Hey, everybody, Welcome to Game Spot After Dark, episode two hundred and
thirty two. I'm your host's week, John Luke sayche and sitting Ray across
from the table and a shocking move curtain Divina. Greetings and sanitations, my
dear friends and listeners. Hello, and on the far far side of the
table for the first time, really far away, I Jake, I feel
extra far now that there's no one in between. It's really weird. We
can move over we want, I thought of that. Yeah, okay,
there we go. Yep, yeah, all right, I moved excellent,
but I have to stay away from the stupid bar on this stupid tables.
Yeah, it'd be great if we were like, oh my god, we're
in the middle of the desert. We've never done this before. I would
love to film in the middle of I know, the Nevada desert. Can
we film it? Doesn't I don't listen to podcasts spoiler, but I think
Tom McLaughlin is starting to do his podcast like in like anywhere he does it
by the pool, we're walking down the street, or in any any any
moment in place and time. Well, when we find out he's doing in
the desert, can we like show up and also film like yes, just
like one hundred yards that way, and like we both closer, so there's
like a bunch of cross chatter and picking up. Yeah, yeah, he
could you. We're listening, we're recording a podcast. Can you keep it
now? I'm cut the fuck up. Back in my TikTok days, as
in when I used to watch TikTok but I deleted off my phone, there
was this one like I don't know if it was an actual podcaster, just
a bit, but there was like this that these two guys who would do
their podcasts in the middle of the road where they'd like run out and set
up. And I think it's funny doing a podcast in the middle of the
road. But I also think, uh, it is within your rights to
run over podcasters if they are podcasting in the middle of the road. I
think that should be a loud or in any regard or in any regard.
Yeah, I think yeah, you should the run over podcasters a podcaster,
and then that means you would run over everyone because everyone asked podcast yes,
including for some reason, I'm invited every so often, I kind of feel
like I get to curiously be not say that I get to say I don't
have a podcast, sure, but I may appear. I feel like we're
different too, are we. I'm not going to explain it. I don't
know, Okay, sure, yeah, well well you know, like we
I don't know what makes this podcast different from other podcasts, but it's different.
Okay. Oh we do it in person. That's true. That is
a rare and they can't even see it right now to prove that that's happening.
They can just tell the vibes different. Uh. Hey, everyone,
thanks for tuning in this week. Sorry we didn't have a podcast last week.
Basically everyone was out or sick. Yeah, you were out, I
was, Lucy and Tam were out, and then it was just madness just
didn't work out. You didn't use AI to fill in the I should do
that one time. I should have someone done that where they've just like taken
all like previous podcast train in AI and then just put out an episode and
see if anyone beating into the machine at that point. Right, Yeah,
you would make us, you'd make yourself redundant. I'm putting myself out of
a job for a dumb bit. I'm curious what a I me would say,
though, I'm not going to make any presumptions. Okay, Yeah,
well no, I was just gonna be like I was just gonna be like
Nancy Drew. It's like I'm hearing myself, and that would just be it
repeated Nancy Drew. All Right, everybody, we actually have a pretty big
show for you this week because it's a really big week in video games.
Uh, there has been a lot of big releases. Dragon's Dogma two rise
in Princess Peach. Also, uh GD is happening in our back door with
San Francisco. They're not having my back door, they're letting them near there.
You got the extra for that. Uh so we got we got some
cool previews and things we've we've done and seen. We can talk about,
Oh, Alone in the Dark. I didn't even mentioned that one up front.
I've been playing that one. I can talk about that actually played it.
Should I start with that? Should we just start with on in the
Dark. Although none of us have played the final release of Dragon's dog it's
a big one. It's a bummer that But that makes that's you said,
that's what makes this podcast different. Yeah. Yeah, you can go to
everyone else if you want to hear about Dragon's Dogma two. But I bet
you won't get people talking about Sinking City, to which I did actually play.
I'm actually very curious to hear about that, or you know the four
out of ten Alone in the Dark by Mark Delaney of game Spot That is
correct. We get to share a different perspective in view of One Dark from
Jean Luke Swychkee. Yeah. Yeah, you'd think, like normally a four
out of ten, you'd be like, oh, this game worth talking about.
But I'm here to tell you bullshit. I I do think that's bullshit.
And two, I'm here to tell you the personal John perspective six out
of ten mm, which means it goes right at the top of my As
we all know, Kurt loves good six out of ten. Yeah, this
is an interesting one because I've actually seen pretty all over the place opinions on
this game on the internet. Some people have a very similar opinion us,
and other people are like, actually this game is pretty good and quite like
it. For myself, I definitely lean I think this is a game you
should check out if it interests you, just not a full price well,
I think I think trying to justify that that sixty dollars. Well, how
long is it? Tell the folks how long it? So not that,
not that that, not that I'm playing. Length defines, right, whether
the price of something is the value of something. I'm just saying. I
just say I think it gives a good starting point of what this is a
sort of like. So the game is very much modeled. I would say
after like a rosen Evil two write, where you have two playable characters with
two campaigns quotes, where you know you kind of play through the whole game
is one character, you play through all the game is the other character.
There are a little differences here and there. First playthrough took me five and
a half hours, and this is one character for one character. And then
the second playthrough, I guess took me. I guess the same amount because
I about like eleven hours. So eleven hours total, five and a half
per character. I don't think that's actually bad in the sense that I can
be like resonable too in that time, but the difference is residable to kind
of a banger from start to finish. This game is pretty uneven in a
lot of spots, so it's it's harder to justify when when it's that short
and the quality is so kind of all over the place that unless you're like,
like I have to play this right now, i'd recommend waiting. But
I do think it's worth checking out because sound, I think it's kind of
uneven. Uh. Well, I think the combat is just badat is the
worst part of the game by far. Uh. There's basically like three enemy
types in the game, and they like kind of behave differently, but not
really there's just not there's not much variety to what you're doing. The guns.
There's like three guns. There's some new different guns, but ten each
character, so like there's no changes to so you know, like Resnue two,
right, Yeah, they have their own distinct they'll have a distinct weapon
and usually also like the enemy placement will kind of very up. This is
like it's just pretty much the exact same, uh. But the the gunplay
feels oh k ish at times. The melee combat feels looks like somebody's flailing
their arms. Yes, it is. It looks bad. It feels bad.
I remember like the first moment I picked up a melee weapon and you
just like do the swing and your characters just like ling around and I was
like, oh yeah for visual oh no, yeah. The audio description Jean
Luke lifts his right arm swings it around like a gooey rope. It was
so in the In the video review, Mark kind of opened it up by
talking about like older horror games like Silent Hill too, and I show a
clip of of like James swinging like a pipe at the enemy, and then
it like cuts two and it's like this like Emily in this game swinging a
pipe on enemy, and it looks the exact same, if not even kind
of more awkward, and you're like, okay, you know, and it's
it's like Mark made an interesting part where he's like, in some ways this
game is like weirdly more faithful to like those old style horror games. Is
a modern game, but is faithful and it's clumsiness because like, so the
one question I have, but I don't think it doesn't it doesn't feel like
the clumsiness actually yeah, which is kind of Mark's point, the question that
I have, you know, as a rebel horror snobs, like so much
of survival horror, especially the original Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil one
and two and then now wasn't able to remake is like it captures that adventure
game element of backtracking and like unlike the process of unlocking an environment in of
itself is a puzzle. Yes, and I haven't really that's always like a
It's like so when some when you see people on that, I say,
like, it's not that bad. I feel like I could fall. I'm
a sucker for any game that kind of adapts yeah, design, because it
feeds into my chemical flow. I guess does adapt that design and in interesting
ways. So basically, like the core structure is you are in the Deserto
Mansion, which you are like exploring the whole premises. You're trying to find
one of the main characters, Emily Hertwood. You're trying to find her uncle,
who has uh like been admitted to this like old mansion that was kind
of retrofitted into like a mental hospital. This takes place in the nineteen twenties
Louisiana, which is a great setting and it's definitely my favorite part about the
game is the setting and the vibes and the music, as you mentioned,
fantastic. So as you're exploring the mansion, you uh are kind of doing
very residual things and you're like, oh, this door is locked, and
then you go around and from the other side you find keys and you're solving
puzzles and I'm like, man, this is great. The other part of
the game is you are a set. You find this callousman that allows you
to enter dreams of your uncle Jeremy, and it'll be places that are kind
of like memories of his past. So they'll be like an oil field,
or they'll be like a cemetery. There's like a warehouse and those kind of
like you'll basically transition from the mansion to these other areas that are more linear
but do have like a little bit of kind of backshockingness, but for the
most part a like more level ish kind of in the way they work.
And then when you leave that area, you go back to the mansion,
do more puzzles, find the next dream, and that's kind of the core
loop of how it works. And it's interesting going between them because actually think
it does it pretty naturally. It kind of just like that silent hill thing
where you'll just be like walking in the mansion. Then you open a door
and all of a sudden you're like in a fucked up dream place and like,
oh, that's pretty cool. But the the mansion stuff is kind of
the best part because that's just where you're like walking around talking to characters,
solving puzzles. Where the dream stuff, that's where like the combat is kind
of more of the priority. There'sn't really many puzzles in the dream parts,
and and that's the part where you're just like, Okay, kind of just
got to get through this part with the combat so that I can get back
to the mansion stuff. Even though I do think the visually the areas look
very interesting, this game actually looks very gorgeous. And yeah, there was
a few shots during the review where I was like, most of it was
like, oh god, that looks that looks rough, and it was like
every single time of character is basically moving. I was like, oh,
the animations I think are the weakest kind of part. But then there are
certain sections where like doors and your exploring bars and again it has like that
nineteen twenties ye vibe, and like I was like, this is some good
art direction here. There is absolutely is, But I wanted to ask,
like, how do they balance resource management? Not really, it's so it's
kind of well like they do, but it's it's there. I guess I
just didn't ever feel it. It's kind of weird. So there are limited
bullets and you have to kind of go around and like search through stuff to
find AMMO. But uh and again, and I guess you could run into
a spot where you're you could get yourself in trouble. I didn't because,
you know, because you're programs. I'm a programer. Uh there. The
melee weapons are weird because you'll find melee weapons littered throughout the map they have
to pick up because every melee weapon has like a durability, and and the
durability is essentially like you can use it on one enemy and then it breaks
and then you'll have to go grab another one and it'll very like slightly but
for the most part, it's like, ah, you could beat up like
one enemy and then maybe you'll have like a swing or two left. So
you're constantly having to repick up melee weapons. And it it's weird because it
it feels less like resource management and more just like, well that broke.
But it's okay because they kind of just have like they'll always be a melee
weapon where combat is, so you're just picking up another so I'm kind of
like, I'm not really like it. It doesn't really feel meaningful in terms
of like actual light skill. It's just like, yep, that broke,
No, I grab another one, and then the melee itself is, like
I said, kind of JANKI and enemies can also like unlock you and you
just die sometimes, which is super cool cool. There's also bottles you throw
where you can like light enemies on fire. The bottles are weird because you
don't like pick them up and put them in your inventory. When you pick
one up, you have to use it immediately, so you're like, if
you just like tap the button, you'll just like immediately pick up and throw
it, which is like weird. So you have to like hold it and
then you're like, all right, I'm gonna wait for the enemy to show
up and I'm gonna throw it. But what's weird is like you will I
think the way they want you to do it is, you know, when
combat happens, you're just supposed to like frantically run around and like grab a
bottle like quickly throw it. And I do think in those moments, I
get what they're going for. But there's a lot of moments where you're just
like you see a bottle and you're like, okay, well, like I
think an enemy is going to come through that door or something, so you
pick it up. But then your character moves like just at a crawl,
just so slow. You're just bottles are pretty heavy. You're just yeah,
exactly, You're just get an inching your way closer, and you're like,
try moving that right there, look for a bottle. They cannot. Oh
no, I'm oh no, I'm stuck in a slow limbo. Oh can
I do audio description for every Yeah? Absolutely, even the ones with the
video. Yeah, Jehan Luke picks up their bottle and has a sip of
a Corona am I supposed to brand drop? That doesn't matter, you drink
it. But you got to talk normal though. You you had like,
no, that's what I want. I want like a nineteen twenties. Yeah,
that hand picks up that Corona beer and SIPs the fresh crisp beer.
Poor is down through their mouth, dangling on the tongue and they're off.
Wow, it does tingle so good. I know. It's like I am
your teste buds. So the bottom mechanics not great. Along the dark it's
weird if it doesn't feel it just feels like clumsy and awkward and you're like
why, Like you're just like, ah, why would I do this,
especially because you could just shoot them with your with your bullets. I'm always
also just uh, it's always so fascinating because Alone in the Dark is the
first survival horror games. True, it's just the res ad Evil is the
first to coin survival horror as a genre and really popular rides. And it's
always so fascinating to see Alone in the Dark be like, well, that's
the thing that like laid the groundwork and like gave the perspective that was literally
used for as an evil. But then Resident Evil is the thing that actually
invented like the core real foundation and popularized it. And like to see Alone
in the Dark over and over again try and like Hume, it's always I
think the thing is like alone Dark is always on, is always following the
trend of what Resident Evil's doing, despite the fact that Residebal exists because of
a load of the dark. It's true, like, so you have a
lot of the dark that Residue Evil came out and like changed everything, and
then Alone of the Dark tried to come back after Resnue four, the original
four. I remember that in the Darkness, it was like it looked like
Tom Cruise was on the cover. Yeah, remember the sing studio that eventually
went on to make Cold Fear, which is great, okay, survival Horror,
but still again off the tail end of Resual Force. And then I
think another really yeah, I think there's a few more. I think there
was a PlayStation Alone in the Dark that came out in between that also was
like trying to maybe to get off the hype of those And then this happens
where resonble to remake Rea reinstates Survival Horror, and it's the foundation of those
things, and now we have this coming out. It's just fucking so bizarre
to to win. For sure. I do think this is far more successful
at emulating that than the what that awful two thousand and six two and seven
one was. But it's like it's like it almost gets there. It's like
it's close, it's like it's onto something like six points away. Yeah,
it's like exactly, it's always it's always just four points away, six or
four depending who you are. But but like there are things I really do
like genuinely love about it. Like I like how kind of like unabrazenly weird
the story is in spots like it's it is nineteen twenty, so it's kind
of evoking that, like the director the writer is I guess wrote a bunch
of amnesia games. I didn't know that the lead the main writer is like
the lead writer on right, Yeah, And it kind of invokes some of
that stuff where they're sort of like taking inspiration from like this game the villain
is called the dark Man and he's like an Egyptian pharaoh, and and you're
kind of getting like the man. I know, I like it sounds cheesy,
but like I'm like, I think you're not supposed to be taking this
seriously, like it's it's supposed to be kind of goofy and weird. I
would love to have a bad guy that was like, I mean, fu
dude, mister X is a dumb name. That's true, he's not even
called mister X. I know the remake, I know, Nemesis is two
on the nose. I want kind of like I want, I kind of
want like mister Spooky's gonna get Yeah, and then when you see mister Spooky
and you're like, and it's the most fucking terrifying. Yeah, the planet.
So I want the game to like set you up to be like,
oh, mister spooky, like wait, there's like that actual demon that is
a really dumb name. Oh, there's a lot of sinister Oh oh,
I know you're talking about like it's like Bungalow Bill, like Bunky Boo or
so. I can't remember anyways, but whenever I hear that, I'm always
like, what the fuck? Until I was like, no, that's a
real mythological, totally creature anyway, but yeah, the dark Man, the
dark Man, the dark Man, He's It's It's good like it. I
think it balances the right tone of of being kind of like very weird and
leaning into the setting. I genuinely love the ending. The ending takes this
weird left turn that I like, I do not want to like say anything
about other than just like the ending takes a turn that I was just like,
Wow, I love this. This is great. It's kind of a
shame I had to put up with, you know, a bunch of the
game I didn't like this is to this point, but I found the ending
to be very fun in a way that was just like, ah, that's
that's great, yo. What all the way on that one? I love
it? Is that the ending? Is it the true ending or does that?
No? It's time. That ending is the ending that both characters gets,
no matter what it's not. Yeah, so there is a every character
has like their own personal sort of like trauma thing that kind of comes up
and that does result. So every each character does get their own bespoke level
and that is kind of neat. But no, this was uh just the
ending ending. There's apparently like a true ending that I should have gotten,
and I thought I was going to get, but then it just didn't happen.
Cool played again. I was like I was just look it up on
YouTube at this point, So I don't know why I didn't get that it
was. It was it was like I was all set up for it too.
Nothing could be as good as the the ending of the Closter Protocol dl
C. You did you did you see that? Still haven't played it?
I played it, but I mean I know I played the d LCD.
Sorry I saw it. Yeah, it was pretty bad. It was like
a that one's just weird, Like I get I gotta play that game.
Still I get it for free. They were just doing they're just doing like
a goofy bit at the end. But it was just like one of those
things where it's like no one's no one, no one, no one wants
this, what are you doing? It's weird? Now it's not it's not
that now, this is like this is actually fun. Yeah, this is
actually fun. Like it has a fun ending that made me like excited and
cool. But yeah, it's like there is a lot to like about the
game. Like I like the setting, I I like the music. You
said it's kind of got like this is like real dark jazz kind of Yeah.
It was really when you I was watching the review you edited, and
I was like really impressed with the music you chose. Uh, I was
like really vibing out. Yeah, excellent music. Why do I find this
on upn It's like where did you get this in the game? Source?
And John Lukes like, oh, yeah, that's in the game. It's
great. I'm given for what it's worth. I've been giving very little reason
not to play this game all that, and like and somebody telling me that
like combat and also it's kind of buggy, and someone tells me that that's
nothing. I agree but if someone tells me like the combat's bad in most
cases, like it needs to be unplayable atrocious, Like I think List of
Protocol is one of those examples where like I thought the combat of that game
was actually good for like an hour and then it gets like exhausting. But
I think it's because the game forces you to fight so much. I don't
think the games combat ever gets bad to the point where, like I mean,
I play, it just doesn't feels good. It's just not good.
Yea. And the final boss there was a moment where I was like,
y'all really want me to do this with this combat, like okay, but
I got I got through it, but yeah, nothing that ever, like
was frustrating to the point where I was like, I don't want to fucking
play this anymore. But it was just like, man, it just doesn't
feel particularly good in a way where it's like it's hard to recommend Rice,
But otherwise otherwise I think it's it's got some merit. The David Harbor and
uh, yeah, he's okay. Same with uh what's her name, uh
Comer, she's fine too. I think they do okay, but I don't
think they the material. Yeah, I don't know if that was the intention,
you know, you know, like I'm pretty sure I get the impression
that they were brought on really late, maybe only because I mean because this
model after their faces and stuff too, so I would have assumed like they
mocapped. Maybe. I mean, I'm sure they mo capped and scanned it
in, but I just get the impression, Like, I don't know,
cause I'm pretty sure Phil Hornshaw had a hands off look at that game only
a year ago, and there was we had a preview with that game like
two years ago. Oh was it that long ago? And there was no
and there was no there the male character in it, like didn't have a
David Harbor face, didn't Oh interesting. So that's why I was like,
this felt like a late addition. And also not that I want to say
that that's the reason why the game was delayed, but like the fact that
it was of course there was crunch and a number of things that they were
trying to avoid, so I appreciate that, but like I kind of saw
it was like they kind of announced that very lately. That was that's the
thing you lead your announcement with, right, like these two actors are going
to be in this game. You don't announce your game, and then like
six eight months before it comes out, we're like, hey, we got
those, we got two actors that you might know, you know, like
yeah, it's like they're no, like the bottom of the barrel is is
uh Megan Fox and uh Mortal Kombat one. If that's like the worst,
and then the best is like wait, hold on, you forgot about Norman
Ritas And I'm kidding. I was gonna say the best would be like Idris
Elba in Phantom Liberty in Counter Reeves right, basically cyberpunk. Uh, this
sits somewhere in the middle where it's like they're fine. Sometimes it comes across
stiff and awkward, but I attribute that to more to is just some of
the writing kind of clunky, and it feels like the directing is weird.
But it's like, yeah, they're they're fine, They're okay. If you
do play it and you only have the stomach to play one characters ro out,
I do recommend you play Emily Hartwood instead of uh uh the detective guy
what's his name? And I remember David Harber because because her her character feels
like she has more of like a connection because you're specifically trying to find like
her uncle, and it's like all about like he's he's kind of like cursed
and the idea that there's like this family curse that passes down and she's like,
am I going to get the curse now? And go insane the way
he has, And so there's like it feels like there's more stakes where like
David Harbard's character is like I'm like, man, uh, this turned real
weird real quick, and you sure are like sticking around for some reason,
like that paycheck must be real good, dude, Like why are you still
here? Yeah? Anyway, I've talked enough about Alone in the Dark.
I have other games I could talk about. I have a whole whole ass.
Listen, we've all been playing a million. I can very briefly talk
about Princess Peach. It is your heart desire it. I mean, it's
good. There we go, it's fine, it's good. Right, it's
a weird game. Okay, here's all I'll say about this game, and
it's a good game. The thing with Nintendo games is some well, I
would say for the most part, Nintendo games are made for kids. Yeah,
but all audiences but the thing about Nintendo games is that they are usually
of an equality of an appeal that even an adult can enjoy a Nintendo game.
And I did enjoy this game, but as I was playing it,
I definitely had this like feeling of like, this is made for a younger
audience, for you know, people who are newer to video games. I
am not necessarily being challenged by this game. And that is not a fall
the game. That is absolutely by design. It's not Nintendo's fault that a
thirty year one year old is playing this game who's played hundreds of games before.
But it's just like, yeah, it's just it's just the reality of
it. And it's like, you know, you should just probably know that
going in if you're someone who's like looking to pick it up and you're of
our age, I guess just like, hey, now, this game's not
gonna challenge you, but it is charming as hell, and if that's what
you're looking for, you'll have a good time, does it? Because I
feel like a lot of mudder and Nintendo games, they they're usually pretty good
at like being very easy at the beginning, but then but then when you
beat it, you unlock some like special hardcore mode that is much tougher,
like Kirby did that. I did Mario, Uh, Mario and Donkey Kong
Mario versus Donkey Kong and that kind of had that as well, where it's
a very basic but then like by the end and when you get to the
new game plus, there's just some like really difficult challenges. There's there's this
like I feel like, does a good job of one. Yeah, they
essentially sometimes give you two games. It's like you get that game, but
the game for most people don't isn't really start until you for sure. They
do kind of do that in this one. There are some postgame activities you
can do. There's also some like extra bonus stages you kind of lock as
you play through that you know are like, oh, try and get to
this certain rank and score, and if you're trying to shoot for all that
stuff, you'll probably be a little bit more challenged. But even then,
I would say it never quite reaches like the It's not like Mario where always
throws in like that one final stage that's just like the hardest fucking thing you've
ever played, and you're like, what the fuck, Like nothing ever got
to that point or like even like Kirby the Forgotten Land where once you unlock
that final world, yeah's just just tough. No, this doesn't get to
that degree. But what I think makes it like engaging the whole way through
is the fact that all the different outfits that Peach is wearing and for the
different plays is like there's a really good variety in pacing to the game where
it feels like nothing outstays as welcome. Every stage is like an average of
like eight minutes. So it's just like, yep, did that did Patisserie
Peach? Where I'm making doing making little pastries and cookies and stuff, and
then you move on and now you're Detective Peach and now your sword fighter Peach,
and and like every mechanic is like simple but different enough that it there's
like a good variety to it. So like I found myself like engaged the
whole way through, even if I wasn't necessarily challenged. Hmmmm. So yeah,
it's always it's always tough because like uh I thought, I think I
think it was Yoshi's Wily World or what was the one that came on the
Wiu World? I believe, Okay, yeah did didn't they re release it
on Switch though I think they did. Yeah. And then there was another
I think it's another yarn based game. That there was a Kirby game that
came out in the WU as well. Oh the it was a Canvas Curse
sequel, right yeah, And like the thing is like those two games,
I think I was, like, genuinely, I think both those games are
so so well like like they're they're so well designed. The art direction is
so good, it's so charming. But that's those are the two experiences where
like I just stopped playing because the games were way too easy, and it
like bums me out because like I'm playing that makes me feel good, but
it also makes me like want to take a nap and like have my little
milk cart and when I get up and like and like have nap time in
the day and then like go to go to the playground. That's definitely because
I remember playing Yoshi's Wooly World or was it Yoshi's Crafted World Maybe that was
the one world was the one that came after Okayly World was the way you
think, you're right, because then then I played Crafted World and I remember
having the same feeling where I'm like this is gorgeous, this is charming.
I love Yoshi. I love all the noises he makes. I love everything
Yoh's doing. But like I played four levels and I was like, all
right, yeah, I think that's all I need. It was like I
remember being like like unfortunately like painful times, being like and I was playing
it with my partner too, so we were like here we go, and
like this is stuff is just so easy that we both were like, we
won't do something else. But not like disliking the game. It's too easy.
It's a bummer, so, you know. But for kids, Nintendo
were fucking sick of it. And all these five year olds who are super
excited for Princess Peach fuck them. Yeah, it's not like we have enough
games with with guns and explosions of violence and swearing like fuck that. Grow
up, kids, Yeah, grow up, Nintendo. Give Mario a gun.
Oh he has already had a gun the Super nintenda black telescope thing that
you could shoot Yoshi with. When when you said he's already had a gun,
immediately I was like, did they put him in Fortnite yet? Oh
my god, Oh epic that you know that, it's like the top of
their I feel like Nintendo would never let it happen. No, absolutely not,
because they have like integrity and also, you know, like a healthy
company and unless you're trying to emulate anything, and then Chris Pratt in Fortnite
instead. Yeah, I'm just right that that hasn't happened. Well, you're
like, which character is he playing? It's all of them because he doesn't
change his voice. Yeah. Yeah, just close your eyes and be like,
A, he's Mario maybe Garfield christ I forgot it, that's fucking Garfield.
It's it's a me Garfield. And then he dabs. Well, I'm
not playing anything new or I'm not playing anything that can publicly be played,
but I can talk about that. Okay, so there's one game for me
like that. But I also have been playing you've been playing games? Are
actually? Yeah, I'm playing Rise of the Ronin. I played that early.
I do not like it all that much. It is a it is
Team Ninja's next sort of I hate saying it souls like style game, but
it is an open world, takes place in like the eighteen sixties Japan.
Uh, really cool setting. It's it's historical. I think it's their first
like I don't want to say, like proper historical game, because obviously there's
a bunch of ridiculous moves and a lot of exaggerated actions and weapons and and
all that sort of thing. But there's no like fantastical elements to it,
like most of the Neo or based on a real guy, and then like
immediately he has like animen buddy, and you're just like, yeah, what
do we do? I don't believe not based off a real guy? Oh?
Did he really have a demon? Guy? With the movie? Is
not believing shit? You got like there like aliens and ghosts. It's gonna
open up my third eye? I know, what's what's the fun in just
not entertaining the possibility that Neo You're right, I could have been real with
a demon Buddy Scurach. Yeah, yeah, fuck off that third eye have
been Anyways, that's a storial gun, I know. Uh. Anyway,
it is. It is very similar to the other games, except that it
is an open world. I think Phil in his review he gave it a
seven for us, and he kind of said, like the open world feels
very twenty tens. I would have to agree, Uh, I think the
world is cool in that the setting. We don't really see all that often.
Eighteen sixties Japan. It is right when Japan sort of started to relax
its borders and there was influence from the US in England and other powers and
stuff as they were entering Japan. So there's a place in Yokohama, so
you could treat it as like a dragon. Wow. Yeah, I think
you can go to Yokohama, Edo, which is Tokyo today, right,
and then Kyoto I think probably the three cities. It's a huge map.
Uh And to be fair, I only played like ten hours or so and
I fell off. In Phil's review, he was like, the more you
play, the better it gets. That was his like big thesis was but
that's usually called Stockholm syndrome. That's to be fair, I'm just trying because
there's that ongoing thing where it's like it gets good after he says that at
the beginning of his review. I don't know if you watched the read the
review, but he basically says like I when I hear that, I roll
my eyes and go like, yeah, sure, no, I don't actually
care, but this actually it's been for me. I do think that is
a thing though with games where people play games long enough like no, I'm
not gonna say that game because I'll piss a lot of people up. But
there's a certain way like mouth to me, Oh you should turn the audio.
I'll say it all because everyone says and you have to play like sixty
hours before it gets good, And I'm like, I don't. I think
you start to like these characters after sixty hours because you've spent sixty fucking hours.
Yeah. It's the same idea with television, in my opinion, like
so many people will say, like, you know, there's this, there's
actually you know the psychological psychological study in which like, if you spend enough
two of this is broken into two ways. The person who speaks the most
is most likely the person that is going to be listened to because they're speaking
the most. Yeah, they're taking the most time. TV shows usually have
a three episode rule. You can make it three episodes. Yeah, yeah,
you likely will just keep watching even if you don't like it. You
will eventually be like like you're just like I know these people now. I
know these things now, which is why I think binging is such a terrible
way in which shows are designed, in which they know people are just gonna
watch one episode at the other. By the time you pass the third episode,
you're in it. You know these people, so therefore you watch it.
So I agree with you, like I always That's why I always say,
like sometimes it's like if something is not making sense to me in ten
hours, like that is a very very clear indicator that like it's not something's
not clicking right, Like I shouldn't have a fucking spend ten hours doing that.
All that said, though, okay, here we go. I after
reading film's review and cutting the review, I was like kind of compelled to
go back to it because a lot of the stuff that sounds really interesting does
have does like take a while to pay off, Like the whole bond system
where you're meeting these different characters that you can essentially build relationships with by bringing
them on missions. You can even give them gifts, I think for some
reason. Uh, But like as you get further in the story and the
civil war starts to happen, and your companions essentially take sides and you make
choice in order to like whose side you're on, and then you might have
to fight against people who are your friends. So that to me all sounds
kind of interesting. The problem is, and the reason why I probably won't
go back to it is because, like I said, I find the world
to be pretty boring in terms of like that open world style. I just
kind of wish it was linear or I wish it was like because I did
like Wolong Fallen Fallen Dynasty. I think it is what it was called.
I like that game quite a bit. It was mission based. It was
like nothing that I was thinking about long after I played it, but like
I had a really good time playing that when I did, and just it
just felt kind of direct, directionless when I was playing it. And then
I think on top of that, like I'm i for the combat didn't quite
click with me for some reason. Wolong's did and this one did not.
And I think a lot of it comes down to have the countering works.
So your countering is called it's called counter spark, and it is not just
like a you know, a flick of the sword. It is like attack,
So you like step forward, swing your blade and sort of like a
circular motion, and you try to catch certain attacks. The thing is is
that just because you deflect an attack or perry an attack, it does not
mean that the enemy is going to fall back and stagger, they are going
to keep attacking you, and you have to deflect a very specific attack in
order to actually counter them. And for me, I didn't care much for
that because I've played so much Sekio where it's just kind of like I'm constantly
deflecting, deflecting, deflecting, deflecting, and this is like it eats your
stamina a ton if you do that, so you're basically the combat is like
you hold the block for as long as you can until you wait for that
right moment and then you deflect it. And I think maybe I'm sure I
could rewire my brain to play like that. I just don't really want to.
I want to die. Should I No, that's no, yes,
I need I need another opinion. I keep getting ads for it on Twitter
for some reason, because I mean, probably you beat it, yeah,
but they're just like, hey man, you should play Wanted Dead. But
again, like I did, deflecting and that is great. It looks cool.
It does I was fucking slow animation in those games. When the price
drops, the price is always how much is it right now? When I
when when I first looked at it, it was like fifty bucks sounds like
what I bought it. I bought it from thirty five on sale. All
right, so thirty dollars that's too much, I would say, that is
such a such a deal absolute someone's stealing something for sure. Yeah, I'm
just getting just watching the trailer right now. We'll now sit in silence and
watch Kurt watch the trailer. They want it dead. Yeah all right,
okay, so yeah, it's uh. I think some people who are like
really itching for a Soul's like similar experience might have a good time. If
you're a fan of Team Ninja, it's probably worth checking out. I just
think, like for me, like I love the Soul's games, I liked
Neo two, I liked Wolong Fallen Dynasty, but like, other than that,
I haven't been really into the modern Team Ninjas stuff all that much.
And it's just it's just it just kind of didn't do much for me.
But you know, Phil gave it a seven ended up enjoying it eventually,
but I didn't give it that much time and I don't frankly don't really want
to. So if it was a six, i'd be interested. It was
almost a six, well, I don't know if you almost gave it a
six, but it was a seven. It's almost a six. The punchline
of though, is if it was actually six. I still don't think I've
had zero compulsion, like to be interested in this game. So nothing goes
that game. It's just not your thing. Just me sure character creator's cool,
though their character creator is always a lot of fun. It's like you
can just make some wild looking characters. Although I feel like characters created cool
fucking dragons, dog, Have you seen some of that stuff is ridiculous.
I think my favorite is the Google the realistic. Oh it's nightmare fuel.
I'll pull it up. It's awful and I love it. Someone made Shaggy
Scooby, does I know? I don't a ton of them, but not
these. Do you see the lizel from from Balder's Game one? No?
Oh my god, you haven't seen like any of the good one. Well,
maybe I'm just living in a cave. Okay, I'm pulling this up
because I'm playing so many games. Kurt, tell me about some of the
games you're playing while I pull up these dragons talking to two character creators.
A preview for a game, A preview that I wrote for a game just
went up today, and I'll even have another preview up hopefully tomorrow. But
I had the ability to play Harold Helibate very early. I've had that game
a few weeks ago, and I previewed that game, and a few folks
aren't familiar with it. It is a game that is fourteen years in the
making. Every single asset that is on screen, everything clothes, floorboards,
screws, door knobs, is completely handmade and then digitally scanned in. And
I say this in my preview, but like usually when I say that,
you think it's like stop motion, but it's not. They actually, uh,
they took all of these assets and then rendered them in real time in
three D, and it creates such a weird lifelike a video game experience.
And it sounds so silly because it's like it looks cartoonish because they're handmade models,
but because they look like real items, like real objects, you can
like you feel like you can say, and it's not like that it's stop
motion, like stop motion, but it's actually moving with like motion capture in
a world that's like reacting to it properly. It's like one of it.
It sounds. It might sound hyperbolic, but it's like one of the most
realistic looking games I've ever seen. Like it's very lifelike, it's very weary,
like in a good way. But I also really, really really appreciate
this game because it's very easy to look at it and just be like an
awe at its visual style. But I think the story and world of that
game is just as dense and meticulous as it has been physically crafted. So
in short, it's basically a game. The overarching thing is like it's a
retro future in which a group of humans decide to leave Earth at the height
of the Cold War because nuclear bombs are about to destroy the planet, so
they leave Earth to colonize on another planet in space. But to get there
it takes two hundred years, So you play the game two hundred and fifty
years after the ship has left and the ship has landed on the planet they
were intending to, but it turns out that planet has no land masks whatsoever.
It's just covered in water. So the ship plunges into the ocean,
sinks underneath, and like you're now living like the aftermath of people colonizing an
underwater city. Basically that they've created for themselves without really knowing what happened to
Earth in the end, but the intention that they like got their last broadcast
and like the planet that Earth bombed itself to death. But you play as
Harold, who is this lowly maintenance guy who's a total duf. And the
game is really quite monotonous in that, like you are a maintenance person,
goes and like cleans graffiti, sometimes feeds the fish and like does really monotonous
normal maintenance day tasks. But it's used as the perfect vehicle to introduce you
to the world and the people who are in It's because you are just a
lowly maintenance dude going to all these sectors of this underwater city known as Medora,
and because you are kind of like this like childlike dude who's like been
raised and sheltered on this boat under on the ship underwater, with no context
of the world or life in any way. It's an extremely sincere and like
like very earnest game of like just about life and like the expectation of life
and like what you do in certain scenarios, and that's not even what the
game is about. Like that's the best part about it is Like that's just
like I compare it to reading a book in the way that like you can
sit down and you can read a book and you can get the story and
you can get to your plot points like one after the other. But some
of the most beautiful things about good literature is the ability to like invoke themes
and things that are happening. And it's cliche between the lines, like you
the moment you really start to take a book about a book after you read
a book is when you really start to be able to delve into that world.
And this feels the closest to like that literal sense of like I could
go. All the conversations are basically optional, Like I could go and just
go through the story, which is compelling in its own right, But the
I spent fucking ten hours of my five hour preview just talking to people and
like learning about them, and like there's like side quests basically in which you
get to see these stories play out about their life, like people who are
having like marriage problems, or like this mailman who like is sitting on a
pile of letters that is undeliverable. So therefore, like you just start opening
those letters and reading them with him, and every letter is like voiced and
has like an elaborate story. It's it's so dense. It's like such a
weirdly dense game. But I also think it's very boring. And I don't
mean that in a bad way. I just mean that, like it's kind
of have to like not warn people. But but like it's not It's not
a I say this in my preview, it is not a game you rushed
through, Like, this is a game you get the most of it when
you were walking through it and you're like living it and you are being harold.
You kind of described it like a book. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's exactly it. No, I'm excited to play it. I didn't
even know about it until you were playing the preview. I'd heard about it
years ago, like a couple of years ago. I feel like they announced
it, but I like forgot about it. Yeah, so it's finally coming
out. It's coming out a game pass. They released the April sixteenth,
my birthday. You know what I'm doing on my birthday, probably not playing
that, but I will play taking a nap. But I find like the
game, like I I find it like I was able to talk to the
developers who made it. And the one thing I have is because I'm always
a stickular about like something that makes any piece of art amazing or genuine and
good is the intent behind every decision that's made to make that art. Like
one person could just be like just want to fuck somebody's sick as shit and
like cool, like that Stellar Blade game with the woman, you know,
I feel like that game is made that the intent is like let's have cool
looking hot girl. Yeah, and like that's fine words, yeah you're doing
it. Like I get I can see the intent. But when I look
at a game like Harold Talibit, it's like it's easy to be like okay,
like this style is like unlike anything I've ever seen the attempt in the
video game. But my question is always like, well why does this matter?
Like how is this relative to the story you're trying to tell? And
probably the coolest piece of information I gots, like I when we talked about
it, the dude, the director and writer of the game, is like,
I didn't know how to use like three D graphic. I don't know
how to make a game. I'm not even an artist. I just had
an idea for a game, and I know how to make stuff by hand,
so I started making stuff by hand. Like that's just that's it.
It was. The intent was like we just started making this by hand,
and eventually that was what became the soul and spirit of like how this game
ended up looking. And it's like something very I don't know, modest,
yeah, like about that just be like, I don't know, I just
wanted to make something I didn't know how, so I did it the way
I did, not an artist, and then you look at that game and
I know what. Yeah yeah, And of course they eventually brought on you
know, in our drect the team was the team small is I think it
was like maybe ten between fifteen people, But there's only a few people on
that team who actually have a game I have a background in game development.
Most of the people are architects or fashion designers or like tailors and interesting,
yeah, like it's made up of people who've like there's people who made furniture
who are on staff because they made furniture for the game. Some of my
favorite kind of media is medium by person who's not from that like industry.
I like movies made by someone who's like never made a film before, like
games made. He hasn't made a movie yet, but he claims that he's
made. He claims every game he makes is like a movie. But yeah,
that's called video games, so rective, But yes, I agree,
Like the best art usually comes from people who don't understand the bounds of the
limitations of the Arthur works, so they're not thinking about it, they're so
I mean it. It kind of reminds me of Cuphead in a sense where
like I don't know entirely their background, but I but I know, like
just how they made that game felt so different from how games traditionally made,
how they hand drew everything and like that. That's kind of what it reminds
me of. But obviously this is a very different game style than Cuphead.
Like the The Game Got Me moved me a number of times in my five
hours or my ten actual hours, because it does a really good job of
showing Harold, like this character Harold in moments when he's by himself, and
he does things that are uncharacteristic of the Harold you see moving around in the
world and talking to me interesting, and it just reminds me of the weird
things we do when we're alone, whether it's singing or like dancing or talking
to ourselves and pacing like and like they really did a wonderful way of like
allowing me as like as the person kind of like witnessing the scene to like
see this person when he thinks no one is watching him, and like it
really was just a really cool inspiring moment. There's like little things like that
that I just think this gives us game like an outrageous amount of soul.
Yeah, I think that, Like when I read your preview and read that
section, I think that sit out to me the most because I feel,
especially with games, right like a lot of times you don't really get that
time to like sit with that character by themselves in a way that isn't like
Okay, we got to get from point A to point B, or we
got to kill this many things. We got to do this. Like obviously
there are examples, but I feel like pretty few and far between where that's
something you see a lot in movies or books, you know, where it's
like m hmm, it's like, Okay, before anything happens, we need
to make sure to introduce these characters. We need time alone see what they
do by themselves, because yeah, I mean, like what you're saying now,
what you said in your thing, It's like there's a very different side
of a character that I feel like you don't always get to see, especially
in games, because it's so like gameplay focused and like what are we doing
next? We have to keep the player entertained, We have to I think
games are actually prime to do that more. If anything. Yes, you
know, you spend time alone with these these characters, but they're always in
your control, so you're going to control them however you want to be spending
your time. Yeah, yeah, I think, like I mean kind of
a tangent. But like another example that comes to mind, or the only
other example comes mine, is like Arthur Morgan and Red that head his notebook
that like a lot of people probably just didn't read it all, but you
got so much under the surface that from that notebook that you didn't get in
the rest of the game, because like that's not who he was presenting as
to all of these people, and like even when he was by himself,
you know, he's very contemplative and quiet and stuff. But then you open
this notebook and it's like, oh, he's in pain here, he misses
his he misses his his love, you know, like it's I don't know,
I find all that's the really fascinating. It creates fantastic characters. Yeah,
Like I was a famous example. I always think of the Darkness the
first one, the moment where oh, well, there's a great moment where
like it's the main character, Jackie's birthday, and like the game starts off
action packed, but then it slows down and you go to the apartment of
his girlfriend Jenny, and she makes you a cake, and then you can
just sit there and watch the entirety of To Kill a Mockingbird. I didn't
play those games. You could just sit there and you can watch the movie
and she's like snuggling up with you on the couch and it's in first person
and you're just sitting there and if you want, you can just sit there
and watch that entire movie and or when she falls asleep, you can.
I feel like it's so famous, like everyone always brings that up. I
felt like I was like the late like, oh, I'm gonna bring every
example. It's incredible, dude. I legitimately Darkness one and two two twos
underrated, but like Darkness one it's one of my favorite fucking games. So
I've been meaning, I remember wanting to play when it came out, but
they need that's the dude with like the long hair and the gun. Yeah,
okay, yeah, just making sure, no, no, no,
it's it's interesting because it like he looks like a he looks like the guy
from Hatred, Like he looks like a serial killer, and like you do
kill a fuck ton of people in that game when we tell you, But
Jackie is a character is actually like very introspective and like self reflective, and
there's a lot going on with him as a character, and that is I
remember that being an early example of for me of playing a game and being
like whoa, there's like more to games than just killing dudes all the time.
I mean that's why I always thought you can do stuff in between killing.
Yeah, that's why I always wolf and Sign two had one of the
best I was about to and Wolfenstein is made by ex Starbreries people seriously,
and Starbreys made the dark art. So there is a lineage. No if
you will play Darkness, and you will, you will see some Wolf and
Sign Okay, because like those machine games is like depiction of bj Blaskowitz is
just the fucking like one of the best protagonists are ever fucking been put in
a goddamn game. And like I always think about Wolf Sien's to the birthday
scene, like when he comes home there's like a surprise birthday party and that
scenes like five minutes of good time and being stupid, and I'm just like
this is so good, Like this is so good. I still wanna.
I still want a game where like two characters are really melodramatic. It's serious.
I'm driving a car silent and like one of them farts, fuck dude,
Like I still want that scene still. I want that in an X
Files episode That's always been my dream of, like like Boulder and Scull are
on such long drive. Yeah, someone's got a far last week and then
someone's gonna have to be like I'm so sorry, like roll down the window
or something like that. Those are the scenes I think are important that I
want. I agree. Other than that, I've been playing just a funke
ton at GDC. I'm not gonna talk about everything because I do have a
preview coming up for a game tomorrow with just Tales of Canzera and uh,
you can look it up, or you can wait for my preview tomorrow.
The embargo was today. I didn't make it, but there are people out
there who have played it, and it's it looks like your standard run of
the Mill, not run of the Mill. That's that's maybe two that's that's
not what I mean. It's it's it's a metro Vania, a two point
five D metro Vanya, and it's really good. I think that game is
a kind of took me off guard, like not in any magical way of
being like exceptional more than other metro Veneers. It just feels like a solid
installment and it's like only gonna be like twenty Bucks, which I was very
surprised about. And also the it has just an outstanding of it uses the
metro Venia genre as the foundation to basically talk about grief and like how grief
is in of itself like a maze of understanding of like of dead ends and
learning things and then unlocking other parts. And I thought that it's just such
a fucking cool way of translating that. But the one game I do want
to talk about and then I'll shut up is Sinking City too. So I
was able to play this game, which is really weird because only a cinematic
trailer exists. Right, But I was very surprised to walk into an Xbox
event and they were there, and I wasn't allowed to capture. I wasn't
allowed to pictures. I cannot show what the game looks like, but I
can talk about what I played, which is always a weird thing. Yeah,
And basically, if you folks don't know, the Sinking City is by
a developer called Frogwares yep, and they're best known for their Sherlock Holmes games
like Crimes and Punishment. They did the most recent one was in an open
world. They did Cthulhu one, like a Sherlock Holmes Cthulhu crossover one.
Really yeah, like last year. I think, so this this this company
has really usually, like the Sehlock Home games are great detective games. They've
been around for a while. They just keeping that that thing Trucking and then
Sinking City was a love crafty and Cthulhu open world detective survival that wasn't really
survival horrors Shadows of Smith inspired. Yeah, you know, and that game's
rough. That game is not great, But Sinking City too is abandoning that
somewhat and going full survival horror. Oh interesting and uh, and all the
detective elopments are completely one hundred percent optional, completely, so you can go
through the entire game without actually using any of the detective systems they've built.
Does that like affect the outcome or is there like a downside they're not doing
though? The way it was described to me is that it basically just rewards
those who are patient enough with certain with information that might make the experience different.
For example, like you might learn about a weak spot of a certain
enemy that you wouldn't otherwise never learn about that you can then use against the
enemy. But I don't have glowing weak spots. Yeah, we'll see.
But if you didn't do that, you can still brute force your way through
it and you'll be fine, okay. Or in certain cases where like you
will unlock areas and things or like cases or like like vaults or some shit
that will give you more ammunition or certain perks or something of that nature.
But again it's totally optional. You do not need to do it. It's
just there for the player if they want to engage with it. And I
think that's like a kind of an interesting it's like, I feel like that's
really troubling and hard because it feels like you're gonna lean They're gonna obviously lean
way harder into developing a horror game and then like this detective stuff's going to
be. I don't know, it's tough, it's it's a weird it's a
weird decision for me, but I I understand that detective games could be a
hard sell for broader audiences. So I played about thirty minutes of it,
and basically they said if I took the time to solve, like to find
all the clues and like read into the clues, that it would have taken
me like an hour and a half. But I was able to finish that
and a half hour and I didn't solve anything, but I gathered a bunch
of fucking clues, and I got an idea of what things were. And
just to give you an idea of like how this was an internal build that
was only made for the devs to communicate to each other the ideas that they
wanted. So it's like that's how bare bones this was. In fact,
everything you saw might not even exist. There's a very strong chance that like
not a single asset I saw it will be in the final game at a
interesting it did wasn't like great box or anything. You play it. That's
me extremely rare. That's why I want to talk about it because it's like
such a rare thing to be like you, it's not often that press is
allowed to see something like that. Yeah, like they'll show it maybe,
yeah, like it's crazy. That's usually what you would probably show your publishers,
you know, like you just get funding for it. So I was
very surprised by the transparency of it. But in short, it is resil
to straight up like it was another one. There's another one. Did it
feel good? Like uh, I mean we felt like how it had to
Okay, so I didn't die once because I'm a fucking pro gamer. But
but the dav next to me was like, if you want me to debug
ammofore you was like, no, I know what I'm doing. I know
what I'm doing. And I got all the way up through it without ever
having any help whatsoever. But like it's a it's a it's it is reason
too in the way that it's like over the shoulder, very tight. The
rooms are small, usually have a single obstacle in them, so you can
actually like get your way around enemies. The enemies like sway and move and
funky erratic way, so you can't always land your headshots if you wait.
The radical goes into like you know, like where it goes into super shot
mode sort of thing. It's all there, it's all. That's all.
The DNA and bear bones the the probably the most unique, and it took
place in a mansion, so like in that mansion, I was like basically
trying to find keys to open up something else. So go somewhere, and
if I took the time, I could have like solved other puzzles. So
cyclone in the Dark, it's like, it's all of it. It's all
when you about alone in the dark, all of us thinking about was a
love sinking city to you. And then of course that it's just it's all
there. But the interesting part of it is that because it is Cthulhu and
love crafty and ship, of course there's gonna be like weird cult stuff and
like insanity themes and so on and so forth. The probably the most compelling
thing was there are skill checks to unlock certain things, and the skill checks
determine you basically have to give up your health to pass the skill checks,
and the lower the skill check, the more health it takes. And it's
supposed to symbolize like losing your sanity kind of so or or knowledge or lack
of knowledge, which is where the active park kind of comes into it and
makes the game different. So like you go to these occult symbols to get
information or things from them, and if you are not armed with knowledge or
clues or certain things or skill checks can be lower. And like that's an
interesting idea in a survival horror where like your health now becomes something you sacrifice
as a resource, And that was probably one of the most interesting concepts that
I saw. Uh And but like, aside from that is very like in
its foundation resonuable to style survival or I guess it's gonna be open world still,
but it's gonna be much much, much smaller than what's sinking the first
Sinking City was, And thank fucking God because that first game was so unnecessarily
giant. And yeah, so I just like, I like, it's like
nothing to report home about. But it's one of those things where like we
only have a cinematic trailer and they say that it's a survival horror and with
detective like we were detective albms are optional, but now I actually do have
the context of that, like I actually have seen it and played it in
Summer Guards. So yeah, yeah, I fought like basically, I don't
think these enemies. I hope these enemies aren't the final ones. But it
was like these loonies, looney guys with like the straight jackets on, and
they're like scalps stapled back on their heads like they like like had nonsense.
So it was killing those poor sons of bitches, which sucked. Cool,
yeah, yeah yeah, and then uh then there was like one other enemy
type which which I think was in the Sinking City, which was like this
goopy little spider leggy man cool who only got it, who dies in one
shot. Anyways, but again it felt it had the hardcore. In the
thirty minutes I played, it was like hardcore, no fucking ammunition available,
like every encounter could be your last, and like yourre like running through extremely
tight corridors at all times, so like invokes that feeling. Really well,
yeah, it just you know, by the time it comes out, I
just hope that it isn't like exhaustively derivative now that it's like we have the
WA two that did it, and they did it in their own way,
like like their own uniqual way alone in the dark. To remake that,
I'm sure will Yeah, I mean I think, like, I mean,
this is kind of optimistic, maybe more optimistic than I probably should be,
but I I think there's a lot of like untapped potential in video games when
it comes to cosmic horror and stuff like being done. Like but yeah,
agree, because I mean, like last year, a couple years ago,
I fell in like a rabbit horror. I read a bunch of cosmic horror
and I kind of came to the conclude like I was like really into it,
and I was like, oh, I should like see what cosmic core
games and movies they are. And I kind of like most there's not a
lot of movies that are good, and there's not a lot of games that
are good. And it's because it's such a hard line to walk, because
like the whole Bloodborns, like the Bloodborne is the only one I could think
of in terms of games, But it's like it's such a hard line to
walk because it's like the scariest thing about cosmic core is what you don't see
and you have you inherently have to see what is in a video game in
a movie, yeah, or you go full cheese or you go full cheese.
But it kind of sounds like that may not be the case for this.
I don't know, so I guess I'm curious because because I really want
like a good cosmic horror video game, and and like I'm curious if this
could do it because the original one, even though uh it was not reviewed
very well, it looked pretty interesting to me. I mean I played Play
Defenders. Yeah, No, I mean I like, that's actually one of
those weird game where I'd probably be like, don't play it, but I'm
glad I did to help inform other people, like because I was curious about
it. But it's like it's really it really misses the mark, like really
misses the mark unfortunately. Uh. And a lot of it is because like
the world is like was so unnecessarily big and like it was like indistinguishable from
one another, and like yeah, and like some of the detective moments in
that game are like kind of rough, which was upsetting because I thought,
I think crimes and Punishment in particular, it's like such a good deal.
Yeah it's okay, Yeah, yeah, it's I mean it's in like even
like Bloodborne, right, Like I love that game and it's probably the best
cosmic horror game there is, But I feel like a lot of those mechanics
don't work survival horror game, I guess, like, like I think,
like especially the the insights stuff where like you know, the scares thing about
cosmic cords which you can't see, and I think Bloodborne is so brilliant because
scary you don't see until way later. Yeah, you know that reveal,
you know, like that one reveal. Yeah, it's like one of those
like oh wow, fucking god, like yeah, but yeah, that's it.
Like I that's like it's a weird game that I want to talk about,
but like there's really nothing to talk about other than being like I played
it, which is odd, and it probably won't come out. I mean,
I can't anticipate. I do know they're going to do a Kickstarter,
which it did for the last year a lot of game okay, where they
like finish the funding through kickstars interesting and yeah, and I think they're gonna
do the same thing for this one. Okay, that's it. I mean,
hey, I'm glad they're making it. You know that studios had like
a weird ups and downs. There was all that legal stuff they were kind
of Yeah, they're also from Ukraine, so it's like they have their own
yeah battles and things they deal with. Too good for them. Yeah,
I agree. So I feel like I want Frog Wears to stick around and
do as much as they can, because like they're one of those studios that
do like very high end looking games, Like their games look very good and
very impressive, but they're not a massive Triple A studio that's like seems beholden
to Triple A philosophies because they still do detective games. They still do like
really niche, weird like if the Nancy Dream people stuck around and got really
made, like the graphics look like Insane didn't switch to Unity. Yeah,
but like the gameplay was still like the exact same, like Nancy drew that
beautiful voice. So yeah, I've just played a lot of crap that no
one else can play at the moment. Cool. I played one game like
that, not crap, though, Wild Bastards, which is the follow up
to I think twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen. Twenty nineteen's Void Bastards, which
is a great game. It is a great game. I didn't play a
lot of it. I didn't play enough of it, but I played some
Wild Bastards and it is very similar in certain ways. It's structured in a
very similar way, and that you kind of pick a path through an area
and as you're going through, you'll loot, and occasionally you'll get to an
area where you'll load into a level and then it'll be a first person shooter.
I would say probably the big distinction from what I remember is that Void
Bastards was a little more stealth focused and more it felt more immersive and it's
design, while this feels more hero shootery, which is like maybe not like
I feel like that kind of makes it sound that that sounds like a dirty
word, but it's more like it's more focused on a group of characters in
their relationship with each other. So for instance, you get to a battle
area and you I think they said there's thirteen people in total that you can
pick from, and each mission you get to bring two sets of three I
think, or two sets of two or something like that. Maybe it depends
on the mission, but anyway, you like touchdown and all these characters feel
different, completely different. Like one guy was playing it has like a lasso
where he just like an electric lasso where he just traps enemies and slowly drain's
health. You've got someone who's got dual wielding pistols. Of course, you've
got a sniper. Basically a bunch of a different styles of play. But
then the things that happen on those planets, like if someone dies or someone
gets knocked out while working with another character, their relationship could change, and
you kind of have to manage their relationship in the back end because if you
don't, like, say, for instance, I bring these two characters together,
one of them dies and and it's one of them dies, and essentially
those two characters don't get along, so you kind of have to reforge that
bond by giving them items, certain interactions, and then as you play through
these areas, you can level up these characters and their skill trees for each
of these characters. It's very systems heavy, just like Void Bastard. So
even though it doesn't seem like at least from what I've seen, it doesn't
seem like it has that same immersive sim stealth level. This chair started making
a lot of noise. It seems like there's a lot of depth in the
behind the scenes sort of mechanics. It seems very good. It definitely made
me want to go back and spend more time with Void Bastards because I only
played a couple hours in that game first came out. But it seems quite
good. I think the they've definitely leveled up the the the the visuals because
Void Bastards look great, I thought, but this has like a a pop
year more confident, colorful, vibrant style to it. Had like this very
like Jack Herby Thick lined, Yeah, this kind of has that, but
I'd say there's a little more color, but it still keeps that comic book
style, but it just feels like brighter. And it is a Western science
fiction game, so like you are in a spaceship and you are going from
planet to planet, system to system or whatever. However, all all your
heroes are like cowboy archetypes where you know dual pistols. And then I would
say the other big difference is that Void Basterds is very quarter focused, kind
of tight levels, while this is these are usually more open. But yeah,
they let me see a little extra too. I got to check out
like some desert planets as well, So it seems like there's a there's a
lot of variety. But yeah, it seems pretty good. I'm excited to
play it whenever it comes out. I don't know if they've announced it yet.
Yeah, it seems pretty good. Yeah, I really love the idea
of the social Yeah, I'm curious to see how deep that goes, because
like when I was doing it, the guy was like, oh, yeah,
you give them you need to find beans on the planets, and you
give them beans to reforge bonds, and he just like the cowboys. He's
like, here, I'll give you a bunch of beans, and he like
did a console command? Can beans? Oh okay, he like did a
console command? And I had like one hundred beans. So I was just
giving everyone beans. And now there was a game where someone would fart next
to another character. That's the game could, depending on who it is,
increase the friendship, increase the social or decrease because somebody's like, don't fucking
fart. When somebody's like you're farted, you're comfortable enough to fart with me?
Is it a blazing saddles where where they're just yeah, so just put
that, yeah, exactly that. Yeah, it feels like an easy ticket,
low hanging fruit. Go and grab it. I mean to too.
The beans are fruit, It's true. And the more yeat, the more
you too. Yeah. Is that the saying? Yeah? I think so
cool. I don't know. It sounds like I'm saying. When it happened,
so I was like, I think I think this is a thing.
It is the thing. Yeah, but GDC is almost over tomorrow. It's
true. GDC Awards happened. You were there. Yeah, it was cool.
Yeah, you wouldn't believe bowlers Gate three to one? Wown? Is
it? Venba? Is that the name of the game, Vena and the
food? That game swept the four? Wow? I have been meaning to
check that out. Yeah. It was really very short, I think,
right, I think that's what I'm thinking of. It's like I never played
it, but I've been meaning to play it. I think it's like an
hour and a half or something like that. Yeah, so it didn't get
anything during it almost didn't get anything during the Indie Game Awards that happened before
GC. It was like really like like oh, Okay, that's that's surprising.
I then it won the like the last award from them, and then
I think they were up there at least like two or three more times during
the actual GDC Awards. Good for them. Yeah, so, uh those
are weird niche awards. I feel like I feel like it's not how many
trailers were there? Zero and the world premieeres a lot of talking, doesn't
have Did celebrities come up on the Ah, Well, Matthew McConaughey came out
and he's like, I just stretched. I don't know what. I think
he was like wearing gym clothes when he was wearing Jim clothes. He was
He likes, you gotta pay extra to get him? Was like yeah,
but would yeah, Like I was like, what the fuck is happening?
GiMA? Wasn't there? No, no, none of that? Uh there
was? Was there a celebrity. Everyone's a celebrity in my eyes, I'm
so excited to see people. But yeah, that's it. I'm I'm fucking
exhausted from GDC. Just so, this is my this is my moment to
die. Okay, cool, Well, Kurt, we're gonna let you die.
Wrap of this podcast thank you for listening this week. We'll be back
next week as always. Uh I say always, but we weren't here last
week as always as always, will definitely be here except for when we're not.
Is that the AI is on Luke? Is that my my a boys
Drew? Nancy Drew. That's not close to her? How she does it?
What's it? What's the good Nancy Drew line? I mean you would
know better than me. I don't know, but I mean she was just
she she can get really snarty like like she can get really like snappy back
at people. I guess I'm Nancy Drew and like you know, okay,
yeah, yeah, all right, I'll keep working on that impression. Go
back to you next week. Yeah, we're gonna have Nancy. You're on
the podcast next week, everybody. It'll be a great time. I would
like the actual woman who voices Nancy Drew a dream to meet her, like
like ful GiMA. I want a picture with her. That's the one that's
going up on like the mantle right there, take down the where she lived.
I don't know that's good. I can find out because there is that
interview with her, so I could probably find that out. Anyway, we'll
figure that out. We should have just stopped there. Well, we can
find out. I can find out. I know people anyway. Thank you
for listening everybody. Do you guys have anything you want to plug that you've
been working on. I mean, hopefully my Wild Bastards preview goes up before
the end of the week, but it might be next week. I want
to plug my coffee pot in. Yeah, okay, go to GameSpot dot
com and read our ship I like, uh uh, that's it. No,
hopefully you're already doing that. Yeah. No, read my previews or
don't, whatever your heart desires. If you think a game looks interesting,
I may have written about it. I'm writing a lot recently. Yeah,
it's good. Thanks, your writing is very good. Oh shucks. Let
you get out of here. All right, let's get out of here.
Everyone. Have you gonna plug anything now? All right? Bye kids, goodbye,