Speaker 1: What is going on? Everybody? Welcome to the Game Informer Show,
a weekly podcast covering the video game industry. I'm one
of your hosts today, Alex van Aiken. Thank you for
joining us every Thursday for a discussion about the latest
gaming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals, alongside Game Former staff
and special guests around the industry. Today, I'm joined by
Marcus Stewart. How you doing, Marcus?
Speaker 2: Good? I made a very exciting purchase recently.
Speaker 1: Oh it really tell me the first time ever.
Speaker 2: In my life, I bought a pillow.
Speaker 1: Oh that's awesome. Congratulations, It's huge.
Speaker 2: It's it is. It's nice. Say, I never thought that
you could do such a thing. I've always just put
up with what I had, But what I had has
not been doing great for me and my neck.
Speaker 1: You thought they stopped manufacturing pillows like twenty years ago.
Speaker 3: Like like VCR players.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it's one of those things that as an adult,
like transitioning from a child to an adult, you the
light bulb of I can purchase a thing that has
always just been readily available. That particular light bulb didn't
go off yet for pillows or bed stuff because I'm
not I was like, oh, I just always have bedding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: And I'm also a guy that is like very frugal
slash I can put up with. I'm low maintenance. Let's
just say sure, like I don't really need nice stuff.
But in this case, I was like, oh, this, this
is hurting a lot. I could just not put up with.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's not supposed to hurt.
Speaker 2: Good pillow.
Speaker 1: I think about pillows. They are supposed to be comfortable.
Speaker 3: That's what I like sleeping.
Speaker 1: I think painless is usually.
Speaker 2: I actually looked up like high rated pillows that weren't
obscenely expensive and got like a nice one, and it
felt really weird to spend money on something like that.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: Adult Marcus over.
Speaker 2: Here, I know, I know, you don't become a man
so you buy a pillow. It really puts hair on
your chest.
Speaker 1: That other voice you're hearing is none other than our
editor in chief Matt Miller, who was also an adult
joining this on the show. How are you doing today, Matt,
and confirm I do, I do try, I do try.
I'm doing well. I have a pillow at home, so
I'm feeling good about that, and I have other you
know things, that adults.
Speaker 3: Need at home. Of course, of course you know I
forks plates.
Speaker 1: My I have recently a parchased some things that aren't pillows.
But I got some new guitar pedals within the last month.
I got a blue Sky Stryman. I had one of
these guitar pedals a very long time ago. It was
my favorite pedal, and I is a dummy and sold it,
so I recently bought one again. And then for any
other gearheads listening, I got the Hologram Chroma console, which
is a really sleek looking multi effects pedal. Very cool stuff.
Speaker 4: The verdict, I'm sorry to say that the verdict just
came in alex that does not help with your adult.
Speaker 1: Oh no, gear okay.
Speaker 3: Does not count points towards adults.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right again next week, yep, we'll do. This
would be our recurring segment. What I bost bought last week.
Speaker 2: If it's inching you closer to adulthood or not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that should be an important metric. I guess. Well. Cool, Well,
we've got a packed show today. This is a video
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Today we're gonna be diving into Marvel Rivals. I know
we talked to it. Y'all talked about it a bit
last week. I was a'n on, Miller wasn't on, So
we've got a lot to say. I beat Thank goodness
you're here. I'm excited to dive into that. Matt's been
playing Dungeons of Hinterberg, got four strike on the Agenda,
Silent Hill too, the Old One Arranger, and maybe a
little more. So it's gonna be a good show. I
will stop stop vamping, I will stop delaying. Let's get
into it. Matt, you have been playing Marvel Rivals. I've
been playing it quite a lot. I'm checking. I'm pulling
out my Steam right now to see my hour count.
I got fourteen hours in it, so I'm feeling pretty
pretty good.
Speaker 2: For clarification, because I have not yet played it, but
I would like to. It's not is it an open
beta or how do you play this game?
Speaker 4: It's a closed beta. Yeah, closed beta.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I can't get it into it basically.
Speaker 3: Well, I think I think if you want it.
Speaker 4: To play, I might have a connection. I know some
people in the gaming industry, Marcus but I think generally speaking,
if you're out there in the world, I don't think
it's a thing you can just hop into.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were doing twitch drops and that kind of thing.
There have have been ways if you hit level six
in the game, you can get invites to give away.
But the thing with that is they're all first come,
first serve daily and so I've been I'm like level
level twelve or something, and I have yet to get
an invite code through. That means so, yeah, it's it's
kind of hard, honestly to get in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we're.
Speaker 1: Gonna be diving into the game itself for people who
didn't get to play talk all about it. But milliarly,
what are your what are your early thoughts on it?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm abound the same place you are. I bet
I've looked at my hour acount. I'm playing on PlayStation,
but I'm betting I'm somewhere around twelve hours probably. Yeah,
And it's surprised me. You know, I was really attracted
when they did the announcement to their interesting art style
that they're kind of playing around with, And the more
I've seen of that, the more I like it. Now
that I'm actually playing it. It's very very stylized and
kind of doing its own thing with the Marvel heroes
that most of us are very familiar with. But I
wasn't sure what to expect out of the gameplay. And
as I started, I think I'd be curious what your
experience was.
Speaker 3: But I was.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, this is so pretty. But then
I wasn't really digging it for the first like half
an hour I was playing it. Maybe maybe the first
hour I was still kind of like on the fence,
and then it kind of clicked, and thus, you know,
another eleven hours after that, I'm still like coming back
for more matches. There's no doubt that it It draws
heavily and unabashedly from the Overwatch formula.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and at times.
Speaker 4: Is even directly like did you like this character? And
Overwatch We've got you covered, right. I mean, like, for instance,
there's a there's one of the characters who goes around
the matches skating and healing people, you know, I mean,
like it's that.
Speaker 3: Close of a thing.
Speaker 4: There's another character who's a kind of a cute, spunky
girl who hops in a mech and you.
Speaker 3: Know, rex people.
Speaker 4: So like there's there's definitely places where they're like they're
trying to get somebody who enjoyed Overwatch to come and
like and play. It even down to that you like
this kind of character, you like the specific character, and Overwatch,
well we've got a Marvel character that's like that. Nonetheless,
it's it does a lot of cool things, you know,
like and it does it well that with this kind
of a hero shooter, having interesting, balanced characters is kind
of the key to success, and the game has it,
you know. Like you, like I said, you start those
first couple of matches and you're everybody's just immediately killing you,
of course because you don't know what you're doing. And
then you start to gradually like, oh, okay, I've wrapped
my head around this character, and maybe I'll go try
this other guy, and you try that one. You kind
of start to get that vibe, and eventually you're getting
into that really fun loop, yeah, of constantly trying new characters,
going back to ones that you like, expanding your repertoire
of what you can be successful with. And I've been
I guess say, I've been having a pretty good time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm right there with you. I So I played
this at Summer Game Fest for probably forty five minutes
and wasn't It wasn't blown away. It was kind of passive. Mean,
I think I talked about on the g I Show
that week that I yeah, I just felt like it
was missing something and it felt very derivative of Overwatch,
which I still one agree with that second fact. I
think it is very derivative Overwatch, like you said, Miller,
whether that's something that's a little more I think they
kind of wear it on their sleeve.
Speaker 2: Reminds me of Overwatches.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, I mean literally, I think
almost every character in Overwatch has an ability in this
game in some way, shape or form. I think where
where it gets interesting is, you know, some of the
characters those abilities in this game might be mixed and
mac mixed and mashed up in interesting ways.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of a specific example, but like Grew,
for instance, he's a tank in the game, and he
can you know, he has Zaria's Ultimate where Zaria, you know,
throws in her graviton surge this big ball and it
sucks people in. Grew does that with a ball of roots.
But Greut also has some other interesting things about him,
like characters can ride on his back for damage reduction.
Certain characters like Rocket Raccoon, And there's a new character
they've introduced called it's the land Shark. I don't remember
his actual name.
Speaker 4: A Marvel character, Jeff the Lark from I think West
Coast Avengers.
Speaker 3: It's just kind of a jokey Avengers, yeah, a little.
Speaker 1: Bit by the way, Shark Jeff the land Shark is awesome.
I love playing that character. He's really really strong healer.
But so those two characters can ride on Groot for
damage reduction. A group can also like summon cover and
if he's close to the cover, depending on the type
of cover he summons, he can like if people get
close to like the root walls, the roots will attack them.
Because it's like okay, yeah, there's like each character almost
has like there's one Overwatch element and there's something new
and it kind of makes it so feel it's familiar,
but it feels fresh. And I think those team ups
that they're officially called team ups in the game, the
Gruden Racket, Rocket Raccoon thing. There's other characters like Luna
Snow can combine with uh nay More, who is from Aquaman,
and nay More can summon.
Speaker 2: Like wait wait wait wait then huh I want to
save you the wrath of the comic book fans. I
don't know nay More. He's basically the Aquaman of mar
Even what did I just step Did I just step
on a rake? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's easy to mix up.
Speaker 2: They're both, they're similar, they're both aquomen but there's only.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm a dummy. Yeah, I'm a dummy. Yeah, yeah,
I'm a dummy. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Uh yeah, wow,
i'd really to just step on a rake. I apologize.
I haven't editing coffee today, DC fans, Marral fans, I'm
so sorry. Uh, nay More is like Aquaman and can summon.
Oh god, that's like the easiest mistake to make.
Speaker 2: Technically, is Aquaman like name More, doesn't name More predate Aquaman?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, there you go.
Speaker 1: Oh god, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get messages. So yeah,
name War can place down Octopus octopi and they are
kind of like sentries and stuff. But if if Luna
snows on the team, uh, name Or can activate like
an ice version of of his abilities, and there's a
lot of really cool synergies there that I think, you know,
make make the game. I mean, it gives it more depth.
Speaker 3: Number one?
Speaker 1: You know, should I really should I run this character
that I really like that doesn't have any synergies with
my current team? I really like the Punisher, but I
don't have a Rocke Amvacoon on my team that will
help me with Ammo and such. Or should I should
I go and play you know, should I play iron
Man to to buff up, you know, to team up
with Hulk on our team and get you know, give
the Hulk extra health. That kind of stuff. A lot
of cool team ups and synergies there that it's like, Okay,
is it worth playing into those synergies or in this moment,
does it feel like I should break away from that
and do something different to try to shake up the game?
Speaker 2: That seems like the coolest thing about the game as
someone has not played it, Because to me that seems
like as a comic book fan, it almost rewards that fandom.
I don't know how they communicate what synergies exist, Like,
I don't know if the game just tells you these
characters going together, or if it's something you have to
find out on your own.
Speaker 1: No, it's it's like on the screen select there are
right above the hero roster, there's like these series of
little squares and if you hover over them, the hover
of the icon, it'll tell you, Okay, here's who's been
picked on your team. If you you want to match
with him and synergize them, you can pick these characters
and here are the buffs you'll get. Okay, and I
believe those are seasonal, they will rotate out. I believe,
Oh really.
Speaker 3: I mean, Marcus, you're you're hitting on.
Speaker 4: I think one of the things that the game really
has going for it through its license with Marvel is
that there are very few pop culture characters that are
more ubiquitous and familiar at this point than Marvel's superheroes
and Marvel villains, and they they lean into that too
to help you understand the kind of character you're going
to play and what they might be able to do. Right, Like,
for instance, uh Alex brought up iron Man. Right, if
you think about iron Man and what he does in
comics or in the movies or anything like that, it
would feel weird if you couldn't float and fly around
and shoot out memes and missiles as iron Man, Like,
that's a that's a piece of information that if you
have even a little bit of awareness of these characters,
you already know about iron Man and you can be like, oh,
I like that idea, I like that fantasy.
Speaker 3: I'm going to go do that.
Speaker 4: A lot of other non licensed hero shooters have to
establish that understanding through visual visual iconography, and you know,
just playing the game, and I think you you kind
of come in already with a certain level of understanding
of what you can do with these characters, at least
with some of them, right and and I think that
that helps a lot. The team ups are also very logical,
right like, and they make sense if you know the characters.
You know star if you put star Lord on your
team and Mantis on your team, they're both guardians of
the galaxy, and they have a thing that happens with them.
Speaker 3: And I think that that's that's fun to play with.
Speaker 4: There's a weird aspect of the gameplay that I think
is kind of key to to to what makes the
game fun, and that is that instead of having a character,
there's lots of multiplayer shooters where you like, you choose
a class, you choose a character, and that's like the
thing you're gonna be for that match.
Speaker 3: This is not do that.
Speaker 4: You select your character and there can only be one
character on your team of that guy, right.
Speaker 3: But you can change your character every time you respawn.
Speaker 4: And I have many times, as I'm sure you have to, Alex,
seeing a match completely turn around. Oh yeah, because you
know Team A is just rolling over Team B and
then Team BE kind of like, okay, these two people
just change characters and all of a sudden, it's a
complete like it completely flips the dynamic. And because there's
six characters on the field for each team, things can
change quite fast, right, like yeah, and you suddenly it
suddenly the payloads moving down the road and nothing's stopping it.
Speaker 3: And then it just stops, and you realize.
Speaker 4: It stopped because somebody switched over from Punisher to Doctor Strange.
And that was the thing, Like having Doctor Strange on
the field and having him being able to like use
his magic to block attacks and the other people get
behind him and all that kind of stuff was the
thing that really made the difference. And so that that
tactical layer is very appealing and forces you to really
pay attention to the flow of a given match.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and be reactive to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to get into a little bit Matt.
You brought we brought this up before recording. You've also
been playing Concord, which I know we've we've talked about
on the show previously a bit. But I want to
hear your thoughts on as somebody who has someone on
the show since these game these betas have come out,
what you think between the two because you know, you've
got Marvel Rivals over here free to play, very derivative
of Overwatch, but like, is it's fun?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Then you've got I believe forty dollars price point of
Concord doing something a bit different, you know, still kind
of a hero shooter, but more in line with like
how I called duty feels a bit. What are your
thoughts between those two games?
Speaker 4: And yeah, I mean it's worth worth sharing a little
bit of background for me that like, I was an
Overwatch guy. I played a good bit of Overwatch and
then fell off of it.
Speaker 3: I don't play it as much anymore.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I am drawn to the idea of that
kind of interesting different gameplay styles represented by characters having
a little bit of a like a fictional backdrop that
helps to bring some life to the to the game world.
Speaker 3: All that stuff works for me, right, I.
Speaker 4: Think for me moving away from Overwatch on like some
people who just like started to hate it or something
like that, I don't hate to Overwatch. It just was like, Oh,
I've had enough of that. I don't need to really
be constantly playing.
Speaker 3: It the way that I was.
Speaker 4: So both Concord and Marvel Rivals appeal to me inherently,
and I bet that that I'm not alone in that camp, right, Like,
I bet there's a lot of other people out there
who are in that same space of like, yeah, yeah,
I remember, really I've played a lot of Overwatch back
in the day, and then I just don't anymore. But
I wouldn't mind playing another thing kind of like that.
Both these games are trying to do that. Concord appeals
to I liked Concord too a lot, but for different reasons.
Speaker 3: One of them is that.
Speaker 4: The the gunplay and the actual ability usage and stuff
like that is really tightly tuned in in Concord. It's
I think it feels at times a lot like Destiny.
Destiny's my personal favorite shooter. I play a lot out
of Destiny and the just the feel of movement and
jumping and shooting definitely draws on some of the things
that I like about the Destiny universe.
Speaker 3: And I think Marvel Rivals it's good, but it's not
quite there in terms of like a little loose. It
is loose, right.
Speaker 4: Like it's a it's maybe maybe in a way that
would be inviting to more casual players. Maybe some of
that is a little bit purposeful. You don't need to
be like a shooter expert to play Marvel Rivals by
any stretch, because there's a lot of classes that are
just like I'm going to run up and punch things
right where I'm going to be Spider Man and swing
through the level, and that's kind of like the skill
set that you're going for. Concord is trying really hard
to do this kind of interesting thing of like establishing
a fictional universe and building it out gradually.
Speaker 3: At least it seems like they are through their seasons
and through.
Speaker 4: Like moments that happened for the characters, and yeah, I'm
interested in that. I think it's it's a hard that's
a challenging thing to do, right, It's a challenging thing
to get off the ground and get somebody interested in
a fictional universe when there isn't really a core story
that you first had them play through, right, Like Overwatch
did it a little bit, right, like with their cinematics
and things like that. I think there's lots of people
who are like, they like those characters and they like
that universe, but it's hard.
Speaker 3: To do Marvel Rivals, I mean, like it or hate it.
Speaker 4: The reality is that, like, you know Marvel, you know
who those characters are. You know who Spider Man is, right, Like,
you know that he's going to make some silly equips
and he's going to swing around. He's going to be
kind of an agile guy who punches and kicks and
then gets out of danger.
Speaker 3: So there's like a built in vernacular already.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and kind Cord can't lean on that. It gives Marvel.
I mean, I think Marvel is likely to be a
later release, in final release, right, Like Concord's pretty imminent,
isn't it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to say in August.
Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, it's like a maybe two weeks away
at most.
Speaker 1: I'm looking it up. It's August twenty third.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that one that one, you'd be able to
check out, you know, anybody who check out quite soon.
Marvel Is is further out, But I don't know. I
I think they're both really good games so far. I'm
drawn to both of them. I think Marvel I was
more suspicious of because of the like the free to
play stuff, and I think there's still potential there. You know,
we've in the closed beta. What we've seen does not
reveal very much about monetization uh approaches, and there's the
potential for that kind of thing to be really broke,
you know, really breaking. Otherwise great game, but we'll see,
you know, at least from the start here. I like
the characters, I like the art style. I like the
the constant change up of gameplay styles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been good, you know, the.
Speaker 1: The as even talking, I was kind of thinking what
Marvel Rivals kind of reminds me of Marvel Rivals to
Overwatch or even just like Marvel Rivals to the team
shooter genre reminds me of Pokemon Unite in a lot
of ways, and it's relation to things like DODA and
League of Legends right more simplified in some ways, you know,
but it's like these there's just like a novelty and
seeing you know, your favorite pop culture characters duke it out.
Speaker 2: It's like a a really good carrot on a stick
to get you to try a genre that you might
not have otherwise been interested in. Because I remember when
Pokemon Unit came out, like, I am not a Mova guy,
and I'm not even a big Pokemon guy, but I
do have like an affection that stemmed from when I
was into it from childhood or even I was like, yeah,
maybe this is the moba I try, just because of
the license tied to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I and Pokemon Unite has continued to have
a pretty strong player base from from what I know,
and people continually go back when they release, you know,
new characters, and it's cool because they'll they'll release new
characters that I am like, what you release that character
that Pokemon but it's it's novel. Yeah and uh and
and to be fair, Marvel Rivals seems to be doing
a little bit of the same with like Jeff the
land Shark. That's not a character that I think. I
think if you had asked me, is there a cartoonist shark,
like a funny comedic shark? In the Marvel universe. I
probably have been like that sounds familiar, is that? And
like one of the containers and Guardians of the Galaxy
or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they had to respond to Suicide Squad earlier this year.
They're like, oh, you have King Shark, Well we've got
Jeff the land Shark.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, shots fired. But I have enjoyed I think
we've talked a lot about like the the mechanics and
the systems and all that. But like, I want to
know your favorite characters because for me my rotation currently,
as for tanks, I play a lot of Magneto. On DPS,
I play a lot of Punisher and iron Man, I'll
sometimes play Scarlet Witch, and then on Support and these
aren't like the official I forget their their actual names
for their classes, but on Support I've been playing Jeff
the land Shark, and before that I played a decent
amount of Loki. But Matt, what about you? I want
to know who you you gravitate to?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's interesting when you play game like this,
you start to see, like what is what are the
characters who are always on a team? Yeah, And that
usually suggests me like there's a nerve incoming right like somebody.
Somebody's getting hit soon. I think Venom is getting hit
at some point. Venom is really like it seems to
be show up on every team. I don't know if
it's because he's I haven't had that much success with him,
but clearly other people do.
Speaker 3: He shows up as MVP a lot.
Speaker 1: I like him as like an off tank.
Speaker 3: Yeah, people do well with Venom.
Speaker 4: I would say he seems to be the at least
in this close bait has been a strong contender for
favorites for me.
Speaker 3: I've played. I like Mantis a lot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like that maybe more so than other games
like this, whether Overwatch or other things, that you can
really be a pretty successful damage dealer while healing with
most of these support roles, which is which is fun.
Mantis is a character who I've I've like, knocked out
a lot of enemy guys with, but I also she's
really fun to be constantly juggling out, healing and buffs with.
Speaker 3: I like Doctor Strange a good bit. He's got this
big kind of rhyinhart like Shield down Front.
Speaker 1: I like his ultimate a lot where he likes briefly
sucks the souls out of people and like if you
hit the their souls and it'll do damage to their bodies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's cool shank some stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no doubt I played a star Lord actually.
Speaker 3: Started to emerge as an interesting and fun character for me. Yeah.
Speaker 4: He uh, he's got his element guns kind of hit
really hard. But then you know, you get to reload constantly, right,
so you get like a brief burst of high damage
when you shoot, and then you gotta like reload. But
one of the ways you reload is by dodging, and
dodge recharges pretty quick, so it encourages us. Is this
style of play where you're constantly like popping in and
out of cover, you know, taking some potshots and then
leaping back into cover. And then you also have a
kind of a jet pack thing that lets you occasionally
get up into the air a little bit and fly.
So he's been fun. I think those have been maybe
my favorites there. I've tried a lot of them. I
like you, like you, I like Magneto. He's pretty neat.
I've had some success with Hulk.
Speaker 1: I have not I've had He's a hard.
Speaker 3: One to get a handle on because it's got like
three forms.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I stay away from Hulk. I also find
when I'm Hulk, I get focused really hard in ways
that I don't necessarily in other characters.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Part of the part of the tactical dynamic of this
game is there's a lot of things that are telegraphed
through visuals.
Speaker 3: And sound.
Speaker 4: That if you you know, one of the ways you
get good at the game is as soon as you
start hearing Scarlet Witch shout pure chaos, you get the
heck out of there, right because is that what I want?
And uh and and she wrecks everything that is nearby
to her at that moment. So if you hear it
really loud in your in your audio, you're like, oh,
I'm too close to her right now.
Speaker 3: I need to get.
Speaker 4: Away or else I'm going to have a respond. So
there's that interesting dynamic where you're really wanting to kind
of pay attention to the the audio and watch what's
happening around you, and you you start to learn the
cues of like, oh, Punisher just put up turret, or
you know, Storm is about to throw down a tornado
that's going to wreck everybody, So you got kind of
like watch for those cues.
Speaker 1: Get off the payload.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well cool.
Speaker 4: I think it's a people should keep an eye on it.
Don't dismiss it as like, oh, it's another free to play,
you know, nonsense thing.
Speaker 3: It's it's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't seem like it. I think I heard
that it's The betas have done very well for them
in terms of the the players for it. This game
is probably going to make a billion dollars, right because
pretty well, yeah, the license and even just like we
don't know when it's coming out for real ease, but
for this beta to be active coming out of San
Diego Comic Con, where at least maybe the way I'm
feeling it feels like the excitement around Marvel coming out
of that is higher than it's been in a while,
with uh, you know RDJ making his way back to
the MCU all that good stuff that it just feels
like this is a great time for something like this
to be out there and on the way. Yeah. So yeah,
I think they're I think they're gonna do just fine.
Speaker 1: I think so. I think so. I I have been
playing a smaller game called Thank Goodness You're here. I've
beat the game. I think it's out not I think
it is out August first, if you want to play
it as well. It's from a developer called Cole Supper
and I believe it's being published by Panic. Let me
double check while I talk. But uh yeah, thank goodness
you're here. It's a comedy adventure game. And uh it's
it looks like a cartoon. That's like the easiest way
to I mean it looks like you're watching uh you know,
some sort of family guy or American dad sort of thing.
A little more actually more of like a cal Arts
I would say cal Arts Arts style, more of a
cartoon network. Look. But uh yeah, it's it's a about
to me about three hours to beat beat it in
two sittings. Uh, and you are this You're in a
northern English town called Barnsworth, and this game is full
of British humor. One of the main characters voiced by
Matt Barry from What We Do in the Shadows. I
think he's in the I T crowd. If you don't know,
I know some people I've been I've been talking to
this game about there, Like I don't know who Matt
Barry is. I'm like, if you've seen the clips of
the Vampire, who says Arizonia. That's that's Matt Berry. Sometimes
that triggers a memory for people, sometimes it doesn't. But
he's hilarious, and he plays a gardener in this game.
And I honestly the format kind of reminds me a
bit of Untitled Goose Game a little bit. It's not
it's not a stealth game like Untitled Goose Game is.
But in the way that you move throughout these different
parts of a town and you know, complete quests, uh
and and in this in this you are you get
there and everybody needs help. Everything's falling apart in this town.
You know, things are always going to rye and you
are helping this town do errands. And the whole reason
you're here is I believe you're there to get a
job or or something with the mayor's office. And essentially
at the start of the game, the mayor's busy, so
you just go and get into the townspeople and and yeah,
it's it's this really hilarious adventure game. I think it's
probably the funniest game I've played. I love British humor,
I love dry humor, and just this leans more into
the absurd rather than than necessarily dryness, but it's it's
so good. I haven't I haven't read a review yet.
I think I'm going to. I was talking to Brian
about it, but I would be giving this a very,
very high score. I think it's incredible. It's a very
hard game to talk about because a lot of it
is a lot of it is walking through this town.
You backtrack quite a lot, which which honestly annoyed me
at first, but then I realized they they kind of
force you to backtrack, and and this backtracking kind of
sets up jokes and various punchlines as you get to
go through these similar situations through new lenses. I should
say a lot of what you're doing in this game,
you have the only way that you interact with people
is by slapping things. So you walk up to somebody
you want to talk to them, you have to slap them.
And sometimes it's, you know, a larger person stuck in
a gutter and you're slapping their butt to talk to them.
Other times, you know you're you're also playing like this
very tiny character compared to the size of everyone around you,
and so the environments are always surprising. It reminds me
of almost South Park a little bit the South Park
games Stick of truth Less, so in like the RPG
mechanics because in this game you're playing like a variety
of mini games, although it all feels seamless and it's
a very hard game to talk about. I'm sorry, I realized.
Speaker 2: This just for the Goose game comparison. Is it completing
a series of somewhat cryptic task in like creative.
Speaker 1: Ways, Yes, but there is no checklist like there is
a Goose game. You're typically you're typically talking to people.
They are giving you hints as to what their problems are,
and then you're gonna go in either get them that
item from another character, but that character needs you to
do a favor before they give you that item. Very
very traditional adventure games set up, and so you're you're
pretty much i would say, the characters and the game
really kind of lock you into areas and so it's
it's pretty hard to get lost. There's a lot of
roadblocks in place so that you stay on task right,
and then once you complete that task, you know something
will have, a game event will happen, a cut scene
will play, and it's all very seamless because it's all
in this cartoon art style. So but it's it's really hilarious. Again,
I think it's I was sitting there thinking, I was like,
what other games have made me laugh? Like cry laugh
cry laugh, Yeah, ugly laugh, and it might just be
this one. Honestly, it's really really good. I'm I'm really
impressed by it. If you're looking for like just like
a game as like a palate cleanser, or if anything
I've said, you know, kind of resonates with you, it's
it's really hilario. So I think if you look up
screenshots of it you'll see it just like really catches
your eye. Man, it's so good, and a lot of
it just feels like you're watching a show.
Speaker 4: Honestly, Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to hear you use that
term palette cleanser. It's a thing that increasingly I've found
myself really recommending to people as a way of like
how to think about enjoying games the most. I think
one of the things I hear the most from people
is people who get like burnt out because they're at
this point they're playing one game all the time that
they love, and yet it starts to it's this becomes
this like love hate relationship, you know, whether it's Call
of Duty or Destiny or League or whatever, because.
Speaker 3: You're like it's the only thing you're ever doing and you.
Speaker 4: Feel like, well, I just I'm all my friends are here,
and I'm definitely going to keep playing. I don't want
to leave it, and yet I sometimes I sit here
and I'm playing and I just like hate myself for
playing it, and like, if you're like in that, can
I'm telling you, man, there's the solution to that is
like just let yourself play some palate cleanser games, like
what Alex is describing something that's like three.
Speaker 3: To eight hours. Yeah, right, that you could.
Speaker 4: You can take a weekend off from your your rating
with your buddies and go play something like this, and
then you come back and I promise you it's like
it's you will enjoy your gaming hobby more absolutely.
Speaker 1: And I beat I look at my team. I beat
this in two and a half hours. Yeah, and I
might go back and try to hundred percent it. There's
a couple of ways to do that. And I think
it's sixteen ninety nine at least on Switch it's sixteen
ninety nine, so you know, fifteen bucks two and a
half hours, three hours you probably get probably scoz. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: I might pick this up. I have a long flight
coming up next week.
Speaker 1: It is one of my favorite games I've played this year,
for sure. It feels it's unique, it's novel, it's again,
it's hilarious.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: I love it, and I think it'll probably the way
the year is currently going. I definitely foresee it being
on my top ten list somewhere at the end of
the year.
Speaker 2: But Alex, is it a puzzle game?
Speaker 1: Dude? It's so it's such a weird game man, puzzle game.
I mean, I guess a puzzle game in the sense
that you are. It really does feel more adventure game
rather than like, you know, there are puzzle elements to
an adventure game, Like there's got to be something here
that I need to I need to go and talk
to a guy. I need to go, and but I'm
not sitting there and solving puzzles, right, eyes.
Speaker 2: Is safe and they can still hold on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that's what you're bringing up. Yeah, yeah, that'd
beef from what a few weeks ago, you guys, you
guys duped me on on our mid year Game of
the Year discussion.
Speaker 2: Understood.
Speaker 1: I you miss let me, but uh no, this man, Yeah,
adventure game. I think like a two D platform or
in some in some ways it's hand drawn doing a
lot of exploration. It's really good. Again it's called Thank
goodness you're here. I love it. You gotta play it, man,
both of you all on this call. You gotta play it.
Speaker 2: I will.
Speaker 1: I wink too. It's on a Steam, it's on Switch,
and it might be elsewhere. Let me double check. But yeah,
I thank goodness. Dot game is the website I'm looking
right now. Looks like Steam and Switch coming August first
to Oh, here we go, Mac, PC, PlayStation four and
five and Switch. There you go. So really cool game.
Loved it a lot, Go play it. But that that
kind of wraps up like what I've been playing, Matt.
You I want to go back to you. You've been
checking out Dungeons of Hinterberg, which looks really cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's any game we uh, I'm hoping that there's
another one that I'm I think you'll see a review
from us from from a Game Informer here.
Speaker 3: Pretty soon.
Speaker 4: We had a we had a busy don't need to
tell you, either of you guys. A busy month the last
few weeks kind of getting through some other stuff. So
I'm arriving at it late. The game's already out. You
guys can go play it if you if it sounds appealing,
But what I've seen of it so far is really cool.
It's it's kind of an action RPG with an unusual premise.
Speaker 3: You are this woman who is.
Speaker 4: Kind of sick of their life in the big city
being an attorney, and you decide to you there's these
in this weird world. It's kind of like, what if
in the real world, all of a sudden there were
places where monsters and dungeons just appeared in certain parts
of the world, and and people decided to go on
vacation to go and like be adventurers.
Speaker 3: That's what she does.
Speaker 4: She goes to this little town in the Alps to
get away from the big city that is known to
have this array of dungeons.
Speaker 3: That you can go explore or like.
Speaker 4: The new escape rooms Dundee. Yeah, it's kind of like that.
I mean, there's a vibe a little bit like if
it was the real world that was like, you're going
you heard there's some great scheme at this town, and
you just got to get out of town and I'm
going to go, like, I'm going to go learn how
to ski in this amazing skiing town in the Alps,
except it's not skiing. It's monsters and dungeons, and the.
Speaker 3: Game is split up.
Speaker 4: It has a quality that reminds me a little bit
for anybody who played it last year of Dave the Diver,
Oh okay, where you're sort of splitting your time between
like these excursions where you go out into particular locations
and track down and find entrances to dungeons and you
go in and there's puzzles that you solve in, monsters
that you fight and boss fights and all that kind
of classic what you think of as a dungeon, right,
And then you go back to town and it's like
a relationship friendship sim kind of like kind of stuff
a little bit right, I mean, not very very light
in that, but you're going around the town and you're
meeting people. You're choosing who you spend time with, and
by spending time with them, you get certain bonuses. You know,
if I, if I hang out with this guy, they're gonna,
I don't know, make it so that I can open
up locked chests that I find out in the field
because a light PERSONA. Yeah, there's a little bit, a
little bit of nod to personas there. I wouldn't want
to extend that comparison too far because it's definitely not
like a turn based RPG with a party or anything like.
Speaker 1: It's like similar to like a Cult of the Lamb situation.
Did you play?
Speaker 3: I didn't play. I played a little bit of that game.
Speaker 2: But I think that was more management sim Yeah, this
is more.
Speaker 4: Like you're wandering around town and just like there's a
day night cycle that you're going through and some kind
of happened in the town. So like pretty early on
in the game, there's a local festival that you go
to and uh, you see them reveal a new statue
in the town square and all the people are sort
of like that's an ugly statue.
Speaker 3: And like that's the drama of the game, right.
Speaker 4: It's it's like very kind of low like purposefully low
stakes in certain moments about like oh, well, this person
got in an argument with this other person and we're
going to spend a bunch of time talking about that,
or like with the fact that there's some local kids
who don't like that their town has become a tourist destination, right,
and they don't really like you initially because you're just
one of these tourists who's coming through and is going
to leave two days later and not contribute anything.
Speaker 1: To the town.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So there's those kinds of conversations, and then the
next day you get up in the morning and you're like,
I guess I'll go up on the mountain and go
into this weird dungeon. The action is pretty solid, right, Like,
you gradually upgrade your weapons and your armor and things
like that to have different abilities, and you gain access
to unique magic abilities that are.
Speaker 3: Different between between the different zones that you go to explore.
Speaker 4: There's, like I want to say, there's four different three
or four main zones that you go to, each of
which have several different dungeons, and each of those zones
has their own magic abilities and that mechanically results in
unique puzzle solving things that you've got to do.
Speaker 3: Right. So if in one place, you can.
Speaker 4: I don't know, create a tornado that you can jump
into to fly over something that might be one of
your magic powers. So you have that in one area,
but when you go to the other area. You don't
have that anymore, and you have a different set of
a couple of magical powers. So it keeps it fresh
in that way. And I would say that keeping it fresh.
Speaker 3: I have it in my notes.
Speaker 4: It's like, man, maybe it's my review headline. That's really
what the game does well, is that you're because there's
this day night cycle, there's things changing in the town.
There's things changing, like this mountain wasn't open for exploration
before and now it is and now you can go there.
So as time passes through the game, you're constantly feeling
like there's new things happening and new things opening up.
And so even though nothing ends up being incredibly deep,
like I wouldn't describe the combat as super deep or
complex or anything, but it is fun. And part of
that is because you just, oh, I got this new thing, right, Oh,
now I've got another new thing, and now back to town.
Speaker 3: I've got this new friend.
Speaker 4: I'm going to talk with them, and yeah, now I've
got this new place to go explore. And it keeps
that flow of new experiences coming in a way that
is neat. So I think it's cool. I think if
you're if you want to kind of a quirky change
of pace experience, but that's still rooted in kind of
classic action role playing game ideas, the kind of things
you know, like Zelda Engines or Kingdom Heart style combat
a little bit. Maybe one of the games that came
to mind as I played through it. I think it's
one that people might want to at least investigate and
check out.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Yeah, it's I'm eager to to check it out.
The the art just definitely grabs you when looking at
it on the Steam page.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's got kind of a self shaded yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's cool. Well, awesome, that's that's Dungeons
of hinter Berg.
Speaker 2: Marcus.
Speaker 1: Let's go, let's go over to you. You've been pretty
quiet today. Why have you You haven't been called on yet, Marcus,
you haven't sorry enough. I guess not. I guess the moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you did hear about his pillow.
Speaker 1: We did. We heard about your pillow.
Speaker 2: It was very important.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So tell us you've been playing a lot of games, Marcus,
tell us about him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the first one I actually played a couple
of weeks ago. It's a game call four Strike. It
is not out I played a media build of it
that was put out by Skeleton Crew. This is their
next game. Who was the developer of liha Oh yeah,
you guys remember that game. L i Ja came out
in twenty twenty one is a game that I reviewed
for US and really liked. I gave it an eight
point two or an eight point five, and it was
a side scrolling action game that had a very very
kind of pixelated look to it, kind of like later
eight bit, and it was very much focused on animation
in a way that something like Another World or like
old school Prince of Persia kind of vibe. But it
was a really cool game. So this is their next
project and it has that same style, but it's a
completely different type of game where it is a I
think they described it as a tactical kung fu action
game where you play as this martial artist who is
trying to I believe, rescue a master or someone, but
also trying to liberate a village. And he has this
ability called foresight that allows him to basically play out
fights before they happen in his head, so he'll be
surrounded by guys and he can do the he can
kind of like and mentally map out how am I
going to approach this? If you've watched the modern Sherlock
Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr. If remember those sequences
where he would play out how a fight would go out.
Speaker 1: And Okay, yeah, it's kind.
Speaker 4: Of like Equalizer too, right, Denzel Washington's and you have
a little bit of that vibe times.
Speaker 2: Or if you're a dragon Ball fan, think of image
training in that shows. There's numerous examples of this and
it turns out but uh, and so the idea these
fights because it's a two D game, all the fights
play on on the two D plane, and it's also
a roguelike, so you enter these levels on a kind
of roguelike map where there's like two different branches that
you can choose depending on what reward you're seeking from
the end of it. But every level is a separate
encounter that pits you against multiple enemies, usually three four,
and each enemy has a different type where you might
have a guy that can charge at you and that's
his thing, or guy that has a weapon, or there's
one guy who can guard and you're pretty much trying
to figure out the optimal way to win this fight.
And so you use your foresight ability, which you just
hit with a button to sort of enter that mental state,
and you can play out the fight as many times
as you want until you find sort of the core.
I don't know if I want to say to correct solution,
because there's no one right answer. Yeah, but you're trying
to find the optimal solution that works for you, Like
I have solved fights in different ways that resulted in
what I would consider the optimal solution, which is not
getting hit because you have very You only have three
health points and there are very few opportunities to replannish
your health during a run, so ideally you don't want
to take any damage as best to your ability, so
you can you can use foresight as many times as
you want. Terrifices where I sat there and I replayed
it over and over and over, just trying to nail
down whor it's like okay, if this guy comes at me.
Because you have abilities where you can do like light attacks,
you can do a heavy attack like a kick that
can knock two health notches instead of one, but if
you miss, then you're vulnerable to getting hit. You can
unlock a dodge where if someone swings at you and
hit a button, they'll dodge and they'll go flying behind you.
Which you can set people up like that because the
enemies can hit each other if you line them up
a certain way. And then you also have a guard
where if someone hits you, you'll sort of absorb it
and then retaliate. And you can also pick up weapons
which can serve as shields for you, so you can
have someone waste an attack if you pick up a
table and they punch into it, and then now you
can retaliate. It's something you can throw weapons and along
the way, as you're completing arenas, you're getting the choice
to unlock new perks and abilities again Roguelike fashion, where
one of my favorites augmented my dodge to where, oh,
not only do you dodge, but if you hit down
at the same time, you'll throw the guy to attack
you behind you, like kind of like a like a
Reu street fighter to throw they might go flying into
whoever's behind you. So you can mess around with that,
and so it becomes this very fun exercise of trying
to figure out the right way to approach a battle,
and then once you think you're ready, you can play
the battle for real and try to replicate whatever method
you found, and once you succeed, they have this cool
kind of replay system where you can scrub through the
fight and like fast forward, slow down, and just watch
this sort of play out and then I guess, basically
study yourself, maybe pick up like, oh, you know what
I should have done there, Maybe I should have done this.
But at first I wasn't sure what the almost what
the point of the foresight ability was, because you don't
have to use it. You can just go into a
fight and just on your first go just try to
get through it. But then as I played more and
more of it, the fights got hard and you realize
how limited your resources are. It's like you'd be foolish
not take advantage of that, because like the idea is
like playing it over and over, getting down a cool
method and then seeing if you can do it again.
Because there were times where and this is where the
game could be most frustrating, but like by design, where
I got to the end boss and it was like
a really tricky thing to figure out because of just
the types of enemies that they threw at you, and
you're trying to figure out Okay, if I hit this guy,
i'll be open for the guy behind me, so maybe
I should hit him first. And then after a bunch
of like attempts, I figured out a way to beat
the boss and his goons without getting hit. But I
also was coming in with one hit point left from
the run, so I was ready to go like I met.
I replayed it three times the way that I figured
out was the way to go, and then once it
was game time, I blew the last step and lost,
and I had to restart the run and it was
so I think it's even more frustrating than losing normally
because it's like I practiced this, I did it, and
then when it was when it was for real, I
choked and now I got to start over again. But
it's a cool idea. It reminds me of, like, I
don't know, a little bit of into the breach a
little bit, not in a way of you know, it's
not like a grid game.
Speaker 4: Or but yeah, yeah, I sort of like that quality
where you were, like you very you could figure out
the exact right thing to do, and the hit point
totals were so small right to the breach you.
Speaker 3: Want to get it exactly right.
Speaker 2: You know you're predicting the enemy movements too. If I
move here, this guy is gonna do this. So what
if I moved over there instead? And see? What if
that's the key to success. But I think it's cool
so far. It's I like it. I found myself, like
I said, obsessively replaying the doing the foresight mode over
and over. For the harder fights. There seems to be
a main story there too, like you're getting these kind
of cut scenes in between pivotal moments with your master.
And there's also seems to be multiple runs you can do,
or sort of like multiple versions of your character where
I only have two on lock, but you can start
a run where dodging is sort of your main defensive technique,
but then there's another run with a different master where
guarding is your main defensive technique, and we're like multiple
unlike lock slots underneath that that you could get. But
the game, like on its own, is cool. But once
you start really stacking in perks and other abilities to
augment your starter set, that's where it really starts. As
things I've seen videos of being able to do like
crazy jumps and spinning both staffs and doing all sorts
of like like it seems like once you really have
like a good load out, you can play out some
pretty cool like two D martial arts fight scenes where
you're just like flipping all over the place and nobody
can touch you.
Speaker 3: That's awesome.
Speaker 4: Yeah, is there like a I'm trying to wrap my
head around the idea? Is it like is there kind
of like a Simon memory quality thing where you've got
to like, Okay, this is the route, this is the
successful route, But just memorizing what you need to do
is hard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's because all the enemies will react the
same way based on what you do. So if I know,
if I punched this guy that's in front of me,
I know he'll die, but I know doing that, the
guy behind me will advance and do something, so I
need to account for that. And so like everything plays
out the same way as long as you don't change
whatever approach you've decided. But then the moment you either
slip up or you're like, you can miss your timing
by second and it can unravel everything. We're like, oh
I was late doing step three, and now this guy's
a step closer to me than I wanted, So he's
going to get a hit on me. I still get
my hit on him, but in the optimal way. I
hit him before he hit me. But now the positioning's off,
it gets like that minute sometimes.
Speaker 3: M Okay, that's cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you've gotten me excited about that game. I'm
going to go check check that out at some time
this week after.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's not out yet, it comes out next year,
and I don't there wasn't a demo like what I
got was. I think they were even saying like it's
technically not even a preview ability. Was literally just like
here's a little slice where we're working on. I think
they said the slice I play it is not going
to be in the full game, so it's more of
a proof of concept sort of thing. But I'm excited
to see what that looks like when it gets sort
of I guess closer to release. It's a neat idea.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you're I'm I mainly just want to
go see what it looks like now that you've told
me about it, right, Like, I don't. I think your
description is my first time really thinking and hearing about
the game.
Speaker 3: So now I want to like go Yeah, there's a
trailer and stuff out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, what else have been playing, Marcus?
Speaker 2: I'm playing the hottest game of twenty twenty four. Guys.
I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's
called Silent Hill Too.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: All right, Yes, And before people get too excited or confused,
this is the original version. This is not the remake
that comes out in October. I'm preparing for Silent Hill
Too by playing the original for the very first time.
And this is also my first real well you know, actually,
I'm going to say it's my first real Silent Hill game.
Like Silent Hill has been one of my biggest gaps
in terms of like knowledge and franchises. As much as
I love horror games, I as a kid in the
PlayStation Era, I made the unconscious decision to be a
resident Evil person and not a Silent Hill person. I
feel like there's those series that are like you, you
go with one and then for whatever reason, you never
go with the other one, even if it's no like Animosity,
like I did that with Rationing Clank and Jack and Daxter.
Or I didn't play Jack and Daxterer until way later,
but I played all the rationing clinks when they came out, Like,
I was like, I guess I'm the rationing clank guy
in this in this rivalry. And the only Silent Hill
games I've ever played until this year was PT which
and then I beat that free one they released earlier
this year. The short message that that like the you
remember that one that they drop earlier this year. Yeah,
Like I played all of that, but you know, in
terms of the real meat, I was like, all right,
Silent Hill two, I would like to play the original
version before the remake comes out so I can compare
because I'm going to play the remake and I'm playing
the PC version using the I don't know if you
guys seen this. This is something that Kyle smartened me
up to, but there's a fan made enhanced edition of
the PC version that is basically a free mod package
that updates the PC version of Silent Hill two with
better lighting, modern controls, so you can play it like
a normal game and don't have to use the original
tank controls. I believe it has the ability to save
any time you want because the game has traditional safe spots.
I was like that, I assume that you couldn't save
anywhere you want before because what would be the point,
and then just other quality of life improvements like frame
rate and stuff. So it runs super well. It took
a while to get it going, but that is the
way to play it, especial because Silent Hill two is
unfortunately a very hard game to play because they've never
really ported it or remastered it outside of that HD
collection from twenty twelve that a lot of fans don't like. Sure,
uh so, I'm I'm a good ways through it. It's
weird because now the statue of limitations has reset for
like spoilers for the game now the remake is coming out.
I don't know if are maybe I know for you, Alex,
I know you're not a big horror guy, but are
you a Silent Hell guy, Matt, or are.
Speaker 1: You I'm not a Silent Hill guy, but I know
the plot points and all of that because I like
to know about horror. It fascinates me. I don't want
to experience it necessarily, but I do like I read
like wikipedias for like horror movies and I'm like, dang,
I bet that was scary.
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I've played gosh, I did play Silent Hill too,
that was so long ago it feels like a different
life though about me. Yeah, I mean that was like
before I started my career at Game and Former in
two thousand and four and so like free working in games.
Speaker 3: But I I'm.
Speaker 4: Glad to my memory of it is such that I
can say that I'm glad that you are playing something
that has some updates to it, because you know, that
original game, much as it as it is beloved, it
doesn't seem like it would be super fun to play now.
I mean some of those like late nineties early two
thousands horror games were real.
Speaker 3: Janky in retrospect.
Speaker 4: Right at the time, they were exciting and scary, but
sometimes they were scary.
Speaker 3: Because you just couldn't Oh.
Speaker 4: My gosh, I want to run away and I can't
even move correctly right or I can't I can't see
what's happening because the polygons on screen have decided to
not cooperate, you know, Like there was weird stuff like that.
So that's I kind of honestly what I remember most
about that game, just like kind of a hard game
to play, and now I'm sure it would be even
more so if I played the original.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the modern controls make it a huge difference to
the point where it almost feels like it trivializes I'm
going to combat because I'm playing on normal, Like there's
multiple difficulties. But there are times where even in when
I'm in narrow corridors facing against like the creepy nurses
or the weird mannequin looking things. I mean, I played
these games pretty conservatively anyway, like Survival War, where it's
like I don't shoot a I do not fire a
bullet unless I absolutely have to. Yeah, So it's like
they're very easy to just navigate around, which I was like,
this has to have been more difficult with the tank controls.
And then when I do get into fights, I just
use the you get like a two by four pretty
early as your main weapon before you get a gun,
And most times I'm like, I'm just gonna beat this
with this stick because I could just stand in front
of it and they have no response to it. And
again I feel like I was like, would this be
easy to do with the original controls. I don't know,
but that said, the game still is like effectively creepy
at point. I think the sound design, which again has
been gotten polished for the Enhanced Edition, but the sound
design is still really good. Like there are moments where
you walk into a room and you'll hear like just
weird whispers and then it's got like and I attribute
this to the Enhanced Edition, but it's like got in
three D audio kind of quality to it. It's like, oh, like,
where is that coming from? Yeah, And just even the
sound effects of some of the enemies when you're just
sort of roaming the halls is just gross and you know,
you hear it and you're just like, oh, I don't
like that.
Speaker 3: Has it got you more excited for the like new version?
Speaker 2: Yeah? For and maybe in ways that fans might not
want to hear because seeing the story for the first
time and hearing the original performances, because I believe that
was something that was changed in the HD collection that
people were not happy with, Like I think they redid
the voices or something. But hearing the original like James Sunderland,
a protagonist, like his performance is like actively bad, and
again I think maybe fans don't want to hear this,
but like hearing his very he's a very dopey character,
and I don't know if that's by design or if
that's just a product of early two thousands writing. But
he's just kind of an idiot a lot of the time,
Like he just walks into this town and he's because
the premise Silent Hill too, is that he's trying to
find his dead wife because he got a message from her,
even though she's been dead for years. So like he
starts most conversations like people are like, oh, what are
you here for, and he's just without any sense of tact,
saying I'm just looking for my dead wife, as if
that's not a strange thing to say. And then there's
one character where he says, you look like my dead.
Speaker 1: Wife, and oh my god, say that?
Speaker 2: Who says that look? And and there's this other moments
where's his reactions to things are so just like it's
like the biggest reminder of like, this is a game
from two thousand and one, but I'm looking forward to
seeing like or I would not mind if the remake
just completely overhauled that stuff, Like I don't think they
should be precious about we need to word for word,
keep everything the same, or even have the same delivery,
like maybe keep some of that dufousness in the way
that they did with Leon and Resony before remake. But
other than that, I was I would appreciate if he
had a more just human reaction to some things, and
that goes for some of the other characters, but he's
like enemy number one on that. And then even just
the you know, like the combat is very basic. I
know some people were I want to go back, can
rewatch those trailers that everyone's or not everyone, but like
the hardcore fans have been kind of down on when
he's like this game play doesn't look good, and you know,
I didn't have context for that. I don't really see
how it looks fine To me, it looks like a
third like a modern third person survival war game, kind
of like over the shoulder style, which to me is fine,
and I'm still in that camp of I'd rather have
that than what it was. So yeah, that's been the
fun part is sort of seeing where I land without
any of the nostalgia attached to it, just me playing
a little bit more objectively and sort of seeing like, oh,
I hope that they smooth this over into remake or
this could be better, but like the general vibes are
are still very strong, and I'm at a point in
the story now, like I'm a few hours in where
I'm invested in seeing what's happening, Like it's a it's
a pretty cool and interesting mystery so far. So yeah,
it has. Definitely. I was already excited for the remake
just because it was an easy way to play a
modern version of a game that it's very inaccessible. But
now it's it's like that. Plus I was like, I
would like to see how you guys tackle this. You know,
blueber Teine not the greatest track record, at least in
my opinion. They make okay games, but it's like, I
understand why people are cautious about them Searn being at
the helm of this, but at least from what I
remember of seeing the remake, to me, it looks fine,
so we'll see. But oh, also, it's cool to finally
see pyramid heead and have like actual or maybe more
context to what a pyramidhead is. Like I would see
that character and go, he looks cool, but I don't
know what his deal is. And granted I still don't
know what his deal is, but I'd run into him
a few times, so like, oh, okay, you're the big
scary thing that people are afraid of that this is
what this like.
Speaker 1: I guess my introduction to him was dead by Daylight.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I you know, I think there's a there's a
lot of interesting conversation to be had about the challenges
that developers have when approaching a remake for something that's old.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of different approaches you can take and
the degree to which you want to be faithful to
something that you know, if you're someone like you, Marcus, right,
like you're you don't have an affection Correct me if
I'm wrong, but it doesn't sound like you have an
affection for the original.
Speaker 3: Silent Hill too, Right.
Speaker 4: You just are playing it because you know that it's
it's fondly remembered and that there are people who really
love it, and you're curious about how it's going to
like compare to this new experience.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So, for someone like you, the people who are making
the game are probably mostly interested in just like, how
can we make this good now?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: But there's also this this need to be aware of
the fact that at least some of your audience who's
going to be compelled to pick up the game and
play it are the people who do have nostalgia and fondness.
Speaker 3: For the original and don't want it to be.
Speaker 4: Too different, right, So that's that's a hard balance to hit,
I think. Yeah, And and it emerges I think often
is the most interesting thing you can be looking to
talk about, right about one of these games, whether it's
something like this or what you know Square did with
Final Fantasy seven or is doing.
Speaker 3: With Final Fantasy seven. Yeah, you know all those all
those games are like, these are old games.
Speaker 4: Now, trying to just re redo them and not make
changes to script or or you know, the way combat
feels or something like that, even though there's some people
out there who are like, that's what I want, that's
not what probably would be.
Speaker 2: Best, or you haven't played it whole and you think
that's what you.
Speaker 3: Want to think it Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 2: And go ooh, there's those.
Speaker 4: Rose those rose tinted glasses that we all have for
games we played, especially when we were young, where you
think it looked great. Uh, it didn't look as great
as you think it did. I promise it didn't. Whatever
it is, it didn't look as great. Like there's this, Uh,
those games that you're in your head, you've updated them,
you've given them the HD update in your head, but
that didn't that hasn't happened to them.
Speaker 3: And you go back and you put them on and
it's like, h this.
Speaker 2: Is a dicey. I could see them. I could see
the individual polygons and this fog. Okay, yeah, am. I
will say though one of the presentational stuff in Silent
Hill too, Definitely, I could see why it was so beloved,
Like there's some stuff that I see. It was like,
this seems ahead of its time, especially the cinematography, Like
this game has a lot of really cool camera angles
when you're switching perspectives, Like you walk into a room
and they'll put the camera either up close and then
like tilted in like James's face or behind him, and
they just have a very like interesting way of framing
things that is stylish but without generally getting in a
way of gameplay, like, oh, this is obscuring something. So
I think that stuff. I was like, oh, I hope
they keep that sort of like style to it. So
I think he does lend itself to sort of the
the idea that you and James are slowly losing your
mind in this town. Yeah, so yeah, I hope they
keep that stuff, but I'm excited to see the rest
of it. Apparently it's not as long as I thought
it would be. I think I looked it up and
they're like, oh, it's like eight hours to get through. Also,
the puzzle solving still pretty good generally, and that is
for again, for a survival horror game from that era.
I was expecting to more obtuse than it actually is.
Speaker 1: Sure, so I've.
Speaker 2: Been pleasantly surprised where there's stuff that I've had to
think about, but it's always they leave breadcrumbs or nothing
has been too just like I can't figure that out.
It's like you got to think about it, but it
makes sense once you come to the solution. So again,
kudos to Konami from over twenty years ago. You did it.
Speaker 1: Congrats. Yeah, well awesome. Well take us home, Marcus. I
know you got one more game you want to talk
about before we wrap up the show, and it's one
that I've been very curious about. It's a puzzle game
called a Ranger.
Speaker 2: Yeah. We talked about this last week. Charles played a
bit of it. I've played the first couple hours of it.
If you're not familiar with it, it is the top
down adventure game where you play as a character as
the ability to slide the world itself, Like the world
itself is one giant sliding puzzle basically, And what's fun
about it is that everyone is aware that you have
this power, Like it's not it's not just a gameplay thing,
like it is a narrative like in universe thing that
people People think it's weird that you can do this
and maybe don't like it because they're being moved around
against their will sometimes, but it's it's fun. I was
worried about this game only because I feel like slide
puzzles in every game. You know, there are recurring elements
a lot of games, and I don't think I've ever
decided if I like them or I feel like it's
a very game to game basis, Like sometimes I'll encounter
one and it's like, oh, that's this is cool, and
then other times it's the most frustrating thing ever and
you're I don't want to do this, but I have to,
And I've I was worried about, like the game being
just that how complicated or annoying can this be? When
literally everything you do is a slide puzzle and at
least so far, it has been very fun and manageable.
I think they have designed the world in a way
to where it never gets more complicated than it needs
to be, or that you can make it yourself. Every
route like you're going through a big kind of like again,
like top down Zelda's maybe the best comparison I can
give it for just the viewpoint, But every route or
every lane that you go to is almost like a
slide puzzle in itself, where you have to figure out
how to slide yourself up a road and then how
to go left, and then every direction change is sort
of its own very small riddle. But it's fun just
figuring out how to quickly navigate those spaces, like you
can do the pac Man thing of Oh, if I
go to the edge of a road, I will appear
on the other side of it, So instead of manually
shifting my way up, I should just go down and
then pop up the other and then keep going. So
I've been doing that everywhere I've been going, and it's
expedited my travels as well as the puzzles where you
need to bring other people or other objects with you,
and then that's where it gets puzzling when you're having
to account for an object that you have to figure out,
how do I get this from here to there? And
sometimes there's barriers that can't be shifted, which there's like
there's an in universe explanation for things that are static,
Like I think it's like the Evil Force, or or
it's like an entity that I think it's called static,
or it's got this weird sort of like multi colored
glue and that's how you know that it can't be moved.
But I like the like it's fun, Like I think
it's well designed. The I've done one major boss fight
so far, and that was a fun fight because it
was pretty much just trying to It was kind of
like the if you've played enough old school Zelda games,
the Big Worm, where you have to attack the tail.
It was like a cool variation of that because you're
trying to shift the floors to where you guide the
spiked tail to hit the head of the snake.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this sort of obstacle course where you can't
move everything in it, so you have to figure out
how to guide the tail and line things up to
where it collides with the head. I thought that was
a pretty fun fight, and I've also liked the writing,
Like the writing has been pretty charming. There's been some
very fun characters. Again, it's fun to see their reactions
to Gemma, who's the protagonist who has this interesting story
where she was an orphan who grew up in this
town where things it seems like things like were generally
static and you're the only person that can move stuff,
and she decides to leave to see the world for
the first time and try to learn about her upbringing
and why she has this power and why some people
are afraid of her. The soundtrack is also very good.
It's got to very bashing vibe to it, just a
lot of acoustic guitar. Yeah, that reminds me a lot
of like the main theme of Bashton that I've really liked.
And it's got a very nice, colorful art direction. But
it's very it's very fun, and there's also something you
can play in kind of short chunks. I'm playing it
on Switch. I believe it's only on Switch and PC,
but that's been a very fun sort of before bed
game where you can almost treat just the act of
reaching a new area as like a puzzle or a
few puzzles and you're like, okay, I made it to
that house. Okay, I'm done because I already had to.
You know, I had to do quite a bit of
thinking just to get to this house. And then you
feel satisfied. But it's cool. I like it so far.
I want to get through it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. It sounds super. Also, the bedtime game.
I need a bedtime game because my problem with bedtime games.
Mario Paper Mario in thousand Year Door has been my
bedtime game, and it's it's too much to try to
play that game before bed because I always get really
tired very quickly, and I don't get very far where.
It's like having a game like a ranger where I
can be like, I like that idea, like let me
get to that house and then I'll go to sleep.
That's perfect.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and moving the tiles feels good. It's got a
good tile slidey feel to it, which I think is
very important for something like this. You're like, there's a
nice tactile feel to it.
Speaker 1: I love it. What are you gonna say, man?
Speaker 4: When I was just going to ask you if when
you finish playing, you've got you've got a good pillow
to lay on.
Speaker 1: I do. I actually have a very great pillow. I
asked for a pillow for Christmas. Actually nice And do
you not get it? I did. Oh, it's amazing. I
don't think it's meant it's not meant to be a
like a normal pillow. But I felt it at Target
and it was like an eighty dollars pillow, and I
was like, this feels incredible.
Speaker 3: Wait wait, wait, wait, what is it? What do you
mean it's just not meant to be a normal It's right,
Let me get it.
Speaker 1: Let me get it.
Speaker 2: What constitutes a normal pillow? Besides, like, did you buy
like a body pillow? Or Okay, that's a pillow. Okay,
I mean it looks like a house question. It's not
like a bed pillow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's so comfortable. I love that so much.
It's the softest pillow I've ever owned. And yeah, yeah,
so I haven't taken the tack off either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're just bragging trying to show off. This is
eighty dollars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I'm sleeping on money.
Speaker 4: Baby, We've gone full circle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, guys, that's what you.
Speaker 1: Do in the business of podcasting.
Speaker 2: That's professional podcasting right there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're doing well. Thank you both for joining me
today on this episode. Thank you all out there for listening.
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We're about to enter the onslaught of game releases. I'm
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right exactly when the game has happened, ye, And we'll
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