Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our weekly
video game show here at geek Firs. I'm your host,
Dylan Muss, and I have with me the Marvel Boy himself,
kirkln patz Er. How are you doing tonight, my friend.
Speaker 2: I'm doing very good. I'm very excited to be here,
and yeah, it should be a good time.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We have a fun I'd say more of a laid
back episode in terms of topics. We're gonna talk about
some of the games we've been playing, of a couple
of new show outs there, and then of course we're
gonna talk about Marvel Snap as we always do. And
there's a couple of news pieces, one kind of big,
one kind of small, but I think they'll still be
fun to discuss nonetheless, so it should be fun episode.
I'll do the show outs later. But the one thing
I'm all show out right at the top, and we
can segue this right into the games we've been playing,
is that Marvel Snap recently launched a new feature called Alliances,
in which you can team up with people like a
like a Klan in other games or party, I guess,
I don't know. All games have different names for this
kind of thing. But if you want to join it,
we still have many spots left. I think if you
search GVS or just geek Verse in the Alliance tab
feature in Snap, you will see it there and you
can join and then uh yeah, it's good time. And
then if you also joined the Discord, that's where we
there's a chat feature in the Alliance, this thing which
I don't think anyone will ever use. But you know,
we talked about Marvel stap of the Discord, and then
we joined the Alliance, so we can, you know, get
some of those team objectives crushed together, which is fun.
But yeah, let's let's talk about it more about Marvel Snap. So,
I know you're hyped because you got a couple of
new cards recently. So tell me your last couple of
weeks here in the world of Snap.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been exhilarating. I went from free to play
to pay to win, as the kids would say, No,
I purchased my first battle pass, and I I've I've
been having lots of funds with the cards that I've acquired.
I told you off cast. I think before our last
cast that I had a goal of wanting to acquire
I can't reven Marvel Boy, I can rey Marvel. Yeah,
so yeah, I with the with the battle pass, you
of course acquire Kate Bishop and then uh, I saw
that Marvel Boy like his. I guess it's not really
an ongoing effect. It's just what would you just call
if it's Is it just the text I guess of
the cards.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I forget if there's like a succinct way to
refer to those, but yeah, just just an effect, I guess,
just a car effect.
Speaker 2: Just the effect. I saw his effect pairing with the
one costs and I've I've always like it never went
full ham on, like a what would you even call that?
Just like a is it? The deck?
Speaker 1: Is a Zoo deck? Is what it's called, which I
don't know. I think that originates from like magic or something,
but it es actually just means like a bunch of
really cheap cards and like ideally powering them up, and
it's more about like it's kind of like playing Zerg.
You know, it's quantity over quality of like individual units
and power, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: And then pairing that, I guess they're Kazoo decks with
kazar and exactly Yeah, good blue Marvel and then of
course Kate Bishop's Arrows being one cost cards. Now, I
thought it would just be a great pairing. I had
four I think Spotlight keys, like just just waiting for
Noell eventually to come back because I'm just waiting to
get that card. Still still waiting for that. But yeah,
I know it ended up being my fourth key to
acquire Marvel Boy, which is a bit of a bummer,
but I mean with that, like I acquired Red Hulk,
which has been like a really powerful card that I've
included in my deck. I've been having lots of fun
with Red Hulk. I feel like I'd never realized what
his effect is. But it's actually pretty crazy to me.
Like I thought it was. I thought it was like
the amount of energy they left. It's kind of like
a sun spot effect, Like that's what I thought it
was like the for Red Hulk, but it's just anytime
they have even one one extra energy, you get plus
three every time in your hand or in play, which
is pretty crazy in my mind. But yeah, pairing that
with the Kate Bishop deck that I had, and then
of course now I have Marvel Boy, which is just
really really strong card. I feel like marvel Boy is crazy.
In my mind. I'm not like a meta deck player,
like clearly, I'm not infinite or anything like that. I'm still,
i think, searching for certain cards to really round out
this deck that I've been running right now. But I've
been having lots of fun with the Battle Pass and
Kate Bishop's a really really cool card with some cool
effects that she has. And you don't have Kate Bishop, right,
I think you have Marvel Boy, but not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't pick up this season's past, and I
don't think I will. Yeah, I think I think I will.
I definitely want Kate Bishop. I really like her her
ability and I like the character too, but I have
I have a lot of tokens right now, so I
think I'm just gonna wait and then at the start
of next month is when she'll just drop like into
the token pool for like six k tokens and I
have like seventeen thousand tokens.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I saved up.
Speaker 1: I haven't bought anything in a long time, So I
think I'm just gonna pick her up at that point
because I do really like her effect. But yeah, Marvel
Boy is a really it's a freaking weird character. I
don't know where his origins are, but just such a
weird name. But I really like him too, Like he's
in theory really really strong. If you get him out
with like a good curve. You know, if you get
on turn three and you already had three one costs,
even if you only have like one or two one
costs on turn three and then it turns four and five,
like stack those out and make sure you're getting that maximum.
But it worked really well because I have a deck
already that I use quite often. It's kind of like
a high evo deck mixed with Athena deck. I don't
know if you've used Athena. I don't think of her,
but she's a she's a really good card that she's
a two costs and if any turn you play two cards, uh,
like only exactly two cards, no less, no more, then
she gets plus three power uh. And it's just it
just she can stack up to like a two fourteen
by the end of the game, like easily. And so
this deck that I use is kind of based around
floating a lot of energy, so that's where the hia
Evo benefits come in, and then a lot of like
low cost cards. That way, it's easy for me to
make sure I can always hit two cards coming out
every turn with her. So I have Nebula, Sunspot, Uh,
Misty and Kitty Pride as well in that so four
to one costs and then Kitty obviously comes back to
your hand every turn, so can easily kind of plan
it out that way. And so like Theena's buff constantly
going up, Sunspot constantly going up because of the energy,
and then Marvel Boy also feeding energy to those, plus Misty,
who also you know, feeds energy to everyone else or
feeds powered everyone else. It just like the numbers just
keeps stacking up, like they start very low, but they
get really insane body in the game. So he was
like a perfect character to slot into that deck that
it was already like my best performing one, so it
was it was an easy pick up for me, and
I got really lucky. I got him with one one key.
I don't always get lucky, but yeah, it always feels
good when when you just snipe that one yet and
then save the rest because I have I also have
a bunch of keys saved up right now too, so
I'm gonna try it. Wickan I think is the new
guy coming up this week who looks really really strong
in my opinion, so I'm gonna try and grab him
with my with my keys there and uh yeah, I
have a good time with that.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. Yeah, I got a major gut punch my
first key. I felt like Harry Potter when he says
diagon Elly instead of diagon Alley, where I'm like, please
don't be blob, Please don't be blob, Please don't be blob.
And it was a Blob variant the first key that
I got. And then Red Hulk, which, like I was saying,
has been a really really great card that included in
my collection even after that, and then that they gave him,
he's still super good. Oh nice. And then the next
one was Pixie, which I haven't used him. Yeah, no, exactly,
I haven't used that card yet. I can't remember what her.
Speaker 1: Her ability is. It's on reveal. She's the two costs
and she flips the costs of all the cards in
your deck. So the idea being that put in like
a Wasp and a Yellow Jacket, and then you also
put like a Red Hulk or something, and then maybe
you get lucky such as that Red hulk becomes a
zero cost card, which can be really powerful. The only
the reason I got her when she first came out
because I really liked that idea and that concept, and
why I haven't continued to use her a whole lot
is there's a weird thing with it too, where with
the randomization of the cards that she flips like it it,
I guess it puts all the costs like in to
a pool, and then every card like pulls out of
that again. So there's a chance that a card will
just have the same cost that it happened previously, like
it'll and it'll even draw its own like if you
only have one one cost in your deck, it might
just become a one cost still, and so it kind
of just ruins it. Like if you don't get it
out on turn two, then she's kind of really bad
because then that pool just shrinks. Then the cards don't
often end up flipping flipping of that makes sense, Like
you really want to get as many cards as you
can with like that really cheap discount. So I don't know,
I haven't found a deck that's really really strong with
it yet. Yeah, but it's potentially potentially pretty strong. It's
It's makes for some fun deck building at least, which
is always a good thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, I'm glad I got her. I figured that
she's works really well.
Speaker 1: With someone like a like a Blawb or a Red
Hulk actually, so that's okay. Usually they kind of do that.
They'll usually pair the Spotlight characters they have somewhat of
a synergy. That's not always the case, but sometimes it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, I I feel like there's many times for
I'll get a new card and I'm like, huh, I'm
glad I'm at in that collection. I feel like I
don't have a lot of other cards that like work
around that right now. But I'm sure I'll revisit her
in the future. But no, I've just been running. I
pulled up my my little deck here just so I
can read it off for you. I have Nico Minoru,
who like ever since, like Otter, I've just been using
her in every single deck. She's such a great card,
Nico Minoru. I have ant Man, Squirrel Girl, Beast. I added,
I I want to have more bounced cards. I feel
like it's kind of a fun place to I don't
have Falcon.
Speaker 1: That's once you get him then it all comes together, and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, so beast. I have Dazzler right now. I
through Shadow King in this deck because I haven't really
used that card before, but it's got some good counterplay,
and I feel like like it's it's not like every game,
like I'm really benefiting the most from his ability, but uh,
it's every once in a while. Then I got Hawkeye
Kate Bishop Marvel Boy, uh Kai Kaira Kira. I never
know how to say her name. I think something like that.
I found she fit well in this deck because she
obviously makes one cost and six costs like invulnerable with
just just a counter to kill Monger, because that can
absolutely destroy my entire play if if they throw it
like a late game kill Monger.
Speaker 1: I have that same deck I just mentioned with and
all those one costs, like it's it is essential.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And then I have Kazar and Blue Marvel. Great
pairing there, and then Red Hulk to round it out.
I thought about throwing Onslaught on there just for like
the extra ongoing effect, but I don't know. I feel
like I don't want to have a lot of high
cost cards in this deck right now, Like that's just
where I have Red Hulk, so I can throw them
out there later on if I need that extra power.
So but for the most part, like it's been a
really really solid deck right now. I feel like there
definitely is the range factor of certain like maybe Kate
Bishop's arrows, but more so just like certain cards like.
Speaker 1: Nico, then you're kind of dealing with a lot of yeah, yeah,
but they are like pretty versatile still in general. Yeah,
I feel like Kate, like even if you get the
negative arrow or the toxic arrow, like that's not actually
great for Marvel Boy necessarily because that's a one cost
that you can't then yeah, actually buff I mean true
good card.
Speaker 2: And then I have but like I also have like
Squirrel Girl for example, where it's like, okay, I still
have a bunch of different one costs out there, so
that's nice. But for the most part, so far, I've
had more wins than losses with this deck, and I've
been I've been gutting on it like pretty hard, I
think since I got the Battle Pass, just because I'm
trying to maximize Yeah, just my my unlocks and yeah,
exactly that you paid for essentially exactly. I can't wait
for that. Ky Bishavarian. It's so nice. Soon as I
saw it, I'm like, oh, I got to get this
battle pass.
Speaker 1: And then do you have because the other it's it's
Scarlet Witch and.
Speaker 2: America Chaves, and do you have both those two?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I have about those characters. America Chaves I've used more recently.
I think the last deck I was running before I
just made this one, I had her in it. I
feel like I haven't used scar Which in a while.
It is a really nice variant, but I don't know,
just not really right now in my current decks that
I've been running with her, and I mean, on the
topic of using all my Spotlight keys, it's nice. I
think it was famboy Clay through it in the discord,
just like all the what would you call it the
next Spotlight Cash like the schedule I guess, yeah, exactly
the schedule for that. So I was looking through it.
Of course, no null on there. I feel like eventually
I'm just gonna have to get in with tokens.
Speaker 1: I honestly, I think you maybe got a bit screwed
because the Spotlight Cash system is weird, and like when
it first launched, there wasn't a ton of eligible cards, right,
and now we're like a year into it, and like
there's too many cards eligible. So like I think I
saw someone posting on Reddit that like, on average, if
they let's say they had completely even splits where it's
like every week with someone new and they didn't run
someone again until like everyone else has been run, then
like I think the average right now is like twice
a year a character would pop up in a Spotlight
and that's that's if it was and was perfect and
everyone is getting an equal shot, right and Null, unfortunately
for you, has already been in like four cashes, So
I think they've like they've kind of hit capacity on
how many times they can't run that character. People have
already been really mad at how often he's been run.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't think it'll happen, but I do think that's
a character that should be dropping in series like soon.
He's been He's such a core card for destroy Yeah,
and he's so like he's so met irrelevant and he's
been around for so much, He's been in so many
Spotlight cash is that I feel like it's time for
them to drop him to because is he still series five?
Like you still cast six K tokens. I think if
he does, that's ridiculous. He should at least be three
K tokens right now. But hopefully he drops down a
series three at some point. But yeah, I don't, unfortunately
think you're gonna get another one of him in the
spotlight uh spotlights anytime soon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair. Series four is what it is.
Speaker 1: Okay, So he is three K tokens right now, I
guess then, so I would say, yeah, save up your tokens,
spend it there. It's probably a worthwhile thing because we
just have no idea when they're going to do more
spotlight drops at this point. But that's that's something I've
heard people talking about with that system is like inherently
because of the way it works, they need to have,
you know, if you don't have any of the cards, cool,
you get the new cards. But they also need to
have like the variants there for people who already have it,
like the blob thing you mentioned for example. So cards
that are like really rare Marvel characters that don't have
a ton of art for them are just gonna have
like less possibilities for them to do, like variant art
for unless they like pay to make new art, you know,
which they're not. It's like easier for them to just
grab some Marvel comic book cover and put it in there.
So like, yeah, there's certain characters that are maybe like
super Giant I think is one in there that's like
I don't know how many versions of that character like
it's ever been on like comic book cover, you know,
just by yourself. So it's kind of hard to get art.
And therefore, she I don't think she's been run more
than like the week that she came out, which was
like months ago now. So it's it's a very weird
and janky system. And I just want them to do
series drops more often, which I mean I think everyone does.
Would it be more more cards for more people, But
I think that would fix all the problems as just
dropping things more. But yeah, I don't know, No, you
might be you might be waiting because I know they
also know that it's a very valuable card and people
want it, so like maybe that's the reason why they
wouldn't drop him out.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure, right, Yeah, I'm hoping it comes across
the Token store because I definitely I'll save up at
least or sorry, I'll hold on to at least three
k if he's series four, and then just just waiting
on it. But yeah, just looking at the upcoming spot
like cases, I mean, I'm sure there's some really valuable
cards in there. I feel like not a lot we're
popping out for ones that I like really want to
save up for other than maybe mocking Bird and US Agents.
So or like the first week of September, I think
that's when the spotlight cash is silver Stable, mocking Bird,
and US Agent. So like that's all three.
Speaker 1: That we because I don't have US Agent, so I'll
probably try and red the two for one there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, so I feel like that's the next one
I really want to root for.
Speaker 1: US Agent. It was kind of dirty because he came
out and I was like, it seems interesting. I want
to get him, but like I didn't have many tokens
or or keys at that point in time. Yeah, and
then like he was very he was also like not
he had a little bit of an underwhelming ability, and
then like his his week ended and they were like, oh, yeah,
this character is not doing good. So they like buffed
him like right after that. So it's like, oh, I
probably would have gone out of my way to pick
him up, but like, yeah, with this in these new
stat lines, So that was that was kind of dirty
when I'm excited to get him because I really like
Man Think, who's kind of like the opposite of his ability,
Like it's the higher cost cards and that's like super strong,
like no one really sees man thing coming for whatever reason.
So yeah, that's been one of my go tos.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so like that one I definitely want to hit.
The following week has Met Him Web, which I thought
it would be a really cool card I was reading her.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she has the first the first of the like
activate abilities like that new subject probability that we were
talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'll be an interesting dynamic to to include there.
So that's another one I would love to grab. Of course,
some would be pretty limited in my keys if I'm
already rotten for or some of the other cards. Mocking
Bird is like my highest priority one that I do want,
just I feel like I feel like she fits in,
especially with that girl.
Speaker 1: Would help make her cheaper and some of the other
ones that.
Speaker 2: Are absolutely so. I think that week sorry that the
week after with Madame Webb has Silk and Eliath, which
I feel like I would just want to have Silk.
I don't know how relevant she is, like, right, I
really like Silk.
Speaker 1: She's very fun, very good to the move deck, and
just like has good stats like two five is a
really really good stat.
Speaker 2: One. Oh wow, I didn't even realize that was her.
Speaker 1: Ye, it's because of her, like on predictability. You know,
you know, you don't know where that power is going
to end up because she's always just flying around. But
like with someone like Craven the Hunter, like you can
just get your Craven so freaking be if once again,
if you get lucky, you need her to jump in
the right spots. But yeah, she's really fun, one of
my favorites. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then the two weeks after that is the Scarlet
Spider release, which I would just love to have that card.
Speaker 1: But yeah, are they doing like a and then like
a Spidy season like back to back pretty much.
Speaker 2: So right now, it's Young Avengers till the end of
the month, and then it's Spider Man to the end
of September, and then it's Symbiote like the third or
fourth Spider Man. Yeah, no, no, come on, not even
the Symbio.
Speaker 1: You got check this out. I want to show you this.
So I got I got the ink split on Nico.
I don't I don't have a very one. I just
have the default and then I bought the black border
for it. So I don't know how well you see that,
but it's just awesome, so clean, so crisp, and like
it's like night coming off there too.
Speaker 2: Oh it's gorgeous. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1: I'm a really big fan of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But yeah, like right now, I've just been you know,
grinding on the battle pass and really been enjoying my
new cards. So yeah, I don't think this will be
my last battle pass I acquire.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have. I forget what the season past card
is for the next two months, uh coming out there,
but I'll take a look for sure. I want to
show to this too. So that with Marvel Boy, I
was like, I feel like there's a lot of characters
in this game that have the word Marvel in their
title now, and I was like, I want to try
and build a deck around this idea. So I put
Marvel Boy, Miss Marvel, Captain Marvel, and h and Blue Marvel,
and I think that's all of them, and so I
was trying to just like hamstring some deck that would
make sense for all of them. And honestly, there is
some synergy like Marvel Boy and Captain and Blue Marvel
as you mentioned, like they go well together with like
a one cost deck in terms of getting a bunch
of cards out there. Miss Marvel works decently with that
because you know, you get your one cost put one
in each lane sort of thing that makes sense. The
only one that doesn't make any sense in there is
Captain Marvel. She just has like no synergy with any
of them. So I just use those four and then
tried to build like the best deck around. It didn't
work great, but it was a fun thought experiment for
a few games there.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. I haven't done any like theme decks in
a while. I feel like I feel like in my
early days when I just had no idea what I
was doing, I would just do that. I'm like, I
like these cards, I don't know the synergy make an
X Men deck? Yeah, yeah, stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I tried that with Like I was like, is
there twelve characters that were in Deadpool and Wolverine that
are I think there's like eleven like there's we're just
missing like one like we need like chatter Star to
get added to the game or something to make the
deck complete. But that was There's there's some synergies there
once again, but it's like for the most part, just
kind of a random deck that doesn't it doesn't make
a whole lot of competitive sense. But what did what
the I want to talk just briefly with about this
all these new things. I'm kind of like there's the Alliances,
which we talked about earlier. Uh, the Leagues thing that
was on for like a couple of days there, and
then there's Deadpool Diner as well. That happened in a
couple of weeks ago now, but we haven't chatted since then.
What did you think of any of these things? Did
you check out any of these or have you really
just kind of been going like business as usual?
Speaker 2: Uh as you're playing the Alliances is awesome. I love
just seeing like like we got like our little clan member.
Speaker 1: Really like I really like being able to team up
and see what people have been with.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like the the goal like the chart thing for
your bonus objectives is like shared things so you can
kind of help each other out by taking ones or
just hoarding certain types. It's kind of cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, it's really really cool inclusion and something that like,
now that it's in, it's like I can't believe this
wasn't in to begin with. Uh yeah, so yeah, that's
been really really fun. Also, just like getting more rewards
through like the bounties and one all that you're mentioning
is always nice.
Speaker 1: The rerards aren't like amazing, but they're you know, they're
a little they're a little bonous something. But I also
just like the I don't know, even the ones where
it's just like use Scarlet witch in and Professor X
or something. I'm like, oh, it's kind of an interesting idea,
Like what kind of deck can I build around with these?
And I think that's like one of my favorite parts
about the game, even though I've just actually playing matches,
is just coming up with weird decks or trying to
deck build some weird combos. And I like that Alliance
board for just giving me like making me think out
of the box. And sometimes they're like yeah, good synergistic combos,
but other times they don't make any sense. But it's
gotten me to use some cards that I haven't used
in a while, which is which has been nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hundred percent. There's been a couple that have come
across where it's like, oh yeah, I think I got
a deck centered around that. I could probably get that
bounty reward if I, uh, if I just switch up
certain cars, because at least for myself, I feel like
I just use my most recent deck until I get
really bored with it or I'm just start losing a
lot in a row. It's like, okay, I gotta rethink
my strategy here. But no, I think that's been a
wonderful inclusion the leagues. I don't even know that was
a thing like at all until two days.
Speaker 1: It was pretty cool.
Speaker 2: I got some rewards because apparently some people were exploiting.
Uh yeah, so that's kind of nice, I guess. But
what was the other thing? Oh yeah, I dead pull diner.
I popped in there, and I don't know, I just
for whatever reason, I'm like, I'm just gonna go back
to the other screen. This is. This is nice, but
I don't really fully understand, and I feel like I
don't really want to learn what the bubbs are or
whatever they're called.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was it was fine. Like I think
for me, my favorite events we're talking about this in
the discord as well, Like my favorite things that they've
done terms of events have been the like when they
did the X Men and Avengers event where it's like,
if you use Avengers cards that are are Avengers, they
get like bonuses with each other. Or they did like
the Valentine's Day event where it's like iconic Marvel couples
got bonuses if you use them together. Like those to
me were really fun because they got me to make
different decks and they finally like, ooh, an X Men
deck is actually viable now because they have synergies that
they don't otherwise have together. So those have been my favorite,
and they haven't done those in quite a few months now,
like three or four months, I think, so I have
them to bring back more of those because that's what
I enjoyed the most. But like Deadpool Diner, it's pretty
much the exact same. It's just like there's like an
Auto Snaper two, so it's like, okay, they just it
doesn't really change anything else though, and then Leagues. I honestly,
I think the way they they released these was also
not great because Deadpool Dinner was like a week and
a half or maybe it was full two weeks, and
it was like, you know, one of the rewards and
there was a new card because Sandronova, who's a really
really good card, and it is also great against Arishoom,
who's like the most you know, overwhelming card in the
meta right now. So it's like everyone wanted to like
grind the hell out of that to get it, and
I did too. I really want that card because it's like, ooh,
a free card. All I have to do is play
this mode a bunch ure I'm gonna go for that.
But it like it really incentivized, like, Okay, I gotta
play this game a fuck ton and then raid as
that ended, like we had a couple of days of peace,
and then they launched the league's thing, which is also
like you have two days to play as much as
you possibly can to try and like get these rewards
because it's just based on like how many points you
can get, which is just like the more you play,
the more points you're gonna get. And so I think
the timing of releasing those right next to each other,
I just felt like really burnt out, and I wasn't
going that hard on the leagues just because I haven't
really played a lot in this month now that I
don't have the once I, if I don't have the
battle Pass, I'm like less incentivized to grind my life
way to get all this stuff. And since I didn't
get this one, I'm like not playing quite as much.
But I was. I honestly was just so burnt out
from doing Deadpool Diner, which is like I probably should
have just not done it, but you know, I wanted
the card. I really wanted Nova, who is a really
strong card. So yeah, I didn't love these these modes.
I kind of wish the rulers went elsewhere, to be honest,
but I don't know. They were fine. I got some
rewards out of it, so I guess I can't complain
too much. But I really love that the Alliance's feature
is in there for all the reasons that we already mentioned,
but uh yeah, show it's to snap just a I
think it's the perfect game for like where you're at
right now, where you're just so busy doing house stuff
and you probably don't have a lot of time, like
maybe your computer's not even set up for a couple days.
It's like once you if you just need a break
for ten minutes, just sit down on the couch, grind
some Marvel Snap and get back to it. It's probably
the perfect thing for you right now. So I think
it's a great month for you to pick up the
pick up the pass there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, one hundred percents. It's my number one game
right now.
Speaker 1: Cool.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: There's Marvel Snap our you know, our August up there.
I feel like we've been doing like monthly updates on
our Marvel Snap progress for the last couple of months,
which is which has been a good time. But how
about we take our first AD break and we'll be
right back to talk about more of the games that
we have been playing. Will be right back. Okay, we
are back, you know what. Before we talk about those,
let me just do a couple of quick shouts here.
Join our Patreon. You can get episodes early and ad free,
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do on all sorts of different movies. If you join
at the phase four tire, you can tell us which
movie you want us to review and whatever it is
we will cover it, which is a really great benefit.
And yeah, thank you to everyone who supported us after
our GV Day stream. That was a good time, really
fun playing trivia with everyone once again. Another good benefit
that you can get from joining the Patreon. In terms
of episodes releasing this week, obviously, last week's episode of
side Quest was Alien Isolation, a retrospective on that, and
Rowmulus is coming out this week, so check that out.
We did a big, juicy three hour long cast breaking
dow D twenty three, which was a really good time.
You can leave a review, help us out, You can
join our discord. You can check out my game Potion Problem,
anything else. The shout outs from you.
Speaker 2: Kirkham, No, not right to now. I think you collect
them all.
Speaker 1: They've all been collected like the Stone. Okay, let's move on.
Then I have a couple other games. I wanted to
show it out here first thing to bring this one up.
And I know, Kirklan you were maybe gonna pick it up,
but I kind of want to talk about it today.
I think I think the time is right, and knowing
you're busy guy over there, so I'm gonna go, oh, yes,
which is which is a game? Called Siege Breaker, which
has been out in early access for quite a few
months now, but I think just in July mid July
there it finally went at one point. Oh, this is
a strategy tower defense game as available on Steam, and
it's made by a friend of mine. So you know,
if you want, take all what I have to say
with a grain of salt, because yeah, this is made
by a friend of mine. I did beta testing for
it multiple times. My name appears in the credits, so
you can you can ignore every positive thing I have
to say about it if you want. But it's a
really really cool game. I I've had a great time
playing through it. When I was doing play tests and
stuff to help them out with that was only ever
like the first act of the game, so like one
quarter of the overall experience. And so I've finally gone
through and beat the whole thing, which was a really
good time on the hardest difficulty if I myself, and
which I would never would have done, like I never
defaulted that. But when I was doing play testing and
he was watching me play it, he was like, you
should you should go on the high as difficulty. I
was like, okay, I'll see how this goes. You know.
That resulted in me having to restart some difficult levels
a few times, but overall, I'm glad that I did that.
But yeah, this is like I haven't played a tower
defense game since, like balloons, Like I don't think i've
I don't think it's a genre. I've really played a
lot of other than Okay, maybe one. There was like
a StarCraft two maud mode, like a custom game that
I played a shit ton of. I forget what it
was called. That was a good time. But other than that, like,
I'm a balloons guy, and I know who you are too,
so it's like, have you played other games in the
genre or are you really just in that same boat as me,
or it's like balloons are nothing.
Speaker 2: I have played actually quite a few tower defense games,
so I feel like balloons through they're different versions like
on like the Flash games era.
Speaker 1: Six or seven of them now, I feel like six is.
Speaker 2: The one I have on Steam, so that's like the
most I don't even know it's the most recent one.
It's the most recent one to me, But no, I
remember playing You mentioned StarCraft two. The one I remember
it was Warcraft three. But there's like a custom mode.
Speaker 1: I know it was an inspiration for Colton making seed
Breaker here, so definitely, I'm sure there's some of that DNA.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. Yeah. I remember there was like an iOS
app way back in the day too. It was like
like against Aliens, like aliens were coming to like stop
the like collect your sheep or something. It's just a
tower defense game like that. But like, I feel like
there was a lot of different flash game uh tower
defenses And I was a big flash games guy back
in the day on mini clip dot com, picting games, armor,
armor games, like all those different websites, just great era
and PC gaming.
Speaker 1: Like there's like Grade seven in the Grade seven we
had laptops given to us, you know school there, and
it was like in a social studies class or something
where we were learning about ancient Egypt and we had
some project. We just had to do something about ancient Egypt.
Could be whatever the heck you want. You know, it
could be a presentation, it could be like a dance, like,
it could be like just whatever. I'd be somehow related
to Egypt. I remember some one of my class made
a tower defense game, which was really cool for me
at the time. And I feel like back then. I
should have taken him up on that opportunity to like
learn how he did that and like started making games sooner.
But I thought it was like a really cool thing,
and I feel like he also I remember him having
to explain the concept to the teacher of like what
a tower defense game is, but it was like, you
know it, there was like a pyramid in there, like
a Pharaoh character, so it was like loosely related. But
I feel like, I don't know, the assignment really wasn't
that related to Egypt other than just like the imagery
of it. But it was still a cool thing. But anyway,
here we are in twenty twenty four, and it's funny
that this game just launched. I don't know if he
planned it this way. But then like in the last week,
I think it was last weekend, there was like a
tower Defense Fest thing on Steam where it was like
high highlighting a bunch of tower defense games, a bunch
of them are on sale, a bunch of demos for
tower defense games. So I feel like it's one of
those genres that you kind of don't think about that often,
but then like randomly this is like its potential renaissance period.
Where some of these other ones I've seen have really
cool concepts as well, So I'm excited to see what
the future of tower defense games are like, considering it's
a genre that I haven't really taken part in in
a while, but Siege Breaker is a really cool different
idea than like what I'm used to from Balloons, where
you know, it's like a map as you normally would
usually or I guess every single map in the game
has like multiple has two pathways, so enemies were gonna
come from two different locations, so you're gonna have to
look in at like, Okay, maybe where are the spots
where a lot of enemies are gonna overlap, And I'll
try and put someone who does a bunch of AOI
damage there, and then you're gonna have to keep in mind, like, okay,
what kind of enemies are coming out at different times?
Because it's not really like in the way Blooms is
just like you know, it's a red balloon that takes
one hit or a blue balloon that you have to
hit twice, that kind of thing. This is more like
enemies will fight back, or some of them will move
really fast, or some of them are like big tanks
or there's bosses in this game too, right, there's all
sorts of crazy things that you're fighting off against. But yeah,
so there's the multiple pathways the spots where your towers
go are set in this there's like maybe on each level,
let's say like ten to twelve, I think they're called ruins,
is like where you can put your towers. So the
decision becomes, Okay, which towers do I want to put where?
And I think that it's pretty well designed in the
way that most spots. It's like, Okay, there's a case
for like, okay, the big AOI classic tower that's who
so like a ring around it that woul would makes
sense here because there's a lot of Aoi, But like, oh,
maybe it'd be better if I put this like long
range tower here because of some other snipe angle that
it kind of has in a very specific way. So
there's a lot of like when I'm restarting levels on
legendary difficulty and having to like optimize mid max the build,
I feel like I am having a rethink of like, oh,
this seems like an obvious spot for like this kind
of tower, But like the more I think about it,
the more I might want to like switch it up
or try something different. There's different room spots C of two,
Like some of them might just be basic. There's no
benefit or detriment to putting any given tower there, but
then other ones will have a certain bonus, like maybe
this tower will deal more damage, but it takes more damage.
They have to think about, Okay, what do you I
want to put there that can like at least defend
itself in some way. Other ones have like man, and
there's this whole man of mechanical you have to keep
in mind that will affect your cool downs. I won't
get into the weeds all that, but there's there's a
lot of strategy in what you're playing and where you're
placing stuff even though the spots are set, and I
think that's the biggest thing to note, whereas something like
balloons or whatever. It's like a grid based game where
you can put your kind of stuff wherever from what
I remember, other than on the actual road or like
if there's a tree or something blogging or I don't
know it's been well since I've reely ballooons, but that
that sort of idea there and as well too, like
in this game you kind of have there's only five towers,
and you get all of them like fairly soon. But
then where like the I guess intrigue or difference comes
in is that there's kind of an RPG mechanic going
on where like in between levels, you're picking upgrades for
your towers, and so you're kind of building and specing
your towers out in different ways. So like by the
time you're at the final level fight in the final boss,
and I'm at the final boss, we're gonna have slightly
different different ways in which our towers can work with
each other, which I think is a cool like RPG
like mechanic to it that probably puts some like incentive
for replaying these levels to some extent, unless so like
like there obviously is certain waves that you have to
beat for each level, but it's more about going through
this campaign, which has like I don't know, thirty levels
or something, rather than something like a Balloon's which I
know I keep using that for comparison, but that has
like in each balloons there's like maybe three or four
maps you can pick from, and it's more about like
being on that one map for like a half an
hour or an hour this is kind of intended that
you're kind of getting through them maybe a little bit quicker,
but there's just more different maps that you're encountering. And
then yeah, I think I kind of mentioned this, but
like the enemies do fight back in this. Some of
them will like be chuck Rocks. They're doing big smashes
to try and destroy your tower towers, So you have
to kind of there's different Either there's some towers that
will provide healing or some that can provide like blocking,
or it's like those certain ruins that provide blocking in
some way too. So that's a big part of it
is like managing like I don't really want to buy
this healing upgrade because I want to save my resources
and put them elsewhere to deal more damage. But like
you got to find that perfect thread, that perfect fine
line between like Okay, how much do I have to
put into like defending my stuff versus how much can
I just put into like pure offense to make sure
I can kill the tougher lanes when they come out.
And that balance of it is really fun. So I've
had a great time playing through it. Like I said,
if finally beat it now and then after I beat it.
It was kind of set so like if you'd beat
an earlier level, like if you replay it, you're stuck
with the what you had unlocked at that given time.
But he's changed it now, so now you have like
everything you have unlocked throughout the whole game that you
can go back to the earlier levels for. So now
I'm going back and trying to get like the perfect
like the gold ranking on every level, and so I'm
gonna try and try and do that, which gets like, man,
you've got to be freaking perfect. But it's been a
good time going through that. So yeah, shout outs to
Stege Breaker are really cool, like a strategy tower defense game.
The music as well, is done by the great Amanda
who does side Quest theme, who did the music for
my games, and once again very biased there, but yeah,
it sounds great, it looks great, and play is really great,
really like simple UI and all that. And there's really
only one mechanic that's like hard to understand, like the
manness stuff, but once you get it it it becomes
kind of like second nature. It's pretty straightforward, and then
that leads to like a bunch more cool strategy stuff.
So yeah, and then on top of that, there's like
also these like mini upgrades where you can like buff
certain parts of the map or buff certain towers within range.
So I don't need to explain all the details there,
but yeah, there's there's definitely a lot to it, even
though like on the surface it seems kind of simple
in terms of you only have five towers, but yeah,
believe me that there's a lot more in the weeds,
kind of specific details when you get deeper in. So yeah,
I had a really good time with this. Do you
have any questions about this? Based on like what I've
described about.
Speaker 2: It, that's i mean, just right off the Hobbits, I
can't wait to get in there. That's exciting, And I've definitely,
as I was saying earlier, like tower defenses, I feel
like it's an interesting genres for games because like it's
definitely just scratches my strategy itch, but it's also just
very simplistic in the sense that you can just kind
of sit back, sip a coffee, you know, do some
morning tower defense siege breaking. So I'm really excited to
get in there. The RPG element and the fact that
like the mobs would be fighting back is obviously something
very new that I haven't really experienced before and tower
defense game, so that that's just really fun. But I
for questions, Yeah, I feel like you pretty much covered
it all other than just like, is it like an
average wave per map, Like you said that they're shorter
than what a typical tower defense game would be because it's
pretty much you just go until you lose or level
hundred or whatever it might get to. But like, is
it pretty varied in the sense of like one is
really quick or a certain style, or is it like
the same pattern of like enemy bosses, like it always
ends with the boss, or is there some different maps?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get that's a that's a good uh question
to bring up. So there there. I think every level
is pretty much the same amount of waves, which is
like I think like twelve or like ten waves or something.
I think where like the length of it actually comes
in is more like I guess, especially for me playing
on Legendary, like there is no chance on my first
maybe there's like a handful of levels that on my
first try I actually had like a good enough strategy
to beat the level with and even on those ones
where I did, I would if I didn't get the
perfect score, I'd often like reset anyway because I'm okay,
I'm so close, I'm gonna try and go for glory here.
So I like, it could actually end up taking you
an hour or more to beat a level if you're
like struggling with it, if you're playing on the herds difficulty,
or if you're trying to get the golden score on it.
But yeah, if you just like let's say you're playing
on easier difficulty and let's say you just have a
good strategy from the get go, there's also like you
can change the speed, like just hitting one, two, three,
so you can go like three time speed. So that
also helps it, like which which is great because once
you're once you've figured out a level for the most part,
and you're like, you know what you want to do
on your first like three waves, that way you can
like quickly blast through those levels so that if you
die and you have to restart from the beginning, you
can just quickly like fly through those ones and get
back to where you were, which is really nice. So
that also makes it like speeds it up to for
the most part. But then when you need to really
pay attention, like Okay, I got to make sure I'm
seen exactly where my towers are hitting and like where
I'm getting my AAI damage from. There's also a big
chart that shows you how much damage and health everyone
has and all that. But yeah, you can like slow
it down when you need to as well or just
straight up pause if you want to make those decisions.
Uh so, Yeah, but in terms of each levels and
the composition, it definitely varies. Each of the four like
acts of the game is like a different biome. The
first one doesn't have anything too crazy. It's kind of
more like introducing the different types. But then once you
get into each of the new biomes that each have
different types of enemies, like the Ice one Ice world
has enemies that will like slow you or like stun
your towers. There's ones that like one of the world's
just a lot of the towers or a lot of
the enemies like do even more damage to your towers.
So it's more about like you really got to focus
on the defense of it. And so there's always like
a bit of a different composition. And then yeah, some
levels do end with like two big enemies that have
a shit ton of health and the way that balloons
will have like the big like blimp one that comes
to like in the final wave. But then some levels don't.
They just have waves that's just you know, a million
small little guys. So it kind of varies in that
you can you can you can click forward and see
what's gonna be in all the waves, so you can
go ahead in that way. And then at the end
of every act there's like a huge boss fight that
has like a massive enemy that has just like thousands
of health and so you kind of have to really
be like the whole all all every wave. You know
that it's impending and you're gonna have to like prepare
for what's to come there and make sure you're ready
to take them down even though you don't know exactly
what he's going to do the first time you see him.
So yeah, there's definitely a good amount variety there between
like the acts and then like every individual level.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's that's awesome. Yeah, no, yea. Other than that,
I think he covered everything. I'm very much looking forward
to jump in there, so I apologize when I wasn't
there yet, but.
Speaker 1: No, all good, let me know when you have played,
we'll talk about it. Some more. But yeah, once again,
that is Siege Breakers out on Steam now and it's
like fifteen to twenty bucks something like that. But yeah,
definitely check it out and let Colton know that that
Geek first sent you over there and that we recommended
the game. Leave a review too. That will help. As
someone who also has a game on Steam, I know
how much of those reviews make a difference. So if you've,
if you've checked it out, leave that review for him
as well. So there you go. That was Siege Breaker.
The next thing I wanted to bring up is something
that we kind of talked about a couple of years ago. Kirklin,
I'm fun to bring It's funny. It's gonna be fun
to bring it back here that I've been playing Sniper
Elite too, gone back to the second one, so I
talked We talked about this a couple of years ago
when I was playing Sniper Lea five when that came out,
and then in that you talked about how you I
think it was Sniper Leight three is the one that
you've played, right.
Speaker 2: The one in Africa? I think that was three? Yeah,
I believe it is.
Speaker 1: And yeah, like I loved Sniper Lead five. It is
one of those games that kind of just went under
my radar for years and years, but finally because It's five,
was on game Pass and I heard good things about it.
I checked it out and loved it. And you can
hear if you want to hear that episode if you
just search geek first and Sniper Elite, it'll probably pop
up in the search bar there. It was also in
the episode with like TMNT, so if you want to
find that conversation, go back and check it out. But
after that, I was like, man, I love this game,
and I right afo. I was done playing it, went
and wish listed all the games on next Steam and
on Xbox and just have been waiting for deals to
go pick them up and play through all of them.
And so I've picked up two and three. I own
two and three now and kind of was just waiting
for the right moment, and this felt like the right
moment to go back and check this one out. So yeah,
it's kind of like it's interesting going from playing the
fifth game in the series all the way back and
playing the second one. I do want to check out
the first one. It does look way more dated than
like the like two and three, which, like two is
still a three sixty game, so it's you know, not
modern by any means, but it's it's newish enough that
it still plays like it's like thirty frames forer a second,
which is the only thing that feels weird about it,
but everything else feels pretty solid in that way. Yeah,
it's been it's been really fun to go back and
see an earlier version of this game, and yeah, I
think I'm like maybe on mission eight of ten, I
think from the main campaign, and then the version I
have also as like a DLC map or two, so
I'm sure I still have a decent amount more to go.
I think my first take on it from comparing it
to five is that it's like way more linear of
a game like the five is like huge battlefields and
you have a ton of freedom in which way you
want to go, and they'll very likely if, like on
your first play through from a level, you will not
see I don't know, fifty percent or more of the
level just because you're kind of going for your one
main objective and you're gonna try and find your most
ideal path, whether that's a very stealthy path or like
a very action packed path, and you're kind of gonna
go with that, But in this it's like much more
like you know, it's a very simple, like there's one
kind of road you're following down, there's a couple of
twists and turns, and then like on either side there's
like maybe a couple of buildings you can go in
to climb up get a height advantage, or maybe there's
some rubble on the left that you can go into.
But for the most part, it's a lot more linear,
which has been all right, Like it's still good level design,
it's maybe just not quite as engaging or not quite
as like, I don't know, it doesn't doesn't feel like
you have as much player agency I guess as the
later games in terms of picking your path, which I
think I was looking into it and saw that I
guess with three is where they decided to go with
a more open design. So I don't know, you can
remember what your experience was like and how open the
maps felt when you played that.
Speaker 2: It definitely didn't feel like what you were describing five was.
I feel like it's just like a next step up
from what like what the two would have been with
the linear I guess makes sense that it's somewhere in
the middle, like it is more of a bigger open area,
but like it's still pretty contained in the sense of
like I feel like it's hard to miss what your
objectives are and you just kind of naturally forget. Like
I feel like, yeah, it is possible for like you
and me to go different ways on our playthroughs, but
it's most likely we would have been kind of doing
the same things to get there. But yeah, I'm curious
what you think at least when you go through your
little journey here, I imagine eventually you'd get to four.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the only one that I haven't like seen on
sale yet in a big way, so that one I
haven't picked up yet, But like I said, do you
have three on the shelf behind me here? So I'm
definitely gonna check that out when maybe even later this month,
I might jump into it because I have a bit
of a lull here before I'm going to pick up
Star Wars Outlaws, so I'm kind of just waiting playing
some random stuff here. But yeah, I don't know, I'm
excited to see that that kind of growth as it
as it goes along. But yeah, it's still got like
all the classic sniper elite stuff to it, where it's
got that, like I feel like the perfect fifty to
fifty of stealth and like big action shootout sequences. I
do feel like this game as well. Just maybe it's
because of the size of the map, but I feel
like there's a lot more forced, big like action set
piece sequences, not in terms of like big cut scenes
and whatnot, but in just terms of like you're forced
to fight here, whereas I feel like five had a
lot more of like you could stealth your way through
the whole level and not alert a single person and
then just like take out the target and complete one
or two of the objectives and then like sneak out
through the ex filtration if you were really good, you know,
if you were expert in like probably replaying the level,
perfecting it, figuring out what the enemies are. But I
think this one there's a lot more sequences where like,
through no fault of your own, the enemies get alerted
to where you are and then you have to do
some big shootut where you're like defending some building. But
there is still a good mix of kind of that
like fifty to fifty split of a lot of big
action sequences and then a lot of that like very
just fun stealth stuff. The stealth is really hard in
this game too, so maybe I'm just getting caught a
lot more than I remember from five because I feel
like the enemies have like logical sight lines in this game,
which is pretty rare for stealth games. Normally, enemies have
just awful vision and like decent hearing, but like, yeah,
awful vision, like if you're more than twenty feet out,
they'll never see you, and then like they have to
be looking directly at you because of their vision cone.
But I feel like in this like you can be
one hundred feet away and if you're standing there, like
they will start to spot you. And maybe you can
like duck behind a corner if you're quick enough. But
it's hard to be quick in this game too, because
everything has there's a lot of like it's almost like
dark souls in the way that like you know, there's
a lot of like swing time to your weapons and
this it's like if you're reloading and you're like prone
on the ground, like you have to wait to finish
your reload before your character will unprone so you can
start running, you know, like everything kind of takes time,
which feels like it's a good balance way. It doesn't
make the game feel clunky or anything like that. But yeah,
I don't know. I think that's a fun part of
it because I feel like when you were talking about three,
I feel like you were saying that you're kind of
like a perfectionist, where like you'll restart the level if
you don't you ever get caught or something. So I
don't know, but I'm sure there is still like a
like more forced action sequences, and I feel like five
even had that too, But I don't know, do you
do you remember much of that element of it?
Speaker 2: Honestly, for the most part, I felt like at least
every mission, because I never beat that game, I got
definitely over halfway, but I felt like still every mission
there I was pretty much able to do like just
if I can perfect it. I don't get like, I
don't alert anyone, there's no force combat. For the most part,
I do remember some shootout sequences, but I feel like
it was maybe me just getting to like right at
the end of the map, it's like, fuck it, I'm
not I'm not restarting this. I'm so close here, let's
just pop off here. But you know, for the most part, yeah,
Like of course, I think on like the tutorial mission,
they it's like this is how you shoot, then they
throw you in like a combat sequence. But for the
most part it's almost like dishonored in a sense where
if you can do it, you can get out without
a learning anyone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I do feel like there is because I know,
I even saw that there's an achievement that you can
get that's like beat a whole level without getting spotted,
but it's not beat the whole game without getting spotted.
So I don't know if there's just like maybe some
of the missions where it's possible to do it without
right ever getting seen and the other ones. Otherwise, one
thing I do really like with that with getting spotted
in this and I don't remember this in five, so
I don't know if it's something they took out or
if I'm just forgetting her. Maybe it's a setting you
can turn on or off. Is when you get spotted,
you'll like and then let's say run behind a wall
or start hiding, there's like a ghost of where your
character was and it shows like where you're where the
enemy last saw you, and that's you know, it also
kind of tells you, like where their guns are pointed
at right now, where they expect you to be, and
so you kind of use that to sneak up on
them or like go up from a different entrance, and
like usually they'll find you again really quickly, unless you're
like fully going back into a stell sequence, which doesn't
seem to happen and very often. But I really like
that that mechanic. I think that was cool.
Speaker 2: I remember, Okay, cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I don't know if I just forget it
from five or maybe that's something they just changed over time.
I'm probably just forgetting to be honest. But and then
and then another thing that I remember too, A big
thing with five was like what can you do to
work with the environment or change the environment to make
your situation better, whether that's like shooting something in the environment,
you know, not just like an explosive barrel, but there
is also those something that like affects the map in
some way to either provide more cover for you or
maybe take out some enemies. And the big thing in
five is like shoot like lights, like if you're in
a darker level. A big part of it is like
sniping lights out so that you can walk through that
area without getting spotted because the enemies won't have as
good of a sight line. And I can't tell you
how many times I've shot lights in this game, just
because I'm like coded to do that now, even though
it's not it's not a thing in this game. There
was one in particular that was like a big search
light that like scrolled back and forth. I'm like, I
must be able to shoot that one. I think I
blew my cover trying to take it out, so that
didn't end up working. But what they do have that
I that I really like is timing your shots with
like noise, like loud yeah, audio sources. That was like
I think in five there's a lot of ways that
like maybe it's just a lowed map where there's like
tanks and stuff, and so you can try to time
your stuff with that. But then there's also like generators
and things you could turn on to make noise. That
way you would be able to muffle your sniper shots more.
But in this one, it's it's a little more on
the nose where there's like an icon in the top
right that's like, oh, there's you know, some huge ballistic
explosion going off, and so if you time your shot
with that and it's like very lenient, then you can
kind of do a stealthy sniper shot which you normally
can't do. So there's a lot of that in this game,
which which I really enjoy and I think, yeah, that's
probably in three and four.
Speaker 2: Yeah, three you have that for sure. I remember the generators,
like you turn it on and then it's just like cycles.
You know, it's like like a like a same pattern,
like you just wait for your shot or if you're
not ready for the one, like fuck now, I gotta
wait thirty seconds or however long it takes for the
next cycle, but and then a couple other ones that
you just kind of have the time with the distractions,
which I thought it was really cool, like mechanic. I
don't think i'd really experienced that and other stealth games before,
especially just most sniper games, like stealth games that I'm
used to playing have like suppressors and whatnot, like on
the rifles. So yeah, like how do they do that
in an older era of just like World War two
era or whatever. So yeah, no, I thought it was good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, they keep it very simple in terms of
the guns in this game, where there's your sniper and
you can get like two variations of each gun I think,
but they all feel pretty much the exact same. And
there's like I think I've seen like three different assault rifles,
and then you always have your silence pistol, which is
fun as well, but like, yeah, there's not a silenced
rifle as far as I can tell them. Then your
assault rifle is always just like if shit hits the fan,
that's your backup plan, Like, Okay, maybe I could shoot
my way out of this, but it's not what you're
gonna be planning to do because it's pretty weak as well,
Like unless you're like a right in front of someone,
it's not really gonna get a whole lot done for you.
The esthetic of this game I find pretty funny. Like
it's set in like Germany and Russia, I believe, like
kind of both of those areas or something like that,
or it's on like the Berlin Walls the level, so
I guess in Germany, but you're fighting Russians and Germans
and all that. But the esthetic I find funny. It's
just like it looks like a fallout game at times
in terms of just like all these just ruined buildings
and just endless piles of bricks on the ground, just
rubble destroyed buildings, and like the color palette just being
like brown and gray with like navy or like dark green,
like those are like the three colors in this game,
which is like a very three sixty era thing, But
it's funny just compared to like Sant Prala five, which
is like a beautiful game and that's set in like
the French countryside, you know, some of the levels that
get pretty nasty with it, but it's like that was
a beautiful game, and this is like very rugged and
like earthy tones, and I'm still enjoying that part of it.
A lot of traps in this game, which is fine,
like a lot of like different mind like landmines and
trip wires and that sort of stuff. So yeah, it's
a fun time. I'm enjoying it. I don't know if
i'd really recommend this game, like obviously compared to like
one of the later ones in the series, I feel like,
go check out those and then I guess if you're
a fan, come back and check this out. But it's
still been a fun time to go through, and then
I wanted to ask you about this. Have you heard
of these Zombie Army games? That series of games.
Speaker 2: I know that like the cover art, but I've never
seen gameplay and I've never played it.
Speaker 1: So this was very funny to me because when I
talked about Sniper Lead a couple of years ago, I
talked about how I've always skipped past those games because
like generic title, generic art, I'm like, why should I
care about Sniper Elite, Like that just sounds so lame.
But then when I finally played it, I'm like, Okay,
this is really fun. Rebellion makes a good action stealth game,
and I feel like I've had the exact same perience
or the same experience with Zombie Army where I've seen
it it's in game pass or like I've scrolled past
a million times, and I've always just been like, Okay,
generic title, generic art, I don't care about this. But
it was so funny for me to realize that is
a spin off of Sniper Elite, and so the fact
that they're so bad at naming their games in a
way that is like grabbing viewers, or at least me
in particular, that Yeah, I just totally did not realize
is a thing. So it's essentially the same as Sniper Elite,
but with like you know, it's still army kind of
war setting World War two stuff. But then there's just
like zombies. That's like the kind of the mix up
of it. That's where the spinoff comes in. I think
it actually started as like a DLC pack for one
of the Sniper League games, and then they ended up
making like full Zombie Army games and then there's like
there's like a full co op feature set to this,
which I know there's a multiplayer in Sniper Elite as well,
but yeah, there's I think essentially two games. Like there's Sniper,
there's Zombie Army Trilogy, which is like taking like that
first like DLC pack some other unreleased thing, and then
like I think a smaller spinoff game and it kind
of like boil like bundles it all into one package.
And then there's Bombie Army four, which is the most
recent one, and that's just like its own standalone sequel.
I guess that is a more fully fledged individual game.
But yeah, once again like completely went under my radar,
but somehow is still another game from Rebellion and is
a spin off of Sniper Lee, which is like such
a fun thing for me to realize. And the other
thing that made me really want to check it out
is that the Zombie Army four has two Left for
Dead character packs, so you can just play as the
characters in this game. So yeah, like I want to
play these with you. I think that would be really
fun to go co op and play these, especially with
that Left for Dead like character stuff. So it just
seems cool, just like Sniper Lee, with like a slightly
different tone to it, a little more goofy, little more
like zombie focused and then like maybe a little more
co op focused. But like just I feel like Rebellion
is just as very under the radar studio, but like
they've cranked out all sorts of different games. It's it
was fun looking into their history a little bit more.
Speaker 2: That's so funny that, I mean, you you just taught
me that it's a spin off of That's crazy because
I've always seen the cover of those games. So I'm like,
how like, I don't think I've ever heard anyone that
has played these games or like told me about those
Sniper Lee.
Speaker 1: It was it was shocked to hear that you had. Yeah,
played the third one when we talked about it a
couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Zombie Army. So, like, the maps must play
similar to Sniper Lead. How it's just like a not
like a pathway that you have to get through. I
guess that's kind of similar to leftfod Dead. I'm just
picturing most zombie games being like a wave based system.
But I guess you're just making your way through, Like
are you still sniping and trying to like mask your shots?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 2: And like self factor.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I haven't actually played these yet, Like
the fourth one is on game Pass and I've now
added all these games to my wish list, so I
want to add them to my list and check them
out as well. So I'm not sure, but I'm guessing
it would be like Leftford. Maybe the maps would be
a bit more open and less linear perhaps, But then yeah,
you're probably just completing different objectives, whether that's like taking
out a certain target, like like like a Sniper Elite map,
or like oh I got to deactivate this thing or
go get this information from this bunker, right, you know,
all that kind of random stuff. So I'm sure it's
very similar considering that it is a a spinoff and
all that, so just hilarious. Have you did you see
or hear of Adam Fall, which is like Rebellion's newest
game that they announced back at the Xbox Showcase of
this year. No, you check out the trailer for that
right now if you want. It's it's once.
Speaker 2: Again Adam or like atom at.
Speaker 1: Tom Fall, like Adam Hartcaster, but Adam Fall.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: But which I think it's cool that they've like this
is not part of this this is not a Sniper
Elite spin off. It's something different for them. It's still
a historical setting, but it's like an alternate it's like
an alternate reality, like a fork in the timeline essentially.
So it's a bit more fan like a bit more
fantasy element or like sci fi element, Like there's like
mechs in it and stuff. But it's like a really
beautiful looking game. There isn't really a lot of gameplay
for it yet, but uh, I don't know. I think
it's like cool that they're maybe doing like a bit
more of a grabby interesting name, doing some little different.
It's not like a sequel, so maybe more people would
get in the Door and then I think it's also
a game past Day one thing as well, So I'm
hoping that's a game that really like. Obviously they're a
successful studio, they've been making hundreds of games over the years,
but I don't know. I feel like Adam Fall could
be an opportunity for them to really skyrocket into it
like a new new spot, and I hope that ends
up being the case, because I feel like there was
a decent amount of praise for Sniper Elite five, but
once again, for a lot of people who haven't played
these games, maybe they don't want to jump into the
fifth game in a series. But with a game like
Sniper Lead, it doesn't really matter. Just play whatever one has,
like the coolest setting or like is on a console
that you own, and then like you're good to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I don't know. I'm very excited for that one.
I think it's set to come out next year, so
I'll definitely be be checking that one out when it
comes out.
Speaker 2: Wow, this looks really interesting. It's very much not what
I was expecting to see just based off of Sniper Elite,
but yeah, something little.
Speaker 1: Different for them. Cool. Yeah, there you go, there's Sniper
Elite two or I guess V two is like the
technical title for it. There, Like I said, I'm almost
done with it, but yeah, I think I feel like
I want to jump in third one pretty soonior, because
I kind of just want to see that that evolution
great game? Was that a do you know if that
was a three sixty era game or or would that
have been more PS four as I guess and you
played on Steam?
Speaker 2: But yeah, I had it on Steam. I feel like
it was three sixty. But maybe it's just like in
my mind it's just all blending together these days with
like how far along or I guess how far? What
am I trying to say? How long ago the PS
four era was? I feel like it's just it's still yesterday,
but we've already been in this next gen for a while.
But yeah, I'm not too sure. Let's see PS four. Yeah,
there you go now on Nintanto switch.
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, check it out.
Speaker 2: It also says three sixty actually, so okay, played fourteen
was the release?
Speaker 1: Oh okay, it's a pretty late three sixty era thing.
Yeah not PS three though? Or is it also on
PS three? Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Sorry? PlayStation three x X through sixty's kind of shown everything. Yeah,
I think that was like very early on the PS
four era.
Speaker 1: Yeah cool, Yeah, that's it's a good time. I'll have
to go check that one out. Next. Let's take our
last break of the show and right back for a
couple news topics. Okay, we are back. Yeah, just two
probably quicker things here, but I think some fun shout outs. Nonetheless,
let's start with our one of our favorites here. So
wolf I Studios is a studio once again that was
formed by Raphael col Antonio of Arcane fame, who made
all sorts of arcane games, most recently Pray. After Pray
he left the studio, went and made wolf I with
a lot of other arcane people. They went on to
make Weird West, which was one of my favorite games
in twenty twenty two I when that came out, which
was a numbersive but it was like a top down
isometric angle Western setting, so something a little bit different
for him. And obviously we've seen where the rest of
Arcane Austin went, which was unfortunately getting shut down by Xbox.
We'll talk about that in a in a little bit
here actually when we talk about Tango, but Anyway, they
finally have shown off a little bit more information about
their studio. Essentially, I feel like they put out just
enough information to like get publisher interest. Is kind of
where what it seems like the purpose of this was
get a little bit info out there, get people a
little bit hyped, try and find an investor to help
them get this thing out the door pretty much. But yeah,
it's something different. So Weird West, as I mentioned, isometric,
but they mentioned for this they're going back to first person,
which is you know, where immersive sims live pretty much,
that's where that genre exists for the most part. They've
kind of described this as a kind of in between
if you're making a spectrum of like followup New Vegas
to Prey. In terms of game, this is kind of
in between that. So they're calling it like it's an
immersive sim but it's got a little r refuge elements,
but it's not quite on the scale of the Fall
in New Vegas. Is like not a fully open world game. Probably,
I would imagine like a scale of like what Weird
West was, where it's a bunch of smaller areas, but
there's it's very densely packed with things to do in
terms of the setting, and it's kind of like an
early nineteen hundred's but like once again an alternative timeline. Funny,
it's kind of similar to Adam Fall in that way,
but there's like there's mechs, there's all sorts of big
tech in there. So yeah, it's something a little bit different.
I'm curious what you thought of the couple screenshots we
saw and just like the general pitch here in terms
of the direction that they're going with this next game.
Speaker 2: I mean, everything that I read sounded amazing. I hope
they find a publisher and get the cell of the Door,
because yeah, those little I guess like concept art, Like
it's not really like what else would that be, it's.
Speaker 1: Concept art, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's just really like the world that they're showcasing and
very much reminds me of just the Dishonored as of
like a darker looking world. And yeah, just like based
in the nineteen hundreds with some tech infuse in infusion there.
I think that's a really really fun idea. And uh,
just just like the wording about like trying to make
this more I guess quality over quantity of like the
like like just as you mentioned with Weird West comparison,
where it's more densely packed areas as supposed to just
you know, nomn sky at launch type type scenario. So
that sounds really really fantastic, And I just I think
they're so great at world building. I've never played Weird West,
but I've heard great things. So yeah, I can't wait
for more information on this. This definitely gets my my
juice is flowing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you should definitely check out Weird West at
some point. I really would love to hear your thoughts
on it, especially now that there is a first person
mod for it, so you can, oh wow, play it
as a first person game if you want to. It's
a wild which I think is like a yeah, pretty good.
I think it's just available on Steam there, so that's
pretty pretty sweet. Yeah. But yeah, there's also one of
the art people on this team posted an image on
their Twitter of just like a character concept and it's
like it looks exactly like one of the portraits for
a Dishonored character, which I think that would be probably
the same artist who worked on a lot of the
Dishonored stuff, because, like I said, a lot of the
people from Arcane went over to join this studio. But yeah,
that's all. It's all very exciting for me. I'm excited
they're going back to first person, even though I did
like the pivot to isometric. I think a lot of
people had issues with like the camera and some of
the control, like the game feel of Weird West, and
I'm guessing first person will kind of fix patch all
those holes, so to speak. And then in terms of
like them making the comparison to follow it DW. Vegas,
I think that's a risky comparison to make, just in
terms because that sets expectations really high. Once again, if
you're trying to get publisher to support that's a great
thing to say. But I do think that with what
they did with Weird West, even if the scale was
a lot smaller, there is a ton of branching pats
in that game, and like every MPC is killable and
you can fully change the stuff, and like, you know,
you're playing these different characters in that game in kind
of like a linear fashion, like you play through a
play through one character and then the next, and then
the next and the next, and like a decision you
make early on with character one could affect something crazy
that you wouldn't expect in character for like tens of
hours later. So I like, I definitely believe that they're
capable of doing that. The narrative is there, and I
like that they're doing a new setting because I really
liked what they did were Weird West, even though I'm
not a big Western fan, I like that they made
it something that was more compelling to me by making
it like a witchy sort of a cult Western setting
like that was a really fun mashup. And I think
what they're doing here as well is like a really
cool thing as well. So yeah, I'm curious who they
would get picked up by for publisher here, Like I
think a Devolver would make a lot of sense, even
an a Pirna. There was the game Pass connection with
Weird West that was on Game Pass Day one. I
don't know how much. Like I'm sure they would take
the bag if they can get it, but I'm sure
where Fel and the team are not thrilled with Xbox
and Microsoft as a company after laying off and shutting
down Arcane Austin, So I don't know if they would
just you know, on the merit, like morals not work
with him that way, But like you know, you gotta
make sure your company can stay afloat and continue to
make games and support your employees, so I'm sure they
would do it whatever they can there. But yeah, really
excited to see the future of this. Like I said,
they don't even have a title yet, doesn't have a
year a release date. They did say there's gonna be
like a it's either an alpha or a beta like
playtest happening next year, so I think it's good to
get some early feedback there and I'll try my best
to get in on that and maybe see what early
versions of that game can be. But once again, if
anyone missed it last year, like we did the full
breakdown of Arcane Studios and all their games, and Rafael
cole Antoni is just such an amazing game designer, game
director as well, so whatever he makes, I'm there day
one for the rest of time. I think I'll happily
say that. So keep an eye out on woolf I
Studios and you have you yet, go check A Weird West.
It's still a great game. I don't know if still
on game Pass, but probably pick it up on Steam
anyway because then you can get access to the mods
and whatnot, So that's probably the way to go either.
Speaker 2: Way, it's on the PlayStation game Pass whatever that one's called,
PlayStation plus.
Speaker 1: Maybe they would work with the PlayStation and I could
see that being a PlayStation exclusive thing that like PlayStation
doesn't have a lot of first person games these days,
nor immersive sims. I feel like that could be a
good pocket for them if they look to. I mean idea,
I want this to be on all consoles so a
lot of people can play it, but that'd be a
cool pairing potentially, absolutely, And then I think our last
shout out for the day, here is some good news
in the industry, which is that Tango Game Works, who
were shut down by Microsoft back in April or may
I forget which month it was exactly, have been saved,
which you don't hear this. Ever, this doesn't happen, especially
months after a closure is announced. But Grafton Inc. Who
is most known for being the owners of the pubg
IP license and all that, they have gone up here
and scooped up Tango Game Works as a studio and
along with it picked up the Hi Fi rush IP.
So I don't know what happens like I would have
thought that a lot of people at Tango would have
already like not been I don't know if it's a
physical office or if they work from home, but I
would have thought people would have been moving on at
this point trying to find other work, or would be
like clearly disconnected from Tango. So I don't know what
this means exactly, but this is amazing, it's great news.
I don't know how this happened in this way, Like
I don't know if Microsoft didn't even try to sell
off any of these things before closing them, or or
if they did and that and that's when. That's why
it took so long a couple of months, is because
Grafton was like, oh, we want to pick these people up.
Oh slow it down there. But I feel like even
for optics like Xbox should have tried their hardest to
get this sold before that happened, because people are still
mad at Xbox. I think even though they are allowing this,
oh I suppose like I and many others are still
super pissed them. Obviously there's other studios that did get
closed down, but I don't even know. I very scrambled
thoughts on this because this is a very weird news
story that you just don't expect or see in the
So it's cool but strange at the same time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I I have never played or really heard much
about Hi Fi Rush, and I feel like Tango game Works.
Is that right? Is that the studios? Yeah, Tango game Works.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they call it game works, but
it's it's.
Speaker 2: A cool it's a cool little uh subtitle. Yeah exactly?
Is there any other like titles that I might have known? Okay, yeah,
I know about that. So I guess just the news
itself of like the studio being saved by by like
another one is really uh, as you said, it's just
really shocking. You don't hear that at all. It's great
for those like just those people that will be getting
their jobs back, that's that's fantastic. But I feel like,
just across the board, it's really weird because, as you
already highlighted, like that is quite a long time for
like if you lost your job, like, were you just
sitting around I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean in this situation in which the game industry
is brutal right now with layoffs, and so maybe even
if they did get laid off and they are trying
to find something. They're just the opportunities might be super
low right now, just because of how many other people
have been laid off, Like the competition is fierce. One
thing I don't know is how much that is the
case in Japan. I mean, No PlayStation has been closing
some studios, but I think a lot of those layoffs
have been North American things, and Tango Game Works is
a Japanese studio, so I don't know. Maybe that would
I don't know how that really affects that layoff conversation,
But it might also just be that we're not quite
as private as some of those things that are happening
over here in North America and it's closer to home.
I suppose.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe they're just really big fans of High Fi
Rush and they're.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that, like that's part of this story
is that, Okay, they don't have people within IP, but
they do have the High Fi Rush IP, which I
think makes a lot of sense because I don't ever
see a world where Xbox or Microsoft would have gotten
another studio to make another High Fi Rush if they
deemed that game unsuccessful enough to warrant them closing the studio.
Then I don't see why they would, you know, give
that ip to like Upsidian and say hey, make a
High Fi Rush sequel. It doesn't really make any sense,
so I think it makes I think that's cool, and
I would love to see a sequel. I don't know
if Grafton as a owner of this. Once again, if
the financials weren't maybe the financials weren't quite good enough
for Microsoft make a cort Microsoft, maybe they'd be good
enough for Crafton for a sequel, especially because that game
was very successful and as you mentioned, like you haven't
really heard much about it, which I don't think is
a good sign, just in terms of like how much
it really didn't penetrate to like you should know how
awesome High Fi Rush is, and like how much people
loved it. But that just goes to show how it
wasn't quite that tent pole game that Xbox wanted to be.
At the same time, they did shadow drop it, so
they released it in a weird way too, like in
a very risk anyway. So it's like, I don't know
how much expectations you get it for anything with a
shadow drop, Like that's just not a great way to
market a game is to not market it until the
day it comes out, right, So I don't know. And
obviously with the Xbox stuff, it's always a conversation of Okay,
well did it move the numbers on game Pass? And
if the answers no, then that's probably what they care
what more than like how many copies did it sell?
It was Also, this is one of the games that
Microsoft was putting on other platforms, So this is on
PlayStation now and it's coming to Switch. I don't think
it's there yet, So this is one of those few
games that was part of that plan planned expansion for
Xbox to be put in their stuff on competing platforms
as well. But yeah, I am curious to see what
the future of Tango and High Fi Rushes. I would
assume the next game is going to be a High
Fi Rush sequel, but I could also see them going
in a different direction with it. I don't know how
reliable Crafton is as a owner for this. I know
that one of the other things they own is the
studio that may Calisto Protocol, which was a game that
came out was like you know that Dead Space kind
of it was from the original creator of dead Space,
came back, made a dead Space like thing, didn't sell
very well, and then there was a ton of layoffs
at that studio. I don't know if those layoffs were
that team's decision or if it was Crafton's decision as
the owner. Not sure where that crawls into it. So
it's like, I don't know how reliable these guys are
as like the owner of this studio going forward. I
also don't know how much of a presence they have
in Japan. Which was also always a weird thing with
Microsoft owning Tangle is that there was the one Japanese
studio that they own, So it's like, okay, it's a
little it doesn't really fit in their portfolio in a way,
although maybe it's good for their portfolio to have you know,
a team there. But I'm trying to think what other
angles there are to this. I guess I'm curious what
this means for the game passness of this stuff, because
you know, myself put resources into putting High Fi Rush
on other platforms, and I imagine they still't want to,
Like I don't know if they're still going to get
all that revenue for High Fire Rush and it's like
any sequels going forward would then be profitable for Crafton
as a as a owner here. But yeah, I'm curious
if High Fi Rush and Evil Within and all those
games are just gonna be like part of this deals
that they're always just locked to game pass for like
all time pretty much, or how however much you can
do with a contract to make it say all time,
you know. So yeah, it's it's it's a weird thing.
I I'm keeping my you know, expectations very low. I
don't think this means that someone's gonna come in and
scoop up Arcane. I would love that to happen. I
don't know who I want to do that. And I
also feel like, I don't know are people still at Arcane?
Are they still chilling there? Like what people go on
to do other things? And I'm sure some of those
people maybe have been or even scooped up by wolf
I Studios to go join that team. So I don't know.
I don't I don't think this means Arkaane Austin's coming
back either, But of course, as an Arcane diehard fan,
I can I can hope and I can pray, but
I'm very happy for the people at Tango that they
continue to have a job and hopefully they can work
on what they want to work on it and aren't
just don't just become like a pubg support team, because
that would be Yeah, that would be pretty sad if
that's what happening with a really cool creative team that
made a really really interesting game in high Fi USh
and also made some amazing horror games Unevil.
Speaker 2: Within right, Yeah, yeah, any other thoughts on that or
anything else, Kirkland?
Speaker 1: Or is that it for today? No?
Speaker 2: I think we think we got it all.
Speaker 1: I believe next week is games Calm. No, that's gonna
be two weeks from now or games Come. Might be
happy next week, but the side quest where we'd cover
it would be the week after. So once again next week,
I'm not sure what we'll be talking about, but it
should be a good time. Nonetheless, thank you Kirkland for
joining me, Thank you ever for listening, and we'll see
you again next time. Byebye, bye bye