Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our weekly
video game show here at gie Versus.
Speaker 2: I am your host, Dylan Musk, and I would be
the Stellar guy herkle Patzer.
Speaker 3: How are you doing tonight, my friend, I'm feeling stellar. Yeah,
I'm feeling feeling much better off the end, and you know,
excited to talk some games with you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you sound great, because I feel like Taylor he
was sick for a bid and he came back. Yeah,
but his voice was it was rough for a few
days there. But you're coming back and you're sounding pristine.
You're top top notch right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got pretty lucky. Like it didn't really like
linger with the throat area. It was just like everything
else that comes with it, with the head and the
sinuses and yeah, like I had like the sore throat
on whatever day it was Wednesday, Thursday, can't remember now,
but just like a fever dream when that happens, it's
just kind of all the days blend together. But no,
I'm I'm happy. I'm feeling better, and uh yeah, talk
some some games with you, because I definitely had some
time to play play some games. We'll we'll sick at home,
so yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, me as well. I think that's what this episode
is gonna be all about. And we were surprising each other,
so I'm not going to say up front what our what.
Speaker 1: Our topics are.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're listening to this, you'll see it
on your podcast download when you went to listen to this.
Speaker 1: But yeah, just a couple of quick show outs. Kirkling.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately list missed our Gladiator to review, which we did,
but that is still up on the feeds.
Speaker 3: Have you seen it yet or you know, I haven't
even made it like.
Speaker 1: Low priority, like are you still going to see it soon?
Speaker 3: I want to see in theaters. So I'm just kind
of like figuring out a day what works with I
don't know, I'll see if I take my dad or something.
Speaker 2: I don't think she was really that sound interesting, That
sounds like a good combo. So we'll get your thoughts
on the next newscast after you've seen it. And yeah,
we're gonna do another newscast this week. I forget some
of the TV show. There's a bunch of TV shows
coming out soon, so I don't know when those are
kicking off.
Speaker 3: Creature Commandos that this week or is that next week? No,
I think that's next. It's December, so let me just cratch.
The Creature Commendos is next week, so yeah, two episode
premiere me and Me and Taylor on them. We also
got Skeleton Crew starting, so two new shows starting next week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then Dexter sometimes, well, don't you dare forget
about that.
Speaker 3: It's give me a busy. Oh I'm just looking at
that list of December ye, color.
Speaker 1: And I'm not doing much. I mean I might join
for Dexter, we'll see.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you guys are gonna be just the TV
show boys in the month of December, so that'll be
a good time. One other quick shout out is, of
course Patreon is the best place to go because that
supports us a lot. If you support us for one
month on Patreon for like two dollars, that is more
support than listening to like one hundred episodes worth of
AD revenue will generate.
Speaker 1: I don't have a math on.
Speaker 2: That, but it's a The ratio is crazy in favor
of Patreon's over there support us. You can also get
episodes early and at free. As I mentioned, I also
did record a bonus side quest episode, just a little
solo thing I wanted to do a I want to
discrub the record, Kirkland and do my game of the
Year from last year, because I've played a bunch more
twenty twenty three games like in this year, and so
I kind of did a rerun of my list really quick,
and then I shared some boulders Gate three spoiler thoughts
as well, because when you're gonna finish that game, maybe
you did this weekend, maybe that's one of the surprises
you have, but if it's not, I wanted to get
those thoughts out there.
Speaker 1: So that's bonus.
Speaker 2: That's up on Patreon right now. I don't know when
I'm gonna drop it on the main feeds, So yeah,
if you want to listen to that right now, that's
the best place to go. And uh, with that, how
wout we get right into it? I want to kick
it off with this kirknpatser. Over the weekend I made
I made a purchase and I'm finally with you and
Travis I have.
Speaker 1: I'm huge, So yeah, that is I'm in the current
gen baby welcome sir. Yes, thank you.
Speaker 3: It feels good, you know, I well, cause that I
feel like it was down on the priority list, like
we had that conversation. I think it was around Spider
Man to release time you kind of swallowed that big
pill of yeah, I'm probably gonna not jump onto it
right away, wait a little bit for the because there
wasn't like many titles that were pulling you, I think
at that time.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, it's a number of things.
Speaker 2: I mean, funny going all the way back to I
guess it was twenty twenty when it was first announced,
and I was like very excited because I love the
PS four generation, tons of great games there. And then as
you gotten closer and closer, I put my name in
there for the pre order and I got one of
the pre orders, and then as it was like getting
closer when it was gonna actually go ahead, I was like,
you know what, I'm gonn I'm gonna cancel this. Like
I can play Death Loop on my laptop. It's not
the best way to play the game, but I can
do that, and like I can wait for the other stuff.
Miles is coming to PS four, and then it's kind
of just been that for for years at this point
where it's like, ah, Ratchet looks cool, I'd like to
play that, you know, Spider Man two looks cool, but like,
I can wait, and eventually. This is the first year
because I've checked every year that there's actually a good
Black Friday deal for the PS five, which makes sense
because I figured, okay, PS five pros coming out, maybe
they're gonna price drop the PS five. They didn't, but
they I think kind of in lieu of that, they
finally did a pretty decent Black Friday deal.
Speaker 1: So it was one hundred dollars off.
Speaker 2: So it was a mixture of that, and you know,
this year, I got a couple of nice bonuses at work,
in one of which was like a two hundred and
fifty dollars gift card, and I was like, I got
to use this somewhere, and so mixture of that, the
Black Friday deal paid like two ninety for the PS five,
the digital version, So I was pretty pretty happy with that.
Speaker 1: And I'm finally.
Speaker 3: Kissing three prices. I think it was the same price
about my PS three. Yeah, still like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think the main the main pushing point
was was a few things like Astrobot looks really great
or looked really good now I'm playing it, So we'll
talk about that in a minute. But it was really
it's a little bit of future proofing because like, I
can't miss Death Stranding too. That truly is like for me,
it's like if I'm ever if I ever ever don't
get a Nintendo Consult Launch, it's always like Smash Bros.
Like Okay, well now I have to buy this, And
I feel like Death Stranding somehow is the one for
me on PlayStation five, and I really want to play
that game and Wolverine as well. And then yeah, there's
a lot of unknowns in terms of what the other
big studios are working on, but just those two and
then hit in the backlog of other things, I think
it finally made a lot of sense for me. So,
as I mentioned Astrobot, I picked that up. I also
picked up Pacific Drive. So those are the two games.
Speaker 3: It was in my cart. Honestly, I have another game
that I ended up purchasing over that one, but like
it was in my cart, I'm like, is this when
I finally make this plunge? And then I watched the
trailer again and I'm like, I don't know if this
is like the same magical ness that I that I
once saw, but I do want to try it still.
But I just Yeah, it was in the cart and
I had to end up removing it. But very excited
to hear your thoughts on that one, cause that one
I feel like since the trailer released, you and I
were both super interested in that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I was hoping that maybe I could
run out on my laptop. That was not the case,
so I haven't played it. I did download it, but
it is not I've not played it yet, so you're
gonna have to wait another week or two. My thoughts
on that one and then the other things that I
haven't bought yet, But I would love to play Returnal
or Hell Divers with you because the co op update
at some point, right and then Hell Divers as well,
So I know there's both on sale right now, but
I assume eternals. I saw Hell Divers is like ten
off something like that for Black Friday.
Speaker 3: So did you get the PlayStation online?
Speaker 1: I do not have online right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, because I'm pretty sure Return in Conjunction. I
can't remember if it was a monthly game or if
it's just one that's on the PlayStation catalog, but like that,
that's where I have accessed through it.
Speaker 2: So interesting. I actually didn't know a catalog a catalog game. Yeah,
that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I was thinking
after because with game Pass now it's like so expensive
that I'm kind of trying to be diligent, but like
canceling if I'm not active with a bunch of things.
And so after Indy comes out, I'm gonna play through Indy,
and then I think I'm going to cancel game Pass.
Speaker 1: So I was thinking maybe at that point I would
jump on.
Speaker 3: To take a look at the games.
Speaker 2: Yes, plus because I know, even for me, the bigger
thing is like the back catalog, like how you're talking
about it's like Hooper and some other games recently, Like
I just want, like there's so many games I missed
from those generations, So I think, m hm, that's the
more exciting thing. But then you're right, like they do
have a lot of newer games on there too, So yeah,
I feel like I'd get a lot of value of
subscribing to that for a few months and I'll.
Speaker 1: Probably swap back and forth. Yeah the past for a
few months plus for a few months kind of.
Speaker 3: Go Yeah, No, I I was looking at my subscription
for that because right now I have the like the
the Super Ultimate Premium Edition, whatever the hell it is.
That's the one that gets you access to like the
retro games like Piece one, two and three games, and
then like as well as every other bonus that you get.
But I think when I renew, which is sometime in
the spring, I'll probably do the one lower on it,
just because I like, I found there's a lot of
features maybe on the Ultimate that I'm not really getting
the most value out of. Like there's there's like a
trial to Yeah, yeah, you can stream games, which I've
done a couple of times, and I find like if
I'm going to play a game and it gets to
a point where like sometimes when you stream games it
lags a little bit, I'm like, this is awful, like
like and it's not even like a competitive game or something.
I just like, I hate when you get like a
leg like that through streaming. So yeah, I always just
download the games. But one of the features is like
the trial mode where you can basically trial like a
brand new game for two hours. And I did that
for Balder's Gate three ended up buying that game, and
I did that for another game that I'm going to
talk about today that put in two hours and then
the two hours is up, and it doesn't just like okay,
save your progress. It literally like you're in the middle
of doing something and it just shuts down. It's like
progress carry over. As soon as you get the game.
It's like literally you're right back in the action. It's
like the exact same thing. Yeah, but yeah, it's a
good system because one hundred percent of the times that
I've done it, I've gotten the game afterwards. But that's
just like another feature that I feel like I haven't
been using the most, uh, since I've had the Ultimates.
I'll probably drop down to like the Extras tier. It's
like the middle one because I still do like trying
out like the catalog of games and they swap in
and out, and I'm sure the game passes the same.
But I've really been impressed actually with the PlayStation catalog
what they've been doing with it. And I think game
Pass might still be like have the edge on it,
but like there's still just some great PlayStation titles on there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess As for the console stuff, I don't
really have any interesting take. You know, four years late
on this, everything that needs to be said has been said.
I feel like any issues that had a launch have
all been patched and fixed, and like I remember a
lot of people saying that they didn't know how to
like put the console to sleep when it first came out,
but it seems very obvious to me now. So I
don't know if that was something that they updated, like
made it easier to do in a patch or something. Yeah,
and you know, I've played your PS five and Travis's
on the stream and stuff. I was surprised because I
remember seeing side by side comparisons because I have the
Slim addition, I don't think they sell like the original
one anymore. They just have like the Pro and the
Slim now, and the Slim is like it is a
lot smaller, Like I don't have the side by side
in my house obviously, but just thinking about like the
chonky brick that you guys set up in.
Speaker 1: The twenty four hour stream, I feel like.
Speaker 2: They've made it much sleeker, which which is nice. But yeah,
it you know, the in terms of the system, it
does feel very PSO four. In terms of the interface
a little bit different of course, and the controllers is
really nice and all that. The first thing, of course
that I downloaded and played was hit Man because I've
been back just madly addicted to hit Man again since
you talked about it recently. We'll talk about Hitman a
bit later. But then the first thing I jumped into
proper was Astro's Playroom, of course, because that's that's what
everyone's gotta do, right, You gotta you gotta check out
the built in game there, and it it's just it's
just fantastic. It's just like you can't not be super
happy playing through it. It's just the most joyous fun.
It's not even like a game. It's just a toy really,
and I just had so much fun blasting through that
whole thing. As soon as I was done Playroom, I
immediately because i'd pre downloaded it Astrobot and so immediately
from playing right into Astrobot. And it's funny because those
games are like Astrobot is very much like a sequel.
Speaker 1: To Playroom, right.
Speaker 2: It controls the exact same astro has like the same
movement of like the little jet pack jump thing, so
it's the it's pretty much like DLC for Astro's Playroom
in a weird way. But it was really fun to
just jump like right back to back into them, and
so yeah, I'm like in the second world of Astrobot
now and once again, same thing. It's just I'm just
so happy playing this game. Like I feel like when
I'm playing most games, I'm not actively thinking about how
happy I am and how like this smile on my
face at stupid little interactions or little sound effects or
things like that. But it's just such a joyous game.
So I'm just, I don't know, just gonna play through
the whole thing. I'm kind of being really diligent again,
like all the bots hidden in every level, all the
hidden puzzle pieces, and if I miss one, I'll go
back right into the level right away. And I'm using
a lot of the what do they call the game
card feature? I forget, I forget what they call that exactly,
but you can like just hit the PlayStation button then
it we'll like pop up like the game help. Well
that's what it's called, right, game help. I don't know
if you use that.
Speaker 1: Feature much or a couple of times. Games they can
really use it a whole lot, but like.
Speaker 3: Trophy hints and stuff on there, so I have used
it in those regards.
Speaker 1: It's just really nice in astrobot.
Speaker 2: When I'm like, I'm missing one, but I don't know
where it is, I hit the button, it knows immediately
what I'm trying to find because it's cracking my data.
And then I can just click and here's a ten
second video of someone showing you exactly where the bot is.
Like it's just so convenient. So I'm really really like
that feature. And then of course the controller is great.
But it's funny because I've used the controller playing Mortal
Kombat and stuff on the stream, but I've never played
astro and like to see, yeah, what this controller is
capable of is really It's taken me back a little
bit because I feel like since the Wei, I haven't
actively thought about the controller that I'm using to play
a game. And I love the Wii. Back in the day,
I love the most controls. I was all into it. Nowadays,
I'm like, I hate when I have to go back
to the Wei and actually use most controls to do
anything on the console.
Speaker 1: It's so frustrated.
Speaker 2: But I feel like a console or a game hasn't
made me care about a controller in that same way since,
and so it's been just a total joy to see,
like what is possible, and I know that this is
kind of the pinnacle. Like no games as far as
I know on the PS five like put this much
effort into making the controller part of the experience. Like like,
since you've been playing on this console for years, what
are other games that you can think of that like
really use the controller in an interesting way? Like what's
the second to Astro's play room? In terms of using
all the features, I.
Speaker 3: Don't know like list off top of my head like
the best, but like I remember Death Loop whenever you're
gun with jam, like the trigger would actually jam, So
that was kind of a cool. Most games I actually
turned off, like the haptic triggers just because annoying, Like
especially you're playing like cod or something. You know you're
dropping in and you're using like a pistol and you
can't just rapid fire because it's like actually putting pressure
on your remote, Like it's it's actually a detriment in
those regards. But if I'm playing a single player game,
I always like to have it on just for a
little bit more immersion. But like I imagine, like yeah,
like the main sony titles, like I think the most
noticeable one is when you're playing a shooter and you
feel like the trigger a little bit more. So I
like it in those aspects, but yeah, I haven't really
like astrobot would probably be the best usage, right, like
because it's it's built around those like I imagine there's
a lot of functions with the touch pads and what
and whatnot, because like most games they just have like
swipe up for your map or like swipe left for
this sort of thing, but it's not so much really
like I guess desk stranding is another one too, but
that's kind of back from the PS four, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wonder if they did an update for the
PS five. I think they must have done a PS
five version for dastrands, so.
Speaker 3: Probably just a little bit more vibration in the triggers,
like when it's like rough terrain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the walking around, like just having different sound effects
or a little moments of tension. That's something that I'm
very excited for with death stranding too, because yeah, I
think that is other than the we that's maybe the
one exception is death stranding even on the PS four,
like use that controller in such a interesting way of
having like the different colors based on you know if
situation was going well or not having like the baby
cry from your controller and having to like coddle it
or rocket or what you have to do like all
this weird stuff. It's like, could youma has always done that?
You know, all the way back to like the first
metal gear solid with like the psyclementas stuff, and then
what is what is the one where there's like you
gotta like move memory cards around? You know, He's always
doing weird meta things, and I feel like not a
lot of developers are into that kind of thing. But
given that the PS five controller is like has so
many weird little features, I'm really excited to see what
he does with the sequel because I think if any
developer other than a sobe who makes Astro games is
gonna do it, it's gonna be him. So I'm curious
to see how how immersive BB feels Death stranding too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I gotta get back in the one before
the Straining two comes out.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, yes, you definitely do.
Speaker 2: Uh but yeah, talking a little bit more about Astro,
I mean, I love all the PlayStation franchise stuff in it,
Like in each level you're kind of rescuing bots and
like maybe half of them are quarter of them are
are you know. The first of you find like Ratchet,
and then you find Rivet as well, and it's just
cute and fun to have these things. Then ones that
I can't even recognize, like some weird deep cuts that
I'm not recognizing. You got Deacon from Days Gone, which
is very funny like this like really rough and tumble
guys like this cute little bot. And it seems like
some levels are really like based around those franchises. But
for the most part, it's just here's a random level
and you're finding you know, Ratchet in here. It's not
like a Ratchet themed level. It's really just that one robot.
Then there are a couple exceptions to that, like I
just unlocked a God of War level, like it's called
Bot of War, so I'm curious what that one looks like.
There was an eight Escape level that, I mean, I
haven't played ap Escape, but it seemed very coded like that.
And one weird one was the Last of Us, the
one where you find Joel and Ellie as these little bots.
It's like an underground cave with like weird mushrooms growing
out and like worms growing out of everything. It's like
this is when you wouldn't wait, you would immediately think
of a last of us, But like, I imagine this
is what the earth looks like underneath the world. Because
even think about what season one of the TV show
when like the grounds sunk in and all the like
the zombies whatever they're called that game fly out of
the ground, Like, I feel like the ground under this
is just huge mushrooms everywhere. So even though it's a
very fun, cute, playful version of that, it's an interesting
pairing that they that they did there, So I just
I love it. It's such a such a fun game. There's
certain moments with just interactable objects and little sound effects
that just really stand out. Or the first time I
found like this very specific puddle, I just spent like
five minutes splash around.
Speaker 1: In this puddle.
Speaker 2: It was just like feeling the different vibrations and the
sounds based on like how big of a jump you
did or if you're just walking slowly through it. It's
like really nerdy stuff, but I just I feel like
a kid again, like playing a game. It's kind of
like when the first time you play a three D
game and it just blows your mind. I feel like
I'm kind of getting that a little bit, like you know,
showed to them for doing this this game and really
tooling to the hardware. And it's funny that I feel
like Astro's Playroom when you boot it up, is supposed
to be here's what this console is gonna do, like
to the consumer, but I also feel like it's supposed
to be a bit of a playbook for like developers.
But then a lot of developers, like you know, they're
making versions for every console. They're not going to stop
to make you know, spend months on this thing for
one controller for one you know, player type, So I
understand why it's not always as intricately done as.
Speaker 1: It is here.
Speaker 2: But like on top of all that, funny little stuff
like Astro Bought is definitely an evolution of for Playroom
in terms of like just the platform or design and
the fun mechanics and just constantly jumping into different suits
and getting new little mechanics for each level. It's just
super duper good. So I highly recommend this one. I'm guessing,
like for Playroom, did you just kind of play through
all the levels once.
Speaker 3: Or did you boot up Playroom actually yeah, never put up.
Speaker 1: It's what are you doing?
Speaker 3: Is that crazy or not? Just an ar kissed Yeah, no,
never ever booted it up. Yeah, I was just like that.
Speaker 1: I remember playing after this episode stop Stop whatever game
you bought yesterday.
Speaker 3: And I really like the PS four had like a
similar type of thing too, and like I think I
booted that one up. Maybe it was even PS three,
Like I feel like PlayStations have always had like yeah,
and it was just like, okay, I get it. They're
just showcase the hardware. I bought the hard way. I
don't even know what these triggers do. But like you know,
patron Tyler hdalgo he he he said, Astro Playroom was amazing,
and I was like, okay, yeah, that's cool. And then
they came up with Astrobot and I'm like, oh damn,
they're really sticking home with this uh this Astro thing.
But yeah, I know that's my uh maybe I'll have
to boot it up to a modern review of the
Astro's playroom.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think player rooms like two or
three hours. If you go through all the levels, you
don't need to, I guess. But then there's like speed
run challenges and other things. I almost wish that Playroom
was somehow an Astrobot were somehow gelled in one game,
because I said they have the exact same controls. There's
some of them mechanic and enemies from Playroom or in
Astrobot as well, so clearly there's a lot of like
not copy pasting, but like using the exact same framework
and the same game and just building off of it.
So almost in like that Hitman kind of way. But
I wish that they were kind of gelled together so
I could get all these collectibles.
Speaker 3: In one past World of Assassination.
Speaker 1: World of Assassination.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like playrooms are more about get collecting weird
PlayStation peripherals, like those are the collectibles you're getting, and
this one it's more about collecting the bots, which are
you know, different PlayStation franchises and otherwise too, like found
like Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil and all these other
weirdos who you don't necessarily I guess Residueva is a
close association with PlayStation, but it's not a first party thing,
and there's still some of those weird ones in there,
so all that's really good. I think the highlight level
for me so far has been the like big tiny
world in this where you can like just shrink down
to the size of a mouse at any point and
then just like pop up and down, which is a
very classic like platformer thing to do. But as I've
mentioned many times on side Quest, I just love that theming,
you know.
Speaker 1: Like Pickman or Grounded or tiny can.
Speaker 2: I just always love that kind of setting here, and
especially in this where I'm just nerding out about like the.
Speaker 1: Sound effects and stuff.
Speaker 2: When you just go into a tiny mosse and you
hear like the tiny little high pitched clinking sound as
you're walking on metal versus what you sound like or
like the enemies how there's just like a tiny little guy.
But then when you go small, it's like this huge
mammoth that's like making these huge sounds as it's walking around.
Just really absolutely loving that. So that's definitely a level highlight.
And yeah, it just never seems to get old so
far in the first few hours is just kind of
reventing itself constantly.
Speaker 1: So super duper fun game. Really glad I picked it up.
Speaker 2: I definitely put a bit of a priority on, like
picking up some twenty twenty four games just for like
Game of the Year and like, I don't know game wards,
I want to try and play as many of the
Game of the Year contenders as I can, and so
that was definitely a reason for picking up Astrobot. But
after playing Playroom for a little bit and like, absolutely
I want I want twenty more hours of this for sure,
So I highly recommend. I mean, you got to you
gotta check a playroom.
Speaker 3: That's got start the playroom.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah right, And then yeah, as I said, I
haven't booted up Pacific drive it yet, so I will.
I will share that on a future episode and then
we can come back to Hitman in a bit.
Speaker 1: But take it away. What have you been playing lately?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got a couple couple big ones to talk about.
I'll start with a smaller one game that you brought
up before in the past. You threw this on my radar,
I wish listed on Steam and then it was on
fifty percent off sale, so I had to jump on
sou I've been really looking forward to this one, and
I feel like this is a perfect game to just
play when you're under the weather and not feeling good.
Terror nil bhil Must I finally jumped into Tara Nil
and Man. I love this game and it is just
such a good vibe game. I feel like I just
got so obsessed with like just bringing the whole world back,
and then there'd be times when like maybe I didn't
plan like certain rivers properly, or I didn't like my biomes.
I would just completely restart the level. I'm like, I
can do this better, i can do this more efficiently.
And it's just such a beautiful, cute game, like especially
playing like I played so many games with this type
of like camera view, whether it's like an RTS game
or whatnot. You're usually in wartimes, you know, trying to
murder the other nations and collect resources, and this is
just you're just bringing the world back, and you're just
doing it like one continent at a time, at different
biomes at a time, and it's just like, I don't know,
I just feel happy playing this game. I really like
the music that that's in it as well, and just
the little sound effects too, when you get like the
water coming back, and just I don't know, it's just
it's just very very pleasing.
Speaker 1: The music's really nice.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent, and I think it's one thing like
like I love the strategy elements to it, just trying
to plan like the most efficient ways to go about
and you can kind of get creative with some of
your strategic elements of like where you're going to put
certain things, whether it's like a beachfront or just certain
trees and whatnot. But I love how you like basically
remove your footprint once it's done, like you just like
take everything down.
Speaker 1: That's the lays so unique.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then like when you when you get your ship,
you know, and then you just fly away and then
it just kind of shows your world and the birds
are flying and and just it's just such a great time.
So I'll highly highly recommend this game. It's it's I
don't know, I think I've put in like six hours
or something like since I've got it, and yeah, it's
it's been. It's been so fun and just a great
pickup and one that, like from the trailers, I assumed
I was gonna love, but once I got in there,
it was just so much better than I than I
actually thought it was gonna be. And I don't really
have like any complaints for it. Like I feel like
it's it's introducing like different things to not just make
it seem like repetitive and not like it's not like
you just perfected your strategy, right, Like you're still kind
of getting introduced to new elements so you have to
kind of switch around or maybe you don't have all.
Speaker 1: The totally makes you rethink how you.
Speaker 3: Play it exactly, like when you get like the monorail,
like when you're on like the Tropics island level, like
that was really interesting and yeah, it's just it's just
a really really great time. So I'm really happy I
picked it up. And I feel like I knew that
there wasn't like different nations, but it was still just
weird for me to jump in there and be like, wow,
it's really just me and this barren wasteland and no,
it's just I'm just bringing the world back. And yeah,
I really really like it. So yeah, I highly highly
recommend that one.
Speaker 1: Tarah Nill, Yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed that game.
Speaker 2: And from what I remember too, like after I beat it,
which was like I forget is there multiple levels in
each biome or is it one level perme?
Speaker 3: It's kind of like into the breach, how there's like
different like like almost countries in like like like the
different provinces, so you take that out, you're not really
taking it out, you're saving it. But then you jump
over like different continents, and I don't know if they've
like expanded on it, but it seems like there's quite
a few levels, Like like when you did it was
their same idea where there's like little provinces in a
country and then you switch around.
Speaker 2: I seem to remember there being like four distinct biomes,
so I don't know how many you've seen at this point. Yeah,
but then I can't remember if there was like, yeah,
multiple levels, Like I think there's probably a quick introductory
level and then a bigger one in.
Speaker 1: Like the Grassland zone.
Speaker 2: But what I do remember is that after I kind
of beat the game, rold the credits, whatever, that there
was still like a lot I could go back and
do like harder levels or certain.
Speaker 1: Challenge Yeah, uh, things like that. I remember there.
Speaker 2: I remember it being again like, oh, I want to
revisit this at some point because there's like a lot
more to do. So yeah, and I don't know something
about like the overall bar. I can't remember how it
all works, but you know, you're feeling out meters as
you're rejuvenating the whole Earth, and I think that's like
the point of the game is to get to like
one hundred percent rejuvenation.
Speaker 1: Or something weird like that.
Speaker 2: But then there's like more, yeah, a lot more you
could do, so I feel like it's one of those
things that even though that is a genre that is
usually very long, what I liked about that game is
that it was pretty short and sweet, like I don't know,
maybe nine ten hours for me to get through the
whole thing, but then it's like, oh yeah, but there's
also a ton more on the deeper side if you
really want to get into the nitty gritty of it.
Speaker 3: And like, I feel like it's it's a type of
game I could see myself just redoing some of those
earlier levels that it's not like it's, oh, I'm just
retreading my same path, like it's randomly generated to the
map that it's going to be. They obviously have rules
to follow for how the biome is going to look,
but yeah, it's just like I had no problem just
completely Like I was like ninety nine percent down a level.
I'm like, I don't like, look at this, I can
make this better. Just restart and it's not like I'm
racing against the clock like it's it's a very passive game.
So yeah, it was. It was fitting when I was
on the mend for sure, when I just like didn't
want to have anything taxing on the break.
Speaker 2: Your body as just cleanths Jones and.
Speaker 3: My body working away. But yeah, I know that was
the first one I want to talk about. And then uh,
my second one, which is a much bigger game. And Dylan,
I use my free trial for this game. I have
no idea what crossed my mind on why I even
want to try this, but I did. I picked up
Stellar Blade, so I no idea why. I'm just like
I saw it on there. I'm like, okay, new game,
let's try. Let's do a trial. I never do these trials.
Let's just see what this game's like. Got into it.
Very much like Near Automata actually very very similar. Yeah,
Like the combat is just insane. Some of like just
just the monsters in this or like all the designs
of them. There's so many different types and you get
like database that shows you, like the different ones you've encountered.
I haven't even countered like half of them yet, and
I I think I have like thirty or so hours,
and like I have been going wow hard on still yeah,
like game percussions.
Speaker 1: I think I put in a near dominant to be
that game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm and like I've been doing a lot
of the side questing and stuff like that. I kind
of made the commitment of just like I'm just going
one hundredercent of this game. I'm gonna get all the
all the trophies and everything. So I've been doing a
lot of like the running around and sometimes with those games,
like the side questing can be very dry and annoying
and it's like go get me this, and then you
go get it and you go back and it's just
like thanks, and there's nothing that come out of it,
Like it's literally just your career. And I find like
most of the time just that cycle is really boring.
But I just I love the combat of this game.
I love just getting in and out of fights and
just kind of perfecting like your style, because it's really
heavy on like dodging and pairying and like getting those
timing windows down and like near automata, like you have
range weapons as well as your your close range weapons,
and it is just such a beautiful game as well, like,
like I know that this was a one that they're
kind of showcasing I think with the PS five like
enhanced one I don't have, like the PS five Pro,
I don't have that version, but it's still an absolutely
beautiful looking game. I remember Near Automata having like just
beautiful music that goes along with it, and same very
much same uh with this one where I think the
boss fights alone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can comment to them that because but the
with the game awards announced, like the nominis that came out,
uh with that, obviously there's like best Score soundtrack, and
I was like, okay, I want to I want to
listen to all these a little bit, and so I
you know, I listened to a few songs of everyone
in there, and then Cellar Blade was the one that
was like, holy shit, this music is amazing. And so
I've listened with that whole soundtrack now. And yeah, it's
funny because I heard a lot of those Near Automata
comparisons when the game came out down to like there's
a Near.
Speaker 3: Automata DLC actually like yes, I saw that.
Speaker 1: Actually, yeah, that's in the game now. So obviously the
comparison is there. They know about it down to like, yeah,
the combat, the world design, the fact that you're playing
a super hot girl with like jiggle.
Speaker 3: Physics everywhere are crank right up.
Speaker 2: But somehow I was very surprised to also, yeah, here
that the music is also very kind of inspired by
tom and that was like the best thing ever to hear.
And I add a few of those to my video
game playlists, so can definitely double up on that thought.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know the it's it's it's just a beautiful
like sounding game looking game graphically, like this is one
where it's like, okay, this is like Triple A gaming.
Like I recently went through Retch and Clank Rift apart
talk to you about that one on side Quest, and
it's just like, yeah, this is this is a sony
game like that, Like this looks like they're using the
hardware right, like like it just looks fucking amazing, like
like how Triple A game should look, right, Like sometimes
we comment games come out they look like it's a
three sixty era might be fun to play, but still
like you know, like this isn't the future of gaming
that we saw as little kids. Whereas I see something
like this, I'm like, I'm just blown away right now.
Like Mortal Kombat, that's another one that just always blows
me away with how good those games look visually. Uh,
And that's what you're talk about, you know, the classic
jiggle physics that the characters have, Like it's so ridiculous.
Although it's so ridiculous and it's just like a running
meme where like animes do this thing where it's like
really heavy on the fan service where they always have
like girls wearing this the the school outfits, and it's
just like always been known as an anime thing. And
I was talking to a buddy of mine about this,
how this game is really funny because to me, it's
almost like they have like a horniness slider meter where
there's so many different outfits that you can get for
this game, anything from like literally just like the skimpiest
bikini type thing to like a full on like parka.
My outfit that I have for Eve is the protagonist's character.
It's basically like a kill bill like like like you know,
like the yellow tracksuit. It looks so badass and it
even says like kill kill right here on the should
like they know exactly what they're doing it looks so badass,
and of course she has like her blades and she's
just popping off. And then you have your little robot
that like goes on your arm as a gun, and
it's just so satisfying, like to play like you're like,
I'm sure astro Brot is probably more so because they're
just they're just hitting on all of the I don't know,
just things that make games fun with like the audio
cues to you just interact with the world, interact with
the hardware of like the controller. But it's just so
satisfying taking on like a group of enemies, you get
like your parry off, and of course, like the music's
just hitting so hard. You have crazy animations and you
just like barely survive a boss about like one HV.
You're just you just feel so good. And actually random
thought too that I had. I don't know if Xbox
does this, but for PlayStation trophies, I didn't always know this,
but when you get a trophy on PlayStation, I think
this is new with PS five, it kind of like
takes a screen capture of something, so it'll be like
a mini video. So let's just say I killed an
Elderring boss or something trophy comes up. If I go
back and see my trophy, it'll show me getting that,
like that trophy like the gameplay.
Speaker 1: Four had like the screenshot version of that.
Speaker 3: But okay, yeah, he's on one step up with the
video version. If you have a mic on or the
PlayStation remote always has the mic on, it actually captures
your recording, which is hilarious because I went back, like, yeah,
I saw like some come of my elden Ring trophies,
like dipping the boss, and it's like fuck yeah, you
just get like that exclaim, and it's so funny because
it's just like chiseled in stone now, like that is
my trophy. Now, if you go on my profile, you
see my trophy, you can click on that and you're
just gonna hear my voice. And There's been a couple
of times Instellar Blade where I'm like, yeah, suck it,
like like I'm just like getting all pump for beating
a boss, and I feel like the combat like it's
not being like elden Ring where I'm like literally just grind,
like being my head against a wall sometimes and I
just can't get past it. I feel like I have
all the tools available available. But because the Natibus that's
that's the name of the the enemies, they're kind of
like the demons of the world. Like they're very different
and unique and they're design so like some are very
good at you you can just dodge all their abilities.
Some you can't dodge, like you have to parry, or
some are ranged, and there's just a really good mixture
of them. And I think that's what makes the combat
feel like, you know, you have like your similar combos
that you're doing, but like, I feel like every situation
is just unique and new, and even if I'm fighting
like the same mobs over and over, it just feels
like the way that I'm handling it is very different.
And yeah, I've just gotten so hooked on the combat
and been having so much fun with it, and yeah,
I'm committed. I'm gonna get that Platinum trophy because there's
some that I'm just it sucks too because some of these,
like I had to like pull up a guide on
just like, hey, how am I supposed to get all
these trophies? And it's unfortunate. I hate games that have
like the hardlock situations where once you get past a zone,
you just can't go back, and I like have to
do all the side quests and certain zones because I
just can't go back, and because I've just committed to
doing these side quests, I'm like, hey, I'm not going
to advance in the story. I feel like I power
was powering through the story until that certain point where
it's like, oh, I have to do all these things.
So and it's kind of been like a bit of
a like oh this is annoying and I have to
go do this, But it's pretty much just the limitation.
I'm like, that's myself issue, right, Like I'm putting that
on myself there, and.
Speaker 2: I guess that I'm quit curious on what the structure
of the game is. So is it kind of like
different in world zones and like with kind of no
return sort of situations to them.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, So I think it's just because there's like
a city hub that I'm in and I'm assuming a
story thing is going to happen that I just can't
go back to that that city, so.
Speaker 1: It probably gets destroyed by a meteor or.
Speaker 3: Something like that, you know spoilers. But like I because
it's a city, there's a lot of people in there
that have side quest to hand out and whatnot. And
this is something too. When I was playing what was
the first Near game called Not Replicant. Yeah, when I
was playing through that one, I found a lot of
the side quests actually just like tedious because you just
sprint everywhere and that's just and like okay, do deliver this,
and then you run out to the wasteland and you
have to run all the way back. And I think
this game does an interesting thing with the fast travel,
where you can't just fast travel everywhere, but they have
these little phone booths that you pick up. It's very
like the Matrix. Actually you pick up the phone and
then you just like get teleported to another phone booth
that's established. And yeah, so I I don't know. It's
also just a more interesting world to I think go through.
Like Near Replicant, it's an older game, so a lot
of the open worlds are just like very flat and
and it's just I don't know, it's maybe dated in
that sense where it's this one like there's a couple
of deserts that you go through and you feel like
you're in the heat, like just like the way that
the wind is is hitting the sand and there's like
some stand sandstorms that come through and it's just like
holy fuck, like this is I'm feeling the elements right
now through my screen. It's probably just the illness as well,
just just probably give me a fever. But but yeah,
I know, so I think right now there's like five
or six zones that I have available, and it's it's
it's weird because like the first zone that you go to,
you can't even open up a map, and it's really
annoying because there's sometimes when you have to like go
back to those zones to do side quest, but you
can't even figure out where you're going because for some reason,
you just can't open your map that zone. Yeah, yeah,
only specific zones. Yeah, It's it's very strange. I guess,
so they just I don't I don't understand it. So
I'm like going back to do these basic courier missions.
I'm like, hey, where do I have to go? And
then I'm reading the quest log and it's like it's
in the flooded district and then in that area there's
like five phones that I can teleport to. But it
did like I can't open a map to see like
where my quest markers are on or anything. So I'm
just like, well, I guess I'll go to the end
and then backtrack and hopefully it's in there. So a
bit of an issue there, like I have no idea
the reason why they just didn't do a map in
that one map or in that one zone. Sorry, but
a little bit weird there. And yeah, a couple other complaint,
like minor complaints I guess I have is like this game,
like I'll read the description right now because I just
kind of chuckled about it because it's like players take
control of the protagonist Eve, which is the main character,
as she embarks on a mission to save humanity from
a relentless war against monstrous creatures in a distant future.
I feel like that's exact same, like uh like description
of something like neuro Automta, where it's just like, you're
this attractive robot lady you know that just looks like
an anime character, and you're just you're like, I like
the character Eve, but she's just like so bland. She's
just she's she's very kind hearted, like how you would
expect like a character like just to be written, but
she's just like so clueles to everything that's going on,
and she's like a soldier working for something and then
she's like, Oh, this is going on, and this is
going on, and it just reminded me of of other
games like this that I've played, Like Scarlett Nexus would
have been the most recent one that I was powering through,
and yeah, like I found a similar is she with
with the characters, Like I like the world that they're
building up, like the and the world building in this
is really fantastic as well, Like I really like just
the state of the world. It's usually always a kind
of a post apocalyptic you know, like humanities kind of
on the back foot or like it's the glory of
Like let me ask you this.
Speaker 2: Have you played in New Automata, Yes, played Automatave, not
played Replicant, So in.
Speaker 3: Near Automata, Like, there's many areas that you're going through
like an old like a basically like New York but
like hundreds of years later. Lee, it's just like completely desolate. Yeah,
a lot of the biomes are like this, Like you're
going through old old cities that just seems like they've
been gone for like hundreds upon undreds of years and
just kind of like investigating those things and picking up
notes and like getting memory, Like big thing is picking
up memory chips off of people, so you kind of
get like a glimpse in their world. And I love
doing those collectibles.
Speaker 1: Because it's just like the horizon of that.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, so I just like that type of world
building and I'm loving all those aspects. It's just unfortunate
that like the character that I'm piling is one of
the least interesting aspects to it. And she's of course
like she has dialogue, that she's the main focal point
of the game. Uh, but it like the world around
her is a lot more interesting than maybe her, and
even like some of the main side characters that you
talk with or just I don't know, because I've just
watched a lot of anime, or even like fire EMM
does this where and I think you've talked about this,
where like on fire Limb, they introduce you to so
many games that certain characters just become like very bland
and like stereotypical, and it's just like I feel like
I've seen the same types of characters inserted in games
like this, and this game does have that, so a
little bit unfortunate that like the people that you're interacting
with aren't that interesting, but the world around it and
the combat, like the combat is like that's that's the
most interesting thing for me in this game. And and
then of course just it's it just looks so beautiful
and like never frame drops or anything like. It just
runs so nice on my hardware, and uh yeah, no,
I really really really love this game. I'm having a
blast on it, like thirty three hours right now. Fifty
five percent. I think that's just like the main story
I would imagine, because like right now for trophies, it
says I'm at like twenty percent, but it's one of
those things where like my percentages for like collectibles are
at like ninety two. So I feel like I'm gonna
I'm really gonna start raking in these trophies now that
I've been doing a lot of these collections and I
was reading online it has a thousand and six collectibles
in this game, like objects that you can pick up. Fortunately,
you don't need all those for the trophies. I like,
I would have been a little bit too much of adventures,
Like you get half of our collection.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're happy with that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, but uh no, it's it's it and like
because it is that fan service y type of game, right,
Like your character is like big jiggle physics. You can
dress some very skimpy outfits. There's like a big thing
with some of these collectibles is you have to take
photos of certain objects throughout the worlds. And the first
area I actually went out and found them, and then
you had to go to like a big desert and
find like ten photos across the desert. I'm like, fuck that,
I'm pulling up a video, Like there's no way I'm
gonna be scouring the desert for these ten images? Are
you kidding me? But to do the images, your character
like does a selfie and then of course you like
this game has like crazy photo mode if you want
to go into all of that, but like just the
like the different like selfie poses you can do, and
like some of the side characters that you pick up,
you can like have them do different poses in your selfies.
Like it's just kind of funny how uh like I
guess how in depth you want to go with like
adding to the fan service element that you could just
go there and like yeah, yeah exactly, and like there's
filters for the photos. You can make it look like
a Polaroid, And I'm just like, man, like, who's using
all these features just like spending all this time? Like
liter I'm sure there's hundreds of Yeah, actually that's a
good point. That's a good point for sure, but uh
yeah no, I'm I've been having lots and lots of
fun with it and definitely would recommend it to someone
that's like a fan of this genre because it very
much reminds me of of games like this, like New
Automata or Scarlet Nexus. I like, what even is this
just like a hacken slash action adventure type game, like
I don't even know what genre it is really, but
definitely for me because the big like theatrical type boss
battles are just they're so up my alley. Like I
same with Meddle Gear middle Gear Vengeance.
Speaker 1: Or something like that.
Speaker 3: Revengeance. Yeah, it was the one that's not like any
of the other games, Like it's a it's basically this
type of genre. He plays raid and yeah with the
Sword and I love that game. Again again, it's just
like over the top cinematic type level of like boss
battles where it's just like a giant kaijuw that you're
just like taking on. It's it's very anime s So
I guess it makes sense why I am drawn to it.
But really glad I tried this one out though, got
that two hour free trial, and it just like zoomed
right by, and I'm like, oh, like I'm just getting
the hang of the combat now, like come on, now,
I gotta get on there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like for an open world game, like
two hours is gonna be there's gonna be nothing. But yeah,
genre wise, I don't know, Like I guess I think
this it sounds a little similar to like a Devil
Maycrier Beynetta, which would be like a character action game,
but those are typically more linear and they're like arena
based fighting don't typically have like an open world situation.
So I feel like that kind of changes kind of
changes a hold the way you're kind of interacting with it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, a couple questions for you. One on the combat.
Speaker 2: I think the I generally really like the combat in
your time, and I think I got near the end,
I was trying to do some achievement hunt and stuff,
and like some of the combat challenges like so bullet Spongy,
and I even found like the second half of the game,
or even like the first boss of New York Town,
like the big the Big Mechanical one. Yeah, like takes
four times as long to kill, even if even if
you're playing perfectly, just because of how big the health
bar is, and that kind of drove me nuts in
that game. That's why I wouldn't want to like go
back and do a ton more replaying it, even though
it does have a ton of replayability. Yeah, is that
something that kind of gets copypasted from near or change
a bit.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't Like. I feel like I put out a
lot of damage, like like some of the boss battles.
It's it's not really bullet spongy for me. It's mostly
like you just have to get your pery windows correct
and then like your counters hit really hard. Okay, probably
something like like Sekaro or I guess even dark souls
like right, like if you get those Perry timing downs,
sometimes you get like a major critical hit in health
part just gets eliminated. I also feel like the game
gives you many many different tools to like handle situations
like you have you have like your regular attacks that
of course, there's like a skill tree that you can
get like different combos and whatnot. But like if I
get a perfect dodge off, I can like chain a
different type of combo. Then if I do like a
perfect pary, I can do a different type of combo.
But then there's also something called like like you have
like another skill tree that's like burst attacks, so like
it's like an r one with an ability that like
does a different type of attack. But then there's another
one that's like your l one with your like your
shape shape buttons. I don't know why that was a
good way to say that, but which is like another
different attack, and they all kind of like charge up differently,
so like it can be kind of overwhelming if you
like are trying to manage that. But then there's also
your weapon, like your range weapon that has different types
of AMMO, and then you also have your offensive gadgets
that you're using, so like technically you could be midmaxing
this to be outputting like just incredible amounts of damage.
So like I'm probably not even that good that, Like
I'm sure, I'm sure there's some videos out there of
people just maximizing, like all of that and just hitting
all the perfect windows and just like demolishing a boss.
But I feel like there's a lot of times I'm
not even using like the offensive gadgets because I'm just
really liking my combos. Oh and there's also like basically
a super sayan mode that you go that I forgot
to mention. It's called Tachi Mode, which is pretty badass,
and you grow like wings and you just pop off,
and again it's just the soundtrack hits and and like
the visuals get crazy and you just start popping off
and the dobumines just starts coming in when you're getting
But definitely.
Speaker 1: Even like Mortal Kombat get Her as a dlc oh Man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like if they were do what was the PlayStation
one that they did, It was Soul Caliber. Is that
what it was?
Speaker 2: It's similar to, right, is that what you're saying. I
don't know if they had to be in that for sure,
Sol Caliber game that had to be.
Speaker 3: Okay, they must have been the more recently because like
the one that I played back on p S three,
I think they had like Yoda and Darth Vader they like,
depending on which copy you got, But that was kind
of the PlayStation. Uh smash not Smash Mortal Kombat type game,
but yeah, no, I mean like Eve is I don't know,
I like, I like Eve, but like because of how
she's written, I feel like I don't dislike her or
not like her. She's just like she's just kind of
like my yeah, like she's my narrator, carrying me through
the story and I and like she's not very she's
not very like giving me a lot of like yeah,
like bizazz with with with with their delivery and whatnot,
but which.
Speaker 2: I honestly do feel like is a two B thing
as well from near Telmata yeast, Like, I think the
side characters are the ones that stand up more in
terms of the personality side of things. Yeah, Like if
Twob didn't have her iconic look, you know, in the
real gaze element of it, Like, I don't think she
would be remembered as well as she is unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: When you think back on Replicant, like what were the
can you remember the personality of any of the characters.
Speaker 3: Very similar, very very similar to this, like like and
it's interesting because they usually give them like very tragic
backstories and like a really like sad origin and it's
just like, man, this is really sad, and they're like,
but I carry on and this is what I do.
And then you're just popping off in like yeah, these
battle sequences. And I feel like there's a lot of
tragedy that hits in these games too, like like you
you have someone very close to you that lose like
dies right in front of you, and it's like and
let's just go to the next task, and like they
don't really hit that hard. Like a side quest that
I was doing for one of the vendors I believe
her name is Kaya minor spoiler definitely not related to
the story of the game, but like she's looking for
her sister, so you go find her sister, and her
sister is dead, so you come back and you and
then like the character Eve is very like emotional and like, oh,
this is so sad, Like like I'm so sad that
I'm have to be like telling like her that like
this is just kind of the dialogue that she's having
with like her guy hair that she talks to, like
the guy piloting her droid. But and then and then
you go and talk to Kaya, it's like, yeah, this
is what happened, like your sister died. She's like, oh,
that's okay, thanks for doing that. And it's like it's
like you're like you want for my shop and like
and like I might be dramaticizing it a little bit,
but like it's that's how it felt though, Like there's
some music that's a little bit emotional, but it's just like, okay,
now what do you want, Like you want to think
for my shop? Like there's no like weight that is
like like dread. That's that's weigne on these characters. And
like for Eve, maybe you can make the excuse it's
because she is like a robot, like she's not like
a really human character. I believe two B is the
same situation, right, But like for Kya, who's like a
full unhuman and like she's been looking for her sister
since you met her, it's just like, oh, okay, well
thanks for doing that. Here's some here's your reward for
doing the quest. Like it just it just seems like okay, yeah,
this is just like I got milk at the milkman
for you, and here's your milk rate. Like it's just
like a go catch quest, fetch ues fetch fetch quest.
That's the word I was looking for.
Speaker 2: But are there other side quests that are more interesting?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I find like a theme with these games, whether
it's Scarlett Nexus, whether it's uh Near Automoto or even
this is like like a big human like factor, like
what makes you human? Right? Because these characters usually robots
that are that are not human. But it's just like,
you know, like am I still important for not being
a huge Like it just seems like a theme of
these games, especially when it's like set in like the
apocalyptic future. You're a robot, you know, like defending humanity,
like why are you even doing this? Like they always
kind of have these questions that come up throughout the story,
and I feel like you do feel that through especially
a lot of like the just random side characters that
you come across, because they're all supposed to be human,
but it's it's interesting because I feel like most of
them look like cyborgs, Like they have like a robotic
head and you never actually see their face or like
some characters it like looks like a human, like a
really grotesque, like just gross looking human with like kind
of cyberpunky like they're kind of pieced together with metallic
like materials, but they like don't have a top of
their head, Like their head like kind of ends like
at the nose and then it's just like like like
a metal thing there, and it's like, hey, well, like
are you a human? Like you don't look very human
to me, Like I don't think there's eyes or anything
in there, And I feel like that's just it's just
like a reoccurring thing of like what makes you human,
like because I look like a human or more so,
like what's inside. And that's definitely like a big theme
of what's going on, and I like they're It's interesting
because like Kaya is probably one of the more important
side characters that you meet, like on your ventures. It's
just weird that that end result was so flat, Whereas
there's like a random soldier that I meet who's like
very suicidal because he like fled and he's like was
fearful because he just fled for his life and he's
a coward and he couldn't go back. And then you
go and like see what he's talking about, and he's
just like corpses all around. All of his friends were dead,
and then you have to like go relay that message,
and it just like it like fucking like changes that
character and you like keep interacting with him. He could
be like a random street card, but like just the
way that you talk to him, like he's just so
changed from that moment. So it seems a little bit
inconsistent with that because they definitely go through the like
the effort of showcasing that type of stuff. But then,
like I said, there's the one with Kaya that's just
like really that that's what we're doing here, and even
I guess i'll call minor spoiler, but like right at
the beginning of the game, like one of the first
people that you're with just gets annihilated, just murdered, like
right in front of you. And that's one where like
I feel like that should stick with my main characters
about the whole game, And like a couple of times
it gets brought up and she's kind of weighing heavily
on it, but like when it happens, it's just like, Kay,
let's just go on our mission, and we like don't
even really address it from that point on. So it
just seems inconsistent, where like I feel like if they
never tried to like get attachment to it. It'd be like, Okay,
that's just the decision that they're making. Maybe it's just
our character is like a cold robot, you know, like
that's not the way they feel. But it's like kind
of flippy floppy, so little bit.
Speaker 1: The kind of thing is just.
Speaker 2: Like how do you make that work for like an
action game? You know, like you're not your character's not
just gonna go and be depressed and hang out for
a few hours like that happened recently in Balder's Gate,
some very tragic event happened. One of my MPCs was like,
I just gotta go to the camp and I just
gotta be away from things for a bit. And they
did for a few hours of gameplay. They were just
like not recruitable and they were just hanging out of
camp and then they come back eventually.
Speaker 1: But it's like I found the Protagon. It's like, you
can't really like bench yourself. I guess you could have
like a cut.
Speaker 2: Scene, I suppose, but I guess supposed to be so
many traumatic things happening in that world that if you
had a cut scene of like Eve going to be depressed.
Speaker 1: Every time, I don't know. It's an interesting problem to
bring up, but I'm curious to see how that kind
of evolves or changes in like the second Ladder half
of the game two in terms of I don't know
if some of those things do come back or like
how that resolves in like the ending of the character
and their art over.
Speaker 3: These games I find always have just like wild twists,
Like I remember Scarlett Nexus. I swear it had like
three twists in it where I was like, oh, I
feel like the story's going this way, and then it
flips on its head. You're like, holy fuck, that's crazy.
This is gonna be the whole game now, and then
it like happens again and you're just like, what is
going on? I remember you mentioned See If Stars had something,
and I feel like this game is gonna have something
like that, just because they always do, because like the
main thing that you're kind of interacting with, like it
seemed pretty easy of like, Okay, it seems like this
person's gonna, you know, betray me at some point, Like
it just seems like that's what's gonna happen in the story,
and it does feel like that's gonna happen, but it's
still like Okay, Well, I'm only fifty five percent done
the main story, Like like something's gonna go on here,
right that that's really gonna switch up the whole narrative
of like Eve's goal here because essentially she sent from
I think it's called like mother Sphere, which is kind
of badass. It's just like a like a hive mind
type thing that's like running the Eve protocol, which is
what you are. And then it's really interesting too because like,
of course all of the soldiers that are sent are
just like supermodels essentially, right, Like they're all wearing like
high heels like a part of their body. And then
like of course, like their outfits are just ridiculous. But
like when you go and interact with these people that
look like cyborgs essentially, like they just call you an
angel because that's what you are in their eyes, Like
you come from the heavens literally you fall from like
your space ship. And then is it actually that's.
Speaker 1: There's like the space station where they're like sent down
from and yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, And the opening of this game, like the
opening near Near you're like in your ship and you're
very different type of game. Love that decision that they
had in that game really really cool. It's like a
very very similar opening to Near in this game, but
you don't like pilot a ship or anything. It's just
like the same, like you're coming down in a personal
like drone ship and then you just kind of land
and then that's when you pick up. But yeah, I know,
I've truly truly been loved. Oh. Another thing I wanted
to shout out was how you save in this game
is you basically find it's like a soda machine, like
a like a soda dispenser and vit coins or it's
kind of like the main currency for getting aesthetic items,
so you can get like different outfits as I mentioned,
you can get different hairs for Eve, you can get
like different ear rings and glad like you can just
get like cosmetics, and it's usually the currency that you
spend it for. But every time you come across like
a soda machine that's like dismantled, you can insert a
vit coin and then that's like your new save point.
Now you would think that it's just wasting all your
vit coins, but every time you come across one of those,
there's usually like just a vt coin right in front
of it, so you get one, and then you spend
it there and then it just kind of like and
this reminds me of des Strany actually, like when when
when you when you open it up, power just kind
of comes back and there's this little like umbrella thing
that just pops up over your head. There's a record
player that's right there, and it's always just and you
can like, I think there's only like five or so
songs that you can kind of choose between, but there's
one on there. I can't remember what it's called, but
it's just such a banger, and I just have it
playing on all my all my save locations, and when
when you come close to it, you can just hear
the music starting to play. And then there's just like
a lawn chair that you just sit on and when
you sit on it, that's when you save. And that's
also when you like regen essentially refill like your pots
you know, picture like your your estes flax from from
the Soul's Games. Same sort of idea, like you get
like a health poty like four usage or you can
reinforce it. Same sort of ideas as souls. But yeah,
when you sit like you're just kind of chilling there
you're like, oh, I'm gonna take a few take a
few minutes, listen to my music. You're like, you're like
shaded of course. Then you have like your little soda
pop machine, and those are the save areas, which is
which is really cool, and then you can that's where
you can upgrade your skill tree. That's where you can
work on your I forget what they're called, but it's
it's basically like your nanosuit, like you basically just like
work on it there and like unlock more of them.
And those are just your your save areas and usually
they'll be like a like a telephone there that you
can fast travel to two other areas on. And uh, yeah,
that's cool. I think that's I think that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1: Is the near DLC just the costume or is there
anything else with it?
Speaker 3: I'm pretty like I'm not sure. I I hovered over it,
and it seems like you definitely get like you basically
just look like two be essentially like you get the
whole extra. Yeah, it's it's like a PAIDLC, but no,
I don't have it. And I think it actually has
like missions as well, because on some of the screenshots
that look like you were doing things and it looks
like Eve is actually interacting with two B, but then
like you also get the outfit of two B, so
like I'm not sure, Yeah, I'm not sure. I'll look
into it and report back, but I think it's like
ten or so dollars, which I don't know. I would
expect some some story content in there, not just aesthetic,
but who knows. These games are very fan basic, if
you like, I wouldn't be surprised if there's just like
outfit DLC's that people are paying for for this game.
Speaker 2: But uh, I saw a funny video on Reddit of
someone who had the Near Tom DLC where if you like,
because of course Near or two B, she has like this,
she has like a skirt on right, and someone like
turn the camera angle to like look look under her
skirt and then.
Speaker 1: She like kicks the camera. Oh yeah, like reset. Obviously
they are very.
Speaker 2: Like even in Near I think there's like an achievement
for like looking up two Be's skirt, Like it's just
so stupid, but yeah, they know what they're doing there.
Speaker 3: And like I feel like these games are always going
to have that that type of element to it, right, Yeah,
very similar type of like I don't know, I guess
teasing type thing that they have in these types of games,
where like same sort of element where like just the
camera angles. It's like like when you're going up a ladder,
for example, and it like forces you to just be
looking like right up her ass and just like, oh man,
I gotta put some pants on this girl. This is
just weird shades me walking in It's like, what the
fuck are you playing here? It's like, I'm sorry, it's
the games, but uh And and that's where I'm saying,
like it is nice because you can kind of choose
how ye just slimy. You want the outfits to look
right like like like my characters wear like a full tracksuit,
you know, there's no cleavage shown or anything, and she
looks bad ass and she's kicking ass. But you can
also go the route where she's just basically wearing like
a full bikini. And that's that. I'm pretty sure they
even have like from Ghosts in the Shell. I don't
know if you ever saw we do a review of that.
I feel like I'm having a fever dream right now
that we actually definitely.
Speaker 1: Did a review.
Speaker 2: I can't remember was on it. I think like Taylor
and Rubin were definitely part of it.
Speaker 3: It was I remember seeing it in theaters. Yeah, because
I saw it with Hidalgo because he had seen like
the actual anime and was interested in that.
Speaker 2: And of course I've not seen the anime, which I
feel like is a crime to people who love it
that they're like seeing the Scargo movie.
Speaker 3: And significantly better. But in that they have like basically
a skin suit where she just looks like she's naked
but like no nipples. It's just like all like the
same thing, and like they have that for for your
character here, Eve, and it's just like, yeah, okay, people
like I. I it's almost distracting. I don't know, it
just it feels strange having your character flip around doing
that stuff. But it's there if you want it. So yeah,
definitely recommend and.
Speaker 1: On sale now Black Friday deal on that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's why I got it, So go check
it out.
Speaker 2: Sweet, how about we take a quick break and we'll
come back and talk about a couple more games. We'll
be right back. Okay, we are back. Those are your
two mentions of the day, right.
Speaker 3: Yes, those are my two mentions. Also started playing some
Marvel Snap again. I was a little bit, but yeah, no,
I not like any real reason. I feel like it's
just every once in a while it's like, oh, let's
put up the old snap again, and I, yeah, I
can't remember all mass updates, but I feel like I've
gotten a bunch of cards that I've just been like
forever on the hunt, Like Art of Soola that was
like a big one that I just never had, and
now I finally have. So I've been doing like a
like a Zola deck and man, like it's it is
so good in some of those situations, like I had
a great pairing with Venom that just like it's so
great too, and it's like, oh, man, this guy thinks
that he has me here, but he has no idea.
I'm about to drop this Zola right now, and just
and like I'm baiting him in the one lane drop Zola,
and then I just like shift all of my power
to other areas. And then it's just like I got
eight cubes right there, baby, Like let's let's just start cooking.
So it's been fun kind of jumping back into it again.
And usually I'm always kind of trying like a new
deck when I come back to just spark a little bit. Uh,
I don't know, some freshness to it, but yeah, it's
been fun and looking forward to I saw a bunch
of series fives are going down to series four, which
is interesting.
Speaker 2: So yeah, not a lot of fours down to three,
but a couple of at least ye couple. Yeah, I
haven't played any of that recent. Have you played any
more Hitman since.
Speaker 1: Our last conversation?
Speaker 3: I think my last update there, I was on Club
twenty seven with you. I can remember if that was
like the one I beat. So I beat that one
and then I beat the Colorado level. And it's funny
you mentioned I think it was you that mentioned like
that wasn't your favorite type of level, and I.
Speaker 2: Think those people in the community are like, yeah, that's
kind of the worst, but you know.
Speaker 3: Well those are usually my least favorite Hitman levels, like
in general, and those hitm Like I feel like every
Hitman game has a lot like this where you're not
just in a public area, like you're actually like everyone
will kill you. Like these are all military men right,
like like the like they're they're war dogs, like they're
out for blood. So you can't really just like be
a waiter and like I feel like that's why.
Speaker 1: There's no civilian areas in that map.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's like my favorite aspect of hit Men. So
that one was kind of an and it's a big
area too, so especially I usually try and like scope
out the place on like a first play through, and
that was I was just I felt like I was lost,
and like that was I think I was mentioning to you,
like I try not to use the instinct so much. Yeah, man,
I was cranking the instinct on that level. I'm like,
just get me to my targets. I just want I
just want to go to the next area here. But
uh yeah, beyond that, I haven't done really any more
playing on that one, but uh I want to jump
back in. Hopefully your story will inspire me to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have two two and a half uh hit Men.
Well one I have I have a question for you.
So on the stream, when we did that one fateful
run by, we I mean you and you were going
through the manor you took a crew, so but when
we couldn't find a freaking key card and get down
to the basement. In your replays of that one, I'm
guessing you have since found a key card and been
able to go through the basement that way. I know
there's other ways you can get into that lab underneath
you found a key card, yet.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to definitely, like I think you get them
from the assistant lady or someone I don't know. Oh,
it's the lady. It's the lady running the lab, Like
she has a key card, and she's actually in the mansion.
At a certain point she'll come out. So that's where
I killed her, actually, Like I killed her in the
mansion and then I got her.
Speaker 1: You have to set up something to do that, or
do you have or does she just come up there.
Speaker 3: There's a couple of different ways, like I like, I
think the first time I did it, I electrocuted her
because you kind of bade her into like a watery area,
you know, fuck up an outlet, and then electrocuted her
that way. But I just I just figured out her
route and then I kind of just waited and then
popped out, took out a bodyguard, and then took out.
Speaker 2: But then you also have to go down to the
virus the basement exactly.
Speaker 3: You got to destroy the whatever it is, the weapon
pass destruction.
Speaker 2: That's it, I'll see because because like all those the
regular targets still in freelancer mode, they're just no targets, right,
but they're still walking around.
Speaker 1: But it's funny.
Speaker 2: I had the same situation where it's like I have
played that map a million times, but it's been a
long time since I've had to go down to the basement.
I feel like, in all my freelancer days, I've never
had to go down to the lab until just like.
Speaker 3: The lag run. It's so stressful.
Speaker 2: I know, just a couple of weeks ago, and so
I was like, okay, I got to go down to
this lab, and similar to you, Kirk, I was like
running around every I'm like, where the heck do I
get a key card from? I was going around the
whole manch and taking out random people. I even went
into like the one security room that they have set up,
and Caruso came in the heart of the regular target
and I was like, oh, he must have when I
know that on the stream, like you didn't find one
on him, like maybe someone picked it up or moved it,
but anyway, I took him out.
Speaker 1: He didn't have one. I had to take like three
guards in the room. And It's funny. I was in
that room for so long looking on every shelf trying
to find this key card.
Speaker 2: Couldn't find it. So I'm like, oh, okay, I guess
it's somewhere else. I left the room. I didn't bother
hiding any bodies. But then like five minutes later was
like body found and I guess some guards at some
point in the cycle come into that room. So then
I had to go like hide for ten minutes and
let things cool off a little bit. So eventually, what
I did on that run to get into the basement
is I brought in an explosive and I just planted
that near one of the doorways and then I just
blew it up and then it blasted the door open,
and I could I could go in that way.
Speaker 3: I remember you mentioned that you can like shoot locks
and whatnot. I've never tried doing that. Can You probably
can't do that for keypads, hey, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you would be able to do
it for those doors.
Speaker 2: It's more for like a basic door, yeah, and usually
you need I think something stronger than a pistol. Like
I think, like the best thing you can get is
like a silent submachine gun, like something that you can
just stick in your Pocket's silence so it's not gonna
make a ton of noise. So I think that's the
best way to go. So it's something to look out
for if you are able to find one of those.
I mean, usually there's not a lot of silenced weapons,
you know, I find.
Speaker 3: It's usually like I don't have them until until I
beat the mission. It's like you have now this available,
right exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So that's what I did to get into
the into the the lab in that one play through,
and then I made it down and man, the scientists
I had to take out for my freelancer target was
just like in the middle of all these people, and
like their cycle, as far as I could tell, was
just like walking back and forth but never going anywhere
into any sort of like sanctioned off room. Nowhere were
they were isolated or on their own. I spent like
twenty minutes just walking around trying to see if they
would go anywhere, and they did not, So I'm like,
I don't know how many to do this. I almost
got caught a couple times throwing wrenches around trying to
bait people to go in different rooms. And so eventually
what I did is like, you know what, there's kind
of a staircase here I can used to get back
out the door I came in from. So I just
took a shotgun it. I just blasted this scientist in
front of fifty.
Speaker 1: People and just bucked it up.
Speaker 2: And then once I made it back up with the mansion,
I could like sneak around enough, so I made it
out of there. So I was like, okay, this this
worked this time, so that that was fine, and then
you know that mission that was success. Later that was
Sapienza as well, Yes, that's Sapienza. That was in the
basement there for Sapienza. And then I had another another
time where I was on that mission. I actually finally
feel like go all the way around, like you know,
even like down the cliff and there's like that fortress
like island kind off the side. There's actually another entrance
from like a cave that you don't need any door
or key, and so you can sneak around kind of
the beach get really low and like I probably knew
this at some point, but I forgot about it in
the like a few months that I haven't.
Speaker 1: Played the Freelancer stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and once again, I don't think I've ever had
to go into that lab.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's a secret way.
Speaker 2: You can get down there and it doesn't require it's tricky,
there's a lot of guards, but it doesn't require any resources.
So worst case scenario, that's an option. But I also
I had a very funny.
Speaker 1: Another.
Speaker 2: I had a showdown contract, as it's called in Freelancer.
Speaker 1: So Freelancer, the way it's set up is like.
Speaker 2: You have a pack of like three or four locations
missions that you're doing, and then like the last one
is like a boss battle mission, and these are showdown missions,
and those will they'll there'll be four to six suspects
on the map and you have to figure out which
one of them.
Speaker 1: Is the target. I've probably told you about this before.
It's reminding you.
Speaker 2: And so you know, you're giving things like they have
blonde hair, they're wearing a hat, they have an earring,
I have tattoos, they like chocolate, they read books like
stupid things like that. So you kind of go around,
you have to scout them out, figure out which ones which,
and then take them out and hopefully you're right. If
you're not right, you can, you know, take out other ones,
but you're gonna lose points and all that. And I
had a very funny spawn with this Freelancer showdown where
I spawned on the island, like I hopped off a boat.
I was on the island and I could not find
a convenient way to get onto the mainland. There's guards everywhere.
They're all enforcers. So even if I got once I
got one of their outfits. I was like, God, this
is gonna be really tricky. I don't know how gonna
do this. But thankfully one of the targets, or one
of the suspects rather, he came onto this island. He
came up to like where the cannonballs and all that
stuff is, so like perfect, knock that guy out. I
could tell based on the clues that he wasn't the
actual target. But sometimes in Freelancer, these suspects will have
phones and they like because they used to set up
like secret meetings with each other. So I took them
out and then you I can use the phone. I
planted it right there and it brought in a couple people,
and so it brought in two more suspects on this island.
I didn't know which one is which because they both
fit the tell completely and I knocked them out. I
couldn't tell if they like to read books anymore because
they weren't gonna do that in their cycle, and I'm like,
I can't risk them leaving the island, so I knock
them out, and then I just like killed both of them,
like I know, there's a bit of points, but it's okay,
and then I could just leave. So I had a
very unique mission where the entire mission I was on
that island. I never left that fortress, and that was
like a really cool weird spawn perfectly planned. Yeah, that
luckily worked out, so it still took me a while,
funnily enough, even though I was on like one small
chunk of the island. But it's funny because I picked
that mission because I'm like Sapiens. That is such a
big open map. I'm sure it'll be really easy for
me to get close to these suspects and kind of
you know, tail them try to figure out their tells.
But then I got that spawn and I'm like, oh god,
I'm in the middle of nowhere behind like thirty guards.
So that was that was a really funny situation. And
then the other mission I had that was really funny
was on Hakkaido, the Japanese mountain one. This one is
just I always have good funny missions on this one, but.
Speaker 1: This one there's kind of multiple sections.
Speaker 2: There's like a little hotel room area above that, there's
kind of like a more waiting room general area where
there's a couple bathrooms and there's like a guard a
guard security office thing there, and then you get deeper
in there's like a lab and all this stuff. I
went through in the lab areas, took out a couple
of my targets there, and then I had a couple
more that were kind of in that main waiting area,
and it was tricky, like this is a very public
area that people are walking around, there's guards everywhere, so
I'm like, ah, this is gonna be really tricky to
take these people out. On top of my targets, I
also had like there's people who will carry like special currency.
They get like marked with like kind of like an
enforcer icon, Like they get an icon that you can ooh,
if I take that personnel, I'll get some currency. And
like a lot of all these people were in this
one public area. So I was like, man, this is
gonna be really tricky. This is like so highly public.
I went in the security office. I took out a
couple of guards there because that was like a nice
secluded area that worked well. And then I went to
this one bathroom and I was I was in this
one bathroom waiting for people to come and go. I
noticed that, like, all the people I have to take
out are all walking like buy this bathroom at different
point in their cycle. So I'm gonna make this like
a freaking kill chamber. So there's like the main there's
the main bathroom where there's sinks in everything, and then
there's two bathroom stalls, two doors, and so very slowly
I'm just you know, I throw a brick on the ground,
I open it, or throw a brick, someone hears it,
they walk in the room, I close the door behind them,
knock them out. And I had to do this a
few times with like random people, just random guards that
were getting in the way or hearing my audio distraction.
So in the right I go put them all on
the right bathroom stall. I just chalk that full of bodies.
There's a couple of people already in there, you know,
washing their hands, and knock them out, throw them all
in there. My right closets just filled like four or
five bodies at this point, and eventually one of my
targets comes through. Take them out perfect, get like a
good like knife, kill on them, stick their body in there.
And then finally, after you know this, I was so
long in this freaking bathroom taking people out. Eventually my
last target walks by this bathroom. I crack open the door,
make an audio distraction. They walk in, and this one
I'm like, okay, this is the last thing I'm doing,
you know, doing this and then I can just leave.
Speaker 1: So I close the door, take her out in a
very crude way. And the left bathroom door is like
closer than the right one, so I'm like, I'll just
put her in there because I'm done with this room.
I don't need to worry about where I'm putting bodies.
I go in there, open this door. There has been
a guy taking a fucking shit the whole time I
have been in his bathroom for fifteen minutes. He's down
in his underwear. This guy looks like he's just having
the most explosive diary, like he's not having a good day.
And I opened the door carrying a freaking body. Oh
my god, I don't know how he didn't hear any
of these things. I was knocking people out. I was
throwing bricks around, throwing things on the ground, wrenches. He yeah,
he was in a different place, and so unfortunately I had
to knock him out because he saw me with a body.
Speaker 2: So I walked him in the head with a wrench,
closed the door behind me, and I just fled the level.
But man, I could not believe that I was in.
Speaker 3: The whole time, like I's gonna have the worst just
wake up ever. Just yeah, dirty, crusty, big concussion.
Speaker 1: Seven bodies like four from where he is.
Speaker 3: I don't explain that. You know, I was taking a shit.
Speaker 1: Everyone else was dead in there except for him.
Speaker 3: Perfect crime.
Speaker 1: They might think that he.
Speaker 2: Had like some crazy because this is like a hospital,
Like maybe he got some weird drugs and was just
acting crazy and did all this murder and knocked.
Speaker 1: Himself out to the mouth. Uh so yeah, hit at Freelancer.
It's it's just the best. I love it so much.
So I'm excited to hear you get back.
Speaker 3: In there and share some more stories. That's like my
endgame content for for hit Man. When I get there,
I'm excited, that's that's so funny. I yeah, so far.
I think sap Pienza holds the record for just my
craziest stories that happened. Like of course the stream you
were there for witness, but even like my own like
experience on that level was just so fun like when
I when I hit the lab and like going so
tact and it's funny. I find a lot of the
times with these hit Man levels were like, let's say,
like I'm scoping out the place, I go somewhere I'm
not supposed to. Sometimes I find like if I'm wearing
a disguise and I go to a guard and he's
like hey man, and I walk by him and he's like,
what the hell are you doing? You can't go there?
And I'm like I'm like, okay, sorry, Like why didn't
you tell me that before I walk by you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And then and then of course, like it's the whole situation.
Maybe I didn't get out of there soon enough. There's
starting it's like okay, let's just restart this. This is
doomed from the get go, So like if it's an
early port of the level, I'll probably just restart the
whole thing and just do it. I rarely like load
saves on these levels. I find like I always just
kind of want to do it on the first first
go around. It's kind of just like my purest hit
man in me. But so but like it gets to
a point in the level, like let's say I've taken
out my first heart, my first two targets, basically my
only two targets on this level. Now I'm in the basement.
I have to destroy the substance, and like in these situations,
it's like, okay, if the alarms are going off, I'm
just finishing the mission. I' getting the fuck out of here.
Like like it gets to a point like you just
kind of have to accept that it's not kind of
go perfect. You kind of just have to roll with
the punches. And in that one where like I had
like my lab coat, you know, like like I'm disguised.
I finally get into the situation, I'm like I'm like
throwing coins to get around guards and I'm duck in
cameras and whatnot. I'm doing it all well, I take
out like a lab guy I'm putting him in there,
and then I turn around and there's just like like
a female scientist that comes in in and it's like
you with the bodies, Like it's just like, okay, this
is like a pointed no return here. Just walk right
up to her and just sock her like right in
the face, and it's just the animation of aged forty
seven just knocking someone out is just so funny. There's
been times when I've like just punched out two people
like right next to each other, and it's just of course,
just two knockouts, like it's just so funny. And then
I'm just.
Speaker 1: Way the music ratches it up too, and you get
caught in that moment always makes it like oh no,
I'm done for I'm saying they like say something like
they're like what are you doing?
Speaker 3: And then just punch to the face. She just goes limp.
And then I just have to like, oh, this duck
this body here, as I'm just laughing to myself because
I'm like that was so funny. And then getting out
of that level too, there's a you might have seen it,
but there's like a like a wall that's kind of
like like loose brick or something and you can actually
like destroy it. So I think I like threw like
a gas canister or something and then shot it and
then just up the wall there. So it was kind
of a does that make an exit or yeah, it
makes an exit out of it. It's probably could be
an entrance. I'm sure it's not the stealthiest way to
enter that area, of course, just blowing down the door,
but it made for a little bit more of a
I don't know, like in a badass exit because I
just I mean, at that point, like it's just yeah,
knocking out people. I'm just trying to destroy the substance.
And then once I destroy the substance, there's like two
lab rats in there and they're like what do you do?
And I just punched them out. I'm like, I'm out
of here now, my mission is done. I just need
to get to the exit and I'm good. And then
it's I feel like doing that as well. It's like
sometimes it's like, oh, I didn't perfect the level, Let's
restart that and just try and do it perfect. Sometimes
I am like that, but it's just like really authentic,
just kind of rolling with the punches. Sometimes it's just
really adapting, and that game gives you so many ways
to do that, right, Like if you get caught by
a camera, you can still go destroy like the evidence
and do stuff like that. So yeah, it's I mean,
the game is just amazing. So once I once I
wrap up Stellar Blade, I'll probably jump back in there,
and I feel like it's a different enough game. I
can see myself jumping back in. Yeah, but yeah, no it'.
Speaker 1: Have you looked at the next one that you have
to jump into?
Speaker 3: No, I don't remember what, like, because when you're doing
it the first time, you finish the level and it
like plays a cut scene and then I just kind
of like watched the cut scene then balanced at that point,
I can't remember what it is. It's the one after Colorado.
Speaker 1: Let me see if I can quickly find that out.
Speaker 3: I'm I don't think there's many left for me.
Speaker 1: I think you're on next.
Speaker 3: I think, oh, man, that's exciting. I've only heard good
things from that about you or about that from you,
So yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 2: Hell yeah, yeah, that's the last one from hit Man
one and then you're in cool hit Man two at
that point, and.
Speaker 3: I imagine, like because they are all kind of together now,
Like is there much I don't know, different mechanics going
from the hit Man one to two, or they've kind
of like updated hit Man one for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think every not every map, but
a lot of maps do have caned interesting mechanics with them,
Like even Colorado. You know, like the whole setup of
that map being like only guards and no like civilian
areas or the like. As you mentioned with sapiens, like
destroying the virus. That's not you wouldn't call it like
a new mechanic, I guess, but like it makes that
map unique, and I feel like they kind of do
that throughout, although I'd say hit Man three is more
where they have some more new mechanics, Like they have
like these shortcut mechanics that they introduce there. They have
the camera which leads to like hacking that you're doing.
There's no hacking minigame. It's kind of just a little
bonus feature there, but that's the thing. And then I
think hit Man three, especially some of the maps in particular,
like one, just to slightly spoil it is a a
mission that has like eleven targets on it, but you
only have to kill like four of them, and so
it makes it like really interesting on replay throughs, like oh,
which Florida I want to take out? Or like, you know,
to get all the challenges, you have to kill all
eleven through different playthroughs.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And so I don't know that that's it's hard to
call that like a new hit Man three mechanic, but
it's this one mechanic tied to this specific map, but
it kind of changes how you interact with the game.
So yeah, I feel like they never truly add oh
now there's an RPG skill tue Like nothing crazy like that.
It's always more like minor things.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: But it definitely feels like there's an evolution of playing
with the what's what they're capable of with the mechanics
of it.
Speaker 1: So I think you'll feel that from hit Men two.
Speaker 2: I think also especially with him Man two, I think
you're gonna notice, like, whoa, the graphical fidelity jump is
like pretty insane relatively like hy Man one. I think
they've they've probably gone back and touched up those maps
a little bit. But I think with him Man two actually,
honestly even with the Japan map, because I think that
was a DLC one. I feel like the visual quality
is like just insane how much it it goes up there.
Speaker 1: So nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, related to that, the year gap between games.
Speaker 2: Like was it a couple twenty sixteen, twenty eighteen, twenty
twenty one, so it was not a big gap at all. No, well,
actually technically because technically when when twenty sixteen came out
as an episodic thing, right, like they were to say
one map a month or every couple of months, And
I've I maybe they had like fans voting for like
who always was going to be? I'd like to but
I should go back and look at like how that
voting and stuff went. That's interesting. But yeah, so I
guess maybe the first map came out sometime in twenty sixteen,
and then like I don't I don't know how long
it took for the rest of them to come out,
but I think they pretty consistently came out, and then
I guess with hit Man too, is when they decided
how we're going to release one full game, and then
because I think hit the episodic thing, I don't think
did very well for them, Like I don't think that
game did huge Bonker sales and then him Men who
had like a DLC pack with certain maps, and then
hit Man three obviously was a whole pack, and then
they added one free map later on.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but yeah, they they definitely did.
Speaker 2: I totally forgot to be episodic nature because I wasn't
around for it back then, back in those days, those
dark dark days. Now they were just jumping and play
twenty one maps all at your fingertips.
Speaker 3: Because I just remember like they had like like celebrities essentially,
and they do like a video and it's like this
is like your target. I'm like, this is kind of strange.
Like Sean Dean was one of them.
Speaker 2: A couple yea, they just had They just had some
I forget his name. He's like some controversial guy who
just got like canceled and they removed him from the
game or something like that.
Speaker 1: Who's that?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: It taking me? It's like an M and M a
fighter or something. Do you know anything about that? Not familiar?
But sure you're like football and like F one, I
just assumed.
Speaker 3: Very random sports. I mean, I mean it's a good,
good attempt. I feel like I'm usually aware of some
of these things, but.
Speaker 1: Uh no, yeah, I Weirdly, I've never I've never checked
out a lot of that.
Speaker 2: Like there's just so much content that I feel like, yeah, okay,
the base game stuff, replaying those missions to get all
the different kills and level ups, and now I'm like
into Freelancer, fake, I don't need all that extra stuff,
but there's just so much, so much to it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will say, like just comparing of course this
like they've just really like mastered I think the Hitman
game now, like they've made so many of these, like
just thinking back to like like the first one I
ever played was codenamed forty seven, and like back then,
it's like, Okay, your target's this guy and that's just
who you're taking out, and like the message would be
like you know, funds will come into you account once
it' stuff like that was it? Whereas now like for
the the Thailand, like the like the like that level,
like just like a lot of the detail on like
some of these targets. Of course, Freelancer it's very unique
in that sense where it just has different targets, but
the ones that the game actually sets up, like it's
just so much more intriguing. Like Jordan Cross, you know
this like just super like privileged guy that's just like
like making like a record in his in his dad's hotel,
and like again very privileged. And then there's like some
deeper levels to it, where like it's like, uh like
he like murdered his girlfriend and they're like covering it
up and there's just like so much Yeah, and like
in that level, I haven't really I haven't replayed it yet,
but I remember there's an option that you can like
get like basically the recording of like their fight, and
then you can play it in his room, and then
there's a chair that you can literally just like sit
and wait for him to come. I don't know if
you you tackled the assassination that way, but uh, like
there's a chip that you get through his assistant and
then you play it in his bedroom and then he
like comes in and you're just like sitting in the
chair like a badass sound and with your gun ready
to kill them. Like it it's just really I just
love these games. They're just so good at what they do.
And yeah, just just even like I feel like there's
certain targets that it feels like it's completely inspired by
like a real life person. That's like most of the
time not a good person, and you're like, this is
kind of cool, I could assassinate this person.
Speaker 1: So yeah, no, I like it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think they do a really good job with that,
especially as they go along in terms of referencing other events,
Like they'll be like you'll be in one map and
we'll there'll be a news station on a TV that'll
reference assassination.
Speaker 3: Where people talking right like just ran and passer bys
like can you believe that guy just got killed? And
then you're like walking by dressed like a waiter, smirking
like yeah it was me.
Speaker 2: Like you know, the Indian map, there's like one of
the targets is like a famous actor, and like that
actor is referenced in other you know, maybe it's like
a poster and some other map or some things like that.
Like I think they've done some fun little details there,
and so obviously they're really thought out, like who all
these targets are.
Speaker 1: They're not just random people. Like it all kind of
comes together in some way.
Speaker 3: And like that's why I bring up where like the
old games, it's just like this guy is your target,
whereas now like it's really feels like a living, breathing
world where like my actions are actually like you know,
people are noticing them. It's not just random guy was
killed and now I have ten thousand dollars out of
my account to carry my sniper rifle with me to
the next level. Like that's just kind of where they started,
which is great, you know, like like they didn't have
to start where it is now it would have been impossible.
But just just the growth of the series along the
way is really like it's not just an assassin game,
like like it's more than that, I feel, and just
the creative factors that you get to it is it's
so fun. Yeah, great, great game.
Speaker 1: So there you go.
Speaker 3: You did it, you succeeded. Now I want to jump
back into it.
Speaker 1: Please do.
Speaker 2: I can't wait for you to these next batch of maps.
I'm like, oh, so excited to hear you jump into
the house. But that was a longer segment than I expected.
Let's take another quick break. I have one more game
to talk about today.
Speaker 1: We will be back. Okay, we are back. The last
game I have two showed out here today is another
another new game here, so last couple or I think
it's been out for a week now. Something like that.
I have been playing Stalker two oh wow on game
pass here, so I've not played the first one, so
I'm I'm green as I'm drying played.
Speaker 3: The first one, so we can we can compare stories.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is that a game that you played through, just
experienced a little bit of it, played at a friend's house.
Speaker 1: What's your kind of experience.
Speaker 3: It was one that I was always interested in as
a kid, and I just never got access to it.
And then it was like on Steam and I'm like
I finally got to get this game. I jumped in
there and it was just like dated, like sure, yeah,
like it's an older game, and like I did like
aspects to it, but like something I really didn't like
is it had really serious head bob to it. Like
your character is constantly going like this, you know for
audio listeners, like I'm just bouncing. Yeah yeah, and you
can't turn it off and like that's not even sprinting,
like it's literally just walking, and it is like, Okay,
the graphics aren't nice and this is just my character
and there's like it's kind of a scary game, right,
Like there's certain situations when there's some creepy monsters in
a dark area, and I just feel like tackling those
areas like it. It's a very very big game too,
like like you just are like doing kind of fetch
quests all of the times, like I found and it
just wasn't the I felt like I missed the train,
you know, like I was really interested as a as
a younger lad where I feel like if I got
into it when the technology was just modern it was relevant,
I probably would just loved it because it's the type
of game that I really like. I love the Metro series.
That's why I'm not sure if you played really really
big fan of those like first person shoot like kind
of horror games. I guess like BioShock to an extent.
I feel like it's kind of in that in that
avenue too.
Speaker 1: They yeah, the games will like as much focus on
atmosphere as they do. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like that's
a very specific little subgenre of.
Speaker 3: So I'm curious how different Soccer two is because I
assume they they've up you know, they've up the ante
like some like going from like the first Metro game
to like the newest one. They've really implemented like an
RPG element to it. I'm curious if Stalker two is
kind of similar.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, like I said, I have not played the first one,
so the comparison, I can't give you much there. From
what I've seen just cruising around Reddit is a lot
of people say that mechanically it is very much the
same game as it was in the days.
Speaker 1: There's no head Bob as far as I can tell you,
at least on at least on console. Maybe on PC.
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, our fans love that, let's bring it back.
But yeah, for anyone who isn't aware, because I feel
like Stalker is a very under the radar series here.
It's funny that you've played the first that I feel
like that's never come up before. It's just one of
those games and even though you played it like it
just would not come up in conversations.
Speaker 3: Get drafted Stalker two on the on the video game Draft.
I can't.
Speaker 2: I have to check because I think you had another.
Oh you had another game that just came out on
the draft.
Speaker 3: I have frost Punk. I think it was what it
was called.
Speaker 1: There's even a newer one than that that just came out,
but I can't remember.
Speaker 3: Oh oh yeah, I'm gonna pull ituny.
Speaker 2: The radar thing, see if you can find it. Or
maybe it was Taylor, someone had a game that just
came out. I forget, but take a look at that.
But yeah, I guess for anyone who doesn't a isn'n
aware of these games, I guess I would put it
kind of adjacent to Fallout in a few ways, not
really in the tone of a tone of it, but
in terms of being like a post apocalyptic.
Speaker 1: Sort of setting.
Speaker 2: You know, radiation everywhere, kind of a survival kind of
a scary game at times, open world, as you're saying,
a lot of fetch quests, but then there's the main quest.
You can just power down if you want. You're finding
survivors in this world, and that's kind of a rarity,
but it's always interesting when you do happen upon a survivor.
The enemies you're fighting are like weird, mutated, radiation filled
versions of animals that exist on planet Earth. So in
many ways it is very similar to a Fallout. It
just feels kind of like a double A or something
like a budget version of a followut game. And that's
even the case here where this game kind of looks
like last generation game. It's funny how you're talking about
like the graphics not holding up, which was like, yeah,
you were playing the game years late, but this one
feels like, Man, I saw the trailers at every Xbox showcase.
Speaker 1: And that game looked great, and what they're showing here
is not quite the same.
Speaker 2: Sont maybe they were playing on like the a PC
with the highest settings possible, but it's like, this is
a serious x it should look a little bit better
than this, I would say, just in terms of the visuals.
Speaker 1: Did you find that game that just came out or
something on the drafting?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well so Stalker two, Frostpunk two, which is another
later one, Dragon Ball Sparking zero which came not too
long ago, and then Microsoft Flight Similar twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's what I was thinking about. So who had
that was out on your list? Me?
Speaker 3: Those were all my titles. I've just listed it off.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we got to count up your new tally
because that's gonna be quite a bit different than what's
on that version there.
Speaker 3: But and Taylor, it looks like Mario Luigi Brothership. I
don't know if that's still coming out.
Speaker 2: And then Shatow that's out Yeah, that came out a
couple of weeks ago, so I got to add that
on the list, and I think Travis might have it
this year.
Speaker 1: But we'll see what happens when don't we tally up
all these things.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think that's for sure. I said,
I don't got it, that's for sure. I'm just looking
at my I'm like, man, under these games that I
thought were really gonna do well did not. But Microsoft
Flight Simulator, let's go ninety nine.
Speaker 2: So I guess a question for you from stocker one.
Do you have any recollection of like the general difficulty
of the game.
Speaker 3: I always find like older games being more difficult than
just like games are nowadays. So in that aspect, yes,
like a lot less like quest markers, like I found
I actually had to be cognizant of what I was doing.
You can't just like skip cut scene and then go
on to your next task. You actually like re journals
and whatnot. So yeah, I would say it was. It
was trickier than I would have expected going into Like
I think it's also like I had a lot of
preconceived notions of what the game was, what the game
experience was going to be just from like watching a
lot of trailers and whatnot about it, and it just
wasn't exactly that. Whether it was just being an older game,
maybe the fact that it was you know, like the
head Bobby ness I didn't love, but also just I
think like reading the journals and it's like, Okay, this
is actually going to be kind of an immersion type adventure,
which which is great, but like at the time, it's
not really what I I just wanted to jump in
there and get jump scarre and buy some some creepy
chernobyl monsters, where it seemed like I would have to
put in a lot of hours to really get to
that stuff.
Speaker 2: But I guess I like what you I like you
mentioned there of the Metro similarity, because I feel like
I would classify this as kind of like a cross
between Metro and Fallout in terms of what the energy
of it is or like what it's maybe going for,
even if it's not quite succeeding in the ways that
Metro does or that Follout does, of course, but just
kind of an in between there. But that was definitely
my main first impression was Holy f this game is hard.
The very first enemy encounter against just like a random beast.
I died, and I almost died a second time when
I reloaded the save and fought it again. The second
enemy encounter died as well. I had to reload a save.
I jumped down a ladder that was like ten feet
died how to save, And like every fight since there
has not been There's been like a couple easy fights
against like little rat like creatures, but like almost every
fight in this game has been a challenge and has
felt like a like I've succeeded, like I've accomplished something
when I've beaten it, So you know, that's kind of
like a two side that's a compliment and a downside
at the same time. I think it was a bit
too hard for me at first, and I dropped the
difficulty and I was still having trouble and still am
having trouble with it in the hours since. So just
a very very hard game. On top of that, this
is very much a survival game, and the way that
like some of the follow up games have a survival
mode in them, this is like you can't turn that stuff,
or maybe you can't turn it off, but I didn't
want to.
Speaker 1: It feels like it's part of the experience.
Speaker 2: Where you have to eat. You have to watch your
radiation encumbrance. Like you can't carry a lot of stuff
in this game. Your weapons are constantly jamming in this
game if they're not up to a very like if
you're not repairing them and keeping or.
Speaker 1: Switching on new ones. AMO is very limited.
Speaker 2: Like I'm constantly having to switch between weapons because I
fight one or two enemies and I burned through all
the AMMO I had in one clip. I even got
into achievement that was like kill five enemies in a
fight with different weapons, And it's funny that that just
happened because I constantly have to switch between weapons because
I'm I can't maintain AMMO. After my recent play session,
I sold a bunch of stuff so I could not
be encumbered anymore. And then I bought a shit ton
of AMMO, which pretty much encumbered me again. I bought
so much, so hopefully I can get through a bit
more that way.
Speaker 1: But it's funny. AMMO scarcity is there, but I'm getting
health packs like everywhere. I have like about one.
Speaker 2: Hundred and twenty health battles right now, just like an
insane amount, and I will never die. In fact, I
had to sell a bunch, which I like think about
follow it like, oh, you would never sell a stim
pack and that game, no way, But in this game,
like I just got to offload this to clear some
space in my inventory, so funny the way, Like, And
I don't know if that that might be a difficulty
thing because I feel like, I don't think the combat
changed a lot when I changed the difficulty setting, but
I felt like I started finding a ton of things,
So I don't know if that's part of the difficulties,
Like we're gonna throw a ton of health items at
you like that you're finding in random crates and things
like that, But that seems like a.
Speaker 1: Part of it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I kind of kind of split my thoughts
here into like good things, bad things, and I don't
know if they're good or bad things yet.
Speaker 1: Where do you want me to start, kirkling? What do
you want to hear about?
Speaker 3: First? Good things? Let's start positive?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, I mean I think that the atmosphere in
this game is really great. It does a really good
job of being like like in Fallout four, I remember
distinctly when there'd be like a crazy weather event and
how likely scary that was, especially if you have the
radio off and you're just listening to the score, And
like this game does that really well. There's like lightning
storms and stuff, and the lighting will like crash down
like you know, a two feet in front of your face,
and if it hits you, presumably you die, or like
sometimes you take it to damage and it's terrifying, like
the whole sky just fills with red. And like the
music is really great. Whoever's working on the score for
his composer absolutely crushed it. And just like the general
atmosphere I think is really good. As I mentioned that
the graphics aren't quite top notch, but like the there's
so much detail in the environments and so I just
feel like I really get immersed in it. The game
is really really dark, like just visual speaking, like you
have your flashlight, but even with your flashlight, it's still
you can't see all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that adds a lot that's bad. Check out
the first game and my gosh, like the flashlight is
like non existent.
Speaker 1: The lighting was worse. Lighting mechanics for worse back then.
Speaker 2: And as I mentioned, like the fights, like particularly when
I was playing yesterday, had a fight where there's probably
like twenty or thirty enemies and thankfully they came at
me in like waves and I didn't have to fight
them at once because there'd be no way. But then
I probably popped like thirty hell things during this. Had
to constantly pick up weapons off the ground to get
more AMMO because I'm not gonna melee all these guys,
and like, it was a really great fight. It felt
really great when I succeeded in the end, and that
doesn't feel like even down when you just have a
fight against like three or four monsters in the wild,
it still feels like an accomplishment, and I think that
is a testament to it. So the fights have been
really fun so far, even if they are can be
a little bit janky at times. And yeah, I think
that the strongest thing for me is the atmosphere. I
like the I just going around to the different towns,
interacting with people, managing the inventory, the survival element, like
I like that stuff in here. It just feels like
a bit more hardcore version of a Fallout game without
it just like being a bullet sponge fest, which I
feel like is what happens in a followut game. If
you turn difficulty, it's like not very it's not like
more fun, it's just more annoying, Whereas this game just like,
I don't know, it's it's it's funny playing like Astrobot
and Asher's play Room back to back, which are games
with zero friction at all other than like you know,
sometimes they'll put a bit of friction in the controller,
like the trigger, you know, when you're like pulling on
a certain thing. But this is like the complete opposite
where this game has so much friction to it in
like every little thing, like whether it's just doing the menu,
fighting an enemy, even like you know, follow when you're
like picking up items and I feel like you don't
have to have your cursor rate on the item, It'll
be like, oh, I know, you want to pick it up,
you can hit the button, and this game be like
it's a soda can you're picking up, you better have
your cursor directly on that soda can. If you're a
sentimeter off, you can't like hit X to pick up.
So even not like that stuff, it just feels like
so much friction, which I think I always want in
small doses, you know, I don't I'm not always looking
for a game like this, you know, I like to
if I play a Soul's game, like I'm good for
like three years, and then I'll play another one, and
so I feel like maybe I was in the mood
for something like this, but it's like some of those
things are working for me. Maybe it's because it's like, oh,
I can play soccer for a couple hours and I
can go play Astro for a bit and then just
cool off, and it kind of is like a nice
pairing somehow, weirdly getting into some of the bad stuff.
I think the main thing here is that this game
is very buggy. It is in a pretty rough state
right now, and that's been kind of confirmed. I've seen
a lot of articles and people on the reddit talking
about that as well. A lot of animations, Like the
running animation with your gun was working for a while
and then just my last playthrough, whenever I run, my
guy still just holds the gun right now, it's just
not activating.
Speaker 1: The game's really buggy. The controls are really wonky.
Speaker 2: I messed around with the like controller sensitivity, the auto
am all that stuff like a bunch, and I could
never get it quite right. And I was even wondering
like did my controller just start having drift or is
this game just really wacky? And it turns out it's
the game because this game I saw an article today
that said this game just doesn't have like a dead
zone on your controller, So if you touch your control
stick at all, your guy just starts like going like that,
like's just zooming across the screen. Also, the like auto aim,
which I had to turn on because the controls are
so weird. It like works through walls, so you'll just
be walking and if there's an enemy out there, you're aim.
Speaker 1: Like drifting off the side of the screen. So that's
like the biggest issue for me is like Skim's really
hard to control, which mix you know, that is maybe
one reason why the fights are so hard. The controls
are really bad. I can't make them better.
Speaker 2: So that's something that I assume most in keyboard would
just be like the way to play this game. Uh,
but it's pretty rough on a controller, at least right
now with the current like one point zero version that
it's on.
Speaker 3: That's really rough. Because I feel like that's something that
I would just I would just drop the game, honestly,
Like if it's just really hard to get through, like
way back in the day shouts out to pay Day,
pay Day two or one camera. I played it on
like PS four when it when it came out, and
for some reason, it just felt like you're playing a
fucking blocky game, like like the like the aiming you
like three long and it's just really blocky. And then
I got it on Steam and like that's one of
my most played games on Steam. I absolutely love that
game because you got the keyboard and mouse element and
one that like I do want to give another chance.
But I was really surprised by actually like Doom, like
like Doom twenty sixteen. I I booted up on the
console because like it's on the PlayStation catalog, and I
found like the aiming was like that like it like
I would move my my my joystick over and it
just seemed like really rigid in my movements, like not fluid,
and it's like, wow, like this game is just non me.
Speaker 2: Like twitch reactions quick yeah turned around that that's not
a game to play on a controller.
Speaker 3: No exactly, So like I had that situation and it's like, oh, okay,
I think this is just gonna be like a PC,
you know, like play through. It's just that I can
really get those quick reactions because I've heard those games
are just so fun to play and you want to
be like fluid, and what makes a game fun to
play is not dealing with bugs or or having you know,
like just really leggy movements. So that's that's unfortunate to hear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's And I like your point there of
like how you how you said, yeah, I would just
dip out of the game at that point.
Speaker 1: And I definitely feel that.
Speaker 2: We talked just a couple of weeks ago about Metal
Slug Tactics and how man, I love that game, but
it was too buggy and like it just wasn't worth
my time right now. And so I don't know what
it is about this, Like this is a very buggy game,
but I think that's just a testament to like there's
something interesting about this game, and I just want to
figure it out and I want to get a little
bit deeper. And I don't know, I just even though
it's not a fun world to be in, I just
want to be in this world and I want to
like get better at it. And obviously struggling against controls
is not ideal, but I think that is a testament
that this game is doing a lot of really interesting
stuff still that even though it's like really buggy and
I probably should just put it down and wait for
a bunch of patches to come out, I am kind
of compelled to play through it now, Like I just
I don't want to put it down to some extent.
So I guess that that's a good testament. That's like
the best testament you can have to a game is
it's super buggy, but I still want to play it.
It doesn't happen very often, especially with a game pass thing,
where it's like I don't know there, I didn't this game.
I don't feel an honest to actually play it now.
I could just put it down and pick it up later,
So I don't know. I maybe at some point I
will get to that point or come back on PC
when I get a new computer or something like that,
but I don't know. We'll see how much more I
get into it now, and let's see what else I think.
As I mentioned, combat is generally difficult. Another thing that
I found really odd in this game is like the
stealth is like I don't know if it's even a mechanic.
I just feel like it's it's so either the stealth
is so freaking hard or it's just not even in
the game at all. It's one of those things like
I just feel like enemies will spot me long before
I even.
Speaker 1: Know they're there. They'll like from really far away.
Speaker 2: Like most games are pretty generous of like, yeah, an
actual human could spot you in this situation, but like,
this is a video game, so we're gonna make it
so you gotta get somewhat close before they spot you.
But in this you're like hundreds of feet away and
they're like you see that radical pop up of like, oh,
they know where you are. And thankfully at that point
they're far enough away that they can't really hit you,
so you can just run behind a wall or something
like that. But it's made it so it's like I
don't even like I got a silencer upgrade from my pistol,
But what good is this if I can't sneak into
an encounter in the first place. So I don't know
what's going on there. Once again, could be a bug,
could be how the game is, or could be done
just bad at it. Not sure, but that's that's definitely
a part of it. There are a lot of invisible
enemies in this game, which is a weird. Uh, it's
a weird thing. It's a weird thing to do for
a game. I don't know if I like that or
dislike that at the moment, just straight.
Speaker 3: Up and visible or like active camouflage like Halo style,
you can it's kind of it's kind of like that.
Speaker 2: But once again, the game is so dark that sometimes
you just like you can't find them if you're there
in a cave. And then they like when they come
up and hit you, when they start striking, they are
visible for a bit there, so that's when you're supposed
to kind of get the hits in. But yeah, it's
it's just an interesting choice. And there's been like a
few of them, so yeah, and then I think I
was a little puzzled with the difficulty of it didn't
seem to change the Columba much. It really just seemed
like I was getting more resources. And then another thing
too that I don't know if I like or dislike
this is like as you're exploring the world and a
very fall away you know, and.
Speaker 1: Follow out, I'm programmed like every single bit.
Speaker 2: Then I'm gonna go into I'm gonna loot every countertop,
every box, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm doing that in this game. But I'm fine. There's
just a lot of empty.
Speaker 2: Buildings and it's like, yeah, that's probably a building in
a post apocalyptic world where people have already scavenged through
would be like so it feels a little bit more immersive,
but then it's also like, ah am I missing note
if I don't go in every building and in case
there is something there, I don't know that is something
that like, I guess the pacing is a bit better
because you're not stopping as much to just like elot
around and get you know, screws and Ammo out of
random pockets of things, and then you know, sometimes there
are our rewards you're finding. But it's just so interesting
difference that I feel like from a Fallout inspired or
similar game, And it really stands out to me that
there are a lot of empty buildings in a way
that are just there to add to the atmosphere, like
you can still.
Speaker 1: Go in them.
Speaker 2: They might even have a staircase you can go upstairs,
but there's just like nothing to be found in there.
So it's an interesting it's an interesting thing. But yeah,
I've put a few hours into at this point, story wise,
I don't have much to say yet. Like right now,
I am very much like an errand boy what you're saying,
Like anytime I need help from someone, they're like, yeah,
i'll help you, but you got to go fetch this
thing for me or my friends got lost in this building,
so go save them first. And I feel like I
e haven't got too deep in like the actual main
story to see what's going on there.
Speaker 1: There is a lot of mystery in terms of.
Speaker 2: Like you're in the zone, which is this specific space
where all these weird events are going on, and then
there's like anomalies that you're finding, which are powers you
can get onto your character, but they're also very dangerous.
Speaker 1: You're seeing like these weird warbled.
Speaker 2: Things in the map, and if you walk into them,
you just like die instantly, So you have to like
throw screws into them to like detect where they are
and just and make them dissipate for a bit, and
as you can run through them. At one point after
this cut scene, I'm dropped in this place where there's
like those in every direction. Once again, I had to
reload that save like five times. I was like, I'm
throwing screws everywhere. I'm running through these things, but I
can't see anything. They're all just like these warbled invisible orbs.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. Once again, friction, friction, friction, but
interesting even though there is all these like roadblocks in
the way.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I don't know, it's an interesting game. I
don't know if I could really recommend it. You know,
if you're on Game Pass year, give it a download,
But even then I would probably suggest everyone wait until
they ideally patch out some of these bugs because it's
just I don't know if the controllers like not working properly.
Speaker 1: That's kind of annoying.
Speaker 2: Like as you mentioned, it's it's very obvious sometimes if
a game was made on PC and then like ported
to console, and then it's very obviously opposite times sometimes
where it's like, oh, this is a console game that
was then poorted to PC and you ideally as a player,
you like never notice those things because they do a
good job with the ports. But I feel like in
this case, like, yeah, this was probably a PC game
that like they somehow.
Speaker 1: Are working on an Xbox.
Speaker 2: But it was like not the intended place, even though
like Xbox funded the game and published it, and it's
like a I don't know, I guess a second party
game for them. So just kind of a weird situation
all around. But as I said, I'm still being pulled
in for some reason. So there's there's something about it
that is there's a secret sauce to it that I
can't quite call out yet.
Speaker 3: I feel like I do get that just itch for
like a survival type game like that, it's usually Fallout
four that I'm that I'm jumping in like to scratch
that itch. And it's as you're going off about some
of the Stocker things. I just remember Stocker one because
I jumped into it much later, like it still had
like a really positive fan base to it, and the
reason being was because like it had major mods like support,
like like people were just going all right, like completely
just like like they had the bones of the game
and they just like really.
Speaker 1: Need Steam or do you need to download? Like some
other mod launchers.
Speaker 3: I imagine they would have a lot of it on Steam,
but like like for like Skyrim moneing for like just
pulling from my experience, like you have like the Steam version,
but if you really want the like the proper stuff,
like you would get like a third party Nexus Mods
that used to be the the website that I used.
I think they've since rebranded, but like Nexus Mods, they
had like the Skyrim one and then they had the
Fallout one. I'm pretty sure they even had like ones
for Stalker. Like it was just like a mod manager
system and then usually through the website that's where people
post the mods and whatnot. But because like, because I
get that itch, I mean, it sounds like the game
is pretty buggy right now, it's a good time to
maybe wait for that. But like you still like the
survival aspect to it a lot, like it is one
of the seems like before I.
Speaker 2: Remember that was something that I can't remember if it
was Fallout three or Fallout New Vegas that like at
some point added in a survival difficulty was a thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, yeah, I forget if.
Speaker 2: It was that launch and I just didn't play with
it right away, or if like and then on a
subsequent play through I tried it out, or if it
was the thing that came out later as an update,
but I remember really liking that, and then I was
kind of Bummed and Fallow four her they'd never had
a heart or like a survival mode, and I think
they maybe even did patchwen in later or.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they definitely had one later, because when I was
playing it last that's what I was That's what I
was playing on.
Speaker 2: But yeah, even then, it it felt kind of half assed,
you know, And I feel like either New Vegas's was
better or just something about it wasn't quite the same,
And so I feel like that's why I kind of
like about this is like a very similar follow out game,
but the survival mechanics feel a lot more thought out.
You don't need to sleep, you know, so it's like
missing that part. You don't technically need to drink water.
You just need to like have any sort of food,
which could be water or it could just be like
bread whatever. So I don't know, it seems like there
definitely could be additional layers on top of it, but
it is something that I like, and I like having
to like maintain my gear. I'm trying to decide, Okay,
which weapons do I actually want to keep because of
the encumbrance, which is brutal but also does make me
think about the things I'm keeping what weapons I'm upgrading
when I get back to town, like actually cost a
lot of resource to repair my weapon. I don't think
you can do it without the guy in town that
does it, or at least I can yet. So it's like, ah,
that's like a big decision that I got to make there,
and like how I'm spending my money. And I like
having those decisions because I feel like, can Fallout, I
always have a million caps and I never like spend
them or like know what to spend them on.
Speaker 3: But yeah, wait, nothing to right, Yeah, you can just
have infinite And I think.
Speaker 2: That was even a part with the survival mode in Fallout,
as it made your AMMO way like have weight to it, right, Yeah,
in this game, by default, your your AMMO also has weight.
So it's like it is that ward of do you
carry a bunch of am on your mobility sucks or
do you like carry very little? But then you're gonna
get into these encounters where you're running out of stuff,
And I know, I just like having to like be
challenged a little bit. It's something that I feel like
a lot of games aren't doing or no, or I
just maybe I don't default of the highest difficulty. But
even in this game, I'm on the easiest difficulty and
it's still making me have to think about these things
and make decisions. So I think from that, I think
that's what's really keeping me clicked in. I think if
I just boil it down to one thing that's keeping
me in, it's it would probably be that the way
those kind of systems feed into each other, it feels
very very cohesive, and it's clear that even though I'm
playing this for the first time, like this series, it's
clear that this was a game that.
Speaker 1: Came before and this is like a sequel to it.
Speaker 2: In a sense, it feels like they've kind of refined
some stuff, even though I don't have that point of reference,
I'm just just saying based off like how it well,
some of that stuff is put together, thought out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that and like m part of me, those
realism aspects to it that just make you more I merse.
I feel like I'm always apar by those types of features,
like even like first kind of example, like when I
play that now, it's like a heavily moded version that
I play, but like I have things that make it so,
like my coins, you know, have weight, to them and
like you like if you have high strength, I can't
just carry infinite amount of like dragon bones, like these
super heavy resources. Like I actually have to go to
my base and like figure out what I'm going to
bring or if I'm making a big purchase, like I
can't carry all my coins, so then I keep it
like in my home, which you know, to me, it
just it just adds to the overall experience, and it's
it's something that it's not a core element of the game,
which is you know, it's nice because not everybody likes
playing that way, but it's I feel like it's almost
bold actually to have that as like a core foundation,
Like yeah, no, like you it's gonna be a struggle,
and for the crazy people out there, like that's just
so appealing. Like, man, finally a game that you can
like just really really just pain, you know, just just
like just just be in agony going through it. And
one that I'll bring up like Project Zomboid that one
of my you know, am I opinion, probably the best
zombie game ever made. It is so hyper realistic and
like it is so punishing, where like if you get
one bite, it doesn't matter if you've been surviving for
a year plus. If you get one bite, you are dead.
You were never gonna get cured. You are dead. So
like it's pretty easy to take out zombies, but it's
also super easy to get complacent and like I'm just
gonna open the door because I'm looking for something. You
open the door and there's just a zombie right there,
grabs you, bites you, and you're just dead. Like you
don't die instantly, but it's like, oh, I got a bite,
so maybe in about two days now, I'm gonna turn
to a zombie. And it's just it's so punishing in
that in that aspect, And of course there's so many
other elements that make that game super hyper realistic, but
there's just there's a certain percentage of people that just
they get they get that, you know, they love those
those mechanics.
Speaker 1: I even think of like Starfield.
Speaker 2: I remember, I think it's probably like an interview Todd
Howard was talking about how at some point in the
game's design they had this feature where you actually had
like think about how much gas you had in your
ship or how much fuel rather and I would live in,
like how far you could travel and if you had
more fuel you could go further, but like obviously that
would take up weight, like encumberance on your ship, that
kind of thing. And then eventually they just decided to
cut it because it was too much of a hassle.
But then like there is still this weird system in
the game where like you can only jump a certain
amount of systems at a time, and so it ends
up feeling like this half ast system. But then also
like the way they solve that problem was to just
remove it and take away like all the friction and
make it very palatable for every for like just most players,
which I feel like is the thing that bees Digit
does now more than ever, right, And like I totally
understand that decision. I think it's probably the best decision
if you want the most people to enjoy your game.
But I think it's fun to jump into a game
that has like the very opposite ethos of that or
it doesn't feel beholden to. I guess, like the fans
of the original game probably do want this thing, but
they don't feel beholden to Like what would I don't know,
I guess, be most palatable to like the most amount
of people there instead like zooming in on a specific
core of people like me and you that want some
of these more immersive niche mechanics or survival mechanics that
make like things like just travel a mechanic which I
feel like not enough, not enough games do some games
des stranding does that word was really great RPG that
focused on that stuff, so everyone's in a while you
do get a game that really hones in on that.
But a lot of games just try and remove all
that friction. But I think that's to me, that's like
almost as much fun as like the combat in a
game like this is like worrying about those mechanics and
so to haves at the same time is really cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love planning out, you know, like what am
I gonna What am I gonna do? I like getting
lost in the world, but it's also like, you know,
like I woke up in my house today in my
fictional universe. Let's let's what am I gonna do? And
what do I need to achieve those goals? And that's
just something that I always have in my mind when
I'm playing through an RPG game. And some games they
have that as like a base mechanic, but I don't know,
these are all just especially single player games, like it's
it's for your experience, so like, yeah, a lot of
these elements. The game's not forced me to do it,
you know, it's not forced me to sleep. But when
I play Skyrim now I go. I sleep like every
day if I if I'm if I get a long night,
I'm like, man, I got to find an in somewhere.
I am freezing cold, I got no food in my belly.
I got you know, I'd be a lot warmer and
a lot happier with a belly full of me is
the guards would say, I feel like that sometimes on
my run. So it just it just it just adds
to that overall enjoyment. And uh sometimes the punishing elements,
you know, they really make it satisfying. So okay, I'm
not gonna I'm not gonna write Stoker two off. Then
I I didn't have the best Stalker one experience, but
I I and like lead, I mean, I drafted Starker
Stalker too, like I was interested in it coming out.
I think it's also just intriguing that, like it's been
a long time between games, so it's it's interesting interesting
to see how they add to it. A question that
I had for you was gonna be like, do you
do you have like a home base or something like
is there like caravans or like save points or something
that you come across or like a home or is
it just your You're a guy at a backpack you
find shops to to purchase things through.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so far save points you just like have a
free save at any point in time. You don't have
to get to like any specific location. So far, I've
been to h I've met a couple like friendly NP
season random spots, and one one guy had like a
shop just in the middle of nowhere. But then I've
there's been kind of one home base, which is like
a little town set up there that probably has like
twenty buildings in it and maybe like thirty residents of
this town, and most of them you can like most
of them, just talked to them like on a very
superficial level, which is funny. It's like the same dialogue
for everyone. It's like heart any rumors and you just
go up to everyone heard any rumors, heard any It's
like so funny, it's like the exact same.
Speaker 1: Thing every time.
Speaker 2: But then there's of course, like the mechanic there who
or the guy who can repair your weapons. There's the shopkeeper,
like the inn tavern guy. There's like this military base,
there's little factions and stuff. So that's kind of the
main home base that I've been to right now. And
that's a town that, yes, there was multiple quest givers there,
like obviously there's that's the main quest took me there,
but then there was also like three or for other
people there that asked me to do stuff, and so
I went and did all these side quests, but then
I had to return to the town to bring them back.
And so that was like a couple planned out where
it's like, Okay, I'll go crush these two or three
quest because they're in a similar spot on the map,
come back to town, unload, resupply, then go back up
to these other ones that are south, take a trip
up to the east, you know, come back to the
town that way, and planned your route.
Speaker 1: Out that way.
Speaker 2: I don't have a house in this place, though, and
I don't have anywhere so far that I'm able to
like put my goods I have If like I have
an extra gun, I don't have like a crate I
can put it in.
Speaker 1: I came back to this tavern.
Speaker 2: Like hours and hours later, my gun that I dropped
on the ground was still there, so like, maybe that's reliable.
Speaker 1: I would not want to risk put in a valuable
good just on the ground and a random building.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I haven't found like a house or anything
like that so far. I will say, though, I'm finally
just ready to leave that town and leave. The overall
map is kind of like a province kind of structure
as well. And when you zoom out on this map,
holy shit, I feel like, you know, I've probably put
like six seven hours in this game. I've discovered like
four percent of this map. This map is huge, and
when you like there's little points of interest you can
kind of see like not icons, but just like, oh
that looks like a bigger establishment, bigger settlement. But yeah,
I'm curious, what because like no one really lives in
the zone forever, like in the location in this game,
like people just kind of come and go. I mean,
even THO there's a town set up, So I don't know,
maybe I'm wrong about that.
Speaker 1: I don't know too much.
Speaker 2: About the lore, but yeah, I'm curious because your character
it's not like he's come here to live. I think
he's come here like to get a specific thing, So
I don't know. I don't know how that would work,
but hopefully I do get some sort of home base.
But I don't even know if there's fast travel in
this game. I haven't actually tried if it does exist,
because so far, like I said, I've kind of been
circling this one town, so I don't even know. Yeah,
I don't even know if there's fast travel, and therefore
if a house would make sense or not, because if
you don't have a fast travel, then a house is
like what am I gonna do trek back ten hours
to get back to my house?
Speaker 1: Like that's not gonna make sense, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, reminded me of a certain video that you did
about your Morowind experience and how you you don't have
a house and more Wind, and it just seemed.
Speaker 2: Which people in the comments told me otherwise, apparently there
are houses. And that's just crazy that I've played Morewin
for hundreds of hours for twenty years and I did
not realize that there are a couple houses that.
Speaker 3: You purchable purchasable houses.
Speaker 2: Well, a couple of them are like a DLC thing,
and I didn't actually like I had the expansions later
on in my life, but when I was like a
nostalgic kid, I wasn't playing the expansions. And then one
of them, which is funny because I was thinking about
making like a follow up video to that where I
talked about some of these other mechanics haven't done that yet,
but one of them is like, you have to do
this long questline that has like twelve steps to it,
where you there's this lady in this one town, you
help her out with this quest, You go find this thing,
you take out this one guy, you go to this
other place, you do all these crazy steps, and then
you like she kind of becomes to your girlfriend, and
then she gives you a key to her house and
then you can just like live in her house. So
that's you know, it's not your house. It's you can't buy,
you can't upgrade it or change it. But there are
a couple of loopholes that people told me in the comments. Yeah,
or you can just kill someone who you like the
house of and that can be your house and no
one's gonna come in and stop you.
Speaker 1: In the way that a hitman. NPC has a route
they're no one's gonna walk into your house and see you.
I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think that's all my my thoughts on
Stalker too. Yeah, I, like I said, I don't know
how much I want to commit to it right now.
I like I am being compelled to it, but it
also is not a great state, so we'll see what happens.
There a lot of games on the horizon here as
we close in on the end of the year. But yeah,
Kirkles is a really fun episode, a lot of games,
a lot of things we had to talk about, so
that's always a good time. Next week will be me,
you and Taylor, I believe for a little Game Awards predictions.
I think that's next week's episode on the calendar there.
I'd have to double check, but yeah, that's coming up soon,
so everyone look forward to that.
Speaker 1: That'll be a fun time. And yeah, thank you everyone
for listening. We'll see you then.
Speaker 3: Goodbye bye,