Speaker 1: You will listening to game Spot after Dark episode one
Speaker 1: one one. That's right, we've done one hundred and one
Speaker 1: episodes and what didn't you know? We were also highlighted
Speaker 1: as one of the gaming podcasts that listens to by
Speaker 1: the Apple podcast Twitter page, a surprise to many of us.
Speaker 1: It was nice, it was love it. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm surprised they picked us. But if anything, that is
Speaker 1: an official seal of quality. But you shouldn't be persuaded
Speaker 1: away from recommending the podcast to other people. So make
Speaker 1: sure you go to Apple and up vote and review
Speaker 1: and subscribe and share it so we can get even higher.
Speaker 1: Let's crush all the other podcasts out there, all the
Speaker 1: other worthless podcasts that were in our category, like what
Speaker 1: is this one called? Giant bomb cast? Bullshit? Get rid
Speaker 1: of it. I am joined by I'm your host Tamo saying,
Speaker 1: joined as always by Jean Luke Snipeke, how.
Speaker 2: Do you do? Baby?
Speaker 1: I love it?
Speaker 2: Different of it? I like that one. I like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a good one. It was good. That voice,
Speaker 1: of course, is the one and only newly minted twitch
Speaker 1: streamer twitch dot tv. Lucy James games Hi, thank.
Speaker 3: You well, I mean Tom is doing more to pip
Speaker 3: my streams than I are. I'm like sliding twenty dollars
Speaker 3: across the internet by Venmoir.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and for making his debut on the Game Spot
Speaker 1: after our podcast. It is the one and Only. You
Speaker 1: may have seen seen him on YouTube dot com for
Speaker 1: Slash Game Spot doing intelligent, smart analysis of mental health
Speaker 1: and video games. It is Chris Morris.
Speaker 4: Hello, the one and Only Chris Morris.
Speaker 5: The One and Menace Morris.
Speaker 1: That's what we call it.
Speaker 5: I have some kind of wrestling though, like Chris the Menace.
Speaker 1: Morris, Chris the Menace Morris, Chris the Mental Health men Morris.
Speaker 4: The Mental health Menace is anything I'm trying to I'm
Speaker 4: trying to do the opposite healthy.
Speaker 5: I just said menace in general.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we're gonna go with the Menace Chris. Of course.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you listen to this. Should you
Speaker 1: listen to the show?
Speaker 4: Chris? Yeah. I was really kind of put off by
Speaker 4: the fact that the theme tune didn't kick in right
Speaker 4: the start there, because I'm just so used to used
Speaker 4: to that coming in. Also, is no one else going
Speaker 4: to mention the fact that Tam you said it was
Speaker 4: episode one one one and then said we've done one
Speaker 4: hundred and one episodes.
Speaker 1: Is that what I said?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh mate, absolutely biffed it. Don't take let's throw all
Speaker 1: of this away. Let's throw all of this away.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, like one on one, like
Speaker 3: the non emergency number here in the UK because we
Speaker 3: have a British majority.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the British majority.
Speaker 1: Finally, how does it feel, Jean Luke, how does it feel?
Speaker 1: I'm terrible with numbers, so I'm not at all surprised
Speaker 1: at myself for looking at those numbers and then incorrectly
Speaker 1: speaking them.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean I might be wrong because no
Speaker 4: one else put it up. So if I am wrong,
Speaker 4: just cut out, because I don't want the first thing.
Speaker 5: For me staying in regardless, staying in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the menace and getting numbers wrong, Chris, As with
Speaker 1: all first times, you have a we have a little
Speaker 1: segment that we call the Chris from day In Ohio
Speaker 1: segment Chris, which has the theme tune that goes like
Speaker 1: but uh back. We are like ninety nine percent sure
Speaker 1: that Chris from Dayton, Ohio doesn't listen to us anymore,
Speaker 1: because we've reached out to him via this podcast to
Speaker 1: give us signs of life, and he has not. But
Speaker 1: he introduced this thing. He messaged in and I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know any of you, and this podcast seems
Speaker 1: all right, But I don't know any of you. Who
Speaker 1: are you? What do you like? So, Chris, but the
Speaker 1: people who don't know you like, we know you. Tell
Speaker 1: us what you do at GameSpot. Tell us what you like,
Speaker 1: what games you like? What what rustles your Jimmy's, what
Speaker 1: helps you put in the morning? You know, one of
Speaker 1: the things that you love.
Speaker 4: Wow, what an introduction. I'm Chris. I'm a video producer
Speaker 4: here at GameSpot in the UK, permanently in the UK,
Speaker 4: not just a flying visit like Lucy and Tam. I'm
Speaker 4: sticking in.
Speaker 5: Can you call it five months of live visit?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So let's not go Let's not forget the fact
Speaker 1: that Lucy was born and raised there and I lived
Speaker 1: there for most of my life.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you've left us, so you're basically dead to us.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I make videos, all kinds of videos, really, but you
Speaker 4: may have seen me talking about time splitters or mental
Speaker 4: health or some other kind of psychology adjacent things. And
Speaker 4: I've also worked on some of the shows we've made
Speaker 4: over the past couple of years, like Load Out, Audiologus,
Speaker 4: remember when. There's probably some others that I'm forgetting.
Speaker 3: And I just watched an episode of Expert Reacts you
Speaker 3: edited as.
Speaker 4: Well, so that is true. Yeah, if you're listening to
Speaker 4: this on Friday and you're a fan of the work
Speaker 4: of our friend Jonathan Ferguson, then and look out for
Speaker 4: that the usual time and place on YouTube. It's a
Speaker 4: good episode.
Speaker 5: I hope it's good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, he's on. He's on spicy form.
Speaker 3: I think he's very spicy. Even calls himself out. He's like,
Speaker 3: I'm being I'm being very nitpicky today.
Speaker 1: You Yeah.
Speaker 4: In fact, a little bit behind the scenes trivia, he
Speaker 4: had just had a packet of Mexican spicy rice before
Speaker 4: we started recording, So perhaps that is exactly want to.
Speaker 1: He's so British that simply eating something spicy changed his
Speaker 1: very demeanor. Yeah, that's how Brita's reactive food.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So what are the things that what the Chris
Speaker 4: from Day in Ohio thinks?
Speaker 1: What? What games do you love? What things do you love?
Speaker 1: What games, movies, whatever? What defines Chris Morris. We talked
Speaker 1: about this. I talked the aout the other day. If
Speaker 1: if if you were an RPG character and you were
Speaker 1: on RPG NPC and you were killed, and the game
Speaker 1: was designed for like the loot that was found on
Speaker 1: you would be a representation of who you are. What
Speaker 1: ship would they find in there in your backpack? Let's
Speaker 1: talk about media specifically, that would be Leia, I get
Speaker 1: a feel for what this person is.
Speaker 4: Hmm, okay, well I reckon certainly. I mean the easy
Speaker 4: answers would be things like Bloodborne or Discolysium, which you
Speaker 4: know is very much preaching to the choir I think
Speaker 4: on this podcast. So I'm going to say something a
Speaker 4: little bit different and go with I think I would
Speaker 4: drop an anthology collection of the roller Coaster Tycoon games
Speaker 4: because they are like the defining or you know, they're
Speaker 4: there have been the constants I was about. I don't know,
Speaker 4: whenever we got our first computer back in my family
Speaker 4: my dad's house, roder Coasta, Tycoon two, three Planet Coaster Parchitect. Yeah,
Speaker 4: they are great. I think they're just like I was
Speaker 4: thinking the other day, like how many games are there
Speaker 4: where you where you're just like creating stuff rather than
Speaker 4: destroying it and specifically just things to make people happy.
Speaker 4: There are so few games which are just about like
Speaker 4: bringing joy to people, which I think is really which
Speaker 4: is really sweet.
Speaker 3: Do you know that was the original picture of the
Speaker 3: SIMS as well. It was meant to be like in
Speaker 3: the original SIMS game, you had all of your your
Speaker 3: sort of mass mass Love's hierarchy of needs, but you
Speaker 3: also had one for just like how nice your house was,
Speaker 3: and so it's like that was kind of one of
Speaker 3: the mini games within the SIMS. It is like making
Speaker 3: a house that your sim thought was nice.
Speaker 4: And much like with Roder Coast Tycoon, the first thing
Speaker 4: everyone does is like set someone on fire in a
Speaker 4: one by one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Paul Ladder in it.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, stick a roller coaster that just flies a
Speaker 4: one hundred miles an hour into a crowd of people.
Speaker 4: All those sorts of things that people do.
Speaker 1: What about Chris a movie and a TV show? M hm,
Speaker 1: well movie.
Speaker 4: I am a big fan of the Coen Brothers, so
Speaker 4: I'd probably go with Inside Lowyn Davis.
Speaker 1: Because I'm a big fan of films.
Speaker 4: Is oh mate, if you're a fan of Oscar Isaac.
Speaker 4: Oscar Isaac has never looked finer more when he was
Speaker 4: inside lowin DA when he was playing Lowyn Davis.
Speaker 1: That phrasing, Isaac has never looked finer than when he
Speaker 1: was inside.
Speaker 3: Yeah he's Oh actually, no way. I did see a
Speaker 3: picture of him smoking a cigarette and window Yeah, okay, good. However,
Speaker 3: I would say, do you know he looks unbelievable in June?
Speaker 4: Hmm, yeah, that is true.
Speaker 5: But I mean I'm.
Speaker 1: John Trouser snake or is this just uh, I'm on
Speaker 1: Google while Lucy is uh having a trip down and
Speaker 1: sync memory lane? Give us a TV show mate? Uh?
Speaker 4: Dark?
Speaker 1: Yes? Yes, I'm with Dark, Yes mate.
Speaker 4: The first few months as a game spot in the
Speaker 4: UK a couple of years ago, I was banging on
Speaker 4: about Dark and everyone thought I was a tedious bastard
Speaker 4: and they were.
Speaker 1: I listened. I listened.
Speaker 5: Dark watched it eventually.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I listened. I got there eventually, and you
Speaker 1: are right. It is incredible. It's just usual.
Speaker 4: A teen ninety nine. I think they're still making it.
Speaker 4: They're doing it. I read this week they're filming it
Speaker 4: on like a volume like they do with Mandalorian, like
Speaker 4: the big led wall thing that they have, which is
Speaker 4: interesting because especially I think Dark is like the best
Speaker 4: looking TV show I've ever seen, and a big part
Speaker 4: of that is where they shoot it in these like
Speaker 4: amazing German forests. So it'd be interesting to see if
Speaker 4: they can do the same kind of visually striking thing
Speaker 4: with eighteen ninety nine. But yeah, everyone should watch Dark
Speaker 4: every everyone. I think. I think everyone thinks it's like
Speaker 4: German Stranger Things, but it's so much better than Stranger Things.
Speaker 1: Oh, the Stranger Things is like not even close to
Speaker 1: as good as that is, like the thing that I saw,
Speaker 1: Like every time I see it, I'm like, this is
Speaker 1: somehow just intensely death stranding vibe. It's like, yeah, it
Speaker 1: looks it looks so much like death Stranding or vice
Speaker 1: versa that like, sometimes I think Kajima must have thee.
Speaker 1: There's no way, because like Norman Readers's character like Sundporter
Speaker 1: Bridges and a character in almost the name The Stranger,
Speaker 1: they look the same. I was like, oh shit, this
Speaker 1: is the same, like we're in the backpack everything. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that show is incredible as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and certainly for the first I think couple of series.
Speaker 4: It's one of those shows that kind of you can
Speaker 4: have a scene where nothing much happens, but the kind
Speaker 4: of implications of it, like within the context to show,
Speaker 4: are huge, and the telltale sign is always like someone
Speaker 4: will like pick up a piece of paper and look
Speaker 4: at it, and then the score will come in with
Speaker 4: this like absolutely haunting, like based synth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of bass and synth, let's move on to
Speaker 1: a game that has a soundtrack with a hell of
Speaker 1: a lot of bass and synth, some saxophone, a bit
Speaker 1: of jazz. Well, of course, talking about Death Loop, the
Speaker 1: big game of the week. Everyone here has been playing it.
Speaker 1: My opinions of it are thoroughly documented now at this
Speaker 1: point on the video game website www dot GameSpot dot com,
Speaker 1: where I gave it a ten out of ten and
Speaker 1: called it an essential video game, importantly for the crybabies
Speaker 1: that have been in my mention on the internet. I
Speaker 1: didn't say it was perfect. I said it was essential,
Speaker 1: and I stand by that. I'm going to go to
Speaker 1: Lucy first. Lucy, what do you think of it? Talk
Speaker 1: to us about Death Loop.
Speaker 3: I'm in the same boat as you, I feel, because
Speaker 3: there's I mean, when we were filming last week, I'd
Speaker 3: already was it last week the week before I'd already
Speaker 3: finished it. My opinion of it is unchanged. I fully
Speaker 3: I am in agreement with you about the ten out
Speaker 3: of ten. I think it is wonderful. These an incredible game.
Speaker 3: I've been having more fun now as Juliana invading people,
Speaker 3: which is because I wasn't really turned on for like
Speaker 3: a lot of the time that I had code ahead
Speaker 3: of release, and so that is just like a very
Speaker 3: very fun, like completely optional multiplayer mode, and I've really
Speaker 3: been enjoyed because I'm not very good at it. Sometimes
Speaker 3: I feel like I can do really well. I did
Speaker 3: feel so bad I invaded this person. Dave, my housemate,
Speaker 3: was getting a bed delivered, and he was like, can
Speaker 3: you help me take my current bed and put it outside?
Speaker 3: And I was like, yeah, I'll put it like in
Speaker 3: another room. I was like, yeah, yeah, I've just loaded
Speaker 3: into this game and it loaded me in and I
Speaker 3: was like, I'm just gonna hide and I'll get mad
Speaker 3: points for like just existing and just being alive. And
Speaker 3: so Dave and I took us like twenty minutes through
Speaker 3: this bed down and then I went down and I
Speaker 3: was still alive, like the person hadn't found me. So
Speaker 3: I went and found them and they were in the
Speaker 3: middle of killing all the Wendies and I think they
Speaker 3: had one or two left, and I and there was
Speaker 3: a roof hatch and I just popped in and just
Speaker 3: snapped his neck and then waited for him to you know,
Speaker 3: rupries back, and then obviously hold down on the on
Speaker 3: the dpad, and I alerted the final Wenji's to his position,
Speaker 3: and then we all just shot him. And I felt
Speaker 3: really bad, but I got Hella points.
Speaker 1: So loosely is out there being a menace on the
Speaker 1: servers for Death Loop Chris, you started it recently, right,
Speaker 1: what do you reckon a bit?
Speaker 4: Yes, so I've played maybe three or four hours, I think,
Speaker 4: and I like it. I've never played an arcade game before,
Speaker 4: which I think is probably really a bit of a
Speaker 4: unique position, certainly on this podcast, and there's no kind
Speaker 4: of reason for that. Like I always thought I would
Speaker 4: enjoy Dishonored and Pray, but I just never got round
Speaker 4: to playing them for one reason or another. And there's
Speaker 4: a lot that I really like about it. I think
Speaker 4: it's so stylish and it feels like such a confident game,
Speaker 4: like the retro future aesthetic of it is brilliant, Like
Speaker 4: you said, The soundtrack is great. It kind of reminds
Speaker 4: me of in a weird way, like Thirteen, but toned down,
Speaker 4: like the kind of the kind of slightly unreal art
Speaker 4: style and like when everything is like flowing it's it
Speaker 4: feels really fantastic, although I haven't had that much of
Speaker 4: that because I'm still not very good at the game.
Speaker 4: I'm just still kind of figuring it out.
Speaker 5: But are you stealthy? Are you stealthy on going or
Speaker 5: guns blazing?
Speaker 4: I'm definitely stealthy, And I mean that's not that's that's
Speaker 4: a horrible term. I've just realized you've walked into that track.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a bad term. Now, how do you play.
Speaker 4: Taking this stealthy route? Yes? And yeah, I think part
Speaker 4: of that is just because I want to kind of
Speaker 4: explore each area and there's it feels very dense, like
Speaker 4: there's lots of buildings to go in and out of,
Speaker 4: little hidden corridors and pathways and things like that, and
Speaker 4: all that stuff's quite fun and I'm really enjoying just
Speaker 4: kind of untangling the world and trying to figure things out.
Speaker 4: It feels a bit like the kind of wider setting
Speaker 4: of it feels a bit discollesian to me, like this
Speaker 4: kind of I'm getting the sense that there's lots of
Speaker 4: like political stuff going on that you're not going to
Speaker 4: see for a long time. Like there's hints of like
Speaker 4: that it used to be an army outpost and things
Speaker 4: like that. So I'm very keen to kind of figure
Speaker 4: that all out. Then again, I did only play Disco
Speaker 4: Liesium like two months ago, so it might be that
Speaker 4: I just want everything to be on the brain. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I do think like for me as an arcane novice,
Speaker 4: I don't think it when it starts, I don't think
Speaker 4: it puts its best foot forward in terms of kind
Speaker 4: of starting you very underpowered, because I felt for a
Speaker 4: few hours it was kind of frustrating going around these
Speaker 4: areas and there are very obvious routes that are kind
Speaker 4: of tied to powers that you don't have access to,
Speaker 4: and I felt like I was being kind of funneled
Speaker 4: down kind of going in the front door a lot.
Speaker 4: And yeah, and like I totally understand that, and it's
Speaker 4: but I guess I want it to be a bit more.
Speaker 4: I was hoping it was going to be a bit
Speaker 4: more kind of the hit Man free form vibe like
Speaker 4: one of the first things I did when you first
Speaker 4: get to Updam, which is like one of the first
Speaker 4: things that you do or the first kind of area
Speaker 4: that you go into. One of the first things I
Speaker 4: did was turn off the waypoints because I wanted to
Speaker 4: kind of like figure out stuff myself, like where I
Speaker 4: was going and all that kind of thing. And that
Speaker 4: works really well just for that one objective because you
Speaker 4: get like a postcard which says which gives you an address,
Speaker 4: like a vague location and a picture of where it is.
Speaker 4: And so that was great because I was like figuring
Speaker 4: out where this thing was and it says, oh, Juliana
Speaker 4: says something about it being by the cliffs, and I
Speaker 4: was like, oh, brilliant, I'm going to figure that out.
Speaker 4: But that doesn't really apply to any of the other
Speaker 4: objectives in the rest of the game. And so that
Speaker 4: I found.
Speaker 1: So far, Yeah, not for the main objectives.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I guess I'm missing that thing where you
Speaker 4: can pick up a clue and then examine it and
Speaker 4: like really piece together something yourself. And it's more like
Speaker 4: you pick up something and it just opens up a
Speaker 4: new waypoint for you. So I think, yeah, I don't
Speaker 4: know that's like a very kind of like minor thing
Speaker 4: because I'm still enjoying it a lot.
Speaker 1: You get way more of that with the other leads
Speaker 1: and objectives. I think that I think their goal is
Speaker 1: like always have the main objective pointed out, and even
Speaker 1: if you kind of like turn it off, they make
Speaker 1: it obvious. But I do remember a bunch of things
Speaker 1: like that are like sub objectives that will feed eventually
Speaker 1: into some of the main objectives. But that felt a
Speaker 1: little more like, Oh, I've accidentally stumbled upon this thing.
Speaker 1: I'm going to figure it out and then go from there.
Speaker 1: Some of them are like arsenal things, and some of
Speaker 1: them are because it tells you it's got the same
Speaker 1: kind of like quest chain system for weapons and abilities
Speaker 1: and that kind of stuff, and there is a bit
Speaker 1: more of that in there, So I do think that
Speaker 1: you won't be completely without that, But yeah, it is
Speaker 1: I think that the tricky part of it is like
Speaker 1: aimlessness is not part of the design in terms of
Speaker 1: his his thing is like, narratively speaking, the objective is
Speaker 1: to do something swiftly and and figure it out in
Speaker 1: a way that the empowerment comes from doing something quickly.
Speaker 1: If you get what I mean, yeah, it's the same.
Speaker 1: It's the same reason that a lot of people have
Speaker 1: like replied to me, being like, the AI sucks, why
Speaker 1: did you give it a ten? And like my response
Speaker 1: to that always is, the AI doesn't suck. The AI
Speaker 1: serves a purpose and you just don't understand what that
Speaker 1: purpose is within the grandest scheme of the game, because
Speaker 1: the AI is just challenging enough to take you out,
Speaker 1: but it's not a dark cells enemy system where it's
Speaker 1: not trying to put our brick walls in front of
Speaker 1: you because that ruins the momentum that it's trying to build.
Speaker 1: And I think it has a similar kind of approach
Speaker 1: in terms of that kind of how guided it is
Speaker 1: because of it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the enemies are definitely there for you to have
Speaker 4: fun with, aren't they. Exactly? You don't. It's not an
Speaker 4: accident that half of them are kind of stood looking
Speaker 4: out over a cliff and with your back with they're
Speaker 4: back to the pissing into the wind, right exactly. There's
Speaker 4: just every kind of encounter seems to be set up
Speaker 4: to like it's the opposite of the dart Souls because
Speaker 4: it's not there to kind of like teach you something.
Speaker 4: It's just there for you to like have fun, like
Speaker 4: use your power, see you know, see see what you
Speaker 4: can do.
Speaker 3: And it's also like the start stop nature of it
Speaker 3: in that, like in Dishonored, I feel like if you
Speaker 3: would accidentally muck up a stealth section, everyone would be
Speaker 3: on you and it would just be like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: that's that you. You'd have the feeling of like, oh
Speaker 3: that's that ruined, that run ruined, whereas in this one,
Speaker 3: it's like it kind of calms down way more forgiving,
Speaker 3: and it's like they don't even talk to each other.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to kind of get myself in that frame
Speaker 4: of mind, I think, because certainly I think the first
Speaker 4: what the boss character is called the visionaries Visionaries. The
Speaker 4: first visionary that I took out is, I mean, without
Speaker 4: wanting to kind of like go into spoilers, he's set
Speaker 4: up in a mansion that's been turned into like a
Speaker 4: role playing game.
Speaker 5: Sign Oh you weren't there first.
Speaker 1: That's interesting.
Speaker 5: He's my favorite. He's my favorite.
Speaker 1: That's the same one I went to first because of that.
Speaker 1: I knew the power he has because of the and
Speaker 1: I was like I need that power.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I got that power earlier because I killed
Speaker 4: Juliana when she invaded me.
Speaker 5: But you couldn't infuse it right.
Speaker 4: No, and I couldn't, but but I had like ten
Speaker 4: minutes of using that power and then I was instantly like,
Speaker 4: I can't live with that. This I need to figure out.
Speaker 4: But in that one, that was kind of like I did.
Speaker 4: I did a lot of the stealth, like most of
Speaker 4: the way up the building. But then when I think
Speaker 4: specifically with him, when he panics, do you get everybody
Speaker 4: coming after you? And so that's that's quite good that
Speaker 4: I'm glad to hear that. It's not always the case
Speaker 4: that that happens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that one as well, Like when you do that run,
Speaker 3: when stuff goes south, it it goes south in that
Speaker 3: place very very quickly, because there is there is like
Speaker 3: a narrative reason why it does go That sounds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, John Luke, you've been playing a bit of it.
Speaker 1: What do you make of it so far?
Speaker 2: I am having a fantastic time with it so far,
Speaker 2: with a couple weird technical issues. I started it on
Speaker 2: PS five and then I ended up switching over a
Speaker 2: PC because originally I was gonna play with Georgia and
Speaker 2: then she was like, ah, this isn't really that interesting
Speaker 2: to watch. So I was like, oh'll just play it
Speaker 2: on my own and I switch over to PC because
Speaker 2: I prefer playing these games on PC. I like the
Speaker 2: precision controls, a get mouse and keyboard. But I haven't
Speaker 2: getting like a couple of weird technical issues like some
Speaker 2: crashes and stuff like that. Nothing like that's been like
Speaker 2: outright ruining my time with the game. But just like
Speaker 2: I'm a little like eh, like like I'm it says
Speaker 2: something about the quality of the game that I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm powering through it regardless, where like maybe other other games,
Speaker 2: I would like give it a couple more days of
Speaker 2: like I'll give it a give it a day for
Speaker 2: them to patch it out. Meanwhile, I'm like constantly thinking
Speaker 2: about Death Loop and just wanting to keep playing it.
Speaker 2: Like I like, the first night I played it, I
Speaker 2: went to sleep and I had a dream where I
Speaker 2: was in a death loop, like a just completely like
Speaker 2: enveloped my brain. I don't know I was. I was
Speaker 2: really tired when I that night, so maybe I was
Speaker 2: just I was just on one. My brain was just
Speaker 2: playing tricks on me. But uh, yeah, I don't really
Speaker 2: know what to say that you guys like haven't already
Speaker 2: said about other than like it's it's fucking fantastic because
Speaker 2: it's really.
Speaker 1: Good at its almost it's almost kind of annoying in
Speaker 1: it because like what if a game, you get a
Speaker 1: game that's good, uh, and you can but like has
Speaker 1: some issues, you can talk about it. But when a
Speaker 1: game is this good, it's just like, yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: it's just really good. Man. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've just heard you guys talking about the last
Speaker 2: couple of weeks in the podcast. Now I'm playing it
Speaker 2: and I'm like, yeah, yeah, they're right, They're right about everything.
Speaker 2: It's real. It's real damn good. I oh boy, I
Speaker 2: uh I did if it real bad?
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: When I was playing last night, I had just gotten
Speaker 2: the ability to infuse, and it was like, ah, perfect,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go on this great run. And I went
Speaker 2: on this like fantastic run where I like I soaked
Speaker 2: up like a ton of a ton of what do
Speaker 2: they call like the infusing residuum, and then I was
Speaker 2: like all right, I gotta leave now so that I
Speaker 2: can spend these points. And then on the way out
Speaker 2: I got killed and then it was like not thinking
Speaker 2: about it and I was like, oh, I just got
Speaker 2: to leave so that I can uh infuse all this
Speaker 2: stuff and didn't. I didn't go back to my body.
Speaker 2: So I went I went back and I was like,
Speaker 2: all right, time to infuse all this stuff I got,
Speaker 2: I got powers, I got guns, and I was like,
Speaker 2: why why is that at zero? Why? Oh I don't know.
Speaker 2: Oh no, So hard Lesson learned?
Speaker 4: Which is which was it at night? As well? Was
Speaker 4: it the last chance that you had during that day
Speaker 4: to do anything?
Speaker 2: I think I know, so I had one more chance,
Speaker 2: and I was like, maybe I'll just go around and
Speaker 2: get some things and then and then I immediately got
Speaker 2: killed and that was my last life. And I was like,
Speaker 2: all right, I'm just gonna go to bed because it's
Speaker 2: twelve thirty. But hard Hard Lesson learned. But that's also
Speaker 2: what I really like about the game is I feel
Speaker 2: like every time I die, I'm just I'm learning new
Speaker 2: things I've been experimenting with, like turning like the objective
Speaker 2: markers off for things that I haven't like, like the
Speaker 2: first time I go through an area because I don't
Speaker 2: want to, Like, I really like that the game does
Speaker 2: tell you like, hey, here's where the person is, and
Speaker 2: it certainly helps later on when you have like so
Speaker 2: many like stray observations and you just need to be like, oh,
Speaker 2: where's that one building that burned down? Like I just
Speaker 2: need to go there again, and you can just like
Speaker 2: click a thing and it tells you where to go.
Speaker 2: I love that, But the first time I'm going through,
Speaker 2: I'm trying it with all that stuff off so that
Speaker 2: I can just sort of like I don't know, like
Speaker 2: soak in the environment and kind of like poke around
Speaker 2: and find things out. So like I think like the
Speaker 2: first quest where you have to find a battery, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: to turn on that projector the battery is like right
Speaker 2: to the left. Because I had the objective marker off,
Speaker 2: I ended up going all the way around the map
Speaker 2: until like I'll bunker like forty minutes later and like
Speaker 2: found a battery there, and then I accidentally exploded that battery,
Speaker 2: and then I spent like another ten minutes searching for
Speaker 2: a different battery, and I was like, man, wow, this
Speaker 2: game is intense, Like just finding this one battery and
Speaker 2: then like I was like, oh, it was right, it
Speaker 2: was right, It was right, But.
Speaker 1: It doesn't look like a battery in any meaningful, Like
Speaker 1: I ran past it like two or three times before
Speaker 1: I realized, oh, it's right there.
Speaker 2: And that is one hundred percent because I specifically turned
Speaker 2: the objective markers off, because I did this when I
Speaker 2: was when I tried on PS five and though I
Speaker 2: switched to PC, I kept the objective marker on and
Speaker 2: it was like, the battery is right there, idiot. This
Speaker 2: was supposed to be easy. You weren't supposed to do
Speaker 2: all that. And I was like, oh, but honestly, I
Speaker 2: like it was cool, like because I got to explore
Speaker 2: a part of the map and like see you know,
Speaker 2: like a hidden rooms and I'm like, oh, like that'll
Speaker 2: be useful later and kind of like taking those mental
Speaker 2: notes and yeah, I think just like the the level
Speaker 2: of freedom the game has in the way it kind
Speaker 2: of like like seeds, you throughout all these areas in
Speaker 2: your and you're like kind of putting the pieces together
Speaker 2: of like, uh, oh, this will be useful later. It
Speaker 2: feels so masterful, like it should be overwhelming. Uh And
Speaker 2: it kind of is a little bit, but I think
Speaker 2: just they do such a smart job of not making
Speaker 2: it like feel overwhelming, if that makes sense. Yeah, damn
Speaker 2: good game. Again, I like it a lot, and I
Speaker 2: really I just want to keep playing it.
Speaker 1: A game you have been playing A lot of though
Speaker 1: that we can talk about is Lost Judgment.
Speaker 2: How is Judgment? Oh, Lost Judgment. I have a lot
Speaker 2: of feelings about it, mostly good, couple a little a
Speaker 2: little negative, but I would say overall it is a
Speaker 2: fantastic RGG game. If you're like RGG games, if you
Speaker 2: like Judgment, I think this game will be a fantastic time.
Speaker 2: Our review already went up by this morning by Richard Wakeling.
Speaker 2: I cut the video review. Go check it out. It's
Speaker 2: really good spoiler free. I kept it spoiler free as possible.
Speaker 2: Something he touched on at the beginning of his review.
Speaker 2: He spent a lot of time on That's probably my
Speaker 2: biggest observation is just how damn good the mini games
Speaker 2: are in this one. That's like kind of the Yakuza series.
Speaker 2: I would say, like the hallmark that makes it stand
Speaker 2: out from like other kind of open ended, open world
Speaker 2: RPG crime games. I don't know, there's there's really nothing
Speaker 2: like Yakuza, but specifically like the mini just the variety
Speaker 2: of mini games and Yakuza games are always so impressive,
Speaker 2: and this one they throw so god damn much at you.
Speaker 2: There is drone racing.
Speaker 1: There is.
Speaker 2: Like a dancing mini game. There is a a robot
Speaker 2: like territory controlled minigame. There's a skateboarding mini game. There's
Speaker 2: a biker minigame. There is the arcade games. They have
Speaker 2: gone all out. They have a a a like House
Speaker 2: of the Dead style like un game which was in
Speaker 2: the first Judgment, but they did like a follow up
Speaker 2: to it, so it's like they have their own like
Speaker 2: in Universe House of the Dead style mini game series.
Speaker 2: They have a ton of really fun obscure mini arcade
Speaker 2: games this time around. They have like the usual ones
Speaker 2: that they normally have, like Space Here and stuff, but
Speaker 2: they have Sonic the Fighters, which is a terrible, terrible
Speaker 2: fighting game, but God bless them for putting it in.
Speaker 2: They also have like they have a couple of really
Speaker 2: good obscure like late era like early two thousands, late nineties,
Speaker 2: like Seguard Kade, which is a lot of fun. Like
Speaker 2: I feel like they're really like pulling from their like
Speaker 2: obscure lexicon of arcade games, which is which is great,
Speaker 2: and all of them like are fantastic, and they so
Speaker 2: they surround them all in this school like sub story
Speaker 2: where Yagami as part of as part of the main quest,
Speaker 2: Yogamy has to go to this this school to investigate
Speaker 2: like some bullying, and then that kind of like ends
Speaker 2: up relating to like the main murder plot. Uh So,
Speaker 2: in order to stay at the school, he becomes an
Speaker 2: outside advisor to the Mystery Research Club, which is like
Speaker 2: a club where this this girl is like I'm going
Speaker 2: to become a detective and I want to solve mysteries.
Speaker 2: And so it spans out into this whole like insane
Speaker 2: subplot where you're trying to find this like mysterious being
Speaker 2: called the professor who's like corrupting the kids and and
Speaker 2: like giving them like he has like a website where
Speaker 2: you can like go on to it and be like
Speaker 2: I want to get revenge on this person, and then
Speaker 2: he'll like give you like some illegal thing that like
Speaker 2: helps them do it. And so he's like he's corrupting
Speaker 2: the youth, and you have to your job is to
Speaker 2: stop him. And so as part of that, Yagami has
Speaker 2: to infiltrate all of these other clubs in the school,
Speaker 2: So you'll like infiltrate the dancing club and it's got
Speaker 2: this fantastic like dancing rhythm mini game. It's really funny
Speaker 2: because so the actor who plays Jagamy is a is
Speaker 2: a dancer, so like obviously like he can dance really well,
Speaker 2: and like that is reflected in the choreography. I assume
Speaker 2: they probably like he maybe helps with it. But in
Speaker 2: the game, Yagam is like, I can't dance at all,
Speaker 2: but I do know kung fu. Let me try, and
Speaker 2: then like he does this like amazing choreo craft dance
Speaker 2: where he mixes kung fu in there. But what's really
Speaker 2: fun is it's not just like, oh, you're going in
Speaker 2: you're just doing mini games. It's they also add in
Speaker 2: these like pretty well written, heartfelt like storylines into each
Speaker 2: quest that has I'm gonna say it mad Persona five vibes.
Speaker 2: They feel like Persona five social links where you're like, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go through. Each person has like a
Speaker 2: different like problem and you're kind of helping them out
Speaker 2: and Yagami's like giving them advice and then you're doing
Speaker 2: like the minigame and that'll progress the your social link
Speaker 2: a little bit more each time. Even the music that
Speaker 2: plays at one point is just has that like same
Speaker 2: like funky poppy persona energy, And I'm sitting there like,
Speaker 2: are you guys this is this on purpose? Did you guys?
Speaker 2: Like you know, go go go a floor over to
Speaker 2: the Atlas people and be like.
Speaker 1: Hey, can we can we copy your homework?
Speaker 2: Can we copy your homework? Just just a little bit?
Speaker 2: But it is that has ended up being like, weirdly
Speaker 2: like the thing I like the most about the game
Speaker 2: because it is massive. You can devote so much time
Speaker 2: to this, to these substories, and like they just they
Speaker 2: don't get old at all, like and it's it's shocking
Speaker 2: to me how much of it is, like because it's
Speaker 2: all completely optional. Like there's the introduction to it at
Speaker 2: the beginning, like as part of the main story, but
Speaker 2: after that you're like you can completely ignore it. And
Speaker 2: but you can. I want to say, you can put
Speaker 2: like a good like twenty hours of this like forty
Speaker 2: to fifty hour game alone into the school stuff if
Speaker 2: you want. Wow, which is crazy. I've just been rambling
Speaker 2: for a hot minute.
Speaker 1: I guess the questions.
Speaker 4: I've never played I've never played a Yakuza game. Judgment. Okay,
Speaker 4: so would this be a good place to jump in?
Speaker 2: Ah, maybe it's so, I will say, well, okay, so
Speaker 2: my my requisite as a Yakaza fan, my my like
Speaker 2: obligated answer is play zero. It's the perfect starting point.
Speaker 2: Judgment itself. The original judgment is also a good starting
Speaker 2: point as well. I would say this one is a
Speaker 2: it's a good starting point in the sense that nothing
Speaker 2: about that game's previous like main case, comes back into
Speaker 2: play in this one. It doesn't spoil it even so,
Speaker 2: like you could kind of play this one without really
Speaker 2: getting spoiled on what happened in the previous case. And
Speaker 2: but but I do think that original game does a
Speaker 2: better job of like introducing the characters and setting them up.
Speaker 2: I think this game's actually kind of got like a
Speaker 2: little bit of a rough intro, Like the first hour
Speaker 2: or two was a little slow, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I don't know about this, But then like once it
Speaker 2: gets going, it got a lot better versus the other game,
Speaker 2: which I the previous judgment, which I thought was like
Speaker 2: a stronger introduction to the character. So I would say
Speaker 2: you totally could, like, I think the game does an
Speaker 2: admirable job of setting it up, but I would still
Speaker 2: in my heart recommend either starting with the original judgment
Speaker 2: or if you really want go back, go back in
Speaker 2: the play yakis zero.
Speaker 1: The thing like a dragon is also a good starting point.
Speaker 2: Like a dragon is also a good starting point until
Speaker 2: it's not at the end.
Speaker 4: But the thing that I always see people saying about
Speaker 4: this this series is like, you know, oh, it's this
Speaker 4: detective game and I spent twenty five hours playing a
Speaker 4: mini game in a like like, I just yeah, it's
Speaker 4: such a it's such a bizarre like as someone who
Speaker 4: has no kind of like context for it, obviously not
Speaker 4: having played the games, it just seems like such a
Speaker 4: bizarre series.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but that mini game, I mean, the one that
Speaker 3: we also rotten after dark is the Club Club Manager,
Speaker 3: and that club is so fucking good, Like I just
Speaker 3: want it as a standalone.
Speaker 2: I think that's the thing is that it's like there
Speaker 2: are so many mini games in these games that and
Speaker 2: you're gonna always find like a couple that you like hate,
Speaker 2: but the game never forces you to play a mini
Speaker 2: game more than maybe like once if that so, Really,
Speaker 2: it's just like I think what I like about the
Speaker 2: games is they just have this like freedom to them
Speaker 2: where it's like you can really decide how much you
Speaker 2: you personally want to spend with that stuff. You can
Speaker 2: absolutely just blow through the main story, do it in
Speaker 2: twenty hours and have like a good video game experience.
Speaker 2: But you can also be like, yeah, but I'm going
Speaker 2: to spend twenty hours at this high school teaching these kids.
Speaker 2: How do I reach these kids how to read? How
Speaker 2: do I reach these kids with the power of friendship
Speaker 2: and being a detective? It's a.
Speaker 4: It does it get on this on the on the
Speaker 4: yak scale, how you know.
Speaker 2: It gets it gets pretty weird. There's some there's a
Speaker 2: h there is a dog detective you get who who
Speaker 2: helps you because he has a he has a nose
Speaker 2: that can specifically, he's been trained all his life to
Speaker 2: to smell mysteries.
Speaker 5: And I'm happy.
Speaker 2: To crimes that you can then solve.
Speaker 1: Is he like the sub story detector in this game?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 2: He is one of many?
Speaker 1: Uh, there's usually they have the they have the the
Speaker 1: little device that will tell you where sub stories.
Speaker 2: Are, right, Yeah, No, there's multiple. So there's like they
Speaker 2: have a they have the dog. They have the online
Speaker 2: social media feed called chatter that also leads you to stuff.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you just find him on the map. You have
Speaker 2: the school stuff. Like there are so many different avenues
Speaker 2: to get side stuff. There is a one objective of
Speaker 2: there's a series of minigames involving or sorry, of side
Speaker 2: stories involving a uh uh. It's called the uh I
Speaker 2: forget his name. He's the Dastardly Detective and he runs
Speaker 2: the Illegal Detective Agency and he does uh he gives
Speaker 2: people illegal things to for. He's not really detective, he's
Speaker 2: just giving people things to do, like crimes. But he's
Speaker 2: like Yogamy. He's like evil Yogamy and you're like trying
Speaker 2: to like stop him. That's like a whole series of
Speaker 2: sub stories you can do. There's uh, there's a whole
Speaker 2: boxing sub story where you go to this like uh
Speaker 2: boxing club. That's that's all like you know ex cons
Speaker 2: who are her you know, just trying to like find
Speaker 2: a new life and they're finding their outlet through boxing,
Speaker 2: and Yogamy can box with them. And it's got its
Speaker 2: own separate like skill menu that you can put points into,
Speaker 2: and it's got its a whole separate mechanic like it
Speaker 2: like you'd think like, oh, we'll just take the fighting
Speaker 2: the normal fighting mechanic and put into the boxing thing
Speaker 2: like No, they built an entirely separate combat system for
Speaker 2: this one thing. And you're like, and it's good, You're
Speaker 2: You're It's like, it's it's insane. How how good all
Speaker 2: the mini games are at this one? I think like
Speaker 2: the quality is top tier. Uh, it's fantastic.
Speaker 1: I think the You can read all full review of
Speaker 1: Last Judgment on games dot com. Richard Waitling reviewed it
Speaker 1: for us and gave it a seven and said a
Speaker 1: lot of similar things to what you were saying. Very
Speaker 1: minigame heavy, a lot of it fun and tries to
Speaker 1: tackle some heavy themes. Does it okay that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? That's the one thing I wanted to touch on
Speaker 2: was the the the theme so the game. This is
Speaker 2: where I give like the big warning is that the
Speaker 2: game uh talks a lot about bullying and sexual battery
Speaker 2: and it does uh go into that stuff in to
Speaker 2: to a level that I wasn't expecting, Like you you
Speaker 2: don't with the with the bullying, they like do show
Speaker 2: some of it. And so if you were a sensitive
Speaker 2: to that kind of thing, I think that is absolutely
Speaker 2: worth knowing going in and maybe like asking or like
Speaker 2: looking up some spoilers and kind of seeing like if
Speaker 2: that could uh, you know, be an issue for you.
Speaker 2: Same with a sexual battery. They don't show anything, but
Speaker 2: you kind of see like the like security footage aftermath
Speaker 2: of of a woman getting like groped on a train,
Speaker 2: you know, which is obviously like a big, a big
Speaker 2: issue in Japan. And at first I felt like the
Speaker 2: game was handling both those topics very seriously and in
Speaker 2: a way that I found to be uh, pretty nuanced.
Speaker 2: And then there's this there's this like potential plot twists
Speaker 2: that they kind of seed that starts to undermine some
Speaker 2: of that, and I was I was sitting there and
Speaker 2: we were like, oh, game, don't do this. I don't
Speaker 2: think this is the right way to go, And unfortunately
Speaker 2: kind of goes in that direction. And I think that
Speaker 2: there have been some very mixed reactions from from the internet.
Speaker 2: Is definitely go check out the Polygon review. They did
Speaker 2: not like that stuff at all and thought it was
Speaker 2: it ruined the game for them how badly they thought
Speaker 2: it handled that stuff. So I think people are going
Speaker 2: to be sensitive to that and and kind of have
Speaker 2: their own feelings on it. But I really do think
Speaker 2: that's worth knowing going in because that, to me is
Speaker 2: like the one sore spot on the game, which is
Speaker 2: is a real shame because I don't think they needed
Speaker 2: to go that direction. And overall, I do find the
Speaker 2: main mystery quite compelling, and you know, like the villain
Speaker 2: is excellent, and there are some really good good moments,
Speaker 2: and Yogamy and co are fantastic. But yeah, that's the
Speaker 2: one thing about the game that kind of kind of
Speaker 2: sours the experience, not enough for me that I you know,
Speaker 2: I didn't enjoy my time. I obviously still love it,
Speaker 2: but I do think that is worth worth knowing going in.
Speaker 1: That's good to know. Well, it's the games out of
Speaker 1: the way. Let's get those filthy games out of the way.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some emotion pictures, shall we. We've a
Speaker 1: few of us have seen shang Chi, but I'm not
Speaker 1: going to start with shuang Chi. We're gonna start with
Speaker 1: White Lotus, Yes, which Chris has been watching.
Speaker 4: Oh guys, you got to watch the White Lettuce. It's
Speaker 4: a new well, I think it's I don't know if
Speaker 4: it's new. It came out over the summer. I think
Speaker 4: a lot of people were talking about it recently. HBO
Speaker 4: show is on now TV in the UK and it's
Speaker 4: a limited series of six episodes, but it's since been
Speaker 4: turned into an anthology series because it's just that good.
Speaker 4: I am four episodes in and it is one of
Speaker 4: the best things I've watched in ages. And it's three
Speaker 4: different groups of kind of wealthy people staying at a
Speaker 4: luxury Hawaii resort, and it's kind of about the rich
Speaker 4: people and also the people who work there and have
Speaker 4: to put up with them and deal with all their
Speaker 4: kind of rich people issues. So there's like a family
Speaker 4: with a kind of Sheryl Sandberg mum, a honeymooning couple
Speaker 4: and their honeymoon gradually gets worse and worse because then
Speaker 4: kind of piss off the hotel manager. And there's also
Speaker 4: a woman who is there to scatter her mother's ashes.
Speaker 4: And she's played by Jennifer Coolidge, who.
Speaker 3: Okay, I was going to ask because I know that
Speaker 3: she was in it, and she is a fucking love
Speaker 3: Jennifer coleage.
Speaker 4: She is having the time of her life. Every single
Speaker 4: scene she's in is either like either you're like covering
Speaker 4: your face because it's so uncomfortable because of how awkward,
Speaker 4: or you're just it's just hysterically funny. I just rewatch Succession,
Speaker 4: and it feels very much cut from the same cloth
Speaker 4: as that in terms of its kind of this is
Speaker 4: how the other half live. And in Succession you often
Speaker 4: get like kind of cutaways of service staff arriving and
Speaker 4: waiting tables and cleaning up after the roy family after
Speaker 4: they like smash something up or whatever, whereas in this
Speaker 4: they're given kind of as much screen time as the
Speaker 4: rich people and kind of are their own, fully fleshed
Speaker 4: out characters. And it is. It is genuinely laugh out
Speaker 4: loud funny in a way that I don't think a
Speaker 4: lot of shows are, but also has like a kind
Speaker 4: of dramatic conceit at its core, which I think is
Speaker 4: really compelling. But it's just so good everyone needs to
Speaker 4: watch it. The this central the hotel manager is I
Speaker 4: should have looked at the name of the actor, but
Speaker 4: he's like this ki Week guy, and he is. He
Speaker 4: is hysterically funny. He's he's also best best mustache in
Speaker 4: a TV show, Tony Tell You One.
Speaker 1: I'm calling it wow, calling it like.
Speaker 3: I really want to watch it, obviously, I'm I'm deep
Speaker 3: in my Sopranos watch and but this does feel like
Speaker 3: quite a nice a moose bouche a little palate cleanser
Speaker 3: before Succession series three, which I am very like. I'm
Speaker 3: not even watching the trailer for it because I'm just
Speaker 3: so in day one on Succession.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you watch, if you like Succession, you'll I
Speaker 4: think I love Richard Murray. Murray Bartlett is the name
Speaker 4: of the if the actor.
Speaker 5: By the way, Mary, I'm going to watch that.
Speaker 1: I'm going to watch that anyways. Shang Chi, what a
Speaker 1: fucking film.
Speaker 2: Ah, so good.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that it's good. I was hoping, like
Speaker 1: I was. I was waiting for them to do a
Speaker 1: kung fu like martial arts style entry in the Marvel
Speaker 1: Cinematic Universe, and I was praying that it wasn't Iron Fist.
Speaker 1: As much as I like Iron Fist as a character,
Speaker 1: he's wildly problematic as a character. Also, Like goes to
Speaker 1: a TV shot Yeah, and it was ship it was terrible.
Speaker 1: But like Iron Fist, Danny Rand's whole thing is like
Speaker 1: he goes and he like goes to a far off
Speaker 1: nation of like of people and like becomes the champion
Speaker 1: white Man appears and captures the abilities of like eternal Dragon,
Speaker 1: and it suddenly crowned the iron Fist, and I was like,
Speaker 1: that's not gonna work. I hope they don't use him.
Speaker 1: And instead they did the right thing and they brought
Speaker 1: up Shang Chi and now that, like, I'm my favorite
Speaker 1: thing about it is it's just incredible. It's got so
Speaker 1: much heart. Like that's what I really love about it.
Speaker 1: It is a story like Aquafine is amazing in it,
Speaker 1: similarly is amazing, Michelle Yoh's in it, Gemma Chan's amazing
Speaker 1: in it. It's got like music by Rich Bryan, who's
Speaker 1: like amazing. The soundtrack is so good, and like it
Speaker 1: it reminded me of how much I love like martial
Speaker 1: arts movies, because that's what I grew up watching, like
Speaker 1: our resident, like Jackie Chan fan is Kurt, but like
Speaker 1: I grew up watching like old Bruce Lee movies, loads
Speaker 1: of Jackie Chan movies, like Western Marshal Arts movies as
Speaker 1: well on for my sins, I watched a lot of
Speaker 1: Steven Sagall movies, but like, like I love that stuff,
Speaker 1: and like, watching this movie reminded me how much I
Speaker 1: love that, Like seeing that first boss fight on the
Speaker 1: on the on the bus and like, yeah.
Speaker 3: Also captured the unique fear of being in San Francisco
Speaker 3: and going down as it fell on a bus when it.
Speaker 5: Just goes over and you think you're on some kind
Speaker 5: of rollercounts that.
Speaker 2: Like fights breaking out on the on the But.
Speaker 5: No, I was.
Speaker 3: I saw it in forty X because I'm a legend,
Speaker 3: and that bit went in particular was very very tense.
Speaker 5: I felt very immerse. It was very good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like I think it's like, at the
Speaker 1: heart of it, it is a story about family and
Speaker 1: the misguidedness that can come from one like being too
Speaker 1: attached or like not being present enough, and also like
Speaker 1: looking away from your duties and what you sacrificed in
Speaker 1: like looking after yourself instead of preserving your family. To
Speaker 1: a degree, it comes at the theme of family from
Speaker 1: so many different angles based on the characters that it's
Speaker 1: currently like portraying that it's just like a really narratively
Speaker 1: texted movie. And then on top of all that is
Speaker 1: just the cool Marvel shit that you want from it.
Speaker 1: The fight scenes are easily the best fight scenes in
Speaker 1: any Marvel film, like everyone loves like Civil War, Winter
Speaker 1: Soldier or whatever it is, which has like it's got
Speaker 1: good Western fight sequences, which are lots of cutaways and
Speaker 1: like dramatic things happening. This is like intricate martial arts
Speaker 1: that it's like beautiful to look at, and it's like
Speaker 1: such a thrill to see, like the stunts happening and
Speaker 1: the choreography of the cantor hand combat, and even when
Speaker 1: it goes into like the slightly more fantastic at the end,
Speaker 1: it's still got that amazing It goes full anime at
Speaker 1: the end, and I was like, yes, this is what
Speaker 1: it's about. This is so good. But yeah, Lucy, you
Speaker 1: watch it as well. What did you make of it?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: I fucking loved it. I almost cried at one point
Speaker 3: because it's so heartfelt. I thought like it was a
Speaker 3: rare one for me in that every joke landed, which
Speaker 3: normally never happens in a Marvel movie. And also there's
Speaker 3: a there's a cameo guests who fucking steals the show
Speaker 3: that I really really loved.
Speaker 5: But also it.
Speaker 1: Was going into that movie, I was like, I wonder
Speaker 1: if they'll like reference this character, and they absolutely reference
Speaker 1: it in a way that I was like, yes, you guys, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can get if you've seen any of
Speaker 1: the any of the relevant movies to this one you
Speaker 1: will know. But yeah, it's so glad that he was
Speaker 1: in it. But yeah, it's just like a really solid film.
Speaker 1: And I was kind of waning on Marvels. Not waning,
Speaker 1: but like Black Widow looks absolutely chronic chronically bad.
Speaker 5: I've still.
Speaker 1: I just have No, it doesn't bad, it doesn't look bad.
Speaker 1: It just looks so bland.
Speaker 6: Like there's only one that's the one thing that I'm like,
Speaker 6: Rachel periods in it, but like Rachel VISs is the
Speaker 6: one thing where I'm like, I want to see Rachel
Speaker 6: Visce doing some shit, but like in all other respects,
Speaker 6: like it looks very bland.
Speaker 1: I don't care about Black Widow as a character. She's
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say she's ship in the main films,
Speaker 1: Like she's only good when she's like paired up and
Speaker 1: has a kind of relationship with Bruce or is like
Speaker 1: doing the Sun's getting real little big guy thing, and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, she's got the ability to like keep
Speaker 1: this monster in like restrained. Outside of that, could not
Speaker 1: care about Black Widow one bit. You could remove her
Speaker 1: from the entire franchise, and I think that you wouldn't
Speaker 1: lose that much like the character. Everyone hates his Clint,
Speaker 1: but he's more impactful to the Avengers or like every
Speaker 1: phase of like the MCU movies than Black Widow. Is
Speaker 1: we all know, yeah that that thing happened in Avengers
Speaker 1: Infinity War and End Game that in those Black Widow,
Speaker 1: but like the fact that you happen to her says
Speaker 1: more about how disposable she is as a character than
Speaker 1: anyone else. So like, but like watching this movie, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, yes, I'm excited about this again. I'm
Speaker 1: hype for Marvel again in a big, big way and
Speaker 1: I really want them to just I want I want
Speaker 1: a shang Chi like two tomorrow if I can have it.
Speaker 5: When I'm very excited for the future.
Speaker 4: When you say about the fight scenes the choreography, are
Speaker 4: we talking like because for me, the kind of high
Speaker 4: watermark of that of modern films is like the Raid.
Speaker 4: Is it kind of that sort of level?
Speaker 1: No, I don't. I don't think it comes to the
Speaker 1: Raid level because there's a like a there's a brutality
Speaker 1: and like a raw list to the rave, which is
Speaker 1: like and it comes a little bit from like the choreography,
Speaker 1: but it also just comes from how it's shot, right,
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, well that's that's the kind of lighting
Speaker 1: and yes, because like it yeah gone.
Speaker 4: Because like in The Raid, obviously a lot of the
Speaker 4: kind of the way it's shot is to let fight
Speaker 4: scenes play out so you can kind of see the
Speaker 4: choreography right and and get a kind of sense of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's like I'm like, similarly is like amazing as
Speaker 1: shang Chi, but he's athletic, He's clearly super talented as
Speaker 1: a martial artists, but like Eco Oas is on another level,
Speaker 1: like he's that man is a killing machine and like
Speaker 1: his body moves in ways that doesn't seem human and
Speaker 1: like that's kind of how what those movies hinge on.
Speaker 1: The kind of like fight sequences in those and there
Speaker 1: is that also brutality of it where you know they
Speaker 1: have the knives knives element and like weapons are involved
Speaker 1: and it is like bone crunching. This is a little
Speaker 1: more like palatable for mainstream, but it still has the
Speaker 1: intricacy of it feels like at times it feels like
Speaker 1: a crouching tiger Hitden dragon style fight sequences. They have
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff where it's like Chinese cinema like
Speaker 1: almost like wire stuff where it's got like a majestic
Speaker 1: quality to it, and then other times some you have
Speaker 1: some fight sequences that are a little more like Jackie Chan,
Speaker 1: like in without the humor part of it. There's some
Speaker 1: human actually, but like it's not like slapstick in the
Speaker 1: way that Jackie Chan's stuff is to be, but it's
Speaker 1: got say that same kind of rhythm and like momentum
Speaker 1: and also like kinetic movement to it, where similarly like
Speaker 1: a Sean Cheese like moving around environments in a big way.
Speaker 1: And then it also has the kind of like straight
Speaker 1: up like channeling some energies kind of stuff like gonna
Speaker 1: do a cameha baby that kind of stuff. So it's
Speaker 1: like a bunch of flavors, but like I don't think
Speaker 1: it comes anywhere close to like the raid levels of
Speaker 1: like fight by choreography. Yeah yeah, uh, Chris, are you
Speaker 1: planning to see it? Or Jean? Look? Do you? John look?
Speaker 1: You watch it right?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: I want to see it, but I refuse to go
Speaker 2: to a movie theater, so I'm waiting for that that
Speaker 2: Disney plus.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm definitely gonna go see it. I think I
Speaker 4: don't know about San Francisco a bit like I've been
Speaker 4: to the cinema a few times over here and it's
Speaker 4: like basically empty every time I go. Yeah, even when
Speaker 4: even when it's kind of like peak times around where
Speaker 4: I live. So that's that's really handy. Yeah. No, I
Speaker 4: definitely am definitely going to go see it at some point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like I had the same experience. I was
Speaker 1: very nervous about going to the cinema and I went
Speaker 1: and it was like just empty. It was like me
Speaker 1: and my younger brother and there were a few people
Speaker 1: scattered around, a few loud people. I will say, people
Speaker 1: haven't developed any good cinema decorum in the times since
Speaker 1: I really wanted to. But it was like a group
Speaker 1: of girls, and it would have been really awkward if I
Speaker 1: was like, can you be quiet please, Like.
Speaker 5: Oh no, I live for it. I live for it.
Speaker 3: If you bring out a fucking mobile phone, I'm on you.
Speaker 3: I give you ten seconds.
Speaker 1: To They weren't. They weren't doing that. They were just
Speaker 1: like they were like laughing at a joke and then
Speaker 1: like if it was just laughing at a joke and
Speaker 1: then ending there, it's fine. But they laughed at a
Speaker 1: joke and then they laughed at each other, laughing at
Speaker 1: the joke, and then they'd have like a few comments
Speaker 1: about the thing, and I'm just like stop, stop, You're like,
Speaker 1: fucking I don't have that. The other thing was like,
Speaker 1: if they were nearer to me, I would have been like,
Speaker 1: can you shut the fuck up? Please, But they were
Speaker 1: like I would have to have walked across the screening
Speaker 1: to be like please.
Speaker 4: Friends, I've been with people who have like walked across
Speaker 4: to do.
Speaker 2: I can't.
Speaker 4: One of my one of my friends, went to see
Speaker 4: Tenant last year and it was just after cinemas had reopened,
Speaker 4: and he was very excited and he went with his wife.
Speaker 4: He's like, he's in his thirties. And he sat down
Speaker 4: and some girls, well some people behind him were talking loudly,
Speaker 4: and he got progressively more and more angry as like
Speaker 4: their first kind of half the film went on, and
Speaker 4: then he turned round like it just had enough. I
Speaker 4: was just like, shot the fuck up. But like as
Speaker 4: soon as he turned round and started shouting it, he
Speaker 4: realized that all the girls were like twelve, and he
Speaker 4: is like a hairy, thirty three year old man, was
Speaker 4: children exactly. It was like they didn't say a word afterwards,
Speaker 4: so I couldn't.
Speaker 1: I couldn't make out how old they were. That was
Speaker 1: the other thing, Like they sounded really young because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to run up on them and be like
Speaker 1: I just screamed a ten year olds.
Speaker 4: And it's like the Simpsons where the guy gets the
Speaker 4: really tall guy gets out of the tiny car. It's
Speaker 4: like a you think it's three girls, but it's actually
Speaker 4: a bodybuild. You think it's three girls, but it's a
Speaker 4: bodybuilder lying across three seats because he's so big.
Speaker 3: God, I mean, well, the worst one I've ever ever seen,
Speaker 3: just a flagrant disrespect for other people in a theater
Speaker 3: was where and we went to fucking go and see Hamilton,
Speaker 3: and the prick in front of us had a laptop.
Speaker 2: In a show, a live show.
Speaker 3: And I and this was like on the second or
Speaker 3: third night, because Tam is incredible at getting tickets to things,
Speaker 3: and so I just I saw Red and I just
Speaker 3: like tapped him on the shoulder and I was like,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, you're recording this or something. Oh, I actually
Speaker 3: work on the show. And I was like, go work
Speaker 3: on the show from behind the stage then and he shuts.
Speaker 1: But the thing is like his laptop was like full
Speaker 1: brightness and he was like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean like and.
Speaker 3: He was would have been polite if he hadn't have
Speaker 3: been so such a prick about it.
Speaker 2: Oh that beats mine.
Speaker 1: Mine was that.
Speaker 2: A like young couple brought their uh I'm pretty sure
Speaker 2: a three year old and a five year old to
Speaker 2: the showing of Batman v. Super Man, which was which
Speaker 2: just made it already bad movie experience ten times worse
Speaker 2: because the five year old in particular, like could not
Speaker 2: give less of a ship about what was happening on
Speaker 2: that movie. Like that movie opens up with like Bruce
Speaker 2: Wayne's parents getting murdered and like, these kids don't fucking
Speaker 2: care about that at all, and the five year old
Speaker 2: was like literally running back and forth through like around
Speaker 2: the seating, and eventually the the the dad had to
Speaker 2: like take them out and like leave, and we were like, oh,
Speaker 2: thank god came back like twenty minutes later, We're like, no,
Speaker 2: that's when you leave. That's when you're like, uh, Like.
Speaker 5: I had to understand the math a bit.
Speaker 4: I had that a few years ago. But it was Widows,
Speaker 4: like the Steve McQueen film which opens with Widows, No,
Speaker 4: there's a guy. There was a guy with like his
Speaker 4: two kids watching Widows, which opens with an incredibly loud
Speaker 4: and violent, like fucked robbery that ends with like that
Speaker 4: ends with a lot of violence. I mean, my friend
Speaker 4: were just like, this is this is them traumatized for life.
Speaker 3: Wait, not not to not to be like a one upper,
Speaker 3: but we went to see Hereditary and a guy, oh
Speaker 3: my god, like eight to ten year old kid and
Speaker 3: we and the kid looked so bored because obviously herd
Speaker 3: is such a slow bird and like, I just I
Speaker 3: remember walking past him as we came in inside out,
Speaker 3: and I was like, are you serious?
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to talk about the other
Speaker 1: guy to the right of us, who was like the
Speaker 1: perfect like mark for every single scary movie. Every reaction
Speaker 1: he had to the movie was like exaggerated by a million.
Speaker 1: There was one point where he leapt up off the
Speaker 1: floor and onto his seat and went, no, my god, relaxed, brought.
Speaker 3: A pint of milk and was just taking it from
Speaker 3: the bottle to the cinema and I was like a
Speaker 3: serial killer.
Speaker 1: I think my favorite all time cinema moment, like interrupting
Speaker 1: moment actually made me laugh. It was like we were.
Speaker 1: I was in a East London cinema I think I
Speaker 1: can't remember it was. I think it was bethnal Green
Speaker 1: or like Stratford at this point, and we were watching
Speaker 1: one of the Fast and Furious movies. I can't remember
Speaker 1: which one at this point, but it was one. Inevitably,
Speaker 1: they have that shot where lady gets out of the car.
Speaker 1: It was an early one because lady gets out of
Speaker 1: the car and camera does slow panning over her curvaceous
Speaker 1: body and framing the car and like the sweat and
Speaker 1: man and is an Indian man. I only I highlight
Speaker 1: it it is an Indian man because it's part of
Speaker 1: this story. It's dead silent while this is happening. There's
Speaker 1: like just music and then from next to my hair
Speaker 1: so sexy. I was like, I just burst out laughing.
Speaker 1: Looked at it. I was like, you little relaxed. Anyways,
Speaker 1: if you've got any memorable cinema going experiences, please send
Speaker 1: them in. We're not gonna do emails today, but we
Speaker 1: will do and you can send us your cinema experiences
Speaker 1: to after Dark podcast at GameSpot dot com, or you
Speaker 1: can help myself for Lucy to join the discord. I've
Speaker 1: got a bit of a backlog on admitting people into
Speaker 1: the discord. I say a bit of a backlog. It's
Speaker 1: like three people that I can do in like five minutes,
Speaker 1: but it's very busy and we will read any notable
Speaker 1: ones out. They could be good cinema going experiences, or
Speaker 1: there can be ones where you've absolutely popped off at
Speaker 1: people for being loud. In the meantime, John, Look, where
Speaker 1: can people find you and what you're up to?
Speaker 2: You can find me at Tomic Sipeke on Twitter. Go
Speaker 2: check out Boss Judgment review. Like I mentioned earlier, Pretty
Speaker 2: proud of that edit. I think it's it's a good game,
Speaker 2: and otherwise I'm gonna be doing stuff nice. I love stuff, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I love Stuff's great.
Speaker 1: Lucy, where can people find you and what you're up to?
Speaker 3: I'm on Twitter at Lucy James Games. I'm at work stuff.
Speaker 3: I don't know what I'm doing very online shows. Taking
Speaker 3: a break this week, but we'll be back next week.
Speaker 3: And I'm on Twitch now at Lucy.
Speaker 5: James Games there as well. You're not at on Twitch,
Speaker 5: are you?
Speaker 1: You're just you're a slash Chris. Were you at what
Speaker 1: you've been doing?
Speaker 4: You can find me at Chris Morris nine to one
Speaker 4: on Twitter. Like we said earlier, Expert Reacts live this Saturday.
Speaker 4: Where I say live, I mean it's going live on YouTube.
Speaker 2: It's not live.
Speaker 4: That'd be exciting though, And I'll be doing some more
Speaker 4: videos that I can't really talk.
Speaker 2: About right now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I love how Old.
Speaker 4: Just working on video, coming up to coming up to
Speaker 4: embargo season. Isn't it serious? Embargo?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: For me. You can find me on Twitter to more H.
Speaker 1: I am also working on stuff. Read my review death
Speaker 1: Loop on GameSpot dot com and you can find me
Speaker 1: on twitch twitch dot tv for slash to more H.
Speaker 1: I'm currently playing Hades. Good game, good fun game. And
Speaker 1: I'm also like getting angry at Twitter. I g n's brackets.
Speaker 1: That's what I did yesterday. They were like best game
Speaker 1: of all time, Brackets, let's do it, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my own one. And it ended in heartbreak.
Speaker 1: I had to make some absolutely devastating cut yesterday.
Speaker 5: It was heartbreaking watching you some of that.
Speaker 1: It was rough, but yeah, you can see that on
Speaker 1: twitch and we will see you next week. Goodbye. Frump.
Speaker 2: Don't trunk, don't trank, don't trumping