Hello, and welcome to Game Spot After Dark, episode fifty four. I'm
your host, Jake Decker, and joining me this week is Lucy James.
Hello, Michael Hyam, Hello, I'm back y'all, and special guest Paris
Lily. How are you doing. I'm doing great. Thank you for having
me. This is gonna be fun. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
I was saying, like, before we started, this is perfect timing
because we scheduled this a couple of weeks ago, and then they announced the
Night City Wire for this week, and I was like, all right,
this is perfect. This is perfect. We can talk a lot about cyberpunk,
and we have a good reason because otherwise I think we were just talked
a lot about cyberpunk and there'd be no news. Not not that I'd complain,
but you know, but anyway, we normally start this show off with
the Chris from Dayton, Ohio segment, and our listeners are very tired of
hearing this story. But the story, Paris is that when we first started,
we did like our first couple episodes without like properly introducing ourselves. So
finally someone wrote in was like, I don't know who the hell any of
you are, so we're like, okay, we got to go back.
We introduced ourselves and basically the question was what kind of games do you play?
What's the game that you always come back to, what are some genres
that really stand out to you that you'll always pick up and play, and
just like generally, what kind of games do you like to play? You
can kind of take that question however you like, whatever you think is relevant,
but yeah, we just want to hear a little bit about you.
Sure, so again, I'm Paris Lily. I'm on a podcast called gamer
Tag Radio. It's been around for a long time, but we talk about
gaming. Start off as like an Xbox only podcast, but now we just
talk about any and everything gaming wise, but game specific. Something I always
come back to. There's two things I always come back to. It's like
the mob I think a mountain they just pulled me back in Destiny is one
of them. I've just been there since the beginning, and every time I
think all right, I'm done, this is it, it's getting repetitive.
Bungee broke the game. They do something cool and I'm back, just like
I'm back now playing. And another one is the Witchard three, like you
know, obviously Cyberpunk, I'm I'm super into that, but the Witchard three
for this generation of gaming, I just I think it is the best game
in this generation. I think it's at the gold standard for open world RPGs,
and there's constantly something that you can always go back into and explore,
or you do a different dialogue option and it goes a completely different way than
it did last time. Something I've been doing during during the pandemic is I've
been playing that game and I've just been doing photo mode. So I'll go
to like skelg and just all all these different places and I just take photos
just because, right, So that's a game that I'll always return to.
I think when I when I think a genre that I'm always in, it
would be shoot shooters, like first Russian shooters, like taking it even way
back to the original Xbox Halo was just something I just naturally gravitated to,
you know, even Call of Duty when Modern Warfare originally came out. No.
Seven with something I was big in for a while. But lately it's
it's definitely been like the RPGs that I've been into, the open world stuff,
like even like Assassin's Creed Odyssey with something I've really been into the past
few years. Skyrim obviously has been huge things like that. I used to
be really big in a Japanese RPGs back in the day, but I've kind
of fallen off of them. I haven't played the Final Fantasy seven remake yet.
I need to, but that's pretty much me. And then I love
platformers. I would say that Mario three is probably the greatest game ever made
because I love the challenge of a difficult platformer. So even something like Cubhead
that I will just bang my head against the wall for an hour trying to
get past the level and just say every curse word in the book. But
when I pass it, it's like a I take a victory lepter on the
how that's me. That's me with with gaming, I think, I think.
So I do a quick question for you. I know you do gamer
tag Grady, which started out as an Xbox Focus podcast. Do you mostly
play on Xbox still or can you jump around believe it or not? I
don't. And it's it's so funny with social media because people think I'm this
Xbox z lot, but I'm not. I'm really big in PC games I
mostly play on PC. Like I mentioned Destiny before, so PlayStation is kind
of was my home for Destiny for a long time, but now switch over
to PC. But yeah, I would say console wise, ironical enough,
I probably played more on PlayStation than anything because games I got a war obviously,
the last of us Gohsta Tsushima just came out, uncharted, Spider Man,
et cetera. But I would say third party wise has mostly been PC
for me. Nice, yeah, because you mentioned like doing the photo mode
in the Witcher three, and I was like, I don't know if there
is a photo mode on the on the Xbox, but I know with the
PC version you can use the n Video photo mode and it looks really good
a lot. Yeah, And then I guess just one more question I can
hit you with quickly is are you are you someone who's gonna get the series
x PS five and all that stuff at launch? Or are you kind of
picking us? I don't want to say pick a side. I hate the
whole constant war side. I agree, but like, is there one you're
kind of leaning more towards? I would have if you'd have asked me this
question about maybe about twenty eight hours ago. I probably would have said the
Series X. Uh, just for the simple fact with Halo Infinite that that
was something that was really attracting me towards the Series X, even though I
could play it on PC PlayStation two five. I don't necessarily know if I
need to get that at launch. I don't know if Spider Man Miles Morales
is going to be enough for me to want to, you know, run
out and try and get it this holiday versus just wait until later. Like
honestly, the game that I saw in PlayStation that the day it comes out,
I will have to have a PlayStation five is rational? Klank. I
mean to me, that's the only quote unquote next gen game I've seen of
all these reveals this summer. But event I'll own them all eventually, like
I do now ironically enough, I'll probably I'll probably be on this Which one
do you think is holiday? If anything? But yeah, I was leaning
Series X to answer your question, but now I don't know. I honestly
don't know. I'll have to wait to see that what the rest of the
reveals are going to look like over the next month or so, and then
just make up my mind. By November. Yeah, I feel that I
just put a two eighty twenty eighty TI in my PC. Yep, I
mean that's what I'm gonna play Cyberpunk on. That's a lot, and I
guess that's the big thing. It's like, I know, like Cyberpunk just
to stick on that, I'm playing that on PC. What when Nvidia announces
whatever they're announced here on? Was it September first? I think they said
they're going to do it. I assume there's gonna be a thirty eighty TI.
I'm getting a thirty eighty TI because I have to play Cyberpunk in four
K high frames RTX the whole thing, because that's just the way I want
to experience that game in that world. So I'll definitely be on PC this
holiday, but console wise, probably lean more towards SWITCH, especially if that
rumored Mario thirty fifth anniversary stuff comes out all one hundred percent be there.
Yeah, I fingers reques three, though, give me three. You heard
anything about her for so long one day one day that in Metroid Metrod Prime
three or four. Don't get me started on Metroid Prime. Man. Well,
anyway, we should talk about what we've been playing this week. I'm
going to start this because I don't really have anything to say apart from more
Dark Souls two. Like I said last week, I've been more or less
just doing a campaign through that game with two friends, which has been very
interesting. I don't know if that's the best way to play through a Soul's
game, but a friend of mine was like, Hey, this game's not
that good, we should just get through it as quickly as possible. But
last week I said that I think I like Dark Souls two more than Dark
Souls one, and already I'm like, no, nope, Arsel's one is
definitely better. I don't know why I said it. I think I just
played a little bit of it and I was like kind of in a honeymoon
phase of playing with friends and like, oh this is cool, but yeah,
no, Dark Souls one is so much better. Have you seen?
There was a fantastic video essay that h Baumaguy did about in defense of Doxels
two, and it's something like two hours long, just about how people get
dock Cells two wrong. I think he does admit that obviously original is way
better, but he does make some very good points, but it didn't really
change my mind about Doxalls two. He does when you rank them. Yeah,
totally. He did make some good points. I watched most of it,
but I don't know at the end of the day, Like Dark Soils
one is just so much more memorable than two. To catch you up pairs,
I had never actually played through all of Dark Soul's one. I got
it in twenty eleven when it came out because everyone said it was better than
Skyrim, and I was like, Nah, isn't better than Skyrim. I've
kind of since flipped on that a little bit, but I finally decided to
play through it. So I beat one and then I was like, all
right, logically, let's go to two. But a friend of mine was
like, yeah, you're probably not gonna like two, so we should do
a co ops That's what we did, and I was really enjoying it at
first, just because I think the novelty of like laying a like entirely co
op co op focused campaign of that game. It was a lot of fun.
But since then, I'm getting frustrated and I'm very I'm very ready for
it to end. But that that's pretty much all I've been doing. Other
than that, like I've been moving and trying to figure out where where where
to be living these next couple of months. Uh So, I haven't played
too many games. There's one other game but I can't talk about until next
week. So a little bit of a tease there. But with that,
Lucy, do you wanna do you wanna take it away? Oh? So?
I last time I was on the podcast, I was talked about Ghost
Platinum that Michael, You're gonna You're gonna be proud of me. I see
it on the run sheet. I'm playing yaku is a zero. Damn right
you are? Oh my god. So uh I felt like until at least
there's nothing really that's caught my eye until the Alan Wake DLC for Control out
at the end of this month, and I was like, what is something
that I've been meaning to play that I just have never got around to for
one reason or another. And I hear the crime boys at work, like
Michael Ben and John Luke talk about how great Yeah, because it is all
the time. I've seen Brittany from What's Good tweet about it all the time.
Ray Naveez has been tweeting about it and streaming it recently, and I
was just like, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna play, and I'm
at the stage now where I'm not really gonna say story stuff are spoilers,
but it's fully got a hoos in me because it has such an incredible blend
of just being outrageous, like I had my first encounter mister Shakedown, which
he reminds me of that kid from BoJack Horseman, which is just two kids
in a trench coat like Vincent adult man, shaking me down from my money
in the middle of the street. But also the story, just the beats
that I'm hitting, and just like the intricacies of the family and getting betrayed
by everyone anduring out my new alliances and stuff, is really really good.
I've quickly been I've been kind of balancing it with Dark as well, which
has been quite good because I think I've talked in the past about how I
have noticed in a really bad habit myself that I checked my phone during load
screens or during cutscenes, but obviously foreign language stuff, I can't do that
because I need to pay attention. So it's been a good learning experience for
me. But also the game was just really fun. I struggled so hard
with one particular and the run up to the first boss, you kind of
go through a building, go up all these stairs, and you're fighting loads
and loads of guys. I didn't realize that there was a block button.
Oh wow, yeah. I honestly like, I played through that most of
that game, not even blocking. It's punches, it's throwing shit. It's
like toxing dudes and nothing else. Like, well, it's that room where
you get You get thrown into a room with like fifteen dudes, which was
fine, but then there's one kind of mini boss in there at the same
time as you. So I was trying to get him down first, and
then I just kept getting hit or like just doing something stupid and messing it
up. And then I was like, oh my god, hey, it's
all he moves out here, pile driving fools on the streets and stabbing them
and then picking them back up and being like, hey, good fight.
But you know, don't don't do bad shit anymore, man, because that's
the thing. That's the thing about Yakuza is, like I say it,
every article I write is like that perfect mix of melodrama but also like life
lessons and silly shit. It's no other game does that, and I don't
think any other game can. Uh. So I'm really excited for you,
Lucy, because it's very unique. I'm very excited to just go on the
journey because obviously Tam as well has said I think Tam is playing it as
well. In yeah he was, he was texting me and then Tam was
like, yo, Yakus zero, what a such a beautiful game, such
a beautiful, heartwarming game where you get to beat the ship out of people.
So, but also I think just the aging foreigner I don't know how
to say his name is ais oh yeah, just the way that his voice
lines. God, it's so it's it's really annoying. I hate it.
I wanted to as a ring tone. I want that as my slack ping.
No, that's what I've been doing. Yeah. Also, try and
seek out I would say, try and seek out the sub stories. I
know, side quests in most games are kind of you know, sometimes you
want to ignore them to mainline a story. But I think the side the
sub stories in Yakus zero really helps sell you on how it's tonal inflections between
all the all the dumb ship that it does, and also building out cosmic
cure you as this big meme guy with the Heart of Gold, so I
think it does a lot of for building up his character, but also just
how fucking ridiculous Camarocho is. It's it's a it's a fun time. It's
I think Zero is the best singular representation of the Yakuza series as a whole,
which is why I recommend people start with that game, even though it's
not like it wasn't really it wasn't made first in the chronological order of the
games coming out, but very good representation of the rest of that series.
Pars, Have you dabbled in Yakuza at all? I haven't, And it's
it's so funny what you're just saying about all the people on Twitter that are
that are talking about it. I need to because I keep seeing it come
up so much. Everyone that plays it really loves it. Now is is
zero the one that's on game Pass? Zero is on game passes? Yeah?
See, yeah, see I need to jump in. I own it
already since I have game Pass, I need to go play it. That's
wild too, Like, yeah, I think the remake of one and I
think the remake of two are either on game Pass or will be so like
the first three games on game Pass and it's on game Pass, PC and
Xbox. So, yeah, seven seven come into game past too. Yeah
seven is Seven's a big Xbox they're pushing seven, which is a completely separate
story, and so they're not calling it Yakuza seven because they are trying to
make that separation because it's a brand new story. But yeah, that is
also going to be a it's they're pushing for the Xbox series X with that
one. So it's like really cool to see this, this kind of niche
ish PlayStation series from way back when in like the mid two thousands really kind
of expand its player base, but also the platforms it's available on. Yeah,
I just look now on the game Pass on PC, it's there,
Yakas zero. You know, you know what to do? Parents, Michael,
do you wanna do you wanna continue with what you can play? Yes?
My god. So this week Final Fantasy fourteen, the five point three
patch quote un quote patch. I can't believe screens calls these things patches.
They are basically, if you're a subscriber, they are free, full on
content updates. These are like DLC level of packs that just get added into
the game and it's been built up for a long time because it got delayed
because of Squannix's shift during COVID related you know, changes in work, workplace
dynamics and all that. So they haven't they delayed, but they haven't missed
a beat because the story and Final Fantas fourteen five point three is absolutely incredible.
Like I said this on Twitter not too long ago, but it's it
feels so good to be inspired and energized by a game again. And I
say that it's I'm trying to keep it short, but so the recent expansion
is an mmrbgen. Recent recent expansion, Shadow Bringers told this really grand scale
story that kind of tied a lot of the lower internarrative threads that have been
sewed throughout Final Fantasy fourteen's ten year, nine year history up to that point,
and did so in such bold fashion. It Yeah, and it really
focused on its characters, and it's weird to think of an MMO RPG going
all in on its characters, but it does it like no other MMO and
like not many RPGs period. So, and the way this game works is
that they come out with an expansion and then they have point one point two
point three updates afterwards to tie up any nerve threads and also bridge into the
next expansion and their point four and point five updates. So five point three
concluded the story of the expansion, and I was on this podcast last year
talking about how Shadow Bringers like brought real last tears to my eyes. Just
almost cried during the podcast. I almost cried during the podcast because it was
just absolutely stunning what they were able to do in the cinematics and the character
building, and because it's they hit you with such strong revelatory moments that make
perfect sense with all the things that they've been building up. So it's incredible
storytelling that pays off. And then it's like, well, how they topped
themselves off there, and five point three does that so incredibly well, It's
man, Yeah, I finished it last night and I was like, I'll
have been my guild's discord like yo in our spoiler discord chat, and it's
so heartwarming to see what they've been able to do at that game. And
like the core of Shadow Bringers actually, the core of this story that just
came out this week goes all the way back to the original base game that
came out in twenty thirteen. There was like an there was an optional dungeon
raid that came out in twenty fourteen after its release. There was a character
core character in that side content and it kind of ended, and then they
brought him all the way back for this new expansion, tying story threads all
the way back to the base game, and just the interconnectedness and the way
it loops back around it makes perfect sense, and it's it's an absolute achievement
of what Scraps is able to do at Final Fantasy fourteen. So we'll get
into specifics because one there's mad spoilers and two I'm probably gonna cry. I'm
really excited to get because I've heard you talk about Final Fantasy fourteen for the
last couple of years, and I've always just felt because I tried it a
few years ago and they just didn't click with me at the time, But
honestly, seeing how much it's grown and seeing how much you and other people
just enthuse about it, I'm genuinely really excited. I have to wait until
my boyfriend gets back and then we're going to try grouping up with a bunch
of you, because actually have we have a slid channel a peak behind the
scenes of games. So we have a Slack channel where people just ask questions
about something that they're not sure about, called explain, Like I'm five and
right now, all of the questions are just about Final Fantasy fourteen, like
which service should I go on? What do I do here? What should
I do? And it's basically just been really nice because I love seeing you
guys get so excited that everyone else's in yeah, and it's just like sharing
that love. So there's Yeah, there's been a lot of people on Twitter
too, like just on the timeline and hitting me up about like, ay,
gotten any tips? What should I do? What are some things that
I need to know before I jump in? There are kind of a lot
of things. I'm having a like a big feature on how to get into
Final Fantasy fourteen going up on the site tomorrow or well, if you're here
that if you hear this, because it's coming on Friday, it's already on
the site. But there are I think the one thing that I will stress
to those I'm sure there are some people listening who are thinking about getting into
the game. It's kind of set your expectations, or I would like I
want to set your expectations to be like, you know, the base game
is. I think it's very good. It's not the most exciting thing though,
so there's gonna be like the story quests aren't this big, grand scale.
It takes a lot of time to build up its world, so don't
go into it expecting to get all the juicy stuff right off the bat.
It does take a lot of time to get there. That's not saying that
the base game isn't worth your time or it's not fun, because there's a
lot of fun to be had in the in the base game. It's just
like, you know, enjoy it for what it is. I tell people,
you know, you know, it's it's a really good learning experience because
the game takes its time to kind of easy you into its mechanics and its
intricacies, Like you don't have to know everything straight off the bat. Just
do the main story quests, get a feel for the game, start to
understand the mechanics, and also enjoy the world. I think it's it's a
really beautiful world and the music is absolutely incredible. So some folks be like,
oh, is it a podcast game? Like, nah, don't,
don't don't be listening to podcasts while you play it, because the soundtrack is
beautiful and I think it really helps you kind of bring you into that world
and make you care about it anyways. And then eventually once you get to
the expansion, which is also part of the free trial, that's when shit
gets real. So I'll leave it at that. I made it about halfway
through the main story at the beginning of this lock down, but then I
made the mistake of googling how many quests there were in around Reborn, and
I was like, oh my god, I got so many I have to
get through. So I'm excited to give it another shot with this update,
right, because didn't they say they's a got like fifteen percent of the quests
or something like that. Yeah, they cut they cut. There was a
lot of like go here, talk to this person. Okay, now go
here, talk to this person, find three carrots or something. Go out
on this field, find three carrots, bring it back, and then you
get an item, and then talk to this person. So they cut out.
They said like thirteen to fifteen percent of those nonsense quests and hopefully that
helps a lot of people kind of get passed or not get bogged down.
And the unexciting stuff, because there is a lot of unexciting stuff in there
to get to the good shit. So yeah, Paris, how about you,
what have you been up to this last week? So I won't bore
anyone with my adventures and destiny because give it to us, go for it,
go for it. Well, I'll just keep it short and sweet.
I'd actually taken an extended break at the beginning of the year, which was
like the first time, you know, since twenty fourteen, I'd really not
been dedicated to playing it. And then I came back and started up again
in late June early July, so I've been catching up back to it,
so I'm like finally back up to a full power level with my characters and
all the content. So it was an anticipation of it Beyond Light coming out
in September, but now that's obviously been delayed a couple more months, so
I'm in this weird state now. I know there's a Socials to Heroes event
that started where I'm kind of going to take a break again, I think
for a little bit and play some other things, which then leads me right
into what I've really been playing mostly this week, and that's fall guys.
I mean, I have been slamming my head against a wall and just rage
quitting with that game all week. That's literally all I do. I have
yet to win anything. I got close once and I think I almost threw
my computer out of the house almost. I was like, I'm done.
I'm never playing this again. I hate this game. But then the music
plays and you see them falling and go, Okay, I'll do it again,
or you squat up with some people, Okay, I'll do it again.
I think the beauty of it is it's simplicity. Anyone can pick it
up and play it. Anyone can win except me, clearly. But I
can't win. But but that that's why it's that's why it's so frustratingly fun,
because it's always just something really really dumb, something super dumb. And
I die every time, and and and I get mad, and then I
run out of the room and I laugh, and my wife is like,
why are you in there yelling? I go because I'm playing this stupid game
again and I can't stop playing it. I love it and hit it at
the same time. They clearly have a hit on their hands. I think,
when this, when this finally goes to the switch and and the Xbox
and they enable cross play game over game over at that point. Yeah,
yeah, I think as well, Like you can see all the companies making
you know, costume ideas for DLC and stuff. They will just rake in
so much money from that, because I would, you know, if there's
gonna be that metal gear pack that you know I found out was going around
one hundred percent by that, I just like it's the little big planet kind
of feeling. I just want, yeah, completely agree. I mean,
I'm not gonna dare say this is going to reach Fortnite levels, but I
think this has that crossover appeal that Fortnite had, and it's something again everybody
can play. Anybody can pick this up and play it. So the more
platforms they get this game on and just make it more accessible and like you
said, all the marketing tie ins they'll be able to do with this thing.
I see great potential with it. Like I said, trust me,
everybody will know the day that I win. Everybody will know because I'm I'm
going to post it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Carrier Pigeon, Pony
Express smokes some whatever I have to do, everyone's gonna know because that will
be the best day of my life when I finally went to this gig.
You know. That's the thing too, is that fog guys. Guys is
so shareable. You know. It's like, yeah, I'm going to post
the clip. Everyone's posting clips, and everyone's talking about how they got screwed
over on winning or how they did some like real shady shit to somebody else,
and it's it's yeah, it's it's that thing where it can go viral
at almost any time because it's that like relatable and also understandable and also just
a lot of fun. Was Takeshi's Castle a big thing here in America that
kind of so I wouldn't say it was a big thing, but definitely people
watched it, Like I remember saying it see couples here and there. It's
basically yeah, I mean like that's what the game is. It's just's castle.
And it was such a huge thing in the UK. And obviously Takeshi's
Castle problematic in retrospect, not not the best when it comes to like the
voiceover and stuff, and just very weird, like poking fun at the Japanese
kind of sensibility, but like the core of it of you know, just
like these wacky things that people will do to try and win, and like
distilling it and making it a jellybean creature who can only jump, hug and
dive is just really smart and it's so much fun. But also, Simon
Cardy, I know you're listening. I will end you. He won.
He won a game, and then we all hopped on to play together and
it was only me and him left. I think Tam and Bless had been
knocked out. Only me and him left in the final round, which was
the tail one and I had the tail and it was three seconds to go.
Who takes it from me? Who takes it from me? But young
Simon someone took it from him too. So it's fine. I can survive,
but I will get my revenge. I will get my win. This
is how I know this is a great game. I had a dream about
it the other night and I woke up mad. That's how I know.
That's the same thing with me or not not with fall guys. But it's
funny like last night when I went to sleep, when I played Final Fantasy
four Team, it was a complete opposite in which I went to sleep and
I woke up like super happy and energized. Yeah, we dreaming about video
games out here after we're playing whether we whether we hate it or not,
man, whether we pissed about Fall Guys are are inspired by a final Fantasy
Man these video games, Dawn, I have to say the minigame and Fall
Guys, that is probably my favorite, but also the most frustrating. Has
to be the one with all the fake doors. Oh, I love them.
I love it, but like when there's only one door open and everyone
just rushes it and it's just like this this mass bottleneck right at the door,
and everyone's falling on top of each other and I'm getting mad because I
can't move because there's you know, forty jelly beans on top of me.
It's so good games Calm for you. There was one. Oh, it's
the one where the hole in the walls and you have to like jump and
dodge and try and get through the gaps. Everyone else had gotten through,
but I kept getting caught and I kept tripping up. But obviously the great
thing is that if you've qualified, you can look back and see what other
people are doing. So all of my friends are on the voice track going
oh lucy, oh Lucy, No no, and it's just me falling over
again and again, just getting stuck and it's really good fun. I love
the game. Someone Oh, all right, and we are back with topics.
The first thing, the big thing we want to talk about is the
Cyberpunk night City Wire. So this happened what Monday, and they covered three
things. They covered the life paths a little bit more. We got a
new trailer for that. They did like a sort of mini documentary about Samurai
and refused the band's transformation into Samurai. And then they had a trailer with
a bunch of new weapons and they kind of broke down the weapons a little
bit before we get into that though, Paris, I know you actually had
a chance to play Cyberpunk back in June. I imagine, cause I think
that's when I was able to play it as well. I was just curious,
since we're talking about life paths, what did you pick during that event
and what life path are you most leaning towards right now? Oh, it's
Corporal, without a doubt that that's what I picked. I played during the
preview and that just literally solidified. Yep. I'm playing Corporal for when the
final game comes out. I like the fact that you start off in Arisaka
Tower and you obviously well maybe I don't know what life path did you play.
I did no Mad. Okay, I think I'm going to do no
Mad when the game comes okay too. But yeah, for Corporo, you
start an Arisaka Tower and then you're sent on a mission and you go to
Lizzie's Bar and just everything that sets that up that then brings you to that
point where I'm sure when you played where it's you and Jackie in the car
and then you repeat that that mission from the original demo in twenty eighteen.
But yeah, I because I love the dialogue options that happened, because the
one that stood out to me, and I can talk about this for hours,
so please cut me off at any time. But I love the corporal
options that would show up because like when you meet Meredith, militate agent and
she tries to give you that the chip with the virus on it, I
had a dialogue option as corporal where I knew she put a virus on the
chip. I called her out on it, and she was surprised that I
call her out on it. She tries to make another deal with me,
and I basically tell her no, screw you, so she says fu and
they leave, so I never get anything from her. So I had to
go to the Malstroam gang without any assistance from Militech and had to negotiate on
my own to get the flathead bot, where I wound up shooting the gang
leader in the head right then in air, so we have a shootout like
immediately, so he never gets to the point where he gets in that mech
suit that you see from the twenty eighteen demo played out completely different than the
way you've seen it in the demo. So that's what excited me that,
Wow, look at all these different options, and even the person from CD
project read that was kind of my guide while I was playing. He kept
commenting I was doing things that he hadn't even himself, and he's played the
game, you know, dozens, if not hundreds of times at this point,
and that excited me even more because it just goes to show you that
there's so many different possibilities in Night City when you're playing. Yeah, totally.
I mean, like I did the nomad path because like we had three
people at games Spot checking it out, and someone else picked corpos. Someone
else picks street Kid and I was the one left. It was like,
all right, well, A'll do Nomad just so we can compare and contrast.
But one thing that a coworker had mentioned was like, well, I've
never been to Night City before, and the whole basis of the Nomad is
that the Nomad is kind of a foreigner. Tune has never been to Night
City. So my thinking was that the Nomad would make a lot of sense
to start with, just because we're both seeing a night city with fresh eyes
and I guess not entirely fresh, because I did, you know, play
four hours of the game a couple months ago. But yeah, I'm just
like, I'm very excited to start off with Nomad and then go back and
I think I think Corpo is going to be this like on for me,
Yeah, and then and then finally and on on street Kid. But before
I get too far ahead of myself, Lucy Michael, you guys also watched
the Night City Wire, I imagine, Yeah, what do you guys think
of the life path? Is there a particular one that stood out to you
guys? Or you kind of wait to see what people say this. This
is always the most difficult decisions with these games when they straight up make you
not just the not even character creator, but like oh which pathing injuries,
even like mass Effect where you just it's just the menu option, like you
from Earth or older background or whatever. Yeah, yeah, I'm like,
damn, I got to look up the consequences to feature these things. But
I kind of looking at how ambitious and just how many directions Cyberpunk goes.
This is definitely the game that's going to break you out of that habit of,
you know, trying to look up what the most optimal path is or
what you want to do. Just choose something, go with it, deal
with it, live with it. It's gonna be It's probably gonna like the
game will take care of itself in terms of giving you something worth playing through.
But it's it's funny because when Corporo was was an option, I was
like, fuck that shit, Fuck capitalism. I ain't going to be part
of this. No corporation that's like doing a ton of bat shit because you
know they're doing bad shit. But the thing about Corporo is like, Okay,
how are they going to tell that story? What are the story beats
going to be? In terms of your involvement with this corporation because in cyberpunk
genre and literature and fiction is that you know, corporations are essentially replacing the
government, so they have a lot of power, a lot of control.
But how's that going to be portrayed? And what's my role going to be
in it? So that's what fascinates me about the Corporal life path. And
also just like seeing the footage of going through those buildings with these with many
suits and executives in there, It's like it feels dangerous. It feels like,
I one, I don't belong here because I know I'm going to do
some like some shit's going to go down. It's just it's very overwhelming,
like it's larger than life. And that's the thing about like these corporations insiderpunk
fiction, is like they are larger than life and I want to fuck the
shit up? But how am I going to do that? How am I
going to do that? So that's that's the fascinating thing. I'm Michael Corporal,
But I also leaned towards the street kid because you know, from the
streets, you know it's it's going to be. It's kind of like more
of like a self role play kind of thing that I would find fascinating,
but you know, it's tough to choose. I was, so I honestly
wasn't sure. And then this week today and yesterday, actually I have done
the voiceover to cyberpunk pieces. Thank you, You're welcome, But no,
honestly, it was like the Night City Wire for me is like I watch
it, but I know I'm gonna play this game, like I'm I'm already
like I'm just waiting for the game. Now. I think I like getting
these little teasers, but my mind is still undecided on a bunch of stuff.
And so I hadn't really given Paths much of a second thought until I
was voicing the features today. I think that John Luke did, which was
the history of Arisaka the company, like the law of the corporation, And
because I don't know that much about cybepug Law, I genuinely get most of
it from Jake and John Luke because they're doing like features on it. And
so I was going through this Arisaka piece today and I was like, oh,
that's really cool, and I was going and you know, I voiced
the life Path piece yesterday, which was these are how the three play out
and it's like the same as Michael, where it's like that I really want
to see this shit burn from inside, Like I just want to see where
this goes, how it is, and I just really like the look of
it, and I think as well, no spoilers, but I think the
way that that prologue ends is just a really cool setup for the story.
And so that's probably what I'm going to pick two. But I hope it's
and I have faith in CD project that will do this. I hope it's
not going to be just like I think back to the way that Dragon Age
two, for example, didn't really have that many meaningful choices beyond that prologue.
You just kind of pick your hawk and you kind of get on with
it, or even like mass effect picking your background. It was just a
couple of dialogue options. Really like it didn't it didn't seem to do much
for the rest of the story. But as this is a playable prolog,
it seems to be quite a decent chunk of the game. I really hope
it has big implications for how your story plays out. There was if I
get real quick, there was even one thing being the corpo. So like
I said, you fly in from Arisaka Tower and you land on the roof
at Lizzie's Bar, so you come in through the roof right. So later
in the game and the prologue, you know, when I'm v and I'm
coming back for another reason, I go through the normal door and there's the
two bodyguards there and they say a comment to me, and my comment back
to them. Yeah, last time I was here, it wasn't through the
front door, So there was like a callback to what you did in the
prologue as a corpo. So it's little things like that that to me just
screen. You're gonna want to play all three live paths at some point,
so it doesn't matter which one you start, because you're gonna see all these
little things like huh, I wonder how that would have played out if I
was a street kid, or I wonder how that had played everyone was a
nomad, et cetera. So that's my plan. I'm going to start as
a corpo, but for sure I'm going to go through it on all three,
just to see the differences. Yeah, I mean one thing too to
point out. So I guess I can only really speak on the nomad path
because I actually played through that from start to finish, well the prologue that
is. But in that trailer they showed a lot of characters and set pieces
that I didn't see, So that does give me a lot of hope that
you know, there's more to these life paths apart from just your prologue and
just a few comments, like it seems like they're going to be entirely different
characters who will interact with you differently or maybe take you on different quests,
Like in the Nomad section there is that one girl who seems to be a
very good friend of the Nomad maybe you know was part of the Nomad crew
before I guess the band split up. So so I'm willing to bet that
there will be plenty of life path specific content. What I'm curious to see
is how that is going to tie into the story. Like the Corporo one
seems kind of obvious, right in a very cool way, right, because
yeah, Arisaka is the bad guy more or less of this game, at
least from what we know so far, and based on the lore, like,
Arisaka is bad and you start out by working there, So I'm super
curious to see kind of how you and Arisaka will butt heads like, are
you going to like actually exact revenge on your old boss, Like that'd be
kind of fun. Well, I won't spoil what happened in the prolog,
because again, it was kind of surreal to be in Arisaka type you know
the lore at all, and I'm walking around and you're hearing all these different
conversations going on. There is definitely a story beat that happens in the prologue
from the corporal point of view that has to pay off at some point in
the game, So it'll be interesting to see how that'll play out from the
no Man the street kid point of view. But for sure with Corpore,
there's going to be a direct tie in with our soccer for sure. I
also want to see how that how like Jackie plays into it too, because
he also he's a different character. I don't know how much, but it
seems like he's a different character based on what you choose as well. So
that's like it to me. That speaks to how the length at which they're
going to accommodate for your choices, because again this is CD project. Read
and Percy talked about how the Witcher is like there's always something new to see
there's something different to do based on the things that you choose to do.
So it's just this is reading reviews is going to be wild, I'll say,
because I don't think anyone's going to have I mean, obviously there's gonna
be broader contact stuff like how well does it handle its themes, how well
does it actually nail the cyberpunk the cores iyberpunk theme. But in terms of
like the moment to moment of the gameplay possibilities, boy, I'm looking I'm
look forward to what reading what everyone has to say. It's funny you say
that, because that's something I did after the hands on previews. I read
everybody's everyone that got a hands on thing, I when to watch your video,
read everything because I was just curious and it seems that no one's had
the same experience with this game out of all the hands on previews, even
if they choose the same life path too exactly, so so that that was
like example, Blessing, when when I saw what kind of funny did theirs?
He did corpo, Oh, we did two completely different things. So
I'm like, well, where the hell was that? That wasn't in mind?
So yeah, it's I'm excited for it because I really feel like they're
taking the lessons learned not only from the things they've done with the Witchard three,
but they're looking at a mass effect. They're looking at Adis X,
you know, Skyrim, et cetera. They're looking at how to actually have
the story beats matter. And I know you wanted to move on to another
part, so maybe this can segue into it. One thing that I liked
about with the weapons that they were talking about, as far as when you're
getting legendary weapons, they're not tying things to specific quests, like all right,
I'm gonna go do Quest X because I know I'm gonna get this gun
if I complete this quest. Instead, it's about your relationships with the characters.
How you build a relationship with a certain character may lead you to getting
a certain type of weapon, or if you piss off the wrong person,
you may never get access to it at all during your playthrough. So it's
more character based, it's more relationship based. So again, your dialogue choices
are really going to matter as you progress through the game. So if anything
that excites me the most, because that really tells me all of us are
going to have these completely skewed experiences when we go through the game. Yeah,
didn't they even say that, like there might even be some opportunities where
a character you like has a really good weapon, like a legendary weapon,
right, and it's like, well, I mean, you could kill them
and take it, but then you could be killing consequence. Yeah, So
I'm curious to see how that plays out, because just that right there,
I think is a lot more of an interesting approach then, you know.
I feel like when there's legendary weapons in most games, it's either you grind
for it a lot, or, in the case of the Witcher three,
you follow these this this sort of wild goose chase with these notes that take
you from point to point and you craft them, which is cool and I
like that, but I'm really curious to see how they tie these characters into
these important weapons and whatever. Yeah. But then I guess we can just
move right onto the weapons trailer that they showed off. We kind of already
talked a little bit about it, but they just kind of went more in
depth and the different kind of weapons you can get. I think one thing
that we saw a bit more of which was nice, was the customization options
you have Like when I played the demo, I did some. I did
some of the what did they call them, like passive customization abilities where I
like, yeah, we're like software upgrades, and I did that, but
I didn't really like go to a store or anything and swap out scope.
So I'm curious to see how all that's going to be. See that's funny
again because I did go to a gun store when I played, and I
actually purchased an SMNG and it did have two mod slots on it, but
I was too low level to be able to do anything. But again,
the CD CDPR rep that was with me was explaining how that will like I
can keep that SMNG with me through the entire game because I can start to
add mods to it, and obviously the proficiency the more I use it,
the better I'm gonna get with it the RPG aspects of it. But that's
the other the other balance that they're still I guess working on, but that's
going to be in the final game is they want you to be able to
use any weapon you want, but you may not necessarily be great at it,
so you have to keep using it to get more proficient. But as
you're leveling up, there's the RPG elements, so you're going to be finding
all these different mods and things you're adding to it, which depending on the
mod that you get, could completely change the way that the gun actually works
in the game. There. So again there's there's just a spider web of
possibilities that that's going to happen as we play. Yeah, I think for
me, the main thing is like they're going to great. It seems like
they're going the great lengths to kind of make these weapons a lot more intricate
as you use them. But that's definitely not my play style. Like I
just replayed the original dais X and I played it the same way. I
always do low tech sneaking around. If I have to use weapon, it's
going to be melee or like a silence pistol or some kind of like non
lethal tranquilizer dart like low tech. I like to keep a low profile.
So I think that's that's what I want to see next. When they talk
about like combat encounters, is that, Yeah, it is like cool and
as flashy as like the weapon stuff looks and sounds. I feel like a
lot of the like a lot of them pre release materials have leaned into the
action aspects, and I understand why, like that's probably the most exciting thing
to show off. Like I don't think it would be exciting to show someone
crawling slowly on the rooftops going through Avent hacking a keypad, like oh wait,
huh oh wait, and I got a back up someone saw me,
because that's how I play, and that is I don't think that's fun to
watch it necessarily, So I get why we haven't seen much of that aspect,
but that's totally something I want to see, is like how it's going
to accommodate that type of play style when it comes to like Melee low tech
keeping a low profile while going through combat counters because I understand, like there
are some moments where you do have to fight, or that's what it seems
like. But again, but the the E three demo though, did because
that was a live demo that was a thirty minute I think it was like
thirty minute demo where they like actually played the game in front of you.
I think all y'all went to that as well. I know Paris and Jake,
all y'all went to that at least, And I think that was a
very good showcase because it's a live demo being played in front of you,
so it has room to show off that style of play, and it wouldn't
really play well on a live stream. But no, give it to me,
I want to see it. Well, it's interesting you say that because
the E three twenty nineteen demo they had, which they then chopped up and
had like a small segment of it they released to the public, did actually
highlight exactly what you're talking about PACIFICA because they played as a net runner and
they did its stealth, so they were sneaking up on enemies and doing things
from a distance, hacking certain you know, equipment and things, and never
like directly engaging with people. But like you said, that's not going to
play well in a night City wire, you know, twenty minute you know,
you know, presentation episode, because people it's just it's it's not going
to look realistic for the way that someone's going to actually play. You want
to see the action stuff to get people excited. Now, one thing,
because I'm a nerd, you're talking about weapons, I have notes in front
of me because I'm not heard. They actually some of the other melee weapons
that if you paid attention to the menu that they were talking about, there
is an electric baton, there's a spike bat and then they also talked about
that sledgehammer which was in the E three twenty nineteen demo with the animals as
well. I mean, and also they were talking about the different weapon types
you have, like your tech weapons, your power weapons, smart weapons again,
the melee and put then the cyberware as well, because like they were
showing off the Mantis blades. The one thing that I picked up from Night
City Wire is the fact that those blades are replaceable, so you can't upgrade
those blades as you go through the game, And they kind of talked about
you'll start to delve into more of the military grade stuff that you have to
find on the black market for those type of things with cyberware, so again,
here's another way of stuff that you're going to be able to explore and
do in the game from the weaponside. Yeah, one thing to talk about
low tech. I spent a lot of my demo with just the lead pipe,
like hitting people with a lead pipe, which is like I don't know,
like definitely not how I'm going to play when the game comes out.
But just like I don't know. I was playing with the guy, the
guy from CDPR was there and he was helping me out, and I picked
it up and I was like, well, I might as well just see
what this is like to play through this. But I fly through BioShock with
just electra bolt and a wrench. Yeah. Game, I mean that's kind
of what I was doing because I was just hacking and hitting people with lead
pipe if things got harry, That's my play style. But beyond the weapons,
the last thing that they really showed off was the transformation from Reviews or
the Samurai to Refuse. I got a backwards you know what I'm trying to
say, how Refuse kind of became Samurai for this for this game, And
I thought the presentation was kind of interesting. It was like kind of documentary
style, but it kind of reminded me of like spinal Tap a little.
It was like it kind of seemed like a joke in a weird way,
but it was still pretty good. But I think the big takeaway for me
was that they showed a shot where it looked like you were playing as Keanu
Reeves. Now it's probably brain danced like Johnny Silverhand but just still the thought
of that was really cool now and music playing mini game, Yeah it could
be. But did you pick up on the one thing from from that that
they showed the graphical upgrade that they've done to that Johnny Silverhan model since they
since we first saw it, you know, like a year, year and
a half ago. Every long that was. I mean there, they've clearly
still been working on this game as far as just j Wolves, because it
looks miles better now, like even you know when we played the preview at
the very end where Johnny Silverhan's like fuck right, and it was like,
wait, wow, that looks a lot better than I remember before. So
that's something else to be excited about, because I mean this not that it's
going to be the greatest graphical game ever, but they're definitely going for a
high end approach with this, and on PC it's going to have retracing and
everything too, So really looking forward to that. Have you guys listened to
Samurai's music much at all, because a couple of the songs have been on
Spotify for a while now. I mean, I'm a refused fan, but
I haven't. I haven't checked out in Samurai yet. The Shape of Punk
to Come is one of the best records of time, by the way,
refused classic right there. But yeah, that's that's wild though, that they're
transitioning to that. I'm definitely gonna check that out because they are they are
like pretty well known in like punk circles and all that. So one crazy
thing that we were talking about is one of the bands mentioned on there is
Run the Jewels, So I'm super curious to see what they do because they
wouldn't be Run the Jewels in this, but it would still be you know,
Killer Mike and LP. So I started thinking about like like like I
wonder if there would be like Quest Tide Quest Givers, like that would be
so wild. But it is wild because like Killer Mike is about that life,
Like he is radical when it comes to politics. So if they they
pitched him on it and he's like, I'm all in, let's go.
It's also all about money, so I respect what Killer Mike's grind and if
that, if that is the case he's been. I think him and LP
were both in Gears of War as like playable character models for horror mode or
something, so this isn't like unknown Territory for them, So give us some
RTJ quest Look ID buy that DLC. Yeah, yeah, hopefully it's just
in the game, if it is in the game at all. But yeah,
there's a there's a long list of artists who are going to be and
I'm just I'm super curious to see I don't know a lot of these kind
of well known artists portrayed different artists in this universe, because I feel like
that's something that hasn't really been done before, at least in video games.
Anyway, we've been talking about how awesome cyberpunk looks. The last I don't
know, twenty thirty minutes is so we do have to move on to some
sad news. Halo Infinite has been delayed. It is not going to be
a Xbox Series X launch title. Looks like it'll be early twenty twenty one.
You hate to see it. You could kind of see it coming,
Yeah, I mean, I mean like it would be more It would be
way more damaging for Halo if it launched and it wasn't in the place that
it needed to be, or that three four three wanted it to be,
because first Halo game on a brand new console. You wanted to come out
with a bang. I mean Halo. I feel like there are a lot
of people who just want to hate Halo New Halo. They'll like, you'll
always have these people who are like, it's never been the same since Bungee
left it, And also like, you've got to feel for three four three
because they have to make a game that simultaneously appeals to the fan base who
wanted to be the game they remember from when they were growing up, but
who also wanted to be a new game in line with how modern shooters play,
and balancing it like you want it to be old school Halo, but
also take risks and do new things. But you can't please everyone, like
and I feel for three four three I do, and like, it can't
have been easy to delay it at the last minute, especially because like just
two weeks ago they were showing off the game play for the first time and
it was this is going to be a launch title on yeah, and so
yeah, it sucks, but I think it's the best move in the long
term. Yeah, you know, you know. It's what's weird is like
I did I went to that that behind the scenes presentation for Halo Infinite shortly
after it was revealed and like mad respect to them for trying something new with
Halo, like it has to try something new. It's I can see it
definitely trying to go for that. So I'm I am really excited to see
what how the single player stuff works out, man, Like I want Halo
to succeed. I remember when I love playing that shit, and like if
it can usher itself into a new era in a big way, like anyone
should be happy about that. But I did feel like they were very vague
about everything we asked, uh And to me that came off as like we
were still trying to figure out how to communicate this to the folks who want
to know more about know more about the game. So it feels like they
weren't necessarily ready to put this out in full force. Uh It's August and
the consoles coming out in three ish months. Uh So to see them that
reserved about it, uh at this stage, uh kind of told me a
lot about where the game was or it is. Uh So for them to
delay it's one not surprising too. I'm kind of glad, uh so whatever
hesitancies they had about certain aspects of it, and like trying to figure out
how to communicate that to people. If they can figure that stuff out a
like, go ahead and do that like. And I also like the Xbox
brand has had bad luck with first impressions, like games can evolve over time
and become great things even if they launch in a bad state. I mean,
look at it, look at fourteen, look at Destiny, see games
incredible games now. But it's just that Xbox has had bad luck with launches
going back to Xbox One. So I think that it's really important that they
come out the gate strong with a brand like Halo. No. I completely
agree with you, and I had one of those similar sessions as well,
and like you said, it was very reserved where we almost had to pull
the information out of them to find out more about the game, versus them
being open and excited to tell us. And I've been saying for the longest,
they cannot screw up Halo. They cannot screw this up because it is
the flagship IP. There is no Xbox Series X right now if it wasn't
for Halo Combat Evolved, because that's what started everything for them, right And
Yeah, like you said earlier, we've seen the transition from Bungee to three
four three and it's not been the greatest. So this was the redemption.
This was Hey, we've taken almost five years to make this game, this
was the coming out party. Everyone should be super excited about Halo. Instead
we got Craig Mets. So that was a misstep. I mean, I
think it was Gary Witta that said it, but I agree with them that
they just shouldn't have shown it at all. They should have had foresight even
at that game showcase revealed to say, hey, Halo's not ready yet.
Blame it on COVID, whatever you need to do, but it's not ready
yet. It needs more time because they've I don't want to say they've done
permanent damage to it, but they've damaged. Like you said, you only
get one chance out of first impression, and this first impression for Halo Infinite
was not good. So I kind of at this point I didn't think they
were gonna delay it. I really didn't, because I thought it was so
important to launch a series X and to get people on Game Pass and things
like that, that they were just gonna put it out hot and we'll figure
it out along the way, right, because even ray tracing wasn't gonna be
available right away. But I'm glad that the leadership at Xbox realized, let's
not screw this up. Let's take our time, let's get this right.
We'll go to Plan B as far as launching the series X and then the
next time, because I think it's gonna be a while before we see Halo.
But the next time we see Halo, it'll be what three four three
envisioned it to be, so everyone can see it and be excited. I
mean, I don't know what you guys think. I think this might be
a holiday twenty twenty one title at this point. They might delay because because
if it really needs time spring, I don't think spring's enough. And if
Spring isn't enough, you're not gonna launch it during the summer. So September.
Yeah, what's the other window to right? Right? Right? I
mean, what's the killer app for? Yeah, for Xbox in the meantime,
Like, I mean, it's what's a console seller? But that's not
even coming out anytime soon? Yeah, I mean early next year. I
mean definitely not Fable. It's Halo. I mean, that's that's just it.
It's Halo. But if Halo isn't ready, don't force it because I'm
telling you now, if they repeat what they did with Halo five, it
will no longer be a relevant triple AIP. People will just look at it
as an afterthought. They're going to move on to I don't know, Fortnite
or Fall Guys or whatever. Right, they're gonna start playing up stuff and
they're just gonna see Halo as a yeah, like I'm an old guy.
So it's like when I remember I found pictures me at this at E three
to one, and I'm I tell you, and I'm at the booth right
and I'm like, my god, that was nineteen years ago. And then
I see people responding going I wasn't even alive. Oh my god. But
that's kind of the thing. People are almost seeing that, Oh that's my
parents game. That's not my game. Like my son, he's fourteen,
could care less about Halo, and I'm running around all excited, Oh they're
gonna show Infinite and he's like, yeah, Halo. He doesn't It doesn't
register with him. So they got to get this right. They have to
get it right. So I honestly hope we don't see it until late next
year. So take all the time you need. Fixedographical issues do the multiplayer,
the flights, the public flights that they wanted to do to make sure
you got the multiplayer right, and just make this the best Halo it can
possibly be. All Right, and now we are onto listener questions. If
you've got any questions for us, you can email us at after Dark Podcast
at GameSpot dot com, or you can just join our discord and there's a
whole channel for all your questions right there. But first question we have is
from Chase MM eighteen on discord. Lucy, do you want to read this
one? Sure? How do you guys feel about cinematic trailers that don't match
the art style of the game itself? I e. Any of the eldest
grolls online online trailers that show elves that look nothing like the elves you are
able to make in the game and armor slash weapons that literally look like they
are from another franchise? Is there a good reason behind this? Thanks for
any insight you can provide, PS Tam and Lucy Sandman so good it is,
It's phenomenal. I would say that there is a studio who I believe
are in Scotland, Blur, who specifically make these trailers like any Ubisoft trailer.
Any Assassin's Creed trailer is usually made by Blur Studios, and it's one
of those things where you kind of realize that it's not really for us.
It's not indicative of gameplay because it's four a way more mass market audience who
will take one look at that and go WHOA games look like that now,
And it's to peak their interest. It's to maybe show the game like the
ideal version of the game. Like I don't mean any disrespect on Elder s
Girls Online here, but it's not the most visually like the Elder Scrolls five,
like those famous trailers that they did for Elder Schools five. Even for
I remember Mass Effect three had a really good CGI trailer, but like if
as soon as Ashley showed up, I was like, she doesn't look anything
like that, Please, what are you doing? And it's like it's this
idealized version of a game. It's it's kind of like what I said about
let's go peek to you where it's like when I was a kid, that's
how I saw Pokemon yellow. That's what it looked like to me. And
sometimes when you play games, yeah, maybe it's a bit JANKI or maybe
it doesn't look perfect, but in your head, if you're fully immersed in
that world, it can. So that's that's my Also shout out to Bless
Studios. They do mad work, but apparently they're incredibly expensive to use,
So that's that's my idea. Damn, I don't know. I feel like
if a trailer doesn't match what the game looks like at least or at least
a parallel of what the game looks like, then it does absolutely nothing for
me. But again, like we said, it's probably for a different audience,
but I think it can make a bigger impact if it is like the
same art style. But in CGI, of course, you know, I'm
I'm dropping Final Fantasy fourteen again because the thing about it thinking about its cinematics
is that, yeah, it's CGI trailer that looks like mad realistic, but
all the character models look just like they do in the game, so it
doesn't feel like there's a disconnect in a way, and they can communicate a
lot lot about what happens in the game if like the cinematic trailer and what
the game actually looks like is in line with each other. So I don't
know. I don't put too much stock in like preview trailers, but a
good trailer is also extremely memorable. Everyone remembers what is Dead Island, So
I was gonna say, no, it's Dead Island one that I want.
Even the key is trailer. Yeah, they can leave a lasting impact,
even like way beyond the game. It's just like here's a story of like
what a trailers was like back then. So you can make a big impact.
But I mean, don't try. Don't try and try and pull a
fast one on us with that. I think that's the main thing. Is
the worry now is they're pulling a fast one on us? What a lot
a lot of the cinematic trailers, because yeah, it's just not indicative of
the final game. And I know this isn't the cinematic trailer, but the
first thing that popped in my head when I read this was anthem. I
mean, remember that original that original demo they showed. You're like, oh
my god, this is going to be amazing. That is nowhere near what
the final game was. So I'm a firm believer in I'd rather just see
someone playing the game. Just show me the game. I just want to
see. Okay, this is representative of what I can expect when I'm playing
the game, but I know that's not the reality of how the industry works.
I know there's always going to be these cinematic trailers, So I guess
as long as it at least looks very similar to what I can expect,
I guess I'm okay with it. But I'm always skeptical when I see those,
Like one that sticks off the top of my head just from the Xbox
Game showcase is Fable. That didn't excite me about Fable because I know that's
not how Fable's going to look. That that might as well have been Shrek.
It's no different. I'm serious when I told them, you're not wrong.
You are wrong. No lies, Detective. Oh my god, I'm
excited for Fable. And I was like, cool, we got a trailer,
but there's something off about it. But now that you put it like
that, I know exactly what was off about it. Figured it out for
me. Wow, I think as well. Those it's you know, when
a game isn't very far along in development, but you need a sort of
tone piece, right, And that's what I feel like a lot of cinematic
trailers are used well, especially that Fable comparison, where it's like it's lush,
it's green, it has a bit of comedy, and Stephen Fry is
there too, like that you know it's Fable, but you're not you're not
getting what it is like in terms of what it will be like to play.
So I think tone pieces. Yeah, yeah, And that's kind of
what I was going to say too, is that like when a game is
like Super far Out and we get a cinematic trailer, I usually don't mind,
Like, like if it's an announcement trailer, I think that's one thing
because it's like, Okay, they're working on this game. There's something I
can look forward to in the future. When they like announce a game a
couple months before it comes out, sorry Assassin's Creed, and they do it
with a cinematic trailer, it's it's just kind of like, okay, Like
I like, we all know Assassin's Creed, Like we get this, like,
but we want to see what makes this different than all the other Assassin's
Creed games, And especially since you know, like with the last trailer,
they're yeah, we're gonna have gameplay in a couple of days, and it's
like, well, why don't you just skip the skip this cinematic trailer thing
and go right to the gameplay. I mean, you know, the trailer
was cool than all, but yeah, kind of like what everyone's been saying.
It's like, it's it's not really what I want to see, And
I just say, you know how I said, Blur make a lot of
these. They're not in Scotland. I don't know why I thought they were
in Scotland. They made the Fable trailer, they made State of Decay,
they made Skyrim, and they make All the Eldest Girls Online. They make
the Ubisoft key Press Conferences club. Guh, they made money everything they're doing
Valorant. They've done stuff for Warner Brothers. They've done Boots on the Ground.
They've done Call of Duty. They've done that terminated trailer that Termine,
a game that came out last year, Titanfull two. They've done so really,
the real answer to this is take it up with Blur. Take it
up with Blur. A problem, yeah, quick. Last question here is
from Edwin. Do you guys have any games you feel are essentially required material
but that you just haven't been able to complete yourselves. Mine is the Witcher
series. Playing through the whole series has been one of my main goals for
years, but I am struggling mightily to get through the Witcher one. It
has not aged well. I've restarted at least five times over the past ten
years, but I just can't make it past the third act. My OCD
brain won't let me play two and three before finishing one. How do you
handle situations like these? Oh? Man, that's I don't know. Does
anyone want to go? I kind of got to sit on this one for
a minute. I can tell you my game. I I don't know why
my lizard brain will not allow me to finish the original Red Dead. Redemption
just can't. I just can't. I've never been able to get through it.
But the irony is oh to no problem, but the first one I
could to this day. I even got the Xbox three sixty disc off of
eBay for like five bucks. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna I'm going
to go back and play it. After an hour, I'm like, I
can't do this, and I just I don't play it and everyone says it's
amazing and I can't play it for some reason. I mean, at this
point, just go on YouTube and watch like right now, watch watch a
commentary free. Well, I think for me, I guess it's a little
bit of a different direction, but I think it boils down the time for
me, Like because the the games that I want to play are all like
fifty to one hundred hour RPGs, and I want to play all of them.
I am like, I'm so hungry to replay all of Final Fantasy.
Be Like, Okay, I'm older now, I can understand the context to
these games a lot better because they are heavy stories, not just like some
all fantastical willy nilly bullshit. There's actually some deep storytelling in those games,
and I want to replay all them, but it's a time investment. I'm
trying to play through all like the Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold
Steel games, and I absolutely love them so much and I want to do
it. It is required material for myself to live with myself, but I
need time. So this really boils down to just having time, and like,
how do I deal with it? Well, Actually, for me,
this whole thing is what kind of keeps me excited about playing games, Like
I feel like there's always something waiting for me. There's always a game to
play, There's always something to look forward to. So I'm like consistently excited
about having time to play games. I'm never like sitting down, like,
damn video games, what do I play? I don't know what to play?
Like, I always have something I want. I'm very eager to jump
into. It's just a matter of time, so I think as well though,
speaking of time, it's the being essentially locked indoors much has definitely made
me think about the way that, like pre COVID life, I guess where
it's like, did I miss an opportunity because I did this? Did I
waste time doing this? And I feel like now just to have all this
time to relect on it. And so if you're playing a game and you
don't enjoy it, don't spend more time on it just because you feel like
you have to, because there are other games that you could play that you
might enjoy way more and you want to spend that time with it, and
as well, like you're not going to enjoy it, so you're essentially putting
yourself through this agonizing thing just because you've put that pressure on yourself. If
you feel like you really need to play the Witches series and you can't get
into it. Like I said, like they do a thing on YouTube.
There's an entire subreddit called video game Movies where they just take all the cut
scenes together, but they put all the like important conversation pieces through and there
will one hundred percent be a Witcher version of that. And then maybe you
can try Assassin of Kings and you maybe you'll enjoy that way more like,
don't feel like you have to play a game just for the sake of playing
it if you don't enjoy it. Yeah. I do get the sentiment though,
where it's like I really want to play, you know, for example,
the Witch I three, but I don't want to play or I don't
want to play it without having played one and two beforehand, which is something
I think I probably used to struggle with a lot. But Yeah, in
recent times, it's just come down to time and like it's really just a
matter of like do I actually want to sit through and play these Like for
example, I was going to stream through all the Residueval games because I'd only
played like four and six or four and five and seven, and I was
gonna play through all of them. And I played through most of one.
By the time I finished one, I was like, Nah, like,
I don't really want to I don't really want to go through with this.
As much as I enjoyed one, and as much as I've enjoyed the other
ones, like it just it just doesn't seem like a good use of my
time. So yeah, I don't know that that's a tricky question, but
I'd say that the game for me that that's happened to is Final Fantasy seven.
It's a game that I definitely feel like I know to play, especially
since I did enjoy the remake and I want to see the differences, especially
since there's what two more Final Fantasy seven remakes maybe three more Final Fantasy seven
remakes on the way. I definitely want to see where all of that came
from. But like, I don't know. I played the first couple hours
of seven, and I was like, yeah, I don't know if I'm
gonna able to make it through this whole game. Damn, I hate to
see it my Inspreath of the Wild. I wasn't gonna say that because I
was worried about the feedback. You're in a safe space, in space like
I can appreciate how good it is, and I really enjoy playing it.
For me. If I don't have a path like it's awful, if I
don't have that dotted line to follow, I will just get distracted and I
won't I won't do it like I just get distracted, and that's It's It's
weird that there's been this real big conversation about people with ADHD recently, and
I just feel like maybe it's me as an anxious person. I don't think
I have ADHD, but like I noticed that, I just my attention just
goes and I it's terrible, and like Breath of the Wild is a game
that I absolutely keep meaning to get back to because I respect it alone,
I know how much other people love it. Michael, you're pulling a face.
I'm so sorry. I don't have that much attachment to it. But
I'm just thinking back to twenty seventeen when we had our Game of the Year
discussions and just like how everyone absolutely loved it. It was unanimously like voted
as our game of the year. No conversations would touch that game. Even
my ass who was just like Persona five is the greatest game of all time.
Hey, look we got Persona into two, don't worry about it.
Yeah, yeah, so I was out of the way. So yeah,
and that's how happy I was. I was like, okay, two's great.
No one's touching Breath of the Wild. There's like mad respect about it.
So like I haven't or I played the game. I've finished it.
But like when I hear people who haven't played it or haven't completed it,
I'm just like someone's gonna considering. So my boyfriend is such a huge Breath
of the Wild fan. He has Zelda tattoos, he has the whole This
dude has video game tattoos. What a loser. Kind of sad that we're
not We're not a video anymore. But that was a great goog though.
No, but like it's this thing that I think I want to do with
him, or at least have my switch and go. Look, I'm doing
it just because I know he loves it so much. We all we all
got our gaming like gaps, and it's fine, it's okay, it's okay
if you haven't played the most popular game. Uh, it's it's all right.
I don't have to play everything. Well, anyway, I think that's
as good a place as I need to end episode fifty four Game Spot after
Dark. Thank you all so much for joining me, and thank you Paris
for joining us this week. That was was a lot of fun here to
talk about some cyberpunk before we go, though, Paris. Anything you want
to plug? Where can people find you? On Twitter? Whatever? Whatever
you gotta say? Sure so. Easy place to find me because I'm always
rambling about something is on Twitter. That's at Vicious six nine six. Like
I mentioned, our podcast is gamer Tag Radio. We're everywhere Spotify, Apple
Podcasts, anywhere that you get your podcast. Just search for Gamertag Radio.
And I'm going to selfishly plug my YouTube channel because with the pandemic, I've
really been paid attention to it. So just search my name Pa double Rs
you'll you'll find me and I talk a lot of cyberpunk on there, so
if you like cyberpunk, you might want to check it out. Yeah,
you got like an hour long preview based on your game plan. Yeah.
Yeah, I could not believe I talked that. Lucy, where can people
find you? And are you up to anything this week? I am.
I'm on Twitter at Lucy James Games. We're launching a new show. It'll
be out today it'll be up by the time this podcast is up. Coll
Generation Next all about PS four, PS five and Xbox Series X se you
messed up on the one that you shouldn't have messed up on, Like the
Series X is the one that I feel like everyone messes up on. We
recorded today and we were literally just joking about how difficult it's going to be,
especially because the the Xbox Series S seems to have leaked through that controller
packaging, and so people are like, Oh, wouldn't it be funny if
we messed it up? And then Tam immediately messed it up, and I've
just messed up PS four PS five. So great start, but it's very
fun. It's me, Tam and Jordan. We're talking about like the big
news of the week as well as getting into some fun features. This week,
we're talking about games from this current gen that you know, you've got
a few weeks of like quiet time. You need to hit these games before
next Gen, So please watch, come leave us comments, come chat with
us about it on the discord. It's YouTube dot Com, slash Game Spot
and Michael h A couple of things to plug I think this week, as
I talked about Final Fantasy fourteen is huge. By the time this goes up,
I have a lot of coverage on it, a lot of spoiler stuff
if you want to check that out for the very few who actually have made
it to the end of that, but also like some beginner stuff. I'm
going to collab Jean Luke on a video version of some of those things.
But yeah, it's that. Also, by the time the weekend wells around,
I'll have a big feature on She Dreams Elsewhere, gained by my good
friend Davion Gooden. I'm very excited for that game. He is He's a
great dude. Had a wonderful interview with him. We talked about some real
shit in that interview, so it's gonna be very fascinating. I want people
to read that really get some insight on what it's like to be a solo
dev, what it's like to put your own voice in it, especially as
a BPOC. So that's going to be a very fascinating thing to put together
and finally put out there. Also, I want to give shout out to
GTR Game Attag Radio. You know it's funny. We talked about it before
we started recording, but I've only been on it recently, but I've been
following Parish and Danny, Penya and Pete Toledo and y'all have a very good
dynamic that I think a lot of people should should at least, you know,
check out, especially you, Paris. You'd be beefing with Danny all
the time. It is the funniest shit, though, because I missed my
homies back home so much, and y'all dynamic reminds me exactly of that.
Even you and Ka going back and forth about Ribs the funniest shit to me.
It's the funniest shit to me. Oh yeah, I love them both
and Danny. Danny is the reason I'm even into gaming at all because gamer
tag Radio Back in two thousand and five when he started it, I used
to listen to it and we became friends. God, we've been been friends
for fourteen years, so it's really like a brotherhood thing at this point.
Even even with Kad and the whole Ribs you were on Twitter, oh man,
But yeah, shouts out to y'all. Y'all doing really good work and
I just enjoy all the bullshit that you'll post on the timeline. Thank you
appreciate that. Yeah, Oh you can find me at Jacob dec I don't.
I don't tweet too much anymore because I'm tired of Twitter discourse. But
we do have On hopefully Saturday, we're gonna have a cyberpunk Lore video all
about Arisaka. We already have two up right now, one about the early
history of night City and one about Johnny Silverhand. The third one will be
Arisaka. Lucy just recorded view for that today so makes it up in time.
And then we also have a video breaking down game spots experience of the
three different life paths. So if you're curious you're still trying to forgere ou
which life path you want to pick when the game comes out, take a
look at that video might help you out. But anyway, we'll see y'all
next week soon to return to