstory some of them. Some
of them are kind of interesting, and sometimes they feel like I feel like
this information would have been nice to have in the main story about this character.
Some of them are kind of whatever. Conversations like cool. Well,
I at least I upgraded my bond rank with this person because it all revolves
around a main character. He's supposedly taking back his kingdom and he has a
bunch of friends now. So there are a little bit of the social element
too that plays into the rest of the game, which is cool to see.
I mean, I feel like I mentioned this in my Rebirth review too.
It's it almost feels like an expectation for RPGs to have a social element
now and you see it permeated. It's nothing new, of course, firem
has been doing it for a long time, but now it almost feels like
if an RPG doesn't have those things. It's kind of missing something. Obviously.
Yakuza has been doing it since uh since six. Really, Song of
Life kind of had some of that stuff. Oh yeah, like the people
at the bar, at the bar, yeah, and the plan creator stuff
kind of yeah, yeah, sort of yeah, yeah, that's a good
point. And then like a Dragon obviously it's an RPG zero kind of had
that where you'd like, talk to the host this is module. Yeah,
of course, you like building up your relationship. Yeah, yeah, they
they've always kind of been so yeah, it's kind of just permeated these styles
of games, and it's yeah, I love that shit. I love that
shit too, yeaheah, it's it's so great. Yeah, it's dope.
Yeah. The story stuff is, it's fine. I don't feel like it's
not necessarily a motivating factor. I'm not like, it's not like in seven
Rebirth, where I'm yeah, I'm gonna fucking fight shin Ra and I'm gonna
I need to chase sef Roth or whatever. Very different game of course,
but here it's like, no, I guess I'll take back my kingdom.
Who knows, I'll get there eventually, but I got these these witches with
me. I got my hot witches with me. We'll do whatever you want.
Yeah, and my big axe mommy and man. Yeah, it's art
styles great. Music is music is great too. Oh my god. Some
some great battle themes in that in that game. So yeah, there's a
there's a bunch of like management stuff too that you can get deeper into to
build out your units and have all these different perks and grow your party in
different ways. Because there's an overworld that you navigate in towns you can build
relationships with as well. There's so much side activities in the overworld too.
I kind of like how they integrate the overworld into the actual battles of the
game. So you're not just like in a menu like Okay, I'm going
to engage in the next battle and they'll take me somewhere or whatever. You
actually walk over to these differ places and the battles happen on that map too,
So it seems like there's a there's a seamlessness in how the game flows.
But yeah, Unicorn Overlord, I'm not done with it. I don't
know when I'll be done with it, but it's pretty long. Yeah,
it's very long time. I'm probably like thirty ish hours in now the man,
I'm gonna bookmark it, but like right now, like the last thing,
I needs another. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of I'm good.
Like I'm like four hours in Rebirth and I'm like, I want to keep
playing this, but at the same time, I want to play like a
four hour game. Yeah. Yeah, Well, Unicorn Overload is not for
you right now. I guess people have been saying, like fifty hours ish
with that game, which is a hefty investment, but so far, I
feel like it's it's been worth it. I'm not necessarily surprised after my preview.
My preview is pretty glowing. And then now having played the full game,
like I was right fine, especially once you got like the characters later
on in the game. You know what I'm saying, I got my favorites
in my I got a lot of favorite it's in my my units that you
know what I'm saying. Crazy, Look up any Vanilla Ware art, look
up any of their games except for Thirteen Sentinals, Dragon's Crown Boy. Just
don't do that. Maybe maybe don't do it on the work Wi Fi.
You don't work or do it or do it gives a fun? Yeah,
Unicorn Overlord that is available on Xbox, PlayStation and Switch, not PC.
Vanilla Ware doesn't put their games on PC. I didn't realize that. Oh,
that's kind of or most of them, I guess, but this is
because gods. Yeah, that's probably why they're like, we can't we can't
give that. I don't know what to act, right, I kind of
I kind of want to play the game with a keyboard and mouse though,
because it's like a strategy game where you're controllings an overworld, like play it
on your Xbox pluging a there you go. Have you ever done that?
Have you pluged in a mask on a console? I don't think I.
I did it once to like see if it worked, and it was like
A called the game. I was like, yep, I'm playing Call Duty
on my console on a controller or like mouskyboard. I'm like, that's weird.
Why would I do this though, Like it was like it's like I'm
yeah. I was like, I guess that's cool. I'm like, yeah,
weird, kind of weird though, Yeah, I know, but yeah,
it's the game of the week, I would say a month, maybe
game of the year. Maybe Dragon's Dogma too. Man, that comes out
this month. Right at the end too, preview and Bargo just went up
as well. It did. You should go check out Kurt Indivina's preview on
the game, both on GameSpot dot com as well as YouTube channel put out
an excellent preview. I also was there too, so I did play it
a little. Oh really, I could talk about it. I had never
played Dragon's Dogma, so I didn't not know what the fuck I was doing,
because Dogma seems like that seems like Jean lukore it does it? I
think it is having played it, because I've had multiple people tell me like,
oh, you've never played and Sogball, like this seems like this is
something to be new, and I definitely was into it. But also I
was just like, it's a weird game to preview because it is not like
most games. I guess. It feels dense with like systems, and I
was just like, yeah, I don't know even the control schemes like very
different from traditional sort of action adventure RPG games to the point where like because
I previewed it months and months ago, like the first preview they did,
and I had played the originally in a little bit and then I went to
this and I was like, oh my god, these control like I need
to take time to wrap my head around these controls. And when you only
got like forty five minutes, it's like by the time I was done,
I was like, Okay, I understand what I'm doing and now I'm done.
Well, even like just the way they came, this frame feels like
it's really trying to like Immercy in its world where so like in the the
when you play like two sections of a demo in like different parts of the
map, and the first one is in this like small town, it's very
much like you show up and you got your part, you got your ponds,
and like every five seconds like someone's coming at to you being like,
yo, I need help with this, I need help with that. Like
it felt very like D and D Party kind of where you're like the party
rolls up and everyone's just like, hey, help me with this, find
my kid or you know, get this stone, and I'm like, oh,
okay, okay. But it's kind of cool because the game, so
like the quest I picked was like, okay, like this kid went missing,
you gotta go find him, but the game does not tell you where
the kid it's not like, hey, here they are, go follow the
checkpoint and get them. Like you have to walk around town and talk to
people, and oh you have to talk to people. Have to talk to
people, and they're just like, oh yeah, that kid they were they
were messing around in that field over there with the flowers, and you're like,
what flowers you like? Go and talk to other people and they're like,
oh yeah, the flowers at night they glow blue, so it's easy
to see. So you're like, oh okay, So you wait till night
and then you follow this like trail of flowers that leaves you like through this
cliff, and then you're like, oh okay. And then so it's like
it it felt really good where it's like, oh, I'm like naturally like
picking up detective kind of. I know Kurt loves dragons dograa yeah, And
so I liked that aspect a lot, Like it felt cool. It's like
okay, and and I don't know, I felt like i'd really like prepare
my party for like this journey we're going on because the game technically as fast
travel, but it's like a consumable and it doesn't really work the way you'd
think like fast travel would work. So it is a lot of like when
you're gonna go out, you're you're kind of making like a we're going out
on a quest, making a very deliberate decision, deliberate decision. And it
was cool where like you know, uh went on this like path to find
this kid and ended up like fighting this like ghost banshee and and then like
I fought a troll, which was super funny because the troll like, uh,
I got like ninety percent of his health down, the troll just picked
my ass up and threw me off a cliff and I had to like walk
all the way back up. And when I walked up, the trolls just
dead and all my ponds were like standing around it, and I was like,
good job. Hey. Oh Also, best thing in that game is,
uh, when you win combat, if you're near a pond, you
and your pond will give each other a high five. And I was like,
yeah, oh we did that. Oh it was cool. I like,
I like the ponds, even if they do kind of like they kind
of repeat a lot of the same lines over and over. I heard him,
I heard them a lot. I was like, uh huh, yeah,
okay, tell me more. But it was cool. It's like,
you know, like I felt like, ah, I'm like going on this
quest like find this kid, and it felt like there was constantly like stuff
around in the world to like do and like interact with that felt meaningful.
And then save the kid. And then the game's like all right, walk
all the way back with the kid, and I was like, oh,
okay, let's do it. And then like I had to like escort him
back and it was it was neat, it was fun. I do not
understand half of those game systems at all, like how ponds work. I
didn't really get it, having not really played it, not having a chance
to. I imagine from what Kurt described, it seems like it's very similar
to the first one, although the the pawns do seem to kind of also
fill a role for certain things. So like there are quests where like if
you have a pond that is of a certain like type, they'll like help
you out. So like there's one quest where they're like, oh, we
need to go find this certain object. It'd be really cool if we knew
someone who was like a like a scoundrel because they know like that that scene
and so like if you had a pond with that, they'd be like,
hey, I know about that, and I can lead you there, and
so like you like you can change out your ponds to kind of like not
just help in battle, but also help in terms of like what kind of
like quest you're doing and stuff, which seems neat, but yeah, I
mean it was. It was mostly just kind of me running around getting gett
into grips with like how the game felt. I think it looks beautiful.
Yeah, it's a gorgeous looking game. And I did really like the combat
what I did, Like each weapon felt very distinct and satisfying. It looks
like a chunky game, very chunky. You fight like a griffin or like,
oh, I sure did. I was fighting like a giant rock monster
and then like dude, I was fighting that thing for like twenty minutes and
I'm just like I almost got him, and then this fucking griffin just comes
out of nowhere and just starts fighting me too, and I was like,
what the fuck? Come on? Yeah, they're texting each other like yeah,
throw hands at this, like I need you to come through there in
twenty send dudes. I When I did my review, it ended with a
Griffin fight, and it was so much fun because you're just like all this
thing stabbing it was flying around, crashes to the ground, and your ponds
are like shooting arrows while you're yeah, whipped around. It's the first class
I got a messed with was you get this spear and there's this one move
where you like you kind of like uh almost like not teleport, but like
uh kind of like push yourself like up in the air and then you can
do like a slam attack. So I would like push up in the air
and then just like time it right and slam down and like right on their
head and then you like land right on them and then you just stab at
them and you feel so badass when you like pull that shit on off,
And I'm like, oh, this is cool. So that's what's up.
Yeah, I dug it quite a bit. I am excited. Did you
venture a night at night at all? Because that was one thing in the
original that was kind of unique was that the monsters are much scary at night,
and you can't see a night unless you've got a torch, So it's
yeah, yeah, and without fast travel, it makes traveling at night very
dangerous. But sometimes you just end up. No, totally. Yeah,
I had to go at night to find the boy, and yeah, I
ran into like a weird ghost thing that like what wasn't there during the daytime,
and it was cool. I was like whoa, Like, yeah,
this felt unique and different. So I'm excited for that game. As I
kind of mentioned earlier, big as RPG, that's probably gonna be you know,
fifty ten hours. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe maybe like
a brisk eighty hour. So there's a part of me that's just like,
I don't know if I want to start that, like right when it comes
out, unless I'm covering it for work, but who knows. But yeah,
but like I'm just like, man, it's not I mean good,
but I meaning a little too good right now? Yeah. Yeah, you
can't eat Prime rib every night every night. You get a little sick of
it. Yeah, it's just too head, it's too heavy. Yes,
it's heavy. A man, that's all you gotta be playing Balatro. I
do need to I need to give that another try. Is that Is that
your game? This week? No, I've been playing so I finished Final
Fantasy remake and intermission. Hell yeah, I had played remake before, Like
I talked about last week. I'd never played Intermission, which was good.
You fee is a lot of fun. Are you pro or anti youthe?
I haven't decided. Combat wise, I really liked fighting as you like you
can kind of mix the close range in long range and Rebirth as well.
That was amazing in terms of like because I remember I tried playing Intermission,
and I think I got to the first cut scene, one of the first
cut scenes where she's like flipping around Materia and like jumping the camera and like
doing all this stuff, and I was like, this is too much.
Right now, she's the anime, but I haven't gotten to her in Rebirth
yet. Okay, and Rebirth I just hit like the first open world.
Yeah, you got a little bit to go. I'm sure. I'm sure
I've got a long way to go, because I I've I was really enjoying
the first part of Rebirth, uh like when you get all the sephar Off
backstory and and oh yeah Nibelheim and stuff like that. And then I liked
being in Calm, especially doing Queen's Blood. So now I'm just like I
did all my Queen's Blood battles and I'm like, so I got play through
this open world area and then I do more Queen's Blood Queen No, I,
I am enjoying it. The first thing I noticed, though, going
right from remake to intermission to rebirth is the combat feels like like just like
ten percent tighter, Like it's just like, yeah it all. It feels
like it clicks just a little bit better. I don't know what they did.
I can't put my finger on like why exactly it feels that way.
But just right when I picked it up and did that first battle as Cloud,
I was like, ooh, they they like it kind of looped up.
Yeah exactly, Yeah, I up Cloud, give the people what they
want. But yeah, I've been enjoying it. I have a lot of
questions about the story and where it's going. Uh, and I'm a little
worried about, like some some of what the answers might be, just given
how people responded to the ending. I don't know anything about well I know
about the ending because I know what happened, what happens in the original,
I guess, but like I don't know the details. So I'm curious to
see where it goes. Yeah, take combat combat that games. Yeah,
I'm not going to take my Definitely take your time. I think that's the
game. It's gonna take my time. I'm not going to try to do
everything, but like I'm gonna try to do all of the things that interest
me. So I'm gonna do all the Queen's Blood. I really like that
first open world area, the grasslands or whatever, so like I'm having fun
exploring that definitely. I think you mentioned it when you first started playing it,
but you were like you felt like this was the first Final Fantasy game
that like nailed open worlds, because they've always been kind of like trying to
do that, and they kind of make half steps there, like sixteen was
kind of getting there but not quite and like the big open areas felt kind
of empty, but this feels a lot more engaging to run around in general,
because I was thinking about il Stignger was with my brother, where like
every Final Fantasy Final Fantasy like had like a pretty like established formula for like
a long time, like within each things like you could point out, like
you know, the Steps games all kind of had like a formula, and
the PS one games a lot of formula, and even like ten kind of
fits in that. After like ten, like twelve onward. Like each Final
Fantasy has been like pretty radically different, and it's like subject and style of
just like gameplay. I think Rebirth is the the first one I've played where
I was like, this is it. This is the formula. Yeah,
got it you like you got it down. I'm not saying you gotta do
it forever. Maybe give me one more like this? Absolutely, that's that
isn't a seven like like a seventeen, because like I'm thinking, like I'm
like, dude, like a seventeen New Story, but like this level of
like party interaction, the variety of towns you can explore, Like, that's
that's what I'm most excited for. It is to go to all these towns.
Because Calm I thought, was just yeah, it was gorgeous, and
I was like, this is like I really liked mid guar in one and
one and remake, but that the my favorite thing about RPGs is shown out
to a new town. Yeah, and I was like, all right,
what do they have for sale here? And you hit up all the shops
totally, And that's something that that like sixteen didn't like quite do right in
my opinion for me, Like it didn't it like it has some of those,
but I was like, nah, like none of them, none of
them hit the way. It doesn't rebirth, so like I'm really just like
oh, Square, like don't don't throw it all away and start over again,
like you towns, like just just give me, give me this formula
one more time with a different game. Even the combat, like oh,
it's so good, Like I think it was a it was like a I
think this deal seeing an article on Pace where Final Fantasy it's about Final Fantasy
has always been about towns and dudes and like fuck, yeah, dude,
yeah, come on, have you played Strange your Paradise due fucking rock and
Town's fucking rock too. Yeah, yeah, I just I really like,
Yeah, com is great. It's a great set up for the rest of
the game. It is where it's like, hey, there's there. There
feels like there's community at these places, and uh, it's just enough for
me to be like, oh, yeah, I do want to explore this
region. I do want to do the side quest on the community notice board,
and it's like dumb ship, like go find this thing for me or
find my my Queen's blood card that I lost. I'm excited to meet more
Queen's Blood players, because all the queens are all are weird crazy. There's
something about Queen's Blood that just makes it go insane. Yeah, I'm sure
you've seen so many good ones, but like in Calm That there's just all
those boxes piled up and I'm like, I'm gonna knock that ship down,
and then she's like why have you done this? And you have to play
me and I'm like, yeah, the chocobo guy who loses it runs the
like his lines in particular, there is something he said where he just like
it's like, calm down and take that ship. Seriously. Yeah, it's
great. Yeah, there's a in June on there's one player who Queen's Blood
player that you who says like, thank you for defeeding me. Now spread
the joy of gaming because they call it, we call it game. I'm
like, yo, that's why everyone's a fucking freaking all gamers. Yeah,
there's uh, I mean, yeah, there's some real good ones. I
want to spoil it. Yeah, I'll talk about another one definitely. Yeah.
It's like Queens Blood is like one of the best mini games and any
video it's it's like it's it's up there with Gwent for sure, but I
think the the way that they package it, I guess with all these different
interesting characters, makes I think more memorable, because like I just remember Gwent.
I don't remember the people I played. I just remember Gwen. I'm
gonna remember the people like the game because because telling you like in the Witch
are like you go up to like the saddest, poorous looking person with a
bowl cut around his head, who's like my daughter just got taken by a
ghost, and there's like an option to play Gwent, and then it's like
gwent up for a round of Gwent and then darn darn music's good too.
I love Gwent and I love so dumb so good. You're not even at
the point in Queen's Blood were like it evolves. Yeah, I'm guessing they
add a fifth, they add all total of five rows. No no,
no no. I thought the cards make it look like the rose ever changed,
but like the way cards behave change and it completely changed, like the
Queen's Blood turns into something else. It's like you can play it in a
different way. It's like awesome, But I do like that the way it
ramps up gradually is such a good way of teaching you how the rules,
how you can bend the rules, or just like the extent to which the
rules give room for so many creative ideas. It's so satisfying. Like taking
the board from someone and they just like, can't play anything. Yeah,
keep passing. I'm just gonna keep throwing cards down. Yeah, I know
you do this because I do too. But you've already like clinched victory,
you already won, but they're still open space. And I was like,
yeah, bam, bam. There is some on Twitter that's like, if
you aren't still putting cards down to see how high the score is after you've
are you even really playing queens? But I already won by forty But what
if I won by sixty O. That shit's so satisfied, especially when when
it's when it's an opponent who's beat me six times to retry six times,
it's like that's happened to me, at least for one of them, where
I just kept losing and I was like, I just can't figure this out.
And then it collects and it's like, oh, Okay, there's something
I'm not doing here that I should be doing. The thing about the grid
is because they have cards that show like what it does in a five.
That's if like you put on the top row, it could still affect the
two bottom rows below it. So it's like it just shows you what it's
capable of doing no matter where you put it. Okay, yeah, basically,
yeah exactly. Anyway, Yeah, I'm probably after today, after work
today, I'm gonna go back and play more Final Fantasy, just for the
Queen. They gotta do a stand alone. They really sure they will.
I feel like the response like, there's got there's got to be at some
point they struck gold. Yeah mm hmm, and then they'll do it.
They'll do what happened with Gwent with the release of standalone and then realize that
it doesn't quite work in PvP and then change all the rules. And it's
true. I hope it works out because because you play against NPCs, there
are ways in which you kind of exploit the systems. That feels good,
but I can imagine in a PvP setting there are balances that need to happen
that you just don't care, You just don't need to account for. Also,
like some of them, sometimes they're they're really smart and other times is
like now you should have taken that thing, like you're dumb, Like some
of the NPCs are a little stumb I would actually prefer I think I would
be more into a standalone Queen's Blood where it is just against NPCs and they
just sure it's like a ag. That's what Throne Breakers, Like, Thronebreaker
really leans into the like challenge stuff that Queens Blood has, where it's like
you're given a specific scenario and it's like here's your cards, how can you
figure it out? It almost what you have. It almost becomes more of
a puzzle game likes are are at least from what I remember, feeling more
classic Went. But then like you'll be walking down a path and boulders will
be falling, and then it'll go to a Gwent yeah battle and you'll have
to like defeat the boulders with a certain set of cards. You know,
like the Pokemon trading card game on the game Boy where it was like the
formula of Pokemon, but you were just playing the Pokemon card game. Just
give me that. Yeah, I want to just like from town to town
and just and but I'm only challenging, and there's got there's got to dudes,
and there's got to be towns to Queen's Blood. That's the perfect setup
for a card game too. It's like, go to a town and play
dudes in a card game, yeah, and move on. When you do
that in real life, it's usually dudes. Yeah, I go, I
go play MTG at the bar. They could add a story too, like
like some yudioh ship, you know, just like yeah, I mean,
but they go further with that and make it a whole Oh. Absolutely,
they were cooking. They were. I also want to shout out my homie
Jesse Vitelli, who did a full interview with Yeah, just about that,
just about Queen's Blood. It's like a deep dive on the development of Queen's
Blood with some interview quotes. I think there's there's a he included a photo
that he got from Squennings from like the physical build, because when they were
making Queen's Blood, they had like a physical setup to really like the printed
it, Yeah, to really hone in on the idea and really see how
it works in motion. So that's kind of the process of creating Queen's Blood
was. And also because they just really wanted to do it apparently. Yeah,
they just had a lot of fun. Yeah, just guys being dudes
and fu I wanna make this card game. But yeah, yeah super If
you're into queens Blood, definitely check that out. That's on Kataku. I
think so yeah, definitely maybe maybe sell that, Maybe maybe may can sell
that. The there are calculations, especially once you get deeper into it,
there are calculations that I want to do. Really. That was where it's
like it seemed like a great idea, and then I finally played Gwent and
I was like, oh, I'm bad at maths. Yeah, there's some
a lot of Yeah, you'll you'll see like when you get I Advanced cards,
It's there's some crazy shit there. Yeah, that game completely changes.
It's wild man good. That's cool. It's good to hear though that it's
clicking with more people. Yeah, I think everyone even Yeah, it seems
like everyone loves it. I watched back my preview of Rebirth and I was
like, I kind of like Queen's Blood. It's pretty cool, but I
don't think it's any I don't think it's Triple try yeh. When I finished
Rebirth, I'm like, Triple Try Out got nothing on Queen bro looks like
you don't agree with your pastself. This time it's time. You know what,
Maybe I was wrong, dude, yo, I was gave Queen's Blood
a second chance. I was wrong about Queen's blood. Dog, that's content
right there. Come on, yeah I was wrong about Queen's Blood. We'll
making a video and the thumba will just be looking really sad, like,
yeah, dog, I can make a good thumbnail face. Yeah, yeah,
so it's true. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Card games man.
I know we talked about Blatro last week, but yeah, I've played
a whole lot more. But it's the game. I come home and I'm
like, okay, when we have a couple a couple of hours before I
go sleep, but I'm not sleepy. What am I gonna do? Play
Blatro on that It's four am, and I'm like, fuck, I hate
it so much, but I clear those decks. It's definitely like I'll do
really well, and then I'll try like a follow up run and it just
won't. The dopamine hits just not the same, and then I have to
like push myself to like pick it up and play against So the reason I
haven't played in a while, or I haven't played a lot recently, is
because I just had a great run and it's like that's it. Yeah,
It's like I know I'm gonna have to there's like a bunch of trial in
air before I'm gonna get a good run because I'm just gonna get chit luck
for a bit and then it'll pop off and then I'll half the time of
my life and then it's just like gambling. It's just like gambling. I'm
not like gambling at all. Please. Yeah, back on the storefront,
I know that's crazy. I haven't been following the developments of that, but
I know that that happened. That is why I don't know this what happened.
It got taken off of a bunch of storefronts because I forget who specifically,
but basically, like some organization was like this promotes gambling and it needs
like the rating needs to be changed and that's bizarre, and it's like there's
no real money involved in this. I think it's just because like it it
starts, it starts off of poker, you know, Like so I think
they were like gambling because yeah, to me, I mean like I think,
you know, like many live service I don't know, they don't they
don't really do loot boxes anymore, but that was like a much more uh
evil form of game, I guess, because it's like your money, lots
of money for stupid digital items and some are cool, but still it's like,
yeah, yeah, well this is like yeah, it's real, Like,
ah, y'all were pointing the right direction on this one. Yeah,
yeah, I've been I've been clearing a lot more of the decks in Bolotro
since then. But you're You're totally right, Jake. Where it's it's so
much trial and error because what you realize is when you get when you actually
clear a deck and when you finish a run, what you realize is that
you backed into a very specific way of playing, and if you can't get
those early cards to work, you're not going to get deep in your run.
Because the way, the way, the the the antish scale in terms
of like how many chips you need to get to pass to the next round,
it's it scales up in such dramatic fashion that like, if you're just
not built for this round, there's there's literally no way you can pass it.
If you haven't like expected too, then this is what I do now
for every deck it's like, well, if I don't get these jokers,
certain set of jokers the first two rounds, I'm cooked. I'm just going
to back out. Oh okay. So, like I've been doing runs with
threes of a kind, build around that, or I can build around flushes,
you can build about around anything, and it's super satisfying when it all
comes together and you're just getting millions of points. Yeah, but that happens
like maybe one out of every five attempts. So interesting. Yeah, but
uh, it's but don't get me wrong, Like I think it's a it's
an incredible idea, and I think it's executed extremely well. And that's just
kind of the nature of gambling. Not a gambling game, but like card
games, card games, and yeah, plus a Rogue Light too, right.
Yeah, it's partly because, like I mean, that was one of
my things with Dead Cells, Like the reason I stopped playing Dead Cells.
As much as I love that game, it was just it got to the
point where it was like, if I don't get these specific things, this
run is going to suck and I don't want to play, you know,
And you see that a lot in Rogue Lights, and I think, like
it's just I don't know, Like it's just an issue that I personally have
with many of them, which is why, like I end up falling off
of so many. But I do think one thing Billatro has going for it
is it's not really skill based. I mean it is skill based, but
it's not like reflex skill based. It's like, at least for me,
like it's very easy to go back to and play again. Well like dead
Cells, like my muscle memory that is gone. Yeah, yeah, man,
I like that game a lot. I'm probably gonna still keep playing.
I've been I'm almost clear at all the decks. I've put like twenty five
thirty hours into the damn. I know. I look back on it.
It's it's one of those games you just like keep coming back to. Little
Yeah. I looked at my plates, I'm like, how how long I've
been playing this game? Granted some of that it's been just idling and go
to the kitchen, leave it on or whatever. I came back and I'm
like my steams hours, my Steam hours are at like twenty eight. I'm
like, oh, you're not even playing. Are you playing on Steam deck
or you No, I'm playing on my desktop. So I just like I
just zone out. I check my emails, like, okay, I'm done
responding to emails for the day. Open ballattro Fuck it's four am. So
yeah, it's yeah, it's crazy, but hopefully people can buy it at
some point. Its long like fifteen bucks or some shit. Yeah, And
like as a kid who played a lot of poker and like, man,
it's it's it's kind of like it's kind of like the Drill video we just
did all that shit. It's like reflexes. I know how to I know
how to play poker and shit, it's just crazy. I feel like I'm
reliving my childhood day in and day out now. So yeah, speaking of
reliving my childhood, I've been playing uh Star Wars Dark Forces D. It's
a very it's really good. Yeah. I I remember having a copy of
Dark Forces as a kid, uh and not getting very far because that game
is like difficult and kind of obtuse in spots. I definitely, Uh,
It's it's cool replaying it now because I think in some ways, I'm like
I just like understand that game better, so like I was able to kind
of get further than I definitely did as a kid. But I've I'm out
halfway and I'm starting to hit a wall where I'm just like, oh,
some of these levels are getting like what what the fuck am I supposed to
go? Definitely like that old school style of level design when it comes to
shooters. Yeah, the pro tip is used the map. Like you hit
tab and you can just pull up like the little like virtual map to see
where you are. It's not the best map ever, but it's like,
Okay, I have a sense of like where to go, but yeah,
like there is there's one level I where for the most part, I was
able to play it all without a guide and I felt really good about it.
And then that level I was like where the fuck am I going?
And then like turns out you needed to like move an elevator down onto a
different floor and then go through like event so then get on top of the
elevators you can move forward and you have to have like two elevators. I
was like I would have fucking never figured that out. Uh, But like
it's cool because like that game is super important in sort of like the the
history of first person shooters because like We're Doom was more like kind of abstract
labyrinthine in its design, this game was like really making an effort to be
like this is a real place that you're going, and it's super cool and
you play it now and you can still like feel that. But the consequence
of it is because like that was they were kind of the first ones doing
that. You're like, uh, maybe it's more realistic, but do I
know where the fuck I'm going? Like you know, you're you're kind of
they're sacrificing some of the like ease of like player movement. I guess I
don't know, Like it's just like, yeah, if it feels like you're
hitting up more walls sometimes where you're just like I think like games eventually,
especially in first person level based games, they evolved in a way where there's
a lot more visual cues that kind of guide you to like where you're supposed
to be going. Yeah, they didn't have yellow paint back in the day.
Yeah, exactly. You ain't no yellow paint in Dark Forces. So
if you're mad about it, go play that game. Yeah, but it's
cool, and like the the remaster like looks really good. Yeah, it
looks real clean. You can even switch it back to like the old graphics
too, which is super cool. If you prefer that, which I think
I've been playing with the remaster, there's a part of me that still thinks
like there's more like cohesiveness to the old graphics in some ways. I just
kind of feel that about old games in general. But like it it looks
really great. The only thing is I don't like the default audio choice you
can pick between, like I think it's like general MIDI and then there's another
option of general MIDI and the the default one. Uh is like it doesn't
sound right. It's just like there's a lot of like drums on the menu,
Like on the menu there's like all these drums and it's but it's just
like bah bah bah bah bah bah, and like it doesn't sound like a
beat or anything. I just it just sounds like noise. And I was
like, oh, like, well this sounds awful, Like what is going
on? And then I just switched to the other one and it's like more
like kind of low res but it like sounded more like actual music, and
I was like, weird, Okay, I'm gonna go this. I think
I was like watching the Digital Foundery video and I think they had a similar
complaint where they said, like like the audio timing was off or something,
because to be fair, like that is an incredibly difficult thing to get right
with a remaster because audio back on PC games is all based on just like
they were usually like sync to like your computer is like clock and oh shit,
yeah, a lot of like sound was SYNCD to like the computer's like
internal clock or you know, things like your sound car. So like getting
audio timing right on a like where you like emulated over is like very difficult
on a lot of games. So I think they were saying that is kind
of what happened, where like maybe the timing wasn't right, that's why it
didn't sound correct to me. So I would maybe suggest trying the other audio
setting if you play it and just see, like if you prefer that one.
But yeah, I mean like the like the blaster sound effects were like
super nostalgic. You just fucking like shooting up all the Stormtroopers. I was
like, yeah, man, remember when Star Wars was cool playing this all
the time, like Kyle Qatar, Kyle Qatar guitar, it's cool. They
also like redid all of the old CG cut scenes, like they remade them
really yeah, and it like looks they look great. They didn't like just
like remaster the old ones or no no, no, no no, they
like recreated them. But so they look like really but they but they recreated
them just still look kind of in that like old like an old thing,
but they just really and they look fantastic. Man, it's like super cool.
Like I was like, oh that that's like the level of a detail
that you're just like. Man, ah, like I die. Man,
they're different. Yeah, they really are. Man, their their remakes and
remasters are. They're quick to remaster last year. I thought it was excellent.
Obviously system Shock right, system Shock last year, they're working on the
they're supposed to be this year they're doing a not a full remake, but
they're doing a remaster of system Shock two. Wait, what how do I
not know about this? I'm surprised you don't know about it because you're system
system Shock too. Talk. System Shock two is like change that and de
Sector is fucking formative for me. That's crazy. You played Sect you before
they should do. I will, I will, I will bust the no
I don't like to say that on the podcast. I will have the biggest
smile on my face. I'll bust the biggest smile. You'll bust the biggest
smile. Uh yeah, before before I was, before Persona, there was
dance X. That's that's how I was, how much I was into that,
Sernies the right there. Yeah, the character growth development, Yeah,
it was a pretty long time. I played the original dance X in two
thousand and three, and it wasn't until I played Persona five and twenty seventeen
when I had, like that that new paradigm shift in my life, for
this is now my whole personality. I'm glad I got to witness that.
You literally lived with me when we when I went through that shit. Yeah.
Yeah. They put out a trailer for last year and it just said
coming soon. So I'm hoping it comes out this year. Man coming soon,
me too. Baby will absolutely play that. Uh you think they'll fix
the co Op? There's co Op is shocked. Do you don't know that?
Is that a moducause? I don't think that was build on? Hold
on, let me let me make sure I'm getting my facts right. But
there is either a mod or like an unfit just like co Op. Yeah,
yea, that like is kind of bad. Oh Yeah, I played
the Days x multiplayer. That ship was bad but they okay, yeah,
so yes, system Shock two had a co op mode that was made nine.
Uh apparently it's bad. Damn. I can't how how bad is it?
Really? It's just like JANKI the title of a video. Yeah,
it comes out system Shock that'd be cool, but that'd be cool. Yeah,
but you can't run it off GameSpy anymore. No, it's true.
I can't do that. All of only nineties kids remember games. I remember
GameSpy? Yeah, you do, that's how Yeah, that's how I played
all the Battlefield games. Yeah, Medal of Honor, alight manle Front Stars,
the remaster, the not remaster were just put out a Yeah, I
guess it's kind of aport important comes out next week, right, I'm really
excited to play. Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, like, I'm just
like, oh, I just got to like sixty four player battles. I'm
just like, I remember Land parties with Battlefront because they had the AI bots.
Yeah, so you just fill it out. Yeah, we used to
do Land parties that Halo two. Oh yeah yeah coo, now man.
Games used to be just be cool. What happened? Games used to be
cool? You know what, They're still cool, damn. But yeah,
this is this certain vibe of those old games that I love that it's still
being kept alive me too by folks like code. I've been wanting to replay,
but I don't know how to do it. Is Splinter Cells co op.
Oh, I don't think you can play that online anymore with unless you
which which one up? So Chaos Theories, yeah, oh I never played
Koies series is the best one I thought, just because it was like very
slow and like they they like really used all the co op actions in terms
of like the levels where it'd be like it's like okay, you could go
through the front door, or you could like partner push your team made up
and like you'd slowly raise him up to The animations look so good at least
I remember them looking so good too, Like that sounds fun. Class arms
and throw the other person up, very deliberate animations, and like all the
missions for co op and Chaos Theory were specifically made for co ops, so
they're not just like retooled versions of the single player ones. Like here's a
specific sequence, it doesn't really have a story behind it, but it's like,
oh, this is genuinely different content from the original game, So if
you didn't play co op, you're missing out on like a pretty big chunk
of the game. And Sam Fisher like has has lines in it too,
like he's he's part of it, but but you're playing as like his uh
his like trainees or that's fun, it's cool. I did. I did
like a little a little garage lamp party with my homie like years back,
Like you know what if we just did splinter Cell Chaos theory co op just
run through it in one night and a bunch of that sounds amazing. It
was so fun. One of my favorite things they did in that co op
mode was so they in kastory, you had this thing on your pistol.
It was like a little like EMP thing that you could point at cameras and
turn off and they would say stationed off for like I don't know, ten
seconds or whatever, but in co op it only stayed off as long as
it's yes. So it was very much like okay, I got the camera,
you go, and then your buddy would come through and then they'd like
look up and get it, like all right, you're clear, You're clear
through. It's not just like, oh, these are two people playing this
level. It's like you have to figure out. Yeah, so cool,
Come on, video games used to be good man the garage part. Figure
out because like that game is backwards compatible on Xbox and I'm like, if
I just like land Networks too. Once you do that, you can do
split screen. Split screen was in it, and split screen worked decently,
but like, I don't know, I feel like I'm too old to like
play split screen these Yeah, I feel like a fucking child like split screen,
right if I play games split screen, like I need to be playing
with like my niece or I need fifteen years old some ship. And I'm
not really paying attention. I'm just like, yeah, oh yeah, Pandora
Tomorrow had a co op mode to right, I did it? I think
it did. I don't that maybe it did because I only played split screen
for a while because I didn't have ice speed in it, so it may
have just been online. Because I remember Spiver's Mercenaries. I was just line
ye and I didn't get to really play that until like the third one and
yeah cho they Spiver's mers was fun too. That shit was so so unbalanced.
It is so so dumb, but like also at the same time,
but I was like that was kind of like the magic of like those old
like older games like can be so broken in some ways, but that's just
unraveling how broken in the ways in which you can break the game yourself is
like that's just inherent to those experiences. But like the idea that they were
like, all right, we need the merks earned first person, the spies
spies, and you can just like hang on pipes and just break their necks.
You can just like fuk with people to like the way those games are,
Bill, you just funk around with people. I got idea. I
got it. Well, here we have og xboxes, and I know we
have copies. We have mad OGX. We also have we have copies of
these splinter cell games. We just do we just hook them up next to
each other. We get a little land station, going, oh, I've
got a lot of empty desks out there. We can do before before you
got to make a big move, put the ships to use, get those
HD microvers for those old xboxes. Hell yeah, oh that'd be good.
Maybe we'll go do that right now, right now, which means we're done
with this podcast. Yeah for the week. Thanks for tuning in. Everyone
appreciate y'all as always, whether you're listen live over on Twitch to twitch dot
tv slash Game Spot every Thursday at three pm Pacific time, or if you're
listening, we also appreciate that. Michael Jake, Yes, thank you for
joining me. Where can the lovely folks find you? Oh? You could
find me and all them up bullshit at Michael P. Higham on Twitter and
at high Am Michael on Instagram. But this week you are listening to this
this week paid. I just had the GameSpot YouTube page because I collaborated with
Jean Luke and Richard Lee to do an expert react. I am an expert
expert. We don't don't tell them what the expert. Yeah, yeah,
that's a surprise. You can't. You gotta make them click. Yeah yeah,
yeah, you can't know. But I actually have. I have guest
starred as the expert in an exit. It's not anime, titties, believe
it or not. Yeah, depends on how you look. At many they
covered up TIFA in the June On mini game and the woke Mine virus.
It's taken over no but uh but yeah it is Final Fantasy seven rebirth related.
It isn't spoiler free as well. Definitely check that out. It is
something that is very near and dear to my heart, and I'm so happy
that I'm It is crazy to me that I was able to reach back so
far are into my childhood to actually use this. Eighteen years later, some
ship I did and like high school became a video where I got paid for
it too. Motherfucker's got some money to over sent over to me, so
that was nice. But I'm really I'm really hyped up for this. This
is really dope today. Yeah, it was. I had a ton of
fun, like just filming that with you and just like hearing you talk about
it, like I was just like, oh, man, Like I'm like,
I'm learning so much about it on some old man shit, yeah,
like back in my day, and I'm just sitting there being like, oh,
I'm like, I'm like I'm learning all the deep lore. Yeah.
And then you watch back the footage of like what the fuck is this talking
about? And I totally get it. I totally get it. I know
that I'm turning into that kind of person, but you know what, I'm
gonna embrace it. Yeah, you just better embrace it, but yeah,
it's cool. It's cool. Quite a bit of work, so peep that.
Yeah, yeah, I hope check that out a whole. It should
go up this weekend unless for some reason somewhere this happens. But it shouldn't.
It should have been fine. So yeah, check out that, Jake,
do you want to plug anything? Uh? Last week I put out
a lot of videos. Well, I guess I put out too. I
put out a Pokemon The Complicated Business of Pokemon video. I'm very proud of
the video. If you're curious as to why Scarlet and Violet where like they
were, definitely give that video a watch. A lot of research went into
that and a lot of effort. And then I also took a look at
a game called Expeditions, a mud running game I think, or a mud
running a mud runner game, a mud runner game. I talked about it
last week on the podcast. If people kind of I'm sure I already know
my thoughts at this point. But if you want a more condensed version of
that, the game is out now. So if it sounds like and it's
an ultra wide, yeah, then my video is an ultra That was like
my biggest motivation to do the video to be honest, because I was like,
this would look sick. There was even a comment that was like respect
for doing it an ultra will Yeah, Dutch Runners game ye exactly. Yeah.
That's it for me. I'm working on others. I'm playing another game
and I think we're gonna have a preview up soon on it. But that's
all I'll say. Cool, cool, yeah, and yeah for me,
go check out Michael's video. That's what I've been working on a lot of
works for that. Great to see it. But thank you all for listening
and we will see you all next time. Peace. Bye.